Ethene? Te Tetvih eet eacese, ran eee inaonmavaenah open tanacer netbeans anal poaeeressatbteinhaneraehtsbet geen aint eennanatamewheaneeme sone toes aia teeneen the readwrnreenrne ret eter Dict Pe Pe ae Set ok epenfieeraepaer nree ma e tae aAet n gk en e ann Seer ee eng ee ~ SSS sianennianentet=tvtwhvevantearter ete =“ vhs reper eis ptenbametenetgnternse HAT Ut Rit eh Renee ris 5S C S id AQ ks aren 5 Nature A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE Nature, November 24 Nature A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE VOE UME Toei v JULY to OCTOBER, 1og10 “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.” —\VORDSWORTH .p A ondon 25244 VieAIGVininiivieA NS AGN DMGOs limit ED NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Nature November 24, 1910 RICHARD CLAY AND Sons, LIMITED, BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. Nature, ] November 24, 1910. INDEX Abbott (W. J. Lewis), Classification of the British Stone Age and some New and Little-known Horizons and Cultures, 30 Absorption, Radiation and, Prof. Humphreys, 52 Ach (Prof. Narziss), Ueber den Willensakt und das Tem- perament, 199 Acoustics: the Propagation of Sound in a Fog, C. J. T. Sewell, 62 Adamovié (Prof. Lujo), die Vegetationsverhaltnisse der Balkanlander (Mosische Lander), 135; aus Bosnien und der Herzegovinia, 395 Adams (Franklin), Prevention of Dew Deposit upon Lens Surfaces, 52 Adhikary (Birendra Bhusan), Preparation of Phenyl-nitro- methane by the Interaction of Mercurous Nitrite and Benzyl Chloride, 292 Aéronautics: Experiments on Air Resistance, Dr. T. E. Stanton, 13; Relation of the Wind to Aérial Navigation, Prof. A. L. Rotch, 151; IV. Congrés international d’Aéronautique, i909, Procés verbaux, Rapports et Mémoires, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; Biblio- graphy of Aéronautics, Paul Brockett, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; Petite Encyclopédie aéronautique, L. Ventou-Duclaux, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; the Encyclopedia of Sports and Games, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; Results of the Italian Aéronautical Experi- ments near Zanzibar.during the Last Week of July, 1908, 506 Africa : History Society, Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 80; the Ethnology, Botany, Geology, and Meteorology of German East Africa, Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 106; Science in South Africa, 158; the Ore Deposits of South Africa, J. P. Johnson, 293; Veterinary Research in the Transvaal, 421 Agaric with Sterile Gills, an, W. B. Grove, 531 Agassiz (Col. Georges), Death of, 81 Agriculture: a Manual of Practical Farming, John McLennan, 38; How to Use Nitrate of Soda, 50; Report of the Agricultural Experimental Station, Lafayette, Indiana, 83; Death and Obituary Notice of John B. Carruthers, 114; Life-history and the Means of Con- trolling the Hop Flea-beetle. W. B. Parker, 117; Fertilising Value of Seaweed, 151; Tobacco produced in India, Mr. and Mrs. Howard, 151; Physiological Effect on the Cow of the Milking Machine, 181; Relation between the Reduction in Area of Wheat in England and the Increased Yield, Mr. Vigor, 182; the Year-bool of the Khedivial Agricultural Society, Cairo, 1909, 184; Studies of Egyptian Cotton, Lawrence Ball, 184; the Manufacture of Cane Sugar, Llewellyn Jones and F. I. Scard, 199; Lead Chromate as Insecticides, 212; Recent Agricultural Publications in Great Britain, 219; the Sclerotinia Disease of the Gooseberry, Mr. Salmon, 219; Effect of Overhead Electrical Discharges on Plant Growth, Mr. Priestley, 219; Secondary Effects of Manures on the Soil, Mr. Hall, 219; Physiological Problems of the Stock-breeder, F. H. A. Marshall, 219; the Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural | Legislation in the West Indies for the Control of Pests and Diseases of Imported Plants, Mr. Ballou, 247; Bacterial Blight in Cotton caused by Bact. Malvacearum, Mr. McCall, 247; Outbreak of Blister-blight on Tea in the Darjeeling District in 1908 and 1909, 247; Cause of the Colour of Black Cotton Soil, Mr. Annett, 247; Fruit Experiments, Mr. Howard, 247; the Journal of the South-eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent, 253; Beet Sugar Making and its Chemical Control, Y- Nikaido, 424; Recent Investigations on the Cultivation of Rubber, 510; Effect of Heat on Soils, C. Harold Wright, 530; Possibility of Raising Ostriches in the Transvaal, 543; see also British Association Agrogeology: the First International Agrogeological Con- ference, Dr. E. J. Russell, 157; Russian Soils, Prof. Glinka, 157 Ainslie (Mr.), the Large Corn-stalk-borer, 18 Air, Models of Meteorological Conditions in the Free, 59 Air Resistance, Experiments on, Dr. T. E. Stanton, 13 Airship Flights, 512 Aitken (Dr. John), Did the Tail of Halley’s Comet affect the Earth’s Atmosphere? 228 Aitken (Mr.), Rediscovery of Brooks’s Periodical Comet (1889 V.), 438 Akikayu, the, of British East Africa, With a Prehistoric People, W. Scoresby Routledge and Katherine Routledge, Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 41 Albrecht (Prof.), the Variation of Latitude, 20 Alcock (Lt.-Col. A., F.R.S.), Catalogue of the Indian Decapod Crustacea in the Collection of the Indian Museum, 524 Algol’s Satellite, Irregularities in the Motion of, Enzo Mora, 472 Allen (Glover M.), Insectivorous paradoxus, of San Domingo, 315 Allen (Mr.), Synthetic Study of Diopside and its Relations to Calcium and Magnesium Metasilicates, 375 Alpine Flowers and Gardens, Painted and Described, G. Flemwell, 37 Alps, Summer Flowers of the High, Somerville Hastings, Mammal, Solenodon 37 Alternate-current Theory, the Foundations of, Dr. C. V. Drysdale, Prof. Gisbert Kapp, 6 Ambrecht (Mr.), Change of Colour of Sapphires and other Precious Stones by the Action of Radium, 179 Ameghino (Dr. F.), Human Skulls and Skeletons and Supposed Evidence of Human Work, 402 America: Fossil Vertebrates in the American Museum of Natural History, 12; Glaciers, Goldfields, and Land- slides in North America, 76; Recent Work of Geological Surveys, iv., the United States, 121; List of Documents in Spanish Archives relating to the History of the United States which have been Printed or of which Transcripts are Preserved in American Libraries, J. A. Robertson, 238; Selections from American Zoological Work, 547 Ammonia, Coal Tar and, Prof. George Lunge, 166 Amory (Dr. Robert), Death of, 340 Anatomy : the Anatomy and Relationship of the Negro and al /ndex Nature, November 24, 1910 Negroid Races, Hunterian Lectures at Royal College of Surgeons, Prof. Arthur Keith, 54; International Congress of Anatomists at Brussels, 252 Anderson (Prof. R. J.), the Temporal Bone in Primates, 55° Animal Romances, Graham Renshaw, 100 Annam, On and Off Duty in, Gabrielle M. Thomson, 243 Annett (Mr.), Cause of the Colour of Black Cotton Soil, 247 Antarctica: Antarctic Pycnogons, Dr. W. T. Calman, 104; Deutsche Siidpolar-Expedition, 1901-3, die Grundproben der Deutschen Siidpolar-Expedition, 1901-3, E. Philippi, 167; National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-4, Natural History, vol. v., Zoology and Botany, 205; British _Antarctic Expedition, 1907-9, under the Command of Sir E. H. Shackleton, C.V.O., Reports on Scientific Investi- gations, vol. i., Biology, 205; Expédition Antarctique Belge, Résultats du Voyage du S.Y. Belgica en 1897-8-«, Sous le Commandement de A. de Gerlache de Gomery, Rapports scientifiques, Botanique-Diatomées, H. Van Heurck, Geologie-Petrographische Untersuchung der Gesteinproben, A. Pelikan, Quelques Plantes Fossiles des Terres Magellaniques, Prof. A. Gilkinet, Oceanographie- les Glaces-Glace de Mer et Banquises, H. Arctowski, Zoologie-Schizopoda and Cumacea, H. J. Hansen, 205; Date of Lieut. Filchner’s Antarctic Expedition, 400 Anthropogeography of the Polar Eskimos, Contributions to the Ethnology and, Dr. H. P. Steensby, 443 Anthropology: Collection of Human Bones found on the Site of an Augustinian Friary near the Corn Market, Cambridge, Dr. W. L. Duckworth and W. J. Pocock, 16; Royal Anthropological Institute, 30; Totemism and Exogamy, a Treatise on certain Early Forms of Super- stition and Society, Prof. J. G. Frazer, A. E. Crawley, 31; Prehistoric Man, Joseph McCabe, 29; the Position of the Father’s Sister in Oceania, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, 48; the Anatomy and Relationship of the Negro and Negroid Races, Hunterian Lectures at Royal College of Surgeons, Prof. Arthur Keith, 54; Origin of the Fulah or Filani Race, Capt. A. J. N. Tremearne, $2; Antiquities of the Ouachita Valley, Clarence B. Moore, Dr. A. C. Haddon, F-.R.S., 129; Colonial Empire of the Phoenicians, Louis Seret, 211; Anthropological Society of Paris, 24¢- the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, the Kwakiutl of Vaucouver Island, Frank Boas, Chukchee Mythology, Waldemar Bogoras, the Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus, Waldemar Jockelson, Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., 250; Skull Discovered at Galley Hill, Kent, 270; Filipino Racial Types at Taytay, R. B. Bean and F. S. Planta, 340; Inhabiting Trinity County, in North California, 370; Discovery in the Neighbourhood of the Pyramid of Sneferu (B.c. 4600) of a Stone Tomb Dating from a Time before the Construction of the Pyramid, Prof. Flinders Petrie, 401; System of ‘‘ Wireless Telegraphy ”’ in use among the Indian Tribes of the Putumayo River, W. E. Hardenburg, 436; see also British Association Antike Tierwelt, die, Otto Keller, 357 Antoniadi (M.), Subjective Phenomena on Mars, 120; Occultation of 7 Gemini by the Planet Venus, 196; the Recent Occultation of » Geminorum by Venus, 317; Halley’s Comet, 322 Ants, the Prince and his, (Ciondolino), Luigi Bertelli, 138 Arabian Astronomical Instruments, Prof. E. Wiedemann, 472 Archeology: Arthur’s Round Table in Glamorgan, Rey. John Griffith, 8; Pit-dwellings in the District of Holder- ness, Canon Greenwell and R. A. Gatty, 16; Prehistoric Rhodesia, Richard N. Hall, 32; Excavations at the Glastonbury Lake-village, Arthur Bulleid and H. St. George Gray, 82; Processes of Prehistoric Pottery- making, N. W. Thomas and Capt. A. J. N. Tremearne, 116; Date of Narrow Cultivation Terraces, Lynchets, 116; Antiquities of the Ouachita Valley, Clarence B. Moore, Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., 129; Discovery of the Site of the Famous Cyprian Temple of Aphrodite- Astarte, Dr. Max O. Richter and Dr. K. Koritsky, 149; Death of Prof. A. Michaelis, 210; Neolithic Implements from Bridlington, Mr. Sheppard, 246; Recent Finds made in Rock Shelters once Occupied by Strand Loopers, Dr. L. Péringuey, 262; Classification of the British Stone Vassal, J. Age and Some New and Little-known Horizons and Cultures, W. J. Lewis Abbott, 30; Stone-headed Axe from Rennell Island, C. M. Woodford, 314; Model of the Fine Dolmen Situated at Coldrum, in Maidstone Museum, 401; ‘‘ Tomb of the Double Axes,’’ Dr. A. J. Evans, 401; the Royal Commission on Welsh Monu- ments, Rev. John Griffith, 404; the Archzological Survey of Nubia, Prof. G. Eliot Smith and Dr. D. E. Derry, 406; Customs at Holy Wells, Zorah Godden, 429 ; Geological and Archzological Notes on Orangia, J. P. Johnson, 465; Archzological! Expedition in Sardis, Prof. Howard C. Butler, 503; Prehistoric Boat Discovered at Brigg in 1886, T. Shepherd, 542 ; Archbutt (Mr.), Provident Use of Coal, 519 Chimariko Tribe of Indians | Architecture: Condition of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, 48; the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Prof. A. Batelli, 146; Edward G. Brown, 297; Arthur T. Bolton, 297; Report of Pisa Commission on the Leaning Tower, Prof. William H. Goodyear, 471; Town-planning, A. E. Crawley, 498 Arctica: die Polarwelt und ihre Nachbarlander, O. Nordenskjold, 236; North Polar Exploration, 245; Ex- pedition Ship Alabama, 245 Arctowski (H.), Expédition Antarctique Belge, Résultats du Voyage du S.Y. Belgica en 1897-8-9 sous le Com- mandement de A. de Gerlache de Gomery, Rapports scientifiques, Oceanographie—Les Glaces—Glace de Mer et Banquises, 205 Ardigo (Prof. Robert), an Inconsistent Preliminary Objec- tion against Positivism, 461 Argentina, Catalogo Sistematico y Descriptivo de las Aves de la Republica, Roberto Dabbene, 427 Argentine Biology, Australian and, 186 Arkansas and Louisiana, Archeological logical Investigations in, Dr. A. C. 12 Armstrong (Dr. E. F.), Existing Knowledge with Regard to the Oxydases, 518 and Anthropo- Haddon, F.R.S., Armstrong (Prof.), Crystallographic Examinations of Twenty-nine Derivatives of the p-Dihalogenbenzene- sulphonic Acids, 403 Armstrong (Prof.), Impossibility of any Interaction taking Place between Two Substances if Neither was an Electro- lyte, 517 Armstrong (Prof. H. E.), Provident Use of Coal, 518 Arnold (Prof. J. O.), Theory of Hardening Carbon Steels, 440; a Fourth Recalescence in Steel, 518 Arnold-Be nrose (H. H.), Derbyshire, 426 d’Arrest’s Comet (1910c), Rediscovery of, M. Gonnessiat, 317; Observations of d’Arrest’s Comet at the Observa- tory of Algiers, M. Gonnessiat, 324; M. Baillaud, 324 Arthur’s Round Table in Glamorgan, Rev. John Griffith, 8 Ascoli (F. D.), Rivers of Dacca District, 30 Ashworth (Dr. J. H.), Zoology at the British Association, 548 astaporth (Dr. J. R.), the Temperature Coefficients of the Ferromagnetic Metals, 238 Asia, a Systematic Geography of, G. W. Webb, 426 Asiatic Society of Bengal, 30, 292, 422 Association of Economic Biologists, 156 Association of Technical Institutions, the, 90 Assyriology : Death of Hormuzd Rassam, 400 Astronomy: Halley’s Comet, Dr. James Moir, 9; Wolf, 19; Prof. Seeliger, 19; M. Eginitis, 10, Comas Sola, 19; M. Nordmann, 19; Mr. Leach, 19; Dr. Ebell, 52; Prof. Fowler, 52; Father Iniguez. 52; Herr v. d. Pahlen, 86; Dr. Ristenpart, 86; G. Millo- chau and H. Godard, 120; Prof. Frost, 152; Mr. Motherwell, 183; Prof. Barnard, 183. Mr. Helmcken, 184; Father Stein, 184; Herr Sykora, 322; Dr. Hartmann, 322; M. Antoniadi, 322; K. Saotome, 322; Drs. Cowell and Crommelin, 322; M. Iwanow, 322; Mr. Merfield, 322; Messrs. Crawford and Meyer, 322; Mr. Slocum, 323; Earth-current Observations in Stockholm during the Transit of Halley's Comet on May 19, D. Stenquist and E. Petri, 9; Some Pheno- mena shown by Halley’s Comet after its Passage across the Sun, D. Eginitis, 64; Phenomena presented by the Tail of Halley’s Comet during the Passage of May 19 last, H. Deslandres and J. Bosler, 163; Did the Tail of Halley’s Comet affect the Earth’s Atmosphere? Dr. Dre 523 Nature, ] November 24, 1910 Lndex Vil John Aitken, 228; Further Observations of Halley’s Comet, Michie Smith and John Evershed, 374; C, Perrine, 3743; Velocities and Accelerations of the Ejecta from Halley’s Comet, Profs. Barnard and Lowel!, 404; J. Comas Sola, 404; Time of the Solar Transit of Halley’s Comet, 472; Death of Prof. G. V. Schiaparelli, 14; Obituary Notice of, 44; Our Astronomical Column, 19, 52, 86, 120, 152, 183, 213, 248, 272, 317, 344, 374) 404, 438, 472, 507, 544; Astronomical Occurrences in July, 19; in August, 120; in September, 272; in October, 438; Ephemeris for Comet 1g10a, Prof. Kobold, 19; Prof. Barnard, 19; Observations of Comet 1gtoa, Dr. Karl Bohlin, 272; Prof. Ricco, 472; Photo- graphs of Morehouse’s Comet, Messrs. Hirayama and Toda, 19; the Determination of Position near the Poles, Mr. Hinks, 19; the Variation of Latitude, Prof. Albrecht, 20; New Canals and Lakes on Mars, M. Jonckheere, 20; Subjective Phenomena on Mars, M. Antoniadi, 120; Mars in 1909 as seen at the Lowell Observatory, Prof. Percival Lowell, 172; Water Vapour on Mars, Prof. Campbell, 317; Prof. Frank W. Very, 495; a Suggested Volcanic Origin of Martian Features, Dr. Wilhelm Krebs, 344; International Union for Co- operation in Solar Research, 22; Prof. Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., 463, Death and Obituary Notice of Prof. J. G. Galle, 45; Death of Prof. T. Zona, 46; Death of Dr. Wilhelm Winkler, 47; Prevention of Dew Deposits upon Lens Surfaces, Franklin Adams, 52; a Variable Star as a Time Constant, Prof. Barnard, 52; Radiation and Absorption, Prof. Humphreys, 52; an Interesting Occultation, Arthur Burnett, 73; the Next Total Eclipse of the Sun, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 75; the Total Solar Eclipse, May 9, 1910, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 113; the Total Solar Eclipse of April 28, 1911, Dr. Pio Emanuelli, 172; Harvard College Observatory, Prof. E. C. Pickering, 86; Photographs of Aurore, Carl Stormer, 86; Displacement of Spectral Lines at the Sun’s Limb, A. Perot, 86; the Pressure of Light on Gases, Dr. Lebedew, 86; the Determination of Stellar Radial Velocities, Prof. Frost, 86; Prof. R. W. Wood, 86; the Evolution of Worlds, Prof. Percival Lowell, William E. Rolston, 99; Present Meteoric Displays, W. F. Denning, 105; Death of J. Ellard Gore, 116; the Genesis of Various Lunar Features, M. Puiseux, 120; the Gnomon in Ancient Astronomy, Jules Sagaret, 120; the Leeds Astronomical Society, 120; a Gea fral Bureau for Meteor Observations, 152; the IRetiaision of Sun-spots, P. Kempf, 152; Large Meteorites, Edmund O. Hovey, 152; the United States Naval Observatory, 152; Measures of Double Stars, Prof. Burnham, 152; Dr. Lau, 317; Mr. Sellors, 507; the Study of Double Stars for Amateurs, G. F. Chambers, 273; Popular Astronomy, Prof. Simon Newcomb, 171; Photographs of Nebula, Dr. Ritchey, 183; the Accurate Measure- ment of Photographs, Prof. E. C. Pickering, 184; Observations of Perseids in 1909, S. Beljawsky, 184; Results from Micrometric Observations of Eros, 1900, Mr. Hinks, 184; Occultation of 7 Gemini by the Planet Venus, M. Antoniadi, F. Baldet, and F. Quénisset, 196; the Recent Occultation of » Geminorum by Venus, MM. Baldet, Quénisset, and Antoniadi, 317; Occulta- tion of » Geminorum by Venus, July 26, observed at Lyons, J. Guillaume and J. Merlin, 390; Discovery of a Small Planet, presumably New, José Comas Sola, 196; Perseid Meteoric Shower, 1910, W. F. Denning, 204, 248; C. L. Brook, 248; W. H. Steavenson, 248; Miss Warner, 248; D. E. Packer, 248; W. Johnson, 248; E. F. Sawyer, 429; Brilliant Meteor of July 31, Father A. L. Cortie, 204; a New Comet, Rev. J. H. Metcalf, 213; Mr. Burton, 213; Metcalf’s Comet, 1910), 249, 273; M. Guillaume, 249; Dr. Kobold, 2409, 344, 507; Prof. Fickering, 344; M. Quénisset, 507; Observa- tions of Metcalf’s Gomer J. Guillaume, 261; Observa- tions of the Comet 1910b (Metcalf), August 9, 1910, M. Coggia, 261; Observations of Metcalf’s Comet, 1g10b, M. Borrelly, 261; M. Schaumasse, 292; Observa- tions of Metcalf's Comet made at the Paris Observatory, J. Chatelu, 261; Properties of the Polar Filaments of the Sun, H. Deslandres, 228; Photographs of Daniel's Comet, 1907d, Prof. Barnard, 249; Precession and the Solar Motion, Prof.. Boss, 249; Calcium Vapour in the Astrophysics : 8 Atkins (W. R. G.), Atlas, an Economic, J. G. Atlases, a List of Geographical, in the Library of Congress, Sun, C. E. St. John, 249; Observations of Comets, Dr. Max Wolf, 213; Observations of Mercury, G. and V. Fournier, 213; M. Jarry-Desloges, 213; Dispersion of Light in Interstellar Space, Herr Beljawsky, 213; Anomalous Scattering of Light, Dr, Julius, 214; the Spiral Nebula Ms5r (Canum Venaticorum), Madame Dorothea Isaac Roberts, 214; Supplement to the ‘** Astronomische Nachrichten,’’ 214; the Paris Observa- tory, M. Baillaud, 272; the Sun’s Velocity through Space, Profs. Frost and Kapteyn, 272; Parallax of Fourth-type Stars, Prof. Kapteyn, 273; the Maximum of Mira in 1909, Prof. Niijland, 273; Mr. Ichinohe, 273; Rediscovery of d’Arrest’s Comet (1910c), M. Gonnessiat, 317; Observation of the d’Arrest Comet at the Observatory of Algiers, M. Gonnessiat, 324; M. Baillaud, 324; Search-ephemerides for Comets 1889 V. (Brooks) and 1890 VII. (Spitaler), Dr. Bauschinger, 317; F. Hopfner, 317; the Sun-spots of 1909, Dr. E. Guerrieri, 317; the Permanent International Committee for the ‘* Carte du Ciel,’’ 317; Meteors and Bolides, Prof. Guido Cora, 317; History of Navigation, Prof. Marguet, 317; Meteoric Fireballs, Rev. W. F. A. Ellison, 318; Rev. J. C. W. Herschel, 318; a Suspected New Planet, Prof. J. Comas Sola, 344; Definitive Elements for Comet 1852 IV., Adolf Hnatek, 344; the Passage of the Earth through the Tail of the 1861 Comet, R. Baer, 344; the Spectrum of Cyanogen, Comte de Gramont and M. Drecq, 344; Researches on the Colours of Stars, Osten Bergstrand, 344; ‘‘ Mock Suns,’* James F. Ronca, 345; ‘‘ Mock Suns’’ at East- bourne, Mrs. A. M. Butler, 374; Astronomy in India, 374; an Oblique Belt on Jupiter, Scriven Bolton, 362 ; the Distances of Red Stars, Dr. H. Norris Russell, 374; Astronomy: a Handy Manual for Students and Others, Prof. F. W. Dyson, F.R.S., 393; Chats about Astro- nomy, H. P. Hollis, 393; Observations of Comets, M. Gonnessiat, 404; Mr. Innes, 404; the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington, 404; the Determination of Longitude, Dr. Jean Mascart, 404; Transactions of the Astronomical Observatory of Yale University, Parallax Investigations on Thirty-five Selected Stars by Frederick L. Chase, Mason F. Smith, and William L. Elkin, 433; a Bright Meteor, 438; Rediscovery of Brooks's Periodical Comet (1889 V.), 1910d, Messrs. Aitken and Wilson, 438; the Luminosity of Comets, W. L. Dudley, 439; Coloured Stars between the Pole and 60° N. Declination, Herr Krtiger, 439; Observations of the Companion of Sirius, Prof. Barnard, 439; a Modified Method for Nadir Observations, R. M. Stewart, 439; a New Micrometer, Dr. Doberck, 439; the Mean Parallax of Tenth-magnitude Stars, Dr. H. E. Lau, 439; Halley Meteors, Prof. David Todd, 439; Announce- ment of a Nova, Mrs. Fleming, 472; Arabian Astro- nomical Instruments, Prof. E. Wiedemann, 472; New Ephemerides for Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, Dr Downing, 472; a Bright Projection on Saturn, M. Maggini, 507; Origin of Cometary Bodies and Saturn’s Rings, Dr. Henry Wile, 522; Irregularities in the Motion of Algol’s Satellite, Enzo Mora, 472; the Cambridge Observatory, Sir Robert Ball, 472; Prof. Newall, 472; Observations of Neptune’s Satellite, Prof. Barnard, 472; Spectrum and Radial Velocity of @ Persei, Dr. Luden- dorff, 507; Death and Obituary Notice of Thorvald Nicoiai Thiele, 503; Comets and Electrons, Prof. Righi, 507; Recent Results in Solar Physics, Prof. Ricco, 507; the Amateur Astronomer, Gideon Riegler, W. E. Rolston, 526; a Brilliant Meteor on October 23, W. F. Denning, 544; J. E. Clark, 544; Simultaneous Photo- graphic Observations of a Remarkable Meteor, Herr Sykora, 544; Two Remarkable Prominences, Dr. F Slocum, 544; the Relations between Solar and Terres- trial Phenomena, Abbé Th. Moreux, 545; Search- ephemerides for Westphal’s Comet, 1852 IV., A. Hnatek, 545 the Pressure of Light on Gases, Dr. Lebedew, Cryoscopic Determination of the Os- motic Pressure in Some Plant Organs, 211 Bartholomew. 426 with Bibliographical Notes, 325 ‘ Vill Index [ Nature, November 24, 1910 Atmosphare, Die Temperatur Verhaltnisse in der freien, {Ergebnisse der internationalen unbemannter Ballon- aufstiege], Dr. Arthur Wagner, E. Gold, 42 Atomic Weights, 207 Atwood (W. W.), Glacial History of the Uinta and Wasatch Mountains, 122 Auerbach (Prof. Felix), Geschichtstafeln der Physik, 457 Auger (V.), Manganate of Sodium and its H;drates, 64 Augustin (E.), Ueber japanische Seewalzen, 34 Aurorae, Photographs of, Carl Stormer, 86 Australia, Rainfall of Rhodesia and, 187 Australian and Argentine Biology, 186 Austria, Mathematics in, 399 Aviation: Death and Obituary Notice of the Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls, Dr. William J. S. Lockyer, 46; the Art of Aviation, R. W. A. Brewer, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; How to Build an Aéroplane, R. Petit, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; How to Build a 20-foot Biplane Glider, A. P. Morgan, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; Les Aéroplanes, considérations théoriques, P. Ray- baud, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; Ballons et Aéroplanes, G. Besancon, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; L’Aviation, Prof. Paul Painlevé and Prof. Emile Borel, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; Navigation in der Luft, Prof. A. Marcuse, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; Stabilitié des Aéroplanes, Surface Métacentrique, Prof. M. Brillouin, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; Die Seiten- steuer der Flugmaschinen, Prof. H. Reissner, Prof. G. H. Bryan, F.R.S., 229; National Fund Airship Flight, 369 ; Progress of Aviation during the Past Year, 373; Erasmus Darwin Prophesied Advent of Aérial Navigation, 370, Arthur Platt, 397; Death of M. G. Chavez, Flight Across the Alps from Brigue to Domo d’Ossola, 400; Airship Flights, 512 Backe (A.), Researches on Iso-Maltol, 64 Backhouse (T. W.), the Colours and Spectrum of Water, Bacon (F.), Heat Insulation, 554 Bacteriology: Results of Sterilisation Experiments on the Cambridge Water, Prof. Sims Woodhead, 63; Effect of Mosquito Larvae upon Drinking Water, Sir Rupert Boyce and F. C. Lewis, 150; Metropolitan Water Examina- tions, Dr. Houston, 246; Bacterial Blight in Cotton Caused by Bact. malvacearum, Mr. McCall, 247; Veter- inary Research in the Transvaal, 321; Bacteriology for Nurses, Isabel MclIsaac, 403 _ Baer (R.), the Passage of the Earth through the Tail of the 1861 Comet, 344; Bailey (Prof. F. G.), Sensitive Bifilar Seismograph for Recording Undulatory Movements of the Earth’s Surface of Short Period, 516 Bailey (L. H.), the Nature-Study Idea, 100 Baillaud (M.), the Paris Observatory, 272; Observation of the d’Arrest Comet at the Observatory of Algiers, 324 Baker (Dr.), a Certain Permutation Group, 514; the Theory of Numbers, 514 Baker (Dr. H. Brereton, F.R.S.), Ionisation of Gases and Chemical Change, Discourse at Royal Institution, 388 Baker (T. Thorne), the Telegraphy of Photographs, Wireless and by Wire, 220; the Telegraphic Transmission of Photo- graphs, 460 Bakerian Lecture at Royal Society: the Pressure of Light against the Source: the Recoil from Light, Prof. J. H. Poynting, F.R.S., and Dr. Guy Barlow, 139 Balaton, Resultate der Wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen des, Untersuchungen tiber die Schwerkraft, R. v. Sterneck; Die Niveauflache des Balatonsees und die Veranderungen der Schwerkraft auf diesem, Baron L. E6tvés ; Erdmagnetische Messungen in Sommer, 1901, L. Steiner; Das Eis Balatonsees, E. v. Cholnoky; Die Tropischen Nymphaen des Hévazsees bei Keszthely, A. Lovassy; Kirchen und Burgen in der Umgebung des Balaton im Mittelalter, R. Bekefi, 299 Baldet (F.), Occultation of » Gemini by the Planet Venus, 196; the Recent Occultation of » Geminorum by Venus, 317 Balkanlander (Mésische Lander), Die Wegetationsverhalt- nisse der, Prof. Lujo Adamovié, 135 Ball (Lawrence), Studies of Egyptian Cotton, 184 53° Ball (Sir Robert), the Cambridge Observatory, 472 Ball (Robert S., jun.), Static Charge in Bicycle Frame, 9 Ballou (Mr.), Legislation in the West Indies for the Control of Pests and Diseases of Imported Plants, 247 Bancroft (Prof. Wilder D.), on the Photographic Emulsion, 215 Barbour (J.), History of the Discovery of the Chinese Alli- gator, 341 Barkla (Prof. C. G.), X-Ray Spectra, 139; Homogeneous Radiation, 478 Barling (Prof. Gilbert), Treatment of Cancer, 154 Barlow (Dr. Guy), the Pressure of Light against the Source ; the Recoil from Light; Bakerian Lecture at Royal Society, 139 Barnard (Prof.), Ephemeris for Comet 1910a, 19; a Variable Star as a Time Constant, 52; Halley’s Comet, 183, 322; Photographs of Daniel's Comet, 249; Velocities and Accelerations of the Ejecta from Halley’s Comet, 404 ; Observations of the Companion of Sirius, 439; Observa- tions of Neptune’s Satellite, 472 Barnard (H. Clive), the British Isles in Pictures, 238 Barnard (FH. O.), Alleged Partiality of Cobras for Music, 49 Barnes (H. T.), Problems of Winter Navigation on the River St. Lawrence, 83 Barnett (S. A.), Lacustrine Culture, Barre (M.), Sulphate of Thorium, 132 Barrett-Hamilton (G. IE. H.), a History of British Mam- mals, 493 Barrois (Prof.), Pre-Cambrian Fauna, 442 Barthel (Dr. Chr.), Methods used in the Examination of Millk and Dairy Products, 69 Bartholomew (J. G.), an Economic Atlas, 426 Bartlett (A. W.), Cause of Serious Loss of Gooseberry Bushes in Cambridgeshire, 402 Bassett (Dr. H.), the Gulf Stream Drift and the Weather of the British Isles, 44 Bateman (H.), Present State of the Theory of Integral Equations, 514 Bateson (Prof., F.R.S.), Sex and Immunity, 549 Bauer (Dr. L. A.), Magnetic Results of the First Cruise of the Carnegie, 119; Results of Some Recent Investiga- tions on Magnetic Disturbances, 192; So-called ‘* Sudden Commencements ’’ of Magnetic Storms, 516; Tables of Corrections to the British Admiralty, the German Admiraity, and the United States Hydrographic Depart- ment Magnetic Charts of the North Atlantic, 544 Baumes (Georges), Critical Constants of Acetylene and Cyancgen, 98 Bauschinger (Dr.), Search-Ephemerides for Comet 1889, V. Brooks, 317 Bean (R. B.), Filipino Racial Types at Taytay, 340 Bean (W. J.), New Trees and Shrubs, 547 Bean (Mr.), Chimzeroid Fishes, 547 Bear, the Black, William H. Wright, 327 Beck (Dr. R.), Lehre von den Erzlagerstatten, 198 Becker (Dr.), Glacial Erosion, 442 Becquerel (Prof. Jean), Constitution of Matter, 506 Becquerel (Paul), the Abiotic Action of Ultra-Violet Rays, and the Hypothesis of the Cosmic Origin of Life, 64 Beebe (Mary Blair and C. William), Our Search for a Wilderness, 525 Bees for Profit and Pleasure, H. Geary, 464 Beet Sugar Making and its Chemical Control, Y. Nilaido, 116 Beilby (Dr.), Provident Use of Coal, 519 Békefi (R.), Resultate der Wissenschaftlichen Untersuch- ungen des Balaton, Kirchen und Burgen in der Um- gebung des Balaton im Mittelalter, 299 Beljawsky (S.), Observations of Perseids in Dispersion of Light in Interstellar Space, 213 Bell (Dr. Digby), Physical Training, 320 Bengal, Science in, 185 Bengough (G. D.), the Heat Treatment of Brass, 421 Bennett (S. R.), on the Nature, Uses, and Manufacture of Ferro-Silicon, with Special Reference to Possible Danger Arising from its Transport and Storage, 53; Ferro- Silicon, 519 Beresford (Col. C. E. de Caucasus,”’ 469 Bergstrand (Osten), Researches on the Colours of Stars, 344 Berlin University, the Centenary of, 480, 496 1909, 184; la Poer), ‘‘ Byways in the Nature, ] Nowe nber 24, 1910. Bernau (K.), Naturwissenschaftliches Unterrichtswerk fur héhere Madchenschulen, 171 Benelli (Luigi), the Prince and his Ants (Ciondolino), 13 Berthelot (Daniel), Mechanism of Photo-Chemical Reactions and the Formation of Plant Principles, 196; Photo- chemical Decomposition of the Alcohols, Aldehydes, Acids, and Ketones, 262 Bertin (E.), Arrest of Steam Ships either by Reversing the Engine or by Allowing to Slow Down by Friction of the Water, 421 Bertrand (Gabriel), Vicianose, 164 Berwerth (Prof. Friedrich), Meteoric Iron which fell on August 1, 1898, near Quesa, 372 Besancon (G.), Ballons et Aéroplanes, 229 Beyschlag (Prof.), Iron Ores Supplies, 441 Bickerton (W.), ** Hunting Birds with the Camera,’’ 402 Bicycle Frame, Static Charge in, Robert S. Ball, jun., 9 Bierry (Henri), Action of the Ultra-Violet Rays upon Certain Carbohydrates, 164 7 Bio-Chemistry: Effect of an Increased Percentage of Oxygen on the Vitality and Growth of Bacteria, Prof. Benjamin Moore and Dr. Stenhouse Williams, 181 Biology : the I.aws of Heredity, G. Archdall Reid, Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., 1; Alcyonarians Col- lected by Mr. J. Murray of Sir E. Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition, Prof. J. Arthur Thomson, 29; Science from an Easy Chair, Sir Ray Lankester, K.C.B., F.R.S., 37; Ooze and Irrigation, Rev. Hilderic Friend, 39, 70; A. R. Horwood, 40; the Abiotic Action of Ultra-Violet Rays, and the Hypothesis of the Cosmic Origin of Life, Paul Becquerel, 64; Observations on the Biology of Roridula, Dr. R. Marloth, 98; a Theory of Death, M. Mihlmann, 117; Forms of Endogenous Multiplication of Haemo- gregarina Sebai, A. Laveran and A. Pettit, 131; General Biology, Prof. James G. Needham, 137; Histriobdella homari, Cresswell Shearer, 150; Parasitic Castration in a Cockerel, Geoffrey Smith, 150; Association of Economic Biologists, 156; Interdependence of Research in So-called ‘* Pure ’’ and “‘ Applied ’’ Science, Prof. G. H. Carpenter, 156; Place of Economic Zoology in the Modern University, Prof. S. J. Hickson, 156; Wild-bird Protec- tion W. E. Collinge, 156; Observations on the Garden Tropwolum, Prof. F. E. Weiss, 157; Animal Pests, Dr. R. Stewart MacDougall, 157; Australian and Argentine Biology, 186; Rinaldo’s Polygeneric Theory: a Treatise on the Beginning and End of Life, Joel Rinaldo, 202; British Antarctic Expedition, 1907—9, under the Command of Sir E. H. Shackleton, C.V.O.; Reports on Scientific Investigations vol. i., Biology, 205; Geschichte der biolo- gischen Theorien, Dr. Em. Radl, 263; the Inherent Law of Life: a New Theory of Life and of Disease, Dr. Franz Kleinschrod, 493; Cytology of the Flagellata, M. Hart- mann ard C. Chagas, 504; the Biological Laboratories at Woods Hole, Francis B. Sumner, 527; Proisocrinus ruberrimus, a New Genus and Species of Stalked Crinoid from the Philippines, A. H. Clark, 547; Collection of Arenaceous Foraminifera obtained by the Albatross during her Recent Cruise in the Philippines, J. A. Cush- man, 547; Marine Biology, Die Ernaéhrung der Wasser- tiere und der Stoffhaushalt der Gewasser, Prof. August Piitter, 5; Leptocephalus nyoproioides and L. thorianus, Johs. Schmidt, 9; Marine Biological Photography, Francis Ward, 10; New Marine Biological Station at Venice, Cal., 81; New Species of Feather-Star (Antedon) from the Adriatic, A. H. Clark, 150; Polychztous Annerlids Dredged off the Californian Coast by the Albatross in 1904, J. P. Moore. 246; a Monograph of the Foraminifera of the North Pacific Ocean, J. A. Cushman, 265; Bulletin Trimestrie: Conseil Permanent International pour |’Ex- ploration de la Mer; Résumé des Observations sur le Plankton des Mers Explorées par le Conseil pendant les Années, 1902-8, 394; the Decapod Natantia of the Coasts of Ireland, Stanley M. Kemp, 394; Report of a Survey of the Trawling Grounds on the Coasts of Counties Down, Louth, Meath, and Dublin, E. W. L. Holt, 394 Birds: a History of the Birds of Kent, Norman F. Tice- hurst, 241; a History of Birds, W. P. Pycraft, 367 Birge (E. A.), Lake Temperatures, 83 Researches on the Constitution of Anatomy of | Index ix Bishop (Prof. A. L.), Physicai and Commercial Geography, 459 Bicceman (F. F.), Biochemistry of Respiration, 517 Blair (R.), the Relation of Science to Industry and Com- merce, 345 Blanc (M.), Synthesis of Camphoric Acid, 51 Blood-sucking Conorhinus, the, J. D. H., 172 Bloomfield (D.), Do Kittens Kill Mice Instinctively? 436 “ Blotched’’ Tabby Cat, the Origin of the Domestic, H. M. Vickers, 298, 331; R. I. Pocock, 298 Boas (Franix), the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, the Kwakuitl of Vancouver Island, 250 Bogoras (Waldemar), the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Chukchee Mythology, 250 Bohle (H.), Influence of Uniformity and Contrast on the Amount of Light Required, 422 Bohlin (Dr. Karl), Observations of Comet 1910a, 272 Bolides, Meteors and, Prof. Guido Cora, 317 Bolton (Arthur T.), the Leaning Tower of Pisa, 297 Bolton (Scriven), an Oblique Belt on Jupiter, 363 Boltwood (Dr. Bertram B.), Treatment of Storage Cells, I Bee Presidency and Sind, Forest Flora of the, W. A. Talbot, 170 Bone (Prof.), Production of Methane by the Direct Union of Hydrogen with Carbon, 248; Researches upon the Chemical Aspects of Gaseous Combustion during the Past Thirty Years, 517 Bonnerot (S.), Reduction of Oxide of Solid Carbon, 555 Bonney (the Rev. Prof. T. G., Sc.D., IEILAID Sy 1s eeSia) Inaugural Address at the Meeting of che British Associa- tion at Sheffield, 274 Books of Science, Forthcoming, 475 Borel (Emile), L’Aviation, 229 Borisov (M.), Quartz in Druses from the Government of Olonetz, 375 Borrelly (M.), Observations of Metcalf’s Comet, 1gtod, 261 Bosler (J.), Phenomena Presented by the Tail of Halley’s Comet during the Passage of May 19 last, 163 Boss (Prof.), Precession and the Solar Motion, 249 Botany: the Grasses of Alaska, Prof. F. Lamson-Scribner and E. D. Merrill, 17; New Garden Plants of 1909, Male Sterility in Potatoes, Iron by 17; Linnean Society, 29; \ Dr. R. N Salaman, 29; the Plant Cell, its Modifica- tions and Vital Processes, H. A. Haig, 36; Alpine Flowers and Gardens, Painted and Described, G. Flem- well, 37; Summer Flowers of the High Alps, Somerville Hastings, 37; Botanical Resources of Yola Province, Northern Nigeria, Dr. J. M. Dalziel, 50; Flowering Trees, H. F. Macmillan, 55; Indigenous Trees of Southern Rhodesia, C. F. H. Monro, 55; Right- and Left-handedness in Barley, R. H. Compton, 63; New South Wales Linnean Society, 64, 196, 422, 522; Hand- book of Flower Pollination, Dr. P. Knuth, 66; ‘“‘ Bulletins of the State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut,’? Catalogue of Flowering Plants and Ferns, $2; Action of Cold and Anzesthetics upon the Leaves of Angraecum fragrans and the Green Husks of Vanilla, Edouard Heckel, 98; Observations on the Biology of Roridula, Dr. R. Marloth, 98; a New Italian Orchid, W. Herbert Cox, 104; the Ethnology, Botany, Geology, and Meteorology of German East Africa, Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., 106; Lichens, A. N. Danilov, 117; die Vegetationsverhaltnisse der Balkanlainder (Mésische Lander), Prof. Lujo Adamovic, 135; Botaasy of To-day, G. F. Scott Elliot, 146; the Book of Nature Study, 146; a Text-book of Botany for Students, Amy F. M. Johnson, 146; Systematic Position of the Tropical American Genus Phytelephas, ORIB: Cook, 151; Note on Local Coloration of the Cell Wall in Certain Water Plants induced by Manganese Com- Description _ of pounds, Prof. H. Mbolisch, 151; Haworthia truncata, Schénl., Dr. Schénland, 158; Ex- periments to Find out whether the Aérial Parts of Plants absorb Moisture from the Air, Dr. Schonland, 158; Dr. Marloth, 158; Plant Distribution, 160; Forma- tions and Flora-elements in the North-west of Cape Colony, Dr. L. Diels, 160; Botanical Expedition through Western Districts of Cape Colony, Dr. H. H. W. Pear- b 2 x lndex Nature, Noveniter 24, 1910 son, 160; Celmisia spectabilis, Dr. L. Cockayne, 160; | Breinl (A.), Life-history of Trypanosoma lewisi in the Botanical Excursions in Chatham Island, Capt. A. A. Dorrien-Smith, 160; Forest Flora of the Bombay Presi- dency and Sind, W. A. Talbot, 170; Wild Plants on Waste Land in London, 184; Expédition Antarctique Belge, Résultats du Voyage du S.Y. Belgica en 1897-8-g, sous le Commandement de A. de Gerlache de Gomery, Rapports scientifiques, Botanique—Diatomées, H. van Heurck, 205; Philippine Leguminosie, E. D. Merrill, 211; Root Disease of the Cocoa-nut Palm caused by the Fungus Fomes lucidus, Mr. Petch, 212; the Action of Vapours on Green Plants, Marcel Mirande, 262; Composition of Carnations with Fiextble Stems and Rigid Stems, L. Fondard and F. Gauthie, 292; Photo- micrographs of Botanical Studies, 296; the Genus Citrus, A. W. Lushington, 315; White Chicory, 316; Sweet Peas, H. J. Wright, 326; Pansies, Violas, and Violets, Wm. Cuthbertson and R. Hooper Pearson, 326; die Hiede, W. Wagner, 326; Niedere Pflanzen, Dr. R. Timm, 326; das Holz, H. Kottmeier and F. Uhlmann, 326; der Pflanzengarten, seine Anlage und seine Ver- werkung, Prof. F. Pfuhl, 326; die Aufzucht und Kultur der Parasitischen Samenpflanzen, Prof. E. Heinricher, 327; Prodromus Flore Britannic, F. N, Williams. 342; Rhododendron producing Double Flowers in its Wild State, Dr. M. Miyoshi, 372; Description of Dioon spinulosum, C. J. Chamberlain, 372; a History of Botany, 1860-1900, being a Continuation of Sach’s “History of Botany, 1530-1860,’’ Prof. J. Reynolds Green, F.R.S., 391; Vegetationsbilder, Trockensteppen der Kalahari, F. Seiner, Von den Juan Fernandez Inseln, Carl Skottberg, die Schwabische Alp, Otto Feucht, aus Bosnien und der MHerzegovinia, L. Adamovié, die Flora von Irland, Prof. T. Johnson, 395; Action of the Ultra-violet Rays upon Plants containing Coumarin, and some Plants the Smell of which is due to the Hydrolysis of Glucosides, M. Pougnet, 421; Plant Formations of East Bolivia, 437; Science in Modern life, Botany, J. M. F. Drummond, 464; Plants obtained in Scuthern Half of the Island of Saghalien, G. Koidzumi, 470; Conditions of Parasitism in Plants, Dr. W. A. Cannon, 505; Inducing Dependent Nutrition by the Insertion of Prepared Slips into a Host Plant, Dr. D. T. Macdougal, 505; an Agaric with Sterile Gills, W. B. Grove, 531; Death and Obituary Notice of Dr. Melchior Treub, 539; Plants Gathered by Dr. Th. Derbeck on the Shores of the Gulf of Tartary, V. L. Komarov, 542; Botanising in County Kerry, H. S. Thompson, 543; Account of the Genus Scrophularia, Dr. Heinz Stiefelhagen, 543; Flora and Plant Formations of the Kermadec, R. B. Oliver, 543; Distribution of Weeds, 547; a Natural Preventative to the Oak-tree Disease, Paul Vuillemin, 555; the Elective Rédle of the Root in the Absorption of Salts, Jean de Rufz de Lavison, 556; see also British Association Boudariat (A.), Occurrence of a Basalt in the Volcanic Cone of Tritriva in Central Madagascar, 376 Bourgeois (R.), the Daily Movement of the Top of the Eiffel Tower, 261; Comparison of Two Astronomical Pendulums with the Aid of Electrical Signals trans- mitted by a Submarine Cable of Great Length, 459 Bourne (Prof. G. C., M.A., D.Sc., F.R:S.), Opening Address in Section D at the Meeting of the British Association at Sheffield, 378; Hormones in Relation to Inheritance, 462 Beurquelot (Prof.), Biochemical Method of Examination of Vegetable Glucosides Hydrolysed by Emulsin, 354 Bowman (Prof. Isiah), the Economic Geography of Bolivia, 118 Boyce (Sir Rubert W., F.R.S.), Effect of Mosquito Larve upon Drinking Water, 150; Health Progress and Administration in the West Indies, 174 Boyle (Dr. R. W.), Absorption and Adsorption with Reference to the Radio-active Emanations, 152 Boys (Prof. C. V., F.R.S.), the Ultra-rapid Kinemato- graph, 112; Very Viscid Fluid to make Dumb-bell by the Union of the Drops of Two Bubbles, 436 E Bragg (Prof.), Nature of the y Rays, 478 Braun (Prof. Max), a Handbook of Practical Parasitology, 393 Rat-louse Haematopinus spinulosus, 150 Brereton (C, A.), Death of, 340 Breul (Prof. Karl), Students’ Life and Work in the Uni- versity of Cambridge, 461 Brewer (R. W. A.), the Art of Aviation, 229 Brillouin (Prof. M.), Stabilitié des Aéroplanes, métacentrique, 229 Brindley (H. H.), Notes on the Procession of Cnethocampa pinivora, 62 Briner (E.), Action of Pressure and Temperature upon Cyanogen, 164 Brion (Dr. G.), Leitfaden zum elektrotechnischen Prak- tikum, 67 British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-9, under the Command of Sir E. H. Shackleton, C.V.O., Reports on Scientific Investigations, vol. i., Biology, 205 British Association Meeting at Sheffield, 110, 174, 274, 300, 333; S. R. Milner, 174; Inaugural Address by the Rev. Prof. TIT. G. Bonney, se D:, LD, RiRss President of the Association, 274; Forthcoming Meeting of British Association, Arrangements for Section H, 179; Recent Hittite Discovery, D. G. Hogarth, 318 Section A (Mathematical and Physical Science).—Opening Address by Prof. E. W. Hobson, Sc.D., F.R.S., President of the Section, 284; on Positive Rays, Sir J. J. Thomson, 513; Spectrophotometer of the Hiifner Type, Dr. A. Houston, 513; New Gyroscopic Apparatus, Prof. A. E. H. Love, 513; a Certain Per- mutation Group, Dr. Baker, 514; the Theory of Numbers, Lieut.-Colonel Allan Cunningham, 514; Dr. Baker, 514; Initial Motion of Electrified Spheres, Dr. J. W. Nicholson, 514; Need of a Non-Euclidean Biblio- graphy, Dr. Duncan M. Y. Somerville, 514; Present State of the Theory of Integral Equations, H. Bateman, 514; Dr. Hobson, 514; the Theory of Ideals, Prof. J. C. Fields, 514; Number of Electrons in the Atoms, J. A. Crowther, 514; Attractive Constant of a Molecule of a Compound and its Chemical Properties, Dr. R. D. Kleemann, 514; Demonstration of Vacuum- tight Seals between Iron and Glass, Dr. H. J. S. Sand, 514; Complete Apparatus for the Measurement of Sound, Dr. A. G. Webster, 515; the Relation of Spectra to the Periodic Series of the Elements, Prof. W. M. Hicks, 515; Sir Norman Lockyer, 515; Photo- graphic Study of the Mercury Arc in vacuo, Dr. S. R. Milner, 515; Apparatus for a Production of Circularly Polarised Light, A. E. Oxley, 515; Principles of Mechanical Flight, Prof. G. H. Bryan, 515; Dugald Surface Clerk, 515; Atmospheric Electricity, Dr. Charles Chree, 515; Existence of a Positive Gradient of Potential during Fine Weather and a _ Negative Gradient during Wet Weather, Sir Oliver Lodge, 515 ; Dr. Shaw, 515; Sir J. J. Thomson, 515; a New In- strument, the Variograph, for Measuring Short Waves in Atmospheric Pressure, Dr. W. Schmidt, 516; Records from the Upper Atmosphere Obtained during Passage of the Earth through the Tail of Halley’s Comet, Mr. Dines, 516; Vertical Temperature Gradients in Canada in the Winter Months, Mr. Stupart, 516; Results of an Investigation into the Effect of Radiation on H, the Height, and Te, the Temperature, of the Advective Region, Mr. Gold, 516; Sensitive Bifilar Seismograph for Recording Undula- tory Movements of the Earth’s Surface of Short Period, Prof. F. G. Bailey, 516; a Successful Attempt to Simplify the Long-range Spectrograph to Make it Suitable for Industrial Investigations concerning Metals, Alloys, &c., Prof. C. Féry, 516; Magnetic Field Produced by the Motion of a Charged Condenser through Space, W. F. G. Swann, 516; Results of Experiments on the Secondary Radiation from Carbon at Low Temperatures when Bombarded by the a Rays from Polonium, V. E. Pound, 516; Resolution of the Spectral Lines of Mercury by a High-grade Echelon Spectroscope, Prof. McLennan and N. Macallum, 516; Active Deposit Obtained when the Emanation from Actinium is Allowed to Diffuse Freely between Two Parallel Plates Placed about 2 Millimetres apart over the Actinium Salt, the Plates being Maintained at a Difference of Potential of 250 volts, W. T. Kennedy, Nature, ] Nevember 24, 1910 Index Xi 516; Recoil of Radium B from Radium A, Drs. W. Makower and S. Russ and E. J. Evans, 516; Stars and their Temperatures, Sir Norman Lockyer, 516; So-called ‘‘ Sudden Commencements’’ of Magnetic Storms, Dr. Bauer, 516; Dr. Chree, 516 Section B (Chemistry).—Opening Address by J. E. Stead, F.R.S., F.I.C. F.C.S., President of the Section, 302; Researches upon the Chemical Aspects of Gaseous Combustion during the Past Thirty Years, Prof. Bone, 517; Combustion, Sir J. J. Thomson, 517; Velocity of Sound not a Constant Quantity, Sir Oliver Lodge, 517; Explosion of Hydrogen and Chlorine by Light, Prof. H. B. Dixon, 517; Impossibility of any Inter- action Taking Place between Two Substances if Neither was an Electrolyte, Prof. Armstrong, 517; Molecular Weight of Radium Emanation, Sir Wm. Ramsay and Dr. R. W. Gray, 517; Biochemistry of Respiration, F. F. Blackman, 517; Existing Know- ledge with Regard to the Oxydases, Dr. E. F. Arm- strong, 518; a Fourth Recalescence in Steel, Prof. Jj. O. Arnold, 518; Dr. ©. H. Carpenter, 518; Mr. Stead, 518; Allotropy or Transmutation, Prof. H. M. Howe, 518; Closing and Welding of Blow-holes in Steel Ingots, Prof. H. M. Howe, 518; Mr. Stead, 518; Provident Use of Coal, Prof. H. E. Armstrong, 518; Prof. A. Smithells, 519; Dr. Beilby, 519; Mr. Archbutt, 519; Properties of a Series of Steels with Varying Carbon Contents, Prof. McWilliam, 519; Crystalline Structure of Iron at High Temperatures, Dr. Rosenhain, 519; Ferro-silicon, Dr. S. M. Cope- man, 519; Dr. Wilson Hake, 519; S. R. Bennett, 519 ; Corrosion of Iron and Steel, Dr. J. N. Friend, 519; Influence of Heat Treatment on the Corrosion, Solu- bility, and Solution Pressures of Steel, C. Chappell and IF’. Hodson, 519; Relative Instability of the Tri- methylene Ring, Dr. J. F. Thorpe, 519; Elimination of a Carbethoxyl Group during the Closing of the Five-membered Ring, A. D. Mitchell and Dr. J. F. Thorpe, 519; Molecular Association in Water, W. E. S. Turner and C. J. Peddle, 519; Affinities of the Halogen Elements, W. E. S. Turner, 519; Mole- cular Complexity of Nitrosoamines, W. E. S. Turner and E. W. Merry, 520; Action of Metals upon Alcohols, Dr. F. M. Perkin, 520 Sub-Section of B (Agricultural Sub-Section).—Opening Address by A. D. Hall, M.A., F.R.S., Chairman of the Sub-section, 309 Section C (Geology).—Opening Address by Prof. A. P. Coleman, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., President of the Section, the History of the ‘* Canadian Shield,’ 333 ; Graptolitic Zones from the Salopian Beds of the Cautly District, Sedburgh, Miss G. R. Whatney and Miss E. G. Welch, 520; the Concealed Coalfield of Notts, Derby, and Yorkshire, Prof. P. F. Kendall, 520; the Shelly Moraine of the Sefstroém Glacier, Spitsbergen, G. W. Lamplugh, 520 Section D (Zoology).—Opening Address by Prof. G. C. Bourne, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., President of the Section, 378; Hormones in Relation to Inheritance, Gilbert C. Bourne, 462; Zoology at the British Association, Dr. J. H. Ashworth, 548; Coral Snakes and Peacocks, Dr. H. F. Gadow, F-.R.S., 548; Coccidia and Coccidiosis in Birds, Dr. H. B. Fantham, 548; the Formation and Arrangement of the Opercular Chztae of Sabellaria, Arnold T. Watson, 549; the Anatomy and Physiology of Calma glaucoides, T. J. Evans, 549; Sex and Immunity, Geoffrey Smith, 549; Prof. Bateson, F.R.S., 549; Prof. Hartog, 549; the Colours of Insect Larve, Prof. Walter Garstang, 549; Mr. Doncaster, 550; Insect Coloration, Mark L. Sykes, 550; G. Story, 550; the Biology of Teleost and Elasmobranch Eggs, Dr. W. J. Dakin, 550; Semina- tion in the Sanderling, Prof. C. J. Patten, 550; Anatomical Adaptations in Seals to Aquatic Life, Dr. H. W. Marett Tims, 550; the Temporal Bone in Primates, Prof. R. J. Anderson, 550; the Oxford Anthropometrical Laboratory, Dr. E. Schuster, 550; the Relation of Regeneration and Developmental Pro- cesses, Dr. J. W. Jenkinson, 550 Section E (Geography).—Opening Address by A. J. Herbertson, M.A., Ph.D., Professor of Geography in the University of Oxford, President of the Section, Geography and Some of its Present Needs, 383; Origin of Some of the More Characteristic Features of the Topography of Northern Nigeria, Dr. J. D. Falconer, 551; Prince Charles Foreland, Spitsbergen, Dr. W. S. Bruce, 551; Plans for a Second Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, Dr. W. S. Bruce, 551; Voyage of the Nimrod from Sydney to Monte Video, Captain J. K. Davis, 551; Metallurgical Industries in Relation to the Rocks of the District, Prof. A. McWilliam, 552; Importance to Sheffield of the Unoxidised Iron Ores of Leicestershire and Lincoln- shire, Prof. Kendall, 552; the Humber during the Human Period, T. Sheppard, 552; Journey Across South America from Bogota to Mandos, Dr. Hamilton Rice, 552; Geography of British Cotton-growing, J. Howard Reed, 552; Journey from India through Gilgit, Hanza, across the Parmirs, and thence by Chinese Turkestan, Mongolia, and Siberia to the Trans- Siberian Railway, Lieutenant P. T. Etherton, 552; New Globe-map of the World, William Wilson, 552; Midlothian District, James Cossar, 552; Underground Waters of the Castleton District of Derbyshire, H. Brodrick, 552 Section G (ngineering).—Opening Address by Prof. W. E. Dalby, M.A., M.Inst.C.E., President of the Section, British Railways, Some Facts and a Few Problems, 407; the Testing of Lathe Tool Steels, Prof. Ripper, 553; Third Report of the Committee on Gaseous Explosions, 553; Radiation from Open Flames in the Laboratory, Prof. Callendar, 553; Radiation from Gases in a Closed Combustion Chamber, Prof. Hopkinson, 553; the Ignition of Gases by Adiabatic Compression, Prof. Dixon, 553; Captain Sankey, 553; New Method of Testing the Cutting Quality of Files, Prof. Ripper, 553; Electrification of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway be- tween Victoria and London Bridge, P. Dawson, s<2- Use of an Accelerometer in the Measurement of Road Resistance and Horse-power, H. E. Wimperis, 553; Cyclical Changes of Temperature in a Gas-engine Cylinder near the Walls, Prof. Coker, 553; Principles of Mechanical Flight, Prof. Bryan, 554; Optical De- termination of Stress, Prof. Coker, 554; Measurement of the Air Supply to a Gas-engine Cylinder, Prof. Dalby, 554; Heat Insulation, F. Bacon, 554; a New Method of Producing High-tension Electrical Dis- charges, Prof. E. Wilson and W. H. Wilson, 554; Machine for Testing Rubber by Means of its Mechanical Hysteresis, Prof. Schwartz, 554; Utilisa- tion of Solar Radiation, Wind Power, and other Inter- mittent Natural Sources of Energy, Prof. Fessenden, 554; Experimental Investigation of the Strength of Thick Cylinders, Mr. Cook, 554 Section H (Anthropology).—Opening Address by W. Crooke, B.A., President of the Section, 414 Section I (Physiology).—Opening Address by Prof. A. B. Macallum, M.A., M.B., Ph.D., Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S., President of the Section, 444 Section K (Botany).—Opening Address by Prof. James W. H. Trail, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., President of the Section, 452 Section L (Educational Science).—Opening Address by Principal H. A. Miers, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., President of the Section, 480; the Relation of Science to Industry and Commerce, R. Blair, 345 British Fossils, 1o1 British Isles, the Gulf Stream Drift and the Weather of the, Dr. H. Bassett, 44 British Isles in Pictures, the, H. Clive Barnard, 238 British Mammals, a History of, G. E. H. Barrett- Hamilton, 493 British Marine Zoology, Prof. E. W. MacBride, F.R.S.. 252, 330, 396, 462; Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., 329, 396, 462; Dr. Wm. J. Dakin, 396 British Medical Association in London, the, 153 British Museum: Catalogue of the Fossil Bryozoa in the Department of. Geology, British Museum (Natural History), Prof. J. W. Gregory, F.R.S., 8; Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts, Maps, and Drawings in the British Museum (Natural History), 266; Guide to Mr. xil Worthington Smith’s Drawings of Field and Cultivated Mushrooms and Poisonous or Worthless Fungi often Mistaken for Mushrooms, Exhibited in the Department of Botany, British Museum (Natural History), 361; Mineral Specimens Acquired by British Museum, 467 ; Handbook to the Ethnographical Collection, 536 British Pharmaceutical Conference, the, 156 British Rainfall, 1909, Dr. Hugh Robert Mill, 523 British Section of the Brussels Exhibition, the, Dr. F. Mollwo Perkin, 398 Brizard (L.), Ionisation of Gases in Presence of Chemical Reactions, 151 Brockett (Paul), Bibliography of Aéronautics, 229 Brodrick (H.), Underground Waters of the Castleton Dis- trict of Derbyshire, 552 Broglie (Maurice de), Exclusive Presence in the Gases Evolved from some Hydrogenated Flames of Ions alto- gether Analogous to those Produced by Réntgen Rays, 64; Ionisation of Gases in Presence of Chemical Reactions, 151 Brook (C. L.), the Perseid Meteoric Shower, 248 Brooke (T. F.), Cause of Serious Loss of Gooseberry Bushes in Cambridgeshire, 402 Brooks (A. H.), Mineral Resources of Alaska, 511 Brooks’s Comet, 1889 V, Search-ephemeris for, Dr. Bauschinger, 317 Brooks’s Periodical Comet (1889 V), Messrs. Aitken and Wilson, 438 Broom (Dr. R.), Relationship of the South African Fossil Reptiles to those Found in other Parts of the World, 158; Relationship of Permian Reptiles of North America to those of South, 402 Brown (Edward G.), the Leaning Tower of Pisa, 297 Brown (H. Y. L.), the Tanami Goldfield in Central Australia, 182 Brown (J. Coggin), a Lisu Jew’s Harp, 422 Brown (Sidney G.), Modern Submarine Telegraphy, course at Royal Institution, 23 Bruce (Dr. James), Practical Chemistry, 360 Bruce (Dr. J. Mitchell), Important Additions to Medical Knowledge, 154 Bruce (Dr. W. S.), Prince Charles Foreland, Spitsbergen, 551; Plans for a Second Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, 551 Brickner (Prof. E.), les Variations périodiques des Glaciers, 17 Brunetti (E.), Protest against Unnecessary Subdivision and Splitting in the Culicide. 407 Brussels, International Congress of Anatomists at, 252 Brussels Exhibition, the British Section of the, Dr. F. Mollwo Perkin, 398 Bryan (Prof. G. H., F.R.S.), the Art of Aviation, R. W. A. Brewer, 229; How to Build an Aéroplane, R. Petit, 229; How to Build a 20-foot Biplane Glider, A. P. Morgan, 229; les Aéroplanes, considérations théoriques, P. Raybaud, 229; Ballons et Aéroplanes, G. Besancon, 220 ; l’Aviation, Prof. Paul Painlevé and Prof. Emile Borel, 229; Navigation in der Luft, Prof. A. Marcuse, 229; Stabilitié des Aéroplanes, Surface métacentrique, Prof. M. Brillouin, 229; die Seitensteuer der Flugmaschinen, Rediscovery of, Dis- Prof 7H. Reissner, 229; VI. Congrés international d’Aéronautique, 1909, Procés verbaux, Rapports et Mémoires, 229; Bibliography of Aéronautics, Paul Brockett, 229; Petite Encyclopédie aéronautique, L. the Encyclopadia of Sports and Games, 229 ; Principles of Mechanical Flight, 515, 554 Bryozoa, Catalogue of the Fossil, in the Department of Geology, British Museum (Natural History), Prof. J. W. Gregory, F.R.S., 8 Buchanan (Miss F.), the Relative Size Different Groups of Animals, 148 Buchanan (J. Y., F.R.S.), Colour of the Sea, 87 Buckland (J.), Traffic in Feathers and the Need for Legis- Ventou-Duclaux, 229; of the Heart in lation, 117 Buenos Aires, the International Scientific Congress at, Prof. C. D. Perrine, 509 Building : Chimney Design, 213; Facilities Provided at the Brussels Exhibition for. the Beg ginning and Rapid Spread of Fire, 272 Bulleid (Arthur), village, 82 Excavations at the Glastonbury Lake- Index lv Nature Vouember 24, 1910 Bullen (Rev. R. Ashington), a Meteorological Phenomenon, 429 Burial Customs in Egypt, Early, Prof. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., 461, 529; Prof. W. M. Flinder Petrie, F.R.S., 494 Burnet (Arthur), an Interesting Occultation, 73 Burnham (Prof.), Measures of Double Stars, 152 Burr (Dr. Malcolm), a Synopsis of the Orthoptera of Western Europe, 39 Burt (F. P.), Relative Atomic Weights of Nitrogen and Sulphur, 62 Burton (F. M.), Pwdre Ser, 40 Burton (Mr.), A New Comet, 213 Bury (H.), the Denudation of the Western End of the Weald, 29 Biisgen (Dr. M.), Distinguishing Characters of the Trees in the German Cameroons, 546 Bush Calendar, a, Amy E. Mack, 464 Busignies (M.), Some Ethylenic Cyclic Derivatives (Ether Oxides) and their Bromine Derivatives, 324 Butler (Mrs. A. M.), *‘ Mock Suns ”’ at Eastbourne, 374 Butler (Bert S.), Areal Geology, 76 Butler (Prof. Howard C.), Archeology Expedition in Sardis, 593 Calcium Vapour in the Sun, C. E. St. John, 249 Calculus Elements of the Differential and Integral, A. E; HH. Love; F-R-S., 136 Calendar, Reforms of the, Prof. Forster, 368 California Earthquake of April 18, 1906, the, vol. ii., the Mechanics of the Earthquake, Harry F. Reid, Prof. John Milne, F.R.S., 165 Calkins (Mr.), Ore Deposits of the Coeur 1’Aléne District, Idaho, 122 Callendar (Prof.), Laboratory, 553 Callendar (Prof. H. L.), the Radio-balance, 195 Calman (Dr. W. T.), Antarctic Pycnogons, 104 Calmette (Prof.), Special Susceptibility of Children of Prof. Radiation from Open Flames in the Tuberculous Parents, 508 Cambier (R.), Abiotic Action of Ultra-Violet Rays of Chemical Origin, 164 Cambridge County Geographies, Nottinghamshire, Dr. H. H. Swinnerton; Lanarkshire, Frederick Mort, 527 Cambridge Observatory, the, Sir Robert Ball, 472; Prof. Newall, 472 Cambridge Philosophical Society, 62 Cambridge Pocket Diary for the Academical Year 1910-11, 527 Cambridge, Students’ Life and Work in the University of, Prof. Karl Breul, 461 Campbell (A. G.), Natural Features of the Australian Gram- pians, 271 Campbell (M. R.), Contributions to Economic Geology, part ii., Coal and Lignite, 511 Campbell (Norman R.), the Nomenclature of Radioactivity, 203 € serBalla (Prof.), Water Vapour on Mars, 317 Canada, Medical Education in the United States and, Abraham Flexner, 332 Cancer: the Progress of Cancer Research, national Cancer Conference at Paris, 545 Cannon (Dr. W. A.), Conditions of Parasitism in Plants, 505 Cape Town, Royal Society of South Africa, 98, 132, 262, 126; the Inter- Cz ares (Ettore), Critical Constants of Acetylene and Cyano- gen, 98 Carey (W. M.), a First Book of Physical Geography, 426 Carnation Year Book, 1910, the, 460 Carpenter (Dr.), Theory of Hardening Carbon Steels, 440; a Fourth Recalescence in Steel, 518 Carpenter (Prof. G. H.), Interdependence of Research in So-called ‘* Pure’? and ‘‘ Applied’’ Science, 156 Carruthers (John B.), Death and Obituary Notice of, Carslaw (Prof. H. S.), Plane Trigonometry, 136; and Non-Euclidean Geometry, 362 *“Carte du Ciel,’’ the Permanent International Committee for the, 317 Carter (F. W. ), Electrification of Railways, 155 114 Gauss Nature, ] Index ea Noventher 24, 1910 Cat, the Origin of the Domestic ‘‘ Blotched’’ Tabby, H. M. Vickers, 298, 331; R. I. Pocock, 298 Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts, Maps, and Drawings in the British Museum (Natural History), 266 Caucasus, Byways in the, Col. C. E. de la Poer Beresford, 469 Causal Geology, Prof. E. H. Schwarz, Prof. Grenville A. J. ‘Cole, 397 Cavolini (Filippo), Centenary of Death of, 313, 500 Cemento Armato, Le Prove dei Materiali da Construzione e le Construzione in, Guilo Revere, 358 Cemento Armato e la sua applicazione practica, Il, Cesare Presenti, 358 Centenary of Berlin University, the, 496 Centenary of Death of Filippo Cavolini, the, 313, 500 Centre of Gravity of Annual Statistics, A. Marshall, 104 Césaro (G.), Galactite a Mixture of Natrolite and Scolezite, 376 Chagas (C.), Nova tripanosomiaze humana, 142; Cytology of the Flagellata, 504 Chamberlain (C. J.), Description of Dioon spinulosum, 372 Chamberlain (R. T.), the Gases in Rocks, 376 Chambers (G. F.), the Study of Double Stars for Amateurs, 273 Chandler (Prof. Charles Frederick), Testimonial to, 403 Chapman (C. M.), Rust-preventing Properties of Protective Coatings for Structural Steel, 272 Chapman (F.), Silurian Fossils of the South Yarrow Dis- trict, 401 Chapman (Dr. H. G.), the Study of the Precipitins, 522 Chappell (C.), Influence of Heat Treatment on the Corro- sion, Solubility, and Solution Pressures of Steel, 519 Charpy (G.), Reduction of Oxide of Iron by Solid Carbon, 555 Chase (Frederick L.), Parallax Investigations on Thirty-five Selected Stars, 433 Chatelu (J.), Observations of Metcalf’s Comet Made at the Paris Observatory, 261 Chaudhuri (B. L.), Triacanthus weberi, 422 Chavez (M. G.), Death of, 400 Chemistry: Death of Dr. W. H. Seaman, 14; Death and Obituary Notice of C. H. Greville Williams, F.R.S., 14; Molecular Weights of Helium, Neon, Krypton, and Xenon, H. E. Watson, 18; Death of Prof. Hugo Erdman, 46; Synthesis of Camphoric Acid, M. Blanc and Dr. J. F. Thorpe, 51; Tinctorial Chemistry, Ancient and Modern, Prof. Walter M. Gardner, 56; Method for the Quantitative Estimation of Hydrocyanic Acid in Vegetable and Animal Tissues, Prof. A. D. Waller, 60; Spontaneous Crystallisation and the Melting- and Freezing-point Curves of Mixtures of Two Substances which form Mixed Crystals and possess a Minimum or Eutectic Freezing-point, F. Isaac, 61; Relative Atomic Weights of Nitrogen and Sulphur, F. P. Burt and F. L. Usher, 62; Comparative Toxicity of Theobromine and Caffeine as Measured by their Direct Effects upon the Contractility of Isolated Muscle, V. H. Veley and Prof. A. D. Waller, 62; Results of Sterilisation Experiments on the Cambridge Water, Prof. Sims Woodhead, 63; Action of Iron and its Oxides at a Red Heat, on Carbonic Oxide, Armand Gautier and P. Clausmann, 64; Manganate of Sodium and _ its Hydrates, V. Auger, 64; Researches on iso-Maltol, A. Backe, 64; a History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D., with Sanskrit Texts, &c., Prof. Praphulla Chandra Ray, 68; Methods Used in the Examination of Milk and Dairy Products, Dr. Chr. Barthel, 69; Electrolytic Conductivity of Non-aqueous Solutions at Low Tempera- tures, P. Walden, 84; Specific Volumes of Solutions of Tetrapropylammonium Chloride, J. W. M’David, 97; Action of Cold and Anesthetics upon the Leaves of Angraecum fragrans and the Green Husks of Vanilla, Edouard Heckel, 98; Toxic Qualities of Certain Salts towards Green Leaves, L. Maquenne and E. Demoussy, 131; the Action of Vapours on Green Plants, Marcel Mirande, 262; Critical Constants of Acetylene and Cyano- gen, Ettore Cardoso and Georges Baumes, 98; Action of Pressure and Temperature upon Cyanogen, E. Briner and A. Wroczynski, 164; Technical Methods of Chemical Analysis, Prof. George Lunge, 101; Cordite, 109; Ex- amination of the Atmosphere at Various Altitudes for Oxides of Nitrogen and Ozone, Messrs. Hayhurst and Pring, 119; Rectilinear Diameter of Oxygen, E. Mathias and H. Kamerlingh Onnes, 131; Action of Ultra-Violet Rays on Gelatine, A. Tian, 131; Action of the Ultra- Violet Rays upon Certain Carbohydrates, Henri Bierry, Victor Henri, and Albert Rane, 164; Abiotic Action: of Ultra-Violet Rays of Chemical Origin, E. Tassilly and R. Cambier, 164; Action of the Ultra-Violet Rays upon Plants containing Coumarind, Some Plants the Smell of which is due to the Hydrolysis of Glucosides, M. Pougnet, 421; New Researches on the Sterilisation of Large Quan- tities of Water by che Ultra-Violet Rays, Victor Henri, A. Helbronner, and Max de Recklinghausen, 556; Sul- phate of Thorium, M. Barre, 132; Absorption of Iodine by Solid Bodies, Marcel Guichard, 132; Ionisation of Gases in presence of Chemical Reactions, Messrs. de Broglie and L. Brizard, 151; Note on Local Coloration of the Cell Wall in Certain Water Plants induced by Manganese Compounds, Prof. H. Molisch, 151; Alumin- ium Nitride, its Preparation and Fusion, Daffy Wolk, 164; Decomposition of Steam by the Brush Discharge, Miroslaw Kernbaum, 164; Researches on the Constitu- tion of Vicianose, Gabriel Bertrand and G. Weisweiller, 164; Colours Arising in Colourless Solutions of Coloured Bodies at the Moment of the Solidification of the Colour- less Solvent, D. Gernez, 164; Observations on Callose, L. Mangin, 164; Relations between Callose and Fungose, C. Tanret, 228; Electrical Resistance of the Alkali Metals, L. Hackspill, 164; Coal, Tar, and Ammonia, Prof. George Lunge, 166; the Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid and Alkali, with the Collateral Branches, Prof. George Lunge, 166; Chimica Generale e Applicata all’ Industria, Prof. Ettore Molinari, 170; Death of Oscar Guttmann, 179; the Chemical Significance of Crystal Structure, Prof. William J. Pope, F.R.S., at Royal Institution, 187; Action of Mixtures of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, or of Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen, upon the Oxides of Iron, A. Gautier and P. Clausmann, 196; Catalytic Preparation of Alkyl-aryl Ethers, Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe, 196; Evolution of Heat in a Mixture of Radium and a Phosphorescent Salt, William Duane, 196; Rela- tions between White Phosphorus, Red Phosphorus, and Pyromorphic Phosphorus, Pierre Jolibois, 196; Catalytic Reactions in the Wet Way based on the Use of Aluminium Sulphate, J. B. Senderens, 1096; Mechanism of Photochemical Reactions and the Formation of Plant Principles, Daniel Berthelot and Henry Gaudechon, 196; the Constants of Nature, Part v., a Recalculation of the Atomic Weights, Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, 207 ; Determination of Atomic Weights, Theodore W. Richards and Hobart Hurd Willard, 207; the Harvard Determination of Atomic Weights between 1870 and 1910, Theodore W. Richards, 207; Methods used in Precise Chemical Investigation, Theodore W. Richards, 207; Changes taking Place during the Storage of Butter, 212; Development of the Leblanc Process for the Manu- facture of Soda, Sir William Ramsay, 213; New Process for producing Protective Metallic Coatings, M. WV. Schoop, 218; Lehmann’s Anisotropic Liquids, G. Friedel and F. Grandjean, 228; Preparation of Pure Arbutine, H. Hérissey, 228; Determinations of the Effects of Atmospheres of Various Vapours on the Volt-ampere “ Characteristic Curves’? of the Carbon Copper Arc, M. Kimura and K. Yamamoto, 248; Solubility of Ether in Water, Y. Osaka, 248; Production of Methane by the Direct Union of Hydrogen with Carbon, Prof. Bone and Dr. H. F. Coward, 248; Photochemical Decomposi- tion of the Alcohols, Aldehydes, Acids, and Ketones, Daniel Berthelot and Henry Gaudechon, 262; the Recti- linear Diameter of Oxygen, E. Mathias and H. Kamer- lingh Onnes, 262; a First Year’s Course of Inorganic Chemistry, G. F. Hood, 266; a Manual of Elementary Practical Chemistry for Use in the Laboratory, P. W. Oscroft and R. P. Shea, 266; Catalytic Preparation of the Phenolic Oxides and the Diphenylenic Oxides, Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe, 292; Preparation of Phenyl- nitro-methane by the Interaction of Mercurous Nitrite and Benzyl Chloride, Panchanan Neogi and Birendra Bhusan Adhikary, 292; a Manual of Dyeing, Prof. I. Knecht, C. Rawson, and Dr. R. Loewenthal, 295; XIV Index Nature, November 24, 1910 Death of Dr. Charles Fahlberg, 313; Alleged Allotropy of Lead, E. Cohen and K. Inouye, 316; Some Ethylenic Cyclic Derivatives (Ether Oxides) and their Bromine Derivatives, M. Busignies, 324; New Researches on Bitter Wines and the Acrylic Fermentation of Glycerol, E. Voisenet, 324; Lead and Zinc Pigments, Dr. C. D. Holley, Dr. A. P. Laurie, 325; Chemistry for Photo- graphers, Chas. F. Townsend, 327; Preparation of Acrolein, J. B. Senderens, 356; Soft Crystals and the Measurement of their Indices of Refraction, Paul Gaubert, 356; A.B.C. Five Figure Logarithms and Yables for Chemists, including Electrochemical Equiva- lents, Analytical Factors, Gas Reduction Tables, and other Tables useful in Chemical Laboratories, C. J. Woodward, 360; Practical Chemistry, Dr. James Bruce and Harry Harper, 360; Qualitative Analysis, E. J. Lewis, 360; Outlines of Organic Chemistry, Dr. F. J. Moore, 360; the Calculations of General Chemistry, with Definitions, Explanations, and Problems, Prof, William J. Hale, 360; Death of Dr. Charles A. Goessmann, 370 ; lonisation of Gases and Chemical Change, Dr. H. Brereton Baker, F.R.S., at Royal Institution, 388; Chemistry of the Sugars, J. S. Hepburn, 403; Testi- monial to Prof. Charles Frederick Chandler, 403 ; Annual Report of the Government Laboratory, 405; Beet Sugar Making and its Chemical Control, Y. Nikaido, 424; Complexity of Tellurium, W. R. Flint, 438; Analytical Chemistry, Prof. F. P. Treadwell, 461 ; Recent Work on Colloidal Solutions, Prof. Paterno, 471; Organic Compounds of Tetravalent Tellurium, Charles Lederer, 488; Action of Quinones and their Sulphonic Derivatives on the Photographic Images formed by Silver Salts, A. and L. Lumiére and M. Seyewetz, 488 ; World’s Consumption of Nitrate, 502; the Study of the Precipitins, Dr. H. G. Chapman, 522; Leitfaden der graphischen Chemie, Dr. R. Kremann, 525 ; ungen Jean Rey’s, tiber die Ursache der Gewichts- zunahme von Zinn und Blei beim Verkalten, Ernst Ichenhauser and Max Speter, 527; Luminous Paint, R. G. Durrant, 530; Absorption of Helium in Salts and Minerals, Prof. A. Piutti, 543; Batteries with Antimony and Antimony Selenides, H. Pelabon, 555; Reduction of Oxide of Iron by Solid Carbon, G. Charpy and S. Bonnerot, 555; Presence of a Small Quantity of Carbon Monoxide in the Air of Coal Mines, P. Mahler and J. Denet, 555; see also British Association Cheshire and Liverpool Bay, the Vertebrate Fauna of, 175 Chick (Harriette), Process of Disinfection by Chemical Agencies and Hot Water, 469 Cholera and its Control, 239 Cholnoky (E. v.), Resultate der Wissenschaftlichen Unter- suchungen des Balaton, das Eis Balatonsees, 299 Chree (Dr. Charles), Atmospheric Electricity, 515; So- called ‘‘ Sudden Commencements ”’ of Magnetic Storms, 516 Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes, the, 133 Christy (Miller), a History of the Mineral Waters and Medicinal Springs of the County of Essex, 361 Chronology: Reforms of the Calendar, Prof. Forster, 368 Chronometry: Suggested Bill making Greenwich Time Compulsory in Paris, 81; Greenwich Watch and Chrenometer Trials, 210; Comparison of Two Astro- noimical Pendulums with the Aid of Electrical Signals Transmitted by a Submarine Cable of Great Length, R. Bourgeois, 456 Church Congress, Heredity at the, 431; Dr. G. E. Shuttle- worth, 431; Mrs. Pinsent, 431; Bishop of Ripon, 431; W. C. D. Whetham, 431 Churches, Lightning and the, Alfred Hands, 238 Chwolson (O. D.), Traité de Physique, 65 Clark (A. H.), New Species of Feather-star (Antedon) from the Adriatic, 150; Proisocrinus ruberrimus, a New Genus and Species of Stalked Crinoid from the Philip- pines, 547 Clark (F. 11), American Engine-houses and their Appli- ances, 155 Clark (J. E.), a Brilliant Meteor on October 23, 544 Clark (John Willis), Death of, 468; Obituary Notice of, Dr. Sidney F. Harmer, F.R.S., 501 Abhandl- ° Clarke (Frank Wigglesworth), the Constants of Nature, Part v., a Recalculation of the Atomic Weights, 207 Clausmann (P.), Action of Iron and its Oxides, at a Red Heat, on Carbonic Acid, 64; Action of Mixtures of Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen, or of Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen, upon the Oxides of Iron, 196 Clement (J. K.), Measurements of the Heat Transmitted through a Steel Tube of 14-inch External Diameter, with Walls 3-inch Thick, from Steam Outside to Water Inside running through the Tube, 18 Clerk (Dugald), Principles of Mechanical Flight, 515 Climates, Reports on, 377 Clutterbuck (W. J.), Great Lu-Chu Island, 180 Coal, Increase in Germany’s Imports of British, 248 Coal Mining, First Steps in, Alexander Forbes, 492 Coal Tar and Ammonia, Prof. George Lunge, 166 Cobbett (Dr.), ‘‘ Grouse Disease,’’? 48; Absence of Tubercle Bacilli from Old Tuberculous Lesions, 63 Cockayne (Dr. L.), Celmisia spectabilis, 160 Cockburn (Sir John), Growth of Sanitary Science, 313 Cockerell (Prof. T. D. A.), Bees of the Genus Nomia, 49 ; Plant-remains from the Cretaceous of Mesa Verde, 89; the Fur Trade, 428 Cocos-Keeling Atoll, 432; Dr. F. Wood-Jones, 528; the Reviewer, 529 , Coe (H. I.), Manganese in Cast Iron and the Volume Changes during Cooling, 440 Coggia (M.), Observations of the Comet 1910d (Metcalf, August 9, 1910), 261 Cohen (E.), Alleged Allotropy of Lead, 316 Coker (Prof.), Cyclical Changes of Temperature in a Gas- engine Cylinder near the Walls, 553; Optical Determina- tion of Stress, 554 Cole (Prof. Grenville A. J.), Causal Geology, Prof. E. H. Schwarz, 397 Coleman (Prof. A. P., M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.), Opening Address in Section C at the Meeting of the British Association at Sheffield, the History of the ‘‘ Canadian Shield,’’ 333; Various Subdivisions of the Pre-Cambrian. Rocks, 443 Colgate (Mr.), Crystallographic Examination of Twenty- nine Derivatives of the p-Dihalogenbenzenesulphonic Acids, 403 Collin (Eugéne), Nature of the Wick of a Punic Lamp, 132 Collinge (W. E.), Wild-bird Protection, 156 Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, Concealing, Gerald H. Thayer, 532 Colour: Colour of the Sea, J. Y. Buchanan, F R.S., 87; A Manual of Dyeing, Prof. E. Knecht, C. Rawson, and Dr. R. Loewenthal, 295; the Colours and Spectrum of Water, T. W. Backhouse, 530 ; Colour-blindness, Tests for, Dr. 495; the Reviewer, 495 Colour-blindness and Colour-perception, Edridge-Green, 263 Colour-vision, R. M. Deeley, 267 Colour-vision at the Ends of the Spectrum, on, Rt. Hon. Lord Rayleigh, O.M., F.R.S., 204 Colour-vision, Tests for, 208; Commander D. Barker, 363 Coloured Stars between the Pole and 60° N. Declination, Herr Kriiger, 439 Colver-Glauert (E.), Sulphurous Acid as an Etching Agent for Metallographic Work, 440 F. W. Edridge-Green, Dry Esa Wilson- Comets: Halley’s Comet, Dr. James Moir, 9; Dr. Wolf, 19; Prof. Seeliger, 19; M. Eginitis, 19, 52; Comas Sola, 19; M. Nordmann, 19; Mr. Leach, 19; Dr. Ebell, <2; Prof. Fowler, 52; Father Iniguez, 52; Herr v. d. Pahlen, 86; Dr. Ristenpart, 86; G. Millochau and H. Godard, 120; Prof. Frost, 152; Mr. Mother- well, 183; Prof. Barnard, 188, 322; Mr. Helmcken, 184; Father Stein, 184; Herr Sykora, 322; Dr. Hart- mann, 322; M. Antoniadi, 322; K. Saotome, 322; Drs. Cowell and Crommelin, 322; M. Iwanow, 322; Mr. Merfield, 322; Messrs. Crawford and Meyer, Slocum, 323; Earth-current Observations in Stockholm during the Transit of Halley’s Comet on May 19, D. Stenquist and E. Petri, 9; Further Observations of Halley’s Comet, Michie Smith and John Evershed, 374; C. D. Perrine, 374; Velocities and Accelerations of the Nature, ] Nowenber24, 1910 Index XV Ejecta from Halley’s Comet, Profs. Barnard and Lowell, Comas 404; J. Sola, 404; Time of the Solar Transit of Halley’s Comet, 472; Photographs of More- house’s Comet, Messrs. Hirayama and Toda, 19; Ephemeris for Comet 1g10a, Prof. Kobold, 19; Prof. Barnard, 19; Observations of Comet 1910a, Dr. Karl Bohlin, 272; Prof. Ricco, 472; a New Comet, Rev. J. H. Metcalf, 213; Mr. Burton, 213; Metcalf’s Comet, 1910b, 249, 273; M. Guillaume, 249; Dr. Kobold, 249, 344, 5073 Prof. Pickering, 344; M. Qeénisset, 507; Observations of Comets, Dr. Max Wolf, 213; Photographs of Daniel’s Comet 1907d, Prof. Barnard, 249; Rediscovery of D’Arrest’s Comet (1910c), M. Gonnessiat, 317; Observa- tion of the D’Arrest Comet at the Observatory of Algiers, M. Gonnessiat, 324; M. Baillaud, 324 ; Search-Ephemerides for Comets 1889 V. (Brooks) and 1890 VII. (Spitaler), Dr. Bauschinger, 317; F. MHopfer, 317; Rediscovery of Brooks’s Periodical Comet (1889 V.), Messrs. Aitken and Wilson, 438; Definitive Elements for Comet 1852 IV., Adolf Hnatel, 344; Search-Ephemerides for Westphal’s Comet, 1852 IV., A. Hnatek, 545; the Passage of the Earth through the Tail of the 1861 Comet, R. Baer, 3443 Observations of Comets, M. Gonnessiat, 404; Mr. Innes, 404; the Luminosity of Comets, W. L. Dudley, 439; Comets and Electrons, Prof. Righi, 507 Compton (R. H.), Accident in Heredity, 63; Right- and Left-handedness in Barley, 63 Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, Thayer, 532 Concrete, a Concise Treatise on Reinforced, C. F. Marsh, 358 Concrete-Steel Construction, Prof. Emil Mérsch, 358 Conference, the International Cancer, at Paris, 545 Conference on Tuberculosis, the Ninth International, 507 Congress, Library of, a List of Geographical Atlases in the Library of Congress, with Bibliographical Notes, 325 Congresses: the First International Congress of Entomo- logy, 214; the Fifth International Congress of Photo- graphy, 215; International Congress of Anatomists at Brussels, 252; the International “Zoological Congress at Graz (August 15-20, 1910), 318; the Third International Congress of School Hygiene at Paris, August 2~7, 1910, 320; International Congress of Pharmacy, 354; the Geological Congress at Stockholm, 440; the Inter- national Congress of Radiology and Electricity, 478; the International Scientific Congress at Buenos Aires, Prof. C. D. Perrine, 509 Conklin (Prof.), Power of Regulation in Echinoderm Eggs, 319 Conorhinus, the Blood-sucking, J. D. H., 172 Conseil (E.), Properties of the Serum of Convalescents and Animals Cured of Exanthematic Typhus, 456 Consumption, the Crusade against, 374 Cook (Mr.), Experimental Investigation of the Strength of Thick Cylinders, 554 Cook (O. F.), Systematic Position of the Tropical American Genus Phytelephas, 151 Copeman (Dr. S.-M., F.R.S.), on the Nature, Uses, and Manufacture of Ferro-Silicon, with Special Reference to Possible Danger arising from its Transport and Storage, 53; Ferro-Silicon, 519 Coquillett (D.), Type-species of North American Genera of Diptera, 547 Cora (Prof. Guido), Meteors and Bolides, 317 Coral and Atolls, F. Wood-Jones, 432 Cordite, 109 Core (Prof. T. H.), Death of, 47 Cornu (F.), ‘‘ Hydrogelen im Mineralreiche,’’ 375 Cortie (Father A. L.), Brilliant Meteor of July 31, 204 Cosmas Indicopleustes, the Christian Topography of, 133 Cosmogony : Scientific Papers, Sir George Howard Darwin, KCB baR.S., 235 Cossar (James), Midlothian District, 552 Corea (L. A.), Ore-deposits of Borah Creek, New England, “S.W., 422 Coward (Dr. H. F.), Production of Methane by the Direct Union of Hydrogen with Carbon, 248 Coward (T. A.), the Mammals and Birds of Cheshire, 175 ; the Reptiles and, Amphibians of Cheshire, 175 Cowell (Dr.), Hallev’s Comet, 322 Cox (Harry W.), Death of, 47 Gerald H. Cox (W. Herbert), a New Italian Orchid, 104 Crampton (Prof.), Distribution of Species of Partula, 319 Crawford (Mr.), Halley’s Comet, 322 Crawley (A. E.), Totemism and Exogamy: a Treatise on Certain Early Forms of Superstition and Society, Prof. J. G. Frazer, 31; Town-planning, 498 Cretaceous Plants, Studies on the Structure and Affinities of, Dr. Marie C. Stopes and Prof. K. Fujii, 129 Cromer (Lord), Value of Research in Medicine, 541 Crommelin (Dr.), Halley’s Comet, 322 Crooke (W., B.A.), Opening Address in Section H at the Meeting of the British Association at Sheffield, 414 Cross (Dr. W.), the Natural Classification of Igneous Rocks, 29 Crowther (J. A.), Scattering of Homogeneous B Rays and the Number of Electrons in the Atom, 61; Number of Electrons in the Atoms, 514 Crustacea: New Species of Amphipod Crustacean, G. C. Embody, 149; Guide to the Crustacea, Arachnida, Ony- chophora, and Myriopoda Exhibited in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), 171; Am- phipod Crustaceans of Bermuda and the West Indies, Dr. W. B. Kunkel, 180; Catalogue of the Indian Decapod Crustacea ‘in the Collection of the Indian Museum, Lt.-Col. A. Alcock, F.R.S., 524 Crystallography: the Chemical Significance of Crystal Structure, Prof. William J. Pope, F.R.S., at Royal Institution, 187; Crystallographic Examinations of Twenty-nine Derivatives of the p-dihalogenbenzenesul- phonic Acids, Prof. Armstrong and Messrs. Colgate and Rodd, Cunningham (Lieut.-Colonel Allan), the Theory of Numbers, 24 Curie (Madame), Isolation of Pure Radium, 313; Metallic Radium, 356; Isolation of Metallic Radium, 478 Curve Tracing and Curve Analysis, A. P. Trotter, 40 Cushman (J. A.), a Monograph of the Foraminifera of the North Pacific Ocean, 265; Collection of Arenaceous Foraminifera obtained by the Albatross during her Recent Cruise in the Philippines, 547 Customs at Holy Wells, Zorah Godden, 429 Cuthbertson (Wm.), Pansies, Violas, and Violets, 326 Cyanogen, the Spectrum of, Comte de Gramont and M. Drecq, 344 Cytology: the Plant Cell, its Modifications and Vital Pro- cesses, H. A. Haig, 36 Dabbene (Roberto), Catalogo Sistematico y Descriptivo de las Aves de la Republica Argentina, 427 Dakin (Dr. Wm. J.), British Marine Zoology, 396; Biology of Teleost and Elasmobranch Eggs, 550 Dakyns (John Roche), Death of, 468 Dalby (Prof. W. E., M.A., M.Inst.C.E.), Opening Address in Section G at the Meeting of the British Association at Sheffield: British Railways: Some Facts and a Few Problems, 407; Measurement of the Air Supply to a Gas- engine Cylinder, 554 Dalgliesh (G.), Limitations of Species and Races of the Yellow-necked Field-mouse, 180 Dallimore (W.), Tree Plantations in Inverness-shire, 470 Daly (Dr. R. A.), Average Chemical Compositions of Igneous-rock Types, 376; Origin of Augite-Andesite, 376; Pre-Cambrian Fauna, 442 Dalziel (Dr. J. M.), Botanical Resources of Yola Province, Northern Nigeria, 50 Daniel’s Comet 1907d, Photographs of, Prof. Barnard, 249 Danilov (A. N.), Lichens, 117 Darboux (M.), Measurements of the Exact Volume of the Kilogram of Water, 456 Darling (Dr. S. T.), Factors in the Transmission and Pre- vention of Malaria in the Panama Canal Zone, qo1 Darton (Mr.), the Laramie Basin in South-Eastern Wyoming, 121 Darwin (Erasmus), on Flying Machines, the 370; Arthur Platt, 397 Darwin (Sir George Howard, K.C.B., F.R.S.), Elementaire Theorie der Getijden—Getij-Constanten in den Indische Archipel, Dr. J. P. van der Stork, 144; Scientific Papers, 235 XVi Davenport (C. B.), Inheritance of Characteristics in Domes- tic Fowl, 253 Davis (Dr. J. Ainsworth), Science in Modern Life, Zoology, 404 Davis (Captain J. K.), Voyage of the Sydney to Monte Video, 551 Dawson (P.), Electrification of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway between Victoria and London Bridge, 553 Debierne (A.), Atomic Weight of the Radium Emanation, 63; Isolation of Pure Radium, 313; Metallic Radium, 356 Dechy (Dr. von), Glacial Erosion, 442 Dee as a Wildfowl Resort, the, John A. Dockray, 175 Deeley (R. M.), Colour-vision, 267 Definite Proportions, the Law of, 364 Deimler (T.), Physiologische Studien im Hochgebirge, Versuche uber den repiratonschen Stoffwechsel im Hochgebirge, 369 Demeny (M.), Physical Training, 320 Demoussy (E.), Toxic Qualities of Certain Salts towards Green Leaves, 131 den Broeck (Ernest van), Conditions of Effective Filtration of the Underground Waters in Certain Chalk Forma- tions, 422 Dendy (Prof. A.), Structure, Development, and Morpho- logical Interpretation of the Pineal Organs and Adjacent Parts of the Brain in the Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), Nimrod from I Denet (J.), Presence of a Small Quantity of Carbon Mon- oxide in the Air of Coal Mines, 555 Denning (W. F.), Present Meteoric Displays, 105; Perseid Meteoric Shower, 1910, 204; the Perseid Meteoric Shower, 248; Fireball of Septenber 2, 364; a Brilliant Meteor on October 23, 544 der Stork (Dr. J. P. van), Elementaire Theorie der Getijden—Getij-Constanten in den Indische Anchipel, 144 Derbyshire, H. H. Arnold-Bemrose, 426 Derjugin (K.), Fauna of the Kola Fjord, 505 Derry (Dr. D. E.), the Archzeological Survey of Nubia, 406 Desalme (J.), Theory of Development, 215 Desch (Dr. C. H.), Some Common Defects occurring in Alloys, 421 Deslandres (H.), Phenomena Presented by the Tail of Halley’s Comet during the Passage of May 1g last, 163; Properties of the Polar Filaments of the Sun, 228 Determination of Position near the Poles, Mr. Hinks, 19 Deutsche Siidpolar-Expedition, 1901-3, die Grundproben der Deutschen Siidpolar-Expedition, 1901-3, E. Philippi, 167 Deville (E.), Photo-surveying in Canada, 215 Devon and Dorset Coast, the South, Sidney Heath, 138 Devonshire, F. A. Knight and Louie M. Dutton, 426 Dew Deposit upon Lens Surfaces, Prevention of, Franklin Adams, 52 Dickins (F. Victor), the New School of Japan, Founded for the Purpose of Making the Use of the Newly Invented Letters, 7 Diels (Dr. L.), Formations and Flora-elements North-west of Cape Colony, 160 Diener (Prof. C.), Marine Lower Triassic Formations of the Himalayas, 159; Fauna of the Traumatocrinus Limestone of Painkhanda, 159 Digby (W. P.), Tests of the Electrical Conductivity of the Water, 373 Diller (J. S.), the Taylorsville Region at the North End of the Sierra Nevada in California, 121 Dines (Mr.), Records from the Upper Atmosphere Obtained during Passage of the Earth through the Tail of Halley’s Comet, 516 Disease, House-flies and, Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, 73 Distant Lands, H. J. Mackinder, 426 Distribution of Weeds, 547 . Dixon (Prof. H. B.), Explosion of Hydrogen and Chlorine by Light, 517; the Ignition of Gases by Adiabatic Com- pression, 553 Dixon (W. E.), Action of Potash Salts taken by the Mouth, 63 Doberck (Dr.), a New Micrometer, 439 Dockray (John A.), the Dee as a Wildfowl Resort, 175 Doflein (Prof. Franz), Tierbau und Tierleben in ihrem Zusammen hang betractet, 538 Dominici (Dr.), Radium Treatment, 153 in the Index i Nature, Nevember 24, 1910 Doncaster (Mr.), the Colours of Insect Larvee, 550 Donkey Hybrid, an Interesting, R. I. Pocock, 329 Donkin (Dr. H. B.), Some Aspects of Heredity in Relation to Mind, WHarveian Oration at Royal College of Physicians, 541 Dorrien-Smith (Capt. A. | |aeeees : 5 : a ce 37x" | 37x” | 302 | 347° | x7x7° | 1724 | x7a4" |ox7a4 Except in Case I. (near its end), the lag in every case is proportional to x. Freque: cy, 6°36 per second. Submarine telegraph cable —»=1°684 ohms per naut, 4=o'42 mfd. fer naut. ‘lhe current received by recorder would be 82 times this if we had no Capacity. At 4 nauts from sending end these are the volts and amperes :— i There is a recorder with 317 ohms resistance at the end of 1825 naut cable. II. Infinite cable. III. Infinite cable, o°4 henrys per naut; no leakance. tortion. IV. Infinite cable, 04 henrys per naut ; leakance, 1°768X 10-8 ohms per naut to give 70 distortion. (See Figs. 3 and 4.) A The lower the frequency the less the capacity affects the current, so that the higher frequencies of 6 and 3 a second are more attenuated than those of 2 and less. The signals that form the letters in the alphabet are differentially attenuated; the quicker signals, such as those forming a C, are much weaker when they arrive to operate the receiving instrument than the slower signals that form the letters M, O, and so on for the other and longer signals. Submarine cable signalling of the present day affords us an electrical illustration of the fable of ‘‘ the tortoise and the hare’’ or the principle of ‘‘ more haste, less speed.”’ As the slower signals get through the cable with more vigour than is necessary, the ingenuity of experimenters is to retard them and to assist as much as possible the quicker ones so that all the signals, whatever their period, shall arrive with exactly the same strength. Cromwell Varley in 1862 patented a system for the re- duction of distortion on cables by inserting condensers of suitable capacity in series with the conductor at each end of the cable. : The reason for the abolition of distortion is obvious ; the condenser absorbs the signals of slow frequency, while the cable transmits them. The condenser allows the signals of high frequency to pass through it, although the cable has attenuated them. It is therefore possible so to arrange the condensers at each end of the line that the condensers and the cable together will more or less correct one another and the distortion be reduced. Unfortunately, the absorption of a series condenser is relative, and is inversely proportional to the frequency; it absorbs more of the slow than the quick signals; at the same time it does absorb some of the quick, and so far as that is concerned it is harmful; it diminishes distortion, but at the same time it adds to the attenuation. Tete 2 get ine Sl ee a Not much dis- PASS ya ee rN NRE ND J Sa Fic. 5- Now ‘‘distortion’? means something more than the differential transmission of various electrical frequencies ; it also means the ‘‘ phase relation’’ of the current to the voltage, and this ‘‘ phase relation ”’ varies with the various frequencies, so you see that ‘‘distortion,’’ looked at from JuLy 7, 1910] NATURE 25 all sides, is rather a complicated phenomenon. By “‘ phase relation ’’ we mean the position of the current with regard to the voltage producing it. To understand what “ phase relation ’’ means, let us take the analogy of a pendulum in motion. The force keeping the pendulum swinging is a maxi- mum at the end of each swing, while the greatest velocity resulting from this force is at the middle of the swing; obviously the times of greatest speed and greatest force are not coincident; the one is out of phase with the other by what mathematicians would determine, in the case of the pendulum, as go°, or a quarter period. Now the current leads the voltage at the sending end of the cable by 45°. If a series condenser is introduced to diminish distortion, it still further increases the lead, and reduces the effective power into the cable. The effective power can only be a maximum when the current and voltage are exactly in step, or in cther words, when there is no *‘ phase relation.”’ A receiving condenser is also harmful for the same reason as a sending condenser. By abolishing the sending condenser and replacing the receiving one by a magnetic shunt placed across the suspended coil of the siphon re- corder or relay in 1898, the speed and accuracy of signal- ling were materially increased. A magnetic shunt, as employed on the cables, consists of an insulated copper wire wound round a closed circuited iron core. The resistance of the shunt is about 30 ohms; its inductance varies up to a maximum of from 20 to 40 henrys, and its weight from 1 to 3 cwt. In the case of a siphon recorder used as the receiver, the shunt short- circuits the suspended coil and the series condenser is abolished. In the case of a cable relay, the series con- denser is usually retained, to ensure that earth currents are effectually stopped, but the condenser is made large. A shunt inductance has a similar time action on the in- coming current to that of a series condenser, but with this improvement—that it helps to reduce the phase distortion of current with voltage rather than accentuate it, as is the case with the condenser. Having obtained the best value of the shunt alone, the following curious effect was discovered: that adding a condenser as an additional shunt, the size of the signals on the recorder got larger and more distinct. The mathe- matical reason for this is as follows: that for any par- ticular frequency, say the highest frequency of the cable signalling, the shunts of inductance and capacity when properly proportioned act as a shunt of infinite resistance. For frequencies much below this it is as if we had no condenser at all. For frequencies much above this, it is as if we had no inductance, but only a condenser. To reduce still further the harmful effect of phase dis- placement, series inductances have lately been introduced at the ends of cables, particularly at the sending end. By placing an inductive coil of low resistance in series with the battery at the apex of the duplex bridge, not only has the speed of signalling been increased, but the effect of what is known as ‘‘jar’’ on the duplex balance has also been greatly reduced. Before proceeding to describe the instruments that work the cables, I will say a few words about ‘‘ duplexing.’’ All cables are now duplexed, that is to say, are arranged so that messages can be sent and received, at the same time, at each end simultaneously. The first cables were duplexed by Stearns, and later ones by Muirhead and Taylor. Duplex reduces the speed of simplex, or of work- ing one way only, by 20 per cent., but the total carrying power of the cable, irrespective of direction, is raised by some 70 per cent., and is for this reason valuable, and repays the trouble in maintaining the balance. _ Cables are duplexed by arranging an artificial or imita- tion cable, which is an exact electrical copy of the real, in parallel with the real cable. The current from the sending battery flows through two equal arms of capacity or inductance of a Wheatstone bridge arrangement and into the real and artificial cables. The inductive or magnetic bridge which I have applied lately is, I think, the best to employ, because it gives in practice higher speeds than any other form of bridge. The receiving instrument is joined to the commencement of the cables, and is thus not interfered with by the send- NO. 2123, VOL. 84] ing currents, because there is no tendency for the current to flow one way or the other, the real and artificial cables having exactly the same electrical properties and acting on the sending current in the same way; but the current that is received flows only from the real cable, and is not balanced by any from the. artificial, so that the receiving instrument is worked by it. When duplex is properly adjusted it is said to be in balance, from its similarity to the adjustment of an ordinary balance used for weighing goods. Take the ordinary balance as an illustration of the electrical one. Let one scale-pan represent the cable, the other the artificial; if equal weights are placed in each pan the beam will not turn, but the beam will turn if, while equal weights are or are not in the pan, a small weight is added or placed on one pan. In the cable ‘‘ duplex,’’ the receiving instrument will not be affected by the sending current, because the voltage is always the same on each side of the instrument, but will turn to indicate a signal when a yoltage is received or is added to or subtracted from the voltage already on the cable side, due to a voltage being applied to the cable at the far end. In Fig. 6 is shown the simplest diagram of a cable ““ duplex,’’ and Fig. 7 illustrates its mechanical equivalent ; the lettering is similarly related. Fic. 6. FiG. 7. RR are the two resistances or the arms of the balance ; S is the receiver or indicator, which snows a_ difference of voltage or weight; B is the battery voltage or weights in the pan; C and AL are cable and artificial line respectively, or the two pans of the balance. If the battery B sends equal currents into cable and artificial line, as it should do if there is a perfect balance, no current will flow through S, and thus the receiver S is unaffected by the sending voltage; or, if the pans of the balance have equal weights B placed on them, the indicator S will not move. On the contrary, if a voltage is received from the cable C, this voltage is added to or subtracted from whatever voltage may be in C at the time, due to the sending battery, and thus there will be a difference of potential across S, and the receiving instru- ment will be worked from currents sent from the far end of the cable, and from these currents only. In the mechanical analogy a small weight W is added to or taken from one of two equal weights in the pans C and AL, and the beam will be tilted and will be moved by this weight only however the weights B B are varied. The voltage of the battery as applied to the sending end of a cable is very much greater than that received from the cable to work the instrument, say in the relation of 40 volts to 1/20 volt in the case of a moderately long cable, or as 800 is to 1, and the sending and received currents resulting from the same follow a similar propor- tion. In the mechanical illustration I have therefore indicated the weights B and W as squares having this proportion to give a visual indication of what this means in the balance. The proportion I have given is only the relation of the sending voltage to that received. If the balance were out 26 NATURE [JuLY 7, 1910 to this proportion, the sending voltage would affect the receiver with disturbances equal in size to those due to the receiving voltage; the duplex would then be very badly indeed out of balance. : To receive properly, the sending voltage. must produce no movement of the receiver whatever; that is to say, any disturbance due to this cause must certainly be less than one-tenth of that due to the arrival current. Taking the figures I have given, we see that the balance must be obtained and maintained so that, applying 40 volts to the cable and artificial line, the two currents dividing must not vary more than what will produce 1/200 volt; that is, must be balanced to an accuracy of 8000.to 1. If, after the duplex has been established, the artificial line varies in its electrical properties as much as 1/8000 of its value, the balance would require adjustment so as to keep it useful for receiving. The sensitiveness under these conditions may be considered as equivalent to the sensitiveness of an ordinary metal balance that’ with 8 grams in each pan must turn accurately with 1 milli- gram. It is now found necessary to maintain’ still more perfect balances for my new method of ‘‘ high-speed working of cables ’’’; in fact, a balance that must be maintained to within the proportion of 72,000 to'r. To do this, the very greatest care has to be directed to questions of insulation and temperature correction, and special appliances are sup- plied to obtain this high degree of accuracy. In ‘fact, the future of “‘ high-speed working of cables’? is locked up very much with this question of more delicate and accurate balances; and if still more perfect balances could be obtained, still higher working speeds of cables would immediately be possible. I now come to the instruments employed to work the cables, starting with the sending end. As before pointed out, the various letters of the cable alphabet are com- posed of combinations of + and — electrical impulses, or of the records that these impulses produce. The letter e is a + impulse, t a — one; a is composed of two impulses, a + and —, and so on for all the other letters. The operator has, therefore, first to translate the message to be sent into the cable code, and then to tap on the sending-key the order of the impulses that make up the code message. A sending-key consists of two levers; the depression by the finger of either one or the other deter- mines which end of the battery, the + or — end, is joined to the cable. Sending messages by hand is open to two objections : one the want of speed, the other the want of accurate spacing of the letters. A good trained clerk can send at the rate of about 140 letters per minute; but as most cables are capable of being worked at greater speeds, auto- matic or machine transmission has now become universal. An automatic transmitter is an instrument that does the work of the clerk in sending; the two levers of the hand key are now operated upon by mechanism driven by a motor, through the agency of a perforated ribbon. Everyone who is acquainted with the pianola or auto- matic piano-player knows that the music to be played is punched as holes in a broad paper strip; this strip is run through the machine, and determines which levers are to press upon the keys of the piano. The operation of the automatic transmitter is precisely like this, only instead of the extended keyboard there are two keys, a + and —, and the paper strip is a narrow ribbon with only two rows of holes to work the levers. To send a message, the clerk first of all, by means of a hand perforator, punches the message as combinations of holes in the paper ribbon; this ribbon; after being per- forated, is fed through the automatic transmitter. The automatic transmitter is a motor-driven instru- ment, adapted to feed the perforated ribbon over the ends of a pair of blunt needles. These needles are kept per- petually moving up against and away from the moving ribbon, but if there is a hole in the paper, that particular needle over which it is fed will find it, and the needle will move a little way through the hole. Attached to the two needles are contact levers which connect the cable with one or the other pole of the sending battery. When there are no holes in the paper ribbon, the needles move up against the paper, the further movement is NO. 2123, VOL. 84] | signal. _ battery at the termination of every battery period. arrested, and. the contact with the battery is not closed, but the battery circuit is closed when there is a hole in the paper, because there is nothing now to block the needle; and the further movement through the hole enables’ the contact lever to close the battery circuit and thus send the signal. The sending levers do one or other of two things: they join the cable to earth (in other words, they short-circuit the cable end) or they disconnect the cable from earth and connect it to the battery, so that the battery may send a At the end of each signal the cable is automatic- ally put to ‘‘ earth.” Every signalling impulse due to each hole in the paper is, therefore, divided into two parts, the battery or signalling and the earthing portion. These two portions are adjustable relatively to one another; when the best relationship has been found, it is maintained at that adjust- ment. The object of earthing the cable after the battery contact is to allow the cable to discharge itself, and thus clear itself for the next signal. Automatic transmitters constructed on this principle are called ‘‘ plain’’ auto- matics, and: are in universal use. The ‘‘ curb’? was a device applied to an automatic trans- mitter to sharpen the signalling impulse, and thus gain greater definition and increased speed by reversing ae e reverse battery voltage helped to neutralise the charge. already in the cable, and thus discharge the cable in quicker time than by simply earthing the cable, as in the “plain ’’? automatic. : Unfortunately, the use of the ‘‘curb’’ results in a greater voltage stress on the sending end of the cable, for the reason that the reverse voltage of the “‘curb”’ is added to the voltage already in the cable ready to dis- charge, and the rapid reversal of current resulting upon the application of the “‘curb”’ is liable to cause “‘ jar”’ disturbances on the duplex balance. For these reasons ““curb ’’? automatics are not now employed. Instruments adapted to receive messages at the end of long submarine cables must of necessity work at the highest possible speed that the cable will allow, and are of extreme sensitiveness, and as a consequence are of great delicacy. There are two kinds of receivers now commonly employed, viz. the siphon recorder and the “‘ drum ”’ cable relay. The siphon recorder, invented by Lord Kelvin in 1867, is an instrument that inks the message as received on a moving band of paper. The “drum” cable relay, by means of an electric contact-making device, brings in a fresh source of energy from a local battery, so that the electric signalling impulses are multiplied many times over in power, and are thus enabled to do many useful things besides inking the message, such as working signalling keys to re-transmit the message on to another line, or to guide the levers of an automatic punching machine to perforate the message. The siphon recorder requires the constant attention of a clerk, the ‘“‘drum” cable relay does not. The siphon recorder consists of a bent glass siphon tube nearly as fine as a human hair. The siphon is suspended by a fine bronze wire; one end of the tube dips in a reservoir of blue aniline ink, the other end can move across the surface of a travelling band of paper, upon which it inks its movement. If the end of the siphon touched the paper, the friction thus introduced would be fatal to the proper working of the instrument, because of - the loss of sensitiveness; it is therefore kept in a state of constant vibration by attaching the tube near its end by means of a silk fibre to. an electromagnetic vibrator. The message is ,thus recorded as a close row of ink dots on the moving paper, and the glass tube is quite free to swing sideways under the action of the received signals. The siphon tube is joined by two sill fibres to a rectangular suspended coil of fine insulated copper -wire, which coil hangs in a strong magnetic field. The currents - from the cable flow. through the wire of the suspended coil, and the reaction of. these currents with the magnetic - field causes the coil to oscillate to one side or the other, depending upon the direction .of.the current. The motion of the coil is transmitted by means of the two. fibres: to the siphon, and thus the signals are recorded as received. Juty 7, 19170] NATURE 271 Ever since the invention of the siphon recorder, efforts hhave been made to turn it into a relay, but two difficulties had to be faced. The extreme feebleness of the received signalling currents was such that they were incapable of opening and closing a battery circuit so as to do useful work in that circuit. The reason for this is that a certain force is required to press the relay contacts together to complete the circuit and a certain force to break the circuit when formed; these forces of “‘ make ’’ and “‘ break”? are too great for the cable relay to supply under normal working conditions. The second difficulty was the want of definition in the signals received to operate a relay; they were too ill- defined, and the zero line wandered too greatly to ensure that a relay with a fixed mechanical zero would work satisfactorily. These two difficulties were overcome by the invention of my “‘drum” cable relay and my magnetic shunt. The drum cable relay (Fig. 8) is very similar to the siphon re- corder. It is the same, so far as the suspended coil and connecting fibres are concerned, but in place of the siphon tube a relay contact arm is provided. The end of this arm is arranged to press upon the surface of a revolving drum. The outer drum surface of gold or silver is divided into three parts: a central insu- iated portion, upon which the end of the contact arm normally rests when no signals are received, and portions one on each side of the central one. These outer divisions are included in the circuit of a local battery and two post-office pattern relays. When the relay arm is deflected to one side or the other, upon the receipt of the signal, it slides or skates into contact with one or other of the outer portions of the drum, and thus closes circu‘t of the battery through one or other of the post- office relays; this second relay is thus operated, _ and in turn works a ‘‘ sounder ’’ key to re-trans- mit the signal into a second cable. To reduce the electrical resistance that is found to exist in the contact between the relay pointer and the revolving drum, and to allow a large current to pass, condensers are placed across to short-circuit the contact. These short-circuiting condensers are very important to the proper working of the relay, as without their aid very little current indeed could be obtained in the local circuit to do useful work. The cable relay is a delicate instrument, and mechanical effects had to be produced by means of energy four-millionths of that required to produce one candle-power of an ordinary carbon lamp. The operation of the relay throughout is quite automatic and trustworthy, and no clerk is required to supervise. The drum relay has two properties that peculiarly fit it for cable work :—(1) the relay contact is always made, because the contact arm never leaves the surface of the drum ; (2) by the rotation of the drum, the friction between the arm, to side motion, and the surface of the drum is reduced in a most wonderful way, so that the arm may be moved by the extremely feeble forces received at the end of the cables. The relay has a fixed mechanical zero, the centre of the insulated portion, to which the end of the arm must return after every signal or group of signals, and the zero of the electrical signals has been made by electrical adjust- ment to coincide with the mechanical zero. If there were not this coincidence there would be mutilation of the re- transmitted signals. Y The working of the relay is complicated by the require- ments of the service, which demand that a condenser should be included in the suspended coil circuit. The object of this condenser is to exclude the possibility of interference from “‘ earth’? currents, which sometimes flow along the caople. The presence of the ‘‘ earth’’ current is due to outside electrical influences, atmospheric or celestial. Now these ‘‘ earth ’’ currents, if allowed to flow through the suspended coil, would produce deflections that would interfere with the proper working of the relay. The magnetic shunt which is always placed across the coil does shunt the ‘‘earth’’ current to a very great NO. 2123, VOL. 84] extent, but does not always get rid of it, and so to make matters sure the ‘‘ unshunted’’ series or Varley condenser is included in the system. The condenser, unfortunately, polarises or charges up under a series of signalling impulses of the same polarity or sign, and for this reason itself causes a wandering of the electrical zero of the signals. We are therefore trying to stop one kind of variable zero effect by a device that produces another one of its own. The effect of the wandering zero due to the series con- denser can be cured, because the wandering, unlike that of the “‘earth”’ currents, follows a regular law, viz. the law of the signals themselves. The relay produces the signals and combination of signals in its local circuit, precisely the same as the signals or combination sent through the cable that work it, and are at the same time causing the variable zero. Current is therefore taken from the local circuit and passed through an electrical retarding device, which is called the ‘‘ local correction circuit,”’ consisting of a series of inductances and shunting resistances. The local circuit is so adjusted in its value that the current at the far end rises exactly as there is a drop in the received signalling current through the series condenser. The correction current is passed through a separate winding on the suspended coil of the relay, and produces an effect on the coil exactly opposite to that produced on the main winding by the variable zero itself, that is to say, two variable zeros of equal strength but of opposite aa, =e D Fic. 8.—Drum Cable Relay. directions are superimposed on the suspended coil, and thus neutralise one another. The variable zero of the signals themselves is thus eliminated. Local correction is a very important part of the relay adjustment, and cannot very well be dispensed with. The Eastern Telegraph Company generously lent me their lines for a trial of my ‘‘ high-speed’’ system of working. The cable over which the tests have taken place stretches from Porthcurnow in Cornwall to Gibraltar, and is normally worked at 170 letters per minute, each way, with the siphon recorder as receiver. With the new method, using a special relay (Fig. 9), traffic has been carried continuously, duplex, at 230 letters per minute. On special trial runs, not carrying traffic, and not sending into the cable at the receiving station, although on duplex conditions, a speed of 280 letters per minute has been obtained. 1 The principle of operation is as follows. When a sub- marine cable is forced much beyond its normal speed of working, the quick-changing signals, such as make up the letter c, are the first to fail, or in other words, do not arrive with sufficient strength to work the receiver. It was found on trial that allowing more of the current from the cable to flow through the receiver, say by in- creasing the size of the receiving condenser, the first and 28 NATURE [Jury 7, 1910 last signal of a series of reversals could be obtained with sufficient strength efficiently to work the relay. The relay, once started, is arranged to bring in fresh energy from its local battery, through a special retarding circuit, to add to the strength of the quick-changing currents. on its own coil, and thus the reversals are made strong enough to give a record, which without this aid they would have been unable to do. By these means weak signals are built up at the receiv- ing end of the cable, and the speed of working can thus be materially increased. It is fortunate that the class of signal that has the greatest difficulty in getting through the cable is the Fic. 9.—High-speed Relay (side view). The pointer is con- structed of quartz fibres kept in tension by a thin copper wire, the whole weight of the pointer being not more than one or two grains, easiest to be added to when received. The ‘“‘ high-speed ”’ relay works, therefore, not from the signals received from the cable only, but also from those that it transmits through its own local circuit, the record that it makes being the combined action of the two. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Dusiin.—Mr. M. W. J. Fry has been appointed pro- fessor of natural philosophy at Trinity College. LiverrooLt.—Mr. E. C. C. Baly, F.R.S., assistant pro- fessor of chemistry and lecturer on spectroscopy at Uni- versity College, London, has been appointed Grant pro- fessor of chemistry at the University of Liverpool in succession to the late Prof. Campbell Brown. Lonpon.—Miss H. L. M. Pixell, demonstrator in zoo- logy at the Bedford College for Women, has been elected by the Reid trustees to a Reid fellowship, tenable for two years. Miss Pixell proposes to spend some months next year in Vancouver, investigating the marine fauna of the Georgian Straits. Oxrorp.—Mr. R. R. Marett, secretary to the committee for anthropology, has been appointed reader in social anthropology. Mr. C. H. Manley has been elected to a Bracegirdle exhibition, following on an examination in chemistry. exhibition is tenable for three years. The Tue honorary degree of Doctor of Science has been con- ferred upon Sir John Murray, K.C.B., F.R.S., by Harvard University. A PROFESSORSHIP of commercial geography has recently been established at the Export-Akademie of the Imperial Austrian Handelsmuseum at Vienna, and Dr. F. Hiederich has been appointed the first holder of the chair. _ } Aman of science of my acquaintance tells me that I ought to put things in this w ay. A fluttering current arrives too weak to make a signal, but all it can dois just to hint that it wishes to makea signal, the hint is recognised, and the local battery makes the signal requ red. NO. 2123, VoL. 84] Dr. A. C. Crawrorp has been appointed professor of pharmacology at Stanford University, and Prof. G. H. Cox has been placed in charge of the department of geology and mineralogy at the Missouri School of Mines, Prof. L. S. Griswold having vacated the chair of geology at that institution. Tue United Services’ College at Windsor possesses an aviation workshop, built and furnished by Mr. P. Alexander, in which instruction is given in the making of model aéroplanes. Hitherto the use of the workshop made by the students has been voluntary, but in the next term aviation is to be made a special subject of instruction. AN annual prize (to be known as the ‘‘ Howard T. Ricketts prize’’) has been established at Rush Medical College, of the University of Chicago, in memory of Dr. H. T. Ricketts, who recently died in Mexico of typhus fever while investigating that disease. The prize will be awarded to the student presenting the best thesis embody- ing the results of original investigation on some topic relating to dermatology. IN continuation of the successful evening courses in aéronautics at the Northampton Polytechnic Institute, Clerkenwell, during the session 1909-10, extended courses of a more complete and practical nature are being arranged for next session, and Mr. F. Handley Page has been appointed to take charge of them. The institute has under consideration the establishment of full-time day courses in aéronautical engineering extending over four years, further particulars of which will be published later. THE model for the memorial in the Medical School of Trinity College, Dublin, to the late Prof. D. J. Cunning- ham, F.R.S., is now completed, and the bronze portrait panel will, it is hoped, be placed in position by the time of the opening of the school for the coming winter session. As it is proposed shortly to close the subscription list, it is hoped that friends and pupils of Prof. Cunningham who desire to contribute will communicate with the honorary treasurer or honorary secretaries of the Cunningham Memorial Fund, Trinity College, at an early date. Tue Essex Education Committee has arranged for a twelve days’ visit (ranging from July 14 to 26) of agri- culturists and horticulturists to Ireland. The programme is a comprehensive one, and will afford the party oppor- tunities of seeing the organisation and practice of agri- culture and horticulture on farms and holdings varying in size from four or five up to three hundred and fifty acres ; also of studying the schemes of instruction and agricultural institutions of the Department of Agriculture, the work of the Congested Districts Board, and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society. This is the first time the Essex Education Committee has organised a visit to Ireland, but successful tours in Denmark, Holland, Hungary, and Scot- land have been undertaken under its auspices in recent years. Tue Secretary of State for the Colonies has selected Dr. Joseph Pearson as director of the museum at Colombo, Ceylon, in succession to Dr. Arthur Willey, now appointed professor of zoology at McGill University, Montreal. Dr. Pearson has for some years held the post of chief demon- strator and assistant lecturer in the zoological department of the University of Liverpool, and previous to that he had held appointments on the zoological staffs at Cardiff and at Belfast. His original work has been chiefly in marine biology, including several reports upon Holo- thuroidea of tropical seas, and an exhaustive memoir upon Cancer, the edible crab. Dr. Pearson’s removal has created a vacancy in the zoological staff at the University of Liverpool which will be filled by the appointment of Mr. R. Douglas Laurie as senior demonstrator and assistant lecturer, while Dr. W. J. Dakin will join the staff as second demonstrator. EarLy in the present year University College, Reading, appointed a deputation to visit certain universities of Canada and of the United States with the object of in- vestigating methods of agricultural education and research, and also other aspects of university development. The deputation left England on May 6, and was absent six weeks. The tour included the McGill University at Montreal, the Macdonald College, St. Anne de Belle Vue, JuLy 7, 1910] NATURE 29 the State Experimental Farm at Ottawa, the University of Toronto, the Ontario College of Agriculture at Guelph, Cornell University, Wisconsin University, and Harvard University. In each case the members of the deputation made it their principal object to acquaint themselves with the agricultural activities of the institution visited, and their work was greatly facilitated by the cordial assistance of the Government and other authorities both in Canada and in the United States. It is hoped to publish a report during the course of the ensuing autumn containing the substance of the information gained and emphasising certain conclusions. Tue 1910 report of the council of the City and Guilds of London Institute to the members of the institute is now available. As usual, full particulars are provided of the work done during the previous year at the Central Technical College, the Finsbury Technical College, the other schools and colleges in connection with the institute, and the department of technology. In the section of the report dealing with the department of technology, it is pointed out that the preliminary education of candidates who enter technical classes is evidently very often the reverse of satisfactory. It was noted in the last report that the institute, in conjunction with the Board of Educa- tion, was taking active steps to encourage the attendance of young persons engaged in different trades at evening continuation classes, with the view of their acquiring a competent knowledge of English, arithmetic, drawing, and elementary science before entering upon their first year’s course of training in technology. The committee regrets, however, to state that it has been found very difficult to enforce the regulations introduced in 1908, by which, in certain textile subjects, students of registered classes in technology were only to be admitted to the first year's examination on satisfying the institute that they possessed the necessary preliminary knowledge. Notwithstanding the growth of group courses and the increased facilities for the attendance of students at evening continuation classes, it has not been found possible to insist on evidence of attend- ance at continuation classes prior to the admission of students to a technical school. It has proved necessary to decide that the full enforcement of the regulations in question should be postponed until 1912. Commenting on the results of the examinations conducted throughout the country by the institute, the report says the independent criticisms from examiners in wholly distinct subjects show that many teachers, while undoubtedly using their best efforts to acquaint the students with the technical details of their trade, fail to obtain good results owing to their giving instruction on wrong lines, paying too much atten- tion to description and too little to the theory of the sub- ject and to the principles underlying the work in which they are engaged. This may be partially due to lack of experience in teaching and failure to realise the difficulties of their students. The institute concurs in a suggestion made by its inspectors that if the education authority could send a comparatively inexperienced teacher to visit some of the schools at which successful classes are con- ducted and see their methods of work, such a visit would amply repay its cost. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Geological Society. June F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Dr. W. Cross: The natural classification of igneous rocks. The author re- viewed the various systems of classification which have been proposed. He discussed the origin of the difference of composition of igneous rocks due to:—(r1) primeval difference, (2) magmatic differentiation, (3) assimilation, and pointed out that differentiation and assimilation are in a measure antithetical processes. The following general conclusions were formulated :—The scientific logical classi- fication of igneous rocks must apparently be based on the quantitative development of fundamental characters, and the divisions of the scheme must have sharp artificial boundaries, since none exist in nature. Chemical composi- tion is the fundamental character of igneous rocks, but it may be advantageously expressed for classificatory pur- NO. 2123, VOL. 84] 15.—Prof. W. W. Watts, poses in terms of simple compounds, which represent either rock-making minerals or molecules entering into iso- morphous mixtures in known minerals. It is probable that the magmatic solution consists of such molecules, and that the norm of the ‘‘ quantitative system” is a fairly representative set of these compounds. The actual mineral and textural characters of igneous rocks are variable qualifiers of each chemical unit, and should be applied as such to terms indicating magmatic character. —H. Bury: The denudation of the western end of the Weald. There are two main theories of Wealden denuda- tion :—(1) attributing the removal of most of the Chalk to marine planation; and (2) denying planation, and rely- ing solely on subaérial denudation. Prof. W. M. Davis’s suggestion of a subaérial peneplain forms a sort of con- necting link between the two. The evidence in favour of planation which Ramsay and Topley brought forward is inconclusive, and might plausibly, if it stood alone, be attributed to pre-Eocene causes. On the other hand, Prestwich’s arguments against planation are equally weak, while the Chalk plateau to which he directs attention strongly supports Ramsay’s views. The distribution of chert is fatal to Prof. Davis’s hypothesis, and very difficult to account for, except on the marine theory. In the case of the river Blackwater it can be proved that, long after the Hythe beds of Hindhead were uncovered, the river-system remained extremely immature, and _ this affords very strong grounds for the acceptance of the marine hypothesis. The evidence of the other western rivers is less conclusive, though the Wey and the Mole both provide minor arguments pointing in the same direc- tion. The anomalous position of the Arun, at the foot of the northern escarpment of the Lower Greensand on either side of the Wey, is almost certainly due to com- paratively recent captures from the latter river, and affords no ground for assuming a river-system of great age matured on a Miocene peninsula. There is no proof that any of the existing connections between rivers and longi- tudinal folds are of a primitive character, and, on the other hand, there are many alleged examples of transverse disturbances having served as guides to consequent rivers. This again, on the whole, supports the marine hypothesis, especially if, as there are reasons for believing, the longi- tudinal folds are older than the transverse.—Dr. J. W. Evans: An earthquake model. This model is designed to show the successive conditions that result in an earth- quake shock :—(1) slow relative movement between two extensive portions of the earth’s crust lasting over a long period, and causing (2) a state of strain in the intervening tract, leading to (3) fracture which relieves the strain and allows (4) the adjoining portions of the rock on either side to fly back by virtue of their elasticity, so as to resume, so far as possible, their original relation to the rock-masses with which they are still connected. This movement of release may give rise to two kinds of periodic disturbance: (5) short-period vibrations, due to a sudden arrest by an obstacle and constituting the earthquake properly so called, and (6) a slower backward and forward swing of the rock about the position of equilibrium. Royal Microscopical Society, June 15.—Prof. J. Anhur Thomson, president, in the chair.—Prof. J. Arthur Thomson: Some alcyonarians collected by Mr. J. Murray, of Sir E. Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition. The species, of which there were four, were Clavularia rosea, Studer, C. chuni, Kiikenthal, Alcyoniwm paessleri, May, and Ceratoises delicatula, Hickson.—E. M. Nelson: Apparatus for increasing the power of an achromatic condenser.— E. B. Stringer: The use of the mercury vapour lamp in observing the rings and brushes in crystals. Linnean Society. June 16.—Dr. D. H. Scott, F.RS., president, in the chair.—Dr. R. N. Salaman: Male sterility in potatoes, a dominant Mendelian character, with remarks on the shape of the pollen in wild and domestic varieties. The paper was based upon experiments made by the author in his own garden at Barley, near Royston, Herts, during the past four years; but on this occasion the author confined his remarks to the pollen, leaving other points for some future occasion. He pointed out that ‘©dead” pollen-grains, or none, were usually associated with flowers of heliotrope colour. J 30 NATURE [JuLy 7, 1910 Royal Anthropological Institute, June 28.—Sr H. Risley, president, in the chair.—W. J. Lewis Abbott: The classification of the British Stone age, and some new and little known horizons and cultures. After pointing out that the implementiferous deposits have not always been laid down in an unbroken chronological sequence, so that the number of feet at which an implement is found above Ordnance Datum is not always enough in itself to determine its age, the author urged that none of the systems of classification which have been formulated upon the conditions which obtain on the Continent are applic- able in this country, where the conditions do not neces- sarily obtain. He suggested that nature in the first instance furnished man with the prototypes of his tools, and that subsequently he discovered new methods of work- ing flint, and these gave rise to new sets of shapes. In the author’s opinion, therefore, these groups of implements, representing various cultures or industries, must enter as basal units in. the classification. The author then went into details of two such industries, which he has named the Prestwichian and Ebbsfleetian respectively. Each of these is characterised by a set of special implements worked in a special manner. Although the author had been work- ing at this industry for many years, it was only recently that a large deposit of them was found; this was at North- fleet, where the deposit fills a hollow some six acres in extent. The principal implement of this industry is a large weapon, weighing sometimes as much as 7 lb., and resembling a gigantic spear-head. For this implement the author proposed the name Prestwich. The great peculiarity of this implement was that, when finished, another imple- ment was struck off it without impairing its efficacy. This latter the author has named after Sir John Evans. The author suggested that these may have been used as tallies in a bargain, as it seems clear that they were religiously kept. The implements occur in enormous numbers, and include large axes, with a rounded edge and triangular, heavy side choppers, spear-heads of peculiar type and of large size, and knives,, many of which are more than a foot long. EDINBURGH. Royal Society, June 6.—Prof. Hudson Beare, vice- president, in the chair.—Dr. R. A. Houston: Two rela- tions in magnetism. By a simple application of the two laws of thermodynamics, relations were established between each pair of the quantities, magnetic force, stress, and temperature. ‘The chief novelty lay in the manner in which the relations were deduced.—A. D. Ross: A new method of differentiating between overlapping orders in mapping grating spectra. The method consisted in photo- graphing the Zeeman effect in the spectrum, a thin plate or lens of optically active quartz or other allogyric sub- stance being introduced between the source of light and the slit. The plane of polarisation of the components was thus rotated by amounts depending on the wave-length. Owing to the selective or polarising action of the grating itself, the intensity ratios between the components in triplets, quartets, &c., gave an indication of the approxi- mate wave-length. The method had been successfully applied to the mapping of spectra of certain rare elements. It greatly reduced the cost of the work, and might be ex- pected to reveal, incidentally, series among the spectrum lines.—Dr. H. Walker: The variation of Young’s modulus under an electric current, part iii. In this continuation of previous papers a number of new results were given. In particular, the effect of increasing tension on the pheno- menon was investigated. The peculiar law of variation of Young’s modulus under increasing currents, as shown in the cases of the four metals iron, nickel, copper, and platinum, gradually changed as the tension was increased, until, finally, all peculiarity vanished.—Prof. W. Peddie: Continuous and stable isothermal change of state. James Thomson’s form of continuous isothermals was discussed, and was shown to be inapplicable below the triple point. For example, water free from ice-nuclei and vapour-nuclei must pass either to the solid or to the vapour state. If it follows the paths of Thomson’s curves, two such paths must exist; but no physical distinction remains to deter- mine which shall be selected. A modification of Thom- son's form of isothermal was suggested, in which no un- stable part occurred. In the liquid state, under decreasing NO. 2123, VOL. 84] pressure, the volume would increase until, without change of density, a molecular re-arrangement would take place and the substance become solid. Under increasing pressure the volume of the solid would decrease until, by molecular re-arrangement, the vapour state would be reached. The applicability of this representation above the triple point, when solid does not exist, was shown to be complete. Catcurta. Asiatic’ Society of Bengal, June 1.—Dr. L. L. Fermor: A Palzolithic implement of manganese ore. The paper gives a description of a Palzolithic implement which is unique in that it is made of manganese ore.— F. D. Ascoli: Rivers of Dacca district. The paper deals with the changes that have taken place in the courses of the rivers of the Dacca and Faridpur districts since the desertion by the Brahmaputra of its old channel north of Dacca. The author attributes the origin of these changes to the incursion of the Teesta into the Brahmaputra in 1787, and shows that the principal changes now going on are not, as Fergusson anticipated, in the Ganges at and above the confluence at Goalundo, but further to the south in the Rajnagur area.—D. Hooper: Medicinal lizards. The dried lizard sold in the bazaars of northern India is Scincus mitranus, Anderson, and not, as quoted by writers on Indian materia medica, Lacerta scincus, Linn. Refer- ences are given to the uses of this lizard in medicine, and to the use of other saurians in Europe and China. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. FRIDAY, Juty 8. PuysicaL Society, at 5.—A Thermo-electric Balance for the Absolute Measurement of Radiation: Prof. H. L. Callendar, F.R.S.—The Con- vection of Heat from a Body cooled by a Stream of Fluid: Dr. Alexander Russell.—On Hysteresis Loops and Lissajous’ Figures, and on the Energy wasted in a Hysteresis Loop: Prof. S. P. Thompson, F.R.S.— The Energy Relations of certain Detectors used in Wireless Telegraphy : Dr. W. H. Eccles. CONTENTS. PAGE The Laws of Heredity. By Sir W. T. Thiselton- Dyerne ki MeG!. BRS. aee arene ie I The Metabolism of Marine Animals. ByJ.J. . 5 Smallpox and Vaccination in British India . Sse: £5 The Alternate-current Theory. By Prof. Gisbert Kapp HEPES oro ob SG omamemec 6 OU OumBookiShelfgy .. . ss. eee eo 7 Letters to the Editor :— Arthur’s Round Table in Glamorgan. (Z//ustrated.)— Rev jonn Grifith 2 eee Halley’s Comet. (JZ//ustrated.)—Dr. James Moir 9 Earth-current Observations in Stockholm during the Transit of Halley’s Comet on May 19.—D. Sten- quist and E. Petri foe Ses Ss!) Leptocephalus hyoproroides and L. thorianus.—Johs. Schmidt. 3 = . A oo Coto «G) Static Charge in Bicycle Frame.—Robert S. Ball, jun. eR Gc. 6 060 eae ks G8) Marine Biological Photography. (///ustvated.) By Francis\Ward..:>.. . 5 a (> DSS Io Some Extinct Vertebrate Animals from North America, (///ustrated.) By A.S.W. ... 12 Experiments on Air Resistance. By Drie. Stanton 2 secu meneeemecnis ns <<) i) as 13 C. H. Greville Williams, F.R.S. By A. H.C... . 14 INotesa amen) Selec. 5 Dom c Our Astronomical Column :— (With Diagram. ) Astronomical Occurrences in July .... +... + - 19 HalleyisiGomet.. . .. (Ea Semen =<, LO Pphemerisifor Comet [9rod aueaseemeiee= «| = ix) lene) Photographs of Morehouse’s Comet . .. ... . I9 The Determination of Position near the Poles . . . . 19 The Variation of Latitude. . A004 f RSPR 22) New Canals and Lakeson Mars. . . . tbyc.m, SEpSmEZO) The International Congress at Diisseldorf eco The Tuberculosis Conference and Exhibition. . . 22 International Union for Cooperation in Solar Re- SCATCH PPM fe te el ies ah SMCENE 2. fo, “eco ee Modern Submarine Telegraphy. (///ustrated.) By Sidney G. Brown . . . ERTIES Toye sey (o uenteeteS University and Educational Intelligence... ... 28 SocietiesjandyAcademies) & -aceenoueeen. ©) carmen ZO DiaryiofiSocieties::, 1. b. cs ucadoreeni ince ce teeoO NATURE 31 THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1910. TOTEMISM UNVEILED. Totemism and Exogamy: a Treatise on Certain Early Forms of Superstition and Society. By Prof. J. G. Frazer. In four vols. Vol. i., xix+579; vol. ii., ix+640; vol. ii., ix+583; vol. iv., v+379; eight maps. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 2]. tos. net the four vols. | Pte FRAZER is a great artist as well as a great anthropologist. He works on a big scale; no one in any department of research, not even Dar- win, has employed a wider induction of facts. No one, again, has dealt more conscientiously with each fact; however seemingly trivial, it is prepared with minute pains and cautious tests for its destiny as a slip to be placed under the anthropological microscope. He combines, so to speak, the merits of Tintoretto and Meissonier. What, then, we may ask, of the philosophical result, of the theory which should emerge from all this acreage of minute workmanship ? In ‘‘Totemism and Exogamy” (so far the most voluminous of his anthropological treatises) he admits —the passage is an interesting one—that he has “never hesitated either to frame theories which seemed to fit the facts, or to throw them away when they ceased to do so; my aim in this and my other writings has not been to blow bubble hypotheses which glitter for a moment and are gone; it has been by a wide collection and an exact classification of facts to lay a broad and solid foundation for the inductive study of primitive man.” To the mind of the truly scientific inquirer, the theory of a subject is a continuously modified machine, the object of which is at once to sort the elements of a combination and to re-combine them, so that by a turn of the handle the observer can reproduce the original process in all or any of its parts. Such a machine onlv arrives at-perfection after a long evolu- tion guided by the ‘‘method of trial.’’ Prof. Frazer in anthropology, as Darwin in biology, is content to try new models, and to fit new parts, not with the meticulousness of static curatorship, but with the abandon of experimental genius. This method and its result are illustrated in a very perfect way by that portion of the book which is concerned with totemism. This portion (if we may express our own belief at the risk of offending Prof. Frazer’s characteristic modesty), is actually ‘The Complete History of Totemism, its Practice and its Theory, its Origin and its End.” Commencing with a reprint of the first (1887) edition of ‘‘Totemism,” a model of its kind, a brief and digested survey of the with all the necessaries of life, and especially with the chief necessary of all, with food,’’ a notable pic- ture of cooperation tinged with superstition. Next, in the reprint, “‘The Beginnings of Religion and Totemism Among the Australian Aborigines’’ (Fort- nightly Review, 1905; articles expanded from | “Observations on Central Australian Totemism,” in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. XXViii., 1899), he reproduces his third hypothesis. As this, in the present writer’s opinion, when com- pleted by the discoveries of Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, and fully expounded in vol. iv., is the final explanation of the mystery of totemism, and as even its author admits that “here at last we seem to find a complete and adequate explanation of the origin of totemism,” it calls for detailed attention. In 1899, Messrs. Spencer and Gillen described the Arunta and Kaitish method of determining the totem. ‘A person derives his totem neither from his father nor from his mother, but from the place where his mother first became aware that she was with child. Scattered all over the country are what Messrs. Spencer and Gillen call local totem centres, that is, spots where the souls of the dead are supposed to live awaiting reincarnation, each of these spots being haunted by the spirits of people of one totem only; and wherever a pregnant woman first feels the child in her womb, she thinks that a spirit of the nearest totem centre has entered into her, and accordingly the child will be of that local centre, whatever it may be, without any regard to the totem either of the father or of the mother.” This Prof. Frazer terms conceptional totemism. “The theory on which it is based denies implicitly, and the natives themselves deny explicitly, that children are the fruit of the commerce of the sexes.” He gives probable reasons for this apparently strange ignorance. Turning now to the summary and conclusion in vol. iv. of the present work, we read :— “Obviously, however, this theory of conception does not by itself explain totemism. . . . It stops short of doing so, by a single step. What a woman imagines to enter her body at conception is not an animal, a plant, a stone, or what not; it is only the spirit of a human child which has an animal, a plant, a stone, or what not for its totem. . . . For the essence of totemism ... consists in the identification of a man with a thing, whether an animal, a plant, or what) motaemers Absolutely primitive totemism.. . ought to consist in nothing more or less than in a | belief that women are impregnated without the help then known facts (and in its working hypotheses | innocuous enough to serve as an introduction for the complete treatise), he next reproduces his first tentative theory in ‘‘The Origin of Totemism”’ (Fortnightly Review, 1899), namely, that the essence of it is the “external soul,’ as suggested in “The Golden Bough” of 1890, only to discard it, in the light of the remarkable discoverfes made by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen in Central Australia, for another form, a system of magic, ‘“‘designed to supply a community NO. 2124, VOL. 84] of men by something which enters their womb at the moment when they first feel it quickened.” The ‘missing link’ was found in the Banks’ Islands by Dr. W. H. R. Rivers. Here the natives “identify themselves with certain animals or fruits and believe that they themselves partake of the quali- ties and character of these animals and fruits... - The reason they give for holding this belief and observing this conduct is that their mothers were impregnated by the entrance into their wombs of spirit animals or spirit fruits, and that they them- selves are nothing but the particular animal or plantasey The theory, as thus completed, ‘accounts for all the facts (of totemism) in a simple and natural manner.” Cc 32 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1910 Hence, as secondary results, the practice of abstaining from killing and eating the totem, and conversely of occasionally eating a little; the belief that men have a magical power over their totems, particularly that of multiplying them; the belief that people are descended from their totems, and that women some- times give birth to these animals or plants; the fact that people often confuse their ancestors with their totems; and, lastly, the fact that totems comprise an immense range of organic, physical, and artificial objects, the reason being “that there is nothing from the light of the sun or the moon or the stars down to the humblest imple- ment of domestic utility which may not have impressed a woman’s fancy at the critical season and have been by her identified with the child in her womb.” One great merit of the theory, it will be seen, lies in this—that it rests upon a psychical phenomenon of universal occurrence. In a very interesting section, the author connects the facts of totemism with the “longings,” the envie, of pregnant women. The per- sistence of the belief and the difficulty of explaining away the physical results of ‘‘maternal impressions ”’ on the offspring are most significant. As the author observes, if totemism existed to-day in England, the child of the lady who had a “longing” for rasp- berries, would, being marked with a raspberry, clearly outlined on the back of the neck, have had a rasp- berry for its totem. The possibilities latent in such world-wide ideas may explain, suggests the author, the remarkable preservation of clan type in clan exogamy. ‘The children of each clan take after their mothers or their fathers, as the case (that is, of residence) may be, according as the mental impressions made on pregnant women are derived mainly from their own clan or from the clan of their husband.” We are glad to see that the author recognises, and continually emphasises, the primary independence of totemism and exogamy; they ‘are fundamentally distinct in origin and nature, though they have acci- dentally crossed and blended in many tribes.” Throughout the book exogamy is treated as an acci- dental adjunct of totemism. Yet a complete explana- tion of its origin and evolution is attempted. In our opinion, this explanation is unconvincing. By a curious irony, J. F. Mclennan, the discoverer of both institutions, never essayed an explanation of totem- ism, but concentrated his mind on an explanation of exogamy, now shown conclusively to be erroneous. Prof. Frazer, on the other hand, found in totemism his first interest, and his explanation of it consti- tutes his greatest triumph, while in dealing with exogamy he seems to be engaged on a secondary problem. An excellent discussion of theories is fol- lowed by a comparison of the action of exogamy to that of scientific breeding. His account of the de- velopment of exogamy from an original prohibition of the “marriage’’ of brothers and sisters is masterly enough, and we are grateful for it. That the later prohibitions were deliberate we cannot doubt; it is when he follows Messrs. Howitt, Spencer, and Gillen in asserting that the first dichotomy of the primitive group, for the prevention of brother-sister unions, inta NO. 2124, VOL. 84] two halves was also deliberate, that we feel unsatis- fied. He rests on an assumed and unexplained super- stition (as to the evil effects of incest) in the primi- tive mind. Nor does he explain how a group, how- ever small, could be divided into two. On what prin- ciple could it be done? Here he ignores Mr. J. J. Atkinson’s theory of primal law. Nearly two thousand pages are occupied with an ethnographical survey of totemism, an invaluable compilation. The maps, including that of the dis- tribution of totemic peoples, are a new and useful feature. The notes and corrections bring the reprints up to date. A. E. Crawley. A THEORY OF PREHISTORIC RHODESIA. Prehistoric Rhodesia. By Richard N. Hall. Pp. xxvili+88. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1909.) Price 12s. 6d. net. R. R. N. Hall, the South African excavator, is not very tolerant of criticism. He is up again, and running full tilt against Dr. Randall Maciver, who, in ‘‘ Medizval Rhodesia,” dared to try to demolish his prehistoric Semitic Zimbabwe theory. Whether Dr. Maciver was right in all his con- tentions as to the stratification of Zimbabwe, the Nankin china found in it, and so forth, cannot be decided until after he has replied to Mr. Hall’s objec- tions as stated in this book. We have little doubt that his reply will finally dispose of these objections, which, of course, Mr. Hall was perfectly justified in ~ advancing if he felt that Dr. Maciver had not handled the evidence rightly. It is, however, a pity that in doing this Mr. Hall allows a certain tone of bitter- ness to appear in his references to his antagonist. Mr. Hall is still dominated by the idea that he can find Semitic traces in South Africa. But, again, he brings forward no satisfying proofs of any tangible Semitic influence there. Round towers with conical tops are no proof of Semitic connection. It is not only the Semites who have built such. ‘*Cones”’ are no speciality of the Semites. In support of the idea that Cones mean Semites, Mr. R. N. Hall brings forward references to Messrs. L. W. King and H. R. Hall’s book, ‘“‘Egypt and Western Asia.” Mr. R. N. Hall’s note referring to this supposed support for his theory reads as follows :— ‘ “Tn King and Hail’s ‘ Egypt and Western Asia’ reference is made to ‘ the great cone’ at Sinai in the Elamite kingdom (p. 159); to the remains of a ‘temple-tower ’ at Ninib at Babylon (p. 166); to the “temple-towers’ erected by Gudea at Shirpurla in southern Babylonia (p. 217); to ‘massive’ temple- towers’ at Samarra on the Tigris (p. 284); to ‘cones ’ in Assyria (p. 392); and to the ‘ temple-tower ’ of Ashur (p. 410).” Now, apart from the extraordinary solecisms “at Sinai in the Elamite kingdom,” and “‘at Ninib at Babylon" (does Mr. R. N. Hall not know where Elam was, where or what Sinai is, or that Ninib was a god?), on referring, incredulous, to the work of Mr. L. W. King and his coadjutor, Mr. R. N. Hall’s namesake, we find that this note of the South African Mr. Hall’s is one of the oddest farragos of mis- Juty 14, 1910] NATURE 33 quotations and miscomprehensions that we have ever seen. The ‘“‘ great cone’ at Sinai in the Elamite kingdom” (which is as if one were to say “at Mont Blane in Russia’) is the representation of a moun- tain-peak on the well-known stela of the Babylonian king Naram-Sin, which represents that monarch conquering his enemies in a mountainous country, presumably Elam. How Mr. Hall has got Sinai in appears from a neighbouring sentence, in which Messrs. King and H. R. Hall say that Naram-Sin “made an expedition to Sinai.’ But that does not matter; what does matter is that Mr. Hall quotes Messrs. King and Hall as speaking of this “great cone”’ as if it bore out his theory, as if it were a building, whereas what they actually say is “the great cone in front of Naram-Sin, which is probably intended to represent the peak of the mountain.” What right has Mr. Hall, then, to refer to the authors of *‘ Egypt and Western Asia”’ at all? If he disagrees with them as to the interpretation of the cone on the monument, let him say so. But the relief showing the king before the “cone” in question is dead against him in that case. The ‘‘‘ temple-tower’ at Ninib at Babylon” is the “ziggurat”’ or “‘temple-tower”’ of the temple of Nabi at Birs Nimrtid, which is the site of the ancient Borsippa, not Babylon; and these ziggurats were not conical at all, nor do King and Hall, either in connection with that at Borsippa or that at Shirpurla, mention anything like a cone in connection with them! The “*‘ massive temple-towers’ of Samarra on the Tigris” are a gem. Samarra is a comparatively modern city, with medizval walls, over which one sees the gilt domes of two mosques, and a peculiar minaret rather like that of Ibn Tultin, at Cairo. Messrs. King and Hall, writing picturesquely, say :— “Such a picture as that of the approach to the city of Samarra, with its medizeval walls, may be taken as having its counterpart in many a city of the early Babylonians. The caravan-route leads through the desert, and if we substitute two massive temple-towers for the domes of the mosques that rise above the wall, little else in the picture need be changed.” Mr. Hall has too hastily assumed that these massive temple-towers were conical, or even domed, like the modern mosques. The analogy need not be taken so literally as all that! Finally, the ‘‘‘ cones’ in Assyria ” which Mr. R. N. Hall says are mentioned on p. 392 of Messrs. King and Hall’s book are the objects thus referred to on that page :— “Last year a small cone” [sic: Messrs. King and Hall do not speak of ‘“‘cones” in the plural, as Mr. Hall misquotes them] “or cylinder was found, which, though it bears only a few lines of inscription, restores the names of no less than seven early Assyrian viceroys whose existence was not previously known.” These small objects, measuring about nine inches or a foot long, are usually called cones, but they are more properly nail-shaped. What they have to do with Mr. R. N. Hall’s theory of conical buildings being Semitic it is hard to see. NO. 2124, VOL. 84| The examination of this footnote was interesting, but is not calculated to strengthen one’s faith in Mr. Hall’s theory, and his authorities do not seem to bear him out so much as he thinks. A more careful study of Semitic lore will prob- ably lead him later to see, himself, the weak points of his dogma. As for the supposed Semitic traits of the Makaranga, on which he lays such stress (p. 400), we fail to see in the long list given by Mr. Hall any peculiarity which is common to Semites and Makaranga only; most of these char- acteristics are sharéd by every negro tribe in Africa, and the fact that some of them were also shared by the Semites proves no more than that primitive people all the world over have similar customs, especially with regard to marriage, ritual cleanliness, and the like matters. In this list, also, Mr. Hall shows an inability to distinguish between strong and weak evidence. What is the use to his thesis of such an absurdity as his thirty-eighth resemblance between the Makaranga and Semites, “Tron rods were the insignia of old Ma-Karanga chiefs, and it was illegal for any ordinary member of the tribe to own such an article. These iron sceptres have their parallel in Semitic countries, where gold was of more value than iron, and are mentioned in the Scriptures "? What is the point of the solemn information ‘‘ where gold was of more value than iron” in this particular connection ? We really believe that Mr. Hall does himself and his theory an injustice in his unskilled manner of presenting his ideas and his inability to distinguish between good and bad evidence. Thus the rather ““muzzy”’ photograph facing p. 398 which purports to show the ‘Semitic Appearance of a Karanga, Zimbabwe,” is absolutely bad evidence. Where is this supposed Semitic appearance? In this negro’s rather large nose? Does not Mr. Hall know that the purest Semites of Arabia have straight noses, not at all like the *‘ Jewish” type? Were it pruned of these and other absurdities, Mr. Hall’s theory would command serious attention, for it is by no means impossible that Arab traders may have penetrated as far south as Sofala, even so early as the time of the Himyar kingdom, and have exer- cised a civilising influence on the negro tribes, as the Portuguese did on the tribes of Benin. But granted what one knows now of the capability of certain negro tribes to evolve cultures of their own, Mr. Hall is a bold man to deny the possibility of the truth of Dr. Maciver’s theory, that the buildings of Zimbabwe are the work of a native race of comparatively modern times, independent of foreign influence. In any case, until the question of the “ Nankin china” is finally settled, it is of little use for Mr. Hall to go on draw- ing ‘evidence’ of supposed Semitic connections in South Africa, which are presumably no older than the early Middle Ages, from “cones ’’ in Mesopotamia of any date between 3000 and 1500 B.C., especially since these ‘‘cones,”” when examined, turn out to be either mountains, or square, flat-topped towers, or votive offerings, a few inches high, which are shaped like nails ! 34 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1910 THE MARINE FAUNA OF JAPAN. Beitrige sur Naturgeschichte Ostasiens. Edited by Dr. F. Doflein. Japanische Alcyonaceen. By Prof. W. Kikenthal. Pp. 86+Tafel vy. Price 4 marks. Japanische Gorgoniden. Teil i. Die Familien der Primnoiden, Muriceiden, und Acanthogorgiiden. By Prof. W. Kiikenthal and H. Gorzawsky. Pp. 71+ Tafel iv. Price 3.60 marks. Japanische gorgon- iden. Teil ii. Die Familien der Plexauriden Chrysogorgiiden und Melitodiden. By Prof. W. Kikenthal. Pp. 78+Tafel vii. Price 6 marks. Hydroidpolypen der japanische Ostkiiste. Teil i. Athecata und Plumularida. By E. Stechow. Pp. 1og9+Tafel vii. Price 5 marks. Japanische Anti- patharien. By E. Silberfeld. Pp. 30+Tafel ii. Price 2.50 marks. Japanische Medusen. By O. Maas. Pp. 52+Vafel iii. Price 4 marks. Japan- ische Actinien. By Dr. A. Wassilieff. Pp. 52+ Tafel ix. Price 2.70 marks. Japanische Cteno- phoren. By Dr. Fanny Moser. Pp. 77+ Tafel ii. Price 5 marks. Uber japanische Seewalzen. By E. Augustin. Pp. 44+Tafel ii. Price 3 marks. (Mtinchen: K. B. Akademie der Wissenschaften, G. Franz’schen Verlags, J. Roth, 1906-9.) T has been known for some time to zoologists that the southern coasts of Japan possess a very rich varied marine fauna. The Challenger expedi- tion gave us some indication of it, and various special memoirs by Japanese writers that have appeared in recent years have served to maintain and stimulate our interest in it. But the nine memoirs dealing with the collections made by Dr. F. Doflein in the Sagami and Sendai bays during the years 1904-5 bring home to us with great effect the amazing wealth with which our Japanese friends are favoured in respect of their submarine zoological treasures. Dr. Doflein is a fortunate, and also undoubtedly a skilful, collector, for he has not only obtained a very large quantity of material, and succeeded in bringing it home in an excellent state of preservation, but he has been able to enlist the services of a number of eminent zoologists with special knowledge of the various groups, and to publish these memoirs in sumptuous style. Judging from the series already published, there can be little doubt that the results of Dr. Doflein’s expedition will form a very important contribution to our knowledge of the zoology of the Japanese waters. For the three memoirs on Alcyonaria, Prof. Kiiken- thal, of Breslau, is very largely responsible, and those who are interested in this group of Ccelenterata will find in them descriptions of a large number of new species, profusely illustrated by coloured plates and photographs. Prof. Kiikenthal is so well known as a leading authority on the Alcyonaria that it is hardly necessary to remark that his elaborate descriptions of the new species and his profound knowledge of the history and literature of the group give his contribu- tions to the series a very high position. But although there is a great deal that is new in these three memoirs, there is no new genus that strikes us as being particularly interesting or important. NO. 2124, VOL. 84] and systematic Among the Alcyonacea, the genus Spongodes (which has been re-named Dendronephthya by the author) is repre- sented by fifteen species, of which six are new to science, and Nidalia by seven species, of which five are new. The genus-Alcyonium, on the other hand, is represented by only one species, which is described under the new specific name of Alcyonium gracilli- mum. A new species of Siphonogorgia having been found in Sagami bay, the author takes the opportunity of giving us a very valuable summary of the characters of all the known species of the genus, including in the list the species formerly separated under. this generic name Chironephthya. The title ‘‘Japanische Gorgoniden*’ given to the other two memoirs on Alcyonaria is rather misleading, as the family Gorgonidz has not yet been dealt with; but it is nevertheless in the suborder Gorgonacea rather than in the Alcyonacea that ‘the richness of the Japanese fauna is so pronounced. The genera Chrysogorgia, Melitodes, and Plumarella appear to be particularly well represented, and in the family Plexauridz two new genera, Anthoplexaura and Para- plexaura, are described, as well as several new species of the older genus Euplexaura. The memoir on the hydroid polyps by Stechow is in some respects the most remarkable and valuable of the series, and special attention may be directed to the interesting introductory statement, and particularly to his valuable tabular scheme of the classification of the hydrozoa. Many previous attempts have been made to bring into one system the hydroid and medusoid forms be- longing to this class. On careful analysis and con- sideration, this system will probably be found by systematists to be the best that has yet been sug- gested. Of the many interesting hydroids that are described in this memoir, the most remarkable is the one to which the new generic name Hydrichthella is given. It was found epizoic on the new alcyonarian Anthoplexaura described by Kukenthal. It is a curious coincidence in zoology that the only other example of a hydroid epizoic upon an alcyonarian was also de- scribed last year. On January 30, I909, a paper by Miss W. Coward was read before the Koninklijke Akad. van Wetenschappen of. Amsterdam on a new hydroid (Ptilocodium) epizoic on specimens of the genus Ptilosarcus collected by the Siboga expedition. In the same year Stechow described the genus Hydrichthella on Anthoplexaura. There can be little doubt that the two genera are very closely related, but it is more than probable that it will be found advisable to join them in one generic group. If this be done the question of priority will arise, and the name will be Ptilocodium or Hydrichthella according to the publication of Stechow’s memoir before or after January 30. The genus Dendrocoryne of Inaba found in Japanese waters has created some special interest of recent years owing to its relationship to the genus Ceratella, that occurs in Australian waters, on the east coast of Africa, off Hawaii, and elsewhere. The points of difference. between Dendrocoryne and Cera- tella do not appear to some authors sufficiently im- JuLy 14, 1910] NATURE | 35 portant or constant to justify their separation into two genera, but a very strong protest must be made against this author’s practice of reviving the obsolete generic name Solanderia for Ceratella and throwing the literature into confusion thereby. M. Haime, who examined the type-specimen of Solanderia (Duch. and Michel.), declared that it was undoubtedly a Gorgonid. The genus was therefore rightly ignored by Gray, and the magnificent memoir by Baldwin Spencer on Cera- tella fusca has firmly established the proper generic name once and for all time. Of the other memoirs in this series, the space at our disposal does not allow us to make more than passing notice. We observe some excellent coloured plates in the account by Maas of the Japanese medusz, and we are glad to observe that the wander- ing genera Gonioremus and Olindioides are becoming more definitely settled in the order Trachomeduse. The Ctenophora do not seem to be very well repre- sented in the Japanese fauna, but Dr. Fanny Moser’s memoir on this group is a very important contribution to our knowledge of several of the important genera, as the author takes the opportunity to give a critical summary of all the known species of the Lobatz, Beroide, and Cestide. Silberfeld adds to his account of the few new Japanese Antipatharia a useful list of all the species of the order that have been described since the pub- lication of Brook’s Challenger monograph. The memoirs by Augustin on the Holothuria, and by Wassilieff on the sea anemones, fully maintain the high standard of excellence that marks the earlier numbers. Sb Ao 18h THE CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC ORATOR. Orationes et Epistolae Cantabrigienses (1876-1900). By Dr. John Edwin Sandys. Pp. xiv+2go. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price Ios. net. HIS very attractive volume, bound in the light blue which stands for the colour of Cambridge, contains the Latin speeches and letters which for thirty-three years Dr. Sandys has delivered as public orator for the University of Cambridge. In 1909 Dr. Merry, the public orator of Oxford, published his admirable orations, delivered in the- Sheldonian Theatre during thirty years, and in the same year, by a curious chance, appeared a volume containing 141 brief speeches delivered by three successive public orators of Trinity College, Dublin—Drs. Palmer, Tyrrell, and Purser. It was a strange coincidence that in the course of a year the two great universities of England and the most ancient university of Ireland should have given to the world these characteristic effusions of university sentiment. This form of literary composition will appeal in a different way to different minds. But none will fail to see in it a somewhat interesting specimen of an art now obsolescent and destined, per- haps, soon to pass away, which recalls the time when Latin was the lingua franca of the learned world, and when the universities affected to convey their senti- ments only in the learned tongue. NO. 2124, VOL. 84] So long as this time-honoured custom is observed, it will recommend itself by the happy classical turn of phrase and the ingenious adaptation of Latin idiom to very post-classical themes, to which the public orator must often have recourse; and of these arts Dr. Sandys is a past-master. His career in Cam- bridge was most brilliant, and among other distinc- tions he won the coveted Porson prize. He was at once designated successor as public orator to that great composer in Greek and Latin, the late Sir Richard Jebb. His orations are characterised by an elegance of Latinity and a felicity of allusion quite worthy of his distinguished predecessor. The public orations not only excite the interest of scholars, but sometimes evoke humorous comment from the under- graduates, as when Dr. Travers-Twiss at Oxford found a flight of superlatives (in which such speeches naturally abound) capped from the gallery by a new adjective. ‘‘Illustrissimus, preclarissimus,"’ said the orator; ‘et Travers-Iwissimus’’ was the contribution of an inglorious undergraduate rival. The éloges in the volume before us are not only charming examples of polished Latinity, but they are admirable specimens of brief and pointed. criticism. A man’s work is often summed up in a few words which could not be bettered in as many pages. One specimen of this delicate art will serve instar omnium. The great poet and critic, Matthew Arnold, writes thus to Dr. Sandys :— ‘“A thousand thanks for the printed copies of your speeches which you have so kindly sent to me. I am glad the speeches are in this permanent form. For myself I can only say that I could wish the next age (if the next age inquires at all about me) to read no other and no longer character of me than yours.” The reader should turn to the éloge (No. 71, p- 39) to see that the words of Matthew Arnold are justified. For those who have not the book we will make an extract, which shrewdly characterises Arnold’s deal- ings with the Philistines, his e’rpameAia, “cultured insolence,’’ as Aristotle calls it, and another which compares his style to the Thames by which he was born, ‘‘ Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull”? :— “Quam suaviter subamarus est quotiens Attico quodam lepore et salibus quicquid insulsum est irridet, Graeca quadam elegantia quicquid barbarum est con- temnit. De gravioribus vero argumentis, quanto animi candore, quanta subtilitate, disputat. Idem poéta quam venustus, quam varius.” ‘Equidem crediderim Thamesin ipsum inter rura illa fluentem, ubi poéta ipse natus erat, alumno suo exemplar suum praetulisse, suum ingenium inspirasse ; qui ammnis, poétarum laudibus celebratus, tranquillus at non tardus it, profundus at pellucidus idem est.”’ How happily he alludes to the work of Huxley :— “Olim in oceano Australi, ubi rectis ‘ oculis monstra natantia’ vidit, victoriam prope primam, velut alter Perseus, a Medusa reportavit ; varias deinceps animan- tium formas, quasi ab ipsa Gorgone in saxum versas, sagacitate singulari explicavit; vitae denique universae explorandae vitam suam totam dedicavit.” And we must quote his reference to Joseph Cham- berlain’s ‘‘ grand refusal”’ of the Home Rule Bill, and his allusion to the great statesman’s love for orchids. 36 NATURE [JuLY 14, 1910 “tdem cum nova quaedam de Hibernia consilia sibi periculosa esse viderentur, maluit a duce suo, maluit etiam ab amico suo, discedere quam insulas nostras in uno coniunctas, quod ad sese attineret, sinere divelli. Ipse inter senatores suffragiis electos partium suarum ductor constitutus, socios suos quam fortiter ducit, adversarios quam acriter oppugnat! Etenim, quamquam in rerum natura eos potissimum flores diligere dicitur, qui solis a radiis remoti in horto secluso ab aperto caelo delicate defenduntur, ipse vitae publicae solem atque pulverem numquam reformidat, quolibet sub caelo ad dimicationem semper promptus, semper paratus.” But we cannot indulge in quotations which would reach to infinity. In nearly six hundred specimens of the art of Dr. Sandys there is hardly one from which could not be quoted some felicitous phrase or allusion. The letters written in the name of Cam- bridge are as happy. Among these, specially interest- ing are the letter to the American Cambridge and that to Lord Morley. The volume is one to which the scholarly reader will recur again and again with interest and admiration. R. Y. TYRRELL. PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. Spirit and Matter before the Bar of Modern Science. By Dr. Isaac W. Heysinger. Pp. xxviii+433. (London: T. Werner Laurie, 1910.) Price 15s. net. HE venue of Dr. Heysinger’s elaborate though very readable work is the debatable land where three rival powers meet—religion, philosophy, and science. He shows very clearly that these three explainers are to some extent merging; the sharp distinctions are vanishing. Religion is freeing itself from rigid metaphysical dogmas, philosophy is becom- ing more concrete, and science is becoming more philosophical—is recognising that it cannot provide ultimate explanations of anything. The hope of the future is in a spiritual interpretation of the universe. This interpretation is being forced upon us as the only possible one by the recent advances in psychology and psychical research. In dealing with spiritualism and occult phenomena generally, Dr. Heysinger takes up a sane and scien- tific position. He demolishes Hume’s argument of “impossibility,” quoting Huxley in support of the view that nothing can safely be called impossible out- side mathematics and formal logic. As to miracles, either ancient or modern, the really scientific man will say :—‘‘It is a question of evidence; I will make no @ priort decision, either for or against.” The evidence brought forward during the last twenty-five years, by such men as Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William Crookes, Prof. James, Dr. A. R. Wallace, F. W. H. Myers, and other careful investigators, seems sufficient to establish at least a prima facie case. Nevertheless, as the author is careful to point out, it must not be rashly conceded that all psychic phenomena are due to the agency of disembodied spirits; many of these phenomena are probably the work of the subliminal consciousness of some living person, or even of some impersonal world-soul, as many philosophers’ have thought; but, in many cases, the evidence seems to be sufficient to justify at least a provisional hypo- NO. 2124, VOL. 84] thesis that the minds of discarnate people are some- how still producing effects in our material world, by some such process, perhaps, as telepathy. The phenomena are various in kind, from planchette- writing to ‘‘apparitions’’; but they point in the same direction—to survival of human personality past the wrench of bodily death, and consequently to a spiritual interpretation of experience. The present reviewer is a member of the Society for Psychical Research (though ‘belonging to its “sceptical wing’), and has devoted much time and thought to the subject for many years. He is dubious about ‘‘materialisations,’ and has lurid opinions about “slate writing by spirits’’ (or, rather, about the mediums who produce it), but personal experience has convinced him that things do happen, sometimes, which seem inexplicable by orthodox hypotheses. The thing to do is to maintain a rigorously scientific atti- tude, to observe the phenomena with all possible keen- ness and precaution against fraud or illusion, and to beware of drawing hasty inferences. Darwin col- lected facts for many years before he ‘‘ permitted him- self to speculate” concerning explanations. It is per- haps too much to expect that such caution should be shown by psychical researchers, for the subject is more intimately connected with our deepest interests; but it is nevertheless desirable. On the other hand, it can truthfully be said that there is more foolishness shown by the ignorant disbeliever who has never investigated than by the man who has learnt a little and is apt to believe too much. Dr. Heysinger’s book may be warmly recommended. Not the least of its good features is its tremendous armoury of quotations—showing very wide reading— from all the leading investigators. AE NG Jats PSEUDOCYTOLOGY. The Plant Cell, its Modifications and Vital Processes. A Manual for Students. By H. A. Haig. Pp. xxx+799. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., Igto.) Price 6s. net. RITERS of elementary text-books might be expected to take some trouble to ensure that their statements are, at any rate as far as possible, accurate and clear. It is a matter of common experi- ence that failures in both respects are not uncommon, and the author of the book before us has compiled a volume which may have some merits, but they are hardly those which the ordinary student will appreciate. To start with, we may remark that some of the illustrations and photographs are decidedly good, but that the text strikes us as useful chiefly as an exercise in criticism for more advanced students. What are we to make, for instance, of such statements as the following :—* The various forms of ‘ pits’ occurring in the walls (of tracheids) may possibly be of use in sap conduction, but, as a matter of fact, these pits function more as a means of exit for the protoplasm after it has finished its work in the Xylem elements.”’ The confusion (on p. 115) between normal and homo- typic nuclear division is absurd. Germination of pollen, &c., is wrongly and very misleadingly described as maturation. JuLy 14, 1910] NATURE - 37 The development of the angiospermic embryo seems to be confused with that of the fern, and the develop- ment of the archegonium (called by the author the oogonium), so far as it is intelligible, is quite incorrect. By the way, the chemiotactic substance emitted from the archegonium is said to be ‘‘malic acid or an enzyme.” Few botanists will agree with the view that the homosporous fern-prothallium can be properly, or otherwise than misleadingly, regarded in the light of a ‘fusion of two prothallia produced by the germina- tion of a potentially double (male and female) spore.” Turning to the part of the book dealing with physiological topics, we find the statement that “Much of the reserve starch in the tuber is formed at first in plastids, and by the time the tuber is full grown, all the plastids have been converted into starch,” and, in a footnote, we are further gravely in- formed that ‘‘some of the starch is, however, formed in the tuber by the translocation of carbohydrate from the cells of remote parts.’’ It would have been of in- terest to know what proportions of the starch do and do not respectively owe their origin to this process. The above citations, which could easily have been added to, may suffice to exhibit the side of the book which a teacher would find defective or effective according to the use he made of it with his students. But it may be said that it is not fair to judge a book on the ‘‘plant cell’’ by the same canons that would apply to a work more ostensibly on botany, structural, morphological, and physiological. But, as a matter of fact, the volume is really compiled on these lines, and if it were to be criticised from a cytological standpoint the verdict would be far more disadvan- tageous. It is a pity that the author has not more fully and carefully surveyed his proposed field of work before writing a book. He has evidently aimed at clearness, and, with more knowledge and care, may still produce a useful contribution. BIOLOGY AND HUMAN LIFE. ‘Science from an Easy Chair. By Sir Ray Lankester, K.C.B., F.R.S. Pp. xiiit+423. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 6s. i this volume of forty-three collected papers, the popularisation of science surely reaches high-water mark. To be vividly interesting without offending against accuracy, to season an abundance of solid fact with ideas so that the result is an intellectual feast, to illustrate scientific method by stratagem so subile that the reader does not know he is being educated— that is what Sir Ray Lankester has achieved. He calls it ‘Science from an Easy Chair,” and so be it; but we hope the delighted reader will realise that it is science from a rich experience of lifelong observa- tion and research. Since Huxley, no one has had a deeper influence on British zoology than the author, and even these parerga show the hand of a master. Some of the papers are good tracts for the times. The first one, entitled ‘‘Science and Practice,’ with the hygienic triumphs at Panama for its text, illus- trates what science can do, if it be allowed, for ‘the establishing of the kingdom of man.” The pages NO. 2124, VOL. 84] headed ‘**Darwin’s Theory Unshaken ” should be of use to those who mislead the public by declaring that Darwinism is dead. Other papers show, very briefly, of course, what a living Darwinism has to say about the re-stocking of our villages, the feeble-minded, and various disquieting features of our British birth-rate and death-rate. Apart from such serious questions, it is interesting to notice how many of the papers have a practical point—the poison-vine in England; oysters; the heart’s beat; sleep; cholera; sea breezes, mountain air and ozone; oxygen gas for athletes and others; hop blight; phylloxera; clothes moths; and more besides. This is symptomatic of our times, but it is also what we expect from the author of ‘* The Kingdom of Man,” that masterly exposition of the sound doctrine that science is for life—savoir, prévoir, pourvoir! Another set of papers deals with subjects in regard to which much progress has been recently made. Among these we find the extraordinary story of the common eel, illustrated by a beautiful coloured draw- ing which shows the contrast between the mature ‘“ silver ’’ eel and the immature ‘‘ yellow ”’ eel. Another of this type is the account of the human skull from the Chapelle-aux-Saints, in the Corréze, of the Heidel- berg lower jaw, and other recent additions to the data from which the pedigree of man is being patiently worked out. We may also notice the interesting account of the new fresh-water medusoids. A third set—not that we are attempting to classify the forty- three—includes a number of delightful natural-history sketches, such as one on gossamer (where, by the way, it seems to be suggested that the somewhat mysterious parachute-making habit is confined to autumn), or another on honey-dew, or another on the jumping-bean. It seems to be a rotatory easy-chair from which this pleasant science comes, for the author takes the whole world for his province, from microbes to comets, from the land of azure blue to “the starres that wonne on highe,” not forgetting either to write of dragons. Quite by itself, with a delightful note personnel, is the account of Metchnikoff’s day with Tolstoi last year. We hope for many more volumes of the ‘‘ Easy Chair Series.” Vo vate Alt ALPINE FLOWERS. (1) Alpine Flowers and Gardens, Painted and Described. By G. Flemwell. Pp. xiv+167. (London: A. and C. Black, 1910.) Price 7s. 6d. net. (2) Summer Flowers of the High Alps. By Somerville Hastings. Pp. xxvi+85. With an index and 39 colour plates from direct colour photographs by the author. (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd.; New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., n.d.) Price 7s. 6d. net. (1) SERIES of twenty well-executed colour prints appears to be the raison d’étre of this volume on alpine flowers and_ gar- dens. The author, who is also the artist, knows his Alps and alpine flowers well, and has contrived to write an interesting and _ instructive | account of the alpine flora in its various aspects. He 38 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1910 is without doubt an enthusiast on the subject, and something of a poet as well, but it is unfortunate that poetical descriptions and Latin names of plants are but ill-assorted companions, and the frequency of the necessary names detracts considerably from the purely aesthetic pleasure of perusing the volume. The Alps, with their flora, are described at the different seasons of the year, and the beauties of each are duly eulogised; to our thinking, however, the concluding chapters on the abuse and protection of alpines, and on some gardens in the Alps, are the most worthy portions of the volume. In the former chapter the good work done by the ‘‘ Swiss League for the Protection of the Natural Beauties of the Alps” receives well-deserved commendation, for it is largely “owing to its efforts that much wanton destruction of alpine plants by the thoughtless tourist and so-called lover of plants is gradually being stopped. In the final chapter the Thomasia gardens, near Bex, Ram- bertia, at the summit of the Rochers de Naye, and Linnea, at Bourg St. Pierre, are described. The author wonders why we in England have not attempted to create alpine pastures; he seems to forget the peculiar beauty of English pasture as it is with its buttercups, cowslips, and orchis, daisies and red sorrel. Very possibly he might find that English grasses ere long would hold the field where once his less resisting alpines were planted. On laying down this book we cannot but feel that Mr. Flemwell is more at home with the brush than with the pen, and that in writing a book on alpine flowers and gardens he would have produced a more useful volume ‘had his fancies been more restrained. (2) This work is an interesting contrast to the pre- ceding, and affords an example of the present limita- tions of the art of colour photography. In a few cases, as, for instance, the plates of Trifolium alpinum (plate xi.) and Saxifraga aizoides (plate xx.), the re- sults are good, but in many of the others the green of the leaves or of the background has come out badly. Blue and violet flowers are perhaps the least success- ful; it may be that the original photographs have suffered considerably in reproduction, but from the examples before us we cannot entirely agree with the author that “the pictures are true portraits of the flowers ‘at home.’’’ A page or so of descriptive text accompanies each illustration, and there_is a general introduction to the volume occupying sixteen pages which in some places needs textual revision; for in- stance, we do not imagine that the author means to suggest that Baedeker or Bradshaw is either an efficient or an inefficient plant press. OUR BOOK SHELF. A Manual of Practical Farming. By John McLennan. Pp. xi+2098. (New York: The Macmillan Com- pany; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 6s. 6d. net. ; Tue number of books dealing with special branches of science applied to agriculture is great and is steadily increasing; we have books on agricultural chemistry, botany and entomology, on the soil, on NO. 2124, VOL. 84] fertilisers and feeding-stuffs; there are also a number of large treatises and encyclopedias on agriculture. But only few writers have attempted to produce a small, handy book on practical agriculture dealing with the subject as a whole; the majority have been deterred by the difficulty of reducing so wide and complex a subject to the necessary small dimensions. Mr. McLennan has essayed the task that many have avoided. His aim has been to give the farmer useful practical instruction, and also to set forth ‘‘ the results of scientific research as far as known and as far as they square with practical experience.’’ In the first object he will probably be found to have succeeded ; he clearly knows the men for whom he is writing, and furnishes facts and illustrations that will be useful and will also show what has been accomplished by competent workers. The average American farmer does not yet get all he might out of his land. To some extent the untrained amateur is a factor in the case, as he is beginning to be in England, and our author has something to say, about the would-be poultry farmer who came out from the city without any knowledge, but ‘‘ full of literature on the subject, built elaborate houses, runs, brooders, and incubators, purchased high-priced eggs and costly fowls. He could figure out a comfortable living for himself and family, with freedom from city cares. He usually remained two years; the feed bills exceeded the re- ceipts for eggs; the roup got his hens, and lice got his chickens; his enthusiasm waned, and he went back to his counter.”’ In his second object—the presentation of the scien- tific aspects of agriculture—our author is less success- ful. He shocks us on the very first page by saying that ‘‘the soil and the subsoil are primarily composed of molecules; that is, minute grains of rock of varying size and forms. These are simply a result of the action of the, elements, such as frost, rain, wind, and heat, in breaking down and disintegrating the surface rock.’’ This is a typical example of the ‘‘ science’’ set out for the reader. If the author could persuade some scientific friend to read through the book and make the necessary alterations for the second edition its value would be much enhanced. By ‘Prof. Julius Ruska. Quelle und Meyer, 1910.) Leitfaden der Mineralogie. Pp. vitit+144. (Leipzig : Price 2 marks. Tuts “Guide to Mineralogy” is intended for the use of younger boys in German schools who have not yet received instruction in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Although it is customary to defer the study of mineralogy until after the latter subjects have been started, it is the author’s belief that it is a subject that of itself can be made intelligible and interesting to younger boys. After a brief introduc- tion of four pages, in which hardness and specific gravity are dealt with, he plunges into the subject, explaining such terms and principles as are necessary when occasion arises. The order in which the more common minerals are described follows the usual classification into elements, sulphides, oxides, car- bonates, &c. Commencing with sulphur, an oppor- tunity is given to explain some of the principles of crystallography in connection with the rhombic system of crystals; and under the sulphides, galena, zinc- blende, and iron-pyrites, the three important classes of the cubic system are described. A large amount of information is given in a very concentrated form, and possibly such an essence of mineralogy might not agree with quite young boys. A striking feature of the book is its wealth of illus- trations. Besides the sixty-nine figures on the coloured JuLy 14, 1910] NATURE 39 0 plates, there are 215 figures in the text, all of which appear to have been specially drawn for the book, and many are quite original. The coloured figures are reproduced by the three-colour process, and are on the whole satisfactory, though one or two are scarcely recognisable. The text-figures include line-drawings of the forms of crystals, and excellent half-tones repre- senting actual crystals and mineral specimens. To the English student of mineralogy such a book might be used with advantage as a German reading book. The sentences are short and not involved. A Synopsis of the Orthoptera of Western Europe. By Dr. Malcolm Burr. Pp. 160. (London: Oliver Janson, 1910.) Price 3s. THE present work appeared in instalments from 1903 to 1909 in the Entomologist’s Record, and in its present form will be extremely useful as an introduction to the subject, and as a tourist’s guide, especially as its small size renders it more convenient than Brunner von Wattenwyl’s work on European Orthoptera, or that of Tiimpel’s on those of Central Europe. Dr. Burr’s work includes all the countries west of (and includ- ing) the neighbourhood of Vienna. For eastern Europe we have (for those who can use it) the great Russian expansion of Tiimpel’s book by Jacobsen and Bianchi, which includes all the Orthoptera of central and eastern Europe, and Palearctic Asia. Dr. Burr has given short but careful descriptions of genera and species, and also tables of species under the genera, and he has very properly included the more important naturalised species, such as Periplaneta austvalasiae. Orthoptera are, however, very liable to be carried about from one place to another, and mere casual visitors are very properly only mentioned by name, as on po. 17, 18, &c. A long-legged Japanese grasshopper, Diestrammena marmorata, not men- tioned by Dr. Burr, has several times been captured recently in London. Prehistoric Man. By Joseph McCabe. Pp. viii+128. (London: Milner and Co., Ltd., n.d.) Price 1s. net. Tuis book gives an excellent popular exposition of the present state of our knowledge of prehistoric anthropology. The chapters on Paleolithic man and his implements are full of interest. Within the last few years a considerable number of more or less com- plete Palzolithic skeletons have been discovered in France and elsewhere, and great additions have been made to our knowledge of man in this distant epoch. In this little volume will be found a lucid description of the latest discoveries. The author is not content to give a mere list of more or less disconnected data, but always endeavours to weave his material into a continuous evolutionary story. This tendency, though admirable in a popular writer, appears in some cases to lead to a slight distortion of the facts in order to make them fit into the theory. For example, the Palzolithic race represented by the Grimaldi, Galley- hill, and other remains is assigned to the later Palzolithic, though the geological evidence appears to be pretty clear that these remains belong at least to the middle Paleolithic. The Gibraltar skull has re- cently been shown by Dr. Keith to have been the first Paleolithic skull found (1843) in Europe, and to re- present one of the most primitive races. This dis- covery does not appear to have been known to the author. The chapters on the Neolithic and Bronze ages show that our knowledge of these periods is still in a very unsatisfactory condition, but that is not, of course, the fault of the author of this work. NO. 2124, VOL. 84] (1) Metallografia applicata ai Prodotti Siderurgici. By Umberto Savoia. Pp. xvi+205. (Milan: U. Hoepli, 1909.) Price 3.50 lire. (2) Lo Zinco. By Prof. R. Musu-Boy. Pp. xiv+219. (Milan: U. Hoepli, 1g09.) Price 3.50 lire. Boru these little treatises belong to the excellent series of ‘‘ Manuali Hoepli,’’ and, like other members of the series, are written by specialists in their respective subjects. They possess the merit, common to prac- tically all other works of this series, of imparting in the fewest possible words the most essential facts and principles. The treatise on the metallopraphy of iron is essentially a practical guide for the laboratory worker. Its author was sent from Italy to study the methods adopted in the laboratories of Le Chatelier, Fremont, and Guillet, and on returning home estab- lished the metallographical laboratory of the Milan steel works. The author has selected for description the methods he has found best suited in practice, and has illustrated the work by nearly 100 of his own microphotographs of steel in its different states. The treatise on zinc is of a more general character, and calls for little comment. It deals with the ores, methods of extraction, history, statistics, and uses of the metal. EERE RS LO) RHE EDITOR: [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Ooze and Irrigation. May I be allowed to reply to some inquiries? (2) It is thought by some that my remarks applied especially to foreign lands. Let me point out that the ooze of our English rivers is often just as fertile as that of the Nile, and that the number of annelids found in the ooze is enormous. This may be illustrated by reference to the Thames. The late Frank Buckland tells us that when he kept fish he ‘“‘ fed them with red worms collected from the Thames mud. These worms cost 4s. 6d. a quart; the price of Thames worms, like everything else, has increased considerably.”’ Now whether these worms were true annelids, or merely the larve of insects, the point is the In the case of Tubifex and its allies, a quart would same. mean many hundreds of thousands. Mr. Shrubsole, myself, and others, have frequently examined the ooze from various parts of the Thames, and the number of different species of mud-frequenting worms is very great, while it is utterly impossible to estimate the total of individuals. (2) Another interesting point is continually coming under my observation. When a number of annelids taken from the ooze is examined, it is found that the tail, which is in constant rhythmical motion in the water, is festooned with numbers of symbiotic vorticels. These move to and fro in the water, and are constantly capturing the bacteria and other lowly forms of life with which the putrid water is laden. So far as I am aware, no biologist has ever given this fact, or the action of the vorticels, any detailed study with a view to ascertaining their action, and their relation to their host on the one hand, and the water and soil on the other. (3) It would be of great value to science if someone would carefully examine the ooze before and after passing through the bodies of annelids, and ascertain what is the nature of the change that has taken place. Is there any difference between the quantity of nitrogen in pure mud and that which has been digested ? These and many other problems having a vital bearing on agriculture need attention, and it is to be hoped that 40 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1910 at least a small portion of the time of the new commission will be devoted to a subject of such importance. Malvern. HILDERIC FRIEND. IN some interesting remarks upon this subject (NaTURE, pp. 427, 489), the Rev. Hilderic Friend suggests—and I believe he is correct in assuming for the first time—that the alluvial mud of such a river as the Nile derives its fertility, not from the nature of the sediment itself, as usually supposed, nor entirely from bacteria, but from the multitudinous remains of annelids that live in the mud. That there is ‘‘ need for careful study of the alluvium of rivers from this point. of view,’’ and any other, is to be freely admitted. If we except the study of pre- and post-Pleistocene deposits carried out by Mr. Clement Reid, and summarised in his ‘‘ Origin of the British Flora,”’ there is scarcely another work that can be mentioned deal- ing with the subject. It is true that lately the Geological Survey have become alive to the necessity of introducing details as to the fertility or otherwise of the soils derived from the geological formations surveyed. But these are isolated, ard are but the necessary outcome of previous activities of agricultural experimental stations. But neither have these latter undertaken any systematic study of the character and constituents of river alluvium. The nearest approach to a treatise on the subject is Darwin’s ‘‘ Earth- worms,’’ and his work,’ whilst dealing with terrestrial forms and their influence in fertilising, renewing, and enriching the soil, strangely enough bears out Mr. Hilderic Friend’s suggestion as to the cause of alluvial fertility. For without earthworms, what would the soil be? Ergo, without fluviatile annelids, what would the alluvium be—but a sterile accumulation of sand? Here we may add that where worms are too plentiful on land bad results follow, so too we may assume, accepting the worm- fertilising theory as correct, that an excess of annelids tends to cause, as on land, putrefaction, as may be illustrated by the case of ponds overstocked with blood-worms, causing the appearance of blood, which was a fruitful source of superstition in former days, notably at Garendon in this district. - But apart from theoretical considerations, based on the hypothesis that Tubifex and other annelids do tend to increase fertility, we may attempt to draw an analogy with former conditions, and so to some extent corroborate Mr. Friend’s very probable theory. All who have made any study of the paleontology of the Trias (referring here specially to Britain) are familiar with the extreme barrenness of great thicknesses of both Lower and Upper Keuper relieved alone by certain limited Bonons at which a definite flora and fauna is to be met with. It has been assumed, and there is apparently no great reason against this on a. purely, faunistic basis, that the Trias is a desert formation; but on other grounds, and also from a study of the flora and fauna, I have come to the conclusion (during a study of the Midland Trias, in which I am aided by a Government grant from. the Royal Society) that the whole of the Triassic formation is a delta forma- tion, in other, words, that from the Bunter (first suggested to be a delta deposit by Prof. Bonney) upwards conditions similar to those in the Nile area prevailed during Triassic times, and were responsible for its formation. Locally, wind acted on rocks, but formed no deposit. Now it is a remarkable fact that in the deposits in the British Keuper, in which alone plant-remains have so far been discovered, or where carbonaceous deposits occur, that a common associate of the plant-remains is a form of track or casting which has usually been ascribed to annelids or crustacea; and we must not overlook the fact that annelids alone are not the predominating component of the fauna of alluvial tracts, but Protozoa in their myriads, occasionally sponges, Crustacea (minute and large), insects, scorpions, and molluscs form a large pro- portion of the bulk of alluvial deposits. Of these, annelids and Crustacea are most likely to be preserved, and are most often discovered in the rocks. So that it seems that only where annelid life in Triassic times was abundant was plant-life in evidence, just as now only where the Nile is alluvial does it yield productive results, due, appar- ently, to the same cause. The analogy I have drawn NO. 2124, VOL. 84] strengthens Mr. Friend’s theory, and, moreover, if the worms be found to be actually conducive to fertility (by experiment or otherwise), my case for the delta-origin of the Trias will receive additional confirmation. It would seem to us that no more fitting study could be made by the lake surveys that are now going on in different parts of the kingdom than the very probable connection between worms and alluvium, for it seems that Mr. Friend has more or less proved his case without much need for argument. This affords another instance of the utility of beings hitherto supposed to have no useful part to play in the history of time or things. July 2. A. R. Horwoop. A Singular Mammal called ‘‘ Orocoma.” In a letter of the Jesuit Father Cat at Buenos Aires, dated May 18, 1729 (‘‘ Lettres difiantes,’’ éd. Lyon, 1819, tom. v., p. 466), the following passage occurs :— “Outre ces animaux, il en est un qui m’a paru fort singulier: c’est celui que les Moxes appellent orocoma [or ocorome, according to the'''’Abrégé d’une Relation espagnole,’’ in the same tome, p. 66]. Il a le poil roux, le museau pointu, et les dents larges et tranchantes. Lorsque cet animal, qui est de la grandeur d’un gros chien, apergoit un Indien armé, il prend aussitét la fuite; mais s’il le voit sans armes, il l’attaque, le renverse par terre, le foule a plusieurs reprises, et quand il le croit mort, il le couvre de feuilles et de branches d’arbres, et se retire. L’Indien, qui connoit l’instinct de cette béte, se léve dés qu’elle a disparu, et cherche son salut dans la fuite, ou monte sur un arbre, d’ot il considére A lfoisir tout ce qui se passe. L’orocomo ne tarde pas a revenir accompagné d’un tigre qu’il semble avoir invité 4 venir partager sa proie; mais ne la trouyant plus, il pousse des hurlemens épouvantables, regarde son compagnon d’un air triste et désolé, et semble lui témoigner le regret qu’il a de iui avoir fait faire un voyage inutile.” In asking what mammalian species this ‘‘ orocoma’”’ is, and whether there is the slightest foundation for this story, I fully know I am showing my great ignorance. I hope the Editor and his readers will forgive me, taking into account the entire absence of a scientific reference library in this part. Kumacusu Mrnakata. Tanabe, Kii, Japan, June 15. “ Pwdre Ser. WHEN a boy, at the latter end of the ’thirties of Jast century, I was told by a well-known man of the name of West—lock-keeper on the river Witham at Lincoln—that he had seen a star fall on the south common there, where he had a cow grazing, and that, on going up to it, he found nothing but a lump of jelly. At this distance of time I cannot recall all he said, but I remember he described the object as shining and as about the size of a plate. I have no recollection of his calling it luminous. Up to this time I have always thought my informant was under an illusion, but, after Mr. McKenny Hughes’s arlicle, there seems to be something more than I was aware of in the account he gave me. F. M. Burton. Highfield, Gainsborough, July 2. Curve Tracing and Curve Analysis. I WAVE unwittingly done an injustice to Mr. R. H. Duncan’s book on ‘“‘ Practical Curve Tracing’’ (vol. Ixxxiii., p. 461). I judged by the review of it in NaturE of June 9 that it deals only with the subject indicated by its title. After writing to you regretting that no author deals with practical curve analysis, I bought Mr. Duncan’s book, and find that, after describing each class of curve and how to trace it, he gives clear directions for reversing the process and deducing a formula from a given curve. So far as it goes, the book excellently meets the want which I expressed, and my only regret is that the author has not developed the subject a little further. A. P. TROTTER. London, July 5. > ee JULY 14, Ig910] NATURE 41 THE AKIKUYU OF EAST AFRICA.' T may be said at once that this is a very valuable contribution to, the ethnology of Africa. In its thoroughness it recalls work characteristic of the latest German school. A trifling defect is the trick which both authors have of separating their African words into syllables, no doubt to facilitate immediate pronunciation by the unlearned; but, although this plan might be recommended in certain important words at their first appearance, it becomes irritating to the eye when perpetuated throughout the book, and sometimes the separation of syllables cuts athwart the etymology of root-words. The same remarks apply to the introduction of the apostrophe after the initial ““m” or ‘tn.’ To anyone really versed in Bantu studies this apostrophe is anathema, as it is quite unnecessary. A writer fastidious about Bantu prefixes supplies a hyphen between the prefix and the root, and not an apostrophe. Perhaps, without ungraciousness, another criticism might be added—that the book would have been even more valuable than it is if the authors had either been more widely read in regard to other African studies or had submitted their MS. to a specialist in comparative African ethnology in England or Germany, who could have explained many points which are acknowledged as obscure by the authors, and enabled them to have instituted the most in- teresting comparisons. The book is such a good one, so likely to take a permanent place as a standard work, that it is to be hoped in a further edition these suggestions may be taken note of. The Akikuyu (A- is a corruption of the plural prefix, Ba-, ki- is probably the eighth prefix often applied to “languages,” “‘sorts,’’ or “kinds,” and the root of the name is really kuyw) are a collection of clans of Bantu-speaking negroes which inhabit the elevated plateaus of equatorial East Africa on the eastern side of the great Rift Valley. In language, and perhaps partly in racial origin, they are akin to the Bantu tribes round the slopes of Mount Kenia and the river- side people of the Tana River; also, less markedly, to the A-kamba of the East African plains between these highlands and the sea coast. The Akikuyu specially are greatly interfused with Masai blood, so that many of them have a strong facial resemblance to the Masai, though not so tall in stature. It is very seldom that one meets amongst them the rather prognathous Pigmy type observable here and there amongst the nomad Ndorobo, who dwell on _ the fringe of their territory to the north. Obviously, they are a remnant of the Bantu invasion of East Africa, of a generalised negro type which at one time or another has intermixed very freely with the Masai, retaining, however, their own Bantu dialect. This, by some centuries of comparative isolation, has be- come distinctly peculiar in the form of its prefixes and some elements of its grammar. The dense forests of their plateau country have enabled them to resist complete extermination and absorption at the hands of the Masai, when some century ago that bold offshoot of the Nilotic peoples overran the countries between the Victoria Nyanza and the Indian Ocean. According to the traditions collected by Mr. and Mrs. Routledge, the Akikuyu were preceded in their occupation of these forests by a diminutive race known as the Agumba, and also by the Ndorobo. The last-named is a nomadic people of very mixed elements—composed partly of Bushmanlike Pigmies 1 “With a Prehistoric Peopla The Akikiiyu of British East Africa.” Being some Account of the Method of Life and Mode of Thought found existent amongst a Nation on its First Contact with European Civilisation. By W. Scoresby Routledge and Katherine Routledge (born Pease), Pp, xxxii+392. (London : Edward Arnold, roto.) Price 2rs. net. NO. 2124, VOL. 84] and degraded Hamites—which ranges in scattered hunting colonies all over equatorial East Africa. The Agumba may have been the Bushmanlike Pigmy race which seems to have inhabited East Africa in ancient times, and to have left many traces of its presence in existing tribes between Abyssinia on the north and Nyasa on the south. Or, again, the Agumba may have been a branch of the Congo Pigmies, the physical type of which can apparently be traced as far east at the present day as the western slopes of Fic. 1.—Costume of a Neophyte as he dances prior to Initiation to Manhood. From ‘‘ With a Prehistoric People.” Mount Elgon. According to the traditions collected by the authors, these Agumba finally went west- wards to ‘‘a big forest.” Mr. and Mrs. Routledge think that the root-word kuyu refers to the great fig-trees which are abundant in the forests of the Akikuyu country, fig-trees, prob- ably, that produce bark cloth. But it may also be a word meaning ‘‘up above,” the lofty region, from the Bantu root kulu, gulu, or zulu, the letter 7 being ° 42 much disliked in many of these East African Bantu dialects, and either dropped or changed into a y sound. Certainly, according to the traditions of the Akikuyu, their upland country was until a hundred years ago (more or less) a region of unbroken forest (we may add, West African in its flora and fauna) which was nourished by an exceedingly heavy rainfall. This great equatorial forest of Africa obviously extended at one period right across the continent to the shores of the Indian Ocean. It has left traces of its peculiar flora and even fauna in the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, and on the north coast of Lake Nyasa. This must have been a forest which con- tained not only the West African antelopes and pigs, birds, spiders, and butterflies, still found in WKilkuyu- land, but the gorilla and chimpanzee, and other types which once ranged uninterruptedly between West Africa and Further India. Consequently, WKikuyu- NATURE [Juty 14, 1910 | very well known for his own ethnographical and linguistic studies of East African peoples. | Specially noteworthy are the illustrations and description of the Kikuyu ‘‘bull-roarer’’ used in various ceremonies, the modelling of fetishes (human | figures), blacksmith’s work, and initiation ceremonies, | with their appropriate dances and costumes. In the | interesting article on the medicine-man, the etymology | of his name—Mundu Mugut—is not quite rightly hit off (in the quotation from Mr. McGregor). Mugii is really a contraction of the prefix and root of the | widespread Bantu word Mu-logu, or Mu-logo, mean- | ing magician, either good or bad. This root -logo | ranges mainly over western Bantu Africa, and assumes | sometimes very altered forms, such as -doki, -lozi, | -roho. It is a parallel to the equally widespread root nganga; but -logo has to do rather with the evil side | of magic or of spiritual influence, while nganga may well have been in Fic, 2.—A Medicine Man. land, from the point of view of palzontology, would, if there were any Tertiary or alluvial deposits (dried- up lakes, &c.), probably yield as interesting results in its exploration from that point of view as in ethnology and botany. The book under review, besides giving these in- teresting details as to the traditions and chron- ology of the Akikuyu, describes the people and their pursuits, their food and cookery, agri- culture, domestic animals, arts and crafts, war- fare and weapons, blood-drinking, betrothal and marriage, and general position of women, dances, initiation ceremonies, religion, conceptions of God, notions as to life after death, medicine, folk-lore; and also the position of this interesting people under the new British Administration. The authors have re- ceived much assistance from Mr. C. W. Hobley, one of the principal officials of East Africa, who is so NO. 2124, VOL. 84] From ‘‘ With a Prehistoric People.” its origin applied to some new wisdom from the north, something to do with iron- working or superior kno w- Ikdge of a prac- tical, material lind. (For in- stance, Bu-nganga in some Bancu languages means “ gunpowder.”’) There is an ap- pendix to the bools which gives an in- teresting note by the late Colonel J. A. Grant on iron-smelting — in East Africa. In their biblio- graphy dealing with the Kikuyu and their lan- guage, the authors omit any reference to the present writer’s vocabulary of Ki- kuyu in his worl: on the Uganda Protectorate. For various reasons, this vocabulary, though short, is | of interest, as it represents the dialect of the western- most part of the Kikuyu range, and is therefore in- teresting for comparison with the nearest (but very dissimilar) Bantu dialects of the regions immediately to the east of the Victoria Nyanza. H. H. JouNston. TEMPERATURES IN THE FREE ATMO- SPHERE.* R. WAGNER has given us a comprehensive dis- cussion of the temperature results obtained with registering balloons in Europe during the period July, | rg02-June, 1907, and has incidentally furnished an | excellent practical tribute to the collective publication 1 “Die Temperatur Verhiltnisse in der freien Atmosphare [Ergebnisse der internationalen unbemannter Ballonaufstiege]."” By Dr. Arthur Wagner. | Beitriige zur Physik der freien Atmosphiire. Bd. iii. Heft 2-3. (Leipzig : Verlag von Otto Nemnich.) | | JULY 14, I910] NATURE 43 o of the international observations under the direction of Prof. Hergesell. The author’s primary object was to deal with the annual variation of temperature, but he has found room also for the consideration of many associated questions. Altogether 380 ascents were considered, all of which reached 8 km. and twenty- nine of which reached 16 km. Doubtful observations were rejected. The principal features in the annual variation of temperature are as follows. From the surface up to 3 km. the date of minimum temperature gets later and the annual range decreases by about 4° C. From 3 to 10 km. the minimum temperature occurs at the beginning of March, but at still greater heights there is a comparatively sudden jump back to the beginning of January. The annual range increases from 3 to 7-8 km. by about 4° C., then decreases up to 1o km. by about 6° C., and finally re- mains nearly constant from 11 to 16 km. The results agree, on the whole, with those obtained by the present writer and Harwood from a slightly diiferent period of observation. Dr. Wagner deduces, from a consideration of the first two terms of the Fourier series expressing the variation, that the difference between the maximum and the mean temperature exceeds that between the mean and the minimum, and that this asymmetry increases with height; it appears doubtful if it is justifiable to neglect the third term, which increases with height and tends to diminish the asymmetry mentioned. The effect of water vapour on the gradient of tem- “perature is shown in the differences between winter and summer. The following table gives the gradients for summer (June, July, August) and winter (Decem- ber, January, February), (1) from the present paper ; (2) from the report of the present writer and Har- wood ; (3) for ascending saturated air :— 1) (2 G3) ————, (ae ae et Height Winter Summer Winter Summer Winter Summer km. 1-2 B33 53 22 FHS). aan eee) ar 2-3 4°5 50 43 56... 6°5 54 3-4 57 56 56 54... 6° 55 4-55 6:2 OL 6°5 Gro) e753 6:0 5-6 70 66 70 6°3 79 6°5 6-7 6°9 69 73 71 86 ae 7-8 70 74 76 7°3 90 80 8-9 ... 5°9 72 6°6 73 9°3 8°5 g-I0 ... 5'0 6r1 51 Wek 9°6 9'0 LO—11 eS 39 3°6 43 ra =i From 3 to 8 km. the gradient is less in summer than in winter, while the difference between the “saturated”? adiabatic gradients is greatest from 2 to 8 km. The approximation to the adiabatic state is closer in summer than in winter. Dr. Wagner attributes the annual variation to con- vection and conduction from the earth’s surface, to condensation of water vapour, and to radiation, solar and terrestrial A further cause ought to be in- cluded, viz. the transference of energy in a horizontal direction. The effect of conduction might fairly be neglected, since even at 100 m., if conduction alone were active, the amplitude of the yearly variation would be less than 1/1000th of the amplitude at the surface. The decrease of the amplitude up to 3 km. appears to be a result of the action typified by v. Bezold’s law. The increase above 3 km. is probably rightly attributed to the effect of the increased water vapour on the average gradient in the summer months. Condensatign of water vapour is, more- over, held responsible for the relatively slow cooling of the middle layers from summer to autumn, but it is probable that the above-mentioned horizontal trans- ference of energy and the radiation also contribute to NO. 2124, VOL. 84] this effect. The radiation tends to increase the tem- perature of the earth and lower atmosphere when the amount of water vapour is increased, if the effect is not counterbalanced by increased reflection of solar radiation from clouds. In this connection it may be pointed out that there is no experimental evidence to justify the assumption repeatedly made that the air between 3-4 and 8 km. may be regarded as diather- manous. At 5 km. the average vapour pressure is not much below r mm., and the experiments of Paschen and Rubens and Aschkinass show that for a vapour pressure of 1 mm. half the radiation of a full radiator between 12 and 20% would be absorbed by a path of about 4oo m., and half that between 5 and 8“ by a path of 50 m., while the CO, absorption would add slightly to the absorption in the former region; and these results are affected but little by the later experiments of Scheiner and von Bahr. Dr. Wagner finds that the departures of the tem- perature in different localities from the general mean values are small except for south Europe, where the temperature is considerably above the mean in the convective region, and for east Europe, where the converse is the case. The peculiarity in the latter region is largely due to the influence of Pavlovsk, lat. 60°, which is the only station in the region besides Koutchino, lat. 56°. The mean. value of H,, the height at. which the advective region is reached, for different regions is as follows :— North 10°18 South 11'07 Central 10°54 East 10°22 West Europe 10°62 km. Dr. Wagner deduces from these results that the value of H. decreases from ocean to continent, as well as from equator to pole. It is true that radiation effects alone would tend to make H,. less over a dry continental area than over the ocean at the same cr a higher temperature, but it is doubtful if such an effect can be traced in these figures, according to which north Europe (Berlin and Hamburg) has a lower value than east Europe (Pavlovsk and Koutchino). In considering the variation of temperature with the pressure distribution, Dr. Wagner wisely adopts the plan of eliminating the annual variation, and as he uses no ascents from east or south Europe, the correction for the local variation of temperature is inconsiderable. It. ought, however, to be remembered that, although the mean temperatures of the year are not far different, say, for Paris and Vienna, the cor- rections to be applied to ascents made in’ the same month at those two places are not necessarily the same. Dr. Wagner’s results corroborate those pre- viously found in proving that cyclones are in general colder than anticyclones, but a consideration of special cases led to the important conclusion that for rapidly moving systems these conditions were reversed, a result foreshadowed by the work of Hanzlik. The mean temperature in October at 2 km. over Berlin on p. 95 is wrongly given as 0'6° C., and this error is mainly responsible for the peculiar change in the half-yearly variation at that height. In differen- tiating Ab on p. 99 the variation of T is not negligible. It is simpler to proceed from the funda- mental equations, which lead to the result that the height at which 4b isa maximum is given by h=RT,2/T),= RT) nearly, of ae ae din We and T, is the temperature at the height h and T, that at the surface. where an NATURE [JuLy 14, 1910 The paper includes useful tables giving the pres- sure and the density at different heights, the variation of temperature on surfaces of equal pressure, and the temperatures in different quadrants of cyclones and anticyclones. It is full of interest, and stands as an example of the “thorough” policy of Prof. Hann, to whom, indeed, it would not do discredit. E. Gotp. THE GULF STREAM DRIFT AND THE WEATHER OF THE BRITISH ISLES. LTHOUGH it has been known for very many years that the climate of these islands and of northern Europe generally is far milder than it would otherwise have been owing to a large body of warm water flowing past its shores from the south-west, it is only within recent years that attempts have been made to trace any detailed connection between the state of the Gulf Stream Drift* and the weather. Now that systematic hydrographic observations have been accumulating for a number of years it is becoming possible to attack seriously this interesting problem, and the results so far obtained certainly look promising, The immediate causes of the weather in the British Isles are undoubtedly to be sought in the various atmospheric disturbances which arrive from the Atlantic, but there can be no doubt that another very important factor to be considered is the tem- perature of the adjacent seas. This is influenced by the Gulf Stream Drift. The problem is, however, complicated by the fact that there is some doubt as to whether the Gulf Stream Drift may not be a direct result of the atmo- spheric circulation in the huge cyclonic system which rests over the North Atlantic, with its centre at Ice- land. Be that as it may, there is undoubtedly a very intimate connection between the oceanic and atmo- spheric circulations in the North Atlantic region, so that if the atmospheric circulation becomes more vigorous, the Gulf Stream Drift moves faster, and vice versa. This is well shown in a paper by Meinardus in the Meteorologische Zeitschrift, xxii., 398, 1905. Such a connection was, however, to be expected, not only if the Gulf Stream Drift were directly due to the atmospheric circulation, but also if, as seems more probable, both were due to the same cause, namely, the excessive cooling at the poles of the earth, coupled with the rotation of the earth about its axis. On this view both the oceanic and atmo- spheric circulations are of the nature of convection currents, and primarily due to the same cause, but in the course of ages these two distinct circulations have so adjusted themselves that any change in the one rapidly causes a corresponding change in the other. It seems probable, therefore, that the Gulf Stream Drift, owing to its inertia and its great heat capacity, should have a similar effect to that of the flywheel of an engine, and tend to obliterate the disturbances due to the more unstable and variable atmospheric circulation. In this case the Gulf Stream Drift should have a very considerable regulating influence on the general type of weather prevailing in the British Isles. Let us consider the probable influence on the tem- perature and on the rainfall. In the winter the temperature of the Gulf Stream Drift is higher than that of the land, while in the summer it is lower. 1 The warm water flowing round the British Isles to Scandinav’a used to be called the Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream proper is now considered not to extend further east than Newfoundland, while its fan-like extension which crosses over to Europe is known as the Gulf Stream Drift. NO. 2124, VOL. 84] Consequently during the winter time the winds blow- ing from the Atlantic tend to raise the temperature of the land, while in the summer they tend to lower it, and it is clear that variations in the temperature of the Drift must be expected to affect the tempera- ture of the winds blowing over it, and consequently the temperature on land as well. Such effects on the land temperature will probably be far more important in the winter than in the summer, owing to the rela- tively greater power of the solar radiation during the summer. The effect on the rainfall will be equally marked, for the amount of moisture carried by the winds and available for precipitation as rain depends largely upon the temperature of the sea over which they have blown. The warmer the sea the more moisture is taken up and the more precipitation may be expected on the neighbouring land. In this way, for instance, it is possible to account for the low rainfall last year in the western parts of Great Britain and Ireland—parts which are usually very wet—for during 1909 the temperature of the Gulf Stream Drift was below the normal, and hence the winds blowing from it were not so heavily charged with moisture as usual. The somewhat lower land temperature seems to have just about compensated for this by the time the winds reached the east of Great Britain, so that the rain fell there instead of in the west. The result of this was an abnormally high rainfall in the east, and with the low one in the west the rainfall over the British Isles as a whole was exactly equal to the average. It will be very interesting to see if this is what may be generally expected in years when the Gulf Stream Drift is wealer than usual. There is clearly a possibility of being able to predict the general character of the weather in these islands several months in advance from the results of hydro- graphic observations. It is, of course, a very complex question, and at present one cannot be too confident, but I am certainly of the opinion that such predic- tions will be possible. In another place I have thrown out the suggestion that, as the February hydrographic observations made in the Irish Sea this year were almost identical with those of last year, there was some probability that the weather during 1910 would be somewhat similar to that of last year. It was never expected that the sug- gestion would attract the attention it has done, but it is interesting to note that the May hydrographic observations are also very similar to those of last year—if anything, even less favourable. H. Bassett. PROF.G. V. SCHIAPARELLI. ROF. SCHIAPARELLI, whose death we briefly announced last week, for many years occu- pied a prominent position in the world of science. Half a century has passed since he began his career as second assistant in the Brera Observatory of _ Milan, and nearly as many since he was elected to fill the position of director. In that position he exhibited much energy, and increased the reputation of the observatory. But his greatest success came to him early, and though he worked long and dili- gently, giving evidence of patient industry and prac- tical skill as an observer, he will be remembered mainly for having satisfactorily established the con- nection between meteors and comets. It was a bril- liant discovery founded on acute penetration and sound reasoning. It was, moreover, a discovery that the public were able to appreciate, and by popular applause he was lifted at once into the front rank JuLy 14, 1910] NATURE 45 of astronomers. He was entitled to all the renown which he acquired. For though others may have entertained similar views and expressed them more or less distinctly, they fell short ot demonstration. Prof. Kirkwood, for example, had put the pertinent question, “* May not our periodic meteors be the débris of ancient but now disintegrated comets, whose matter has become distributed around their orbits?” At a moment when we are remembering with grati- tude the eminent services of the distinguished Italian astronomer, there is no necessity to stir old con- troversies; but when so many, from the time of Halley, have been so near a solution of the puzzle, it may quicken our appreciation of his genius to remember that he carried the question one step beyond his predecessors, removing it from the grounds of conjecture to the certainty of conviction. In this connection it is not out of place to recall the remark- able series of letters that Schiaparelli addressed to Father Secchi in 1866,'models of close reasoning lead- ing to a successful result. But as is frequently the case when a brilliant discovery is made, it is possible to detect a certain amount of luck contributing to the final outcome. Schiaparelli’s crowning success was the recognition of the similarity of the orbit of the August meteors with that of the comet of 1862. That this particular comet of long period should have returned to the sun only a few years previously to the discovery, and that its path had been well determined, was a most fortunate circumstance, and one that not only strengthened the evidence of identification, but affected the popular estimate of the certainty of the result. Similarly, with the near coincidence of the return of the comet of 1866 with the great November shower, and less conspicuously that of the 1861 comet with the April Lyrids, astronomers had the advantage of dealing with trustworthy elements. If these comets had passed through perihelion without being observed an important link would have been wanting in the chain of evidence. As it is, these earliest cases of identification are the most conspicuous and the surest examples of a relation, as significant as it was unexpected. For his part in the happy result Schiaparelli was deservedly awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1872. In some other directions the work of Schiaparelli has not received the same complete recognition. In 1877, when Mars was in a favourable position for observation, he announced the detection of the famous canals which have since been the subject of fierce dispute and controversy. Whether these “canals,” interrupting the continental areas, are existent and permanent phenomena has been much questioned; though the doubts expressed do not relate so much to the existence as to the interpretation that has been placed upon them. Schiaparelli regarded the ‘“‘gemination” of the canals as a_ periodical phenomenon depending on the seasons, and was firmly convinced of their alternate obliteration and reappearance. The only point on which we need insist here is the effect that his industry and acuteness of vision have had on the development of astronomical observation. It has been the means of attracting a vast amount of attention to the planet, has enormously increased the activity of observation, and led to the training of a class of observers, who have taken up the subject of planetary markings with avidity. Schiaparelli has written much on the appearance of Mars, and a very large literature has collected round this subject, due largely to his initiative. Another subject with which his name will be con- nected is the attempt to derive the times of rotation of Mercury and Venus. Our information on this topic NO. 2124, VOL. 84] is vague, and the data uncertain. Notwithstanding the care bestowed on the observations, and the plausible nature of his deductions, his results have been accepted with some hesitation. From his patient watching, and from the length of time devoted to the study, his conclusion that Mercury turns en its axis in the same time that it revolves round the sun is entitled to very great consideration. This result was published in 1882, and it was not until some years later, 1890, that he declared that Venus behaved in a similar manner to Mercury. The long interval showed that Schiaparelli did not jump to conclusions, and the limits he assigned to the rotation, between six and nine months, prove that he was not inclined to accept a hypothesis, however specious, in favour of the results of observation. These three conclusions, having reference to the connection of meteors with comets, to the surface markings of Mars, and to the velocity of rotation of the interior planets, are no small achievement in the life of one astronomer. It need not be said that they do not exhaust his scientific activity. A vast amount of routine work, of double-star measurement, and of the position of planets, stands to his credit. He was the author of some 250 papers in various journals, and his memory is as much entitled to our respectful homage for his industry as for his originality. Wilke Be PROF, Ji-Gs GALLE V 7ITH deep regret we have to announce the death, on July 10, at ninety-eight years of age, of the veteran astronomer Prof. J. G. Galle, the doyen of the Associates of the Royal Astronomical Society, into which body he was electéd in 1848. For many years he had been connected with the Berlin Observatory, and will be remembered as the last of the little band of astronomers who were associated in the discovery of Neptune. Galle it was who had the good fortune to carry to complete fruition the successful analyses of Adams and of Le Verrier. It was his lucky chance to compare Bremiker’s map with the sky, to detect the planet, and establish its identity by determining the motion. He long outlived all his companions and associates in that historic scene enacted in the Berlin Observatory on September 23, 1846, the antecedents of which have been told so many times that it is un- necessary to refer to them here more particularly. It is more pertinent to recall, as more likely to have been forgotten, that he was one of the first to nave seen the “crape” ring of Saturn. When this dis- covery was announced in 1850, simultaneously by Bond and Dawes, Galle directed attention to some observations he had made twelve years earlier, in 1838-9, in which he had actually measured the diameter of this interior dusky ring. The observations were communicated at the time to the Berlin Academy, but Galle did not insist on their import- ance, as he could not persuade himself that the phenomenon was permanent and not due to the effect of contrast. From Berlin, Galle went to Breslau, and there he proposed that method of determining the solar parallax, by observations of small planets, which has since proved so successful. His earliest attempts in this direction were applied to measures of Phocaea, and later, from observations of Fiora, he deduced the value of 8°87’. This was at a time when astronomers were beginning to discard Encke’s value of 858" in favour of Le Verrier’s 8'95’’. In another direction it is not possible to overlook a very distinct service which Galle rendered to astronomy. His catalogue of cometary orbits has long been a standard work 46 NATURE [JuLy 14; 1910 of which many astronomers have proved the use/ul- ness. But comets and meteors long had great attractions for the aged astronomer. It will be re- membered that he was among the first to point cut a connection between the April meteors and Comet I, 1861, and ‘to direct attention to the: fact that Biela’s comet. would explain the - appearance of the Andromeda shower. Galle remained at Breslau in full scientific activity until 1897, when he retired to Potsdam after a long life earnestly devoted to astronomy, the interests of which he did much to forward by his zeal and energy. THE HON. CHARLES STEWART ROLLS. e is with deep sorrow that we have to record the death of the Hon. C. S. Rolls by an, accident on Tuesday last, during the aviation meeting at Bourne- mouth. It seems that Mr. Rolls went up in his biplane for the alighting competition, and during the descent the newly fitted tail-piece of his aéroplane suddenly broke, and the whole machine collapsed and fell to the earth from a height of forty or fifty feet. Mr. Rolls was picked up unconscious and, died almost immediately from concussion and laceration of the brain. Charles Stewart Rolls was the third son of Lord and Lady Llangattock, and was born in 1877 and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. From his early youth he was deeply interested in things mechanical, and his brief career, so sadly brought to an end, shows how successfully he utilised his mechanical capacity. Different from many men, Charlie Rolls, as his friends called him, when he set about doing anything, always entered deeply into the subject in a thoroughly scientific manner. Whether the object on hand was connected with cycling, ballooning, motoring, or aeroplaning, in the last two of which he was a pioneer, it was always the same, and his mind was continually bent on finding out the ‘“‘ whys” and the ‘“wherefores,’ and improving the existing state of things. The thoroughness with which he was always associated was strongly brought to my notice in the many balloon trips that I made with him, and his inquiring turn of mind was often displayed when perched up aloft in the clouds. Perhaps the best example is instanced in the quiet manner in which he spent weeks in practising gliding before finally mounting the full-sized aeroplane. It has been said of Rolls that he was born restless, and those who knew him know how true this descrip- tion was. Yet he was never flurried, but always calna and collected. It was this trait in his character that probably made him so successful in his manifold ventures. In the death of Rolls, Britain has lost her most daring and brilliant aviator, and his friends mourn the loss of a dear comrade, Wittiam J. S. Lockyer. NOTES. WE congratulate Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., on the new honour conferred upon him, namely, that of appoint- ment to the Order of Merit, announced in the London Gazette of Friday last. Tue death is announced, at the age of forty-eight years, of Prof. Hugo Erdman, professor of inorganic chemistry in the Berlin Technical High School. Tue annual meeting of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund will be held at the’ Royal College of Surgeons ‘on Wednesday, July 20, Mr. A. J. Balfour presiding: NO. 2124, VOL. 84] Tne Globe states that Herr Frick, who for many years has been engaged in exploration and scientific research, particularly in South America, where he studied the habits and customs of the Indian tribes, has been murdered by Indians in southern Bolivia. Tue death is announced in the Athenaeum of Prof. T, Zona, of the University of, and observatory at, Palermo; also of Prof..A. P. Sokoloff, formerly the holder of the chair of geodesy at St. Petersburg, and more recently the vice-director of the Pulkowa Observatory. Prof. Sokoloff retired from the latter position in 1905 in consequence of ill-health. Tue following officers of the Royal Society of Medicine were elected last week for the year beginning on October 1 next :—president, Sir Henry Morris, Bart.; honorary treasurers, Sir W.- S. Church, Bart., and Sir F. H. Champneys, Bart.; honorary librarians, Mr. R. J. Godlee and~ Dr. Norman. Moore; honorary secretaries, Dr. A. Latham and Mr. H. S. Pendlebury. Ar the annual business meeting of the Museums Association, held last week in York, Mr. H. M. Platnauer was elected president, and Messrs. C. H. Hunt and Deas vice-presidents. A resolution was adopted by the meeting expressing the desire that, in any revision of the grants- in-aid to provincial museums, the Board of Education would consider the advisability of continuing assistance towards the purchase of science objects. Amonc the communications to be brought before the eighth International Physiological Congress at Vienna in September next are the following :—demonstration of method of testing colour perception spectrometer and demonstration of lantern test for colour-blindness, by Dr. Edridge-Green ; the changes produced by radium in normal cells, by Dr. A. S. Griinbaum; and the summation of stimuli, by Drs. F. S. Lee and M. Morse. Tue thirty-ninth meeting of the French Association for the Advancement of Science will be held at Toulouse on August 1 to 7. The president for the year is Prof. C. M. Gariel. Among the names of the presidents of the numerous sections, we notice the following professors of the University’ of Toulouse :—Prof. Emile Mathias, physics; Prof. Victor Paquier, geology; Prof. M. Leclerc du Sablon, botany; and Prof. Ch. Fabre, agronomy. M. Emile Marchand, the director of the Observatory of Pic du Midi, is the president of the section of meteorology. Tue annual meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Con- ference will be held’ at Cambridge on July 26 and 27. In his presidential address, Mr. F. Ransome will deal mainly with the cultivation of medicinal plants and with medicinal plant investigation. Among the’subjects of papers promised for the meeting’ are:—the bacteriological testing of dis- infectants; an insect pest in belladonna; the proposed essential oil monographs; phosphoric acid and ammonium phosphate; the limitations of water analyses reports, both bacterial and chemical; and note on the periodicity of the properties of the elements: new arrangement. We have been favoured with a copy of the preliminary programme of the fifth International Congress of Photo- graphy, which is to be held in Brussels on August 1 to 6 next, from which we learn that section i. (organised by the Société frangaise de Photographie) will deal with photo-chemistry and the scientific applications of photo- graphy; section ii. (organised by the Association belge de Photographie), the technique of photography: and the in- dustrial applications of photography; and section iii. JuLy 14, 1910] NATURE 47 (organised by the Institut international de Bibliographie), photographic documents and legislation relating to docu- mentary photography. As has already been stated in these columns, the correspondent for the United Kingdom is Mr. Chapman Jones, 11 Eaton Rise, Ealing, W. Tue death occurred at Washington, on June 26, of» Prof. Cyrus Thomas, a veteran authority on the diverse subjects of ethnology and entomology. He was born in Tennessee in 1825, and from 1850 until 1865 he practised law. For the next four years he was pastor of a Lutheran Church. He was then successively an assistant on. the U.S: geo- logical surveys of the territories, professor of natural sciences at the Southern Illinois Normal University, State entomologist of Illinois, a member of the U.S. Entomo- logical Commission, and (since 1882) a member of the staff of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology. His earlier writings were on entomological topics, but his most numerous and best known works were concerned with the North American Indians of prehistoric times. A List of the Civil List Pensions granted during the year ended March 31, 1g10, has just been published as a Parliamentary Paper. Amorg the pensions granted in recognition of scientific work we notice the following :— Mr. Thomas Bryant, in recognition of his services towards the advancement of surgery, 100].; Mrs. M. L. Gamgee, in consideration of the valuable contributions to physio- logical science of her husband, the late’ Prof. Arthur Gamgee, 7ol.; Mrs. E. J. Seeley, in consideration of the valuable writings on geology and paleontology of her husband, the late Prof. H. G. Seeley, 7ol.; Miss H. S. Murphy, in consideration of the services’ rendered by her father, the late Prof. E. W. Murphy, in furthering the use of chloroform, 5o0l.; Mr. J. Sully, in recognition of his services to psychology, in addition to his existing pension, 95!.; Mrs. Joanna Calder Fraser, in consideration of the value of the investigations in anatomy and embryology of her husband, the late Prof. A. Fraser, 7ol.; Miss Julia Dobson, in recognition of the important services rendered by her brother, the late Surgeon-Major G. E. Dobson, F.R.S., to zoological science, in addition to her existing pensions, 15]. Pror. T. H. Core, formerly professor of physics in the Owens College, Manchester, died on July g at Withington, near Manchester, in his seventy-fourth year. When the late Balfour Stewart was appointed professor of natural philosophy in the Owens College in 1870, Mr. Core came from Edinburgh to take up the post of professor of physics, a post which he held until his retirement in 1905. Up to the appointment of a professor of applied mathematics in 1881, he took charge of the more mathematical parts of the physics teaching, but as time went on he withdrew from the more advanced work, and for, several years before his retirement only lectured, on. experimental mechanics. He was an extremely clear lecturer, and many Owens’ men who have distinguished themselves in science owe their first iove of their subject to Prof. Core. He was in great demand as a popular lecturer on scientific subjects throughout the cotton towns around Manchester, and acted as examiner to many of the better schools of the district. He was of a retiring disposition, and.never took a prominent: part in university politics. ; Outside his teaching work, his principal interest: lay in astronomy, and ‘he was one of the founders, and the first president, of the Northern Astronomical Association. : It is with regret that we learn of the death of Dr. Wilhelm Winkler, who since 1887 made valuable observa- tions of sun-spots, double stars, comets, NO. 2124, VOL. 84] WG. ate HIS private observatory at Jena. Bern at Eisenberg in 1842, Dr. Winkler studied at Leipzig, and developed a practical, as well as mathematical, ability, which displayed itself in the making-of watches and clocks. Then in 1 75 he set up a 43-inch Steinheil refractor at Gohlis, and made position-measures of comets, observations of occultations, &c. Later, in 1878, he commenced daily observations of the solar surface, communicating his results to Prof. R. Wolf and then to Prof. Wolfer. As ill-health prevented him from observing regularly, he directed observations made by his wife, and so kept up the continuity of the records. Removing to Jena in 1887, he employed a 6-inch refractor, fitted with clock, circles, and micrometers, for the observation of double stars. Unhappily, about two and a half years ago, a sarcoma necessitated the removal of his left eye, and this, with other serious complaints, considerably curtailed his astronomical work and caused him much suffering, which lasted until his death on June 17. Dr. Winkler’s genial’ presence and devoted labours will, however, be sorely missed by his numerous friends and fellow workers. WE notice with regret the announcement of the death, on July 9, of Mr. Harry W. Cox, at the age of forty-six. Mr. Cox was one of the first in this country to realise the importance to the medical profession of Réntgen’s dis- covery, and to take up the design and manufacture of X-ray apparatus. He commenced at once to manufacture coils, interrupters, and accessory apparatus for the applica- tion of the X-rays in medical diagnosis, and to import X-ray tubes and other adjuncts to enable medical men in this country to apply the new discovery. He was always ready to work out new ideas and designs, and probably his most noteworthy achievement was to place on a prac- tical basis the stereoscopic method of localising foreign bodies, with its corollary, the cross-thread. method of localisation. The stereoscopic method also enables a picture to be obtained of the position of parts in cases of fracture and dislocation. In his investigations he exposed himself freely to the action of the X-rays, and, like so many of the pioneers in- this work, he contracted X-ray dermatitis in a severe form. The disease progressed slowly but relentlessly, and he died after several years of suffering. Now that the danger of undue exposure to X-rays is understood, and efficient protective apparatus has been constructed, there is no need for an operator to take any risks, while patients run no risk whatever; for the exposures necessary for purposes of diagnosis are short, while for purposes of treatment the dose can now be accurately measured and regulated. There is thus great cause for gratitude and honour to those who, at the expense of permanent injury to. themselves, have enabled their successors to work in this field in safety. A TABLET in memory of Richard Hakluyt was unveiled in Bristol Cathedral on Thursday last. Among those pre- sent were Sir Clements Markham, K.C.B., F.R.S. (repre- senting the Royal’ Geographical Society), Sir W. Lee Warner (representing the India Office), Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont (of the Navy Records Society), Mr. W. Phillips (of the American Embassy), and Mr. A. Gray (of the Hakluyt Society). Sir Clements Markham said that West- minster Abbey, where Hakluyt was buried, or’ Christ Church, Oxford,’ where he was a student,’ would have formed a fitting place for that memorial, but, on the whole, Bristol had the better right. It was from that ancient port that there were sent the first voyages of dis- covery which occupied Hakluyt’s thoughts and researches. At Bristol he was canon for more than thirty years, and 48 NATURE [Jury 14, 1910 there he must have conducted his researches and collected information. The most important feature in Hakluyt’s character was his strenuous continuity of aim through life. He set himself to remedy two great evils of his time—the ignorance of English seamen in matters relating to the scientific branches of their profession, and the loss of records and stories of ancient voyages and travels. Besides writing and lecturing, he travelled a great deal, collecting stories and information, and set on foot work such as was now carried on by the Royal Geographical Society and other organisations. He was one of the founders of our Colonial Empire. In distributing the prizes last week to the students of Guy’s Hospital Medical School, Prof. Howard Marsh said that medicine had now become a department of biology, and it had given a powerful impetus to the study of bio- logical science. The result had been the discovery of a new world of micro-organisms, of the existence of which nothing was known before the days of Pasteur and Lister. By far the greater number of diseases were due to the presence of micro-organisms. Who could doubt that in the next thirty years tuberculosis, which in England caused the death of 70,000 persons every year and the spoiling of the lives of probably twice that number, would be entirely swept away? Science was the acquisition of facts, and the results of research had been one of the marvels of our time. How should research be carried out? Could the man in the street tell them that? Was any man who knew nothing of biology in a position to save life? How was such a man justified in bringing charges of inhumanity and cruelty against men of science, and saying that what was being done ought to be put down by the strong hand of the law? When the public knew what advances had been made, and were told by such men as Lister and Paget that they had been gained by the only method by which they could have been achieved, who was competent to contradict them? And when it was understood that what was being done was done under Government supervision, and that no man could perform an experiment without a special licence, would not the public be satisfied that the matter was in safe hands? Would they not go further, and be grateful to those who, with unending labour, rendered such great services, and would they not extend to them their full confidence and support? Tue Milan correspondent of the Daily Chronicle states that an Italian Royal Commission, appointed to inquire into the condition of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, has re- ported that the structure is in danger of collapse. The tower was begun in 1170, and took nearly a couple of centuries to complete. ‘‘ Our explorations,” say the members of the commission, ‘‘led to the wholly un- foreseen and distressing discovery that, instead of being founded upon a massive, spacious base, as was gener- ally believed since Grassi, in 1831, and Rohault de Fleury, in 1859, published their collections of plans, the actual foundation simply consists of ring-shaped masonry exactly corresponding in girth to the huge cylindrical mass superimposed thereon. In fact, the diameter of the inner ring foundations is 7 metres 40 centimetres, which is pre- cisely that of the space inside the tower. This discovery, taken together with the further astonishing fact that the foundations are merely 3 metres (9 feet 9 inches) beneath the surface, constitutes henceforth incontrovertible proof that the campanile was originally built perpendicularly, and that its leaning propensities, which are becoming more and more accentuated, are due to other causes than the inten- tion of its constructors.’’ It is stated that the tower is farther from the vertical than it was eighty years ago. NO. 2124, VOL. 84] The reasons given for this difference are principally that the base of the tower has always been immersed in water, and that a deep cistern dug quite near seventy years ago with the unsuccessful object of draining a basin around the foot of the tower made matters worse. The tower was also considerably weakened by earlier excavation for a basin for mensuration purposes. In a letter to the current issue of the Lancet, Dr. H. W. Thomas, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, gives an interesting account of the special screening against mosquitoes which has been effected on a freight boat of the Booth Line sailing from Liverpool to Porto Velho, a small place up the Rio Madeiro, a tributary of the Amazon. The screening of the ship is so arranged that the living quarters of the crew and officers are protected from mosquitoes. Each port-hole is provided with a movable screened frame, which is so adapted that the port-hole can be closed and screwed down without withdrawing the screen. The entrances to the main deck are protected by wire gauze spring doors, and at each side of the ash- shoot, which is of necessity open to the ingress of mosqui- toes, extra sets of screened doors are placed. The doors and port-holes of the outside bridge deck cabins are also screened; the doctor’s quarters and the hospital are situated further aft, and are thoroughly screened. The interior arrangements permit of no old-fashioned water reservoir over the wash-basin in the cabins, and running water is supplied everywhere. The slops from the basins run into pipes emptying directly over the side. This arrangement very satisfactorily deprives the Stegomyia larvae of breeding places in the cabins. The ventilator pipes in the cabins and along the alleyways are each pro- tected by a wire gauze screened frame, which slips into a grooved moulding fixed round the shaft, and is kept in place by three small buttons. The screening is composed of 18-mesh phosphor-bronze wire, a material which is more suitable for a moist, humid climate than brass or copper. Tue Journal of Hygiene for April (vol. x., No. 1) con- tains a report on an investigation of ‘‘ grouse disease’ by Drs. Cobbett and Graham-Smith. It was found that the diseased birds generally harbour large numbers of intestinal worms, in particular a ‘‘ strongylus”’ (Tricho- strongylus pergracilis), which may occur in hundreds or even thousands. The conclusion is that the disease does not appear to be a specific bacterial infection, but that those birds which are more or less severely affected by strongyli suffer injury, partly by interference with nutri- tion, partly by the absorption of irritating or poisonous substances, which weakens them, and in bad weather may prevent them from gaining a living, and also renders them susceptible to various bacterial infections. Messrs. Hewlett, Villar and Revis also contribute a second part of their investigations on the nature of the cellular elements present in milk. Further evidence is presented showing that the cells are not leucocytes, that they may be present in enormous numbers in perfectly healthy cows, and that they are not necessarily indicative of any inflammatory condition. In the first part of Folk-lore for the current year Dr. W. H. R. Rivers publishes a paper on the position of the father’s sister in Oceania, particularly with reference to Banks’ Island. The problem to be explained is the close connection between an individual and his father’s sister in the case of people among whom the rule of matrilinear descent prevails. This relation closely resembles that of a man with his maternal uncle in patrilinear races, and it has therefore been suggested that the relation in Banks’ JuLy 14, 1910] NATURE 49 Island may be a survival in mother-right of a preceding condition of patrilinear descent. This theory Dr. Rivers dismisses as quite opposed to all known facts. The theory which he finally adopts is that when, for instance, a frag- ment of a man’s umbilical cord and parings of his nails are given to the sister of his father, the intention is to entrust them to her as the representative of a group which, according to rules of descent, is necessarily foreign, and therefore hostile, in the hope that she may be able to pre- vent any member of that group from working black magic against her nephew. It is also possible that this strange relation indicates an increasing recognition of the kinship of the father, who deputes his sister to perform certain acts as an assertion of his paternity, thus bringing her functions into line with those which, according to one view, belong to the Couvade. THE remains of the gigantic extinct Australian marsupial, Diprotodon, have just been re-arranged in a newly con- structed wall-case in the Geological Department of the British Museum (Natural History). The restored skeleton of the animal, for which bones and plaster casts were given by the South Australian Museum, through Dr. E. C. Stirling, F.R.S., occupies the greater part of the case. It displays especially well the massive carpal and tarsal bones and the diminutive toes, which are so characteristic a feature. The limb-bones from Queensland, described by Owen, are arranged on a shelf above the skeleton, and include the first discovered femur, which was originally mistaken for that of an elephant. The skull, as described by Owen, was purchased in a restored state in a sale- room, and has now been carefully divested of all super- fluous plaster, proving that the restoration erroneously increased its length by 4 inches. With the skull are several well-preserved jaws showing all the teeth. Palaontologists are still awaiting with interest the promised complete description of Diprotodon by Drs. Stirling and Zietz, of the South Australian Museum. AmonG other additions to the exhibited collection in the Geological Department of the British Museum (Natural History) may be mentioned a new model of the skull and mandible of the gigantic extinct lemur, Megaladapis insignis, from Madagascar. Thanks to the explorations of Dr. H. F. Standing in the swamps, the model is no longer in any respect hypothetical. It clearly suggests an animal adapted for an aquatic life, and the characters of the known limb-bones confirm this suggestion. To the table-case near the fossil lemurs has just been added a plaster cast of the much-discussed Paleolithic human skull from Galley Hill, in Kent. The original specimen stil! remains in a private collection. In the Entomologists’ Monthly Magazine for the current month, the Rev. F. D. Morice records a male saw-fly from Brockenhurst new to the British fauna. Provisionally the specimen is referred to Neurotoma mandibularis, a Con- tinental species hitherto known only by the female. A detailed description, in Latin and English, is appended. British Birds for July opens with an obituary notice, accompanied by an excellent portrait, of the late Mr. Boyd Alexander, who, it will be remembered, was murdered on April 2 by hostile natives in the heart of Africa to the north-west of Abeshr, vin the Wadai. In another article Mr. W. Farren records, with illustrations, the nesting of the marsh-warbler in Cambridgeshire in June, 1909; only One previous instance, and that many years ago, is known of the species breeding in that county. NO. 2124, VOL. 84] Ir has been pointed out by a correspondent that in a note upon a paper by Prof. Steinmann on ammonite phylo- geny (Nature, vol. Ixxxii., p. 289, January 6) the author was somewhat misrepresented. It was stated ‘“‘ that, in place of being a member of the ‘ Circumnodosi’ group, Heterotissotia is really related to the Triassic Ceratites, of which it is to be regarded as the Cretaceous descendant.’’. It should have read ‘‘ that Heterotissotia is nearly related to the Triassic Ceratites, and especially the “ Circumnodosi’ group, of which it is to be regarded as the Cretaceous descendant.’’ In the May number of Spolia Zeylanica Mr. T. South- well records the capture of a large female saw-fish (Pristis cuspidata) on the Ceylon pearl-banks in December last. The. specimen, which measured 15 feet in length, and weighed about 17 lb., was of special interest on account of containing twenty-three intra-uterine embryos. All these embryos were in a horizontal position; but while some had their beaks close to the aperture of the cloaca, others were exactly opposite. They measured 14 inches in length, and in each the yolk-sac was united to the abdomen by a placental stalk 5 inches long. The teeth, from twenty- three to twenty-eight in number on both sides, were arranged irregularly, varying between alternation and a distribution in pairs. In the same issue (Spolia Zeylanica, vol. vi., p. 174) Mr. H. O. Barnard states, as the result of personal observation, that the alleged partiality of cobras for music is a myth. ‘‘ The sole effect, so far as I could see, was to arouse their curiosity, as they would project their heads out of their holes equally well for any kind of noise, from the shrill piping affected by snake-charmers down to the tinkling noise made by dragging a chain past their dwell- ing, or even that made by light and repeated tappings with a switch close to their holes. It would appear, however, that the tone must be high, as grave sounds, such as tom- tom beating or deep notes from a flute, had no effect upon them.’’ Mr. Barnard likewise confirms the observations, made in the London Zoological Gardens, as to the absence of a “‘ fascinating ’’ influence of serpents on birds. In No. 1745 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell discusses the bees of the genus Nomia, with the description of several new species. All the American members of the group are re- ferred to the typical genus, although an alternative classi- fication is mentioned, in which Nomia would be excluded from the American fauna. If this scheme were adopted, there would, however, be difficulties with regard to the non-American forms, which are not easy to classify. ‘“* The group,’’ it is added, ‘‘is a peculiar one, and apparently its little morphological jokes must not be taken too seriously.”* THE gipsy moth is so important a pest that a laboratory has been established at Melrose Highlands, Massachusetts, known as the Gipsy Moth Parasite Laboratory, where a complete study may be made of the parasites. Mr. J. C. Crawford has issued a description of several members of the families Chalcididze, Perilampide, Pteromalide, and Eulophide occurring in the United States or introduced from Europe or Japan and known to be parasitic on the moth. The paper is published by the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology. Tue Agricultural Journal of British East Africa does not confine itself entirely to agriculture, but includes papers on other subjects connected with the Protectorate. Part iv. of vol. ii. contains, as special agricultural papers, accounts 50 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1910 of the Guayule rubber industry and of Ceara rubber in German East Africa, in addition to papers on tea cultiva- tion at Limoru. Among the more general papers is an interesting diary of a journey made by Mr. E. Battis- combe down the Tana River; photographs are reproduced showing typical views and native huts. TuE current issue of the West Indian Bulletin (No. 4, vol. x.) contains a description by Mr. Joseph Jones of some cacaos grown at the Dominica Botanic Station. The root disease of sugar-cane (Marasmius sacchari) is also discussed, and found to be prevalent in all districts of Antigua, although planters do not readily recognise it, and therefore cannot apply remedial treatment as early as is desirable. ‘There is an interesting paper by Mr. G. Moody Stuart on implemental cultivation, in which attention is directed to the necessity for using the best and most efficient tillage implements, some suitable types of which are described. Tue theoretically ideal method of dealing with insect pests is to encourage their natural enemies, but it is of limited application, because complications invariably set in sooner or later. The natural enemies of the sugar-cane pests were recently described in the Agricultural News (No. 209). Several parasites are known of the sugar-cane borer (Sphenophorus obscurus), one being a Tachinid fly, one a Histerid beetle, and one a beetle of the family Elateride. Attempts are being made in Hawaii to intro- duce the natural enemies of the pests occurring there. WE have received a little booklet, ‘‘ How to Use Nitrate of Soda,’’ with a preface by Dr. Bernard Dyer, in which summaries are given of various field trials with this fertiliser. Several old misconceptions are dealt with; it is shown that nitrate of soda is not a mere stimulant, but a true plant food, and that it does not exhaust the soil. The necessity for potassic and phosphatic manuring and for periodical liming is also emphasised. Whilst primarily intended for practical men, the pamphlet is also of interest as showing what has been done with artificial manures. A REPORT describing the experiments made during 1909 at the Harper Adams Agricultural College, and in the counties of Staffordshire and Shropshire, has lately been issued. One of the most notable features is the cropping power of a wheat, Browick grey chaff, recently introduced to the district by the college authorities; other wheats selected from Fife are also under investigation. We have also received the report on experiments with potatoes made in 1909 by Mr. Stewart, of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland Agricultural College. The effect of a change of locality on the vigour of the plant was well marked; apparently the best change is from a later or colder dis- trict to one earlier or warmer. Thus in the south-east of Scotland it was found advantageous to procure seed from the north, just as in England it is found profitable to procure seed from Scotland or Ireland. REFERENCE is made in the Kew Bulletin (No. 5) to the flowering of the Burmese rose, Rosa gigantea, in the Himalayan section of the temperate house, this being the first record for the gardens. Another interesting item is the production of carpophylls on a plant of Cycas Micholitzit, which is being cultivated in the water-lily house. THE current number of the Kew Bulletin (No. 5) opens with a report, by Dr. J. M. Dalziel, on the botanical resources of Yola province, northern Nigeria. Shea kernels (Butyrospermum Parkii) and gum are the chief commercial vegetable products. The author was not able NO. 2124, VOL. 84] to trace the sources of the gum beyond recognising that it is obtained from species of Acacia and Combretum, notably Acacia senegal and Combretum verticillatum, with admixtures of inferior gum from such sources as Anogeissus leiocarpa and species of Albizzia. Odorous resin is obtained from two species of Boswellia—new to science—and Daniella thurifera. Diagnoses of new Lauracez from the Malayan region, by Dr. J. S. Gamble, include a dozen species of Cryptocarya and ten of the genus Beilschmiedia. In the first issue of the meteorological chart of the North Atlantic for July, published by the Meteorological Committee, the synchronous weather charts show that from June 9-12 inclusive an area of high barometric pressure remained nearly stationary in the neighbourhood of the Azores, and afterwards travelled slowly eastward and north-eastward, causing a gradual improvement in the weather over the British Isles. Icebergs have been sighted with increasing frequency on the Banks of Newfoundland, drifting south, but the total number is below the normal. It is stated that navigation opened earlier this year than for some years past, owing to the exceptionally favourable conditions of the ice, not only in the St. Lawrence, but also in the White Sea and the Baltic. The first steamer reached St. Petersburg on April 18, only a week later than the earliest date of arrival there on record. Tue Bulletin of the Manila Weather Bureau for November, 1909 (recently received), contains particulars of two notable typhoons which crossed the Philippine Archi- pelago during that month. The first, on November 6-7, was remarkable for the unusual violence which it dis- played in the Visayas and the China Sea, and for the changes in direction of the track while traversing the China Sea. Attention is directed to the occurrence at two stations of ball-lightning, which is said to be extremely rare in the neighbourhood of a cyclonic vortex. The second storm, November 12-23, was distinguished by the extraordinary development which it acquired in the China Sea, and especially by the fact that for several days it remained practically stationary to the east of the Paracel Islands; from November 18 to 21 the mean velocity of translation was only about 1-5 miles per hour. The tracks of the typhoons are laid down, and isobaric charts drawn from all available observations and reports; much credit is due to the Weather Bureau for its persistent efforts to throw light on the behaviour of these destructive storms. THE present summer has so far proved cool and un- settled, and to the present it has given cause for suspicion that the season may prove as unfavourable as that of last year. The summary just issued by the Meteorological Office for the five weeks ended July 9 shows the mean temperature for the period to be in fair agree- ment with the average, but there has so far been a marked absence of high day temperatures. The rainfall has been in excess of the average over the whole of England and Ireland, but there has been a slight deficiency of rain in Scotland. The greatest excess for the five weeks is 1-69 inches in the south-east of England and 1-54 inches in the Midland counties, whilst in nearly all districts the excess is more than an inch. The duration of bright sun- shine is deficient in England and Ireland, but there was a slight excess in Scotland. At Greenwich, the mean con- ditions for June were for the most part in fair agreement with the normal, but the weather was by no means agree- able. The rain fell at the commencement and end of the month, the aggregate measurement being 2-11 inches, JULY 14, 1910] which is only 0-07 inch more than the average, but rain fell on sixteen days. The mean temperature was about 1° above the normal, and the duration of bright sunshine was twelve hours less than usual. Messrs. R. W. Pavut have issued a pamphlet entitled “The Equipment of a Modern Elementary Electrical Laboratory,” in which a standardisation of instruments is advocated with the view of attaining an interchangeability of instruments, shunts, and multipliers so that any one instrument may be easily adapted for measuring a wide range of currents and voltages. The instrument recom- mended for the use of elementary students is the unipivot galvanometer, which has a range of 240 microamperes unshunted, and may therefore be used instead of a mirror galvanometer for many experiments. An appendix gives a list of experiments suggested for an elementary course in electrical engineering and the apparatus required for carrying them out. We think that Messrs. Paul advocate too strongly the advisability of making the carrying out of experiments easy to the student. A great part of the benefit to be derived from an experimental course lies in learning to overcome practical difficulties, and students brought up on experiments that are so carefully prepared as to eliminate such difficulties do not, as a rule, become siilful experimenters in the more advanced stages. VoL. vii. of Contributions from the Jefferson Physical Laboratory of Harvard University contains 463 pages of reprints of fifteen papers which have appeared in the American scientific periodicals during the past year. Of these papers, we have already noticed one in these columns, tHat on certain thermal properties of steam, by Mr. H. N. Davis. Another of exceptional interest, by Mr. H. W. Morse, deals with the evaporation from a solid sphere. The spheres experimented on were of iodine, and had radii between o-2 and 1 millimetre. They were supported on a thin lamina of glass attached to the end of a thin fibre of glass, the other end of which was clamped firmly in a horizontal position, i.e. the micro-balance of Salvioni. The evaporation took place in a large box with glass sides, through which the deflection of the micro-balance was measured by means of a microscope. The rate of evapora- tion proved to be proportional to the radius of the drop, and not to its surface. Ax advance copy has reached us of the catalogue of mathematical and scientific instruments to be on view at the International Exhibition at Brussels this year. This catalogue has been prepared under the auspices of the Board of Trade by the National Physical Laboratory; it refers only to the exhibits of British manufacturers. It includes detailed descriptions and illustrations of many of the instruments. A glance through this catalogue gives a very good idea of the rapid advances that are being made in the design of physical apparatus. It is invidious to select any names of exhibitors; it is enough to say that most of the leading makers of electrical, optical, survey- ing, navigational, and meteorological instruments are amongst them, and that the addition of historical refer- ences and lists of original publications makes the book a valuable one for reference. The price is only sixpence post free on application to the director, Exhibitions Branch, Board of Trade, Broadway, Westminster. We may add that the catalogue has been compiled free of cost to the exhibitors, and it is hoped that the prospect of the publica- tion of a similar catalogue for the International Exhibition at Turin next year will induce other firms to avail them- selves of the many facilities which the new Board of Trade department now affords to exhibitors. NO. 2124, VOL. 84] NATURE 51 WeE have received from Messrs. Baird and Tatlock (London), Ltd., a copy of the gas-calculator designed by Dr. R. C. Farmer. The diagram consists of four vertical lines; the two on the left are graduated in temperatures for wet and dry gas respectively; the line on the right is graduated in pressures (mm.). A celluloid strip bearing a black ruled line is laid across the observed pressure and temperature of the gas, and the corrected volume of 1 c.c. of gas is read off directly on the middle line. The latter is also graduated to read the logarithm of the weight of 1 c.c. of nitrogen. It is claimed to give the volume with an accuracy of 1 part in 5000, and this we have found co be the case if 0:00367 be taken as the coefficient of ex- pansion of the gas in question. The diagram is extremely rapid and convenient in use, but it should not be lost sight of that an accuracy of 1 in 5000 is not possible with the more expansible gases. THE synthesis of camphoric acid, as announced by Komppa in 1903, is adversely criticised by M. Blanc (of the Sorbonne, Paris) and Dr. J. F. Thorpe in a recent communication to the Journal of the Chemical Society. One of the critical stages in the synthesis consists in the methylation of a diketoapocamphoric acid with the view of completing the total of ten carbon atoms present in the molecules of camphor and of camphoric acid. Using the ester of the acid, the methylation-product is a crystalline substance melting at 85° to 88°, and was supposed by Komppa to have the new methyl-group attached to carbon ; it is now shown that the methyl-group is easily removed by cold caustic potash, and is undoubtedly attached to oxygen and not to carbon; the reduction of the compound to camphoric acid would therefore involve an important molecular re-arrangement, and even if it were effected could scarcely be regarded as a direct building up of the camphor molecule. We have received from the Thermal Syndicate, Ltd. (Wallsend-on-Tyne), its list of pure fused silica ware. The manufacture of articles from fused silica has engaged the attention of experimenters for a long time; but, owing to the high fusing point of quartz, the difficulties met with in manufacturing articles were very considerable. The Thermal Syndicate has developed a most successful process for fusing and working silica in an electric furnace. Only in 1904, a basin of 25 cubic centimetres capacity was considered an achievement; but at the present time, pipes 12 inches in diameter and 30 inches long, and vessels of 50 litres capacity, are being manufactured. The articles manufactured by the Thermal Syndicate which are placed on the market under the trade name “‘ Vitreosil ’’ are of very varied character. The ware is used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, for nitre pot pipes, and for the basins for cascade concentrators, of which there are more than 600 in use in the British Isles, representing an output of about 22,000 tons of acid. It is also used to a smaller extent in the manufacture of nitric acid, and for making the pipes which carry the gases from the roasters in the manufacture of hydrochloric acid. It can be used for making condenser worms, small electrolytic tanks where the process requires the maintenance of a high temperature, and so on. The great advantage of “*Vitreosil’’ is that it is practically unaffected by tempera- ture changes, the coefficient of expansion being about one- seventeenth that of glass. Owing to this property, its high fusibility and its resistance to acids, quartz is now being very largely used for the manufacture of laboratory apparatus. 52 NATURE wry 14,) Tone Tue issue of the ‘‘ Statesman’s Year-book ’’ for 1910 has been published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd. This is the forty-seventh annual publication of an invaluable work of reference. The information throughout the 1500 pages has been corrected to the latest available date, and the changes made necessary by the death of King Edward VII. and the accession of King George V., as well as those arising out of the Union of South Africa, have been recorded. The proposed changes in the adminis- tration of the Belgian Congo are indicated; the sections on China and on the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan have been improved. Among matters of current interest, reference may be made to the articles on ‘‘ Second Chambers ’’ and the results of the census of production. As usual, the annual provides a number of new maps, and among them may be mentioned those showing the development of the Congo, the proposed Central Scotland and Georgian Bay Ship Canals, the United South Africa and South African railways, and South America, showing the railways. Altogether, this edition of the ‘‘ Year-book ’’ is well up to the high standard one associates with Dr. Scott Keltie’s editorship. The price of the book is 10s. 6d. net. Messrs. Repman, Lrtp., hope to publish during the pre- sent month a new book by Dr. Bernard Hollander entitled ‘“The Mental Symptoms of Brain Disease,’’ with a preface by Dr. J. Morel, Belgian State Commissioner in Lunacy. A SECOND edition of Dr. Washington’s ‘‘ Manual of the Chemical Analysis of Rocks’’ has been published by Messrs. John Wiley and Sons in New York and Messrs. Chapman and Hall, Ltd., in this country. The first edition appeared in 1904, and was reviewed in these columns on January 5, 1905 (vol. Ixxi., p. 219). The pre- sent issue has been revised and somewhat enlarged. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Hattey’s Comet.—Dr. Ebell’s ephemeris for Halley’s comet is continued in No. 4423 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, and gives the positions, &c., up to Sep- tember 18. On July 16 the comet will be in R.A. 1oh. 59-4m., dec.—4° 2-7’, and its estimated magnitude will be 6.3, so that further observations in these latitudes are impossible. The distances from the earth and sun, on that date, will be 197 and 162 million miles respectively. Owing to its apparent proximity to the sun, the comet could not be extensively photographed at any one observa- tory, but it is hoped that when the results from various observatories come to be compared, there will be a fairly continuous record which will enable the changes in the tail to be closely followed. An example of such change is afforded by the negatives secured at Johannesburg on April 21 and Kodaikanal on April 22, the latter showing, among other changes, a large contorted streamer on one side; the similarity to the tail of Morehouse’s comet is thus emphasised. A spectrum of the comet, taken at Mount Wilson, was described by Prof. Fowler, at the last meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, as being of the usual type. Dark Fraunhoferic lines, due to reflected sunlight, are shown in the narrow strip of the spectrum due to the nucleus, and in that of the coma the bands at AA 473, 421, and 388 are seen. Prof. Fowler suggested that the unequal intensities of the five heads in the cyanogen, 388, band were, possibly, indications of a rather low pressure condition. A comparison of this spectrum with that of Daniel’s comet (1907), taken by Prof. Campbell, shows that they are practically identical. In the Comptes vendus (No. 1) for July 4 Prof. Eginitis describes the appearance of the comet at Athens since its inferior conjunction. An increased activity of the nucleus ejected large masses of matter to great distances, and on May 31 an aigrette was seen, which was brighter than the nucleus itself and turned away from the sun; this was made up of straight streamers 50” long diverging to form NO. 2124, VoL. 84] an angle of 60°. It was also noticed that, after the passage, the tail became much more brilliant than before, an effect which the author ascribes, in great part, to the change in the relative positions of the comet, the sun, and the observer. From this he deduces that the brilliancy of the tail is largely due to reflected sunlight, and suggests that it affords further evidence that the tail is, to an appreciable extent, made up of fine, solid particles. Photographic and visual observations of the spectrum, made at the Madrid Observatory since the conjunction, are described by Father Iniguez. Photographs taken on June 1, 3, and 6 show the continuous spectrum and seven superposed monochromatic images of the coma. ‘The three least refrangible of these were observed in May, and of the four new ones the two brightest are in the extreme ultra-violet, beyond the continuous spectrum. The plate taken on June 1 shows each of the three less refrangible bands doubled. Three of the four more refrangible bands are well defined, and their wave-lengths are given as 437, 425, and 391; the other is broad, extending from A 399 to A 407. The visual observations indicate an intrinsic change in the band recorded as A 567 on May 27 and as A 559 on May 30; on the former date the red edge was sharp, whereas on the latter it was diffuse, and was not the most intense part of the band. The green band at A 512 on May 27 and A 516 on May 30 was sharp and apparently composite, and the difference of waye-length is attributed to a relative change in the intensities of the components inter se. Apparently the band at A 472 did not change. The visual and photographic observations of the tail showed various, although not pronounced, changes, which are discussed in the note; until May 6 the tail was of the first type, but from then until the passage of the comet it was of the second, reverting to type i. after the passage. PREVENTION OF Dew Deposit upon Lens SurRFAces.—In a paper published in No. 7, vol. Ixx., of the Monthly Notices, Mr. Franklin Adams states that the Mervel Hill photography of the northern hemisphere stars could have been completed in two years instead of nearly six if some means had been devised for preventing the deposition of dew on the lens surfaces. He then describes a method by which the difficulty has now been overcome. An air-pump, driven by a motor, delivers a current of dried air on the lens surfaces, inside the camera, and on the film of the plate, thus preventing the dew deposits. The air is dried by forcing it over pumice stone soaked in sulphuric acid and then over glass weol. A VarRIABLE STAR AS A Time Constant.—Having regu~ larly observed a variable star, No. 33 in the Harvard list, in the cluster M.5 (Libra), Prof. Barnard discusses its light-changes in No. 4409 of the Astronomische Nach- richten. This star was compared with a neighbouring star, which is designated k, and for ten years its period has apparently remained unchanged, Therefore Prof. Barnard suggests that it, and other similar variables, might prove useful for providing a check on the constancy of the earth’s rotation, or any other possibly variable elements of the solar system. It rises sharply to a maxi- mum, at which it seems to remain for only a few minutes, and then declines quickly until it is as bright as k; after that the decline is more leisurely. At minimum the magni- tude is 14-6, and the increase is rather more than 1-2 magnitudes, the period being o-50147+d. To facilitate observations of this interesting time-standard, Prof. Barnard gives an ephemeris which is useful up to the year 1918. RaDIATION AND ABSORPTION.—In_ discussing various astronomical phenomena, the observer often has to study numerous laws concerning radiation and absorption, and this frequently necessitates looking them up especially. To obviate waste of time in this direction, Prof. Humphreys brings together, in No. 4, vol. xxxi., of the Astrophysical Journal, the chief laws, and discusses the general formule by which they are expressed. Thus the equations for the Doppler, Maxwell-Bartoli, Zeeman, and other effects are explained, and the most convenient formule for general use are collected in an invaluable summary which should prove of great convenience. Juty 14, 1910] NATURE 53 THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF ORNITHOLOGISTS. HE fifth International Congress of Ornithologists tool place in Berlin from May 30 to June 4. Like all the former congresses of its kind, it was well attended, although only a single American and compara- tively few English ornithologists were present. The opening address of the president, Prof. Anton Reichenow, of Berlin, was a lucid, though necessarily short, review of the progress of ornithology within the last 150 years and its present status. The Hon. Walter Rothschild delivered a lecture on the former and present distribution of the so-called Ratitee, em- bracing also some very interesting recent investigations by Mr. C. W. Andrews on the egg-shells of certain ostriches, especially some pieces of the egg of a fossil ostrich, found last year by Messrs. Rothschild and Hartert in the Algerian Sahara. Baron Loudon gave descriptions of the bird-life in Talysch and Transcaspia; Prof. Koenig narrated his journey up the Nile to Lado and Gondokoro; Dr. Otto Hermann explained the activity of the Royal Hungarian Central Bureau of Ornithology; Dr. Thienemann that of the ‘* Vogelwarte Rossitten,’’ especially the method and results of his experiments with ‘‘ ringed birds’’; while the other lectures held in the general meetings were about bird-protection and the preservation of ‘‘ nature’s monu- ments ’’ as connected with bird-life. Numerous communi- cations were made and lectures delivered in the various sections, their number being so great that in some of the sections the time available was hardly sufficient, and dis- cussions had sometimes to be cut short. Of the lectures in the sections, mention can only be made of a few, as most of them were only of interest to specialists. : The proceedings of section i. (systematic, palzontology, anatomy, and geographical distribution) were opened with a lecture by Dr. Hartert, on ‘‘ what we ought to do and what we ought not to do.’’? The speaker pointed out many -evils and shortcomings in the technical treatment of modern bird-study ; he specially urged greater care to avoid new synonyms, demanded better descriptions, more cooperation, &e. He pointed out the necessity of liberality in lending specimens to competent persons and institutions, and re- garded museums which did not lend material to others as behind the times. He also made clear the necessity of greater care in preparing and preserving the material for study, especially bird-skins, held that they should be more exactly and more securely labelled, and discussed various other technical details. Mr. Friedrich Rosenberg spoke: about the development of the Colymbidz, Prof. Jacobi discussed the development and systematic position of the ‘‘ Impennes,’’ and Geheimrat Prof. Virchow gave the results of his study on the mobility of the nuchal vertebrae in the Spheniscidz. Prof. Neumann discussed zoogeographical problems, specially referring to the necessity of careful geographical study in connection with the description of subspecies cf birds, and their distribution. In section ii. (migration) a number of lectures were given, of which that of Rittmeister von Lucanus, about the height at which birds migrate, appeared to be of special interest. In section iii. (biology, oology, acclimatisation), Mr. Lucanus also made very important statements regarding the psychology of birds. Dr. and Mrs. Heinroth lectured on the biology of certain Anatide, and on the breeding in captivity of Caprimulgus and Locustella. # oe Zedlitz dealt with the breeding-seasons of African irds. Dr. Weigold gave interesting details about the former and present status of bird-life on Heligoland, and recom- mended the continuation of regular observations on that island “* before it would be too late.’’ In section iv. (bird-protection) the necessity for the pro- hibition of the introduction of feathers and bird-skins for millinery purposes was urged, and the question of inter- national bird laws discussed. Section v. was devoted to poultry and other domesticated birds, and appeared to be well attended. At the meeting of the International Ornithological Com- mittee it was decided that the Ornis should not be con- NO. 2124, VOL. 84] tinued in the form of a regular periodical, but of irregular volumes containing the proceedings of the various ornitho- logical congresses, and special scientific treatises, in the event of material and means being available for the pur- pose. In every town a congress has its peculiar features. While some of the characteristics of the fourth Congress of Ornithologists in London were the excursions to Tring and Woburn Abbey, and the visit to the Bempton Cliffs, with their breeding-colonies of sea-fowl, the congress at Berlin was remarkable for the various liberal entertainments in the town. The city gave a dinner in the famous Town Hall, the Zoological Garden Society a luncheon, the Ornithological Society a supper, and one evening was pleasantly spent in the natural history theatre, called ‘© Urania.” An illustrated guide and excellent map of Berlin were presented to every member, also a reprint of Lichtenstein’s very rare ‘‘ Verzeichniss einer Sammlung von Saugethieren und Végeln aus dem Kaffernlande,’’ of 1842, a description of the ‘‘ Vogelwarte Rossitten,’’ and various other pamphlets and booklets. E. H. THE DANGERS OF FERRO-SILICON.* PERRO-SILICON, averaging about 13 per cent. silicon and made in the blast-furnace, has been used in steel works, and to a certain extent in iron foundries, for many years. Steel castings were made with about 0-3 per cent. silicon to help in the prevention of blow-holes, and at the same time to aid in giving the properties required by engineers; and in foundries the ferro-silicon is used to add to mixtures of iron, such as those containing large percentages of scrap, that would otherwise yield a hard casting, as the added silicon has the effect of changing the combined to free or graphitic carbon on cooling. Within the last few years much richer ferro-silicons have been made in electric furnaces, and have found a ready sale. They are useful for special crucible steels and for . certain steels for electrical work, and also for adding silicon in the ladle in the case of basic open-hearth practice, as there it is impossible to do this efficiently on the hearth, though it is easily done in the acid process. ; With the electrically produced high-grade ferro-silicon came trouble. The present writer remembers the great interest taken in the earliest recorded case of this trouble as given by Dr. Dupré and Captain Lloyd at the Iron and Steel Institute in May, 1904. Owing to a fire having occurred on a vessel, the cargo, including 50 per cent. grade ferro-silicon brought from Trieste, was discharged on December 17, 1903. On January 12, 1904, the forty- eight drums containing the ferro-silicon were removed to a warehouse in Bootle, and whilst being rolled from the truck on to the concrete floor one drum exploded. Dr. Dupré and Captain Lloyd, after careful investigation, pro- nounced the explosion to be due to PH, evolved owing to the action of damp air, and gave a weighty and serious warning with regard to the handling and storing of this comparatively new product. So explosions and spontaneous ignition came in the train of the new material; but it was to make its powers felt in another way. On the S.S. Vaderland, Antwerp to New York, over a hold in which ferro-silicon was stored, fifty steerage passengers were made ill and eleven died, of whom nine were buried at sea, and two corpses landed at New York, as plague was feared. In March, 1906, two children died on a Rhine boat. On October 21, 1905, two children died on board a ‘‘ keel’’ on the Keadby Canal; the father and mother were taken seriously ill, but re- covered on deck. In February, 1907, on the Olaf Wyjk, Gothenburg to Antwerp, four passengers died. In May, 1908, on the S.S. Uleaborg, Stockholm to St. Petersburg, the crew and second-class passengers were taken ill, and two died. On October 29, 1908, on the keel Harry, Captain Bamfield’ and the mate, his grandson, started from Goole with ferro-silicon on board, apparently consigned as “* scrap iron.’? On the night of Friday, October 30, the mate was 1 *©QOn the Nature, Uses, ard Manufacture of Ferro-silicon, with Special Reference to possible danger arising fr mits Transport and Storage.” Local Government Board Report, 1909 By Pr. S. M. Copeman. F.RS., 5. R Bennett, and Dr. H. Wilson Hake. Pp. vitit3115. (Cd. 4958.) Price Is. 11d. 54 NATURE [Jury 14, 1910 taken seriously ill and removed. The captain took his wife and grandson on board and proceeded, but all three were taken ill. Bamfield died on November 6 and his grandson on the previous day. The cause of death was certified under’ that convenient term ‘‘ ptomaine poison- ing,’’ but was afterwards proved to be due to fumes from the ferro-silicon of 50 per cent. grade (actual analysis, 53-9 per cent. silicon). It required, however, yet another tragedy, with the added scare of cholera, to compel investigation, and this was provided by the case of the S.S. Ashton in December, 1908, on which, after a voyage of twenty-four hours only, from Antwerp to Grimsby, all the occupants of the emigrant quarters, fortunately only five in number, died between 6 p.m. on December 12 and 12.30 p.m. on the following day. This time cholera was feared, but examina- tion by the Government bacteriologist at once negatived this view. Mrs. Bamfield wrote on December 17, 1908 :— ““It has occurred to me since reading the account of this poisoning that there may be some of this (scrap) in the S.S. Ashton.”’ Immediately these deaths were reported in the newspapers, Mr. Hodgson, Mrs. Bamfield’s son-in-law, wrote to Dr. Simpson, medical officer of health for Grimsby, making a similar suggestion, and that this was the cause of the deaths (p. 20):—‘‘ It was apparently in consequence of this letter that attention came to be directed to the possibility of the deaths on the S.S. Ashton having been due to the presence of the ferro-silicon on board, suspicion having arisen, in the first instance, that the fatal illness of the passengers was due to cholera.”’ This was abundantly proved, and resulted in the elaborate investigations of which this report is the record. The report is a valuable one, showing that the authors have recognised the difficulties and grappled with them. The original should be in the hands of all interested in ferro-silicon from a medical, a shipping, or a metallurgical aspect. As the authors themselves state, further investiga- tion is yet required, although rules that will almost ensure safety have been found. Ferro-silicons of low grade, containing not more than 15 per cent. silicon and made in the blast-furnace, are beyond suspicion, and as safe to handle and to store as ordinary pig iron. The high-grades, 25 to 95 per cent. silicon, made in the electric furnace, and imported to the extent of about 4ooo tons per annum, mostly from France, but to a less extent from Austria, Scandinavia, &c., include the dangerous varieties. The bulk has been made to 50 per cent. grade for little apparent reason other than ease in calculation of mixtures, a matter that may excite surprise until it is remembered that a manager, with his hundred worries per day, tries to avoid the hundred-and-first, in case it might prove “‘ the last straw.” The gases given off may at first have included acetylene, owing to the ferro-silicon being made in calcium carbide furnaces, but as that is never done now the poisonous gases given off are phosphoretted hydrogen and arseniuretted hydrogen, roughly 90 to 95 per cent. of the former to 10 to 5 per cent. of the latter. All are agreed that until more is known of the fundamental causes, those varieties around 50 per cent. silicon are most dangerous, and should neither be made nor bought. La Chambre Syndicate des Forces hydrauliques states that 30 to 40 per cent. and 47.to 65 per cent. grades should be avoided, but the remarkable omission of 40 to 47 per cent. grades is not supported by any experimental proof. The authors recommend the manufacture or use of only those varieties below 30 per cent. or above 70 per cent. silicon content for the present. The section on the functions of ferro-silicon in steel manufacture hardly gets to the root of the real idea some- times, but is near enough for general readers; and technical men are not likely to refer to this section of the report. It will be read for the results of the experiments and general investigations carried out and the opinions formed on the results, and these can be recommended. The report con- tains, besides matter already indicated, reports of confer- ences with Sheffield firms using ferro-silicon, investigations at places of manufacture, a description of the manufacture of ferro-silicon, conclusions and recommendations, Dr. W. Hake’s chemical investigations, and Mr. Bennett’s report on the composition and structure of ferro-silicon. As the PH, is only formed in contact with moisture, the NO. 2124, VOL. 84] material used to be packed in sealed drums, and some- times was coated with paraffin wax; but this does not deal with the gas present in the cavities, and only transfers the danger, for drums exploded on opening and men re- moving the paraffin were made ill, so that these methods should be abandoned. The report recognises an important point that is still obscure (p. 109):—‘ Dr. Heroult expressed himself as decidedly of opinion that the specially undesirable quali- ties exhibited by this particular grade (50 per cent.)— tendency to spontaneous disintegration and evolution of poisonous gases—were related to the amount of aluminium present in the alloy. He was unable... to advance any definite reasons for the opinion he had formed.’’ Mr. Bennett later expressed the same opinion, and suggested that, as the heat of formation of Al,O, is very great, the presence of a large percentage of aluminium is indicative of very high temperature reactions in the furnace, and that these reactions are favourable to the formation of compounds which readily break up into poisonous and explosive gases.”’ This can hardly be so, for Prof. Arnold, who, it is understood, will present a report later, has had one Sot of ferro-silicon divided into two portions and melted in two crucibles. When molten, to one only was added 3 per cent. aluminium, and the two portions were cast into separate ingots. The present writer, being interested in the experi- ment, broke a piece off each ingot, and, dipping them in water, noticed that one had no particular odour, but the other smelt very strongly, the latter proving to be that to which aluminium had been added. A too enthusiastic repeti- tion of the experiment as a test produced just a feeling of discomfort which the fresh air soon dispelled, this last being a point of much importance, as where lives were saved it was practically the governing remedy. ‘‘ Two of the passengers also left their cabins and, although very weak, succeeded in getting on deck. These two survived ” (p. 15). No. 5 of suggested regulations may be quoted :— “Storage places at docks or at works where ferro-silicon is used should have provision for free access of air, and should be situated at a distance from work-rooms, mess- rooms, Offices, &c.”’ (p. 115). The main conclusions of the report have been mentioned, but all interested in the subject should obtain a copy, as the details of the investigations are well worthy of study. A. McWir.iam. THE POSITION OF THE NEGRO AND PYGMY AMONGST HUMAN RACES.* FULL analysis of the structural features of the negro shows that in many points he is more highly specialised than the less pigmented races of mankind, while in other characters he has remained more primitive. Although on the Continent there is a decided tendency amongst anthropologists to trace the descent of the human race through a non-anthropoid stock, yet those most familiar with the anatomy of the Primates still agree with Huxley’s doctrine that the community of structure shared by man and anthropoids pointed to a direct com- munity of origin. The deeply pigmented skin was a primitive feature; the gorilla was the negro amongst anthropoids; the three species of chimpanzee varied as the period of life at which pigmentation appeared. All avail- able evidence points to a pigmentation of the early human stock, but speculations are handicapped by an ignorance of the functional value of pigment. It appears to protect the deeper tissues from certain injurious rays which are intermediate to heat and light. The skulls of Palzolithic Europeans show so many resemblances to those of Australian aborigines that a legitimate suspicion may be raised as to whether or not they did not also share some degree of the aboriginal pigmentation. The Palolithic Gibraltar woman, whose skull is preserved.in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, shows no community with the negro in the characters of her nose. The nose of that skull is altogether unlike that of any human race now known; it shares some features with the gorilla, while 1 Abstracts of four Hunterian Lectures on ‘‘ The Anatemy and Relation- ships of the Negro and Negroid Races,” given at the Royal College of Surgeons, England, by Prof. Arthur Keith. JuLy 14, 1910] in others it appears to foreshadow the prominent nose of the modern European. The evidence of the nose of Paleolithic man leaves the question of pigmentation of the early European open. The distribution of pigmentation among modern races could be explained best by supposing that the appearance of the fairer races—the Caucasian and Mongolian—was one of the more recent events of human evolution, and that the site of their evolution was in the central popula- tions of the more northern parts of the Old World. The frizzled hair of the negro was a highly specialised feature. Their thick everted lips, unlike the thin anthropoid lips, at first sight seem also to be so, but when the arrange- ment of the labial musculature is examined, it is seen that the negro’s lips are more anthropoid than the European’s ; but the European form, notwithstanding their apparent thinness, appears to be a modification of the negro form. The high and prominent cheek-bones of the negro are due, not to an absolute greater breadth of the face, but to the fact that the muscles of mastication have become specialised in different directions in the negro and European; in the negro the masseter muscle, which arises from the cheek- bone, is particularly large, whereas in the European it is the temporal muscle, which has its fixed basis on the side of the skull, that retains the greatest relative develop- ment. The apparent breadth of the negro’s face is largely owing to the fact that the basal part of the skull, to which the neck muscles are attached, is small. The small attach- ment of neck is a feature of the young of all Primates, and also one in which the negro has assumed a less anthropoid form than the European. The prognathism of the negro is due to several factors; it is chiefly due, not so much to a larger, but to a healthier dental develop- ment, which ensures a due forward revolution of the jaws during the eruption of the permanent teeth, thus providing an ample air-way in the pharynx. In Europeans the revolution forwards of the jaws showed a distinct tendency to become arrested prematurely, thus contracting the pharynx. The negro condition was the more Simian, but it is also one which modern Europeans would willingly share with him, because of its functional merits. Sir William Flower’s method of estimating prognathism gave misleading results. The most accurate method of stating the development of the jaws was to give the area of the palate and the total size of the teeth. Some of the most characteristic features of the negro race were to be seen in their foreheads. While Palzolithic Europeans showed the Simian beetling brows and receding forehead, features still shown in some degree by modern white races, the great majority of African negroes were characterised by prominent foreheads and a complete absence of that condition which might be described as supra-orbitalism. It is true that some tribes on the west coast, the oceanic negroes, and the Tasmanians still re- tain this primitive character. Indeed, the outstanding feature of the negro’s skull is a tendency to retain characters of the immature skull of other races. Those who know the psychology of the negro best ascribe to his brain the boyish nature here ascribed to his skull. The pygmies, usually described as Negritos, are true Negroes in which the tendency to assume immature characters has become hereditary to an extreme degree. They are widely distributed. Sir Harry H. Johnston has shown how they are scattered amongst the forest tribes from the west coast almost to the east coast of Equatorial Africa; they stretch southwards almost to the Cape, and isolated communities are found as far eastwards as the Philippines and New Guinea. Two explanations may be offered for their distribution :—(1) they are remnants of a race that was spread formerly throughout the southern half of the Old World; (2) they are modifications produced locally from the larger negro. The second explanation is apparently the correct one, for the Congo pygmies share all the physical features of the Bantu except size; the Bushman has the characters of the Hottentot, while the pygmies of the far east find their nearest representatives in the negroes of the Oceania. Recent advances in our knowledge of human pathology make this supposition of the origin of pygmies more probable. Disturbances in the NO. 2124, VOL. 84] NATURE 5 on secretion of certain glands, such as the pituitary and thyroid, lead to the production of the characters of Paleolithic features in some individuals and true dwarfism in others. In the Miocene period the large-bodied Primates had already appeared; primitive men were certainly not pygmies in size. An analysis of the cranial features of the aborigines of Tasmania and of Australia shows that we have in these two races an early stage in the differentiation of the negro and negroid races of mankind. The Tasmanian is the most primitive type of negro yet discovered; the Australian, on the other hand, although deeply pigmented and less Simian in some features than the Paleolithic European, is the most primitive representative of the negroid race. Negroid as he is, the native Australian represents a stage in the evolution of the dominant non- negroids of the northern hemisphere. It is a remarkable fact that the negro and negroid races occur side by side, not only in Austral-Asia, but in Asia proper and in Africa. The negro Semangs of the Malay Peninsula live with the negroid Sakai as neighbours; the Veddahs of Ceylon are not far from the negro of the Andamans; even in Quaternary Europe the negro race discovered by Dr. Verneau in the caves of Grimaldi were early successors, if not contemporaries, of Paleolithic man. The Grimaldi negroes find their nearest modern representatives in the Oceanic, not the African, negro; equatorial Africa and northern Europe were the probable centre in which the black and white races had reached their present degree of structural evolution. The two centres were linked together, and always had been linked, by racial zones which showed intermediate characters. Modern anthropologists are in- clined to ascribe the characters of intermediate races to intermarriage. Interbreeding had certainly played a part, but probably a small one. The truer explanation seems rather to lie in regarding intermediate races as represent- ing intermediate stages of physical and mental evolution. TREES AND FORESTS. THE botanical gardens at Peradeniya, Ceylon, are celebrated for their vegetation splendour, so that a list of beautiful flowering trees recommended by the curator, Mr. H. F. Macmillan, will appeal to many out- side the range of those for whom the Circular (vol. iv., No. 20) of the gardens is immediately intended. In the author’s opinion, the leguminous tree Amherstia nobilis is not to be excelled, although Lagerstroemia flos-reginae passes under the name of “‘ pride of India,”’ and Poinciana regia is the famous “ flame-tree.’’ The Ambherstia was introduced to Ceylon from Burma, and it is remarkable how many of the plants mentioned have been imported from the tropics of the New and Old World. Gliricidia maculata is a recent introduction from the West Indies; Solanum macranthum, the ‘‘ potato-tree ’’ from Brazil, is noteworthy as the only species of the order that grows to the size of a tree. A description of the indigenous trees of southern Rhodesia, together with their vernacular names and pro- ducts, is provided by Mr. C. F. H. Monro in the Proceed- ings of the Rhodesia Scientific Association (vol. viil., part ii.). An important matter is the production of. timber suitable for mining, construction, and agricultural purposes. The most useful timbers are yielded by Copaifera mopani, Pterocarpus angolensis, Photinia mahobohobo, and Pari- navium mobola. Baikiaea plurijuga is known as Rhodesian teak; Afzelia cuanensis supplies the local mahogany, while a somewhat similar, handsome wood is furnished by Fawrea saligna, a species of Proteacew. The woods of some of these, as also of Callitris Whytei and Terminalia sericea, are said to be ant- and borer-proof. : Two forest pamphlets (Nos. 12 and 14) recently issued by the Government of India relate to Berrya Ammonilla, a tree, belonging to the family Tiliacee, that is found principally in Burma, and Pterocarpus macro- carpus, a leguminous tree yielding Burma padauk timber. Regarding the former, logs up to 20 feet in length, and measuring 4} feet in girth, can ordinarily be obtained. The timber is tough, elastic, and straight-grained; it n 6 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1910 works and finishes well, so that it would appear to be suitable for export; but the annual outturn is only com- puted at 1500 tons, and there is a good local demand for construction work, for carriage shafts, draught poles and various agricultural implements. Burma padauk must be distinguished from Andaman padauk, obtained from Ptero- carpus dalbergioides, which is noted for the brilliant red colour of select logs. Although inferior in colour, Burma padauk is much superior in strength and durability, and is regularly supplied to the Ordnance Department for spokes and felloes of wheels, poles, yokes, and other pur- poses. Timber which does not comply with the stringent requirements of the Ordnance Department is quite suitable for wheel work, furniture, and interior decorations. Both kinds of padauk have been imported to England and America, but various causes have militated against their successful exploitation in this country. A forest pamphlet (No. 16) issued by the Government of India is devoted to an account of experiments conducted by Mr. R. S. Hole with the view of determining the best season for coppice fellings of teak. The rainy season—mid- August to October—is frequently selected for felling, although it might be expected that, vegetative activity being then at its height, the development of coppice shoots would be poor. However, the trials carried out, with many precautions, indicate that the worst period for the fellings is from the time, April to August, when vegetative activity commences, up to and for a short time after the full development of the foliage, and that reproduction is most vigorous in the months of March and September. Incidentally, the author notes that good fertile seed has been obtained from nine-year-old coppice shoots of teak. It is a coincidence that information regarding the importance of trees belonging to the Dipterocarpacee should be forthcoming simultaneously from Burma and the Philippines. In the Philippine Journal of Science (Botany, vol. iv., part vi.) Mr. H. N. Whitford presents some striking estimates regarding the preponderance of the family in the Philippine forests, according to which Dipterocarp trees may be expected to yield three-quarters of the total volume of merchantable timber growing in a virgin forest area computed at 30,000 square miles. He directs special attention to the value of the woods known locally as “* lauan,”’ yielded by species of Pentacme, Shorea, and Parashorea, and ‘‘ apitong,’’ yielded by species of Dipterocarpus; the former are slightly harder but similar to white pine, while the latter compare with the hard pines. A paper on Indian State forestry, by Mr. S. Eardley- Wilmot, late Inspector-General of Forests, is published in the Journal of the Society of Arts (April 1). He mentions that the forest department has control over an area of 240,000 square miles—about one-fifth part of British India— from which 43 million tons of timber and 180 million tons of bamboos are extracted annually. A rough demarcation of the forests is indicated as follows. They range from a height of 14,000 feet, where birch and firs supply the chief constituents, to the mangrove belts situated at sea- level. At an altitude of S000 feet rhododendrons, oaks, cedars, and pines flourish in different regions. Dalbergia Sissoo and Acacia Catechu grow in the submontane forests. The deciduous forests at a lower elevation supply teak, sal, ebony, and ironwood, while important evergreen forests are found near the coast or further inland. A number of interesting problems receiving attention at the Swedish Royal Forestry Institute are detailed in the Proceedings (Meddelanden frin Statens Skogsférséks- anstalt, part vi., 1909), such as the examination of the native forests from an ecological standpoint, the best trees to plant on heath or swamp land, and the improvement of regeneration by the selection of seed. In connection with the last problem, Dr. N. Sylven communicates the results of his attempt to identify different races or types of the spruce; he distinguishes five types, according to their mode of branching, of which the so-called ‘‘ kamm”* type is recomriended as the best seed-bearer. An extensive paper by Mr. E. Wibeck deals with the extent of the beech forests in Sweden, showing that the area has de- creased greatly in a period of 200 years, having been reduced partly by human: agency, by fires, for the manu- NO. 2124, VOL. 84] facture of potash, and by excessive cutting, and partly by natural causes, such as the intrusion of the spruce. Two articles by Mr. R. Thomson on the Jequié Mani- coba rubber tree, Manihot dichotoma, published in the Indian Forester (vol. xxxvi., Nos. 1-3), contain suggestions which appear to be worthy of careful consideration. This species, indigenous to the State of Bahia, in Brazil, forms a tree about 20 feet in height, and develops a stem 20 inches in circumference. The author contends that, being much smaller than the Para rubber tree, there is less production of useless material, and that it could be planted more closely, so that by planting 1200 specimens to the acre he estimates a production of 600 lb. of rubber per acre in the fifth year. It is further suggested that climatic difficulties might be overcome by a system of cultivation in rough sheds, such as is adopted in California for growing pine- apples. TINCTORIAL CHEMISTRY, ANCIENT AND MODERN. [N his recent presidential address to the Society of Dyers and Colourists Prof. Meldola touched upon several natters of general interest and importance. Referring to the substitution of synthetical for natural dyes, which has entailed great changes in the dyer’s methods, he said :— ““Such a revolution in an industry of venerable antiquity as has been effected in about half a century has, perhaps, never before been witnessed in the history of applied science. Scientific discovery has, it is true, called new branches of industry into existence, and has thus opened up new fields of human enterprise and outlets for capital and labour. But in this case there has been no new creation; an ancient industry at the touch of science has become transformed. “If it be asked to what cause or causes this rapid development is due, there can be only one answer—the development of the science of organic chemistry. From the time of Perkin’s discovery of mauve in 1856, down to the very latest patents for mew dyestuffs, it has been science, and nothing but science, all along the line.”’ It is, of course, equally true, as Prof. Meldola has him- self pointed out elsewhere, that the development of the science of organic chemistry has been greatly accelerated by the large amount of research work carried out in the laboratories of the large German colour manufactories. In regard to the general question of the interdependence of science and industry, he has been one of the chief pro- pagandists for the last twenty-five years, on the platform and in the Press; and on this matter he said :—‘‘ It has long been familiar to students of economics—whether we ia this country recognise the doctrine or not—that industrial development is ultimately dependent upon scientific develop- ment. Fiscal considerations may have some influence in promoting or retarding an industry, but primarily the financial economist, as well as the political economist, is dependent upon the materials supplied by productive indus- try, and the production of these materials in the most advantageous way and the addition of new materials to the resources of civilisation is the business of scientific research, and it is, therefore, scientific activity which is the real and solid basis of national prosperity. The nation which fails to realise this principle is bound to go under in the long run in that industrial struggle which is certain to become keener with the progress of science and the severity of competition arising therefrom.”’ This primarily important matter cannot be too often brought forward, but, at the same time, although we have much leeway to make up before we come abreast with our chief industrial competitors, there are signs that at last the nation is ‘“‘ waking up” to realise the position. The daily Press, as reflecting the average interests of the public, is now paying an increasing amount of attention to scientific matters. It is no doubt an easy matter to be adversely critical in regard to the quality of the science which is served up in our morning paper, but that is easily remedied, and the all-important matter is that science is fast achieving a prominent place as a current newspaper topic. ome JuLy 14, 1910] NATURE Ue An adequate historical survey of the modern science of tinctorial chemistry has yet to be written. In his address Prof. Meldola supplied one chapter of such history by relating his personal experiences during the fifteen years (1870-85) he was directly connected with the manufacture of synthetical dyestuffs. It is not possible to summarise this historical survey in the space now at disposal, but the hope may be expressed that Prof. Meldola will find opportunity to write the complete story of the art of dye- ing. It would be equally as fascinating as his well-known contributions to Darwinism. Having given his personal reminiscences of the most prolific period during the rapid modern development of the industry, Prof. Meldola reverted to remote antiquity, and summarised the ancient industrial history of dyeing as described by the elder Pliny in his ‘‘ History of Nature,’ written about the beginning of the Christian era. Indigo has probably been used by the natives of India for at least 3000 years, and by processes essentially the same as those used to-day; in fact, until Perkin’s discovery of the first coal-tar dye in 1856, the art of dyeing has made com- paratively little progress since the ancient Briton stained his body with woad. The most important dye in ancient times was the Tyrian purple, the use of which was at first confined by law to the Imperial House—hence the expression ** born in the purple.’ ‘The modern sequel to this ancient chapter of tinc- torial art,’’? said Prof. Meldola, ‘‘has been supplied by P. Friedlander, who has extracted the colouring matter from the Mediterranean Murex brandaris, and has proved it to be dibromindigo.* And thus ancient observation, which found practical application in the utilisation of a certain mollusc as a sourcé of colour, has led to a remark- able biochemical discovery; but we have had to wait some 2000 years for the answer to the question, What was the purple dye of the ancients? Shall we have to wait another 2000 years for the answer to the question, How does the living shell-fish synthesise the generator of dibrom- indigo? ”’ Much has been written, and many diverse opinions have been expressed, as to the cause or causes of the loss of the coal-tar colour industry to England. This has been variously attributed to defects in our Patent Laws, to our heavy excise duty on alcohol, and to our unsuitable industrial conditions. In this matter Prof. Meldola sounded no un- certain note. ‘‘ The answer to this last question has been staring us broadly in the face for over thirty years. It is amazing that there should have ever been any doubt about, or any other cause suggested than the true cause, which is research—writ large! The foreign manufacturers knew what it meant and realised its importance, and they tapped the universities and technical high schools, and they added research departments and research chemists to their factories, while our manufacturers were taking no steps at all, or were calmly hugging themselves into a state of false security, based on the belief that the old order under which they had been prosperous was imperishable. It is true that when the effects of the new discoveries began to make themselves felt, one or two factories did add a re- search chemist to the staff, but the number and the means of work were totally inadequate. I happened to be one of them, and so I speak with some practical knowledge of the conditions. We were but as a handful of light skirmishers against an army of trained legionaries. What could three or four—say half a dozen at a liberal estimate —research chemists, working under every disadvantage, do against scores, increasing to hundreds, of highly trained university chemists, equipped with all the facilities for research, encouraged and paid to devote their whole time to research, and backed up by technological skill of the highest order? The cause of the decline of our supremacy in this colour industry is no mystery—it is transparently and painfully obvious. In the early stages of its decadence it had little or nothing to do with faulty patent legislation 1 Berl. Ber., 19c9, vol. xlii., p. 765. For this research 12,000 molluscs were extracted, the total yield of pure colour being o'ggrms. The dibromin- digo is formed from its colourless generator, which isa vital product of the organism, by the action of light. The actual compound is shown to be the € :6l-dibromindigo, but the nature of the intermediate generator has not yet been determined. z . NO. 2124, VOL. 84 or excise restrictions with respect to alcohol. The decay of the British industry set in from the time when the Con- tinental fagtories allied themselves with pure science and the British manufacturers neglected such aid, or secured it to an absurdly inadequate extent in view of the strength of the competing forces.”’ It still remains to inquire the reason for this different attitude towards chemical research which was, and is still, though in lesser degree, adopted by our manufacturers. At the time we lost the industry the skill of the British workman and the enterprise of the British manufacturer were the admiration of the world, but the colour industry did not develop here because our industrial leaders did not lay the foundation of success by subsidising and cultivating chemical research. Why? The answer to this question is to be ultimately found in the utter lack of appreciation of the value and importance of scientific method which existed at that time amongst the public in this country. It would then have been impossible to convince any body of shareholders that it was a sound business proposition to expend yearly many thousands of pounds in research werk the outcome of which was problematical. It would, indeed, not be an easy task even in these more enlightened days. ‘ Watter M. GARDNER. THE MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.’ LESS than three years ago there did not exist a medical department of the Board of Education. To-day there lies before us a Blue-book, of 170 pages, detailing, with much substance, the work undertaken or done to establish and regulate the vast system of medical inspection of schools and school children now operative over the length and breadth of England. In modern social history no movement has come so rapidly to maturity as the system of inspection here, for the first time, placed in a con- nected way before the general and official public. In a lucid preliminary section Dr. Newman briefly sketches the relation of our present developments to the efforts, both here and on the Continent, towards a systematic medical supervision of school children. “‘Tn the latter year (1865), the report of the School Commission in Norway did some- thing to bring the importance of school hygiene once more before the general public, and in 1866 Hermann Cohn undertook his classic researches into the eyesight of over 10,000 children at Breslau’? (p. 2). Cohn, now dead, was one of the venerable figures at the first International Congress of School Hygiene at Nuremberg. He was still full of energy and enthusiasm. Much occasional and dis- connected local work followed, but ‘‘ the Wiesbaden system marks the introduction of a new conception and under- standing of the problem. This system, which has been widely adopted in Germany, treats the child as the centre of interest and his well-being as the end of reform, to which even the most satisfactory school environment is only a means. ... Throughout the German Empire a large number of school doctors have been appointed, cand so some 350 towns and communities have undertaken in a greater or less degree the work of medical supervision of school life’’ (p. 4)—a good result since the first appoint- ments in Wiesbaden in 1896. The English movement, though prepared for by many workers in personal and public hygiene, dates from the report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training (Scotland) in 1903. Dr. Newman does not make it per- fectly cleat why, at this particular juncture in British history, such a report should have been called for; but there is no doubt that the Commission arose out of the revelations of physical inefficiency made during the great South African war, particularly at the recruiting stations. There was then a rising wave of opinion on the need for better physical training in the early stages of Kfe Incidentallv, and, as it were, casually, the supreme need for medical inspection was revealed, and, up to date, this Annual Report for 1908 of the Chief Medical 1 Board of Education. Pp. 170. Cd. 4986. (London: Eyre Officer of the Board of Education. and Spottiswoode, rg10.) Price 84d. 58 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1910 is the chief result of the Scotch Commission and the many further inquiries set going by it. Physical training has shared in the benefits of more scientific direction. The rest of the history is written in the statutes and adminis- trative orders and circulars now current in Great Britain. A movement so wide and so costly could have emerged only from a great national awakening, and this report, the first of ‘the new médical department, shows: how far advanced the organisation already is. The report contains all’ the administrative detail mecessary to enable the interested sociologist’ to grasp the ‘significance of the movement. i Naturally, in a first report, questions of organisation and administration bulk relatively large. Dr. Newman makes very clear the relation of the new school medical officers to the public health service. This was a matter of great concern at the outset, but the solution of difficulties seems to have gone forward smoothly, and to-day any dissociation of services is the exception, not the rule. ‘Subordination of the school medical officer to the medical officer of health, or some. definite form of cooperation, seems to have been established ‘practically in every educational area. ‘‘ There is an interdependence and solidarity in these matters which can only be ignored or neglected at the price of inefficiency and failure ’’ (p. 17). Whole-time medical assistants are the rule, part-time assistants the exception. ‘‘ There have been no cases of Authorities commencing with a few whole-time- assistants and changing to many part-time assistants ’’ (p. 19). This is a very significant fact. Of the 307 educational areas, 160 have -been -provided with one school medical officer each—the minimum necessary under the Code. In the other 147 areas, ‘‘ there are in all 616 assistant medical officers ’’"—122 whole-time, 494 ‘part-time. The arrange- ments for twenty-one other ‘areas have’ not yet been finally approved, but, approximately, 1084 medical officers’ are at work ‘in the school medical: service in’ England and Wales ’’ (p. 18). This is certainly a splendid record. The qualifications of officers, the part played by the teacher, the school nurse, the general scope of the work, all are discussed with quantitative references. It is estimated that, for England and Wales, not fewer than 1,328,000 children were medically inspected during 1907-8, and when to these are added 250,000 -“‘ specials,’’? that’ is, children specially brought under the medical inspector’s notice as needing attention, the total amounts to not less. than 14 million children. ‘The general experience with parents is that’ they have appreciated the work warmly, and some- timss enthusiastically, there being a few, but only a few, complainers. As‘to treatment, the facts are, of course, very meagre as yet, but not discouraging. So far as facts are avail- able, ‘the number medically attended to through the parents themselves runs’ from: 20’ to 60 per cent. of those brought to their notice by the education authorities. There is ‘here abundant ‘room: for--organisation and propaganda. The! cost of medical inspection, so far as salaries go, runs from 4-79d. per child in average attendance in the counties to 7-64d. in the municipal boroughs and. 7-56d. in’ the urban districts, or, in the same order, from o-15d. of rate to -0-23d.: and‘ 0-28d.—no great ‘outlay for so great. a service. The. rest of the volume is:taken up with details of the results of medical inspection in the ‘discovery of defects or diseases. The results are necessarily ‘‘ tentative and frag- mentary ” (p. 39), but more than enough to justify the institution of the system and to indicate: the immense amount’ of ‘administrative energy now directed to the amelioration of ‘evil conditions, both environmental and personal. | Cleanliness ‘is steadily improving under the pressure of definite administrative direction. For instance, in 124 London schools Dr. Kerr found, of 92,185 children examined, 16,060 verminous, and 2228 were excluded’ for prosecution—the parents of 255 children being ‘prosecuted, and fined in sums varying from 1s. 6d. to 20s. As a rule, the first “notice ’’ is enough to secure cleansing. Ring- worm is diminishing. Teeth are beginning to be treated, as, for instance, in Cambridge. Many other diseases now familiar to the general public are here recorded—adenoidal growths, ear discharges, short sight, &c. There is a good series of paragraphs dealing with tuberculosis, in particular NO, 2124, VOL. 84] with phthisis. The results’in percentages for phthisis’ vary widely—from well below 1 to well above 4. Obviously there are differences both in the localities and in the methods of diagnosis. This is a disease that has not yet found its “‘level’’ in the professional mind. There are sections dealing with the new syllabus of hygiene, with schools for defective children, open-air schools, and many other matters of current importance. The report,' as a whole, reflects every credit on the system of‘ medical inspection and on the Board of Educa- tion itself. Only the experienced administrator can read from these records the enormous difficulties to be over- come and the skill shown in overcoming them. NOTES ON THE. ORIGIN OF THE HAUSAS. EXT. to the Filani, the most important race in northern Nigeria is the Hausa, whose origin is undetermined. These people occupy at: present most of the land between the ‘ninth and fourteenth parailels north latitude, and the fourteenth and-eleventh: meridians east longitude. Their number is variously estimated; perhaps 4,000,000 is fairly accurate. ~ They are the’ traders and soldiers of West Africa, and are very good agriculturists, and workers in brass and leather, but'seem to have been unable to conquer under their own leaders. _ The Hausas have not the fine features of the Filani, nor yet the very thick lips and flat noses of the coast negro; they are rather short and stumpy, with woolly hair. Their original country: in northern Nigeria consisted of seven States, the ‘‘ Hausa Bokkoi,’’ to which an equal number, “ Banza Bokkoi,’’' were’ afterwards added. These States were independent of—though dependent on—one another. There are two principal’ theories as to their origin, viz. (1) that they were indigenous, and (2) that they came from Egypt or Ethiopia. I cannot see why these two appar- ently opposite ideas cannot be modified and reconciled. It would seem that the following statements are per- missible :— (1) The religion is in too many points similar to that of the ancient Egyptians to imagine that it was formed quite independently. (2) The Hausas have the trading and wandering instincts of the Semites, and have travelled voluntarily and without external pressure,’ whereas the people of most West African negro tribes have kept, together, unless conquered and driven out of their country. (3) The cephalic indéx is one which we would naturally expect in the descendants ofa mixture of races, some having a greater, some.a less, index. Because the Arabic element ‘was in the minority, and because of the influence of environment,’ the Hausa cephalic index is nearer to that of the Egyptian’ Copts and mixed races than to that of the Arabs. The present’ Hausa race is a further mix- ture of the’, people who came, in a.D. 1000, with the aborigines. (4) Arabic has had ‘some, influence in the formation of the Hausa grammar, as well ‘as supplying about one-third of the words, and so some of the people who formed the Hausa vocabulary must have known Arabic. Again, since two-thirds of, the words present no similarity to any Semitic language, it is evident that other elements are present, and some of these are related to Coptic. The word Habeshi was a term of contempt applied by Arabs to mixed races, and Hausa (Ba-haushe) is a modification. (5) The people came. from the East (ancient Ethiopia) and brought the horse.. Arabs had horses at this time (1000 a.p.), and the mixture, which arrived no doubt spoke ‘a..certain. amount of’ Arabic. They may have been Hamites, but it is .much more likely that they were a mixture of Hamites and Semites, together with elements of local populations encountered en route, and the original inhabitants of the country now forming the Hausa States. There is probably a little Berber blood also, and even a further addition of Arabic. Being ashamed of their humble origin, they invented one for themselves, and called their mythical ancestor Babushe, which is really Ba-(ha)beshi and Ba-hab(e)shi or Ba-haushe. : 1 From a paper by Capt. A. J, N. Treme-rae in the Journal o the Royal Society of Arts, July 8 —————— Jury 14, 1910] NATURE 59 MODELS OF METEOROLOGICAL CONDr- | the glass sides for every 5° C., the temperature being) ex- : ore ; . EE | pressed in absolute measure The space th INS IN i FREE, AIR. : : pacar paeer, 2 TIONS 1! THE : : | isotherms of 270° and 275° is filled in to indicate the posi- TH! photographs of which Figs. 1 and 2 are reprod tion of the freezing point. tions are views of two glass models constructed at Both models show clearly the two main divisions of the tl M teorological Office yresent the tempera tures and pressures in a block itmosphere fifteen es ick over -a_ tri- ang portion of th Isles on July 27 1 29, 1908. Records of pressure and t perature were obtained b neans of balloons ca ng small meteoro- graphs, designed by Mr \ HH.) Dines; «F-R:S Corresponding values of press re, te mperature, and h vere computed from the records. Balloons were liberated at Ditcham Park, Peters- field; Pyrton Hill, Oxford- sh Glossop, Derby- Crinan, Argyll- ind Birdhill, Co Limerick. The courses of balloons were in some s traced for part of vay by means of 1¢ 2 observations. purpose of th Ss s to give a repre- of the informa- s obtained, and meteorologica I te 7, 19) Block seen from the north-east. Isotherms are s ty dca é At S between the isotherms of 270° and 275° is filled in; f oe - at ered. The beaded lines in the stratosphere are isobars for the standards face the wind as determined by observations y ich model cor sists of a rectangular base, pc which is drawn an nap of a portior f British Isles on the 1 of 25 miles to ar i ther with iso- bars and winds for 6 p.m on one or other of the D s,s r « Fig nz shell form f + + r being le corner 1 tl yack. In : (July 29) Ditcham is pr 1 only by la as I Tt ) D 1 S meas 1 along ul glass S the models repr sent ights above sea- le on the scale of 5 z ; s to 4 inches. The FiG. 2. -From seri 1908. Block seen from the north-east. Isotherms are own for ea hi 5 = Absolute from he space between the isotherms of 270° and 273° is filled in ; fo other isotherms tical scale of the model a thickness corre is covered. The beaded lines in the stratosphere are isobars for o°2 megabar and s therefore twenty times 1 megalhar respe »ws on the standards face the wind as determined by observations with theodolites. e horizontal scale of tht map. The total height represented is 24 kilometres 5 | atmosphere, viz. :—(1) ‘‘ troposphere,’’ or lower portion, in miles) which temperature diminishes with height 4 near! u ch static plotted on t 1iform rate and the isothermal surfaces approxi- edges Of erms 1 Ji ) are drawn on mately horizontal, and (2) ‘‘isothermal regior I 60 ‘ stratosphere,’’ above the troposphere, in which tempera- ture is nearly constant or increases slowly with height, and the isothermal planes tend to become vertical. Isobars for one-tenth and one-fifth of an atmosphere (o-1 megabar and 0-2 megabar according to the nomen- clature of the Paris Conference of Physicists, 1900) are shown by beaded lines in the upper parts of the figures. Wind-direction observations are indicated by arrows facing the wind, carried on standards. The chief points of difference between the two models are the following :— | Fic. 1. Fic. 2. (1) Surface temperature From 280° to 285° | (2) Sea-level pressure... From 1’or6 to r’023 | megabar | (30°0 to 30°2 in.) From 285° to 290° From 1'026 to 17033 megabar (30°35 to 3075 in.) (3) Height cf lower surface eee of stratosphere ... ... 9g km. to km. (4) Lowest temperature in stratosphere act About 2rs° Ahout 205° (5) Wind direction at south- east angle ... ... | Nearly S. throughout | Nearly N. throughout Both figures show that the position of the coldest air was at a height of ro-11 kilometres over the most southern portion represented. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. BIRMINGHAM.—The chair of accounting vacated by Prof. Sidney Dawson has been filled by the election of Mr. Charles E. Martineau. Mr. W. B. Grove has been appointed honorary curator of the fungus herbarium in the Botanical Department. Prof. R. Saundby has been appointed to represent the University on the General Medical Council for a further period of five years. Prof. Bostock Hill is to represent the University at the Conference on School Hygiene to be held in Paris in August. The Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Alderman F. C. Clayton) is presenting to the University a statue of His Majesty King Edward VII., in commemoration of the opening of the new buildings by the late Sovereign. It is understood that the statue is to stand in the entrance hall of the main building. LEEDs.—Arrangements have now been completed for the establishment of a professorship of coal gas and fuel indus- tries at the University as a memorial to the late Sir George Livesey, upwards of 10,5001. having been subscribed to the fund initiated for the purpose by the Institution of Gas Engineers, and an advisory committee has been formed in connection with the work to be carried out by the holder of the chair. Dr. J. K. Jamieson, hitherto chief demonstrator of anatomy, has been appointed professor of anatomy in the University. 5 Lonpon.—Sir Henry Roscoe has resigned his member- ship as a Crown nominee, and Mr. F. D. Acland has been appointed in his place. Mr. F. L. Golla has been appointed honorary demon- strator of chemical pathology and pharmacology in the physiological laboratory of the University, and Mr. A. D. Mitchell, of Sheffield University, has been appointed scientific assistant in chemistry in the University. Dr. J. D. Coates has been appointed principal of the Wolverhampton Technical School. _Mr. J. A. Jenxins, for fifteen years registrar of the University College of South Wales, Cardiff, has resigned that position. On July 8, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws of the University of Edinburgh was conferred upon Prof. John Chiene, emeritus professor of surgery in the University ; Prof. Matthew Hay, professor of forensic medicine, Uni- versity of Aberdeen; and’ Prof. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., professor of organic chemistry, University of Manchester. NO. 2124, VOL. 84] NATURE [JuLy 14, 1910 THE increasing popularity of holiday courses for teachers is an excellent indication of the growing desire of school- | masters and schoolmistresses to acquaint themselves with improved methods of instruction, and to bring their know- ledge up to date by attending during their holidays lectures by experts. The County Council of the West Riding of Yorkshire has arranged a series of vacation courses for teachers, to be held at the Municipal Secondary School, Scarborough, during August next. Among the items in a very attractive programme, we notice a course of ten lectures by Prof. A. Smithells, F.R.S., on solution, and the physics and chemistry of cleansing processes; twelve lectures on the teaching of general elementary science, by Mr. W. Mayhowe Heller; and eight lectures on nature- study, by Mr. O. H. Latter. Laboratory work and excursions have been arranged in connection with these courses. There will also be a course in educational hand- work, organised by the Educational Handwork Association, during July and August at the same place, and it is possible for students to take a joint West Riding and handwork course. On December 21, 1909, the London County Council decided to make a maintenance grant of Soool. to the Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington. In return for this grant it secures the privilege of nominating twenty-five students for one year’s free instruction at the Imperial College. These are now to be nominated for the first time. The instruction will be of an advanced nature, and therefore only advanced students who are qualified to enter on the fourth year of the course should apply. There is no restriction as to income, but intending candidates must be ordinarily resident in the Administrative County of London, and must be students at an institution aided, maintained, or approved by the council. The free studentships do not entitle the holders to any maintenance grants, but cover all ordinary tuition fees. No examination will be adopted for the final selec- tion of the students from the applications received. The free studentships will be awarded on consideration of the past records of the candidates, the recommendations of their teachers, the course of study they intend to follow, and generally upon their fitness for advanced study in science applied to industry. It is quite possible that, in special cases, the free places may be extended to two or more years. Application should be made without delay, as entries will not be considered after July 23. Application forms (T. 2/268) can be obtained from the Education Officer, London County Council, Victoria Embankment, London, W.C. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Lonpon. Royal Society, June 30.—Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., president, in the chair.—Prof. A. D. Waller: A new method for the quantitative estimation of hydrocyanic acid in vegetable and animal tissues. The method is colori- metric, and depends on the reaction between potassium cyanide and picric acid, first studied by Hlasiwetz (Liebig’s Annalen, cx., p. 289 [1859]), and recently applied by Guignard to the detection of minute quantities of hydrocyanie acid (Annales Sci. Pharmacol., 1906, p. 415) and by H. E. Armstrong to the rapid detection of emulsin (Proceedings, March 10). The colour-scale is prepared by mixing equal volumes of a recently titrated solution of 1/1o000 hydrocyanic acid and of picrate mixture (equal volumes of 0-5/100 picric acid and 5/100 sodium carbonate). From this stock solution (T 50), after twenty-four hours in an incubator at 40°, a colour-scale is prepared by further dilution with picrate mixture, to contain, e.g., 1, 2, 3, &c., parts of HCN per million, of tints T1, T2, T3, &c. The estimation is made by matching the colour of the given fluid or of its distillate into picrate mixture (after suitable dilution if required), with that of the colour-scale. Thus, e.g., if the tint of a distillate from 10 c.c. of blood (dil. x5) into 25 c.c. of picrate is found=T5, and the volume of picrate+distillate is qo c.c., the amount of HCN in the distillate=5 x40 millionths gram, t.e. 0.000200. A second distillation shows whether or no the whole of the HCN present has been taken over in the first distillate. Results Oe Juty 14, 1910] NATURE 61 of the application of the method to (1) a leaf of Prunus Laurocerasus; (2) the blood and tissues of a cat after death by a known amount of HCN; (3) the blood and tissues of a persom ‘‘ found dead.’’—Prof. A. Dendy: The structure, development, and morphological interpreta- tion of the pineal organs and adjacent parts of the brain in the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus). The ‘‘ pineal com- plex ’’ consists of the dorsal sac, the paraphysis, the pineal sac (‘‘ epiphysis ’’), the pineal eye, the pineal nerves and their central connections. There is a_ well-developed choroid plexus, with special blood-supply, on the roof of the dorsal sac, possessing histological features of consider- able interest. The paraphysis is a compound tubular gland, with special blood-supply, differing markedly in histological character from the choroid plexuses. Its lining epithelium forms a syncytium, and its opening, which, in the embryo, lies just in front of the commissura aberrans, becomes shifted upwards in the adult on to the anterior wall of the dorsal sac, by the formation of a “* supra- commissural canal,’’ the original opening being blocked up by the anterior choroidal blood-vessels. The histological structure of the pineal sac points to a sensory rather than a glandular function. Its wall is essentially similar in structure to the retina of the pineal eye, consisting of radial supporting fibres, sense-cells, and ganglion-cells and nerve-fibres, and pigment may occasionally be deposited in it. The retina of the pineal eye consists of the same histological elements arranged in essentially the same way, with the sense-cells on the inside and the nervous elements in the middle. The pigment is not lodged either in the sense-cells or in the supporting fibres, but is brought into the retina by wandering pigment-cells. The pigment granules escape from these wandering cells on entering the retina, and stream inwards between the radially arranged elements. The inner ends of the sense-cells project into the cavity of the eye, and are covered each by a little cap, formed apparently by the internal limiting membrane of the retina. The developing lens of the pineal eye increases in size partly as a result of mitotic divisions in a marginal zone of undifferentiated cells. As they approach the centre the cells elongate, and some of them degenerate into a kind of mucus, which is secreted from the inner surface of the lens into the cavity of the eye, where it takes part in the formation of the vitreous body. This process of secretion continues in the adult. The nerve of the pineal sac is from its first appearance median. It joins the roof of the brain between the posterior and superior commissures. The nerve of the pineal eye is shown, especially by its development, to be primarily con- nected with the left habenular ganglion, which even in the adult has a different shape from that of its fellow of the opposite side. Both nerves persist in a well-developed condition throughout life. The view that the pineal sac and pineal eye are respectively the right and left members of a primitive pair of sense-organs, serially homologous with the lateral eyes, is strongly supported. Altogether six pairs of diverticula are given off from the fore- and mid- brain, viz. the cerebral hemispheres, the optic vesicles of the lateral eyes, the recessus thalami prenucleares, the pineal sense-organs, the recessus geniculi, and the optic lobes. These may all be serially homologous with one another, and each may possibly indicate a separate neuro- mere. There is no commissura mollis and no unpaired plexus medianus in the third ventricle. Reissner’s fibre and the sub-commissural organ are very well developed.— J. A. Crowther: The scattering of homogeneous 8B rays, and the number of electrons in the atom. (1) The scatter- ing of a homogeneous pencil of B rays has been measured for various substances and for rays of different velocity. It has been shown to obey the following statistical laws :— (i) for rays of given velocity the intensity I of the radia- tion contained within a given cone may be expressed by the equation I/I,=1—e-*", where t is the thickness of material passed through, and k a constant depending upon the angle of the cone; (ii) for rays of given velocity the most probable angle of emergence is proportional to the square root of the thickness of material traversed by the rays; (iii) for rays of different velocities, the probable angle of emergence divided by the square root of the thickness traversed is inversely proportional to the product of the mass of the incident 8 particle into the square of its NO. 2124, VOL. 84] velocity. (2) From equations given by Sir J. J. Thomson, the number of electrons contained in atoms of different elements is deduced. It is thus found :—(i) that the ratio of the number of electrons per atom to the atomic weight is constant, the ratio being very nearly 3-0 for all the elements examined; (ii) that the positive electricity within the atom is not in an electronic condition, but is distributed fairly uniformly over the space occupied by the atom. (3) Experiments are described on the absorption of homo- geneous B rays. It is shown that the first stage in the absorption of a pencil of homogeneous B rays consists in the scattering of the rays according to the laws already considered. ‘The absorption of the completely scattered radiation is then shown to take place according to an exponential law.—F. Isaac: The spontaneous crystallisa- tion and the melting- and freezing-point curves of mixtures of two substances which form mixed crystals and possess a minimum or eutectic freezing point——Mixtures of azo- benzene and benzylaniline. The results obtained in this research may be thus summarised :—(1) The freezing- and melting-point curves for mixtures of azobenzene and benzyl- aniline have been determined, and it has been shown that these substances possess a minimum or eutectic point at 26° for the mixture containing 19 per cent. azobenzene and 81 per cent. benzylaniline, and form a series of mixed crystals on one side only of the eutectic, viz. that with excess of azobenzene. This is, therefore, a limiting case of Roozeboom’s Type 5, in which two substances, A and B, possess freezing- and melting-point curves which exhibit a minimum eutectic point, and form two series of mixed crystals, i.e. mixed crystals containing excess of A, and mixed crystals containing excess of B. (2) The melting- point curve has been confirmed by actual analysis of the mixed crystals. (3) The supersolubility curve, or curve of spontaneous crystallisation, has been determined for these mixtures by two methods :—(i) by noting the temperature at which a liquid mixture of known composition crystallises spontaneously in a sealed tube; (ii) by noting the tempera- ture at which a known liquid mixture attains its highest refractive index and gives a dense labile shower when placed in the trough of the inverted goniometer. It has been shown that each mixture possesses a definite tempera- ture of spontaneous crystallisation. The supersolubility curve shows a minimum for liquids having approximately the eutectic composition, and runs approximately parallel to the freezing-point curve. It crosses the melting-point curve three times. The nature of the mixed crystals which first separate spontaneously from any liquid mixture on the supersolubility curve has been investigated. The com- position of such crystals has been determined by separating them from their mother liquor and finding their melting points. (5) A few thin sections have been ground from the solid mixtures in the neighbourhood of the eutectic, and their structures examined. These structures do not appear to be permanent. After the lapse of some months they completely changed, new crystal needles appearing all over the sections. These changes, however, appear to be very gradual, and to take place with change of tempera- ture.—E. C. Snow: The determination of the chief corre- lations between collaterals in the case of a simple Mendelian population mating at random. This paper investigates the values which should hold for the correla- tions between (a) siblings, (b) uncle and nephew, and (c) first cousins, on the Mendelian hypothesis of ‘‘ unit- characters.” The correlations both for gametic and somatic characters are found. For the former, values in- dependent of the distribution of the dominant and recedant characters among the population are obtained. These are (a) 0-500, (b) 0-250, and (c) 0-250. In the case of the somatic correlations, however, the results depend upon the relative numbers of the population possessing the dominant and recedant attributes before crossing. By varying this proportion, different values of the correlations can be obtained, but these are always less than the corresponding gametic ones stated above. .The investigation brings out the important point that, on the Mendelian theory of heredity, the similarity between first cousins is quite as close as, or closer than, those between uncle and nephew. Biometric results previously reached have pointed to the same conclusions. This is of great interest from the medical point of view. In medical diagnosis, a man’s 62 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1910 uncles and aunts, but not his cousins, are generally con- sidered; but the results of the present paper show that his cousins, usually more numerous, give just as good a knowledge of his constitutional tendencies as do his uncles and aunts.—C, J. T. Sewell: The propagation of sound in a fog. This paper is intended as a sequel to the author’s previous paper on ‘‘ The Extinction of Sound in a Viscous Atmosphere by Small Obstacles of Cylindrical and Spherical Form,’’ in which the loss of energy from the primary waves owing to viscosity was investigated. In the present paper the author has included the additional loss of energy due to heat conduction. The work proceeds on much the same lines as before, and the results obtained are of the same order of magnitude. The chief interest consists in the application of the results to the effect of atmospheric !og upon the propagation and audibility of sound. Waves of high frequency suffer most. If the diameter of the drops of water in a dense fog is assumed to be 0-02 mm., and the density of the fog amounts to 44 grams per cubic metre, the intensity of sound of wave-length 100 cm. is reduced in the ratio of 1 to e before the sound has travelled a distance of 100 metres. If the wave-length is 1000 cm., this distance is increased to about 350 metres. In any case, the results seem to show that the presence of fog at sea must diminish quite appreciably the audibility of sound.—L. Southerns: A determination of the ratio of mass to weight for a radio-active substance. A determina- tion has been made of the ratio of mass to weight for uranium oxide by comparison with the known value for a normal substance (lead oxide). It had been supposed by Sir J. J. Thomson that a radio-active substance might possess greater mass than the same weight of a non- radio-active substance, on account of the greater store of potential energy which is associated with the former. In the case of uranium oxide, the increase in the ratio of mass to weight would be about 1 in 16,000. The investi- gation has been made by means of a rigid pendulum fitted with two knife-edges and a hollow bob, into which could be packed either of the substances used. Special means have been employed in order to eliminate errors due to slight variations in the position of the centre of gravity of the pendulum, and to other causes. The results show that the ratio for the uranium oxide does not differ from the normal value by more than 1 in 200,000, and thus that the contemplated effect is absent—F. P. Burt and F. L. Usher: The relative atomic weights of nitrogen and sulphur. The object of the research was to determine the combining weights of nitrogen and sulphur by the analysis of nitrogen sulphide. The method adopted was briefly as follows:—A weighed quantity of nitrogen sulphide, purified by sublimation in vacuo over silver at 100° C., was decomposed by subliming over red-hot quartz wool contained in a quartz tube. The sulphur was de- posited a few inches beyond the wool, and the nitrogen was pumped off and estimated in a constant-volume gas burette. Assuming the density of nitrogen, the relative weights of nitrogen and sulphur could be calculated, the sulphur being obtained by difference. The problem was complicated by the impossibility of starting an experiment with the quartz wool in the reaction tube in a gas-free condition. The difficulty was overcome by measuring in blank experiments the quantity of air removable from the hot wool in vacuo, and by estimating traces of more con- densable gas present by exposing the nitrogen to potash and re-measuring it. The final corrected N/S ratios are as follows, the weight of a ‘‘ normal litre’ of nitrogen in London being taken as 1-25144 grm. :—o-436847, 0-436875, 0-436839, 0.436857, 0-436897, 0:436878, 0-436898. The mean is 0-436870, and the greatest deviation from the mean is 1 in 14,000. From this ratio the atomic weight of sulphur becomes 2-067, if nitrogen be given the very probable value 14-009.—Dr. F. W. Edridge-Green: The relation of light perception to colour perception. It may be easily shown that light perception and colour perception are quite distinct. In fact, we can divide cases of colour-blindness into two classes, according as the defect is (a) one of light perception, or (b) one of colour perception or differentia- tion without any defect in light perception. Of course, both defects may be present in the same individual. The in- gation of these two classes of defective vision is much facilitated by the use of a spectrometer which the author NO, 2124, VOL. 84] has devised for the purpose. This instrument is a spectro- meter so arranged as to make it possible to expose to view in the eye-piece the portion of a spectrum between any two desired wave-lengths. Tested with this instru- ment, a normal individual will, as a rule, name six distinct colours, namely, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, and will mark out by means of the shutters about eighteen monochromatic patches. Occasionally we come across individuals with a greater power of differ- entiating hues, to whom, as to Newton, there is a distinct colour between the blue and violet, which Newton called indigo. Such individuals will mark out a greater number of monochromatic patches, from twenty-two up to twenty- nine. Those who have defective light perception for certain rays, with normal hue perception, behave exactly in the same way as a normal-sighted person with those rays removed or reduced to the same intensity, and not as if a light-perceiving substance which was sensitive to rays from a considerable range of the spectrum had been re- moved. Those with defective hue perception mark out with the spectrometer a smaller number of monochromatic patches than the normal, and say that there are five, four, three, two, or one colour instead of the normal six. They behave in every way as if their colour sensations were correspondingly limited. Therefore, if the normal be designated hexachromic, then pentachromic, tetrachromic, trichromic, dichromic, or monochromic correctly describes their colour-vision.—M. G. Sykes: The anatomy and morphology of the leaves and inflorescences of Welwitschia mirabilis. An account is given of the anatomy of the leaves, and of the inflorescence axes, cones, bracts, and flowers of both sexes. It is shown that the male and female inflorescences are essentially similar in their method of vascular supply and in their detailed anatomy, and it is concluded that they are homologous. Various characters suggest comparison with the Cycads and the Medullosez. From the position of the embryo-sac relatively to the two coverings of the ovule at various stages of development, they are regarded as two integuments. The seed can be closely compared with that of Lagenostoma; its differences from this primitive type are referable to changes dependent on the evolution of siphonogamy and possibly insect fertilisation. In both these seeds the free outer integu- ment is regarded as a primitive character, in contrast with the fused integuments of Cycas and Cardiocarpus. In all these cases the entire vascular system appears to be integumental. The connection between Welwitschia and the Cycads, the Bennettitales and the Angiosperms, is discussed.—Colonel Sir David Bruce, C.B., Captains A. E. Hamerton and H. R. Bateman, and Captain F. P. Mackie: (1) The natural food of Glossina palpalis ; (2) mechanical transmission of sleeping sickness by the tsetse-fly—V. H. Veley and Prof. A. D. Waller: The comparative toxicity of theobromine and caffeine as measured by their direct effects upon the contractility of isolated muscle. It is shown by measurements of the contractility of isolated muscle that the toxicity of theo- bromine, the base of cocoa, is greater than that of caffeine, the base of coffee and tea, in the proportion of 3:2. The introduction of a second methyl group into the oxy-purine residue, namely, the formation of caffeine from theo- bromine, thus diminishes the toxic value, a result which is the converse of that observed in the case of the paraffinoid alcohols. The toxic effects of coffee and tea extracts are also studied, and it is shown that the effect of the former is mainly due to the caffeine contents, and not to the tannic acid.—Prof. W. B. Bottomley: The assimilation of nitrogen by certain nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil. —Prof. A. B. Macatlum: The inorganic composition of the blood in vertebrates and invertebrates and its origin. —Mary T. Fraser and J. A. Gardner: The origin and destiny of cholesterol in the animal organism. Part vii.— The quantity of cholesterol and cholesterol esters in the blood of rabbits fed on diets containing varying amounts of cholesterol. CAMBRIDGE. Philosophical Societv. June 6.—Mr. W. Rateson, presi- dent, in the chair.—H. H. Brindley: Further notes on the procession of Cnethocampa pinivora. Lantern-slides | were shown illustrating observations on the procession of the caterpillar of this Eupterotid moth, which infests the Jury 14, 1910] NATURE 63 pines of the Landes. The caterpillars march in single file from the nest tree over the sand on fine days in late March and early April, ending the last day’s procession by burrowing for pupation. The general impression left by observation of processions is that the larve in head-to-tail contact act as one individual, and as such their course of action is very difficult to disturb by artificial interference in respect both of direction of march and general behaviour. Though removal of the leader hardly, if at all, checks the progress of a procession (in a procession of six, for instance, the leaders were removed successively and placed at the rear of the procession six times in fourteen minutes without the procession stopping), the ‘‘ circulating mass ”’ seems invariably formed on the initiative of the leader. The reason for this frequently occurring event, as, indeed, also the stimuli which determine the behaviour of a pro- cession, remains obscure, while no explanation is forth- coming of the remarkable temporary independence of some larve. As in the observations by T. G. Edwards, no irritation of the skin by the poison hairs of the larve, in spite of frequent handling, was experienced (Fabre lays much stress on the inconvenience he suffered from this source, so the liability to irritation probably varies in different individuals).—Dr. Graham-Smith: The habits of Musca domestica.—Dr. N. H. Swellengrebel and C. Strickland: The development of Trypanosoma lewisi in the rat flea (Ceratophyllus fasciatus). A development of T. lewisi was found to take place first in the mid- gut, later in the hind-gut and rectum of the flea. The forms observed resembled very much the forms of T. lewisi in an artificial culture, except that the later stages in the flea, a return to a trypanosome form (‘‘ small trypanosomes ’’), are never found in culture. No such developmental forms were found in a large number of control fleas—Dr. F. Ransom: The absorption of tetanus toxin.—H. Ackroyd: The fate of uric acid in the dog.— Dr. Cobbett: The absence of living tubercle bacilli from old tuberculous lesions. The author has on_ several occasions, while working for the Tuberculosis Commission at Stansted, as well as in Sheffield and Cambridge, found that old caseous and calcareous deposits, which were un- doubtedly of a tuberculous nature, might contain no tubercle bacilli capable of infecting the guinea-pig.—W. E. Dixon: The action of potash salts taken by the mouth. The non-toxicity of potash salts taken by the mouth was shown to be due to the very easy excretion of these salts by the kidneys, so that their concentration in the blood was but slightly increased.—Prof. Sims Woodhead: The results of sterilisation experiments on the Cambridge water. Sterilisation by chlorine and chlorine compounds had given most startling results. In a series of preliminary experi- ments, carried out in the laboratory, it had been found that one part of available chlorine to two million parts of water was sufficient to kill all non-spore-bearing bacteria cf the Bacillus coli type, and therefore of the typhoid bacillus type, and probably also of the cholera bacillus type, within half an hour even in the presence of. the appreciable amount of organic matter that was necessarily added along with the cultures of Bacillus coli. Water to which had been added some hundreds of the Bacillus coli per c.c. was found after treatment to contain not a single living colon bacillus in 50, 60, and 100 c.c. (The un- important spore-bearing organisms were not killed.) Having obtained these results in the laboratory, a large experimental plant capable of sterilising more than 80,000 gallons of water per twelve hours, erected at Fulbourn, was used, and three sets of experiments were carried out, one a preliminary series in which the apparatus was run at intervals as required, and then two series of experiments in which the apparatus was run for twelve hours daily for more than a fortnight in each series. The standard of the London Water Board, that there shall be no Bacillus coli in quantities of water less than 200 c.c., was taken as the one to be aimed at. In every case, however, quantities of 500 c.c. were examined, and after | parts of water was used, it was thought necessary to neutralise any remaining chlorine by the addition of sodium bisulphite. After further experiments, where smaller quantities of chlorine were used, this addition was dis- pensed with, as the water treated, though sterile, did not retain the slightest taste of chlorine. It was suggested, | of course, that water so treated might have some effect upon the human organism. All those who were working | at Fulbourn drank considerable quantities of this water, certain preliminary difficulties had been surmounted, water | was obtained in which none of the observers could find the Bacillus coli in 500 c.c. The amount of chlorine used in these experiments varied from one part in a million to one in six million parts of water. In the earlier experi- ments, where up to one part of chlorine in four million NO. 2124, VoL. 84] | society under the same title. and everyone who tried it accepted it as a first-class drink- ing water.—F. J. M. Stratton and R. H. Compton: Accident in heredity, with special reference to right- and left-handedness. An examination of the manner in which the inheritance of Mendelian characters would be affected by the action of a constant environmental factor. The assumption is made that a certain proportion of individuals have their characters inverted in appearance by accidenta! causes, and an application is made to the statistics dealing with the inheritance of the mode of clasping the hands. | —R. H. Compton: Right- and left-handedness in barley. A study of the two kinds of seedlings of barley, the folded first leaves of which are related to one another as an object to its mirror image. A considerable numerical excess of one kind is found in all the varieties studied. The dimorphism in question is not found to be hereditary, and it appears to be governed neither by the direction of twist of the last foliage leaf below the spike nor by the position of the seed on the spike.—F. T. Brooks: The development of Gnomonia erythrostoma, the cause of the cherry-leaf scorch disease. The present investigation con- cerns an examination of the life-history of this fungus from the cytological standpoint, very little work on the Pyrenomycetes having hitherto been done from this point of view.—Dr. A. C. Dixon: Jacobi’s double-residue theorem in relation to the theory of point-groups.—N. R. Campbell: Discontinuities in light emission, ii. The paper is a continuation of one recently presented to the The main object of the research has remained impossible to attain. The sub- | sidiary results do not lend themselves to summary. Paris. Academy of Sciences, June 27.—M. Emile Picard in the chair.—Ph. van Tieghem: A new classification of the Inovulee group.—J. Boussinesq: The conservation of true masses in different phenomena, principally luminous, where there appear fictitious variable masses.—Armand Gautier: The action of a red heat on formaldehyde. Experiments show products of decomposition to be carbon monoxide, and hydrogen, with a trace of methane.—B. Galitzine: A new type of seismograph for the vertical component.—Charles Nordmann: The _ brightness of Halley’s comet, and the composition of its light.—Jules Baillaud: Photographic observations of a small planet. —L. Letombe: A geometrical study of distribution in machines with separate distributors——H. Larose: The propagation of a discontinuity on a telegraphic line furnished with a transmitter.—A. Debierne: The atomic weight of the radium emanation. The author shows that by the loss of an a particle, and consequent departure of an atom of helium of atomic weight 4, the radium of atomic weight 226-5 becomes the emanation of atomic weight 222-5——G. A. Hemsalech: The duration of the emission of spectral rays by luminous vapours in the electric spark.—Gabriel Sizes and G. Massol: A photo- graphic record of the vibrations of a diapason.—Edmond Bauer: The emission of gases.—E. Henriot: The rays | of potassium.—A. Besson and L. Fournier: The action of hydrogen on sulphur chloride and thionyl chloride under the influence of an electric discharge.—Witold Broniewski: The electrical properties of aluminium-silver alloys—M. Kohn-Abrest: The nitrides and oxides obtained from aluminium heated in air.—G. Urbain, M. Blondel, and M. Obiedoff: The extraction of germanium from blende.—L. J. Simon: The acid character of oxalacetic ether.—M. Lespieau: The hydro- genation of acetylene compounds.—A. Béhal: A new tertiary menthol, and the passage of pinene into. menthene. —André Meyer: The condensation of phenyl-isoxazolone | with mesoxalic ester.—René Maire and Adrien Tison: Some Plasmodiophoracee.—C. Gessard: Blood fibrin.— 64 NALOLE [Jury 14, 1910 Maurice Nicloux: The products of decomposition of chloroform in the organism.—M. Caullery and t A. Lavallée: Experimental investigation on the initial phases of infection of Amphiura squamata by Rhopalura ophiocomae.—Alfred Angot: The earth tremor of June 24, 1910.—P, Vialla and P. Pacottet: The culture of the Reesleria of the vine.—A. Marie: The neutralising proper- ties of a substance isolated from a normal brain. July 4.—M. emile Picard in the chair.—J. Boussinesq : The probable applicability, to rays or kathode currents, of the principle of mass constancy.—Ch. Lallemand: The probable exactness of different evaluations of the altitude of Lake Chad. ‘Taking all accounts into consideration, a shore of 240 metres, in round numbers, seems nearest the truth.—D. Gernez: The nature of the product called by the name of black phosphorus.—Armand Gautier and P. Clausmann: The action of iron and its oxides, at a red heat, on carbonic oxide. Application to some geological data. The resulting products are carbides of iron, free carbon, and carbon dioxide, together with certain iron oxides.—Th. Schleesing, fils: The production of nicotine by the cultivation of tobacco.—E. L. Bouvier: The pycnogonids with five pairs of paws collected by the Jean Charcot expedition on board the Pourquoi-Pas?—A. Calmette and C. Guérin: The re-absorption of tubercu- lous bacilli by cattle following on the injection of mixtures of serum of animals rendered hyper-immune, and_ bacilli cultivated in series on beef bile-—A. Perot: A study of the variation of ‘the wave-length of solar light at the sun’s circumference.—D. Eginitis: Some phenomena shown by Halley’s comet after its passage across the sun. It seems evident that much of the shortening of the tail was due to the angle under which the comet was seen, besides it being not unlikely that some disintegration was brought about by the earth itself.—Fr. Iniguez: Physical observations on Halley’s comet.—Serge Bernstein: Mechanical equations and the calculus of variations.—F. Ducretet and E. Roger: An apparatus for receiving time on land and on board ship by wireless telegraphy.—P. Beaulard: The electric absorption exercised by some alcohols.—Mdlle. L. Blanquies : The constituents of radio- -activity induced from actinium.—A. Dufour: The rotation of a mercuric arc in a magnetic field. Observations on D6ppler’s pheno- menon.—Louis Malclés: The appearance of certain dielectric anomalies by changing the state of the insulating medium. Pure vaseline, an insulator at ordinary tempera- tures, but a conductor in the liquid state, acts as a medium charged with free ions of both signs, the mobility of which, while non-existent when the substance is semi-fluid, only shows itself on the attainment of a clearly liquid state.— Jean Villey: An electrometric micromanometer.—Maurice de Broglie: The exclusive presence in the gases evolved from some hydrogenated flames of ions altogether analogous to those produced by Réntgen rays. It was observed, notably in the case of hydrogen, ether, aldehyde, acetone, &c., that the flames of ROrnienon gave ions closely agreeing with Réntgen radiation in velocity—V. Auger: Manganate of sodium and its hydrates. It is possible to obtain manganate of sodium by the decomposi- tion of the corresponding permanganate by means of excess of soda.—M. Barre: The decomposition of thorium sulphate by water.—Léo Vignon: The adsorption of certain colouring matters.—E. André: Acetylenic ketones. The author gives the various physical constants for acetyl, propionyl, butyryl, isovaleryl, and caproyl-phenyl-acetylene. —A. Backe: Researches on iso-maltol. The author considers the probable formula of this substance to be CH- 0—CH I lI CH,;,—C—CO—C—OH. —Em. Bourquelot and Mdlle. A. Fichtenholz: The presence of a glucoside in the leaves of a pear tree, and its extraction. —Paul Becquerel: The abiotic action of ultra-violet rays, and the hypothesis of the cosmic origin of life. Although the effect of dryness, low temperature, and cold may serve to retain the vitality of living spores in inter-stellar space, yet the fact that this space is full of ultra-violet radiation, which is shown to have a most destructive effect on spore life, goes far to discredit any theory of the cosmic origin of life—Maurice Arthus: NO. 2124, VOL. 84] | Cobra poison and curare.—M. Szreter: The oxidation of pure oxyhemoglobin by pure oxygenated water.—Pierre Girard: The electrostatic mechanism of osmosis.—C. Viguier: The very rapid maturity of a Spionid larva.— Edmond Hitzel: A double bend in the south wall at the base of the peak of Platé, near Chedde (Haute-Savoie).— L. Cayeux: The existence of calcareous phosphates in diatoms from Senegal.—L. De Launmay and G. Urbain: The formation of blende, and minerals derived from it.— M. Ferret: Some oscillations of the sea observed at Bonifacio. New Soutu WALxEs. Linnean Society, May 25.—Mr. C. Hedley, president, in the chair.—E. C. Grey: The fatty acids of brain lipoids, part i.—E. Meyrick, F.R.S.: Revision of Australian Tortricina. The author dealt with the Tortri- cina of Australia (and New Zealand) in two papers con- tributed to the society’s Proceedings for 1881 (vol. vi., pp- 410 and 629), the number of Australian species therein recorded being 132. The revision increases the number to 434 species, of which about 232 are described as new; the present paper, the first instalment of the revision, is concerned with 290 species, comprised in the Carposinide, Phaloniadz, and Tortricide. For this result the author is greatly indebted to the aid of a number of Australian correspondents who forwarded collections; these, together with the material which he had himself accumulated, were taken to the British Museum, and a close comparison instituted with Walker’s types, with the result, it is believed, that every one of these was identified satis- factorily. The Tortricina are considered to have originated from the Hilarographa group of the Plutellidz. CONTENTS. PAGE Totemism Unveiled. By A. E. Crawley . 31 A Theory of Prehistoric Rhodesia Abe s ke a 32 The Marine Fauna of Japan. ByS. J. H. 34 The Cambridge Public Orator. By Dr. R. Y. Tyrrell 35 Psychical Research, By J. A. H. 0) eeeteenemaed 36 Pseudocytology .. bee o> cee ee eS Biology and Human ‘Life. ‘By J. ALT... sprees Alpine Flowers BPO, Oy Cm Pee ten! An's 37 OnurmBook: Shelf. i.) cu-seneeeenien Sic Bio. te Letters to the Editor :— Ooze and Irrigation. —Rev. Hilderic Friend; A. R. Horwood .. 39 A Singular Mammal called “Orocoma.’ —Kumagusu Minakata . . 2 Oy & VARROMORLS! 5 ae A) {2} Pwdre Ser.—F. M, Burton. ea O coo < 4° Curve Tracing and Curve Analysis. —A. P, Trotter . 40 The Akikuyu of East Africa. ae) Sir H. H. Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.. . 41 Temperatures in the Free Atmosphere. By E. Gold 42 The Gulf Stream Drift and the Weather of the British Isles. By Dr. H. Bassett . cine 44 Prof. G. V. Schiaparelli, By W.E.P. ... 44 Prof, J. G. Galle. 2 a. 7 ee The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls. “By Dr, William iJaoscockyer ©. .oeeeue Ses |... See Notes . aac 46 Our Astronomical Column :— Halley’s Comet : 52 Prevention of Dew Deposit upon Lens Sarees 52 A Variable Star asa Time Constant ........ 52 Radiation and Absorption 52 The Fifth International Congress of Ornithologists. By pe ineias ye 53 The Dangers of Ferro-silicon. "By Prof. A. McWilliam 53 The Position of the Negro and Pygmy Bao Human Races. By Prof. Arthur Keith ..... 54 Trees and Forests eS Tinctorial Chemistry, Ancient and. Modern, By Prof. Walter M. Gardner . tc tle) The Medical Inspection of School Children 57 Notes on the Origin of the Hausas, By Capt. A.J. N: Tremearne . - 5 58 Models of Meteorological Conditions in the Free Air. (J/lustrated.) . ore Oy. ee) University and Educational Intelligence Bia o “pyicno le) SocietesrandA cademics ee smcm- mail icine lemiente 60 NATOTE 65 THURSDAY, JULY 27, toro. A STANDARD TREATISE ON PHYSICS. Traité de Physique. By O. D. Chwolson. Trans- lated from the Russian and German editions by E. Davaux. Second volume, fourth fascicule. Pp. 641-1188. Third volume, first fascicule. Pp. vii+ 408. Fourth volume, first fascicule. Pp. vii+ 430. Figures in text. (Paris: Hermann et Fils, 1909.) Price 17, 13 and 12 francs respectively. INCE this is a French translation of a work which has already been reviewed in part as a German translation (from the Russian), we will not do more than examine those parts in which it differs from its previous forms or which have not previously been reviewed here. It is by no means a mere translation. Extensive additions have been made under Prof. Chwolson’s supervision with the object of maintaining the book level with the rapid advances in physics that have taken place. These have been made with the author’s usual discriminative ability. If there is one quality more than another which strikes us about this text-book it is the rare combination of knowledge and good judgment which everywhere characterises it. Other volumes which we know may be more encyclopedic. If our object is to find out all that has been done on any special subject we may be disappointed if we turn up the subject here. But if our object is to find a judi- cious selection of the best that has been thought and written on physical questions, then we know of no better source from which our object can be attained. In other words, this is a text-book of a preeminent order, written by one who has a unique command over all branches of physical science, and who is as alive to the most recent developments as to those portions which have now become classical. Of the additions to the fourth fascicule, which deals with diffraction, double refraction, and polarisation of light, we may point out the account of recent work by Dufet on the remarkable anomalous dispersion of the optic axes in the case of the sulphates of neo- dymium and praseodymium which is exhibited in the region of optical absorption. Several additional pages are devoted to an account of the optical properties of liquid crystals as studied by Lehmann and others. Two lengthy paragraphs are added by the translator dealing with the reflection and refraction of polarised light according to Green, and with the gyrostatic theory of light. These paragraphs certainly supple- ment the rest of the chapter into which they are inserted, and, as many readers will be glad to have them, no exception can be taken in regard to their insertion. But it may be intimated that they are considerably more mathematical than the greater part of the book, and they therefore do not harmonise very well with the rest. We are certainly surprised to find that what is essentially a distinct treatise is bound up with this fascicule, and constitytes the end of the second volume. This consists of a note on the theory of deformable bodies, by MM. E. and F. Cosserat. This NO. 2125, VOL. 84] note is 220 pages long, and it does not in any sense harmonise with the work with which it is incorpor- ated. Prof. Chwolson’s work is emphatically experi- mental in character; the note is as strikingly mathe- matical. We do not wish in the slightest degree to discredit either the matter or the manner of the note taken by itself. But there does not seem to be any | justification for loading a text-book which is neces- sarily very bulky by matter which will probably never be consulted at the same time as the body of the book itself. The MM. Cosserat’s note is a distinct and useful treatise, and should be quite able to stand on its own feet. The changes in the first fascicule of the third volume are not so considerable. This part deals with thermometry, specific heats, thermochemistry, and thermal conductivity. So far as we can find, there is only one additional section, which treats in a general way of the problem of Fourier, and gives a short account of the allied researches of M. Poincaré. This is a very useful addition. The first part of the fourth volume has not yet been reviewed in these columns, and it deserves a more extended notice. Its subject-matter is the stationary electric field. The introduction to this part is specially noteworthy. It has seemed to Prof. Chwolson necessary to commence by giving a sum- mary of the singular and exceptional situation in which the science of electrical and magnetic pheno- mena now is. At the present time one may distin- guish no fewer than three various points of view from which these subjects are regarded. We have, in the first place, to deal with the external structure of a very great number of different phenomena which, per- ceived by our senses, awaken in us a representation more or less definite of what is proceeding, or, more exactly, of what seems to us to proceed in a given. direction and under given conditions. Thence arises a description of phenomena and of the laws and rules by which those phenomena are regulated. Secondly, we may place ourselves at another point of view, and consider the practical applications; or, thirdly, we may endeavour to explain these phenomena by showing that they are the necessary consequence of the existence of a certain substratum to which the laws of mechanics and thermodynamics are applicable. In regard to this third point of view, Prof. Chwolson declares that— “Without wishing to exaggerate, we may say, after having glanced rapidly over the facts, that there does not exist at this moment in the. part of this science which has for its object the explanation of phenomena, any theory which is firmly established upon which we may rely in a manner free from all possible doubt to give an account of all phenomena.”’ He recognises, however, three fundamental concep- tions which excite three distinct images or pictures which give a more or less exact representation of the intimate cause of phenomena. These he designates by the letters A, B, and C. The image A, adopted in a general manner up to the year 1870, was con- structed on the notion of two electricities, enjoying the property of acting instantaneously at a distance. D 66 NATURE [JuLy 21, 1910 Though retained in elementary expositions, serious science has abandoned it for ever. The image B (1870 to 1890) left entirely on one side the conception of a special electrical substance, and sought to explain electrical phenomena by the properties of the zther alone. But although this pic- ture enabled one to form a representation of radiant electrical energy, it, too, has been found insufficient to explain a great number of phenomena. The image C is based on the notion of electrons, and forms, to some extent, a combination of A and B. It supposes the existence of a special substratum, and preserves the idea of modifications produced in the body of the zther; but the electrical substance is now con- sidered as the origin of these modifications in the ether. We have summarised these distinctions because they characterise the entire fascicule. Prof. Chwolson adheres to these distinctions throughout, and the re- sult is that he is able to produce a final picture which is more free from confusion than if he had attempted to remove the dividing lines between them. Again, the student will leave his perusal of these pages with a far wider conception of the general lie of the land than if one or other of these points of view had been purposely blocked out. We do not wish to disparage any recent books which emphasise one of these pic- tures to the practical exclusion of others. They serve their purpose. The pioneer is necessarily preoccupied with his own line of march. But there is a danger that, in the enthusiasm created by recent discoveries and the success attending the contemplation of picture C, the rest of the landscape will be forgotten. We can wish for no better training for a student than a perusal of Prof. Chwolson’s treatise. Of the general character of the book in its French form we may say that we do not like it quite so well as the German. The illustrations, which are taken from the German translation, do not show up as satis- factorily on the paper selected. But the production of a French translation will be welcomed by many to whom German is not intelligible; and it may be said without any hesitation that, in the form in which it now appears, we have a text-book of physics which is second to none in the French language. It should be in the library of every physical laboratory, and students who are taking up the subject of physics seriously will find it one of the best text-books of which to obtain private possession. FLOWER POLLINATION. Handbook of Flower Pollination. By Dr. P. Knuth. Based upon Hermann Miiller’s work, “The Fer- tilisation of Flowers by Insects.” Translated by Prof. J. R. Ainsworth Davis. Vol. iii. (Band ii, Teil ii., of the German edition), Observations on Flower Pollination made in Europe and the Arctic Regions on Species belonging to the Natural Orders. Goodenoview to Cycadez. Pp. iv+644. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909.) Price 28s. net. OL. III. of the English translation, which has now appeared, concludes that portion of Knuth’s handbook for which that author was himself respon- sible. The later volumes, issued after Knuth’s death NO. 2125, VOL. 84] by Dr. E. Loew, deal with observations on flower pollination made beyond the confines of Europe, while the earlier volumes contain the observations made in Europe and the Arctic regions, vol. iii. dealing with species belonging to the orders Goodenoviez to Cycadacee. The English translation, appearing, as it does, ten years after the publication of the original German edition, has been brought up to date in many respects. The arrangement of the Natural Orders has been altered in consonance with more recent classification, and some Orders have been merged as Sub-orders in the larger Families. In many instances new observa- tions have been added, and additional literature is referred to, as, for instance, in the case of the prim- rose, the pollination of which has been much disputed, and also in the case of Pentstemon, of which genus Loew has latterly made a very considerable study. This volume, like its predecessor, must be regarded as a most valuable book of reference, yet here and there are points of more general interest to which, perhaps, reference should be made. On p. 434, when dealing with the flower of the snowflake (Leucojum), Knuth gives an interesting summary of the method he has adopted to detect the presence of a nectary, when the position of that organ is not obvious at first sight. By suitable treatment of flowers with Fehling’s solution or Hoppe-Seyler’s sugar reagent he was able to detect the nectar- secreting part of most flowers. Sometimes even fairly conspicuous flowers, as, for instance, those of Pyrola uniflora, were found to be nectarless, and in this case, though the flower is otherwise obviously adapted to insect pollination, no insect visitors are recorded in the handbook. Indeed, this volume, like the preceding one, would yield much valuable infor- mation to anyone in search of opportunities of enrich- ing botanical science by accurate observations in the field, for a number of plants, some of them quite common, still require their insect visitors to be re- corded. Some of the orders, like the Ericacez, are of interest, because in some genera, e.g. Calluna, Erica, and Cyclamen, the flowers, though adapted to insect pollination, and very eagerly visited by insects, are during their later stages anemophilous, the pollen becoming dry and powdery, and being readily carried by wind. On the other hand, some flowers normally adapted to wind pollination, like the sweet chestnut (Castanea), also attract insects, and are no doubt pollinated by them. The translator has omitted to note the observations made recently on the dog’s mercury (Mercurialis), which indicate that this plant is provided both with nectaries and sticky pollen, so that though apparently anemophilous, and probably at times wind pollinated, it is adapted to the visits of insects, and, as Knuth records, is often visited by them. The anemophilous Graminez, too, offer many points of interest in connection with the frequent occurrence of cleistogamy and self-pollination of their flowers. Insect visits are occasionally observed in this group. Ludwig considered that the succulent shining lodicules of many grasses sometimes Jury 21, 1910] NATURE 67 — attract flies, which are often imprisoned by the rapid closing of the glumes. These flies seem often affected by the entomophthora disease, and it is sug- gested that when so suffering they are often compelled by thirst to seek the juice of the lodicules. In other cases, no doubt, they visit the flowers for the purpose of collecting pollen. A very valuable appendix, occupying about 100 pages, is added to the volume, and gives a systematic list of the various insects which have been observed visiting flowers and the flowers which they usually frequent. This carefully compiled list will be as in- forming to the entomologist as to the botanist. The index of plants described in the volume which figures in the German edition has not been added in the translation, but is probably held over for the final volume. The style of the English rendering is fluent, and generally free from the flaws that mark some trans- lations, though the volume opens with a serious blunder in describing the flowers of Lobelia as actino- morphous. Halftig-symmetrisch is, of course, bi- laterally symmetrical or zygomorphic, as is, indeed, indicated by the concluding portion of the sentence which describes the bifid upper and the trifid lower lip. It is unfortunate that the translator has retained the use of the word wcology as a synonym for biology, in dealing with observations on flower pol- lination. Though formerly used in that sense, cecology has of late years been so definitely and much more correctly applied to the study of plant-life in relation to environment that it seems out of place when used for floral biology. Apart from such minor defects, the translation will be welcomed as rendering Knuth’s monumental work accessible to a wider circle of readers and students of plant biology. PRACTICAL WORK FOR ELECTRICAL LABORATORIES. Leitfaden zum elektrotechnischen Praktikum. G. Brion. Pp. xiv+4o4. (Leipzig and Berlin: B. G. Teubner, to10.) Price rz marks. HE laboratory has always been regarded as a necessary complement to the class-room so far as physics and chemistry are concerned, but for engineering subjects it is a comparatively modern institution. There are still engineers amongst us who have had to go through their university training with- out enjoying the use of a laboratory, but within the last generation all technical universities and colleges have recognised the immense importance of laboratory work, and have fitted up hydraulic, heat, mechanical, and electrical laboratories on a more or less extensive scale. Teachers, as well as engineers in practice, are agreed on the necessity of supplementing the theo- retical work of the class-room by experiment, and there is keen competition between the different institu- tions as regards the best equipment, each trying to profit by the experience of the others, and to adapt the plant to the special industrial requirements of its district. * The best equipped laboratory would, however, be of little value without good organisation in its use NO. 2125, VOL. 84| By Dr. and scientific instruction in the way of carrying out experiments. The book under review is an attempt, and, let us hasten to say, a very successful attempt, to supply such instruction. Of all Continental tech- nical high schools, Dresden has at the present moment the best equipped electrical engineering laboratory, and since its head, Prof. Goerges, is not only an accomplished teacher, but also an engineer of high reputation, we may expect that a book, treating of laboratory work as carried on under him, will prove a most useful publication. The author is lecturer at Dresden, and in the preface says that the methods described have been worked out from time to time by various members of the staff. This does not mean that the methods described, or even a majority of them, are new, but simply that all the methods described have actually been used in that laboratory, and that in this way the educational value of each has been put to the test. If an author describes the equipment of and worl: done in the laboratory in which he works himself, there is danger that he will produce a somewhat one- sided account, but from such a reproach Mr. Brion is entirely free. All the author has to say on testing applies to any well-equipped laboratory, and there is a remarkable absence of references to special appara- tus. He evidently does not hold with the custom of giving the student cut-and-dried instructions, such as ‘‘take Messrs. So and So’s testing set, connect in such a manner, then turn the handle and read off the result... Wherever possible he not only lets the student build up his apparatus, but he gives him also a short theory of the test. The object of the student’s work in the laboratory is primarily to verify by experi- ment certain physical relations of which he has heard the theory in the class-room. Since, however, the simple and fundamental physical relations are in prac- tical machinery often overshadowed by secondary dis- turbing causes, it is important that these should be pointed out to the student, and that he should thus be trained to scrutinise his results so as to separate that which is important from that which is merely accidental or disturbing. In this direction, Mr. Brion | has given us good advice in sufficient detail. To give such advice it is, however, necessary to intro- duce a certain amount of theoretical matter on a mathematical basis. A casual glance through the pages of this book gives one more the impression of a text-book than of a laboratory manual, but on closer inspection one finds that only as much theory is introduced as is necessary for intelligent working. Among the good features of the book are the diagrammatic representa- tions of circuits, machines, and apparatus. With a correct appreciation of the probability that the students who work now in the laboratory will in a year or two be working im practice, Mr. Brion has adopted in his diagrams the symbolic representation recommended by the Verband Deutscher Elektrotech- niker. He also uses thick lines to represent wires which carry main currents and thin lines for wires carrying shunt currents or for voltmeter wires. This is apparently a small matter, but anyone who has to trace out the circuits in some complicated electrical 68 NATURE | Jiuty 21, 1910 connection will appreciate the advantage of making the distinction. It is, however, to be regretted that in the matter of notation the author is too intensely German. He puts P for force, A for energy, L for power, D for torque, and so on, all letters which have internationally already a significance. The reader is thus put unnecessarily to the trouble and mental strain to substitute for symbols he is accustomed to use (and which, to a certain degree, have already received the sanction of the International Electrotechnical Commis- sion) others which are unfamiliar to him. It is not necessary to enumerate the contents of this book in detail; suffice it to say that it broadly covers the subject of laboratory tests such as are necessary for students. As to the question of which tests are necessary and which may be omitted, opinions will always differ. It would be easy to give a list of tests which, in the reviewer’s opinion, ought to have been included, but such criticism would hardly be fair, for a book on testing cannot contain every pos- sible test, but only a selection of those which the author himself has found suitable. On the whole, the author has given us a very representative and useful selection, covering a wide field. His book will be found to bea most helpful guide to electrical laboratory work generally. GIsBERT Kapp. ANCIENT HINDU CHEMISTRY. A- History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D., with Sanskrit Texts, &~c. By Prof. Praphulla Chandra Ray. Vol. ii. Pp. xevit+293+1524xxi. (Calcutta: The Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceu- tical Works, Ltd.; London : ELSES and Norgate, 1909.) Price tos. “dl net. N the first volume of this book, which was pub- lished in 1902, and reviewed in these columns on May 21, 1903, Prof. Ray dealt with all the oldest (pre- Buddha) Hindu MSS., and many of the later ones. A number of MSS. remained untouched, and now that these have been examined, the concluding volume has been issued. It has been a labour of love which has occupied all Prof. Ray’s spare time for the last fifteen years, and the great value of the results of his patient and laborious researches will be fully appre- ciated by all students of the history of chemistry. The difficulties of determining the extent of Indian chemical lore in ancient times are profound. There is no doubt that at a very early period the Arians attained great proficiency in the manufacturing indus- tries, which must have rested on a good practical knowledge of chemical reactions. The famous sword- blades, called by the Greeks ‘‘marvellous swords,” and by the Western world ‘‘ Damascened blades,’’ were brought to Europe by way of Damascus, but were made in India. The making and polishing of glass in India, including lenses and mirrors of various kinds, spherical, oval, &c., was a well-known industry. Pliny mentions that the best glass ever made was Indian glass. In pharmacy, in dyeing, in the manufacture of perfumery and cosmetics, complicated chemical operations must have been carried out even before the time of Buddha, which is placed about B.c. 500. There is, however, little or no trace of these thin NO. 2125, VOL. 84] oc s°> in the literature of the period. The caste system was radically opposed to the formation of a science in which practice is based on theory. The chemical in- dustriés were exercised by a despised caste, that of the ¢udras, and their labours were no doubt deemed unworthy of being described by the caste of the Brahmins, or priests, who alone understood the art of writing. Thus Hoefer, for example, remarks that amongst the Sanskrit manuscripts in the Bibliothéque Imperiale, of Paris, no document occurs which can be of interest to the historian of chemistry, and Berthelot in his ‘‘ Origines de l’Alchemie ”’ practically ignores India. ; The MSS. patiently examined by Prof. Ray appear to consist largely of religious or philosophical reflec- tions, with occasional somewhat obscure references to chemical subjects made for the purpose of illustration. Thus in a document called “‘ Rasaratnakara,”’ written by Nagarjuna, who was the High Priest of Buddha about A.D. 150, such texts as the following occur :— “What wonder is it that cinnabar digested several times with the milk of the ewe and the [vegetable] acids imparts to silver the lustre of gold glowing as saffron?" And a little further on :— “Silver alloyed with lead and fused with ashes becomes purified,”’ which is a clear allusion to cupellation. It is probable that the pundits, when referring to metal-working, often knew very little of the subjects they mentioned, but Nagarjuna was celebrated as an alchemist. Prof. Ray argues at some length in favour of the indigenous origin of Indian alchemy, and, however degrading it may have been to work, it does not appear to have been derogatory to the dignity of the sages to discuss the manufacture of gold or silver. Thus— “Tin is to be melted and one-hundredth part its weight of mercury to be amalgamated with it. This [fraudulent substitute for] silver can be used for pur- poses of exchange, and one can thus amass wealth.” The last 150 pages of the book consist of a repro- duction of original Sanskrit texts, taken from many different MSS. eee AN ENCYCLOPADIA OF THE SCIENCES. Instruments optiques d’Observation et de Mesure. By Jules Raibaud. Pp. 380. (Paris: O. Doin et Fils, 1909.) Price 5 francs. HIS volume is a unit in a somewhat extensive undertaking, no less than an encyclopedia of all the sciences, pure and applied, physical and biological, material, mental, and moral. The scheme is of a somewhat novel character; its magnitude may be judged from the fact that it involves a total of some thousand volumes, arranged in forty sections or ‘bibliothéques,”’ the whole to rival, we are told, the largest encyclopedias of this or any other country— and not only in size. The novelty lies mainly in the fact that each volume is to be independent, and have its own individuality; each will be a monograph dealing with a special branch of the particular section to which it- belongs. The size and price will be uniform, the number of pages approximately so. One Jury 21, 1910] NATURE be among the advantages of the scheme will be that each ~volume can be brought up to date independently of the rest. The forty sections are classified in the two main divisions of “pure sciences”’ and ‘‘applied sciences.” Each of these is again subdivided into mathematical, inorganic, and biological sciences. Each subdivision comprises a certain number of sections, and each section has its own editor. The general editor is Dr. Toulouse, of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, and among the editors of sections are included such names as Painlevé, Mascart, Leduc, Lacroix, Bertrand. The volume under review belongs to the section of “Industries physiques” in the division of applied sciences—subdivision, inorganic. The section is to include volumes on such subjects as ‘“‘ Industrial Elec- tricity’ (two vols.), ‘‘Electric Motors,” ‘Electric Traction,” “Electric Lighting,” ‘“ Rheostats,” ‘‘ Wire- less Telegraphy,” ‘‘ The Liquefaction of Gases,” ‘‘ The Industrial Production of High Temperatures,” &c. This volume on ‘ Optical Instruments for Observation and for Measurement’? would seem to be the first volume of the section to be issued. Judged from its position in this hierarchy of scien- tific knowledge, Captain Raibaud’s volume is perhaps a little disappointing. One might expect to find de- tails of the most recent technical advances, of such a character that the skilled optician might there find help, whether as regards difficulties of design, or of construction, or. methods of ensuring accuracy. In the present instance, however, questions not only as to calculation of the optical system, but as to con- struction and methods of test, are definitely excluded ; the aim is thus only to give a general account of the optical properties of various types of instrument, with brief particulars of individual instruments and designs. Expressed shortly, the work is rather an educational text-book than a technical handbook. From this point of view, however, and for the general reader who wishes to obtain an intelligent knowledge of the more essential optical properties and possible defects of an instrument which he may be in the habit of using, the book can be cordially recom- mended. More especially, the general conditions governing the formation of satisfactory images by an optical instrument are carefully and clearly discussed. Thus the first part of the work, more than one-third of the whole, deals with the general properties of instruments, definition and resolving power, bright- ness of the image, extent of field of view in breadth and depth, distortion, magnification—subordinate, as is rightly emphasised, to resolving power and defini- tion—and the functions and limitations of the eye in conjunction with an optical instrument. The char- acteristics of binocular vision and of vision through a binocular instrument are also examined, and, in regard to measuring instruments, the general conditions affecting accuracy. In the second part of the book the instruments considered are those of the telescope class, the micro- scope, the photographic objective, instruments for measuring angles, surveying instruments and_ tele- meters, and, finally, instruments based on the prin- ciple of auto-collimation. The list, of course, is by no NO. 2125, VoL. 84] means exhaustive ; laboratory instruments, the spectro- scope, interferometer, &c., and photometric apparatus generally are not included, nor does space admit of detailed consideration of any one type. The book is, however, written by one who has had experience in handling the instruments he describes, and thoroughly familiar, not only with the optical theory, but also with the practical points affecting their performance. OUR BOOK SHELF, Methods used in the Examination of Milk and Dairy Products. By Dr. Chr. Barthel. Translation by W. Goodwin. Pp. xii+260. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 7s. 6d. net. Tus edition contains several additions to the original work of Dr. Barthel, and it will be found very useful to those engaged in examining milk and dairy pro- ducts on a large scale. The general remarks in it apply more exactly to milk of German or Swedish Grigin than to mill from some British breeds of cows. In the notes on the physical examination of milk are useful hints as to the estimation of dirt. For the determination of fat Soxhlet’s arazeometer method is still given a prominent place, though in most places it is superseded by less complicated and more certain methods. Wollny’s refractometer method for the fat estimation, if carried out under exact conditions, seems to give very accurate results, but it is so sensi- tive that the least departure from the necessary condi- tions influences the results seriously; one advantage it possesses is that as many as 150 determinations may be made in an hour with the proper appliances and accommodation. . The Rose-Gottlieb method, and various modifications of centrifugé methods, imclud- ing some not requiring the use of strong sulphuric acid, are described. Tests for adulterations, artificial colouring matters, and preservatives are given. Saccharate of lime is said to be one of the latest adulterations of milk and cream; it increases their viscosity and gives them the appearance of being richer in fat; a method for its detection is given. Methods for the analysis of butter, cheese, preserved milk—including Buddised milk, that is, milk treated with a small quantity of hydrogen peroxide—con- densed mill, and desiccated milk are given. We find also some account of the decomposition products of milk, butter, and cheese; and, in an appendix, several ables of figures useful in calculating the results of analyses. Norwegian and Other Fish Tales. By Bradnock Hall. Pp. x+243. (London: Smith, Elder. and Co.‘ 1910.) Price 5s. net. Tuts is A frankly trivial book with a quite unin- telligible dedication in place of a preface. The illus- trations are excellent, and the text makes good holiday reading, notwithstanding its somewhat strained humour. As the author says, ‘the diaries of anglers are not as a rule interesting, even to sympathetic brethren of the craft,” but we think that many of the author’s own experiences at least come near to proving exceptions to his own generalisation. Inci- dentally, we are told of certain Norwegian fish :— “ Everyone thought they were salmon, but both turned out to be sea-trout when the shape of the gill covers and the tail bones were examined.” It seems a pity that the precise differences between salmon and sea- trout in the shape of the gill covers and tail bones are not divulged for the benefit of fishermen and natural- ists; the counting of scales in a transverse series is none too easy, and an alternative method of diagnosis (if such really exists) would be welcome. 7O NATURE (JULY 27; -1gT0 LETTERS LO VRAE MED IETOR. {The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Experimental Study of Fulgurites. FuLGuriteEs, or the tubes of fused sand which are some- times formed when heavy discharges of lightning strike on sandy soil, are not common enough to make their study very easy. It has been frequently remarked that they usually have a spiral or cork-screw form, but, so far as I know, it has not been decided whether or not this is accidental, and whether the direction of rotation of the spiral remains constant in the same fulgurite, or whether it is always the same in the case of various discharges. Through a fortunate accident I recently hit upon a way of extending our knowledge of these curious autographs of thunderbolts. ‘The accident referred to was the circum- stance that I was standing within about 50 feet of the spot on our lawn where a rather heavy discharge struck a day or two ago. I was about to walk across the lawn at the time, but was delayed a moment to reply to a question, when the bolt fell. The report was not deafening, re- sembling the explosion of one of the modern dynamite cannon crackers with which we have become familiar. There was a distinct flash of fire at the surface of the ground, and a column of steam or smoke 6 or 8 feet high. On examining the spot I found three patches of withered clover in a line about 18 inches apart. At the centre of one was a hole about an inch in diameter, and in the neighbouring one a smaller hole of perhaps a quarter the size. It had been raining hard for a hour or more, and we had had much rain for the past week, which made the ground an excellent conductor, and I was surprised to find that I could pass a straw down the larger hole a con- siderable distance. I melted about 15 lb. of solder in an iron pot and poured Aatosraph of a Thunderbolt a SRY fa Thunderball Photcgraph of the cast of a Lole formed in ground by a lightning discharge. it into the hole until it was full, and then carefully excavated the cast. In digging it out, I found a lateral tube several inches below the surface joining the two holes, and one or two lateral branches to the large tube, into which the solder had not penetrated. The cast obtained was nearly 4 feet in length, and the ground was soaking wet, which surprised me a good deal, for I imagined that the discharge would spread out and become dissipated long before reaching a depth of 4 feet in wet soil. The ed of the tubes were lined with small patches of white s of sand fused together. The metal cast had an unmistak- oe ges ins able spiral form, which could be followed for its entire fength, and was especially conspicuous at the low or smaller end. The diameter of the artificial fulgurite in- creased to a depth of about 2 feet, after which it diminished gradually. The spiral form can be seen in the accompany- ing photograph of the cast. It was clock-wise in the down- ward direction, that is, it was similar to that of a cork- screw. The surface was covered with small buds, which were arranged in straight lines along its length, some of the lines 7 or 8 inches long. One these lines can be seen in the photograph immediately to the right of the of label. These lines may be due to cracks in the tube, result- ing from the explosive action of the steam. ‘The localisa- tion of a bright light at the surface of the ground is extremely interesting. Several members of my family, who were not looking at the spot at the moment the flash struck, turned round at the report, and said that they saw a bright light and a cloud of smoke. It will be intere sting NO. 2125, VOL. 84] to hear if others have noticed this phenomenon. It may pos- sibly be due to the combustion of a blast of gas generated by the passage of the discharge through the soil. On the day after the storm I found another and much larger hole on the golf links, where a very heavy discharge had struck and demolished a wooden box of sand on the top of a banked-up tee, leaving no mark, however, on an iron cylindrical can of water standing beside and in contact with the sand box. Lateral branches had spread out in all directions over the top of the tee, making furrows similar to mole tunnels. I have not yet made a cast of this hole, which is probably 6 or 8 feet deep, pending the decision of the golf committee. Similar holes must be of very frequent occurrence, and their study by this method should prove interesting. East Hampton, Long Island. R. W. Woop. Ooze and [irigation. TuE valuable contribution to this subject contained in the letter of Mr. Horwood (July 14, p. 40) shows the import- ance of communicating the results of research. I am, in consequence, submitting a few further facts which have not heretofore been made public. Up till the present time it has been assumed that our British Annelids were limited to a few species of earthworms, and a few aquatic forms usually lumped together as Tubifex. So far is this from being the case that we have at least four distinct groups of indigenous worms, to say nothing of the many foreign species found at Kew, Chelsea, Oxford, and elsewhere. These are, first, the true earthworms, of which we have nearly forty species, now ranged under upwards of half a dozen genera. Secondly, certain species of semiaquatic worms, including not only the well-known Allurus (Eiseniella), but two species of Helodrilus. Of these, H. oculatus, Hoffmeister, is now known to be British, while a second species, H. elongatus, Friend, new to science, is at present known to occur in Cornwall in streams and lily ponds. These are of peculiar interest, both because thev necessitate a revision of nomenclature and because they link on the earthworms with the aquatic forms. Next come the ooze formers, which are exceedingly numerous, and occur in almost all our lakes and ponds, our rivers, streams, ditches, and _ pools, doing an immense work as scavengers and mould-makers. Lastly, we have to notice another series, which may be conveniently spoken of as white worms, (Enchytreids).- It is in rela- tion to th that I wish especially to make one or two observations.. Some years ago I carefully examined the banks of the Eden near Carlisle. I then found, not only a large series of water worms engaged in making ooze, but, at particular seasons of the year, an equally varied assortment of Enchytreids (Fric¢ ia, Heulea, Enchytraeus, and others) at the roots of grasses. By careful observation I found that these were most abundant at the time when decaying vegetable matter was in a state of fermentation, and that they were apparently engaged in clearing off this fermenting matter. I have recently further observed on the Malvern Hills that, if the stones are lifted which have for a time been covering the grass and causing it to decay, one finds that, when a given stage of decay is reached, certain white worms always make their appearance; and that these Enchytreids are, curiously enough, almost invariably associated with a species of earthworm (Lumbricus rubellus, Hoffm.). Other observations, such as that relating to the amphibious nature of the tiny aster-worm (Enchytraeus parvulus, Friend), and the action of other forms on decay- ing seaweed and the like, will call for fuller treatment elsewhere. Enough has been said to show that a very wide field of observation is opened up, and that, while it has its interests for the geologist, it is of supreme importance for the biologist and the student of agriculture. I am at present engaged in a of observations which are bringing many new facts to light. series Hitveric FRIEND. Malvern, July 18. POLY tT Heo | NATURE 71 _ The Sterilisation of Liquids by Light of very short Wave-length. DwrinG the past year several articles have appeared in the Comptes rendus des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences, Paris, on the sterilisation of liquids by ultra-violet light. The notes of M. Billon-Daguerre have particularly attracted my attention, since he has endeavoured to utilise the region of the spectrum discovered by Schumann for the sterilisa- tion of water. It is obvious that the question of the transparency of water for light of very short wave-length is important in this connection, and, as there seems to be no data which bears on the matter, I have recently made some experiments. I used a vacuum grating spectroscope arranged in the same way as when I investigated the transparency of some solid substances. The water was distilled, but without any special precautions, and was enclosed in a cell with fluorite windows. Two of these cells were employed, one giving a water column of half a millimetre, the other giving a millimetre column. With the half-millimetre cell in the light path the spectrum was cut off at A 1792 (Angstrom units), even after a prolonged exposure. It appeared that this limit of the spectrum receded rather slowly toward the red with increase in the thickness of the water column. As M. Billon-Daguerre wished to use light of very short wave-length, he employed a vacuum tube filled with hydrogen. This substance is known to give a strong spectrum in the region between A 1650 and A 1030; it must not be forgotten, however, that no lines can be ascribed to it in the region between A 2000 and A 1650. Thus any action due to the radiation from the vacuum tube filled with hydrogen must be confined to a layer of water so thin that light of wave-lengths shorter than A 1650 can penetrate it. Judging from my experiments, such a layer must be very thin indeed. Several investigators have used the mercury arc in quartz as a source of light in sterilisation experiments. There are two facts which it may be interesting to mention in this connection. In the first place, fused quartz two millimetres thick is somewhat transparent so far as A 1500; the transparency falls off rapidly with increasing thickness. In the second place, no lines more refrangible than the strong line at A 1850 are known in the spectrum of mer- cury. In this second statement my own observations are confirmed by a recent investigation of Dr. Handke. THEODORE Lyman. Jefferson Laboratory, Harvard University, July 8. Elemental Weight Accurately a Function of the Volution of Best Space-svmmetry Ratios. Tr ts a fact little known, but of the first magnitude, that equal spheres or corpuscles cannot in space, as in one plane, be distributed at equal mutual distances. Tetra- hedra, the four points of which alone are all mutually equidistant, cannot be packed so as to fill space, as their face-angles to fill one plane.t Icosahedral diffusion, with a central sphere, nearly achieves this, but by a cramping of the central point in the ratio 1: 1-051460-. Free magnetic needles in water, say five in number, may fall into position either thus : o we 4 or thus: tae Their energies are a fixed quantity; so that, though they will assume either position, they are stabler in position (a), because here, on the whole, the lines are more equi- distant; but (b) might become equally stable if each needle Were a vortex possessing an energy v, capable, under heat and cold, of adapting itself to changed environment by n cumulative indraught and outdraught, i.e. yen, In one plane, equal spheres being equitriangularly arranged, each sphere forms a centre capable of supporting, by surface tension, an equal number of spheres around it. Tn space, the nearest approach to this perfect equilibrium is by means of the five bestysymmetries, or so-called regular solids, whereof three dominate elemental crystals.2 Alike 1 See Barlow and Pope, Chemical Society Transactions, 1907, vol. xci., p- 1152. ® Retgers, Zeitsch. phvsical Chem., 1894, xiv., 1. NO. 2125, VOL. 84] as to points, faces, edge-lines, and circum-radial lines, these five contain only the factors 2 and 3 (crystalline) and 5 (non-crystalline), greatly complicated, however, by the last of these : Crystalline thex '2:13 tet V8:3; oct N4 73 Non-crystalline : 2 /: 1-N5\:13 do /2 DNS Were “ 5) MY Ey Now the problem of the volutional interconversion (on n the principle zm) of the three first ratios 2, 3, and 5, yields to a simple and highly accurate solution,? whereas adding the two last, ic and do, the solution becomes com- plex; but, on the lines of the simple interconversion, there are contained several approximate interconversions with ic and do, the errors of which are the precise weights of H'-** by different syntheses : 4 J2/ z/ = x2 N5 3 or Shex on UizizexH® 9) (11) or oct? «=\=1 ortexH (i) |x or V/272xH* iv) 2 ; hex? - O( = 16: x do? ones an py SEA hex oct* tc* x oct” or 7c x H (ii) The numbers (i), (ii), (iii), (iv) refer to Morley's four experimental weights of H,* which the formula hits pre- cisely : (iii) Gravimetry mean 1°00762 (iv) Hi, : H,O yy» 1°00765 Two basal equations are here involved, (i) H,: O mean=1‘00761 (ii) H,:O max. =1'00777 z =x = (4/2)? =2i2 x 57 and 27(5/4)'*=3™ x 1°57 — 7 and 12 being severally the combinable group and series numbers of the table. The main equation (threes strong) appears accurate to some 50 decimal points; the secondary (fives strong) rather less so. They meet at V/1'°5='/2; with-an-error of o’o0016, the crux of the hydrogen ranges. Their great accuracy points to a profound numeric and geometric principle. Hex, hex*/oct’, G»c., compensation- vortices cannot evolve to their 6th and gth roots without developing hydrogen, and thereupon compensating ic, Gc. ; and, inversely, ic, €»c.,\ cannot involve to their 6th and 7th powers without ultimately throwing off- hydrogen and com- pensating hex, hex*/oct*, c. 4: , yor x | | neni” Wee 23 x oft) hex extension On . "Bai, ue, 1 T0079) developed Lat ie centre . (i) The compensation-vortex at the end of the cubic (or tet/oct) edge-line, pulls, as required, by 2:1 against the cireum-cube radius. This crystalline symmetry being dis- turbed. by heat, the vortex unravels or evolves to its 6th root, travelling down the line to the point marked Yv, It there precisely compensates the icosahedral edge : circum- 1 Tet, hex, oct, ic, and do here stand for the ratios, or the weights com- pensating the ratios, edge-dine : circum-radius (z.e. the radius of a circum- scribed sphere) severally of the regular tetrahedon, cube, octahedron, icosabedron and dodecahedron. 2 A log-algebraic problem of eight terms unknown, it was soluble only by reference to philosophical considerations anterior to those now discussed. 3 Morley, confirmed by Thomsen, Keiser, Guye and Mallet. See Inter- national Committee’s Report. Chemical News, February t2, 1897, May 5, 1899, June rr, 1897, and May 12, 1905; or Freund's ‘‘ Chemical Composi- tion,’ 1904, p. 220. 72 NATORE JUL¥ 21, 1910 ! 9 vadius ratio; but so. that there is developed at the icosa- hedral centre, a deficit or gravitative pull equal exactly to the hydragen mean weight by H,: O, viz. 100761. ic=212 [= 1050462 * *]-+1°00761. (ii) The vortex compensating the ratio of cube-edge to octahedral-edge—t.e. hex*: oct?—both having a common or equal circum-radius, unravels down the cube-edge to its 7th root, and at (jw becomes an icosahedral compensation vortex; the octahedral-edge becomes or equals the icosa- hedral circum-radius; and the hydrogen pull is developed at the icosahedral centre; but at H,:O max. 1-00777. Cases (iii), (iv), and (v), and all the coalition permutations (see below), are to be interpreted like (i) and (ii), though more complex. In cases (i), (ii), (iii), and (iv) we have severally H****; and, similarly, in the coalition formule ic or H are never in excess by more than the valency numbers 1 to 4 —1 to 8 in the cross-formula (No. 4).* This, probably, is attributable to the multiple radial lines. For we are con- cerned with powers, not multiples. Each central vortex does not need to pull against the sum of all its surrounding vortices as isolated units, because these latter too are them- selves centres, and correspondingly weakened. The contrac- tion of the crystalline ratios under heat is consistent with the entropic or adiabatic phenomena of H,O; and for many reasons it is believed that the weight deviations are a function of entropy. When (see below) the line is crossed, the signs change, contraction becomes expansion, and along the lines of the pari passu increase of exponents, the VD, entropically disturbed, gradually becomes constant. Morley’s ranges are severally +0-00016, +0-00033, +0-0007, and (means) 0-o0004. By coalition of the frac- tures of the main formule, we derive the following, in all which formulae, +x being high, the mean is attained, and the maxima and minima when +x ts low; so that the formulae can never transcend the experimental range, and always tend to its means. (Compare entropy) y | Formula | ax high | Range =7erHl, x Ht | [se@rceags r\EL= 100761 | cl Yi Hz | | s-oconane 4) 10-2 =jertl y f]« (2) 37/2 2 | ell H=1'00761|} +0-00004 lite) 4 =k ¥ rt+1 iP = pan tia =? Bet | | 7x 4 = (7 H)# | (3) 5/2 x37 eal HW =1°00761 +0°00030 ess =e eae z 212 xX 37/5 yy, (4) 57 2 = ern | H'-« H=1'00761 +0°'coo (5) 37 =7c°t* x H3+* |H=1'00777| -+o'00015 5 a j2%2] Wits |H=1-00765 COG (6) 5 Det =e / £ 1°00765) +0°COOI7 6 ". x x (HVS) 28a sate —ecote x Tete |i = s:00777) 0100038 G42 Rte ‘ | (8) 57 /2xg7 =2e*r* x Ht H=1'00762 0700020 A comprehensive deduction from the general formula is the following : ado oct. 4° rot 4° H_(1°00761) » : ar WO hex 3” hex Provisionally, upon examination of four out of the eight combinable groups, the elemental weights are found ex- 1 H1 ++ 4-0, 1, 2, 3 ave virtually Hy .. 4 NO. 2125, VOL. 84] pressible in like terms to these, i.c. the elemental weights are such that, multiplied into the simple volution of one or more of the symmetry line-ratios, they yield accurately the simple volution of one or more other symmetry line-ratios, each expression having its exact equational variant, like elements yielding to lilee expression, but not mechanically so (see Chem. News, April 22, May 6, and June ro). This is deduted from the basal-equations with x as 1--8, the formula not being constructed (or rather discovered) empirically to yield any given weight, but rationally to meet the whole problem of weight com- pensation. That, x being 1, the H weights were with perfect exactitude obtained, chanced to be a fact almost the last discovered. Considering the hydrogen solution postulate of vortex compensation for inequidistance (as contrasted with the crude Democritan hard-atom hypo- thesis) hits precisely—with the odds 100,000 to 1 against each hit—in the four corners of the basal-equation, the four means of hydrogen; and by coalition, all their deviations. The postulate is thus, on the one element, proved true by the odds 100,000* (107°) to 1. Corroboration is glimpsed in the spectrum-line ratios. H. Newman Howarp. alone, the rational Electrical Discharge Figures. Mr. A. W. Porter gave in Nature of March 31 (vol. Ixxxiii., p. 142) an account of his experiments on electric discharges over photographic plates, made in order to ascertain what is due to the luminosity of the discharge and what to the discharge itself. Knowing that the dis- ruptive discharge carries metallic particles from the elec- trodes, and that in the silvering of mirrors by the wet processes the silver begins to set at every metallic particle Electrical discharge figure developed by wet silvering process. which clings to the surface of the glass because of the action of local couples, I ventured to develop the invisible image of the discharge on a clean glass plate by the silvering solution. The effect was a very striking one; instead of the broad band of the trunk discharge, a clean band was_ left, surrounded by two sharp, dense lines of deposited silver. The thin ramifications were still visible, but the splendid display of surrounding figures is lacking. The two un- satisfactory paper prints that I send [one is here repro- duced] were made from developed plates, and are there- fore negatives. It is impossible to get better results now, because the laboratory is closed for the summer holidays. The acid intensifier for the collodion plates, acting in the same way as the wet silvering mixture, was also tried by me, but the result was worse. “W. LERMANTOFF. University of St. Petersburg, Russia. Jory 21, 1910 NATURE 13 It is necessary to know more concerning the precise con- ditions under which the images referred to above were obtained before one can discuss them with safety; but they are interesting as apparently indicating that the axis of the trunk discharge may be free from metallic particles. In this connection, however, it must be added that when one directly observes a negative discharge over a photo- graphic plate from an electrode of zinc or magnesium, every line in the fan-like discharge is seen to have the bluish tint characteristic of the metal. Whatever, then, may be the reason for the absence of these fan-like figures from Mr. Lermantoff’s images, it must certainly not be attributed to the absence of metallic particles from them. ALFRED W. PorRTER. An Interesting Occultation. May I direct attention to an interesting phenomenon which will take place on the morning of July 27, viz. the occultation of the star 7 Geminorum by the planet Venus, the particulars of which are-as follows :— Apparent place of 7 Geminorum (mag. 3°2-4°2), July 26, R.A. 6h. 9m. 26°6s.; dec. 22° 32’ 6:24" N. Apparent place of Venus (geocentric), July 26, 14h. 57°7m. G.M.T., R.A. 6h. gm. 26°6s., dec. 22° 32’ 72" N. Declination at Green- wich, corrected for parallax, 22° 32’ 2°3”. Semidiameter 614". At Greenwich the occultation commences at 14h. 55m., and ends at rh. 58m. ‘The planet rises at 13h. 43m., and the sun at 16h, 17m. On the afternoon of July 28, Venus is in very close con- junction with # Geminorum, the positions of the two bedies at 4h. 27m. being as follows :— ©. R.A. 6h. 17m. 30’9s., dec. 22° 33’ 58” N., declination {corrected for parallax) 22° 33/ 53”. ™ Geminorum, R.A. 6h. 17m. 30°9s., dec. 22° 33’ 43”. As the semidiameter of the planet is 6*1”, the star will be within about 4” from the southern limb. This, of course, occurs during daylight, ‘but the planet will be above the horizon at the time. It sets about 6h. 8m. Dr. Crommelin has kindly looked through these figures and verified them. ARTHUR BURNET. 52 Prospect Terrace, Hunslet. Pwdre Ser. Tue curious belief that shooting stars, when fallen to earth, become lumps of jelly may possibly be explained in the following manner :— The jelly is very probably the plasmodium of a Myxomycete, such as Spumaria or Physarum. The plasmodia occur most frequently in damp weather, but are found in lesser numbers throughout the year. Shooting- stars are also seen at all times in the vear, but most plentifully in the autumn. In these islands, the greatest rainfall is also in the autumn months. Consequently, by a purely fortuitous coincidence, meteors and plasmodia are most plentiful in the latter part of the year, the former because the main meteor swarms, in their annual revolution, cross the earth’s track at that time, and the latter on account of the greater rainfall. Two striking phenomena are forced on the rustic attention at the same time, the brilliant display in the sky and the mysterious jelly on the ‘grass. Very naturally the two are considered as causally connected, and so the belief may have arisen. An analogous case is that of ‘‘ cuckoo-spit,’’ the frothy exudation of the larval frog-hopper, Philaenus spumanzus, which appears at the time of the arrival of the cuckoo and disappears about the period of the bird’s departure. - W. B. Grove. B®. Mirrarp GriFFitus. University Botanical Laboratory, Birmingham. Ix connection with the article on ‘‘ Pwdre Ser’’ in Nature of June 23, it is interesting to find, in Admiral Smyth’s “* Sailor’s Word-Book ’’—one of the richest re- positories of quaint facts and fancies—the term ‘‘ fallen- star’’ defined as ‘A name for the jelly-fish or medusa, frequently: thrown ashore in summer and autumn.”’ C. FitzHucuH TatMan. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Central Office of the Weather Bureau, Washington, D.C., July rr. NO. 2125, VOL. 84] HOUSE-FLIES AND DISEASE. LTHOUGH the verification of the belief that the commonest, most widely distributed and truly domestic of insects, Musca domestica, Linn., was capable of carrying the germs of certain infectious diseases has been one of the noteworthy accomplish- ments of medical science in the last decade, it is a mistake to attach all the credit to those who, within the last few years, have removed the idea from the realms of hypotheses into the world of facts. As early as the seventeenth century, Sydenham associated unhealthy conditions with flies. Lord Ave- bury, in 1871, regarded flies as “‘winged sponges spreading hither and thither to carry out the foul behests of contagion.” In addition to other early suggestions, Nicholas, in 1873, indicated the possible connection of flies with the dissemination of cholera from a case observed by him in 1850; Raimbert in 1869 experimentally proved that the house-fly and blowfly were able to transmit the anthrax bacillus; Davaine in 187o, and Bollinger in 1874, also showed ‘that the blowfly could carry the anthrax bacillus, an important practical observation. | Laveran in 1880 demonstrated the ability of flies to carry the iniec- tious discharge of conjunctivitis in Egypt on their proboscides and legs. All these observers assisted in Fic. 1.—J7usca domestica, Linn. the gradual growth of the belief; but it was in the eighties of last century, however, that several in- vestigators adduced more convincing bacteriological proof as to the ability of flies to carry pathogenic and other bacteria. In 1886, Tizzoni and Cattani obtained the cholera spirillum from flies caught in cholera wards. In the same year, Hoffmann found tubercle bacilli in the excreta of flies caught in a room which had previously contained a phthisical patient. Two years later, Celli showed that the typhoid bacillus was able to pass in a virulent condition through the diges- tive tract of the fly. Since the above observations, which are selected from many others, were made, it has been repeatedly shown and proved that house-flies are able to carry these and other bacterial and fungal organisms. What has not been demonstrated is the extent to which flies are not able to carry such micro-organisms. When the habits of flies are considered, it is not a little remarkable that no serious attention was paid to the possibility of flies having any considerable relationship to the dissemination of disease until within the last twelve years. The excessive mortality from typhoid which occurred in the Spanish-American war was the means of directing the attention of such observers as Vaughan and Veeder to the pos- sible relationship of flies to this disease. especially as 74 NATURE ey 2'I, statistics showed that water was not a sufficiently important factor in, and was not explanatory of, the typhoid epidemics occurring in certain of the national encampments. Later, in the South African war, the same conditions were present, and enteric fever was responsible for a very heavy death-roll; those who were present directed attention on their return to these conditions, which, as circumstantial evidence, would convince the most sceptical as to the important véle that’ flies played in the spread of the disease. These conditions are well known now; open latrines swarming with incredible numbers of flies in’ all stages of development; these latrines frequented by incipient cases of enteric; myriads of flies in the mess tents, defiling all kinds of food, and in many cases distinguishable by the lime which they bore on their appendages from the latrines, as were the typhoid patients in the hospitals also distinguishable by the number of flies clustering about their mouths while in bed. From the setaceous character of the appendages and bodies of flies it is only to be expected that when allowed to have access to infected material they would be able to carry the bacilli on their appendages, bodies and in their digestive tracts, and the trans- ference of flies from infected substances to culture media are really unimportant experiments compared with those of capturing the flies under normal con- ditions near sources of infection and determining the presence and identity of the micro-organisms on these as certain investigators have done. insects, It would Fic. 2.—Larva of WW. domestica. be found impossible to obtain a specimen of Musca domestica which was not carrying bacteria or fungal spores. Though externally they may be almost sterile when they emerge from the pupa, the fly after emergence immediately becomes contaminated, and during the remainder of its varied existence serves as a colle ctor and disseminator of any bacterial or fungal organisms with which it comes into contact. One of the most important and convincing experiments is that of Gtssow (hitherto unpublished), who obtained thirty colonies comprising six species of bacteria and six colonies comprising four species of fungi from a single fly caught in the living-room of a house and allowed to walk over a culture plate of agar-agar. From a fly caught in the open he obtained forty-six colonies comprising eight species of bacteria and seven colonies comprising four species of fungi. The tracks of a house-fly caught in a household dustbin yielded 116 colonies of bacteria comprising eleven s and including such species as B. coli, B. and Sarcina ventriculi, and ten colonies six species of fungi. species lactis acidi, comprising Such experimental results render further argument s to the frequency with which house-flies carry bac- teria and the spores of moulds and other fungi un- ecessary. Flies captured near excremental products re most frequently found carrying bacteria char- acteristic of the alimentary canal or putrefactive NO. 2125, VOL. 84] pastoris: and it is only to be pepected that should such sources of contamination be infected with pathogenic bacteria, for example, from an incipient case of typhoid or from a typhoid ‘carrier,’ the bodies of the flies would become infected. As an instance of this, Hamilton recovered B. typhosus five times in eighteen experiments from flies caught in two un- drained privies, on the fences of two yards, on the walls of two houses, and-in the room of an enteric fever patient, and others have obtained positive results in similar experiments. The habits of these insects are most perfectly suited for the dissemination of pathogenic bacteria. On one hand, they seek all kinds of excrementous and decay- ing vegetable and other matter, chiefly for the pur- pose of depositing their eggs; and, on the other hand, they fly with perfect freedom on to food such as milk, sugar, &c., much of which forms an excel- lent medium for the deposition of whatever bacteria they “may have _be- come contaminated with during their ubiquitous wander- ings. Not only during the summer, but also during the winter months, house-flies, if they are active, normally carry on their bodies and ap- pendages bacteria and the spores of moulds, and Fig. 3 shows an agar slope culture obtained by allowing a fly caught in the _ writer’s laboratory at the end of January, 1910, to walk up the agar slope; the compara- tively large number of colonies which developed in the tracks of a_ single journey can be easily seen. The eggs of the house-fly ‘are de- posited on most de- caying vegetable sub- stances, especic ally if Fic. 3.—Agar-agar Slope culture of they are in a fer- teria deposited by 47. domestica menting condition : in a single journey over the medium. the influence of fer- mentation is of considerable importance; in one in- stance the maggots developed in germinating wheat. Of all substances they prefer horse manure, and this is most suitable fer the development when it occurs in heaps as stable refuse, supplying as it does both moisture and heat, the two great essentials for a rapid development. They will also choose the excre- ments of man and certain other animals. Newstead found them in such animal and. vegetable substances as rotting feathers, flocks, and paper, in which sub- stances, when soiled with excrementous matter, they have also been found by the writer, and such condi- tions not infrequently occur in refuse heaps. Wher- ever there are collections of these substances, in such places will flies be found, not only depositing their eggs, but contaminating their appendages and bodies with putrefactive and other micro-organisms which abound there. Ficker and others have shown that typhoid bacilli can pass through the digestive tract JuLy 21, r9ro] NATURE +5 of the house-fly and retain their virulence for more than three weeks, but the more recent discovery by Faichne, that flies bred from larve which have developed in infected material carry the typhoid bacilli in their digestive tracts, is one of great importance in its practical bearing. The most important factor which affects the numbers, activity, and potential danger of flies is temperature. Experiments show that at a high tem- perature the whole life-history can be passed in eight days. Further, it was found that the second genera- tion of flies are able to begin to deposit their eggs as early as the fourteenth day after emerging from the pupa; in short, the second generation of eggs may be deposited in about three weeks after the deposition of the first. Each fly is able to deposit from 100 to 150 eggs in a single batch, and at least six batches are laid during the lifetime of a single female. It is not difficult, in view of these facts, to understand the production of enormous numbers of flies during hot weather, and how the activity and numerical abund- ance of flies increases with the rise of temperature. During the hot months of July, August, and Septem- ber flies are most abundant, and it is a significant fact that in those years when the temperature is high during those months, that is, during the third quarter of the year, there is almost invariably a high mor- tality from typhoid fever and the infantile disease, summer diarrhoea. In connection with summer or infantile diarrhoea, a curve prepared from statistics covering the last twenty years showed, with the excep- tion of one year, that a rise or fall in the number of deaths per thousand living in a large English city was associated with a rise or fall respectively in the tem- perature. The relation of flies to summer diarrhoea is prac- tically based on epidemiological and other circum- stantial evidence, since the specific cause of the disease has not yet been determined with certainty. Morgan, however, has found a bacillus occurring in a large percentage of the cases of the disease, and the same bacillus has been isolated from flies captured in infected houses. An objection has been made to the idea that the house-fly is a carrier of the cause of summer diarrhoea, this objection being founded on the fact that at the end of the summer the fall in the fly curve follows the fall of the curve representing the diarrhoea mortality, the flies being still more numerous than they were earlier in the season, when the diarrhoea curve was rising. In meeting such an objection it may be pointed out that we are not con- sidering the numerical abundance of the flies in the houses only; it should be remembered that with a decline of temperature the activity of the flies, especially out of doors, which is important in this case, is not so great, even though their numbers may be considerable indoors. With the fall of the tem- perature, therefore, the possibility of their carrying ‘the infection decreases without a necessarily corre- sponding decrease in their numbers, and the diarrhoea curve will fall in consequence. The fly problem, which is more serious in the United States and Canada than in England, is one that may be attacked and solved in cities and towns, provided that the authorities will take the necessary steps. As in districts previously infested with mos- quitoes, these irisects have been reduced to a negligible quantity by the abolition of their breeding-places or the rendering of the same unsuitable for the larve; so also the number of flies and their danger could be lessened very considerably by the removal of their breeding places, by preventing their access to the breeding places, or by treating these with substances noxious to the larve or flies. Flies are a public nuisance, and, therefore, to maintain places where NO. 2125, VOL. 84] flies are able to breed should be made a mis- demeanour. Stable refuse should not be left exposed for a longer period than six or seven days in the summer, but should be removed from _ the vicinity of dwellings or treated with such a substance as chloride of lime, which will prevent the breeding of the flies, the refuse being kept in a closed fly-proof chamber. The presence of mews and stables with their exposed rubbish heaps will always account for the abundance of flies. The household dustbin or other repository for kitchen refuse, unless securely closed or screened and regularly emptied, also forms an excellent breeding ground. Public tips on to which all kinds of organic and decaying matter is deposited produce their flies in myriads; it is in- variably found, where actual investigation has been made, that the percentage of cases of zymotic diseases of an enteric nature is abnormally high in the neigh- bourhood of public refuse tips and depéts where rubbish is allowed to accumulate. In considering the relation of house-flies to disease, although the one species of fly, Musca domestica, usually constitutes from go to 98 per cent. of the fly population of houses, certain other species are also found to occur. The lesser house-fly, Homalomyia canicularis, has the next place in the scale of frequency, and is generally mistaken by the uninitiated for a young house-fly, on account of its general re- semblance. Although both the adult fly and the larva have pronounced structural differences, the habits of the larva and the economic relationships of the fly resemble those of M. domestica. The blood-sucking fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, is not infrequently mistaken for the true house-fly, which has adopted vicious habits. M. domestica, however, is unable to pierce the most delicate skin, and S. calcitrans, which frequently enters and is found in houses in the spring and also in the autumn, especially in rural houses, presents considerable differences, the chief being the possession of an awl-like, piercing proboscis, a more robust build, and its coloration. Not infrequently inflammatory swellings, sometimes of a_ serious nature, result from the “bite of a fly,’’ and such cases are instances of the mechanical transference of such bacteria as the Streptococci from infected material to a healthy human being by a blood-sucking fly. Malignant pustule may be caused by the mechanical transference of the Bacillus anthracis by a blood-sucking fly, or it may be by a non-blood-suck- ing fly, such as the blowfly, Calliphora erythrocephala, if the skin is broken to provide entrance for the bacillus. Wherever there is filth, suppuration, or purulent discharge, flies are invariably attracted, and as they are cosmopolitan in their attentions and no distin- guishers of persons, they are potential disseminators of such bacteria as these substances may contain. It is not a question of eradication in the case of this insect; such is impossible. Control and prevention, however, are within the bounds of possibility, and these will be regarded as essential when the facts are more generally realised. C. Gorpon Hewitt. THE NEXT TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN. ON April 28 of next year there will occur a total eclipse of the sun which will begin on the earth generally at 7h. 492m. G.M.T., the central phase commencing at 8h. 461m. G.M.T. The path of the moon’s shadow is restricted for the most part to the equatorial regions, and is confined to the longitudes between Australia and South America, so that as far as Europe or Asia are concerned the eclipse cannot be observed there even in a partial phase. The actual line of central eclipse commences on 7 NATURE [Jury the south-east portion of Australia, and passes in a north-eastern direction, crossing the equator in about longitude 154° W. It then sweeps round in an easterly direction, terminating in about longitude 90° W. just off the west coast of Central America. The line thus extends over the full width of the Pacific Ocean, and it is therefore from islands in that ocean that the expeditions which may be sent out will have to make their observations. While there is a great number of islands in this ocean, there are, unfor- tunately, remarkably few which lie in the narrow band of the totality track. Following the line from west to east, the first that one finds on the Admiralty chart is Tofua, in the Tonga or Friendly Islands. The next that is met with is Vavau, in the same group, and also close to the central line of totality. Much further eastward we reach Nassau, which lies a little to the south of the central line, but well within the central zone, and not far away are the Danger Islands, which are situated to the north, but further away from the central line. Thus, so far as is indicated on the chart, there are only “four available points from which observations can be made. In order to find out the suitability of these islands for eclipse parties, Mr. F. K. McClean determined to make detailed inquiries on this point on his way out to the recent eclipse, travelling from England via San Francisco and New Zealand specially to gather this information. Particulars are now to hand, and at his request they are published here so that intend- ing observers may benefit thercby. With regard to Tofua the information is brief and concise. It is that Tofua is an active volcano and high, and therefore unsuitable. As regards Vavau he says very little, because, as he knows, it is generally recognised as being a good place for observation. He adds, however, that there are hills there several hundred feet in height; that the island is called at by mail steamers; and, finally, that there are many small and low islands in the neighbourhood. Coming now to Nassau and Danger Islands, these are described as ‘difficult, but possible by using owner’s boat and landing tackle.” As observing stations he defines them as “good.” The mode of procedure to utilise these islands is suggested by him in the following words :— A small steamer of several hundred tons (The Dawn), belonging to Captain E. F. Allen, runs to both Nassau and Danger. He does the whole of the landing and embarking of copra, &c. This steamer would have to be chartered at approximately gol. per day when under steam and 201. when not under steam... ... Captain Allen says that he would undertake to get all cases on shore in good condition if they were water-tight, but he cannot under- take to keep them dry. If for any reason he could not land on one island, he could on the other in any reason- able weather conditions. In most of the Pacific islands the chief difficulties to be met with are confined to the landing and em- barking of the personnel and material. As many of the islands are fringed with coral reefs, with only small, narrow passages through them, in some cases natural, in others made by blasting operations, con- siderable skill is required in negotiating the breakers, and special surf boats are usually required. Mr. McClean’s advice, therefore, is that it is almost impera- tive to employ someone accustomed to such work, “as certainly no one unused to the conditions could do it.”’ Should any of the parties who intend to go out on the occasion of this eclipse wish to locate themselves on some island other than Vavau, then Nassau and Danger Islands are their only alternatives. It is NO. 2125, VOL. 84] DYe 1g10 hoped, however, that one or other of these will be made use of, as they are sufficiently distant from Vavau to be subject to different weather conditions should the parties at Vavau be clouded out. Wituiam J. S. Lockyer. GLACIERS, GOLDFIELDS, AND LANDSLIDES IN NORTH AMERICA.) A* an example of organised public research, the » U.S. Geological Survey is unparalleled in its activity. Bulletins, professional papers, monographs and reports flow from the Government Printing Office at Washington in a stream that is well-nigh overwhelm- ing to the student who tries to arrest it for systematic examination. Written, or brought by capable editing, to a standard of lucidity that is positively monotonous, well printed, lavishly illustrated, and distributed with enlightened generosity, these publications contain a store of precise information which illuminates every branch of earth-knowledge. The range of subjects which they cover is no longer confined even within Fic. 1.—Margin of Atrevida Glacier west of Esker Stream. a 0 Trees being buried by the ice. the spacious limits of geology, palzontology, petro- logy, mineralogy and physiography;—it has over- spread into many cognate branches of applied science, such as analytical chemistry, hydraulics, mechanics, engineering, metallurgy and mineral statistics. The three handsome memoirs before us are good examples of the broad spirit in which the work is carried out; each, while dealing primarily with a particular district, is a notable addition to our know- ledge of the continent as a whole; and each finds room for matter likely to be interesting to any edu- cated reader, along with that which appeals directly to the specialist. In the first and third, the physio- (Washington, 1909.) Physiography and y By R. S. Tarr 1 Professional Papers of U.S. Geological Survey. (1) No. 64, “The Yakutat Bay Region, Alaska: Glacial Geology.” By Ralph S. Tarr; “ Areal Geol and Bert S. Butler. Pp. 183; with 37 plates and ro figures. (2) No. 66, “‘ The Geology and Ore Deposits of Goldfield, Nevada.” By F. L. Ransome, assisted in the field by W. H, Emmons and G. H. Garrey. Pp. 258 ; with 2 maps, 33 plates and 34 figures. 3) No. 67, ‘' Landslides in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, including a Consideration of their Causes and their Classification by E. Howe. Pp. 58; with 20 plates and 4 figures. JuLy 21, 1910] NATURE § Uh graphical study of the subject is made paramount; in the second, petrology, mineralogy and mining receive P' s) sy s the fullest treatment. (1) Of especial interest is the professional paper first on our list, containing the results of Prof. Tarr’s recent investigation of the great glaciers in the Yakutat Bay region of Alaska. We may congratulate ourselves, and Prof. Tarr also, on the happy mis- chance which took him to this region at a critical time in the history of its ice-fields. Ever since the famous explorations of the late Prof. I. C. Russell, twenty years ago, we have known that Where the greatest of these ice-rivers left the moun- tain valleys and deployed as “piedmont” glaciers on the low ground bordering the ocean, they were charac- terised by their peculiarly stagnant condition. The anomaly of dense living forests covering their sur- moraine was sliding out of sight into the yawning chasms—the green forests that covered it were shar- ing the same fate—the snouts of the glaciers were being thrust forward destructively into the timbered belt surrounding them—the enormously augmented streams issuing from the ice were impassable, and were flinging out huge delta-fans that buried every- thing in their path; and, altogether, nature in one of her most vigorous moods was enacting a grand trans- formation scene on the lonely shores of Yakutat Bay. All the eastern portion of the great Malaspina Glacier was a maze of crevasses, and its end—formerly an easy slope—an insurmountable cliff of tumbling ice, trees, and moraine. The Atrevida (see Fig. 1), the Variegated, the Marvine and the Haenke Glaciers were in the same state of rapid disruption; while others, including the Lucia and the Seward, though Fic. 2.—View looking west from Hidden Glacier showing the Fosse and the Pitted Plain. faces over large areas where the ice was hidden be- neath a thick blanket of moraine was one of the many surprises brought to our knowledge by Russell; and later investigations confirmed the idea that in such cases the ice was truly “dead”? and would re- main where it was, a waning relic of severer bygone times, until gradually dispersed by liquefaction. Such was still the state of affairs when Prof. Tarr began his survey-work in the region in the summer of 1905, and he confidently planned a programme for the following year which depended for its fulfilment on the “deadness’”’ of the ice. On his return in 1906 he was naturally astonished to find that all was in a turmoil of change—famijliar features obliterated— routes impossible. The ‘‘dead ice’? in many places had sprung to life again—the plains that had formed the highways of former travel were broken into an impenetrable wilderness of crevasses—the blanket of NO. 2125, VOL. 84] not so fully aroused, showed symptoms of impending change.' Yet there were other glaciers in the region that had not participated in this energetic outburst, but still kept to the habit of recession which had been regarded as the normal behaviour of all these Alaskan glaciers. Here, then, was the unexpected problem that con- fronted Prof. Tarr in 1906 and richly recompensed him for the destruction of his original plans. His solution of it is remarkably simple, and seems to fulfil all the conditions. Jt is well known that in 1899 the region was affected by a sharp earthquake, which caused displacements recognisable on the coast-line 1 In the National Geographic Magazine for January last Prof. Tarr and Prof. L. Martin give an account of their later visit to the region in the summer of 1909, when further chanzes were noted. The Lucia Glacier had become unpassable ; the Hidden Glacier had undergone the full cycle of change ; the Hubbard seemed to be on the eve of great movement ; while the four mentioned above as active in 1906 had relapsed into stagnation. 78 NAL ORE [JuLy 21, 1910 and shook up the famous Muir Glacier so thoroughly that its seaward end was disintegrated, filling Glacier Bay with icebergs that barred out all shipping for some years. Prof. Tarr gathered evidence proving that the earthquake brought down huge avalanches of snow and rock from the mountain-sides into the glacier-basins, and he considers that the sudden accession of material has exerted a thrust which has swept slowly forward as a wave throughout the length of the glaciers. He strengthens his conclu- sion by showing that, at least in some cases, the unaffected glaciers are those fed from gentler slopes from which avalanches would be less likely. The explanation raises many knotty points in the still imperfectly understood physics of glacier-move- ment, while the new facts constitute a very important element to be taken into account in all future dis- cussions of ice-flow. In reading the descriptions we are reminded of the abnormal conditions found by Garwood and Gregory in the Booming Glacier of Spitsbergen (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. liv., 1898, p. 207), and of the rapid advance and subsequent recession of the Hispar Glacier in the Karakoram Range (Geographical Journal, vol. xxxv., February, 1910, p. 108). Is it possible that a great mass of ice may become suddenly more mobile when its tempera- ture as a whole reaches some critical point short of the melting stage? The glacial geologist could find ready application for some such proposition if it were presented to him with the requisite Q.E.D. Besides these features of central interest, Prof. Tarr describes many other phenomena that will arrest the attention of the geologist; for example, the rock-channels cut by streams running along the margins of glaciers, which remind us of the old “overflow channels”’ lately recognised in many parts of Britain and Ireland; the ‘pitted plains,” where morainic deposits have been spread out by streams in great ‘‘apron-fans”’ incorporating hidden masses of ice (see Fig. 2); the sudden slipping of a small mountain-glacier en masse from its high corrie into the waters of Disenchantment Bay, causing huge waves that swept destructively on to the land; and the spread of vegetation over the areas abandoned by the ice. His re-discussion of the efficacy of the glaciers as erosive agents should also be read by everyone who has shared in the long debate on this subject. The memoir concludes with a short account of the solid geology of the region, which is of less general moment. : We have scant space in which to deal with the other two memoirs, and must perforce dismiss them summarily. (2) Mr. F. L. Ransome’s monograph describes an area around Goldfield, on the hilly desert-plateau country near the border of south-western Nevada, which has recently sprung into prominence as a gold- mining centre. His historical narrative has a touch of romance in it—vast treasure lying close to the surface, yet passed over again and again by eager prospectors; then, in 1902, discovery—excitement—and disappointment; in 1903-5, renewed search crowned by success; great fortunes rapidly made and lost in the wild boom and its reaction, the feverish activity cul- minating in a fierce labour dispute which necessitated the calling up of federal troops at the close of 1907; and finally, the consolidation of interests and the systematic ransacking of the ground. It is estimated that the value of the precious metals recovered during the years 1904-7 from this small field was close upon 20,000,000 dollars. As for its geology, the field is a low dome-like uplift of Tertiary lavas with associated lake-sediments, resting upon a sparingly-exposed foundation of ancient granitic and metamorphic rocks. The ore-bodies, NO. 2125, VOL. 84] apparently deposited in late-Tertiary times from ‘acidified’? solutions at no great depth, are remark- able alilke for their richness and for their irregularity. The structure, origin and mineralogy of the lodes, and the petrology and chemical composition of the rocks are fully discussed, and beautifully illustrated in the plates. In respect to the eruptive sequence, the author finds no proof of the regular order which J. E. Spurr has sought to establish for the lavas of the Great Basin. In criticising this scheme the author remarks :— “To some minds the conformity here shown may appeal as corroborative, but to others, impressed by the scanty representation of the numerous members of the ideal succession in any given locality, the capa- city of the scheme for assimilating not only observed sequences, but imaginary ones, raises doubt whether it really represents natural processes’ (p. 105). The criticism might be applied to many another ingenious scheme in science. (3) The San Juan Mountains in south-western Colorado, like most steep mountains of similar struc- ture, have been subject in the past, and are still subject, to extensive landslips. Many examples of these slips, both ancient and modern, are fully described by Mr. E. Howe in the third paper on our list, and are pictured in many fine plates which almost make description superfluous. A massive series of Tertiary volcanic rocks, often carved into huge cliffs, rests on a yielding base of soft Cretaceous shales; and, among the older sedimentary formations, are thick Palaozoic limestones resting on friable shales and sandstones. Attention is particularly directed t> the curious ‘‘rock-streams” which have their origin in the high cirques; and to the influence of snow- banks on the accumulation of talus at the foot of cliffs. The memoir concludes with a somewhat laboured classification of landslides in which foreign examples and their literature are freely cited. _ G. Wek: MOUNTAINEERING IN THE NORTH-WEST HIMALAYA." One would hardly suppose, after reading this simply-told narrative of physical achievements, that the senior member—and shall we say, with Mrs. Workman’s permission, leader—of the party among the peaks and glaciers of the Nun Kun group was compelled some years ago to retire from his medical practice on account of ill-health. Evidently, at great altitudes, where the vitality is lowered by insomnia attending deficient oxygenation, and where mental depression and attacks of irresolution follow a dis- turbed circulation, the successful explorer depends wholly on having his muscles under the complete control of a resolute mind for that last supreme fight against the irresistible instinct to descend to his natural environment. The Arctic explorer can sleep, can eat, and is the better for work to do; the mountain climber handicaps him- self by his load of protective non-conductors; his respiratory difficulties are increased when in the only position of rest left to the biped, and every momentary doze through sheer exhaustion is ter- minated by frantic efforts to avoid the intolerable feeling of suffocation. Anyone who has experienced these troubles, which beset all climbers—even the lucky few who are proof against mountain sickness —will admire the mental as well as the physical qualities of the altitude record-breaker; for, judging by the recent sordid controversy among Arctic ex- 1 “Peaks and Glaciers of Nun Kun: a Record of Pioreer-Fxplora- tion and Mountaineering in the Punjab Himalaya.” By Fanny Bullock Workman and Dr. W. H. Workman. Pp. xv+204. (Lendon: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1909.) Price 18s. net. JuLy 21, tgto] NATURE 79 plorers, ‘‘records”’ have still a market value amcrg geographers. Although previous achievements of mountain climbers.are now eclipsed by the Duke of the Abruzzi’s record of 24,853 feet in the Karakorum, the exploration of the Nun Kun group by the authors of this work is likely to remain for long of special interest, on account of the circumstance that Mrs. Workman broke even her own record for women by sealing the Pinnacle Peak of 23,300 feet. The refer- ence to this feat, however, is but a passing incident in the narrative, less drawn-out, in fact, than the accounts of the perky eccentricities of the irrepressible, pugnacious little cock of the poultry-yard—the clown of the party, who, like the indispensable figure among the acrobatic performers of the circus show, “talks all the time,’”’ as the Kashmiri khansamah remarked. “ORME Ee are | Swadeshi are among those that excmplity new varic- ties of well-known type difficulties that are invariably “discovered ’’ by non-official travellers in the Indian region ; but, in the present instance, the few difficulties faced and overcome are not. of the kind which travellers’ descriptions often naively show to the experienced Anglo-Indian to be due to the travellers’ own stupidity and ignorance of local affairs. The additions to topographical knowledge need not be reviewed; they will be fully appreciated by officers of the Indian Survey Department, who are more conscious than their critics suppose of the short- | comings of their maps in regions which are of little direct concern to their master, the tax-payer, who has as much right to be considered as the sportsman and traveller. The authors made the experiment of tak- ing out six experienced Courmayeur porters under an View at sources of Hispar Glacier at 17,000 feet. In foreground avalanch¢-nieve-bed, pinnacles mostly formed from avalenche-blocks. In middle-) ground broken, horizontally stratified ice-masses. Behind these ice-wall covered with yarallel sub-idence-#¢vé-ridges orienting with slope. In background southern Hispar boundary mountains. Reproduced with the permission of Dr. W. Huutcr Workman and Mrs. fF. Eutlock Workman. From “‘ Peaks and Glacieis of Nun Kun.” The book is not a mere narrative of travellers’ experiences in a little-trodden region; it discusses definite and valuable additions to geographical know- ledge; important topographical corrections are made on the Survey Atlas quarter-sheet No. 45 S.W.; one-fifth of the text is devoted to the character and origin of the different varieties of ice prominences on the névé-surfaces and glaciers, and on the glaciers below the névé-line; the principal part of a chapter is devoted to a discussion of the immediate physio- logical effects of high altitudes; while the extremely high temperatures in sunlight at high levels and the great diurnal variations are all precisely recorded. Incidents of hurhan interest on the journey are not forgotten—the moral weaknesses of the Kargil coolie and the price of the Wazir’s devotion to the cause of NO. 2125, VOL. 84] expert guide, to replace the local coolies for work at high altitudes, where muscle alone is of little service, and this innovation has now been imitated by the Duke of the Abruzzi with successful results. The disturbing uncertainty of the malingering coolie being eliminated from the problem, Dr. Workman was able, with his trustworthy porters, to make satisfac- tory deductions from observations regarding the alti- tude limitations of human activity; and he shows that, in addition to the special danger of mountain sickness as a precursor of frost-bite, insomnia and the distressing moral and physical sequelz of imper- fect oxygenation may be sufficient alone to fix the stress-limit of the human organism at something distinctly below the greatest Himalayan heights. The curious nieves penitentes first described by 80 NATURE explorers in the Andes have been recognised by the authors also in the Himalayan region, though their conclusions have not been completely accepted by other travellers. They, however, bring together in this work observations made in the Nun Kun area during 1906, as well as others made before and since in other parts of the north-west Himalaya, and have a right, consequently, to generalise on the phenomena. The prominences grouped under the name nieve penitente are often roughly pyramidal in shape, and generally disposed in rows on snow and ice at altitudes at which the night temperature falls below the freezing point; they are due to the un- equal melting of the superficial layers of snow and ice. The authors describe in detail eight varieties of nieves penitentes, which, judging by the descriptions given, might have been divided into the following two groups :—(i.) Those that are the outward and visible expression of an internal heterogeneity of physical structure induced in the snow and ice by (1) the scoring action of avalanches with a trend parallel to the dip-slope; (2) the shearing effects of slower subsidence along the slopes; (3) the development of pressure waves by the wind; and (4) the more or less regular fracturing on seracs. (ii.) Those that are due to the disposition of various adventitious covers, such as (5)-thin patches of earthy material arranged by the wind, and of a kind facilitating the absorption of the sun’s heat with consequent melting of the subjacent ice; (6) heavy rock-masses, which compress and pro- tect the ice, giving rise, by melting of the clean ice around, to the well-known glacial tables; (7) thick layers of earthy material, having a protective effect similar to that of the large rock fragments, but giving rise to differently shaped prominences on account of the disintegration and fall of the marginal parts of the covers; (8) water-covers in depressed areas, where silt is deposited unequally on a previously sculptured surface. These phenomena have been discussed in greater detail by Dr. Workman in special papers pub- lished in the Zeitschrift fiir Gletscherkunde and in the Alpine Journal. A notice of this book would not be complete without reference to the remarkably fine photographic plates with which it is illustrated, although the illustrations, specially selected to demonstrate the phenomena of nieve penitente, and perhaps the best in the book, are taken from other areas, mainly from the Hispar and associated glaciers, further north-west, in the chief- ship of Nagar. One of these is here reproduced. T. H. Horranp. THE EAST AFRICAN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. HERE has been founded in British East Africa a society for the study of natural history, and the activities of this society naturally extend to the adjoining Uganda Protectorate. This society re- cently- produced the first number of a Journal, which, it is to be hoped, may run to many volumes if con- ducted on the lines of its first number. Mr. C. W. Hobley, C.M.G., a prominent official of British East Africa, whose service there dates from the earliest days of the British East Africa Chartered Company, has taken a considerable part in the founding of this local natural history society, and is one of the con- tributors to the first number of the Journal. Mr. Hobley’s work in anthropology, in East African languages, in geology, in the exploration of the aquatic fauna of Lake Victoria Nyanza (it will be remembered that he was the first, or one of the first, 1 The Journal of the East Africa and Ugnada Natural History Society. vol. i., No. 1, January, 1910. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., ror0.) Price 55. net. j [JuLy 21, 1910 to discover in that lake organisms akin to the sup- posed marine fauna of Lake Tanganyika, thereby lessening the acuteness of that problem), has been s» remarkable that his association with the Natural History Society should be productive of interesting results. This first number contains a very well-executed coloured illustration of a mew species of francolin (Francolinus hubbardi). This accompanies an article on the francolins of East Africa and Uganda, which to ornithologists is of real value. The scope of this article also includes the allied genus Pternistes. Mr. Battiscombe gives some new and interesting informa- tion regarding the flora of British East Africa. There are several small errors in the nomenclature of this article; Lobelia johnstoni is given as Lobelia john- sonit; Kniphofia thomsoni appears as K. thompsonii, and Musa livingstonii is given as M. livingstonia. The generic name Sanseviera is misspelt—a very common fault in books dealing with Africa. But these are trifling defects in an account of East African botany which is of considerable interest. The Rev. K. St. Av Rogers writes on East African butterflies. There are notes on the haunts and habits of the elephant on the Guas’ Ngishu plateau by Mr. Hoey, and Mr. C. W. Hobley contributes two articles, the more important of which, from the point of view of new information, is that dealing with the Karian- duss deposits of the Rift Valley—deposits which form beds of a mealy, friable rock, amounting perhaps to millions of tons of diatomite. This is a siliceous de- posit, principally of organic origin, mainly composed of the skeletons of minute, lowly plants—diatoms or bacillariz—mere cells of green or brown protoplasm originally, which enclose themselves in a flinty casing fitting together like a box and a lid. Diatoms are, of course, found in fresh-water ponds and salt seas all over the world. Mr. Hobley considers the Rift Valley to have been the scene of tremendous volcanic activity from Tertiary times onwards, and that at one period in its history this enormously long depression in the surface of East Africa was covered by much larger lakes than at the present day. These beds of diatomite are the result both of the existence of these sheets of water and of the neighbouring eruptive volcanoes. “Picture Suswa, Longenot, and Eburu all periodically in active eruption, and in addition to lava flows ejecting great clouds of voleanic dust and streams of mud mainly composed of siliceous fragments. This is almost certain to have been thus, as is the case in all volcanoes of this kind : the steam tearing its way through the magma which formed the flows of obsidian and trachytic tuffs would naturally blow large quantities into a state of very fine division, and this would be spread far and wide by the wind and also carried into the lakes by the torrential downpours which always accompany volcanic activity. The soda-laden water would dissolve the silica and place it ready for the diatoms to work upon, and with such rich material to build with one can quite see that this form of life could flourish with great luxuriance.”’ Mr. Hobley considers this diatomite or kieselguhr may be of some economic value. H. H. JoHNston. NOTES. Tue Astley Cooper prize for 1910 has been awarded to Prof. E. H. Starling, F.R.S., for an essay upon the physiology of digestion, gastric and intestinal. Tue Mackinnon studentship in physical sciemces has been awarded by the Royal Society for a second year to Dr. R. D. Kleeman for the continuation of his researches on radio-activity ; and the studentship in biological sciences has been awarded to. Mr. T. Goodey for an investigation of the protozoa of the soil. Juty 21, 1910] NATURE 81 THE council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh has awarded the following prizes :—{1) The Neill Prize for the biennial period 1907-8, 1908-9, to Mr. F. J. Lewis, for his papers in the society’s Transactions “‘ On the Plant Remains in the Scottish Peat Mosses.’” (2) The Keith Prize for the biennials period 1907-8, 1908-9, to Dr. Wheelton Hind, for a paper published in the Transactions of the society ‘“‘ On the Lamellibranch and Gasteropod Fauna found in the Millstone Grit of Scotland.” Tue U.S. Congress has passed a bill granting 10,000l. to establish a biological laboratory for the study of diseases of fish, especially those related to cancer. The station is, says Science, to be established under the U.S. Fish Commission. Tue committee otf the science section of the Japan-British Exhibition has issued invitations to an inspection of the collections at the White City to-morrow, July 22, at 3-30 p.m. Tue Geneva correspondent of the Times announces the death, at sixty-four years of age, of Col. Georges Agassiz, nephew of the famous naturalist. After completing his studies at the University of Lausanne, Col. Agassiz spent several years in America with his uncle in scientific work and researches. Recently he presented to the Cantonal Museum at Lausanne his collection of butterflies, numbering 18,000 rare specimens. ; Ir is stated that a bill is to be introduced into the French Parliament making Greenwich time compulsory instead of Paris time, which differs from it by about nine minutes. If the bill becomes law, France will thus be brought into line with the zone system of referring time to meridians differing by an integral number of hours from the Green- wich meridian. It is thus. not so much a question of one country adopting the time standard of another as it is of France accepting an international system of time reckoning. M. Millerand, Minister of Public Works, has been asked by the French Cabinet to support, the proposal to substitute Greenwich time for the time of the Paris meridian when the matter is brought before parliament. In the House of Commons on Tuesday, a bill ‘‘ to prohibit the sale or exchange of the plumage and skins of fertain wild birds”? was brought in and read for the first time. In introducing the bill, Mr. P. Alden said that the object of his bill is to try to prevent the absolute extinc- tion of a few rare birds. The bill that. passed the House of Lords in 1905 prohibited the importation of the plumage of almost all birds. Mr. Alden includes in the schedule of the present bill only a few birds that are on the point of extinction, but which may be saved if this bill, or a bill drafted by the Board of Trade, be passed into law within the next year or two. There is a law in Australia to prevent the export of the plumage of certain rare birds, one of which is the emu, yet last year more. than one thousand emu skins were catalogued for sale in London—all smuggled out of Australia. A number of species of humming birds are almost extinct. In Trinidad the number of species has been reduced from eighteen to five. The skins of 25,000 humming birds have been catalogued for sale in London during the past year. We learn from Science that the University of Southern California, at Los Angeles, has established recently a marine biological station at Venice, Cal. The station is on the nearest beach to the urfiversity, some thirteen miles distant. It comprises an aquarium consisting of forty tanks with running sea water, anda series of laboratories NO. 2125, VOL. 84] for class work and research. The laboratories, which face the north, are provided with sea water and fresh water. The station is designed to afford: (1) facilities for demon- stration to classes studying marine life; (2) opportunity for the students of the university to carry on advanced worl: in marine biology; and (3) a limited number of research laboratories, some of which are available, without cost, to investigators who are prepared to carry on research work in some of the phases of marine biology. THE programme of papers and of demonstrations drawn up for the International Zoological Congress, to be held at Graz next month, includes a great variety of subjects. Prof. Boveri promises an address on Anton Dohrn; Prof. Delage will give an acfount of experimental partheno- genesis. Embryology will be treated by Profs. Lee, Julin, and Hubrecht. The geographical distribution of several groups of animals will be discussed, more particularly the cave- fauna of Carinthia. Prof. Gaupp will deal with the affinities of the Mammalia, Dr. Keller with the origins of domesticated races, and there are also many other memoirs promised that will attract workers in protozoology, genetics, and experimental embryology. The Graz meeting should prove a very successful one. Ir is officially announced that a submarine telephone cable of a novel type was recently laid across the Channel from Dover to Cape Grisnez by the British Post Office, in order to improve telephonic communication between this country and France, and also to determine the limits of possible improvement by the use of a new type, with a view to its application to telephonic communication between places which have hitherto been beyond telephonic range. This is the first cable of the kind laid in tidal waters and across the open sea, although a similar cable was pre- viously laid in the Lake of Constance. The new cable will be brought into regular use as soon as the corresponding French land lines are completed, but the tests so far made have given very satisfactory results. The electrical con- ditions of submarine cables make telephonic communication through them difficult as compared with such communica- tion carried on over land lines, and any improvement in their efficiency will have a marked effect in extending the distance through which telephonic speech is possible, and this more especially when the cable forms a considerable part of the total length of line through which communica- tion has to be effected. In the case of the new cable. just laid, the efficiency has been increased more than three times beyond the value which it would have if it had not been specially treated. This improved efficiency is due to the insertion of ‘‘ loading coils ’’ in the cable at intervals of one nautical mile. The coils reduce the distortion of the current impulses which correspond to the spoken sounds, and so render the speech more distinct. IN the fourth number of the fifty-sixth volume of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections Captain F. Schmitter, of the Medical Corps, U.S. Army, publishes a set of rough notes on the customs and folk-lore of the natives of the Upper Yukon, Alaska. It is remarkable that they are partly in the age of stone and partly in that of copper. The hammers which they use to break up bones for cooking and for making arrow-heads are rude lumps of stone, and of the same material are the axes which, at any rate up to quite recent times, they employed for cutting down trees; but their hunting-knives are of bone, ground flat, and sharp on both sides, or of copper welded in a similar fashion. Their chief weapon, the spear, is made by binding a hunting-knife of caribou horn to a pole 6 feet long. $2 NALORE IN a paper recently read before the Royal Society of Arts (see p. 58), Captain A. J. N. Tremearne discusses the origin of that remarkable African race, the Fulah or Filani. The view which he finally adopts is that the tribe arose some- where in the Central Sudan from the union of Berber males with negro women; that with this mixture of race a mixed dialect came into use, combining Berber, Arabic, and Bantu elements. In process of time this mixed race separated from the Berbers and formed various groups, one going east and south, and becoming the Wahuma, another migrating west to Morocco, and a third, moving south, be- came the Fans. The quasi-Semitic origin of the tribe has produced a spirit of nationality, and some of their legends now connect them with a Jew or Arab progenitor. At present they form the aristocracy of the Hausa States in North British Nigeria and in French territory to the south and west, their head being the Emir of Sokoto. They are a people with great possibilities, and will doubtless take a high place in West Africa when once they frankly accept British and French supremacy. Tue Glastonbury Antiquarian Society has arranged for the publication of a work containing a full description of the excavations at the Glastonbury lake-village, by Mr. Arthur Bulleid and Mr. H. St. George Gray, with an introductory chapter by Dr. R. Munro. The work will also contain reports on the human and animal remains, bird bones, botanical specimens and seeds, and metal, by Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., Dr. C. W. Andrews, F.R.S., Mr. Clement Reid, F.R.S., and the late Dr. J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S. The Glastonbury lake-village is re- garded by archeologists as of primary importance in the history of pre-Roman Britain, giving as it does a vivid picture of native life before the arts of Rome penetrated to the west of England. The village is of the crannog type, the habitable area of about 33 acres, originally in the middle of a mere, including some eighty dwellings sur- rounded by a border-palisading. The occupation of this area continued long enough to allow 5 feet of peat to accumulate in some parts during the occupation. The village had its origin in the early Iron age, and has con- tributed largely to our knowledge of the arts and industries of late Celtic times. The editors hope to be able to publish vol. i. of the work upon the excavations before the close of 1910. Vol. ii. will follow as soon as possible after vol. i., and probably within eighteen months. The work will resemble somewhat in style that of General Pitt- Rivers’s *‘ Excavations in Cranborne Chase.’’ Any in- quiries regarding the work should be sent (with stamped addressed envelope) to Mr. H. St. George Gray, Taunton Castle, Somerset. Tne Dominion Museum at Wellington has issued a hand-list of New Zealand birds, including stragglers, and the first and second parts of a hand-list of New Zealand Lepidoptera. We have received a copy of vol. vi., No. 9, of the University of California Publications in Zoology, contain- ing a preliminary report, by Mr. G. F. McEwen, on the hydrographical work carried on by the Marine Biological Station at San Diego. Work of this nature was the main reason for the foundation of the Marine Biological Association of San Diego, but various causes prevented its being taken up in earnest until the summer of 1908, when the writer of the report before us became a member of the staff of the station, whose duty it should be to take charge for some portion of the year of water-investigations. The work of 1908 consisted of determinations of the NO. 2125, VOL. 84] ‘and ferns. (try 217 rono temperature and density of the waters of the Bay of La Jolla and the ocean, the area covered lying between 33° 20’ and 32° 30’ N. lat., and extending from’ the coast to 118° 30’ long. In addition to this, two trips were made to the Cortez Banks, and a third to a point some distance south of Cerros Island. The methods of, worl and some of the results obtained are recorded in the report. Some remarkably fine skeletons of plesiosaurians from the Upper Lias of Holzmaden are described by Dr. E. Fraas, of Stuttgart, in vol. lvii. of the Palaeontographia. The author directs attention to the rarity of plesiosaurian remains in the German Lias as contrasting strongly with what obtains in the corresponding English formation. The latter indicates that these saurians were relatively abundant in the Liassic seas, although they did not, in all probability, congregate in such large shoals as the commoner species of ichthyosaurs. The majority of the English specimens come, however, from the Lower Lias of Lyme Regis, Street, and Charmouth, an horizon re- presented by a different type of strata at Holzmaden. Dr. Fraas refers his specimens to Plesiosaurus guilelmi- imperatoris, first named by Prof. Dames in 1895, and to a new species of Thaumatosaurus, which it is proposed to call T. victor. So perfect are the remains that they admit of restored figures of the skulls of both species being given. T. victor was about 10 feet in length, with a relatively small head, short and thick neck, very plump body, slender and nearly equal-sized paddles, and a very short and powerful tail. In the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for June (xxi., No. 231) Dr. Corson contributes an interesting bio- graphy of Sir Charles Bell, who did so much to elucidate the structure and functions of the nervous system, and whose ‘‘ Anatomy of Expression in Painting ’”’ has remained a classic. Dr. Walker describes glandular structures hitherto supposed to form part of the prostate gland in rats and guinea-pigs, which, however, differ entirely in structure from the latter, and the secretion of which coagulates the secretion of the seminal vesicles when mixed with it. This coagulation is produced by a very minute quantity of the secretion, 1 part to about 21,000 parts of the secretion of the seminal vesicles being sufficient to pro- duce the reaction. The active principle presumably belongs to the class of ferments. Ir is a pleasure to note the excellent manner in which the natural history of the American State of Connecticut is being worked up, and the results recorded in a series of pamphlets entitled ‘‘ Bulletins of the State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut.’’ Five geological and five botanical bulletins have been issued, the last (No. 14) being devoted to a catalogue of flowering plants A committee of six members of the Connecti- cut Botanical Society is responsible for the work, which has been compiled with great care. The list enumerates 1481 native and 461 introduced species, besides which 286 varieties and forms are recognised. The Cyperacezx, Graminee, and Composite stand out as the largest families. Aster is the largest genus, and also one of the most interesting, as the native species include such useful horticultural types as laevis, novae-angliae, novt-belgit, ericoides, longifolius, and the rare concinnus; Solidago, another large genus, also provides the original types of some garden plants. The critical genera, Crategus and Rubus, contribute to the size of the rose family, and the number of Violas is remarkable. Among the ferns, eight species of Isoetes and six of Botrychium are recorded. Juzy 21, 1910] NATURE 83 Tue current number of the Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, Jamaica (vol. i., No. 3), maintains the high standard set by the two previous issues. Mr. R. Newstead contributes a valuable article on the ticks and other blood- sucking Arthropoda of Jamaica, describing their life-history and the methods adopted in attempts to exterminate them. It appears that ticks are most prevalent during the dry winter months, and that relatively few are found during the rainy season. As a rule the ticks infest cattle, but one much dreaded species, Chrysomyia (Compsamyia), attacks man; a case of myiasis thus produced is mentioned. This tick often passes its larval stages in putrid carcases, and is no doubt kept in check by the scavenger work of the John Crows (Cathartes aura), which remove practically all traces of carrion from man’s habitations. From an article by the Hon. H. E. Cox, it appears that tea is now being successfully grown on the island; the Cinchona strain is used, and yields a tea of mild character similar to the old China teas and without astringency.. There is also a useful history of the economic plants of Jamaica by Mr. Harris. Tue twenty-second annual report of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Lafayette, Indiana, chronicles several important events in the history of the station. The old buildings having proved insufficient, new ones were erected, and were formally opened during the course of the year. Still more important, however, was the provision of further funds, necessitated by the rapidly increasing demand from the farmers of the State for information on the lines of the work already being done. So strong was the demand that the General Assembly amended the Smith Act of 1905, whereby the station annually receives 25,000 dollars, and increased the State subvention to 75,000 dollars annually, to be expended as follows :—10,000 dollars for the general work of the station, 15,000 dollars for the improvement of the crops and soils of the State, 10,000 dollars for the advancement of the dairy interests, 10,000 dollars for the advancement of live-stock interests, 5000 dollars for the investigation of hog cholera and other diseases, 5000 dollars for poultry problems, and 10,000 dollars for extension work; and the Act concludes :— ““ Whereas an emergency exists for the immediate taking effect of this Act the same shall be in effect from and after its passage.’? The extension work includes the dis- tribution of copiously illustrated bulletins dealing with important problems, a number of which we have also received; the provision of special trains to carry lecturers through the country, teaching as they go; attendance at shows, and so on. With such liberal support it is not surprising that much good work is done. Mr. Rosert M. Brown contributes an interesting series of diagrams to the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society (p. 107) showing the maximum, minimum, and average levels of the waters of the Mississippi system at five stations—Hannibal, on the Mississippi; Hermann, on the Missouri; St. Louis, just below the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri; Cairo, on the Ohio; and Memphis, Tennessee. The varying influence of the different types of rainfall occurring in different parts of the drainage area is very clearly shown. Mr. H. T. Barnes, Macdonald professor of physics, con- tributes an interesting paper, with excellent illustrations, to the Proceedings of the Undergraduate Society of Applied Science of McGill University, Montreal, on the problems of winter navigation on the river St. Lawrence. Experi- ence shows that, with Lake St. Peter free of ice, a con- tinuous open channel above that point may be safely pre- NO. 2125, VOL. 84] dicted, for the river is continually suuggling to free itself of its icy burden. Prof. Barnes suggests that it would be quite possible to keep the ice-bridge broken up at the foot of Lake St. Peter and at the Sorel Islands, and that the lake itself could be kept nearly free of ice. One ice-breaker could keep the river clear at the Sorel Islands as well as at Port St. Francis, and this, with one powerful ice-breaker at Quebec, would effectively keep the ship channel open. The ice-problem thus solved, Montreal would inevitably become one of the greatest seaports in the world. WE have received from the author reprints of two papers by Mr. E. A. Birge, published in the Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. In the first Mr. Birge discusses a hitherto unregarded factor in lake temperatures. The heat of the sun is mostly delivered to the surface strata of a lake, and distributed to the depths by various agencies, chief of which is the wind. The efficiency of the wind as a distributing agent is opposed and limited by thermal resistance to mixture offered. by the decreased density of the warmed surface water, and Mr. Birge brings forward evidence to show that the effectiveness of this thermal resistance increases as the temperature of the water departs from the temperature of maximum density, and decreases as it approaches pe (C The second paper contains a review of the evidence adduced by Wedderburn in favour of the existence of temperature seiches in lakes, which leaves the author unconvinced. Mr. T. S. Etuts has published a pamphlet on ** The Winding Course of the River Wye ’’ (Gloucester : Bellows, price 1s.), in which he expresses his views on the origin of adjacent river-systems. He regards valleys divided by cols at their heads as having originally formed a continuous channel, the two sections becoming separated when main systems. tended to develop on either side. He does not seem to appreciate sufficiently the effects of rain, frost, and continual land-slide action in the cutting back of valley-heads, but represents geologists as attributing the removal of cols solely to erosion by the young streams flowing from them. On p. 9 he comes very near to the bold suggestion of Mr. A. W. Rogers, that a winding rock- ravine may record the original meanders of the river in alluvium at a higher level. Tue nature of intermetallic compounds is discussed by Dr. T. Slater Price in vol. iii. of the Proceedings of the Birmingham Metallurgical Society, which has made a somewhat belated appearance. The paper in question was read in January, 1909, and contains a list of 120 of these curious compounds, more of which are described every month. Among the laws of their formation, it is claimed that the metals forming a sub-group of the periodic system do not form compounds with each other, and, further, that any particular metal either enters into combination with all the metals of a sub-group or else it does not form compounds with any of them. Those sub-groups in which there is a change from metalloid to metal, as in the case of As, Sb, Bi, form an exception to the rule. The valencies of the metals in-their compounds seldom correspond with the ordinary valencies, only thirty bodies out of the 120 enumerated showing this agreement, and of these, twelve are compounds of antimony, which approaches the metal- loids in its characteristics. Among the compounds there are some very remarkable formula, for which no explana- tion is offered. For example, the formule NaZn,,, NaCd,, FeZn,, NiCd,, and AuSb, have a strange appear- ance. Among other summaries of the state of knowledge on particular subjects, there are interesting articles by Mr. A. H. Hiorns on copper-nickel alloys, and by Prof. Arnold on the testing of metals. 84 NATURE [juny 21, roxa Tue problem of determining the vertital motion of the air during a balloon ascent is complicated by the fact that the balloon itself is in motion. Measurement of the varia- tion of the barometric pressure at the balloon has, how- ever, proved a trustworthy means of determining the vertical motion of the balloon, and the further problem of record- ing the relative vertical motion of the air with respect to the balloon appears to have been satisfactorily solved by an instrument described by Mr. P. Ludevig in the Physikalische Zeitschrift for June 15. It consists of light anemometer vanes which can rotate about a vertical axis. The spindle carries a thin, hollow brass cylinder through which six holes are punched, each pair at opposite extremi- ties of a diameter, two near the top, two near the middle, and two near the bottom of the cylinder. The diameters are inclined at 60° to each other. Light can pass through, say, the central pair of holes when they happen to be in the direct line between a source and a moving strip of photographic paper, and a spot is registered. According to the direction of rotation of the cylinder, the spot next registered may be the upper or lower, and the speed of rotation determines the distance between the spots. An examination of the strip allows the speed of the air with respect to the balloon at any instant to be calculated if the speed of the strip is known. Tue Ontario Government announces that the system organised for the distribution of power from the Niagara Fails will be in operation for the supply of Toronto, London, and St. Thomas by the end of the year. The most distant of these places is about 100 miles from the Falls, and the transmission will be at 100,000 volts. The electrical energy will be bought from the existing Canadian generating stations by the various municipalities, which will effect the distribution by new transmission lines extending over a wide area. By this means cheap power will be’ available for manufacturing and agricultural pur- poses, and it is hoped that a network of new tramways will be constructed which will not only improve travelling facilities, but also act as a means of bringing agricultural produce to the towns. A system of distribution of this kind should be of particular value in Canada, seeing that the supply of coal is deficient. The municipalities will not themselves own the tramways, lighting and power com- panies, but private companies will be formed to effect the final distribution of the power, and the control of the price charged to the consumer will rest with the municipalities in virtue of their ownership of the transmission lines. The cost of carrying out the above scheme will be defrayed by an issue by the Provincial Legislature of bonds redeemable at the end of forty years. Messrs. TowNsSON AND MERCER have submitted for our inspection a technical thermometer based on a novel prin- ciple. This consists of a metallic bulb containing liquid, and connected by narrow copper tubing with a pressure The gauge index responds to the variations in pressure of the contained vapour, and this depends upon the temperature of the bulb. The dial of the gauge can therefore be graduated in degrees instead of pressures, and is thus made into a direct-reading thermometer. The indications may, of course, be automatically recorded, as in the case of an ordinary aneroid barometer. The indica- tions depend only upon the temperature of the bulb; they are independent of the temperature of the gauge, whtch may be any distance away, the air in the capillary tubing forming the connecting link which transmits the pressure of the vapour in the bulb. Damage to the bulb or capillary tube does not interfere with the accuracy of the indications ; NO. 2125, VOL, 84] gauge. the bulb and tube may, in fact, be twisted or bent in any way which leaves them intact and does not prevent free communication of the vapour pressure. It will be seen at once that the thermometer possesses qualities which no other thermometer of the same simplicity can claim, and the result is that it is rapidly being adopted in works of all kinds where long-distance thermometry is advantageous. For example, in a single cabin of a ship may be dials indicating the temperature in any part of the hold, in powder magazines, coal-bunkers, refrigerating chambers, &c. Humidity is indicated by employing a pair, wet and dry, in the ordinary way. Its use in indicating the tempera- ture of superheated steam has caused it to be adopted by all railways in France and by many other railways on the Continent. These thermometers are made of very various ranges, from —25° C. to +25° C., up to 450° C. to 700° C. This system of temperature indication is known as the ““ Fournier ’’ system. Tue Journal of the Franklin Institute for June contains an article by E. E. Free on the phenomena of floccula- tion and deflocculation, a discussion of the mechanics of suspension, a subject of importance in the treatment of sewage, in ore separation, and many other commercial problems. The physical production of light forms the subject of a paper by E. P. Hyde, and is dealt with from the points of view of the laws of radiation and of physio- logical optics. There are also articles on Brennan’s mono- rail car, the colloid nature of complex inorganic acids, and the Lumiére process of colour photography. THe Bulletin de la Société d’Encouragement pour V’'Industrie nationale for May contains a paper by J. H. Ricard on the pine forests of the Landes. Full details are given, with numerous photographic illustrations, of the methods now employed for the extraction of the resin (gemme), and the extraction of essence of turpentine and rosin from the latter. Figures are given showing the yield of pine wood per hectare, and the proportions of the wood suitable for various uses. The financial aspect of the industry is dealt with fully, and the great advantages of the cultivation of the pine in these sandy districts pointed out. Tue electrolytic conductivity of non-aqueous solutions at low temperatures is the subject of a paper by P. Walden in the current number of the Zeitschrift fiir physikalische Chemie (June 17). Twelve organic solvents were used, tetraethylammonium iodide and tetrapropylammonium iodide being used for the ‘‘ normal electrolytes,”’ the observations in each case being carried down to the freez- ing of the solvent. The general result of the work shows that, as with aqueous solutions, the conductivity curve does not cut the temperature axis with a measurable angle; in other words, there is no definite temperature of conductivity. Tne 22,000-ton floating dock for the Brazilian Govern- ment is illustrated in the Engineer for July 8. This dock has been built by Vickers, Sons and Maxim, Barrow-in-Furness, at a cost of 182,700l., and is the largest dock of the kind built as vet in this country. The contract time for delivery at Rio Janeiro was eleven months. The contract was placed on October 4 and the dock sections were launched on June 7, 8, and 9. The designs were prepared by Messrs. Clark and Standfield, of London, who have already been responsible fer sixty-seven floating docks having an aggregate lifting capacity of 486,691 tons. The present dock is surpassed by the 35,500-ton dock built last year by Blohm and Voss at Hamburg. Its lifting capacity will also be exceeded by two box-type docks now Messrs. last, JULY 21, 1910] building at Portsmouth and Sheerness for the British Admiralty, which are expected to be ready for service during the autumn of next year. Tue aérial-propeller testing plant at Vickers’ Works, Barrow-in-Furness, is illustrated in Engineering for July 8. The apparatus consists of a double cantilever, 166 feet in length, the longer arm, at the end of which the propeller under test is mounted, being 110 feet in length. The cantilever is carried on ball-bearings op a cast-iron column, and the propeller is driven from a 100 horse-power electric motor situated in a test house which is arranged on the cantilever near the supporting column. The power is conveyed to the propeller by means of a long shaft passing along the cantilever, and bevel gear. The cantilever may revolve at any speed up to 7o miles per hour at the point of attachment of the propeller. The structure is balanced by a weight on the shorter arm of the cantilever. There is a method of compensating the circular motion of the propeller so that the conditions are similar to those of a ship running in a straight line through the air. The propeller may be run at speeds from 500 to zo00 revolu- tions per minute, and its speed through the air can be regulated by means of resistance screens. Measurements of thrust, efficiency, &c., are recorded in the observation station. Provision has been made for attaching a gondola to the platform ahead of the propeller, so as to obtain similar conditions to those on an air-ship having the propeller astern of the gondola. With characteristic solici- tude for the advancement of science generally, Messrs. Vickers will place the apparatus at the disposal of investigators, so that any type of propellers may be tested. METEOROLOGISTS, teachers of practical geography, and others will all find Messrs. Aitchison and Co.’s catalogue, Section iv., useful and interesting. It is concerned chiefly with barometers, thermometers, rain gauges, compasses, and pedometers; and the excellent illustrations and clearly arranged letterpress make reference easy and pleasant. A THIRD edition of Prof. Ch. Moureu’s ‘‘ Notions fonda- mentales de Chimie organique ’’ has been published by M. Gauthier-Villars, of Paris. The first edition of the work was reviewed in our issue of January 22, 1903 (vol. Ixvii., p- 269), and it is only necessary to state that the present volume has been revised and brought up to date. * ArrIcAN Mimetic BurtTerFLies ”’ is the title of a mono- graph by Mr. H. Eltringham which the Oxford University Press is about to publish. Descriptions and illustrations are given of the principal known instances of mimetic resemblances in the Rhopalocera of the Ethiopian region, together with an explanation of the Miillerian and Batesian theories of mimicry. A VALUABLE supplement of seventy pages, dealing with Japan in all its aspects, was published with Tuesday's Times (July 19). Among the numerous important articles we notice in particular those on education, seismology, and volcanoes, by Baron Kikuchi, Prof. F. Omori, and Mr. E. Bruce-Mitford respectively. The publication, as part of a daily newspaper, of such a vast amount of detail and description relating to Japan as is given in the articles and tables is a remarkable enterprise. The supplement con- tains more information upon the position and progress of Japan than can be found in many books. A sEconD edition of Prof. Armstrong’s book of essays, “The Teaching of Scientific Method and other Papers on Education,” has been published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd. The first edition was reviewed at length in our NO. 2125, VOL. 84] NATURE 8 oo Cn issue of January 28, 1904 (vol. Ixix., p. 289), and it will be sufficient to direct attention to the additions made. in the present volume. Prof. Armstrong has introduced a prefatory essay entitled ‘‘ Twenty-five Years Later,’’ in which he considers the changes that have taken place in the teaching of science in schools during the period to: which his essays relate. He has added two contributions ; one, ‘‘ The Correlation of Mathematical Teaching with other Work in Schools,’’ was part of a report presented’ to the British Association at its York meeting, and the other, “A Criticism of School Method, with Suggestions for its Improvement,’’ was delivered as an address to the Portsmouth Secondary Education League. “ Tue following volumes of the ‘‘ Fauna of British India” series are nearing completion :—Mr. G. J. Arrow’s volume on the Cetoniinze and Dynastinz is practically ready for publication. Mr. W. L. Distant’s volume, an appendix to: the Rhynchota, and Canon W. W. Fowler’s work on the Cicindelidz and Paussidz, with a general. introduction to- the Coleoptera, are in the press. The remaining volumes which the editor, Mr. A. E. Shipley, with the assistance of Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall, and with the sanction of the Secretary of State for India, has arranged for in this series. are :—Volumes on the Orthoptera (Acridiida and Locus- tide), Mr. W. F. Kirby; Butterflies (Lyccenidze and’ Hesperide), Mr. H. H: Druce; the Curculionide, Mr. G. A. K. Marshall; /the Ichneumonide, Mr. Claude Morley; the Longicorn Beetles, Mr. C. J. Gahan; the Blattide, Mr. R. Shelford; the Helicidz, Lieut.-Colonel' H. H. Godwin-Austen ; the Ixodide and Argasidz, Mr. C. Warburton; Leeches, Mr. W. A. Harding; Fresh-water Sponges and Polyzoa and Hydrida, Dr. N. Annandale; the: Meloide, Mr. Creighton Wellman; the Brachyurous Crustacea, Lieut.-Colonel A. Alcock; and the Nemocera: (excluding the Chironomidze and the Culicide), Mr. E, Brunetti. Tue annual report of the Board of Scientific Advice for India for 1908-9 has been received. The attention of the Board has been directed to the fact that the rapid increase in the number of scientific institutions throughout the- world is rendering it more difficult to obtain back numbers of the more important scientific periodicals, and that unless efforts are made now to secure’ complete sets of some of these for India it will be impossible at a later date to establish efficient libraries for the requirements of scientific research in India. The Board, on the advice of a sub- committee appointed to deal with the question, has recom- mended the Government to maintain “ first-class ’’ general reference libraries in Bengal, Bombay, Burma, Madras, the Punjab, and the United Provinces, and ‘‘ second-class °’ libraries in large towns like Cawnpore, Mandalay, Nagpur, Simla, and so on. Lists of scientific periodicals which should be maintained in all “‘ first-class’? libraries and in “second-class” libraries accompanied the recommenda- tions. The programmes of the various scientific depart- ments of Government for the ensuing year were, after some revision, approved by the Board. In connection with the work of the Meteorological Department, it is proposed’ to make a series of balloon flights next December, the month chosen by the International Commission in Europe and America for simultaneous experiments on the condi- tions of the upper air. It is hoped, too, that the publication of the sixty years’ records in connection with terrestrial: magnetism at Colaba will be completed during the current year. The Department of Agricultural Bacteriology hopes to attack, among other problems, the determination of the chief bacteria characteristic of Indian soils, particularly , those taking part in the fixation of nitrogen, the rotting- 56 NATURE [JuLy 21, 1910 of organic material, and nitrification. In other depart- ments interesting reseatch work is being pursued actively. Very complete reports of the work done during the year 1908-9 in each of the scientific departments is included in the volume; to name a few, that dealing with astronomy and meteorology is by Dr. G. T. Walker, F.R.S.; that in geology by Sir Thomas Holland, F.R.S. ; and in geodosy and geography by Colonel S. G. Burrard, R.E., F.R.S. An appendix on the economic investigations conducted at the Imperial Institute, by Dr. W. R. Dunstan, F.R.S., completes the volume. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. PuorocrarHs or Aurora&.—As an abstract from the Comptes rendus, we have received from the author, M. Carl Stérmer, an interesting note on a photographic method of determining the altitudes of aurora. The difficulty in obtaining such photographs is, of course, the extreme feebleness and the motion of the light, but, by using a cinematograph lens of 25 mm. diamieter and 50 mm. focal length, in conjunction with Lumiére’s ‘‘ violet ”’ plates, M. Stormer succeeded in obtaining measurable images, some of which are reproduced in his note. By choosing two stations 43 km. apart and arranging for simultaneous exposures, data for determining the altitudes were secured. The four sets of photographs reproduced represent different forms of auroras seen during March, and also show recog- nisable stars, so that the parallax of definite points is easily calculated. The heights determined are 166 km., between 50 and 60 km., r90 km., and 120 km. respectively. DISPLACEMENT OF SPECTRAL LINES AT THE SUN’s LimB.— In spectroscopic determinations of the radial velocities of the various solar layers, a difficulty arises from the fact that various perturbations alter the wave-lengths of the lines considered, independently of the rotation. These sub- sidiary displacements have been ascribed to two causes, first, the effect of ascending currents in the solar atmo- sphere, and, secondly, to pressure effects. In order to decide which of these is the disturbing agent, M. A. Perot performed some delicate interferometer experiments which he describes in No. 1 (July 4) of the Comptes rendus. In order to determine definitely the exact point of the solar image under observation, M. Perot projected a 36 mm. image on to a copper plate ruled in millimetre squares, and having a circular hole, or a slit, o'r mm. broad at the centre; thus only the radiations passing through this definite aperture reached his interferometer and spectro- scope. As a result of the experiments, M. Perot deduces, from the form of the curves of relative variation of wave- length obtained, that this relative variation is an effect of pressure, or density, and not of ascending currents. THE PRESSURE OF LiGHT ON GaseEs.—In No. 5, vol. xxxi., of the Astrophysical Journal, Dr. Lebedew describes a series of very ingenious and delicate experiments by which he has been able to observe the effect of the pressure exerted by a beam of light on various gases. The apparatus is too complex to describe here, but, in effect, it consists of a small chamber in which the gas under examination is contained, and through which a beam of light can be projected in either direction. The pressure exerted by the light produces an excess of pressure in the gas at the farther end of the chamber, and this acts on a very delicate valve which is suspended on one arm of a torsion balance. From a large number of experiments, in which other variable effects were eliminated, Dr. Lebedew succeeded in establishing experimentally the existence of the translatory force exerted by light upon gases, and also in showing that these forces are directly proportional to the quantity of incident energy and to the absorption coefficients of the gas masses. As these experiments were made with gases at atmospheric pressure, the numerical values determined cannot be applied directly to such excessively tenuous masses as are involved in the case of NO. 2125, VOL. 84] comets’ tails, but they provide a satisfactory basis on which further experimental work in this direction may be founded. Tue DETERMINATION OF STELLAR RapiAL VELOCITIES.— In No. 5, vol. xxxi., of the Astrophysical Journal, Prof. Frost publishes a table of corrections to be applied to the previously published list of radial velocities of certain stars of the Orion type. The corrections are necessitated by the re-determination of the wave-lengths of the three silicon lines at AA 4553, 4568, and 4575, for which Exner and Haschek’s values were previously adopted. Prof. Frost's new measures give 45527636, 4567°897, and 4574°791 as the correct wave-lengths, and this involves positive corrections of 7°51 km., 3°48 km., and 7°14 km., respectively, to plates reduced with Exner and Haschek’s values. As Prof. Frost points out, finality in radial-velocity measures is hardly to be obtained; the values must be amended as a greater accuracy in the determination of stellar wave-lengths is attained. Further, in the case of blended lines, such as the double helium line at A 4472, a variation in the relative intensities of the two lines will considerably modify the results. This is especially effective when the adopted blend is uncertain, as in the case of the blending of lines of different elements which may vary considerably from one stellar type to another. Prof. Frost also publishes the data establishing the variable radial- velocity of Rigel, showing a variation from +1 to +26km., and states that on one plate a faint component to the line ai A 4472 was measured which gave a velocity of —108 km. ; faint components were suspected in other instances. The same journal also contains some further notes by Prof. R. W. Wood on the determination of radial-velocities with objective prisms. After trying several other media for producing fiducial lines, he tried peroxide of chlorine, which, contained in a suitable cell, appears to answer very well. It gives absorption bands which are very well defined on the red edge, and in his 21-foot grating photographs can be measured to within o’o2 A.U.; with such bands, he: suggests, radial velocities, of suitable stars, could be determined to within 2 or 3 kms. Unfortunately, the absorption bands cover most of the hydrogen lines, so that this absorbent could not well be used for first-type stars, although it is possible that A 4863 and A 3837 would appear; for other types a peroxide of chlorine screen apparently answers perfectly. Hatiey’s Comet.—A number of observations are recorded in Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4425, but, in general, they do little more than confirm others previously noted. Herr G. Miller gives an outline of the observations made, at great altitudes, in Teneriffe, and Herr W. Munch describes the general observations at Potsdam. The spectrographic observations made on May 19, from 4h. 55m. to 5h. rom. and from 5h, 28m. to 5h. 30m. (M.E.T.), are described by Herr v. d. Pahlen, but no modification of the normal solar spectrum was discovered. The slit covered 3h' of arc, and two series of six exposures on the predicted positions of the comet on the sun’s disc were made, so that a \arge area of the solar surface was covered without revealing any trace of the comet. An observation by Dr. Ristenpart, at Santiago de Chile, on July 1 showed the comet as a nebulous mass 1’ in diameter, with no condensation, and with a tail 2° long. Harvarp COLLEGE OsseRvAToRY.—In his report for the year ending September 30, 1909, Prof. E. C. Pickering deplores the diminution of 5000 dollars in the income of the Harvard College Observatory, and points out that a disproportionate decrease will have to be expected in the amount of work accomplished. As in previous years, a great number of negatives of stellar regions and stellar spectra were added to the magnificent collection now stored at Harvard, and a number of important discoveries were made from the Draper memorial | photographs. Seven meteor trails were found on chart plates, and at Arequipa the spectrum of a verv bright’ meteor was secured. At this southern station the work was sadly upset by unusually bad weather, but, among other things, the spectra of more than 400 stars of magnitudes 5-6 Were secured with the 13-inch Boyden telescope. Forysgem .o7To] NATURE. 87 COLOUR OF THE SEA. APROPOS of the report (NatuRE, March 10) of Lord Rayleigh’s lecture dealing with the parts played by reflection and transmission of light in the production of the integral impression of. colour on the eye of an observer looking at the sea from the. deck of a ship, I should like to be permitted to make some observations on the proper colour of the water of the ocean, as it is a subject which has occupied my attention, off and on, during the last forty years. During the voyage of the Challenger I began to log the colour of the water in February, 1874, when she was working in the neighbourhood of the Antarctic circle. My attention was there directed to it by the frequent and abrupt passage of the ship from water of the clear indigo colour of the ocean of temperate latitudes to the deep olive-green water which is a distinctive feature of these icy regions. The colour is due to the abundance of diatoms. These are_so plentiful and so preponderant that, besides putting their stamp on the surface, they furnish a distinct type of oceanic deposit, the diatom-ooze. The green colour of the water is due, not only to the living diatoms, but also, and perhaps to a greater extent, to the excretions of the animals for the subsistence of which the diatoms furnish the ultimate food supply. The crowds of penguins and other birds to be met with in these seas stain all the ice green. where they have rested. The water, inhabited by diatoms and affected by diatomaceous débris, has a deep olive-green colour which is characteristic, and this I accepted as one colour-type of the water of the ocean. It is seen best in the water the transparency of which is not interfered with by too great a crowd of the diatoms themselves. Water belonging to this type of colour is not confined to polar latitudes; it is met with in a certain class of homologous districts of the warmer ocean, in tropical and even in equatorial latitudes. When we quit the edge of the polar ice and steer equator- wards, the surface water assumes a pronounced indigo colour, and this persists until we pass the fortieth parallel. If we start from the equator and sail polewards, the colour of the surface water persists as a pure and brilliant ultramarine until the thirtieth parallel is passed. The passage from the ultramarine to the indigo, and vice versa, is usually very rapid, and the area of mix- ture is restricted. No one who has once sailed in the ultramarine waters of the intratropical ocean and has observed, as well as seen, its colour, can ever mistake any other colour for it. If he has doubt as to whether the water through which he is passing is ultramarine or not, he may be sure that it is not. The ultramarine and the indigo are the two great colour-types to which the mass of the surface water of the deep sea belongs, and, with the olive-green, they make the three fundamental colour-types which are required, and are sufficient for the adequate logging of the colour of the surface water of the ocean. - The water of the Mediterranean belongs to the ultra- marine type, but it always appears to me to have a harder tone than the soft and brilliant ultramarine of the intratropical ocean. With regard to the method of judging the colour of the water, much unnecessary difficulty is made. The first precaution to be observed is to take up a position where the greatest amount of light can reach the eye after pass- ing through the water, and the smallest amount after being reflected from its surface. There is generally little difficulty in accomplishing this on one side or the other of the ship and by looking as nearly as possible vertically into the water. The Challenger, like other men-of-war of her date, was fully rigged, and built for sailing as well as for steaming. When under sail the propeller causes a certain amount of retardation, and to remedy this she was. fitted with a “ screw-well ’’ into which the propeller could be hoisted out of the water. This proved to be a perfect observation tube for determining the proper colour of the water. Its diameter was about 6 feet; it passed from the upper deck through the captain’s cabin on the main deck and the ward-room on the lower deck into the water. Looked into from the deck, the sea water appeared to be enclosed NO. 2125, VOL. 84] in it as the water is in a well, but with this difference, that the water, by day, was brilliantly illuminated from below. There being no clearance between the surface of the water in the well and the structure of the ship, no light could enter except through the water. No direct sky-light could reach it down the well, because the poop awning, which was practically always spread during the day, completely excluded it. The screw-well was, in effect, an artificial and perfected Grotto di Capri, which was carried round the world. It was perfected, inasmuch as there is a passage for boats to penetrate into the grotto from the outside, while the screw-well is entirely shut off. During the whole of the voyage the colour of the water was under observation in this very perfect apparatus. The statement that the blue colour of the sea is nothing but the reflection of the blue of the sky was at first fre- quently made, even on days when the sky was completely overcast; a visit to the screw-well, especially on overcast days, never failed to convince the doubter that the water contained in its own mass sufficient colour to account for all that was perceived. When the ship was in green water the view was never advanced that its colour was due to reflection from the sky. As ships with screw-wells long ago disappeared from the sea, it may not be ‘superfluous to point out that what could be observed in the screw-well was altogether different from what can be seen in the wake of the screw of a modern steamer.. While the screw-well was a per- fect instrument for gauging the colour of the water, the determination of its transparency was more conveniently made from a boat. Thus in mid-Pacific, with the aid of a ‘‘water-glass’’ to eliminate the disturbing action of ripples, a. metal plate measuring only 4 by 4 inches, painted white and not masked by the suspending line, was distinctly seen at a depth of 25 fathoms (45 metres). Beyond this depth it became indistinct, and became invisible at about 27 fathoms, but this was due mainly to its smallness and to its want of steadiness, being attached to the boat, which rose and fell with the swell. At 25 fathoms the plate had a pale’ ultramarine colour, and its edges were sharply defined. These separated the column of water, into which I looked through the water-glass, into a central column of rectangular section having a depth of 25 fathoms, and into a column, surrounding and contiguous with it, which had a depth many times greater. These columns, being juxtaposed, were placed in the way most favourable for the comparison of their colours. The colour of the central column, 25 fathoms in length, was a pure but pale ultramarine; that of the external and uninterrupted column through which the whole unabsorbed and un- dissipated part of the sunlight which had penetrated into the water returned to the surface was of the same tone, but of many times greater intensity. Assuming the in- tensity of the colour to be proportional to the length of the column of water traversed by the light, it is to be concluded that the length of the uninterrupted column which transmitted the more intense colour was many times greater than 25 fathoms. It must be noted that the glass plate forming the bottom of the small tub, which is called a ‘ water-glass,’’? was during the observation completely protected from direct sky-light by my head and the brim of the panama hat which, at that time, I always wore when exposed to the sun. It has already been said that water of as pure a green as that of the Antarctic occurs in other and warmer dis- tricts of the ocean. My attention was first directed to this during the cruise of the Dacia, which, although it occupied no more than three weeks, marks an epoch in deep-sea research. A short account of it is given in a paper by me—‘ On Oceanic Shoals discovered in SS. Dacia in October, 1883 ’’—and published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1885, xiii., p. 748. Perhaps the most remarkable of these shoals was the one which was named the ‘‘ Coral Patch,’’ in lat. 34° 57’ N., long. 11° 57’ W., the exploration of which, along with that of the tidal currents in the open ocean (Proc. Roy. Soc., 1888, xliii., p. 356), supplied the evidence which definitively estab- lished the fact that coral islands are a product of elevation and not of subsidence. When the survey of this shoal had been completed, in so far as the time at the disposal of a steamer engaged on a commercial mission permitted, a line of soundings was 88 run from the “‘ Patch”’ to the African coast at, Mogador. Independently of the high land which is visible from the sea at a distance of many miles, the approach to the coast is indicated by a fall in the temperature of the water of the sea surface, and a remarkable change in its: colour. Outside, the temperature of the surface water was 21° C., and its colour was ultramarine. After sight- ing the land its temperature fell, at first slowly, then rapidly, and, when at a distance of two miles from Mogador, it was only 16° ©. The colour at the same time had become a pure olive-green, which maintained its transparency until close to the shore, where it became masked by the solid matter kept continually in suspension by the mechanical energy of the breaking waves. The pure green colour of the water and its tempera- ture, so much lower than that which could persist at the surface of the sea in the latitude of Mogador, made me for a moment think that it might be in reality Antarctic water which had found its way, at or near the bottom, into the northern hemisphere, having been diverted first to. the west while in the South Atlantic, then to the east after crossing the line. But this idea could persist only for a moment, because the temperature and’ the density of the bottom water were found to be those characteristic of the bottom water of the eastern basin of the North Atlantic, as shown by the Challenger observations, and these are much higher than those of any other ocean. The low temperature of the water showed that it could not come on the surface from the north or south or west of it, and the only source from which it could come was from below the surface. Deep water comes close to the coast, and the water at 2000 fathoms was found to have a temperature of 2-5° C., so that the supply of cold from this source was adequate, and it was available With a very small expenditure of energy. Arrived at the surface and following the south-westerly drift of the surface water, exposure to the sun raised the temperature of the water and discharged its colour pari passu. It was evident that there was here a case of the rising of deep water at the weather coast of an ocean, away from which the prevailing wind was continually driving the surface water. From Mogador the Dacia proceeded to the “* Seine Bank,” in lat. 33° 47’ N., long. 14° 1’ W., and explored it thoroughly. Among the specimens brought up on the grapnel were masses of dead coral and shells, all having the same green colour. Some of these fragments were preserved in spirit, which quickly assumed the green colour, leaving the shells and coral practically decolourised. I sent the bottle, with the specimens and. spirit, to my friend Prof. W. N. Hartley, in Dublin, who was good enough to subject them to spectroscopic examination. He wrote to me on February 15, 1884:—‘‘T have made a spectroscopic examination of the colouring matter you sent me and have no doubt that it is altered chlorophyll. I have got identical wave-length measurements for the absorption band with your liquid and a specimen of very pure ctw-ophyll dissolved in ether ’’; and he adds, ‘* there is very little real substance in even a dark green solution.’’ As the year 1884 belongs now to the remote past, I recalled the matter to Prof. Hartley, and, confirming his previous information, he added :—‘‘ I believe my impression at the time was that the chlorophyll was the colouring matter in a living micro-organism, and that these settled upon the shells, but when not deposited they were floating in the sea water.”” I am obliged to Prof. Hartley for ixindly permitting me to use these private communications. Further information will be found in his paper on chloro- phyll from the deep sea (Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., 188s, Xili., 130). Prof. Hartley’s report furnished a remarkable confirma- tion of my first impression in so far as it showed that the green water of the Mogador coast owed its colour to the same substance as did the diatom-crowded water of the Antarctic, namely, chlorophyll. In April and May of 1885 I made a coasting voyage from Valparaiso to San Francisco. Excepting the equa- torial part, stretching from Cape Blanco to Panama and round the coast of Central America to near Mazatlan, the west coast of the American continent between the fortieth All and green water is met with, in the same NO. 2125, VOL. 84] parallels is the weather shore of the Pacific Ocean. along it cold NATURE distance of fifteen to twenty miles from the coast. [JuLy 21, 1910 way as we have seen to be the case on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. On the South American coast the green water was found to extend, with few interruptions, from Valparaiso, lat. 33° S., to Cape Blanco, lat. 4° 27/ S. As on the Morocco coast, the green colour and the low tempera- ture of the water are found only close to the shore. At a distance of ten miles outside the colour is blue, and the temperature normal for the latitude. There can be little doubt that, as the localities where the green water occurs are geographically homologous, so the substance which produces the colour is generically the same, namely, chlorophyll. The following particulars are taken from my unpublished journal. The only ports or anchorages where the water was blue were Huasco, lat. 28° 27’ S., temperature of the surface water 14-7° C., and Carizal, lat. 28° 5’ S., tempera- ture 15-19 C. The occurrence in this latitude of blue water with so low a temperature is very remarkable. At Antafogasta, lat. 23° 39’ S., the water was greenish- blue, and its temperature was 18-0° C. Between this port and Iquique the ship’s course took her to a distance of nearly twenty miles from the coast, and there the colour of the water was ultramarine and its temperature 21-2° C. At Iquique the water was quite green, and its tempera- ture 17° C. Between this port and Arica the water was quite green, even at a distance of five miles from the coast, where the temperature was 19-5° C., but on anchor- ing at Pisagua, lat. 19° 36’ S., the temperature of the water was only 15-2° €. At Arica, lat. 18° 28’ S., the water was equally green, but its temperature was 19-5° C. Arica lies in the angle where the trend of the coast changes from north to about north-west. From Arica the ship made a longer.run to Chala, lat. 15° 49’ S., keeping bs a ere ultramarine water was met with, its temperature rising to 232° C., but even at fifteen miles from this coast some green water was met with having a tempera- ture of 18-8° C. I attributed this to the foggy state of the atmosphere which prevailed. This obscured the sun, and retarded both the heating and the bleaching of the water. In lat. 14° 8 S., when six miles off shore, the water was quite green, and its temperature 15-1° C. Outside of Cafllao, lat. 12° o’ S., the water was green, and its tempera- ture 16-3° C.; in the harbour its temperature was 17-5° C., and its colour a dirty green, turbid and milky with sulphur, smelling strongly of suiphuretted hydrogen, and full of dead fish. Continuing northwards, off Ferrol Islands, lat. 9° 11’ S., the temperature of the water was 16-0° C., and its colour olive-green. At Payta, lat. 5° 5’ S., the temperature of the water was 17-1° C., and its colour a chalky green. : The green and cold shore water ceased abruptly at Cape Blanco, lat. 4° 27’ S., and during the passage round this cape from Payta to the entrance of the Guayaquil River, lat. 3° 9’ S., the temperature of the water rose from 17-1° to 25-2° C. From this locality a pretty straight line was followed across the equatorial current near its source to Panama, lat. 9° o’ N. During the passage the (temperature of the water varied between 25° and 27° C., | which wash the coast from Cape Blanco, lat. 4° 27’ S and it maintained a blue colour throughout. At Panama, however, with a temperature of 27° C., the water was quite green. A similar occurrence of cold and green water near the shore was observed on the North American coast from Cape San Lucas, at the extremity of the Californian peninsula, to San Francisco. In the equatorial waters Ss; to Panama, and thence to Cape Corrientes, lat. 20° 25’ N., | long. 105° 43’ W., green water is prevalent along the shore, but its temperature is very high, 28° or 29° C. Further information on this subject will be found in a paper by me on similarities in the physical geography of the great oceans (Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1886, viii., p. 753). I will here refer to only one other locality, and that a well-known one, where the weather shore of an ocean is associated with green water of abnormally low tempera- ture, namely, the east coast of North America from Florida to Nova Scotia. The cold and green water which is found on this coast, and lying between it and the western edge of the Gulf Stream, is usually attributed to the Labrador current, which is charged with the duty of JuLy 21, 1910] NATURE 89 bringing cold water from Baffin’s Bay as a surface current round Newfoundland and down the coast to Cape Hatteras and even beyond it. The principle was the same as that which moved Humboldt to attribute the cold water, which we have described in connection with the Pacific coast of tropical South America, to a surface current from the Antarctic Ocean. In the paper on similarities, &c., above referred to, I showed that Humboldt’s explanation postulated an impossibility. The deeper layers of the water on the coast itself are capable of supplying, as and when required, much more cold than is wanted, and that with the least expenditure of energy. The same is the case with the “cold wall.’’ Besides the south-westerly winds of the North Atlantic, and perhaps independently of them, the Gulf Stream itself, pouring its waters in a stream of great momentum past the American coast and out into the open ocean, performs the function of a colossal jet-pump, carrying water away from the surface and leaving its place to be taken by the other water which can get there most easily. This is the cold water of the deeper layers in situ. It is this hydraulic cold-water service which tempers the climate of the eastern States. The labours of the U.S. Coast Survey during the last seventy years have shown that fluctuations, both regular and irregular, occur in the flow of the Gulf Stream. These necessarily react on the supply of cold water drawn from the deep and spread over the continental shelf. Such variations are probably the source of the accidents which occasionally occur and cause the extinction of life over large tracts of shoal water on that coast. J. Y. Bucwanan. REMNANTS OF THE PAST. M UcH interest attaches to a paper by Mr. R. S. Lull, published in the ‘‘ Proceedings of the Seventh Inter- national Zoological Congress, Boston, 1907’ (issued 1910), on the evolution of the horned dinosaurs, or Ceratopsia. Although early ancestral forms are at present unknown, it is probable that the group took origin from an iguano- dont stock. The earliest known types are Monoclonius and Ceratops of the Judith River beds, the single repre- sentative of the former being the more primitive, and probably ancestral to all the rest. In Monoclonius the orbital horns are much smaller than the nasal one, but in one species of Ceratops the two have become subequal ; both genera show large vacuities in the cervical flange of the skull, which was probably internal. Between the Judith River and Laramie formations occur certain marine formations yielding no dinosaurian remains, but in the basal Laramie occur Agathaumas, of which the skull is un- known. Higher up this is succeeded by Triceratops, in which the vacuities in the cervical flange are obliterated, while in the various species may be traced a gradual in- crease in the size of the orbital at the expense of the nasal horn, the latter becoming almost obsolete in T. elatus, while it has disappeared in Diceratops, which forms a side-branch by itself. The remarkable genus Torosaurus of the Upper Laramie, although having developed large orbital horns at the expense of the nasal one, retains the long, straight skull, with a large vacuity in the cervical flange, of the Judith River Ceratops monatus, from which it may be directly descended. Physical changes in their environment seem, in the author’s opinion, the most probable cause of the extinction of these marvellous reptiles. In the April number of the American Journal of Science Mr. F. Loomis describes the complete skeleton of a new species of the camel-like genus Stenomylus from the Harrison beds of Nebraska. The genus differs from other Tertiary types by the hypsodont character of the dentition. This is considered by Mr. Loomis as an indication that Stenomylus differed from its relatives in habits. The early tylopods of the Protomeryx type probably fed on a mixed diet, while the members of the long-limbed Oxy- dactylus group may have subsisted on leaves and shoots, both retaining the original brachyodont dentition. Steno- mylus, on the other hand, seems to represent a separate branch derived from the ancestral Poébrotherium, which developed a hypsodorft dentition, and took to feeding on hard-stemmed grasses growing on open, arid plains. Dr. A. E. Ortmann contributes to the April number of the American Naturalist an article on the theory that a NO. 2125, VOL. 84] connection between Africa and South America persisted into the Tertiary. According to the Archelenis theory, as originally proposed by Dr. von Ihering, an ancient con- nection between the above-named continents was the last remnant of the much greater equatorial land-mass known as Gondwanaland, an area which was broken up at various dates, and remnants of which are represented by Australia, India, Africa, and Brazil. The separation of Brazil from Africa was the final stage in the dismemberment of the old continent, and it is generally considered that this took place towards the close of the Mesozoic epoch. . A study of the Tertiary flora of Patagonia has, however, induced Dr. von Ihering to believe that Archelenis persisted into the Tertiary. It is argued, however, that the facts cited by von Ihering really lead to just the opposite conclusion, while the existence of marine Eocene deposits in many parts of West Africa is likewise an indication that the con- nection between the two continents had ceased. Accord- ingly, the evidence for a Tertiary Archelenis is considered valueless. ‘ Vol. vii., No. 2, of the University ,of Colorado Studies is devoted to an account, by several authors, of the results of a scientific expedition to north-western Colorado. In a paper on plant-remains from the Cretaceous of Mesa Verde, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell describes and figures a fragment of a ‘branch bearing a remarkable resemblance to the Palzozoic lycopods of the Ulodendron type. It really belongs to an araucarian conifer (Geinitzia veichen- bachi), but its resemblance to lycopods of an earlier period is highly significant in view of the probability of a real relationship between the two groups. NON-FERROUS METALS. [NX many respects the second volume of the journal of the Institute of Metals marks a decided advance on the first volume—an advance which serves as a healthy sign of the continued growth of the institute. Perhaps the best sign of this advance is the inclusion, in the second volume, of a series of abstracts of scientific and technical literature bearing upon the subjects which come within the scope of the institute. These abstracts fill what has hitherto been a decided gap in metallurgical literature; they are obviously modelled on the very excellent abstracts of the literature of iron and steel which appeared in the Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute while that journal was under the editorship of the late Mr. Bennett Brough. Perhaps the most serious criticism to be offered on these abstracts is that they are of too indiscriminate a character, mere descriptive papers of small permanent interest being accorded equal space with papers of real importance. The original papers, which, with the discussions, occupy the greater part of the second volume, have already beer referred to in these pages on.the occasion of the meeting at which they were read. It is ‘satisfactory to find that the discussions show signs of free) and vigorous criticism, and that such criticism seems to bé accepted by the authors in a kindly spirit, even though!at times the criticisms are practically destructive. Thus the first paper (Edwards and Andrew on aluminium-copper-tin alloys) is criticised on the ground that the data published do not afford sufficient insight into the facts upon which the authors base their conclusions. The paper of Prof. Turner and Mr. Murray, on the volume-changes of the copper-zinc alloys, is also challenged as regards the validity of its conclusions on the ground—apparently justified—that the mere measurement of fhe longitudinal contraction of a casting can give no true insight into the volume-changes which accompany the passage of the metal from the liquid to the solid state. More than eighty pages of the volume are devoted to the paper of Mr. A. C. M. Smith on the elastic breakdown of non-ferrous metals, and although the subject presents certain points of interest, it appears to occupy a good deal more than its fair share of space in a journal not specially devoted to such questions as the best means of measuring elastic constants. The paper, however, shows clearly the narrow limits within which Hooke’s law is applicable to such metals as copper and aluminium; the latter appears to be particularly unsatis~ 1 The Journal of the Institute of Metals, vol. i. Pp. 34t- Vol. iii. Pp. xi + 360. Edited by G. Shaw-Scott, Secretary. go NATURE (JuLs. 12, 1910 factory in this respect, and to carry this property with it into some of its alloys. The third volume of the same Journal more than main- tains the character of the earlier’ volume; this applies particularly to such papers as those of Bengough and Hill on copper-arsenic alloys, and of Hudson and Law on the phosphor-bronzes, together with the discussions on: these papers. Such work must prove of great importance ‘to the advancement of the technology of whole classes of important alloys. Taken as a whole, the young Institute of Metals may well be proud of the present volumes, although we may hope that’ greater experience on the part of the editor and of the publication committee will lead to a more satisfactory apportionment of space. The illustrations throughout have been reproduced in a very satisfactory manner, and this applies also to the frontispiece, an excel- lent likeness of the first president, Sir William H. White, although the portrait of the second president (Sir G. Muntz) is not nearly so satisfactory. THE’ ASSOCIATION OF TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS. Examinations for Evening Students. HE summer meeting of the Association of Technical Institutions was held in Manchester last week. The question of examinations for evening students formed the basis of the discussion at the morning meeting on July 15, when Sir William Mather took the chair. At the present time examinations are held by the Board of Education in science subjects by the City and Guilds in technological subjects, and the Society of Arts in literary and commercial subjects. The London Chamber of Commerce also holds examinations which overlap both those of the Board of Education and the Society of Arts—especially the latter— and there are many other smaller examining bodies. The Board of Education has for many years held examinations in - mathematics, engineering, and building subjects, and in most of the sciences. Each examination is conducted by examiners appointed directly by the Board, and the examinations in each subject are independent, or nearly independent, of those. in any other subject. The examiners have no official connection (and in’ most cases no “connection of any kind) with those responsible for instruc- tion, in the subjects; and even those on the staff of the Board who come into contact. with the teachers and the students—namely, the inspectors—are not systematically consulted, if they are consulted at all. Thus, although the examinations in any given subject may be excellent, and have been valuable in developing a higher standard of work throughout the country, it was the unanimous opinion of those present at the meeting that they are capable of great improvement. Of late years most technical institutions have endeavoured to develop organised courses of instruction in connection with the important industries, engineering, textiles, build- ing, chemical, &c. For these courses it is desirable that the syllabus in the individual subjects shall be modified to suit the particular course. So far are the Board of Education examinations in many directions out of sympathy with the work ‘that some speakers at the conference were doubtful whether the Board of Education’ was the best authority for » conducting the examinations; but the meeting as a whole considered it desirable that the advanced work should be con- trolled by some national examining board in order that there should be a uniformity of standard, and thus the certificates obtained should ‘have a common value; but it was felt that the examinations must be’ brought more closely into touch with the teaching, and it was resolved :— “That it be represented to the controlling authorities of the examinations taken by evening students in technical institutions that it is desirable, for the encouragement of systematic courses of instruction and to bring the examina- tions into closer correlation with’ technical teaching, that the examining authorities should constitute advisory boards “That it be the function of such advisory boards to receive and consider the views of persons directly concerned in technical and commercial education, as to examination subjects, syllabuses, and methods of conducting examina- tions; and to advise the respective examination authorities thereon.”” An examination has a two-fpld object—to test knowledge and to grant a certificate—and the two are to some extent antagonistic ; the first, enabling the student and his teacher to judge of his progress, is probably best attained if the teacher himself conducts the examination. A certificate, however, granted on the examination of an individual teacher, can have no public value, and can only become valuable to the extent to which it attains uniformity. In the earlier stages of instruction the former object is of the greater importance, and therefore in the earlier stages it is probably desirable that the examinations shall be con- ducted by the teachers. In the latter stages it is more important that the certificates shall have a uniform value, and therefore in these stages it is desirable that the examinations shall be conducted by a national body. Also, in the higher stages, the number of candidates who would be sitting for the examination in any given centre would be comparatively small, and the cost of a separate examina- tion for individual schools in these subjects would be prohibitive except in the very large centres; so that, even if it were desirable that the examinations for the higher work should be conducted by the teachers, the financial burden would be too great in most cases. Thus the following resolutions were adopted :— “* That this association is of opinion that, in the interests of technical education, it is essential that the Board of Education or other national authority shall continue to conduct examinations above Stage 1 Board of Education, and Preliminary Grade City and Guilds.”’ ‘*That examinations of an elementary character (e.g. Stage » Board of Education, Preliminary Grade City and Guilds, Elementary Stage Society of Arts) should, in the main, be conducted by provincial boards, local education authorities, or the governing bodies of the institutions ; but that, pending the re-modelling of the examination system, the present examining boards should continue to hold these examinations.”’ Even with the establishment of advisory boards there would still remain “the evils arising from the overlapping and duplication of the examinations. At the present time the examinations of evening students begin in April and last well into July, thus destroying the value of the last part of the session for teaching purposes. So long as examining bodies endeavour to arrange that any student may take any subject, it is obvious that the examinations will have to spread over a large period of time. With the establishment of the course system, it will be possible to a large extent to determine beforehand those subjects which a given student will require to be examined in, and thus to concentrate the examinations upon a much smaller number of evenings. So strongly was it felt that the whole system requires a very drastic reform that it was unanimously resolved to ask the Board of Education to appoint a com- mittee to inquire into the working of the present examina- tion systems, including science, technology, and commerce. Trade Schools and Trade Preparatory Schools. At the afternoon meeting, a report prepared by the council of the association on the above subject was dis- cussed. The report includes accounts furnished by the organisers of many of the schools which have recently been established in various .parts of the country. It is pointed out that there are two very distinct types of school with entirely different aims; one, which in the report is termed, for want of better title, Trade Preparatory School, may be considered a form of secondary school in which the ordinary education is continued, but with a very distinct bias on the technical side. It is assumed that the majority of the boys, though not all necessarily, attending such a schoo] will afterwards be engaged in some trade. The schools differ from the ordinarv secondary schools in the large amount. of time devoted to various forms of upon which representatives of teaching institutions (includ- | manual instruction. As a rule. the curriculum includes ing teachers) and of technical and commercial interests + English, mathematics, one language, drawing—both free- should sit. NO, 2125, VOL. 84] hand and model—science, and workshop practice in wood OLY 2 TOTO] NATURE gI or metal, or both. The course is, as a rule, intended to last three years for boys from twelve to fifteen years of age. As so many of the technical institutes throughout the country are only used at present in the evenings, and have their rooms and equipment idle in the daytime, and the staffs of the technical schools are particularly suitable for the type of instruction required, these schools, which have proved exceedingly successful where they have so far been established, may be considerably increased in number in the near future. Attention was directed to the very strong expressions of approval by employers, the Chamber of Commerce, and trades unions in the case of the trade preparatory school, which is now in its third session at Halifax; and as the beys from these schools pass into employment as apprentices or as improvers, the value of this kind of school is becoming more and more appreciated. One speaker pointed out the great value of manual in- struction to boys and girls right through their school course, and remarked—his remark being applauded by the meeting—that he hoped the board would do its best to encourage this work in every kind of school. Another speaker said that there are a great many boys fo whom the literary subjects of the ordinary school course do not appeal, and to whom the more technical subjects introduced in the trade preparatory schools do appeal very strongly. Thus it is educationally of real advantage to the community that schools should be provided in which boys with a turn for mechanical subjects, but no liking for literary subjects, may have a chance to learn that they have some ability, and may not leave school with the feeling that they are inferior to their fellows because they are unable to distinguish themselves at literary work. Other speakers referred to the very small grant it is possible to obtain under the board’s regulations for this type of school, which is necessarily an expensive one to run owing to the large amount of practical work in the time table. It was felt that the grant should be at least as great as that given by the board to an ordinary secondary school. 3 Quite distinct in aim from the Trade Preparatory School is the Day Trade School, only a few of which are at present in existence. In London there are day trade schools for girls which have proved most successful; a good account of these is included in the report referred to. There are two special trade schools for bakery and con- fectionery; there are one or two part-time trade schools for boys who are already employed in the trade, the boys being allowed to attend two or three afternoons a week by arrangement with the employers. The best example of such a school is, perhaps, that for jewellers and silver- smiths at Birmingham, which is already proving of real value to the trade. Opinions were somewhat divided as to whether local authorities could be expected to establish schools of this kind, which take the burden of preparation of apprentices off the employers, without substantial financial aid from the employers themselves. It was pointed out that, although none of these schools could decrease the unemployment, they would give boys the chance of entering a useful occupation, and would thereby tend to reduce the number of those who take up so-called ‘‘ blind-alley occupations.”’ THE POSITION OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN GREAT BRITAIN. FA. BLUE-BOOK has just been published (Cd. 5246, price 2s. 6d.) containing the reports from the universities and university colleges which participated, in the year 1908-9, in the annual grant, now amounting to 100,000l., made by Parliament for ‘‘ University Colleges in Great Britain,” and from the three colleges in Wales which received a grant of 4oool. each. This is the sixteenth volume of the reports, and it is by far the most useful on account of the analysis it contains of the position of university education in Great Britain. For several years we have’urged in these columns that the Board of Education should bring together the statistical and other information given in the separate reports of universities and university colleges, so that a comparison NO. 2125, VOL. 84] could be made of the position and progress of the various institutions, and of university education in Great Britain, with that in other countries. Merely to print. the reports without any attempt to sum up the particulars they contain, as was done in all volumes previous to the present one, has always seemed to us as unscientific as it would be to record a long series of observations without endeavouring to arrive at conclusions from them. This unpardonable omission has now been remedied, and we have available, for the first time, an instructive abstract of the financial resources and students under instruction of institutions which partici- pate in the Parliamentary grant for universities and uni- versity colleges. We give below some extracts from the introductory memorandum signed by Mr. W. Runciman, President of the Board of Education, and abridgements of the tables appended to it. In the last ten years no fewer than five new universities have been founded in England, but the progress of institu- tions of older date has been no less marked. In July, 1909, King Edward VII. laid the foundation stone of important new laboratories for the Imperial College of Science and Technology, a college for the highest studies in pure and applied science, which was inaugurated by Royal Charter in July, 1907, and was formed by the union under a single governing body of the Royal College of Science, the Royal School of Mines, and the City and Guilds’ Central Technical College. In the following October the new buildings of the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire were opened at Cardiff, and on that occa- sion the present King, as Chancellor of the University of Wales, wrote words which apply equally to all the uni- versities of England and Wales when he said, ‘* We must look ahead and endeavour to be ready to meet all the requirements of scientific and intellectual progress. The imperative necessity for higher education and research is becoming more and more recognised.” This encouragement to further effort has been tangibly supported by the Government. Acting upon the report of a special committee of inquiry, under the chairmanship of Sir Thomas Raleigh, K.C.S.1., the treasury, by a minute dated December 18, 1909, made an increased annual grant of 15,0001. to the University of Wales and its constituent colleges. Of this sum r500l. has been specially allocated to the Medical School of Cardiff, and another 1500l. a year has been assigned to the university itself for the foundation of research fellowships. The treasury has also made a capital grant of 20,000. towards the cost of the new buildings for the University College of North Wales, Bangor. State-aid to university teaching would, however, be of doubtful advantage if it did not stimulate private effort and induce benefactors to contribute in the present day as they did in the olden times, to give of their wealth for the support of that higher learning upon which now, more than ever, ‘‘ the prosperity, even the very safety and existence, of our country depend.” The Board is glad to find that there is no evidence of the springs of private beneficence failing, but rather that the growing national sense of the vital need of universities has impressed many of those, whether individuals or corpora- tions, who are in the position to help. The following are some of the more important gifts made during the last twelve months :— Sir Alfred Jones, the well-known ship-owner, who died in 1909, and who during his life had founded the School of Tropical Medicine in connection with the University of Liverpool, left to his trustees the sum of more than 500,000l. upon trust for such charitable purposes and objects in England (or any British possession on the west coast of Africa) as they may in their absolute discretion think fit. For the guidance of his trustees, however, he made sug- gestions as to the purposes to which the money might be applied, and amongst them were—the advancement, benefit, or support of education or science, and original research of all kinds in the cause of disease on the west coast of Africa. Mr. Otto Beit, in December, 1909, gave 215,000l. for the endowment of thirty medical research fellowships of 2501. a year, each tenable for three years. The fund is to be entirely devoted to the furthering of medical research work, which is to be conducted, with a few exceptions, in institu- 92 tiens allied to London University. The fellowships are open to any man or woman of European descent who is a graduate of any approved university within the British Empire. The late Dr. Charles Graham, who died in November, 1909, and had been since 1889 emeritus professor of chemical technology at University College, London, be- queathed his residuary estate to London University, to be applied to the promotion of research at University College NATURE [Juty 21, 1910 itinerary regulated and prescribed by the trustees, will be elected by the trustees on the nomination of the Vice- Chancellor or other executive head of each of the univer- sities in the United Kingdom, the President of the Royal | Society, and the president of the British Academy. M. Kahn has provided funds sufficient for a period of three years, and is prepared at the expiry of that time to endow the fellowships in perpetuity if they should prove to fulfil the objects which he desires. TABLE I.—UNIVERSITIES AND UNIVERSITY COLLEGES IN ENGLAND AND WALES eee Returns of Income, 1908-9 (Figures to the nearest £) i | (3) Donations Belesigism || Cee (1) Fees (2) Endowments | siete d i. ao sti as (6) Other Income | (7) Total en ~______|____ é 3 “ rode 3 = aaa | 3 g 3 = as oe eye hie | SV rae ie Bae 2 18 | g2=_ Name of Universit SM Hime |) tes | Fe 3 Se gree | Se a be lee Se 322g ame of Universi a | ; v atte 2 u + G = orcollege | Ss | 88} 22 | &8 | = BE |S om | 28 E Bee) = Pte se @ [te | eect ees] eo apes Bese | es | eB olses| el eo aiaaee = 8 $a Boy age | eres SS = 2 é 2 | Gog eM terete et aaa Bie] aesee || 0 ies & 4 oge 9 | | _ is Seer) eee ih '5Ee ste os ieat [ea Poca —=s England voy || | L 4 [tea sg Si 1. Birmingham... | 17,176 | 31°6 | 8,462 | 15:5 1,344 | 2°5 | _7,081 | 13:0 | 15,070} 277 | 55229 | 9x6 | Bays6e 2. Bristol... 6,636 | 44°3 411 2°7 1,479 | 975 dd | 552 4,918 | 33°0 | 792 | 5:3 | 14,946 | 195) | ; 3. Leeds... | 14,641 | 25:9 7,183 | 12°7 2,285 4:0 os | 27°5 | 15,167] 26°8 | (3,765 Bela 56,563 | | (1,923 4. Liverpool 10,721 | ‘27-1' || 16,198 | 22°3 | 4,863 | 6:7 | 14.350 | 19°77 | 16,132] 22°2 | 11,334 18 | 72,599 | (623) | ; 5. Manchester ... | 25,141 | 31-4 | 24,938 | 31°1 2,900 | 3°6 5,250 | 6'4 | 19,034 | 23°7 2,861 3°6 | 80,124 6. Sheffield | 6,722 | 164 3,779 | 9:2 1,522 37 | 16,112 | 39°3 | 11,505 | 282 1,379 3. | 41,010 7. London: Uni- | | (1,063) | versity ‘Coll. | 23,686 | 42-4 | 11,066 | 19°8 | 3,421 | 61 | 1,960 | 3:5 | 11,250| 20:1 | 4,485 | 8-0 | 55,867 oo | | (1,781) | | | 8. King’s College | 26,387 534 1,582 3°2 4,473 g'l 4,171 8-4 9,704 | 19°6 3,977 62 49,394 | (2,318) | | 9. Bedford Coll. 8,002 | 46'S 892 | 5:2 516 |) 370 | 1,924 | 1773 4,944 | 289 | 819 | 4° 17,097 10. School of (1,672) | Economics... 3,741 | 29°0 | 115 | o'9 | 2,031 | 15°7 |" 3,845 | 29°8 3,080 | 23°9 | 81 | 06 | 12,893 11. Newcastle ; | | (283) | | | Armstrong | | | ; College | ‘8,172 | 28:5 2,084 7°2 2,689 9°4 | Hs | 10'5 11,996 | 41°8 719 2°5 | 28,680 : | | I | 12. Nottingham... | 3,287 | 15°8 572 | 2°7 252 ere | 73954 |'38°3 8,328 | 4071 386 | 18 20,779 13. Reading 6,602 | 32-4 | 2,107 | ro°3 | 2,281 | mr-2 | 1,875 2 7,112| 350 | 402 ; 14. Southampton : | (273) I'9 | 20,379 Hartley Coll. 2,790 | 22°9 | 525) | as | 130 ro | 3,869 | 31°8 4,705 | 39°2 71 o6 12,150 | (564) | 15. Totals— } | | | England | 172,704 | 32°2 | 79,905 | 14°9 | 30126 | 5°6 | 87,703 | 16°3 | 143,005 | 26°6 | 23,400 | 4°3 536,843 eee | | —_— Se Wales | 16. Aberystwyth 5,937 | 38°5 484 | 3:1 | 1,682 | 10:9 598 | 3°8 6,598 | 42°8 114 | o8 15,414 17. Bangor... ... | 3,616 | 24:7 | 2,897 | 19°7 627 | 4°3 | 709 | 48 6,672 | 45°5 136 | 09 | 14,658 r3-Candith... .. ||| 7,101 | 34°6 535 | 276 561 | 27 | 2,804 | 136 | 6,678) 32°5 | 2,865 | 13:9 | 20/554 | | | | (750) | } | 19. Totals—Wales | 16,664 2,870 | 5-7 | 4,111 | ‘8-1 | 10,948! 304 | "3,115 | 6-1 | %50,626 32°9 Hospital Medical School ‘‘ for the prevention, cure, or alleviation of human disease or suffering.’’ The legacy was estimated at 35,0001. Still more recently, M. Albert Kahn, a_ well-known | French philanthropist, has handed over to a board of six | trustees a sum of 41401. to provide for the annual award of two travelling fellowships, each of the value of 6601. It is expressly desired by him that the trust shall be permanently associated with the University of London. The fellows, y ho must travel for at least twelve months, according to an | NO. 2125, VOL. 84] Mr. Alexander Elder gave, in 1909, a sum of 20,000!. as endowment for a chair of naval architecture in the Uni- versity of Liverpool, and Mr. W. H. Lever, of the firm af« Lever Brothers, Port Sunlight, in March, 1910, made a gift of g1,o00l. to the same university for the erection of a building in which the School of House and Town Planning could be accommodated, and also the School of Architec- ture, and for assistance to the School of Tropical Medicine | and the School of Russian Studies. City companies and corporate bodies have ‘also made new Juty 21, 1910] contributions to the support of university education during the last year. The Goldsmiths’ Company, who had already been generous benefactors of university education in London, made a gift in May, 1909, of 50,o00l. towards the cost of the new engineering buildings of the Imperial College of Science and Technology referred to above. The Drapers’ Company made a further grant of 10,0001. to the building fund of the new college at Bangor, to be applied towards the library and museum of the college. The same company make an annual grant of 7oool. to the East London College, which has been admitted for the first time this year to share, subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions, in the annual treasury grant made to university colleges. The company also grants scholarships in connection with this college to the annual value of 1555]. The universities have recently shown in other directions | ' interchange of views, and for the better organisation of that they are conscious of a joint responsibility in their NATURE 93 direction of equalising the standards required by the several examining bodies; but there is a general agreement as to the end desired, and the difficulties are chiefly those of means, in both senses of the word. The whole question of examinations in secondary schools is at present under -con- sideration by the consultative committee of the board, and the board hopes that the report of the committee, when presented, will point the way to further progress. But the national life and the national needs in higher education cannot be confired within the limits of these islands. The growth of important universities in the British dominions beyond the seas, and in the Empire of India, and the rapid improvements in the means of com- munication, have brought mew opportunities and new responsibilities to those who are entrusted with the. pro- vision of university education. The necessity for a regular TABLE II.—UNIVERSITIES AND UNIVERSITY COLLEGES IN ENGLAND AND WALES Returns of Expenditure, 19c8-9 (Figures to the nearest £) B |S e) SS se eels el BS fe elt a |S eo] # co] se) ea SS = eee! Sese | eee = es 3 eee! eee i) > cciray-c ama & (E58 ce 28 Bees 388 | z ; g28 3 aos a g28| a (@) @ | 6) ® | G) (6) @) (8) (9) (to) | (x1) (12) | (73) a | aaa | a aa | | | | England x ye ee || A ro ie A Ue NW ee ON SG ie G Birmingham — ... 6,611 | 10°8 6,105 | 10:0 | 37,362 | 6173 820 | 14 | 1,896) 3:1 8,128 | 13°3 | 60,921 Bristol ... aa E915 | 116 1,410 | 8°5, | 11,570 | 70°! 967 | 58 PS fitey) Fido) 363, | 2°2 | 16,405 eds: 5... | cued 4,803 88 6,411 | 11-8 | 37,701 | 69°3 | 1,153 21 1,620 | 3°0 2,674 | 4°9 | 54,362 Liverpool ... ws. 6,996 | 10°0 | 7,54n | 10°8 | 45,403 | 65°0 955 1-3 5,986 86 2,988 | 4°3 | 69,870 Manchester... 7,079 | 89 | 8,858 | 41:2 | 49,970 | 63:2 | 2,457 | 371 5,014 | 63 5,725.| 7°2 | 79,103 Sheffield 4,281 | 10°5 4,0c6 | 9°7 | 27,858 | 68°6 586 | 174 eyou || BR 2,538 | 6:2 | 40,580 London: Univer- | | | sity College 3,862 7°4 7,919 | 15°2 | 36,007 | 69°3 500 1'0 1,497 | 2°9 2Q5TC Que Aw 51,938 King’s College ... 33958 | 7°9.| 5,793] 12°0.|. 33,779: |.68°8 800 1:6) | 1,569) 3:2 2,965 |. 671 | 48,157 Bedford College... 1,476 | 9°7 3,508 | 23'0 9,002 | 59°0 223 Tes 548 | 3°6 | 497 | 3 15,255 School of Econo- | } Perce Newey) 26225: || 21-2 g09 | 86} 6,858 | 65-0 = — 407 | 3°8 | 53) | O25) ro;4e4 Newcastle: Arm- strong College | | | | (Durham Univ.) | 3,412 | 11°7 2,677. | 9°2 | 20,537 | 70°5 = = 950 | 3°2 1,559 | 54 29,136 Nottingham perets2 |) (5:3 2,216 9'8 16,791 | 74°6 250 Tet 978 | 4°4 1,088 | 4°8 | 22,505 Reading "2.4, 22. 2,924 | 14°3 2,470.| 12°0 | 13,516°| 65:9 200 | 09 797 | 39 «| 609 | 370. 20,515 Southampton : | Hartley College I, P81} 10°5 1,555 | 1471 7,391 | 67°3 10 | O'09 86) oS 7830) 750 50,976 Totals—England | 51,768 98 | 61,378} 11°6 |353,145 | 66°6 | 8,921 17 | 22,930 473 325123 | 6°0 | 530,267 Wales Aberystwyth 1,819 o°9 1,510 QE | £0,783 | 64°9 — = 1,415 | 8°5 1,085.| 6°5 | 16,612 Bangor 1,987 | 12°9 842 5°5. | 10,404 | 67°6 oa _— 1,700 | I1’0 451 | 2°9 | 15,384 Cardiff 3,218 59 1,995 | 9°9 13,078 | 64°6 -- = OS 7a 32) S27 |m O93)! 20,225 Totals—Wales 7.02 4,347 8°3| 34,265 | 65°6 — =e eye lever | 25813) | 154i |) 52; 220 13°4 relations to the national life. They realise that the tests they severally impose upon students applying for admission to their courses in preparation for degrees must have a pro- | | ference to be held in the metropolis in 1912. found influence upon the curricula of secondary schools, and that, if a common policy cannot be reached, evil results must ensue to the schools, and so, indirectly, to themselves, from the confusion caused by the multiplicity of tests for which school pupils must be prepared. Important and far- reaching steps have already been taken towards the mutual recognition of their various matriculation examinations, and the northern universities of Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, and Sheffield have, under their charters, established a Joint Matriculation Board, which conducts a single examination of all candidates for admission to any one of | the four universities. Much still remains to be done in the direction of substitutirg a school-leaving examination based upon the school course for an external test, and in the NO. 2125, VOL. 84] facilities for advanced study throughout the Empire, has | led the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and_London to issue invitations to the universities of the Empire to a con- There can be no doubt that this is the first step towards a cluser union and sympathy, which cannot but have the most far-reaching and beneficial effects. The present volume of reports deals only with those universities and university colleges which, during the session 1908-9, were in receipt of grants from the treasury, but these grants affect, directly or indirectly, every uni- versity in England and Wales, except the two ancient foundations of Oxford and Cambridge. It has been possible this year, thanks ‘o the hearty cooperation of the universities and university colleges them- selves, to prepare the reports upon much more uniform lines than hitherto, and to supplement the audited accounts in 94 NATURE. [JuLy 21, 1910 each case by an abstract which enables a comparison to be made for the first time of the various sources of income and the main heads of expenditure in the various institu- tions. The returns under the different heads of income and expenditure are summarised in an appendix, and this is the first time that a comparative statement has been possible of the sources from which the several English universities and university colleges and the Welsh university colleges draw their income, and of the main headings of their expenditure. From Table J. it will be seen that the actual total annual income of the English universities and university colleges under review exceeds half a million, some 26 per cent. of 33 per cent. is derived from the fees of students and less than 8 per cent. from endowments. ; ; Table II. shows how the income is expended upon administration, upkeep, and teaching. It will be seen that | two-thirds of the whole expenditure is devoted: to the remuneration of the teaching staff and the accessories of teaching, while 20 per cent. is expended on administration and in the maintenance of buildings; but this: figure is unsatisfactory, because there is no means under the present form of the return by which expenditure upon the provision of buildings and equipment can be separated from mainten- ance. When this separation can be made, a comparison will be possible of the expenditure of the various institu- tions upon the main heads of teaching, administration, TaBLeE III.—ANALYSIS OF RETURNS OF STUDENTS UNDER INSTRUCTION, 1908-9 il v o g ke na > = 2 steam MP OE EE ep RP a 8 fo¢ | Bs Eg g S 2g | 3 B $3 5: he Total Number = 2 | Sa) ea) eee ees Fhe Laces 258 | £3] 20g. Seale ees. || (oi iano 58H Name of University or College AS | Bem 8s a e a Bx g Se oS Ze | fee |oas| 82 | €= | Fs | sees eae 27 | 280 | Eraleeeoling . | 2s | seeimie |) eau Be 0 Ve See oes! Se aaa aes: || ee ewe ets - 4 linet A | @) (2) (3) (4) (s) | ©) (7) (8) (9) (0) ; England | | Birmingham Says ond) apbeh eonobile Ue) 455 18 72 245 | 756 228 | 0984 —- | = ISITE son, Gis pbs. no Ads) “oeoe noah eg) Il act =! 19 241 442 ATSUaee50S) ||). 1287 501 | (287) ‘ Leeds 1 | 10 370 55 54 134 657 508 932 233 | 64 (12) (233) : | | Liverpool - | — 617 — 112 | 230 997 || 147, 3144 — | — Manchester ... ei 48il | 794) | 165 7S) 1-252) | 1,167 618 1586 199 400 ; ‘ada (38) | (199) | | Shelfiel does tsp ytelem nce aee y, ighecrdll team bileeerige 18) | | 31 59 255 | 1,634 | 499 | 1,390° | * 297 me | (6) | (1,390) | London: University College — 519 — 308 £0 1,225 250 | 1,448 27 2,500 rag | (27) | + 372 King’s College \ = 520 — 126 1c8 1,040) a e7s2 1,39t | 38t | 800 (381) +795 BedfordiCollege = oma sur sess 19 172 — 28 53 229. | 128 soz || — — Schooliof Economicss. se. fos. | 175 — 96 — | 274(?)) 1,003(?)|' 274 1,003 _ Newcastle : Armstrong College son ee 248 = | 9 204 | 407 999 625 || 7Ste 4 = ; | | (781) | ; Nottingham... ... : 18 211 14 5 | 150 377. | 1,986 | 626 1,737 = ; | | (1,737) | IRcevaliins! “aoe Gan phe oe ate) aon Ty | go 8 Tegel e ets) |= (S45in | soSaaieemoos 625 = | (625) Southampton: Hartley College 10 | 73 15 4 148 210 | 498 224 484 = (484) | Totals—England 167 4,502 | 293 1,052 2,017 | 8,381 | 10,032 | 11,266 | 7147, 5,639 Wales | | i Aberystwyth oe ea hss ZO 439 oa 13 144 481 92 | 573 > 128 Bangor ... 3 = 273 = 7 110 293 S71 330 = = Cardiff | — | 463 = 25 191 543 | 66 | 609 -- 398 Totals—Wales 20 1,175 _ 45 445 1,317 195 1,512 = 526 which comes from the exchequer, and some 16 per cent. from local education authorities, while 32 per cent. is in the nature of fees of students, and nearly 15 per cent. arises from endowments. In the case of the Welsh colleges, the total annual income exceeds fifty thousand pounds. Of this total above 39 per cent. comes from the exchequer, and next year, when the additional grant of 13,5001. voted for the session 1909-10 comes into account, this percentage will be considerably increased. The local education authorities in Wales con- tribute about 8 per cent. of the total income, while some P | An additional sum of 1,500/. a year is payable to the University of Wales as distinct from its Colleges ‘‘for an extension of the existing schemes of Fellowships in Arts and Science.” NO. 2125, VOL. 84] provision and maintenance of buildings, and equipment ; and of each with the expenditure of all. The returns show that each English university and university college, with two exceptions, has a superannuation scheme towards which funds are allocated, and of these two exceptions, one (Armstrong College, Neweastle) has since the date of the return established a satisfactory scheme. ‘The Welsh colleges have at present no superannuation scheme. Table II]. presents an analysis of the returns of students under instruction in England during the session 1908-9, the figures contained in the tables under the various headings being obtained from the information supplied by the authorities of the universities and university colleges con- cerned. It is certain that this return is not in all respects Juty 21, 1910] NATURE 95 TABLE IV.—ENGLAND AND WALES Annual Grants to University Colleges and to Colleges forming Constituent Parts of Universities, and Grants in aid of Universities Sor the year “ended March 31, nore Boarp oF EpucaTion TREASURY a <4 = ~ = Zz ——e — — “ wee ist Be ee | ) on gus a5g RF aan | Bee Bion Total < FI a Grants in aid of | Grants in aid of Total As ae 3 23 S Ok, University Colleges | Universities ote 2° gas | 2a bee | | : Ons | < | H (1) (2) (3) (4) (s) (6) (7) (8) (0) England 4 Ean |" eae x L | 8 a Birmingham University 863 978 6,841 | — 9,000+ 900 2,000 | 11,900 | 18,741 (188) (978) | | Bristol University 5,613 121 SEN a 4,000+ 700 | = 4,790 | 10,434 Leeds University 3,550 | 1,662 | 5,212 | 1,000 | 8,000+ 900 2,000 10,900 | 17,112 (200) | (1,317) | | Liverpool University 5,139 915 6,039 200 | 10,000+ 950 2,000 12,950 | 19,2 (915) | ' | | London University ... _ =—Peiih) = a 5,000 8,000 | 8,000 », University College — — = — 10,000+ 950 ar 10,950 | 10,950 :, Bedford College... 200 — 200 _— 4,000+ 700 = 4,700 | 4,990 (200) | », King’s College == |) wags 299 1,797 | — 7,800+ 800 = 8,600 | 10,397 y> School of Economics... ... | = — — ae 500+ 650 = 1,150 | 1,150 » Imperial College of Science | and Technology 2 “= = 24,970 = = = — __ | 24,970 », East London College a = As 1,708 = 500 Pi 500 | 2,208 (748) Manchester, the Victoria University | 7,754 622 8,376 ; = 12,000+ 2,000 2,000 16,000 | 24,376 Newcastle- on-Tyne, Armstrong Coll., / (75) (622) in the University of Durham 4,574 1,802 6,376 1,350 6,00)+ 700 — 6,700 | 14,426 (710) Nottingham University College 2,650 | 1,156 | 3,806) — 5,000+ 700 = 5,700 | 9,506 | (337) | | | Reading University College 3,165 713 3,878 I,000 3400+ 500 | = 3,900 | 8,778 Sheffield University .... 1,942 | 3,328 5,270 — 5,000+ 700 | 2,000 7;7090 | 12,970 Southampton, Hartley University (901) | College ... ars 3.404 | 544 | 3,948 — 2,250 | = 2,250 | 6,198 | (123) Total ..; 455352 | 13,848 | 84,170 3,550 | 86,950+11,650 18,000 116,600 |204,320 (663) | (6,651) | (76,856). SS } | 98,600 Constituent parts of Universities | | ae Bristol, Merchant Venturers’ College — 1,848 | TOA) |e — = a 1,848 (575) London, Goldsmiths’ College.. ... | 6,847 | 1,868 | 8,715 | — = i = 715 », Day Training College ((lolborn)) 9... ~.20| 33867e | 3,867 | — = = a 3,867 (75) | », St. Mary’s Hospital Medical = 1,037 1,037 == = = — 1,037 School... im (1,037) Wye, S.E. Agricultural College — 63 63. 1,000 = = = 1,063 Manchester Municipal School of | | ; Technology ... ... . ll 10,635 | 10,635 = < — = eHoes | (2,605) | | Total—England 56,c66 | 29,299 (110,335 4,550 | 98,600 18,000 116,600 |231,485 (738) | (10,868) (98,729) Wales | — Saar | Wales, University of... | — | 4,000+1,500 | 5,50) 500 Aberystwyth University College of | | Walestiire 3,542 mer 3 5542 1,000 | 4,000+ 4,000 | — 8,000 | 12,542 Bangor University College of N. Wales... 2,865 = 2,865 | 1,250 | 4,000+ 4,000 | == 8,000 | 12,115 Cardiff University College of S. | | Wales and Monmouthshire .. = 45553 396 4,949 | — 4,000+ 5,500 | = 9,500 | 14,449 | (315) Total—Wales... {: -| 10,960 Ge 11,356 | 2,250 | 12,000 + 13, 500 | 4,000 + 1,500 | 31,000 | 44,606 25,500 5500 | Total—England and Wales ... 29,695 121,691 6,800 | 124,100 23,500 147,600 276, ogt 67,026 NO. 2125, VOL. 84] 96 NATURE [JuLy 21, i910 complete. It is encouraging to note that the total number of whoie-time students is increasing, and that students are more and more taking advantage of the facilities now provided for research and for work of a post-graduate type. It will be seen that the total number of day and evening students in attendance at the universities and university colleges in England (excluding Wales) in receipt of treasury grant exceeds 18,000, but that the number of whole-time students is only some 8,300, and the number of whole-time matriculated students preparing for degrees slightly more than 4500, of whom 1230, or 27 per cent., are students in training under the regulations of the Board of Education for the training of teachers for elementary schools. If to these 4500 are added the 1052 post-graduate and research students, we have a rough measure of the amount of university education, in the strict sense of the term, which is being given by the universities and university colleges under review. The percentage of students in training under the regula- tions of the Board of Education for the training of teachers UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. A Birt “ to require that in public elementary schools in- struction shall be given in hygiene, and to girls in the care and feeding of infants,’’ was introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday, and read for a first time. Tue council of the Junior Institution of Engineers, in conjunction with the council of the Society of Engineers, has arranged for a course of six fortnightly lectures on “The Law relating to Engineering,’ to be delivered by Mr. L. W. J. Costello. The first lecture will be given on October 10. Tue annual meeting of the, Midland Agricultural and Dairy College will be held on Monday, July 25, when the report on the year’s work will be presented. The Right Hon. Earl Carrington, K.G., president of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, will address the meeting, and present the diplomas and certificates gained during last for elementary schools to the number of whole-time | session. TABLE V.—GRANTS IN AID FOR ‘‘ UNIVERSITY COLLEGES IN GREAT BRITAIN” 2 Gee EoorED 1905-7 1909-10 f= Sadan eS eee = a a) 8 y a am eee as 8 BSS pos | Boe BS 8 232 —— por Pods 30" By Bo" So - Ep te 50% z Pong oes ees aos nom hs) a3 Zz > 355™ |} as a 50 aoe gaa ean asin 42 g=d » gE Sale oie HE Scie Lee eS Hees Hes Spee Aes Aes ASs Bas ° Ss 5 tt al Bs A a iS = 5 = a Ai # & & is ff 4g Birmingham 1,400 2,700 4,500 700 9,000 850 9,000 goo Bristol 1,200 1,200 | 2,000 700 4,000 850 4,000 700 Leeds 2 1,400 2,200 4,000 700 8,000 850 8,000 900 Liverpool 1,500 3,000 5,000 700 10,000 | $50 10,000 950 Manchester 1,800 3,500 6,000 700 12,000 850 12,000 2,0cO Sheffield ... weal Tan. 1,200 1,300 2,300 700 4,609 850 5,000 700 London: University College 1,700 3,000 5,000 700 10,000 850 10,000 950 a King’s a 1,700 2,200 3,900 700 7,800 850 7,800 800 50 Bedford = ; = 1,200 2,000 700 4,000 850 4,009 700 5 School of Economics ... = = = _— aa _— 500 650 Newcastle-on-Tyne: Armstrong College : 1,200 2,200 | 3,000 700 6,000 850 6,000 700 Nottingham 1,400 1.500 2,900 700 5,800 850 5,000 700 Reading: sah ete reese Meee ea. = = 1,700 650 3,400 82 3,400 500 Southampton: Hartley Institute — = 1,700 650 3,400 $25 2,250 = Dundee ... he 500 1,000 1,000 — 1,000 _— 1,000 | — 15,000 25,c00 45,000 9,000 89,000 11,000 87,950 II,150 __ Ss —— 54,000 100,0CO 99,100 students in the case of three of the institutions concerned exceeds 50 per cent., while there are three other institu- tions in which it exceeds 30 per cent. Table III. shows that the total number of whole-time students in the Welsh colleges exceeds 1300, of whom no fewer than 1175 are whole-time matriculated students preparing for degrees. Of these, 437, or about 38 per cent., are students in training under the regulations of the Board of Education for the training of teachers for elementary schools. There are also 45 post-graduate and research students. Further appendices are added with the view of setting out the amount of financial assistance given to uni- versity education from the exchequer. Table IV. shows the annual grants to universities and university col- leges and to the colleges which form constituent parts of universities, whether from the treasury, from the Board of Education or from other Government depart- ments. Table V. shows the amount of the grants in aid for ““ University Colleges in Great Britain,’’ given by the treasury for several years since funds were first appropriated to this purpose by the vote of 15,000]. set down in the Civil Service estimates for the year 1889-90. NO. 2125, VOL. 84] Ir is announced in Science that Cornell University has been made residuary legatee of the estate of the late Dr. Goldwin Smith. It is reported that the value of the bequest will exceed 200,000]. From the same source we learn that by the will of Mr. Frank W. Collendar, Tulane University will receive 13,000]. for the Sophie Newcomb College, and that Mrs. Ida A. Richardson, who during her lifetime gave generously to various departments of the university, has left 5oool. to the Medical School. Ar the summer graduation ceremony at Aberdeen Uni- versity on July 13, Principal Smith announced that the Chancellor of the University, Lord Strathcona, has just given to the university a sum of 10,0001. towards the endowment of a chair of agriculture. The interest on this money, along with the annual revenue of the Fordyce lectureship on agriculture and rural economy, and the 450M. a year in the charge of the governors of the college for the same purpose, will enable the university to secure the services of a thoroughly competent authority on the subject. Tue suggestion has been made that a scholarship should be established at the Imperial College of Science and Technology as a memorial to the late Mr. C. S. Rolls. It is proposed that the scholarship should be devoted especially JULY 21, 1910] NATURE 97 to the engineering side of aéronautics. It would be diffi- cult to find a more fitting memorial than such a scholar- ship, which would enable properly trained young men to engage in aéronautical research, to perpetuate the memory of an engineer who devoted his life to the development of various branches of applied science. A snorT vacation course on oceanography (hydro- graphy and planktology) will be held at Port Erin Biological Station, Isle of Man, in the first half of next month. We understand that there is still room for about four more persons in the laboratory. Applications for admission should be sent to Mr. H. C. Chadwick, Curator, Biological Station, Port Erin, Isle of Man. Prof. Herdman will give an open- ing lecture on the history and present position of oceano- graphic investigation; he will also deal in one or two fol- lowing lectures with quantitative plankton methods, the distribution of the plankton, and its bearing on fishery ques- tions. Prof. Herdman will also conduct some demonstra- tions of methods of investigation at sea, and will discuss some of the problems and results of plankton investigation. Dr. W. J. Dakin will give lectures and demonstrations dealing with the following matters :—History of quantitative methods; hydrographical apparatus as used at sea, and general work in the laboratory; the periodicity of the _ plankton; the most important plankton species—phyto- and zoo-plankton—of the Irish and North Seas, and the sea as a nutrient fluid. Dr. H. E. Roaf will deal with the follow- ing :—Respiration of marine animals; metabolic processes in animals ; carbon-dioxide determination ; and oxygen deter- mination. In the course of an address at the Holborn Restaurant, London, on Monday, Mr. Haldane remarked that the Royal Commission on University Education in London, of which he is chairman, will consider the subject with reference to the Empire. There are vast possibilities of the various parts of the Empire, with their different industries, their different methods for training people for the great battle of life, coordinating their systems of university training in such a fashion that we in the metropolis may accomplish our part, and they may do their specialised parts, so that we may have an educational system in which the student may proceed from place to place, and in which we may have the sense of a unity in the great conceptions of the mind as well as in more material things! Germany has vast organising capacity, a splendid educational system, and a genius for organisation which Mr. Haldane wishes we possessed at home. If we were the equals of Germany in the kind of education which bears so closely upon com- merce, and if organisation with us were developed on the same plane to which it is developed in Germany, we need not have much fear for the future. But there need not be much fear for the future, because these very things— organisation and education—are being advanced among ourselves with strides which were wholly unfamiliar a short time ago. We have added nine universities in the last twelve or thirteen years to those which we had before; we have developed our school system enormously ; our technical system has gone on; and there is a life and an energy in the people which, with the individual capacity of the members of the race, gives us every prospect of holding our own. OnE of the.best results of the Education Act of 1902 was to place the administration of education in all its grades in the hands of one committee for each area. That this course has led to the prevention of much overlapping, the encouragement of coordination, and economical manage- ment is to be gleaned from a study of the annual report of the Education Committee of the city of Manchester for the year 1908-9. The report runs to nearly 350 pages, and constitutes a splendid record of what public spirit and persistent endeavour can accomplish in the provision of educational facilities in a great manufacturing town. It is possible to refer only to one or two of the many points of interest in the report. We notice with pleasure an increase of 110 individual students attending the day departments of the Municipal School of Technology, bringing the total, including manual training students, up to 823. The work of the principal evening departments of the school is now organised in group courses of instruction ranging over five years, and leading to the diploma of the school, with the NO. 2125, VoL. 84] title of associate. The work of the special day course for engineering apprentices has now entered upon its seventh year. It is designed to give instruction to selected appren- tices employed in engineering works, and candidates for the course are nominated by their respective firms, and they are required to give evidence of a satisfactory knowledge of mathematics and mechanical drawing. The students attend for eight hours on one day a week for forty weeks, and it is found that they are able to obtain a more extended and satisfactory course than the evening classes are able to afford, and the evenings are left free for the preparation of home work and for necessary reading. A similar course is held for apprentice plumbers. Numerous tests have been carried out in the school during the year for manufacturing firms in the city and surrounding neighbourhood, and the staff has been able to accomplish a large amount of research work. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. EDINBURGH. Royal Society, June 20.—Prof. Cossar Ewart, F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair.—A. D. Ress and R. C. Gray: The magnetism of the copper-manganese-tin alloys under varying thermal treatment. The alloys prepared contained 14, 16, 18, 30, 38, and 48 per cent. of tin, the remainder, copper and manganese, being in the ratio of 7 to 3. At 15° C. these alloys gave in field 100 intensities, which were equal, respectively, to 55, 77, 82, 0-4, 96, and 1. Thus the 38 per cent. alloy forms a group by itself, marked off from the group of lower percentages by the 30 per cent. alloy, which has very small susceptibility. The critical temperatures varied from 225° C. to 275° C. In the case of the 38 per cent. alloy, the critical tempera- ture was 225°, on cooling from which the alloy regained its magnetic quality, but when heated to 330° C. it did not regain its magnetism on cooling. Many other results were detailed in connection with thermal treatment of various kinds. July 4.—Sir William Turner, K.C.B., president, in the chair.—Sir William Turner: Morphology of the manus in Platanista gangetica, the dolphin of the Ganges. Ten specimens of the manus in this species had been examined and compared with the corresponding organ in Hyperoodon and Mesoplaton. On account of fusion, the five carpal bones typically represented in Hyperoodon were reduced to four in Platanista, the fourth and fifth corresponding to the ring and little finger being united. In some cases the radial was found fused with the first carpal bone. The paper gave a full, detailed account of the morpho- logical similarities and dissimilarities among these related forms.—Prof. Alex. Smith and A. W. C. Menzies: A static method for determining the vapour pressures of solids and liquids, and the vapour pressures of mercury. In the former paper the authors described a modified form of their ‘‘isoteniscope,’’ in which, by adjusting the pressure under a fixed temperature, they were able to measure vapour pressures with great accuracy. Previous determinations of the vapour pressures of mercury at different temperatures showed considerable discrepancies. They had accordingly carried out a series of measurements of the pressure of this vapour between the temperatures of 255° C. and 450° C.—J. W. M’David: Specific volumes of solutions of tetrapropylammonium chloride. Dilute solutions had a density less than that of water, passing through a minimum as the solution became stronger. The position of this minimum depended on the temperature, occurring, for example, with a5 per cent. solution at o° C., and with a 20 per cent. solution at 56° C.—Dr. A. Louise M’llroy: The development of the germ cells in the mammalian ovary, with special reference to the early phase of maturation. The research was carried out with the view of determining the maturation processes which take place in the germ cells, and also to obtain evidence of the origin of the stratum granulorum. It was found that the cells matured inwards from the periphery. The capsular epithelium on the surface of the ovary was derived from the oogonia, and was differentiated at a very early stage. It had no function other than protective. Mitosis occurred among the oogonia, and also among the primary oocytes of the reticular stage. The growth of 98 the stroma and germ cells was mutually correlated through- out the development of the ovary. The follicle cells were derived from the oogonia, and not from the stroma, cells, the latter being only supporting and vascular. The paper contained many other important details, partly supporting, partly correcting, the conclusions of other workers.—Dr. Thomas Muir: The theory of wronskians, recurrents, and all other less common special forms of determinants up to 1560. Paris. Academy of Sciences, July 11.—M. Emile Picard in the chair.—A. Lacroix: General consequences to be drawn from the study of the petrographic constitution of Tahiti. The author shows the presence of granitoid rocks in this island to be of some importance, since no analogous rock has yet been found in Polynesia.—Sir William Ramsay and Robert Whytlaw Gray: The density of the radium emanation. After two years’ efforts, the authors have constructed a balance sensible to a half-millionth of a. milligram, and by means of this have arrived at 220 as the mean value of the atomic weight.—Edouard Heckel: The action of cold and anesthetics upon the leaves of Angraecum fragrans and the green husks of Vanilla. As a’ practical deduction from these observations, it would appear useful, in order to diminish the time necessary for the industrial extraction of vanilla, to submit it first to the vapour of sulphuric ether for 5 or 8 hours, afterwards drying by the usual processes.— P. Puiseux: The origin of the ‘cirques ’’ and angular outline of the lunar crevasses.—G. Millochau and H. Godard : Observations on Halley’s comet from the Pic du Midi Observatory.—E. Study: The ‘‘ Géométrie des feuillets’? of MM. R. de Saussure and R. Bricard.— Arnaud ‘Denjoy: The continuous and the discontinuous. —L. Amaduzzi: The variation of the appearance of a discharge with the variation of the distance of explosion.— Ettore Cardoso and Georges Baumes: Critical constants of acetylene and cyanogen. The authors find the mean values-to be: acetylene, ¢,.=35-5° (308-5 abs.), Pp. =61-5 atmospheres; cyanogen, ¢.=128-3 (401-3 abs.), p.=59-6 atmospheres.—A.. Lafay: The average pressures sup- ported by a body maintained in a current of air of irregular velocity.—P. Carré: Researches on the fixation of trioxy- methylene by magnesium derivatives of homologues of benzy i . Vandernotte: The brookite of an albitic syenite from the neighbourhood of Ernée.—E. Gourdon: Two deposits of zeolites in the Antarctic.— Leclerc Du Sablon: The ascent of sap. It is shown that the mechanism of the ascent is independent of the height of the trunk, and that water has no more difficulty in rising to the top of a tree of 300 metres than a plant of some decimetres.—M. Radais Bad M. Sartory : Render- ing a rabbit immune from the poison of mushrooms.—A. Magnan: A certain law of variation of the liver and the pancreas among birds.—Marcus Hartog: A new force: mitokinetism.—A. Perrier: The combustion of acetalde- hyde by lower vegetable organisms.—J. Winter: The quantity of secretion contained in a given gastric liquid.— M. Doyen: The use of thermo- electric baths without alteration of normal tissue. The author describes successful experiments based on the fact that cancerous poison cannot resist a temperature of 55° C., while normal tissue sup- ports a temperature of 58°-60°.—M. D’Arsonval: Remarks on the previous paper.—A. Briquet: The succession of cycles of erosion in the Franco-Belgian district—Henri Mémery: Remarkable coincidences between the variations of sun-spots, and the temperature variations at Paris, Bor- deaux, and Pau during the winter and spring of 1910. Carzk Town. Royal Society of South Africa, March 18.—Mr. S. S. Hough, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Dr. R. Marloth: Some further observations on the biology of Roridula. Roridula dentata, commonly called the fly-bush, is a shrub 1 to 4 feet high, growing on the mountains near Tulbagh and on the Cedar mountains. As the leaves are provided with many stalked glands, which secrete a very viscid fluid, numerous insects adhere to the leaves and perish there, hence the shrublet is universally considered to be an insectivorous plant. Experiments, however, have shown that the fluid secreted by the glands does not possess any digestive properties, and that it is quite different from the fluid secreted by droseraceous plants. The fluid is a kind NO. 2125, VOL. 84] NATURE | [JuLyY 21, 1910 of balsam, and probably affords protection to the plant against the attacks of creeping animals, such as snails, caterpillars, earwigs, &c., and the capturing of other insects is merely accidental, and of no advantage to the plant. Roridula dentata itil R. Gorgonias, the only two species of this genus, are consequently to be excluded from the list of insectivorous plants——Dr. T. Moir: The absorption spectrum of oxygen and a new law of spectra. The AB and a lines of the solar spectrum, which are due to absorption by terrestrial oxygen, have each a’ compli- cated rhythmic structure. The author has discovered an algebraical formula whereby each line can be calculated from a fundamental, the differences being directly propor- tional to the squares of the first fifteen or sixteen integers. The agreement is practically in all cases within the observational error. The oxygen molecule is shown to be very slightly unsymmetrical.—Dr. L. Péringuey: Notes on some bushmen. The small, elf-like bushman was legendary, with all the concomitants of the legend. If careful comparison of the description of the old authors such as Sparrman, Barrow, and Burchell with the remnants of that so-called bush race was made, it would be found that such physical peculiarities in male or female of which the authors spoke were most accurately described. Yet the skull of the brother of one of the females exhibited came within the measurements assigned to Hottentots. This was another proof of the conclusion arrived at by Shrubsall that the Hottentots and the so-called bush people are closely allied, whereas the akin race, ‘‘ Strand Looper,” show more differentiation. CONTENTS. PAGE A Standard Treatise on Physics . .: 5 2. « «= 05 Flower Pollination .. =) 00 Practical Work for Electrical ‘Laboratories, By Prof. Gisbert Kapp . oto oo Wy Ancient Hindu Chemistry. By T. KR. |S ees An Encyclopedia of the Sciences ........ 68 OurjBook/Shelf. 2 5 Sua eee eles 9s ns OO) Letters to the Editor :— Experimental Study of Fulgurites. leg Prof. R. W. Wood .. : 7 Fo Ooze and Irrigation. —Rev. Hilderic Friend . ple 70 The Sterilisation of Liquids by Light of very short Wave-length.— Prof. Theodore Lyman 71 Elemental Weight Accurately a Function of the Volu- tion of Best Space-symmetry Ratios. (With Diagram.) —H. Newman Howard . .< 3 fo) 2 DSI A 3 ° 4 Xe 3) fo} 12 Weatec.. 36 36 36 So CaGre 6°5 6°5 6°5 D — 6'0 fo} a fo) 0644 0°$30 It will be seen that D and a, together with the total rainfall for the year, entirely define the distribution, whereas the ‘‘C.G.’’ calculated by Mr. Cook’s method throws no light upon it. This method of specific gravities can, of course, be used for other annual statistics, such as barometric pressures and temperatures. In the latter case, the figures for a would depend upon the zero of temperature selected, and would consequently be different for the Centigrade and Fahrenheit scales. It would perhaps be more satisfactory to take the mean annual temperature of the station as zero. The figures for D would not be affected by the choice of scale. The applicability of the method is not confined to meteorology, but may be used for any phenomenon which varies with the time of the year, e.g. vital statistics or railway receipts. A. MarsHAaLL. Waverley Cottage, Naini Tal, India, June 14. Present Meteoric Displays. Tue Perseid shower appears to have come into play rather earlier than usual this year, for I saw four meteors presumably directed from it on the nights of July 11 to 13. These meteors were of the usual streaking class, and formed a radiant at about 16°+50°, which agrees fairly well with the correct place of radiation at the end of the second week in July. This year I found meteors decidedly rare at the epoch named, but the skies were not very favourable, and twilight very strong. By the time these lines appear in print the moon will only slightly interfere with observation, and a clear sky will show many meteors, for at the end of July the Aquarids, as well as Perseids, are generally plentiful; and there is no danger of confusing the members of the two streams, since their radiants are widely distant from each other. The Aquarids shoot slowly upwards in long flights from a radiant low in the southern sky, while the Perseids are directed in rapid courses from a radiant in the N.N.E. On July 29-31 an observer may generally expect to see at least twenty meteors per hour, and especially after midnight, when the number visible usually exhibits a very marked increase, the radiants of both the Perseids and Aquarids taking up a more favourable position for the distribution of their meteors as the night advances. It is to be hoped that all the brighter meteors and bolides will be individually recorded this year. The stars of Draco, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Andromeda, Pegasus, Cygnus, and other constellations afford a ready guide for the accurate registry of meteor-flights, and such data will possess an enduring value as a means of furthering our knowledge. W. F. DENNING. Pwdre Ser. Tue following letter, which I received last winter, may possibly throw some light on the questions raised by Prof. Hughes in his paper on ‘‘ Pwdre Ser’’ in NATURE of June 23 :— ** Allegheny, December 4, 1909. ““ DEAR PROFESSOR SCIILESINGER,— “Referring to the falling meteor of which my husband made mention at your lecture last evening, the facts are 106 NATURE [JuLy 28, 1910 as follows. One evening some years since my father, Mr. Joel Powers, while’ walking on Lawrence St., Lowell, Massachusetts, saw a brilliant shooting star or meteor flash downward through the atmosphere, striking the earth quite near him. He found it upon investigation to be a _jelly- like mass, and almost intolerably offensive in smell. I have often heard my father allude to this event, which Greatly interested him, he being a close observer and an extensive reader. ““ Respectfully yours, “Eciten M.-Apams.”’ While I am of the opinion that the mass found by Mr. Powers had no connection with the meteor that he saw, it may be well to put this piece of evidence on record in view of Prof. Hughes’s paper. FRANK SCHLESINGER. Allegheny Observatory, July 12. THE ETHNOLOGY, BOTANY, GEOLOGY, AND METEOROLOGY OF GERMAN AFRICAL > OME time ago, reviewing a scientific treatise on German South-west Africa and the adjoining re- gions I ventured to make the remark in this journal that Germany deserved to be allowed to take under her control still more of the undeveloped portions of the earth’s surface, provided she continued by the direct action of her Government to enrich the world’s store of knowledge as she has been doing with her African and New Guinea researches during the last ten years. The present ‘ Mitteilungen’ support this exordium; they are of high scientific value. There is, firstly, a separate volume by Dr. Weule on his ethnographical observations in the south-east parts of German East Africa. Heré, for the modest sum of three shillings (three marks), one gets a splendidly illustrated work of first-rate importance on a section of Bantu Africa. ‘‘ Erganzungsheft Nr. 2” is a dissertation by Prof. Dr. Carl Uhlig on the carto- graphy of the German portion of the Rift Valley region of equatorial East Africa, with an appendix on the orthography of place-names in Masailand, &c., by Dr. Bernhard Struck. Part i. of Band xxii. deals with the journeys in 1905-6 of Franz Seiner in the still very little explored country between the Kala- hari Desert and the Upper Zambezi (especially the valleys of the Okavango, Kwando, and Omuramba rivers); part ii., with the glaciers of Kilimanjaro, the rainfall and meteorology of the Cameroons and of German South-west Africa; part iii., likewise with the exploration of the upper parts of Kilimanjaro, the rainfall of Togoland, and the geography of Ponape Island; and_part iv., with the voleanoes recently active on the Cameroons Mountains, the rainfall and meteor- ology of the Cameroons and of the Logone River (Shari district), the Paresis Mountains of South west Africa, and the meteorology of the German possessions in the Pacific. The space, however, which is attributed in this collection to the German oceanic territories is so small that no further allusion to them need be made (other than to praise very cordially the extremely interesting map of Ponape Island in the Carolines Protectorate), and we might proceed at once to discuss the valuable additions to our knowledge of Africa contained in these six sec- tions of the scientific reports attached to the Deutschen Kolonialblatte. Dr. Weule’s work in East African anthropology has already been made known to English readers by Miss Alice Werner in a translation of his more “ popular” account of his travels and in various papers in the Journal of the (British) African Society. It was re- 1 Mitteihingen aus den Deutschen Schutzgebieten, &c. Erganzungshe‘ten Nr. , pp. x+150+Tafel 63 ; und 2, pp. iv-+63. Hefteni. b ye, Rand xxii. Edited by Dr. Freiherr von Danckelmann, (Berlin : Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1909.) Price 3 marks each. NO. 2126, VOL. 84] marked in one or other of these publications that Dr. Weule’s work was a little impaired by his ap- parent unacquaintance with his subject before embark- ing on this expedition to East Africa. Had he studied more the numerous works in German and in English dealing with the native tribes of the southern’ portions of German East Africa and of British Nyasa- land, he would have avoided a certain naiveté of dis- covering what had already been made known and a few blunders into which he had fallen through a lack of comparative knowledge; also that his ortho- graphy of native names was a little old-fashioned (in its German rendering) and divergent from the methods. of spelling adopted long ago by German and British philologists and travellers. These criticisms are less applicable to the volume under notice, ‘‘ Wissenschaftliche ergebnisse meiner. ethnographischen Forschungsreise in den sudésten’ Deutsch-Ostafrikas”’; though the orthography still irritates and the many painstaking quotations of native speech in the dialects of Yao and Makua would have been the better for careful revision with German or British experts. (They tend to incorporate too much the Swahili words of some intervening inter- preter.) But the greater part of this book is interest- ing and valuable to the ethnologist. The illustrations: which accompany it are deserving of unstinted praise. Photographically (for the most part) and by clever draughtsmanship, Dr... Weule depicts the physical types of the Wa-mwera, A-makua, Wa-yao, Wa- makonde, Wa-matambwe, and Wa-ngoni peoples of the Ruvuma basin; their costumes, ornaments, and hideous self-inflicted. deformities (such as the monstrous ‘‘pelele,’’ or lip-disc, worn by nearly allt the women in this region); their houses and methods of building; their graves, fetish-huts, granaries, cook- ing arrangements, doors; wooden locks and keys, pottery-making, metal-worlk, bark-cloth felting, basket- and mat-making, salt-straining; their weaving of cotton’ cloth and remarkable wood carving and cala- bash engraving. Indeed, he reveals a new chapter in negro art by his illustrations of their statues in wood, their clay dolls, their sculptured birds, Rhynchocyon insectivores, pigs, monkeys, and dogs; their most artistic carved snuff=boxes, amulets, powder-boxes, spoons, and stools. (As regards the last it is interest- ing to note the striking resemblance in shape and design to those of the south-eastern basin of the Congo.) One arises from this survey (and after read- ing the accompanying text) convinced that with due encouragement some section of the negro race is going to astonish the world yet in design and sculp- ture. Then there are the extraordinarily ingenious traps, snares, and pitfalls, all most clearly and yet pictur- esquely illustrated. Elephants are sometimes killed by the falling of a heavily-weighted harpoon from a lofty tree-branch or scaffold which they release by the displacing of a cord; the larger antelopes similarly discharge arrows or assagais into their own bodies; the smaller quadrupeds dislodge in their passage a heavy beam which falls and crushes them. There are springes and nooses for the capture and strangling of beasts and birds, and cages for catching them alive; rat-traps and hyena-traps. All these display an ingenuity, a neat-handedness, and. an unconscious knowledge of dynamics very remarkable in people still living ostensibly as semi-savages. One realises in’ studying Dr. Weule’s work how it was that, although the fossil remains of Homo primigenius—and the negro stands higher as a subspecies of Homo sapiens —exhibit an osteology approximating slightly to the anthropoid apes, yet the brain capacitv of any type of the genus Homo is almost of necessity an average i Jury 28, 1910} NATURE 107 minimum rioo c.c.* to enable anything like a man to compass the degree of thought and reflection neces- sary to adroit use of implements and the contriving the death or capture of their prey. Dr. Weule goes very fully into the boy and girl initiation ceremonies among the tribes above-men- tioned. He seems to have omitted none of the | details of these rites, all of which, whether excessively | obscene, prophylactic, or rudely moral, are yet instinct with a certain feeling of natural religion: that is to say, they are performed not for their incidental lubricity but with the intention of making the girls _ good wives and mothers and the boys vigorous ‘husbands and faithful members of the clan. Still, as regards the young women, native therapeutics? are entirely at fault, and the missionaries are quite right in believing and teaching that these ‘“‘ Unyago”’ cere- monies are in reality detrimental to health and morals. Fic. 1.—Young Makonde Women. The elaborate dances and their meanings, the strange dancing masks, the birth, marriage, death, and burial ceremonies are all described in detail, and a good deal of this information is absolutely new. Altogether Dr. Weule has made an important con- tribution to our knowledge of the still primitive Bantu tribes of the Ruvuma country, and incidentally has supplied some charming pictures of this great East African river; first studied by Livingstone in the vain hope that it might prove to be a water-route to Central Africa. Prof. Uhlig’s cartographical information on the German end of the Rift Valley is an important addi- tion to our geographical knowledge of this somewhat desolate part of East Africa, a region, however, which is coming into such importance for the salts, phos- phates, and sodas of its evaporating lakes that the British are building a branch railway to tap its products from the north. The human population is scanty, and consists maimly of Masai; and the Masai 1 The cranial capacity of the Neanderthal skull was about 1509 c.c. 2 Such as in the artificial hypertrophy of the dabia minora. NO. 2126, voL. 84] | linings, and other cabalistic signs. having long ago named all the leading features of the landscapes, Dr. Bernhard Struck (the well-known philologist) contributes an article on Masai _place- names and on the correct orthography of African words. It is, indeed, a pity that all civilised nations cannot agree to adopt a uniform phonetic alphabet for such purposes. Of course, the basis for such a system is best found in the Lepsius standard alphabet, with certain slight changes. As Lepsius was a German, one would-think that the Germans would agree with us in adopting his system. But no: there are two schools at present in the Fatherland: one that sticks to the old-fashioned German extrayagance in consonants—the dsch, tsch, & for e, doubled s’s, s for s plan—still used by Dr. Weule; and the over- particular new German linguists and geographers who fatigue and dishearten the average student with their meticulousness in spelling, their accents, diacritical Reproduced from Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebicten. and elliptical marks, their circumflexes, dots, under- Why cannot all the | world agree to confine itself to such a phonetic alpha- | bet as that adopted and used by the great German ex- plorer in the service of the British Government— Henry Barth? In the humble opinion of the reviewer Barth’s system is about perfect in accuracy and simplicity. It is, of course, founded on the alphabet devised by Lepsius. F Another important piece of African research is Herr Seiner’s journey of exploration in that still little explored country bounded by the Upper Zambezi on the east, the Kunene River on the north-west, and the Kalahari desert on the south, the region separating the Bechuana peoples from the Herero stock (Ama- herero, Ovambo, &c.), and the Herero from the Zam- bezian peoples (Ba-luyi, Basubia, Batonga, &c.). The hydrography of this region is still an unsolved problem. There is, first of all, the isolated basin | of Lake Etosa in north-east Damaraland; then come the questions of the Ngami-Botletle-Makari-kari sys- tem, the real destination of the waters of the immense 108 NATURE [JuLy 28, 1910 river system of the Kubango (Okavango)-Kuito- Omurambo and Kwando. These rivers discharge the bulk of their waters into the remains of an ancient sea, of which the Hainoma-Selinda-Mashi swamps, the network: of the Tauche streams, Lage Ngami, the Botletle River, and the Makari-kari salt-pans are the vestiges; but by two separate overflows—the Mashi- Linyanti river-swamp and the Tamalakane outlet of St ia ——. G4 YAR AL Fea Sa Mig GEL OS ET OME: ira . bs the steppe flora of so much of irregularly watered tropical Africa, and the rich forest and swamp flora of West Africa. Seiner traces the approximate limits of each phytogeographical region: the southernmost boundary of the baobab tree, of the bulging-stemmed Hyphene palm (H. ventricosa), of the high-timber forests of West African affinities, and the thin, low- growing woods of Copaifera and Burkea. Fic. 2.—Arrows set to be discharged automatically by animals, Usagara. Reproduced from Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebicten. Ngami—the surplusage of the Okavango waters (the drainage of eastern Angola) finds its way to the Zambezi above the gorge of Kasungula. But the complete elucidation of this puzzle still awaits the results of an extremely accurate survey in which the most careful attention will be given to questions of level. Did this once huge South-west African fresh- water sea, when at its fullest, discharge its waters Another noteworthy point in this exploration was the additional light it threw on the distribution of the Bushman-Hottentot peoples. It had been known since the journeys of Serpa Pinto that a quasi- Bushman race of red-skinned hunters extended north- wards from the Kalahari desert almost to the south- westernmost limits of the Congo basin; but the con- clusions of Pinto were rather based on fancied physical seawards through the Limpopo; or did it pierce the hills at Kasungula (some distance above the Victoria Falls) and thus united what is now the Upper Zam- bezi with the Gwai and the Kafue, and so create the Zambezi as we know it to-day? Herr Seiner’s journey was singularly interesting because of his careful studies of plant-distribution. In this region meet the desert flora of the Kalahari and South-west Africa, NO. 2126, VOL. 84] Dr. Passarge—the German explorer who has made several journeys through the Okavango basin—added to our informa- tion, and now Seiner extends our knowledge of these people, speaking click languages, to the Kwando River and almost to the Upper Zambezi. The specimens of Bushman speech collected by Seiner and Passarge enable these travellers to divide the resemblances than on language. JuLy 28, 1910] NATURE 109 northern Bushmen into two groups—that of the Kaukau of southern Damaraland and that of the Ngami, which would include the click-using peoples as far north as the Kwando River. Between the two groups there is very considerable linguistic differ- ence, though there exist equally undeniable affinities. In Herr Seiner’s photographs, however,- only two examples of so-called Bushmen are recognisable as such, the remainder (though their language was “Bush”) are obviously true negroes, and must be the result of hybrids ancient and modern with the true negro stock, as exemplified by the recent Bantu in- vaders (Bechuana and Zambezian) and the Berg- Damara. Seiner~ classifies the Zambezians as “Bantu,” and the Bechuana asa class apart. There is no justification for this distinction. The Bechuana tribes are just as much ‘‘ Bantu” in languages as the Zambezians, though some of them have obviously absorbed a good deal of Bushman blood during the last twelve or fifteen hundred years. The descriptions and beautiful pictures of the Kili- manjaro glaciers (in parts ii. and iii. of Band xxii.) are of the highest interest; so also are the equally careful, illustrated reports on the ‘“‘volcanelli”’ (if one may coin a word to describe the lesser craters which break out on the mass of a huge volcano) of the Cameroons. This article, by Dr. Otto Mann, de- scribes the renewed activities of the Cameroons volcanic mass in 1909. H. H. Jounston. | CORDITE. HE recent discussion in Parliament on our sup- plies of cordite and our productive capacity for this type of smokeless powder has naturally directed public attention to these important questions. The production of a smokeless powder was ever the dream of the military strategist, and with the discovery of gun-cotton the conclusion was hastily arrived at that the ideal propellant was found, only to be rudely dissipated by numerous serious disasters. Gun-cotton for many years resisted all attempts to render its com- bustion sufficiently under control for it to be adopted as a propellant, yet to-day it is the basis of the smoke- less powders of all nations. Its early failures were entirely due to the retention in the nitrated cotton of the physical characters of the parent cotton, for even after reduction to an extremely fine state of division during the process of manufacture, the fibrous nature of the cotton persisted. Success has only been at- tained by the destruction of this fibre, and the smoke- less powders of all nations may be classed either as simple gelatinised gun-cottons in’ which soluble nitro- celluloses have been gelatinised by treatment with an ether-alcohol mixture, or as nitrocellulose-nitroglycerine colloids, in which the nitrocellulose employed may be of the soluble variety, as in ballistite, or the insoluble (true gun-cotton), as in the case of cordite. The introduction of blasting gelatin-by-Nobel (1875), consisting of some go per cent. nitroglycerine — with Io per cent. of soluble nitrated cotton in-a gelatinised form, was the first step towards the production of powders of the cordite type. The high percentage of nitroglycerine rendered blasting gelatin unsuitable for use in guns, but by incorporating the two consti- tuents in equal quantities, Nobel gave to the world the first successful smokeless powder of this class, ballistite. Cordite was the outcome of the work of a committee presided over by the late Sir Frederick Abel, and was patented a year later than ballistite, in 1889. The essential difference between ballistite and cordite is that whilst the former contains soluble nitro- celluloses, cordite contains the insoluble or tri-nitro- cellulose. This change in the character of the nitro- NO. 2126, voL. 84] cellulose employed entailed the introduction of acetone in the manufacture of cordite. Soluble nitrocotton and nitroglycerine can be thoroughly incorporated under proper conditions in the presence of water with- out the aid of any solvent, but the ingredients of cordite can only become perfectly incorporated in the presence of a mutual solvent. It is essential that the solvent shall be sufficiently volatile to permit of its removal at reasonably low temperatures from the finished powder, and acetone, which boils at Rak? (On, fulfils all the conditions best. It is important to note that nitroglycerine is the only explosive containing an excess of oxygen, all nitro- celluloses being theoretically deficient in this element to give complete combustion of carbon to carbon dioxide and hydrogen to water. There are therefore admir- able theoretical grounds for the incorporation of these two explosives with each other. The total change in physical characters of both nitroglycerine ‘and -nitro- cellulose brought about entirely alters the character of their explosion; singly, both constituents are be- yond control once combustion is started; gelatinised together, combustion is regularly progressive: through- out the mass, an essential condition for a propellant. The earlier form of cordite consisted~ of. nitro- glycerine, 68 per cent.; nitrocellulose, 37 per cent. ; vaseline, 5 per cent. It was soon found that serious erosion took place in the guns, and Sir Andrew Noble showed this to be due to the rapid motion of the gaseous products at very high temperature. Since the temperature is a function of the nitroglycerine content, combustion to carbon dioxide taking place to greater extent with its accompanying higher calorific intensity, it followed that reduction of the nitroglycerine would lower the temperature of the products and lessen the erosion. This led to the introduction of modified (M.D.) cordite of the following composition :—Nitro- glycerine, 30 per cent.; nitrocellulose, 65 per cent. ; vaseline, 5 per cent.—practically a reversal of the former proportions of the chief ingredients. The in- troduction of the vaseline was made to overcome metallic fouling in the gun, arising from surfaces of metal in practically a clean condition rubbing against each other as the projectile moved outward. The vaseline decomposition products provided just the slight lubrication needed. It has performed another important office, little thought of on its introduction, in acting as a ‘‘stabiliser’’ in the cordite. In the manufacture of cordite, the gun-cotton employed is thoroughly dried at a temperature of 4o° C., and is then mixed by hand with the proper proportion of nitroglycerine, the mixture being finally passed through a sieve. The ‘“paste’’ obtained is transferred to an incorporating machine of an exactly similar type to that employed in a machine bakery, except that temperature control is arranged for, and there: worked into a thorough dough with the requisite quantity of - acetone. The first kneading occupiés about three and a half hours; then the vaseline is added and a further kneading for a similar period takes place. -‘‘Cordite dough,” in which every trace of the fibrous character of the gun-cotton has dis- appeared, results, and this dough is then shaped into the finished threads, cords, or rods by pressure through suitable dies. As the thinner makes pass from the press they are wound on drums, thicker qualities being cut into suitable lengths as they pass out on an endless band. The acetone remaining must now be removed by drying in suitable rooms at a temperature of 110° F. The removal of solvent from the larger sizes of all smokeless powders offers con- siderable difficulty owing to their horny nature; the odour of acetone is readily detected in freshly ground cordite after long storage. 110 Naturally the detection of products which may indi- cate decomposition actually occurring or likely to occur is important, and for this purpose Abel’s heat test, first introduced for gun-cotton about 1875, is employed for cordite. The test depends on the libera- tion of iodine from potassium iodide by the action of nitrogen peroxide, the principal decomposition gas. The ground explosive is heated to 180° F. in a tube, and the time noted for discoloration of the test paper to a certain standard tint. The question at once sug- gests itself, Does the test show decomposition products which were present in the explosive, or have they resulted from heating during the test, or both con- ditions acting together? Very divergent opinions are held as to the value of the Abel test as an indication of the stability or “life” of gelatinised explosives. Certainly a powder giving a bad test must be re- garded with suspicion, but it is obviously not an easy matter to fix a time limit for a test which is subject to adverse criticism. One of the most important considerations with any explosive is its stability. The question naturally arises, Is the molecular arrangement in such sub- stances as nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine stable under ordinary conditions of temperature? Their explosive properties depend entirely on molecular re- arrangement, which is practically instantaneous when detonation occurs. Certainly slow decomposi- tion Occurs in most nitro-compounds of the explosive class at temperatures not greatly above the normal with the production of oxides of nitrogen, and it has been shown that these oxides act catalytically on the explosive; in other words, their effect becomes cumu- lative and may lead to ignition. In order to avoid this catalytic action, ‘“‘stabilisers’’ have been intro- duced in many explosives, substances capable of absorbing these nitrogen compounds. As _ already mentioned, the vaseline in cordite appears to perform this useful function. THE SHEFFIELD MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. OR the last few months the various committees dealing with the local arrangements for the meeting of the association have been hard at work and the general outlines are settled. The hardest task, perhaps, has fallen to the lot of the hospitality committee in finding accommodation for the large number of visitors expected, the city being notorious for its small hotel accommodation. A first list of hotels and lodgings is now ready, and members should lose no time in engaging rooms. To meet the ex- pected demand, the committee has arranged for the two training colleges’ hostels for women to receive members, the larger one for gentlemen, with a limited number of married people in an annexe, and the University Hostel for single ladies. The list may be obtained from the secretary of the hospitality com- mittee, Mr. J. Wortley, George Street, Sheffield. The reception-room will be at the Cutlers’ Hall. Here, in addition to the various rooms and offices usually associated with the reception-room, will be a large luncheon-room, giving, close at hand, sufficient accommodation to prevent the pressure and_ over- crowding so prevalent in many previous meetings. The Cutlers’ Hall is conveniently situated in the centre of the city, close to the tram termini, and the various section rooms are grouped round it, all within a radius of 400 yards, with the exception of that of physiology, which, for evident reasons, is better placed in the University. The president’s address, and the popular lectures by Prof. Stirling (types of animal movement), Mr. Hogarth (new discoveries about the NO, 2126, VOL. 84] NATURE [Juty 28, 1910 Hittites), and Mr. C. T. Heycock (the Saturday even- ing lecture to operatives), will be given in the Victoria Hall. ( The first evening reception will be at the Town Hall, by the Lord Mayor and Countess Fitzwilliam. The Weston Park is to be the central scene of the second on Tuesday, September 6, at which about 4,000: guests are expected. The University lies along the east side of this park, and the Mappin Art Gallery is in it on the west. Advantage has been taken of this. to have a combined reception by the University and’ the local committee. The Chancellor and the Duchess of Norfolk will receive one category of guests at the University, and the Earl and Countess Fitzwilliam another in the Art Gallery, but the two will really form a combined conversazione, with an evening garden-party in the park. One of the features of the latter will be a military tattoo with torches after dark. Afternoon garden-parties for the whole association will be given by the Lord Mayor at his seat at Wentworth, and by the local committee in the Botanical Gardens, whilst a number of smaller garden-parties will be given on other days. Arrangements have been made for visits. to more than twenty works, covering the chief staple trades of the city. In the University also the various. furnaces in the metallurgical department will be run on different days to illustrate that feature in the University curriculum. Saturday, September 3, will be devoted to excur- sions to the Derwent Waterworks, to Chatsworth, Welbeck, and Clumber, where members will be enter- tained respectively by the Dukes of Devonshire, Port- land, and Neweastle, also to Haddon, Roche Abbey, and Bolsover Castle. The neighbourhood is so rich in picturesque scenes that there will be ample scope for members to arrange private excursions, such as to the Peak Caverns, the limestone dales, Buxton, Matlock, Wingfield Manor, or even further afield, to York, Lincoln, or Newark Castle, and Southwelf Minster. A local handbook of 500 pages has been compiled under the editorship of Dr. Porter, with the assistance of a large number of local experts, containing a large amount of interesting matter, scientific, historic, and local. During the meeting the University will hoid a congregation for the purpose of conferring honorary degrees on the president and other eminent scientific men attending the meeting. PROVISIONAL PROGRAMMES OF SECTIONS. Section A (MATHEMATICAL AND PuysicaL SCIENCE).— The address of the president (Prof. E. W. Hobson) will be delivered at 10 a.m. on Thursday, September 1. Two discussions are under arrangement. On Mon- day, September 5, there will be a joint discussion with Section G on the principles of mechanical flight, to be opened by Prof. G. H. Bryan; and on Tuesday, Sep- tember 6, Dr. C. Chree will open one on atmospheric electricity. The section will meet with Sections G and B on Friday, September 2, to participate in the dis- cussion on the report of the gaseous explosions com- mittee, and in papers to follow dealing with combus- tion. Several papers have been already promised to the section, but the programme is still incomplete. Section B. (Cuemistry).—The feature of the pro- gramme is the joint discussions with other sections. These are:—Friday, September 2, with Sections A and G: Subjects of general interest; in particular, combustion. Monday morning, September 5, with Sections I and K: Respiration; afternoon, with Section L: The neglect of science by commerce and industry. Reports will be presented by Prof. W. A. Bone, on combustion; Dr. J. V. Eyre, on solubility. Juty. 28, 1910] Papers on a fourth recalescence in steel, Prof. Arnold ; the provident use of coal, Prof. H. E. Armstrong; “influence of chemical composition and thermal treat- ‘ment on the properties of steels, Prof. A. McWilliam ; ferro-silicon, Dr. S. Monckton Copeman; corrosion of iron and steel, Dr. J. N. Friend; the crystalline structure of iron at high temperatures, Dr, Rosenhain ; allotropy or transmutation? Prof. Howe; the mole- cular weight of radium emanation, Sir Wm. Ramsay and Mr. R. W. Gray. Papers from the Sheffield University Chemical Department: Formation — of tolane derivatives from o--and p-chlorobenzylchloride, Dr. J. Kenner and E. Whitham; sulphonic derivatives of chloro- and nitrochlorotoluene, Dr. J. Kenner and Prof. W. P. Wynne; an instance illustrating the relative instabilities of the trimethylene ring as com- pared with the tetramethylene ring, Dr. J. F. Thorpe; three physical chemical papers dealing with viscosity and molecular association, W. E. S. Turner (in con- junction with C. L. Peddle and E. W. Merry). AGRICULTURAL SUBSECTION OF SECTION B: Sugar beet growing, Sigmund Stein and G. L. Courthope, M.P.; nitrogen fixation, Prof. Bottomley and J. Gold- ing; various: cost of a day’s horse labour, A. D. Hall; cost of Danish dairy farming, Christopher Turnour ; effect of town atmosphere on vegetation, Dr. Crowther; scientific problems in live stock breeding, K. J. J. Mackenzie. Joint meetings (1) with Economic and Statistical Section: The magnitude of error in agricultural experiments; scientific method in experi- mental work, Prof. H. E. Armstrong; experimental error in feeding trials, T. B. Wood and A. B. Bruce; experimental error in field trials, A. D. Hall and E. J. Russell; experimental error in milk analysis, S. H. Collins; experimental error in plant analysi R. H. Berry; (2) with the Geological Section, Soil Surveys (Agricultural): Survey of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, A. D. Hall and E. J. Russell; survey of Norfolk, Mr. Newman; ‘‘Teart”’ land of Somerset, Cc. T. Gimingham; (3) with the Zoological Section : Part played by organisms cther than bacteria in soil fertility, E. J. Russell and H. B. Hutchinson. Section C (GroLocy).—Thursday, September 1, 10.0: The Joredale Series and its equivalents else- where, Cosmo Johns; the Palzeozoic rocks of Cautley (Sedbergh), Dr. J. E. Marr and W. G. Fearnsides ; the graptolitic zones of the Salopian rocks of the Cautley (Sedbergh) area, Miss O. R. Watney and Miss E. G. Welch; pleochroic halos, Prof. J. Joly. 11.30: Presidential address by Dr. A. P. Coleman; mountain temperatures and radium, Dr. C. H. Lees; outlines of the geology of northern Nigeria, F. D. Falconer; notes on the geology of the Gold Coast, W. Parkinson; the geological significance of the nickel-iron meteorites, Cosmo Johns. Friday, Septem- ber 2, 10.0 : Joint meeting with Section E (Geography) : (1) Papers on local geography and geology, (a) the local geology, Cosmo Johns; (b) the local geography; (c) the marine bands in coal measures of south Yorkshire, H. Culpin; (d) the Maltby deep boring, W. H. Dyson. (2) Joint discus- sion on the economic products of Sheffield as affected by the structure of the district. Paper by Prof. MeWilliam on the metallurgical industries in relation te the rocks of the district. (3) Regional surveys. Paper by T. Sheppard on the Humber during the human period. Monday, September 5, 10.0: Seismo- logical report by Dr. J. Milne; thrust masses in the western districts of the Dolomites, by Mrs. W. M. Ogilvie-Gordon; on the geology of Cyrenaica, Prof. J. W. Gregory; on the geology of Natal, Dr. F. H. Hatch. 12.0:,Joint discussion with subsection Agriculture on soil surveys. Tuesday, September 6, 10.0: Discussion on the concealed coalfield of Notts, NO. 2126, VoL. 84] NATURE II! Derbyshire, and Yorks. Papers by Prof. P. F. Kendall and Dr. Walcot Gibson; two papers by Ernest Dixon; (1) Kilauea and its lessons, (2) some volcanic phenomena in New Zealand, Dr, Vempest Ander- son. Section D (Zoorocy).—Address by the president, Prof. G. C, Bourne; mitokinetism and the electrocolloid hypothesis, Prof. Marcus Hartog; semination in Calidris armarica: a key to some problems regarding its migratory movements during the breeding season, Prof. C. J. Patten; some experi- ments and observations on the colours of insect larvz, Prof. Garstang; a cytological study of artificial par- thenogenesis, Dr. Edward Hindle; avian coccidiosis, Dr. H. B. Fantham; relation of regenerative and developmental processes, Dr. Jenkinson; first results from the Oxford anthropometrical laboratory, Dr. E. H. J. Schuster; development of the pectoral girdle in Acanthias vulgaris, Dr. H. W. Marett Tims; a paper. dealing with some sex problems, Geoffrey Smith; Dr. Gadow will give the afternoon lecture on coral snakes and peacocks. Section E (GroGrRapHy).—Presidential address, Prof. A. J. Herbertson; cotton-growing within the British Empire, J. Howard Reed; the Uganda-Congo Boundary Survey, Major R. G. T. Bright; the river systems of Nigeria, Dr. J. W. Falconer; the alluvium of the Nile, Capt. Lyons; the homeward voyage of the Nimrod, Capt. J. IKK. Davis; Prince Charles Foreland, Dr. W. S. Bruce; the geology and metallurgical in- dustries of the Sheffield district, joint meeting with Section C. SEcTION G _ (ENGINEERING).—Presidential address, Prof. W. E. Dalby: (1) the testing of lathe tool steels, (2) a new method of testing the cutting quality of files, Prof. Ripper; experiments on aéroplanes, W. A. Scoble; accelerometers, H. S. Wimperis; optical determination of stress, Prof. Coker; laws of electro-mechanics, Prof. S. P. Thompson; the electri- fication of the Brighton Railway, Philip Dawson; heat insulation, F. Bacon; report of the gaseous explosions committee; joint discussion on combustion with Section B (Chemistry); joint discussion on aérial flight with Section A (Mathematics and Physics). Section I (PHysiotocy).—Thursday, September 1: Presidential address, Prof. A. B. Macallum; the mechanism of reflex standing and walking, Prof. C.S. Sherrington. Friday, September 2: Discussion on prevention of caisson disease, to be opened by Dr. Leonard Hill. Monday, September 5: Joint discussion with Sections of Botany and Chemistry on biochem- istry of respiration. Tuesday, September 6: Joint discussion with Section of Education on speech. There will be the usual reports of committees, and the following papers have been promised :—The relation of light perception to colour perception, Dr. Edridge Green; the combination of poisons with the contractile substance of cardiac muscle, Dr. H. M. Vernon; (1) the inorganic composition of the blood of verte- brates and invertebrates and its origin, (2) the inorganic composition of the blood serum of the laboratory frog in spring, (3) further observations on the localisation of potassium salts in animal and vegetable cells, Prof. A. B. Macallum. Section K (Borany).—A joint discussion between the Botanical, Chemical, and Physiological Sections, on the biochemistry of respiration, Dr. F. F. Black- man and others to take part; a new method of esti- mating the opening of stomata, Dr. F. Darwin; the paths of translocation of sugars from green leaves, S. Mangham; (1) two synthetic genera of Filicales, (2) note on Ophioglossum palmatum, Prof. Bower; the pollen chambers of fossil and recent seeds, Prof. F. W. Oliver; the morphology of the ovules in Gnetum and Li NATURE [Jury 28, i910 Welwitschia, Mrs. Thoday; further observations on the fossil flower, Dr. M. C. Stopes; chromosome re- duction in the Hymenomycetes, Harold Wager; the sexuality of Polystigma rubrum, Prof. V. H. Black- man; telophases and prophases in Galtonia, Prof. Farmer and Miss Digby; a cytological paper, Dr. H. C. J. Fraser; the zoospores and trumpet-hyphe of the Laminariaceee, Dr. Lloyd Williams; plant dis- tribution in the woods of north-east Kent, M. Wilson; the absorption of water by leguminous seeds, A. S. Horne. Papers are also expected by Prof. F. E. Weiss and others. The semi-popular lecture will be given this year by Prof. F. O, Bower; subject, sand dunes and golf links. Srecrion L (Epucationat Scrence).—The president for the meeting is Principal H. A. Miers, and his presidential address will be delivered on Thursday morning, September 1. It is intended to give up the whole of Friday, September 2, to the subject of educa- tional research, and the meeting will be a joint one with the Anthropological Section. Prof. J. A. Green, of Sheflield, the secretary of a committee which has been investigating the mental and physical factors involved in education, will present a report on the present position of educational research at home and abroad. Dr. Gray will also pre- sent a report on behalf of a committee of the Anthropological Section on methods of obser¥ing and measuring mental characters. It is hoped that Prof. Miinsterberg, of Har- vard, will open the discussion, which pro- mises to be an important one. Dr. Lucy H. Ernst, Prof. Lippmann, of Berlin, Dr. Kerr, the principal medical officer of the London County Council, and several members of his staff, Prof..C. S. Myers, Dr..T. P. Nunn, and. Dr. Rivers, of Cambridge, amongst others, have signified their intention to take part, and.reports will be presented, by the investigators, of serial observations on school children and others which have been_con- ducted in London, Liverpool, Sheffield, Wolver- hampton, and elsewhere. On Monday morning, September 5, Mr. J. G. Legge, Director of Education in. Liverpool, will open a discussion on handwork and science in elementary schools. On Monday afternoon there will be a joint discussion with the Chemistry Section on the neglect of science in commerce and industry. Mr. R. Blair, the Education Officer of the London County Council, will open the discussion, and Prof. Bovey, Principal E. H. Griffiths, Sir William Tilden, and others have promised to take part. On Tuesday morning, September 6, the subject of open-air studies in schools of normal type will be taken up. There will be papers by Mr. J. E. Feasey, of Sheffield, Mr. G. G. Lewis, of Kentish Town, and Prof. Mark R. Wright, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, will read a paper on a training college’ under canvas. On Tuesday afternoon a joint meeting will be held with the Physio- logical Section for the discussion of voice production. Dr. A. A. Gray, Mr. H. H. Hulbert, Principal Bur- rell, of Isleworth, Prof. Wesley Mills, Mr. W. H. Griffiths, and others, will contribute papers. THE ULTRA-RAPID KINEMATOGRAPH. A RECENT number of La Nature (April 30) contains a very interesting account of the latest work of the Marey Institute. By means of the new instru- ment, the ultra-rapid kinematograph invented by M. Bull, sharp stereoscopic kinematograph views may be obtained of such extremely rapid movements as, for instance, the flight of a 'fly or the breaking of a soap bubble. With the ordinary kinematograph the photo- NO. 2126, VoL. 84] graphic film moves discontinuously, being arrested at the moment of each exposure. While this is simple enough at moderate speeds, it would be quite impos- sible where the exposures are at the rate of 2000 a second, and the mean speed of the film 4000 cm. a second. These are the figures that are necessary for the study of insect flight, and these are attained in the new instrument. With such a speed the movement of the film must be continuous, and a sharp image is possible only if the exposure does not exceed 1/400,000 second, and for this the electric spark gives a light of sufficiently short duration. The apparatus is shown diagrammatically in the figure. R is a wheel 34°5 centimetres in diameter, which may be turned at a high speed by means of an electric motor. It carries two long strips of photo- graphic film to receive the stereoscopic images. On the same axis, but outside the octagonal light-proof case, is fastened an interrupter, I, of fifty-four strips of copper, which serve to make and break the primary circuit of an induction coi] fifty-four times every turn, or 2000 times a second. The secondary of the induction coil is connected with a pair of spark-gaps, E, arranged in series, the electrodes being of magnesium to increase the light. their relation to the optical system are shown in plan (but reversed, left for right) in the upper left-hand The arrangement of the two gaps and corner of the figure. A condenser, L, is connected to the wires leading to the spark-gaps. The optical system is made clear by the figure, but the lenses are made of quartz and Iceland spar instead of glass, so us to be transparent to the actinic rays of short wave- length for which glass is opaque. A mirror, M, throws the pair of images on a ground-glass screen, D, or, on being turned up out of the way, it leaves a clear passage for them to be formed on the films. In order to prevent the photographs from being spoilt by multiple exposure, two shutters of thin steel, actuated by springs, are released electromagnetically one after the other, the interval being the duration of one turn of the wheel. The movements photographed are determined as to time by fine wire prolongations of the prongs of a tuning-fork of 50 ~ a second, which are photographed at each successive exposure, and as to distance by a divided glass scale, which equally appears in every picture. It is, of course, necessary to ensure that the fly or other insect shall traverse the field of view just at the time that exposure is made. There is no diffi- culty in causing the creature to fly in the right direction, as a window is sufficient to determine the line of flight. One method by which M. Bull releases the fly at the right moment is by holding it in electro- magnetically-operated forceps, which are relaxed by the same current which starts the first shutter. This works well enough with ordinary flies, but hymen- optera and some other insects hesitate and only make Juty 28, rgto] NATURE 113 their flight after the exposure is completed. For such cases, M. Bull encloses them in a glass tube with a very light mica door, which is moved by the insect in its flight, and which, making a contact, sets the shutter mechanism in action. In order to study the movements represented on the films, which in nature are far too rapid to be followed | by the eye, it is merely necessary to pass them through an ordinary kinematograph, making some fifteen ex- posures a second instead of the 1500 or 2000 a second employed in taking the photograph, and then the movement, 100 or more times as slow, will be seen, and in many cases easily followed. Where a still greater slowing is required, M. Bull arranges to make the film appear stationary for a much larger propor- tion of the whole interval than is usual, and then only two or three views a second are sufficient to give an apparently continuous movement. G: V,. Boys. THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE, MAY og, ERE following two communications from Port Davey, dated May 7 and 9g respectively, complete the account of Mr. McClean’s expedition to Tasmania. In spite of the trying weather con- _ ~ ditions, a very complete installation of instruments was __ successfully erected, but, as previously re- ported, clouds prevented their use during the eclipse. IgI0. The photographs accompanying the report were taken by Mr. H. Winkelmann, and the _ three here reproduced have been selected to illustrate the setting up of some of the instruments. Port Davey, May 7, 1910. “The weather since April 27 was execrable until May 4, and was not good until the follow- ing afternoon. Continuous gales, heavy rains, and floods made progress absolutely impossible, and no trustworthy tests were made before May 4. The ground be- came a quagmire, and the in- struments were covered with rust, in spite of paraffin and oil. Rain got into the concave grating slide- holder, and the cloth began to peel off. The coelostat mirror was badly discoloured, in spite of coverings of Japara and Willesden canvas. The siderostat mirror was also permanently fogged and_ slightly spotted, and in the morning, on uncovering (when possible), was covered with moisture. In addition to this, the ground shook at every footstep, and everything vibrated. The barricades proved very useful in pro- tecting the instruments from the wind, which was | so strong that during the gusts it was impossible to walk against it. On several days no coverings could be taken off, and work was at a standstill. The Wainui, which came in on May 1, had to take refuge in Schooner Cove on the other side of the Bathurst Channel until the following day. Our boat, which had to go over to pick up Mr. Short, from Sydney, and his instruments, could not get back, and we had to cross behind Mundy Island and land ; mile across country from our camp, leaving the boat in a cove until the next day. ““On May 4, however, there were a few intervals of sunshine during the ‘afternoon, and on May 5 the afternoon was fairly bright after a drizzling morning, while May 5 was cloudless and with a gentle breeze from the east. and much progress was made. The NQ. 2126, VoL. 84] instruments fed by the siderostat were in accurate position, and some trial photographs were taken with the concave grating spectrograph which on develop- ment proved to be good in every way. “Mr. Short, who arrived on May 1, has decided to feed his five-foot camera from an auxiliary mirror from the siderostat, as, with the wind that is likely to occur, it would not be steady on the equatorial mount, and on this mount have been placed his telephoto and Worthington’s camera, as the latter could not be run correctly with his clock. “Considerable difficulty had been found in driving the siderostat after about 3.15 in the afternoon, and a device had been put up to help the mirror cell arm round after that time. Owing to bad weather, no complete examination had been possible until May 7, when the mirror and cell were removed, and it was found that one of the balance-arm bearings had not sufficient play to allow the rollers to continue in contact with the cell. Filing down was tried, but there was not sufficient material to do this fully, and so the bearing was reversed. This gave considerable improvement, but before the time at which eclipse would occur it was found that the rollers reached SRR RES. Fic. r.—Beginning the erection of the instruments on Hixson Point. Figures from left to right—J. Brooks, F. K. McClean, A. Young, S. Dowsett. the end of their slot, and greater power was required to drive them up the slope. Having no tools for continuing this groove, arrangements were made for a weight to be attached upwards to the cell arm, and this was found to answer; but considerable dangers of irregular drive are present in this method. An attempt was made to work the slow motions from the concave grating spectrograph, but, owing to the distance, no good results were obtained, and Mr. Dowsett was therefore placed in charge of the siderostat to follow instructions from the spectro- graph, where the large image on the slit gives a quick idea of any movement either in right ascension or declination. “Drills commenced on May 6 both separately and generally. The allocation of the instruments to the members of the party has been arranged as follows :— Siderostat S. G. Dowsett Instruments fed by siderostat. Concave grating spectrograph F. K. McClean De la Rue coronagraph A. Wilson Short 5-ft. AF J. Short 114 NATURE [Jury 28, 1910 Instruments fed by caelostat. 16-{t. coronagraph 3s ... J. Brooks 42-in. spectrograph .., sna .. H. Winkelmann Telephoto... ats a0 .. H. Winkelmann Steward (dismounted) ae joo) Dp ois Fic. 2.—Setting up the 21-inck Siderostat. : } Figures from left to right—A. Young, F. K. McClean, S. Dowsett, J. Brooks, J. Worthington. arrangements to observe it. Wittiam J. S. Lockyer. Equatorial. Short’s equatorial mount carrying ; telephoto & Worthington camera J. Worthington and Time caller ... 550 S50 ... A. Young “Owing to the resilient nature of the ground, it was found advisable not to allow anyone to move about, and shutters were fitted to the 16-foot and De la Rue coronagraphs, which could be worked from the dark-slide ends. Winkelmann, who has two instruments in his charge, has only a step or two to make, and it is impossible to prevent him moving. In the following programme for the eclipse, the times mentioned are standard time (ten hours east), as given by Dr. A. M. W. Downing, F.R.S., and also local time at Pyramid Rock in the entrance to Port Davey, which is long. 145° 55/ E. ‘and lat. 43° 22! S. As the position of the observatory is long. 146° E. and lat. 43° 20’ S., the eclipse will start a little later, and finish a trifle earlier. The time was again checked on May 6 by Messrs. Brooks and Young, and the chrono- meter error found.” (Here follows a large table showing the exposures to be made in the various instruments. This is omitted here.) — = “Port Davey, May 9, ‘Ig10. “‘ Rain commenced on the afternoon of May 8, and continued steadily all through May 9. No drills were possible. On the night of May 8 the dark slides were filled, and all were taken up to the ob- NO, 2126, VOL. 84] servatory on the Monday afternoon, and, in spite of the rain, the instruments were made ready; but exposures were limited to one slide, which was opened at 5 seconds and closed at 200. There was a tremendous downpour during the eclipse, but it cleared a little afterwards. During totality there was a stretch of bright sky on the western horizon, and soon after sunset the clouds dispersed and a bright, starry night followed. ‘Immediately after eclipse the barricades were pulled down and the ground prepared for the final packing.” Since the receipt of the above communications both Mr. McClean and Mr. Young have arrived home. They have both suffered from the effects of the hard work and in- clement weather, and the former is still in the doctor’s hands. While experience in roughing it, he de- scribes his recent work in Tas- mania as the most trying that he has yet had to contend with. Never- theless, his keenness for eclipse work is by no means damped, for he is now looking forward to the eclipse of next year, which will be visible from islands in the Pacific Ocean, and is already commencing JOHN B. CARRUTHERS. WE regret to have to record the death, at the early age of forty-one, of Mr. J. B. Carruthers, assistant director of agriculture in Trinidad. Mr. Sod ‘Scr ae Fic. 3.—Adjusting the Ceelostat. J. Brooks on the left, F. K. McClean on the right. Carruthers only took up his new appointment last autumn, and with characteristic enthusiasm entered at once very energetically upon the task of making himself familiar with his fresh surroundings. The possibilities of rubber cultivation was the principal subject to occupy his attention, and to this end he visited most of the chief estates in Trinidad. Thence Mr. McClean has had considerable . Juty 28, 1910] NATURE he proceeded to Tobago—the dependency of the larger island—and here prosecuted his worlk under very adverse climatic conditions, with the result that on returning to Trinidad he was prostrated with a severe attack of malaria. After some four weeks’ illness complications ensued, and he passed away on Sunday, July 17, from septic pneumonia following an opera- tion. John Bennett Carruthers, born in 1869, was the younger son of Mr. William Carruthers, F.R.S., until recently the keeper of the Botanical Department of the British Museum. He was educated at Dulwich College, the Royal School of Mines, and Griefswald University, Prussia. During this period appeared his ‘first botanical contribution, ‘‘The Cystocarps of Some Species of Callophyllis and Rhodymenia”’ (Journal Linn. Soc., xxix., 77-86), and “The Canker of the Larch” (Journal Roy. Agr. Soc., 1891, Ser. iii., vol. ii.) A period as demonstrator in biology at the Royal Veterinary College, London, was followed by his appointment as professor of botany at Downton College, Wilts. Soon, however, he transferred his energies to the tropics, where his chief work was done. In 1898 Carruthers went out under the joint auspices of the Cevlon Government and the Planters’ Association ‘to investigate a disease of cacao-trees. He proved successful, not only in ascertaining the cause of the disease, but in the frequently more diffi- cult task of finding an effective remedy practicable under estate conditions. His successful worl was recognised by his appointment in 1900 as mycologist to the Government of Ceylon and assistant director of the Royal Botanic Gardens. In these days, when we regard a mycologist as necessary to any well-equipped agricultural depart- ment, it may come to many as a surprise that Carruthers’s appointment, only ten years ago, was the first of its kind. He worked in Ceylon for five years, and in 1905 took up the directorship of the newly- formed Department of Agriculture for the Federated Malay States. Here he remained until he was invited to fill the Trinidad position, where it was expected that his special knowledge of cacao rubber and plant sani- tation would prove of great value. These hopes have unfortunately been frustrated by his untimely death, but in the short space of time which intervened he initiated several important projects, and so recently as May contributed two papers to the Brussels Inter- national Congress on _ Tropical. Agriculture and Colonial Development, whilst an account of rubber in Trinidad appears in the last issue of the Trinidad Agricultural Bulletin, of which he was joint editor. Carruthers possessed the happy gift of “‘ getting on well” with people, and officials and planters in many parts of the world, the members of the Royal Societv of Edinburgh, the Linnean Society, the Association of Economic Biologists, the West India Committee, and a wide circle of friends unite in regretting his loss. NOTES. ‘Str E. Ray Lanxester has been elected a foreign associate of the Paris Academy of Sciences in succession to the late Prof. Robert Koch. Tue following men of science have been elected’ foreign members of the Royal Society:—Dr. Svante Arrhenius, Dr. Jean Baptiste Edouard Bornet, Dr. Paul Ehrlich, Prof. Vito Volterra, and) Dr. August Weismann. A Reuter telegram from Wellington states that a new crater is in eruption near the dormant geyser of Waimangu (Rotorua), and is ejecting mud and-pieces of rock. Its proximity to the volcano of Tarawera renders the outbreak significant. NO. 2126, voL. 84] TLS Mr. Joun Ramssottom has ‘been appointed an assistant in the Department of Botany, British Museum. Mr. ‘Ramsbottom was lately exhibitioner of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Robert Platt biological research scholar, ‘Victoria University, Manchester. He will devote himself to the fungi. _ In the course of a reply to a question asked in the House of Commons on Monday with reference to the Advisory Committee on Aérial Navigation, Mr. Asquith said that a further report of the committee will be laid before Parliament within a few days. Captain Murray Sueter, R.N., representing the Admiralty, and Mr. Mervyn O'Gorman, superintendent of the Balloon Factory, have been appointed additional members of the committee. The total approximate cost of the committee to the present date is 10,0001. THE property in the centre of the Cheddar Cliffs, on which the quarry occurs that has caused much disfigure- ment to the gorge, has been purchased by the National Trust. Certain existing contracts, which expire in 1912, will be performed exclusively from the loose stone lying fallen in the quarry. No further blasting will take place. The National Trust hopes that by the purchase of this property the cliffs have been secured from all danger of further spoliation. The immediate and pressing danger to the finest part of the gorge arising from the vibration caused by blasting has now been stopped. ACCORDING to a communication from Mr. J. T. Jenkins, published in the Field of July 23, there is reason to believe that the fur-seals on the Pribilov and other islands of ‘the North Pacific are in imminent danger, if not of extermina- tion, at all events of being so reduced in numbers as to be no longer of any commercial value. It will be remem- bered that the Anglo-American Commission of 1896 insisted upon the repression of pelagic sealing, and it was eventually agreed that, while this was to be absolutely pro- hibited to Americans, it would be permitted to British subjects only outside a sixty-mile limit from the Pribilovs. The Japanese were, however, no party to the arbitration by which this was arranged at Paris, and their vessels have for the last few years “been actively engaged in pelagic sealing around the Pribilovs immediately outside the three-mile limit. In 1907 Canadians had fifteen vessels engaged in pelagic sealing, which took 5240 skins, while in 1908 there were eight vessels, which secured 4452 skins. On the other hand, the Japanese had thirty-six vessels in 1907 and thirty-eight in 1908, of which the respective takes were gooo and 13,197. If the latter rate of killing be continued—especially when it is recalled that the great majority of seals killed in the open sea are females—it will not be many years before the herds will be practically annihilated. The case is one where international action is urgently demanded, and that at an early date. An, article upon the character of King Edward VII. in the current number of the Quarterly Review gives much interesting information upon the early life and training of the late King. Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort appear to have considered the minutest details of the physical, intellectual, and moral training of their son, who was to become our King. The German blood and upbring- ing of the Prince Consort led him to attach great import- ance to thoroughness. of educational training, while letters and notes ‘‘ record the Queen’s anxious solicitude that no boyish longing for excitement should interfere with the Prince’s ‘adherence to and perseverance in the plan both of studies and life’ laid down by his father.’’ Every hour 116 NATURE [JuLty 28, 1910 of the young Prince’s time was mapped out by his governors and preceptors; and it is not surprising that under this high-pressure system, and without the stimulus of competi- tion, the Royal pupil did not reach the lofty standard always before the mind of the Prince Consort. Every book was placed before the boy as a task, and the subjects in which he received instruction appear to have been pre- sented in their driest form. Had more reasonable educa- tional methods been adopted, and the Prince’s individuality been considered instead of making it subservient to scholastic ideas, there would have been no occasion for the expressions of disappointment at his want of studious re- flection. He was an acute observer, and could learn better from things than words. Even in his early days his teacher said of him that he was “ learning almost un- consciously from objective teaching much which, I think, could never have been taught him subjectively ’’; and this capacity was his characteristic through life. While at Edinburgh as a lad of eighteen, he attended Lord Play- fair’s lectures on the composition and working of iron ores, and he never altogether forgot them. ‘‘ They imparted to him a certain liking for practical science and its votaries which he never wholly lost.’’ His interests were practical rather than academic, and his brilliant success as Prince of Wales and King was achieved not so much by his studies with tutors as in spite of them. WE regret to announce the death of Mr. J. Ellard Gore, the well-known amateur astronomer, who did much to popularise astronomical science. While in the Public Works Department in the Punjab, he interested himself in scientific studies, and the result was the publication of “Southern Stellar Objects’ (1877). From that date he was a voluminous writer on the descriptive side of astro- nomy, and his works have been welcomed on account of the general accuracy of his facts and the enthusiasm which his writings inspired. On double stars, variables, and planetary markings he was regarded as an authority. One of his noteworthy works was his share in the volume of astronomy which he wrote in the “‘ Concise Knowledge ”’ series in collaboration with Prof. Fowler and the late Miss Clerke. He was also well known for his translations of several of Flammarion’s works. Tue processes of pottery-making as it appears in pre- historic interments in Europe is well illustrated by two contributions in Man for July, in which Mr. N. W. Thomas and Capt. A. J. N. Tremearne describe the methods in vogue in South and North Nigeria respectively. In neither district is the wheel used, the vessel being built up out of flattened ribbons of soft clay over the neck and shoulders of an old broken pot. Capt. Tremearne heard of, but did not witness, a still ruder method, in which the clay is shaped for the body of the pot in a hole in the ground, the upper portion being subsequently added in the way already described. Mucu discussion has arisen regarding the date of the narrow cultivation terraces known in England as lynchets, and some authorities, like Dr. Mackintosh and others, have gone so far as to deny that they are artificial, asserting that they are merely natural raised beaches. Their contiguity to Neolithic and Bronze-age camps certainly lends much support to the view that they represent a form of prehistoric agriculture. Mr. W. A. Dutt, in Man for July, quotes an account of similar constructions in Abyssinia from Capt. Stigand’s “‘ To Abyssinia through an Unknown Land.’’ The close analogies presented by these to the English examples are clearly in favour of the view that they are the work of a primitive race. NO. 2126, VOL. 84] AN interesting phase of lacustrine culture is described in a monograph by Mr. S. A. Barnett, on the Klamath Lake and Modoc Indians of north-west California and southern Oregon, contributed to vol. v. of the Memoirs issued by the University of California. This specialised culture is largely based upon the use of the tule reed for hut-building, basketry, and other purposes. Their food is procured from the lakes on the shores of which they dwell, and for this purpose they use a peculiar duck arrow, fish- ing and bird nets, hooks of bone, and dug-out canoes. Stone implements, such as mullers, mortars and pestles, or mauls, are in common use. But many of these are relics of earlier Indian tribes, and their gradual disappear- ance before a culture based upon the use of metals is” shown by the fact that they are now largely used as charms in medicine and gambling. A man, for instance, will take a large obsidian knife or spear-point, and, after reciting a charm, will place it under the mat on which a game is being played to ensure good luck. Fire is pro- cured with a drill consisting of a piece of dry. willow root twirled in a base block of cedar wood, for which purpose the canoe paddle is very commonly used. Unper the editorship of Messrs. W. M. Webb and E. S. Grew, Knowledge is much improved in general appearance, and, if we may judge from the July number, in the character of its contents. In one of the articles, the Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing urges that the gender of all generic names in zoology should be regarded as masculine, mainly on account of the difficulty of deciding as to the true gender of many of the terms now in use. WE have been favoured with a copy of the report of the Danish Oceanographic Expedition during the winter of 1908-9, under Dr. J. Schmidt, published in Geografisk Tidskrift (20, B.H. vi., 1910, pp. 243-55). The area sur- veyed extends from Iceland through the North Sea on the one hand, and along the eastern border of the Atlantic on the other, into the Mediterranean as far east as Greece. The report is illustrated with bathymetric tables of tem- perature and salinity in different parts of the area, and likewise with a chart of the isotherms and ‘‘ isohalines ” on the two sides of Gibraltar. The dissimilarity between the distribution of isothermal and isohalic areas in the latter region is very striking and curious. DETERMINATE evolution in the colour-pattern of “* lady- beetles’? forms the subject of an elaborately illustrated memoir by Mr. R. H. Johnson, published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington (Publication No. 122). Lady- birds, to give these beetles their ordinary name, were selected for the purpose of this investigation on account of their abundance, the facility with which they can be reared in confinement, their distribution, and the circumstance that they were recently, and perhaps still are, in an active state of evolution. Members of the leaf-eating epilachnine group were chosen for special study as being easier to rear than the aphid-eating forms. As regards the object of the colouring of the Coccinellide, the author accepts the view that it belongs to the warning, or aposematic, type. No single pattern can at present be recognised as forming the ancestral type, and it is evident that Eimer’s laws of pattern-development are inapplicable to the present case. “* Natural selection, if at all active, is principally conserva- tive of the spotted pattern. In spite of this, determinate variation, largely actuated by the effect of the environment on the germ-plasm, and probably preponderance as well, have accomplished marked evolution of the pattern from this condition. Evolution proceeds by waves as well as by Jury 22, 1910] NATURE 117 even flow and by mutation in different characteristics at different times.” In the Scientific American of July 2, Mr. W. L. Beasley describes, with large-size illustrations, the method em- ployed in the American Museum of Natural History, New York, of mounting the skins of large mammals on specially prepared models, or ‘‘ manikins,’’ which in some cases are based on clay statuettes of living specimens. After being roughly modelled, the manikins are carefully finished by artists, and the skins fitted upon them, the method being illustrated in the case of an East African zebra, or bonte- quagga, and a hippopotamus. The article specially relates to the collection of large mammals obtained by the expedi- tion to East Africa under Mr. Roosevelt. The director of the museum, Dr. Bumpus, has planned a comprehensive and striking exhibition of African mammals, to be, in due course, displayed in the buildings under his charge. The main part of this exhibit is destined to be shown in a series of new halls about to be added to the west wing of the museum, but some specimens will be used to fill gaps in the existing series. The cost of the additions to the building is to be defrayed by Mr. Samuel Thorne, who has already done much for the museum. Unless funds are forthcoming for the addition of a new north-west wing to our own Natural History Museum, that institution will be altogether beaten by New York in the show of big-game animals. Tue July number of the Selborne Magazine, with which Nature Notes is now incorporated, contains an abbreviated report of the lecture delivered by Mr. J. Buckland on June 17, at the annual meeting of the Selborne Society, on the traffic in feathers and the need for legislation in connec- tion with the same. To the same issue Mr. Buckland communicates an illustrated article on illegal practices in the feather-trade, dealing especially with India. It is pointed out that, in 1903, the Indian Government prohibited the exportation of the skins and feathers of birds, except those of domesticated species and ostriches, together with natural-history specimens. This prohibition, according to the author, is, however, to a great extent evaded by feathers being shipped as cow-hair, horse-hair, or sill material. One such consignment of ‘‘ cow-hair’’ was opened by the custom-house officers at the London Docks in 1908, and found to contain more than 6000 paraquet-skins ; but as these were not contraband, they were, after some delay, handed over to the consignee. Further investigation proved that, during a previous period of cight weeks, no fewer than twenty-three cases of bird-skins had been landed in London under false declarations. The author sums up as follows :—‘‘ A vast number of the feathers which are used in the millinery trade in Great Britain are able to be brought into her ports only by means of false declarations, which are a direct evasion of the law, and which declara- tions are made deliberately for the purpose of deceiving ship captains and the customs authorities of the countries from which the feathers are shipped.’’ Tue fourth part of Bulletin No. 82 of the Entomological Bureau of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is devoted to an account, by Mr. W. B. Parker, of the life-history and the means of controlling the hop flea-beetle (Psylliodes punctulata), which has of late years done much damage to hops in British Columbia. The species, which is widely distributed over the northern United States, and ranges into southern Canada, normally feeds on rhubarb, sugar- beet, and a few other plants, and was not known as a serious pest until a few years ago, when it began to NO. 2126, VoL. 84] devastate the hop-gardens in certain parts of British Columbia. When hop-cultivation commenced in the Chilliwack Valley in 1894, the beetle was noticed, but did little harm until 1903, when it appeared in force. From 1904 until 1908 the numbers of these insects gradually in- creased, attaining their maximum in the year last named. ““As soon as the hops began pushing through the ground, the beetles were observed swarming around the vines, giving the soil in the immediate vicinity a black metallic appearance. These swarms of flea-beetles devoured the hop-shoots as fast as they appeared, and in places where the vines were a foot or more on the string the attack was so severe that in a few days the field looked as if it had been burned. The infestation resulted in a loss of about 75 per cent. of the crop.’’ Tueories of life we have in plenty; it is somewhat a novelty to come across a pamphlet in which we have a theory of death propounded (‘‘ Das Altern und der physiologische Tod.” By M. Miihlmann. Published by G. Fischer, Jena. Price 1.20 marks). The occurrence of physiological death is comparatively rare; most human beings die of accident, under which term disease is, of course, included; very few pass unscathed from such accidents, and die of simple old age, a gradual slowing down and final stoppage of life’s machinery. But when it does occur, Dr. Mihlmann’s theory is that it is due primarily to changes in the nerve cells, and that the run- down of the other organs is produced secondarily by changes in the ruling system of the body, the nervous system. Moreover, this degenerative change, which becomes evident to the microscope as a formation of pigmentary and lipoid granules, begins quite early in life; from one point of view, therefore, it is a form of growth which produces death, and considerable importance is laid by the author upon granules in cells as an essential protoplasmic con- stituent. The brochure contains many interesting data, such as the rate of growth of the different organs in various periods of life, and this, together with his views on the phenomena of regeneration, will amply repay careful perusal. A NUMBER of the Bulletin du Jardin Imperial Botanique, St. Petersburg (vol. ix., part ii.), is devoted to a paper on lichens by Mr. A. N. Danilov, in which he adduces morpho- logical evidence opposed to the theory of a mutually advan- tageous symbiotic union of alga and fungus. In the summary the author states that his results confirm the evidence of Peirce and Schneider with regard to the close investment of the algal gonidia with a net of hyphal threads, and the complete absorption of the contents of the gonidial cells. ARISING out of a demand from members of the Man- chester Microscopical Society for specimens illustrative of marine zoology, a quarterly publication, the Micrologist, has been initiated by Messrs. Flatters, Milborne, .and McKechnie, of Manchester, which will contain directions for manipulations of such specimens, and thereby take the place of instructions that would otherwise be required. The specimens will be issued quarterly with the journal, and mounted preparations will also be available for purchase. A NEW volume—the fifth—of the Circulars of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Ceylon, opens with a report on the tea | plots at the Peradeniya experiment station, and subsequent numbers deal with ‘‘ Rubber in the Early Days ’”’ and a visit to a rubber factory. In the last named, Dr. J. C. Willis gives an account of a visit to the large factory in Hanover. With regard to the tea experiments, the chief 118 NATURE point is the proved value of green manuring, for which purpose Erythrina spp. (Dadap) and Crotalaria striata were ‘found to be most suitable. Tur exhibition at Shepherd’s Bush has naturally ‘created an interest in the methods and craft of ‘‘ Japanese gardens." Judging from an illustrated article in the July number of Irish Gardening, a typical and most successful example of such a garden has been laid out at the Tully nurseries, Kildare, which to those interested would certainly wepay a visit. It is explained that such gardens are purely pleasure resorts, and therefore the practice displayed therein is entirely distinct from the methods adopted in ordinary and agricultural gardens, in which the Japanese are fully alive to the value of intensive cultivation. Tue first three numbers of the current volume of the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society contain a detailed examination of trade routes in the economic geo- graphy of Bolivia, by Prof. Isaiah Bowman. The author deals at length with the resources and population of Bolivia in relation to the natural features of the country, and concludes that, in spite of the fact that 90 per cent. of Bolivia drains to the Atlantic and 10 per cent. is interior ‘basin drainage with no outlet whatever to the Pacific, nevertheless, geographical position and the distribution of ‘resources and climate are here equally powerful factors ‘with topography. The Atlantic slope, and not the Pacific slope, is, and will long remain, the back door to Bolivia ; for the section of the country in which the population is found looks to the Pacific, and the first essential of all the trade routes is a short line to the coast. Mr. W. JoERG examines the present state of our know- ledge of the tectonic lines of the northern part of the ‘Cordillera. of North America in a paper published in the Bulletin of the American ‘Geographical Society (p. 161). Basing his discussion chiefly on the summary contained in the final volume of Suess’s ‘‘ Antlitz der Erde,’’ the -author suggests the recognition of the Alaskides, as a separate province of major rank, as a subdivision of the Cordillera. This would give three divisions: the northern ‘Cordillera or Alaskides, the central Cordillera, and the southern Cordillera or Lower California and the Mexican Highland. The boundary between the first and second would be the zone of coalescence, and between the second and third the depression along Salton Sink, the Gila, and the Rio Grande. THE director-general of Indian observatories has issued a memorandum, dated June 9, on the meteorological con- ditions prevailing before the south-west monsoon of 1910 (June to early October). Dr. Waller has pointed out that the rainfall in India brought by this monsoon is apparently affected by previous conditions over a large part of the earth’s surface, and that it is only when these are strongly favourable or otherwise that a definite forecast is justified. One of the many favourable signs is, as a rule, the pre- valence of high barometric pressure in South America and of low pressure in the Indian Ocean prior tothe period of the monsoon. At Buenos Aires pressure was in excess in March, ‘April, and May last, but in the Indian Ocean con- ditions appeared to have been, on the whole, slightly unfavourable. From these and other factors specified in the memorandum the inferences drawn are that there appears to be no cause for expecting a large excess or defect in the total amount of monsoon rainfall. The rains are likely to be less steady than usual, especially those due to the Arabian Sea current. Rainfall due to the Bay cur- rent is likely to be, on the whole, more plentiful’ by com- No. 2126, vou. 84] ] [Juty 28, 1910 parison with the normal than that due to the Arabian Sea current. At the international meteorological conference at Inns- bruck (September, 1905) Prof. Hellmann stated that the important question of the comparison of the barometers of the various meteorological institutes had engaged the atten- tion of several conferences, but had not been solved in a satisfactory manner. Dr. Képpen also pointed out that so long as the differences between barometric standards are unknown, discontinuities arise when isobars are drawn for large areas. The conference finally arranged that the necessary work involved by such comparisons should be subdivided among the chief institutes, and the result of the part undertaken by the Prussian Meteorological Office is contained in one of the useful papers by Dr. Hellmann in the report of that institute for 1909. The comparisons of the standards at the central offices of the various German and some foreign systems show that at some stations (especially Potsdam and Ziirich) the barometers agreed closely with the Berlin instrument, while others showed + differences of appreciable amount, the greatest being 0-246 mm. (nearly o-o1 inch). The larger differences are thought to be due to the mercury having become unclean; at all events, the results have justified the expense and care bestowed upon the somewhat laborious work. WE have received separate copies of several papers by Prof. S. Lussana, of the University of Siena, which have appeared recently in Il Nuovo Cimento. One of them deals with the coefficients of compressibility and of dilata- tion with temperature of certain pure metals and alloys. _ The coefficients were measured by means of a dilatometer containing the material enclosed in a metal case. The change of volume was measured by the change of resist- ance of a platinum wire in the capiltary tube of the dilato- meter as mercury was forced along the tube by the con- traction of the material. The values obtained allow the difference between the specific heats at constant pressure and temperature, respectively, to be calculated. For pure metals the difference increases as the temperature rises, but for alloys it in general decreases. In nearly all cases it decreases with increase of pressure. The bearing of Prof. Lussana’s work on the improvement which has been introduced into the law of Dulong and Petit by the sub- stitution by Prof. Richarz of the specific heat at constant volume for that at constant pressure will be obvious to our readers, In an article on the renewal of sulphated storage cells, reproduced from the Electrical World in the Electrical Review for July 1, Mr. J. O. Hamilton describes a method of dealing with such cells which has proved very successful at the Kansas State College. If on test the efficiency of a cell sinks to 50 per cent. or lower, the plates are re- moved and washed thoroughly with distilled water. They are then placed in a cell containing a 2 to 5 per cent. solution of caustic soda in water, and the charging current sent through the cell in the usual way. If the sulphate on the positive plate does not disappear in the time of the ordinary charge, and the solution gives an acid reaction with litmus paper, more caustic soda must be added to the solution, and the charging continued until the plate has the usual chocolate appearance. The plates should then be removed from the soda solution, well washed,’ replaced in the sulphuric acid solution, and the charging continued until gassing begins. Many cells have had their efficiencies raised from 25 to 75 per cent. by six hours’ charge, and Mr. Hamilton considers that any cell which will still hold together will well repay treatment by this method. “s Jury 28, 1910] Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity for June contains an article by Dr. L. A. Bauer and Mr. W. J. Peters in which the complete magnetic results of the first cruise of the Carnegie are given. After an extensive series of tests of the vessel at Long Island, it was found that a determination of any magnetic element could be made on it with an absolute accuracy not far behind that attained by experienced observers on land. This conclusion was confirmed by further observations made at Falmouth at the end of the trip across the Atlantic. The observations made at sea show that the present charts of the Atlantic require revision, as they show compass variations which are in many cases more than 1° in error, and in some cases more than 2°. These errors appear to have been introduced by the application of a correction for secular variation at points at which no determinations of that quantity had been made. A further paper by Mr. E. Kidson deals with the observations of electrical conductivity and of radio-activity of the atmosphere made during the cruise. The con- ductivity was determined by means of a Gerdien apparatus, and always proved low in the neighbourhood of land, and persistently higher for positive than for negative electricity. At night the conductivity appears to be nearly constant, and about double what it is during the day. It will be seen that these observations are likely to render some modifica- tions of the current theories of atmospheric electricity necessary. The radio-activity was determined by the nega- tively charged exposed wire method, the decay of activity of the wire being observed by means of an electroscope. It appears to be due to radium emanation and to be derived from the land. A “Suort History of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia’’ has been prepared by Dr. Edward J. Nolan, recording secretary and librarian, and published by the academy. This sketch of the academy’s activities is to be regarded as preliminary merely to a detailed history to be issued in connection with the proposed celebration of the centenary of the academy in i1g12. The academy accomplishes its work in four departments—the library, the museum, the publication office, and the department of in- struction and lectures. The library, exclusively for refer- ence, now contains about 60,000 volumes, almost entirely on the natural sciences; in many respects it is the most important collection of the kind in America. It is claimed for the academy’s museum that it is one of the most important in existence. The vertebrate animals number about 130,000 specimens, 12,000 being mammals, 60,000 birds, 20,000 reptiles, and 40,000 fishes. The insects are estimated at nearly 400,000 specimens, and the shells at a million and one-half. There are in the cases 50,000 speci- mens of fossils, 30,000 minerals, 20,000 pieces of archzo- logical material, and more than 600,000 preparations of dried plants. The remaining departments are equally extensive and enterprising. The academy has twice received appro- priations from the State legislature, 4oool. in 1905 and 30,0001. in 1908. A VALUABLE supplement to the meteorological observa- tions undertaken by the University, Manchester, has been described by Messrs. Hayhurst and Pring under the title “Examination of the Atmosphere at Various Alti- tudes for Oxides of Nitrogen and Ozone,’’ in the Journal of the Chemical Society. Previous estimates of the amount of ozone have ranged from 0-01 to 31-6 milligrams per cubic metre for the mjnimum quantity found, and from 0-03 to 158-0 for the maximum quantity, figures which appear to indicate a range of experimental error in the ratio of 3000 to 1. The very high values found by several NO, 2126, VoL. 84] NATURE 119 observers are no doubt due to the catalytic action of oxides. of nitrogen upon potassium iodide solutions exposed to air, whereby a mere trace of oxide may act as a “‘ carrier ’” of oxygen to an indefinitely large quantity of iodide; the similar action of sunlight in promoting oxidation of the iodide is also important as a further source of error. Im the experiments now described, air was blown through bulbs containing potassium iodide either at ground-level or attached to kites or balloons; the bulbs were protected from light, and the presence of ozone was inferred, not from the mere liberation of iodine, but from the produc- tion of alkali and iodate. When this criterion was employed, it was found that whilst oxides of nitrogen were present in variable proportions, the amount -of ozone at ground-level and at altitudes up to 8000 feet was less than 0-003 mg. in 1 to 10 cubic metres, or less than 1 part by. volume in 4,000,000,000 parts of air. At very high alti- tudes, up to ten miles, small amounts of ozone were detected, the quantity found averaging 0-04 milligram im 0-1 to 0-3 cubic metre of air, or 1 part in 3,000,000 to: 9,000,000 by volume. These experiments are of value as showing that the presence and merits of ozone in the fresh air of sea and country are as much a matter of fiction as the substantial excess of oxygen which was dis- covered by over-zealous investigators prior to the researches of Cavendish; in fact, the only method of enjoying the effects of atmospheric ozone appears to be by ascending in a free balloon, which bursts and descends as a para- chute after rising to a height of several miles. CoMMENTING on the Bournemouth Aviation Meeting, Engineering for July 22 remarks that perhaps the most interesting feature of the meeting from the technical point of view is the fact that all the best performances were done with aéroplanes fitted with the Gnome rotary engine. In fact, it seemed as if no machine which was not fitted with this engine had any chance of success. All engines of other types appeared to give trouble, and not to be able to furnish the desired power for any long time at a stretch. In some cases the trouble was hot bearings, especially big ends. In others the engine appeared simply not to be able to maintain its power, and, after flying a short distance, it could not sustain the machine in the air. The perform: ances of the English engines were disappointing. A NEw book by Dr. Berry Hart, of Edinburgh, entitled “Some Phases of Evolution and Heredity,”’ will be issued very shortly by Messrs. Rebman, Ltd. We have received from Messrs. Friedlaender, 11 Karl- strasse, Berlin, a copy of the third part of a catalogue of entomological books and papers, this being devoted to Lepidoptera; also a catalogue of books on natural history, sports, travel, &c., offered by Mr. B. H. Blackwell, 50 Broad Street, Oxford. Messrs. Swan SONNENSCHEIN AND Co., Lrtp., will issue shortly a companion volume to Dr. Theal’s ‘“ History of South Africa,’’ to be entitled ‘‘ The Yellow and Dark Skinned People of Africa.”” This will contain a summary of all that is included in Dr. Theal’s ‘‘ History and Ethno- graphy of South Africa” (3 vols.), and is especially in- tended for the use of ethnographical students. Tue latest addition to the series of ‘‘ Savants du Jour,”’ published by M. Gauthier-Villars, of Paris, deals with the life and work of Prof. Emile Picard, of the University of Paris. Prof. Picard was born in Paris on July 24, 1856, and his biography, as here written by M. Ernest Lebon, shows a growing regard from his school-days for algebra and mathematical analysis, which eventually led in 1897 to 120 NATURE [Jury 28, 1910 his appointment to the chair in these subjects in the Uni- versity of Paris. .The list of Prof. Picard’s works and papers on mathematical subjects occupies a very large part of the memoir, which also contains an appreciation of his work by Prof. Henri Poincaré, delivered in 1888 in pre- senting him with the grand prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences for Mathematical Science. Tue first issue of a new annual, entitled ‘‘ The Green Book of London Society,” has been received. Its sub- title describes the volume as a directory of the Court, of society, and of the political and official world, including celebrities in art, literature, science, and sport, with many other subjects of current interest. The editors of the com- pilation are Mr. Douglas Sladen, who, it will be remem- bered, compiled ‘‘ Who’s Who,’”’ and Mr. W. Wigmore. Under science are given lists of some men of distinguished eminence in the London scientific world, with the researches and discoveries which have made them famous; the most important scientific and engineering institutions ; and some of the chief scientific periodicals. The book runs to 487 pages, and is published by Messrs. J. Whitaker and Sons, Ltd., at 5s. net. Tue sixth edition, revised, of Dr. Bernard Dyer’s small handbook on ‘‘ Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs: their, Properties and Uses,” has just been published by Messrs. Crosby Lockwood and Son, price one shilling net. Short descriptions have been added of the two new fertilisers— nitrate of lime and calcium cyanamide—in which atmo- spheric nitrogen is fixed, but the practical disadvantages of their use are pointed out. Of the former Dr. Dyer remarks :—‘‘ It has a serious practical disadvantage in its deliquescent property, which makes it necessary to sow it immediately the air-tight packages in which it is sent out are opened, and it cannot be conveniently sown in moist weather.’’ Calcium cyanamide is also unpleasant to sow. Dr. Dyer’s book is a manual from which practical farmers can obtain many useful hints as to profitable procedure in fertilising the soil for different crops and feeding the stock. The text of the Act of 1906, referring to fertilisers and feeding stuffs, is printed in full, together with the regula- tions of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for the pro- tection of farmers from the supply of adulterated materials. ‘OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES IN AUGUST :— Aug. 2, Ith. 18m. Moon in conjunction with Venus. . (Venus 4° 8’ S.). t 8. gh. 11m. , Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). 9g. 6h. 26m. Moon in conjunction with Jupiter 278409: Io. 12h. 46m. Venus and Neptune in’ conjunction. Venus 0° 27’ N. I1—13. Maximum of August Perseid display. Radiant 44457. 14. Venus. Illuminated portion o. disc=o-889. 16. Saturn. Major axis of outer ring=43°21". Minor axis=13°51”. 25. 5h. 46m. Moon in conjunction with Saturn. Saturn 1° 18'S. 27. 14h. 11m. to 14h. 54m, Moon occults 7 Tauri. (Mag. 4°3). 28. 10h. 53m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). 30. 1th. Mercury at greatest elongation, E. 27°. SUBJECTIVE PHENOMENA ON Mars.—In No. 4427 of the Astronomische Nachrichten M. Antoniadi returns to the discussion of the objective reality of the dark band seen circling the Martian snowcap. He previously directed attention to the fact that this band was not visible on photographs of the planet, and suggested that its appear- ance during visual observations was simply an effect of NO. 2126, VOL. 84] contrast. This argument was weakened by the possibilitv of photographic ‘* spreading ’’ in the sensitive film being sufficient to account for the obliteration of the dark band. But M. Antoniadi now points out that on the photographs taken with yellow screens’ during the last opposition, the caps are no more intense than the ‘‘ continental ’’ areas, and from this he suggests that ‘‘ spreading ’’ is negligible. Yet the dark band is not to be found on these photographs, and therefore, if the premises are true, it appears that its visibility in visual observations is only a _ subjective phenomenon. Tue GENESIS oF Various LuNaR FraturES.—In_ the Comptes rendus, No. 2 (July 11), M. Puiseux discusses the probable origins of the circles and of the angular outlines of lunar crevasses shown in the polar regions of the moon on the concluding sheets of the great photographic atlas of the moon published by the Paris Observatory. He points out that many of the circles appear in chains, of two or more, parallel or perpendicular to the meridian. | Where two of ‘these circles intersect, the point of junction is marked by a small crater or a considerable elevation, and M. Puiseux believes that this is evidence against Faye’s theory that the bourrelets were formed by repeated periodic overflowings which filled in the circle. Such differences of level as are now revealed would be incompatible with this theory. .On the same plate (Ixvi.) is seen a number of circles aligned on, or across, a meridian, and joined by a high, narrow ridge, and M. Puiseux considers. that these are evidence against the meteoric bombardment theory. Near the northern pole the geometrical contours of circles are exceptional, and angular features predominate. The ridges here are found to be in echelon, and M. Puiseux considers that the sharp angles were formed where previous ejecta prevented the eruptions from following the general line of weakness to which, however, the sub- sequent eruptions returned, thus producing the echelon form. Hattey’s Comet.—A preliminary account of the observa- tions made by an expedition which journeyed to the Pic du Midi to observe Halley’s comet is given in No. 2 of the Comptes rendus (July 11) by MM. G. Millochau and H. Godard. Arrangements were made to photograph, regularly, the comet and its spectrum, but they were sadly interfered with by bad weather. No spectrograms were secured, but several good photographs were taken with a Zeiss ‘‘ astro- planar ’’ lens having a large field. The photograph secured on May 29 showed a bright condensation, detached from the nucleus, which at 2° from the head became broader, and was prolonged some 8° into the tail. The photograph of May 31 shows a secondary nucleus at a distance of 17” from the primary. A long summary of the numerous observations made at different places during the passage of the comet is pub- lished in the July number of the Bulletin de la Société astronomique de France, and is illustrated by a number of drawings and photographs. Tue GNomon 1n ANcIENT AstroNoMy.—AIl who are interested in the early days of astronomical observation will find an article by M. Jules Sagaret, published in No. 17 of the Revue scientifique, full of interest. M. Sagaret discusses at length the réle played by the gnomon in the observations made by the ancient Chinese, Baby- lonians, Egyptians, &c., for the determination of time and season, especially of the solstices, and shows that in a vertical bamboo rod the Chinese of about the second century B.c. found a, comparatively, very effective astro- nomical instrument. Tue Lreps AstTrRoNoMIcAL SocieTy.—The Journal and Transactions of the Leeds Astronomical Society for 1909 (No. 17) shows that this society is endeavouring to popularise the study of astronomy with its wonted vigour. In addition to numerous interesting papers read by members at the meetings of the society, there are a number of reprints of popular articles contributed to various publi- cations. Among these are articles on current phenomena contributed by Messrs. Whitmell, Scriven Bolton, and Ellison Hawks, and a series of articles by Mr. Elgie which appeared in T.P.’s Weekly over the pseudonym SORUR FAIS.” a9 oe ee ee re ee Juty 28, 1910] NATURE WAN RECENT WORK OF GEOLOGICAL SURVEYs.- IV.—Tue Unitep States. HE United States Geological Survey frequently assists research by publications in which definite subjects are dealt with from a comprehensive point of view. The Bibliography of North American Geology for 1906 and 1907 was issued in 1909. A bibliography of Archean and Algonkian geology, divided up under the various States, is 1909), given in Bulletin 300 (pp. 940, in which Messrs. Fic. 1.-—Alluvial flat of Rock Creek Valley, Laramie Basin, looking towards the Pre-Cambrian hills. Van Hise and Leith review the pre-Cambrian geology of | their North America. As the title shows, Canada is included, and the summaries given of published work make this volume welcome in every library of scientific reference. Bulletin 364 (1909) is by Messrs. Darton and Siebenthal on the Laramie basin in south-eastern Wyoming. The name Casper formation is proposed (p. 13) for Carbon- iferous limestones and sandstones resting on pre-Cambrian rocks on both sides of the Laramie Range. The Laramie beds, over which much discussion has arisen, may be re- presented by the highest sandstones and shales of the Cretaceous Montana series, and an unconformity, now widely recognised, occurs between this series and the Cainozoic beds (pp. 35 and 43). The Laramie question, it may be observed, has been recently discussed by Mr. Whitman Cross (Proc. Washington Acad. Sci., vol. Xi., 1909, p. 27), who proposes the name Shoshone Group for the beds elsewhere styled Laramie, but lying above the unconformity. The coloured geological map in the memoir, and the illustrations, show well the character of the broad valley of the Laramie, with its floor 7ooo feet or more above the sea, and gneissic hills rising some 3000 feet higher on the east and west (Fig. 1). Interesting contrasts are afforded in a great variety of strata, especially where Oligocene sands form level ground in hollows of the Archzan rocks of the Laramie range. Mr. D. F. MacDonald, in Bulletin 384, carries us up to the old rocks of the Canadian border in the extreme north of Idaho, where a large series of strata exist that are presumably of pre-Cambrian age. Mr. J. S. Diller (Bulletin 353) describes the Taylorsville region at the north end of the Sierra Nevada in California, and to the south- east of the great cone of Shasta. Compression of the Jurassic and older sediments occurred here in early Cretaceous times; the present Sierra region began to rise, and the Great Basin slipped away from it along faults (p. 108). Though the sea, as happened in so many other areas, returned during the Upper Cretaceous epoch, it did not dominate the’ new mountains; soon after, it became excluded altogether. Elevation continued in the Eocene, and gold-bearing gravels streamed down until the end of the Pliocene, when great warping took place, accompanied by faulting. Hence (p. 110) interesting changes in the drainage-lines occurred, and old valley- floors are traceable that undulate up and down, with bulges 1 Continued fiom vol. Ixxxiii., p. 234, April 21. NO. 2126, vou. 8a] rising 1000 feet. high across the former courses of the streams. In describing the volcanic rocks, which are of various ages, from Silurian to Pliocene, the author uses the terms meta-rhyolite and meta-andesite for types much altered from their original condition (p. 81). The famous Lassen Peak volcano lies a little outside the area now described. Mr. W. T. Lee (Bulletin 352) has explored a part of western Arizona, where the Colorado River emerges from the Grand Canyon and runs southward, forming the State boundary. Fine examples of consoli- dated, and probably Quaternary, con- glomerates and gravels, weathered out into huge bluffs, are given in the plates. The author describes the erosion of valleys that went on in Cainozoic time (p. 58), accompanied by faulting ; then followed the great uplift of the plateau, and renewed excavation by the streams, the Colorado being now driven to carve out the Grand Canyon. The gravel deposits in the broad Detrital-Sacramento valley to the south are 2000 feet thick, and are believed to have been deposited after the erosion of the canyon. The obstacle that checked the southward flow of the river down this valley may have been a barrier of comparatively modern basalt, and the formation of a nearly flat cone of de- position above it allowed the river to wander westward and to start new excavation along its present course (p. 65). During this mext epoch the alluvial conglomerates were eroded into present fantastic outlines (Fig. 2). The history southern valleys, here somewhat modestly pre- must clearly be taken into consideration when we review that of the more famous plateau-region to the north. The coloured geological map, inserted, according to the present useful practice, in the memoir, enables one to follow the arguments, as well as the travels, of the author. It will be noted that the excavation of the Grand Canyon here transferred from Cainozoic to early Quaternary times. of the sented, is Fic. 2.—Bluff of eroded Quaternary Conglomerate, mouth of the Virgin River, Arizona. Mr. Lee also describes the ‘‘ Manzano Group ”’ of marine red sediments in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico (Bulletin 389, 1909). Mr. G. H. Girty deals with the paleontology of these strata, which are now ascribed to the Upper Carboniferous (p. 38). Red beds were deposited in the Rocky Mountain region from Lower Carboniferous to Jurassic times. There seems here a suggestion of the continuity of the bright colour conditions that influence topical and semi-tropical strata at the present day. The 122 fauna includes numerous new species, and a new molluscan genus, Manzanella, allied to Nucula, is estab- lished (p. 75). The stratigraphical simplicity introduced by this systematic piece of work may be realised from the previous reference of the beds to Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic series (p. 11). Mr. M. Prindle’s account of part of the Yukon- Tanana region in Alaska, extending nearly to the Arctic ‘Circle (Bulletin 375, 1909), is interesting for comparison with Canadian work, and has also an economic value. The lignites of the *‘ Kenai formation’’ are placed, with other “‘ Arctic Miocene ’’ deposits, in the Eocene (p. 26). Our old friend Corylus MacQuarrii appears in the flora, which may, of course, prove ultimately to be Oligocene. Professional Paper 61 (1909), by Mr. W. W. Atwood, describes the glacial history of the Uinta. and Wasatch Mountains, which lie to the east of the now desiccated area of the Great Salt Lake of Utah. Here “‘ it is certain that there were at least two ice epochs separated by a long interglacial interval’’ (p. 92). Lake Bonneville sedi- ments rest upon the earlier drift, and are overlain by the later drift, and support is given to Gilbert’s conclusion that “the inter-Bonneville epoch of low water was of greater duration than the time that has elapsed since the final desiccation.’’? The correlation of glacial advance with lake-extension is interesting in connection with the association by Messrs. Davis and Huntington of pluvial flood-gravels in Central Asia with the growth of ice upon the highlands. Mr. Lee, in his Arizona bulletin, referred to above, seeks to connect epochs of erosion in the Colorado basin with those of high water in Lake Bonne- ville, so that we may now realise a good deal of *‘ the face of the earth’’ as it appeared soon after Pliocene times, from the Wyoming border down to the Gulf of California. Mr. G. H. Girty’s memoir on the fauna of the Caney shale of Oklahoma, in which cephalopods are prominent (Bulletin 377, 1909), will interest students of Carboniferous zoning. Professional Paper 58 (1908), a quarto of 652 pages, is by the same author, on the Guadalupian fauna of New Mexico. The Guadalupe mountains are formed of marine limestones and sandstones, the Capitan Limestone in the upper part yielding a scarp reminding one of Tyrol. A large Fusulina, F. elongata, is abundant in the higher beds. The fauna as a whole furnishes a localised type (p. 28), and differs from the Upper Carbon- iferous and Permian faunas of the eastern and most of the western States, while it is younger than beds styled Permian in Kansas. The Guadalupian series is compared most nearly with the Fusulina Limestone of Palermo (pp. 35 and 50), and it is urged that the beds may possibly be younger than the European Permian, although truly of Paleozoic age. New genera of lithistid sponges and calci- sponges are described. Attention is especially directed to the bryozoan species grouped under Domopora, as in- dicating Mesozoic affinities, and throughout the memoir discussions arise which must be considered by workers on Permo-Carboniferous horizons. In Professional Paper 59 (1909) Mr. W. H. Dall describes the Miocene of Astoria and Coos Bay, Oregon, including some Oligocene forms from the Aturia beds. Reprints of rare papers on Cainozoic strata of the Pacific coast are usefully given as appendices. Mr. True (p. 143) contributes an account of the Miocene sea-lion, Pontolis magnus, which has interesting alliances with Eumetopias jubata, still living in the district. The plates of fossils are of exceptional beauty, and include whorl-like groups of a singularly large Crepidula. The Survey has also issued numerous bulletins on economic geology, among which may be mentioned those on -the granites of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island (No. 354); on the Great Falls Coal Field of Montana (No. 356), where the Carboniferous strata con- tain gypsum and the Lower Cretaceous sandstones contain valuable seams of coal; on the Book Cliffs Coal Field of Colorado and Utah (No. 371), where the coal is in the higher beds of the Upper Cretaceous; on the iron ores of southern Utah (No. 338), where igneous intrusions have introduced iron salts into limestone, and where the petro- graphic observations of the geological surveyor (p. 86) have a special bearing on future exploration; and on magnesite in California (No. 355), from which it appears that this NO. 2126, VoL. 84] NATURE [JuLy 28, 1910 mineral is in special demand for refractory bricks and for the production of carbon dioxide, the residue being more valuable than lime. Bulletins 328, 335, 337, and 345 deal with mineral resources in Alaska. In the first of these (p. 151) the famous beach-placers of Nome are described, which were practically exhausted, with great profit, in two years. In No, 335 the level Bering Glacier, a companion of the Malaspina, and also in part forest- clad, is described and illustrated (p. 46). No. 337, by Mr. Prindle, should be read in connection with No. 375, by the same author, noticed above. Professional Paper 62 (1908), by Messrs. Ransome and Calkins, describes the ore deposits of the Coeur d’Aléne district, Idaho. The post-Glacial gravels (p. 77) are in this case referred to the epoch of the dwindling and recession of the ice, which was here localised in cirques and valleys. Lead, silver, zinc, copper, and gold are worked, and the district pro- duces more lead than any other in the United States. The labour-wars in the district, waged with dynamite and rifles, show that the difficulties have not been all due to geological structure. The rich lead-silver ores, ranging through 4000 feet of contorted Algonkian rock, are believed to represent emanations from a great batholite (p. 137), which is represented by sits. uppermost intrusions (monzonite) at various points, ~~ : The papers on water-supply issued by the United States Survey are well known by their brown covers, and usually contain matter of geological as well as of economic import- ance. Two of them have been recently noticed in NaTuRE (vol. Ixxxii., p. 379). No. 223 (1909), by Mr, F. G, Clapp, on the underground waters of S, Maine, includes a coloured geological map and useful illustrations of joint- structures in granite, diorite, and slate. In No. 221 (1909) Mr. C. A. Fisher describes the Great Falls region of Montana, where the Missouri is still fresh and vigorous, and liable to considerable additions when the snow melts off the mountains to the west. The destruction of forests by fire on these high slopes has further increased the risks of flooding. The copious water-supply is now being utilised for a system of. irrigation-canals in the somewhat arid plains to eastward. In No. 220 (1908) Mr. G. A. Waring records a piece of pioneer work in southern Oregon, where no good topographical map previously existed. The.country reminds us of N.W. Europe in Triassic days, with its large shallow lakes, liable to dry up at times, and at others to extend their boundaries, so as to find outlets and swell the diminished streams. Goose Lake has thus been known to flow over southward into Pit River. It receives, in all probability, a considerable supply from subterranean sources (p. 42). The problem of the region, of course, lies in the alkali-lands, where sodium chloride, sulphate, and carbonate may be brought to the surface during irrigation, the carbonate being much the most injurious. Sodium carbonate not only blackens the surface of stems and roots just below the surface, whence its name ‘‘ black alkali,’’ but also deflocculates the soil. References are, of course, made to the bulletins issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and this memoir shows a promising correlation between the work of the Geological Survey and of the Bureau of Soils. No. 225 (1909), by Mr. W. C. Mendenhall, continues the history of the Salton Sea, from its disastrous forma- tion by the drawing in of the Colorado River in 1905 (see Nature, vol. Ixxv., p. sor) to the closing of the gap by the energy of the Southern Pacific Railroad early in 1907. If the work holds, it is estimated (p. 40) that the great lake will have disappeared by evaporation in 1925, to the detriment of the users of ground-waters in the valley to the north-west. This valley, and the Colorado Desert generally, were once occupied by the head of the Gulf of California. The surface of the Salton Sea had fallen to 200 feet below sea-level early in 1907. A remarkable water-line, 40 feet above sea-level, is traceable round the bluffs, and is attributed (p. 18) to an important predecessor of the Salton Sea, formed before the Colorado took up its present course across its delta (Fig. 3). In this rainless region it is estimated that such indications, often accom- panied by deposits of calcium carbonate, have lasted through a thousand years. The same author describes, in Paper 222 (1908), the conditions of the San Joaquin Valley, California, and urges the importance of small farming Jury 28, 1910] NATURE T23 with individual hard work, as carried out by the Italian immigrants, in opposition to the characteristically American ‘‘desire to get rich overnight, to control large holdings, and to avoid personal labour.”’ The warning is also true in regard to English agriculturists in South Africa, and may in time become applicable even to the enormous prairie-lands of Canada. The Geological Survey of New Jersey, in its annual report for 1908 (1909), records its continued cooperation with the Survey of the United States. In a paper on the building-stones of New Jersey, the rocks are excellently illustrated by coloured photographs of polished surfaces, as well as by views of the buildings constructed from them. Toronto Observatory (1907).—The results of the meteor- ological and seismological observations for the year are interesting and valuable. In the annual summary the results are compared with the means for the last sixty-eight years. The mean temperature of 1907, 44-2°, was practically normal ; mean of maxima, 51-6°, of minima, 36-7°. The absolute maximum was 88-8°, in July (highest on record, g9-2°); absolute minimum, —10.0°, in January (lowest on record, —26:5°). The highest solar radiation was 112-3° (June); lowest night radiation, —13-9° (January). The annual rain- fall was 25-56 inches (normal, 26-88 inches) ; depth of snow- fall, 52 inches (normal, 66 inches). Rain fell on too days and snow on forty-seven days. Bright sunshine was re- — Frs. 3.—Old water-line above west side of the present Salton Sea, California. The annual report of the Iowa Geological Survey for 1908 has been received in 1910, and is mainly occupied (pp. 21-687) by a comprehensive series of papers on the coal-deposits of the State. The peat bogs and their flora are described in the concluding papers. (Cie Hse ig: (Ce REPORTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORIES. HE Meteorological Service of Canada (1906).—This report extends to nearly 650 quarto pages; the geo- graphical position, and height above sea where known, of the numerous stations in operation in that year are given, also hourly observations at Victoria, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Montreal. From a monthly chronicle of weather con- ditions it would appear that, generally speaking, fempera- ture was above and rainfall below the normal. Tempera- tures exceeding 100° and below —50° were, as usual, recorded at many stations, the highest being 107°, at Point Clark, Ontario, and the lowest —65:5°, at Dawson City, Yukon. The absence of maps, the impracticability of com- paring data contained in various tables, and the frequent practice of separating rainfall and depth of snow, render it somewhat difficult to obtain a general idea of the characteristics of the year over such a vast area beyond that given by the chronicle referred to. For this purpose the excellent summaries in the Monthly Weather Review, although based chiefly on telegraphic reports, are more convenient. The weather predictions were very successful ; the general total percentage of fulfilment (including partial verifications) varied from 81°3 in November to g2°4 in July, the average being 8673 per cent. ; NO. 2126, VoL. 84] corded on 1921 hours, being 43 per cent. of the possible amount. Bombay and Alibag Observatories (1909).—The equip- ment of these institutions is very complete; the routine operations, which include terrestrial magnetism, meteor- ology, seismology, and astronomical observations, so far as these relate to time-keeping and signalling, are carried out with great minuteness and regularity. The annual rainfall was 71-22 inches, being 3-94 inches below the normal (1873-96); the mean temperature was 78-9°, 0-5” below the average. Milne’s seismograph registered fifty- three earthquakes ; great disturbances occurred on April 11, June 3, July 8, and October 21. The table representing the magnetic character of each day shows there were 149 calm days, 182 days of small, and 34 days of larger dis- turbance. The mean declination was 1° o! 16” E. Helwan Observatory (1909).—The magnetic observations made during the year have been published in pamphlet form by the Egyptian Survey Department. The tables include mean monthly values of the various elements, and hourly deviations from the mean. The mean annual results were :—westerly declination, 2° 49-2’; dip, 40° 40-4’; hori- zontal force, 0-30031 (C.G.S. unit); vertical force, 0-25804. A list is given of the maximum and minimum values of the elements during fifteen of the principal disturbances with a daily range of more tham 100 y in the horizontal intensity (y=o-oooor C.G.S. unit). The greatest disturb- ance was recorded on September 25 (to which we have already referred as regards Kew Observatory). At Helwan the range of horizontal intensity was >585 y (the curve extending below the limit of the photographic sheet), vertical intensity 237 ‘y, declination 38’. The range of horizontal intensity in most of the cases quoted was from three to four times that of the vertical intensity. NATURE 124 [Juty 28, 1910 Royal Prussian Meteorological Institute (1909).—The | The volumes have appeared in the same form for many increasing work during the year was much hampered by the loss of Dr. Sprung and Dr. Kremser, and by the con- sequent changes in the re-organisation of the staff. The institute has now established observations of earth tempera- ture at some of its principal stations, and the results will be published weekly for the benefit of agriculturists. The rain stations (exclusive of ordinary meteorological stations) now number 2637, and the thunderstorm stations 1482. The Potsdam Observatory has greatly increased its activity in respect of atmospheric electricity and other useful re- searches. Dr. Hellmann points out that a considerable improvement has been introduced in the ‘“ Statistical Correspondence ’’ issued for many years by the Statis- tical Bureau (now the lLandesamt), of which the institute was formerly a department. Beginning with January, 1909, that publication has doubled its size, and includes, as an appendix, under the title of ‘* North German Weather Report,’’ monthly observations from forty-three stations supplied by the institute, with a chart showing the distribution of rainfall. The report contains several interesting short discussions, in continuation of the practice introduced in the previous year; we have already referred to one or two of them. The Deutsche Seewarte (1909).—This report is divided into two parts:—(a) general part, containing interesting particulars relating to the staff, the agencies for the supply of instruments, &c., the observers on land and at sea, together with other details; (b) reports of the chiefs of the different departments. By looking through these an idea is gained of the great variety and importance of the work performed under the superintendence of the Seewarte. They include (1) oceanography and maritime meteorology ; in addition to such work as sailing directions and ordinary meteorological charts, daily synoptic weather charts of the North Atlantic and adjacent coasts have for many years been issued in conjunction with the Danish Meteorological {nstitute, and these furnish invaluable data for studying the sequence of weather conditions over western Europe. (2) Verification of nautical, meteorological, and magnetic instruments, both at the Seewarte and at the agencies, of which there are twenty-two, and the determination of the deviation of compasses in iron ships. (3) Weather tele- graphy ; in addition to a very wide distribution of weather telegrams and storm warnings, this branch superintends the agricultural weather service between May and Sep- tember, and conducts experiments from time to time on the possibility of making profitable use of wireless telegrams from ships in the Atlantic. (4) Other branches deal with the testing of chronometers and watches, the collection of materials referring to coasts and harbours for the benefit of navigators, the collection and publication of observations at distant stations, &c. ‘he investigation of the upper air by means of kites is carried out daily when weather per- mits, and the results telegraphed at once to various services ; in the summer half-year the ascents are made at 6h. a.m., and in other months at 8h. a.m.; the altitude attained generally reaches or exceeds 2000 metres. The Sonnblick Observatory (1909).—The_ results of meteorological observations made at the summit of the Sonnblick, 10,187 feet above sea-level, show that the mean temperature for the year was 18-0°; the highest monthly mean was 33-6°, in August (the only month with mean above freezing point); absolute maximum, 48-2°. The month with lowest mean temperature was February, —3:1°; absolute minimum, —23-4°. The total annual pre- cipitation amounted to 61-65 inches, on 233 days; most of this fellas snow; rain only occurred on eighteen days, and hail on three days. Fog was prevalent on 271 days, the least being in January. As in previous years, the report includes observations and interesting details relating to some other mountain observatories and to upper-air research. Norwegian Meteorological Institute (1909).—The observa- tions and results are published in two volumes :—(r1) Meteorological Year-book: The principal tables include hourly readings for Christiania, daily observations for twelve stations, monthly and yearly summaries for sixty stations. (2) Rainfall (and Snow): Daily observations are given for 200 stations, monthly and yearly results for 476 stations, and normal values for the years 1876-1905. NO. 2126, VOL. 84] years, and contain valuable and trustworthy data for an area extending as far north as latitude 71° in the Arctic Ocean. The yearly rainfall varies considerably, according to locality ; the isohyets for 1909 range from 1000-2000 mm. and upwards along the Atlantic coast, with closed areas of 3000 mm., while near the Swedish borders the lines vary from 400-800 mm. and upwards. The methods of measur- ing both rain and snow are explained, with illustrations of the gauges. The Southport Meteorological Observatory (1909).—Every effort is made to render this report as interesting and com- plete as the important position of the establishment on the eastern shore of the Irish Sea warrants. Fifteen carefully prepared tables show the principal results obtained there and at the subsidiary stations at Marshside and Barton Moss; rainfall returns at nine other stations in the district, and a useful tabular comparison between the year’s values of temperature, rainfall, and sunshine at sixty health resorts and ten large towns in Great Britain are included in the report. The outstanding feature of the year was the remarkable coldness of the summer months, due to unusual prevalence of cold polar (N.W.-N.E.) winds, while at other times the centres of depressions frequently passed to the southward of Lancashire, producing miserable, gloomy weather. The mean temperature of the year was 47-4°, 0-8° below the average; the highest shade tempera- ture was 78-4°, on May 21, the lowest 18-0°, on December 21. The greatest daily range was 33-6°, on May 20, and the least 2-0°, on February 4. The annual rainfall amounted to 35-72 inches, 2-82 inches above the thirty-five years’ average. In December precipitation amounted to 5-94 inches, which Mr. Baxendell states was unprecedented, being nearly 3 inches above the mean; but for this the annual amount would barely have equalled the normal. Falmouth Observatory (1909).—The important meteor- ological and magnetical work performed by this institution has been carried out with great assiduity during the year. The observations are supplied to the Meteorological Office (from which it receives an annual grant of 25o0l.), to the National Physical Laboratory, and other organisations. An event of special interest during the year was the visit of the magnetic survey ship Carnegie; the scientific staff of the vessel was furnished with valuable data in connec- tion with the proposed magnetic survey of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The results of the ‘‘ climatological ’’ observations (taken for the Royal Meteorological Society) show that the mean maximum temperatures were 46-4° in February, 69-6° in August; absolute. maximum 80-0°, in August (the highest in that month for twenty-eight years). Mean minimum, 36-8° in March, 55-3° in August; absolute minimum, 26-4°, in February. The annual rainfall was 37-6 inches, nearly 4} inches below the normal. Some interesting details are given of the great magnetic storm of September 25, which disorganised the telegraphic system of this country and parts of the Continent. The mean value of magnetic declination for the year was 17° 48-4’ W. Observatory Department of the National Laboratory (1909).—This report shows that the useful work of the observatory to which it refers continues to expand; this is especially noticeable in the verification of instru- ments (exclusive of watches and chronometers), the total number being 41,318, .nearly 11,000 more than in the previous year, and including 25,861 clinical thermometers. The meteorological observations call for no special remark ; the automatic records are tabulated for each hour, and are published in detail by the Meteorological Office, as one of its principal observatories. The chief magnetic disturb- ances took place on January 3, 30-31; March 19, 28-29; May 14, 18; September 25, 30; and October 19; the most remarkable was that of September 25 (see Nature, Sep-, tember 30, 1909). As in previous years, a table is given of the magnetic elements at a number of observatories, and. reports of the results at Falmouth and Valencia. The largest seismic disturbances occurred on January 23 (earth-, quake in Persia), July 30 (earthquake in Mexico), and October 20-21. An account of the work at the affiliated observatory at Eskdalemuir, Dumfries, N.B., is included in the report; we note that some useful researches on Physical | Juty 28, 1910] NATURE 125 atmospheric electricity and on solar radiation are being carried out there. In our issue of June 23 we referred to the important changes that were being carried out in connection with the control of the two observatories at Richmond and Eskdalemuir. 4 SCIENCE AT THE JAPAN-BRITISH EXHIBITION. THE arrangement of the British Science Section at the Japan-British Exhibition differs considerably from that of the Franco-British Exhibition. At the latter exhibition a separate annexe was set aside for science which made it comparatively easy to arrange the exhibits uniformly ; but although the building was close to the entrance, the majority of the public passed it by and went straight through to the grounds. The fact is, the average man is rather afraid of anything called scientific, and unless he is brought to examine such an exhibit unawares is very apt to fight shy of it. Yet it was noticeable that those who did go into the building, even if they had no scientific know- ledge, found a great deal to interest them, and frequently stayed a considerable time. This year the Science Section is housed in the upper galleries leading from the Uxbridge Road entrance into the grounds. Consequently, all who go to the exhibition by that entrance, and the majority do, must pass through the Science Section. The exhibits are more broken up than in the Franco-British Exhibition; but this is rather an advantage than otherwise, as it takes away the museum appearance of the exhibit. Another advantage to the public is that there are two special attendants, who are able to explain the exhibits to the public in an intelligent manner. It has also been decided that certain members of the Science Committee shall give short lectures on special subjects in a portion originally intended for a band- stand, which has been curtained off; whether they will attract and keep an audience remains to be seen. Science is so diversified, and its scope so enormous, that it is not possible to give in the space of a short article a comprehensive account of the exhibit which has been collected. Of course, it must be understood that the exhibit is not comprehensive in the sense that it covers the whole range of scientific research; but what it does do is to give to those unacquainted with scientific work an idea as to what is actually done by those engaged in scientific study. The Agricultural Section will be of interest to almost everyone; the South-eastern Agricultural College at Wye exhibits some most interesting specimens and pre- parations showing the various insects, mites, and eel- worms which are injurious to crops and stocks, and ‘in some cases even harmful to man. The largest section is that dealing with the enemies of fruit trees’ and bushes, because the damage done to these is enormous, and has received a great deal of attention. There are, for example, specimens of the various aphides, green and black fly. The insect pests of the hop are also fully illustrated, one of the aphides being the most important, or rather, from the grower’s point of view, the most disastrous. It was very prevalent in 1909, and is calculated to have cost the hop- growers in England 120,000/. in combating the attacks of this insect. Astronomy is well represented, the section comprising a large number of old astronomical, nautical, and horological instruments. Examples are shown of the peculiar wooden Davis quadrant employed by the navigators in the time of Elizabeth for the determination of latitude. The Royal Astronomical Society shows, among other things, a reflect- ing telescope made by Sir William Herschel; also a sextant, formerly ‘the property of Captain. Cook. The transparencies of photographs of the southern heavens made by Mr. Franklin-Adams seem to attract considerable attention, and are indeed worthy of it. The Solar Physics Observatory exhibits a large number of photographs of stellar spectra taken with different instruments. There are also photographs of ancient British stone monuments which Sir Norman Lockyer has investigated and shown their astronomical connection. The -history of fire-making, illustrating the gradual evolution of the match, is very interesting, and is probably NO. 2126, VoL. 84] one of the most complete exhibits of its kind which has ever been shown. ‘The exhibit includes fire drills, tinder, pistol tinder-box, and a brass fire piston. In order to operate this latter a little tinder was placed in a small cavity at the end of the piston; the piston was then rapidly com- pressed, and the sudden compression of the air caused sufficient heat to ignite the tinder. Optical, electrical, and chemical methods are also illustrated, and one of the first friction matches, made by John Walker, of Stockton-on- Tees, is shown. One of the largest sections is oceanography ; this section is mainly: designed to show the progress of oceanography within the past forty years. Before the Challenger ex- pedition in .1870, very little was known as to the depths of the ocean, and there was practically nothing known about the ocean beds. Specimens of the method of sound- ing. are shown, also recording thermometers for ascertain- ing the temperature of the ocean at any depth. The series of hydrographical charts shown are intended to illustrate the process of construction of a chart from a sheet of blank paper until it is printed and is ready to be issued to the fleet. There is a very complete exhibit of compasses, which comprises specimens used in H.M. ships from 1765 to the present day. In the days when very little iron was used in the construction of ships, the errors of induced and permanent magnetism were very slight, but with the construction of iron vessels alterations had to be made in the construction of the compasses, and specimens of these compasses are shown. Biology is very well represented; there is an interesting series of photographs illustrating the origin of the domestic breeds of horses. An exhibit of particular interest is one of the parasites which cause grouse disease, also a series of charts illustrating the method of systematic research into the conditions of life in the sea, which is the only. true method for any attempt to improve the fishing industry. There are also interesting specimens illustrative of the parental care of fish. One fish carries its own eggs in its mouth, while another has an abdominal pouch like that of a kangaroo, in which the young seek refuge; but there is so much to see and so many things one would like to mention that we must pass forward with the words go and see, as there is very much more of interest. : The chemistry exhibit ranges from artificial silk to sections of ships’ propellers, showing the erosion produced on different alloys. There is the handsome exhibit of nickel produced by the Mond process, oils from all over the world collected by Sir Boverton Redwood; an original example of mauve, electrochemical preparations, pharmaceutical products, and preparations of dye products from the University of Leeds. The Physics Section is very representative, and includes apparatus in connection with mechanics, heat, optics, electrical measuring instruments, and telegraphy and tele- phony. The electric micrometer of Dr. P. E. Shaw is shown, which, by means of a train of levers, an elec- trical contact, and a telephone, enables movements of 100,000,000th inch to be detected. A seismograph is shown, and in connection with it records of earthquakes taken in London and the Isle of Wight. Much attention has of late been devoted to rubber testing and its mechanical properties ; in this connection the hysteresis rubber-testing machine of Prof. Schwartz is shown. Under heat, there is a model of the calorimeter used by Joule in his work on the mechanical equivalent of heat, and near by it the most recent example of the Boys calorimeter for testing the calorific value of gases. Electrical instruments make an exceedingly fine display, amongst which may be mentioned Dr. Drysdale’s potentiometer for measuring alternating and direct currents, the Duddell twisted strip ammeter, and a number of X-ray apparatus. In the Geological Section there are some specimens of voleanic rocks from Antarctica, obtained during the recent South Polar Expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton. ~ The rocks were collected. on Ross Island by Dr. Priestley, and consist principally of lavas belonging to the type known as kenyte. The important subject of geological surveying and mapping. is exhibited. historically, one of William Smith’s maps of nearly a century ago being exhibited by Mr. F. W. Rudler, ° 126 NATURE [JuLy 28, 190 Under arithmetic and mathematics, models of surfaces and of crystals are shown; also the calculating machine of the late Charles Babbage, electrical machine for solving equations, and electromagnetic device for solving equations. It has only been possible to direct attention briefly and imperfectly to the scope of the science exhibit, but this will perhaps serve to give an idea to those interested in science and cause them to visit and examine it in detail. In conclusion, mention should be made of the anthropological exhibit, an interesting feature being that a small space has been set aside for the actual taking of measurements, so that certain particulars of those attending the exhibition can be taken and data added to the large collection already obtained. I) ieee THE PROGRESS OF CANCER RESEARCH. ‘T HE annual meeting of the general committee of the - Imperial Cancer Research Fund was held at the Royal College of Surgeons on July 20, Mr. A. J. Balfour being in the chair. Sir William Church presented the annual report, and gave an able exposition of its most. salient features. The Duke of Bedford, who has been a strong financial supporter of the fund from its foundation, was elected president. Mr. A. J. Balfour moved a vote of thanks to the members of the various committees, and to Dr. Bash- ford and his staff. Mr. Balfour’s remarks were mainly directed to the layman, and have received such wide publicity in the daily papers that we need not quote them in full, well as they will bear quoting. Mr. Balfour emphasised the progress made since he presided in July, 1903, and directed attention to the caution characterising the statements emanating from the laboratory, urging the need for patience upon the public, the members of which are not always able to comprehend that the slow progress made by scientific methods is the only progress that can legitimately be expected. Mr. Balfour emphasised the fact that heredity has been shown to be not of main importance, meaning thereby, we infer, that the congenital germ-theory of cancer has been discarded for good, in view of the facts elicited by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund on the association of cancer with peculiar irritants in human races practising peculiar customs, and in some animals. Emphasis may be laid upon this point; in India, draught- cattle are liable to cancer at the root of the left horn, not of the right horn; cancer of the skin of the abdomen is only frequent in the Kashmiris who wear the ‘* Kangri,”’ or charcoal fire-basket; cancer of the floor of the mouth is only frequent in women who chew betel-nut. Surely these peculiar incidences of cancer are not due to ‘a different distribution of congenital germs in the right than in the left horn of cattle, or in the abdominal skin of Kashmiris other than that in other races, any more than is betel-nut cancer due to a peculiar accumulation of con- genital germs in the mouths of those women who chew betel-nut. All these forms of cancer could almost certainly be greatly diminished if the parts attacked were not irritated. Advance in knowledge must yield information regarding other more obscure forms of cancer. Another point emphasised by Mr. Balfour was his belief in the reason- ableness of expecting that the cure and prevention of the dissemination of transplanted cancer, as announced in the report, foreshadows similar achievements for original cancer, although perhaps so much may not be attained in his lifetime. The other business was purely formal. The report itself states that King George has consented to become Patron of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in succession to His late Maiesty King Edward VII., who was so largely responsible for its inception, as well as for inciting the modern crusade against cancer, and who in July, 1901, when opening the congress on tuberculosis, stated :—‘* There is still one other terrible disease which has, up till now, baffled the scientific and medical men of the world, and that is cancer. God grant that before long you may be able to find a cure or to check its course, and I think that to him who makes the discovery a statue should be erected in all the capitals of the world.” The appeal which the investigations of the Imperial NO. 2126, VOL. 84] _ taneously. Cancer Research Fund make to students throughout the world is exemplified by the number of foreign voluntary. workers attracted to its laboratories. They have flocked to them from Germany, Italy, Belgium, Norway, Austria- Hungary, Roumania, the United States, Holland, and Japan, and many now hold independent appointments abroad. Thus the British national investigations on cancer may be said to have fulfilled their immediate purpose in that the English school of cancer research commands world-wide confidence, which we hope will be confirmed and extended by the director’s necessarily technical report, from which we give below extracts of a few important passages. The report makes no pretence to appeal to the man in the street who wishes to know if the cause, the cure, or the means of preventing cancer have been discovered. Nevertheless, to all with, ‘‘inside’”’ knowledge, the pro- gress made by the indirect method of attack—by the intelli- gent sapping and mining of hitherto unassailable citadels— must appear full of encouragement for the future. Cancer in Vertebrates. Much additional information has been obtained on the occurrence of cancer in lower vertebrates. It is gratify- ing to record that the systematic investigation of cancer in the animal kingdom has found numerous adherents both at home and abroad. Particular attention has been devoted’ to the incidence of the disease in cattle and in mice. While in mice the phenomena are presented in miniature even in their most advanced stages, in cattle they are demonstrated oa a magnified scale as compared with man, although the universal minuteness of the early stages is independent of the size of the animal. In the course of the past six months, ninety cases of malignant new growths in cattle were obtained from a single abattoir. The histological’ types comprise the majority of the forms met with in man. Breeding Experiments bearing on Heredity and Contagion. The advantages of using short-lived animals for study- ing the possible influence of heredity were pointed out in 1903. The breeding experiments which have been in pro-+ gress for five years have yielded a material of nearly 2000 animals of known age and ancestry. Of these, 700 females, attained the age of six months or more. In them, seventy- five cases of cancer of the mamma have appeared spon- This material is very complete as regards diagnosis of the disease, age, pedigree, and other important” data, and it is now sufficiently large to permit of the most exact analysis of the influence of ancestral constitution om the liability of mice to spontaneous cancer of the breast- Analysed so as to bring out the liability to cancer accord- ing as the young were born before or after it appeared in the mother, the figures show a higher incidence in those born before the mother developed the disease. Since the conditions necessary for contagion were present, the opposite result would have been obtained had any analogy existed between cancer and the recognised infective diseases. Constancy and Variability of Tumour Cells. Tumours growing in a living animal can be protected from all outside influences, and, when propagated in large numbers of young mice of the same strain, the conditions are as constant as it is possible to provide. In these circumstances, it would not be surprising, on the one hand, if tumours showed little or no departure from the features they exhibited at the outset of propagation; on the other hand, it would not have been surprising if tumours widely different in character had tended all to approximate to a common type, in response to the unvarying nature of their environment. What has actually come out is both interest- ing and instructive, in that it shows that the tumour cells possess a relative constancy in their general biological properties, but, at the same time, exhibit an inherent tendency to vary in spite of the constancy of the environ- ment, and therefore apparently for reasons independent of it. Each tumour preserves its individual features, and if there be variation, then the variations likewise are in- dividual. The constancy may be very perfect, so that strains of the same tumour propagated separately for three and four years remain indistinguishable in all their proper- ties. On the other hand, the variations arising may be — _in the dose of the cells able to grow. Juty 28, 1910] NATURE 127 so great and of such constancy that strains propagated separately from the same mother-material would not be suspected to have any relation to one another if submitted to one ignorant of their life-history. In former years we have pointed out that an increase in the rate of growth, or in the percentage of successful inoculations, does not necessarily imply a fundamental biological alteration finding expression in an accelerated rate of proliferation of the tumour cells, but may be ex- plained by the selection of particular cells adapted to the conditions of growth, and, consequently, the survival and proliferation of a larger number of such cells. That is to say, these two phenomena may be explained by an increase The evidence for the acquirement of new properties by tumour cells is very much stronger when one observes the occurrence of morpho- jogical alterations which become of relative constancy, such as the disappearance—or latency—of their typical character- istics in the case of squamous-celled carcinoma, the dis- appearance of acinous structure in the case of glandular carcinoma, the derivation from cubical epithelium of epithelial cells which, if their previous history had not been known, could not have been distinguished from those of a spindle-celled sarcoma. In other cases, the change is made manifest by the alterations taking place in the supporting connective tissue and blood-vessels, so that tumours which at one time exhibited dilated blood-vessels lose this character. Biological alterations occur without evident morphological expression, e.g. some tumours at the com- mencement of propagation, after an initial exuberant growth, disappear in a large proportion of cases, whereas after the propagation is prolonged, a large percentage of ‘the implantations grow progressively! The opposite pheno- menon may also be observed, and tumour strains which grew progressively at the outset of propagation may later be found very liable to disappearance. A tumour which grows well only by the implantation of intact grafts, i.e. if the tissue structure is preserved, can be adapted to trans- plantation as a cell emulsion, and again brought back to ‘its original condition. Of the twenty-nine tumours of the mamma that have been propagated in the laboratory for more than two years, as many as sixteen have shown departures from the features they exhibited at the outset, these departures affecting the degree and nature of the histological differ- entiation, the percentage of successful inoculations, the rate of growth of the resulting tumours, the relative pro- portions of progressively growing tumours and of tumours which undergo spontaneous absorption after transitory growth, the susceptibility of the tumour to method of transplantation, to dose, to race, to age, and to the in- fluence of induced immunity. Thirteen tumours have shown a relative constancy of their structural and biological characters. Of the sixteen variable tumours, nine have varied from the primary condition in both respects: Two have shown biological variations without histological change, and five have altered in microscopical characters without noticeable modification of their biological behaviour. On the whole, therefore, histological character is less constant than bio- logical behaviour. The relative constancy, but still more the variability which the tumour cells exhibit during propagation, throws indirect light of the most suggestive kind upon the nature and the manner of the development of cancer. The variability in a constant environment, during propagation, allows one to infer that corresponding variations may take place while the cells are under the influence of the par- ticular environment provided by the animal in which the tumour developed spontaneously. The environment of the cell will depend on the individuality of the animal, and, with the progress of life, distinctions between one animal and another may become more and more marked. This inference accords with what has been said above on the ease with which auto-transplantation is effected and the difficulty with which transplantation can be effected to another individual, and therefore also with the fact that all cancerous mice do not exhibit an equally suitable soil for tumours in general. + These spontaneous variations of the parenchyma cells of tumours during propagation sucgest that we have here a NO. 2126, vot. 84] repetition, in a minor degree, of the cellular processes responsible for the primary transformation of non- cancerous into cancerous tissue; just as cellular changes occurring during propagation may transform within a brief space of time an acinous growth into a solid one, or a slow-growing tumour into one rapidly proliferating, so in the tissues prior to the development of a malignant new growth the responsive proliferation of cells may pass into the progressive, independent proliferation of cancer. Experimental Sarcoma. In this connection it may also be well to refer again to the production of sarcoma under experimental conditions from what have been the non-malignant connective tissues of carcinoma. Not the least significant aspect of the origin of sarcoma by the transformation of the stroma of transplantable carcinomata is the rarity of its occurrence. Two only of our strains have exhibited it, and the con- clusion seems warranted that in these cases the parenchyma is possessed of peculiar properties. In one of our strains the change occurred only in a small number of animals, and the whole process, from the first indications of sarco- matous changes in the stroma to the substitution of the carcinomatous elements by pure sarcoma, took place slowly, and was only completed after several successive trans- plantations.. In the other strain, the transformation was much more frequent, took place more rapidly, and the disappearance of the carcinomatous element may be com- plete in one transference. In spite of these differences, the parallelism between the histological pictures in the two strains is extremely close, and leaves no doubt of the essential similarity of the processes involved. The stimulus exerted by the carcinoma cells on the stroma must be different in these two strains from that exemplified by the other transplantable tumours, otherwise every trans- plantable carcinoma should end in sarcoma, as it has, indeed, been asserted they might do. A fairly long dura- tion of the stimulus exerted by the carcinoma cells without cessation of their proliferation seems to be necessary, and the first steps of the process are always localised in an extremely minute area of what are often large tumours. The parallel to the circumscribed origin of squamous epitheliomata arising in areas subjected to chronic irrita- tion in man (chimney-sweeps’ cancer, paraffin cancer, Kangri cancer) does not require to be insisted on further, since it has been emphasised in previous years. Immunisation. It is now possible, under given experimental conditions, fo prevent a secondary transplantation, 1.e. artificial metastasis, taking place for certain tumour-strains. This result has been obtained by inserting between the primary and secondary transplantations an inoculation of a very rapidly growing tumour showing only transitory growth, as the following sample experi:nent shows. Of twelve mice, already bearing progressively growing tumours and treated in .the manner described, the secondary inoculation was successful in three only, and then the tumours were very much smaller than in the control consisting of thirteen mice, of which ten developed new progressively growing tumours on secondary inoculation. A similar result can be obtained by the implantation of tumours growing much more. slowly and liable to spontaneous absorption, as well as by an inoculation of normal mouse-tissue. By similar methods the growth of the primary transplanted tumour may be greatly hindered, can be brought to a standstill and the animal cured, in circumstances under which the disease would certainly have progressed, and where the possibility of the occurrence of spontaneous cure can almost certainly be excluded. Thus the control of transplanted cancer has been brought within the region of probability. These achievements must not be confounded _ with successful vaccination against spontaneous cancer arising, or against infectious disease. Animals perfectly protected against the repeated inoculation of cancer may develop tumours of their own—an observation often confirmed. Still more emphatically do we warn against applying to the human subject the methods which, after long perse- verance, have enabled us to arrest the growth, and even to cure, animals of transplanted tumours that were well 128 established, and also to render animals resistant to a secondary inoculation, i.e. to dissemination and metastasis formation. The immunity reactions to transplanted cancer are throughout: clearer and more easily studied than are those of spontaneous cancer, The problems presented by spon- taneous tumours are more delicate and elusive. The methods effectual in normal animals against primary inoculation with transplantable tumour, which, as men- tioned above, also arrest the growth of growing transplanted tumours and prevent successful re-inoculation in suitable circumstances, have been without action on the continued growth of the twenty-five spontaneous tumours on which they have been tested, have failed to prevent recurrence or dissemination, and have not yet prevented a_ successful re-inoculation of the spontaneously affected animal with its own tumour. The investigations must go on until a higher degree of resistance can be obtained in this way, or it may be that an entirely different method must be sought. The expectation of ultimate success seems a fair inference from the results obtained with transplanted tumours which reproduce all the phenomena of growth and . dissemination of spontaneous tumours, and from the rare but undoubted cases in which temporary arrest of growth or total disappearance have occurred in spontaneous tumours. The prospect is made the more hopeful by the discovery of a method whereby an animal can be immunised by means of one of its own tissues against a primary inoculation of a tumour transplanted from another animal. This, again, is a very different matter from immunising an animal against its own tumour. Nevertheless, it illustrates how much that was previously unsuspected is being revealed, as step by step advances are made into yet unexplored regions. Inquiries into the effects which the several tissues of the body may have, either singly or in combina- tion, in inducing protection are being made. Chronic Irritation and Cancer. A practical result arises out of the association of various forms of irritation with the development of cancer in sites where more obscure influences can be excluded, especially from what has been ascertained on the incidence of cancer in native races practising peculiar customs, and on the incidence of cancer in some animals. Experiment has emphasised this relation, and has thrown light upon the mechanism which makes the irritation effective, leading to similar consequences, although the irritants themselves have nothing in common. Recent legislation is thereby justified in the interest of workers employed in circumstances ex- posing particular parts of the body to chronic irritation of peculiar kinds. In 1903-4 the feasibility of obtaining more accurate information of the incidence of cancer in different occupations was before the Statistical Sub-committee. The progress made since renders such an _ investigation still more urgent to-day. It must not be supposed, however, that cancer has been proved to be always the result of irritation. The mediate influence of irritation has only been defined more closely than ever before. MANGANESE MINING IN INDIA.+ HE many uses of manganese in the arts were known long before the metal had itself been recognised. It has been used since prehistoric times as a colouring material, and by primitive Indian smiths as a flux and as an alloy for hardening iron and bronze; and its power as an oxidiser now renders it one of the most important of disinfectants, and a valuable chemical reagent. The metal has an interesting, but uncertain, history; the origin of the name is doubtful, but it appears to have been first used in the sixteenth century as a variant of magnesium, from which it had not been separated; and even after its recognition as a distinct metal by Gahn in 1774, Berg- mann still called it magnesium, though the name man- 1 Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India. Vol. Manganese-Ore Deposits of India. By L. Leigh Fermor. duction and Mineralogy. Pn. xcvii+231. Part ii., Geology. Part iii., Economics and Mining. Pp. 406-610. Survey, 1909.) Price 3 rupees each. NO. 2126, VOL. 84] xxxvil. The Part i., Intro- Pp. 232-405. (Calcutta : Geological NATURE [Jury 28, 1910 ganese, derived from magnésie by the reversal of two letters, had already been used. Manganese is one of the most widely distributed of the metals. According to Mr. F. W. Clark it forms one- thousandth of the earth’s crust, and is the fifteenth of the elements in quantitative importance. Mr. Fermor, accept- ing the number of mineral species as 1000, reports that no fewer than 130 to 140 of them contain manganese as an essential constituent. The manganese minerals are especi- ally conspicuous, as they are mostly found in decomposed rocks upon the earth’s surface; and as manganese salts are easily dissolved, the metal is a common constituent in the ash and latex of plants, and is found in the blood and tissues of many animals. According to Penrose, the pro- portion of manganese to iron in the human body is said to be as 1 to 20. . The increased use of manganese as an alloy has led to a more active search for its ores, with the result that the once important manganese mines of the south of England have been closed owing to the discovery of much larger supplies abroad. The manganese mines of India, accord- ing to native traditions, supplied ores to the Phoenicians, and the local smiths faced their anvils and hammers with manganese steel, which they knew as kheri. It was not, however, until 1892 that India began to produce manganese ores for export, with the small contribution of 685 tons. The ores are abundant in India, especially in the Central Provinces and in the States of Hyderabad and Mysore, and as the deposits are on the surface, and can be worked by shallow quarries, the Indian output increased rapidly until, for the years 1890-1906, it was second only to that of Russia. In 1906, and possibly some later years, India has taken the front place as a producer of manganese ores. The other countries in order of yield are Brazil, Spain, Turkey, Chile, France, Greece, the United States, and Japan, while large quantities of manganiferous iron ores are raised in the United States, Germany, and Greece. The manganese ores of India have frequent but short references in geological literature, but little was known certainly about them until after the discovery of their economic importance. They have now been carefully investigated by Mr. L. Leigh Fermor, of the Geological Survey of India, and he has issued the result of his studies in a monograph that forms a most important addition to the geology and mineralogy of manganese. The Indian mines have added several new species of manganese minerals, amongst which the most important are hollanditg, the crystalline form of psilomelane, and two new species characterised by their striking pleochroism—juddite, a manganese pyroxene, and blanfordite, the corresponding amphiboie. Mr. Fermor also introduces new names for two manganese garnets, grandite, an abbreviation for grossular-andradite, and spandite, for spessart-andradite. Commercially, the most important of the Indian species are braunite and pyrolusite, which together produce 90 per cent. of the output. Mr. Fermor’s memoir includes a detailed account of the menganiferous minerals. The chemical composition of the various species is re-considered, and the complexity of many of them is shown by the elaborate general formulz, by which alone they can be adequately represented. The Indian manganese ores are mainly found in the pre-Cambrian rocks, though some interesting deposits of secondary economic importance occur in the laterites. The chief ores are associated with a varied series of igneous rocks, which Mr. Fermor groups as the kodurite series. They range from acid to ultra-basic varieties, all charac- terised by being rich in manganese and manganiferous minerals. Mr. Fermor describes in detail the petrography of this interesting rock series. The kodurites are appar- ently intrusive—though the evidence for this fact is described as incomplete—into two series of Archean gneisses. The first series consists of calcareous gneisses and the second of the metamorphic gneisses, which have been described by Mr. J. T. Walker as the kondalite series. As usual with manganese deposits, the Indian mines are still shallow, and the deposits are probably very limited in depth ; for they have been formed by chemical processes that only take place near the surface. They are generally due to the replacement. of rocks by solutions containing man- ganese. Mr. Fermor reports that many of the deposits Juty 28, 1910] NATURE 129 are not more than 50 feet deep, and none has yet been proved to continue below 300 to 500 feet. The future of _manganese mining is limited by some of the same factors a: iron mining, owing to the limited range of the ordinary oxide ores. The mines are still open quarries, from which the ore can be very cheaply produced. Mr. Fermor’s monograph concludes with a comparatively elementary statement regarding the methods of mining and the economics of the industry. More precise information as to labour costs and efficiency would have been of interest. The rates of pay are from 2} to 7 annas a day for men, 1} to 4 annas for women, and from 1 to 3 annas for children; the efficiency must be very low if it may be judged by dividing the annual output of the different mines by the number of people recorded as engaged in them. The native miners appear to insist on more holidays than Welsh colliers, without having the same excuse. Owing to the present great activity in Indian manganese mining, the known deposits there cannot last very long. Mr. Fermor in 1907 estimated that the supplies would be worked out in from thirty to fifty years. Now, in spite of some additional discoveries of ore, he is disposed to reduce even that short limit; and he earnestly warns India that it is adopting a wasteful policy in the reckless export of manganese, which will have to be purchased from other countries for the manufacture of ferro-manganese when India works its enormous supplies of iron ores. Owing to the possibility, however, of the discovery of fresh deposits and of the invention of new processes that may supplant manganese, it is not proposed to impose legal restrictions on the export of the ore. Yo Melee THE STRUCTURE OF CRETACEOUS PLANTS. HUMAERTO our knowledge of the structure, as dis- tinguished from the mere external appearance, of Mesozoic plants has been for the most part limited to the older floras, in which only the earlier types, such as ferns, cycadophytes and conifers, are represented. From the Upper Cretaceous, the epoch when the now dominant angiosperms first overspread the world, little structural material has been available until lately, if we except the petrified wood of palms, which has long been known and is of the utmost interest. At the present time new facts of great value are coming in from two principal sources—from the researches of Drs. Hollick and Jeffrey on the lignites of the eastern United States, and from the work of the authors below cited on the petrifications from northern Japan. The specimens described in the present paper, which must be regarded as only a first instalment of the work, were among those collected by Miss Stopes on her recent expedition, undertaken with the assistance of a grant from the Royal Society, and helped in every possible way by the Government and universities of Japan. Eighteen types are described—not a large number, but quite enough to make a good beginning. The number of species with structure preserved is not very large, even in the best known fossil floras. We think, however, that the authors in their comparison somewhat underestimate the richness of the English Carboniferous flora in admitting only about seventy structural species; 100 would be nearer the mark. The flora investigated is a mixed one, the eighteen species including one fungus, three ferns, eight gymno- sperms, and six angiosperms; such proportions are quite unusual, the angiosperms commonly being dominant if they appear at all. Only a few of the most important forms can be referred to here. Among the ferns, Schisaeopteris mesozoica bears the characteristic sporangia of Schizeaceze, Aneimia being the nearest genus. Of the gymnosperms, Niponophyllum cordaitiforme may be either a leaf or a leaflet; if the former, it may be a belated member of the ancient Cordaitez ; if the latter, it may be akin to the Bennettitez. Yezonia vulgaris, with a cypress-like habit, has a very peculiar structure, the small adpressed leaves containing nmumerous vascular bundles. If, as there is reason to 1 * Studies on the Structure and Affinities of Cretaceous Plants.” By Dr. Marie C. Stopes and Prof. K. Fujii. Phil. Trans. Rcyal Society, Series B. vol. cci. Pp. 90; platesg. (Royal Society, rg10.) NO. 2126, vot. 84] suspect, the cone Yesostrobus Oliveri was its fruit, the- plant appears to represent a type intermediate in certain respects between Cycadophyta and Coniferz. Cunninghamiostrobus yubariensis shows a clear affinity with the recent Cunninghamia, while Cryptomeriopsis antiqua, so far as vegetative characters can decide, comes near the familiar Cryptomeria of modern Japan. Among the fossils referred to angiosperms, Saururopsis niponensis shows an anatomical structure similar in some ways to that of Saururus, an ally of the peppers. Some readers may perhaps ask if it is quite certain that this plant is an angiosperm, and may even think of a possible comparison with Ophioglossacee. In the meantime, the authors’ suggestion is at any rate tenable: It is interest- ing that the commonest angiosperm in these rocks, Sabio- caulis Sakuraii, appears to show the nearest affinity with the native climbing plant Sabia japonica. The most sensational discovery, however, is that of a three-celled ovary of the type of Liliacez, for this is the first case in which any angiospermous fructification has been found fossil with its structure preserved. A perianth or bract is adherent to the lower portion of the ovary, making it partly inferior. It is curious, if somewhat dis- appointing, to find that this ancient flower appears to have been already so advanced as to give no clue to its ancestry. In many cases diagrammatic text-figures are used very advantageously to supplement the photographs (sometimes a little obscure) which form the bulk of the illustrations. The authors’ concluding remarks suitably sum up the results so far attained :—‘‘ These new fossil plants, then, seem to be an interesting community, consisting of a mixture of old and new types, of higher and lower plants mixed in nicely balanced proportions : a community, which in some respects, at any rate, one could have hardly imagined from the fossil remains hitherto available from the Epoch.” ARCHZOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN ARKANSAS AND LOUISIANA.* R. CLARENCE B. MOORE in 1908-9 investigated the mounds and cemeteries of the valley of the Ouachita, a river that rises in central western Arkansas and flows south-easterly into the State of Louisiana; its lower course is the Black River, which joins the Red River, a tributary of the Mississippi. The more striking remains are earthenware vessels of very varied forms and different colours. The most common form of decoration consists of the original surface of the vessel being left in scroll bands and round or oval discs, the interspaces being generally filled up with parallel lines or cross-hatching. The accompanying figure illustrates a superb bottle, 81 inches in height, which has a coating of red pigment of superior quality, through which is incised a beautiful combination of discs and running scrolls in a field of parallel lines which emphasise the design; possibly the incised lines were accentuated with white pigment, but no trace of this remains. The technique of some of the vessels from Glendora is superior to anything of the kind hitherto met with outside the Lower Mississippi region. The excavations were confined almost entirely to land that was, or had been, under cultivation. When the aborigines selected dwelling sites along rivers subject to overflow, they naturally chose high ground; and later, when Europeans selected land to clear for cultivation, they were similarly influenced, especially as much of this land had been enriched by aboriginal deposits. It is needless to say that the report is illustrated in that sumptuous manner which characterises Mr. Moore’s publications. The value of the memoir is enhanced by a very careful study, by Dr. Ales Hrdlitka, of the skeletal remains dis- covered by Mr. Moore. This constitutes a welcome con- tribution to the craniology and osteology of the American Indian, and we hope it will be followed, by similar studies by the same anatomist. Dr. Hrdlitka, in an attempt to determine the amount of prognathism, made use of the 1 “ Antiquities of the Ouachita Valley.” By Clarence B. Moore (Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, end series, vol. xiv. part i., 1909). 130 basi-facial angle, a measurement which was independently arrived at by Dr. Rivet (L’Anthropologie, xx., 1909, pp- 35, 175). The majority of the crania exhibit one of the two main forms of artificial deformation, i.e. occipital flattening, or cradle-board compression, and fronto-occipital flattening (‘‘ flat-head’’ deformation). Each variety pre- dominates in, but is not limited to, a certain type of people, thus indicating an exchange of customs. The predominating type is that of the brachycephals, who range in stature from moderate to well developed, with good, though not pronounced, muscular development. They were probably the people among whom prevailed, and who communicated to their neighbours, the intentional fronto- occipital deformation. The other type, less well repre- sented, indicates Indians of stature and strength similar to those of the people just mentioned, but with oblong, mesocephalic to dolichocephalic skulls. They were, in all probability, remnants of a relatively large local strain of dolichocephals mixed with the more numerous round- headed people. The physical characters of these people approach, on the one hand, those of the more northerly tribes of Missouri, Illinois, and parts of Tennessee and Kentucky, and, on the other, those of the more westerly and south-westerly tribes, represented in northern Texas eevee Bottle from Glendora, Ouachita Valley, La. and especially by the oblong-headed type among the Pueblo Indians. The prevalent occipital flattening of the skull would point likewise to a connection with the south-west and the north-east. In addition, a few crania from these two States resemble very closely the subtype of the eastern Algonquians. A. C. Happon. THE TABULATION OF VITAL STATISTICS. \ TTENTION has so often been directed in these columns to the desirability of the adoption of more scientific methods in our Government departments that it gives us pleasure to notice the paper which was read by Dr. T. H. C. Stevenson before the Royal Statistical Society on June 21. Dr. Stevenson was appointed last year Super- intendent of Statistics in the General Register Office for England and Wales, and his paper on suggested lines of advance in English vital statistics is, in effect, an outline of all the changes which it is proposed shortly to introduce in the mode of compilation of the vital statistics issued from that office, and of the mode in which it is proposed 0 compile certain tables in the census reports, more NO. 2126, VoL. 84] NATURE [Jury 28, 1910 especially those relating to the new data to be obtained in 1g11 (see Nature for April 7, p. 152). That a civil servant should, with the approval of his official superiors, submit for criticism to a scientific society, before their final adoption, a statement of changes which it is proposed to introduce is, we believe, a course wholly without precedent, and deserves the warmest commenda- tion. Taken in conjunction with the acceptance by the Registrar General, Mr. Bernard Mallet, of many of the suggestions made by the Statistical Society for the improvement of the census, the course augurs well for the thoroughly scientific spirit in which his office will be conducted. The matter of Dr. Stevenson’s paper is too detailed for abstraction in these columns, but it may be noted that it is intended in future to tabulate vital statistics by adminis- trative instead of by registration districts, and that the data as to number of children which will be obtained at the next census will be tabulated, not only for different occupations of father, as suggested in the article in this journal to which reference is made above, but also by the number of rooms occupied or the number of servants employed, so as more clearly to distinguish the different social strata. It is also proposed to introduce the card- | system for vital statistics and for census work, and to use mechanical methods for sorting and counting the cards. The frankness with which Dr. Stevenson points out difficul- ties and asks for suggestions is one of the most pleasing features of a paper on which he can be unreservedly con- gratulated. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Entrance scholarships have been awarded at Bedford College for Women (University of London), as follows :— Pfeiffer scholarship in science (value 50l. a year for three years) to Miss W. R. Smyth, of the North London Collegiate School; Henry Tate scholarship in science (value sol. a year for three years) to Miss F. M. Lunniss, of the Cambridge and County School. Witn the view of securing uniformity in the statistics concerning higher education, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has issued, as Bulletin No. 3, a series of standard forms for financial reports of colleges, universities, and technical schools. The forms as they are published are the result of a prolonged inquiry con- cerning the practice of universities and colleges in the United States in the rendering of public financial state- ments of their receipts and expenditures. The object of the forms is to make it easy for students of education and others to answer the questions, What is the total income of a given institution for the year? What is its annual expenditure? What are the assets at the end of the year? The forms may be commended to the attention of officials’ who are responsible for preparing balance sheets and other statistics in connection with universities and colleges in this country. Mr. Sipney Batt, fellow and senior tutor of St. John’s College, Oxford, and Prof. I. Gollancz, professor of English at King’s College, London, have been elected the first | fellows of the English foundation of the A.K. travelling | | scholarships. It may be remembered that these fellow- ships, each of the value of 660/., were recently founded in | this country by Mr. Albert Kahn, of Paris, to enable the fellows to travel round the world. The object of the founder is that persons selected from the first rank of those engaged, in whatever way, in the education of the nation may become better qualified to teach and to take part in the instruction and education of their fellow-countrymen. The trustees are the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the Speaker, Lord Avebury (nominated by the founder), and the principal of the University of London (Dr. Miers), the last-mentioned being honorary secretary to the trustees. The affairs of the trust are administered at the University of London. THE current issue of Review contains several the Reading articles of interest. University College An editorial JuLy 28, 1910] NATURE 131 : discusses the American faith in universities. The institu- ‘tion and development of universities, each of which is wholly dependent upon a particular State, is, the writer maintains, the most conspicuous activity that has of late “been shown in America. The American recognises more -and more that university life, under favourable conditions, can give a training in comradeship and personal character which is one of the best preparations for efficient citizen- ship. He wants, too, the best knowledge—useful and technical—because without it he knows he cannot have the right kind of citizens. Prof. H. N. Dickson contributes an essay on higher education and commerce, and points out that those universities and colleges which are able to provide instruction of the higher kind in commercial sub- jects are steadily increasing in number. An _ address delivered by Prof. A. L. Bowley last May on progress and leisure is also included. In reply to a question asked in the House of Commons, Mr. Lloyd George has informed Mr. Duncan Miller that he is not prepared to propose any additional grants to the Scottish universities during the current financial year beyond the sum of 21,0001. included in the Supplementary Estimate issued on July 13, but as regards the future he has expressed willingness to sanction, subject to certain conditions, a further addition to the existing grants, pro- vided that suitable schemes of expenditure can be submitted by the authorities of the several institutions concerned. For the current financial year the total grants in aid to Scottish universities and their allocation will be :— Grant under 5 Education Grant Grant and Local from under Taxation Votes, Universities Account Class 4, Supple- (Scotland) (Scotland) Sub- mentary , Act, 1899 Act, 1892* head I. Estimate Total 4 & 4 & St. Andrews... _... 6,300 43500et-e— 4,000f «.. 14,800 Dundee —_ University WERE Teese! can — or _ T,000}0 ea, 9 sce) 1,000 Glascow ... «. ... 12,180 8,700 — 6,250 27,130 Aberdeen... ... « 8,400 6,000 ... - 4,500 18.900 Edinburgh ... . 15,120 ... 1c,800 _ 6,250 32,170 oO 30.000 £1,000 £21,000 494,000 442,00 3 z * Payable from the Local Taxation (Scotland) Account. t Includes £1,000 for Dundee University College. FoLLowinG an order of the House of Commons, the Board of Education has issued a return by each county council in England and Wales, except London, of the rates levied for elementary education, and of the rate levied for higher education. So far as higher education is concerned, it is interesting to notice that Glamorganshire is most highly rated for this purpose, the rate being 33d. in the pound, and bringing in 43,0301. Eleven counties levy a rate of 2d. or more, but less than 3d. They are, in order :-— Rate Amount raised d. 7s Yorks : West Riding 207m 92,948 Cardigan... a 2 Solem nessa 12,0477, Monmouth 2°73 13,074 Denbigh ... 2°46 6,096 Merioneth 2°31 2,049 Herts eas? 2°13 14,853 Wheshite::-ceec.s tn. 2°12 30,746 Westmorland ... 2°10 3,771 Flint Se 2°10 3,636 Pembroke Sea ees 2°10 2,813 Salop 2°00 11,131 A number of counties levy a smaller rate than a half- penny in the pound; these are Devon, Dorset, Hereford, Lincolnshire (three divisions), Notts, East Suffolk, West Suffolk, East Sussex, and the North Riding of Yorkshire. The Holland division of Lincolnshire raises nothing for higher education; the Kesteven division raises rol. only, Hereford 351., East Suffolk 58/., and Dorset 1001. Two counties only raise more than 50,000l., namely, the West Riding, 92,948/., and Lancashire, 65,0821. _ A scHoot of aviation is’to be established near London in memory of the late Mr. C. S. Rolls. A sub-committee of the Aérial League has had the scheme under considera- NO. 2126, voL. 84] | Onnes: The rectilinear diameter of oxygen. tion, and its cost for the first year is likely to be 2500l. The primary aim of the school will be to provide training in aéroplane manufacture and flight, and to obtain a class of men grounded in the subject from beginning to end, including such laboratory and theoretical work as funds and the gifts of apparatus may permit. The laboratory will be open for the use of students from technical institu- tions already providing elementary classes in the theory of flight, and also for public demonstrations in order to spread an interest in aéronautical science. Men who have undergone courses of training in engineering schools, and competent engineers and mechanics, will be eligible as students. The practical work of students will be directed to securing machines offering greater stability and trust- worthiness, lower power and fuel consumption, diminished capital cost and expense of maintenance, and a higher factor of safety than the apparatus now used. In order that an early start may be made, two machines are to be bought at once, and the students will build all further machines, and also those of selected inventors whose ideas are judged to be worthy of construction and practical trial. The funds will be administered by an independent com- mittee of management, including practical men of science. Mr. Patrick Y. Alexander has offered to equip the proposed laboratory with the necessary practical apparatus. The new institution will probably be called the Rolls Memorial School. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, July 18.—M. Emile Picard in the chair.—P. Villard and H. Abraham: The existence of two explosive potentials; a reply to a recent note of M. Amaduzzi. The authors state that their original intention was to bring forward a theory of the silent and continuous discharge, characterised by luminescence at the anode, based in accordance with the modern hypotheses as to the passage of electricity in gases—L. Maquenne and E. Demoussy: The toxic qualities of certain salts towards green leaves. The salts of ammonium are shown to be specially dangerous in this respect, while calcium chloride and sea salt have very little effect—A. Laveran and A. Pettit: The forms of endogenous multiplication of Haemogregarina sebai. Observation in this organism shows for a given species a great variety in the multiplica- tion cysts, both in dimensions and number of merozoites, such that it is necessary to beware of assuming the exist- ence of different species too readily.—Joannes Chatin: The variations of structure of, the sclerotic among verte- brates.—Ch. Platrier: A problem of rational mechanics and its application to the theory of propulsive helices.— Ernest Esclangon: The passage of the earth through the tail of Halley’s comet.—M. Sechulhof: Some remarks on the inequalities of the longitude of the moon.—Jules Drach: The logical problem of the integration of differ- ential equations.—Serge Bernstein: The equations of the calculus of variations.—Sigismond Janiszewski: The geometry of cantor lines—L. Zoretti: The notion of a line.—Jean Chazy: A differential equation of the third order which has its critical points fixed.—René Garnier : A class of differential equations the general integrals of which have their critical points fixed.—Witold Jarkowski : Some theorems on “‘ sustainers.’.—A. Tanakadate: A photographic study of the current of air produced by the movement of a helix.—E. Mathias and H. Kamerlingh Experiments in the case of oxygen give an affirmative answer to the question whether the deformation of the surface when the critical temperature is lowered leaves intact its rectilinear form.—A. Perot and J. Bosler: The theory of the luminescence of the mercury arc in vacuo.—A. Tian: The action of ultra-violet rays on gelatine. These rays destroy jellies, causing their liquefaction or solution, thus forming a contrast to the action of the same rays in coagulating albumen.—G. A. Hemsalech: The relative periods of calcium rays in the spark of self-induction. Experiments of this character provide useful indications in the analysis of bodies containing unknown impurities.— 132 NATURE [Juty 28, 1910 H. Buisson and Ch. Fabry: The electric arc in an atmo- sphere of feeble pressure—M. Rouch: Observations of atmospheric electricity made on Petermann Island during the stay of the Charcot expedition.—William Duane: A photographic method of registering a particles.—M. Barre: Sulphate of thorium. The author finds that sulphate of thorium in aqueous solution shows a specific resistance and a freezing point entirely in agreement with the laws of Bouty and Raoult. Measurements also of con- ductivity and freezing point of solutions containing 1 per cent. of potassium sulphate show the existence of a double salt.—F. Bodroux: The action of some ether salts of monobasic fatty acids on the mono-sodium derivative of benzyl cyanide.—Marcel Guichard: The absorption of iodine by solid bodies. The fixation of iodine by the surface of a solid is a specific property, and the author gives a list of a number of substances showing this behaviour.—M. Gard: Binary hybrids of the first genera- tion in the genus Cistus and Mendelian characters.—B. Sauton: Influence of iron on the formation of the spores of Aspergillus niger.—Pierre Marty: New observations on the fossil flora of the Cantal.—Eugéne Collin: A deter- mination of the nature of the wick of a Punic lamp. The author believes the fibres to have been undoubtedly of flax. —Rémy Perrier and Henri Fischer: Some particular points in the anatomy of molluscs of the genus Acera.— MM. Jammes and Martin: The réle of the chitin in the development of nematode parasites——Henry Penau: The cytology of Endomyces albicans (P. Vuillemin).—Amédée Delcourt and [mile Guyénot: The possibility of studying certain Diptera in a definite medium.—Charles Nicolle and E. Conseil: Experimental reproduction of exanthe- matic typhus by direct inoculation with human virus.— M. Lucet: The presence of Spirochetze in a case of hamorrhagic gastro-enteritis in a dog. Care Town. Royal Society of South Africa, June 15.—Mr. S. S. Hough, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Dr. A. Theiler: Note on Anaplasma marginale, a new genus and species of the Protozoa. This Anaplasma is transmitted by ticks, and it is a noteworthy fact that the incubation time by tick transmission is much longer than that after inoculation of the animal with blood; in the experiments carried out it varied from fifty-five to seventy-five days. Blood of an immune animal is infective; such an animal forms the reservoir of the virus. This is a peculiarity of the piro- plasma diseases, to which group Anaplasmasis also belongs. Dr. Theiler’s opinion is that Anaplasmasis is probably the disease which the farmer has hitherto called ‘‘ gall sick- ness.’’ Up to the present four different parasites are, in South Africa, found in the blood of immune cattle, and they can all be transmitted by the inoculation of the blood and by ticks.—Dr. R. Gonder: The development of Piroplasma parvum (Protozoa) in the various organs of cattle. The author suggests an explanation of the fact that the blood of animals suffering from East Coast fever injected into healthy animals does not transmit the disease. It is possible, he thinks, that the blood contains forms which can develop in the tick, and which, when injected, die. Concerning the place of the East Coast fever parasite in protozoology, he thinks the proposition justifiable to separate it from Piroplasma, and to substitute a new generic name, ‘‘ Theileria,’’ as suggested by Bettencourt. FORTHCOMING CONGRESSES. Aucust 1-6.—International Congress of Entomology. Brussels. Chair- man of Local Committee for Great Britain : Dr. G. B. Longstaff, Highlands, Putney Heath, S.W. AuGusT 1-7.—French Association for the Advancement of Science. Toulouse. President: Prof. Gariel. Address of Secretary: 28 rue Serpente, Paris. Avucust.—lInternational Congress of Photography. Brussels. Corre- -pondent for United Kingdom: Mr. Chapman Jones, 11 Eaton Rise, faling, W. AuGusT 2-7.—International Congress.on School Hygiene. Paris. General cretary Dr. Dufestel, ro Boulevard Magenta, Paris. Hon. Secretaries for Great Britain : Royal Sanitary Institute, 90 Buckingham Palace Road, 15-20.—International Zoological ident: Prof. Ludwig von Graff. NO. 2126, VOL. 84] Congress _ Graz (Austria). Address for inquiries: Prasidium des VIII. Internationalen Zoologen-Kongresses, Universitatsplatz 2, Graz (Osterreich). Aucus? 18-26.—International Geological Congress. Stockholm. General Secretary: Prof. J. G. Andersson, Stockholm 3. AuGusT 29 TO SEPTEMBER 6.—International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research. Mount Wilson Solar Observatory. British Member of Executive Committee to whom inquiries should be addressed: Prof. A. Schuster, F.R.S., Victoria Park, Manchester. AucustT 31 TO SEPTEMBER 7. — British Association. Sheffield. President : Prof. T. G. Bonney. F.R S. Address for inquiries : General Secretaries, Burlington House, W. SEPTEMBER 4-7.— Swiss Society of Natural Sciences. Bale. Secretary: Dr. H. G. Stehlin, Museum of Natural History, Augustinergasse, Bale. SepTeMBbeR 8-14.—International Congress of Americanists. Mexico City. Generel Secretary : Sr. Lic. D. Genaro Garcia, Museo Nacional, Mexico, SEPTEMBER 13-15.—International Congress of Radiology and Electricity. Brussels. General Secretary: |r. J. Daniel, 1 rue de la Prévéte, Brussels. Correspondents for United Kingdom : Prof. Rutherford and Dr. W. Makower, University of Manchester, and Dr. W. Deane Butcher, Holyrood, Ealing, W. SEPTEMBER 18-24.—German Association of Naturalists and Physicians. Kénigsberg. Secretaries: Prof. Lichtheim and Prof. F. Meyer, Drumm- str. 25-29, Kénigsberg. SEPTEMBER 27-30.—International Physiological Congress. Vienna. President: Prof. S. Exner. General Secretary for United Kingdom: Prof. E. B. Starling, University College, London, W.C. Ocroper 6-12.—Congrés International du Froid. Vienna. Correspon- dene for Waited Kingdom: Mr. R. M. Leonard, 3 Oxford Court, Cannon treet, E CONTENTS. PAGE Planetology. By William E. Rolston ...... 99 Wature-study, 2 tp jecue elite’ o> coh et toh fame iene ERLO SS Technical Chemical Aaaivers Sao Oe cos owe LOX British Fossils) )ByiCie i. Rang.) one omen ee Comparative Physiology. By W.D.H. ..... 102 OuriBook Shelfy. coe ee ets cee hace Letters to the Editor :— Antarctic Pycnogons.—Dr. W. T. Calman. . . . 104 A New Italian Orchid. (Z//ustrated.)—W. Herbert Cox... Seed 5 104 Centre of Grariay of ental Giatistice a Marshall 1c4 Present Meteoric Displays. —W. F. Denning . . . 105 Pwdre Ser.—Prof. Frank Schlesinger .. . 105 The Ethnology, Botany, Geology, and Meteurology of German Africa. (J//lustrated.) By Sir H. H. johnston; |G: C)MiG. KC eB gy s) . eee eC Corditey.... /.).; 109 The Sheffield Meeting of the British Association The Ultra-rapid Kinematograph. Satie Diagram.) By Prof. C. V. Boys, F.R.S. 5 112 The Total Solar Eclipse, May 9, 1910. (Zitustrated.) By, Dr. WilliamyjinSslockyerey <, ) esa yest Johny B>\Carruthersog css cage selatne no tae INGtes\) =: Ose C igs <3! )2 rein, eee mines Our Astronomical Goluma :— Astronomical Occurrences in August . ..... . 120 110 Subjective Phenomena on Mars ........ . 120 The Genesis of Various Lunar Features . . . . . 120 Halley’s Comet. . . . Seo Susie 120 The Gnomon in Ancient Aguero Peer an tatyc ce 218) The Leeds Astronomical Society ie" ee BLO Recent Work of Geological Surveys. IV. (JZ/lus- nrared)), By GAs) Cc Set O poe, WEE Reports of Meteorological Observatories . Si Oisa cn Ie) Science at the Japan-British Exhibition. By 1 Ere (32 Sane oe aL 3 PEM A 0% 125 The Progress of Gancer Research sigs ae 126 Manganese Mining in India. By J. W. ne fig Laiyicts) The Structure of Cretaceous Plants... . 129 Archeological and Anthropological {uveuiieations in Arkansas and Louisiana. (///ustrated.) By Dr. An C.-Haddon, E3R)S2) a) ene ae ig as) 2 The Tabulation of Vital Statistics ed ee one ee CRS University and Educational Intelligence ..... 130 Societiessand Academies. 7..0-usa- 1 6 cen erent Ge Morhcoming Congresses a,,,. It would be helpful to give an algebraical treatment as well, following the classical methods of Abel and Dirichlet, from which the essential character of the condition @,>an,, is at once evident. Prof. Carslaw’s book may be heartily recommended to anyone wishing for a good knowledge of ele- mentary trigonometry, together with a first introduc- tion to more advanced methods. (3) It is not easy to estimate the effect which a geometrical text-boolk will produce on a beginner; and we have had no opportunity of testing this particu- lar book in actual teaching. But on a first reading the arrangement adopted seems less satisfactory than in several existing books: in a course on _ projective geometry, the method of projection should take a prominent part, and not be left until the last chapter in the book. There is a tendency also to give a variety of proofs of theorems which are really all special cases of one general theorem (such as Pascal’s or Brianchon’s), and this helps to make the book longer, without making it any easier to read. Two details may perhaps be criticised: the idea of involution is introduced very early, before defining projective ranges on the same line; but in actual teach- ing it is generally found easier to define involution as a special type of homography. Also the pole-locus of a line with respect to a system of four-point conics is called the nine-point conic, instead of the eleven- point conic; the latter term is now generally adopted, and the reason for the change is not obvious. It seems to us that there is some need for a book on projective geometry which makes occasional use of analytical methods—in fact, a book written more on the lines of the second half of Salmon’s ‘‘ Conics "— and a really useful addition would be some plates of drawings, on a fairly large scale, showing the actual construction of conics by means of pencil and ruler, in various ways. (4) There is but little to distinguish the present AUvGUST 4, I9I0] NATURE 137 o text-book from those in common use already. We note the usual unfortunate preference for the equation y=mx-+c to represent a straight line, instead of the homogeneous form Ix+my+n=o. As a natural con- sequence, we find the equations y=mx-+ ,/(a?m?+b?), y=mx+a/m, for the tangents to an ellipse and parabola respectively; and we are still left to wonder why no teacher has the courage to write an elemen- tary text-book which uses the tangential equations a7/?+b?m2=n?, In—am?=o. The chief innovation consists in a short chapter (xii., pp. 241-57) on higher plane curves, such as the eissoid, conchoid, lemniscate, cycloid, and some of the simpler polar curves; but as no Calculus is used, nearly all their more interesting properties have to be omitted, and it seems doubtful if the mere tracing of the curves is of sufficient interest to justify their intro- duction here. We should have preferred to see this space devoted to an extension of the chapters on solid geometry, which occupy only 30 pages, and are too brief to be of much service to beginners. WS Ale Wa WB SCHLICH’S MANUAL OF FORESTRY. Schlich’s Manual oj Forestry. Vol. ii. : Silviculture. By Sir Wm. Schlich, K.C.].E., F.R.S. Fourth edition, revised. Pp. ix+424. (London: Bradbury, Agnew and Co., Ltd., 1910.) HIS book is a decided advance on the first edition of Schlich’s ‘Silviculture,’ and a considerable amount of new matter has been added. Probably the original intention of Schlich’s “Manual” was to provide a text-book on the general principles of forestry adapted to the needs of Indian and Colonial forest officers. While this object is still met, the author has evidently made an effort (and we think successfully) to adapt the work better to British needs than was the case in earlier editions. To accomplish this successfully is not perhaps the easy task many might imagine. It is true the prin- ciples of forestry are the same over all, but details in practice must of necessity vary, and climatic differ- ences also tend to modify the relative silvicultural value of various species of trees for any country, or even for districts of a country. The book is divided into four parts: part i. deals with what the author designates ‘‘The Foundations of Silviculture.” Here we have a full discussion of such matters as climate, soils, effects of forest vege- tation on locality; development of forest trees; char- acter and composition of woods; advantages and dis- advantages of mixed woods; and rules for forming pure and mixed woods. The various silvicultural systems are also described in detail. Part ii. is concerning the ‘‘ Formation and Re- generation of Woods.” Fencing, soil preparation, sowing, planting, and tree nursing management are fully treated. Under this head also the various modern methods of natural regeneration are described. Part iii. deals with the tending of woods through- cut the various stages, from early youth to maturity. Of part iv. ninety pages are devoted to NO. 2127, VOL. 84] a brief discussion of the of British forest trees. Under the convenient title of ‘British Forest Trees” the author includes several recently introduced species, some of which are certainly of doubtful utility for British conditions, as, e.g., American Black Walnut and Black Cherry. He wisely refrains, however, from definitely recommend- ing such species for general planting. The book is well illustrated. Although some of the illustrations are necessarily diagrammatic in character, they are none the less valuable to students on that account. Schlich’s ‘Silviculture’ continues to hold its own as one of the chief standard works on the subject, and should be in the hands of all students of forestry. Jeb AS silviéultural characters GENERAL BIOLOGY. General Biology: a Book of Outlines and Practical Studies for the General Student. By Prof. James G. Needham. Pp. xiv+542. (Ithaca, N.Y.: The Comstock Publishing Co., 1910.) Price 2 dollars. E have long felt that if biology is ever to take the place which it undoubtedly should in our educational system, there will have to be some radical reform in the manner in which it is taught, or perhaps it would be more correct to say in the selection of those portions of the subject which are to be taught. The type-system, excellent as it is in many respects, has had far too much influence on biological curricula, and the over-specialisation in zoology and botany has resulted in a general neglect of those general prin- ciples which are the life-blood of both. Fortunately, signs are not wanting of a widespread striving to- wards a more rational treatment of the subject, and in this respect the Americans appear to be taking the lead. The work before us, modestly described by its author as ‘‘A Book of Outlines and Practical Studies for the General Student,”’ strikes us as being delight- fully refreshing and original. Its scope is, perhaps, almost too comprehensive. There are only seven chapters, but they are very long ones. In the first, the interdependence of organisms is illustrated by the relations between flowers and insects; galls, and the relation between ants and aphids. The second deals with the simpler organisms, illustrated by typical alga and protozoa. The third is devoted to organic evolution, with a brief account of the animal and vegetable series and the general principles of the subject. The fourth discusses inheritance; the fifth the life-cycle; the sixth the adjustment of organisms to environment; and the seventh the responsive life of organisms. A leading feature of the book is a set of practical exercises at the end of each chapter. These are extra- ordinarily varied and interesting, and well calculated to impart a real vitality to the subject, though perhaps some of them, such as the observations on the internal metamorphosis of insects, are rather too specialised. The illustrations are excellent and to a large extent novel, and the portraits of Schultze, Pasteur, Von Baer, Iinneus, Agassiz, Darwin, Leeuwenhoek, 138 NATURE [Aucusr 4, 191074 Mendel, and Aristofle help to keep the interest from flagging. The author states in his preface that the book exists for the sake of the practical studies contained in it, and certainly any student who works conscientiously through these can hardly fail to acquire a very sound knowledge of the problems of general biology, and if his work in this direction is supplemented by an equally thorough study of the more special aspects of either zoology or botany his elementary biological training will leave little to be desired. AWD OUR BOOK SHELF. Catalogue of British Hymenoptera of the Family Chalcididae. By Claude Morley. Pp. vi+74. (London: Printed by Order of the Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History); Longmans and Co., B. Quaritch, Dulau and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 3s. 6d. SOME years ago the Entomological Society of London commenced a ‘‘ General Catalogue of the Insects of the British Isles,’’ of which, however, only six parts were published, between the years 1870 and 1876, as follows :—Neuroptera, by R. McLachlan; the Ephemeride, by Rev. A. E. Eaton; Hymenoptera Aculeata, by F. Smith; Hymenoptera: Chrysididz, Ichneumonidae, Braconidae, and Evaniide: by Rev. T. A. Marshall; Hymenoptera : Oxyura, by Rev. T. A. Marshall; and Hemiptera Heteroptera, and Homop- tera, by J. W. Douglas and J. Scott. No more ap- peared; and, of course, those already issued are now somewhat out of date, especially those on parasitic Hymenoptera, largely through the exertions of C. Morley and F. Enock. Since then, however, the Tenthredinid, Siricidae, and Cynipidae have been monographed by P. Cameron in four volumes issued by the Ray Society; leaving only the Chalcidide, as the last family of Hymenoptera of which we had no recent compendium of the British species. The preparation of the present catalogue was under- taken by Mr. Claude Morley, so well known for his work on the British Ichneumonide, and edited by Mr. C. O. Waterhouse. Though published by the Trustees of the British Museum, it is practically uniform with the Entomological Society’s catalogues already men- tioned. ; There is little doubt that the order Hymenoptera is the largest of all the seven great orders of insects, and the Chalcidida, including a large number of small species, almost all parasitic (a very few, however, are believed to be plant-feeders), is by far the largest family. Mr. Morley enumerates 148 genera and 1424 species; and although many of them may probably prove to be synonymous, these will probably be far more than counterbalanced by fresh discoveries when the family is at all adequately known. A great number of species were described by Walker, both in maga- zines and in separate publications; and to work out his species satisfactorily would be a work of many years. But the best preparation for such an undertaking is a carefully compiled and approximately complete refer- ence catalogue, as the work before us appears to be. How to Keep Hens for Profit. By C. S. Valentine. Pp. ix+298. (New York: The Macmillan Com- pany; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 6s. 6d net. ; Tuts is a well illustrated volume of some three hun- dred pages. A portion of the material, as the preface points out, has already appeared in the New York Farmer. The bulk of the work, with the exception of a chapter devoted to the Indian runner duck, deals NO. 2127, VOL. 84] with the breeding and management of the ‘‘ American hen.”’ The reader will have gathered that the book has been produced on the ‘“‘other side,’’ but there is much that is of interest to our own countrymen. Government aid, problems of improvement, and many amusing stories of the three-hundred-egg hen, are all dealt with, and now the development grant is in sight several of the hints given might be well worthy. of consideration. The most instructive chapters for the would-be poultry-keeper are those that deal with ‘‘ Handling the Chicks,’ ‘*Expensive Accidents,’ ‘* Diseases,” and “Runner Ducks.’’ The book is furnished with an excellent index, and in many ways may be a useful adjunct to the library of the man who keeps poultry for utility purposes only in contradistinction to the breeder of exhibition stock. The Prince and his Ants (Ciondolino). By Vamba (Luigi Bertelli). Translated from the fourth Italian edition by S. F. Woodruff, and edited by Vernon L. Kellogg. Pp. x+275.. (New York: H. Holt and Co.,. 1910.) Price 1.35 dollars net. A Farry tale of three children, who wished to become insects to escape doing their lessons. The two boys wished to be an ant and a cricket, and the girl to be a butterfly. The present volume relates the adven- tures of the boy who became an ant, among different species of ants, and afterwards among bees. At the end of the book he meets his sister as a caterpillar, and another volume is promised giving her adven- tures as a butterfly. The book is well illustrated, and the account of insect life appears to be fairly accurate. The Thames. Described by G. E. Mitton. Pp. 56. Windsor Castle. Described by Edward Thomas., Pp. 56. Shakespeareland. Described by Walter Jerrold. Pp. 63. All pictured by Ernest Haslehurst. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s. net each. In noticing the first three volumes to be published in this series, the opportunity was taken to praise the beauty of the illustrations and the interest of the text. The present additions are quite up to the standard set in the earlier books. Though evidently not intended to serve any serious educational purpose, the volumes will form very acceptable gift books, and will soon become popular in this capacity. A Manual of Geometry. By W. D. Eggar. In two parts. Part i., pp. xiii+160; part ii., pp. x+178. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s. each part. Many teachers will welcome the re-issue in two parts of Mr. Eggar’s ‘‘ Manual of Geometry.’ Part i. will prove of particular value just now, since it covers the work specified in the memorandum issued by the Board of Education on the teaching of geometry to beginners. It may be said that the first part deals with the subjects of Euclid, Book i., and the second with those of Euclid, Books ii. to vi. The South Devon and Dorset Coast. By Sidney Heath. Pp. xvi+445. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, Taio.) Price 6s. net. Tue latest addition to Mr. Fisher Unwin’s ‘‘ County Coast Series’ will form a delightful companion for the visitor to the country lying between Poole on the east and Plymouth on the west. Mr. Heath’s miscel- lany of historical, topographical, and archzeological details relating to Devonshire and Dorsetshire is as informative as it is interesting, and the illustrations, which number nearly sixty, make the volume very attractive. There is little doubt that the book will become a favourite with residents in the delightful part of England with which it deals. » X-radiation AuGuSsT 4, I910| LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. {The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NaturE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] X-Ray Spectra. Ir was shown by Barkla and Sadler (Phil. Mag., February, 1907, and October, 1908) that many elements, when subject to a suitable beam of X-rays, emit a homo- geneous beam of secondary X-rays of penetrating power characteristic of the radiating element. One of the writers (Barkla, Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., May, 1909) showed that various groups of these characteristic radiations exist, and that each element most probably emits a line spectrum of X-rays, each line moving to the more penetrating end of the spectrum, with an increase in the atomic weight of the radiating element. For no single element, however, was the homogeneity of more than one radiation proved, or the penetrating power accurately determined. As all the prin- cipal phenomena accompanying the transmission of X-rays through matter are determined by the spectra of the con- stituent elements, it became a matter of considerable theoretical interest to confirm the theory by demonstrating the homogeneity of various radiations from some particular element. The writers therefore chose several of those elements the characteristic radiations of which were expected to be well within the range of penetrating power comparatively easy to experiment upon. First, by using a penetrating primary beam, a mixture of the various secondary radiations characteristic of a par- ticular element was obtained. After absorbing the softer constituents, a homogeneous beam of the penetrating secondary X-radiation belonging to Group B was left, its homogeneity was proved, and the coefficient of absorption io aluminium determined. In order to isolate one of the more absorbable con- stituents, a very ‘‘soft’’ primary beam was used—too “soft ’’ to excite the radiation of Group B just referred to. After the effect of the scattered radiation was determined by separate experiment and eliminated, this secondary was also found to be homogeneous, and its absorption was determined. This radiation belonged to Group A. Thus two of the lines of the spectra of antimony, iodine, and barium were determined. The following values of A/p are the results of the most accurate measurements so far made (A is defined by the equation I=I,e-Ar in trans- mission through aluminium of density p) :— Sb: (Group B) 1-21; (Group A) 435 I : (Group B) 0-92; (Group A) 306 Ba: (Group B) 0-8; (Group A) 224 A more absorbable radiation belonging to Group A has also been found to be emitted by silver in addition to the penetrating radiation of Group B, thus accounting for what appeared to Mr. Sadler (Phil. Mag., March) to be an exception to the law connecting the emission of secondary corpuscular and secondary X-radiations emitted by an element. There is indirect evidence of other spectral lines besides those of Groups A and B. Whether or not the radiation. more absorbable than that of Group A—in hypothetical Group X-—has the properties of ordinary X-rays is a question to be decided experimentally. C. G. Barkta. J. Nicot. King’s College, London, July 20. Pwdre Ser. Ix case no other reader of Nature should do so, may I direct Prof. McKenny Hughes’s attention*to a paper by M. Melsheimer on ‘‘ Meteorgallerte,”” published in the Jahresber. d. westfal. Provinzialver. f. Wissensch. uw. Kunst (Bd. xxxvi., 1907-8, Munster, 1908, pp. 53-5), an abstract of which appeared in the Centralblatt f. Baleterio- logie (Abt. ii., Bd. xxvii., Nos. ro-12, p. 237), published On June 22 of this year? The author appears to have paid NO. 2127, VOL. 84] NATURE 139 attention to these masses of jelly, which are to be found in winter on meadows and other open places, for a period of years, and has come to the conclusion that they are the swollen oviducts of frogs... Herons eat female frogs in winter, and the oviducts become mixed in the crop with fish remains, which may become luminous. The contents are thrown up undigested, and become gelatinous when moistened. It is also possible that the heron may, during flight, discharge the gelatinous mass in a luminous con- dition, and hence the idea that the jelly is of meteoric origin, Gro. H. PETHYBRIDGE. Royal College of Science, Dublin, July 4. DHE PRESSURE OF (LIGHT? pee earliest attempts to detect the pressure of light were made in the eighteenth century. The corpuscular hypothesis was then almost universally accepted, and to the believers in that hypothesis the idea that light should exert a pressure upon a body against which it fell was perfectly natural. Regard- ing the atoms and molecules of a luminous surface as a battery of minute guns firing off a continuous stream of still more minute shot—the corpuscles—they inevitably supposed that any body bombarded by the shot would be pressed back. Many experiments were made to detect this bombardment by directing a power- ful beam of light on to a delicately suspended disc, sometimes in air at ordinary pressures, sometimes in a vacuum, but with quite inconsistent and inconclu- sive results. They were met with the disturbances which still beset experiments on light forces—disturb- ances partly due to convection in the surrounding gas, and partly due to the radiometer action which Sir William Crookes discovered and investigated a hun- dred years later. According to the corpuscular theory, the pressure sought should be equal to twice the kinetic energy of translation per unit volume in the beam used. If the earlier experimenters had known the principle of the conservation of energy and the mechanical equivalent of heat, they would no doubt have mea- sured the energy of the beam, and would then have found that the pressure to be looked for was far too minute for detection by the apparatus which they em- ployed. With the abandonment of the corpuscular theory and its replacement by the wave theory, the idea of pressure of light disappeared, for the form which the wave theory took at first did not suggest a pressure, and it was not until 1874 that a definite and exact theory of light pressure was given by Clerk Max- well. According to his theory of stresses in the medium, both electric and magnetic tubes of force press out laterally. If, then, light waves consist of elec- tric and magnetic tubes of force transverse to the direc- tion of propagation, these tubes should press on any surface against which they impinge, and the pressure should be equal to the energy in unit volume of the light. Maxwell calculated that the pressure which should be exerted by full sunlight amounted to about 1/23000 of a dyne per sq. cm. Twenty-five years later Prof. Lebedew succeeded in detecting and measuring the pressure. He allowed the concentrated rays of an electric lamp to fall on a thin blackened platinum disc delicately suspended in a vacuum so high that there was probably no con- vection, and even the radiometer action was compara- tively small. By the ingenious device of using discs of different thickness with radiometer action proportional to the thickness, he was able to calculate the force acting on an infinitely thin disc on which there would 1 Based upon the Bakerian lecture on ‘The Pressure of Light against the Source : the Recoil from Light,’ by Prof. J. H. Poynting, F.R.S., and Dr. Guy Barlow, delivered at the Royal Society on March 17. 140 NATURE [AUGUST 4, I9IO be no radiometer action. He measured the energy of the beam by its heating effect, and the mean of his results showed a pressure of very nearly the amount required by Maxwell’s theory. At the same time, Profs. Nichols and Hull were working at the subject. They used air pressures of one or two centimetres of mercury, that peculiar region of pressure where convection nearly ceases and where radiometer action has scarcely begun. They allowed the beam to fall on a silvered disc, thus obtaining a double pressure—that of the incident plus that of the reflected beam. To eliminate the action of the sur- rounding gas they made use of the fact that the light pressure has its full force the instant the beam falls on the surface, while the convection and radio- meter actions only slowly develop as the disc gets heated. Nichols and Hull, therefore, only allowed the beam to fall on the disc for a short time—six seconds, a quarter period of the suspended system—and thus they eliminated the gas disturbances. They measured the energy of their beam by determining its heating effect, and the observed pressure was found to agree with Maxwell’s theory to within 1 per cent. ; When a beam of light, then, falls normally on an absorbing surface, it presses against it with a force per sq. cm. equal to the energy density. It is giving momentum to the surface at this rate. The beam is therefore a carrier of momentum. The waves of light carry momentum, momentum forward in the direction of propagation, just as surely as if they Were material corpuscles; and on either theory the momentum given per second is equal to twice the ‘kinetic energy per unit volume, since in the waves we may assume that the total energy is half kinetic and half potential. If we trace back this momentum it must have been put into the train of waves at its source, at the luminous surface from which they issued. The waves are there acquiring forward momentum. The source is losing forward momentum, or is gaining back- ward momentum. That is, the source is being pressed back with a force per sq. cm. equal to the energy density in the issuing waves. Thus, if the total energy emitted by one sq. cm. in one second is R, and U is the velocity of propagation, we have the pressure given by aR a. It is here assumed that all the energy is emitted normally to the surface. If, however, the surface is emitting in all directions according to the cosine law, it is easily shown that the effect of the spreading round the hemisphere is to make aR p an The pressure against the receiver is a proved experi- mental fact independent now of any particular hypo- thesis which we may adopt as to the nature of light; and if does not appear possible to avoid the conclusion that the momentum revealed in that pressure against the receiver was derived from the source. The experiment which we now describe has been made to detect the starting of the momentum from the source. It should be manifested as a back pres- sure, a recoil of the emitting body from the light, or radiation, which it sends forth. The most direct method would, no doubt, consist in suspending a disc black on one side, silvered on the other. Inside the disc should be a coil of wire, and this coil should be heated by a current: introduced through the suspension. The heat would be given out as radiation by the black surface, and hardly at all by the bright surface, with the result that the black NO. 2127, VOL. 84] surface should be pushed back. But the experimental difficulties in the way of such a direct method appear insuperable. The disc was, therefore, heated by allow- ing radiation to fall upon it and to be absorbed. This heat issued again as radiation, and it is the back pressure of this issuing radiation that had to be de- tected. The nature of the action to be looked for may be seen by considering an ideal case in which we allow a beam with energy P per cubic centimetre to fall normally in a perfect vacuum in turn on each of four discs, the front and back surfaces of these discs being respectively as in Fig. 1, where B represents a fully absorbing or “black ”’ surface, and S a fully reflecting or non-radiating surface. When the radiation falls on an absorbing face, as in the case of either of the discs (1) and (2), the tem- perature of the disc rises until a steady state is reached in which emission equals absorption. We may sup- pose that the discs are so thin that the two faces are sensibly at the same temperature. It we did not take into account the pressure due to issuing radiation, or if we only considered the initial effects before heating tool place, the pressures on the first two discs would be P in each case, due to the incident beam alone, and on the last two would be 2P, due to the sum of the incident and reflected beams. We should have, therefore, () (2) (a) (4) 12 12 ae 2P But when a steady state is reached, the discs (1) and (2) must be giving out as much radiant energy as they receive. The first dise gives out equal amounts i 2 3 4 P — > B(|B B|s s|s |B FRONT BACK Fic. 1. on the two sides, producing equal and opposite pres- sures. All the radiation from the second disc is given out at the front side, and is equal in energy to that of the incident beam. Assuming this emitted radiation is distributed according to the cosine law, the pressure resulting from it is easily shown to be 3P, so that the total pressure on this disc is 3P. Since there is no absorption by discs (3) and (4), we still have the pressures 2P; hence we have now (1) (2) Q) (4) Pp &P 2P 2P In a real case these results are modified in two ways :— : (1) By the possession of some small reflecting power by surface B, and of some small absorbing and radiating power by surface S. (2) By an. inequality of temperature between front and back surfaces conditioned by the energy which is carried through from front to back to be radiated thence. The vacuum is not perfect, and there is radiometer action due to the residual gas, which, owing to the inequality of temperature, is not the same on the two sides. This is probably the only way in which gas action is sensible, for the effects due to ordinary convection and conduction in the residual gas are negligible. In the final form of the experiment each disc consisted of a pair of circular cover glasses, 12 cm. in diameter and about 071 mm. thick, between which was squeezed a layer of asphaltum also about o'r mm. thick, the temperature being first raised sufficiently to render the asphaltum molten. Such a compound disc appears to be perfectly opaque, and its surface is extremely black and little diffusing. AvucustT 4, 1910| NATURE 141 The reflecting surface was made by depositing a silver film on the outside of the compound disc by means of the discharge from a silver kathode in an exhausted receiver. Four holes the size of the discs were cut in a plate of mica ABCD, the centres of the holes being at the corners of a 2-cm. square (Fig. 2). The discs were fixed in these holes by a minute amount of celluloid varnish. Below the mica plate were the two observ- ing mirrors M,, M,. This system was suspended by a quartz fibre G, 9 cm. long, in the centre of a glass flask of 16 cm. diameter. The upper end of the quartz fibre was fixed to a brass collar H, held by friction in the neck of the flask. The exhaustion of the flask was carried out to a very high degree, but an account of the method adopted and the precautions taken is here unnecessary. In the final stage of the process the residual gas was ab- sorbed by a charcoal bulb kept surrounded by liquid air, which was boiled off continuously at a reduced pressure of about 2 cm. of mercury, for several hours before, and dur- _ing the whole of the measure- ments. The light Ediswan “focus which from source of Was an 50-volt lamp,” was fed accumula- tors. By a suit- able arrangement of achromatic lenses a uniformly illuminated image of a circular dia- phragm was focussed on the disc to be worked with. The flask was mounted on a turn-table, so that by rotation through 180° ex- periments could be made on _ the reverse sides of the discs. For reading the deflections the image of an elec- tric lamp on a millimetre — scale was used, the deflection at a distance of being read to o'2 mm. As the mean of a number of determinations we have the final values (in scale divisions) for the pressures on the four discs :— BB BS ss 0s CI. SB 16°I 22°3 28°7 28°0 (Observed) A determination of the energy of the beam was made by allowing it to fall on a blackened disc of silver and observing the initial rate of rise of tempera- ture by means of a constantan-silver thermoelectric junction soldered to the disc. The energy was found to be 33 x 10-® ergs per cm. length of the beam used. This would be the force in dynes on a fully absorbing surface. Had the BB disc been fully absorbing the beam should have deflected it 13°6 scale divisions. Assuming that the asphaltum disc reflects 5 per cent. and the silver 95 per cent. of the incident beam—an estimate which cannot be seriously in error—it can easily be shown that the deflections of the four discs should have been :— NO. 2127, VOL. 84] BB BS ss SB 143 22°'0 26°5 26°1 (Calculated) The general agreement of these values with the observed values given above appears to afford satis- factory evidence tor the existence of the recoil effect. In the case of the BB disc, however, there is a marked difference between the observed and calculated values, and this discrepancy is probably to be ascribed to residual radiometer action. There was reason to suspect that this action was not sufficiently reduced to make it quite negligible, and it was obvious that this disc should be more affected than the others by radiometer action, as the difference in temperature between the two sides of the disc is greatest in that case. The forces due to light are so small, and the dis- turbances due to convection are relatively so great, that we cannot expect to find any effects due to light pressure here on the surface of the earth surrounded by a dense atmosphere. But out in interplanetary space, where the vacuum must be far higher than anything to which we can attain, the light forces may have uninterrupted play, and in the course of ages they may produce great effects; but even then only small bodies will’ be seriously affected. Take, for instance, a sphere; the pressure of sunlight upon it varies as the square of the radius, and the mass as the cube of the radius. Thus the acceleration pro- duced is inversely as the radius for spheres of the same density. The whole pressure of sunlight upon the earth is only a forty-billionth part of the sun’s gravitative pull. If we reduce the radius the pressure becomes more important in proportion, and on a sphere of one forty-billionth of the radius of the earth—or 16x 10-*® cms. radius—and of the earth’s density, if diffraction did not come into play, the pressure of sunlight would balance gravitation. Still smaller spheres would be pushed away. But turning to the case of bodies somewhat larger than those in which gravitation is neutralised by light-pressure, bodies for which gravitation is_ still much greater than the light pressure, we will now consider an effect on them due to the pressure of radia- tion against the source. Let us suppose that a small spherical absorbing body is circling round the sun. It is receiving radiation from the sun on its bright half, transmuting it to heat, and then giving out this energy as radiation again all round. If the sphere is sufficiently small—say of 1 cm. diameter or less— it will be practically of the same temperature through- out, a small difference of temperature from front to back sufficing to carry through the energy which it radiates from the darlx half. It virtually receives from the sun on its diametral plane, and it radiates out from its whole surface, which is four times as great. So that its rate of radiation per sq. cm. is one-fourth the solar radiation per sq. cm. passing the sphere. But we suppose that the sphere is moving round the sun. .As it moves forward it crowds up the waves in front and opens out the waves behind it. It follows, then, that in consequence of the motion, the pressure is slightly greater against the radiation emitted in front, and slightly less against the radiation emitted behind. The negative acceleration, or retardation, works out to be — Ss zg 4ap Wes where S is the solar stream of radiation, a the radius of the sphere, p its density, v its velocity, and U the velocity of light’ As the sphere moves against this resisting force its energy is gradually abstracted, and it tends to fall into the sun. If a sphere 1 cm. in diameter, and of the dénsity of the earth, is moving round the sun at a distance equal Tf2 NATURE [AuGUST 4, 1910 to that of the earth, it will fall in about one mile in the first year. If it continues to describe a nearly circular spiral, it will fall in less and less each revolu- tion, but the revolutions tale less and less time, and in equal times it will fall in more and more. Such a sphere will reach the sun in something of the order of 45,000,000 years. But the rate of falling in is inversely as the radius, so that a sphere 1/1000 cm. in diameter will fall in tooo miles in the first year, and will reach the sun in 45,000 years. There is no doubt that there are such bodies in our system. We have clear evidence of their existence when they perish as shooting stars in our atmosphere. Also there seems no way to avoid the conclusion that they are all spiralling in to the sun and will ultimately reach him unless their career is cut short by some intervening planet. How, then, are we to account for their existence in our system to-day ? Whatever limit we may assign to the age of the earth as a habitable globe, we must assign to the sun some vast number of millions of years, vast enough to have allowed him long ago to draw to himself all the specks of dust in his system. How is the supply renewed? Is interstellar space inhabited by scattered meteorites? Are they brought in by comets which have become disintegrated? And so light pressure raises once more an old and still unsolved problem. A NEW TRYPANOSOME PARASITIC IN HUMAN BEINGS." HE terrible mortality caused by sleeping sickness in Africa, and the knowledge that this deadly disease is caused by a species of trypanosome, has directed the attention of the general public, as well as of scientific and medical men all over the world, to these blood-parasites. The frequent occurrence of trypanosomes in the blood of vertebrate animals of all classes has long been known to zoologists, but this fact was regarded as little more than a scientific curiosity until Bruce, scarcely fifteen years ago, showed that a species of trypanosome, since named after him (Trypanosoma brucii), was the cause of the dreaded tsetse-fly disease of domestic animals in Africa, and followed this up by his discoveries, in the present century, with regard to the nature and transmission of sleeping sickness. No little sensation was created, therefore, when it was announced by Chagas about a year ago? that he had discovered a new species of trypanosome, named by him Tryfanosoma cruzi, in human blood in Brazil. A full account of this parasite, its develop- ment, and mode of transmission, has now been pub- lished by Chagas, with numerous illustrations, and it proves to be a form no less interesting from the purely zoological than from the medical standpoint. The manner in which this parasite was discovered is remarkable. Chagas found that in the province of Minas Geraes the houses, especially the thatched huts of the poorer classes, were infested by bugs (Fig. 1) of the species Conorhinus megistus, voracious blood- suckers of large size and nocturnal habits, responsible for much loss of sleep, as well as of blood, to the unfortunate inhabitants. Some of these bugs were collected and brought to Rio de Janeiro, where they were dissected and examined in the laboratory of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, and were found to contain in their digestive tracts numerous flagellate organisms resembling in form and structure the genus Crithidia. When such bugs were allowed to feed on experimenta 1 “ Nova trinanosomiaze humana.” By C. Chagas. Memorias do Insti- tuto Oswaldo Cruz I., 1909. Pp. 159-218 ; plates ix-xiii and ro text-figures. (Portuguese and German text.) 2 See the Bulletin of the Pasteur Institute for May 30, 1909, p. 453. NO. 2127, VOL. 84] animals, namely, marmosets (Callithrix penicillata) and guinea-pigs, they infected them with trypanosomes, to the effects of which the marmosets succumbed in about two months, the guinea-pigs in five to ten days. After this surprising result, Chagas returned to Minas Geraes and examined the blood of human beings in the zone infested by the bugs, and found several cases of human beings infected with similar trypanosomes. Thus the course of the discovery of this parasite has been the exact opposite to that of the progress of our knowledge of sleeping sickness; there the disease was thoroughly known long before it was found to be caused by a trypanosome, then the mode of trans- mission was discovered, and the complete life-cycle of the parasite has not yet been worked out; here the transmitting insect was first known, then the parasite itself was discovered, and, last of all, it was found to occur in human blood, with the result that the life- cycle of the trypanosome has been investigated in considerable detail, but very little is known of its effects in their clinical aspect. The few cases of infected human beings observed by Chagas have not been followed out by him to their end as yet. He finds the effects of the parasite to be most marked, however, in children, amongst whom it appears to cause severe mortality. The chief symptoms are anzmia, oedema, general or localised, enlargement of the lymphatic glands and of the spleen, and functional disturbances, especially of the nervous system, leading in some cases to imbecility. seventy years ago. The July with the next fewest number of warm days was in 1879, when there were eight days with the temperature above 70°, whilst there have only been four Julys during the last thirty years with fewer than twenty such warm days, and as recently as 1905 the temperature of 70° was exceeded in July on twenty-nine days. In the last nineteen years there have only been two Julys besides last month in which the shade temperature failed to touch 80°. The mean temperature for the month was 60°, which is 4° below the average of the past sixty years, and it is 1-5° below the mean for the corresponding month in 1909, when the early part of the summer was unseasonable like the present, although July last year had eighteen days with a temperature above 70°. The aggre- gate rainfall in the neighbourhood of London for July this vear was 3-5 inches, which is 1-1 inches more than the normal, and rain fell on seventeen days. The aggregate for June and July this year is 5-6 inches, which is 1-2 inches less than for the corresponding two months last year. The duration of bright sunshine in July this year was 115 hours, which is only one-half the average, and is sixty hours less than in July last year. Tue visit of the German Association of Gas and Water Engineers to Great Britain, which was postponed on account of the death of King Edward, has now been arranged to take place during the week commencing October 2 next. The visitors are to be the guests of the Institution of Gas Engineers, the Gas Light and Coke Company, the South Metropolitan Gas Company, the Croydon Gas Company, and the Corporations of Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively, of which latter city the engineer of the gas department, Mr. Alex. Wilson, is now the president of the Institution of Gas Engineers. At the last meeting of the British Science Guild, held in the rooms of the Royal Geographical Society, communi- cations were received from the Canadian and New South Wales sections of the Guild. In the case of the Canadian section, Lord Grey is resigning the presidentship on account of his departure, and it is hoped that Lord Strathcona will act as president in his place. No fewer than 120 members have joined the New South Wales section of the Guild, and important literature has been forwarded in connection with technical education and the report on open-air spaces for school children in Sydney. The agricultural memorial to the Prime Minister having received numerous signatures from representative agricultural societies and others was ordered to be submitted to the Prime Minister. The report ot the committee on the synchronisation of clocks was finally approved, and it was decided to approach the Local Government Board by deputation and to ask the President to promote legislation on the subject. AccorpinG to Miss F. Buchanan, writing in the July number of Science Progress on the significance of the pulse-rate in vertebrates, the relative size of the heart in different groups of animals depends on the amount of work it is called upon to perform. Thus in fishes, where it has only to pump the blood so far as the gills, the heart is always small, averaging 0-09 per cent. of the body-weight ; but in the inert flat-fishes it is still smaller, being only about o-o4 per cent. of the body-weight. On the other hand, in birds, more especially migratory and vocal species, the heart has very heavy work to perform, and is con- sequently of great relative size, ranging from 1 to 2, or in a few cases 2-6, per cent. of the body-weight. In consequence of these differences in the amount of work the heart has to execute, its size bears no fixed relation to that of the animal to which it belongs. ‘‘ The heart AUGUST 4, 1910] NATURE 149 of a pigeon, e.g., weighs twenty-five times that of a plaice of the same weight, and is about equal to that of a salmon fifteen times as heavy as the pigeon. A thrush, and a guinea-pig of six or seven times its weight, have hearts of about equal size.” In the Psychological Bulletin for June Dr. J. C. Hubbard describes a curious. visual phenomenon resulting from stimulation of the macular region of the retina. It was first, and can be best, observed when the pupil is dilated by atropin, but it is also said to occur under ordinary con- ditions when any feeble source of light is viewed against a dark background. If, for example, ‘‘a patch of soft red colour, such as a ruby lamp wrapped with tissue paper, be viewed in a dark room, diffuse brushes of bluish tint are seen, apparently spreading laterally from it. With the right eye alone the brushes seem to extend to the right of the source, and with the left eye to the left.’’ These brushes terminate at a point which is found to correspond to the position of the blind spot, for the source of light when not too large disappears if the eye be turned to the point of termination of the brushes. The brushes disappear in two or three seconds if the eye remains carefully fixed, but reappear upon slightly moving the eye. They also occur when the source of light is daylight, are brightest in orange-yellow and yellow spectral light, and are almost imperceptible in blue and violet light. Dr. Hubbard points out that the distribution of these brushes of blue light is strikingly similar to that of the bundles of optic nerve- fibres radiating from the macula to the blind spot. He suggests that certain stimuli, ‘‘ passing from the macular region along these fibres to the optic nerve, are capable of inducing secondary effects in portions of the retina along which they pass.”’ Tue preliminary announcement made in the Times of July 27, by Dr. Max O. Richter, of the discovery by Dr. KK. Koritzky and himself of the site of the famous Cyprian temple of Aphrodite-Astarte will, if the facts are verified, rank justly as one of the most important archeological events in recent years, and a well-deserved triumph for German science. We can only express the regret that, in spite of much exploration in Cyprus by British scholars, they have faued to secure the honour of this discovery. The clue to the supposed site of the temple at Rantidi, or Kandi, was gained through the examination of some in- seribed stones which were smuggled out of the country, the first having been accidentally found by a shepherd. Whether this be the shrine of the Paphian Venus or not, the remains are certainly numerous and interesting. The German uarchologists have taken measures to secure the rights of excavation, and Dr. Richter believes that the antiquities to be unearthed will prove to be so numerous that it will be necessary to erect a special museum for their reception, probably at Limassol. The examination of the shrine will probably solve the much debated question of the relation of the worship of the goddess to Oriental cults. In spite of the fact that the law protecting antiqui- ties in Cyprus is severe, we regret to learn from Dr. Richter that many of the precious inscriptions have been removed from the-ruins by the Government engineers and broken up for ballast for the new road from Nicosia to Limassoi. ” Tue presidential address on ‘‘ Nature and Nurture delivered by Prof. Karl Pearson at the annual meeting of the Social and Political “Education League in April last has been published by Messrs. Dulau and Co. in the Eugenics Laboratory Lecture Series. Prof. Pearson Stress on» the necessity for exact methods in the study of NO. 2127, VOL. 84] lays sociological problems, and indicates the difficulty of analysing the resultant effects of nature and nurture so as to exhibit the relative importance of each factor. A few pedigrees are given illustrating the appalling extent to which abnormalities may be propagated by a fertile degenerate stock, and conversely the persistence of intel- lectual eminence in superior stocks; and the strength of nature is contrasted with that of nurture by two tables, the first showing correlations between parent and offspring or between members of the same family, and the second correlations between various factors taken as inaices of environment and. physical characters of children. Prof. Pearson concludes that ‘‘ there is no real comparison between nature and nurture; it is essentially the man who makes his environment, and not the environment which makes the man.’’ Not everyone will agree that the data are adequate to prove the conclusion, and from many of Prof. Pearson's obiter dicta the reader is likely to dissent ; but the address gives a lucid and stimulating exposition, in popular language, of the lecturer’s views. No. 1746 of the Proceedings of the U.S. Nat. Mus. is devoted to an account, by Mr. G. C. Embody, of a new species of amphipod crustacean, found in abundance in a large, spring-fed pond or lake some three acres in extent near Ashland, Virginia. When first collected, in 1908, they were referred to Eucrangonyx gracilis, but they are now found to be distinct, and described as Eu. serratus. Although these amphipods formed a portion of the food of at least three species of fishes, the thick fringe of vegetation round the pond, coupled with their rather rapid propagation, prevents any very great destruction of the crustaceans. In the July number of the Amertcan Naturalist, Mr. H. B. Wood discusses recent views as to the original source and spread of bubonic plague. Russian naturalists have urged that the bobac marmot (or perhaps some kindred central Asiatic species) is the sole originator of plague, and that it is permanently infected with the disease, thereby periodically re-infecting rats, and thus the human race, by means of fleas. The extermination of the bobac has, therefore, been demanded; but, as the author points out, there are probably other sources of original infection, and, in any case, certain American rodents have now become permanent. centres of the disease. It is known, for in- stance, that a species of suslik, or ground-squirrel (Spermophilus, or Citellus, beecheyi), is plague-infected in California, and the same is the case with one of the wood- rats of the genus Neotoma, only in a less degree. Susliks may become infected inter se by the burrowing owl (Speotito) acting as flea-carrier, the fleas being probably carried from susliks to man by either cattle or rats, although direct transference from the former may take place. Two kinds of Californian rat-fleas will bite man, as will some suslik-fleas; and it has also been ascertained that rat-fleas will carry infection from rats to susliks, while suslik-fleas will carry it from one species of suslik to another, and likewise to rats and guinea-pigs. An account was given in the Times of July 26 of the deep-sea observations in the North Atlantic made by the Michael Sars expedition, which left Plymouth on April 7. It. will be remembered that Sir John Murray liberally financed the expedition and took part im the cruise. The work was under the control of Dr. John Hiort, who had the assistance of Prof. Gran, Mr. Helland-Hansen, and Captain, Iversen. Physical and _ biological were made at most of the seventy-four observing stations. Upwards- of 600- temperature observations at different investigations 159 depths were recorded. ‘The temperature observations agree very well with those of the Challenger, but the determina- | tions of the salinity and density of the water have furnished | The measurements of the rate of the current | new results. ja the Straits of Gibraltar showed that the limit between the upper (east going) and the lower (west going) currents is situated at a depth of between 50 and 100 fathoms, varying in depth with the tide. The greatest velocities measured were about five knots. In the warm waters of the Sargasso Sea, where the tow-nets of the German Plankton Expedition obtained few plants, the centrifuging | of the water gave samples showing that the plants there consist of the smallest forms, which escape through the meshes of the finest silk nets; they were found in thousands to a depth of about 50 fathoms. Prof. Gran has recorded a great number of new species, and was able to make quantitative microscopic investigations, and thereby deter- mine the vertical distribution of the different species. The ‘temperature section across the Gulf Stream to the south of the Great Banks showed unexpected results. Both the ‘temperature and the plankton indicate a counter-current at the southern border of the Gulf Stream. In consequence of this the Michael Sars followed the course of the Gulf ‘Stream across the Atlantic, taking observations on the way, and the results will be published later. In No. 1749 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National | H. Clark describes a new species of | Museum, Mr. A. feather-star (Antedon) from the Adriatic, and discusses the relationships of the other European members of the genus. It appears that considerable differences in the size of the eggs and of their rate of development have been noted by several observers in European Antedons from different localities, although all the specimens were referred to the ordinary A. rosacea, the range of which was thus considered to extend from Norway to the Mediterranean. It was, however, suspected by all that the specific determination was unsatisfactory. Mr. Clark is now able to announce ‘the existence of four European species—two from the Atlantic, for which the names of petasus and_ bifida {=rosacea) are respectively available, and two from the Mediterranean, one of which should bear the name mediterranea. The two Mediterranean forms have long, slender arms, and numerously segmented long cirri, while in those from the Atlantic the arms and cirri are shorter and stouter, with fewer segments to the latter; further, it is believed that neither of the Atlantic species has infra- ‘basal plates. These are, however, present in the Mediter- ranean forms; but the newly named A. adriatica has four or five, against three in mediterranea. The Mediterranean forms are more primitive than those from the Atlantic, which accords with the author’s view that Antedon is primarily an Indian Ocean genus, where it is now repre- sented by the more generalised Mastigometra. To No. 40 of the Zoological Society Bulletin, New York, July, Mr. W. T. Hornaday contributes an_ illustrated -article on the collections of heads and horns of big game in the temporary ‘‘ Administration Building ’’ in that city. It appears that attention was recently directed to the poverty of American museums in specimens of this nature from Africa, and that this has resulted in a very gratifying effort on the part of sportsmen and collectors. We notice, however, that the specimens are exhibited on the walls of the apartments of the building without the protection »f cases, and apparently exposed to strong light, which will assuredly lead to their rapid deterioration, Mr. \lornaday quotes certain pessimistic views as to the pros- pects of African big game, in which it is asserted that, in NO. 2127, VOL. 84] NATURE } i { -or by other species of tsetse-flies also. [AuGisT 4, 1910 from ten to fifteen years, all except that in protected areas will have been practically wiped out. THE June number of the Quarterly Journal of Micro- scopical Science (vol. ly., part ii.) contains a valuable and beautifully illustrated monograph, by Mr. Cresswell Shearer, on the anatomy of WHistriobdella homari. This very primitive segmented worm is said to be a normal inhabitant of the branchial chamber of the European lobster. The author concludes that the genus Histriobdella must be placed close to Dinophilus, but that it is more nearly related to the rotifers than the latter. Both genera show distinct relationships with Polygordius and Protodrilus, although they cannot be classed with these as true archiannelids. The same number contains Messrs. Allen and Nelson’s interesting paper on the artificial culture of marine plankton organisms, already published in the Journal of the Marine Biological Association and noticed in these pages. Mr. Geoffrey Smith continues his studies in the experimental analysis of sex, and describes a case of parasitic castration in a cockerel, due to tubercle bacilli infecting the alimentary and lymphatic organs. He con- siders this case to be analogous to the parasitic castration of various invertebrates, such as that of the crab Inachus by the degenerate barnacle Sacculina. There are also three protozoological papers by Miss Annie Porter, Mr. C. M. Wenyon, and Mr. H. Lyndhurst Duke, all of a high standard of merit. In the Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology (vol. iii., No. 5), there is a memoir by A. Breinl and E. Hindle on the life-history of Trypanosoma lewisi in the rat-louse, Haematopinus spinulosus. In experiments carried on for more than a year, the authors have succeeded three times in transmitting T. lewist by means of the rat- louse. Cytological changes in the trypanosomes in the gut of the louse are described and figured. Amongst other articles in the same number, one by Sir Rubert Boyce and. F. C. ‘Lewis, on ‘“‘ The Effect of Mos- quito Larve upon Drinking Water,’’ may be especially noted. It is found by experiment that ‘‘ the presence of larve in drinking water adds very considerably to the number of bacteria present,’’ and Cyclops appears to pro- duce the same effect. THE eighteenth bulletin of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau contains a great deal of valuable information concerning the results of recent research upon all questions bearing directly or indirectly upon the etiology or treatment of trypanosomiases of man and animals. It begins with an editorial article upon the transmission in nature of Trypanosoma gambiense, the main point at issue being whether the trypanosome of sleeping sickness is dissemi- nated, under natural conditions, by Glossina palpalis alone Recent observa- tions tend to arouse the suspicion that G. fusca and G. morsitans may, under certain conditions in nature, serve as hosts for the human trypanosome, and if this is true, “the difficulty of prevention would be enormously aggra- vated. The seriousness of the problem . . . makes it imperative that skilled investigations ... be conducted without loss of time.”’ THE progress of paleeobotany is marked by the appear- ance of a publication, Die Palaeobotanische Literatur, of which the first volume, dealing with the literature that appeared in 1908, has been issued by the firm of Gustav Fischer, Jena. The bibliography not only cites papers devoted primarily to palezobotany, but includes papers on recent botany, in which fossil plants are discyssed. The AUGUST 4, 1910] NATURE 151 Sreater part of the volume, which exceeds 200 pages, is taken up by the enumeration of genera and species with references to the various papers where they are mentioned. The compiler, Dr. W. J. Jongmans, of Leyden, makes an appeal for assistance in the shape of literature and papers as published. THE systematic position of the tropical American genus Phytelephas, well known because the stone-like endosperm furnishes a cheap substitute for ivory, is discussed by Mr. O. F. Cook in vol. xiii., part v., of “* Contributions from the United States National Herbarium.’’ The author traces an affinity with Manicaria, a Central American genus, in the number of stamens and the fruit, besides noting an agreement with Attalea in the germination of the seedling. This leads to the formation of a family, Manicariacez, connecting the Phytelephantaceze with the Cocacee. At the same time, the author controverts a family relationship between Nipa and Phytelephas. Pror. H. Motiscu communicates to the Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna (vol. cxviii., part ix.), a note on local coloration of the cell wall in certain water plants induced by manganese compounds. The introduction of manganese salts into cultures of Elodea produces, after a few days’ exposure to light, a deposition of brown matter in the outer walls of the epidermis which on continued exposure tends to mask the green pigment in the leaf. The author notes that the deposition takes place only when the plant is exposed to light, and that a similar result was obtained in leaves of Vallisneria, Ranunculus aquatilis, and Myriophyllum. The chief point of interest lies in the fact that it furnishes a definite instance of localised action produced by the absorp- tion of a specific element. Durinc the coming December an exhibition is to be held at Allahabad, at which a special feature will be the dis- play of small light machinery for use in agriculture and the allied industries. A pamphlet entitled ‘‘ Northern India as a Market for Agricultural Machinery ’’ has been issued, not only with the purpose of interesting manu- facturers in the exhibition, but to give useful information to those who have in the past found it difficult to ascertain the special requirements of the vast Indian market. It should serve its purpose admirably. Tue fertilising value of seaweed has for some time past been the subject of a long arbitration case in Scotland. From the reports that have appeared in the North British Agriculturist, it seems that three farmers. were deprived of their rights to gather seaweed when the Admiralty resumed possession of the foreshore at Rosyth for the pur- poses of naval construction. The facts were not contested, and the only dispute was as to the value of the seaweed. Experts and practical men were called on both sides, and the values assigned varied from 1s. per ton to gs. 33d. ; in the end the arbitrator fixed 4s. 9d. and awarded com- pensation on this basis. As the case has been going on for eight months a considerable amount of money must have been spent, while it cannot be said that any material addition to our knowledge of the subject has been gained in consequence. The préblem could only be solved by experiment, and it is reverting to the methods of the medieval schoolmen to attempt to settle it by collecting “* opinions.’’ 4 Tue tobacco produced in India has not hitherto been held in high repute, nor has success been attained by the introduction of American varieties and methods of curing. NO. 2127, VOL. 84] Mr. and Mrs. Howard have for some time been engaged in a study of the varieties already grown in the country, and have published their results in vol. iii. of the Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India. Perhaps no other factor in the production of high-grade tobacco is so important as uniformity in the crop, both as regards growth and also as regards the type of plant grown. Unless the crop ripens evenly the difficulties of harvesting and curing are increased, whilst a crop made up of several types of plant is not readily sorted out into uniform grades- The various types of Nicotiana rustica and N. tabacunr are described in sufficient detail, and typical photographs are given. A great deal of patient work of this kind is necessary before the breeding of new varieties can usefully be begun. Pror. A. L. RotcuH has contributed to the epitome of the Aéronautical Annual, 1910, a useful article on the relation of the wind to aérial navigation. After explaining the methods of investigating the upper air employed at Blue Hill Observatory and elsewhere by means of kites and sounding-balloons, he refers to the results of the upper wind observations in the eastern United States and to the recent discussion of the data by Mr. A. H. Palmer. The surface wind at Blue Hill (200 metres) has a mean annual velocity of 7-1 metres per second (15-8 miles per hour), and increases with height, as follows :— Height in metres 55? Mean velocity, m.p.s. 9°8 1000 10°7 6400 275% 250) 12°5 3500 5400 155-249 and the increase continues to the greatest heights; at 9500 m. it is 35-8 m.p.s. (80-8 miles per hour). The mean range from summer to winter increases very greatly with height :— Height in metres 200—1000 1000—3000 3000—50¢0 5000—7000 Velocity in summer 75 82 10°6 1Q°L Velocity in winter 88 14°7 21°6 49°3 the velocity of the upper winds in winter being more thar double the rate in summer. The velocity increases nearly twice as fast at night as in the daytime up to about 500 m.; above that height there is a decrease, except in winter, up to 1000 m., and then a steady increase. The author points out that at night a suitable level for aérial navigation in summer is 1000 m.; in the daytime it is necessary to ascend above the cumulus clouds. Over the temperate regions the surface winds are obviously con- stantly changing their direction; above these shifting winds, the balloons sent off from St. Louis showed that the direction is generally westerly. Above the height of a mile the mean direction was from west-north-west. Tue results of a series of investigations by Messrs. de Broglie and L. Brizard, on the ionisation of gases in presence of chemical reactions, summarised by the authors in the June number of Le Radium. Of the three methods adopted by the authors, that in which the ultra- microscope is used has proved the most powerful. The chemical reaction to be investigated is carried out under the microscope and between two charged plates which pro- duce an electrical field across the line of vision. Any charged particles produced by the reaction are moved towards one or the other plate, according to the sign of the charge. A large number of reactions have been observed in this way, and the authors conclude that in none is the ionisation, if produced, due primarily to the chemical reaction, but to secondary effects, such as the bubbling of a gas through a surface of separation of two fluids, or the breaking down of crystalline structure and the projection of particles which become charged by friction with the surrounding medium, or, lastly, to the in- candescence produced by the heat of reaction. It will be are iD NATURE [AuGusT 4, I910 evident that many observations hitherto unexplained will be capable of explanation on lines suggested by these results. Ix a paper entitled ‘‘ Absorption and Adsorption with Reference to the Radio-active Emanations,’’ published in the Bulletin of the Macdonald Physics Buildings of McGill University, Dr. R. W. Boyle shows that the radio-active emanations behave as all ordinary gases in obeying the iaws of solution and of gaseous adsorption. In the case of thorium emanation, the experiments described show that the amount of emanation absorbed by charcoal is propor- tional to the concentration of the emanation in the gas in contact with it. The absorption also depends on the nature of the charcoal and the amount of surface exposed, and, as with ordinary gases, the absorption decreases with increase of temperature. On comparing the. results of several experiments, it appears that thorium emanation is four times as soluble in water as radium emanation, but in petroleum the former is only half as soluble as the latter. Experiments with thorium emanation showed that this gas is less soluble in solutions such as copper sulphate and calcium chloride than in pure water, and the most powerful solvents used were petroleum and alcohol. The order of the solubilities of radium and thorium emanations in different solvents was found to be the same. The paper concludes with a brief notice of current ideas on adsorp- tion, and there is appended a bibliography on the subjects treated. Tur University of Illinois Bulletin No. 41 contains an account of tests’ made on timber beams by Mr. Talbot. The tests were made with the view of adding data on the properties of timber in the form of stringers, as used in many railroad structures. The timber stringers 8 inches by 16 inches by 15 feet to 7 inches by 14 feet in size. One hundred and twelve samples in all were tested, including long-leaf pine, short- leaf pine, loblolly pine, and Douglas fir. The load was applied equally at one-third points of the span length. The dimensions of the specimens were such as to bring out the strengths of timber in horizontal shear. The influence of knots, seasoning checks, and wind shakes can be traced in the results. Much of the data in existence is based on tests made on small specimens, and a valuable feature of the present series consists of the results of tests on minor specimens cut from the stringers. The flexural and shear- ing strengths of these smaller specimens were determined, and the relation of their properties to those of the full- sized stringers may be studied from the results given. In addition to many tables of the bulletin includes photographs showing characteristic fractures under the bending and shearing tests. were 12 inches by results, OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. A CentTRaL Bureau ror METEOR OsseRVvaATIONS.—Under the auspices of the Astronomical Society of Antwerp, a central office has been established for the collection and coordination of observations of meteors. A beginning was made in 1907, and in twenty-two months 5960 observations were recorded by forty observers in thirty-six localities. This essay showed that a much wider organisation was desirable, and the new Bureau Central Meteorique hopes to receive the cooperation of all observers of meteors, amateurs and otherwise, the world over. In the Publi- cation No. 1 is given a complete set of directions and advice, so that anyone, astronomer or not, who can observe regularly, may at once join in the international cooperative scheme. In a circular which accompanies the publication, M. Birkenstock points out that the expenses of the new NO. 2127, VOL. 84] A. Ny» organisation will be large, and asks all those interested in meteoric astronomy to assist by making an annual sub- scription of at least 5 francs. Tue Rotation oF Sun-srots.—To No. 4429 of the Astronomische Nachrichien Herr -P. Kempf contributes some interesting results derived from sun-spot observations made during 189 1-3. A number of solar observers have been unable to establish any definite rotation of sun-spots, but here the observer shows from careful observations that in thirteen cases there was a distinct rotatory movement of the spot about its own centre. Seven of these occurred, in the northern, and six in the southern, hemisphere, but there appears to be no relation between the direction of the rotation and the latitude—north or south—of the spot; only in two cases in each hemisphere was the motion in the negative (i.e. N.W.S.E.) direction. In one case (Greenwich spot- number 2277, August 5-16, 1891) the spot rotated 139° in eleven days, while the average daily motions ranged between Ts and 37°; for the northern hemisphere the mean was 11°, and for the southern 20° Hatiey’s Comet.—An snteresting popular summary of the phenomena presented by Halley’s comet during its recent apparition is published in the July number of The World To-day by Prof. Frost. Discussing the ‘‘ never-to- be-forgotten spectacle ’’ presented by the 100° tail seen about the time of the comet’s passage, Prof. Frost affirms that the earth probably passed through a part of the tail on the morning of May 19, and suggests that we were within the forks, or separate streamers, of it for two days following, hence the east and west tails. The strangely iridescent clouds, with a kind of horizontal ‘‘ rainbow,” seen at the horizon, may also have been due, at least in part, to the presence of cometary dust. Some excellent photographs were secured by Mr. Eller- who led a comet expedition to the Hawaiian Islands. man, rd no: MereoritES.—A_ description of the Guffey meteorite, discovered by two cowboys near Guffey, Park County, Colorado, in 1907, is given by Mr. Edmund O. Hovey in a reprint from the American Museum Journal, vol. ix., pp. 237-48. This object is a siderite 36-5 inches long, 15 inches maximum height, and 8 inches wide. The mass is roughly pear-shaped, and weighs 682 lb. Two sides show well- developed ‘‘ thumb marks’? or ‘“* piézoglyphs,’’ but on another, which is nearly straight, these are not so well developed ; the author suggests that the straight edge and lack of marks indicate that the mass split into two or more parts when near the end of its flight, and that another part may, therefore, yet be found. The mass is very homogeneous, and chemical analysis shows it to con- tain 88-7 per cent. Fe, 10-5 per cent. Ni, 0-5 per cent. Co, with traces of Cr, C, S, and P; the specific gravity is 7-939. It is supposed that this may be the remains of a vivid meteor which was observed to pass over the Fresh- water River region during the autumn of -1906; it now lies in the foyer of the American Museum. Mr. Hovey also describes two other recent additions to the foyer, viz. a slice and cast of the Gibeon meteorite and the largest known portion of the Modoc meteorite. The Gibeon meteorite, weighing 562 lb., was discovered in Great Namaqua Land (lat. 25° Sits., long: “172 so/Nbe)s and is in the possession of the Hamburg Natural History Museum. A slice of this and a plaster cast were sent to the American Museum, where it is ingenfously mounted with the slice in situ, the two halves of the cast being hinged so as to show the complete form with the polished surface of the slice. The ‘* Modoc ” is the largest known portion (20 lb. 3 0z.) of a meteorite seen to fall near Modoc, Scott County, Kansas, on September 2, 1905. ‘Twenty-five fragments have been found, and, where pieces have been broken off by the plough, the meteorite is shown to be composed of whitish stony material containing bright specks of iron. Photographs of the Guffey and Gibeon meteorites illus- trate the paper. THe Unirep States Navat Osservatory.—The report by the superintendent for the year ending June 30, 1909, shows that the Astronomical Council, consisting of the various officers and assistants at the U.S. Naval Observa- AUGUST 4, 1910] NATURE 195 tory, is fulfilling a useful function in formulating the pro- grammes of work for the various instruments. During the year, the 6-inch and g-inch transit circles were thoroughly examined for their fitness for fundamental work, and various adjustments and modifications were made. The latitude-variation observations made with the prime vertical instrument were compared with those made with zenith telescopes at Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Gaithersburg, and were found to give different values. The cause of this difference between the values given by the two forms of instrument was carefully looked for in the prime-vertical observations, but could. not be found. Prof. Skinner was engaged until the end of the year in preparing material for the discussion of the proper motions of the 8824 stars observed by him, and published in the A.G. Zone Catalogue —13° 50’ to —18° ro’, but the work cannot be carried further until the cataloguing of the Washington zone observations, 1846-52, is completed. Measures oF Dounte Srars.—Prof. Burnham continues his record of double-star measures in Nos. 4426-7 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, where a large number of measures, made with the 40-inch telescope during 1909, are given. Particular attention was paid to doubles gererally neglected or little known, also to measurements for the better determination of the proper motions of faint stars and of doubles where the motions are small or uncertain. THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION IN LONDON. HE seventy-eighth annual meeiing of the _ British Medical Association was held in London, for the first time since 1895, on July 26-30, in the buildings of the University of London. There was a very large attendance, which included a number of foreign guests and over-sea delegates and members. The Earl of Crewe and the Right Hon. Walter Long, M.P., were elected honorary members. Reference was made to Mr. Long’s work, which resulted in the abolition of hydrophobia from these islands. Mr. Henry T. Butlin, the famous surgeon, was elected president. At the commencement of the pro- ceedings he announced, amid loud cheers, that the King had signified his willingness to become patron, as_ his revered father was before him. The president in his address directed attention to the persevering worl of the association since 1834 in placing the medical profession upon an increasingly satisfactory footing. He referred to the valuable assistance given by the association to the causé of original research. Since 1874, when scientific grants were founded, large sums have been awarded every vear for research work. In 1884 two research scholarships were founded to enable men to devote their whole time to particular researches. Mr. Butlin pointed out that it was desirable to encourage research even though there were no prospect of immediate benefit from the particular line of research taken up, and he instanced cases in which an apparently unproductive investigation had led to results of vast practical importance. At the present time the association consists of twenty- two thousand members in seventy branches. The _ busi- ness of the recent meeting took place in twenty-one sections dealing with particular branches of medical science, and in each section the line of inquiry which is receiving particular attention at the present time was given full dis- cussion, foreign investigators taking a prominent part in the discussions in many of the sections. In the section of radiology and medical electricity, Sir J. J. Thomson, F.R.S., gave an address in which he pointed out that the softer rays given out from an X-ray tube were inevitably absorbed by the glass wall of the tube, and were therefore not available for application in medical treatment. He then directed attention to the researches of Prof. Barkla, of King’s College, who found that substances such as metals when exposed to R6ntgen radiation emitted secondary rays, the penetrating power of which was specific for the particular metal,,and was independent of the pene- trating power of the rays which impinged upon it. The rule was a simple one, for the hardness of the ray given out increases as the atomic weight of the metal. The only NO. 2127, VOL. 84| necessary condition is that the rays emitted from the X-ray tube must be harder than the specific radiation of the sub- stance. Only substances the atomic weight of which is greater than that of calcium are found to give out these secondary rays. We have thus the power of using rays of uniform penetration for medical treatment. Thus if silver be used, the secondary rays which it gives off are about equal in penetrating power to the 6 radiation of radium. With iron the radiation is considerably less penetrating, while with tin it is more penetrating ; with iodine, extremely penetrating radiation is given off. A large number of other papers were read bearing on R6ntgen-ray diagnosis and treatment, and the great advance that has been made in R6ntgen-ray diagnosis came prominently to the fore. Thus the papers of Dr. H. Orton and Dr. A. C. Jordan on phthisis showed this method to be a most valuable and trustworthy means of detecting phthisis in its early stages, and of determining the extent and position of the lung trouble. In the section of medicine, Dr. A. C. Jordan also read a paper on the R6ntgen-ray appearances of thoracic aneurysm, and the lantern-slides with which it was illustrated showed very clearly the condition of the heart and great arteries in this disease. In many other sections the value of Rontgen-ray diagnosis was also evident. Thus the first session of the surgery section was devoted to a discussion of the operative treatment of simple fractures, in which Mr. Arbuthnot Lane described his method of uniting the severed fragments by means of metallic plates and screws, and in his paper, and all those that followed it, the conclusions were founded, to a very great extent, upon the R6ntgen-ray appearances of the fractured part. The discussion on chronic constipation turned very largely on the Roéntgen-ray examination of the large bowel after the patient had taken a meal containing an insoluble salt of bismuth. This discussion was opened by Dr. J. F. Goodhart, who pointed out that constipation in old per- sons was frequently due to failure of voluntary effort. He said he held a brief for the importance and utility of the large bowel in opposition to those who, following the teaching of Metchnikoff, have come to regard the large bowel as a mere place of storage for the waste material of the food, in which poisons were generated which were very apt to be injurious. The large bowel, he stated, is meant to be full, not empty. Mr. Arbuthnot Lane said that in certain cases poisons were actually generated in the large bowel to such an extent that the patient’s life was intolerable. In such cases he had removed a part or the whole of the large bowel with great benefit to his patient. Drs. Dominici and Wickham came from Paris to discuss the subiect of radium treatment. They made it clear that cancer in accessible regions can be greatly reduced in size by radium treatment, and can in certain cases be actually cured. In the case of large, deeply seated growths, a cure is not to be expected, although great diminution in size may: be effected and much relief afforded. Various special forms ot apparatus have been devised for applying radium to internal growths such as those of the throat, cesophagus, and stomach. Early detection of the cancer and early application of radium are the most important points. In pathology and bacteriology, a number of important papers were read by those most fitted for the task. Thus Colonel Sir David’ Bruce, C.B., F.R.S., discussed human trypanosomiasis, while the paper of Prof. Wassermann, of Berlin, opened a discussion on the complement-deviation method in diagnosis—the method which he introduced for the diagnosis of syphilis, and which is now used for this purpose throughout the world. Its application to certain other diseases is now being worked out, so that it is one of the most important matters before the pathologists at the present day. A discussion on the lactic acid organisms teok place, at which Prof. Hewlett was among those who took part. There was a most important discussion on the effect of digitalis on. the human heart, opened by Prof. Wenckebach, of Gréningen. He was followed by Dr. James Mackenzie, Sir Lauder Brunton, and others. The subiect of dental decay was given very full dis- cussion. It is now taught that both doctors and patients should regard decay of the teeth as a serious danger- signal, and the wholesale decay in young people and in many families so prevalent. at the present time requires 154 urgent attention. Foods that are too soft or too finely prepared are frequently causes of dental decay, and many serious illnesses, as well as cases of chronic debility, are due to poisons absorbed from the roots ef decayed teeth. The sour-milk cure, which is now in great vogue, was fully discussed from all points of view, and its benefit in suitable cases was placed beyond doubt. More practical evidence is needed, however, and the discussion will have done much fo point out the directions in which this evidence should be sought. An address on surgery was delivered by Prof. Gilbert Barling, in which he discussed the treatment of cancer. He referred in terms of praise to the work of the Imperial Cancer Research. There was evidence that the tissues resisted the inroad of cancerous growths, though little was as yet known of the nature of the resistance. We had not yet discovered the factors which heighten or lower this power of resistance. In considering the means available for the cure or relief of malignant growths, he discussed the application of X-ray and radium treatment. His con- clusions were, on the whole, in agreement with those of Drs. Dominici and Wickham. He emphasised the fact that a genuine cure is not to be expected from these agents in cases of advanced cancer, and he further emphasised the great importance of early detection. Only one real oppor- tunity for cure existed, and this was at the first operation, which should be undertaken at the earliest possible stage of the disease, and advantage of this opportunity should be pressed to its fullest extent. Dr. J. Mitchell Bruce, in his address in medicine, gave a brief record of the most important additions to medical knowledge during the period since the association last met in London. First came the discovery of the spirochzte of syphilis; of the part played by the mosquito in malaria and in yellow fever, and by the goat in the diffusion of Malta fever; of the connection of a trypanosome with sleeping sickness; of the Leishman-Donovan body with kala-azar; and of the Diplococcus intracellularis meningitidis with cerebro-spinal fever. The existence of typhoid carriers had been fully demonstrated, as well as the dangers of other typhoid pro- ducts than the stools. The effects of oral sepsis had been worked out, and proved to be so widespread, so multiple, and frequently so grave, as to make us ashamed of our previous blindness to a common source of blood infection staring us in the face all those years. Autointoxication proper had attracted professional—and only too much public —attention, and led to the introduction of a great variety of dietetic and medicinal ‘‘ cures.’? Of improved methods of observation and diagnosis, blood examination deserved first mention ; and special interest and importance attached to the Widal reaction in typhoid and to the Wassermann reaction in syphilis. Radioscopy, which was coming into clinical use in 1895, had been greatly improved and ex- tended, more particularly in its applications to the investi- gation of gastric and intestinal disorders and diseases ; and the orthodiagraph must be mentioned in this connection. A great impetus had been given to the study of cardiac irregularity, and the sphygmomanometer was now generally employed. A real advance had been made in the introduc- tion of lumbar puncture as a means of diagnosis in cerebro- spinal diseases. “During these fifteen years several new methods of treatment of the first rank have been either introduced or perfected. Chief of all comes serum-therapy and vaccine- therapy. Of great importance is the employment of spinal analgesia as a substitute for general anzesthesia, the dangers of which have been closely investigated in relation’ to the status lymphaticus, as well as to post-anzesthetic acid intoxication. Other powerful means of treatment have been discovered in radium, in the Réntgen rays, and in the Finsen light.” ‘ A very complete medical museum formed an important part of the meeting. It included a very valuable series of microscopical. preparations showing the blood parasites of malaria, sleeping sickness, and other tropical diseases. The Imperial Cancer Research showed a beautiful collec- tion of specimens, lantern-slides, and diagrams giving a very good idea of the valuable methodical work which is being carried out by this institution under the directorship of Dr. E. F. Bashford. In the museum, the value of NO. 2127, VOL. 84] NATURE [AuGusT 4, 1910 R6ntgen-ray diagnosis was again to the fore, for many of the sections showed negatives, prints, lantern-slides, or diagrams to illustrate the Rontgen-ray appearances in various diseases. There was also a large exhibition in which numerous firms of publishers, instrument makers, chemists and druggists, and manufacturers of special foods and dietetic preparations showed their most recent work. In the electrical apparatus section, the great power of the modern generating apparatus was very obvious, each firm being able to show apparatus capable of giving so powerful a spark that a R6ntgen-ray photograph could be taken by a single flash. Different contrivances were shown to accomplish this, including various forms of mercury jet interrupter, of electrolytic interrupter, and the well-known Snook apparatus, in which an alternating current is generated and transformed by means of a step-up trans- former placed in a bath of oil, the secondary current being rendered unidirectional by a simple contrivance. A new apparatus was shown by Messrs. Schall for raising the internal temperature of the body by employing the thermal effect from a high-frequency apparatus. In a spark-gap where the electrodes are separated only by the thickness of a sheet of paper, undamped oscillations are generated at the rate of more than a million a second. Similar oscilla- tions are used in wireless telegraphy for the production of continuous oscillations. The voltage of this new type of generator is less than 3000, but currents of 500 to 3000 milliamperes are used, and the patient feels nothing except the rise of temperature. The method is said to be useful in chronic cases of rheumatic and gouty origin. The social functions included a reception by the Corpora- tion of the City of London at the Guildhall, a garden-party at Ranelagh, receptions at the Natural History Museum and at a large number of hospitals. Special services were held in Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral. There was a large and distinguished assemblage for the annual dinner, at which Dr. Butlin presided. The Earl of Aberdeen, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, emphasised the good work of the British Medical Association, and expressed his opinion that those responsible for measures of social and hygienic reform should come to the association for direc- tion as to the best means by which such reform can be carried out. As an example of a much needed reform, he dwelt on the unnecessary and noxious fumes from motor- cars. In referring to the valuable scientific papers delivered at the various sectional meetings, he selected for special note the paper by Sir J. J. Thomson, the eminent Cam- bridge physicist, in which he pointed out that certain sub- stances could be made to give out a radiation which had much the same physical properties as some of the radiation given out by radium, and suggested that these radiations might be found to have the same effect upon the tissues as those at present obtained by the application of radium. The Bishop of Kensington, speaking at a breakfast given by the National Temperance League, said that temperance owed no small debt to the British Medical Association for the new light it was constantly throwing on scientific in- vestigation. It was to the professional men rather than the politicians that we must look for the solutions of the socia) problems of the day, foremost among which was that of temperance. Thus medical progress was discussed in all its aspects ai this—the greatest annual meeting by far ever held by the British Medical Association—and the discussions added new vigour to the work of observation and investigation. THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. THE summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers took the form of a joint meeting with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. More than one hundred and fifty members of the latter society took part in the meeting, which opened in Birmingham on Tuesday, July 26. The reading and discussion of papers occupied the mornings of Tuesday and Wednesday, and on Thursday the party proceeded to London, where a conversazione was held at the Institution House in Westminster. On Friday morning further papers were read and discussed in the lecture hall of the Institution of Civil Engineers, kindly lent for the occasion. The institution dinner took place ed AucuST 4, 1910] NATURE 155 on Friday evening. The many excursions and visits to works were attended by large numbers of members of both societies and their lady friends. At Birmingham, four papers on the handling of loco- motives at terminals and running-shed practice were con- tributed by Messrs. F. H. Clark, F. M. Whyte, H. H. Vaughan, and W. Forsyth, all members of the American Society, and one on the same subject by Mr. Cecil W. Paget, member of the British Institution and general superintendent of the Midland Railway. In the latter paper, Mr. Paget gives plans and descrip- tion of two of the most recent sheds built in this country, viz. the Great Western sheds at Old Oak Common, of the centre turntable or round-house type, and the London and South-Western shed at Eastleigh, of the through straight type. Straight sheds are economical in first cost and main- tenance, but unless they are of the type known as “through sheds’ they are awkward to work; the latter class are necessarily draughty. The centre turntable type, though more expensive to build, possesses considerable advantages of working, because engines can be easily got in and out without moving others, and, in addition, better lighting and convenience in getting about and in bench accommodation are possible. There is, however, the dis- advantage that when the turntable requires lifting for repairs it throws the whole of the pits served by it out of use whilst the repairs are going on. So far as possible, engines are allotted to and kept for the same drivers, and this is almost universally the rule in the case of passenger engines on most English railways. By this plan casualties are lessened owing to the greater care taken by the driver in working the engine and in properly reporting defects ; as a result, the coal consumption is generally less. Mr. F. M. Whyte, of New York, describes American methods of handling locomotives at terminals. To insure uninterrupted turntable service, two turntables may be supplied in a circular engine-house, the house being divided into parts, each having a turntable. Mr. Whyte deals very fully with the question of pooling locomotives, i.e. the system of increasing the service of the locomotive by placing any crew on any locomotive for service instead of holding it until its assigned crew could obtain the necessary rest. Extensive experiments have been made to determine the relative costs of the assigning and the pooling systems, and in some of these experiments no material difference in cost has been found. There probably is some loss in trustworthiness of service in pooling. Some very good drawings and photographs of American engine-houses and their appliances are: given by Mr. F. H. Clark, of Chicago. A common length of turntable for new installations is 80 feet. For boiler-washing, recent installa- tions are the National, in which the steam and water blown off from the engines are used for washing out and for heating fresh water, and the Raymer system, which is of the enclosed-heater type, and performs similar functions. Mr. W. Forsyth, of Chicago, describes the arrangements of the Pennsylvania Railroad at East Altoona, Pa. The engine-house is in diameter and cross-section the largest structure ever erected for this purpose, having an exterior diameter of 395 feet and a turntable of 100 feet. There are fifty-two stalls, each 90 feet deep. Mr. Forsyth states that the reduction in boiler pressure from 225 Ib. to 160 and 180 Ib. has also reduced the number cf boiler failures, and has permitted the more continuous use of locomotives which results from the pooling system. Mr. H. H. Vaughan, of Montreal, considers that in passenger service pooling is objectionable under any conditions, and should be avoided if possible. In freight service he considers that pooling is advisable if conditions are such that engines cannot be run with assigned crews. His experience is that where assigned crews can be used on engines, the cost of repairs, the amount of fuel consumed, and the class Of service obtained will all be more satisfactory. Other papers read at Birmingham were one on tooth Searing by Mr. J. D. Steven, of Birmingham, and another 01 interchangeable involute gearing by Mr. Wilfred Lewis, of Philadelphia, Pa. Mr. Steven considers the involute form of tooth only, as being that which is in most general use, and would welcome uniformity of opinion in the matters of cutting and using gearing. If a new form of tooth is desirable, it is his opinion that the stub form NO. 2127, VoL. 84] with 20 degrees angle of pressure would be a change in the right direction’ for the following reasons :—it can be used right down to twelve teeth in its true form, and cut on either a single cutter or on a generating machine; it is a stronger form than that most commonly used at pre- sent; a very Jarge proportion of its face does useful work ; the possible objections on the score of less contact and greater bearing pressure are so slight as to be nearly negligible. Mr. Wilfred Lewis is chairman of a committee of standards for involute gears appointed about a year ago. by the president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Twenty-five years ago, as a result of investi- gations made on behalf of the tirm of Wm. Sellers and Co., he recommended the adoption of a pressure angle of 20 degrees in place of 15 degrees commonly used. This practice has been since followed by the firm, and has given satisfaction in a general way. Mr. Lewis has_ since advocated an obliquity of 22} degrees as giving less inter- ference on twelve-toothed pinions. Experiments on behalf of the author’s committee are being made at the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology, and, although not con- clusive, enough has been done to indicate that the friction loss in gear-teeth is influenced to a greater extent by the length of the addendum than by the obliquity of the system. The papers read and discussed in London dealt entirely with problems connected with the electrification of rail- ways. These were contributed by Messrs. F. W. Carter, of Rugby, H. M. Hobart, of London, W. B. Potter, of Schenectady, L. R. Pomeroy, of New York, and G. Westinghouse, of Pittsburg, the latter being the president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Mr. Carter directs attention to electrification as a means of recovering traffic drawn away from the railway by tram- cars and motor-omnibuses, an expedient which has in- variably been found successful in regaining much of the lost traffic. Modern electric railway apparatus leaves little to be desired in the matter of freedom from breakdown. There are about 200 miles of electrified route in this country, for the most part worked by motor coaches, employing a multiple-unit system of control. There appears little prospect of general electrification of the railways of this country, as no advantage is apparent which would in any way justify the expense. Mr. Hobart draws comparison between systems employ- ing series wound, continuous-electricity train-equipments, and the single-phase system. Continuous equipment pro- vides, per ton of equipment, 11 horse-power at the axles (averaged over the journey), as against 6 horse-power per ton in the case of single-phase equipment. Mr. Hobart gives figures showing that 10 per cent. less of the takings are available for dividend paying in the single-phase system than in the continuous-current system. Mr. Westinghouse is convinced that the extended distri- bution of electricity for industrial purposes can be secured only by the generation of alternating currents of high voltage and their conversion by static transformers into currents of various voltages, and has developed his busi- ness along these lines. He earnestly recommends to the serious consideration of railway engineers and those in authority the pressing need of determining the system which admits of the largest extension of railway electrifi- cation, and of a prompt selection of three standards of electrification which will render possible a complete inter- change of traffic in order to save expense in the future and to avoid difficulties and delays certain to arise unless some common understanding is arrived at very shortly. Mr. Potter considers that the development of apparatus for higher voltage direct-current has so far increased its scope that direct current at 600 volts or higher may be considered the most economical for city and interurban service. Single-phase and three-phase stock equipments are applicable only to exceptional conditions. Mr. Pomeroy deals with the electrification of trunk lines, and concludes with the following paragraph, which called forth the commendation of Mr. Aspinall, the president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. The idea is all too prevalent with the public, and even with some of the bodies that have been given legal power of supervision over railway companies, that any expenditure which can be 156 | NATURE [AUGUST 4, 1910 forced upon the railway companies is just so much gain for the public. Never was there a more absolute fallacy. In the long run, the cost of every bit of railway improve- ment must be paid for by those who buy tickets and ship freight. Economy in the administration of our railways is just as insportant in the interest of the general public as if the railways were actually under Government ownership. THE BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. HE forty-seventh annual meeting of the British Pharma- ceutical Conference was held at Cambridge on July 26, 27, and 28, under the presidency of Mr. F. Ransom. ‘The presidential address dealt mainly with pharma- ceutical research, and Mr. Ransom indicated certain directions in which progress may be anticipated. He deplored the fact that a better organisation did not exist to bring together the two classes of investigators—pharma- cists and pharmacologists. If a joint committee consist- ing of medical men and pharmacists were appointed with the object of organising research work, investigations might be directed in the proper channels, and better results would be obtained. The president dealt at some length with the question of the cultivation of medicinal plants, and commented upon the attempts which had been made to.obtain plants of more or less standard alkaloidal content. He suggested that a subject inviting investigation was whether the variations in the con- stituents of drugs were due solely to the seasons, or whether they depended upon other conditions. Referring to the sub- ject of the standardisation of disinfectants, which has recently received much consideration, he said that neither the chemical nor bacteriological processes which had hitherto been devised seemed to be applicable in all cases, although for specific purposes comparisons of efficiency might be deduced. In addition to the president’s address, twenty-one papers Were communicated, the larger number of which were of purely pharmaceutical interest. The papers which aroused the most considerable discussion were those dealing with the testing of disinfectants. In a paper contributed by Prof. Sims Woodhead and Dr. C. Ponder, the authors made clear their position in regard to the question of standardisation of disinfectants. On analysing the Rideal-Walker drop method, they picked out and gave consideration to the following factors :— organisms to be acted upon; number of micro-organisms und amount of organic matter to be added; strength and number of dilutions; time during which the disinfectant is allowed to act; temperature. Prof. R. T. Hewlett in his paper criticised the Woodhead-Ponder method, but expressed the opinion that the use of B. coli instead of B. typhosus is perhaps a desirable change, although further investigation is necessary. Mr. C. T. Kingzett and Mr. R. C. Woodcock contributed a paper, in the course of which it was pointed out that while the Rideal-Walker test may very well serve to deter- mine the relative germicidal values of similarly prepared preparations of a coal-tar nature, it is not applicable for ascertaining the real or relative value of other disinfectants of a difierent chemical nature. Dr. D. Sommerville also read a paper. There was a long discussion on these papers, in which Dr. Rideal, Dr. E. Feilmann, Mr. J. E. Purvis, and others took part, and in the course of reply Prof. Sims Woodhead said he did not wish to doubt the value of the Rideal-Walker method, because he thought it was of extreme value, but they must not be expected to accept it as a final standard. Another paper to which reference may be made is that by Mr. J. F. Tocher, last year’s president of the confer- ence, in which the author describes a modification of Mendeléeff’s classification of the elements; the suggested new arrangement, which the author thinks may ultimately prove to have a satisfactory theoretical basis, places elements of like properties in similar positions, while elements with unlike properties are separated by distances proportional to the intensity of their differences. In a paper on the interpretation of water analysis re- ports, Mr. J. E. Purvis pointed out the impossibility of fixing any standard by which waters can be judged and NO, 2127, VOL. 84] condemned; but, he said, there were certain rules which appeared to be necessary before a final judgment could be delivered upon any water. These were briefly as follows :— (1) the history of the water should be supplied to the analyst; (2) the rainfall before and after the analysis should be obtained, because a heavy rainfall before analysis means that the amounts of the constituents are not the same as compared with the analysis before the rainfall; (3) the method of storage and of distributing the water should also be considered; (4) the surface drainage may be a factor; (5) a bacterial analysis should go hand in hand with a chemical analysis; (6) the final judgment with regard to the quality of a water should rest with the chemist and bacteriologist in collaboration. Mr. P. E. F. Perrédés described an insect pest in bella- donna (Epitrix atropae, Foudras, a small beetle belonging to the tribe Halticze of the series Phytophaga), and sug- gested a method of eradication. As a result of a chemical examination of the rhizome of Cimicifuga racemosa, Mr. H. Finnemore found distinct reactions for alkaloids, but the amount present is very small. The meeting, as a whole, was one of the most successful which has been held for many years. The attendance was somewhat larger than usual, and the interest taken in the papers was evidenced by the excellent discussions thereon. ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC BIOLOGISTS. HE ninth annual meeting of the Association of Economic Biologists was held on July 6, 7, and 8 in the Beyer Buildings of Owens College, Manchester. The association was indebted in particular to Profs. Hickson and Weiss for kindly hospitality, and to Mr. J. Mangan for the arrangements he had made as local secretary. Prof. G. H. Carpenter, of the Royal College of Science, succeeded Mr. A. E. Shipwy, F.R.S., as. president, and in the course of his address dwelt on the close inter- dependence of research in so-called ‘‘ pure ’’ and ‘‘ applied "” science. The original discovery of minute protozoal para- sites in the blood of various animals was apparently per- fectly ‘‘useless,’’ yet it prepared the way to modern methods of dealing with terrible diseases of the tropics, such as malaria and sleeping sickness. Similarly, the more recent researches of workers intent primarily on alleviating these diseases have resulted in many discoveries of great theoretical significance. Turning to another topic, Prof. Carpenter reported that a new crop—tobacco—in Ireland had brought to notice fresh pests, amongst others, a spring-tail new to science. He suggested that this was not a new introduction, but more probably an animal hitherto present in small numbers, which had multiplied under the stimulus of an ample supply of a congenial food plant. A very interesting discussion arose out of Prof. S. J. Hickson’s paper on the place of economic zoology in the modern university. The author pointed out how at present the demand for trained men capable of dealing with agricultural and other pests is in excess of the supply, especially in the colonies. He outlined a scheme for securing to students an efficient grounding in general’ science combined, by cooperation with experiment stations, with proper practical experience. Stress was laid on the importance of the fourth year’s work, and the advisability of securing, if possible, training at a central agricultural college or experiment station, e.g. in India or Ceylon, for those destined for a tropical career. Another well-discussed and important topic was the problem of wild-bird protection, introduced by Mr. W. E. Collinge, who pointed out that under the restrictions imposed by the Wild Birds’ Protection Acts some birds had apparently multiplied to an excessive degree. He advocated ‘securing definite knowledge as to which birds were harmful, and taking steps to secure their diminution, e.g. by placing in schools specimens of the eggs of such birds, and offering rewards for their collection. The dis- cussion brought out’ prominently the difficulty of deter- mining exactly whether certain birds, e.g. the rook, were beneficial or harmful in all districts and at all seasons; and practical suggestions, some of which are already being utilised, for acquiring this necessary knowledge were made. AuGusT 4, 1910] NATURE U57 Prof. F. E. Weiss contributed the results of observa- tions on the garden Tropeolum, some plants of which bore flowers of different colour at different seasons of the year. These and other cases of differing flower colora- tion, e.g. in Anagallis arvensis, are under investigation to ascertain to what degree they are hereditary characters, and to which factors the changes are to be attributed. Animal pests naturally received considerable attention. Dr. R. Stewart MacDougall emphasised the importance in dealing with coleopterous enemies of trees of taking account of the length of life passed in the various stages, whilst in a second paper he dealt with the sheep-maggot fly (Lucilia sericata) and the problems suggested by its life-history, and announced the first record in this con- nection of Protocalliphora azurea. Other pests dealt with were the warble-fly of the reindeer, by the president; a species of Rhabditis injurious to cress, by. Mr. G. O. Sherrard; the horse bot-fly, by Mr. Collinge; and the larch saw-fly, by Mr. Mangan. Dr. Malden, dealt with the diseases of bees, and Mr. W. G. Freeman with the economic importance of the cambium in plants. The members of the association attended the formal opening of the Biological Experimental Laboratories at Fallowfield, when Sir Thomas Elliot, of the Board of Agriculture, spoke of the harmonious relations now in existence between practice and science, and the welcome degree to which the agriculturist is prepared to appreciate the aid of the man of science in attempting to solve difficul- ties. The new Manchester laboratories owe their origin to such calls for aid, and Sir Thomas indicated that the Board of Agriculture would be prepared to assist financially, so far as it could, the local efforts in providing the means for research in economic biology. \ivie (Gro 186 THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL AGRO- GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE.’ OME time ago the Royal Hungarian Geological Institute sent out létters of invitation to those interested in soils in the various countries of Europe and America asking them to attend an International Conference in Budapest, where some attempt would be made at standardising methods and objects. Some degree of uniformity is urgently needed. ‘* Plus que partout ailleurs,”’ says the secretary in his introduction to the present volume, ‘“‘il y régne une disparité d’idées, de méthodes, de procédés, une divergence de vue sur le chemin a prendre et sur le but A atteindre, un chaos dans l’usage des termes scientifiques, des mesures, des figurés, des noms et des classifications: divergence qui se manifeste non seulement de pays A pays, de langue 4 langue, mais aussi entre les ceuvres d’un méme pays et dans la littérature d’une méme langue.’’ Some confusion is for a time inevitable in a borderland subject like the present, that joins up with geology, botany, and chemistry, and is closely connected with agriculture; indeed, even its very name has not yet been settled, for we find the subject of the conference re- ferred to as agrogeology, agricultural geology, pedology, or simply ‘* the science of the soil.” The results of the conference are now issued in the volume before us. Several of the papers are descriptive of the soils of the countries in which the respective writers are working, among them being accounts of the soils of European and Asiatic Russia, of Norway, of Rumania, and Bohemia. As an illustration of the method adopted, Prof. Glinka’s account of the Russian soils may be noted.. There are six main zones recognisable, running in belts from north-west to south-east, and corresponding fairly com- pletely with the climatic and vegetation zones. The most northerly is the Tundra zone, practically destitute of vegeta- tion higher than lichens and mosses. The soils have been but little investigated, but appear to be generally acid and rich in partially decomposed organic matter. South of this lies the Podzol zone, covered with forest, or in lower lying places with marshes and lakes. The typical podzols may be sands, loams, or clays;*they are white when dry, acid, generally poor in mineral plant food, but contain a fair amount of organic matter, and they are porous. There is au “Comptes rendus de la premiére Conference internationale agrogéo- logique.” Publié par l'Institut géologique du Royaume de Hongrie. (1909.) NO. 2127, VOL. 84] either a pan or else a good deal of concretionary matter in the subsoil, the former being usual in the sands, the latter in the loams, and clays. ‘his zone covers an enormous area in Russia and Siberia; it is not much cultivated, the method adopted usually being to clear a part of the forest, crop for a few years, then leave to run wild again, and move on to some freshly cleared ground; to the south, however, the agriculture is much more advanced. Through- out this zone the low-lying soils differ somewhat in type by reason of the accumulation of humus and the presence of reduction products such as pyrites, marcasite, and others; they are more like moorland soils. The next zone is the famous black earth or Tschernosiom zone, but in between the two is a transition zone occupy- ing the region of the prehistoric steppes now in forest, so that the original steppe soil has become modified. The calcium carbonate originally present may still be found lower down in the soil, and there is also more food material than in the soils further north; still, in the main, these soils are of the podzol type. The black earth proper stretches from the Carpathian to the Ural mountains, and thence across to Siberia; it covers Volhynia in the west and Perm in the east. It is characterised by a dark grey or black layer rich in humus and granular in structure, overlying a subsoil rich in calcium carbonate ; this subsoil may originate either from loess, drift clay, or marine deposits.. There are no forests, except in the north, as already mentioned, the whole region being steppe country now largely in cultivation producing cereals. Several other types of soil scattered as islands over the zone are described in the paper, but need not concern us here. Southwards come the chestnut-coloured soils of laminate, and not granular, structure, where the black humus layer © is thinner or absent, although calcium carbonate is found in quantity, as in the soil underlying the black earth. We are now approaching the dry steppes, a pastoral region inhabited by a nomad population. Alkali soils are not uncommon in this and the lower zones. Below this come two others in the semi-desert region, where the rainfall is 8 to 12 inches per annum only, the northern layer being brown and the southern grey or white. They have not been much studied as yet. We have dwelt at some length on this paper because it illustrates the difficulties in the way of introducing any uniform international system of soil classification. Any attempt to arrange British soils in zones in this way would fail; indeed, in one paper where a very broad system was used, all British soils were classed as of one type. After looking through the descriptions of the soils of the other countries we feel bound to agree with Prof. Hilgard that each region should adopt its own classification. Distinc- tions of colour, he points out, are not of sufficient general significance to form a basis of uniform soil classification, yet in a particular region they may be of vital importance, and would form the only basis useful in practice. Ramann has drawn up a scheme of classification, so also has Sibirtzeff, both admirable so far as they go, yet neither will fit the soils of California. Indeed, the various authors at the conference were looking at the subject from at least two different points of view: some were considering the zones of continental areas, others confined themselves to the soils of small regions. Climate reacts on soil to a marked extent. The soils of arid and of humid regions differ fundamentally, as Hilgard has shown. To take an illustration from Prof. Glinka’s paper, the difference between the black earth and the chocolate-coloured or grey soils further south may arise entirely from climatic causes. Over continental areas, therefore, climatic zones will furnish a useful method of grouping soils in the first instance; but it is not complete, for marked variations occur among the soils in the same zone, necessitating a more detailed classification which would take account of the presence or absence of calcium carbonate, and the “lightness ’? or ‘‘ heaviness’? of the soil on cultivation. Probably several systems of classification would be found necessary to fit the various climatic regions. If the con- ference failed to come to any agreement on this subject, it at any rate did much useful work in bringing out the inherent difficulties. ; Another matter was dealt with which ought to be cap- able of arrangement. At present no two countries adopt 158 NATURE [AucusT 4, 1910 the same methods of soil analysis. This would not matter much if the methods weve all absolute; unfortunately, they are mainly conventional. Thus an English analyst will say that a soil contains 0-2 per cent. of total potash, mean- ing by this the amount extracted by hydrochloric acid under particular conditions, although the real total is probably three or four times this amount. Continental and American analysts, working on the same soil, but using different methods, would reach wholly different results. The trouble is still worse in the mechanical analysis of soils. ‘* Clay ’’ in Great Britain means material less than 0-002 mm. in diameter, in the United States it stands for particles less than 0-005 mm. in diameter; elsewhere a widely different limit—o-or mm.—is adopted; so with the other terms. In consequence, one can never compare mechanical analyses made in one country with those made in another; the same terms are used, but they denote different things. The confusion thus introduced into an already difficult subject is most unfortunate. One great advantage of international conferences of this sort would be to prevent such confusion arising in the future. E. J. RussELL. SCIENCE ™N SOUTH AFRICA.’ HE Royal Society of South Africa consisted at the time of its annual report (April, 1909) of forty fellows and 160 members; it had held six meetings during the preceding year, ten papers altogether being read. Part i. of the Transactions, in which these papers appear, con- tains 334 pages; part ii. contains the papers read at sub- sequent meetings, and has expanded to 477 pages, since there were nineteen papers in place of ten. Most of the papers deal with local matters; only about half a dozen are concerned with general problems, and of these three are mathematical. The local papers are mainly botanical. Dr. Schénland, of the Albany Museum, Grahamstown, gives a_ full description of Haworthia truncata, Schénl., the only species of Haworthia with strictly distichous arrangement of leaves. The leaves are to a large extent underground, while the exposed parts resemble small pebbles, so that the plant may be classed among the so-called ‘‘ mimicry plants.”’ Its structure is well adapted to its peculiar mode of life. The truncate apex is without chlorophyll, and thus forms a ‘‘ window’’ through which light can pass by way of the central transparent tissue to the assimilating tissue which extends to the underground basal parts of the leaves. Dr. Marloth describes other plants possessing the same structure. Experiments were also made to find out whether the aérial parts of plants, particularly those growing in arid regions, can absorb moisture from the air. In the Karroo there is commonly a fall of dew at night. Dr. Marloth’s experiments indicate that the native plants can take sufficient moisture from this source through their leaves to satisfy their requirements. Dr. Schénland, on the other hand, is not satisfied on this point; the plants examined by him did not appear to absorb from the air anything like a sufficient quantity. Mr. A. L. du Toit, of the Geological Survey, describes the evolution of the river system of Griqualand West. This system is very complex, but its history can be traced to a remote geological period. In Paleozoic times a continent, at a level lower than the present, extended over this area, the drainage from it being directed southwards mainly along the Kaap valley. At the close of the Carboniferous epoch this continent was intensely glaciated, and finally buried beneath the Permo-Triassic Karroo deposits; upon the surface thus formed the modern drain- age system was initiated. In later periods—in late Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary times—there has been a succession of uplifts, but the rivers have been enabled to cut a peneplain. One of the most important of these surfaces extended from the Stormberg probably into Griqualand West, where it is represented by the Kaap Plateau. This surface has suffered denudation, and the 1 Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, vo!. i., 1910. The South African Journal of Science, vol. vi., 1909-10. NO. 2127, VOL. 84] rivers have cut down and laid bare the pre-Karroo floor with its drainage lines. Dr. Broom discusses the relationship of the South African fossil reptiles to those found in other parts of the world. The Lower Karroo fauna of South Africa shows many points of resemblance to the Permian in America; it seems practically certain that both are modifications of an earlier fauna which probably inhabited a southern continent joining Brazil and South Africa. The American types are considered to be nearer the ancestral, though considerably specialised; the African, probably owing to their living in the swamps of the Karroo, developed greater length of limb and tended to become more active; but in South Africa the conditions must have been such as to promote rapid evolution, for many new types soon appeared, the most remarkable being the Anomodonts, which probably originated there. Towards the end of Permian times a land connection with Europe seems to have formed, by which the pareiasaurian fauna passed into Europe; still later—in the Upper Triassic beds of Burghersdorp—a number of European types passed into Africa without, however, any of the Cynodonts, highly characteristic of this period in Africa, passing back in return. In Lower Jurassic times land connection was well established. There is evidence of continuous land between Africa and Australia in Upper Triassic: times. The mathematical papers by Dr. Muir deal with a theorem regarding a sum of differential coefficients of principal minors of a Jacobian, an upper limit for the value of a determinant, and Borchardt’s form of the eliminant of two equations of the nth degree. Other papers deal with the spectrum of the ruby, snake venom, the rainfall of South Africa, evaporation in a current of air, a list of the flora of Natal, and so on. The South African Journal of Science is the organ of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, its objects being to give a stronger impulse and a more systematic direction to scientific inquiry, to obtain a more general attention to the objects of pure and applied science, and the removal of any hindrances barring the progress of science. Instead of issuing one large annual volume, like our own association, a small journal is sent each month to the members. The numbers of the present volume (vol. vi., beginning November, 1909) contain the presidential addresses and some of the papers read before the sections; notes and articles from other sources are, however, included. The papers, nearly sixty in all, have the general merit of dealing with local phenomena, thus putting on record something that may pass away and be lost, or else attacking problems that can only be investi- gated on the spot. It is eminently satisfactory to find that sufficient material exists to keep going these and the other scientific journals and societies of South Africa, including the geological, the chemical, and the engineering societies. South Africa has hitherto loomed so largely in the political and commercial worlds that it will come as a surprise to some to find that research work has been going on quietly and steadily for several years. The foundation has been laid on which a great superstructure may be raised; it has been proved that the fauna and the flora show in relation to their surroundings many features of very general interest and importance; a number of problems have thus been suggested for future workers to attack. Most important of all, however, is the fact that the spirit of research is abroad in South Africa at a time when colleges and universities are being founded and agricultural depart- ments developed. There is, in consequence, the prospect that these new foundations may be started in the right direction at the outset, and so attain a position worthy of the vast possibilities of the country. The men who are now devoting themselves to research work are therefore making more than an examination of local problems, important as this is in a developing country where develop- ment often means extermination of species and obliteration of old records. They are creating an atmosphere in which the college and departmental staffs can do research work, in which, indeed, men will feel impelled to investigate. To do this in a busy commercial country like South Africa is no small achievement. “ AucusT 4, 1910] NATURE 159 INDIAN PALASONTOLOGY. HE Geological Survey of India continues to publish well-illustrated and exhaustive memoirs on the fossil invertebrate faunas of the region with which it deals. Two more on the Himalayan Trias have lately appeared, and are of much interest for study in connection with recent work on the Triassic fossils of other areas. The first memoir (Palaeontologia Indica, ser. 15, vol. vi., No. 1, 1909), on the Lower Triassic Cephalopoda from Spiti, Malla Johar, and Byans, was begun several years ago by the late A. yon Krafft, who collected much of the material. it has now been revised, completed, and brought up to date by Prof. C. Diener. It begins with a synopsis of the marine Lower Triassic formations of the Himalayas, which are proved to constitute a remarkably complete series. The detailed descriptions of the fossils which follow show that at least four distinct and successive faunas occur in the rocks of the district under consideration. Of these, the lowest or earliest is perhaps the most interesting, because it seems to represent the dawn of Triassic life in the sea. It is noteworthy for the complete absence of the numerous types of Paleozoic Brachiopoda, which are the predominating element in the Permian rocks of the Salt Range and the Himalayas. Both in the Alps and in the Himalayas the Permian and Trias are connected by an uninterrupted sequence of sedimentary deposits. The second memoir, by Prof. Diener (loc. cit., No. 2), is more special, treating of the fauna, chiefly Cephalopoda, of the Traumatocrinus Limestone of Painkhanda. He returns to a discussion of the age of this limestone, and shows that enough of its ammonites are identical with (or closely allied to) species found in Europe to justify its correlation with the Julic horizon, or zone of Trachyceras aonoides. Another memoir just received from the Geological Survey of India, though dated 1908, contains a valuable descrip- tion of the Devonian faunas of the northern Shan States by Mr. F. R. Cowper Reed (Palaeontologia Indica, n.s., vol. ii., No. 5). The fossils are chiefly corals, bryozoa, and brachiopoda, with only few representatives of other groups, but they constitute the richest collection of Devonian age hitherto described from south-eastern Asia. Most of them were obtained from Padaukpin, and many appear to be identical with European species which characterise the lower part of the Middie Devonian. The _marine faunas of Middle and Upper Devonian times prove to have been remarkably cosmopolitan, but in all casés, as at Padaukpin and other places in eastern Asia, there is also a local element giving them a special character. DUTCH METEOROLOGICAL EAST.+ co We have to chronicle the issue of a new set of meteor- ological charts for the part of the Indian Ocean around Cape Guardafui. It is issued by the Meteorological Institute of the Netherlands to replace a set of similar charts published in 1888 which is now out of print. The observations are now sufficiently numerous to justify the subdivision of the restricted area under discussion into squares measuring 12’ by 12’, so as to bring out variations over short distances. Special attention has been given to currents. Nearly 4000 observations, extending over the period 1888-1908, have been used, and these are all based on astronomical observations made at intervals of six or eight hours. The results are represented by ‘‘ current roses,’’ giving for each subsquare the mean velocity observed from each of sixteen directions. This method of representation gives an excel- lent idea of the varying nature of the currents; thus some of the roses quite near to Cape Guardafui are very nearly symmetrical stars, showing that currents from all direc- tions may be encountered. We rather miss an indication of the number of observations used in computing each vector. Some must be based on very few observations, while others represent the mean of a considerable number WORK IN THE l(a) Koninklijk Nederlandsch Meteorologisch Instituut, No. ros. Oceanographische en Meteorologische Waarnemingen bij Kaap Guardafui. Pp. 38. (Amsterdam : H. G. Bom, n.d.) Price 6.00 florins. (2) Regenwaarmemingen in Nederlandsch-Indie. _Dertigste Taargang 1998. Deel i., Dagelijksche Regenval. Pp. vit392. Deel ii., Uitkomsten. Pp. xiit+1go. (Batavia: Landsbrukkerij, 1909.) NO. 2127, VOL. 84] of records, and we cannot help thinking that it would be useful both to the mariner and to the student to be in a position to weight the results. The charts which follow give for each month and for each subsquare the averages for wind, pressure, temperature of the air, and temperature of the water. In the last the extraordinary low temperature of the surface water off the coast south of Cape Guardafui during the south-west mon- soon is well shown. In July we find a reading of 18-8° C. (65-8° F.) slightly south of Ras Hafun, while in the Gulf of Aden, slightly west of Guardafui, a subsquare has a mean temperature of 30° C. (86° F.). Nevertheless, there is a caution in the introduction against relying on low surface temperatures to give warning of the proxim‘ty of land during hazy weather, for warm water is occasionally encountered south of Guardafui. It has been found necessary to represent the monthly results for each element on a separate chart. Our first impulse when dealing with charts of this nature is to com- pare the results for different elements, and for this it is very laborious to have to refer to five different charts bound in different parts of the volume. We admit that there is danger of overcrowding, even if different colours are used for different elements, but it is a great advantage to be able to survey the complete data for a month with a minimum of cross-references. (2) The rainfall volumes for the Dutch possessions in the East Indies form the thirtieth issue of the series. The first of the two volumes for 1908 gives daily observations of rainfall for 272 places. In the second volume we have statistics of the number of rain-days, greatest rainfall in a day, and comparisons with averages, and also a dis- cussion of the records of eight autographic gauges. The publication, especially the first volume, which gives the names of all the observers for each month separately, seems at first sight unnecessarily detailed, but in a country where the rainfall is of such great economic importance such details are necessary, and do much to ensure accuracy. PRACTICAL SPECTROSCOPY. A NOVEL and very compact form of mounting for concave gratings is described by Mr. Albert Eagle in No. 2, vol. xxxi., of the Astrophysical Journal. Such a mounting has been erected, and found very satisfactory, in the spectroscopic laboratory of the Royal College of Science, and it is the experience obtained from this that has led to the publication of the details for general use. In the Rowland form of mounting in general use there are serious disadvantages, the chief of which is that a large and darkened room must be devoted solely to the spectrograph when in use; the difficulty of efficient tempera- ture control is also a serious one. In the new form most of the disadvantages are eliminated, and no serious new ones are introduced. The whole spectrograph for a 10-foot grating is, in the new form, contained in a box 11 feet 1 inch in length, 25 inches broad, and 22 inches deep, and the plates reproduced in the paper prove conclusively the efiiciency of the apparatus under the ordinary conditions of laboratory work. On a photograph of the cyanogen band at A 3883, taken in the fifth order with an exposure of forty minutes, lines only 0-05 Angstrém are distinctly resolved. The temperature is maintained constant by lagging the double walls of the camera tube with slag wool, and the reproduction of part of a first-order iror. spectrum, given four separate exposures of ten seconds at intervals of an hour, shows how efficient it is; this spectrum was taken without any special precautions whilst other work was proceeding in the well-lighted laboratory as usual, and yet the close pair of lines, separated by only o-118 Angstr6m unit, at A 4240 is resolved. Other advantages claimed for the new mounting are its com- paratively low cost, its rigidity, a slightly increased dis- persion, the use of higher orders than in the Rowland mounting, and the fact that the orders on either side of the normal may be employed. Against these are to be set two or three apparent disadvantages, of which, at first sight, a slight departure from normality appears to be the most serious ; but, as pointed out by the author, an observer always has to construct a curve of errors when reducing observations, and such a curve would include this slight 160 which, taken over a 3-inch spectrum, only amounis to deviation from the normal, range in the first-order o-2 A igsirém unit. The important part played in solar and stellar spectro- scopy by the H and K lines of calcium renders it essential that the absolute wave-lengths of these lines should be known with the greatest possible accuracy. For this reason Mr. C. St. John, working at the Mount Wilson Soiar Observatory, has recently made a series of wave- length determinations for these lines in the arc, spark, and electric furnace, and in No. 2, vol. xxxi., of the Astro- physical Journal he gives his results in terms of the secondary standards of Fabry and Buisson adopted at the Meudon meeting of the International Solar Union. The mean results are 3968-476 and 3933-667 for H and K respectively, and are estimated to be certain within o-oot Angstrém. Mr. St. John also discusses the behaviour of these lines under the various conditions employed, and, from his results, concludes that the wave-lengths are identical for the absorption and the fine emission lines, and are the same in arc, spark, and furnace. The mean ratio of the width of K to H is 1-28, and the mean ratio of the respective intensitics is 1-47. The experiments described were preliminary to an exhaustive comparative study of the corresponding solar lines. PLANT DISTRIBUTION. WO recent papers furnish a supplement to the magnificent phytogeographical memoir on South Africa by Dr. R. Marloth. Whe one is an article, by Dr. L. Diels, on formations and flora-elements in the north-west of Cape Colony, published in Engler’s Botanische Jahr- bucher (vol. xliv., part i.). This is a detailed and localised account of botanical observations made in the country lying between the mouth of the Olifant River, Clanwilliam, and Calvinia. Near Clanwilliam lie sandy stretches where Composites and Scrophulariacew provide the bulk of the conspicuous vegetation. As the land rises, succulents, not- ably species of Euphorbia and Crassulaceze, become pre- dominant. At a height of 500 metres the vegetation begins to show elements natural to the true Cape flora, culminating in a “‘ proteaceous-macchi ’’ association on the Bokkeveld ridge. A special obiect of the trip was the exploration of the Hantam-berg flora, which is classed by the author with the botanical formations associated with Namaqualand. The second paper is a contribution by Dr. H. H. W. Pearson to’ the Royal Geographical Society, published in the Geographicai Journal (May), giving a general sketch of a botanical expedition through the dry western districts of- Cape Colony and the adjoining German territory to Luderitzbuch, and thence from Mossamedes in Angola to Ft. Rosadas on the Kunene River. The regions of vegeta- tion through which Dr. Pearson travelled are very clearly set out in the accompanying map. The succulent Karroo vegetation was first traversed until this gave place to a composite flora near Calvinia. Further north, floras known as the Namaqualand montane and Bushmanland were met with. The former is characterised by the presence of Aloe dichotoma, Vogelia africana, and other plants, while species of Aristida and Parkinsonia africana are typical of the latter type. The district lying immediately south of Mossamedes is the historic locality in which Welwitschia was discovered, and here the author found it more at home than in Damaraland, which suggests that it is a tropical species, and therefore more closely related to the genus Gnetum than to Ephedra. Attention is frequently directed to weeds produced in new countries by exotic plants. There is, however, more interest attaching to the spread of indigenous plants caused by a disturbance of natural conditions, of which a striking instance in the case of Celmisia sbectabilis is described by Dr. L. Cockayne in the Canterbury Agriculturists and Planters Association’s Journal (April). This plant is a composite and endemic, growing naturally with other species of the genus at elevations above 3000 feet. It has a woody, creeping stem furnished with numerous cord-like roots. The end of the stem bears a rosette of thick tomentose leaves with long sheathing bases; the rosettes are crowded together, forming a circular mat or cushion. Within the shelter of the leaves lies the bud, which throws NO. 2127, VOL. 84] NATURE [AvuGuUST 4, 1910 out daisy-like flowers above the leaves, and subsequently deveiops downy fruits. As a result of burning and over- grazing, the tussock formations at a lower level, which consist of uscful grasses, are being replaced by the Celmisia. The remedy suggested is to reinstate natural cenditions, when the grasses should win back the lost ground. Captain -A. A. Dorrien-Smith contributes to a recent number of the Kew Bulletin (No. 4) an account of his botanical excursions in Chatham Island with- the primary object of collecting specimens of Olcaria semidentata, Aciphylla Dieffenbachii, and other local plants for intro- duction into the Scilly Isles. In the south and boggiest part of the island Olearia semidentata covers acres of ground, and here the author discovered a pure white form of this normally purple daisy-like flower, and his com- panion found a pink variety. The article provides an interesting sketch of the vegetation, and is illustrated with several photographs, two of which represent bushes of the normal type and white variety of the Olearia respectively. THE MAINTENANCE AND ADMINISTRATION OF ROADS. /\ UTHORITIES having control of highways have now to consider the problem of road construction and maintenance from a new point of view in consequence of the conditions of modern traffic. The problem is an acute one everywhere, and various solutions of it have been put forward by highway engineers. Evidence of experts as ta the causes of the increased wear and tear of roads and their opinions as to remedies will be found in the report of the important conference on roads, held last year at the Institution of Civil Engineers, and also in various publica- tions of the Roads Improvement Association and the Royal Automobile Club. The subjoined extracts from these publi- cations, and summaries of papers, provide the essence of a large amount of evidence given by road engineers before several conferences and associations upon: important ques- tions relating to roads. A very large number of our roads, except those of recent construction, may be said to have grown, or developed, rather than to have been made. Many of them were originally mere tracks, and have arrived at their present state through the accretion of coats of ground-up stone, often of poor character, possibly faced with a thin crust ~ of granite or some inferior material. The fact that many roads have been built up by the use of metalling, without foundations, other than the subsoil upon which the metal- ling is placed, accounts for the difficulties, troubles, and expensive maintenance now experienced in connection with most existing rural main roads, for where the foundation of a road is weak, the surface is always difficult and costly to maintain. The greatest practicable improvement in the construction of macadamised roads is to be found in the use of the very hardest and toughest coating materials well con- solidated by rolling, with the addition of just sufficient fine chippings during the consolidating process to fill completely the spaces between the stones. The common method (con- demned by every road engineer) of binding together the aggregate of an ordinary macadam road by the use of road scrapings is productive of the greater part of the mud and dust found so objectionable. One of the resolutions referring to macadamised roads adopted by the International Road Congress held at Paris in 1908 was :—‘‘* To use as far as possible only hard and homogeneous road materials, regularly broken; to make choice of a binder suitable to the structure of the road material used, reducing, moreover, the binder to a minimum.” As to the wearing characters of various rocks used as road metals, some definite information is available. The Town Council of Hornsey possesses a machine by which the effect of wear and tear on road stones can be tested. The stones to be tested are all broken to a 2-inch gauge and placed in cast-iron cylinders, which are made to re- volve 8000 times at a speed of twenty revolutions a minute. They are tested both wet and dry, and as the result of the shaking they receive a certain: amount of chips and dust is produced. The percentage loss of weight experienced by the stones is then determined. As the treatment is the AucusT 4, 1910] NATURE 161 same in every case, the machine enables an estimate to be obtained of the relative power of road stones to withstand the wear and tear of traffic, and the rubbing action which takes place at the surface of a macadamised road. A series of tests with this machine was made a few years ago in connection with an examination of the constitution of the stones by H.M. Geological Survey, and the results were published in a work entitled ‘‘ Attrition Tests of Road- making Stones.’? The table given below shows the average loss per cent. of a few typical rocks used for road- making :— Average Percentage of loss in Stone _ Quarry or Locality dust Wharkaitemeey) a. es. Wick, Glos. 4°0 Ferruginous Quartzit Winford, Somerset... ... 44 Quartz Porphyrite Quenast, Belgium... Biz. Quarizite ... ... ... .... Cherbourg oi gone adel ees Biotite-hornblende Granite Mount Sorrel, Leicester- ‘ shire 66 Chalk Pit Flints Grays, Essex... ... 10°4 Gabbros, ... _:. eS Sampson’s Guernsey 10°7 Calcareous Sandstone .. Liphook, Hants 173 Foraminiferal or Mendip Limestone... .... .... Winford, Somerset EO It will be seen from this table that quartzites stood the test best, that flints came out fairly well, and that sand- stones and limestones are at the bottom of the list. Though the final test of a road metal can only be known by wear and tear upon the actual road, yet the results obtained by the systematic testing of stones under precisely the same conditions serve as a guide in the selection of suitable materials. They give no indication, however, of resistance to crushing. Flints only lose a small percentage of their weight by rubbing together, but they are crushed into dust by heavy traction-engines. There can be little doubt that poor materials, with road sidings used for binding, are largely responsible for the unsatisfactory condition of many roads. A limestone road- metal is undesirable for most districts, and flints make bad roads when they are used where heavy traction-engine traftic occurs. In the long run it is less expensive to use a good road-metal than a cheap one. It does not seem to be recognised that good material can be carted as cheaply as bad, and that, properly applied, the former lasts years longer than the latter. Assuming that a macadamised road has been properly constructed, it is worth while to consider the chief causes of damage to it. It is often said that motor-cars are responsible for the chief part of the damage; but that is not really the case. If a newly made road be noticed, it will often be seen that the ordinary motor-car traffic scarcely wears the road at all in the tracks where the wheels go, whereas the part where the horse traffic goes is worn hollow in the middle, being dug out by the hoofs. Motor-cars probably do less damage to a good road than horses. Moreover, the damage done by a 2-ton pneumatic- tyred pleasure car is superficial compared with that done by a motor-waggon with a total weight of 12 tons. The wear and tear is caused by (1) the heavy weight per axle carried; (2) the speed at which the heavy motor-car runs. Under the Heavy Motor-car Order, a car weighing 3 tons unladen, and having a load of more than 5 tons (making a total of above § tons), must not exceed a speed of five miles an hour, with or without trailer; but this weight and speed are constantly exceeded. It is the combination of illegal speed with illegal weights carried that is largely responsible for much serious wear and tear of roads. It is generally believed that ordinary motor-cars cause much damage to roads by what is described as the ‘* suck- ing action’ of pneumatic tyres; but this action has never been proved to exist. The action which undoubtedly does remove the small particles of the road is due to a scouring or brushing of the surface by the tyres, thus leaving the large particles to be crushed into dust by the rigid wheels of other vehicles. In the case of steel-studded pneumatic tyres. the brushing action is, of course, greatly increased, and is accompanied by crushing forces. To sum up, the causes of damage due to altered conditions of traffic are :— (1) Traction engines: great weight of engine; excessive NO. 2127. VOL. 84] vibration, rigid and ribbed construction of tyres. (2) Heavy motors with trailers: vibration, weight, rigid tyres running over road at high speed. (3) Pleasure cars: scouring action of the pneumatic tyres of cars travelling at high speed. The chief cause of dust, as apart from its method of production, is to be found in the use of unsuitable road material. As already stated, the horse is a serious factor in the creation of dust; and the s5-cwt. battering-ram, as each leg of the horse has been called, gives a road a succession of heavy blows, apart from the screwing or puddling action, and disintegrates the surface far more than is generally realised. The motor-car, on account of its tyres and the rapidity of its movement, though it raises and scatters dust to a greater extent than any other vehicle when going very fast, does far less to create it than is generally imagined. The dust nuisance may be lessened greatly by using nothing but high-class road metal, reducing the quantity of binding material, and reducing the cross-fall or camber of the road, so as to ensure that the traffic spreads itself over the whole width instead of always being driven to the crown of the road; but Mr. Walker Smith, in an ex- haustive book recently published on ‘‘ Dustless Roads and Tar Macadam,”’ points out that even when these conditions are satisfied no very substantial improvement can be looked for. ‘‘ Even when the best material and the best methods of binding are introduced, the road will always remain a pervious road. The moisture in wet weather, which tends to hold the particles of the road together, will, on being evaporated in the dry weather, leave the surface loose and friable and a ready prey to the disintegrating forces, the shock of the horses’ feet, the abrasion of the steel-studded vehicle, and the scouring action of the soft-tyred ones.’’ Mr. Walker Smith says very strongly that the binding is undoubtedly the crux of the whole question of efficient road-making and maintenance. The binding makes or mars the macadamised road, and it is, and ever has been, the weak spot in the ordinary macadam road. The Dust and Dustless Roads Committee of the Royal Automobile Club reports that, in the opinion of the whole of the road engineers With which it has been in touch, if macadam roads are to be constructed to meet the needs of the present- day traffic, with the searching demands that the traffic makes on the road surface, a bituminous binding or matrix must be employed. The committee states that, setting aside the temporary palliatives of watering roads with chemical preparations which keep the road damp by the absorption of moisture from the air, the treatment which has been most successful in rendering roads dustless has been the surface applica- tion of tar applied either by hand or by machine. By this method great lengths of road have been rendered dustless for a whole summer season, the mud in the winter follow- ing has been reduced in quantity, and in some cases the application has lasted for more than one season. More- over, there is almost unanimous testimony that the whole cost of the treatment is more than saved by the increased durability of the road, and already many surveyors are able to make a strong case for the extension of the treatment solely on the ground of economy alone. The most permanent mode of treatment is that of re- making the whole of the surface of the road with tar macadam, and when a road has to be re-surfaced this treatment is also the most economical in the end. The use of calcium chloride to keep down dust is not recommended, -one reason being that the keeping of the roads moist and soft tends to the more rapid wear of the surface. The Roads Improvement Association has issued a report showing the extent and result of the treatment of roads by tarring. From this it appears that the road must be thoroughly cleansed before treatment; about six square yards of surface can be treated per gallon of tar; sand or granite chippings must be applied after treatment; the average cost is about 1d. or 13d. per square yard when a machine is used, and 13d. to 13d. when the tar is applied by hand; at least one treatment per annum is required ; the road should be dry when treated. Excellent results have been obtained at the cost of about 4ol. per mile, and with a small consumption of tar—about one-sixth to one- fifth of a gallon per square yard. 162 NAT ORE [AUGUST 4, I910 No suggestion of tarring is, however, of any use unless the road itself is constructed of good materials, so that, with the exception of some main roads, few roads in rural districts are at present in a condition for such treatment, though the changed conditions of traffic demand a change in the character of the roads. The new conditions demand increased expenditure upon maintenance both on main and secondary roads. The annual outlay in maintenance and repair of the main roads in England and Wales has steadily increased from an average of 761. a mile in 1901 to more than rool. a mile in 1909. Here is an average increase of 25 per cent. in eight years, and there is no prospect that the rate of increase will diminish. It would seem that a road system which requires an outlay of about 1o0l, a mile upon the 150,000 miles of road in England must be inefficient and costly. The explanation is probably to be found in the fact that the maintenance of our high- ways devolves upon local authorities. It is instructive to compare our system with that followed in other countries ; and this comparison is made by Mr. L. W. Page, director of the U.S. Office of Public Roads, in a paper on road administration and maintenance published in the May number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. Sub- joined is a summary of a part of this paper. Systems of Road Administration. The basis of the French system is the School of Roads and Bridges, one of the finest technical schools in the world, and maintained at the expense of the national Government. From the graduates of this school are chosen the highway engineers who are entrusted with the building and maintenance of the roads in France. At the head of the administrative organisation is an inspector-general of bridges and highways, under whom are chief engineers in charge of the road work of single departments and com- munes. Single subdivisions of departments are under the direction of district engineers and assistant engineers, the latter being equal in rank to non-commissioned officers in the army. The subdivisions are under the direction of principal conductors and ordinary conductors. Next in line come the foremen of construction gangs, the clerks employed at headquarters, and finally the cantoniers or patrolmen, each having from 4 to 7 kilometres of highway under his immediate supervision. This great administrative machine, working in complete harmony with definite lines of responsibility clearly established, accomplishes results with military precision and regularity. In England, jurisdiction over the road is vested in, first, the county boroughs; second, the county councils; third, the urban district councils; fourth, the rural district councils. In most counties the maintenance of the high- ways devolves upon urban councils in the urban districts and rural councils in the rural districts. The only excep- tion to the control of the urban and rural district councils is in the case of main roads which are highways between large towns, and the maintenance of these roads devolves upon the county councils. As to skilled supervision, it may be said that no qualifications are required by law to be possessed by the men in charge of road building and maintenance, but it is the general practice, at least in important districts, to appoint experienced highway engineers for this work. It will thus be seen that the English system lacks strong central control in the counties, there being four different classes of Government units, each acting largely independently of the others. Germany is a confederation of States, and it follows that road administration is conducted separately by each State of the Empire. The Imperial Government exercises very little control over the highways, and does not in any way contribute toward their construction or maintenance. The Kingdom of Saxony may be taken as a representative State of the German Empire. In Saxony the highways are divided into State roads, county roads, and private ways. The State roads comprise those which are built and main- tained by the State. The county roads are generally termed communicating roads, and are built and maintained at the expense of the parishes through which they lead. A striking feature of the Saxony road system is the practice ting fruit trees along the road. The fruit yields a ue of about Soool. a year from the State roads, while the amount obtained from the fruit grown on the county roads represents a much larger sum. NO. re\ PM Pdr 27, VOU The State roads are cared for by a commission of engineers. The kingdom is divided into seventeen road districts, in each of which there is a road inspector. Under these inspectors are road masters, who are employed con- stantly throughout the year. Each road master has about thirty-seven miles of road under his direction, and a road force of about fifteen ren. In the case of the minor roads, the direct responsibility is borne by the county authorities. They levy and collect the revenues necessary for mainten- ance and new construction. The communities engage the road employees for the continued care of the highways. The technical supervision, however, is exercised by the road masters of the State force. The road system of Switzerland is local in character, the various cantons having jurisdiction over the roads within their respective borders. Each canton has at the head of its road system an engineer with capable assistants. In the canton of St. Gaul, which is fairly representative, there are under the control of the engineers five inspectors or road masters who are assigned to certain districts in the canton. The engineers and their assistants must have an academic education and possess a diploma from the Poly- technic Institute, while the road masters are required to have a good technical education. It is apparent from the foregoing that while the units of administration in European countries range all the way from the localism of England to the highly centralised system of France, through varying degrees, skilled super- vision is provided for by all the systems, as well as an ample cash revenue sufficient to enable the engineers to carry out the plans for improvement and maintenance. England is the most striking example of extreme localisa- tion, and, it is a significant fact, also the most striking example of lack of uniformity in road work and of excessive expenditure in proportion to mileage. It is also significant that the most perfect road system is that of France, which is admittedly the most highly centralised of all the road systems. France, with a total mileage of about two and one-third times that of England, expends about the same amount annually for maintenance. Certainly the inference must be plain, that centralisation makes for economy and efficiency in the administration of the public roads. When we turn to the subject of road administration in the United States, we find that about half the States are operating under practically the same road laws as prevailed in England when America was a colony. This system of road administration provides for the payment of road taxes partly in labour, and localises the work to an extreme degree. Organisation is almost entirely lacking, and no requirements are made to secure skill or know- ledge on the part of the road officials. With few excep- tions, no system of accounting is in force, and no definite lines of authority are established, such as would guarantee the wise and equitable conduct of the work. The erroneous impression often prevails that when a so-called permanent road is constructed the expense has practically all been met in the first cost. An investigation of the cost of maintaining roads in the leading countries of Europe shows how incorrect is this view. In 1901 England and Wales maintained 26,598 miles of main road at a cost of 74l. per mile. In 1907 England and Wales maintained 27,556 miles of main road at a cost of 8ql. per mile, or in six years the cost of maintenance had increased 1sl. per mile, an increase of about 20 per cent. In France the increase in cost of maintaining the national roads was about 5 per cent. in the same period. The cost of main- taining main and urban roads in England and Wales in 1905 and 1906 was 88l. per mile. In France the cost of maintaining all roads during 1904 was 48l. per mile. While these last figures are not strictly comparable, one being for 1904 and one for 1905, yet the mere fact of one year’s difference in time fails to explain the differ- ence of gol. per mile in cost of maintenance—the natural inference being in favour of the superiority of the French system. These figures express most forcibly two facts: first, that even the best of improved highways are not self-maintain- ing, and second, that the cost of maintenance varies tremendously with the degree of centralisation of the administrative organisation which has the roads in charge. > ‘ 4 ee a AvuGusT 4, 1910] NATURE 163 France, with its most highly centralised organisation, is maintaining her roads at about 54 per cent. of what it costs England and Wales with her very local and loosely centralised organisation. Furthermore, the alarming in- crease in the cost of maintenance has been far more rapid in the countries with local and poorly organised systems of highway administration. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. SHEFFIELD.—The council has appointed Mr. A. E. Findley to the newly instituted post of lecturer of applied chemistry in the University. Mr. Findley is at present assistant lecturer in chemistry at the Bradford Technical College. Tue Mercers’ Company has made a donation of thirty guineas to the South-eastern Agricultural College library for the purchase of books of reference. The Fruiterers’ Company has also presented a very fine copy of that scarce work, ‘‘ The Herefordshire Pomona,’’ and the Carpenters’ Company a work on forestry, to the college library. Tue July issue of the Batlersea Polytechnic Magazine shows how successfully the authorities of the polytechnic encourage an all-round development of their students. The magazine contains two general articles; one, on the house- fly, is based on the published papers of Dr. C. G. Hewitt, and the other deals with the discharge of electricity through high vacua. 4 AN open competitive examination for not fewer than seven situations as assistant examiner in the Patent Office will be held by the Civil Service Commissioners in September next. The examination will commence on September 26, and forms of application for admission to it are now ready for issue, and may be obtained on request addressed by letter to the Secretary, Civil Service Com- mission, Burlington Gardens, London, W. AccorvinG to the Revue scientifique, a national office of French universities and schools has been inaugurated under the presidency of M. Paul Deschanel, of the French Academy. Prof. Paul Appell, of the University of Paris, and Prof. Georges Lyon, of the University of Lille, have been elected vice-presidents. Dr. Raoul Blondel has been appointed director. The new department is to be installed at the Sorbonne, and its object will be to make known to foreigners the educational resources of France- At the close of the term of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, on July 27, the principal, Prof. J. R. Ainsworth-Davis, announced that the council of the Uni- versity of Bristol has enacted a temporary ordinance, which will probably be made permanent in the autumn, making the college part of the University for higher teaching in agriculture and forestry. He also announced that Mr. H. J. Elwes, F.R.S., has placed a portion of his afforested land at Colesborne at the disposal of the college for research purposes. WE are glad to receive a copy of the July number of the Science Journal of King’s College School, Wimbledon. It is a special photographic number of twenty-four pages with several inset plates and sheets of illustrations, and is evidence that photography at Wimbledon takes a very noteworthy place among the out-of-school subjects that engage the boys’ attention. Of the thirteen papers or essays, all except two seem to be by the boys themselves, and they deal with camera construction, exposure, develop- ment, printing, optics, enlarging, sports photography, and colour photography. It is gratifying to see that the greater number of the articles refer to the writers’ own experi- ences, and are evidence of intelligent work. There may be room for different opinions as to the usefulness of a table of poisons, with the symptoms when taken and the ordinary antidotes, because it may be thought preferable for a lad to get assistance rather than to attempt to diagnose and treat a case of poisoning himself, but with reasonable care such cases of need will never arise. Tue report (Cd. 5257) has been issued of the depart- mental committee appointed to consider the statement of claims to additional State assistance, and estimates of the amounts needed for the respective services, which have NO. 2127, VOL. 84] been supplied by the Scottish universities at the request of the Government, and to report for what objects and to what extent assistance, if any, should be granted from public funds in the interests of the proper development of the work of the universities. The committee reports that a good claim has been made out for an additional grant to Scottish universities, and recommends 4o,o00l. as a fair contribution to their more pressing needs. This sum it proposes should be allocated as follows :—Edinburgh, 12,500l.; Glasgow, 12,5001.; Aberdeen, goool.; St. Andrews, 60001. The grants, it is recommended, should be on condition that their administration should be in the hands of the respective University Courts, which should submit annual reports to the Treasury. Not less than 15001. of the grant to St. Andrews University is to be devoted to the conjoint Medical School at Dundee. It is further recommended that, in addition to the 40,o0ool., 30001. should be paid annually to University College, Dundee, and that the grant at present received from the University Colleges (Great Britain) Grant should be dis- continued. Tue antagonism which exists in England between the mathematician and the ‘‘ practical man’”’ is so deeply rooted that any attempt to break down existing prejudices will be studied with the keenest interest. In his presi- dential address to the Mathematical Association last January, Prof. H. H. Turner gave a remarkable account of the efficient development of the Egyptian Survey under the direction of Captain H. G. Lyons, F.R.S., in which he states:—‘‘ Now it will be readily imagined that for work of such extent and variety it is not easy to get a suitable staff of assistants. Scientific knowledge is neces- sary, but so also is a knowledge of Arabic and a physique which will stand the hot climate; so also is a business capacity and a faculty of detecting the truth in its Oriental disguises. It might well be that any one of these qualities was essential, while the rest, though desirable, might have to be dispensed with; or it might be that some rare com- bination of them must be sought with toil. It will prob- ably be admitted that the final opinion of a man who has gone through the trying experience of getting together a staff suitable for such work, and finds himself ultimately satisfied as to the right course, is worth hearing; and hence I feel that the association will learn with peculiar pleasure that Captain Lyons’s final method is to take able mathematicians from Cambridge or Oxford and trust to luck for the other qualities. The one thing he finds needful is that when some strange situation occurs, they should have a firm grasp of the fundamental principles, and not merely a knowledge of the rules deduced, which may fail to meet some unforeseen contingency. And _ this essential condition Captain Lyons has found to be fulfilled by mathematicians when others have failed to meet it. His faith in them has been justified in cases where a breakdown might have possibly been admitted. Even the most complete knowledge of mathematical or physical prin- ciples could scarcely be expected to inspire a man in deal- ing with an Arab camel-driver who was shamming sick; or with the organisation of the commissariat for a journey in the desert; or with an unexpected attack by wandering tribes which necessitated addressing them with dignity from the hump of a camel with three rifles pointed at one’s chest. But it has been proved in the best possible way, viz. by actual experience, that such situations are dealt with capably by young men selected for their mathematical ability, with no special training for the contingencies of. life beyond what undergraduates all pick up from life in one of our great universities. This is a lesson which we may well lay to heart.’ SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. , Academy of Sciences, July 25.—M. Emile Picard in the chair.—H. Deslandres and J. Bosler: The phenomena presented by the tail of Halley’s comet during the passage of May 19 last. From a discussion of various observations, especially those made by R. T. A. Innes at Johannesburg, it is concluded that the tail of Halley’s comet was repulsed by the earth, and the evidence is in favour of this re- pulsion being due to electrical causes.—P. Villard and 164 NATURE [AUGUST 4, I910 H. Abraham: Explosive potentials. A study of the pheno- mena of the spark discharge. In a previous paper a description was given of the results obtained when the changes of potential were slow; the present note deals with the effects of high- ~voltage alternating currents.— D. Gernez: The colours arising in colourless solutions of coloured bodies at the moment ‘of the solidification of the colourless solvent. Colourless solutions. of mercuric iodide in various solvents (naphthalene, stearic acid, chloral hydrate, phenol, &c.) become yellow on solidification, owing tf) the separation of the dissolved iodide in the unstable yellow modification.—A. Lacroix: Some minerals formed by the action of sea-water upon Roman metallic objects found off the coast of Mahdia, Tunis. A sheet of lead gave crystals of cotunnite (PbCl,); transparent brilliant crystals of phosgenite (PbCO,.PbCl,) were also found. Two copper minerals are also described, covellite (CuS) and chalcosite (Cu,S).—-L. Mangin: New observations on callose. This name is applied to a new substance obtained from the membrane in fungi; it is differentiated from cellulose by several reactions, especially by its insolubility in Schweitzer’s reagent, and by its rapid solution and destruction by glycerol at 300°.—A. Ladenburg : Racemic and liquid combinations. The results of experiments on the melting points of mixtures of inactive pipecoline con- taining variable quantities of d- or of J-pipecoline are shown in the form of a curve. The existence of the racemic pipecoline in solution is clearly demonstrated.— A. Calmette and L. Massol: The precipitation reactions of serums from tuberculous subjects, and of the serums from animals hvperimmunised against tuberculosis in presence of the tuberculins.—J. Guillaume: Observations of the sun made at the Observatory of Lyons during the first quarter of 1910. The results are collected in three tables, giving the number of spots, their distribution in latitude, and the distribution of the faculz in latitude.— Jean Mascart: Photographs of Halley’s comet. Repro- duction of photographs taken from Mt. Guajura, Teneriffe, at an altitude of 2715 metres.—D. Eginitis: The physical phenomena presented by Halley’s comet.—R. Bricard : Concerning a claim for priority by E. Study.—Paul Dienes: A problem of Abel.—.tienne Mazurkiewicz : The theory of ensembles.—A. Korn: The biharmonic problem and the fundamental problem in the theory of elasticity.—E. Pringsheim: The emission of gases. A reply to some remarks by M. Bauer on some experiments by the author.—Gabriel Sizes and G. Massol: The harmonics of wind instruments.—L. HWackspill: The electrical resistance of the alkali metals. The metals czsium, rubidium, potassium, and sodium were distilled directly in a vacuum into the tubes used for the measure- ments, and the electrical resistance determined at tempera- tures ranging from 55° C. to the boiling point of liquid air. The figures are somewhat lower than those given by previous observers; a trace of oxide appreciably raises the resistance.—A. de Gramont: The place of ultimate lines in spectral series.—G. Reboul: Chemical reactions and ionisation. The experimental results are in general accord with those given by MM. de Broglie and Brizard.—Abel Buguet: The cryoscopy of the naphthylamines and addition compounds.—E. Brinmer and A. Wroczynski: The action of pressure and temperature upon cyanogen. Prolonged heating at 220° C. under a pressure of 3/4 atmo- sphere was without effect upon cyanogen; at the same temperature, under a pressure of 300 atmospheres, 10 per cent. of the gas was converted into paracyanogen in six hours. At the ordinary pressure a temperature of 310° C. is required to effect an appreciable change; under high pressures the change commences at lower temperatures, and in the latter case, in addition to para-cyanogen, some carbon and nitrogen are produced by the decomposition of the gas.—Henri Bierry, Victor Henri, and Albert Ranc: The action of the ultra-violet rays upon certain carbo- hydrates. Under the influence of the ultra-violet rays the molecule of d-fructose undergoes a profound degradation, formaldehyde and carbon monoxide being produced.—Daffy Wolk: Aluminium nitride, its preparation and fusion. The temperature of formation of aluminium nitride from ajuminium and ammonia is 820° C. to 850° C.—Miroslaw Kernbaum: The decomposition of steam by the brush discharge. Working at the ordinary temperature, the brush NO. 2127, VOL. 84] discharge converts water vapour into hydrogen and hydrogen peroxide. At higher temperatures the latter sub- stance is decomposed, and a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is observed.—V. Grignard: The decomposition of phenol ether-oxides by mixed organo-magnesium derivatives. —Gabriel Bertrand and G. Weisweiller: Researches on the constitution of vicianose. The products of the diastatic hydrolysis of vicianose have been found to be d-glucose and l-arabinose.—G. Friedel and F. Grandjean: ‘The anisotropic liquids of Lehmann.—Leclerc du Sablon: The theory of periodic mutations.—M. Hue: Th variation of the gonidia in the genus Solorina.—J. Virieux: The sheaths and mucilages of the fresh-water algaze.—Audebeau Bey: Experiments carried out in Egypt with the view of determining the influence of the level of the underground water of the Delta on the growth of cotton—MM. de Drouin de Bouville and L. Mercier: The appearance of the furonculose in France. This formidable disease of the trout has appeared at Bellefontaine, near Nancy.— O. Dubesegq and B. Collin: The sexual reproduction of a parasite of Cyttarocyclis Ehrenbergii—_J. E. Abelous and F. Bardier: An attempt at the immunisation of animals against urohypotensine: the antitoxic action of the serum of immunised animals.—E. Tassilly and R. Cambier: The abiotic action of ultra-violet rays of chemical origin. The light from a carbon bisulphide flame burning in nitric oxide possesses a distinct, though feeble, sterilising action.—E. Gley: The modes of extraction of secretine. A new stimulant for the pancreatic secretion.— A. Briquet: The genesis of relief forms in the Gallo- Belgian region. CONTENTS. PAGE Christian Topography ...... : ss Trophoblast and the Early Development of Mam. mals.) By) = 2) eee Sea wea SY! Plant-life in the Balkans. By A. ‘B. R. tel foment 5 Mathematical Text-books. By T.J.I’a.B. .. . 136 Schlich’s Manual of Forestry. ByJ. F. A... .. 137 General Biology. By‘AS(D. 2) 2e2) =. 22a ees Our Book Shelf. ... . Sco 8 een Ae Letters to the Editor :— X-Ray Spectra.—Prof. C. G. Barkla and: J. Nicol 139 Pwdre Ser.—Geo, H. Pethybridge ....... 139 The Pressure of Light. (J//ustrated.) ....... 139 A New Trypanosome Parasitic in Human Aer ' (Wlustrated.) By Prof. E. A. Minchin .. . 142 Tidal Researches. By Sir G. H. Darwin, K. c. B, TAGISESS sea ones ets 144 The Leaning Tower ai Bee (Uttstrated oy Prof. Avpattelli ~ say: 5.8 145 Recent Books on Botany! \ (misstated), ae ect) Notes... . o's yacley algae GUE otc SCS LC Our Astronomical Column :— A Central Bureau for Meteor Observations .... 152 Dhe Rotation of Sun-spots =e. <<.) yeep Hlalley’s:Comel (0-1 Scr eon oT Cae a pe ee Large Meteorites . : Ahoy Ouiguar.c), Le The United States Naval Observatory Se SN Le Measures of Double Stars . . : Beg: Atcie} The British Medical Association in Doudontt are 5S The Institution of Mechanical Engineers .... 154 The British Pharmaceutical Conference .. . 156 Association of Economic Biologists. By W. G. 'F, 156 The First International Agro-geological Confer- ence, by Dr. EB. J; Russell ac.) newer mel Sciencelin South Africawe) emma. -) Seepoismelse Indian Paleontology. ..... 4 aNaeh Yon s pT LSO Dutch Meteorological Work in the Easel BH eatheeets atc) Practical spectroscopy ei juq jqueeied ita) “Maine DS Plant Distribution .. . ‘ . 160 The Maintenance and Adminivticnon a Roads . 160 University and Educational Intelligence ..... 163 Societies and Academies ............-. 163 NATURE 165 THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, tog10. RECENT EARTHQUAKE INVESTIGATIONS. The California Earthquake of April 18, 1906. Report of the State Earthquake Investigation Committee (in two vols. and atlas). Vol. ii., The Mechanics of the Earthquake. By Harry F. Reid. Pp. viii+ 192. (Washington : Carnegie Institution, 1910.) N the average a little earthquake occurs in the world every fifteen minutes. Great earthquakes occur on the average about every four days, but it is only on rare occasions that they hit populated districts. The majority of the latter originate beneath deep oceans or in uninhabited mountain regions, and as neither little fish nor wandering tribes write letters to the Times, all we know about their occurrence comes from the observations of enthusiastic seis- mologists. Nineteen hundred and six, however, was a bad year for humanity, and exhibitions of seismic relief took place in many districts. On January 31 a great disaster occurred in Colombia. On April 4 many soldiers and natives lost their lives in the Kangra Valley. On April 14 nearly 6000 houses fell in Formosa, whilst four days later San Francisco and other towns in Central California were reduced to ruins. On June 14, Kingston, in Jamaica, was badly shattered, and in the autumn, on August 17, Valparaiso and Santiago fell. In con- nection with the disaster at San Francisco, British shareholders in insurance companies were called upon for twelve million pounds, whilst towards the re- construction in Kingston their contribution was two millions. What they paid for the happenings in other parts of the world I do not know, but it is quite certain that attention was directed to the fact that even the inhabitants of the British islands were not entirely beyond the pale of the vagaries of Mater Terra. In 1906 the proprietors of newspapers, lawyers, ex- pert witnesses, the vendors of building materials, con- structors, and others may have regarded earthquakes as blessings in disguise. The charitably disposed had frequently opportunities to derive comfort from their donations, while scientific bodies saw opportunity for investigations. The International Seismological Asso- ciation spent a very large sum in collecting and reproducing seismograms relating to the earth move- ments which had devastated Central Chile. | The Carnegie Institution of Washington not only carried on similar work for the earthquake of California, but by publishing three volumes based on the material collected it has considerably extended our knowledge connected with seismological observations. To the first two of these volumes, issued as part i. and part ii., reference has been made already (NATURE, March 4, 1909, vol. Ixxx., p. 10). The second volume, by Prof. H. F. Reid, of the Johns Hopkins Univer- sity, which is now before us, treats of ‘‘ The Mechanics of the Earthquake.’’ In the discussion on the origin of the shock, this is shown to have taken place from point to point along a line of fracture many miles in length and with a variable depth. There are therefore NO. 2128, voL. 84] -physics. many times of origin, each of which depends upon the particular point considered., This may be a seismo- metrical refinement, but Prof. Reid, by his insistence on this, has done much towards the exact under- standing of certain observations. In the discussion on permanent displacements of the ground we are shown that as the results of three surveys, the first of which commenced in 1851, there have been per- manent displacements parallel to the length of a well- known fault. The ground on the east side of this fault has moved southwards, whilst that on the oppo- site side of it has gone to the north, A part of this displacement, no doubt, took place at the time of the earthquake, but there are convincing reasons for the belief that much of it took place gradually before the earthquake. The ground, in fact, was bent before it broke. By experiments with a stiff slab of jelly across which a slight cut made by a knife represented a line of fault, the nature of the strain which takes place before and after an earthquake is illustrated, The actual forces required to produce in solid rock the observed distortions, which resulted in rupture, are given in mechanical units. If the depth of the fault was 12’5 miles, its length 270 miles, and the average movement 13 feet, then the work done at the time of rupture is estimated at 13x 101° foot-pounds. After this energy was set free, seismographs throughout the world were set in motion. A cause for the deforming forces which resulted in these strains is sought for in the theory of isostacy, which implies that the shifting of materials accom- panying surface denudation is compensated for by a sub-surface flow. By this flow a dragging force is exerted upon the superincumbent crust, which from time to time yields suddenly. To predict tectonic earthquakes we should build a line of piers at right angles to a fault line and determine from time to time the difference in direction between these piers and their relative levels. Such observations, whether they did or did not prove of value as an assistance towards earthquake prediction, it is extremely likely that they would throw light upon certain branches of earth Rotary movements are considered at some length, and the idea that they may be the result of vibrations at ‘right angles is considered to be the one offering the simplest explanation. A chapter of great interest, not only to the builder, but to the mathematician, relates to the influence of a foundation upon apparent intensity, this being most pronounced upon alluvium. Part ii. of this volume is devoted to a critical de- scription of seismograms obtained from stations im various parts of the world. This is followed by old and new explanations for the apparent increase in the duration of an earthquake as it travels. This is another good chapter, but it might easily have been extended. The discussion of the velocities with which different wave types were propagated and the paths they may have followed has been worked out with great care, and is distinctly instructive. The determination of the distance of the origin of an earthquake, as is now well known, depends upon the interval of time be- tween the arrival of the first motion and the arrival of G 166 some other phast of motion like the large waves. This is closely examined, and observations previously made | upon this point ‘are brought more closely in accord. Disturbantes of magnetic needles at the time of the earthquake have not been overlooked. Much is said in favour ‘of damping pendulums, and reference is made to the recently devised ‘‘dead-beat"’ instru- ments of Prince Galitzin. We have not, however, come across any reference to his method of determining the direction of an earthquake from the first of the pre- liminary tremors. The monograph closes with the theory of the seismograph. In this we notice the NATURE statement that the instruments designed by myself in 1892 and Dr. Schliitter about 1903, to show tilting of the ground at ‘the time of an earthquake failed to show such a’ phenomenon. This is only true for the latter instrument (see British Association Report, 1893, p- 222). Prof. Reid’s memoir is a valuable contribution to the mechanics of earthquakes. He has ploughed both new ground and old, and seismologists will thank him for the material he has furnished for their con- sideration. Joun MILne. TAR, ACID, AND ALKALI. (1) Coal Tay and Ammonia. By Prof. George Lunge. Fourth and enlarged edition. Part i., pp. xix+563; part ii., pp. xiii+564-1178. (London: Gurney and Jackson, 1909.) Price 42s. net, two vols. (2) The Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid and Alkah, with the Collateral Branches: a Theoretical and Practical Treatise. Third edition, enlarged. By Prof. George Lunge. Vol. ii., part i., Sulphate of Soda, Hydrochloric Acid, Leblane Soda, pp. xx+ 490; vol. ii., part ii., ditto, pp. xii+4g1-r1o10. (London: Gurney and Jackson, 1909.) Price 42s. net, two parts. HESE three terms—tar, acid, and allcali—stand for the most important of the determining factors of chemical technology. Round them may be ranged practically everything that relates to the business of applied chemistry. In its most comprehensive sense, each in turn may be regarded as the parent or genital substance from which flows a countiess number of bodies, forming by their mutual actions and re- actions the vast array of products which modern manufacturing chemistry has placed at the service of mankind. In the works before us, Dr. Lunge’s treat- ment of these themes is worthy of their importance. The works themselves have already taken an assured position in the literature of chemical technology. In each successive edition their veteran author strives to make them a faithful and adequate reflection of the state of contemporary knowledge and achievement, thereby tending, so long as his ministering care is available, to make that position secure. They have long been recognised as indispensable to the technolo- gist, and each new issue is certain of an immediate welcome. The volume on coal-tar and ammonia is now in its fourth edition. _ What enormous changes have come over the industry of tar production, and of the No. 2128, VOL. 84] [AUGUST II, I9IO extraction and utilisation of the innumerable sub- stances which enter into its composition, will be evident from even the most superficial examination of the several issues. The rate of progress, indeed, transcends anything to be observed in any other branch of manufacture. Only nine years have elapsed since the third edition made its appearance, but such has been the accumulation of new material in that interval that practically the whole of the chapters— eleven in number—dealing with coal-tar and its pro- ducts have had to be revised and in great part re- written. In this section of the work Dr. Lunge has had the assistance of Dr. Kraemer, of Berlin, an acknowledged authority in this branch of chemical technology. England is still the great tar-producing country of the world, but her supremacy in this respect is threatened by the United States. Tar is mainly obtained from gas-works, from blast furnaces, and from coke-ovens. In the United Kingdom the annual preduction at the present time approaches a million tons—obtained by the destructive distillation of about seventeen or eighteen million tons of coal—an amount exceeding that of the whole of Europe put together, and probably more than twice the aggregate yield of Germany and France. This country, where benzene was discovered by Faraday, where its indus- trial extraction was worked out by Mansfield, and where the first aniline colour was made by Perkin, has become simply as the hewer of wood and the drawer of water in this matter. We make the tar, but apparently we can do little with it except sell it to the Germans in order that they shall turn it into that astonishing array of manufactured products which their admirable system of scientific training has taught them how to produce. When in the hour of her humiliation Germany set herself to reconstruct the educational system which has culminated in her present scheme, she forged the most powerful instru- ment of national development which human _fore- thought could have devised. With it has come her extraordinary commercial development and her ambi- tion to be supreme in the world’s markets, and with it, too, she thinks, has come the necessity of being able to protect that commerce, if necessary, by force of arms. What becomes of coal-tar may seem a small matter in determining the course and destiny of nations. But is is absolutely certain that if our university system had been developed, even pari passu with that of Germany, and that if those who were responsible for the government of this country, and those who seek to form public opinion, had paid more heed to the signs of the times, we should to-day have less talk about Tariff Reform and of the imperative necessity of more ‘‘ Dreadnoughts.” if Peace has her victories, no less renowned than those of War, we may well ask ourselves if we have always gone the right way to work to secure the victories of peace. Dr. Lunge’s second work—that on sulphuric acid and alkali, now in its third edition—further serves to illustrate the same text. If there was one chemical industry more than another in which Great Britain AuGUST I1, 1910] NATURE 167 was pre-eminent, it was that to which this work relates. Upon it hangs a great number of collateral industries, and their prosperity is bound up together and is mutually dependent. We had abundant stores of most things we needed to extend and develop this industry, and whatever else we required our oversea trade enabled us to procure. That supremacy is challenged. Newer methods have undermined the position which the industry enjoyed with us for so many years, and in which such large amounts of British capital are still locked up. So long as we were concerned with the application of the simplest chemical principles we could hold our own by virtue of our natural advantages. Immediately we were confronted by new processes involving more recondite principles, questions of chemical dynamics, and abstract considerations of mass-actions, reversible re- actions and the like, our manufacturers were power- less; nor were they able to find in this country the help they needed. Some of them eventually found it in imported polytechnically trained German and Swiss chemical engineers—for the most part university men with post-graduate technical training—men that the German and Swiss systems produce in abundance. This system of fighting our industrial battles, in fact, resembles that on which decadent Rome depended for her national existence, and which eventually proved her ruin. It is true, we are beginning to wake up, and sporadic efforts are being made in various direc- tions to rouse the country from its lethargy. Large Sums of money are being spent, but whether aiways wisely is very doubtful. Anything like control, or action directed from outside, is resented, for there is no controlling authority armed with the necessary powers, or, even if it were armed, commands general confidence. We can only hope that ‘‘ we shall worry through somehow,” but if we do, it will only be, as hitherto, by the expenditure of a vast amount of fussy energy, much delay, and waste of money and means. f SOUNDING ROUND THE ANTARCTIC CONTINENT. Deutsche Siidpolar-Expedition, 1901-3. Band _ ii., Geographie und Geologie. Heft vi., Die Grund- proben der Deutschen Siidpolar-Expedition, 1901-3. By E. Philippi. Pp. 415-6164+xxxi-xxxiii plates. (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1910.) HIS memoir forms the sixth division of the second volume—that devoted to geography and geology —of the reports on the German South Polar Expedi- tion, under Prof. von Drygalski, in the Gauss. Since the issue of this important memoir, the news has arrived of the great loss which science has sustained by the death of its talented author. During the whole of the voyage out to the Antarctic Ocean, frequent soundings were taken, directly the equator was crossed. Thirty soundings are recorded between the eauator and the Cape of Good Hope, and eighteen more between the Cape and the ice-limit. In the same way, on the return voyage, eighteen soundings were obtained during the somewhat cir- NO. 2128, VOL. 84] cuitous course by way of the Heard, Kerguelen, St. Paul, and New Amsterdam islands, and by the south of Madagascar back to the Cape; thence to the equator, by a different course to the outward one, thirty-nine. further soundings were taken. The methods of obtaining samples of the sea-bottom, in the case of these soundings, and the subsequent treat- ment of the materials in the laboratory, are fully discussed in the memoir, and the careful descriptions of the specimens of the globigerina and diatomaceous oozes, and of the blue and red muds, are supple- mented by mineralogical notes by Dr. R. Reinisch, and chemical analyses by Dr. J. Gebbing. On the chart, a graphic illustration is given of the nature of the sea-bottom at each of the stations, and this part of the work is of considerable value as adding fresh materials for a description of the exact char- acter of the floors of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The descriptions of the soundings and the tabular statements concerning them are very com- plete, and will prove of great value for purposes of comparison. : The portion of the memoir which will perhaps excite the greatest interest, however, is that which deals with the materials obtained in soundings along the margin of the Antarctic pack-ice. The thirty- three soundings in which specimens of the ocean floor were obtained are valuable as giving indications of the geological structure of that portion of the Antarctic continent lying between the meridians of 80° and 96° E. The mineral fragments, which have been very carefully examined and described, must have been brought down by glaciers from the interior of the continent. Among the larger fragments occur granitic rocks, gneisses, amphibolites, and other crystalline schists, with a red quartzitic sandstone, coarse or fine grained, and, more rarely, gabbro. Of recent volcanic rocks, fragments of basalt and of volcanic glass are recorded from a few stations only, and it is suggested that possibly these may have come, not from the continental lands, but from some island or islands lying within the limits of the ice-pack, or possibly they may be the products of submarine erup- tions. The long list of minerals given from the different soundings confirms the conclusions drawn from the study of the rock-fragments, for they nearly all belong to species characteristic of granitic rocks and the older crystalline schists. The study of the sandy or muddy materials in which these rock and mineral fragments are embedded shows that, as a rule, they are free from calcareous matter. Of the thirty-three deposits examined, only one was found to contain any considerable proportion of calcium carbonate, nearly 20 per cent.; four others contained from 1 to 5 per cent., and four others mere traces; the remaining twenty-four were perfectly free from all calcareous matter. Although the glacial muds graduate, in pass- ing northwards towards warmer seas, into the dia- tomaceous ooze, the remains of the microscopic alge are not abundant in the muds from the borders of the pack-ice. Some foraminifera occur, and glauconite was detected in five of the soundings. 168 NATURE [AuGusT 11, 1910 The study of this very complete and suggestive memoir cannot fail to increase the regret which must be universally felt in the scientific world at the death, so early in his career, of its distinguished author. J aWiea READABLE BOOKS IN NATURAL KNOW- LEDGE. Wonders of Physical Science. Pp. viii+2o1. Tillers of the Ground. Pp. viii+224. Threads in the Web of Life. By Margaret R. Thom- son and Prof. J. Arthur Thomson. Pp. vii+108. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price Is. 6d. each. By E. E. Fournier. By Dr. Marion I. Newbigin. OME years ago a new series of ‘‘ Readable Books in Natural Knowledge’ would have been a gift of doubtful value to the teacher. Written by the capable hands that have made the present volumes, they could not have failed to awaken here and there the genuine passion for scientific inquiry, and so would have seemed to justify their existence. But, speaking generally, the more completely such books had suc- ceeded in ‘‘popularising’’ the labours of the savant the further they would have been held to direct the attention of the teacher from the proper aim of in- struction in science. We now recognise that that aim is not so much to make the pupil acquainted with certain ranges of facts as to train him in the exercise of one of the most important forms of human activity. Thanks largely to the tireless propaganda of Prof. Armstrong, this aim is at present pursued with more or less intelligence wherever it is claimed that science is being taught. The boy learns that the essence of science consists in putting a clear question to nature and wresting from her a clear answer to it. In favourable circumstances he acquires some of the mental habits essential to success in this pursuit, or at any rate is made to see that such success comes only of faithfulness and labour. It was natural that the training value of heuristic methods should be emphasised by their advocates since this element was almost entirely absent from the older didactic methods. But modern pedagogy, in- structed by the results of psychological inquiry, has become critical of the claims of a subject to train or cultivate ‘‘ faculties,” and prefers to find in the nature of the subject itself the justification for teaching it. Thus the prime reason for teaching science is that, intrinsically and in its results, the scientific activity is one of the greatest and worthiest types of human effort. An education that does not give a sympathetic acquaintance with it is, therefore, necessarily incom- plete. Whatever other arguments may be urged in their favour, heuristic methods in science teaching are rendered necessary by the fact that by them alone the pupil is made actually to exercise the scientific activity, and so to gain direct knowledge of one of the cardinal forms of human achievement. But when by first- hand experience he has genuine knowledge of the scientific activity, he should also have opportunities of appreciating its significance in human history. It is NO. 2128, VOL. 84] precisely to serve this function that the present series of ‘* Readable Books"’ has been designed. To quote the publishers’ note, they ‘‘aim at exalting the scien- tific spirit which leads men to devote their lives to the advancement of natural knowledge, and at showing how the human race eventually reaps the benefit of such research.” It may be said at once that in the first three books of the series this aim has been already admirably ful- filled. The authors have approached their task in the right temper, and have, on the whole, been remark- ably happy, both in the choice and in the treatment of their topics. Mr. Fournier takes ground, a great part of which has been worked over by predecessors, but he has evidently gone himself to the works of the great physicists, and his chapters have the freshness and force derived from this direct contact. Dr. Marion Newbigin tells of the evolution: and spread of food-plants with an epical directness and unity of plan. An episode in the development of Transatlantic commercialism—such as the transportation of Smyrna figs to California—becomes in her hands a wonder- fully impressive illustration of the working of the scientific spirit. Mrs. and Prof. J. A. Thomson have taken a subject which hardly lends itself to the same unity of treatment. In part, their object is to exhibit the dependence of man upon deliberate or unconscious partnership with animals—such as the domesticated animals on the one hand, and earthworms on the other. They come nearer to the special aim of the series in the chapters where they show what tremendous results depend upon the scientific inves- tigation of the life-histories of microscopic parasites, It is unnecessary to say that both parts of their pro- gramme are admirably executed. A notable characteristic of each of the books is that they bring the tale of scientific conquests down to our own days. Thus Mr. Fournier describes Rontgen’s discovery of the X-rays, and tells the story of aviation down to Blériot’s flight across the Channel last year. Dr. Newbigin gives capital chapters on the work of Mendel, de Vries, and their followers. Prof. and Mrs. Thomson have a chapter on the relation between mosquitoes and malaria, as well as one on Pasteur. In short, these most interesting and stimulating little books initiate a series which will at once prove of great value as an adjunct to the systematic instruction of the class-room and laboratory, and, if continued in the same spirit and with the same ability, will become an almost indispensable part of a school equipment for science teaching. TSReaNe SALMON AND TROUT. Life-history and Habits of the Salmon, Sea-trout, Trout, and other Fresh-water Fish. By P. D. Mal- loch. Pp. xvi+263. (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1910.) Price ros. 6d. net. HIS book is almost entirely devoted to the salmon of the Tay, sea-trout, and brown trout. ‘The other fresh-water fish’’ are but slightly dealt with, and the chapters allocated to them call for no par- ticular notice, save to direct attention to the start- AUGUST IT, I9I0| NATURE 169 lingly inaccurate assertion that ‘‘Prof. Grassi, of Rome, discovered the breeding grounds (of the eel) to be out in the Atlantic Ocean from Norway, Den- mark, France, and Spain in some parts 1000 miles from shore.” With salmon and trout the case is different; any work upon this subject by a fisherman and _ fishery manager of Mr. Malloch’s experience cannot fail to be of interest. Some readers will doubtless not be prepared to accept in their entirety all the views ad- vanced, but all will be grateful to the author for recording the conclusions which he has drawn from a very wide personal experience. The most interesting feature of the book is the really excellent series of illustrations, reproduced from photographs of Tay salmon of all ages and conditions, and of sea-trout and brown trout from various rivers and lochs. Illustrations such as these give a far better impression of the changes due to growth and condition and the variations caused by environment than any letterpress. The investigations of the Scot- tish Fishery Board and the Department of Agriculture in Ireland have familiarised us with the great indi- vidual difference in the period spent by salmon in the sea, and Mr. Malloch figures salmon which were marked as smolts and subsequently re-captured on their return to the river after a longer or shorter sojourn in the sea, and discusses the probable length of such sojourn. He expresses himself as ‘‘ fully con- vinced that many (Tay) fish from qo lb. and upwards are on their first return from the sea when they are captured in fresh water ’’; we could wish that some definite evidence were forthcoming in support of this conviction, for a 4o-lb. salmon is presumably eight, or at least seven, years old, and Calderwood has stated that ‘it appears to be somewhat unusual for a fish to remain till its fourth sea year” (7.e. its sixth year) “without spawning.” In the Tay, salmon run at all seasons of the year, and Mr. Malloch is of opinion that the clean winter fish which run in October remain thirteen months in fresh water before spawning. We must confess to feeling sceptical on this point, more particularly as there seems to be nothing to show that such fish may not drop back again to the sea after a short sojourn in fresh water without spawning. In the case of the Blackwater (mentioned in this context as a spring river) there is some positive evidence that clean early- spring fish do drop back into the sea. The opinion now generally held that the ‘ bull- trout” of the Tay is a salmon is confirmed by an illustration of such a fish side by side with a salmon of the same size and weight; we understand Mr. Malloch to regard *‘ bull-trout’’ as salmon which have spawned and again ascended the river as mended fish, a view which seems hardly consonant with that held by Calderwood, though not inconsistent with the re- sults of some of the marking experiments conducted by the Scottish Fishery Board. It cannot, of course, be seriously suggested that all salmon, after once spawning, become *‘ bull-trout.”’ Some space is, very properly, given to a considera- tion of the deductions to be drawn from an examina- NO. 2128, VoL. 84] tion of the scales of salmon. While the figures given by Mr. Malloch are excellent, we find his explanations in the text rather difficult to follow; the generalisation that a salmon adds sixteen rings to its scale in ea: year of its life, so long as it feeds and grows, is not borne out by the scales figured or by the observations of other persons; the two years spent as a parr and smolt would, in fact, seem to account for a number of rings, varying from about twenty to twenty-seven, while from twenty to thirty rings may be added in any subsequent year spent wholly in the sea. Such matters as the spawning and feeding of sal- mon in fresh water and their movements in tidal rivers are briefly discussed, and interesting figures are given of land-locked salmon up to three-quarters of a pound in weight. Did space permit we would willingly quote freely from the chapters dealing with sea-trout and brown trout, and in particular from a most interesting dis- cussion of the effect of environment on the latter fish, and the lessons to be drawn therefrom in the stocking and management of fisheries. In conclusion we must deplore the entire absence of either index or detailed table of contents. ean Wie NON-EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY. Theories of Parallelism: an Historical Critique. By W. B. Frankland. Pp. xviii+70. (Cambridge : University Press, 1910.) Price 3s. net. HE appearance of this tract is a welcome sign of the growing interest in the foundations of geometry. Those who, greatly daring, first disputed or denied Euclid’s fifth postulate were treated, if not as charlatans, at least as idle speculators, whose theories, even if sound in the abstract, had no relation to actual space. It may be added that the earlier works on the non-Euclidean geometries were not very attractive to the average mathematician, because they were either so analytical that the reader was inclined to regard their geometrical interpretation as a mere facon de parler, or so vague and intuitive as to raise a suspicion of want of rigour. Things have altered so much, not in substance, but in mode of presentation, that it may fairly be said that anyone with a knowledge of spherical trigonometry and elementary calculus may satisfy himself of the validity and coordinate rank of the elliptic, hyperbolic, and parabolic (or Euclidean) geometries; and he could hardly wish for a better introduction to the subject than that which Mr. Frankland has provided. The tract falls naturally into three parts. The first, with remarkable brevity and clearness, gives the prin- cipal formule derived from the assumptions that the area of a polygon of n sides is proportional to the difference between the sum of its interior angles and (n—2)7, and that Euclidean geometry holds for in- finitesimal figures. The second part gives, in separate paragraphs, short accounts of forty contributors to the theory, ranging from Euclid to Dodgson. This list seems fairly complete, with one noteworthy excep- tion—Sophus Lie. In the third volume of his * Theorie der Transformationsgruppen ”’ (section v.) Lie gives a: 170 NATURE [AuGUsT 11, 1910 masterly and exhaustive critique of the subject from an analytical point of view, and his discussion of Helmholtz’s axioms is particularly instructive. The third part of the tract consists of two notes— one developing the metrical formulz of elliptic geo- metry, and the other dealing with planetary motion in elliptic space, with a law of attraction expressed by the formula P=“ cosec? ” Pp 2 where k is the absolute constant of the space considered. The results are, in some respects, curiously analogous to the Newtonian ones; but there are also striking difierences—for in- stance, the uniform description of areas about the centre of force does not hold good. Mr. Frankland’s critique deserves a wide circula- tion, and will doubtless do much to make the general public more familiar with what is, after all, a matter of great philosophical interest, that can be explained, apart from demonstration, to any intelligent person. There is no reasen at all why a schoolboy, who has made some progress in geometry, should not be made acquainted with the main characteristics of the three possible systems, and realise, to some extent, the transformation so recently undergone by the oldest of the sciences. G. B. M. FOREST FLORA OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. Forest Flora of the Bombay Presidency and Sind. Vol. i., Ranunculaceee to Rosacee. By W. A. Talbot. Pp. vit+508+xxvi. (Poona: Printed by Government at the Photozincographic Department, 1909.) N 1894 Mr. W. A. Talbot issued a useful ‘ List of the Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Climbers of the Bombay Presidency.” A new and improved edition of this ‘‘ List” appeared in 1902. In the present work Mr. Talbot has supplied what is essentially a more complete and considerably enlarged edition of the “List,” with full accounts of all the species included, and illustrations of the more important ones. Those using the ‘List’? will find full accounts of the species it includes in Dr. T. Cooke’s ‘‘Flora of the Bombay Presidency”; the main purpose of this “Forest Flora’? we may, therefore, assume to be the provision of an illustrated work of reference for Bom- bay comparable with the ‘Flora Sylvatica” which Col. Beddome prepared for Madras forty years ago. If this assumption be correct, the provision of yet another series of plant descriptions, marked as they are by all the care and accuracy which characterise Mr. Talbot’s work, cannot be said to be supereroga- tory. The quarto size seems to have been adopted in order to render the ‘‘ Flora’? uniform with the corre- sponding worl for southern India rather than be- cause of the nature of the illustrations, only two of which occupy the whole of a page. It seems, there- fore, doubtful whether Mr. Talbot is right in thinls- ing that the size of the work has been kept as small as possible, or justified in hoping that it may not prove too unwieldy for transport in the baggage of a forest or district officer. NO. 2128, VOL. 84] The text is clearly and carefully printed, but the glazed paper used is heavy, unpleasant to handle and to look at, and does not promise to be durable in damp localities. No doubt this type of paper has been chosen on account of the process employed in the reproduction of the illustrations, which, unfor- tunately, as matters stand, are the least pleasing por- tion of the work. The drawings made use of have not lent themselves at all well to reproduction by the process adopted, a statement of fact which involves no reflection either upon the process or upon the drawings. These, indeed, one can readily imagine to have been pleasing in their original form, though they have the disadvantage of falling short of what is desirable in a work of this kind, since for the most part they do no more than display the habit of the. species illustrated, and rarely include analyses of the flower. APPLIED CHEMISTRY. Chimica Generale e Applicata all’ Industria. Vol. ii. = Chimica Organica. By Prof. Ettore Molinari. Parte i. : pp. xvi+416; parte ii. : pp. xii+417 to 979. (Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1g08-9.) Price 21 lire the 2 vols. HE. volumes with the above title form a supple- ment to the treatise on inorganic chemistry by the same author, already reviewed in Narure (vol. Ixxi., p. 339). The same general plan has been followed in these later volumes as was adopted in the case of inorganic substances, the treatise differing from nearly all other smaller treatises on organic chemistry in giving very full details of industrial operations. The book is not, however, a treatise on technology in the narrower sense of the word, the theoretical side being by no means neglected. A very great deal of thoroughly up-to-date information of processes and plant is imparted, but at the same time there is due regard to the theory of the operations. The work is excellently illustrated with cuts of the latest kinds of machinery. An idea of the character of the work may be conveyed by stating that sixty-five pages of small print are devoted to the manufacture of sugar, and that the processes involved are described clearly but concisely, the illustrations being very well chosen. Such a work must necessarily prove of good service to students who intend to devote themselves to industrial chemistry and are desirous of becoming ac- quainted with general manufacturing operations. There are many signs that the author has spared no pains to make himself acquainted with the latest facts and processes, references in some cases being given to results brought before the recent International Con- gress of Applied Chemistry in r1go9. It is nowadays obviously impossible for any one individual to give an authoritative account of all the different branches into which industrial chemistry is. subdivided, and in such a work as that under review it would, no doubt, be easy for specialists to detect several errors. Thus, for example, the 1898 Golden- berg process of analysis of tartaric acid material de- scribed on p. 451 was superseded by the 1907 process. AUGUST II, I9I0] NAT ORE, raya and this was again modified in 1909. Certain statlis- tical information given is, too, of doubtful correct- ness. Names are frequently misspeit. But putting aside minor blemishes of this kind the work is of a decidedly useful nature, and, like the inorganic portion, to be commended. It may be noted that a German translation of the whole work is in progress, so that it may shortly become more accessible to the English student. W. ASD: OUR BOOK SHELF. Guide to the Crustacea, Arachnida, Onychophora, and Myriopoda exhibited in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History). Pp. 133; 90 illustrations. (London: Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, 1910.) Price ts. Tuts ‘‘Guide’’ admirably fulfils its functions; it is written in a clear style, and indicates tersely the main points of interest associated with the chief families and genera. The principal characters of each sub- division—class, order, tribe, family—are concisely stated, and those of its members are selected for mention which most aptly illustrate points in morphology or distribution, or show some striking habit. The section on the Crustacea opens with a short account of the lobster, its external features and appendages, internal organs, development, moulting, and the asymmetry of its chela. Short notes are added on the modifications caused by parasites and on adaptations to environment. The systematic account of the Crustacea, in addi- tion to stating the characters of each subdivision, contains a large number of interesting references to morphological and distributional points which make it valuable apart from the special purpose for which it was prepared. To give two instances—(1) the formation of a respiratory siphon which takes place in the Albuneidze by apposition of the antennules, but in Corystes by association of the antennz; and (2) the appearance of Apus in Scotland in 1907, which is ascribed to the introduction of the eggs, per- haps on the feet of birds, from the Con- tinent. The Arachnida, including Limulus and the Eurypterines, and the Myriopoda are dealt with in a similarly interesting manner, and short notes are added on the Trilobita, Pycnogonida, Penta- stomida, and Oncychophora. A little more space might well have been devoted to the Ixodidz, in view of their great importance in connection with the spread of disease in man and animals. The illustrations, many of which are new and are prepared from photo- graphs of the specimens exhibited, are excellent, and well support the text. Popular Astronomy. By the late Prof. Simon New- comb. Pp. xx+580+5 star maps. (London: Mac- millan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 8s. 6d. net. Astronomy has no doubt made progress in several directions since the late Prof. Newcomb revised his renowned work; nevertheless, if the lamented author were alive to re-write his book at the present time, by far the greater part could not be improved upon. The extensions of knowledge take place at the frontiers of a science, while the main body of fact and prin- ciple remains unaltered. While, therefore, this cheap edition of Prof. Newcomb’s ‘‘ Popular Astronomy’? is issued without additions referring to recent develop- ments, the volume can fairly be described as one of the most lucid and authoritative statements of the foundations of astronomical science available even NO. 2128, voL. 84] now. To let such a work pass out of print would have been a misfortune, and we trust that the issue of an edition at less than half the original price will be the means of making many new readers familiar with its merits. Naturwissenchaftliches Unterrichtswerk fiir héhere Madchenschulen. Teil iv., Lehrstoff der iv. Klasse. By Dr. K. Smalian and K. Bermau. Pp: 152. (Leipzig: G. Freytag, 1910.) Price 2.50 marks. Tuts volume, one of a series graded for successive school classes, has been prepared to comply with official regulations, wherein presumably lies the reason for combining a triad admixture of botany, zoology, and mineralogy. The aim of the authors has been directed less towards a training manual and more towards providing a compendium of in- formation on objects which are met with in daily life. The book contains an accurate but condensed collation of facts concerning cryptogamic and economic botany, the zoological groups of mollusca, vermes, and ccelen- terata, and common or useful minerals. It is plenti- fully illustrated with good text-figures and a dozen coloured plates. 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 intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Pwdre Ser. In my former communication on this subject I gave all the information I had been able to collect respecting the popular belief as to the masses of white jelly found in my experience on mountain pastures, but, according to the observations of others, on different kinds of ground and at various seasons. I recently procured a specimen of the jelly, and quoted a letter from Mr. Arber, to whom I had sent it, giving the opinion of Mr. Brookes, to whom Mr. Arber had referred it. After that was written I received the following note from Mr. Brookes, under the date April 4:—‘‘ The ‘ jelly’ had been gathered several days before it reached me, and hence its condition was not suitable for examination, several putrefactive organisms having begun to flourish upon the jelly in the meantime. The remains of the sub- stance which I saw seemed to be most like the zoogloea stage of some bacterial organism or the plasmodium of a myxomycete. The ‘jelly ’ itself had no cellular structure. There was no nostoc present or any allied organism.” More recently I received a specimen which Mr. Burnett, headmaster of the Grammar School at Kirkby Lonsdale, found in the Rawthay Valley, some miles above Sedbergh. This also I sent to Mr. Brookes, who writes (July 26) that “the jelly-like mass sent from Kirkby Lonsdale is un- doubtedly the plasmodium of a myxocete,’’ and adds that he is ‘‘ keeping it to see whether it will give rise to spores.”’ Mr. Worthington Smith, in a letter dated June 24, says :—‘‘ Perhaps you will find the substance so accurately described by you in this week’s Nature under the generic name of Zoogloea; the name as a genus may be obsolete now, but I think that in past times it was placed amongst the alge, perhaps near Nostoc, and afterwards included in the Schizomycetes. However this may be, I know the substance very well, and I have often had it sent on to me in. the past (when I used to answer correspondents for some of the horticultural papers) as a fungus—a Tremella—difficult to trace. I have heard it, as well as Nostoc, associated with fallen stars amongst rustics.”’ These authorities, as well as Miss Fry (Nature, June 30), 172 NATURE [AuGusT II, 1910 agree as to the nature of the Pwdre Ser, and I must say that whenever I have observed its manner of occurrence it has seemed to me to grow out of the sod—but I would not like to say that what I have seen has always been the same kind of matter. ‘ The very circumstantial account given by Morton, that something of the kind is disgorged by birds, is confirmed by other later observers. Although we must not too hastily accept what is un- doubtedly a vera causa as the only explanation, we may feel that we are moving in the right direction to find the answer to the question, What is it? The question why it is associated with falling stars has received a plausible explanation from Messrs. Grove and Griffiths (Nature, July 21); but falling stars do not appear to hit the ground so that an observer can walk up to the spot where they seem to have fallen, as in the case of light- ning or thunderbolts, and if we bring in possibilities of other. luminous bodies we raise the difficult question of lambent fires, &c. The star-like radiating form of the jelly-fish, like that of the star-fish, is sufficient to explain the name given by Admiral Smyth (July 21, p. 73). While our botanical friends are finding out for us what it is, may I. hope that some of our literary friends will trace the belief back further than the sixteenth century, when we find it accepted as if founded upon well-known facts? T. McKenny Hucues. July 29. ‘ The Blood-sucking Conorhinus. It may.interest readers of Nature to be informed that the great South American bug figured on p. 142 of the issue of August 4 punished Charles Darwin when travelling in the Pampas, happily without infecting him with its trypanosome: (see ‘‘ Journal of a Naturalist,’ ed. 1845, Pp. 330): Ife 1D age The Camp, near Sunningdale, August 5. [SuBjoIneD is the description to which our correspondent refers.—Ep. NaTuRE.] “We slept in the village of Luxan, which is a small place surrounded by gardens, and forms the most southern cultivated district in the Province of Mendoza; it is five leagues south of the capital. At night I experienced an attack (for it deserves no less'a name) of the Benchuca, a species of Reduvius, the great black bug of the Pampas. {t is most disgusting to feel soft, wingless insects about an ‘inch long crawling over one’s body. Before sucking they are quite thin, but afterwards they become round and bloated with blood, and in this state are easily crushed. One which. I> caught at TIquique (for they are. found in Chile and Peru)’ was very empty. When placed on a table, and though surrounded by people, if a finger was presented the bold insect would immediately protrude its sucker, make a charge, and, if allowed, draw blood. No pain was caused by the wound. It was curious to watch its body during the act of sucking, as in less than ten minutes it changed from being as flat as a wafer to a globular form. This one feast, for which the benchuca was indebted to one of the officers, kept it fat during four whole ‘months; but, after the first. fortnight, it was quite ready to have another suck.” The Early History of Non-Euclidean Geometry. In a recent number of Nature (June 30) there appeared a review of a book by G. Mannoury on the philosophy of mathematics, and the reviewer emphasised a statement of the author to the effect that the claim for Gauss that he was. the first to assert the possibility of a non-Euclidean geometry is threatened by F. K. Schweilcart, who in December, 1818, sent a note to Gauss asserting the exist- ence of a geonietry in which the sum of the angles of a triangle is tess than two right angles. The facts’ about Schweikart ‘were made known fifteen years ago by Stickel and Engel (‘‘ Theorie der Parallellinien,’’ p. 243), and the ictual* documents were published in “Gauss’s ‘* Werke,’’ Bd. viii. '(1900).. It must be admitted that Schweikart NO. 2128, VoL. 84] arrived independently at this result, though it is not so obvious that he had forestalled the ‘‘ giant mathe- matician.’’ Schwoikart states his hypothesis very clearly, and explains that Euclidean geometry is a special case of a more general geometry. On the other hand, Gauss was interested in the theory of parallels from at least 1799 ; and some time between 1808 and 1816 he arrived at the belief that non-Euclidean geometry was possibly true, for in 1808 he asserted that the idea of an a priori linear constant (the ‘‘ space-constant ’’) was absurd, while in 1816 he declared that, while seemingly paradoxical, this idea was in no way self-contradictory, and that Euclid’s geometry might not be the true one. In his comments on Schweikart’s note, he exhibits quite an extensive know- ledge of non-Euclidean trigonometry. Of course, the development of non-Euclidean geometry and trigonometry is due independently to Lobachevskij (1829), and Bolyai (1832), and even that was worked out to a large extent previously by Lambert (1786), and_ still earlier by the Italian Jesuit Saccheri (1733), though neither of these two conceived for a moment the possibility of non- Euclidean geometry being true. . It is interesting in this connection to recall the hesitancy of Cayley to accept non-Euclidean geometry, although he himself practically inaugurated a new epoch. He never seemed quite to appreciate the subject, and on one occasion, at least, fell.into a mistake in writing about it. In his article ‘‘ On the Non-Euclidean Plane Geometry,’’ Math. Papers, vol. xiii., p. 237, he inadvertently takes the equa- torial circle of the pseudosphere (the surface of revolution of the tractrix) as representing the points at infinity, whereas the absolute is only represented by a single point, viz. the point at infinity on the pseudosphere. D. M. Y. SOMMERVILLE. The University, St. Andrews, Julv 26. The Total Solar Eclipse of April 28, rort. Wuitst astronomers who intend to observe this eclipse are choosing from amongst the Vavau, Tau, Nassau, and Danger. Islands, the best one on which to land, it may be useful to state the totalities of. the eclipse in these islands. From the calculation of the phases obtained by the Besselian method, and with the data of the ‘‘ American Ephemeris,’’ I have found the following values :— m. s. Vavau (arch. cf Tonga) ... Totality=3 36°6 Tau (arch. of Samoa) oe ee 3) | S2ens50 Danger (arch. of Union) ... Bod et) eee! “Nassau ( As Wierase as 5) = 409 The geographical coordinates of these islands, adopted in the calculations, are respectively :— Islands A C) Vavau Se ado t 173 59°0 —18 39 (o) Tau as «. —169 32:0 —14 13°5 Danger — 165 45'0 —10 530 Nassau —165 25°0 —II 33'0 Rome, July 29. Pio EMANUELLI. Mars in 1909 as seen at the Lowell Observatory. THE accompanying prints are photographs of the globe of Mars, representing the details seen on the planet at the Lowell Observatory at the last opposition in 1909. These maps demonstrate strikingly the development of the canals from the melting cap, shown by the number of canals visible in the southern hemisphere at the time, especially about the south pole, and by the absence of canals in the northern one, notably in the neighbourhood of the north polar cap. The canals numbered 659 or 660 are the two great new canals, of which the account has already been published, and of which the size enabled the advent to be established with certainty. Several other examples of fresh origina- tion are to be seen on the charts, about which the evidence is hardly less conclusive. The white patches at some distance from the south pole AUGUST II, I9I0 NATURE Ie iJ mark the first frost of the autumn in the planet’s southern The number of the latter photographed at Flagstaff since hemisphere. These patches were photographed, as were 1905 is between fifty and one hundred. z : also many of the canals. Boston, U.S.A., July 22. PercivaL LOWELL South Pole A= 180". Lowell Observatory Photographs of Mars in 1gog. A=270°. NO. 2128, VOL. 84] 174 Treatment of Storage Cells. In the ‘‘ Notes”? of Nature for July 28 (p. 118) refer- ence is made to an article on the renewal of sulphated storage cells by Mr. J. O. Hamilton. Readers of NaTURE may be interested in a method of treatment I have employed for a number of years, which has given most satisfactory results. A strong (30-40 per cent.) solution of crude, commercial sodium hydroxide solution is prepared in a large iron pot and is heated to boiling. The accumulator plates, previously washed thoroughly for several days in running water, are dipped into the boiling soda solution and allowed to remain for a period of from five to fifteen minutes, depending on the extent to which “‘ sulphating ” has taken place. They are then removed and washed for several days in fresh water, after which they are placed in the jars with fresh sulphuric acid solution and thoroughly charged. NATURE [AUGUST II, 1910 YELLOW JACK AND THE WEST INDIES. HIS is a popularly written book, giving an account of the health of the West Indies of to-day, as compared with one hundred years ago. The motto on the title-page is ‘“‘Wear a smile on your face, and a flower in your buttonhole,” and, in accordance with this, the note of the book throughout is cheerful and optimistic. The book is the outcome of a visit paid by the author, at the request of the Colonial Office, to Barbados in March, 1909, to report on an outbreak of yellow fever which threatened the colony at that time. After spending a month in Barbados, a flying visit was paid to Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Trinidad, and British Guiana, in order to study and compare the health conditions of these colonies with This treatment can be applied to any cells which have not under- gone structural disinte- gration, and when properly carried out restores the cell to its full normal capacity. I have used it with complete success for treating a set of six large portable accumu- lators which had stood uncharged for nearly five years, during which period almost all the water had evaporated from the electrolyte, and the greater part of the sulphuric acid had combined with the plates. It is also a very effective remedy when applied to cells which show local action and continuously evolve gasi from the plates after charging, with a corre- sponding more or less rapid loss of charge on standing. In treating such cells a more dilute pier et solution (20 per cent.) of “ Riek cs sodium hydroxide can be |~ pes) sal used. ant an I have never found a cell too completely ‘sulphated’’ to be restored by this treatment. Bertram B. Bottwoop. Munich, Germany, August 7. The Sheffield Meeting of the British Association. May I ask the favour of your columns to bring to the notice of intending visitors to the meeting of the British Association in Sheffield the fact that, at the reception to be given to the sociation by the Duke of Norfolk, the Chancellor of Sheffield University, on Tuesday evening, September 6, exhibits are being arranged of new experi- ments, apparatus, specimens, &c., of scientific interest? The committee of the University formed to make arrange- ments for the exhibition will be glad to hear from any members of the association or others who have any exhibits which they can show on this occasion. The committee will welcome cooperation, and will give every facility for demonstrations. SS R. MILner. (Secretary to the Committee.) University, Sheffield, August 8. NO. 2128, VOL. 84] The PR ay From “ Health Progress and Administration in the West Indies.’ those of Barbados. Further, in a series of appen- dices, the health progress of Martinique, Guadeloupe, Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and British Honduras is summarised. The diseases mostly dealt with are yellow fever, malaria, filaria, plague, and ankylostoma. The medi- cal organisation of the different islands to improve sanitary conditions, to destroy mosquitoes, to prevent the introduction of disease, and to stamp out existing diseases, is discussed at length. A large part of the book is given up to the various health ordinances and sanitary by-laws issued by the various Governments. From this it will be seen that the scope of the book is wide. It is illustrated by many fine reproductions of photographs of places and scenery in the West Indies; also by plans of the towns visited, giving the distribution of mosquitoes and the diseases due to them. There is an excellent coloured map of the region in question. 1 “Health Progress and Administration in the West Indies." By Sir Rubert W. Boyce, F.R.S, Pp. xv+328. (London: John Murray, 1910.) Price tos. 6d. net. AUGUST II, 1910] NATURE 175 The first chapters are devoted to an_ historical account of the health conditions of the West Indies at the beginning of the nineteenth century. These are rather hastily and loosely written, but suffice to show that at that time these islands were veritable death-traps. It was the newcomer who was attacked, and no one felt safe until he had at least passed through an attack of yellow fever, and so become, as the saying was, acclimatised. Now, by the introduc- tion of drainage, pipe-borne water supply, the destruc- tion of mosquito breeding-places, and general sanita- tion, these diseases have almost disappeared, and the islands are becoming the sanatoria nature surely intended them to be. larging dominion over that unlovely domain of nature —disease. There are some signs, as mentioned above, of haste in the production of the book, especially in the second chapter. For example, a table is given on p. 8 which is meant to show that the newly-arrived seaman was frequently attacked, but no figures are given of the total number of seamen dealt with. Again, on p- 16, the following sentence occurs :—‘‘ From 1817 to 1836, in the garrisons in Jamaica, amounting at that time to 2578 men, the deaths from intermittent and re- mittent fevers rose to 258 men.”’ This probably means a yearly rate, but it is not so stated. Other awkward sentences are :—‘‘Swooped down on every ship, war vessel, and merchantman.’’ ‘ These Fic. 2.—Large Concrete Drain, Port of Spain, Trinidad. b tration in the West Indies.” Truly, according to Sir Rubert, the victories of modern medicine over tropical diseases in the West Indies during the last few years have been marvel- lous. Owing to the discovery of the cause, and the fact of it being water-borne, cholera is now unknown. Malaria has given up its secrets, and it is now merely a matter of putting the knowledge gained into prac- tice to stamp out that scourge of the Antilles. Yellow fever, which a hundred years ago blotted out whole regiments, is now relegated to the place of a patho- logical curiosity. Ankylostoma disease, one of the most potent destroyers of health and energy in the tropics, is now understood, and can be coped with. Prof. Boyce’s book is full of instances of man’s en- NO. 2128, VOL. 84] From ‘‘ Health Progress and Adminis- were the days which tried the nerve and endurance of our fathers and grandparents, or at least those of them who survived the deadly disease of not so long ago.’’ ‘In fact, the entomological equipment of Trinidad is exceedingly good and is bearing excellent fruit.” ‘So as to reap at once the advantages which must accrue.”’ “In ten out of the fifteen vards., larvae were found in the barrels, and the barrels nearly always contained larve.”’ ; ; To conclude, this book, by bringing together and presenting. in an easy form the efforts now *being made by the various Governments in the West Indies towards the improvement of the health of their respective islands, and the brilliant results which have already rewarded their labours, will be of great use to all officials whose duty it is to look after the health and well-being of tropical popula- tions. THE VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF CHESHIRE.* HERE are few counties in Eng- land which present a variety of natural features so favourable to a varied fauna as does Cheshire. It possesses undulating plains; heather- clad or wooded hills of considerable altitude; mumerous rivers, meres, lakes, and ‘‘ flashes ’’; tree-clad vales; forest, woods, plantations, and shrub- beries; marshes and remnants of mosses, besides considerable estuar- ine frontages and half the broad “Sands o’ Dee.’”’ The county is freer from manufactories, with their de- structive smoke and fumes, and has less of its area under the plough than most of its neighbours. It is chiefly given up to sheep and dairy farming, necessitating extensive grasslands, and to large market gardens and nurseries, which are, on the whole, friendly to the increase of certain classes of animal life. Still, with all these advantages, the vertebrate fauna of Cheshire is not so rich as one might expect, nor so rich, indeed, as it once was. 1 ‘‘ The Vertebrate Fauna of Cheshire and Liverpool Bay.” Edited by T. A. Coward. In two volumes. Vol. i, The Mammals and Birds of Cheshire. By T. A. Coward and C. Oldham. Pp. xxxiit+472; with illus- trations from photographs by Thomas Baddeley. Vol. ii., The Dee as a Wildfowl Resort. By John A. Dockray. ‘The Reptiles and Amphibians of Cheshire. By T. A. Coward and C. Oldham. The Fishes of Cheshire and Liverpool Bay. By James Johnstone. Pp. xl+210; with illustrations from photographs by Thomas Baddeley. (London: Witherby and Co., 19t0.) Price 26s. net the 2 vols. 176 NATURE [| AUGUST 11, 1910 ‘During the last half-century farming has greatly improved . . . old hedgerows have been grubbed up and replaced, and waste lands and mosses have been reclaimed and cultivated; changes no doubt advan- tageous to the common weal, but deplorable when viewed from the st: indpoint of the naturalist.’ That is, the increase of population and the move- ment and disturbance of nature due thereto, and the incessant hustling by civilisation, are in Cheshire, as everywhere else, tending to ‘“‘move on"’ every form of life. Although the cover bears the title of ‘‘ Fauna of Cheshire,’’ these volumes deal only with the vertebrates of the county. The editor, Mr. Coward, and his co- contributor-in-chief, Mr. Oldham, are responsible for the greater part of the fauna. Both are well known for the attention they have long devoted to the natural history of Cheshire, and theirs are, consequently, the right and proper names to appear on the title-page. | | first. The map, which, under the present arrange ment of the book, is relegated to the second volume, where it is very inconvenient, would have then been found in the volume the contents of which necessitate its more frequent consultation. The portrait of J. Fell, Esa., the estimable former chairman of the Lancashire Sea Fisheries, seems dragged into a work dealing exclusively with Cheshire, especially as he ceased to occupy that position in 1894, and his name does not, apparently, occur in the book. Following a short introduction, in which the extinet and fossil species of the county are enumerated, full descriptive notices are given of each of the forty-six mammals which “‘ occur or have occurred within recent years in Cheshire and its territorial waters.” We read that the Scotch white hare which was introduced into Yorkshire has spread largely into Cheshire, and it will be interesting to watch ‘how the rodent will be affected by this change to a locality where the warmer Somerford Cattle. seems to us, however, to go considerably legitimate limits of the county in including in it the marine fishes within a line ‘‘ from the Great Orme’s Head in Carnarvonshire to Formby Point in Lancashire.’’ We believe that the editor would have been well advised if he had restricted his observations to the land, fresh-water, and estuarine life, and thus rendered a second volume unnecessary, which would have been a great advantage in many ways. By omitting such quite unnecessary matter as the Wild Birds’ Protection Act, set out verbatim at the expense of more than six pages; by judiciously squeez- The work beyond the ing the migration section; circumspectly condensing he interesting yet some whi ut disproportionately long ecount of Dee as a wildfowl resort, and excising the titions in the bibliography, room could have been ide for the contents of the second volume within the NO. 2128, VOL. 84] epe From ‘‘ ‘The Vertebrate Fauna of Cheshire and Liverpool Bay.’ Edited by T. A. Coward climate disperses the snow before the time for chang- ing its protective winter-coat arrives. An interesting résumé, chiefly from the British Association report on the subject in 1887, is given of the herd of white cattle at Somerford Park, where it has existed for two centuries, and still consists of twenty-five head, and that now extinct at Lyme Park. As to the birds, the authors admit the title to a place on the list ** during the present and last centuries" of 231 species, of which 112 breed, or ‘‘bred till recently,"’ in the county, and among which the nightingale is included, ‘as there is no doubt that the bird has bred on some, at any rate, of the occasions when it has been observed’; but, as neither eggs nor nestlings have been seen, we may be permitted to continue to doubt the accuracy of the statement until better evidence be forthcoming. With regard to the AUvuGUST II, I9I0| NATURE 177 pose of the kingfisher when hovering over a stream in quest of food, the authors assert that the long axis of its body is placed almost at right angles to the plane of the water. The bird no doubt adopts any attitude which it considers most appropriate to the occasion, but it is not by any means, in the writer’s experience, the usual one, which is to hover hawk-like a score or so of feet above the stream, and like it remain perfectly stationary, just as it is represented in the figure by Harting in his ‘Recreations of a Naturalist,’ reproduced in Narure of May 24, 1906. It is pleasant to read that the great crested grebe, one of our handsomest birds, is more numerous in Cheshire than in any other county, from which we may infer that, temptation notwithstanding, plumassiers’ agents leave it unmolested. It is well known that this bird covers its eggs on leaving the nest during incubation with a mass of rotting and fermenting nesting material, and our authors seem to assent to the suggestion (of Seebohm) that the material is so placed that through the heat thereby generated incubation during the bird’s absence may not be retarded. This idea is rather discounted by the fact that the material used is often neither rotting nor fermenting, and therefore without heat, but consists of fibres of reeds cut off from those within reach of the breeding bird’s beak, and freshly teased out by it. The most remarkable bird in the list is Schlegel’s petrel (Cfstrelata neglecta), a wanderer from the antipodes, found dead in a field near Chester. Whence it arrived and how its dead body came where it was found are unexplained mysteries. Cheshire reckons in its reptilian and amphibian fauna the usual small number of forms common to nearly every other county in the country.. Mr. Johnstone’s introduction to the section of the fishes, extending to thirty-nine pages, enters into many subjects valuable in another relation which seem to us foreign to the subject of this book, and which few would look. for in an inland fauna.. The majority of the fishes enumerated can hardly be claimed as be- longing to Cheshire, which has only a snout of sea- board less than. ten miles in extent, faced, besides, with a sandbank stretching seaward almost as far as the limits of its territorial waters. Of the 107 species enumerated, fifty-five are ‘‘very rare,” and many are included on the; scantiest authority... The list, for instance, opens with the sunfish, “‘once recorded from local waters,” thereby meaning Southport! Other notes are:—‘‘No occurrence of the mature. fish in strictly Cheshire waters’’; ‘‘on Welsh side of Dee” “does not occur in territorial waters of Liverpool Bay.” Then why insert these species?> Those talen “once in Queen’s Channel” and in ‘‘ Crosby Channel" are surely game poached from Lancashire. By what right can species from “off the Mersey banks,” ‘‘off the estuaries,” or ‘mouth of Dee” be ascribed to Cheshire’s ‘‘territorial waters”? And if “drifted eggs”’ of pelagic species detected in water of the bay be sufficient evidence for adding them to the Cheshire fauna, why not include the whole marine fauna of the Irish Sea? This shortcoming, except as we have indicated, detracts little from the unquestion- able value of the major part of Mr. Coward’s book. Messrs. Witherby and Co. are to be highly con- gratulated upon the excellence of the work as a com- mercial product. A special word of praise is also duc to the illustrations, the majority of them separate plates on_ fine- surfaced paper, every one excellent, several of quite charming bits of scenery, all admir- ably photographed and reproduced. By the courtesy of the publishers we are enabled to present ‘‘ Somer- ford Cattle’ as an example. NO. 2128, VoL. 84] ACROSS YUNNAN.* jie the present work the author gives an account of his last journey from the Yangtse to Yunnan-fu, and onward to Haipong and Hong Kong. It is edited by Mrs. Archibald Little, who accompanied him in his travels, and whose personal experiences among the Chinese have been recorded in her published works. The main interest of the volume lies in its bearing upon the great railway just completed, which links up the capital of Yunnan with the French colonial possessions in Cochin-China. The author, in follow- ing the route, points out the engineering difficulties that. had to be overcome in building the line. It traverses a rough, mountainous region, alternating with rivers, low- “lying, malarious swamps, and stony, sterile wastes, places where work had to be sus- pended owing to outbreaks of fever that thinned the ranks of the labourers. The line from Tonking, in a distance of 263 miles, rises 8000 feet to the level of Yunnan-fu, by gradients of 2°51 feet in 100. It was to be opened officially on April I, 1910, and the ‘issue of the book was designed to. be coeval with this event ‘‘as a tribute to Lofty Stone Column, such as are common in Yunnan, and recall Cornish Crosses. Near Chao-tung-fu. From “ Across Yunnan.” ” the French enterprise” on which the author touches so often with warm admiration in his pages. While the project of building a British line of communication to Yunnan-fu from Kunlung ferry remained in abey- ance, M. Dormer, the energetic Governor of Cochin- China, pushed forward his scheme, which was at once passed by the French Chamber in 1905, and carried through with a promptitude deserving of all praise. The completion of this trade-route involves a new factor in the problems of international commercial intercourse with western China, the advantages which may accrue falling at present to France. There are other existing lines of communication with Yunnan, but no railways, as the west river route, by which, after tedious marches, produce reaches Canton and Bets Kong. nek is also that by the Yangtse. Some “Across Yunnan.”” A Journey of Surprises, including an Account of the Ree French meee Line now completed to Yunnan-fu. By Archibald Little. Pp. 164. (London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 3s. net. 178 NATURE [AuGUST II, I910 idea of the difficulties encountered by this route may be gathered from the author’s experiences. Were it possible to construct a railway from Ichang, at the lower entrance of the Yangtse gorges, through to Yunnan-fu, produce would readily find markets at the treaty ports on the lower river. In 1872 the present writer ascended the gorges, and concluded from his survey that it would be impossible to utilise this sec- tion of the river for steam navigation. The late Mr. Archibald Little appeared to have confirmed this view when he made his memorable ascent in 1887. The story of this journey is admirably told, and rendered ail the more attractive by a series of well- chosen photographs. emule DOES THE INDIAN CLIMATE CHANGE?* JNO who has examined carefully the meteor- ological elements of any country, whether they deal with pressure or rainfall, will have noticed that the curves formed by plotting the values for conse- cutive winter or summer seasons, or even for whole years, present a very wavy appearance. A closer inspection of such curves brings out the fact that they are really of a composite nature, and are made up by the superposition of waves of long and short lengths. : Such curves indicate that the meteorological elements not only oscillate, about a mean value, rapidly and to a considerable extent in magnitude, in a short period of time of about three or four years, but that, in addition to these variations, there is another oscillation, or perhaps several others, occur- ring over very much longer periods. It is the presence of the long oscillations which has given rise to the idea that climates are per- manently changing. This is due to the fact that in many cases meteorological observations made in a homogeneous manner do not extend over a sufficiently long period of time to exhibit a complete wave or oscillation, and the conclusion of climate change is drawn incorrectly from the portion of the wave which is indicated. The main difficulty met with in dealing with a long series of observations is that those made in the early days are not so accurate as those made more recently with modern instruments and methods. Thus while the data may show a change in the meteorological elements, such a variation may be purely fictitious, and due to either the instruments, the methods, the observers, or a combination of all three. In the volume under notice attention is directed to the fact that since the year 1894 the monsoon in north-west India has indicated a very marked weak- ness, and the suggestion has been made that a per- manent change in the climate of that region has taken place, due, as some believe, to increased irriga- tion or diminution .in forests. The question of the strength of the monsoons in India is of such great importance to the inhabitants of that country—for it means drought or plenty, according as the monsoon is weak or strong—that Dr. Walker, the director-general of Indian observatories, discusses the subject in considerable detail in this memoir. In the first portion of this work he de- scribes the care he has taken to use only data, ex- tending over a great number of years, which can be thoroughly trusted, the records being obtained from the same stations throughout the whole period Memoirs of the Indian Meteorological Department, vol. xxi., part i. “On the Meteorological Evidence for supposed Changes of Climate in India.” By Dr. Gilbert T. Walker, F.R.S. (Simla, 1910.) NO. 2128, voL. 84] of time considered. Each province is separately dealt with, and the rainfall tabulations and curves begin at the earliest year possible and end at 1908. Without entering into the results from each area, the broad conclusions need here alone be summarised. Thus Dr. Walker states that ‘although there is no proof of any permanent climatic change, there has been a tendency over a large part of north-west and central India for rainfall during the past thirty years (a) to increase to a maximum between 1892 and 1894; (b) to sink to a minimum in 1889; and (c) to improve slowly since that time. Over the remainder of India there do not appear to have been any progressive changes of importance.”’ Dr. Walker, in seeking the causes of this variation, remarks, in the first instance, that (a) and (b) nega- tive any explanation which has irrigation as a basis, and that as the destruction of the forests on a large scale ceased about twenty years ago, the expected improvement in the rainfall during the last fifteen or twenty years does not agree with the actual facts. Failing local causes for variation, he shows that the true explanation is to be found in the extra- Indian area. Thus he finds that in the Nile there was a rise to a maximum in 1892 to 1894, followed by a rapid fall to 1899, from which time until 1906 a deficiency has prevailed, while in 1908 a very great improvement occurred. This comparison shows the close association be- tween the monsoon rainfall and the height of the Nile, and suggests that they are both dependent on the Arabian Sea current. He, however, goes still further afield, and utilises, in a practical manner, some of the results of the investigations which have been made in recent years at the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington. In the researches just mentioned, it was demonstrated that when in any year the pressure over South America was in excess, that over India was deficient, and vice versa. As low pressure over India means a good monsoon, and high pressure a weak monsoon, the close meteorological relationship between these two very distant countries becomes of great import- ance, Dr. Walker states :— “Further, it is an established fact that the monsoon rainfall in India tends to be abundant when pressure is high in the Argentine Republic and Chili, and low in the Indian Ocean : it shows a fairly close correspondence, there- fore, with the excess of pressure in South America above the pressure at Mauritius.”’ Using the data for these countries, he shows that the favourable character of the extra-Indian condi- tions rose to a maximum in 1892, fell to a minimum in 1899, and has on the whole recovered since that time. Thus he writes :— ‘“ There are valid reasons, therefore, for regarding these extra-Indian conditions as having largely determined the general character of the Indian rains.” The discussion of the question as to whether the climate of India changes leads him finally to the following inferences :— (a) “‘The recent deficiency of monsoon rainfall in a large part of central and north-western India must be attributed to something abnormal in the larger movements of the atmosphere and not to human agency in India; (b) the deficiency has not lasted long enough to justify the conclusion that there has been a permanent change of climate; and (c) there are marked indications of a return to good seasons.”’ Witiram J. S. Lockyer. AuGusT II, Ig1o] NOTES. Tue Physical Society of London announces that the Montefiore Electrotechnic Institute at Liége has instituted a *‘ George Montefiore Levi’’ prize, which will be awarded every three years, the first award being in 1911. The value of the prize in 1911 will be 20,000 francs (Sool.). It will be awarded for the best original work presented upon the scientific advance and on the progress of technical applications of electricity in every field. Popular works and simple compilations will be excluded. Works must be in English or French. The jury will consist of ten elec- trical engineers, five being Belgian and five from other countries. The latest date for receipt is March 31, 1911. Further particulars are obtainable from the secretary, Association des Ingénieurs Electriciens sortis de 1’Institut Electrotechnique Montefiore, rue Saint Giles 31, Liége. Tue Morning Post of August 9 gives prominence to an account of experiments made by Mr. Armbrecht, of Duke Street, on the change of colour of sapphires and other precious stones by the action of radium. The observations are interesting, but the results obtained are by no means new. Nearly three years ago Prof. F. Bordas read before the Paris Academy of Sciences a series of papers in which he described investigations of the effect of radium and other rays upon various forms of crystallised alumina from clear sapphire to brown and opaque corundum and other precious stones. Colourless corundum was trans- formed into topaz by the action of radium bromide; the depth of colour of natural topazes was increased, and a similar effect was produced with faintly coloured rubies. Short abstracts of Prof. Borda’s papers will be found in the seventy-seventh volume of Nature, November, 1908, to April, 1908. Tue tenth International Geographical Congress is to be held in Rome during the week beginning October 15, 1o1r. The congress will be under the patronage of the King of Italy. An organising committee of a representative character is already at work under the presidency of the Marquis Raffaele Cappelli, president of the Italian Geo- graphical Society. Commander Giovanni Roncagli, secre- tary of the Italian Geographical Society, is acting as general secretary of the committee. The work of the congress will be carried on in eight sections, namely :— (1) mathematical geography; (2) physical geography ; (3) biogeography ; (4) anthropogeography and ethnography ; (5) economic geography; (6) chorography; (7) historical geography and history of geography; (8) methodology and didactics. WE are glad to notice that the useful work of the extension section of the Manchester Microscopical Society is to be continued during the coming winter session. The purpose of this section is to bring scientific knowledge, in a popular form, before societies unable to pay large fees for lectures. In some cases a small fee is charged, but all money thus obtained is devoted to the expenses of the section. The work of lecturing and demonstrating is entirely voluntary and gratuitous on the part of the members of the society. The list of lectures from which secretaries of societies may choose includes some sixty-one subjects and the names of seventeen lecturers. Application for lectures should be made to the honorary secretary of the section, Mr. R. Howarth, 90 George Street, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, who will send a list of the lectures on application. y Mr. Oscar Guttmann, whose death occurred in Brussels last week from injuries received in a taxi-cab collision, NO. 2128, vot. 84] NATURE L79 was known both as a consulting engineer and a technical chemist. He took frequent part in discussions upon chemical and manufacturing topics at the meetings of the Society of Chemical Industry, and contributed occasional papers. The titles of some of these—e.g. ‘‘ Novelties in the Explosives Industry,’”’ “‘ The Manufacture of Smoke- less Powder,’’ and ‘‘The Chemical Stability of Nitro- compound Explosives ’’—illustrate the fact that Mr. Gutt- mann was an authority upon explosives. Other contribu- tions dealt with the manufacture of sulphuric and nitric acids, and the author was the patentee of several devices for use in this and other industrial operations. In an interest- ing note upon the oldest document in the history of gun- powder, Mr. Guttmann directs attention to the use of this explosive as described in an illuminated MS., ‘“‘ De Officiis Regum,”’ contained in the library of Christ Church, Oxford; and papers upon the early phases and progress of the sulphuric-acid industry also indicate that he was interested in the historical aspects as well as the practice of his professions. As an engineer, Mr. Guttmann had been charged with the design and construction of many large chemical and explosives works at home and abroad. His experience in the two branches of his calling was probably unique, and well qualified him to speak, as he did in an address delivered some three years ago, upon “The Works Chemist as Engineer.’’ Mr. Guttmann was born in 1855, and became naturalised here in 1894. He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Chemical Society, a Fellow and sometime vice-president of the Institute of Chemistry, and a member of the council of the Society of Chemical Industry. At the time of his death he was acting as one of the British jurors at the Brussels Exhibition. TuE arrangements for Section H (Anthropology) at the forthcoming meeting of the British Association have just been communicated to us. The preliminary programmes of other sections were stated in Nature of July 28. In general ethnography, Mr. E. Torday will describe in Section H some of the tribes encountered in his recent exploration of the Congo area; Mr. Beech will deal with the Sok, of whose language he has made a special study during his residence in Africa; Mr. A. K. Newman, of Wellington, New Zealand, will discuss the origin and racial affinities of the Maori; and Miss Fletcher, of Washington, in an important communication, will deal with certain points connected with exogamy. Miss Fletcher will also contribute an account of recent developments in the study of anthropology in American universities. The archeology of the Mediterranean area will be dealt with by members of the British School at Athens. Dr. T. Ashby, director of the British School at Rome, will describe his excava- tions at Hagiar Kim and Mnaidra in Malta, and Messrs. Woodward and Ormerod a primitive site in Asia Minor. Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie will give an account of his excavations at Memphis, and Dr. Seligmann will describe a Neolithic site in the Sudan. An important communica- tion by Prof. Elliot Smith, which summarises the results of ten years’ work, will discuss the racial affinities of the Egyptians from the earliest times. Among other archzxo- logical papers may be mentioned an account of the work of the Liverpool Committee for Excavation and Research in Wales, by Prof. R. C. Bosanquet, and a report on recent excavations at Caerwent, by Dr. Ashby; a com- munication from Mr. H. D. Acland will describe pre- historic monuments in the Scilly Isles, and Mr. Alexander Sutherland will give an account of the exploration of a Broch at Watten, Caithness. Friday, September 3, will be devoted to a joint meeting with Section L (Education), 180 NATURE [ AUGUST I1, I910 in which intelligence tests in school children will be dis- cussed. Among those who have promised papers written from ‘the special point of view of the anthropological section are Dr. Lippmann, of Berlin, Dr. C. S. Myers, of Cambridge, Mr. W. Brown, of King’s College, London, Mr. Burt, of the Liverpool Psychological Laboratory, and Mr. J. Gray. Dr. Kerr, medical officer (education) of the London County Council, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, and others will take part in the discussion. In the Long Vacation number of the Oxford and Cam- bridge Review Dr. A. Smythe-Palmer begins an elaborate study of the luck of the horse-shoe, ‘‘ a veritable fetish, maintaining its reputation for magical potency with un- abated influence into the twentieth century.’’ He agrees that the belief in its power is largely based upon the mystical respect for iron, dating from its introduction as an innovation at the close of the Neolithic period; but he also supposes that in shape it is ‘‘ only a rough-and-ready substitute for the old and long venerated symbol of the crescent,’’ the use of which as a protection against the evil eye and other demoniacal influence is illustrated by numerous examples. He postpones to another article the further question of the mode in which the crescent acquired its magical significance. In Travel and Exploration for August Mr. W. J. Clutter- buck publishes an interesting and well-illustrated account of the little known Great Lu-Chu Island, or, as the Japanese, who now occupy it, call it, Okinawa, the most important of the Lu-Chu group. He considers the islanders to be a finer race than their conquerors; the shape of the eye is different, being wide open and seldom oblique at the corners, while the women reminded him of southern Europeans. ‘The distinguishing feature of the landscape is the tombs; and at a funeral he noticed the professional female mourners wailing as they marched along enveloped in sackcloth bags, the intention obviously being to conceal them, and thus avoid the unwelcome attentions of the ghost. The corpse is deposited in a tomb for three years, after which the bones are removed, washed, and placed in a highly ornamented earthenware urn, which has a curious resemblance to the house-shaped funeral urns found in other parts of the world, the intention in all cases being to provide a home for the spirit resembling that which the deceased occupied in this life. Naturen for July and August (Nos. 7 and 8 of vol. xxxiv.) contains a well-illustrated account of the recent eruption of Etna, by Mr. A. Hoel. WeE have to acknowledge the receipt of vol. xxxiii., No. 1, of Notes from the Leyden Museum, which, in addition to other articles, contains a continuation, illus- trated by two coloured plates, of Mr. C. J. H. Biermann’s account of the Homoptera of the Dutch East Indies. THE amphipod crustaceans of Bermuda and the West Indies, according to a memoir of 115 pages by Dr. W. B. Kunkel, published in vol. xvi. of the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, have apparently received but scant attention at the hands of naturalists. Recent collecting in Bermuda—by Prof. Verrill and others —has enabled the author to put matters on a very different footing. The most striking peculiarity of the amphipod fauna of Bermuda is its close affinity to that of the Mediterranean. Of forty-five Bermuda species, nineteen, or possibly twenty, are common to the Mediterranean. Eighteen out of the forty-five are peculiar to Bermuda, and only seven which are not endemic are unknown in the Mediterranean. In contrast to this abundance of European NO. 2128, VOL. 84] types, the presence of only nine species common to South and Central America is remarkable, especially in view of the fact that 93 per cent. of Bermuda decapods have been recorded from the West Indies and Florida Keys. ‘ This paucity of forms from Central and South America probably has little significance, however, and is due simply to the small amount of collecting of Crustacea from these waters.”’ Tue difficult, if not indeed unanswerable, question as to the limitations of species and races is again raised by Mr. G. Dalgliesh in the case of the yellow-necked field-mouse. In this instance the writer maintains that this mouse ought to be regarded as specifically distinct from the ordinary long-tailed field-mouse (Mus sylvaticus) under the name of M. flavicollis, basing his arguments, not only on the physical differences between the two forms, but likewise on their distribution and their divergence in habits and disposition. It may be remarked in this connection that naturalists are by no means in accord as to the proper name for the vellow-necked form. Mr. Dalgliesh uses Melchior’s flavicollis ; but in his recently published ‘* Faune des Mammiféres d’Europe’’ Dr. Trouessart regards this term as a synonym of the true sylvaticus, and employs wintoni for the British form. On the other hand, Mr. Millais, as quoted by Mr. Dalgliesh, regards the British yellow-neck as a distinct local form of the Continental flavicollis, under the name of M. f. wintoni. Mr. Pycraft, again, in his ‘‘ Guide to the British Vertebrates in the British Museum (Natural History),’’ alludes to the one form as Apodemus sylvaticus and to the other as A. flavi- collis. The question of species or race is of infinitesimal importance, but the eccentricities in nomenclature are perplexing. Mucu interest attaches to an article by Dr. Felix Oswald in the July number of Science Progress on the area termed by Dr. Sven Hedin the Trans-Himalaya, an area bounded on the north by the chain of lakes first discovered by the explorer Nain Sing, and on the south by the Indus-Tsan-po valleys. Throughout the area the trend of the mountains, as shown by a map, is quite distinct from the north-west and south-east direction of the Himalaya proper, this alone being held sufficient to justify Dr. Hedin’s proposal of the term Trans-Himalaya. There is, however, much more than this, for, in the author’s opinion, the Trans- Himalaya represents.a block of ancient rocks thrown into folds at a very remote epoch, but at the date of the folding of the Tibetan plateau so intractable that they yielded to mountain-making force by first becoming fractured and then uptilted. If this be granted, ‘‘ it follows that the natural continuation of the parallel ranges of the block now lies sunk beneath the Brahmapuitra Valley, at the base of the great fault-scarp, to which the river flows in parallel alignment. Accordingly, this valley must be of the nature of a rift-valley or sunken trench, especially since the opposite (southern) wall of the valley lies parallel to the northern wall, and in like manner possesses an average height of 23,000 feet.’? In conclusion, Dr. Oswald traces a curious parallelism—which he believes to be more than accidental—between the structure of the Arabian-Armenian- Caucasian area on the one hand, and the Indian, Tian Shan, and Siberian region on the other, each having an anterior and posterior table-land separated by three systems of ‘* waves.”” Tue ninety-fifth volume of the Zeitschrift fiir wissen- schaftliche Zoologie is completed by the number published on June 21. The papers which this volume contains deal, as usual, with a great variety of subjects, from pure AUGUST II, 1910] NATURE 181 descriptive anatomy, as in the case of the elaborate memoir by Albert Bauer on the musculature of the water-beetle, Dytiscus marginalis, to the most minute investigations in cytology and protozoology. Heinrich Stauffacher’s ‘“‘ Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Kernstrukturen ” affords a beautiful example of the results to be obtained by modern cytological methods. Its chief interest, perhaps, lies in the demonstration of ‘‘ nuclear bridges ’’ (Kernbriicken) in the form of threads which connect the protoplasm of the nucleus with that of the cell body. W. Knoll, in the next memoir, deals critically with the question of the existence of such connections between karyoplasm and cytoplasm, and demonstrates their existence in the leucocytes of the human body. Amongst the other papers we have only space to mention the first part of C. Janicki’s studies on parasitic flagellates, dealing with two species of Lopho- monas found in the cockroach. The application of modern technique to the investigation of the Protozoa, as we hardly need point out, marks the commencement of a new era in the study of these organisms, revealing complexities of structure previously unsuspected, as the plates illustrating the remarkable genus dealt with by Janicki abundantly testify. Ix the Bio-chemical Journal for June (vol. v., No. 4) Prof. Benjamin Moore and Dr. Stenhouse Williams detail experiments on the effect of an increased percentage of oxygen on the vitality and growth of bacteria. Of twenty- six organisms tested, two may be termed oxyphobic. These are the tubercle bacillus, which is not only arrested in growth, but is actually killed by a high percentage of oxygen, and the plague bacillus, which, though not killed, uniformly refused to grow in percentages of oxygen from 60 to gt. The staphylococcic group was also adversely affected, _ but the remainder, including the typhoid, dysentery, glanders, diphtheria, anthrax, and cholera organisms, was unaffected. In the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for July (xxi., No. 232) Dr. John L. Todd contributes an excellent review of the recent advances in our knowledge of tropical diseases. He summarises the most striking additions to our knowledge of tropical medicine during 1909 as being (1) the discovery of infantile kala-azar in northern Africa; (2) the discovery of a new human trypanosome in South America; (3) the researches which have made it almost certain that the parasite of sleeping sickness undergoes a developmental cycle in the tsetse-fly which conveys it; and (4) the transmission of typhus fever to monkeys by the bites of body lice. IMPORTANT ‘information with regard to the thyroid body and related structures is supplied in a paper by Mr. F. D. Thompson, just published in the Phil. Trans. A thyroid, thymus, and post-branchial body are developed in the gill- slits of elasmobranch fishes; but parathyroid and carotid glandules have not been observed. In teleostomous fishes, on the other hand, the only organs of this nature are the thyroid and thymus; but parathyroids make their appear- ance in amphibians and reptiles, in the former of which the post-branchial body is retained. In these groups the structure of the various glands of the thyroid type differs considerably ; but in mammals such structural differences tend to disappear, and in certain circumstances the para- thyroids may develop colloid vesicles, and thus become prac- tically identical with the thyroid. The thyroid and para- thyroids may accordingly be regarded as structures of diverse embryological origin, which remain distinct in lower vertebrates, but in mammals become intimately related and constitute a single apparatus. NO. 2128, VOL. 84] So closely are fungi and bacteria often associated in their destructive action on plant tissues, that it is extremely difficult to determine which organism is taking the lead. Some botanists, including De Bary, MHartig, and A. Fischer, have expressed themselves very sceptical as to the possibility of bacteria penetrating living plant tissues ; others, notably E. F. Smith in the United States and « Prof. M. C. Potter, have offered results of experiments as proof that bacteria do pass into the living plant and pene- trate through cell walls. The subject is fairly discussed by Prof. Potter in his presidential address delivered before the British Mycological Society, and published in their Transactions. In addition to other arguments, the author refers to his experiments upon the white rot of turnips, when the bacterium Pseudomonas destructans was not only isolated and re-inoculated on the host, but it was demonstrated that oxalic acid was produced by the bacterium, which acts as a toxin in plasmolysing and killing the protoplasm; he also states that subsequently penetration of the cell wall by bacteria was observed. WE have received from Mr. E. Reinders a copy of his paper on the ‘‘ Sap-raising Forces in Living Wood,” read before the Royal Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam, January 29. After a short discussion of the avail- able evidence on the problem of the ascent of water in trees, he gives an account of his own experiments. His results are of interest, as supporting the view that water is raised by a pumping action of the living elements of the wood (a theory generally connected with the name of Godlewski), and the detailed description of Mr. Reinders’s work will be expected with interest. Mr. Reinders proceeds from the fact ‘that manometers placed at different heights up the trunk behave quite in- dependently of one another. Sometimes one shows a lower sometimes the other.’? This irregularity is assumed by Reinders to be due to the pumping action of the living elements in the wood, and he proceeds to test his: view by killing the stem either by steam or by an induction shock. .He found that ‘‘as soon as the trunk was dead the difference of pressure followed the same rule as would be expected to apply to a glass tube.’’ In one striking case the stem was not killed, but so seriously injured that five days elapsed before the behaviour of the manometers became once more ‘‘ as irregular as in living It should be added that Mr. Reinders assumes that in dead trunks which can no longer act as pumps, water ascends ‘‘ through other causes, e.g. with the help of cohesion.”’ pressure, ee) trees. Ix the June number of the Agricultural Journal of the Cape of Good Hope is an article on the dried fruit and raisin industry recently established in Cape Colony. Although no great amount of produce has yet been raised it appears that the local conditions are suitable for success, and when certain improvements are effected there is the prospect of supplying the needs of the colony and even perhaps of establishing an export trade. We have received from the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station several ‘* Research Bulle- tins ’’ devoted to subjects of scientific interest. A study was made of the physiological effect on the cow of the milking machine which is now threatening to supplant the cowman and the milixmaid. No bad effects on the general health of the animal or the state of the udder could be found, and for an ordinary dairy herd the machine worked very well. Whether it would give equal results in a high- class herd is not certain; but here the economic problem is 182 NATURE [AuGUsT II, I910 rather different. There still remain, however, a number of details in which improvements must be effected before the machine can be widely used. In another bulletin a descrip- tion is given of an organism producing acidity in milk which appears to be closely related to B. bulgaricus, the charac- teristic organism of Yogurt, and to be widely distributed. Messrs. Hart, McCullum, and Humphrey continue their work on the functions of the mineral constituents of foods on metabolism in the animal, and show that the skeletal tissues can, if necessary, make good any deficiency of calcium and phosphorus in the ration. A low phosphorus intake was accompanied by a high calcium output in the urine. THE use of more exact statistical methods in the investi- gation of agricultural problems has already led to interest- ing results, and is likely to prove of great benefit. Mr. Vigor recently discussed the relation between the reduction in area of wheat in England and the increased yield; his paper is published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (part iv.). The reduction of the wheat area has been accompanied by a rise of the yield per acre in England as a whole, and improvements of the yield often appear to be greatest in those countries where the proportionate reductions of area have been greatest. Counties of low yields do not, however, appear to haye been specially selected for a reduction of area. The yields of the various counties have shown a slight tendency to level up. By applying somewhat similar methods, H. Arctowski has, in Bulletin No. 7 of the American Geographical Society, mapped out the variations in the harvest in the United States during the decade 1891-1900. In general, very bad years in one region of the globe are years of excellent yield in another region, but the centres of compensation are not always found in the same regions nor is the compensation always exact; otherwise the supply would be constant. Tue Scotch Education Department has issued in con- nection with the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, two useful guide-books, ‘‘ An Introduction to Petrography and Guide to the Collections of Rocks,’’ published in 1909, and “* A Guide to the Scottish Mineral Collection,’’ published in 1910. Both are from the pen of Dr. S. J. Shand, who is in charge of the geological department of the museum, and both are sold for the modest sum of one penny. The guides have been specially compiled from the point of view of Scottish minerals and rocks, and are written in simple and, so far as possible, untechnical language, so as to appeal to the ordinary visitor unversed in these subjects. A few pages of the rock guide are devoted to a descrip- tion of the collection of rocks of the Christiania district, which has, owing to Prof. Brégger’s exhaustive studies, become classical in the science of petrology. Copious indices add to the usefulness of the books. Tue Tanami goldfield in Central Australia was discovered in the year 1900, but its development has been delayed by the scarcity of water and its situation in a remote part of the continent on the eastern frontier of Westralia. The general geographical and geological conditions of the gold- field are described in a short report by Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, the Government geologist of South Australia. (Government Geologist’s Report on the Tanami Gold Country, Northern Territory of South Australia. Pp. 12; three maps. Adelaide: 1909.) Mr. Brown shows that the oldest rocks of the district belong to a series of slates, quartzites, and schists which, though pre- Cambrian, are stratified sediments. They have been in- vaded by plutonic rocks, including diorite and felsite, and No. 2128, VoL. 84] covered by a series of limestones and dolomites, which he identifies as Lower Cambrian, and by quartzites, sand- stones, and boulder beds, which he regards as probably Permo-carboniferous. There are widespread volcanic rocks, mainly basalts and voleanic ashes, which Mr. Brown assigns to eruptions ranging from Mesozoic to Cainozoic. His description of extinct craters suggests that some of the eruptions are of recent age. The gold occurs in lodes numerous in the pre-Cambrian sediments near the junction with the intrusive diorites, and also in ‘‘ lode formations ”” in the igneous rocks. The mines are at present little more than prospecting shafts. The gold in the quartz is coarse, and where it occurs in the altered igneous rocks it is finely diffused. The widespread limestones and basalts produce a rich soil, and if adequate water can be obtained, the dis- trict will be valuable for pastoral purposes, while Mr. Brown regards the gold discoveries as promising and important. In a short article in the Physikalische Zeitschrift for August 1, Messrs. R. A. Houstoun and J. Logie direct attention to the fact that aqueous solutions of ferrous ammonium sulphate form a good filter for stopping heat rays. Alum solutions are, it is now known, no better than water in this respect. A glass cell, of inside thick- ness 3 cm., filled with a solution of ferrous ammonium sulphate, transmitted 75 per cent. of the light and 5-1 per cent. of the total radiation from a carbon glow-lamp; when filled with water it transmitted 90 per cent. of the light and 11-1 per cent. of the total radiation. The light, it should be stated, forms about 3 per cent. of the total radiation. Tue Physikalische Zeitschrift reproduces in its number for July 15 a communication made recently by Dr. F. Ehrenhaft to the Academy of Sciences of Vienna on an ultra-microscopic method of measuring the electric charges carried by small particles. The particles investigated were of the noble metals, and were produced by means of an electric arc between electrodes of the metal concerned. The air containing the particles in suspension was drawn into an ebonite enclosure in front of the objective of a Zeiss ultra-microscope placed with its axis horizontal, and illuminated from the side in the usual way. The enclosure contained the plates of a small condenser the axis of which was adjusted to be vertical. With the condenser un- charged, the time of fall of a particle through a measured distance in the field of view was observed; the condenser was then charged in such a direction that the particle ascended, and its speed again observed. Finally, the con- denser was short-circuited, and the speed of fall again determined. Assuming that Stokes’s formula for the resist- ance to the motion of a sphere in a viscous fluid holds for the particles investigated, the magnitudes of the electric charges carried by the particles come out smaller than 1x10-!° electrostatic units, a conclusion which does not accord with the view so generally held at present that the “atom ’’ of electricity is 4-6x10—"° electrostatic units. Tue ‘‘ Metzograph Grained Screen”’ takes the place of the ordinary cross-lined screen in photo-block making, and differs from it in giving an irregular grain and in requiring a shorter exposure. It does not produce its effect by stopping a large proportion of the light, as the cross-lined screen does, but by the lens-like action of the irregularities of its surface. It is produced by obtaining by sublimation a reticulated film on the surface of a glass plate, and then etching with hydrofluoric acid, the film acting as a resist. The screen was invented by Mr. James Wheeler about thirteen years ago, and as the little differences in its AUvuGUST II, 1910] manipulation, as compared with the lined screen, appear to have hindered its adoption in those cases where it offers especial advantages, Messrs. Penrose and Co., of 109 Farringdon Road, have just issued a booklet of instruc- tions for its use. The pamphlet includes specimens of each of the ten degrees of fineness, suitable for work from large posters to the finest photogravure. The impressions show what fine results the screen yields, the chief peculiarity being the entire absence of the regular grain that some persons find so objectionable in the usual type of photo- block. Tue report of the senior analyst, Cape of Good Hope Government Laboratories, for the year 1909, contains some interesting reading. About three-fourths of the samples examined (3154 out of 3820) consisted of foodstuffs, beverages, and drugs; these call for no special comment except, perhaps, to question the utility of giving much analytical detail in a publication of this kind. The re- mainder of the samples reflect the character of the country : they are mainly mineral, agricultural, and toxicological articles. Gold assays are the most numerous amongst the mineral analyses, which include also the testing of coals, supposed platiniferous rocks, copper, iron, manganese, and tin ores, and supposed diamonds. Amongst the toxico- jogical cases, one is especially noteworthy. A _ native woman had been poisoned with an indigenous bulb administered by a Kaffir ‘‘ doctor,’’ and it took four months to obtain proof that such bulbs (Haemanthus) could pro- duce the fatal effects in question. This delay was due to lack of knowledge concerning the local poisons, and the senior analyst urges that a research into the properties of the vegetable drugs and poisons of South Africa should be carried out systematically. At present, any such investiga- tions are merely casual and incidental upon legal proceed- ings. The production of barley suitable for brewing purposes, and an investigation into the agricultural soils of the colony, are some of the other topics mentioned in a report which everywhere bears evidence of useful activity. WE learn from the Engineer for August 5 that the first of the large caissons for the new foundations of the Quebec Bridge was launched at the works yard, near the bridge site, on July 8. This particular caisson is for the new north pier, and will be situated clear of the old pier, its centre being 57 feet further out from the shore. The new centre line of the bridge has been decided upon 15 feet west, or upstream, from the old centre, this altera- tion enabling the new superstructure to be 30 feet wider than the old. The new south pier will be 15 feet nearer the river centre, consequently the span will be 1758 feet instead of 1800 feet, as before. The rebuilding of the south pier presents many more difficulties than the north. The new south pier will occupy very nearly the site of the old, necessitating the placing of a caisson at the side of the existing one, and another across the end of the pair. Upon the three a new caisson, 79 feet by 180 feet, will be sunk. It is thought that the latter will be the largest ever constructed for this class of work. A Description of the hydroplane Miranda IV., built by Sir John Thornycroft, appears in Engineering for August 5. This boat is 26 feet long by 6 feet beam, and 2 feet 6 inches deep. In general outline she approaches very much to the shape of an ordinary boat, but the bottom is specially adapted to make her skim at high speeds. This arrange- ment gets over the difficulties of the original type of hydro- plane, for at moderate speeds she goes through the water in a similar manner to an ordinary boat, and the variation of form necessary to make her skim is so small as not NO. 2128, VoL. 84] NATURE 183 materially to affect her performance. When skimming, a small portion of the length amidships carries the weight, the rest of the boat being entirely clear of the water with the exception of a small length aft, which may have enough weight on it to make the boat stable longitudinally. The greater part of the bottom being thus clear of the water, frictional and other resistances are very greatly reduced. It is remarkable how small the disturbance of the water is considering the speed of the boat, which has exceeded 31 knots under somewhat unfavourable condi- tions. If the speed development of hydroplanes is found to follow the same law as that of torpedo boats, a hydro- plane 52 feet long, 10 tons displacement, with a brake- norse-power of 950, should do 45 knots, and a speed of 60 knots might be obtained from a boat 110 feet long. Such development depends on the progress made with petrol motors of large power, and in a matter of this kind it is not wise to be in too great a hurry. Mr. WERNER Laurie will publish shortly ‘‘ The Black Bear,”” by Mr. W. H. Wright, author of ‘ The Grizzly Bear.” Messrs. D. APPLETON AND Company are publishing immediately a new work entitled ‘‘ Up the Orinoco and down the Magdalena,”’ in which Mr. H. J. Mozans relates his travels to South American countries and across the Andes. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. PHOTOGRAPHS OF ‘NEBULH.—Among the recent additions to the Royal Astronomical Society’s collection of celestial objects are three of surpassing excellence taken by Dr. Ritchey with the new 60-inch reflector at Mount Wilson. ‘The objects are the spiral nebula M.51, M. 81, and M. 1o1, and these photographs bring out remarkable details as to. their structure; the spirals of M. 101 are shown as broken up into soft, star-like condensations, like nebulous stars. Dr. Ritchey has made a number of important improve- ments to his camera, and now uses two guiding eye-pieces, one on each side of the centre, in order to allow for any possible slight rotation of the field; a power of 800 is employed in the eye-piece. By using a smaller plate, only 3a inches square, the guiding star comes much nearer the centre of the field, that is, nearer the object under observa- tion. He also has the plate carrier easily detachable, so that it may be taken off, and accurately replaced, every half-hour or so, to allow of re-focussing; this is done by using a knife-edge in the focal plane, and by such fre- quent re-focussing he keeps in the true focal plane within 1 or 13 thousandths of an inch. With an exposure of 7-5 hours, the photograph of M.101 shows practically perfect star images, of which the smallest are only 1-6 seconds of arc in diameter, and Dr. Ritchey states that an exposure of 33 hours on the globular cluster M. 3. shows tens of thousands of star images which are only 1-15 seconds in diameter. Photographs of parts of the Great Andromeda nebula, the Ring nebula in Lyra, and the Crab nebula were also sent, and are strikingly beautiful; much new light is likely to be thrown on the structure of these objects from the careful study of the negatives. A preliminary study shows that while in some (e.g. M.1o1) the spirals are broken up into ‘‘ nebulous stars,’’ in others (e.g. M. 64, Comz Berenices) they are apparently smooth; in M. 101 more than 1000 of these condensations have been counted. In the Andromeda nebula the central parts are apparently regular, with complicated dark rifts, and the spiral extends practically to the nucleus, but the outer branches contain great numbers of the ‘‘ nebulous stars’ (Monthly Notices R.A.S., vol. Ixx., No. 8). Hatrey’s Comet.—The Journal of the Royal Astro- nomical Society of Canada (vol. iv., No. 3) contains re- productions of fifteen photographs of Halley’s comet, taken at the Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, by Mr. Motherwell, during the period May 3 to June g, also reproductions from two photographs taken by Prof. Barnard, at Yerkes, 184 NATURE [AUGUST II, 1910 on May 5, the former of which shows a tail 20 million miles long. Some extraordinary phenomena were observed at Victoria (B.C.) at about 7 p.m. (local M.T.) on May 18. The sun appeared to be in a state of rotation, emitting bright flashes of light at frequent intervals. These were prob- ably unusual refraction phenomena, possibly produced by the interposition of cometary matter, and are recorded by an octogenarian, Mr. Helmcken, who has never seen similar phenomena before. In No. 8, vol. Ixx., of the Monthly Notices there are more than a dozen papers dealing with observations of the comet’s position, its physical characteristics, and its spectrum. The Rivista di Astronomia, No. 6, contains some ancient records of the comet, reproduced by Father Stein, one of which shows that Halley’s comet was observed in Italy for about fifty days in 1066; it became lost in the solar rays on April 19, and reappeared, as an evening star, on April 24. Tue Accurate MEASUREMENT OF PxHotoGRapHs.—In all photographic astronomical researches the results are more or less vitiated by errors introduced by the optical apparatus, including the eye and brain of the observer, employed in their reduction. To eliminate these errors, Prof. E. C. Pickering proposes, in Harvard College Observatory Circular No. 155, the employment of an automatic registering apparatus. Briefly, he suggests that the negative to be measured be passed between a constant illumination and the two balanced arms of a bolometer. As the star image, or spectral line, comes in between the heat source and the bolometer, some heat would be cut off, and the galvanometer in the circuit would show a deviation, which could be registered automatically. The galvanometer curve would thus become a record of the positions and intensities of the star images or the lines in the spectrum, and the method, especially for spectrum work, should certainly be tried by someone having the necessary bolometric apparatus or selenium cells at their disposal. OBSERVATIONS OF PERSEIDS IN 1909.—In No. 31, vol. iii., of the Mitteilungen der Nikolai-Hauptsternwarte su Pulkowo, Herr S. Beljawsky describes the observations of Perseids made at Siméis on August 10, 11, and 12, 1909. The horary rates of the meteors observed on these three dates were 21, 60, and 17 respectively, and the positions of the radiants were 49°, +60° (5 obs.); 45°, +56° (15 obs.); and 43°, +55° (8 obs.), respectively. On August 11 there appeared to be another radiant at 62°, +16°, from which four meteors appeared to emanate, but the determination is uncertain. RESULTS FROM THE MICROMETRIC OBSERVATIONS OF Eros, 1900.—During the opposition of Eros in 1900, a number of observers made micrometric comparisons between the planet and neighbouring stars. The results from a number of observatories have been reduced at Cambridge, and Mr. Hinks now discusses them in No. 8 of the Monthly Notices. The individual results agree generally, and give as the most probable value for the solar parallax 8-806" + 0-004. WILD PLANTS ON WASTE LAND IN LONDON. HE waste ground between Aldwych and the Strand has been colonised by a variety of plants, most of which show luxuriant growth. Many of the colonists have fruits or seeds adapted to wind distribution, as in the case of the winged fruit of .the sorrel (Iwmex acetosa), and of the plumed seeds of the hairy willow herb (Epilobium hirsutum) and French willow, or rose bay (E. angustifolium), by far the most conspicuous plant on the ground. It is of interest that E. angustifolium, which is absent in many of the waste places of London, occurs in the garden of Fountain Court, near the Strand. Among wind-distributed forms are also numerous Composite, the fruits of which are furnished with a pappus; these include the spear thistle (Cirsum lanceolatum), the groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) and its ally S. viscosus, the dandelion (Taraxacem vulgare), the butter bur (Tussilago petastes), and the Canadian flea- NO. 2128, VOL. 84] bane (Erigeron canadense). Fruits and seeds of these various types might be blown with some readiness from neighbouring districts, or from one part of London to another. To a varying extent, wind may be also efficient in carry- ing the seeds of hedge mustard (Sisymbrium officinale), London rocket (S. irio), which appeared in quantity after the Great Fire of 1666, and shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa pastoris); and the same is the case with chickweed (Stelloria media), white campion (Lychius alba), opium poppy (Papaver sommferum), a garden escape, frequently established in waste places, great plantain (Plantago major), pale persicaria (Polygonum lapathifolium), and scentless mayweed (Matricaria inodorata). In several of the above the seed is small or flattened, but it is not elaborately adapted to wind dispersal, and it may be questioned whether wind alone will account for the presence of these plants. A probable auxiliary exists in the sparrow, through the alimentary canal of which various seeds and fruits no doubt pass, and it is not unlikely that others become attached to its feet by means of the sticky London mud. It will be remiembered that Darwin in the “* Origin of Species ’’ describes eighty-two plants as springing from the earth obtained from the feet of a single partridge. This method of distribution no doubt accounts for the presence of Dutch or white clover (Trifolium repens) and of two balsams, the pink-flowered Impatiens glandulifera and a white variety. The explosive fruit characteristic of this genus could certainly not shoot its seeds across the traffic of a London strect. -Possibly cats may be effective as agents of distribution in this case, and they may also account for the presence of cleavers (Galium Aparine), the hooked fruits of which would readily cling to their fur. Among garden escapes, the marigold, nasturtium (=Tropolum), wallflower, and a species of Prunus can be observed, as well as the opium poppy mentioned above; in connection with these, and with many of the wild species also, the neighbourhood of Covent Garden must be re- called. The above list is by no means exhaustive, none of the grasses, for instance, having been mentioned; in one or two cases the identification had to be made from a distance and through the fence surrounding the waste ground. AGRICULTURAL INVESTIGATIONS IN EGY PT.' EVERAL important events are chronicled in the current ‘“Year-book of the Khedivial Agricultural Society.” The scope of the society has recently been extended by the formation of a section dealing with farm animals, the object of which is to effect as much improvement as possible in the livestock of the country. Twenty stallions have already been distributed over the country, a number of selected cows have been acquired from which good stud bulls can in time be sent out, and a herd of buffaloes has been purchased with a view to the establishment of a heavy. milking strain. In addition, an experimental farm of about 160 acres has been acquired near Cairo, and an arrangement has been effected with the State Domains Administration whereby a considerable tract of land is to be set aside for the raising of cotton or wheat seed of good quality. Finally, the society has directed attention to the diminished yield of cotton in proportion to the area sown. A committee was appointed to investigate the matter, and has already issued a report. A considerable proportion of the year-book is taken up by Mr. Lawrence Balls’s studies of Egyptian cotton, A detailed account is given of the results of a single cross made in 190s between Afifi and Truitt Big Boll. The fourth generation is now growing, and, although the cross has no special economic value, and the results are in some ways incomplete, the record is a very valuable one, and throws much light on production of cotton varieties on Mendelian lines. The synthesis of a commercially useful cotton is a tedious business. Desirable characters are mostly dominant over undesirables, except where the 1 The Year-Book of the Khedivial Agricultural Society, Cairo, 1909. Pp. xv+239._ (Glasgow: The University Press, 1910.) The Cairo Scientific Journal. Vol. iv., No. 43. AuGUST 11, 1910] heterozygote is intermediate. Experimental difficulties are considerable. The plants are large, the flowers are not entirely self-fertilised, and some ot the characters fluctuate considerably. Numerous pests attack the plants, including aphides, boll worm, and the cotton stainer bug, while two fungi, the ‘*‘sooty mould’’ and ‘“ sore-shin,’’ do great damage. An advantage, however, is that the cotton plant can be grown as perennial by simply cutting it back; in this way a further supply of seed from a particular plant can always be obtained if necessary. Bees appear to be the chief agents in effecting cross- pollination, and they have to be excluded by mosquito nets covering the whole plant; there appears to be no wind-fertilisation. Before these nets were used, the pre- paration of self-fertilised seed was laborious and uncertain. ‘Lissue-paper bags were employed for separate flowers, but a large proportion of the bagged flowers were shed. Now the operation is simplified. The flowers are castrated at 4 a.m. and cross-pollinated at 9 a.m. No bags are neces- sary if the other open flowers under the net are removed, except, of course, to cover the flower from the plant which is to be employed as the male parent. The results are worked out in detail for a number of unit characters, and are plotted on curves. The data thus obtained are not only interesting in themselves as a study of a Mendelian problem, but are of distinct practical value for the cotton breeder. Mr. Balls also writes on the general position of the cotton crop in Egypt, and gives a number of interesting historical details. It is not certain how or when cotton was first cultivated in Egypt. The old mummy cloths are of flax. Apparently no distinct allusion to cotton occurs until the time of Pliny, and there is nothing to show that cotton was cultivated before 200 b.c. No definite historical account can be given until the time of Jumel, a French engineer who, in the early years of the last century, recognised the possibilities of Egyptian cotton and made plans for extending and improving its cultivation. Importation of Sea Island cotton began in 1822 and went on for many years; Mr. Balls’s view is that the present Egyptian cottons are hybrids between the brown-linted tree types associated with Jumel and Sea Island cotton. He further thinks that, for the future, it is necessary to evolve strains which mature early and are therefore not likely to suffer from the boll-worm, and which yield heavily, so as to compensate for the decreased production per acre which is now setting in. This falling off in productivity makes a very pretty problem unlike any we know of elsewhere. Fifteen years ago the yields ran about 5-5 cantars per feddan; of late years they are only 4-5. There are, of course, many con- ceivable explanations duly set out in the report of the com- mission in the present volume and meriting further examination, but it is suggested that part of the trouble arises from a rise in the subsoil water following on the rise brought about in the Nile by the barrage schemes. On this question Mr. Lucas has something to say in the Cairo Scientific Journal. He tabulates the minimum water-level in certain wells, and shows that in these cases there has been a rise of more than 1 metre since 1894. Other factors have to be taken into consideration, and many further measurements will be required, but the Scientific interest and practical importance of the problem can hardly be overrated. Mr. Hughes gives an account of manurial trials on cotton, and we are pleased to see that he gives full mechanical and chemical analyses of the soils on lines accepted in Great Britain. A considerable amount of trouble is involved, but the results are of much wider value in consequence. Mr. Willcocks describes the insects injurious to stored grains, seeds, &c. In the Cairo Scientific Journal Mr. Fletcher describes an experiment in which maize was grown for ten days in soils heated, re- spectively, to 95° C. and 170° C., and which he considers inconsistent with the work of Russell and Hutchinson. Mr. Fletcher accepts Whitney’s hypothesis that soils con- tain a toxin injurious to plants, but put out of action by heat, an hypothesis much too controversial to be discussed here. No account appears to have been taken of the marked chemical decomposition of soil substances at the high temperature of the experiment. NO. 2128, vot. 84] NATURE 185 SCIENCE IN BENGAL. THE Journal and Proceedings (new series) of the Asiatic Society of Bengal has become a veritable miscellany— a very doubtful improvement upon the old arrangement followed by the Society, of publishing papers on philology and archeology, natural science, and ethnology, in three distinct and independent “‘ parts,’’ and of relegating matters of domestic and colloquial interest to the Proceedings. The latest issues (Nos. 5-11 of vol. iv.) include thirty papers, in which Hindu mythology, numismatics, natural history both of the formal and of the discursive kind, archxology, geography, higher mathematics, lists of Oriental MSS., botany, epigraphy, and Indian history keep the strangest and most bewildering company with frag- ments of chemistry, philology, and geology, and with obituary notices and other domestic records. Many of the papers deal with speculations rather than with matters of verifiable fact, and of these one of the most reasonable and most generally interesting is that by Mr. G. R. Kaye, on the use of the abacus in ancient India. The author examines, and expresses himself far from satished with, the evidence offered in support of the belief that the abacus was used in India in ancient times ; ‘and he is not at all disposed to accept without question the view that the Arabs borrowed their notation, which forms the basis of the science of arithmetic, from the Hindus. The noteworthy papers on natural science are three in number. In one, Dr. N. Annandale describes a recent Himalayan species of a Psychodid fly of the genus Diplo- nema, a genus that ‘‘ appears to have been known hitherto from three Tertiary species which occur in Baltic amber and from one Quaternary form in fossil copal.’’ Another paper, by Mr. P. Bruhl, on recent plant immigrants into Bengal and Bihar, is a laborious compilation of consider- able value, although, as the author includes cultivated plants as well as weeds, the title is a little disappointing ; 234 phanerogams are enumerated and classified according to their systematic position and their land of origin, the result showing that 54-7 per cent. of them have been derived from America. Of these 234 species, however, only thirty-seven are entirely wild, and so are true, un- assisted (or, at any rate, not deliberately introduced) immigrants; all the others are either cultivated or can be traced to cultivation. A third paper, by Colonel Prain and Mr. Burkill, describes seventeen new species of yams from China and neighbouring countries to the south, the descriptions, which are in Latin, being models of clearness and concisencss. The twenty-first instalment of the late Sir George King’s “Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula ”’ is happily distinguished by appearing as an independent ‘“extra number ”’ of the old series of the Society’s journal. It treats of the Gesneracee and Verbenacee. Of the former order, 131 species, distributed in twenty genera, are described by Mr. H. N. Ridley; of the latter order, seventy-two species, belonging to fifteen genera, are dealt with by Mr. J. S. Gamble. We have also received Nos. 5-9 of the second volume of the new Memoirs of this society. : No. 5 of these is a most learned and interesting treatise (which is to be continued) on Mundari poetry, by Father J. Hoffmann. The Mundas are one of the aboriginal tribes of Central India, and a large remnant of them is isolated in the hills of Chota Nagpur. ‘‘ Their world is a narrow circle of villages hidden away in forest-clad mountains . . . and they are quite content to leave... its wonders to such races as may care for them. Their only desire... is to be left alone.’’ They are entirely illiterate, and know nothing about any alphabet. If they did, one would suggest that the sixteenth ode of the second book of Horace might be translated into their language as a good reflection of their views of life; but their own poetry, which is meant to be sung, does not touch the skirts of divine philosophy: it deals with the simplest of perennial themes, such as first love, friendship, maiden vanity, the pleasures of the chase, and the goodness of the good old customs, or, on the other hand, blighted affection, the nangs of hunger, and the terrors of the jungle. According to Father Hoffmann, their simple lyrics 186 NATURE | AUGUST II, 1910 are unrhymed, and have no pronounced rhythm, except such as is imparted by the singer; and they consist for the most part of repetitions of some simple idea, but are saved from monotony by a tricky use of synonym and metaphor. As the vocabulary is limited, the Munda poet uses the utmost freedom in detaching a required word from its associations; for instance, in order to harp upon the idea of the perfume of flowers, the word that in ordinary conversation implies an ancient and fish-like smell may be used as a synonym with perfect propriety. But this poetic licence never breaks the bounds of decorum: “Of the hundreds of songs which, after the day’s work, resound over the whole country, evening after evening, not one is defiled by a lewd expression, or even by an indecent allusion.”’ No. § of these Memoirs is entitled ‘‘ A Monograph of Sea-snakes,’’ and its author would have done better had he considered that in this very fallible world nothing is ever gained by labouring to expose the mistakes—or sup- posed mistakes—of fellow-workers. To read this pre- tentious ‘‘ monograph,’’ one might suppose that the British Museum Catalogue of Snakes, the author of which is per- sistently gleeked and galled at throughout, was hardly worth the paper it is printed on. No doubt there may be errors in the catalogue, as there are in all the works of mortal men; but even were the errors great and manifold— and no one who uses the catalogue considers this to be the case—the work would still stand out as a compre- hensive and critical account of our knowledge of the Ophidia, and a well-arranged storehouse of fact, to which all after-workers must be indebted, whether they choose to acknowledge their debt or not. So that when the author of this monograph states that his ‘‘ views are substantially different from those held by ‘ Professor’ Boulenger ”’ (the distinguished begetter of the British Museum Catalogue), and further solemnly announces that ‘there are dis- crepancies between Mr. Boulenger’s work and mine affect- ing questions of actual fact,’ the most easy-going critic is roused to attention. The shattering ‘‘ discrepancy of fact’’ turns in the main upon the question whether the posterior maxillary teeth of certain sea-snakes are grooved or not. The British Museum Catalogue recognises the genus Hydrophis as distinct from the genus Distira, because in the former genus the posterior maxillary teeth are not grooved as they are in the latter genus; but to the author of this mono- graph, using ‘‘ a new lens of the very highest power and quality specially recommended for this work,’’ it ‘‘ became clearly revealed’? that the posterior maxillary teeth in Hydrophis are ‘‘ all grooved.”’ In any case, the matter is of no very great importance, as every naturalist under- stands that the limits between species and genera are often not very sharply defined; but to test the case we removed the poison-fang and one of the posterior maxillary teeth of a well-preserved and authentic spirit-specimen of Hydrophis latifasciatus, and examined them side by side, not indeed with any ‘‘ patent double million magnifyin’ gas microscopes of hextra power’’ such as Mr. Sam Weller demanded in order to see through a flight of stairs and a deal door, but with an ordinary microscope. In the poison-fang the poison-canal is as plain as a diagram; in the smal] posterior tooth there is no trace whatever of any groove. If, instead of holding up the British Museum Catalogue to reprobation, and adding grievous burdens to termin- ology, the author had given us some facts about the anatomy of sea-snakes, and had summarised what is known about the habits, food, and enemies of these animals, and the nature and mode of action of their venom, his work might have approached the standard of a monograph. As it stands, it is merely what is known as a revision of the subfamily—and an incomplete revision, because, among other things, the several genera are not fully defined, and are not properly referred to their respective authors. We cannot leave these Memoirs without a short refer- ence to No. 9, which contains a “‘ Polyglot List of Birds in Turki, Manchu, and Chinese,’? by Dr. E. D. Ross. The author disclaims any acquaintance with ornithology, and apologises for undertaking such work ‘‘ with nothing but linguistic equipment.’? The paper, which, with indices, ®cecupies more than roo pages, is divided into ‘‘ Part i., NO. 2128, VOL. 84] Large Birds,’’ for which the ‘‘ generic’? name is Qus, and “‘ Section ii., Small Birds,’’ for which the general name is Qucqac; 360 birds are included; some of them are specifically identified, others are identified in a general way, while others are merely treated after the manner of the commentator. An illustration of each of the three methods will show how far this dish of literary minutalia is likely to be of service to an ornithologist. “30. Qu: ? The Cormorant: Manchu, Kotan; Chinese, Tao Ho. The ‘ Mirror’ says: ‘ It somewhat resembles the wild swan and is grey in colour. Its beak is wide and its crop large. into rat-holes, and having thus driven out the rats eats them.’ I am in doubt whether the swan or cormorant is intended here. Qu is the common Turki name for a swan.’’ “179. Agqis Cikdaci: The graculus: Manchu, Cinjiri; Chinese, Liao ko [Giles’s Dict., the blue grackle]. The ‘ Mirror’ says: ‘ Coloura- tion violet; red bealk parting on the top of the head. A skilful singer with a very clear voice.’ ”’ ** 336. Ding-ding Qucqac: A species of wagtail: Manchu, Tukiyeri cecike; Chinese, Yao t’un ch’iao. The ‘Mirror’ says: ‘ Over the eyelids are long ash-coloured feathers looking like eyebrows; short tail; always struts when walking.” Many other fearful wildfowl are exhibited, and all are fitted with tags of comment and reference, some of which call to mind the notes to Thackeray’s delightful paradoy “* Timbuctoo.’’ Chough: Pyrrhocorax AUSTRALIAN AND ARGENTINE BIOLOGY. HE third number of the Memoirs of the National Museum of Melbourrs is devoted to descriptions by Messrs. Baldwin Spencer and J. A. Kershaw of remains of subfossil emeus and marsupials from King Island, Bass Strait, and, in a second paper, to a review of the existing species of wombat. As regards emeus, the authors find that Kangaroo Island, King Island, and Tasmania were severally inhabited by species distinct from Dromaeus novae-hollandiae of the mainland. Both the Kangaroo Island D. peroni (ater) and the King Island D. minor were darker than the mainland bird, the first being dis- tinguished from the second by its less robust build. The Tasmanian emeu, which survived in numbers until at least as late as 1840, is still insufficiently described, but appears to have differed in colour from each of the other three species, and also laid eggs of a distinctive character. With the exception of a Dasyurus, the marsupials from King Island are identified with existing species. Turning -to wombats, the authors state that the first specimen known to Europeans was secured on Clarke Island, Bass Strait, in 1797 (not by Bass), and taken alive to Sydney, this forming the type of Shaw’s Didelphys ursina. All the early examples of wombats came, in fact, from the islands in Bass Strait, and the identification of the Tasmanian animal with the Bass Strait Phascolomys ursinus is shown to be erroneous. In addition to skulls and bones, it appears to be now represented in collections only by a couple of skins recently secured on Flinders Island, where it still survives. The Tasmanian species, for which the authors propose the name P. tasmanicnsis, is intermediate in size between the large mitchelli and the smaller ursinus, but agrees in shape with the forrer; its general colour is grizzled grey, with light hairs inside the ears. In the course of a long paper on the birds of the East Murchison district, published in the April number (vol. ix., part iv.) of the Emu, Mr. F. L. Whitlock gives an account of his discovery of the playing-grounds and nests of the yellow-spotted bower-bird (Chlamydodera guttata), illus- trated by photographs. A peculiar feature of the species is that at the commencement of the breeding season several individuals sometimes resort to the same play-ground, where the adult males make a nuptial display. The dimensions of one play-ground were 7 by 5 feet. The foundation was a mass of twigs, which raised the floor of the inverted arch about 6 or 8 inches above the general level of the ground, the walls of the arch being some It fills its crop with water which it pours AUGUST 11, 1910] NATURE 187 18 inches in height and 6 inches in thickness, while the total length of the intervening run was approximately 25 inches. In this run were placed thirteen flakes of lime- stone, together with about the same number of small green pods and a few beans, but no feathers or shells. The nests, which were built of twigs and placed in casuarina trees near the run, each contained a pair of heavily scribbled eggs. For several years past Messrs. Baldwin Spencer and J. J. Fletcher have been studying and describing a large collection of Australian earth-worms, but in many instances it has been found impossible to decide on the proper generic position of the species. Before the classification can be considered final, a large amount of anatomical investiga- tion is essential, and this work is being undertaken by the scientific staff of Melbourne University. Four papers, two by Miss G. Buchanan, the third by Miss F. Bage, and the fourth by Miss J. W. Ruff, embodying some of the results of this work are published in vol. xxii., part ii., of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. Miss Bage, who treats of the structure and arrangement of the nephridea, states that these organs are subject to great variation in the different groups, and will probably be found of great value for systematic purposes. Among other articles on local natural history in the March issue (vol. i., No. 5) of the Queensland Naturalist, special interest attaches to one describing a visit paid by Mr. G. H. Barker in September, 1909, to the reserve at Gold Creek, where numerous kinds of birds were observed. The writer of these notes has been favoured with a cutting from the Argentine journal La Nacion of April 15 containing an account of a newly discovered skull of the gigantic glyptodont Dzdicurus, with the previously un- known dermal head-shield in position. The skull appears to have been found in association with the skeleton, thus making the fourth more or less nearly complete example of the bony framework of this gigantic species. RAINFALL OF RHODESIA AND AUSTRALIA. T° the Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific Associa- tion (vol. viii., part iii., 1909) the Rev. E. Goetz, S.J., contributes a very valuable discussion of the rainfall of Rhodesia, based upon observations at sixty-three stations. Fifty of these are in southern Rhodesia; the conclusions therefore apply more particularly to the country between the Zambezi and the Limpopo (long. 27°-33° E.). The tables contain monthly and yearly amounts from the actual observations. The longest series is for Hopefountain (nineteen years), and the averages at most of the other stations have also been reduced to this normal by the usual method. An annual rainfall map shows clearly that the amounts near the Portuguese territory vary from 45 to 30 inches, and decrease westwards to 20 inches; but to the north-west (north of the Zambezi) the unreduced averages increase to 30 inches and above. There are some closed areas of high rainfall in southern Rhodesia which, the author assumes, will probably disappear with the returns of a larger number of stations. The rainfall for seasons, and for short periods at some selected stations, is dealt with in considerable detail. There is also an interesting discussion of rain and drought cycles; the nineteen-year cycle, based on the periodic movement. of the high-pressure belt, recently proposed by Colonel H. E. Rawson, seems (the author thinks) to promise good results. Bulletin No. 4, issued by the Australian Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology, includes, inter alia, tables of per- centages and mean monthly and annual average rainfall for each colony and for Tasmania. These values are transferred to a map consisting of miniature ‘‘ graphs,’’ showing very clearly the mean monthly percentages and other details. One of the several useful appendices shows the hourly distribution of rainfall and frequency of showers in most of the capital towns for a year ending June 30, 1909. The text of the bulletin gives an interesting account of the broad features shawn by the maps, viz. that nearly the whole of tropical Australia receives the bulk of its rains during the period of the year when the convectional action in the interior of the continent is at its maximum. In the central latitudes, although the monsoonal influence No. 2128, vot. 84] still predominates, the colder months are under the in- fluence of V-shaped depressions which skirt the southern shores during the winter and spring seasons. In Western Australia the maxima occur in the early and mid-winter months over the whole of the western and southern dis- tricts. In the agricultural areas of South Australia the winter and: spring maxima are very marked, but in the far north the monthly values are very erratic. The pro- nounced feature of winter rains over South Australia and the western part of Western Australia is maintained in the western slope districts of New South Wales, but is obscured over the Victorian areas south and east of the mountain ranges by the disturbing character of the country. The same peculiarities affect the central, western, and northern interior of New South Wales. THE CHEMICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CRYSTAL STRUCTURE." LARGE numbers of chemical substances occur on the earth’s surface as definite geometrical forms bounded by plane faces; these polyhedral shapes are called crystals. Inspection of the crystal forms assumed by mineral sub- stances shows that, roughly speaking, each crystalline substance affects some specific geometrical shape which is characteristic for the material; further that, whilst crystals of any particular mineral attain vastly different dimensions and are bounded by planes which vary greatly in relative area, one geometrical feature remains constant. The angles between corresponding pairs of faces on any two crystals of the same substance are the same, notwithstanding the existence of difference in size or in relative face magnitude between the two crystals. The constancy of interfacial angle amongst crystals of the same substance is a law of nature, and has been amply demonstrated by the_ very careful crystallographic measurements made by Tutton during the last twenty years. ; It is, however, not essential to study mineral substances alone in order to obtain a knowledge of the laws govern- ing crystal growth. Great numbers of laboratory products can be caused to crystallise by condensation from some fluid condition ; thus the crystals of various alums exhibited were obtained by slow evaporation of aqueous solutions of these salts. : The examination of a crystal shows that many of its physical properties differ according to the direction in the crystal in which the property is determined; the hardness of crystals, the speed at which light travels through them, and many other properties, are commonly dependent om the direction in which the material is examined. Pia? The dependence of crystal properties on direction indicates the most essential feature of the crystal to be a definite and orderly arrangement of its ultimate particles ; this arrangement is referred to as the crystal structure. Further evidence that crystals possess an arranged struc- ture is furnished by the observation that crystallisation is not necessarily a spontaneous process. Thus, on melting benzophenone and rapidiy cooling the clear molten mass, the liquid state is retained for many hours at a tempera- ture far below the normal melting point of the compound. But on inoculating the liquid with a trace of crystalline benzophenone, crystallisation immediately commences and rapidly becomes complete. The introduction of a small particle of crystalline or arranged material into the liquid mass provides a nucleus upon which the molecules are able to deposit themselves in a similar crystalline arrange- ment; the process thus started quickly becomes propagated throughout the entire mass. The lack of spontaneity in the process of crystallisation leads occasionally to quite unexpected results. Thus tetrahydroquinaldine has been known for many years, and has been prepared by numbers of chemists. It has always been obtained as a liquid, and has never been supposed capable of existing in the crystal- line state at ordinary temperatures; even when cooled in liquid air it merely becomes a thick resin, and does not crystallise. But on dissolving a few drops of it ina little light petroleum, and cooling the solution thus obtained in liquid air, the tetrahydroquinaldine crystallises out; on transferring a trace of the crystalline material obtained to 1 Discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday, April 15, by Prof. William J. Pope, F R.S. 188 NATURE |! AUGUST II, I9IO the liquid substance at the ordinary temperature, the liquid mass is seen to immediately crystallise. This well-known substance, hitherto known only in the liquid state at ordinary temperatures, really exists in a more stable con- dition as a crystalline solid. Many substances are capable of crystallising in two or more distinct crystalline forms, of which one is, in general, the more stable at any particular temperature. The physical properties of the several crystalline modifications of any one substance are quite distinct and characteristic for the particular crystalline form, and in many instances even the colours of the several modifications are different. An example of this is afforded by pouring boiling water into. a beaker coated with cuprous mercuric iodide; the brilliant scarlet crystalline form, stable at ordinary temperatures when heated in this way, becomes converted into another crystalline modification which is nearly black. The change is a reversible one, and the differences between the properties of the two crystalline modifications are to be attributed to differences in the mode of arrangement of the molecules in the two cases; the two modifications, in fact, possess different crystalline structures. Although vast numbers of observations, such as the pre- ceding, lead to the conclusion that crystals are arranged structures, it is not essential that the crystal should be a solid substance ;» during. recent years large numbers of crystalline , liquids have been discovered. On allowing melted cholesteryl chloride to cool rapidly, a brilliant dis- play of interference colours is seen, owing to the particles of the substance assuming crystalline or orderly arrange- ment, whilst still retaining the liquid condition. Having very briefly reviewed some of the many reasons for concluding that crystals are structured edifices, the nature of the architecture which they exhibit may now be considered. All the properties . of crystalline. solids harmonise with one simple assumption as to the. manner in which the parts of the structure are arranged; this assumption is that the structure is a geometrically ‘‘ homo- geneous ’’ one,. that is, a structure the parts of which are uniformly repeated throughout, corresponding points having a similar environment everywhere within the edifice. The assumption of geometrical homogeneity as the characteristic of crystalline solids. leads at once to the great problem solved by the crystallographers of the nineteenth century. This consisted: in. the inquiry as to’ how’ many types of homogeneous arrangement of points in space are possible, to the study, of’ those. types and to their identification, in symmetry and other respects, with the’ known systems into which crystalline solids .fall.. This work was commenced by the German erystallographer Frankenheim in 1830, and completed by the English ‘geometrician. Barlow in 1894. Briefly -stated, the final conclusion has been attained that 230 geometrically homogeneous modes exist of distributing material, or points representing material throughout space, and that these 230 homogeneous types of structure, the so-called homogeneous ‘ point-systems,’’ fall into the thirty-two types of symmetry exhibited by crystalline solids. Models of a number of homogeneous point-systems illus- trating some of these types are exhibited. It is, however, obvious that the limitation of the possi- bilities of solid crystalline arrangement to 230 types marks but one stage in the determination of the nature of crystal structure, and throws no direct light on the relation between crystal structure and - chemical constitution. Although by the end of the nineteenth century we had learnt that corresponding points of the units of crystalline Structures form homogeneous point-systems, the great problem still remained of determining what are the entities which become homogeneously arr ged, for what reason they become so arranged, and in what way the conclusions drawn by modern chemistry are reflected in crystal struc- ture. This problem was a legacy to the twentieth century, and it now remains to indicate briefly the extent to which it has been solved and the results of chemical importance which have accrued during its investigation. The problem may be most easily visualised in connection with some comparatively simple case, that, for instance, presented by the crystalline forms assumed by the elements themselves. It is generally admitted that an elementary substance consists of identical atoms, each of which acts as a centre of operation of attractive and repulsive forces. NO. 2128, VOL. 84] In a solid crystalline structure the atoms are obiously not free to travel through the mass, each, if not indeed fixed to a particular spot, being retained within a certain minute domain ; each of these domains must be regarded as possess- ing a centre which marks the mean position of the atom. The crystalline condition of an element may consequently be defined as one of equilibrium between forces of attrac- tion and repulsion emanating from or referable to a flock of points homogeneously arranged in space, that is to say, conditions, the space occupied by a crystal- line element, a homo- geneous identically atoms, may be _par- titioned into identically similar cells in such a manner that the bound- aries of a single cell assemblage of similar shall enclose the entire domain throughout which a particular atom exercises predominant influence. Since it is postulated that — every point in the space is subject to the domin- ating influence of some i next neighbouring atomic centre, it follows that the cells fit together so as to occupy the whole available space with- out interstices. Nothing’ is here said about the shape of the cells; but since, in- the case of an elementary sub- stance, the atomic centres are all alike, so too will be the cells. Before proceéding to discuss the actual shapes of the cells referred to, it will be convenient to illustrate FG. 2. more graphically the mode of treating the problem which is here introduced with the aid of a particular point-system connected with the crystalline structure of elementary substances. : k The point-system in question may be derived in the following manner. Space is first partitioned into cubes by three sets of parallel planes at right angles to one another (Fig. 1); a point is then placed at each cube corner and at the centre of each cube face. The cubes of the partition- ing, having served their purpose, may now be removed, AvuGuST 11, 1910] NAG CREE 1¢9g leaving one of the 230 types of homogeneous point-systems (Fig. 2). Imagine, next, that each point of the system expands uniformly in all directions until it touches its neighbours ; a system of spheres packed together in contact is thus obtained (Fig. 3), and, on examination, it is found that no way exists of packing these equal spheres more closely together than the one thus derived. The system is therefore termed the cubic closest-packed assemblage of equal spheres, and, being derived in the manner described, still retains the high symmetry of the cube; the fragment shown, in fact, outlines a cube. Three directions at right angles in it, those which are parallel to the three cube edges, are seen to be identical in kind; this identity in kind in the three rectangular directions a, b, and c is con- veniently expressed by the ratio a: b:c=1:1:1. On removing spheres from one corner of the cubic closest-packed assemblage of equal spheres a_ close Iriangularly arranged layer is disclosed, and, by similarly treating each corner of the fragment of assemblage, the cube outline gives place to one of octahedral form. The assemblage is now seen to be built up by the superposition of the disclosed triangularly arranged layers, the hollows in one layer serving to accommodate the projecting parts of the spheres in adiacent layers. When this operation is Fic. 3. performed it is perceived, however, that. two ways of stack- ing the layers homogeneously are possible. The first of these, in which the fourth layer lies immediately over the first, the fifth over the second, and so on, yields the cubic closest-packed assemblage. The alternative mode of stack- ing, in which the third layer lies immediately over the first, the fourth over the second, and so on, exhibits the same closeness of packing as the first, but possesses the symmetry of the hexagonal crystal system; it is accordingly termed the hexagonal closest-packed assemblage of equal spheres (Fig. 4). Examination of the hexagonal assemblage shows that the horizontal directions, in the planes of the layers, are not identical in kind with vertical directions perpen- dicular to the planes of the layers. Corresponding dimensions in these two directions, a and c, are in the ratio of @ic=1: \/(¥)=1:0°8165. The final step in the treatment of the closest-packed assemblages of equal spheres consists in converting them into the corresponding assemblages of cells fitting together Without interstices which have been already mentioned; it may be carried out in these, and in all other cases, by causing the component spheres to expand uniformly in all directions until expansion is checked by contact with the expanding parts of neighbouring spheres. The cubic NO. 2128, VoL. 84] closest-packed assemblage then becomes a stack of twelve- sided polyhedra, rhombic dodecahedra, which are so fitted together as to fill space without interstices. It is now seen that the even rate of expansion from each point of the original point-system which gives rise to the closely packed stack of rhombic dodecahedra symbolises an even radiation in all directions of the forces of which the atom is the centre of emanation. On applying the same operation of expansion to the spheres present in hexagonal closest- packing, each becomes converted into a dodecahedron, although of symmetry different from that of the rhombic dodecahedron. In each of the two cases the system exhibits the important property that, with a given density of dis- tribution of the centres, a maximum distance prevails between nearest centres; these two systems thus represent the equilibrium arrangements of the postulated forces of repulsion exerted between near centres, the repulsions between more distant ones being neglected. It will be sufficiently evident from what has been said that the function of the spherical surfaces in the closest- packed assemblages of spheres, as representing crystal structures, is merely a geometrical one; these surfaces are employed only as so much scaffolding by the aid of which derived arrangements may be exhibiting a maximum - Fic. 4. number of equal distances between neighbouring centres, and no physical distinction is to be made between portions of space lying within the spheres and portions forming part of the interstices between them. Insistence on this point is necessary, because many investigators have made use, quite illegitimately, of spheres for the representation of atomic domains, piling the spheres together in what they have termed open packing; this term seems to imply that some physical difference can subsist between the portions of space lying within the spheres and those lying without. The one kind of space is apparently regarded as susceptible to atomic influence in some sense not exhibited by the other. ‘To state this view in any definite manner probably suffices to demonstrate its superficiality; the question of ascertaining what proportion of the total space is available for atomic occupation by the use of assemblages of spheres does not arise, because the spheres used are solely the geometrical instruments for producing equality amongst the atomic distances, and so determining the prevailing equilibrium conditions. So far as the inquiry has been carried, it would seem that the elements should crystallise either in the cubic or the hexagonal system, and that in the latter case corre- sponding dimensions in the horizontal and vertical direc- tions should be in the ratio of a: :0:8165. The facts are summarised in Table I. c=!1 190 NATURE [AUGUST II, 1910 TasLe |.—Relation between Crystal Form and Molecular Complexity. Number of atoms in molecules of Fle. compound inorganic substances Organic Crystal system ————————— com. ments More E 2 n aie pounds Cubic ete «7 50) 6855 2 Sey wavieh © 8273 Hexagonal SOS SERLOLSE EEE | 5) SS TAs" Svar) Tetragonal eS RASS h TO) Oye 50 Orthorhombic!...) -.-) 5 son ears. 50 30° 27-2 ero Monosymmetric ... 5 4°5 3 Ome yey LU) ENTIOKENIC! 62) (uecue te On me Or 24 aS 7°O Number of cases sum- ) marised in each; 40 67 63, 20) 50 (673° 585 vertical column ... \ The proportion of substances crystallising in each system as a percentage, PORSTERITE Yo 0.280. CHONDRODTTE y- 2232 “ALI SH0d ALIGOXANOHD Fic. 5. Of the elements which have been crystallographically examined, 50 per cent. are cubic; their crystal structure simulated by the cubic closest-packed assemblage of equal spheres. Another 35 per cent. belong -to the hexagonal system, and that these are correctly represented hexagonal closest-packed assemblage of equal. spheres indicated by the fact that for the hexagonal elements NO, 2128, VoL. 84] 1S | the ratio of corresponding dimensions in the horizontal and vertical directions approximates to the value a:c= 1: 0-8165, deduced for the model assemblage. The task of accounting for the 15 per cent. of the crystalline elements which have been examined and found to crystallise in systems other than the cubic or hexagonal still remains. A little inspection shows that the crystal forms of these elements in every case approach very closely to one or other of the two of highest symmetry, namely, the cubic or the hexagonal; one example of this will now suffice. The values of corresponding dimensions in three directions in space for the monosymmetric form of the element sulphur are given by the axial ratios a:b:c= 0:9958: 1: 90-9998, B=95° 46’. The slight departure of these dimensions from the corresponding values for the cubic closest-packed assemblage, in which a: b:c=1:1:1, B=90°, at once suggests that the monosymmetric modifi- cation of sulphur is derived from the latter assemblage by some minute distortion. Such a_ distortion in- dicates a very trifling departure from uniformity in the influence exerted in different directions from each atomic centre, and may either arise from some want of symmetry in the individual atoms or in a re- duction of the symmetry caused by some grouping of the atoms; two or more atoms might thus be more closely connected in some way with one another than with other next neighbouring atoms. Having shown that the crystalline forms of the elements are in com- plete harmony with the conception that crystal structures can be homo- geneously divided into similar cells of polyhedral shapes approximating closely to the spherical, reference may now be made to some simple compounds, those, namely, in which the ‘molecule consists of two dis- similar atoms. The conception of the equilibrium of centred forces which has been shown fertile in the case of the crystalline elements can be immedi- ately applied to the binary com- pounds; as before, each atom will be represented by forces emanating from a centre, and equilibrium will demand closest packing of the spheres used, just as in the previous The atomic centres will now, however, be ef two kinds, and the question arises as to whether the domains of atomic influence to be described about them will be all of the same magnitude or whether twe magnitudes of spheres must be employed, one for each element pre- sent. This question is difficult to answer by reference to the facts already reviewed above ; probably the “ ee & 8 : z | ® only indication which the latter afford in this connection is that closest packing of a considerable variety of different magnitudes would certainly be most unlikely to lead to the close, similarity of crystal form observed as between the elements and the binary compounds. A direct answer is, however, provided as the result of investigating the crystalline forms of organic sub- stances, to which reference will presently be made; this investigation has led to the discovery of a definite law which governs the magnitudes of the several kinds of atomic domain concerned in any crystalline com- pound substance. It is found that the magnitudes of the atomic domains in any crystalline compound are very approximately in the ratio indicated by the fundamental AUGUST I1, 1910] NATURE 191 valencies of the corresponding elements. Since the mole- cules of nearly all the binary compounds which have been erystallographically examined contain in the molecule one atom each of two elements of the same valency, the poly- hedral cells from which a crystalline binary compound must be supposed built up are all, in general, of approximately the same magnitude. The fact that most binary com- pounds, like most elements, crystallise in either the cubic or the hexagonal system, represents one of the simple results of this law of valency volumes. The binary compounds thus, in general, affect crystal- line structures which are derived from the cubic or the hexagonal closest-packed assemblage of equal spheres ; one- half of the spheres, selected homogeneously, represent atoms of the one element and the remainder atoms of the second element. The mode in which the necessary homogeneous selection may be made in the cubic assemblage, without altering the values of corresponding dimensions in three rectangular directions, is shown in a model. The crystalline forims of the binary compounds are in accordance with what has been above foreshadowed. Table I. indicates that in geometrical respects the crystal- line binary compounds closely resemble the elements ; 68-5 per cent. of those examined are cubic and 19-5 per cent. hexagonal, the remaining 12 per cent. crystallising in systems of lower symmetry than these. The axial ratios, a:c, of all the hexagonal binary compounds known are stated in Table II.; all approximate closely to the value, @:c=1:0-8165, for the model hexagonal closest-packed assemblage of equal spheres. Taste I].—Hexagonal Binary Compounds. aie Cadmium sul- phide CdS 1 : 08109 Silver iodide. Agl 1: 08106 The ratio, 1: \/(2) 1:0°8165 In connection with the elements and binary compounds, it is noteworthy that the mode of treatment described appears practically to eliminate molecular aggregation of the atoms as a factor in determining the crystalline struc- ture; that is to say, the distance separating two neigh- bouring atom centres is the same whether those atoms belong to the same or to different molecules. Another interesting fact is that, whilst the elements and binary compounds for the most part crystallise in the cubic or hexagonal systems, substances of greater molecular com- plexity rarely crystallise in these highly symmetrical systems; thus, of a great number of organic compounds examined, 2-5 and 4-0 per cent. only belong to the cubic and hexagonal crystalline systems respectively (Table I.). This observation is important as one of many indications that the cells into which the crystal structure of a com- plex compound are partitionable are not, in general, all of the same volume. Further investigation shows that the volumes of the polyhedral cells representing the atomic domains of the several elements present in a complex crystalline compound are governed by the law of valency volumes, to which reference has already been made. The correctness of this conclusion concerning the proportionality between the numbers expressing the fundamental valencies of the elements and the volumes of the corresponding spheres of atomic influence has been abundantly verified, not only by the laborious process of working out a large number of cases, but in several other ways which may be more rapidly indicated. The following are illustrations of the latter kind of verification. Table ILI. states the composition and axial ratios, a:b:c, of a series of four crystalline minerals which differ in composition by the increment, Mg,SiO,; the sums of the valencies of the atoms composing the different mole- cular aggregates are stated under the heading W. The increment, Mg,SiO,, also occurs as the crystalline mineral forsterite, of which the axial ratios have been determined. It is evident that the ratio a/b has approximately the same value of 1-08 for all four members of the series, and that practically all differences in relative dimensions are ex- pressed by the ratio c/b. On dividing the valency volume, W, by the corresponding value for c/b in each case, the quotients 11-7, 12-1, 12-3, 12-4, and 12-7 are obtained re- snectively for the substances prolectite, chondrodite, humite, clinohumite, and forsterite. The relative dimension, c/b, NO. 2128, vo. 84] @ic Beryllium oxide ReO 1 :0*8153 Zinc oxide... ZnO 1 :0°8039 Zinc sulphide... ZnS_ 1: 0°8175 is thus roughly proportionai to the sum of the valencies in this set of minerals. The comparison may, however, be made more accurately by including the changes in both relative dimensions, a/b and c/b, in the calculation, in the following manner. The ‘‘ equivalence parameters’’ are the rectangular dimensions, x, y, and s, of a rectangular block having the volume W, and are in the ratio of the axial ratios a:b:c. The parameters x and y preserve almost constant values throughout the series, and addition of the increment, Mg,SiO,, leads to a practically constant increase of about 2-80 in the dimension s on passing from one mineral to the next in the series. The mineral forsterite also gives nearly the same x and y values as before, and its z value, 2-87, is equal to the differences between consecutive pairs of s values in the main series; these differences vary between 2-85 and 2-88. The axial ratios and equivalence parameters of forsterite can, indeed, be calculated with considerable accuracy from the data available for the series of four minerals. Taste I11.—The Humite Minerals. Prolectite ... MgsiO, 2Myg(F,OH) W=22 Chondrodite ... Mg,(SiO,\;, 2Mg(F,OH) W=38 Humite ... Mg,(SiO,),, 2Mg(F,OH) W=54 Clinohumite ... Mg;(Si0,),, 2Mg(F,OH) W=70 The increment is Mg,SiO,, namely, forsterite, with W=16. Axial Ratios Equivalence Parameters a er c < ee By 2 z Prolectite ... 10803 : 1 : 178862 2°389 : 2°210: 4°169 Diff. = 2°851 Chondrodite 1°0863 : I : 3°1447 2°425 : 2'232: 7°020 Diff. = 2°877 Humite ... . 1°0802 : I : 4°4033 2°428 : 2°247: 9°807 Diff. = 2°858 Clinohumite . 170803 : I: 5°6588 2°435 : 2°254 : 12°755 Values for the increment, forsterite. Oberved . . 1'0757 : I : 12601 2°449: 2277: 2°869 Calculated .. ee TROS230 3h 2 Ea2 77/5 2°429 : 2°245: 2°869 The relations here displayed may be rendered more obvious by a series of models (Fig. 5). Rectangular blocks having as the horizontal dimensions the x and y values, and as vertical dimension the s value, for forsterite, when superposed upon a similar set of blocks having the corre- sponding dimensions for prolectite, form a. stack exhibit- ing the equivalence parameters of chondrodite; super- posing on this a second set of forsterite blocks leads to a stack showing the equivalence parameters of humite, and on again repeating the operation, a stack with the dimensions of clinohumite results. From the numerical daia and the models exhibited, it must be regarded as definitely proved that, in this series, the volumes appro- priated by the constituent atoms are, in any one member, directly proportional to the valency numbers of the corre- sponding elements. Another set of observations of a very convincing character, although of a totally different kind, is laid out in Table IV. Experimental determinations of the mole- TVasre 1V.—Molecular Volumes of the Normal Paraffins at their Melting Points. Molecular volumes 7s ww Melting point 2° Observed Calculated at’ as WXS Coe 68 —26°5 ... 201°4 201'96 CRE aaa a 120! 5 2TO'O 219°78 GCygticsiere SO hss! — (622 237°3 237°60 14H 59 86 a5 255°4 255°42 Cie tigot nese eines. <-s1010 2732 273°24 Gig ilgg ee OSes et 18°0° 291°2 29106 17H3¢5 104 :22°5 309°0 308 88 1g flog 110 +28°0 326°9 326°70 19440 116 +32°0 3447 344°52 on H go 122 +36°7 362°5 362°34 o Hay 128 +40°4 380°3 380°16 wy, 134 +44°4 398°3 398 00 og lH 4g 140 +47°7 416°2 415°80 04H 59 146 +51°I 4341 43362 o7 Ass 164 +59°5 487°4 487'08 31H 188 +68"1 5584... 558°36 32 gg 194 +70°0 57 Or2h se) 7 OmS: a5 70 212 +74°7 629°5 ... 629764 Mean value of S=2"970. 192 NATURE [AuGUST II, 1910 cular volumes of a long series of normal paraffins, made on the liquid substances at temperatures at which the materials are in physically similar conditions, are stated in column 4. Since the valency of carbon is four times that of hydrogen, it would be anticipated from the crystallo- graphic conclusions previously drawn that each carbon atom should appropriate four times as large a space for occupation as one hydrogen atom; the quotient of the molecular volume by the valency sum or valency volume, W, should consequently lead to the same value, S, in the case of all the hydrocarbons. The mean value of 5S, namely, the atomic volume of hydrogen, is thus calculated as 2-970, and that it is constant within very narrow limits is seen on comparing columns 4 and 5, the latter of which states the product of the valency volume, W, by the value 2-970. The simple relation between the atomic volumes of carbon and hydrogen in the liquid normal parattins indi- cated in the above table was recently pointed out by Lebas, and is abundantly confirmed by numerous series of deter- minations in addition to that now quoted. It is thus definitely proved that the law of valency volumes, first enunciated on the ground of the crystallographic evidence, holds rigidly in the case of these liquid substances. Sufficient has been said to demonstrate that a method has now been devised by means of which the vast stores of accurate goniometric measurements collected by crystallographers during the past century can be interpreted, and that the requisite interpretation has in many cases already been given. Prof. Liveing, in a discourse delivered in this room nineteen years ago, suggested that crystal- line forms are the outcome of the accepted principles of mechanics; the aid of these, and of these alone, has been invoked to show that crystalline structures result from the equilibrium of the attractive and repulsive forces radiating from the atomic centres. RESULTS OF SOME RECENT INVESTIGA- TIONS ON MAGNETIC DISTURBANCES. N examination of the times of beginning of the mag- netic disturbance which occurred on May 8, 1902, as coincidently with the Mont Pelée eruption as can be determined, revealed the interesting fact that they were not the same all over the globe, being, in general, earliest at European stations. The times next progressed going around the earth eastwardly, the complete circuit being made by the disturbance in about 33 minutes. This fact led to an examination of other similar disturbances, such as the one of January 26, 1903, and it was again seen that this one also progressed around the earth eastwardly, the time for the complete circuit being about 4 minutes. Mathematical analyses were next made, and it was found that for both disturbances (May 8, 1902, and January 26, 1903) the systems of disturbance forces which it would be necessary to superpose upon the earth’s own magnetic field were precisely of the same character as the earth’s. In other words, were we to assume electric currents as con- stituting the disturbance systems, then, as is the case for the earth’s field, the currents would have to circulate around the earth from east to west if they are positive ones, and in the contrary direction—from west to east—if they are negative or such as would be produced by moving negative charges. Furthermore, for both disturbances the electric currents would have to circulate chiefly in the regions above the earth.” For the disturbance of May 8, 1902, there were a sufficient number of trustworthy determinations of the effect on the vertical intensity, and accordingly it was possible, 1 A summary of two papers presented respectively at the meeting of the Washington Academy of Sciences, February 17, 1yro, and at the meeting of the Philosophical Society of Washington, April 9, 1910 2 See Verrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity, vol. xv , pp- 9-30. In this connection it is also well to record that Dr. W. van Bemmelen, in his recent investigations on ‘‘ The Starting Impulse of Mag- netic Disturbances’ (Proceedings of the Amsterdam Academy of Sciences, April 24, 1908), found the following important fact as applying to the Batavia magnetic observatory records, 1882-99 :—‘‘ Taking no consideration of the slight introductory movement, 124 cases furnished for the duration of the impulse : in horizontal intensity, 4°5 min.; declination, 3'2 min.; vertical intensity, 12°0 min. The duration of the vertical intensity movement is in general difficult to determine, as the decrease in this element keeps on mostly much longer. I[t is important to notice that the initial movement of D Stops or is inverted, whilst of H the increasing movement keeps on.” NO. 2128, VoL. 84] by means of the analysis, to separate the external system of currents from the internal (below the surface) one; and then the surprising result revealed itself that the internal currents went in the same direction as the external ones, the latter being about three times the strength of the former. Hence, were we to suppose that the disturbance is caused by the motion of negative charges around the earth eastwardly, then the internal negative currents also go in the same direction, and accordingly they are not currents induced in the earth by the outer system. If the earth’s own magnetic field is likewise separated into an internal system and an external one, it is also found that for both systems the negative electric currents go in the same direction around the earth, viz. from west to east. The disturbance systems found above are therefore precisely similar in character to the earth’s field. It should also be noted that the negative currents of the disturbance progress around the earth in the same way as did the times of beginning referred to above. We have now become acquainted with the fundamental facts of observation pertaining to the simplest class of magnetic disturbances experienced by the earth—the sudden beginnings of magnetic perturbations, which, in accordance with van Bemmelen’s suggestion, we will term for brevity ‘‘S’’ storms. Let us see what hypotheses are necessary for a physical explanation of the observed facts. Prof. Kr. Birkeland, of Christiania, was the first to have attempted a definite physical theory to account for this class of disturbances, which he termed “‘ equatorial perturbations,’’ since they are most strongly developed in the equatorial regions, as judged alone from the size of the disturbance effect on the horizontal intensity. If the latter element suffered an increase, the disturbance was called a ‘‘ positive equatorial perturbation,’’ and if, on the other hand, the horizontal intensity was decreased, the disturbance was termed a ‘‘ negative equatorial perturba- tion.’’ The theory for these particular disturbances is only a part of the general ‘‘ kathode-ray theory ’’ developed by Birkeland and Stormer to account for all classes of mag- netic disturbances and of polar lights, as set forth in their various papers, and especially in Birkeland’s recent publi- cation, ‘‘The Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition, 1902-3,’ vol. i., ‘‘ On the Cause of Magnetic Storms and the Origin of Yerrestrial Magnetism.’’ It will be noted that it is even hoped to build up a general theory of terrestrial magnetism, and there is an intimation that the earth’s magnetic periodic variations may likewise be among the consequences of kathode rays coming from the sun and entering the earth’s field. Without question, these important contributions of Birkeland and Stérmer mark a distinct advance, and the student of magnetic science will find not only incentive, but also a wealth of material and many suggestive facts by looking over these very valuable researches. At present, however, their theoretical results and deductions must be regarded chiefly as qualitative. While it is made very plausible that the cause of our magnetic storms is to be referred principally to kathode rays originating in the sun and coming within reach of the earth’s magnetic field, there are a great many questions left open which will require answering before full acceptance can be given to the theory in all its details. How the earth’s own mag- netic system is affected. by a magnetic disturbance— whether the intensity of magnetisation is increased or decreased, if there are any after-effects, whether the currents within the earth are induced ones or are the same in direc- tion as those outside, &c.—are but a few of the interesting and important questions to be solved. It seemed very desirable, therefore, that someone should take up the investigation from an analytical point of view, viz. to take a typical magnetic storm and analyse the observed effects into spherical harmonic terms, so as to determine just how much is due to outside currents and how much to currents within the earth itself. Birkeland concluded, from a general consideration of the effects of a magnetic disturbance on the vertical intensity, that all storms originate from without, and it is quite possible that, in the main, he may be right, but the con- clusion cannot be accepted as invariably true without a detailed mathematical analysis of each particular case. In his first volume he accordingly proceeds on the assumption el AUGUST II, 1910} NATURE 1S that by far the greater part of a disturbance is due to upper electric currents, though quite likely, in a subsequent volume, he will consider the subterranean currents also. Since the observed quantities actually to be operated with appear to be resultant effects of both external and internal forces, it is very desirable that we should know just what Proportion must be referred to one cause or the other. For this separation we require, however, a knowledge of the disturbances in the vertical intensity, and these are either difficult to determine with sufficient accuracy or are not to be had always at a sufficient number of stations, so that Birkeland was perforce compelled in his first treatment to assume chiefly external currents. It was for these reasons deemed desirable to make known promptly the deductions derived from the mathe- matical analysis of certain typical cases of the class of ‘‘S ”’ storms. We have now the means of applying the first decisive tests as to how far the Birkeland-Stérmer theory will account for the facts. : There is a distinct advantage in treating, for the present, simply these sudden beginnings of magnetic disturbances for the reason that not only the time of beginning can be sharply determined, but, what is equally important, the actual magnitude and direction of the disturbance effect on any particular element can be most accurately deter- mined. As the effects we are here especially considering do not extend, in general, over five minutes, we may readily scale off on the magnetogram the disturbance effect, being, without essential error, simply the difference between the ordinate to the curve at the point of beginning of the disturbance and the ordinate to the particular point of the disturbance considered. When, however, a mag- netic storm extends over many hours, and even days, and one wishes to know the magnitude and direction of the disturbance at stated times, for example, every hour or half-hour, then what is called a ‘normal curve” must be drawn from which the disturbance ordinate is to be measured. This ‘‘ normal curve’? is supposed to represent the curve of magnetic variations which would have resulted had there been no disturbance; but to determine such a curve is far more difficult than is generally realised, and usually an arbitrary assumption of some kind must be made to derive it. Of such assumptions we are practically free in the disturbances considered. F Application of Tests. The first fact of importance found from the analysis of the disturbance of May 8, 1902, was that the direction of flow of the negative electric currents, which could account for the external and internal magnetic disturbance systems, Was the same for both systems. While the strength of the external system was about three times that of the internal, nevertheless, the internal currents were not the direct consequence of the outside moving negative charges, i.e. they were not induced currents. Instead, for both systems—outside and inside the earth—the flow of elec- tricity was eastwardly around the earth for negative charges and westwardliy for positive charges. Having fixed the direction of flow of negative electricity, let us inquire now whether kathode rays coming from the sun will give the required direction. Birkeland, in his experiments on a magnetised terrella when placed in a Crookes’s tube and subjected to a bombardment of kathode rays, observed, among other interesting phenomena, the formation, under certain conditions, of a ring of kathode particles which encircled the terrella in the magnetic equatorial regions. For an unmagnetised terrella there was no such ring. Stérmer, from his mathematical investi- gations, found under what conditions a similar ring would be formed when kathode rays from the sun came within the deflecting influence of the earth’s magnetic field. The ring results when electric charges enter a magnetic field perpendicularly to the lines of magnetic force, e.g. in the magnetic equatorial regions. It was on account of the possible formation of such an equatorial ring that Birkeland was apparently led to the adoption of his term ‘‘ equatorial magnetic perturbation,’’, and to refer its cause to such a ring. If we apply, however, the well-known law according to which a negative charge would be deflected if entering the earth’s magnetic field from without at right angles to the NO. 2128, voL. 84] | of the penetrating radiation (y rays of radium). lines of magnetic force, it is unfortunately found that the deflection is to the west, and the moving negative electric charges would accordingly encircle the earth from east to west, hence opposite to what our mathematical analysis of the disturbance of May 8, 1902, and January 26, 1903, have shown must be the case to account for the observed disturbances. Were we to assume, on the other hand, that the cor- puscles are shot up into the earth’s field instead of down- wards, then those which struck the lines of magnetic force perpendicularly would, after successive deflections, circulate around the earth from west to east or eastwardly, and hence harmonise with the observed facts. Thus far, then, we should have to conclude that if the disturbances considered are to be referred to kathode rays deflected by the earth’s field into more or less circular paths, the source of the kathode rays would have to be within the earth itself, and not without. But if the radius of the ring of moving corpuscles is computed to conform with the time of propagation of the disturbance around the earth (about 32 minutes), it is found that the orbit would have to be distant from the earth’s centre 580 times the earth’s radius, or 3,700,000 kilometres, or 2,300,000 miles, and thus the possibility of a terrestrial origin of the kathode rays is likewise eliminated. Furthermore, if we calculate the intensity of the current which at that distance could produce the observed effects of the disturbances of May 8, 1902, and January 26, 1903, it is found to be 5,900,000 amperes. Now Birkeland says on p. 311 of his book :—‘‘ In the case of the greater storms, we found current-strengths that varied between 500,000 and 1,000,000 amperes, or even con- siderably more.’”” Hence, to produce the comparatively in- significant magnetic disturbance effects here considered, by supposing a band of kathode particles circulating around the earth, would require a current at least six times stronger than that which Birkeland finds sufficient to account for the much larger storm effects ! The hypothesis was next briefly examined on which the disturbance effects considered might be referred to altera- tions in the electrical conductivity of the atmosphere and of the earth, either brought about by the secondary effects from bombarding kathode particles, viz. the formation of R6éntgen rays, or, say, by the entrance into the earth’s fel @ ionising effect and resultant alteration of electrical con- ductivity of the regions involved might either be due to the penetrating radiation from the sun or from the earth, if only qualitative results are considered. It is therefore at present not possible to state definitely whether the initial cause of the disturbance of May 8, 1902, was due to a terrestrial eruption or a solar one. First, further examina- tions will have to be made of the disturbances of May 20 and July 9, 1902, which were again closely coincident with the Mont Pelée eruptions. The electric-conduction hypothesis appears to satisfy, in general, the observed phenomena, and accordingly it is to be subjected to a further rigid examina- tion. It seems also to explain why some of the disturb- ances take a westward path, although the majority of them go eastward. Were we to suppose that the generated currents lie on a sphere of radius approximately equal to that of the earth, a velocity of the moving negative charges of 180 kilometres, or 110 miles per second, results, hence a quantity of the order of that for metallic conduction, or as found for the kathode rays from glowing electrolytes. In conclusion, it should be stated that while it has been shown that the class of simple disturbances discussed in this paper cannot be referred to kathode rays in the way Birkeland and Stérmer have supposed, it should be dis- tinctly understood that this in no wise vitiates other por- tions of their theory, especially with reference to the larger and more complicated magnetic disturbances and to. the origin and formation of polar lights. Before anything definite can be said as to the validity of these portions of their theory, it will be necessary to await the completion cf a similar analytical treatment to that made for the “S’ disturbances. Such an analytical examination the writer has had under way for more than a year, and a preliminary statement of results was made at the meetings of the American Philo- 194 NATURE . [AuGusT II, 1910 sophical Society and of the American Pnysical Society in April, 1909. Instead of drawing curves showing the varia- tions in the diurnal ranges of the magnetic elements with solar activity, as is most frequently done, curves were constructed showing the effects of the magnetic disturbances experienced by the earth during the period April, 1906, to December, 1909, at the Coast and Geodetic Survey mag- netic observatories, on the absolute values of the magnetic elements, and especially upon the intensity of magnetisa- tion. This latter curve had been drawn for the first time; when it was compared with the curves showing the varia- tion in solar activity, during the same period, as mani- fested by sun-spot frequency, sun-spot area, and calcium flocculi area, then the interesting result was obtained that “the intensity of magnetisation of the earth in general decreases with increase in solar activity.” In other words, the average or residual effect of magnetic disturbances, in general, is equivalent to that which would result by the superposition of a magnetic system opposite to the earth’s own field, i.e. a demagnetising or induction system of magnetic forces. The north magnetic pole of this superposed system is, in general, in high south lati- tude instead of high north latitude, as is the case generally for the small “‘S ”’ disturbances already discussed. : Hence for the larger disturbance systems, the electric currents which we may suppose to cause the effects would circulate around the earth, for negative ions, from east to west, i.e. contrary to the negative currents for the ‘©S”’ disturbances, but this time in strict accordance with the direction in which a kathode ray coming from the sun would be deflected by the earth’s magnetic field. For these big disturbances, accordingly, the times of beginning, if they can be accurately obtained, will show an increase going round the earth westwardly. A good example is the most remarkable disturbance of which there is any record, viz. that of September 25 last. Here are the times for two sudden deflections at the beginning of the storm, as scaled by Mr. R. L. Faris, of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, from the horizontal intensity magnetograms of the five Coast and Geodetic Survey magnetic observatories :— Greenwich mean civil time Sept. 25, 1909 No. Station Impulse 7 —$_—_ First Second I.-Il. (1) Porto Ri oe wae J ‘orto Rico Ba II 39° —2'1 (2) Cheltenham 8 40°9 It 43°3 —2'4 (3) Baldwin 8 38:7 II 4I‘I —2°4 (4) Sitka... 8 30°5 II 39°8 -03 (5) Honolulu ... 8 42°7 IT 45°4 —2°7 (6) Mean of all oa wes 083919 II 41t°9 —2°0 (7) Mean of Nos. 1, 2, 3. 8 39°10 LL 140537) so eee (8) aL, oa 2 ee 8 ALTO II 42°60 .. 1°50 Difference No. 7-No. 8 — 2°00 we 1:23 oa Mean Diffcrence ... - 1°62 The average latitude for the two groups Nos. 7 and 8 is, respectively, 32° N. and 39° N., and the average longitude 79° W. and 147° W. It is accordingly found that this particular disturbance was propagated from stations in the eastern part of the United States to stations in the eastern Pacific Ocean about two and a half times slower than was found for the simple ‘‘S ’’ disturbances, hence roughly at the rate of 2600 miles per minute, against 6700 miles for the latter cases. It is not to be assumed at present, how- ever, that the big disturbances progress over the whole earth at a uniform rate. ‘Their motions appear.much more complicated than for the ‘‘ S ”’ cases. Accordingly, so far as the big disturbances in general are concerned, the kathode-ray theory of Birkeland and Stormer fulfils the test regarding direction of progression of the disturbance over portions of the earth, and as far as the direction in which the negative electric currents must, in general, go, as found from the preliminary analyses above mentioned. Whether the theory will bear the application of quantitative tests cannot be discussed now. The main thing is to have working hypotheses to which rigid tests can be applied. ‘ Should the electric-conduction theory above proposed to No. 2128, VoL. 84] | governors of the college. | degree of the University are concurrent. account for the disturbances there considered find further confirmation, the way is opened to a possible corpuscular theory of terrestrial magnetism. On the basis of such a theory, a number of the puzzling features of the distribu- tion of the earth’s magnetism and of its variations can readily be explained. L. A. BAuEr. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. WE have received a copy of the ‘‘ Livingstone College Year Book’’ for 1910. It contains college news, letters from old students detailing their experiences, a review of a year’s progress in tropical medicine, &c. The training given at Livingstone College (a nine months’ course) is designed to educate missionaries going to tropical countries in the elements of medicine, so far as they are required for the prevention of disease and the recognition and treat- ment of common accidents and diseases. InpiANA UNIVERSITY, says Science, owns an experimental cave farm near Mitchell, Indiana, and has established a small laboratory there primarily for cave work. Cement pools have been placed inside and outside the caves, and give opportunities for breeding cave animals in the light and outside forms in the dark. The’ University offers a tool. fellowship, in addition to a furnished cottage, to any- one who has had sufficient training to take up such work. Applications should be sent to Mr. F. Payne, Winona Lake, Indiana. WE have received a copy of the handbook of the faculty of engineering at University College, London, for next session. The faculty includes the departments of mechanical, electrical, civil, and municipal engineering, and is intended to provide a systematic training for students who wish to devote themselves to engineering. It has been recognised by the Board of Trade as providing suitable technical training for marine engineers, and its courses also meet the needs of students who intend to enter for engineering appointments in the various public services. Prof. J. A. Fleming, F.R.S., is the dean, and Prof. J. D. Cormack the vice-dean, of the faculty. THE governing body of the Imperial College of Science and Technology at South Kensington last year awarded two scholarships for research in connection with aero- nautics. The students have held their scholarships at the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington. We learn from the Times of August 5 that an additional scholarship is now being offered for award at an early date by the The scholarship will be tenable for one year, and will consist of exemption from fees, together with a maintenance allowance at rates fixed with regard to the circumstances of the case, the value of the scholarship being not less than sol. and not more than rsol. a year. It is open to any properly qualified in- dividual, irrespective of residence or place of education. At Regent Street Polytechnic, too, the courses in aéro- engineering are to be developed. A second-year course of aérodynamics is being arranged for students who have qualified in the first year’s work in aéro-engineering inaugurated during last session. The course will be open to other persons who can provide evidence that they possess the requisite knowledge of applied mathematics. Special instruction in workshop practice relating to aéroplanes and airships will be given, and students will receive help in making gliders and working models of different types of aérial craft they may be interested in. Tue calendar of the Edinburgh and East of Scotland College of Agriculture for 1910-11 provides full informa- tion as to the courses of instruction offered to pupils for the coming session. The college was founded in 1901 with the object of providing for agricultural education and re- search in the central and south-eastern counties of Scot- land. Its classes are arranged in conjunction with certain classes in the science faculty of Edinburgh University. Courses for the diploma of the college and for the science A short course, specially arranged to suit those who are actively engaged in farm work, is held at the college annually. The college also maintains a comprehensive scheme of extension work AvuGusT 11, 1910] NATURE 195 in the neighbouring counties, and the services of its staff are placed at the disposal of farmers investigating new conditions, or special points arising out of their farming operations. Under the regulations of the Scotch Education Department, the college is recognised as a central institu- tion to which students may be sent by burgh and county education committees. Instruction in poultry-keeping has been considerably developed. The interest in school gardening grows, and seventy-three gardens have been laid out with the assistance of the college staff. The experi- ments and demonstrations carried on throughout the neighbouring district are described in the calendar, and give proof of the practical nature of the work undertaken. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LONDON. Physical Society, July 8.—Prof. H. L. Callendar, F.R.S., president, in the chair.—Prof. H. L. Callendar : The radio-balance: a thermoelectric balance for the abso- lute measurement of radiation; with applications to radium and its emanation. In this apparatus, which was first constructed in 1905, and was briefly described in an article on radiation contributed to the ‘‘ Encyclopedia Britannica,”’ heat supplied by radiation is directly compensated by the Peltier absorption of heat in a thermo-junction through which a measured electric current is passed. In the simplest form of the instrument, radiation admitted through a measured aperture, 2 mm. diam., falls on a small copper disc 3 mm. diam. by 0-5 mm. thick, to which two thermo- junctions are attached, forming a Peltier cross. One couple is connected to a sensitive galvanometer for indicating changes of temperature. The other is connected to a battery and rheostat in series with a millammeter or potentiometer for measuring the current required to reduce the deflection of the galvanometer to zero. In practice, two similar discs with similar connections are mounted side by side in a thick copper box, and are balanced against each other in order to avoid changes of zero due to exposure to sunshine, or rapid variations of tempera- ture. The advantages of the disc radio-balance are that it is very simple to construct and easy to reproduce without material variation in the reduction constants. It is very suitable for measurements of solar radiation, or strong sources, but is insufficiently sensitive for weal sources ; and the absorption coefficient a must be determined by comparison with a standard. In the cup radio-balance, the radiation is received in a copper cup 3 mm. diam. by 10 mm. deep, so that the absorption coefficient is practically equal to unity. Greater sensitiveness is secured by employing a pile of several couples, insulated from the cup, in place of the single balancing couple. External dis- turbances are eliminated by employing a pair of cups, similarly mounted but oppositely connected, enclosed in a thick copper cylinder. The Joule effect, represented by the C*R term in the equation, is automatically eliminated by passing the same current in series through the opposing Peltier junctions soldered to the bottom of the cups. The cup exposed to radiation is cooled, and the cup screened from radiation is heated, by the Peltier effect, while both are equally heated by the Joule effect. A complete observation involves reversing the current and switching over the radiation screen, in order to eliminate any differ- ence of sensitiveness of the two piles. By observing the neutral current, each cup can be used separately, as with the disc balance, but the disc balance cannot be used with the Peltier couples connected in opposition unless the balancing couples are insulated from the discs. The cup radio-balance is sensitive to less than a tenth of a micro- watt, and is very suitable for measuring the heat evolved by small quantities of radio-active substances. It was applied to radium at Prof. Strutt’s suggestion, and Prof. Rutherford has kindly supplied samples of emanation, and has determined the value of the radium sample employed by comparison with his own standards. The second sample of emanation had only just come to hand, and the absolute values had not been finally reduced at the time the paper was read; but it appeared from the preliminary reductions that the heat evolution of radium in terms of Prof. Rutherford’s standards was much greater than that NO. 2128, vot. 84] | various methods. given by previous observers.—Dr. A. Russell: The con- vection of heat from a body cooled by a stream of fluid. Attention is directed to certain deductions made by Boussinesq from the mathematical theory of the conduc- tion of heat in liquids. Complete proofs are given of Boussinesq’s formula, stress being laid on their limitations, and some of their practical applications are pointed out. It is proved that when a hot body is immersed in a stream of liquid flowing with constant velocity, the cooling is proportional to the difference of temperature between the body and the liquid. Newton proved experimentally in 17o1 that this law was true for the case of a hot body being cooled by a draught of air. He enunciated his law with reference to the forced convection of heat from a body, and not, as is often stated, to the natural free con- vection from it. Lorenz has shown that in special cases the natural convection of heat will vary as the 1-25th power of the difference of temperature. Provided that the velocity of the cooling draught is kept constant, between certain limits, Compan has shown that Newton's law 3 very approximately true even when the dificrence ° temperature is as high as 300° C. Another deduction from the formule proved in the paper 1s that the cookie oe very approximately proportional to the square root 0 ae velocity of the convection current. The author gives the solution of the problem of the heating of a liquid flowing steadily, with a velocity less than the critical vey through a cylindrical tube which is maintained at cone temperature. It is shown that, in many practical cases, the heating power of the tube varies as RO/sokVl, where R is the radius of the tube, @ the difference of temperature between the tube and the liquid, s the specific heat, o ae density, k the conductivity, W the velocity of flow, an the length of the tube. It is’ proved that if a wire me immersed in a stream of liquid with its length at Bye angles to the direction of flow, the electric current w. io will fuse the wire varies as the 125th power of the diameter of the wire. Finally, the effect on the cooling of an electrically heated cylinder by a stream Sacre a putting an insulating wrapping round it, is considere 7 is shown that in certain cases the effect of this proce’ ue is to lower the temperature of the cylinder, an seer can be easily demonstrated experimentally. In one to simplify the mathematical work, only the case pee: pressible fluids is considered. Experimental results, ae ever, obtained by various physicists are quoted to s oy that some of the formule are approximately true for t . cooling of heated bodies by convection with currents © air.—Prof. S. P. Thompson: Hysteresis loops and Lissa- jous’s figures, and on the energy wasted in a byetete loop. Attempts have been made to find an explanation 0 the forms of the looped curves which express the bye exhibited by iron and steel when subjected to cyc ore magnetisation. Physical explanations to cee oe eir general shape have been given by Ewing and Hop eae and M. Pierre Weiss has put forward an electronic theory to account for the principal features. The author shows that any hysteresis loop can be analysed into a harmon} series of closed curves corresponding to the YerOUs ae in the analysis of the current wave, and their paeure cir are examined in the paper. A number of examp s 2 hysteresis loops were chosen and subjected ie ana se The loops chosen related to various kinds o ion steel, hard and soft, solid and laminated, and taken » In carrying out the analysis, the simple thod described by the author (Proc. Phys. Soc., vol. xiv.) was used. Details are given of the anaes of various loops, the effect of eddy currents on the size er form of the loops is discussed, and an account is elven the effect of the higher sine and cosine constituents oo e current wave.—Dr. W. H. Eccles: The energy rela hee of certain detectors used in wireless telegraphy. The paper is a record of the results of an experimental emt tion into the physical properties of the electrolytic e a ; the zincite rectifier, the carborundum rectifier, and a thermoelectric detector consisting of a light contact between graphite and galena. The conditions of the expertnen have been generally identical with those arising 1n the ordinary employment of the detectors, and, in particular, the quantities of energy given to the instruments, in the approximate me 196 NATURE [AuGUST II, 1910 form of electrical oscillations, have been of the same order in these experiments as in actual practice. The chief fact brought to light is that the power curves of all the detectors are straight lines, which suggests that all the detectors are fundamentally thermal in their action. Paris. } Academy of Sciences, August 1—M. Emile Picard in the chair.—M. Bassot: The geodesic expedition to the equator. A description of the first two volumes dealing with the results of the expedition under Col. Bourgeois for measuring the arc of the meridian at Quito.—A. Gautier and P. Clausmann: The action of mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, or of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, upon the oxides of iron. Carbon monoxide and hydrogen with Fe,O, at 500° C. gave a mixture of ferrous oxide and a carbide of iron, the latter correspond- ing to the composition Fe,,C. The bearing of the results on the composition of the gases issuing from fumerolles is discussed.—Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe: The catalytic preparation of alkyl-aryl ethers. A mixture of methyl alcohol and phenol vapours passed over thoria at 390°-420° gives a good yield of anisol, C,H,.O.CH,. If the phenol is replaced by its higher homologues, the corre- sponding homologues of anisol are obtained, and the substitution of ethyl alcohol for the methyl alcohol gives C,H,.0.C,H, and its homologues, some unsaturated hydrocarbon being produced by a _ secondary reaction between the ethyl alcohol and the thoria.—M. Schweerer : The thermal phenomena of the atmosphere.—G. Gaiffe : A method of stereoscopic and kinematographic radio- graphy.—E. M. Antoniadi, F. Baldet, and F. Quénisset: The occultation of » Gemini by the planet Venus. Observations made at the Juvisy Observatory on July 26. The duration of the occultation was 3m. 30s.+2-5s. The variations in the luminosity of the star when approaching contact lead to 80 to 110 kilometres as the height of the atmosphere of Venus.—José Comas Sola: The discovery of a small planet, presumably new. This was found on a photograph of Halley’s comet, taken on June 6 last.—José Comas Sola: Study of Halley’s comet.—M. Coggia: The occultation of » Gemini by Venus, observed at Marseilles —Th. de Donder : Poisson’s theorem and the differential invariants of Lie.—Paul Lévy: Some equations defining line functions.—Harald Bohr: The convergence of Dirichlet’s series.—A. Sainte- Lagué: Proportional representation and the method of least squares.—William Duane: The evolution of heat in a mixture of radium and a phosphorescent salt. The rate of evolution of heat by a radium salt is not affected by admixture with a phosphorescent substance.—Pierre Jolibois: The relations between white phosphorus, red phosphorus, and pyromorphic phosphorus. By a study of the vapour pressures, the author concludes that these three varieties of phosphorus are distinct, and criticises the theory recently proposed by Cohen and Olie.—Henri Leroux: The heats of combustion of some hydronaphtha- lene derivatives.—Ed. Chauvenet: The combinations of thorium chloride with ammonia.—Georges Charpy: Behaviour of steel analogous to the ‘‘tin disease.’? A study of the conditions leading to an increase of the velocity of crystallisation in steel on annealing.—J. B. Senderens: Catalytic reactions in the wet way based on the use of aluminium sulphate. In the preparation of ethylene by the interaction of alcohol and sulphuric acid, the presence of aluminium sulphate lowers the temperature of the reaction and increases the velocity of evolution of the gas. The same salt also possesses a favourable cata- lytic effect in the preparation of ether.—Daniel Berthelot and Henry Gaudechon: The mechanism of photochemical reactions and the formation of plant principles: the decom- position of sugar solutions. The mechanism of the re- actions caused by exposure to ultra-violet rays is analogous to that in living plants. Exposed to these rays, solutions of glucose give carbon monoxide, dioxide, methane, and hydrogen. Levulose, maltose, and saccharose. behave similarly, but the proportions of the gases are different in each case.—André Piedatlu: A new mould in oil tanning. —Henri Labbé: Contribution to the study of nitrogenous exchanges.—Gabriel Bertrand and A. Compton: The individuality of cellase and emulsin. Comparative experi- NO. 2128, VoL. 84] ments on the hydrolysis of cellose by cellase and of amygda- lin by emulsin show that these two diastases are quite distinct.—N. A. Barbieri: The non-existence of free or combined lecithins in yolk of egg.—Etienne Sergent and Edmond Sergent: Immunity against malaria in birds. Conservation in vitro of the sporozoites of Plasmodium relictum. Relative immunity obtained by inoculation with these sporozoites.—B. Brunhes: Telluric currents. NEw Soutu WALES. Linnean Society, June 29.—Mr. C. Hedley, president, in the chair.—R. J. Tillyard: Monograph of the genus Synthemis (Neuroptera: Odonata). The most important points discussed are:—(1) The position of the genus in the subfamily Corduliine. The view is put forward that it should be separated from the Macromina, so as to con- stitute a subgroup Synthemina. (2) Subdivision of the genus itself—T. G. Sloame: Studies in Australian entomology. No. 16. New species of Carabidae. A new genus, Stichonotus, referable to the subfamily Carabine, and eighteen species belonging to the subfamily Harpaline, are described as new, including a species of the Asiatic genus Holcoderus, now first recorded from Australia.— W. W. Froggatt: The entomological fauna of Narru Island, of the Ocean Island group.—A. H. Hamilton: Description of a new species of Lepidosperma (Cyperacez) from the Port Jackson district, with some miscellaneous botanical notes. CONTENTS. PAGE Recent Earthquake pee By Prof. ce Milne, FOR SS. 5 Alea een minions f 165 Tar, Acid, and Alkali ak o/. 166 Sounding Round the Antarctic Continent. By J. w. J. PA Gy Readable Books in Natural Knowledge. By Ua LESS el : cpa: ehs) Salmon and Trout. ’ By L. WBS.) Cop ees Non-Euclidean Geometry. By G. B. M. ee re file)? Forest Flora of the Bombay Presidency .... . 170 Applied Chemistry. Rk (EDs, i. Cttomemene 170 Our Book Shelf... . ; PemORAeT Gyo OFC, fyi! Letters to the Editor :— Pwdre Ser.—Prof. T. McKenny Huphes, F.R.S. 171 The Blood-sucking Conorhinus.—J. D. ? 172 The Early History of Non-Euclidean Cae D. M. Y. Sommerville . . 172 The Total Solar ees of April 28, “irr. —Dr. Pio Emanuelli . . 172 Mars in 1909 as seen “at. the Lowell Observatory. (Z/lustrated.)—Prof. Percival Lowell .. . ~ ty Treatment of Storage Cells. — Dr. Bertram B. Boltwood .. 174 The Sheffield } Meeting of the British ‘Association. — S: RigMilner ~~ - 174 ” (Dlustrated. ) ea avi Uustrated.) . 175 Yellow Jack and the West Indies. The Vertebrate Fauna of Cheshire. Across Yunnan, (J///ustrated.) By J. T 177 Does the Indian Climate Change? By Dr. ‘William Tass Mockyem = . Syma 178 Notes ... ARMENIA L02 5 (2 Our Astronomical Column :— Photographs of Nebulse (a aa ace =) memo Halley’s Comet. Be ome UGK The Accurate Measurement of Photographs. +) See od Observations of Perseids in 1909 . 184 Results from the Micrometric Observations of Eros, 1900. Share 184 Wild Plaats on Waste Land in London A crehts od Agricultural Investigations in Egypt. ..... .- 184 Science in Bengal . . ey st bien eae 185 Australian and Argentine Biology iy “al at tepey oaks OO) Rainfall of Rhodesia and Australia . . 187 The Chemical Significance of Crystal Structure. (Zllustrated.) By Prof. William J. Pope, F.R.S. . 187 Results of some Recent Investigations on Mag- netic Disturbances, By Dr. L. A. Bauer... . 192 University and Educational Intelligence ..... 194 Societies and Academies ........ eiotne 195 THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1910. The Design and Construction of Internal Combustion Engines. A Handbook for Designers and Builders of Gas and Oil Engines. By Hugo Giildner. Translated from the second revised edition, with additions on American engines, by Prof. H. Diederichs. | Pp. xix+672. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 42s. net. Sk work is the’ most complete and elaborate treatise on the gas-engine which has ever been published, as will be realised when it is stated that there are 664 pages of comparatively small-type letter- press, 728 figures, and 36 folding plates. There is a certain amount of the usual padding, namely, photo- graphic reproductions of large and small gas-engines of various makes, as well as records of tests, but there is also a large amount of original work and practical information which, owing to the position of the author, viz., chief engineer and director of the Gildner Motoren Gesellschaft, must be regarded as of great value. In the preface to the first edition, the author states :— “Germany’s gas-engine industry justly enjoys an international reputation . .. everything that has served to lay the foundation of the industry and that has helped to make it vital and important is either the product of German thought, or was first prac- tically realised on German soil.” It is not surprising, therefore, that the work reflects German practice. The book is translated into English by Prof. H. Diederichs, of Cornell University, and he has entirely omitted the first part of the German edition, which treats of the history of the gas-engine, and has sub- stituted therefor descriptions of, and information relating to, American gas-engines. The author says that his principal object in writing this book was to make it ‘serve as an every-day working guide to the designer and constructor,” and to follow out this object he has adopted the somewhat unusual feature of giving dimensioned drawings, not only of complete engines or producers, but of various parts. These drawings will undoubtedly be found to be of the greatest use to many designers and also to purchasers of engines who may wish to verify whether a proposed engine is correctly designed or not. The work is divided into four parts and an appendix. The first part deals with the various methods of operating gas-engines and the gas-engine cycles; the second part with the design and construction of in- ternal-combustion engines; the third with the erection and tests of modern internal-combustion engines; the fourth with gas-engine fuels and combustion in gas- engines; and the appendix with various theoretical matters relating to thermodynamics and_ thermo- chemistry, as well as with certain details derived from practice. 5 In dealing with the constant-volume cycle, the author investigates the question of the maximum compression that should be practically adopted, talx- NO. 2129, VOL. 84] NATURE me ing into consideration the theoretical thermal efficiency based on comparatively recent data of the variation of specific heat with temperature, as well as the efficiency ratio and mechanical efficiency, and finds that the economic limit of maximum compression lies between 21olb. and 28o0lb. per square inch, a conclusion which, although these pressures are somewhat higher, is substantially in agreement with the experimental work of Prof. Burstall. A critical comparison of the four-cycle and two- cycle engines is made, and the author comes to the conclusion that the four-cycle engine can only be considered ‘‘as a makeshift until an efficient and trust- worthy two-cycle machine appears on the market”; he also discusses the question of compounding, and states that “it will remain without promise in gas- engine construction.”” The design of the various parts of gas-engines is gone into in the very fullest manner, and numerical examples are worked out in great detail; some interesting photographs are given show- ing the effect of weak frame construction and of imperfectly designed crank-shafts. A great deal of information respecting the type of material to use for the various parts of gas-engines is given, and in the matter of connecting-rods, while stating that soft steel is usually employed, the author says that the use of cast-steel is on the increase. The design of inlet and exhaust valves is given in great detail, and the various methods of water-cooling are described. Amongst the latter is an interesting arrangement de- signed by Pawlikowsky, in which the water-pipe is stationary and the water is led through the valve spindle, which is large enough to be bored out to admit the inlet pipe with a space around it through which the hot water can find its way back. The design of fly-wheels is discussed at considerable length, and numerous tangential effort diagrams for various types and designs of gas-engines are given, and the results of various calculations are embodied in a series of curves by which the required weight of rim of a fly-wheel can be ascertained under various conditions occurring in practice. In respect of gas-producers, the author appears to favour the suction-producer in preference to pressure- producers, and says that the former have almost en- tirely displaced the older form. This statement is: made without any reference to the size of the engine to be supplied with gas, and cannot, therefore, be regarded as conforming with present. practice, in which the large gas-engines are supplied with gas from pressure-producers. Numerous designs of suc- tion-producers are described, none of them larger than 600 b.h.p., and there is only a passing reference to pressure-producers. At the beginning of part iii., much detailed informa- tion is given in respect of the capital cost dnd cost of erection and running of gas-engine installations, and all this information is collected together in a tabular form, giving all the various heads of expendi- ture for engines varying from 5 b.h.p. to 200 b.h.p., both when using illuminating gas and suction gas. It is interesting to note that the total operating costs for 5 b.-h.p. are the same for both kinds of gas, but H 198 NATURE [AucusT 18, 1910 after that the suction gas is much the cheaper. At 200 b.h.p. the suction gas is nearly one-third the cheaper. There are some very interesting folding plates show- ing the pipe-work necessary for various designs of gas-engines; the various kinds of pipes—gas, water, and exhaust—are shown in difterent colours, and thus the matter is made very clear. Nearly ninety pages of the book are devoted to descriptions of American gas-engines, made by West- inghouse, Allis Chalmers, the Snow Engine, and many others. Many of the drawings are dimensioned, and the results of numerous tests are given. In part iv. various fuels available for producing gas are described, and there is an extensive table on American coals, giving for each full analysis and the calorific value per pound; there is also information with reference to blast-furnace gases and coke-oven gas, also with regard to various oils, alcohol, &c. There is an important table giving the explosive range of various gases. The remainder of the book consists of the theory of the gas-engine and producers, and in the appendix the fullest particulars are given of the methods of testing gas-engines prescribed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and by the German Society of Engineers. This information is of great importance, especially as at the present moment there is nothing of the kind issued by any society of British engineers in connection with gas- or internal- combustion engines. STRUCTURE AND DISTRIBUTION OF ORE DEPOSITS. Lehre von den Erzlagerstiétten. By Dritte Auflage. Dr. R. Beclx. Band i., pp. xii+540+1 map; Band ii., pp. x+542. (Berlin: Gebriider Born- traeger, 1909.) Price, two vols., 32 marks. ROF. BECK’S ‘Lehre von den Erzlagerstitten ”’ is one of those works which disarm criticism. The predominant feeling in the mind of the geologist when using it must be of gratitude to its author for this comprehensive and up-to-date account of the structure and distribution of ore deposits. The pre- vious edition was published in 1903, and an American version, translated and edited by Weed, was issued in 1905. The new edition has been so much enlarged that it now appears as two volumes, equal in size to the original. The book follows the same general lines as the pre- vious editions, but there are many important changes which indicate the trend of current opinion as to ore classification. Prof. Beck divides ores into two primary divisions, the epigenetic and syngenetic, those formed respectively later and simultaneous with the rocks in which they occur. These divisions are, however, prac- tically abandoned in the work. The author divides ores into eight groups, in which the first, seventh, and eighth in order of treatment are mostly syngenetic; the intermediate groups are epigenetic, but include some ores which are admittedly syngenetic. The term syngenetic, though it appears in the introduction, is not much used, but epigenetic recurs frequently. That NO. 2129, VOL. 84] each almost term is not altogether satisfactory, as most of the epigenetic ores are subterranean, and some of them are very deep seated in origin. Hence epigenetic ores are not epigene, but hypogene, to use two old and well- established geological terms. The ores first treated are those attributed to direct segregation in molten rocks. They are the truly igneous ores. Prof. Beck recognises fourteen types, of which all but four were included in the previous edition. The only new type of oxide ores amongst these is that of magnetite in granite, described by Vogt, from the Lofoten Islands. Prof. Beck, however, in a note added to the proofs, remarks that Sjégren’s recent paper confirms his own opinion that these granitic ores are due to contact metamorphism, and not segregation. The whole chapter on magmatic segregation shows that less importance is attached now than formerly to this process of ore formation. The author includes the nickel ores of Sudbury in this chapter, but recognises that they are mainly due to secondary processes. He also quotes Loewinsen Lessing’s interesting worlk on the famous iron ores of the Urals, which are thus shown to be contact deposits and not segregations, as has been usually maintained; and as Prof. Beck points out, the great Lapland ores, which have also been claimed as igneous segregations, must be regarded as of the same origin as those of the Urals. The group of ores which. came second in the previous edition, included those deposited by direct sedimentation and precipitation. These aqueous ores were placed next after the igneous, because both groups are syngenetic. Description of the sedimentary ores is now postponed till near the end of the book, and the ores due to contact metamorphism talse their place. This significant change is a great improve- ment, as many of the ores now assigned to igneous segregation will probably be found to be contact deposits. The bulk of the work is occupied with a description of the epigenetic ores, which include ordinary mineral veins and certain ores in stratified rocks, due to the same process as ore veins. The author includes here the banket of the Transvaal. He gives an excellent judicial summary of the arguments in favour of the rival theories as to the origin of that ore without here expressing any very definite prefer- ence. He obviously still favours the infiltration theory which he has elsewhere supported. In reply to the suggestion that much of the pyrites in the banket is altered ‘‘blaclk sand,’’ he asks what has become of the ilmenite that is usually associated with magnetite in such deposits. There is, however, plenty of titanic oxide in the banket which has probably been derived from decomposed ilmenite. Little stress is laid on the old arguments in support of the infiltration theory, and according to Prof. Beck the weightiest argument in its favour is the dependence of the gold contents of the banket on its dip. This may be ques- tioned as a matter of fact, and it is at any rate an indefinite and unconvincing argument. The author includes the West African banket as also epigenetic, though he accepts its gold as alluvial in origin. It is not surprising to find this ore described immediately OEE eae eee Aucust: 18, 1910] NATURE G)8) after that of the Rand, for those who know both deposits regard them as of the same origin, though the iron ores of the West African banket still mainly occur as magnetite. It seems difficult to regard the West African banket as a modified placer, and the South African as an ore due to infiltration. The feature in Prof. Beck’s arrangement of ores which seems most improbable is his reference of so many metalliferous sandstones and conglomerates to the epigenetic group. He includes there, for example, the Katanga quartzite, which contains small nuggets of gold and platinum. In fact, the only pre-Cainozoic alluvial gold deposits which are included in the chapter on detrital ores are those of the Cambrian of the Black Hills of Dakota, a few occurrences of no economic value in the Carboniferous rocks of Australia, Nova Scotia, and France, and in the Mesozoic of California, New Zealand, and Saxony. Alluvial zold must have been deposited in pre-Cainozoic times, but whenever ancient gravels are of much economic value their gold is attributed to infiltration. While in some cases Prof. Beck may be disposed to underrate the extent of ancient alluvial ores, he includes the tin deposits of Mt. Bischoff in Tasmania as alluvial, having appa- rently overlooked a short note upon that mine, ex- plaining its tin-bearing sands as decomposed gossan in which a pseudo-stratification has been produced by the settling of the decaying rock. Prof. Beck’s work shows remarkably thorough ac- quaintance with recent literature on economic geology, and his statement of rival hypotheses is always given with scrupulous fairness. This greatly enlarged edition will become even more indispensable as a work of reference than its predecessors, and is worthy of the high traditions of the Freiburg Mining School. lo Miiee(Ge THE SUGAR-CANE AND ITS PRODUCTS. The Manufacture of Cane Sugar. and F. I. Scard. Pp. xix+454. (London: Edward Stanford, 1909.) Price 125. 6d. net. A NOTEWORTHY feature in tropical agriculture is the new lease of life taken recently by the cane-sugar industry. A few years ago it appeared not improbable, to say the least, that the sugar-cane was doomed to be forced into a position permanently infe- rior to that of the beet as a source of the world’s supply of sugar. Originally possessed of a practical mono- poly, the cane had lost so much ground that in the opening years of this century the beet supplied about two-thirds of the sugar which came into the world’s markets. It is true that a great deal of cane- sugar is consumed in countries where it is produced and escapes record; so far as the world’s commerce was concerned beet was the chief contributor. Within, however, the last five years, the output of cane-sugar has markedly increased, whilst that of beet has slightly diminished, and a little more than one- half of the sugar of commerce is now derived from the sugar-cane. , This period of activity in the industry has been marked by the issue of various books. One of the most useful is that now under review. The authors NO. 2129, VOL. 84] By Llewellyn Jones have wide practical experience of sugar-making, as engineer and chemist respectively; with the aid of numerous illustrations they present the results of their experience in an exceedingly simple manner. A marked feature of the book is the explanation of practical matters in clear, non-technical language, and a reader with no special engineering knowledge and no experience of sugar-making should easily under- stand and be able to follow the whole chain of pro- cesses by which the ripe sugar-cane is converted into sugar and the various by-products. No pretence is made to deal with cultivation. There is in chapter i. an illustrated account of the structure of the cane (the references on pp. 3 and 4 to the figures are not accurate), and notes on the chief varieties, diseases, chemical composition, &c.; but the subject-matter proper of the book opens with crushing, in the next chapter. Whilst the novice will read this easily, the mature planter will find much worthy of consideration, as, for example, in the excel. lent presentment of the pros and cons of improved methods of extraction. In dealing with the boiling or concentration, the evolution of the modern vacuum pan, capable of yielding 4o tons of sugar at a single operation, is traced from the simple open pan still in use in many parts of the world. Equally here, whether dealing with the simplest or the most com- plicated processes, the authors have contrived to pre- serve a conspicuously clear and direct style. The volume is one which should be of great value to non-technical readers who wish to obtain informa- tion regarding one of the best-organised and most scientific of the great industries of the tropics. The practical sugar-maker will appreciate the exposition of the theory underlying various processes, the clear description of methods, and also doubtless derive assistance from the useful practical hints with which the book abounds. \Wig WGoed as THE PSYCHOLOGY Ueber den Willensakt und das Temperament: eine experimentelle Untersuchung. By Prof. Narziss Ach. Pp. xii+324. (Leipzig: Quelle and Meyer, 1910.) Price 6.50 marks. oh the layman an act of volition is one of those obvious things, such as gravity or growth, which present no difficulty and suggest no problem. Their mechanism is so smooth in its working that the mind never dreams of the presence of a mystery. Add to which the fact that it is impossible to go through the process of willing and at the same time to contemplate and observe the process. Yet at least one difficulty has been noted by the crudest philosophy for ages past—the power of choice, the, so-called freedom of the will. This, however, as Prof. Ach observes, is a function not of the will but of reason. He also well insists that the judgment “1 can do that which I will,” has two distinct meanings, which have often been confused. The one meaning is positive, “T have the capacity to carry out what Tie orale “can” being equivalent to posse, pouvoir, vermodgen. The other is negative, ‘‘It is my wish to do what I will."’. Psychologists are only too well aware that “In OF THE WILL. 200 no department of the science of mind does there prevail greater confusion and uncertainty than in that of Volition.” In the present volume Prof. Ach continues the records and results of his prolonged investigation into will-psychology ; the former instalment being his 1905 treatise, ‘‘ Uber die Willenstatigkeit und das Denken.”’ An account is given of the experimental method em- ployed, which is largely a combination of those of Ebbinghaus and G. E. Miiller. He employed eighteen subjects who were practised on reproduction of syllables, rhymes, and the like components of methods well known in laboratories. As his main result, the author claims to have shown that the act of will is a specific psychic experience. The positive phenomenal characteristics of a primary ‘volition are (1) the perceptive moment—sensations of ‘tension ; (2) the objective moment—ideas of reference -and end, purpose, and means; (3) the actual moment — the acoustic—kinesthetic, ‘I will actually ’’; (4) con- -ditional moment—consciousness of effort. Of these the chief is (3), and he explains why it has hitherto been so often ignored. None of these moments, of course, is independent; they are sides of one fact. Great spectacular results are not expected from the minute laboriousness of experiments like these; but they are latent, and, as Weber’s Law, for instance, has done, will emerge in due time. Yet light is thrown on a score of ‘little problems.’ Not the least interesting, and the most detailed, discussion is that on weakness of will. A close study of this chapter in connection with the tabulated results of the investi- ‘gation which occupy the first half of the volume would be a fruitful piece of book-work for the learner. Prof. Ach rightly censures the use of such examples, as the famous ‘‘ How we get up in the morning ” of Prof. James, for illustrating the mechanism of voli- tion. Trained or habituated will is precisely that form of the process which is least original. Here, by the way, in the relation between habit and will—a relation of practical, no less than theoretical, import- ance—is a fruitful field for investigation. Another fruitful area is the connection between will’ and tem- perament. Prof. Ach ends his volume with a few suggestive pages on this subject. The material supplied by the author’s investigation is probably rich enough to yield further results if re-studied. So far, the author has been led towards a reaction against the prevailing view of will-processes. Without doubt this and similar work is clearing the ground for a new psychology, both of feeling and of will. A BOOK OF CHARACTERISTIC FOSSILS. ein Hilfsbuch zum Bestimmen von Versteinerungen bei geologischen Arbeiten in der Sammlung und im Felde. Lief. 1. : Kambrium und Silur. By Prof. Georg Giirich. Pp. 95. (Berlin: Gebriider Borntraeger, 1908.) ROF. GEORG GURICH has prepared a well- illustrated handbook of characteristic fossils which is now in course of publication in eight parts. Leitfossilien: NATURE [AuGust 18, 1910 who are occupied with geological work and desire an exact knowledge of those fossils which are of special value in determining the relative ages of rock-forma- tions. It is not a treatise on common fossils, and those who seek in it an account of so familiar a brachiopod as Atrypa reticularis, for example, will be disappointed; but it deals with those species and genera which, whether common or not, happen to be restricted in their geological range, and are thus of service as unerring time-markers. The fossils of each successive period are taken in order, beginning with the earliest; and the twenty-eight plates included in the first part of the book are devoted to those of the Cambrian and Silurian formations. The figures are not original, but judiciously selected from standard works, and all are beautifully reproduced by a half- tone process. The accompanying text consists chiefly of brief definitions of the various groups, families, genera, and species, in systematic order under each geological formation. There are also useful synoptical tables, both of the formations themselves in different parts of the world and of the fossil species which are characteristic of each special stage. Occasional text- figures are added to explain structural features and the more important anatomical terms employed. In the first part, the figures illustrating the structure of trilobites and graptolites are especially good. Dr. Giirich does not recognise an Ordovician system, but classifies the formations from the Tremadoc to the Caradoc inclusive as Lower Silurian. His work is also unusual among stratigraphical handbooks in paying special attention to fossil plants and vertebrates when they can reasonably be claimed as of value. His first reference to vertebrates, however, in the Upper Silurian is unfortunate, for it tales no account of Dr. Traquair’s important discoveries, and repeats an old error in supposing that the shagreen named Thelodus belongs to the same fish as the fin-spines named Onchus. In view of present rapid progress and specialisation this oversight is not surprising, and Dr. Gurich is to be congratulated on having made an excellent beginning of a useful and _ irustworthy student’s manual. METALLOGRAPHY. Metallographie: Ein ausfiihrliches Lehr- und Hand- buch der Konstitution, und der physikalischen, chemischen und technischen Eigenschaflen der Metalle und metallischen Legierungen. Erster Band, Die Konstitution, Hefts. i. and ii. By Dr. W. Guertler. (Berlin: Gebriider Borntraeger, 1909.) roe number of investigations in metallography published up to 1902 amounted to about one thousand, but to-day reaches three times that number. This fact alone makes the appearance of a complete text-book on the subject most welcome. The work is appearing in parts, the first two of which consist each of eighty imperial octavo pages, and it is expected that seven or eight more similar instalments will complete the first volume, which is devoted to the constitution of metallic alloys. . é laying her egg-band From the Journal of the South- March moths laying their eggs in proximity to the egg- band of a lackey moth. That insidious pest Tylenchus devastatrix receives attention, and further notes are promised for the next report. A very interesting article on the British Culicidee concludes one of the most fascinating portions of the book. In addition to the general analytical work, the analytical report deals, for the most part, with soya-bean cake -and meal. Economic mycology and experiments on hops form the chief items in the botanical report. It is interesting to note that the good work carried on at Wye in dealing with American gooseberry mildew, apple ‘‘scab,’’ and “black scab ’’ of potatoes, is being continued. The notes on the making and application of Bordeaux mixture, with notes on Bordeaux injury, illustrated by no fewer than twenty-three plates, will be greatly appreciated by fruit- growers. Two plates showing the right and wrong kinds NO. 2130, VOL. 84] of spray for Bordeaux mixture are interesting. In addition to the American gooseberry mildew, the somewhat neglected but no. less prevalent Sclerotinia (Botrytis), ‘* die back,’ of the same plant is described. In the previous issue of the journal attention was directed to the importance of the male.plant in the growing out of hops, and it appears that the advice tendered in the article in question has borne good fruit, and that several Kentish hop-growers have obtained good results by retaining, or even planting, male hops. ‘the veterinary report, always interesting, is especially so in this issue on account of the announcement of the termination of a long series of “struck sheep ’’ experiments, and the probable discovery of a preventive treatment. Fic 2.—Dise ced Gooseberry Branch, showing the Botrytis fructification at x and elsewhere. From the Journal of the South-eastern Agri- cultural College. The general notes consist of a summary of the college events of the year, and will appeal to all old students. To those who desire to keep abreast of the times in matters agricultural the journal is indispensable. CA. EE THE BICENTENARY OF ‘THOMAS SIMPSON. O N August 20 occurred the bicentenary of the birth of Thomas Simpson, who may be regarded as one of the last of the English school of mathematicians of the eighteenth century. Newton, Halley, the Gregories, Muston, Demoivre, Brook Taylor, Maclaurin, had all passed away before Simpson reached middle age, and the study of mathematics in England was entering upon that period of stagnation which left us without a single mathe- matician in any way comparable with the great writers on the Continent. Simpson was the son of a Leicestershire weaver, and was AUGUST 25, I910} NATURE C5)5) ‘born at Market. Bosworth, August 20, 1710. He was brought up as a weaver, and the little learning he obtained as a boy was gained in spite of many disadvantages and ‘obstacles. Indeed, the opposition he received from his father at last drove him from home, and he went to Nuneaton, where, at about the age of twenty, he married his landlady, a widow of fifty. His acquaintance with mathematics began at the age of ‘twenty-four with ‘‘ Cocker'’s Arithmetic,’’ the study of which he combined with that of astrology, his tutor being a fortune-telling pedlar. Simpson’s astrology, however, -brought him more trouble than credit, and on the charge of frightening a girl into fits by ‘‘ raising the devil’’ he had to leave the district. He spent some time at Derby, and in 1735-6 he went to London, worked as a weaver in Spitalfields, and taught mathematics in his spare time. A year or two afterwards, with the sole assistance of Edmund Stone’s translation of L’Hdépital’s ‘*‘ Analyse des Infini- ‘ments ‘Petits,’ Simpson wrote ‘‘ A: New’ Treatise on Fluxions,’’ which was considered’ a! notable contribution to the literature of that comparatively new subject. Other ELECTRICAL AND OTHER PROPERTIES OF SAND. “T-HIS material, which flows so freely through my fingers and may be poured in the manner of a_ liquid {rom one vessel to another, is common sand. Specimens from various parts of the world are here exhibited; there are sands from the Sahara Desert, from New Zealand, France, Scotland, and several parts of England. There are also bottles of the coloured sands from Alum Bay, in the Isle of Wight, and Redhill. It may be pointed out at once that this coloration is merely due to the presence of an adherent layer of oxides or hydroxide of iron, for even varieties which appear under the microscope to contain little or no coloured particles generally have a trace of iron clinging to the grains. For instance, a small quantity of white sand from Charlton, having been wetted with strong sulphuric acid before the lecture, will yield on the addition of water a solution containing iron. A few drops of ferrocyanide of potassium give a strong blue characteristic precipitate. Fic. 1 publications followed, his pupils increased, and he gained a considerable reputation. In 1743, through the influence of William Jones, the mathematician, Simpson obtained a post as professor of mathematics at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and two years later he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, having already been made a member of the Academy of Sciences, Stockholm. After holding his post at Woolwich for eight years he was seized with illness, caused, it was thought, by overwork. Advised to try his native air, he journeyed to Bosworth in February, 1761, and died there on May 14, in the fifty-first year of his age. He was buried in the churchyard of Sutton Cheney, a parish a short distance from Market Bosworth, where in 1790 the Leicestershire antiquarian John Throsby plaeed a tablet over His grave. Simpson had one son, who became a captain in the Royal Artillery, and one daughter. His wife survived him many years, received a pension from the Crown, and died in 1782 at the great age of ‘102. EpcGar C. SMITH. NO. 2130, VOL. 84] Further, the so-called biack iron sand from New Zealand consists almost entirely of magnetite. If some of it is poured out upon a sheet of paper and brought near to a powerful magnet, you see that the grains fly eagerly to the poles and form large clusters there. This powder, on account of the regularity of its grains, their highly mag- netic character and freedom from dust, is particularly useful in the laboratory for tracing lines of magnetic force. It is interesting to compare this with the black oolitic sand from Compton Bay, in the Isle of Wight, for that is a silicate of iron, and therefore non-magnetic. I wish now to direct your attention to some of the pheno- mena connected with sand in large quantities, such as are met with dpon wide stretches or drifts. Blown sand, having been stopped by hedges and grass, gradually accumulates to a mound (Fig. 1)—in some cases with serious consequences. Dr. Vaughan Cornish, who has made a special study of this subject, has clearly proved, 1 Tiscours= delivere! at the Royal Institution on Friday, February rr, by Mr. Charles E. S. Phillips. on NATURE [AuGusT 25, 1910 however, that the formation of a sand dune is very fre- quently due to wind eddies. The second photograph was, in fact, taken by him in Egypt, and depicts the steady, irresistible march of millions of tons of sand, encroaching upon and slowly burying casuarina trees (Fig. 2). To come nearer home, the seriousness of problems arising out of this state of things may be illustrated by two photo- graphs obtained recently at Southport, in Lancashire. In the first one (Fig. 3), the back garden of a newly built house is nearly buried beneath the enormous hill, which will probably soon cover the whole property. The second (Fig. 4) shows that the familiar appearance of a sandy beach at low water, with regular lines of ripples, may be | | due to the motion of wind or water, varies in composition in different localities. The next slides are photomicrographs taken with a low- power objective.. They represent some grains of sand found at Charlton and the Isle of Eigg respectively (Figs. 5 and 6). The former are seen to consist of minute silica particles of very irregular form, whereas the larger grains of the Eigg sand are remarkable for their smoothness. It is owing to this fact that the latter possess a peculiar property, to be referred to later. Owing to the Sahara Desert having once formed the bed of a vast sea, it is, of course, found to be rich in marine deposit. The damage which sand is capable of produced by the direct action of the wind, and, incidentally, the utter futility of constructing an esplanade in such a neighbourhood. All these phenomena depend, in some measure, upon the size, weight, and shape of the sand grains themselves. Silica, a substance which occurs in numerous impure forms, and constitutes a large portion of the rock masses known to geologists, is also to be found in a pure state as crystalline quartz. Here is an actual specimen about 18 inches long, which, together with the beautiful group of quartz crystals by its side, known as amethysts (and tinted, probably, by a trace of organic matter), are the property of this institution. Sand, therefore, being the result of rock disintegration, assisted by the grinding action NO. 2130, VOL. 84] | the doing has been already referred to. It must not be forgotten, however, that its utility in the arts and crafts is of the utmost importance. The Egyptians are reputed to have been the first to find a wide use for it. They were probably the earliest glass-workers in the world. By the time glass-making was begun in England, viz. about 1611, the Romans and Venetians had so far mastered the art of blending sand with other substances that almost all the technical difficulties had already been overcome. Now the melting point of silica being about 3000° C., it cannot be worked in an ordinary furnace. In glass-making the sand is therefore heated with a salt of one or more of the alkaline group of metals, preferably with sodium carbonate. At a moderate temperature sodium silicate is formed, and if this be subsequently heated in the presence of either lead oxide or borax, the melting point of the mass is still further reduced. Here is a white- hot crucible containing sand so treated and melted. You see the glass pours out like treacle, and sets rapidly into a transparent slab upon a hot brass plate. Many useful applications, besides pro- viding us with windows and glass-ware, have been found for sand, such as the decorating of hard surfaces by means of an impinging stream of its _ particles, scouring and cleaning, preventing slip on the roads, and so on. By no means the least important of these is its employment in war as a protection against bullets; a thickness of 20 inches of dry sand is proof against the modern rifle. Now a mass of sand grains moving down a slope, by a motion consisting of rolling and sliding, meets with great opposition, due to friction. The grains thus come into close contact with the surface, and a considerable charge of elec- tricity may readily be obtained by the simple device of allowing them to impinge upon a suitable substance. A stream of sand flowing from the base of this reservoir B (Fig. 7) strikes upon an oblique sheet of tin T, which is attached to an insulating pillar N. An electrostatic voltmeter connected with the metal plate serves to measure electrical potential. You see that in a moment the tin becomes charged to 3000 volts. The needle, however, soon falls back. Something has changed. The plate has, in fact, become dulled and pitted where the sand struck it. A fresh part reproduces the high potential. Filter paper is far more serviceable, and so is a wooden surface. One may rapidly obtain a potential of 6000 volts if the sand | fall upon paper or wood, and this can be maintained for a considerable time. If the reading of the voltmeter diminishes, a fresh portion of the surface offered to the sand stream immediately brings it to its original value as before. The greater efficiency of paper (preferably filter paper) as compared with a metal sheet in producing the electrification, appears to arise in the following way- ~~ AucGusT 25, 1910] NATURE 27 A fine layer of dust soon becomes firmly imbedded in the metallic surface, so that further sand falling does not come into contact with the metal itself. On the other hand, it is probable that these particles cut through the fibres of the paper, and thus free themselves. I need hardly point out that the filter papers used should not be specially dried. Pieces which have been left about in a room for a few hours absorb sufficient moisture to ensure the right degree of conductivity. The sign of the charge is always positive, in spite of the fact that a rod of silica rubbed upon the paper electrifies it negatively. In 1843 Faraday had noticed this curious reversal, and briefly refers to it in his experimental re- searches. Even if the actual silica rod be broken up into pieces, say as large as an orange-pip, and allowed to fall upon the paper held obliquely, the sign of the electrifica- tion is still positive. Further experiments have shown, thowever, that the sign of the electricity caused by fric- tion against glass or silica depends upon the form of the tubbed surface. For instance, a strip of paper stroked by the smooth side of a tube of either substance becomes tolerably steady value may be obtained by catching the grains upon a second disc (previously dulled by a sand- blast) connected with the apparatus required to be con- stantly electrified. As the charge increases upon this, a point is reached when some of the impinging sand particles become deviated by repulsion, so as to completely miss it. If the potential falls below the critical value, a reverse action tales place, and the plate rapidly charges up. Turning for a moment to the question of the electrifica- tion produced in sand by the friction between the grains, experiments upon this point may be conveniently made by catching the particles, which roll down the surface of a sand cone, upon a small wet insulated table. Any electrification of the latter may then be detected in the usual manner. If the grains are all of the same nature, we should not expect to find other than slight irregular charges. The friction between particles differing in com- position would give more definite results. Thus white sand racing over iron sand might be expected to show a charge ; but experiment gave only a feeble electrification. I men- tion this because it is of interest in connection with the negatively electrified, whereas if the sharp edges of the end graze the paper, the sign of the electrification of the latter is positive. Now sand consists of sharply angular particles of silica, and even the comparatively large pieces obtained by crushing the tube, as previously described, have razor-like jagged edges. We should therefore expect, from the result of the experiments just mentioned, that when either sand grains or even large silica chips fall upon paper they will electrify it positively—and this is what actually occurs. Why an edge of glass should give an opposite charge to that produced by a flat surface when rubbed, say, with paper, is a question of great interest and difficulty. But that this is~the explanation of the strange electrical behaviour of practically all powders appears certain. The sand grains themselves become, of course, negatively electrified after striking the paper, so that this is often a convenient method of obtaining a high potential of either sign. Further, a stream of sand falling upon a metal plate will give a comparatively low potential, say 600 volts, for an indefinite period, in spite of pitting, and a NO. 2130, VoL. 84] atmospheric electrical phenomena which often accompany sand storms in hot climates. Even if the wind electrified the surface of the sand over which it blows, the charge would probably leak instantly to earth, for in common with all powders it readily absorbs moisture into the inter- stices between the grains. When making electrical experi- ments with this material, it is therefore essential to have it well warmed. There is still much useful work to be done in studying the electrical conditions in the neighbourhood of wide stretches of warm sand swept by dry wind. Owing to lack of data, it is difficult to form an opinion as to the part which this substance plays in the remarkable electrical phenomena sometimes witnessed during a storm. I spoke of allowing sand to run down itself. Here is a cell made by separating two glass plates, 14 inches square, by, strips of wood along the bottom and top edges. The sides are open. Through a hole in the upper distance strip sand pours from a funnel, and builds itself into a beautifully symmetrical conic section. Presently the base will so far widen that any further increase shoots the 2 on 8 NATORE [AucusT 25, 1910 sand off through the open ends of the cell. When this point is reached the cone can no longer grow. A supply of white sand is then poured in, and seen to run down the sloping sides without carrying any of the coloured particles with it. The base has spread out proportionately as the cone increased in height, so that the angle which the sides make» with the horizontal shall be 35°. If the sand be wet or damp, this law no longer holds. The addition of sufficient water materially diminishes the friction between the grains. F It is often observed when walking along the sea-shore, upon sand left wet by the receding tide, that for a moment the foot, on touching the ground, is surrounded by a com- paratively dry area. This appearance is quickly followed, however, by one which indicates that the sand has gathered moisture, for on lifting the foot—which has by now probably sunk a little below the surface—the excess of water is particularly noticeable. In order to explain this we must have recourse to some ingenious experiments made a few years ago by Prof. Osborne Reynolds. He pointed out’ that a number of particles, whether spheres or irregular grains, may fit together in such a way that the size of the spaces enclosed by them is either a’ maxi- mum or, minimum. Figs. 8 and 9 show a sectional view of a collection of spheres, arranged in what Prof. Reynolds calls abnormal. and normal. piling. respectively. It is evident that the spaces between the spheres are far less in the second than in.the first case. Now here is an elastic bag tied upon one end of a glass tube. The arrangement is partly filled with sand and coloured water —the latter standing 2 inches in the tube, so as to serve as an index. If the bag is now tapped, all the particles in it become normally piled. We have that any departure from this arrangement will enlarge the spaces between them. It is no longer surprising to notice, there- fore, when the bag is pinched and the grains are thus made to ride up on one another, .that the liquid in the tube, instead of rising, actually sinks. Returning to the effect observed upon the sea-shore, we NO. 2130, VOL. 84] seen see that the pressure of the foot disturbs the arrangement of the sand-particles from one of normal piling to one in which the interstices between the grains become larger. Since these spaces were originally full of water (held up by capillarity), they are now no longer filled, and we obtain a comparatively dry area. Water is rapidly drawn in from all sides, however, by the partial vacuum formed in the interstices, and the internal friction diminishes. The sand feels insecure. On withdrawing the foot normal piling is resumed, the excess of water producing a puddle until it slowly percolates away whence it came. This brings me to the subject of quicksands. ou A certain amount of unnecessary mystery seems to- surround this matter. I hasten to point out that the grains of quicksands appear to be in no way extraordinary. Nevertheless, the fact remains that sand in certain locali- ties upon the coast readily gives way under: a. load. Instances are recorded where a cart driyen over a wet shore has rapidly disappeared below the surface. The general opinion seems to be that this is due to a soft underlying layer of clay or mud, which no doubt in some instances is the true explana-_ tion. Mr. Carus-Wilson, who is an expert in these matters, pointed out to me recently, however, that another factor may be the imprisoning of gas between the grains, due to decomposi- tion of organic matter. Experiment certainly supports this view, for you see that one of these beakers of wet sand easily sustains a weight which sinks down in the other. Yet both appear similar. The sand in the second beaker, however, was mixed when dry with a powder capable of effervescing if wetted. In the neighbourhood of dangerous bogs, in Ireland especially, it is evident that a quantity of gas is imprisoned in the mud. ‘ It must also be borne in mind that any surface in so good a contact with wet sand that the air is excluded will be held fast by atmospheric pressure ; and further, that an object so situated, and tilted this way and that, will rapidly become embedded and swallowed up. It is by this simple process that the celebrated Goodwin Sands have claimed so many victims. A large per- centage of the vessels stranded upon them, however, float safely off on the rising tide, but now and then one is caught and doomed. In the past they have been responsible for many a shipping tragedy; and there is a pathetic interest attaching to the fact that ribs and other remains of ships, long lost and forgotten, sometimes reappear for a time above the surface. Since the advent of steam, it is happily a rare occurrence for a vessel to be lost upon a. sandbank. In 1849 boring operations were carried out on the Goodwins by the engineering staff of Trinity House. The Deputy Master and Brethren, whose generous offer of assistance on all: matters relating to this-subject I grate- fully acknowledge, have kindly lent a model made at the time, which shows the nature of the sand found at increasing depths. Solid chalk was reached at So feet below the surface. Let us now turn to some experiments upon the flow of sand through a tube. This long glass barrel is filled and ready. I free the nozzle, and collect the powder which flows out during ten seconds. The quantity so obtained is placed in one pan of a balance. When the height of sand in the tube has fallen to only a few inches above the outlet, I repeat the operation, placing the second amount collected in the opposite one. You see that the pans again stand level. It is therefore clear that the sand pours out at the same rate, irrespective of its height in the tube. AUGUST 25, 1910] NATURE 259 The question now is, how has the ‘‘head’’ been so completely destroyed? This may be answered by a further experiment. : A glass cell 2 feet high, 14 inches wide, and } inch deep, is closed in at the sides only (Fig. 10). A movable section of a cone O, made of wood and imitating one of sand, is pushed up through the lower opening. Resting upon this, and fitting its sloping sides, is a strip of felt D. If the wood section be lowered (as shown in the figure), the felt, resembling an inverted V, remains wedged between the glass back and front of the cell. A very small force, however, will dislodge it. Suppose we replace the wood model and hold it in position by a strut S. Regarding this as a section of a sand cone, we see that its entire weight would be carried upon the base of the cell. Sand is now poured in from the centre of the top opening, and rests upon the sloping felt. The point to notice is that it supports its own weight. When the particles are interlocked it resembles the span of an arch, for if I now re- move the wood section the sand remains in posi- tion. When more is added, and the cell is nearly filled, the net weight is considerable, yet the felt bridge is not deformed in the least. Further, a wooden plunger P, fitting the top opening, and carrying heavy weights, may be inserted without increasing the pressure upon the felt. Since the angle which the slope of a dry sand- cone makes with the horizontal is 35°, the height, h, to which the particles will build in a tube of radius r, so that the base of the cone corresponds to the diameter of the tube, is h=rtan35°. If we consider an element of the section just re- ferred to, it is evident that a vertical downward force applied to the top of the sand becomes re- solved in two directions, making an angle of 55° with the vertical. Now, applying the well-known formula for a symmetrical triangular frame loaded at its apex, we have H= i 77 (1) where H is the horizontal thrust, W the load, l the span, and h the height. Regarding the cell as the section of a. tube, l=2r and h=rtan35°. Therefore, substituting these values in (1), we have a 2iiany 35. 0 Tel The ratio of the force applied vertically to that of the lateral thrust is thus equal to twice the tangent of the angle which the slope of a cone makes with the horizontal, viz. 1-4. For instance, if the vertical force weight placed on the sand is roo lb., the lateral pressure will amount to about 71 lb. A piston resting upon a column of sand only a few diameters high, contained in a strong tube closed at its lower end by merely a thin membrane, is due to a capable, therefore, of sustaining very heavy loads. In order to demonstrate this on a moderate scale, I have arranged a sort of gallows, through the projecting arm of which a flanged brass tube is inserted vertically. This tube is 0-5 inch in diameter, and closed at its lower extremity with a piece of cigarette paper held in position by an indiarubber band. A small quantity of sand is tipped into the tube from above—enough to fill it to a height of 3 inches. The column within will therefore measure 6 diameters. The tube is then well tapped to ensure normal piling of the grains, and a loosely fitting iron plunger is inserted so as to rest upon the sand. Attached to the plunger is a. cross-piece carrying a ring at each end, which may be grasped with the hands. My assistant (who weighs about rr stone) thus suspends him- NO. 2130, VOL. 84] self safely, his weight being supported by the small sand column. If the piece of cigarette paper is now removed, he | is let down with an unpleasant jerk. Some idea of the close arrangement of the particles may be gathered by noticing that a long column of sand, . Fic. 6. moving downward within such a tube, will produce a vacuum above it sufficient to lift water to a height of about 6 feet. (Experimentally shown.) These experiments upon loaded sand columns clearly 260 NATURE [AUGUST 25, I9I0 prove, therefore, how it is that the ‘‘ head’ is destroyed, and explain why the powder issues from an orifice at a uniform rate. Lord Rayleigh applied this principle to a very interest- ing device, which he used here some years ago, for the purpose of slowly rotating a smoked disc. A weight stood upon a sand column contained in a glass tube. Its down- ward motion as the column lowered, due to escape of powder from a nozzle at the end, served to operate a train of wheels. The question arises, however, as to whether such a motion is quite uniform. In other words, does the sand move regularly in the tube? Experiments indicate that it is very difficult to obtain an absolutely uniform motion by this means. Friction appears to be the controlling factor. A tube, oiled upon its inner surface, is now filled. On freeing the nozzle, you see that the sand moves out by slow regular jerks. Certain curious rattling sounds, emitted occasionally by the column descending in a glass tube, also drew attention to the intermittent motion of the grains. It seemed reasonable to hope, therefore, that this might be made sufficiently rapid and regular to give rise to a musical note. Now many strange noises have been heard in the neigh- bourhood of large sand masses when surface layers have been disturbed by someone walking over them; and there are curious shrieking sands—rarely met with upon the coast. - ; Thanks to the great kindness of Mr. Carus-Wilson, whose work in this direction is so well known, I am able to exhibit a remarkable specimen of sand from the Isle of Eigg, in the Hebrides. When a plunger strikes down upon the grains contained in a suitable cup, you hear a +++ +++ +++ Fic. —Abnormal Piling. Fic. 9.—Normal Piling. piercing musical sound. Mr. Carus-Wilson attributes this to the friction between the particles, the effect being pro- duced in much the same manner as that which results from gently rubbing an agate style upon glass. He has discovered musical sand in Poole Harbour, as well as at other places. The essential conditions for the production of this sound ire i— (1) That the grains be nearly of the same size and unded. $4] NO. VOL. | (2) That they’ be clean and free from adherent fine dust. | (3) That the vessel in which they are struck have sloping sides, and be made of a suitable material. But to return to the question of obtaining musical sounds from ordinary sand. There stands, fixed to the wall, a large glass-fronted section of a tube. It is filled with alternate bands of | white and black sand, the latter being about one-sixth as deep as the former. An outlet is provided at the bottom. This arrangement enables the motion of the different por- tions of the sand column to be observed while the powder issues from the orifice. On freeing the nozzle, we see that the centre of the lowest black band immediately falls, and that, as the sand continues to escape, successive bands become similarly deformed. It is clear that the grains from the central part of the column are moving rapidly downward, and, | since no eddies can form in the remainder, the whole becomes divided into a core of moving particles and a large surrounding mass of dead sand (Fig. 11). The diminished density of the axial region releases the | lateral pressure upon the sides of the tube, and the upper part of the column suddenly slips until the grains again pack and seize as before. | Now if sand of a suitable fineness be slowly passed in this manner through a glass tube of correct dimensions, a musical note may be produced. The tube should be about 1 inch in diameter, and filled with sand resembling that found in the Charlton pits. The length of the one now ready is 3 feet. When the flow begins, a curious rattling sound is heard, which finally changes to a distinct musical | note. It may be varied slightly, say to the extent of a whole tone or so, by gripping a part of the tube while the sand pours out. The two upper dark bands (Fig. 11) | have not becomé deformed, except slightly at their ends, owing to friction between the sand and tube. It is essential for | the production of | musical sounds P ; that the ratio of the length of a column to its diameter be such that the upper portion moves downward without central deformation. In order to explain the cause of the sound, we must therefore consider the motion of this more or less compact body of particles. Now, if the lower half of the tube be filled with mercury | and the rest with well-packed sand, the regular lowering | of the liquid causes the granular piston apparently to stretch until its extension is about 2 per cent. of its original length. It is not until that point is reached that | the upper layers begin to move downward. The particles, | however, are no longer normally piled. A further slight | movement of the lower layers causes the upper ones to follow and to overrun a little (owing to their momentum). Therefore, even if the mercury is adjusted to pour out uniformly from the orifice, the upper part of the sand column moves downward with an intermittent motion, | analogous, in fact, to that of a weight drawn over a rough surface by an elastic string. It is also clear that, within wide limits, the motion of the upper layers may be independent of, or completely out of phase with, that of the lower ones, and still produce a musical note. | The glass wall of the tube is thrown into violent vibra- tion by the intermittent rise and fall of the lateral pressure upon it, so that damping the barrel raises the pitch of the note. The greater part of the sound is due, however, *9 the direct action of the sand column upon the air above | it, for even a tight wrapping of tape but slightly affects its Fic. 10 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1910. COLOUR-VISION. Colour-Blindness and Colour-Perception. By Dr. F. W. Edridge-Green. Second edition. Pp. xii+ 322. International Scientific Series. (London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co., Ltd., 1909.) Price 5s. R. EDRIDGE-GREEN has been engaged for more than twenty years in advocating opinions about colour-blindness which he has not the gift of stating with extreme lucidity, which most people find it by mo means easy to understand, and it is therefore somewhat difficult either to accept or to re- fute. The general basis on which the opinions rest appears to be his conception of something called by him a ‘“psycho-physical unit,’ by which he ap- pears to mean the limit, in any individual, of the power to perceive actual difference between two things closely resembling one another, for example, between two similar colours, or between two masses of the same substance that are of nearly the same magnitude. There are, no doubt, great personal differences of this kind, differences which may be partly congenital and partly the results of training ; but it does not appear to us that the prefix ** psycho,” whatever it may mean, bears any intelligible relation to them. The differences are differences of the acute- ness of sense-perception, and, if we regard simple sense-perception, colour-perception, for example, as “psychical,” we must postulate the activity of a “psyche ’’ in the humblest fly which is guided to the nectary of a flower by the colour of the corolla. We do not know whether Dr. Edridge-Green is prepared for such an extension of the domain of *psychology,’’ and may leave him to settle the ques- tion with the professors of that branch of speculation, but we may admit that the condition known as *colour-blindness* may fairly be said to consist of an inability to respond by accurate sense-perc2ption to the impact of light-waves of certain amplitudes, and of a consequent liability either to ignore them com- pletely or to confound them with waves of other amplitudes. It is at least highly probable that minute differences of this kind are extremely common, and Lord Rayleigh long ago showed that some persons, whose colour-sense could only be described as normal, nevertheless differed from others in respect of the pre- cise admixtures of light from different portions of the spectrum, more especially in respect of the admixtures of red and green, which they were prepared to accept as a perfect ‘“‘match” for a test-spot given as a standard. It is probable that such terms as ‘‘red-blind’’ or ‘‘sreen-blind’’ might be extended not only to the six classes (hexachromic, pentachromic, &c.), described by Dr. Edridge-Green, but to a much larger number : and, by the way, we do not know on what ground our author regards the normal-sighted as ‘hexa- chromic” only, and so apparently excludes from the spectrum, as they see it, the seventh distinct colour, indigo, which was described by Newton, and has com- NO. 2131, VOL. 84] as, NATURE 263 monly been accepted by later observers. The limita- tions of our space forbid us to follow these questions into detail, and the chief practical importance of colour-blindness depends upon the fact that a liability | to make mistakes about colour-signals involves dangers to life and property on railways and in navigation, As regards protection against these dangers, we do not see that Dr. Edridge-Green has furnished us with any increased security, or, indeed, that any better security is needed than is obtained from Holmgren’s wool test, when this is employed in the precise manner directed by its originator, whose very definite instruc- tions are too often departed from. ~The elaborate lanterns and slides described by Dr. Edridge-Green are in all essential respects identical with many of the tests used by the Royal Society’s committee ; and, if we may admit that they afford means of distinguish- ing one case of colour-blindness from another of a slightly different type, we cannot admit that they are calculated to afford any increased security to. the. in- dustries in which the power to distinguish promptly between different signal colours is required. A HISTORY OF BIOLOGICAL THEORIES. Geschichte der biologischen Theorien. By Dr. Em. Radl. Il. Teil. Geschicht2 der Entwicklungstheorien in der Biologie des XIX. Jahrhunderts. Pp. x +604. (Leipzig : W. Engelmann, 1909.) Price 16 marks. HE author of this scholarly work attaches great importance to the cultivation of the historical sense among biologists, believing that progress is impeded because there is relatively little of it, and one of the aims of his book is to stimulate a study of the history of the science. To this end it is admirably adapted. It is learned, but at the same time wisely selective; it is at once appreciative and critical; and it is written in a fresh, interesting way. We had the pleasure of welcoming the first volume, published four years ago, which dealt with ancient history, and we would congratulate the author again on the success with which he has accomplished a very difficult task in dealing with what has occurred in biology, or in biological etiology, since the end of the eighteenth century. It seems to us, indeed, that the author has added to his strength since he completed the first part of his great work. There are forty-one chapters in the book, and we may note some of the titles to suggest the range of discussion :-—Lamarck and Cuvier, idealistic mor- phology, embryology before Darwin, the cell-theory, physiology before Darwin, transition from Naturphilo- sophie to modern science, origin of Darwinism, Darwin, Wallace, reception of Darwin’s theory, influ- ence of Darwinism, Haeckel, spontaneous generation, anthropology, Darwinian morphology and embryology, geographical distribution, paleontology, natural selec- tion, heredity, psychology, Lamarckism, species, repro- duction, crossing, developmental mechanics, Driesch, decline of Darwinism, the history of science. What the author aims at is a historical appreciation of the significance of the various stages in the develop- ment of etiology, and this involves a critical judgment K 264 of the contributions made by the succession of workers. He seeks to show how one step is related to others, often beyond the boundaries of biology. There is, for example, a very interesting passage in which he maintains that Darwin projected upon nature the contemporary ideal of the English state, his theory being, in fact, ‘‘a sociology of Nature.’’ In parts Radl’s book shows an interpretative insight, which reminds us of Merz’s ‘History of Intellectual De- velopment in the Nineteenth Century,” which is great praise; in other parts we thinlx that he is quite un sound—notably in his curiously non-evolutionary con- tention that Darwinism is dead. Nor do we think that he is uniformly fair and accurate in his treatment of Darwinism, e.g., in a sentence lilke this :—‘t Die Theorie Darwins, welche jeden Glauben an die Gesetzmassiglkeit der organischen Welt vernichtete, und alles Geschehen fiir eine Haéufung von Zufallen hielt, konnte zwar fiir kurze zeit die Welt blenden.”’ It is unsatisfactory to do no more than record dissent from Dr. Rdadl’s pronouncement that Darwinism is discredited, but the matter cannot be argued out in a few sentences. We might refer him, however, to some weighty considerations set forth in the fifth chapter of Sir Ray Lankester’s ‘‘ Science from an Easy Chair,” which is entitled ‘*Darwin’s Theory Un- shaken.” As we lay down the big book, our dominant impres- sions are that it is stimulating and even provocative, that it shows an extraordinary acquaintance with the literature, that it expresses a sometimes surprising appreciation of the importance of thinkers outside the ordinary schools (Samuel Butler, for instance), and that it carries one on with an undeniable swing, though it passes our understanding to discover the meaning of the detailed arrangement of the chapters. SCIENCE IN SCHOOL. Broad Lines in Science Teaching. Edited by F. Hod- son, with an introduction by Prof. M. E. Sadler. Pp. xxxvi+267. (London; Christophers, n.d.) Price 5s. net. Ee. the curricula of English schools a place, some- times an important place, has been allotted to “science.” The result has been to kindle intellectual interest in certain boys to whom the other work of the class-room made no appeal, as well as to direct the interests of the more studious to a wider field of intellectual exploration. | Even more important has been the influence of the science-masters, who, having no well-worn groove of tradition along which to travel with the minimum of effort, have brought scientific method to the investigation of methods of teaching. Nevertheless, to many observers the effects of science teaching have been disappointing. Such critics de- mand that the average youth shall acquire the scien- tific way of looking at things. This is a very much larger demand than was realised in the early days, and it is the special aim of the book before us to present a broad view of the work which is involved in any sound curriculum which can make boys and girls of NO. 2131, VOL. 84] INA TET ISLS [SEPTEMBER I, 1910 secondary-school age the possessors of that which science has to give. The volume contains a number (not strictly a series) of essays by writers who desire that the methods of science teaching should be built upon a fundamental study of the right relation of the growing mind towards new knowledge, new dexterities, new perceptions of duty. We may at once congratulate the editor on the personnel of the contributors and on the manner in which he and they have justified the title of the work. Prof. Sadler contributes an introduction, which is also somewhat in the nature of a review, and emphasises the necessity of first-hand study of nature. The place of science in the curriculum, its position in Germany, and the utility of examinations are dis- cussed by the editor and Mr. Badley. Biological sub- jects receive a goodly share of attention in articles contributed by Miss von Wyss, Mr. Oswald Latter, and Miss Ravenhill. The chapter on geography is written by Mr. J. N. Stephenson, and is full of useful and sound criticism—obviously the work of an experi- enced and shrewd teacher. The relation of school worl to the spiritual side of the pupil is discussed by the headmaster of Bedales and Miss Sanders, and in a measure by Prof. Powicke in his chapter on ‘* Science in the Teaching of History.’ It is impossible within the limits of a short review to deal with these; the mention of them will serve to show the breadth of the ‘editor’s objective. Consideration is also given to the preliminary training of those who are to become farmers, housewives, engineers. In the last-mentioned case the writer considers the administrative and economic difficulties, but so rapidly are changes taking place in the organisation of educational courses for boys leaving school between the ages of fourteen and seventeen that no demerit attaches to the essays in which these aspects are omitted, as is usually the case in this volume. Physics, chemistry, mathematics, are dealt with in the short space of forty to fifty pages. It would have been an improvement if more space had been given to these branches, even if this had involved the loss of the chapter on laboratory planning, which is not quite on the ‘“‘broad lines” of the rest of the book. Teachers of chemistry should certainly read Dr. T. P. Nunn’s essay on “The Place of Hypotheses in Science Teaching "’; those who wish to train their pupils in the habit of independent thinking about phenomena and theories cannot fail to gain help from this search- ing probe into the tissues of our chemical belief. The general impression produced by this book is encouraging. Especially marked is the thoroughness with which correlation between branches of the curri- culum is made the basal plan of the educatiomal structure. Correlation has ceased to be a word merely (blessed or the reverse), or at best a number of adventitious links between subjects mainly pursued apart; it is fast becoming an influence pervading the more progressive common-rooms and giving unity— but not monotony—to aims and methods in adjoining class-rooms. The subject of the chem- istry-master is not primarily chemistry but boy. The writers of ** Broad Lines”’ realise this. They also SEPTEMBER I, I910] NATURE 265 realise the claims of practical application to health, morals, and livelihood, and seek to imbue school work and school life with the research habit and attitude of mind. The volume is pleasant to read and handle; our main regret is that the essays are not twice their present length. We hope that this most opportune book will be widely read. CLASSIC WALL-PAINTING. Greek and Roman Methods of Painting: Some Comments on the Statements made by Pliny and Vitruvius about Wall and Panel Painting. By Dr. A. P. Laurie. Pp. vi+124. (Cambridge: Univer- sity Press, 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. net. R. LAURIE, who is principal of the Heriot-Watt College at Edinburgh, has devoted much time and considerable ingenuity to the study of the materials and methods of painting. Many of his results are recorded in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts and in other periodicals. But in the little book now before us we possess, in a detached and accessible form, an account of Dr. Laurie’s latest studies on fresco- and wax-painting as described by Pliny and Vitruvius and practised in classic times. As the volume is not supplied with a table of contents, and is not divided into chapters, it may be well, in the present notice, to describe, in the order followed by the author, the several topics which he discusses. The book opens with a review of the conditions under which the inquiry into ancient painting methods should be conducted. Then we pass on to the con- sideration of the pigments, both natural and artificial, which were available for use in early days. Dr. Laurie’s list and his observations on several of the items which it comprises are of considerable interest. The murex purple, lately ascertained to be a dibrom- indigotin, and Egyptian blue, which was investigated by the late Dr. W. H. Russell, are important con- stituents of the ancient palette. A madder pigment was also in use, as well as indigo. Primitive vehicles are next discussed, size, gum, milk, white and yolk of egg being included in the series of available mediums. Both bitumen and_tur- pentines, or liquid resins and balsams, were known, but neither drying oils nor spirit varnishes. Beeswax played an important part as a painting vehicle; our author’s studies and experiments confirm the modern view as to the process of encaustic painting as de- scribed by Pliny and illustrated by the wax portraits brought from the Hawara cemetery in the Fayum by Prof. Flinders Petrie. The doubts once expressed by Eastlake and other authorities as to the feasibility of painting with melted coloured waxes may now be regarded as not warranted. In some places the wax was mixed with a liquid resinous body, such as Venice turpentine; this mixture was more easy to manipulate than wax alone, but acquired greater hardness in the course of time. Wax-painting was, however, not the ancient process in use for the decoration of walls; this was painting on wet or wetted lime-plaster with pigments mixed with water, or possibly on occasion with glue or size. NO. 2131, VOL. 84] Such fresco-painting is discussed by Dr. Laurie at some length. The process is not precisely that of the fourteenth century and the Italian Renaissance, the buon fresco of the historians of art. There are no joins or seams in the ground, and the painting could not have been completed on the freshly spread plaster while its surface was in the best state to receive and incorporate the paint. The surface must have been wetted with water admixed with a little slaked lime from time to time, while later applications of colours must have contained milk of lime. Such a pro- cess approaches closely to that known as fresco secco, and can be traced back to a much earlier date than can the true buon fresco. We must not linger over the technical questions connected with fresco-painting as discussed by Dr. Laurie, but may now pass on to consider his criticism of the views as to old mural painting advocated by Herr Ernst Berger, in his ‘‘ Maltechnik des Alter- thums.” These views are shown to be untenable, deriving no support either from the chemical examina- tion of ancient examples, from modern experimental trials, or from the careful study of the language used by Pliny and by Vitruvius. The method imagined by Herr Berger was allied to the modern stucco lustro, and involved the use of an emulsion of beeswax, oil, and soda or potash; our author shows (pp. 107-9) that there is no valid evidence in favour of the use of this dangerous and ineffective mixture. Dr. Laurie will, we hope, pursue his interesting and illuminating inquiries into the materials and methods of ancient painting, and of modern painting also; but in his next book will he not give us, besides such an adequate index as appears in the present work, a table of contents? This will involve the arrangement of his material in chapters or sections, which will prove more easy to study or to consult than an unbroken discussion occupying no less than 112 pages. IX ln (Cx OUR BOOK SHELF. A Monograph of the Foraminifera of the North Pacific Ocean. Part i., Astrorhizidee and Lituolide. By J. A. Cushman. Pp. xiv+134. United States National Museum Bulletin 71. (Washington : Government Printing Office, 1910.) Tuis is the first instalment of a work on the fora- miniferal fauna of the North Pacific. It embodies the results of Brady, in the Challenger report, in so far as concerns this area, and of Goés, Flint, Rhumbler, Bagg, and others, and presents the outcome of the author’s own investigations. These are based on the examination of material dredged by the United States s.s. Albatross, Nero, and Alert, parts of which have been already used in the reports of Goés, Flint, and Bagg. In many cases the author extends the range of previously known species, and several are regarded as new. New generic names are given to divisions of recognised genera, particularly of the Lituolids Haplo- phragmium and Trochammina. Of wider interest is the author’s identification of Ammodiscus tenuis as the megalospheric form of A. incertus, under which name the microscopic form has been described. Each species is illustrated, and the figures are in most cases auite sufficient. 206 (1) A First Year's Course of Inorganic Chemistry. By G. F. Hood. Pp. iv+107. (London: Rivingtons, 1gt0.) Price 1s. 6d. (2) A Manual of Elementary Practical Chemistry for Use in the Laboratory. By P. W. Oscroft and R. P. Shea. Pp. viii+134. (London: Rivingtons, 1910.) Price 2s. F THESE two little volumes are for use in schools, and are intended to serve as an introduction to chemistry. Oscroft and Shea’s manual carries the subject to the stage of equivalent weight estimations and simple gravimetric and volumetric analysis, whilst Hood’s book, which is a first year’s course, stops short of this point. Both books contain descriptions of a series of easy quantitative experiments on loss and gain in weight, as well as a detailed account of a variety of thoroughly instructive preparations. There is nothing in either that strikes one as very new or original in conception or arrangement; but, on the other hand, there is nothing to which objection can be taken, and both volumes may be recommended without reservation. It might be well in a future issue to give the actual results of the quantitative experiments so that both teacher and student might form some idea of the accuracy attainable. In conclusion, we question to what extent it is permissible to adapt a classical discovery to the intelligence of a schoolboy ; for it may be doubted if either Berthollet, Gay-Lussac, or Davy ever thought of chlorine as ‘murium dioxide”? (Hood, p. 51). JEwBinG: Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts, Maps, and Drawings in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. iii. (L-O). Pp. iv+1039=1494. (London: British Museum (Natural History), 1910.) Price 20s. Tue long interval which has elapsed since the pub- lication of the second volume of this catalogue (see NaturE, August 25, 1904)—which followed the first (ibid., October 22, 1903) in reasonable time—is ex- plained in the preface as due to other library work. Apparently the earlier sheets of this volume were completed and printed off before 1907, as we find no title associated with the name of Sir E. Ray Lankester, while the latest of his works referred to bears the date of 1906. In this con- nection it may be noted that in some cases the full Christian names of authors, as in the case of Sir E. R. Lankester and Sir R. Owen, are repeated in each entry, whereas in other instances, as in the case of Sir Charles Lyell, these are reduced to the initials after the first entry. Apparently the compiler was compelled to follow the order adopted in the library catalogue at Bloomsbury, which will probably account for the sundering of such names as Loenn- bohm (p. 1163) and Lonnberg (p. 1175). Like its predecessors, this volume contains valuable biblio- graphical information, and it is to be hoped that we shall have the pleasure of welcoming the fourth volume at an early date. Rese The Calendar of Garden Operations. New and en- larged edition. By members of the staff of the Gardener's Chronicle. Pp. vi+175. (London: Gardeners’ Chronicle, Ltd., 1910.) Price 6d. net. Tuis is a new edition of a work prepared originally by Sir Joseph Paxton, and published in 1842. It is a concise and practical manual from which possessors of small gardens in country or town may obtain much useful advice and guidance. Chapters have been added on the cultivation of trees and shrubs in towns, and. on the principles of intensive culture or French gardening. In its enlarged form the con- tinued success of the book is ensured. NO. 2131, VOL. 84] NATORE [SEPTEMBER I, I9IO LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Separating Power of a Telescope. Can an observer inform me what are the proper tele- scopic powers, and apertures or sizes of glasses, required to see stars which are apart from each other the follow- ing distances, and of different magnitudes? (1) otol (5) 8 to 12 (2) 1to2 (6) 12 10 16 (3) 2t04 (7) 16 to 24 (4) 4to8 (8) 24 to 32 Gore made a table showing the magnitude of the faintest star visible in any telescope in his ‘‘ Stellar Heavens,’’ but I would like to see if anybody can make a table out from experience and ordinary practical observation in the case of double and multiple stars. Where the glare of one star interferes with the definition of another star, | am inclined to think a larger aperture is needed in the case of doubles and multiples than in singles, and where the stars are very close. If a table could be made out for reference by students it would be useful. Grimscar, Huddersfield. J. W. ScHoLes: Tue questions proposed cannot be answered quite so definitely as Mr. Scholes would appear to think. To begin, we must have a clear idea of what is meant by the separating power of a telescope. Put in a_ theoretical form, it means: Given two points of light (stars) a certain angular distance apart, what is the size objective which will just give two distinct images in the focus? For practical purposes, this is answered by the formula Separating power= fae a where a is the aperture of the object-glass in inches. This can easily be remembered; or, if it is preferred, 2 table can readily be formed, thus :-— Size of O.G. Separating power Inches “ I og tas ive set a 4°56 4 oa vas 60 ete ae I'4 8 ae Se 3 a one 0°57 23 can A tds O'17 36 O13 A second of are in the focus of the 28-inch Greenwich refractor is 0-00163 inch. Let it be clearly understood that this table gives the theoretical size of object-glass to obtain separate points in focus. If the points are not separated in the focus, no amount of magnifving power will afterwards separate them. This does not imply that the unaided eye; looking at the focal images in the telescope, can detect duplicity. The points to be thus seen must subtend at the eye an angle of at least 60’. It is here that the eye-piece comes in, for, given two separated points, we can magnify the separa- tion until the eye can not only detect, but can see it sufficiently to enable micrometric measures to be made. Hence we use eye-pieces magnifying 2, 3, 4, 5 times, and so on. These eye-pieces bring up the total magnifying power, which is quoted as the power used. It is stated in text- books that a power of 50 or 60 per inch aperture is the practical limit; but it is readily seen, however, that the power used is dependent on several conditions :— (1) Size of object-glass. (2) Quality of object-glass. (3) Condition of the atmosphere. (4) Personality of the observer. (5) Subject observed. The questions asked refer especially to double-star work, and confining ourselves to this simplifies matters. If we allow 50 per inch aperture, we should expect to find observers with the SEPTEMBER 1, 1910] 36-inch Lick, using a power of ... 1800 28-inch Greenwich 5 Ff mor +. 1400 184-inch Dearborn _ x Vee 950 8-inch (Maw) 3 5A oss 400 6-inch (Sola) 5 i 300 Atmospheric conditions affect the large glasses much more than the smaller, for we find in actual practice that the Lick observers prefer powers of 1000 and 1500; the Greenwich observers prefer 670 and 1120; Hough, with the 18-inch, used generally a power 390, and less frequently 25. 3 Maw uses powers of about 300 and 400 on both his 6-inch and 8-inch, while Sold uses 350 on his 6-inch. When an observer is quite used to his instrument and his ye-pieces, he develops a preference for one particular eye- piece under most all conditions. One element, as vet not mentioned, has naturally a great influence in the choice of an object-glass, viz. the range of visibility, or the ability to show faint objects. The above remarks apply to pairs the components of which are fairly equal; but, in general, distant companions are very faint. The light-grasping power of a telescope depends on the surface or diameter squared of the object-glass. A good I-inch object-glass should show a ninth-magnitude star, and one star is said to be a magnitude fainter than another when its light is 2:5 times less. Consequently, the aperture must be /2-5 greater to show it. Roughly, /2-5=1-6, and hence if 1 inch shows a ninth magnitude 11-6, or a 1-6-inch shows a tenth magnitude, or generally Star magnitude 9 Aperture in inches 10 19 Ir 12 13 156) “S2z5ee4so: 7653 Of course, this table is not to be taken too seriously, as it is governed by much the same conditions as already mentioned for separating power. Bear in mind Burnham's words: ‘‘ An object-glass of 6 inches one night will show the companion to Sirius perfectly; on the next night, just as good in every respect, so far as one can tell with the unaided eye, the largest telescope in the world will show no more trace of the small star than if it had been blotted out of existence.”’ I hope, with a little twisting and adaptation, the fore- going remarks may be made to answer the fundamental principles underlying the apparently easy questions. Mr. Scholes is quite right as to the glare, and the larger aperture by increasing the separation, and by making the apparent discs smaller, does make observation easier. T. Lewis. 14 10°O Colour-v.sicn, As one who was responsible for the testing for colour- vision of several thousands of drivers and firemen, I should like to refer to the method of testing by means of different coloured skeins of wool. ' The usual method is to take a particular skein of wool and request the person who is being tested to select in succession the three or more skeins which mostly resemble it. In some cases I found that men who were clearly colour-blind succeeded in passing such a test satisfactorily. It must be remembered that a colour-blind person has been accustomed to consider his capacity for appreciating colour differences in the light of other people’s statements. It thus comes about that they learn to consider differences, which are really colour differences to those whose sight is normal, as being partly due to intensity of light, texture, or other considerations. They are aware, of course, that they cannot always detect differences of colour in the ready way that others can, but they also feel that they can often see differences much more quickly than can others. With the colour-blind, therefore, the capacity for matching or naming colours becomes more and more perfect the greater their experience becomes of the objects to be compared. Now, in the case of the wool test, the different coloured skeins are certainly in many cases of different texture, coarseness, or gloss. The skeins are also frequently numbered. With a little careful study of the wools with which the tests are carried out, it may be NO. 2131, VOL. 84] NALPORE | 267 quite possible for a colour-blind man to get through the tests satisfactorily unless great care is exercised. I found the following to be a ready method of detecting colour-blindness. The wool skeins were arranged in the order of their brightness, the white skein being at one end and the black at the other. It is, of course, somewhat difficult to estimate the comparative brightness of a red and a yellow object. I found, however, that with a little practice and care this could be done satisfactorily. If a person whose vision is normal be asked to pick out the darkest skeins, he will at once pick the black one and afterwards those next to it. On the other hand, a colour- blind person will probably pick the black skein first and then the reds or greens, the darker shades being selected first. A test of this kind is most striking. In one case, a man who had got through the ordinary tests with some hesitation selected all the reds before the dark greys, neutral tints, greens, &c., although some of the reds were much brighter colours than the greens. The better plan is to take a number of different coloured skeins of wool and ask the person who is being tested to arrange them in their order of brightness. A markedly colour-blind person cannot do this properly. “R. M. DEELEY. Melbourne House, Osmaston Road. Derby. LAKE EDWARD, RUWENZORI, AND THE UGANDA-CONGO FRONTIER. aye: argument lately arrived at by the representa- tives of Great Britain and the Congo has affected the settlement of a troublesome boundary dis- pute, in which the competence of any diplomacy to deal with a geographical question in a_ scientific manner has not shown itself in a particularly favour- able light. The original agreement, the fons et origo of all the subsequent mischief, was signed at Brussels on May 9, 1894. By this it was enacted :— ‘“ That the sphere of influence of the Independent Congo State shall be limited to the north of the German sphere in East Africa by a frontier following the thirtieth meridian east of Greenwich up to its intersection by the watershed between the Nile and the Congo, and thence following this watershed in a northerly and north-westerly direc- tion.” At the time this agreement was made the 30th meridian was shown on the maps as dividing Lake Edward into two approximately equal parts, and as passing to the west of the whole Ruwenzori range. It is, however, a commonplace among geographers and surveyors that a determination of longitude in an un- surveyed country is liable to large errors, and that a meridian line is, of all possible boundaries, the worst that can be selected. In this case the actual event proved that the selection of this line had resulted in the maximum of inconvenience and loss. The true position of the meridian was found to be about half a degree east of its position as assumed in 1894, and a strict interpretation of the letter of the treaty would have involved our retirement from Lake Edward and from practically the whole of the Ruwenzori district. Such a contingency was obviously intolerable, and the only practicable course was to arrive at some sort of compromise which should, as far as possible, mini- mise our loss. The commissioners entrusted with the recent negotiations arrived at what perhaps was the best solution available at this date, and by surrender- ing to the Congo the whole of the north shore of Lake Albert, they regained the eastern half of Lake Edward, and about half Ruwenzori. The net result of the Whole transaction is therefore that we lose all the country lying between Lake Albert and the Congo- Nile watershed and the western half of the Ruwenzori range. From the geographical point of view the great error 268 NATURE [SEPTEMBER I, IGIO that was committed was the definition of a frontier by a meridian line, and what makes the error the more regrettable is that this unscientific boundary was a gratuitous importation, which was substituted for the perfectly precise and scientific frontier laid down in the original act constituting the Congo State. This frontier was the watershed line dividing the Congo basin from the surrounding river basins, of all natural geographical frontiers the most satisfactory. It was defined, with ideal precision, in the ‘ Berlin Act’’ of February 26, 1885, in the following words :— “All the regions forming the basin of the Congo and its outlets. This basin is bounded by the watersheds (or mountain ridges) of the adjacent basins, namely, in par- ticular, those of the Niari, the Ogowé, the Schari and the Nile on the north. . . . It therefore comprises all the regions watered by the Congo and its affluents.”” Apart therefore from the actual method of frontier definition, we cannot avoid the conclusion that to have allowed the Congo State to acquire claims to any territory outside the actual Congo basin was a sur- render of our clear rights. We may remind those of our readers who have not got a map in front of them that both the Lakes Albert and Edward and the Sem- liki river, which connects the two, lie wholly within the Nile basin. Our knowledge of the interior of Africa has so pro- gressed since 1894 that there is no locality where a mistake, at all comparable in magnitude, could be made at the present time. We may further be per- mitted to hope that the spirit in which our great departments of State approach this and similar ques- tions has undergone such a change in the last few years that a total setting aside of all expert opinion, on which alone the agreement of 1894 is explicable, is no longer probable. ID aly Uae WILLIAM JAMES, HE announcement of the death, at the compara- tively early age of sixty-eight, of William James, emeritus professor “of philosophy in Harvard Univer- sity, will have been received with regret by an un- usually wide circle of readers of philosophic literature, and with deep sorrow by an unusually large circle of friends, who knew from experience how much greater was the charm of his personality than the charm even of his writings. But few even of his friends can have suspected under what physical disabilities were pro- duced the utterances of which the sunny geniality, irre- pressible vitality, coruscating vividness, and brave optimism, unstained by any shadow of insincerity or cowardice in facing the ills of life, so deeply fascinated them, or realised that they were listening to a martyr to a grave cardiac affection, whose life for the last ten years had hung by a thread. This is not the place for an estimate of James’ achievements as a philosopher, but it will not be amis to signalise the intimacy of his relations to science. It is not often that a philosopher of the first rank has had the good fortune to receive a scientific educa- tion or the literary genius to gain by losing a literary education. But William James is a shining example of how stimulus and freshness may be impz arted even to philosophic subjects by one who is allowed to approach the real problems ‘direct, and without wander- ing through a thick fog of historic errors. Origin- ally trained for the medical profession, he became interested in ‘‘pure’’ science; accompanied Agassiz on an expedition to Brazil; was appointed to teach anatomy at Harvard; proceeded to the teaching of physiology; approached psychology from the physio- logical side ; became a peerless master in the art of psychological description ; applied his psychology with NO. 2131, VOL. 84| Ss Ss revolutionising and revivifying effect to the study of religion, superstition, logic, and to that chamber of horrors for unsolved puzzles which is called meta- physics; and, finally, before he could formulate his conclusions, was taken from the world he had studied so variously and with such eager human sympathy. But at heart perhaps his attitude towards life always remained psychological. He was more interested in discovering and describing facts than in dogmatising and system-building with them, and almost: as dis- regardful of formality as of technicality and pedantry. To scientific psychology his services are admittedly immense. His work on ‘The Principles of Psychology ”’ (1890) at once became a classic, and is likely to ete so. He found the science entangled in metaphysical obscurities and based on false de- scriptions. He insisted that it should be made a natural science, descriptive, and, wherever possible, experimental, and described its facts anew. His fundamental innovation was to perceive that the “facts of consciousness form a continuous flow and not a succession or series of separate facts, as, since Hume, psychologists and their metaphysical opponents had alike assumed. The consequence was that the problem of synthesis disappeared, and that. the function of scientific knowing became the analysis of a continuum. When the meaning of this has been fully grasped, it will be seen that a number of meta- physical puzzles (e.g. about “the one’ and “the many’) answer themselves. But James also saw that if psychology was to pro- gress further on the road to an exact science, it must not be only descriptive, but must devise applications of its theories sufficiently precise to discriminate be- tween alternative interpretations by their differential values. This probably was one of the main motives that led him to make the great generalisation of scientific method which is known as pragmatism, though he also conceived it in another aspect as an extension to psychology and logic of the biological conception of survival and the Darwinian principle of selection. Of pragmatism he was practically the founder, though he took a hint and the name (which is a bad one) from his friend C. S. Peirce, and it was to the explanation and advocacy of this method that the last dozen years of his life were devoted. The controversy which was thereby started is still unfinished, and, indeed, is only just beginning to bear fruit. But it is a psychological curiosity how few of the many who denounced James as a ‘dangerous revolu- tionary perceived that ‘the doctrine that the meaning of an assertion depends on the value of its conse- quences enunciated merely the scientific postulate that all assertions must be tested, and that any doctrine which could«not be applied to any problem was un- meaning. One can only suppose that this philosophic generalis: ition of scientific practice was propounded to persons who, as a matter of psychological fact, were not in the habit of subjecting their pet convictions to any test, and therefore aroused so great an emotional disturbance that the actual doctrine was _ hardly attended to. A similar reception was accorded to James’s account of the will and the right to believe. James, after pointing out that, as a matter of psycho- logical fact, there existed a strong bias in men to believe what they desired, had restricted the right to believe to cases where a choice between a number of intellectually possible alternatives was practically neces- sitated, and asserted that in such cases the empirical consequences of the. belief, favourable or otherwise, formed the test of its truth. Whereupon he was, in spite of repeated disclaimers, universally credited by his critics with exhorting men to believe whatever they pleased without regard to the consequences! SEPTEMBER I, 1910] NATURE 269 But all the world over the old dies hard, and the new has to struggle into birth so slowly that it is adult by the time it comes out, and the pioneers have to rough it. Logic will be the last science to submit to the sway of Darwinism, but there is no doubt that in the end it, too, will vield to the pragmatist followers of William James. In addition to writing a large number of articles and reviews which have never been republished, James was the author of the following substantive works :— The Principles of Psychology’ (1890), the *Text-book of Psychology”’’ (1892), ‘“‘The Will to Believe’ (1896), the Ingersoll lecture on ‘* Human Immortality” (1898), ‘Talks to Teachers’’ (1899), probably the easiest and most delightful introduction to psychology extant, the ‘‘ Varieties of Religious Ex- perience * (1902), ** Pragmatism’”’ (1907), ‘A Plural- istic Universe’ (1909), and ‘‘ The Meaning of Truth” (1909). DR. LOUIS OLIVIER. R. LOUIS OLIVIER, whose death we announced last week, was one of the best-known men of science in France, and had many friends also in Great Britain. He was only fifty-six years of age, and that the scientific world should have been deprived of his influence and activities when years of further work were anticipated has caused widespread regret. For most of the following particulars of his career we are indebted to M. Louis Brunet. Louis Olivier was born at Elbeuf on June 29, 1854. He studied at the Museum of the Sorbonne, and obtained the degree of doctor of science in 1881, with a thesis entitled * L’appareil tegumentaire des racines,’ which was awarded the Bordin prize of the Paris Academy of Sciences. Entering Pasteur’s laboratory, he carried on bacteriological work, which led to some valuable results, such as the reduction of sulphates by micro- organisms, and, in collaboration with M. Ch. Richet, the existence of various bacteria in the lympth and blood of healthy fishes. In 1888 he went to Havre as director of the municipal laboratory there, and to form a course in bacteriology for medical men. But the work for which Dr. Olivier deserves the lasting gratitude of the scientific world was the foun- dation of the Revue générale des Sciences pures et appliqueés in 1890. When making arrangements for the establishment of that journal, Dr. Olivier was kind enough to state that he desired it to have much the same scope and character as Nature. Possessed of vast knowledge of men and matters in all depart- ments of science, he was able to exercise sound judg- ment upon the numerous contributions submitted to him, and was successful in securing authoritative collaborators, not only in France, but also in other countries, to deal with subjects of wide interest and prime importance. During numerous visits to Eng- land, he obtained the active support of many men of science here, and they mourn his loss as that of a friend as well as of an editor. At the outset, the Revue générale des Sciences was recognised as a substantial addition to the periodical literature of science. The outlook was wide, the con- tributors men of distinguished eminence and sound knowledge, and the subjects important; and the journal has maintained this character throughout its existence. As an example of the breadth of view, we may mention that arrangements were made by Dr. Olivier for special reports to be supplied to his journal of the meetings of the Royal Society of London and of other leading scientific societies in Europe. So far as we are aware, no other journal abroad gives such attention to the progress of science in Great Britain NOw2TS0, VOL. 184 | as is still devoted to it by the Revue générale des Sciences. In 1897 Dr. Olivier established a series of cruises which have enabled many of his countrymen to visit various places, with guides well acquainted with the aspects of scientific interest presented by them. Among the countries fo which he thus introduced many travellers are Spitsbergen, the Canary Islands, Scot- land, Egypt, and the Caucasus. Though Dr. Olivier was not a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, Prof. Bouchard, who presided at the meeting of the academy on August 16, expressed sorrow at his death, and this testimony to the esteem in which he was held was put on record in the Comptes rendus. This exceptional mark of honour shows the high regard in which Dr. Olivier was held in France, and we are sure that in our own country there is real regret that one whose life has been of such great service should have passed into silence while actively engaged in his work for the extension of scientific knowledge. NOTES. In accordance with previous announcements, arrange- ments have been made to hold the autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute at Buxton, on Monday to Friday, September 26-30. The following are among the subjects of papers to be brought before the meeting :—Electric steel refining, D. F. Campbell; manganese in cast iron and the volume during cooling, H. I. Coe; sulphurous acid as a metallographic etching medium, E. Colver-Glauert and S. Hilpert; the theory of hardening carbon steels, C. A. Edwards; the influence of silicon on pure cast iron, A. Hague and T. Turner; the preparation of magnetic oxides of iron from aqueous solutions, S. Hilpert; the utilisation of electric power in the iron and steel industry, J. Elink Schuurman; some experiments on fatigue of metals, J. H. Smith. Ar the autumn meeting of the Institute of Metals, which is to take place in Glasgow on September 21-23, the following papers will probably be read :—The heat changes treatment of brass: experiments on 70:30 alloy, Messrs. G. D. Bengough and O. F. Hudson; some common defects occurring in alloys, Dr. C. H. Desch; shrinkage of the antimony-lead alloys, and of the aluminium-zine alloys, during and after solidification, Mr. D. Ewen; the effect of silver, bismuth, and aluminium upon the mechanical properties of ‘‘ tough-pitch ’’ copper containing arsenic, Mr.-F. Johnson; metallography as an aid to the brass founder, Mr. H. S. Primrose; magnetic alloys formed from non-magnetic materials, Mr: A. D. Ross: A HITHERTO unknown central mountain range in Netherlands territory and west of the Fly River, has been visited by a Dutch explorer, Dr. H. A. Lorentz, who has published an account of the inhabitants. These, unlike the people found further west by the English expedition under Captain Rawling, are not pigmies, and most of Dr. Lorentz’s description shows that they are not very far removed from the typical dwellers in the Fly River region. They wore no clothes, and lived in small huts about ten feet from the ground, as do some ot the people of the Fly delta. As usual among the western Papuans, they used the bow and arrow, and had stone axes, the common weapon of all Papuans, until the advent of the white man. Mutilation was practised. The women cut off the middle finger of the left hand, the men removed the upper portion of one ear. This tribe was found to smoke and grow tobacco, which is not used on the coast of region in New Guinea, near the 270 NAPGRE Netherlands New Guinea, though used in the valley of the Fly River, and in the central district of British New Guinea, whence it has spread along the coast. The dis- covery of its use and culture among these mountaineers suggests that the custom was introduced into New Guinea from the north. Dr. Lorentz suggests intercourse with the northern coast, as the mountaineers wore large sea-shells as breast ornaments. No accurate information was obtain- able, as intercourse was carried on only by signs. Mr. J. Hewitt, assistant for lower vertebrates in the Transvaal Museum, and formerly curator of the Sarawak Museum, has been appointed director of the Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa, in succession to Dr. S. Schonland, who has resigned owing to pressure of other work. The herbarium is still under the care of Dr. Schonland. A Reuter telegram from Spezia announces the death, on August 28, of Prof. Paolo Mantegazza. From a short notice in the Times, we learn that Prof. Mantegazza was born at Monza on October 31, 1831. After having studied at Milan and at Pisa he devoted himself to the study of medicine, and took his degree as doctor of medicine at Pavia. He early acquired a reputation, which increased steadily until he came to be regarded as one of the most learned physicians and the first hygienist of Italy. His method of exposition was easy, brilliant, and attractive, and did much to popularise the teaching of medical science. His devotion to his profession, however, did not prevent him from taking an active part in public affairs. » 7h. 56m. to gh. 15m. (Mag. 4°9.) 15. Saturn. Major axis of outer ring=45°36", minor axis =13'94”.. 17. 12h. 36m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). 2c. gh. 25m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). 21. 11h. 30m. Saturn in conjunction with Moon (Saturn 1° 31'S.) 23. oh. 31m. Sunenteis Libra. Autumn commences. 23. 13h, 43m. to 14h. 5m. Moon occults x’ Tauri. (Mag. 4°1.) 23. gh. 13m. to 144. 59m. (Mag. 4°2.) Tue Paris Opservatory.—M. Baillaud’s report of the Paris Observatory, for 1909, opens with a fitting tribute to the memory of MM. Fraissinet and Paul Gautier, and then proceeds to give an account of each department of the work and its labours during the year. Among other things, he mentions that the ‘‘ cercle méridien du Jardin ”” has been completely overhauled and made perfect, while the programme has been greatly modified; the instrument is now being employed to observe fundamental stars, and will.eventually undertake observations for the large cata- logue proposed at the last meeting of the Paris Conference. When not in use for spectroscopic work, the large coudé equatorial was emploved by MM. Puiseux and Le Morvan for photographing the moon and planets; 218 images of Jupiter were secured between February and May, and later in the year more than 1200 images of Mars were secured. A reproduction of the spectrum of Arcturus, original size, shows how effective are the new arrangements for employ- ing the large coudé for stellar spectroscopy ; the definition is magnificent, and the length of the spectrum between A 4100 and A 4800 is 15-4 cm. The small equatorial coudé was employed by Dr. Nord- mann in his photometric determination of stellar tempera- tures, and, with M. Salet, he has undertaken the observa- tion of 300 stars of various spectral types. (Venus Moon occults w Sagittarii. Moon occults A Sagittarii. Moon occults »’ Tauri, OBSERVATIONS OF CoMET i1910a.—In No. 4433 of the Astronomische Nachrichten Dr. Karl Bohlin publishes an excellent photograph and’two drawings of the great comet, Igtoa, as observed at Stockholm on January 28. ‘The photograph shows the main tail 18° long, cleft at its extremity. The two drawings show enlarged views in the neighbourhood of the head, and in the second the head appears to stand out from the general plane in the form of a half moon. Tue Sun’s VeELocity THROUGH SpacE.—In No. 1, vol. xxxli., of the Astrophysical Journal Profs. Frost and Kapteyn discuss the value of the sun’s velocity through space as derived from the radial velocity of Orion stars. The reasons for employing this class of stars are fully discussed, and the stars considered were taken from within a moderate distance of the apex, or the antapex; for the former, the. position a=269-7°, 5=+30-:8° (18 taken, and the fact is elucidated that the Orion s as a rule, at a great distance from the sun. This fact may SEPTEMBER I, 1910] NATURE 273 account for the result that the velocity now determined is some 2 km. per sec. greater than that found by Hough and Halm, who employed many stars relatively near to our system; tentatively, it is suggested that these proximate stars appear to participate *o some extent in the sun’s motion through space. A remarkable feature of the results is that the solar velocity, relatively to the stars near the apex, is some ro km. per sec. less than the velocity relative to those near the antapex, separate solutions giving —18-38 km. and —28.38 km. respectively. It is suggested that this difference may be due to the stars near each point, or near both, belonging to the two great star streams. The mean value given as the definitive result of the paper is v= —23-3 km. per sec. As further results, it was found that the average radial velocity of the stars, independent of the sun’s motion, is —6-3 km. per sec., and that the average parallax of the sixty-one stars employed is 0-00924". PARALLAX OF FourtH-tyre Stars.—The question of the absorption of light in interstellar space led. Prof. Kapteyn to look for classes of stars of which the probable distances are very great; such stars would best indicate any exist- ing absorption. The fact that the proper motions of fourth- and fifth-type stars are, so far as is known, in- sensible, suggested that such stars would have. extremely small parallaxes; therefore Prof. Kapteyn calculated the probable average parallax for some 120 stars of this type from data determined by Mr. Norlund at Copenhagen. The result is striking, for the average parallax of these fourth-type stars is found to be extremely small, 0-0007", and does not exceed the probable error. Taking a previous result for the selective absorption in space, the quantity (photographic—visual magnitude) must amount, for these stars, to at least half a magnitude; it may be much greater. Therefore, to be satisfactory, any interpretation of the spectra of these stars cannot neglect the effect of the possible light-absorption in space. For comparison, Prof. Kapteyn computed the probable average parallaxes of other types and for Orion stars of magnitude 5-0; he found the value 0-0068” +0-0004”", which agrees satisfactorily with the value 0.0064" determined, by an absolutely different method, in the discussion of the sun’s velocity published by him, in collaboration with Prof. Frost, in the same number of the Astrophysical Journal (No. 1, vol. xxxii.). Tue Maximum oF Mira IN 1909.—Two papers dealing with the maximum of Mira in 1909 are published in No. _ 4434 of the lstronomische Nachrichten. In the former Prof. Nijland discusses his observations at Utrecht, which covered the period July 20, 1909, to March 3, and finds that a maximum, of magnitude 3-1, took place on September 7, 1909. This agrees with Guthnick’s ephemeris, and gives a period, since last maximum, of 336 days. In the second paper Mr. Ichinohe discusses the observa- lions made by him at the Tokio. Observatory during approximately the same period. According to him, the maximum took place on September 3, nearly four days before the predicted epoch, and the magnitude was 3:2. Tue Stupy oF Dovstr Stars FoR AmMaTEuRS.—Pos:s of small instruments desiring to take up a useful stud) will find an interesting article by Mr. G. F. Chambers in the August number of Knowledge and Scientific News. This is the first of a series of articles on double stars, and in it Mr. Chambers discusses the question as to what constitutes a double star, and also pays attention to the question of coloured doubles. Metcate’s Comet, 1910b.—Further observations of, and a continuation of the ephemeris for, Metcalf’s comet are published in No. 4435 of the Astronomische Nachrichten ; the following is an extract from the ephemeris :— Ephemeris 12h. M.T. Berlin. 1910 pestoxe) 6 (19 10°0) log x log A Mag. i m. x ‘i Sept. 2 ... 15 37°5 ... +16 4377 ..- 012886 ... 0°3027 ... 10'9 Ty LONCEGN 2A. 1 L730 lnk O12807) vei0 3342.05 LTO wy Oneeeth 02074... +17 20°0),...0;2018)... O' 3614... 1I°2 2131, VOL. 84] THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S EXHIBITION. S the New Gallery is now used for other than exhibi- tion purposes, the Royal Photographic Society have had to return to the Gallery of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colour, 5a Pall Mall East, and hold their exhibition earlier than usual. It is now open, and closes on September 16. The trade and professional sections have had to be omitted for want of room, and the number of exhibits in the other sections considerably reduced. The diminution in the number of exhibits may cause disappointment to many who had prepared work for the occasion; but it is not an unmixed misfortune to the visitor, for it seems to have led to a general raising of the standard of quality. The pictorial section has a certain measure of scientific interest, as the method of production of almost all the prints is stated in the catalogue. They indicate, therefore, in an intelligible way the possibilities of the various processes, and at the same time a purchaser knows what he is buying. The proportion of bromides seems to be unduly large, and to indicate that many prefer ease of production to an unassailable permanency. There are two notable oil prints in colour, a still-life subiect by MM. Séeberger Fréres, and ** Carmencita ’’ by Messrs. Tilney and Corke; but such work is on the very border- land of photography. In the colour-transparency section, the large majority of the exhibits are autochromes. Some of these are of a very high standard of excellence. Mr. J. C. Warburg’s “ Gourt of Honour, Ivory and Azure,’’ and ‘ Grey Hound Inn, Corfe,’’ and Mr. Ellis Kelsey’s ‘* Beachy Head, Reflections,’’ show how truly it is possible to repro- duce the effects of neutral and sober colours. The few transparencies by the Dioptichrome Dufay Process are chiefly of the garish colour type, and do not serve to indicate the characteristics or possibilities of these plates. The application of colour photography to natural history and scientific purposes is illustrated by several trans- parencies, and several photomicrographs of polarised light effects show how well such slides can represent the actual appearances. A set of nine slides of mineral sections in polarised light by Mr. E. J. Garwood, made by the Sanger Shepherd colour process, by the side of the autochromes of similar subjects, demonstrates the superior brilliancy of the Sanger Shepherd plates, and that this process, although more trouble to work than the other, still holds its own. In the natural history section, those exhibitors whose work we expect to see year by year continue to contribute. Mr. Douglas English shows the black ratton, the probable type of the old English black rat, and the “plague ’” rat of the East. Mr. William Farren shows five photographs of the ‘‘ whiskered tern’? (taken in Spain), three show- ing various phases of wing elevation in the act of alight- ing. When Miss Turner and Mr. E. J. Bedford exhibit rows of birds, each in the same row in a similar attitude and sometimes a strange attitude, we should like to know whether the birds were alive or dead when photographed. And this question might perhaps be asked with regard to some other exhibits. Among the entomological subjects, special note may perhaps be made of Mr. Hugh Main’s series of thirteen photographs of the metamorphoses of the glow-worm in natural size, and Mr. P. J. Barrand’s “Queen wasp” in the attitude assumed during hyberna- tion (x6). The photomicrographs include many notable works. Dr. G. H. Rodman’s series of fourteen photographs. illustrating the life-history and structure of the stick insects, all low magnifications (x3 to X14) except the complete insects, which are half size, and Mr. J. T. Holder’s low magnifi- cations of the twelve excellent sections, prepared, we believe, by himself, showing the eves and adjacent parts of various living creatures, deserve especial mention. Dr. Max Poser’s diatoms are, of course, good, but the interest of them swould be much increased if the optical conditions under which they were photographed were stated. The only apparent advantage of the enormous magnification of nine thousand diameters of the Pleurosigma angulatum seems to be that all that is to be seen can be seen from the other side of the room. His bacilli with flagella (x 1000) and his trypanosome (3000) are fine examples. 274 NATURE [SEPTEMBER I, 1910 A reproduction of the latter, which is almost equal to the original, is given in the catalogue. Among several interesting radiographs, Dr. C. Thurstan Holland exhibits one of an ‘‘ Adult male chest, through all the clothing, taken with a Snook Transformer. Instantaneous exposure.’’ Dr. H. Ronen, Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer, and Stonyhurst College contribute astronomical and spectroscopical photographs. There are two or three excellent telephotographs, and a single exhibit of photo- mechanical work. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT SHEFFIELD. RITING on the eve of the meeting, there is every prospect that the Sheffield meeting of the association will be a successful one, and a certainty that, with an improvement in the weather conditions, it will be an enjoyable one. A considerable amount of private hospitality is being dispensed, but, even so, late arrivals will have some difficulty in finding accom- modation. Local interest is considerable, and all classes are combining to give a welcome worthy of the city. One special feature will be the opportunity afforded to members to inspect the operations con- nected with armour and armament, all the firms engaged in naval shipbuilding opening their works to large parties. Members should be, however, careful to apply for tickets inimediately on arrival, as some are open only on the Thursday., The technical in- struction and investigations in iron and steel metal- lurgy carried on in the University have been of very material assistance in enabling Sheffield to maintain its leading position as the centre of high-class steel production, and the University is arranging to run its furnaces and special plants on afternoons at the Close of the sectional meetings. Amongst the most interesting may be mentioned the crucible house, the Kjellin electric melting furnace, the electric hardening furnace, and the new form of the Siemens’ acid open- hearth furnace. Interest will also be taken in the exhibition of Dr. Sorby’s original micro-sections. The Sheffield Musical Union is giving a concert to the association on the Saturday evening, under the conductorship of Dr. Coward. This is an innovation which will enable members to hear the famed Sheffield Choir, the programme including, besides part-songs, choral selections from the ‘‘ Messiah ’’ and the ** Golden Legend.” In consonance with the growing fancy in England for ceremonial, the local committee have arranged for a procession on Sunday of representatives of the asso- ciation, the Town Council, and the University from the Town Hall to the Parish Church, where the Arch- bishop of York is to preach the official sermon. On Tuesday the University will hold a congregation to confer honorary degrees on leading representatives of the association. The recipients are to be :—The Presi- dent (Dr. Bonney), the Lord Mayor (Earl Fitzwilliam, chairman of the local committee), Mr. W. H. Bateson, Sir W. Crookes, Mr. Francis Darwin, Sir A. Geikie, Prof. Hobson, Sir J. Jonas, Sir Norman Lockyer, Sir O. Lodge, Principal Miers, Sir W. Ramsay, Prof. Rhys Davies, Prof. Sherrington, Mr. J. E. Stead, Sir J. J. Thomson, and Sir W. White. Later the same evening the Chancellor of the University (the Duke of Norfolk, E.M., K.G.) will hold a reception. In con- nection with this an attempt is being made to arrange a scientific exhibition, more especially in relation to papers read before the various sections. It is hoped thereby to encourage this method of illustrating papers and at the same time to render them available to a wider circle of members. Simultaneously with the re- ception at the University, the Lord Mayor is receiving local guests at the Art Gallery; and the Weston Park, between it and the University, is to be the scene of an NO. 2131, VOL. 84] evening garden-party, with a military tattoo and toreh- light procession. 5)" INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY THE Rey. Pror. T. G. Bonney, Se.D., LL.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. _ Turrty-ONE years have passed since the British Associa- tion met in Sheffield, and the interval has been marked by exceptional progress. A town has become a city, the head of its municipality a Lord Mayor; its area has been enlarged by more than one-fifth; its population has in- creased from about 280,000 to 479,000. Communication has been facilitated by the construction of nearly thirty- eight miles of electric tramways for home service and of new railways, including alternative routes to Manchester and London. The supplies of electricity, gas, and water have more than kept pace with the wants of the city. The first was just being attempted in 1879; the second has now twenty-three times as many consumers as in those days; the story’ of the third has been told by one who knows it well, so that it is enough for me to say your water supply cannot be surpassed for quantity and quality by any in the kingdom. Nor has Sheffield fallen behind other cities in its public buildings. In 1897 your hand- some Town Hall was opened by the late Queen Victoria; the new Post Office, appropriately built and adorned with material from almost local sources, was inaugurated less than two months ago. The Mappin Art Gallery com- Inemorates the munificence of those whose name it bears, and. fosters that love of the beautiful which Ruskin sought to awaken by his generous gifts. Last, but not least, Sheffield has shown that it could not rest satisfied until its citizens could ascend from their own doors to the highest rung of the educational ladder. Firth College, named after its generous founder, was born in the year of our last visit; in 1897 it received a charter as the University College of Sheffield, and in the spring of 1905 was created a University, shortly after which its fine new buildings were opened by the late King; and last year its library, the generous gift of Dr. Edgar Allen, was inaugurated by his successor, when Prince of Wales. I must not now dwell on the great work which awaits this and other new universities. It is for them to prove that, so far from abstract thought being antagonistic to practical work, or scientific research to the labour of the factory or foundry, the one and the other can harmoniously cooperate in the advance of knowledge and the progress of civilisation. You often permit your President on these occasions to speak of a subject in which he takes a special interest, and I prefer thus trespassing on your kindness to attempt- ing a general review of recent progress in science. I do not, however, propose, as you might naturally expect, to discuss some branch of petrology; though for this no place could be more appropriate than Sheffield, since it was the birthplace and the lifelong home of Henry Clifton Sorby, who may truly be called the father of that science. This title he won when, a little more than sixty years ago, he began to study the structure and mineral composition of rocks by examining thin sections of them under the micro- scope.*”. A rare combination of a singularly versatile and active intellect with accurate thought and sound judgment, shrewd in nature, as became a Yorkshireman,. yet gentle. kindly, and unselfish, he was one whom his friends loved and of whom this city may well be proud. Sorby’s name will be kept alive among you by the Professorship of Geology which he has endowed in your University; but, as the funds will not be available for some time, and as that science is so intimately connected with metallurgy, coal-mining, and engineering, I venture to express a hope that some of your wealthier citizens will provide for the temporary deficiency, and thus worthily commemorate one so distinguished. But to return. T have not selected petrology as my subject, partly because I think that the great attention which its more minute details have of late received has tended to limit rather than to broaden our views, while 1 “ History and Description of Sheffield Water Works.” W Terrey, 1908. 2 His subsequent investigations into the microscopic structure of steel and other alloys of iron, in the manufacture of which your city holds a foremost place, have been extended by Mr. J. E. Stead and others, and they, besides being of great value to industrial progress, have thrown important sidelights on more than one dark place in petrology. SEPTEMBER I, 1910] for a survey of our present position it is enough to refer to the suggestive and comprehensive volume published last year by Mr. A. Harker;' partly, also, because the dis- cussion of any branch of petrology would involve so many technicalities that I fear it would be found tedious by a large majority of my audience. So I have preferred to discuss some questions relating to the effects of ice which had engaged my attention a dozen years before I attempted the study of rock slices. As much of my petro- logical work has been connected with mountain districts, it has been possible for me to carry on the latter without neglecting the former, and my study of ice-work gradually led me from the highlands into the lowlands.* I purpose, then, to ask your attention this evening to some aspects of the glacial history of Western Europe. At no very distant geological epoch the climate in the northern part of the earth was much colder than it is at present. So it was also in the southern; but whether the two were contemporaneous is less certain. Still more doubtful are the extent and the work of the ice which Was a consequence, and the origin of certain deposits on some northern lowlands, including those of our own islands, namely, whether they are the direct leavings of glaciers or were laid down beneath the sea by floating shore-ice and bergs. Much light will be thrown on this complex problem by endeavouring to ascertain what snow and ice have done in some region which, during the Glacial Epoch, was never submerged, and none better can be found for this purpose than the European Alps. At the present day one school of geologists, which of jate years has rapidly increased in number, claims for glaciers a very large share in the sculpture of that chain, asserting that they have not only scooped out the marginal lakes, as Sir A. Ramsay maintained full half a century ago, but have also quarried lofty cliffs, excavated great cirques, and deepened parts of the larger Alpine valleys by something like two thousand feet. The other school, while admitting that a glacier, in special circumstances, may hollow out a tarn or small lake and modify the features of rock scenery, declares that its action is abrasive rather than erosive, and that the sculpture of ridges, crags, and valleys was mainly accomplished in pre-Glacial times by running water and the ordinary atmospheric agencies. In all controversies, as time goes on, hypotheses are apt to masquerade as facts, so that I shall endeavour this evening to disentangle the two, and direct attention to those which may be safely used in drawing a conclusion. In certain mountain regions, especially those where strong limestones, granites, and other massive rocks are dominant, the valleys are often trench-like, with pre- cipitous sides, having cirques or corries at their heads, and with rather wide and gently sloping floors, which occasionally descend in steps, the distance between these increasing with that from the watershed. Glaciers have unquestionably occupied many of these valleys, but of late years they have been supposed to, have taken a large share in excavating them. In order to appreciate their action, Wwe muSt imagine the glens to be filled up and the district restored to its former condition of a more or less undulating upland. As the mean temperature® declined, snow would begin to accumulate in inequalities on the upper slopes. This, by melting and freezing, would soften and corrode the underlying material, which would then be removed by rain and wind, gravitation and avalanche. In course of time the hollow thus formed would assume more and more the outlines of a corrie or a cirque by eating into the hillside. With an increasing diameter it would be occupied, as the temperature fell, first by a permanent snowfield, then by the névé of a glacier. Another process now becomes important, that called ‘‘ sapping.’’? While ordinary glacier-scour tends, as we are told, to produce ‘“ sweeping curves and eventually a graded slope,’’ ‘‘ sapping’’ pro- duces “‘ benches and cliffs, its action being horizontal and backwards,’’ and often dominant over scour. The author of this hypothesis* convinced himself of its truth in the Sierra Nevada by descending a bergschrund 150 feet in “ ‘*The Natural History of Igneous Rocks,” 1900, » 2 May I add that hereafter a statement of facts without mention of an authority means that I am speaking from personal knowledge. 3 In the remainder of this address ‘“‘temperature”’ is to be understood as mean temperature. The Fahrenheit scale is used. 4 W. D. Johnson, Scence, N.S.. ix. (+809), pp. 106, 112. NO. 2131, vor. 84] NATURE 275 depth, which opened out, as is so common, beneath the walls of a cirque. Beginning in the névé, it ultimately reached the cliff, so that for the last 30 feet the bold investigator found rock on the one hand.and ice on the other. The former was traversed by fracture planes, and was in all stages of displacement and dislodgment; some blocks having fallen to the bottom, others bridging the narrow chasm, and others frozen into the névé. Clear ice had formed in the fissures of the cliff; it hung down in great stalactites; it had accumulated in stalagmitic masses on the floor. Beneath the névé the temperature would be uniform, so its action would be protective, except where it set~up another kind of erosion, presently to be noticed; but in the chasm, we are informed, there would be, at any rate for a considerable part of the year, a daily alternation of freezing and thawing. Thus the cliff would ve rapidly undermined and be carried back into the moun- tain slope, so that before long the glacier would nestle in a shelter of its own making. Farther down the valley the moving ice would become more effective than sub- glacial streams in deepening its bed; but since the névé- flow is almost imperceptible near the head, another agen-y must be invoked, that of ‘‘ plucking.’’ .The ice grips, like a forceps, any loose or projecting fragment in its rocky . bed, wrenches that from its place, and carries it away. ile extraction of one tooth weakens the hold of its neigh- bours, and thus the glen is deepened by, “* plucking,’’ while it is carried back by ‘‘sapping.’’ Streams from meltiag snows on the slopes above the amphitheatre might have been expected to cooperate vigorously in making it, but of them little account seems to be taken, and we are even told that in some cases the winds probably prevented snow from resting on the rounded surface between two cirque- heads. As these receded, only a narrow neck would be left between them, which would be ultimately cut down into a gap or ‘“‘col.’’ Thus a region of deep valleys with precipitous sides and heads, of sharp ridges, and of more or less isolated peaks, is substituted for a rather mono- tonous, if lofty, highland. The hypothesis is ingenious, but some students of Alpine scenery think more proof desirable before they can accept it as an axiom. For instance, continuous observations are necessary to justify the assumption of diurnal variations of temperature sufficient to produce any sensible effect on rock at the bottom of a narrow chasm nearly fifty yards deep and almost enclosed by ice. Here the conditions would more probably resemble those in a glaciére, or natural ice cave. In one of these, during the summer, curtains and festoons of ice depend from the walls; from them and from the roof water drips slowly, to be frozen into stalagmitic mounds on the floor, which is itself some- times a thick bed of ice. On this the quantity of fallen rock débris is not greater than’is usual in a cave, nor are the walls notably shattered, even though a gap some four yards deep may separate them from the ice. The floors of cirques, from which the névé has vanished, can- not as a rule be examined, because they are masked by débris which is brought down by the numerous cascades, little and big, which seam their walls; but glimpses . of them may sometimes be obtained in the smaller corries (which would be cirques if they could), and these show no signs of either ‘‘ sapping’’ or ‘ plucking,’’ but some little of abrasion by moving ice. Cirques and corries also not infrequently occur on the sides as well as at the heads of valleys, such, for instance, as the two in the massif of the Uri Rothstock on the way ‘to the Surenen Pass. and the Fer 4 Cheval above Sixt. The Lago di Ritom lies between the mouth of a hanging valley and a well-defined step, and just above that is the Lago di Cadagno in a large, steep-walled corrie, which opens laterally into the Val Piora, as that of the Lago di Tremorgio does into the southern side of the Val Bedretto. Cirques may also be found where glaciers have had a comparatively brief existence, -as the Creux des Vents on the Jura; or have never been formed, as on the slopes of Salina, one of the Lipari Istands, or in the limestone desert of Lower Egypt.” I have seen a miniature stepped valley carved by a rain- storm on a slope of Hampstead Heath; a cirque, about a yard in- height and breadth, similarly excavated in the 1 This dees not appear to have occurred in the Alps. 2 A. J. Jukes-Browne, Geol. Wag., 1877, Pp» 477- 276 NAL OE > te [SEPTEMBER I, 1910 vertical wall of a gravel pit; and a corrie, measured by feet instead of furlongs, at the foot of one of the Binns near Burntisland, or, on a much reduced scale, in a bank cf earth. On-all these the same agent, plunging water, has left its marks—runlets of rain for the smaller, streams for the larger; convergent at first, perhaps, by accident, afterwards inevitably combined as the hollow widened and deepened. Each of the great cirques is still a ‘‘ land of streams,’’ and they are kept permanent for the greater part of the year by beds of snow on the ledges walls. The ‘‘sapping and plucking ’’ process presents another difficulty—the steps already mentioned in the floors of valleys. These are supposed to indicate stages at which the excavating glacier transferred its operations to a higher level. But, if so, the outermost one must be the oldest, or the glacier must have been first formed in the lowest part of the incipient valley. Yet, with a falling tempera- ture, the reverse would happen, for otherwise the snow must act as a protective mantle to the mature pre-glacial surface almost down to its base. However much age might have smoothed away youthful angularities, it would be strange if no receptacles had been left higher up to initiate the process; and even if sapping had only modified the form of an older valley, it could not have cut the steps unless it had begun its work on the lowest one. Thus, in the case of the Creux de Champ, if we hesitate to assume that the sapping process began at the mouth of the valley of the Grande Eau above Aigle, we must sup- pose it to have started somewhere near Ormont Dessus and to have excavated that gigantic hollow, the floor of which lies full 6000 feet below the culminating crags of the Diablerets. But even if ‘‘ sapping and plucking ’’ were assigned a comparatively unimportant position in the cutting out of cirques and corries, it might still be maintained that the glaciers of the Ice Age had greatly deepened the valleys of mountain regions. That view is adopted by Profs. Penck and Briickner in their work on the glaciation of the Alps,’ the value of which even those who cannot accept some of their conclusions will thankfully admit. On one point all parties agree—that a valley cut by a fairly rapid stream in a durable rock is V-like in section. With an increase of speed the walls become more vertical; with a diminution the valley widens and has a flatter bed, over which the river, as the base-line is approached, may at last meander. Lateral streams will plough into the slopes, and may be numerous enough to convert them into alternating ridges and furrows. If a valley has been excavated in thick horizontal beds of rock varying in hardness, such as limestones and shales, its sides exhibit a succession of terrace walls and shelving banks, while a marked dip and other dominant structures produce their own modifications. It is also agreed that a_ valley excavated or greatly enlarged by a glacier should be U- like in section. But an Alpine. valley, especially as we approach its head, very commonly takes the following form. For some hundreds of feet up from the torrent it is a distinct V; above this the slopes becomes less rapid, changing, say, from 45° to not more than 30°, and that rather suddenly. Still higher comes a region of stone-strewn upland valleys and rugged crags, terminating in ridges and peaks of splintered rock, projecting from a mantle of ice and snow. ‘The V-like part is often from 800 to 1000 feet in depth, and the above-named authors maintain that this, with perhaps as much of the more open trough above, was excavated during the Giacial Epoch. Thus the floor of any one of these valleys prior to the Ice Age must often have been at least 1800 feet above its present level.* As a rough estimate, we may fix the deepening of one of the larger Pennine vallevs, tributary to the Rhone, to have been, during the Ice Age, at least 1600 feet in their lower parts. Most of them are now hanging valleys, the stream issuing, on the level of the main river, from a deep gorge. Their tributaries are rather variable in form, the larger, as a rule, being more or less V-shaped; the shorter, and capenially the smaller, corresponding more with the upper “ Die Alpen in Eiszeitalter,” 1900. 2 The amount varies in different valleys; for instance, it was fullv 2880 fee at Amsteg on the. Reuss, just over 2000 feet at Brieg in the Rhone Valley, about rooo feet at Guttanen in the Aare Valley, about 1550 feet above Zermatt, and 1100 feet above Saas Grund. NO. 2131, VOL. 84] above its part of the larger valleys, but their lips generally are less deeply notched. Whatever may have been the cause, this rapid change in slope must indicate a corresponding change of action in the erosive agent. Here and there the apex of the V may be slightly flattened, but any approach to a real U is extremely rare. The retention of the more open form in many small, elevated recesses, from which at the present day but little water descends, suggests. that where one of them soon became buried under snow,' but Was insignificant as a feeder of a glacier, erosion has been for ages almost at a standstill. The v-like lower portion in the section of one of the principal valleys, which is all that some other observers have claimed for the work of a glacier, cannot be ascribed to subsequent modification by water, because ice-worn rock can be seen in many places, not only high up its sides, but also down to within a yard or two of the present torrent. Thus valley after valley in the Alps seems to leave no escape from the following dilemma: Either a valley cut by a glacier does not differ in form from one made by running water, or one which has been excavated by the latter, if subsequently occupied, is but superficially modified by ice. This, as we can repeatedly see in the higher Alpine valleys, has not succeeded in obliterating the physical features due to the ordinary processes of erosion. Even where its effects are most striking, as in the Spitallamm below the Grimsel Hospice, it has not wholly effaced those features; and wherever a glacier in a recent retreat has exposed a rock surface, that demonstrates its inefficiency as a plough. The evidence of such cases has been pronounced inadmissible, on the ground that the glaciers of the Alps have now degenerated into senile impotence; but in valley beds over which they passed when in the full tide of their strength, the flanks show remnants of rocky ridges only partly smoothed away, and rough rock exists on the “ lee-sides ’’ of ice-worn mounds which no imaginary plucking can explain. The ice seems to have flowed over rather than to have plunged into the obstacles in its path, and even the huge steps of limestone exposed by the last retreat of the Unter Grindelwald Glacier have suffered little more than a rounding off of their angles, though that glacier must have passed over them when in fullest development, for it seems impossible to explain these by any process of sapping. The comparatively level trough, which so often forms the uppermost part of one of the great passes across the watershed of the Alps, can hardly be explained without admitting that in each case the original watershed has been destroyed by the more rapid recession of the head of the southern valley, and this work bears every sign of having been accomplished in pre-Glacial times. Sapping and plucking must have operated on a gigantic scale to separate the Viso from the Cottian watershed, to isolate the huge pyramid of the Matterhorn, with its western spur, or to make, by the recession of the Val Macugnaga, that great gap between the Strahlhorn and Monte Rosa. Some sceptics even go so far as to doubt whether the dominant’ forne® of a non-glaciated region differ very materially from those of one which has been half buried in snowfields and glaciers. To my eyes, the general out- lines of the mountains about the Lake of Gennesaret and the northern part of the Dead Sea recalled those around the Lake of Annecy and on the south-eastern shore of Leman. The sandstone crags, which rise here and there like ruined castles from the lower plateau of the Saxon Switzerland, resembled in outlines, though on a smaller scale, some of the Dolomites in the Southern Tyrol. The Lofoten Islands illustrate a half-drowned mountain range from which the glaciers have disappeared. Those were born among splintered peaks and ridges, which, though less lofty, rival in form the Aiguilles of Chamonix, and the valleys become more and more ice-worn as_ they descend, until the coast is fringed with skerries every one of which is a roche moutonnée. The névé in each of these valleys has been comparatively ineffective; the ice has gathered strength with the growth of the glacier. As can be seen from photographs, the scenery of the heart of the 1 My own studies of mountain districts have led me to infer that on slopes of low grade the action of snow is preservative rather than destructive. That conclusion was confirmed by Prof. Garwood in a communication to the Royal Geographical Society on June 20 of the present year. SEPTEMBER 1[, 1910] NATURE 277 Caucasus or of the Himalayas differs in scale rather than in kind from that of the Alps. Thus the amount of abrasion varies, other things being equal, with the lati- tude. The grinding away of ridges and spurs, the smooth- ing of the walls of troughs,’ is greater in Norway than in the Alps; it is still greater in Greenland than in Norway, and it is greatest of all in the Antarctic, according to the reports of the expeditions led by Scott and Shackleton. But even in Polar regions, under the most favourable con- ditions, the dominant outlines of the mountains, as shown in the numerous photographs taken by both parties, and in Dr. Wilson’s admirable drawings, differ in degree rathe1 than in kind from those of mid-European ranges. . It has been asserted that the parallel sides of the larger Alpine valleys—such as the Rhone above Martigny, the Lutschine near Lauterbrunnen, and the Val Bedretto below Airolo— prove that they have been made by the ice-plough rather than by running water; but in the first I am unable to discern more than the normal effects of a rather rapid river which has followed a trough of comparatively soft rocks; in the second, only the cliffs marking the channel cut by a similar stream through massive limestones—cliffs like those which elsewhere rise up the mountain flanks far above the levels reached by glaciers; while in the third I have failed to discover, after repeated examination, any- - thing abnormal. Many lake basins have been ascribed to the erosive action of glaciers. Since the late Sir A. Ramsay advanced this hypothesis, numbers of lakes in various countries have been carefully investigated and the results published, the most recent of which is the splendid work on the Scottish lochs by-Sir J. Murray and Mr. L. Pullar.? A contribution to science of the highest value, it has also a deeply pathetic interest, for it is a father’s memorial to a much-loved son, F. P. Pullar, who, after taking a most active part in beginning the investigation, lost his life while saving others from drowning. As the time at my command is limited, and many are acquainted with the literature of the sub- ject, | may be excused from saying more than that even these latest researches have not driven me from the posi- tion which I have maintained from the first, namely, that while many tarns in corries and lakelets in other favour- able situations are probably due to excavation by ice, as in the mountainous districts of Britain, in Scandinavia, or in the higher parts of the Alps, the difficulty of invoking this agency increases with the size of the basin—as, for example, in the case of Lech Maree or the Lake of Annecy —until it becomes insuperable. Even if Glas Llyn and Llyn Llydaw were the work of a glacier, the rock basins of Gennesaret and the Dead Sea, still more those of the great lakes in North America and in Central Africa, must be assigned to other causes. I pass on, therefore, to mention another difficulty in this hypothesis—that the Alpine valleys were greatly deepened during the Glacial Epoch—which has not yet, I think, received sufficient attention. From three to four hundred thousand years have elapsed, according to Penck and Brickner, since the first great advance of the Alpine ice. One of the latest estimates of the thickness of the several geological formations assigns 4000 feet* to the Pleistocene and Recent, 13,000 to the Pliocene, and 14,000 to the Miocene. If we assume the times of deposit to be proportional to the thickness, and adopt the larger figure for the first-named period, the duration of the Pliocene would be 1,300,000 years, and of the Miocene 1,400,000 years. To estimate the total vertical thickness of rock which has been removed from the Alps by denudation is far from easy, but I think 14,000 feet would be a liberal allowance, of which about one-seventh is assigned to the Ice Age. But during that age, according to a curve given by Penck and Briickner, the temperature was below its present amount for rather less than half (0-47) the time. Hence it follows that, since the sculpture of the Alps must have begun at least as far back as the Miocene period, one-seventh of the work has been done ‘by ice in not quite one-fifteenth of the time, or its action must be very potent. Such data as are at our command make it probable that 1 If one may judge from photographs. the smoothing of the flanks of a valley is unusually conspicuous in Milton Sound, New Zealand. 2 “ Bathvmetrical Survey of the Scottish Freshwater Lochs.” Sir J. Murray and Mr. L. Pullar, toro. 3 I have doubts whethier this is not too great. NO. 2131, VOL. 84] a Norway glacier at the present day lowers its basin by only about 80 millimetres in 1000 .years; a Greenland glacier may remove some 421 millimetres in the same time, while the .Vatnaj6kul in Iceland attains to 647 millimetres. lf Alpine glaciers had been as effective as the last-named, they would not have removed, during their 188,000 years of occupation of the Alpine valleys, more than 121-6 metres, or just over 397 feet; and as this is not half the amount demanded by the more moderate advocates of erosion, we must either ascribe an abnormal activity to the vanished Alpine glaciers, or admit that water was much more effective as an excavator. We must not forget that glaciers cannot have been important agents in the sculpture of the Alps during more than part of Pleistocene times. ‘That sculpture probably began in the Oligocene period; for rather early in the next. one the great masses of conglomerate, called Nagelfluh, show that powerful rivers had already carved for themselves valleys corresponding generally with, and nearly as deep as, those still in existence. Temperature during much of the Miocene period was not less than 12° k, above its present average. This would place the snow-line at about 12,000 feet.‘ In that case, if we assume the altitudes unchanged, not a snowfield would be left between the Simplon and the Maloja, the glaciers of the Pennines would shrivel into. insignificance, Monte Rosa would exchange its drapery. of ice for little more than a tippet of frozen snow. As the temperature fell, the white robes would steal down the mountain-sides, the glaciers grow, the torrents be swollen during all the warmer months, and the work of sculpture increase in activity. Yet with a temperature even 6° higher than it now is, as it might well be at the beginning of the Pliocene period, the snow-line would be at 10,000 feet ; numbers of glaciers would have disappeared, and those around the Jungfrau and the Finster Aarhorn would be hardly more important than they now are in the Western Oberland. But denudation would begin so soon as the ground rose above the sea. Water, which cannot run off the sand exposed by the retreating tide without carving a miniature system of valleys, would never leave the nascent range intact. The Miocene Alps, even before a patch of snow could remain through the summer months, would-be carved into glens and valleys Towards the end of that period the Alps were affected by a new set of movements, which produced their most marked effects in the northern zone from the Inn to the Durance. The Oberland rose to greater importance; Mont Blanc attained its primacy; the massif of Dauphiné was probably developed. That, and still more the falling temperature, would increase the snow- fields, glaciers, and torrents. The first would be, in the main, protective; the second, locally abrasive; the third, for the greater part of their course, erosive. No sooner had the drainage system been developed on both sides of the Alps than the valleys on the Italian side (unless we assume a very different distribution of rainfall) would work backwards more rapidly than those on the northern. Cases of trespass, such as that recorded by the long level trough on the north side of the Maloja Kulm and the precipitous descent on the southern, would become frequent. In the interglacial episodes—three in number, according to Penck and Brtickner, and occupying rather more than half the epoch—the snow and ice would dwindle to something like its present amount, so that the water would resume its work. Thus I think it far more probable that the V-like portions of the Alpine valleys were in the main excavated during Pliocene ages, their upper and more open parts being largely the results of Miocene and yet earlier sculpture. During the great advances of the ice, four in number, according to Penck and Briickner,? when the Rhone glacier covered the lowlands of Vaud and Geneva, welling on one occasion over the gaps in the Jura, and leaving its erratics in the neighbourhood of Lyons, it ought to have given 1 | take the fall of temperature for a rise in altitude as t° F. for 300 feet or, when the differences in the latter are large. 3° per 1000 feet. These esti- mates will, I think, be sufficiently accurate. The figures given by Hann (see for a discussion of the question, Report of Brit. Assoc., 1909, p. 93) work out to 1° F. for each 318 feet of ascent (un to about 10,000 feet). 2 On the exact number I have not had the opportunity of forming an opinion, 278 NATURE [SEPTEMBER I, 1910 signs of its erosive no less than of its transporting power. But what are the facts? In these lowlands we can see where the ice has passed over the Molasse (a Miocene sandstone); but here, instead of having crushed, torn, and uprooted the comparatively soft rock, it has produced hardly any effect. The huge glacier from the Linth Valley crept for not a-few miles over a floor of stratified ‘gravels, on which, some eight miles below Zurich, one of its moraines, formed during the last retreat, can be seen resting, without having produced more than a slight super- ficial disturbance. We are asked to credit glaciers with the erosion of deep valleys and the excavation of great lakes, and yet, wherever we pass from hypotheses to facts, we find them to have been singularly inefficient workmen ! I have dwelt at considerable, some may think undue, length on the Alps, because we are sure that this region from before the close of the Miocene period has been above sea-level. It accordingly demonstrates what effects ice can produce when working on land. In America also, to which I must now make only a passing reference, great ice-sheets formerly existed: one occupying the district west of the Rocky Mountains, another spreading from that on the north-west of Hudson’s Bay, and a third from the Laurentian hill-country. These two became confluent, and their united ice-flow covered the region of the Great Lakes, halting near the ‘eastern coast a little south of New York, but in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois occasionally leaving moraines only a little north of the 39th parallel of latitude.‘ Of these relics my first-hand knowledge is very small, but the admirably illustrated reports and other writings of American geologists * indicate that, if we make due allow- ance for the differences in environment, the tills and associated deposits on their continent are similar in character to those of the Alps.* In our own country and in corresponding parts of Northern Europe we must take into account the possible cooperation of the sea. In these, however, geologists agree that, for at least a portion of the Ice Age, glaciers occupied the mountain districts. Here ice-worn rocks, moraines and perched blocks, tarns in corries, and perhaps lakelets in valleys, demonstrate the former presence of a mantle of snow and ice. Glaciers radiated outwards from more than one focus in Ireland, Scotland, the English Lake District, and Wales, and trespassed, at the time of their greatest development, upon the adjacent lowlands. They are generally believed to have advanced and retreated more than once, and their movements have been correlated by Prof. J. Geilkie with those already mentioned in the Alps. Into that very difficult question I must not enter; for my present ‘purpose it is enough to say that in early Pleisto- cene times glaciers undoubtedly existed in the mountain districts of Britain, and even formed piedmont ice-sheets on the lowlands. On the west side of England, smoothed and striated rocks have been observed near Liverpool, which can hardly be due to the movements of shore-ice, and at Little Crosby a considerable surface has been cleared from the overlying Boulder Clay by the exertions of ‘the late Mr. T. M. Reade and his son, Mr. A. Lyell Reade. But, so far as I am aware, rocks thus affected have not yet been discovered in the Wirral peninsula. On the eastern side of England similar markings have been found down to the coast of Durham, but a more southern exten- sion of land ice cannot be taken for granted. In_ this direction, however, so far as the tidal valley of the Thames, and in corresponding parts of the central and western low- lands, certain deposits occur which, though to a great extent of glacial origin, are in many respects different from those left by land ice in the Alpine regions and in Northern America. They present us with problems the nature of which may be inferred from a brief statement of the facts. On the Norfolk coast we find the glacial drifts resting, sometimes 1 Some of the glacial drifts on the eastern side of the continent, as we shall find, m>y have heen deposited in the sea. __.2 See the “Reports of the United States Geological Survey” (from vol ili. onwards), Journal of Geology, American Journal of Science, and local publications too numerous to mention. Among these the studies in Green- land by Prof. Chamberlin are especially valuable for the light they throw on the movement of large glaciers and the transport of débris in the lower part of the ice 3 Here, however, we cannot:always be so sure of the absence of the sea. NO. 2131, VOL. 84] - ia en the chalk, sometimes on strata of very late Pliocene — or early Pleistocene age. The latter show that in their time the strand-line must have oscillated slightly on either side of its present level. Lhe earliest of the glacial ¢ » j deposits, called the Cromer Till and Contorted Drift, pre- sents its most remarkable development in the cliffs on either side of that town. Here it consists of Boulder Clays and alternating beds of sand and clay; the first-named, two or three in number, somewhat limited in extent, and rather lenticular in form, are slightly sandy clays, full of pieces of chalk, flint, and other kinds of rock, some of the last having travelled from long distances. Yet more remarkable are the huge erratics of chalk, in the neigh- bourhood of which the sands and clays exhibit extra- erdinary contortions. Like the beds of till, they have not been found yery far inland, for there the group appears as a whole to be represented by a stony loam, resembling a mixture of the sandy and clayey material, and this is restricted to a zone some twenty miles wide, bordering the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, not extending south of the latter county, but being probably represented to the north of the Humber. Above these is a group of false- bedded sands and gravels, variable in thickness and character—the Mid-glacial Sands of Searles V. Wood and F. W. Harmer. They extend over a wider area, and may be traced, according to some geologists, nearly to the western side of England, rising in that direction to a greater height above sea-level. But as it is impossible to prove that all isolated patches of these materials are identical in age, we can only be certain that some of them are older than the next deposit, a Boulder Clay, which extends over a large part of the lowlands in the Eastern Counties. This has a general resemblance to the Cromer Till, but its matrix is rather more clayey and is variable in colour. In and north of Yorkshire, as well as on the seaward side of the Lincolnshire wolds, it is generally brownish or purplish, but on their western side, and as far as the clay goes to the south, it is some shade of grey. Near to these wolds, in mid-Norfolk, and on the northern margin of Suffolk, it has a whitish tint, owing to the abundance of comminuted chalk. To the south and west of this area it is dark, from the similar presence of Kimeridge Clay. Yet further west it assumes an_ inter- mediate colour by having drawn upon the Oxford Clay. This Boulder Clay, whether the chalky or the purple, in which partings of sand sometimes occur, must once have covered, according to Mr. F. W. Harmer, an area about ten thousand square miles in extent. It spreads like a coverlet over the pre-glacial irregularities of the surface. It caps the hills, attaining sometimes an elevation of fully 500 feet above sea-level; * it fills up valleys,* sometimes partly, sometimes wholly, the original floors of which occasionally lie more than too feet below the same level. This Boulder Clay, often with an underlying sand or gravel, extends to the south as far as the neighbourhood of Muswell Hill and Finchley; hence its margin runs west- ward through Buckinghamshire, and then, bending north- wards, passes to the west of Coventry. On this side of the Pennine Chain the matrix of the Boulder Clay is again reddish, being mainly derived from the sands and marls of the Trias; pieces of chalk and flint are rare (no doubt coming from Antrim), though other rocks are often plentiful enough. Some authorities are of opinion that the drift in most parts of Lancashire and Cheshire is separ- able, as on the eastern coasts, into a lower and an upper Boulder Clay, with intervening gravelly sands, but others think that the association of the first and third is lenti- cular rather than successive. Here also the lower clay cannot be traced very far inland, eastward or southward ; the others have a wider extension, but they reach a greater elevation above sea-level than on the eastern side 1 Not far from Royston it is found at a height of 525 feet above O.D. See F. W. Harmer, ‘ Pleistocene Period in the Eastern Counties,” p. 115. 2°At Old North Road Station, on a tributary of the Cam, the Boulder Clay was pierced to a depth of 180 feet, and at Impington it goes t» 60 feet below sea level Near Hitchin, a hidden valley, traced for seven or eight miles, was proved to a depth of 68 feet below O.D., and one near Newport in Essex, to rgo feet. Depths were also found of 120 feet at West Horseheath in Suffolk, of 120 feet on low ground two miles S.W. of Sandy in Bedfordshire, of from roo to 160 feet below the sea at Fossdyke, Long Sut- ton, and. Boston, and at Glemsford in the valley of the Stour, 477 feet of drift was passed through before reaching the chalk. See F. W. Harmer, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Ixiii. (1907), p- 494+ J 4 a] i feet. SEPTEMBER I, 1910] of England. The sand is inconstant in thickness, being sometimes hardly represented, sometimes as much as 200 The upper clay runs on its more eastern side up to the chalky Boulder Clay, and extends on the south at least into Worcestershire. On the western side it merges with the upper member of the drifts radiating from the mountains of North Wales, which often exhibit a similar tripartite division, while (as we learn from the officers of the Geological Survey) Boulder Clays and gravelly sands, which it must suffice to mention, extend from the high- lands of South Wales for a considerable distance to the south-east and south. Boulder Clay has not been recog- nised in Devon or Cornwall, though occasional erratics are found which seem to demand some form. of ice-trans- port. A limited deposit, however, of that clay, containing boulders now and then more than a yard in diameter, occurs near Selsey Bill on the Sussex coast, which most geologists consider to have been formed by floating rather than by land ice. Marine shells are not very infrequent in the lower clays of East Anglia and Yorkshire, but are commonly broken. The well-known Bridlington Crag is the most conspicuous instance, but this is explained by many geologists as an erratic—a piece of an ancient North Sea bed caught up and transported, like the other molluscs, by an advancing ice-sheet. They also claim a derivative origin for the organic contents of the overlying sands and gravels, but some authorities consider the majority to be contem- poraneous. Near the western coast of England, shells in much the same state of preservation as those on the pre- sent shore are far from rare in the lower clay, where they are associated with numerous striated stones, often closely resembling those which have travelled beneath a glacier, both from the Lake District and the less distant Trias. Shells are also found in the overlying sands up the valleys ot the Dee and Severn, at occasional localities, even as far inland as Bridgnorth, the heights of the deposits vary- ing from about 120 feet to more than 500 feet above the sea-level. If we also take account of the upper Boulder Clay, where it can be distinguished, the list of marine molluscs, ostracods, and foraminifers from these western drifts is a rather long one.* Marine shells, however, on the western side of England are not restricted to the lowlands. Three instances, all occurring more than 1ooo feet above sea-level, claim more than a passing mention. At Macclesfield, almost thirty miles in a straight line from the head of the estuary of the Mersey, Boulder Clays associated with stratified gravels and sands have been described by several observers. The clay stops at about 1ooo feet, but the sands and gravels go on to nearly 1300 feet, while isolated erratics are found up to about 100 feet higher. Sea shells, some of which are in good condition, have been obtained at various elevations, the highest being about 1200 feet above sea-level. About forty -eight species of molluscs have been recognised, and the fauna, with a few excep- tions, more Arctic in character and now found at a greater depth, is one which at the present day lives in a temperate climate at a depth of a few fathoms. The shell-bearing gravels at Gloppa, near Oswestry, which are about thirty miles from the head of the Dee estuary, were carefully described in) 1892 by Mr. A. C. Nicholson. He has enumerated fully sixty species, of which, however, many are rare. As his collection * shows, the bivalves are generally broken, but a fair number of the univalves are tolerably perfect. The deposit itself consists of alternating seams of sand and gravel, the one generally about an inch in thickness, the other varying from a few inches to a foot. The difference in the amount of rounding shown by the stones is a noteworthy feature. They are' not seldom striated; some have come from Scotland, others from the Lake District, but the majority from Wales, the last being the more angular. Here and there a block, diameter, and usually from the last-named country, 1 W. Shone, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., xxxiv. (1878), p. 383. 2 “Memoirs of the Geolozical Survey: Country around Macclesfield.” T. I. Pocock (1906), p. 85. For some notes on Moel Tryfaen and the alti- tudes of other localities at which marine organisms have been found, see J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., xxxvi. (r880), p. 351. For the occurrence of such remains in the Vale of Clwyd see a paper by T. McK. Hughes in Proc. Chester Soc. of Nat. His., 1884. 3 Now deposited in the Oswestry Museum. NO. 2131, VOL. 84] sometimes exceeding a foot in has NATURE 279 been dropped among the smaller material, most of which ranges in diameter from half an inch to an inch and a half. The beds in one or two places show contortions ; but, as a rule, though slightly wavy and with a gentle dip rather to the west of south, they are uniformly deposited. In this respect, and in the unequal wearing of the materials, the Gloppa deposit differs from most gravels that | have seen. Its situation also is peculiar. It is on the flattened top of a rocky spur from higher hills, which falls rather steeply to the Shropshire lowland on the eastern side, and on the more western is defined by a small valley, which enlarges gradually as it descends towards the Severn. If the country were gradually de- pressed for nearly 1200 feet, this upland would become, first a promontory, then an island, and finally a shoal. The third instance, on Moel Tryfaen in Carnarvonshire, was carefully investigated and described by a Committee of this Association? about ten years ago. The shells occur in an irregularly stratified sand and gravel, resting on slate, and overlain by a Boulder Clay, no great distance from, and a few dozen feet below, the rocky summit of the hill, being about 1300 feet above the level of the sea and at least five miles from its margin. About fifty-five species of molluscs and twenty-three of foraminifers have been identified. According to the late Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys,” the majority of the molluscs are littoral in habit, the rest such as live in from ten to twenty fathoms of water. Most of the erratics have been derived from the Welsh mountains, but some rocks from Anglesey have also been obtained, and a few pebbles of Lake District and Scotch rocks. If the sea, were about 1300 feet above its present level, Moel Tryfaen would become a small rocky island, open to the storms from the west and north, and nearly a mile and a half away from the nearest land. I must pass more rapidly over Ireland. The signs of vanished — glaciers—ice-worn rocks and _ characteristic Boulder Clays—are numerous, and may be traced in places down to the sea-level, but the principal outflow of the ice, according to some competent observers, was from a comparatively low district, extending diagonally across the island from the south of Lough Neagh to north of Galway Bay. Glaciers, however, must have first begun to form in the mountains on the northern and southern side of this zone, and we should have expected that, whatever might happen on the lowlands, they would continue to: assert themselves. In no other part of the British Islands are eskers, which some geologists think were formed whem a glacier reached the sea, so strikingly developed. Here also an upper and a lower Boulder Clay, the former being the more sparsely distributed, are often divided by a wide- spread group of sands and gravels, which locally, as in Great Britain, contains, sometimes abundantly, shells and other marine organisms; more than twenty species of molluses, with foraminifers, a barnacle, and perforations of annelids, having been described. These are found in Counties Dublin and Wicklow, at various altitudes,* from a little above sea-level to a height of 1300 feet. Not the least perplexing of the glacial phenomena in the British Isles is the distribution of erratics, which has been already mentioned in passing. On the Norfolk coast, masses of chalk, often thousands of cubic feet in volume, occur in the lowest member of the glacial series, with occasional great blocks of sand and gravel, which must have once been frozen. But these, or at any rate the larger of them, have no doubt been derived from the immediate neighbourhood. Huge erratics also occasionally occur in the upper Boulder Clay—sometimes of chalk, as at Roslyn Hill near Ely, and at Ridlington in Rutland, of Jurassic limestone, near Great Ponton, to the south of Grantham, and of Lower Kimeridge Clay near Biggles- wade.* These also probably have not travelled more than a few miles. But others of smaller size have often made much longer journeys. The Boulder Clays of eastern England are full of pieces of rock, commonly ranging from about half an inch to a foot in diameter. Among these are samples of the Carboniferous, Jurassic, and Cretaceous rocks of Yorkshire and the adjacent counties, 1 Brit. Assoc. Report, 1899 (r9c0), pp. 414-42 2 Quart. eae Geol. Soc., xxxvi-. (1880), p. 355: 3 See-T. M. Reade, Proc. Liverpool Geol, Soc. 1893-4, p. 183, for some weighty panes in favour of a marine origin for these adenosis 4 H. Home, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., lix. (1903), p. 375. 280 NATURE the Red Chalk from either Hunstanton, Speeton, or some part of the Lincolnshire wolds being found as far south as the northern heights of London. Even the chalk and flint, the former of which, especially in the, Upper Boulder Clay, commonly occurs in well-worn pebbles, are frequently not. the local, but the northern varieties. And with these are mingled specimens from yet more distant sources— Cheviot porphyrites, South Scotch basalts, even some of the crystalline rocks of the Highlands. Whatever was the transporting agent, its general direction was southerly, with a slight deflection towards the east m the last-named cases. But the path of these erratics has been crossed by two streams, one coming from the west, the other from the east. On the western side of the Pennine watershed the Shap granite rises at Wasdale Crag to a height of about 1600 feet above sea-level. Boulders. from it have descended the Eden valley to beyond Penrith; they have travelled in the opposite direction almost to Lancaster,’ and a large number of them have actually made their way near the line of the Lake District watershed, across the upper valley of the Eden, and over the high pass of Stainmoor Forest,?, whence they descended into Upper ‘Teesdale. Subsequently the stream seems to have bifurcated, one part passing straight out to the present sea-bed, by way of the lower course of the Tees, to be afterwards driven back on to the Yorkshire coast. The other part crossed the low watershed between the Tees and the Ouse, descended the Vale of York, and spread widely over the plain.* Shap boulders by some means penetrated into the valleys tributary to the Ouse on its west bank, and they have -been observed as far to the south-east as Royston, near Barnsley. It is noteworthy that Lake District rocks have been occasionally recorded from Airedale. and even the neighbourhood of Colne, though the granite from Shap has not been found there. The other stream started from Scandinavia. Erratics,. some of which must have come from the north-western side of the Christiania Fjord, occur on or near the coast from Essex to Yorkshire, and oceasionally even as far north as Aberdeen, while they have been traced from the East Anglian coast to near Ware, Hitchin, and Bedford.* It may be important to notice that these Scandinavian erratics are often water- worn, like those dispersed over Denmark and parts of northern Germany. On the western side of England the course of erratics is not less remarkable. Boulders from south-western Scotland, especially from the Kirkcudbright district, both water-worn and angular, are scattered over the lowlands as far south as Wolverhampton, Bridgnorth, and Church Stretton. They may be traced along the border of North Wales, occurring, as has been said, though generally small, up to about 1300 feet on Moel Tryfaen, 1100 feet at Gloppa, and more than that height on the hills east of Macclesfield. Boulders from the Lake District are scattered over much the same area and attain the same elevation, but extend, as might be expected, rather farther to the east in Lancashire. They also have been found on the eastern side of the Pennine watershed, perhaps the most remarkable instances being in the dales of the Derby- shire Derwent and on the adjacent hills as much as 1400 feet above the sea-level.° A third remarkable stream of erratics from the neighbourhood of the Arenig mountains extends from near the estuary of the Dee right across the paths of the two streams from the north, its eastern border passing near Rugeley, Birmingham, and Broms- grove. They also range high, occurring almost goo feet above sea-level on Romsley Hill, north of the Clents, and being common at Gloppa. Boulders also from the basalt mass of Rowley Regis have travelled in some cases between four and five miles, and in directions ranging from rather west of south to north-east; and, though the mass hardly rises above the 7oo-feet contour line, one lies with an Arenig boulder on Romsley Hill. From Charnwood 1 A pebble of it is said to have been identified at Moel Tryfaen. 2 The lowest part of the gap is about rg00 feet. A little to the south is another gap about 200 feet lower, but none of the boulders seem to have taken that route. 3 A boulder was even found above Grosmont in“the Eske valley, 345 feet above sea-level. 4 R. H. Rastall and J. Romanes, Quart. Journ, Geol. Soc., Ixv. (1909), p- 246. 5 Communication from Dr. H. Arnold-Bemrose. NO. 2131, VoL. 84] Forest, the crags. of. which range up to about 850: feet above .sea-level,. boulders have started which have been traced over an area to the south and west to a distance of more than twenty miles. Such, then, are the facts which call for an interpreta- tion.. More than one has been proposed; but it will be well, before discussing them, to arrive at some idea of the climate of these islands during the colder part of the Glacial Epoch. | Unless that were associated with very great changes in the distribution of sea and land in northern and north-western Europe, we may assume that — neither the relative position of the isotherms nor the dis- tribution of precipitation would be very materially altered. A general fall of temperature in the northern hemisphere might so weaken the warmer ocean current from the south- west that our coasts might be approached by a cold one from the opposite direction." But though these changes might diminish the difference between the temperatures of London and Leipzig, they would not make the former colder than the latter. At the present day the snow-line in the Alps on either side of the Upper Rhone Valley is not far from 8000 feet above sea-level, and this corre- sponds with a temperature of about 30°. ever, are not generally formed until about. 1000 feet higher, where the temperature is approximately 27°. Penck and Brickner place this line during the coldest part of the Ice Age at about 4ooo feet.” In that case the temperature of the Swiss lowland would be some 15° lower than now, or near the freezing point.* If this fall were general, it would bring back the small glaciers on the Gran Sasso d'Italia and Monte Rotondo in Corsica; perhaps also among the higher parts of the Vosges and Schwarzwald.* In our own country it would give a temperature of about 35° at Carnarvon and 23° on the top of Snowdon. of 32° at Fort William and 17-5° on the top of Ben Nevis. If, in addition to this, the land were 600 feet higher than now (as it probably was, at anv rate in the beginning of the Glacial Epoch), there would be a further drop of 2°, so that glaciers would form in the corries of Snowdon, and the region round Ben Nevis might resemble the Oetzthal Alps at the present day. This change of itself would be insufficient, and any. iarger drop in the ocean-level would have to be continental in its effects, since we cannot assume a local upheaval of much more than the above amount without seriously interfering with the river system of North Central Europe. But these changes, especially the former, might indirectly diminish the abnormal warmth of winter on our north- western coasts.° It is difficult to estimate the effect of this. If it did no more than place Carnarvon on the isotherm of Berlin (now lower by 2°), that. would hardly bring a glacier from the Snowdonian region down to the sea. At the present time London is about 18° warme= than a place in the same latitude near the Labrado- coast or the mouth of the Amur River, but the removal of that difference would involve greater changes in th> distribution of sea and land than seems possible at at) epoch, comparatively speaking, so recent. I am doubtfu’ whether we can attribute to changed currents a reductior in British temperatures of so much as 11°; but, if we did, this would amount to 28° from all causes, and give a temperature of 20° to 22° at sea-level in England during the coldest part of the Glacial Epoch. That is now 1 Facts relating to this subject will be found in “‘ C limate and Time,” by J. Croll, ch. ii. and iii. (1875). .Of course the air currents would also be affected, and perhaps diminish precipitation as the latitude increased. 2 Loc. ctt., p. 586, et seg. Theysay the snow-line, which would mean that the temperature was only 12° lower than now; but as possibly this line might then more nearly correspond with that of glacier formation, I will provisionally accept the higher figures, especially since Corsica, the Apen- nines, and some other localities in Europe, seem to require a reduction of rather more than 12°. 3 It would be 325° at Zurich, 31'6° at Bern, 34*1° at Geneva, about 39’0” on the plain of Piedmont, and 360° at Lyons. 4 See for particulars the author's “Ice Work” (International Scientific Series), p. 237+ 5 For much valuable information on these questions see a paper on Clim- ate of the Pleistocene Epoch (F. W. Harmer, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., lvii. 1901, Pp. 405). 6 The present temperature in Ireland over the zone (from S. of Belfast to N. of Galway Bay) which is supposed to have formed the divide of the cen- tral snowfield may be given as from 49° to 50°, nearly the same as at the sea- level in Carnarvonshire. Thus, though the district is less mountainous than Wales, it would not need a greater reduction, for the snowfall would probably be rather larger. But this reduction could hardly be less than 20’, for the glaciers would have to form nearly at the present sea-level. [SEPTEMBER I, 1910 | Glaciers, how-— SEPTEMBER I, I9IO] NALURE 281 found, roughly speaking, in Spitsbergen, which, since its ‘ North and Irish Seas. The Boulder Clays represent its mountains rise to much the same height, should give us a general idea of the condition of Britain*in the olden time. . ‘ What would then be the state of Scandinavia? Its present temperature ranges on the west coast from about 45° in the south to 35° in the north.’ | But this region must now be very much, possibly 1800 feet, lower than it was in.pre-Glacial, perhaps also in part of Glacial, times. If we added 5° for this to the original 15°, and ullowed so much.as 18°. for the diversion of the warm current, the temperature of Scandinavia would range from 7° to —3°, approximately that of .Greenland northwards trom Upernivik. But since the difference at the present day between Cape Farewell and Christiania (the one in an abnormally cold region, the other in one correspond- ingly warm) is only 7°, that allowance seems much too Jarge, while without it Scandinavia would correspond in temperature with some part of that country from south of Upernivik to north of Frederikshaab.* But if Christiania were not colder than Jakobshavn is now, or Britain than Spitsbergen, we are precluded from com- parisons with the coasis of Baffin Bay or Victoria Land. Thus the ice-sheet from Scandinavia would probably be much greater than those generated in Britain. It would, however, find an obstacle to progress westwards which cannot be ignored. If the bed of the North Sea became dry land, owing to a general rise of 600 feet, that would still be separated from Norway by a deep channel extending from the Christiania Fjord round the coast northward. Even then this would be. everywhere more than another 600 feet deep, and almost as wide as the Strait of Dover. The ice must cross this and afterwards be forced for more than 300 miles up a slope, which, though gentle, would be in vertical height at least 600 feet. The task, if accomplished by thrust from behind, would be a heavy one, and, so far as I know, without a parallel at the present day; if the viscosity of the ice enabled it to flow, as has lately been urged,* we must be cautious in appealing to the great Antarctic barrier, because we now learn that more than half of it is only consolidated snow." Moreover, if the ice floated across that channel, the thickness of the boulder-bearing layers would be diminished by melting (as in Ross's Barrier), and the more viscous the material the greater the tendency _for these to be left behind by the overflow of the cleaner upper layers. If, however, the whole region became dry land, the Scandinavian glaciers would descend into a broad valley, considerably more than 1200 feet deep, which would afford them an easy path to the Arctic Ocean, so ‘hat only a lateral overflow, inconsiderable in volume, 3 About half-way across England and 810 feet above sea-level. P. F. Ken- dall, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Ivii. (1902), p. 498. 252 NAT CHE [SEPTEMBER I, T9IO the present time. Again, the Boulder Clay of the eastern counties is crowded, as we have described, with pebbles of chalk, which generally are not of local origin, but have come from north of the Wash. Whether from the bed of a river or from a sea-beach, they are certainly water-worn. But if pre-Glacial, the supply would be quickly exhausted, so that they would usually be con- fined to the lower part of the clay. As it is, though perhaps they run larger here, they abound throughout. ‘The so-called moraines near York (supposed to have been left by a glacier retreating up that vale), those in the neighbourhood of Flamborough Head and of Sheringham (regarded as relics of the North Sea ice-sheet), do not, in my opinion, show any important difference in outline from ordinary hills of sands and gravels, and their materials are wholly unlike those of any indubitable moraines that I have either seen or studied in photographs. It may be said that the British glaciers passed over very different rocks from the Alpine; but the Swiss. molasse ought to have supplied abundant sand, and the older interglacial gravels quantities of pebbles; yet the differ- ences between the morainic materials on the flank of the Jura or near the town of Geneva and those close to the foot of the Alps are varietal rather than specific. Some authorities, however, attribute such magnitude to the ice-sheets radiating from Scandinavia that they depict them, at the time of maximum extension, as not only traversing the North Sea bed and trespassing upon the coast of England, but also radiating southward to over- whelm Denmark and Holland, to invade northern Germany and Poland, to obliterate Hanover, Berlin, and Warsaw, and to stop but little short of Dresden and ‘Cracow, while burying Russia on the east to within no great distance of the Volga and on the south to the neighbourhood of Kief. Their presence, however, so far as I can ascertain, is inferred from evidence ' very similar to that which we have discussed in the British lowlands. That Scandinavia was at one time almost wholly buried beneath snow and ice is indubitable; it is equally so that at the outset the land stood above its present level, and that during the later stages of the Glacial Epoch parts, at any rate of southern Norway, had sunk down to a maximum depth of 800 feet. In Germany, however, erratics are scattered over its plain and stranded on the slopes of the Harz and Riesengebirge up to about 1400 feet above sea-level. The glacial drifts of the lowlands sometimes contain dislodged masses of neighbouring rocks like those at Cromer, and we read of other indications of ice action. I must, however, observe that since the glacial deposits of Méen, Warnemiinde, and Rigen often present not only close resemblances to those of our eastern counties, but also very similar difficulties, it is not per- missible to quote the one in support of the other, seeing that the origin of each is equally dubious. Given a sufficient ‘‘ head’’ of ice in northern regions, it might be possible to transfer the remains of organisms from the bed of the Irish Sea to Moel Tryfaen, Macclesfield, and Gloppa; but at the last-named, if not at the others, we must assume the existence of steadily alternating currents in the lakes in order to explain the correspond- ing bedding of the deposit. This, however, is not the only difficulty. The ‘‘ Trish Sea glacier ’’ is supposed to have been composed of streams from Ireland, south-west Scotland, and the Lake District, of which the second furnished the dominant contingent, the first-named not producing any direct effect on the western coast of Great Britain, and the third being made to feel its inferiority and ‘“‘ shouldered in upon the mainland.’’? But even if this ever happened, ought not the Welsh ice to have joined issue with the invaders a good many miles to the north of its own coast?* Welsh boulders, at any rate, are 1 A valuable summary of it is given in ‘‘ The Great Ice Age,” J. Geikie, ch. xxix., xxx. (1894) 2 From Moel Tryfaen to the nearest point of Scotland is well over a hundred miles, and it is a few less than this distance from Gloppa to the Lake District. In order to allow the Irish Sea ice-sheet to reach the top of Moel Tryfaen the glacier productive power of Snowdonia has been minimised (Wright, ‘‘Man and the Glacial Epoch,” pp. 171, 172). But the difference between that and the Arenig region is not great enough to make the one incompetent to protect its own borderland while the other could send an ice- sheet which could almost cover the Clent Hills and reach the neighhourhood of Birmingham. Anglesey also. if we suppose a slight elevation and a temperature of 29° at the sea-level, would become a centre of ice-distribution and an advance guard to North Wales. NO. 2131, VOL. 84] common near the summit of Moel Tryfaen, and I have no hesitation in saying that the pebbles of. riebeckite-rock, far from rare in its drifts, come from Mynydd Mawr, hardly half a league to the E.S.E., and not from Ailsa Craig.* As such frequent appeal is made to the superior volume of the ice-sheet which poured from the northern hills over the bed of the Irish Sea, I will compare in more detail the ice-producing capacities of the several districts. The present temperature of West-Central Scotland may be taken as 47°, its surface as averaging about 2500 feet, fs, 6 rising occasionally to nearly 4000 feet above sea-level. In the western part of the Southern Uplands the tempera- ture is a degree higher, and the average for altitude at most not above 1500 feet. In the Lake District and the Northern Pennines the temperature is increased by another degree, and the heights are, for the one 1800 feet with a maximum of 3162 feet, for the other 1200 feet and 2892 feet. In North Wales the temperature is 50°, the average height perhaps 2000 feet, and the culminating point 3571 feet. For the purpose of comparing the ice- producing powers of these districts, we may bring them to one temperature by adding 300 feet to the height for each degree below that of the Welsh region. This would raise the average elevation of Central and Southern Scot- land to 3400 feet and 2100 feet respectively, for the Lake District and Northern Pennines to 2100 feet and 1500 feet. We may picture to ourselves what this would mean, if the snow-line were at the sea-level in North Wales, by imagining 8000 feet added to its height and comparing it with the Alps. North Wales would then resemble a part of that chain which had an average height of about 10,000 feet above sea-level, and culminated in a peak of 11,571 feet; the Lake District would hardly differ from it; the Northern Pennines would be like a range of about gooo feet, its highest peak being 11,192 feet. Southern Scotland would be much the same in average height as the first and second, and would rise, though rarely, to above 11,000 feet; the average in Central Scotland would be about 11,400 feet, and the maximum about 13,000 feet- Thus North Wales, the Lake District, and the Southern Uplands would differ little in ice-productive power, while Central Scotland would distinctly exceed them, but not more than the group around the Finsteraarhorn does that giving birth to the Rhone glacier. In one respect, how- ever, all these districts would differ from the Alps—that, at S000 feet, the surface, instead of being furrowed with valleys, small and great, would be a gently shelving plateau, which would favour the formation of piedmont glaciers. Still, unless we assume the present distribution of rainfall to be completely altered (for which I do not know any reason), the relative magnitudes of the ice coming from these centres (whether separate glaciers or confluent sheets) could differ but little. Scotch ice would not appreciably ‘‘ shoulder inland”’ that from the Lake District, nor would the Welsh ice be imprisoned within its own valleys. During the last few years, however, the of Carvill Lewis has been revived under a rather different form by some English advocates.of land-ice. For instance, the former presence of ice-dammed lakes is supposed to be indicated in the upper parts of the Cleveland Hills by certain overflow channels. I may be allowed to observe that, though this view is the outcome of much acute observation and reasoning,* it is wholly dependent upon the ice-barriers already mentioned, and that if they dis- solve before the dry light of sceptical criticism, the lakes lake-hypothesis will ‘“‘leave not a rack behind.’’ I must also confess that, to my eyes, the so-called ‘‘ overflow channels *? much more closely resemble the remnants of ancient valley- systems, formed by only moderately rapid rivers, which have been isolated by the trespass of younger and more energetic streams, and they suggest that the main features of this picturesque upland were developed before rather than after the beginning of the Glacial Epoch. I think that even ‘‘ Lake Pickering,’’ though it has become an accepted fact with several geologists of high repute, can be more simply explained as a two-branched ‘‘ valley of 1 The boulders ef picrite near Porth Nobla, from Llanerchymedd, though they have travelled southward, have moved much to the west. 2p. F. Kendall, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Iviii. (1902), 471. SEPTEMBER I, IQIO}| NATURE 283 strike,’’ formed on the Kimeridge Clay, the eastern arm of which was beheaded, even in pre-Glacial times, by the sea.’ As to Lake Oxford,* I must confess myself. still more sceptical. Some changes, no doubt, have occurred in later Glacial and post-Glacial times; valleys have been here raised by deposit, there deepened sometimes by as much as 100 feet; the courses of lowland rivers may occasionally have been altered; but I doubt whether, since those times began, either ice-sheet or lake has ever con- cealed the site of that university city. The submergence hypothesis’ assumes that, at the beginning of the Glacial Epoch, our islands stood rather above their present level, and during it gradually sub- sided, on the west to a greater extent than on the east, until at last the movement was reversed, and they re- turned nearly to their former position. During most of this time glaciers came down to the sea from the more mountainous islands, and in winter an ice-foot formed upon the shore. This, on becoming detached, carried away boulders, beach pebbles, and finer detritus. Great quantities of the last also were swept by swollen streams into the estuaries and spread over the sea-bed by coast currents, settling down especially in the quiet depths of submerged valleys. Shore-ice in Arctic regions, as Colonel H. W. Feilden* has described, can striate stones and even the rock beneath it, and is able, on a subsiding area, gradually to push boulders up to a higher level. In fact, the state of the British region in those ages would not have been unlike that still existing near the coasts of the Barents and Kara Seas. Over the submerged region southward, and in some cases more or less eastward, currents would be prevalent, though changes of wind * would often affect the drift of the floating ice-rafts. But though the submergence hypothesis is obviously free from the serious difficulties which have been indicated in dis- cussing the other one, gives a simple explanation of the presence of marine organisms, and accords with what can be proved to have occurred in Norway, Waigatz Island, Novaia Zemlya, on the Lower St. Lawrence; in Grinnell Land, and elsewhere,® it undoubtedly involves others. One of them—the absence of shore terraces, caves, or other sea marks—is perhaps hardly so grave as it is often thought to be. It may be met by the remark that unless the Glacial Age lasted for a very long time and the movements were interrupted by well-marked pauses, we could not expect to find any such record. In regard also to another objection, the rather rare and sporadic occurrence of marine shells, the answer would be that, on the Norway coast, where the ice-worn rock has certainly been submerged, sea-shells are far from common, and occur sporadically .in the raised deltaic deposits of the fjords. An advocate of this view might also com- plain, not without justice, that, if he cited an inland terrace, it was promptly dismissed as the product of an ice-dammed lake, and his frequent instances of marine shells in stratified drifts were declared to have been trans- ported from the sea by the lobe of an ice-sheet; even if they have been carried across the path of the Arenig ice, more than forty miles as the crow flies, from the Irish Sea up the Valley of the Severn, or forced some 1300 feet up Moel Tryfaen.? The difficulty in the latter case, he would observe, is not met by saying the ice-sheet would be able to climb that. hill ‘‘ given there were a 1 See for instance the courses «f the Medway and the Beult over the Weald clay (C. Le Neve Foster and W. Topley, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., eae (2GSp iD: 449). Q 2 -F. W. Harmer, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Ixiii. (1907), p. 470. 3 Quart. Journ. Geol Soc., xxxiv. (1878). p. 556. : 4 See p. 23, and for the currents now dominant consult Dr. H. Bassett i> Prof. Herdman's Report on the Lancashire Sea Fisheries, Trans. Biol. Soc. Liverpool, xxiv. (1910), p. 123. 5 See “Ice Work,” p. 221, and Geol. Mag , 1900, p. Ro. 6 If, as seems probable, the temperature was changing rather rapidly the old fauna would he pauperised and the new one make its way but slowly into the British fjords. 7 Critics of the submergence hypothesis seem to find a difficulty in ad- mitting Gownward and upward movements, amounting sometimes to nearly 1,400 feet during Plei:tocene Ages; but in the northern part of America the upheaval, at any rate, has amounted to about 1.000 feet, while on the western coast, heneath the lofty summit of Mount St. Elias, marine shells of existing spec*es have been obtairfed some 5,000 feet above sea level. It is also admitted that in several places the pre-glacial surface of the land was much above its present level. On the Red River, whatever be the explanation, foraminifers, radiolarians, and sponge spicules have been found at 700 feet above sea-level, and near Victoria, on the Saskatchewan, even up to about 1,900 feet. NO. 2131, VOL. 84] ; 1 That ice can be driven up- hill has long been known, but the existence of the ‘* sufficient head ’’ must be demonstrated, not assumed. There may be ‘‘ no logical halting-place between an uplift of ten or twenty feet to surmount a roche moutonnée and an equally gradual elevation to the height of Moel Tryfaen,’’ yet there is a common-sense limitation even to a destructive sorites. The argument, in fact, is more specious than valid, until we are told approximately how thick the northern ice must be to produce the requisite pressure, and whether such an accumulation would be possible. The advocates of land ice admit that, before it had covered more than a few leagues on its southward journey, its thickness was less than 2000 feet, and we are not entitled, as | have endeavoured to show, to pile up ice indefinitely on either our British highlands or the adjacent sea-bed. The same -reason also forbids us largely to augment the thickness of the latter by the snowfall on its surface, as happens to Antarctic barrier ice. Even if the thickness of the ice-cap over the Dumfries and Kirk- cudbright hills had been about 2500 feet, that, with every allowance for viscosity, would hardly give us a head sufficient to force a layer of ice from: the level of the sea-bed to a height of nearly 1400 feet above it, and at a distance of more than 100 miles. Neither can we obtain much support from the instance in Spitsbergen, described by Profs. Garwood and Gregory, where the Ivory Glacier, after crossing the bed of a valley, had transported marine shells and drift from the floor (little above sea-level) to a height of about 400 feet on the opposite slope. Here the valley was narrow, and the glacier had descended from an inland ice-reservoir, much of which was at least 2800 feet above the sea, and rose occasionally more than a thousand feet higher.* But other difficulties are far more grave. The thick- ness of the chalky Boulder Clay alone, as has been stated, not unfrequently exceeds 100 feet, and, though often much less, may have been reduced by denudation. This is an enormous amount to have been transported and distributed by floating ice. The materials, also, are not much more easily accounted for by this than by the other hypothesis. A continuous supply of well-worn chalk pebbles might indeed be kept up from a gradually rising or sinking beach, but it is difficult to see how, until the land had subsided for at least 200 feet, the chalky Boulder Clay could be deposited in some of the East Anglian valleys or on the Leicestershire hills. That depression, however, would seriously diminish the area of exposed chalk in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and the double of it would almost drown that rock. Again, the East Anglian Boulder Clay, as we have said, frequently abounds in fragments and finer detritus from the Kimeridge and Oxford Clays. But a large part of their outcrop would disappear before the former submergence was completed. Yet the materials of the Boulder Clay, though changing as it is traced across the country, more especially from east to west, seem to vary little in a vertical direction. The instances, also, of the transportation of boulders and smaller stones to higher levels, sometimes large in amount, as in the transference of ‘‘ brockram ’’ from outcrops near the bed of the Eden valley to the level of Stainmoor Gap, seem to be too numerous to be readily explained by the uplifting action of shore-ice in a subsiding area. Such a process is possible, but we should anticipate it would be rather exceptional. Submergence also readily accounts for the above-named sands and gravels, but not quite so easily for their occur- rence at such very different levels. On the eastern side of England gravelly sands may be found beneath the chalky Boulder Clay well below sea-level to three or four hundred feet above it. Again, since, on the submergence hypothesis, the Lower Boulder Clay about the estuaries of the Dee and the Mersey must represent a deposit from piedmont ice in a shallow sea, the mid-glacial sand (some- times not Very clearly marked in this part) ought not to be more than forty or fifty feet above the present Ordnance datum. But at Manchester it reaches more than 200 feet, while near Heywood it is at least 425 feet. In other sufficient head behind: it. 1 P. F. Kendall in Wright's ‘‘ Man and the Glacial P riod.” p. 171. 2 Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., liv. (1898), p. 205. Earlier observations of some upthrust of materials by a glacier are noted on p. 219. 284 AAT SIE, [SEPTEMBER I, 1910 words, the sands and gravels, presuntably (often certainly) inid-glacial, mantle, like the. Upper Boulder Clay, over great irregularities of the surface, and are sometimes found, as already stated, up to more than 1200 feet. Either of these deposits may have followed the sea-line upwards or downwards, but that explanation would almost compel us to suppose that the sand was deposited during the submergence and the upper clay during the emergence, so that, with the former material, the higher in position is the newer in time, and with the latter the reverse. We must not, however, forget that in the island of Rigen we find more than one example of a stratified gravelly sand between two beds of Boulder Clay (containing Scandinavian erratics) which present some resemblance to the Boulder Clays of eastern England, while certain glacial deposits at Warnemiinde, on the Baltic coast, sometimes remind us of the Contorted Drift of Norfollx. Towards the close of the Glacial Epoch, the deposition of the Boulder Clay ceased’ and its denudation began. On the low plateaux of the Eastern Counties it is often succeeded by, coarse gravels, largely composed of flint, more or less water-worn. These occasionally include small intercalations of Boulder Clay, have evidently been derived from it, and indicate movement by fairly strong currents. Similar gravels are found overlying the Boulder Clay in other parts of England, sometimes at greater heights above sea-level. Occasionally the two are intimately related. For instance, a pit on the broad, almost level, top of the Gogmagog Hills, about 200. feet above sea-level and four miles south of Cambridge, shows a current-bedded sand and gravel, overlain by a Boulder Clay, obviously rearranged, while other pits in the immediate neighbourhood expose varieties and mixtures of one or the other material. But, as true Boulder Clay occurs in the valley below, these gravels must have been deposited, and that by rather strong currents, on a hill- top—a thing which seems impossible under anything like the existing conditions; and, even if the lowland were buried beneath ice full 200 feet in thickness, which made the hill-top into the bed of a lake, it is difficult to under- stand how the waters of that could be in rapid motion. Rearranged Boulder Clays also occur on the slopes of valleys * which may be explained, with perhaps some of the curious sections near Sudbury, by the slipping of materials from a higher position. But at Old Oswestry gravels with indications of ice action are found at the foot of the hills almost 700 feet below those of Gloppa. Often the plateau gravels are followed at a lower level by terrace gravels,* which descend towards the existing rivers, and suggest that valleys have been sometimes deepened, sometimes only re-excavated. The latter gravels are obviously deposited by rivers larger and stronger than those which now wind their way seawards, but it is difficult to explain the former gravels by any fluviatile action, whether the water from a melting ice-sheet ran over the land or into a lake, held up by some temporary barrier. But the sorting action of currents in a slowly shallowing sea would be quite competent to account for them, so they afford an indirect support to the hypothesis of submergence. It is, however, generally admitted that there have been oscillations both of level and of climate since anv Boulder Clay was deposited in the districts south of the Humber and the Ribble. The passing of the Great Ice Age was not sudden, and glaciers. may have lingered in our mountain regions when Paleolithic man hunted the mammoth in the valley of the Thames or frequented the caves of Devon and Mendip. But of tl times of transition, before written history became possible, and of sundry interesting topics connected with the Ice Age itself —of its cause, date, and duration, whether it was per- sistent or interrupted by warmer episodes, and, if so, by what number, of how often it had already recurred in the history of the earth—I must, for obvious reasons, refrain from speaking, and content myself with having endeavoured to place before you the facts of which, in my opinion, we must take account in reconstructing the 1 Probably deposits of a distinctly glacial origin (such as those near Hessle in Yorkshire) continued in the northern cistricts, but on these we need not linger For instance, at Stanringfield in the valley of the Lark. These contain the instruments worked by paleoli-hie (Achenlean) man in this country at any rate, is later than the chalky boulder c'ay. NO. 2131, VOL. 84] who, physical geography of Western Europe, and especially of our own country, during the Age of Ice. Not unnaturally you will expect a decision in favour of one or the other litigant after this long summing up. But I can only say that, in regard to the British Isles, the difficulties in either hypothesis appear so great that, while I consider those in the ‘ land-ice’’ hypothesis to be the more serious, I cannot as yet declare the other one to be satisfactorily established, and think we shall be wiser in working on in the hope of clearing up some of the perplexities. I may add that, for these purposes, regions like the northern coasts of Russia and Siberia appear tO me more promising than those in closer proximity to the North or South Magnetic Poles. This may seem a ‘‘ lame and impotent conclusion ’’ to so long a disquisition, but there are stages in the development of a scientific idea when the best service we can do it is by attempting to separate facts from fancies, by demanding that difficulties should be frankly faced instead of being - severely ignored, by insisting that the giving of a name cannot convert the imaginary into the real, and by remembering that if hypotheses yet on their trial are treated as axioms, the result will often bring disaster, like building a tower on a foundation of sand. To scrutinise, rather than to advocate any hypothesis, has been my aim throughout this address, and, if my efforts have been to some extent successful, I trust to be forgiven, though I may have trespassed on your patience and disappointed a legitimate expectation. Section A. MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE. OPENING Appress BY Pror. E. W. Hopson, Se.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. Since the last meeting of our Association one of the most illustrious of the british workers in science during the nineteenth century has been removed from us by the death of Sir William Huggins. In the middle of the last century Sir William Huggins commenced that work of examination of the spectra of the stars which has pioneer — ensured for him enduring fame in connection with the - foundation of the science of Astrophysics. The exigencies of his work of analysis of the stellar spectra led him to - undertake a minute examination of the spectra of the elements with a view to the determination of as many lines as possible. To the spectroscope he later added the photographic film as an instrument of research in_ his studies of the heavenly bodies. In 1864 Sir William Huggins made the important observation that many of the nebula have spectra which cpnsist of bright lines, and two years later he observed, in the case of a new star, both bright and dark lines in the same spectrum. In 1868 his penetrating and alert mind made him the first to perceive that the Doppler principle could be applied to the determination of the velocities of stars in the line of sight, and he at once set about the application of the method. j was rewarded by a rich harvest of discovery, obtained as the result of most patient and minute investigations. The ‘Atlas of Representative Stellar Spectra,’’ published in the names of himself and Lady Huggins, remains as a monumental record of their joint labours. The names of the great departments of. science, Mathe- matics, Physics, Astronomy, Meteorology, which associated with Section A, are a sufficient indication of the vast range of investigation which comes under the purview of our Section. An opinion has been strongly expressed in some quarters that the time has come for the erection ofa separate Section for Astronomy and Meteorology, in order that fuller opportunities may ~be afforded than hitherto for the discussion of matters of special interest to those devoted to these departments. of Science. I do not share this view. I believe that, whilst the customary division into sub-sections gives reasonable facilities for the treatment of questions interesting solely to specialists in the various branches with which our Section is concerned, a policy of disruption would be injurious to the wider interests of science. The close association of the older Astronomy with Mathematics, and of the newer Astronomy with Physics, form strong pre- His life-work, in a domain of absorbing interest, » are” SEPTEMBER I, 1910] NATURE 25 sumptions against the change that has been suggested. Meteorology, so far as it goes beyond the purely empirical region, is, and must always remain, a branch of Physics. No doubt the mere technical problems which arise in connection with these subjects, though of great importance to specialists, are often of little or no interest to workers in cognate departments. It appears to me, however, that it is unwise, in view of the general obiects of the British Association, to give too much prominence in the meetings to the more technical aspects of the various departinenis of science. Ample opportunities for the full discussion of all the detailed problems, the solution of which forms a great and necessary part of the work of those who are advancing science in its various branches, are afforded by the special Societies which make those branches their exclusive concern. The British Association will, in my view, be performing its functions most efficiently if it gives much prominence to those aspects of each branch of science which are of interest to a public at least in some degree larger than the circle of specialists concerned wiih the particular branch. Yo afford an opportunity to workers in any one department of obtaining some knowledge of what is going on in other departments, to stimulate by means of personal intercourse with workers on other lines the sense cf solidarity of men of science, to do something to counteract that tendency to narrowness of view which is a denger arising from increasing specialisation, are functions the due performance of which may do much to further that supreme object, the advancement of science, for which the British Association enist I propose to address to you a few remarks, necessarily fragmentary and incomplete, upon the scope and tendencies of modern Mathematics. Not to transgress against the canon I have laid down, I shall endeavour to make my treatment of the subject as little technical as possible. Probably no. other department of knowledge plays a jarger part outside its own narrower domain than Mathe- “matics. Some of its more elementary conceptions and methods have become part of the common heritage of our civilisation, interwoven in the everyday life of the people. Perhaps the greatest labour-saving invention that the world has seen belongs to the formal side of Mathematics; I allude to our system of numerical notation. This system, which, when scrutinised, affords the simplest illustration of the importance of Mathematical form, has become so much an indispensable part of our mental furniture that some effort is required to realise that an apparently so obvious idea embodies a great invention, one to which the Greeks, with their unsurpassed capacity for abstract think- ing, never attained. An attempt to do a multiplication sum in Roman numerals is perhaps the readiest road to an appreciation of the advantages of this great invention. In a large group of sciences, the formal element, the common ianguage, so to speak, is supplied by Mathe- matics; the range of the application of mathematical -methods and symbolism is’ ever increasing. Without taking too literally the celebrated dictum of the great philosopher Kant, that the amount of real science to be found in any special subject is the amount of Mathematics contained therein, it must be admitted that each branch of science which is concerned with natural phenomena, when it has reached a certain stage of development,” be- comes accessible to, and has need of, mathematical methods and language; this stage has, for example, been reached -in our time by parts of the science of Chemistry. Even Biology and Economics have begun to require mathe- matical methods, at least on their statistical side. As a science emerges from the stages in which it consists solely of more or less systematised descriptions of the phenomena with which it is concerned in their more superficial aspect ; when the intensive magnitudes discerned in the phenomena become representable as extensive magnitudes, then is the beginning of the application of mathematical modes’ of thought; at a still later stage, when the phenomena become accessible to dynamical treatment, Mathematics is applic- able to the subject to a still greater extent. Mathematics “shares with the closely allied subject of Astronomy the honour of betng the oldest of the sciences. When we consider that it embodies, in an abstract form, some of the more obvious, and yet fundamental, aspects of our experience of the external world, i this is not NO. 2131, VOL. 84] Ss. altogether surprising. The comparatively high degree of development which, as recent historical discoveries have disclosed, it had attained amongst the Babylonians more than five thousand years B.c., may well astonish us. {hese times must have been preceded by still earlier ages, in which the mental evolution of man led him to the use of the tally, and of simple modes of measurement, long before the notions of number and of magnitude appeared in an explicit form. I have said that Mathematics is the oldest of the sciences; a glance at its more recent history will show that it has the energy of perpetual youth. The output of contributions to the advance of the science during the last century and more has been so enormous that it is difficult to say whether pride in the greatness of achievement in his subjeet, or despair at his inability to cope with the multiplicity of its detailed developments, should be the dominant feeling of the mathematician. Few people out- side the small circle of mathematical specialists have any idea of the vast growth of mathematical literature. The Royal Society Catalogue contains a list of nearly thirty- nine thousand papers on subjects of Pure Mathematics alone, which have appeared in seven hundred serials during the nineteenth century. This represents only a portion of the total output, the very large number of treatises, dis- sertations, and monographs published during the century being omitted. During the first decade of the twentieth century this activity has proceeded at an accelerated rate. Mathematical contributions to Mechanics, Physics, . and Astronomy would greatly swell the total. A notion of the range of the literature relating, not only to Pure Mathe matics, but also to all branches of science to which mathe matical methods have been applied, will be best obtained by an examination of that monumental work, the ‘“Encyclopadie der mathematischen — Wissenschaften ’’— when it is completed. The concepts of the pure mathematician, no less than those of the physicist, had their origin in physical experi- ence analysed and clarified by the reflective activities of the human mind; but the two sets of concepts stand on different planes in regard to the degree of abstraction which is necessary in their formation. Those of the mathematician are more remote from actual unanalysed precepts than are those of the physicist, having undergone in their formation a more complete idealisation and removal of elements inessential in regard to the purposes for which they are constructed. This difference in the planes of thought frequently gives rise to a certain misunderstanding between the mathematician and the physicist, due in the case of either to an inadequate appreciation of the point of view of the other. On the one hand it is frequently and truly said of particular mathematicians that they are lacking in the physical instinct, and on the other hand a certain lack of sympathy is frequently manifested on the part of physicists for the aims and ideals of the mathematician. The habits of mind and the ideals of the mathematician and of the physicist cannot be of an identical character. The concepts of the mathematician necessarily lack, in their pure form, just that element of concreteness which is an essential condition of the success of the physicist, but which to the mathematician would often only obscure those aspects of things which it is his province to study. The abstract mathematical standard of exactitude is one of which the physicist can make no direct use. The calculations in Mathematics are directed towards ideal pre- cision; those in Physics consist of approximations within assigned limits of error. The physicist can, for example, make no direct use of such an object as an irrational number; in any given case a properly chosen rational number approximating to the irrational one is ‘sufficient for his purpose. Such a notion as continuity, as it occurs in Mathematics, is, in its purity, unknown to the physicist, who can make use only of sensible continuity. The physical counterpart of mathematical discontinuity is very rapid change through a thin layer of transition, or during a very short time. Much of the skill of the true mathe- matical physicist and of the mathematical astronomer consists in the power of adapting methods and results carried out on an exact mathematical basis to obtain approximations sufficient for the purposes of physical 286 NAL OLE measurement. It might perhaps be thought that a scheme of Mathematics on a frankly approximative basis would be snt for all the practical purposes of application in ysics, Engineering Science, and Astronomy, and no doubi it would be possible to develop, to some extent at least, a species of Mathematics on these lines. Such a system would, however, involve an intolerable awkward- ness and prolixity in the statement of resulis, especially in view of the fact that the degrees of approximation necessary for various purposes are very different, and thus that unassigned grades of approximation would have to be provided for. Moreover, the mathematician working on these lines would be cut off from his chief sources of inspiration, the ideals of exactitude and logical rigour, as well as from one of his most indispensable guides to dis- covery, symmetry, and permanence of mathematical form. The history of the aciual movements of mathematical thought through the centuries shows that these ideals are the very life-blood of the science, and warrants the con- clusion that a constant striving towards their attainment is an absolutely essential condition of vigorous growth. These ideals have their roots in irresistible impulses and deep-seated needs of the human mind, manifested in its efforts to introduce intelligibility into certain great domains of the world of thought. There exists a widespread impression among physicists, engineers, and other men of science that the effect of recent developments of Pure Mathematics, by making it more abstract than formerly, has been to remove it further from the order of ideas of those who are primarily con- cerned with the physical world. The prejudice that Pure Mathematics has its sole raison d’étre in its function of providing useful tools for application in the physical sciences, a prejudice which did much to retard the due development of Pure Mathematics in this country during the nineteenth century, is by no means extinct. It is not infrequently said that the present devotion of many mathe- maticians to the interminable discussion of purely abstract questions relating to modern developments of the notions of number and function, and to theories of algebraic form, serves only the purpose of deflecting them from their proper work into paths which lead nowhere. It is con- sidered+that mathematicians are apt to occupy themselves too exclusively with ideas too remote from the physical order in which Mathematics had its origin,.and in which it should still find its proper applications. A direct answer to the question cui bono? when it is raised in respect of a department of study such as Pure Mathematics, seldom carries conviction, in default of a standard of values common to those who ask and to those who answer the question. To appreciate the importance of a sphere of mental activity different from our own always requires some effort of the sympathetic imagination, some recogni- tion of the f absolute value of interests and fact that the ideals of a particular class may be much greater than the value which our own mentality inclines us to attach to them. If a defence is needed of the expenditure of time and energy on the abstract problems of Pure Mathematics, that defence must be of a cumulative character. The fact that abstract mathematical thinking is one of the normal forms of activity of the human mind, a fact which the general history of thought fully establishes, will appeal to some minds as a ground of decisive weight. A great department of thought must have its own inner life, how- ever transcendent may be the importance of its relations to the outside. No department of science, least of all one requiring so high a degree of mental concentration as Mathematics, can be developed entirely, or even mainly, with a view to applications outside its own range. The increased complexity and: specialisation of all branches of knowledge makes it true in the present, however it may have been in former times, that important advances in such a department as Mathematics can be expected only from men who are interested in the subject for its own sake, and who, whilst keeping an open mind for sugges- tions from outside, allow their thousht to range freely in those lines of advance which are indicated by the present state of their subject, untrammelled by any preoccupation as to applications to other departments of science. Even with a view to applications, if Mathematics is to be adequately eouipped for the purpose of coping with the NO. 2131, VOL. 84] [SEPTEMBER I, 1910 intricate problems which will be presented to it in the future by Physics, Chemistry, and other branches of physical science, many of these problems probably, of a. character which we cannot at present forecast, it is essential that Mathematics should be allowed to develop itself freely on its own lines. Even if much of our present mathematical theorising turns out to be useless for external. purposes, it is wiser, for a well-known reason, to allow the wheat and the tares to grow together. It would be easy to establish in detail that many of the applications which have been actually made of Mathematics were wholly unforeseen by those who first developed the methods and ideas on which they rest. Recently, the more refined’ mathematical methods which have been applied to gravita- tional Astronomy by Delaunay, G. W. Hill, Poincaré, ‘E. W. Brown, and others, have thrown much light on questions relating to the solar system, and have much- increased the accuracy of our knowledge of the motions of the moon and the planets. Who knows what weapons: forged by the theories of functions, of differential equa- tions, or of groups, may be required when the time comes for such an empirical law as Mendeléeff’s periodic law of the elements to receive its dynamical explanation by means of an analysis of the detailed possibilities of relatively stable types of motion, the general schematic character of which will have been indicated by the physicist? It is undoubtedly true that the cleft between Pure Mathematics and Physical Science is at the present time wider than formerly. That is, however, a result of the natural development, on their own lines, of both subjects. In the classical period of the eighteenth century, the time of Lagrange and Laplace, the nature of the physical investi- gations, consisting largely of the detailed working out of problems of gravitational Astronomy in accordance with Newton’s law, was such that the passage was easy from the concrete problems to the corresponding abstract mathe- matical ones. Later on, mathematical physicists were much occupied with problems which lent themselves readily to treatment by means of continuous analysis. In our own time the effect of recent developments of Physics has been to present problems of molecular and sub-molecular Mechanics to which continuous analysis is not at least directly applicable, and can only be made applicable by a process of averaging the effects of great swarms of discrete entities. The speculative and incomplete character of our conceptions of the structure of the objects of investigation has made the applications of Dynamics to their detailed elucidation tentative and partial. The generalised dynamical scheme developed by Lagrange and Hamilton, with its power of dealing with systems, the detailed struc- ture of which is partially unknown, has, however, proved a powerful weapon of attack, and affords a_ striking instance of the deep-rooted significance of mathematical form. The wonderful and perhaps unprecedentedly rapid discoveries in Physics which have been made in the last two decades have given rise to many questions which are as. yet hardly sufficiently definite in form to be ripe for mathematical treatment, a necessary condition of which treatment consists in a certain kind of precision in the data of the problems to be solved. The difficulty of obtaining an adequate notion of the general scope and aims of Mathematics, or even of special branches of it, is perhaps greater than in the case of any other science. Many persons, even such as have made a serious and prolonged study of the subject, feel the diffi- culty of seeing the wood for trees. The severe demands made upon students by the labour of acquiring a difficult technique largely accounts for this; but teachers might do much to facilitate the attainment of a wider outlook by directing the attention of their students to the more general and less technical aspects of the various parts of the subject, and especially by the introduction into the courses of instruction of more of the historical element than has hitherto been usual. : All attempts to characterise the domain of Mathematics by means of a formal definition which shall not only be complete. but which shall also rigidly mark off thet domain from the adiacent provinces of Formal Logie on the one side and of Physical Science on the other side, are almost certain to meet with but doubtful success: such success as they may attain will probably be only SEPTEMBER I, 1910} NEAR 287 transient, in view of the power which the science has always shown of constantly extending its borders in un- foreseen directions. Such definitions, many of which have been advanced, are apt to err by excess or defect, and ‘often contain distinct traces of the personal predilections of those who formulate them. There was a time when it would have been a tolerably sufficient description of Pure Mathematics to say that its subject-matter consisted of magnitude and geometrical form. Such a description of it would be wholly inadequate at the present day. Some of the most important branches of modern Mathematics, such as the theory of groups, and Universal Algebra, are concerned, in their abstract forms, neither with magni- tude nor with number, nor with geometrical form. That great modern development, Projective Geometry, has been so formulated as to be independent of all metric con- Bite infiuen Indeed, the tendency of mathematicians under the influence of the movement known as the Arithmetisa- tion of Analysis, a movement which has become a dominant one in the last few decades, is to banish altogether the notion of measurable quantity as a concep- tion necessary to Pure Mathematics, Number, in the ex- ‘tended meaning it has attained, taking its place. Measurement is regarded as one of the applications, but as no part of the basis, of mathematical analysis. Perhaps the least inadequate description of the general scope of “modern Pure Mathematics—I will not call it a definition —would be to say that it deals with form, in a very general sense of the term; this would include algebraic form, geometrical form, functional relationship, the rela- tions of order in any ordered set of entities such as numbers, and the analysis of the peculiarities of form of oes of operations. A strong tendency is manifested in many of the recent definitions to break down the line of demarcation which was formerly supposed to separate Mathematics from formal logic; the rise and development of symbolic logic has no doubt emphasised this tendency. Thus Mathematics has been described by the eminent American mathematician and logician B. Pierce as ‘‘ the Science which draws necessary conclusions,’’ a_ pretty ‘complete identification of Mathematics with logical pro- cedure in general. A definition which appears to identify all Mathematics with the Mengenlehre, or Theory of _Aggripiates, has been given by E. Papperitz: ‘‘ The subject-matter of Pure Mathematics consists of the rela- tions that can be established between any objects or thought when we regard those objects as contained in an ordered manifold; the law of order of this manifold must be subject to our choice.’ The form of definition which illustrates most strikingly the tendencies of the modern school of logistic is one given by Mr. Bertrand Russell. I reproduce it here, in order to show how wide is the chasm between the modes of expression of adherents of this school and those of mathematicians under the in- . fluence of the ordinary 1 traditions of the science. Mr. Russell writes:! ‘‘ Pure Mathematics is the class of all propositions of the form ‘ p implies q,’ where p and q are propositions containing one or more variables, the same in the two propositions, and neither p nor q contains any constants except logical constants. And logical constants are all notions definable in terms of the follow- ing: Implication, the relation of a term to a class of which it is a member, the notion of such that, the notion of relation, and such further notions as may be involved in the general notion of propositions of the above form. In addition to these, Mathematics uses a notion which is not a constituent of the propositions which it considers— namely, the notion of truth.’’ The belief is very general amongst instructed persons that the truths of Mathematics have absolute certainty, or at least that there appertains to them the highest degree of certainty of which the human mind is capable. It is thought that a valid mathematical theorem is neces- sarily of such a character as to compel belief in any mind capable of following the steps of the demonstration. Any considerations tending to weaken this belief would be disconcerting, and would cause some degree of astonish- ment. At the risk of this, | must here mention two facts which are of considerable importance as regards an estimation of the precise character of mathematical know- | 1 “ Principles of Mathemat’cs,” p. 1. NO. 2131, VOL. 84] ledge. In the first place, it is a fact that frequently, and at various times, differences of opinion have existed among mathematicians, giving rise to controversies as to the validity of whole lines of reasoning, and affecting the results of such reasoning; a considerable amount of differ- ence of opinion of this character exists among mathe- maticians at the present time. In the second place, the accepted standard of rigour, that is, the standard of what is deemed necessary to constitute a valid demonstration, has undergone change in the course of time. Much of the reasoning which was formerly regarded as satisfactory and irrefutable is now regarded as insufficient to establish the results which it was employed to demonstrate. It has even been shown that results which were once supposed to have been fully established by demonstrations are, in point of fact, affected with error. + I propose here to explain in general terms how these phenomena are possible. In every subject of study, if one probes deep enough, there are found to be points in which that subject comes in contact with general philosophy, and where differences of philosophical view will have a greater or less influence on the attitude of the mind towards the principles of the particular subject. This is not surprising when we reflect that there is but one universe of thought, that no depart- ment of knowledge can be absolutely isolated, and that metaphysical and psychological implications are a neces- sary element in all the activities of the mind. A particular department, such as Mathematics, is compelled to set up a more or less artificial frontier, which marks it off from general philosophy. This frontier consists of a set of regulative ideas in the form of indefinables and axioms, partly ontological assumptions, and partly postulations of a logical character. To go behind these, to attempt to analyse their nature and origin, and to justify their validity, is to go outside the special department and _ to touch on the domains of the metaphysician and the psycho- iogist. Whether they are regarded as possessing apodictic certainty or as purely hypothetical in character, these ideas represent the data or premises of the science, and the whole of its edifice is dependent upon them. They serve as the foundation on which all is built, as well as the frontier on the side of philosophy and psychology. A set of data ideally perfect in respect of precision and perman- ence is unattainable—or at least has not yet been attained ; and the adjustment of frontiers is one of the most frequent causes of strife. As a matter of fact, variations of opinion have at various times arisen within the ranks of the mathematicians as to the nature, scope, and proper formu- lation of the principles which form the foundations of the science, and the views of mathematicians in this regard have always necessarily been largely affected by the con- scious or unconscious attitude of particular minds towards questions of general philosophy. It is in this region, I think, that the source is to be found of those remarkable differences of opinion amongst mathematicians which have come into prominence at various times, and have given rise to much controversy as to fundamentals. Since the time of Newton and Leibnitz there has been almost un- ceasing discussion as to the proper foundations for the so-called infinitesimal calculus. More recently, questions relating to the foundations of geometry and_ rational mechanics have much occupied the attention of mathe- maticians. The very great change which has taken place during the last half-century in the dominant view of the foundations of mathematical analysis—a change which has exercised a great influence extending through the whole detailed treatment of that subject—although critical in its origin, has been constructive in its results. The Mengen- lehre, or theory of aggregates, had its origin in the critical study of the foundations of analysis, but has already become a great constructive scheme, is indispensable as a method in the investigations of analysis, provides the language requisite for the statement in precise form of analytical theorems of a general character, and, moreover, has already found important applications in geometry. In connection with the Mengenlehre, there has arisen a con- troversy amongst mathematicians which is at the present time far from having reached a decisive issue. The exact point at issue is one which may be described as a matter of mathematical ontology; it turns upon the question of 288 NATURE what constitutes a valid definition of a mathematical object. The school. known. as mathematical ‘* idealists ”’ admit, as valid objects of. mathematical discussion, entities which the rival ‘‘ empiricist’? school regard as non- existent for mathematical thought, because insufficiently defined. It is clear that the idealist’ may build. whole superstructures On a, foundation which the empiricist re- gards as made of sand, and this is what has actually happened in some of the recent developments of what has come to be known as Cantorism. ‘The difference of view of these rival schools, depending as it does on deep-seated differences of philosophical outlook, is thought by some to be essentially irreconcilable. This controversy was due to the fact that certain processes of reasoning, of very considerable plausibility, which had been employed by G. Cantor, the founder of the Mengenlehre, had led to results which contained. flat contradictions. The efforts made to remove these contradictions, and to trace. their source, led to the discussion, disclosing much difference of opinion, of the proper definitions and principles on which the subject should be based. The proposition 7+5=12, taken as typical of the pro- positions expressing the results of the elementary opera- tions of arithmetic, has since the time of Kant given rise to very voluminous discussion amongst philosophers in relation to the precise meaning and implication of the operation and the terms. It will, however, be maintained, probably by the majority of mankind, that the theorem retains its validity as stating a practically certain and useful fact, whatever view philosophers may choose to take of its precise nature—as, for example, whether it represents, in the language of Kant, a synthetic or an analytic judgment. It may, I think, be admitted that there is much cogency in this view; and, were Mathe- matics concerned with the elementary operations of arith- metic alone, it could fairly be held that the mathematician, like the practical man of the world, might without much risk shut his eyes and ears to the discussions of the philo- sophers on such points. The exactitude of such a proposi- tion, in a sufficiently definite sense for practical purposes, is empirically verifiable by sensuous intuition, whatever meaning the metaphysician.may attach to it. But Mathe- matics cannot be built up from the operations of elementary arithmetic without the introduction of further conceptual elements. Except in certain very simple cases, no process of measurement, such as the determination of an area or a volume, can be carried out with exactitude by a finite number of applications of the operations of arithmetic. The result to be obtained appears in the form of a limit, corresponding to an interminable sequence of arithmetical operations. The notion of ‘‘ limit,’’ in the definite form given to it by Cauchy and his followers, together with the closely related theory of the arithmetic continuum, and the notions of continuity and functionality, lie at the very heart of modern analysis. Essentially bound up with this central doctrine of limits is the con- cept of a non-finite set of entities, a concept which is not directly derivable from sensuous intuition, but which is, nevertheless, a necessary postulation in mathematical analysis. The conception of the infinite, in some form, is thus indispensable in Mathematics; and this conception requires precise characterisation by a scheme of exact definitions, prior to all the processes of deduction required in obtaining the detailed results of analysis. The formu- lation of this precise scheme gives an opening to differ- ences of philosophical opinion which has led to a of views as to the proper character of those. definitions which involve the concept of the infinite. Here is the point of divergence of opinion among mathematicians to which I have alluded above. Under what ~conditions is a non-finite aggregate of entities a prope defined object of mathematical thought, of such a character that no contradictions will arise in the theories based’ upon it? That is the question to which varying answers have been offered by different mathematical thinkers. _ No ° one answer of a completely general character has as yet met with universal acceptance. Physical intuition ’ offers no answer to such a question; it is one which ‘abstract thought alone can settle. It cannot be altogether avoided, because, without the notion of the infinite, at least in connection with the central conception of the “ limit,” NO. 2131, VOL. 84] variety [SEPTEMBER 1, 1910 mathematical analysis as a coherent body of thought falls to the ground. Both in geometry and in analysis our standard of what constitutes a rigorous demonstration has in the course of the nineteenth century undergone an almost. revolutionary change. That oldest text-book of science.in the world, ** Euclid’s Elements of Geometry,’’ has been popularly held for centuries to be the very model of deductive logical demonstration. . Criticism has, however, largely invalidated this view. It appears that, at a large number of points, assumptions not included in the preliminary axioms and postulates are made use of.. The fact that these assump- tions usually escape notice is due to their nature and origin. Derived as they are from our spatial intuition, their very self-evidence has allowed them to be ignored, although their. truth. is not more obvious empirically than that of other assumptions derived from the same source which are included in the axioms and postulates explicitly stated as part of the foundation of Euclid’s treatment of the subject... The method of superimposition, employed by Euclid with obvious reluctance, but forming an essential part of his treatment of geometry, is, when regarded from his. point. of view, open. to most serious objections as regards its logical coherence. In analysis, as in geometry, the older. methods of treatment consisted of processes of deduction eked out by the more or less surreptitious intro- duction, at numerous points in the subject, of assumptions only justifiable by spatial intuition. The result of this deviation from the purely deductive method was more disastrous in the case of analysis than in geometry, because it led to much actual error in the theory. For example, it was held until comparatively recently that a: continuous function necessarily possesses a differential coefficient, on the ground that a curve always has a tangent. This we now know to be quite erroneous, when any reasonable definition of continuity is*employed. The first step in the discovery of this error was made when it occurred to Ampére that the existence of the differential coefficient could only be asserted as a theorem requiring proof, and he himself published an attempt at such proof. The erroneous character of the former belief on this matter Was most strikingly exhibited when Weierstrass produced a function which is everywhere continuous, but) which nowhere possesses a differential coefficient; such functions can now be constructed ad libitum. It is not too much to say that no one of the general theorems of analysis is true without the introduction of limitations and conditions which were entirely unknown to the discoverers of those theorems. It has been the task of mathematicians under the lead of such men as Cauchy, Riemann, Weierstrass, and G. Cantor, to.carry out the work of reconstruction of mathematical analysis, to render explicit all the limita- tions of the truth of the general theorems, and to lay down the conditions of validity of the ordinary ‘analytical operations. Physicists and others often maintain that this modern extreme precision amounts to an unnecessary and pedantic purism, because in all practical applications of Mathematics only~ such functions are of importance” as exclude the remoter possibilities contemplated by theorists. Such objections leave the true mathematician unmoved ; to him it is an intolerable defect that, in an order of ideas in which absolute exactitude is the guiding ideal, state- ments should be made and processes employed, both of which are subject to unexpressed qualifications, as con- ditions of their truth or validity. The pure mathematician has developed a specialised conscience, extremely sensitive as regards sins against logical precision. The physicist, with his conscience hardened in this respect by the rough- and-tumble work of investigating the physical world, is apt to regard the more tender organ of the mathematician with that feeling of impatience, not unmingled with con- tempt, which the man of the world manifests for what he considers to be over-scrupulosity and unpracticality. It is true that we cannot conceive how such a° science as Mathematics could have come into existence apart from physical experience. But it is also true that physical precepts, as given directly in unanalysed experience, are wholly unfitted to form the basis of an exact. science. Moreover, physical intuition fails altogether to afford anv trustworthy. guidance in connection with the concept of the infinite, which, as we have seen, is in some form SEPTEMBER I, IQIO| NATURE 289 indispensable in the formation of a coherent system of mathematical analysis. The hasty and uncritical extension to the region of the infinite, of results which are true and often obvious in the region of the finite, has been a fruitful source of error in the past, and remains as a pit- fall for the unwary student in the present. The notions derived from physical intuition must be transformed into a scheme of exact definitions and axioms before they are available for the mathematician, the necessary precision being contributed by the mind itself. A very remarkable ect in connection with this process of refinement of the rough data of experience is that it contains an element of arbitrariness, so that the result of the process is not necessarily unique. The most striking example of this want of uniqueness in the conceptual scheme so obtained is the case of geometry, in which it has been shown to be poss ble to set up various sets of axioms, each set self- consistent, but inconsistent with any other of the sets, and yet such that each set of axioms, at least under suitable limitations, leads to results consistent with our perception of actual space-relations. Allusion is here made, in particular, to the well-known geometries of Lobatchewsky and of Riemann, which differ from the geometry of Euclid in respect of the axiom of parallels, in place of which axioms inconsistent with that of Euclid _and with one another are substituted. It is a matter of demonstration that any inconsistency which might be sup- posed to exist in the scheme known as hyperbolic geo- metry, or in that known as elliptic. geometry, would necessarily entail the existence of a corresponding incon- sistency in Euclid’s set of axioms. The three geometries therefore, from the logical point of view, are com- pletely on a par with one another. An interesting mathe- matical result is that all efforts to prove Euclid’s axiom of parallels, i.e. to deduce it from his other axioms, are -deomed to necessary failure; this is of importance in view of the many efforts that have been made to obtain the proof referred to. When the question is raised which of these geometries is the true one, the kind of answer that will be given depends a good deal on the view taken of the relation of conceptual schemes in general to actual experience. It is maintained by M. Poincaré, for ex- ample, that the question which is the true scheme has no meaning; that it is, in fact, entirely a matter of con- vention and convenience which of these geometries is actually employed in connection with spatial measure- ments. To decide between them by a crucial test is impossible, because our space perceptions are _ not sufficiently exact in the mathematical sense to enable us to decide between the various axioms of parallels. What- ever views are taken as to the difficult questions that arise in this connection, the contemplation and study of schemes of geometry wider than that of Euclid, and some of them including Euclid’s geometry as a special case, is of great interest, not only from the purely mathematical point of view, but also in relation to the general theory of know- ledge, in that, owing to the results of this study, some change is necessitated in the views which have been held by philosophers as to what is known as Kant’s space- problem. The school of thought which has most emphasised the purely logical aspect of. Mathematics is that which is re- presented in this country by Mr. Bertrand Russell and Dr. Whitehead, and which has distinguished adherents both in Europe and in America. The ideal of this school is a presentation of the whole of Mathematics as a deductive scheme in which are employed a certain limited number of indefinables and unprovable axioms, by means of a procedure in which all possibility of the illicit intrusion of extraneous elements into the deduction is excluded by the employment of a symbolism in which each symbol expresses a certain logical relation. This school receives its inspiration from a peculiar form of philosophic _tealism which, in its revolt from idealism, produces in the adherents of the school a strong tendency to ignore altogether the psychological implications in the movements of mathematical thought. This is carried so far that in their writings no explicit "recognition is made of any psychological factors in the selection of the indefinables and in the formulation of the axioms upon which the whole structure of Mathematics is to be based. The NO. 2131, vou. 84] | or | development of anything new. actually worked-out part of their scheme has as yet reached only the mere fringe of modern Mathematics as a great detailed body of doctrine; but to any objection to the method on the ground of the prolixity of the treatment which would be necessary to carry it out far enough to enable it to embrace the various branches of Mathematics in all the wealth of their present development, it would probably be replied that the main point of interest is to establish in principle the possibility only of subsuming Pure Mathematics under a scheme of logistic. It is quite impossible for me here to attempt to discuss, even in out- line, the tenets of this school, or even to deal with the interesting question of the possibility of setting up a final system of definables and axioms which shall suffice for all present and future developments of Mathematics. I am very far from wishing to minimise the high philo- sophic interest of the attempt made by the Peano-Russell school to exhibit Mathematics as a scheme of deductive logic. I have myself emphasised above the necessity and importance of fitting the results of mathematical research in their final form into a framework of deduction for the purpose of ensuring the complete precision and the verifi- cation of the various mathematical theories. At the same time, it must be recognised that the purely deductive method is wholly inadequate as an instrument of research: Whatever view may be held as regards the place of psycho- logical implications in a completed body of mathematical | doctrine, in research the psychological factor is of para- mount importance. The slightest acquaintance with the history of Mathematics establishes the fact that discoveries have seldom, or never, been made by purely deductive pro- cesses. The results are thrown into a purely deductive form after, and often long after, their discovery. In many cases the purely deductive form, in the ful! sense, is quite modern. The possession of a body of indefinables, axioms, postulates, and symbols denoting logical reiation, would, taken by itself, be wholly insufficient for the development of a mathematical theory. With these alone the mathematician would be unable to move a step. In face of an unlimited number of possible combinations, a principle of selection of such as are of interest, a purposive element, and a perceptive faculty are essential for the In the process of dis- covery, the chains in a sequence of logical deduction do not at first arise in their final order in the mind of the mathematical discoverer. He divines the results before they are established; he has an intuitive grasp of the general line of a demonstration long before he has filled in the details. A developed theory, or even a demonstra- tion of a single theorem, is no more identical with a mere complex of syllogisms than a melody is identical with the mere sum of the musical notes employed in its composition. In each case the whole is something more than merely the sum of its parts; it has a unity of its own, and that unity must be, in some measure at least, discerned by its creator before the parts fall completely into their places. Logic is, so to speak, the grammar of Mathematics; but a knowledge of the rules of grammar and the letters of the alphabet would not be sufficient equipment to enable a man to write a book. There is much room for individuality in the modes of mathematical discovery. Some great mathematicians have employed largely images derived from spatial intuition as a guide to their results; others appear wholly to have discarded such aids, and were led by a fine feeling for algebraic and other species of mathematical form. A certain tentative process is common, in which, by the aid of results known or obtained in special cases, generalisations are perceived and afterwards established, which take up into themselves all the special cases so employed. Most mathematicians leave some traces, in the final presentation of their work, of the scaffolding they have employed in building their edifices, some much more than others. ‘ The difference between a mathematical theory in the making and as a finished product is, perhaps, most strik- ingly illustrated by the case of geometry, as presented in its most approved modern shape. It is not too much to say that geometry, reduced to a purely deductive form—as presented, for example, by Hilbert, or by some of the modern Italian school—has no necessary connection with space. The words “ point,”’ ‘“line,’” ““plane’’ are em- 290 NATURE ployed to denote any entities whatever which satisfy certain prescribed conditions of relationship. Various premises are postulated that would appear to be of a perfectly arbitrary nature, if we did not know how they had been suggested. In that division of the subject known as metric geometry, for example, axioms of congruency are assumed which, by their purely abstract character, avoid the very real diffi- culties that arise in this regard in reducing perceptual space-relations of measurements to a purely conceptual form. Such schemes, triumphs of constructive thought at its highest and most abstract level as they are, could never have been constructed apart from the space-perceptions that suggested them, although the concepts of spatial origin are transformed almost out of recognition. But what I want to direct attention to here is that, apart from the basis of this geometry, mathematicians would never have been able to find their way through the details of the deductions without having continual recourse to the guidance given them by spatial intuition. If one attempts to follow one of the demonstrations of a particular theorem in the work of writers of this school, one would find it quite impossible to retain the steps of the process long enough to master the whole, without the aid of the very spatial suggestions which have been abstracted. This is perhaps sufficiently warranted by the fact that writers of this school find it necessary to provide their readers with figures, in order to avoid complete bewilderment in following the demonstra- tions, although the processes, being purely logical deductions from premises of the nature I have described, deal only with entities which have no necessary similarity to anything indicated by the figures. A most interesting account has been written by one of the greatest mathematicians of our time, M. Henri Poincaré, of the way in which he was led to some of his most important mathematical discoveries.‘ He describes the pro- cess of discovery as consisting of three stages: the first of these consists of a long effort of concentrated attention upon the problem in hand in all its bearings; during the second stage he is not consciously occupied with the subject at all, but at some quite unexpected moment the central idea which enables him to surmount the difficulties, the nature of which he had made clear to himself during the first stage, flashes suddenly into his consciousness. The third stage consists of the work of carrying out in detail and reducing to a connected form the results to which he is led by the light of his central idea; this stage, like the first, is one requiring conscious effort. This is, I think, clearly not a description of a purely deductive process; it is assuredly more interesting to the psychologist than to the logician. We have here the account of a complex of mental processes in which it is certain that the reduction to a scheme of precise logical deduction is the latest stage. After all, a mathematician is a human being, not a logic- engine. Who that has studied the works of such men as Euler, Lagrange, Cauchy, Riemann, Sophus Lie, and Weierstrass, can doubt that a great mathematician is a great artist? The faculties possessed by such men, varying greatly in kind and degree with the individual, are analogous to those requisite for constructive art. Not every great mathematician possesses in a specially high degree that critical faculty which finds its employment in the perfection of form, in conformity with the ideal of logical completeness; but every great mathematician pos- sesses the rarer faculty of constructive imagination. The actual evolution of mathematical theories proceeds by a process of induction strictly analogous to the method of induction employed in building up the physical sciences ; observation, comparison, classification, trial, and generalisa- tion are essential in both cases. Not only are special results, obtained independently of one another, frequently seen to be really included in some generalisation, but branches of the subject which have been developed quite independently of one another are sometimes found to have connections which enable them to be synthesised in one single body of doctrine. The essential nature of mathe- matical thought manifests itself in the discernment of fundamental identity in the mathematical aspects of what are superficially very different domains. A striking example of this species of immanent identity of mathematical form was exhibited by the discovery of that distinguished \ See the ‘' Revue du Mois,” 1908. mathematician, our General Secretary, Major Macmahon, that all possible Latin squares are capable of enumeration by the consideration of certain differential operators. Here we have a case in which an enumeration, which appears to be not amenable to direct treatment, can actually be carried out in a simple manner when the underlying identity of the operation is recognised with that involved in certain operations due to differential operators, the calculus of which belongs superficially to a wholly different region of thought from that relating to Latin squares, The modern abstract theory of groups affords a very im-— portant illustration of this point; all sets of operations, whatever be their concrete character, which have the same group, are from the point of view of the abstract theory identical, and an analysis of the properties of the abstract group gives results which are applicable to all the actual sets of operations, however diverse their character, which are dominated by the one group. The characteristic feature of any special geometrical scheme is known when the group of transformations which leave unaltered certain relations of figures has been assigned. Two schemes in which the space elements may be quite different have this fundamental identity, provided they have the same group; every special theorem is then capable of interpretation as a property of figures either in the one or in the other geometry. The mathematical physicist is familiar with the fact that a single mathematical theory is often capable of interpreta- tion in relation to a variety of physical phenomena. In some instances a mathematical formulation, as in some fashion representing observed facts, has survived the physical theory it was originally devised to represent. In the case of electromagnetic and optical theory, there appears to be reason for trusting the equations, even when the proper physical interpretation of some of the vectors appearing in them is a matter of uncertainty and gives rise to much difference of opinion; another instance of the fundamental nature of mathematical form. One of the most general mathematical conceptions is that of functional relationship, or ‘“‘ functionality.’? Starting [SEPTEMBER I, 1910 _ originally from simple cases such as a function represented by a power of a variable, this conception has, under the pressure of the needs of expanding mathematical theories, gradually attained the completeness of generality which it possesses at the present time. The opinion appears to be gaining ground that this very general conception of functionality, born on mathematical ground, is destined to supersede the narrower notion of causation, traditional in connection with the natural sciences. As an abstract formulation of the idea of determination in its most general sense, the notion of functionality includes and transcends the more special notion of causation as a one-sided deter- mination of future phenomena by means of present con- ditions ; it can be used to express the fact of the subsump- tion under a general law of past, present, and future alike, in a sequence of phenomena. From this point of view the remark of Huxley that Mathematics ‘‘ knows nothing of causation’’ could only be taken to express the whole truth, if by the term ‘‘ causation’? is under- stood ‘‘ efficient causation.’’ The latter notion has, however, in recent times been to an increasing extent regarded as just as irrelevant in the natural sciences as it is in Mathematics; the idea of thorough-going deter- minancy, in accordance with formal law, being thought to be alone significant in either domain. The observations I have made in the present address have, in the main, had reference to Mathematics as a living and growing science related to and permeating other great departments of knowledge. The small remaining space at my disposal I propose to devote to a few words about some matters connected with the teaching of the more elementary parts of Mathematics. Of late years a new spirit has come over the mathematical teaching in many of our insti- tutions, due in no small measure to the reforming zeal of our General Treasurer, Prof. John Perry. The changes that have been made followed a recognition of the fact that the abstract mode of treatment of the subject that had been traditional was not only wholly unsuitable as a train- ing for physicists and engineers, but was also to a large extent a failure in relation to general education, because it neglected to bring out clearly the bearing of the subject on the concrete side of things. With the general principle that a much less abstract mode of treatment than was SEPTEMBER I, 1910] NATURE 291 formerly customary is desirable for a variety of reasons, I am in complete accord. It is a sound educational principle that instruction should begin with the concrete side, and should only gradually introduce the more general and abstract aspects of the subject; an abstract treatment on a purely logical basis being reserved only for that highest and latest stage which will be reached only by a small minority of students. At the same time I think there are some serious dangers connected with the movement towards making the teaching of Mathematics more practical than formerly, and I do not think that, in making the recent changes in the modes of teaching, these dangers have always been successfully avoided. Geometry and mechanics are both subjects with two sides ; on the one side, the observational, they are physical sciences; on the other side, the abstract and deductive, they are branches of Pure Mathematics. The older traditiona' treatment of these subjects has been of a mixed character, in which deduction and induction occurred side by side throughout, but far too much stress was laid upon the deductive side, especially in the earlier stages of instruction. It is the proportion of the two elements in the mixture that has been altered by the changed methods of instruction of the newer school of teachers. In the earliest teaching of the subjects they should, I believe, be treated wholly as observational studies. At a later stage a mixed treatment must be employed, observation and deduction going hand in hand, more stress being, however, laid on the observa- tional side than was formerly customary. This mixed treatment leaves much opening for variety of method; its character must depend to a large extent on the age and general mental development of the pupils; it should allow free scope for the individual methods of various teachers as suggested to those teachers by experience. Attempts to fix too rigidly any particular order of treatment of these subjects are much to be deprecated, and, unfortunately, such attempts are now being made. To have escaped from the thraldom of Euclid will avail little if the study of geometry in all the schools is to fall under the domination of some other rigidly prescribed scheme. There are at the present time some signs of reaction against the recent movement of reform in the teaching of geometry. It is found that the lack of a regular order in the sequence of propositions increases the difficulty of the examiner in appraising the performance of the candidates, and in standardising the results of examinations. That this is true may well be believed, and it was indeed foreseen by many of those who. took part in bringing about the dethronement of Euclid as a text-book. From the point of view of the examiner it is without doubt an enormous simplification if all the students have learned the subject in the same order, and have studied the same text-book. but, admitting this fact, ought decisive weight to be allowed to it? I am decidedly of opinion that it ought not. I think the convenience of the examiner, and even precision in the results of examinations, ought unhesitatingly to be sacrificed when they are in conflict—as I believe they are in this case—with the vastly more important interests of education. Of the many evils which our examination system has inflicted upon us, the central one has consisted in forcing our school and university teaching into moulds determined not by the true interests of education, but by the mechanical exigencies of the examination syllabus. The examiner has thus exercised a potent influence in dis- couraging initiative and individuality of method on the part of the teacher; he has robbed the teacher of that freedom which is essential for any high degree of efficiency. An objection* of a different character to the newer modes of teaching geometry has been frequently made of late. It is said that the students are induced to accept and repro- duce, as proofs of theorems, arguments which are not really proofs, and thus that the logical training which should be imparted by a study of geometry is vitiated. If this objection really implies a demand for a purely deduc- tive treatment of the subject, I think some of those who raise it hardly realise all that would be involved in the complete satisfaction of their requirement. I have already remarked that Euclid’s treatment of the subject is not rigorous as regards logic. Owing to the recent exploration of the foundations of geometry we possess at the present time tolerably satisfactory methods of purely deductive treatment of the subject; in regard to mechanics, notwith- NO. 2131, VOL. 84] standing the valuable work of Mach, Herz, and others, this is not yet the case. But, in the schemes of purely deductive geometry, the systems of axioms and postulates are far from being of a very simple character; their real nature, and the necessity for many of them, can only be appre- ciated at a much later stage in mathematical education than the one of which I am speaking. A purely logical treatment is the highest stage in the training of the mathematician, and is wholly unsuitable—and, indeed, quite impossible—in those stages beyond which the great majority of students never pass. It can then, in the case of all students, except a few advanced ones in the univer- sities, only be a question of degree how far the purely logical factor in the proofs of propositions shall be modified by the introduction of elements derived from observation or spatial intuition. If the freedom of teaching which I have advocated be allowed, it will be open to those teachers who find it advisable in the interests of their students to emphasise the logical side of their teaching to do so; and it is certainly of value in all cases to direct the attention of students to those points in a proof where the intuitional element enters. I draw, then, the conclusion that a mixed treatment of geometry, as of mechanics, must prevail in the future, as it has done in the past, but that the proportion of the observational or intuitional factor to the logical one must vary in accordance with the needs and intellectual attainments of the students, and that a large measure of freedom of judgment in this regard should be left to the teacher. The great and increasing importance of a knowledge of the differential and integral calculus for students of en- gineering and other branches of physical science has led to the publication during the last few years of a considerable number of text-books on this subject intended for the use of such students. Some of these text-books are excellent, and their authors, by a skilful insistence on the principles of the subject, have done their utmost to guard against the very real dangers which attend attempts to adapt such a subject to the practical needs of engineers and others. It is quite true that a great mass of detail which has gradually come to form part—often much too large a part—of the material of the student of Mathematics, may with great advantage be ignored by those whose main study is to be engineering science or physics. Yet it cannot be too strongly insisted on that a firm grasp of the principles, as distinct from the mere processes of calculation, is essential if Mathematics is to be a tool really useful to the engineer and the physicist. There is a danger, which experience has shown to be only too real, that such students may learn to regard Mathematics as consisting merely of formulz and of rules which provide the means of per- forming the numerical computations necessary for solving certain categories of problems which occur in the practical sciences. Apart from the deplorable effect, on the educa- tional side, of degrading Mathematics to this level, the practical effect of reducing it to a number of rule-of-thumb processes can only be to make those who learn it in so unintelligent a manner incapable of applying mathematical methods to any practical problem in which the data differ even slightly from those in the model problems which they have studied. Only a firm grasp of the principles will give the necessary freedom in handling the methods of Mathe- matics required for the various practical problems in the solution of which they are essential. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. A Mercuant VENTURERS’ research scholarship of the value of sol., tenable for one year in the faculty of engineering of the University of Bristol, which is provided and maintained in the Merchant Venturers’ Technical College, has been awarded to Mr. Harold Heaton Emsley. The Child, a new monthly journal devoted to child welfare, ‘will appear in the early autumn, under the general editorship of Dr. T. N. Kelynack. The journal will be suited to the requirements of all engaged in child study or working for the betterment of child life. The publishers will be Messrs. John Bale, Sons and Daniels- son, Ltd., 83-91 Great Titchfield Street, Oxford Street, London, W. 292 Tue governing body of the Battersea Polytechnic is arranging considerable developments for next session in the work of the Domestic Economy Department of the Battersea Polytechnic. An entirely new third-year course will be introduced. This course will carry forward greatly the application of science to housecraft. It will consist, in the main, of much more elaborate work both on the theoretical and practical sides in the subjects of physiology, hygiene, chemistry, physics, and biology. It is intended that special attention shall be given to the carrying for- ward on the scientific side of the processes which underlie the arts of cookery, laundrywork, and housewifery. It is intended, too, that students shall spend some of their time in practical research work upon the various biological and chemical processes in which so much of their work will be done. THE report of the Hebdomadal Council of Oxford Uni- versity, entitled ‘‘ Principles and Methods of University Reform,’’ has been published by the Clarendon Press. Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Chancellor of the University, contributes an introduction on behalf of the council. We hope later to deal with the important proposals contained in the report, but attention may here be directed to the question of compulsory Greek and the suggested entrance examination. The council proposes that Greek shall be no longer a compulsory subject, but that every candidate must, in order to pass Responsions, satisfy the masters of the schools in Latin and in elementary mathematics, and also either in (a) Greek or in (b) two other subjects, one, and only one, of which must be a modern language. The optional subjects include, besides modern languages, English history, elementary politics, elementary trigono- metry, statics and dynamics, elementary physics and chemistry, and the general principles of geography and the geography of the British Isles and Empire. The pro- posal to make Greek an optional subject is, says Lord Curzon in his introduction, based ‘‘ mainly on the fact that the non-Greek curriculum is now firmly established, not only in the secondary schools receiving grants from Government, but also, as an alternative course taken by many boys, in the older public schools, which supply a large proportion of the students of the University.’’ The question of compulsory Greek has been purposely separated from that of an entrance examination. The scheme for an entrance examination framed by the council is as follows :—There will be, in substitution for Responsions, an entrance examination, conducted on behalf of the University by the Delegates for the Inspection and Examination of Schools. This examination will include three necessary subjects and optional subjects. In order to pass, a candidate must qualify in the three necessary subjects at one and the same time, and must also pass in two of the optional subjects, either when he passes in the necessary subjects or at some other time. The neces- sary subjects will be English, to be tested by an essay or a composition on materials supplied, e.g. précis or reproduction of a passage read aloud; Latin or Greek ; elementary mathematics; two papers, (a) arithmetic and algebra, (b) geometry. The optional subjects will be practically the same as those suggested for Responsions. Referring to the entrance examination, Lord Curzon points out that, in adopting the view that school studies should be excluded from the curriculum of the University, and that all matriculated students should be required to have received a minimum standard of general education, the council believes the University will be acting in its best interests by helping to maintain a proper standard in the schools which prepare for it. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, August 22.—M. Emile Picard in the chair.—The president announced the death of M. Eugéne Rouché.—Paul Sabatier and A. Mailhe: The catalytic preparation of the phenolic oxides and the diphenylenic oxides. The authors have applied the cata- lytic properties of thoria to the preparation of phenyl ether and its homologues. The thoria is maintained at a temperature of between 390° C. and 450° C., and the vapour of the phenol passed over it. The yield is good; NO. 2131, VOL. 84] NATURE [SEPTEMBER I, 1910 but if the temperature is raised another reaction, charac- terised by the elimination of hydrogen, takes place, the oxide of diphenylene being formed. The reaction applies to the cresols and xylenols.—J. Guillaume: Observations of the sun made at the Observatory of Lyons during the second quarter of 1910. Observations were possible on fifty-four days, and the results are recorded in tables showing the number of spots, the distribution of the spots in latitude, and the distribution of the facule in latitude. —M. Schaumasse: Observations of the Metcalf comet made at the Observatory of Nice with the bent equatoriat of 40-cm. aperture. The comet appears as a nebulosity of the tenth magnitude, with a well-marked condensation. —Michel Fekete: A theorem of M. Landau.—C. Maltézos: The real image of Purkinje.-—L. Fondard and F. Gauthié: The composition of carnations with flexible stems and rigid stems. Three American varieties of carnation with rigid stems, and one French variety with flexible stems, have been analysed, and the differences in the stiffness of the stems found to be accompanied with distinct differences in composition.—Ed. Hesse: Trypano- plasma vaginalis, a new species found as a parasite in the vagina of the leech.E. Roubaud: A Bombex prey- ing on the Glossina of Dahomey. This wasp is one of the very small number of species known to capture the mosquito. CatcuTta. Asiatic Society of Bengal, August 3.—Manindra Nath Banerjee: A system of Indian scientific vocabulary. This paper attempts to give Sanskrit equivalents for a number of European scientific terms, mostly on the basis of phonetic resemblance. With the help of dictionaries and grammars, the Sanskrit words are made to yield the mean- ings warranted by their European originals.—Panchanan Neogi and Birendra Bhusan Adhikary: The preparation of phenyl-nitro-methane by the interaction of mercurous nitrite and benzyl chloride. The present work is in con- tinuation of Ray and Neogi’s work on the preparation of aliphatic nitro-compounds by the interaction of mercurous nitrite and alkyliodides. The authors have prepared phenyl nitrite and alkyliodides—D. Hooper: Materia Medica Animalium Indica. A classified list of substances of the animal kingdom used in Indian medicine, with notes on their origin, history, uses, and chemical composition. The list is compiled from several works on Indian materia medica, with original observations of the author. CONTENTS. PAGE Colour-vision. . Peso 0. eS A History of Biological Theories Momeerr ro rs Science in School . . Merce le: Classic Wall- penne, By AL ‘H.C. Rar are iets 212) Our Book Shelf. . . amos plans 225 Letters to the Editor :— Separating Power of a Pee. Je Ww. pees” T. Lewis ... ‘ ees . 266 Colour-vision.—R. M. “Deeley b 267 Lake Edward, Ruwenzori, and the Uganda- Congo Frontier. By E. H. H: . . 5 267 Walliam’James.. . . . 1s a hide 9c Drwlouls Olivier’: 2.5 cy eey cern eae red ie eee Notes F 269 Our Astronomical Column :— Astronomica! Occurrences in September . .... . 272 sihesParis Observatory; | spec) =p ii ecient eo tuclaiinteiomnees Observations of Comet 1910a MD Cena 2" The Sun’s Velocity through Space ....... +. 272 Parallax of Fourth-type’Stars® «9. = . - 6 5 = 298 The Maximum of Mira in 1909 . ee oe Se es The Study of Double Stars for ‘Amateurs . aus Lich Se Me neeee Metcalf’s Comet, 19104 . . + + 273 The Royal Photographic Society's Exhibition ee 2/2 The British Association at Sheffield... . 274 Inaugural Address by the Rev. Prof. T. G. Bonney, Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S., President of the Association x . 274 Section A.—Mathematical and Physical Science. — Opening Address by Prof. E. W. Hobson, Sc.D., F.R.S., President of the Section. . . 284 University and Educational Tacsiieence 2 wh ati) pee Societies and Academies .... ew thaliana) On THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1910. eee ORE DEPOSITS. (1) The Ore Deposits of South Africa. By J. P. John- son. Part ii., The Witwatersrand and Pilgrims’ Rest Goldfields and Similar Occurrences. Pp. vi+51. (London ; Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1909.) Price 5s. net. (2) .The Geology of Ore Deposits. and D. A, MacAlister. Pp. xi+416. E. Arnold, 1909.) Price 7s. 6d. net. (1) HE. second part of Mr. Johnson’s ‘Ore De- posits of South Africa,’’ of which the first part was reviewed in Nature, June 3, 1909, vol. Ixxx., p. 395, deals with the goldfields of the Transvaal. The book is intended for the use of prospectors and students, and consists of brief descriptions of each mining field and of short discussions of the genesis of the ores. It is illustrated with sections of the mines, and outline maps of which the shading is not always clearly explained. The author gives an excellent sum- mary of the arguments for the placer and impregna- tion theories of the origin of the Rand ores, and says that “judging them on their own evidence the writer would unhesitatingly class them as detrital ore de- posits” (p. 17). He suspends judgment, however, from the consideration that the gold at Pilgrims’ Rest is due to impregnation. The ores at Pilgrims’ Rest are quartz stringers in dolomite and altered dolomite ; and they are doubtless of the same origin as those in the dolomites of South Dakota, which are strikingly different in all essential characters from _ the banket of the Rand. Mr. Johnson’s remark that the analogy between the ores of Pilgrims’ Rest and of the Rand is the strongest argument in favour of the impregnation theory for the banket is not complimentary to the other arguments. The most useful parts of the book are the chapters on the less- known secondary goldfields of the Transvaal. (2) Messrs. Thomas and MacAlister’s ‘‘Geology of Ore Deposits "’ agrees with Mr. Johnson’s book in the conciseness with which it summarises the structures of various mining fields. It is, however, world-wide in its range. It should prove of great service as a text- book to students of economic geology who desire a clear statement of current theories. As the authors, in 416 small pages, state the principles of ore forma- tion and explain them by reference to occurrences in nearly every mining country, the work necessarily suffers by extreme compression. There are no refer- ences to authorities, and, owing to their absence, the reader is sometimes left in doubt whether evidence opposed to the authors’ conclusions has been weighed and rejected or has escaped their diligent search. An omission that might have been avoided is an index of localities. The same mining field may be referred to in different chapters, and so many mining localities are mentioned that a geographical index would have added greatly to the usefulness of the book as a work of preliminary reference. ' Some statistics of ore yields would also have been an advantage as showing the relative importance of the different processes of NO. 2132, VoL. 84] By H. H. Thomas (London : NAL ORE 293 mineral deposition; the authors mention some insig- nificant ore occurrences which are of no economic importance, and some of which have not been worked, and inferences drawn from them as to the origin of the larger ore masses may be invalid. Owing to the wide range of the book it is not surprising that it contains small mistakes, both geological and geo- graphical, in reference to foreign mining fields. The classification of ores adopted by the authorities is based solely on genetic grounds. They describe first the ores due to the segregation of metals in igneous rocks, a process to which the authors perhaps attach undue importance, judged by the economic value of the ores thus produced. In succeeding chapters they describe ores due to pneumatolysis, to the action of heated solutions resulting from igneous intrusions, to metasomatic replacement, to meta- morphism, to precipitation, and to the deposition of detritus. A special chapter describes the changes im ore deposits apart from those included under meta- morphism. The authors show remarkably wide acquaintance with the literature of ore deposits and a sound and cautious judgment. They accept the de- trital origin of the gold in the Rand Banket, and reject the view that nuggets are formed by deposition from solution in the drifts wherein they are found. The accounts of the British and especially of the Cornish ores are the best in the book, many of the references to the foreign fields being too brief to do: more than show the place assigned to the ores in the authors’ classification. One significant and interesting feature in this bool is the complete abandonment in a British text-book of that morphological classification of ores which was for so long dominant in this country that it has beem described as “‘the British classification.” Ta Wer Ge OBSERVATIONAL METEOROLOGY. Meteorology, Practical and Applied. By Sir John Moore. Second revised and enlarged edition. Pp. xxvii+4g92. (London: Rebman, Ltd., 1910.) Price tos. 6d. net. URING the gress has meteorology, as and second editions of Sir John amply demonstrates. Expansion in some direc- tions necessitating curtailment in others has changed and improved the work. As an example of addition we may instance the account of the investi- gation of the upper atmosphere with the information acquired of the isothermal layer and the behaviour of air currents. This inquiry, practically limited to the interval between the appearance of the two editions, has reacted, in various ways, traces of which will be found in the book. It has given a strong impulse to the work of designing accurate self-recording in- struments, necessitating a considerable increase in the chapters devoted to the methods of measurement and registration of climatic factors. Through the increased attention attracted to meteorology and the firmer scientific foundation thus acquired, there has arisen the L much pro- study of the first treatise last fifteen been made in_ the a comparison between Moore’s years 294 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 8, I910 necessity for a broader, more general view of the factors of operation, in which world-wide areas and cosmical influences are substituted for limited districts and local circumstances. This more philosophic view the author has not discussed with the fulness its importance deserves. Perhaps, it hardly comes within the scheme, but the omission indicates the position the book occupies among treatises on meteorology. It deals with the mechanical processes employed in observation and the dis- cussion of the results obtained, rather than with the problems of general circulation affecting the atmo- sphere as a whole. It is an admirable treatise on the methods of observation, it demonstrates very satisfac- torily what can be accomplished by instrumental means, and what are the objects and advantages to be gained by the systematic collection of details. The principles underlying this aspect of practical meteor- ology are well illustrated by the description of the official. weather service at home, in the United States, and. in Canada. This information thoroughly modern, trustworthy, and interesting. One section is devoted to the consideration of climate as deduced from the records supplied by instrumental means and one to the influence of season and of weather on disease. Perhaps the last is a larger subject than can be discussed adequately in the space allotted to it, but it is a subject on which the writer is an authority, and constitutes an important branch of meteorological science. is ABSTRACT AND OTHER PHILOSOPHY. (1) Gustav Freytags Kultur- und Geschichtspsycho- logie: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Geschichts- philosophie. By Dr. Georg Schridde. Pp. ix+g5. (Leipzig: Verlag der Diirr’schen Buchhandlung, 1910.) Price 3 marks. (2) Lessings Briefwechsel mit Nicolai iiber das Trauers piel. Petsch. Pp. Iv+i144. (Leipzig: Verlag der Diirr’schen Buchhandlung, 1910.) Price 3 marks. (3) Hegels Asthetik im Verhdltnis zu Schiller. By Mendelssohn und By Prof. Dr. Robert A. Lewkowitz. Pp. 76. (Leipzig: Verlag der Diirr’schen Buchhandlung, 1910.) Price 1.80 marks. (4) Uber Christian Wolff's Ontologie. By Hans Pichler. Pp. 91. (Leipzig: Verlag der Diirr’schen Buchhandlung, 1910.) Price 2 marks. (5) Zwei Vortrége sur Naturphilosophiec. By Hans Driesch. Pp. iv+38. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engel- mann.) Price 80 pfennigs. (1) USTAV FREYTAG is best known in England as a novelist, and chiefly as the writer of that charming story of German commercial life, ‘* Soll und Haben,” which has been translated and published in English as ‘‘ Debit and Credit.” But Freytag was more than novelist. He was also poet, dramatist, and thinker. Born in 1819, and living until 1895, his life—as Dr. Schridde remarks—shows us the very heart-beat of the century, a century of tremendous importance in the history of his country. Politically he was strongly for Bismarckian unification, with Prussian supremacy; philosophically he may roughly be classed as Hegelian, though less abstract, and thus NO. 2132, VOL. 84] he is also religious, for his ‘‘metaphysic transfigures the desiderated calmness, the white light of Reason, into religious faith.” Dr. Schridde gives a good account of the influence upon Freytag of Kant, Fichte, Humboldt, Schelling, and Hegel, and is thoroughly in sympathy with his subject, though not refraining from criticism of weak places. (2) This is a collection of letters exchanged by | Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, and Nicolai, on the subject of the correct principles of tragedy. | The proper mixture of sympathy and fear—the two chief emotions to be aroused—is discussed, and the dis- tribution of Sorrows among the characters. The hero must be the most severely handled by Fate; as to whether the end shall see virtue rewarded or not, this may be left to the dramatist’s discretion. There is much discussion of Corneille, Cibber, and the Greek playwrights, but very little mention of Shakespeare, who was discovered for Germany by Schlegel and Goethe. (3) This is supposed to be a comparison of the esthetic of Hegel and Schiller, but as a matter of fact it is mainly concerned with the former. The scheme of the booklet may be guessed by the section titles :—‘‘Idea of the Absolute Spirit,” ‘‘Idea of the Beautiful,” ‘tthe Beautiful and the Development of the World Spirit,’ ‘Art and Metaphysic,”’ &c. Hegel is good for the metaphysically inclined reader » who wants ‘‘something craggy to break his mind upon,” but to many readers the time spent in wrestling with him seems wasted. (4) Another typically German pamphlet. Our Teutonic cousins still retain their interest in abstract thought and—in spite of Kant—in the “ontological proof’ which, since Comte and Spencer, has become almost extinct in France and England. Herr Pichler gives an amusing parody of the ontological axiom (that as every something must be grounded in either something or nothing, and as nothing can come out of nothing, every something must be grounded in something real) by suggesting that every man has stolen either something or nothing. To take away from nothing is no theft, therefore every man has stolen something. The reader may be left to worry out the fallacy for himself, with a hint to remember ‘“ambiguous middle term.” (5) These two lectures, as we are informed in the foreword, are connected by the chronology of their delivery rather than by their contents. But Dr. Driesch—who, by the way, was Gifford lecturer at Aberdeen two years ago—always has something to say, and no reader will complain of discontinuity in this pamphlet, even if it exists. Dr. Driesch is a biologist; and, in opposition to the | school which has. for some time been dominant, he is | a vitalist. He holds that life has its own laws; that biology is not merely applied chemistry-physics, but | is a thing for itself; that the materialistic or mechan- ical view of living substance is false. His philosophic position approximates to that of Sir Oliver Lodge in England, and his arguments in support of his opinions are most weighty and—the present reviewer ventures to say—convincing. d SerremBer 8, 1910] NATURE 295 COLOUR CHEMISTRY. A Manual of Dyeing: for the Use of Practical Dyers, Manufacturers, Students, and all Interested in the Art of Dyeing. By Prof. E. Knecht, C. Rawson, and Dr. R. Loewenthal. Second edition. Vol. i., pp- xlit+371. Vol. ii., pp. 372-902. (London: C. Griffin and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 45s., two vols. ae first edition of this work was reviewed in Nature on June 22, 1893, and in the seventeen 22, years which have elapsed since its publication, such rapid developments have taken place in colour chem- istry that certain sections of the book have for some time been out of date, and the whole work has for several years been out of print. The issue of the present edition has, therefore, involved a very com- plete and laborious revision, and this no doubt accounts for the somewhat protracted delay in its issue, This raises the question whether, for the sake both of authors and purchasers, some scheme could not be devised for arranging and binding a book of this type in such a manner that sections could be re-written and issued separately. The general scheme of the book has not been materially altered, but vol. iii. of the first edition, which consisted of illustrative dyed patterns, has not been reproduced, and in this the authors have been well advised. The section dealing with the theory of dyeing pro- cesses has been extended to three times its original length, but any general agreement with regard to the theory of dyeing does not at present appear possible, mor have theoretical considerations in the past been of much service in connection with the practical applica- tion of colouring matters. It is to be hoped that further investigation will lead to such a unification of ideas that theory may fulfil its proper function of a sign-post for those seeking new fields of practical application. In the section dealing with textile fibres, five excel- lent plates replace the older diagrammatic illustrations. While the ordinary fibres are adequately described, the treatment of artificial silk seems hardly to have re- ceived that attention to which its present great com- mercial importance entitles it. There is, for instance, no reference to Thiele silk, one of the chief products now used. Part vi. comprises a description of the natural colour- ing matters, and in this section it has been found possible to condense the matter originally published, this being in agreement with the diminished import- ance of these dye-stuffs from the practical point of view. The recent work of A. G. Perkin, v. Kosta- necki, Schmidt, and others, on the constitution of the colouring matters of the natural dye-stuffs, is duly referred to. The most extensive section of the book is, of course, that dealing with the artificial dye-stuffs, and this has required the greatest amount of revision. Certain entirely new groups of dyes, such as the artificial vat colours, have been introduced since the publication of NO. 2132, VOL. 84] the first edition, and other groups, such as the sulphide dyes, have been greatly enlarged. Some mention of Tyrian purple might well have been included in view of P. Friedlaender’s discovery that it is a dibrom- indigotin. A section of the work to which great importance has always been attached is that dealing with the analysis and valuation of materials used in dyeing, and this has received a very thorough revision. The book in its new edition will again take its place as one of the most important works published o- colouring matters and their application. OUR BOOK SHELF. La Métallographie Microscopique. By Louis Révillon. Pp. 176. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, n.d.) Price 3 francs. Tuis is another volume of the small Aide-Mémoire series by the author of the work on “Special Steels,”’ which was reviewed some time ago. Considering the size and price of the book, a good account of the subject is given, though, in common with many other enthusiasts, the author is inclined to claim too much: for his subject, p. “et de résoudre tous les problémes . . .,”’ and in describing the preparation of the polished face of the section for examination, is too severe in his conditions, namely, ‘perfectly polished so that there remains no scratch visible at the highest power of the microscope.” Much time has been wasted in the past-in striving after this ideal. It is not necessary, unless when looking for the finest cracks, and, combined with a somewhat elaborate series of precautions, is apt to discourage the reader from beginning practical work. Advice such as that given on pp. 69 and 7o has always been impressed on beginners by the writer, namely, that the section is prepared for observation and study, not merely for photographing, and that the polished section should always be examined carefully before etching in any way, as then small holes, oxides, scoriz, and sulphides are generally much more easily seen against the polished metallic surface than after etching. With many of the opinions expressed one cannot agree. The Martensitic interlacing needles do not represent the structure of properly hardened carbon steels, and many practical points might also be con- troverted, but the work as a whole gives a very fair introduction to a study of the subject from the point of view of a portion of the French school. Osmondite is given, although M. Osmond has specifically repu- diated it in Revue de Métallurgie. Separate chapters are devoted to special steels, the alloys of copper, other industrial alloys, and the final chapter to the interesting ‘“‘ Macrographie.”’ A. McWIi1aM. By C. Schiitze. Pp. vi+235- Meyer, 1909.) Price 1.80 = > Die Kraftmaschinen. (Leipzig: Quelle and marks. Tuis little volume is devoted to a non-mathematical description of the various types of motors now em- ployed for power purposes, and of the more important details of each class; windmills, waterwheels, and tur- bines, steam, gas, and petrol engines, and dynamos and electric motors are all in turn discussed and described. The text is illustrated by a large number of figures, mostly line illustrations, and, as all minute details are omitted, these illustrations will be easily understood and followed by the non-technical reader. The whole volume is, in fact, intended for those who are not experts in this branch of engineering. It will appeal, however, to many who use motors for business 296 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 8, 1910 or pleasure, and desire to have some knowledge of the principles underlying the design and working of the particular machines they employ. The steam turbine has been rather inadequately treated in com- parison with the reciprocating steam engine, but per- haps this was inevitable in a book of this nature, as the latter is still practically unchallenged by _ its younger rival in many branches of work in which motive power is required. This is a book which will probably stimulate many of its readers to widen their knowledge of the problems concerned with the generation ‘of energy, and to devote themselves to a systematic study of the subject, and, if it fulfils this, it will have done useful work. ARS els 18}- Photomicrographs of — Botanical Studies. Pp. 62. (Manchester: Flatters, Milborne and McKechnie, Ltd., n.d.) Price 2s. net. Tuis booklet contains about a hundred plates, which are photographic reproductions from the microscopical slides offered by the firm above-mentioned for the use of botanical students. The chief impression conveyed by the figures is the limitation imposed upon good microscopical preparations when referred to one focal plane as necessitated by photography. While the value of good slides for demonstration and examina- tion by students is appreciable, one cannot attach much importance to figures which are primarily in- dices and convey in many cases only a portion of the information that can be derived from the preparations. Illustrated Guide to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, England. © Pp. vi+132. By Prof. Arthur Keith. (London: Issued by order of the Council of the College, and sold by Taylor and Francis, 1910.) Price 6d. Few even of those who constantly make use of the College of Surgeons’ Museum can be aware of tie vast wealth of material stored there. For it contains not only the greatest anatomical collection in exist- ence, representative of everything included under the term ‘“‘anatomy”’ in its widest sense; but it also in- cludes a unique pathological museum, and collections illustrating anthropology, teratology, odontology, and the anatomy of animals and plants, each of which, if standing alone, would make a famous museum. Nor does this exhaust its claims on our interest, for in it is housed the famous collection made by John Hunter, innumerable anatomical and pathological pre- parations that have served as material for the master- builders of the sciences of anatomy and pathology, and specimens illustrating the history of all that relates to the preservation of dead bodies (starting from the earliest known mummy), the evolution of surgical and dental instruments, and the manifold curiosities of medical science which at various times engaged the attention of the ever-inquisitive Hunter. The council of the college has earned the gratitude of a very wide circle of students in issuing this ‘“cuide,” which admirably serves its purpose of indi- cating what the museum contains and where the various specimens are to be found, and Prof. Keith deserves our heartiest congratulations on the manner in which he has accomplished his task. For he has done something more than merely direct the reader in his wanderings through the vast storehouse of treasures in his charge; out of the abundance of his knowledge and erudition he has crammed a vast amount of interesting and suggestive information. into this small volume. This is only one, and by no means the least, of the many great services which have already marked Dr. Keith’s conservatorship of the college museum. NO. 2132, VOL. 84] The Photographic Annual, 1910-11, Incorporating the Figures, Facts, and Formulae of Photography. A Guide to their Practical Use. Edited by E. J. Wall. Sixth edition; extended, largely re-written, and re- vised. Pp. viii+287. (London: G. Routledge and Sons, Ltd.; Dawbarn and Ward, Ltd.; New York : Tennant and Ward; Melbourne: Baker and Rouse Proprietary, Ltd., 1910.) ' Price 1s. net. Every photographer knows the value and utility of this annual issue, and that this is the sixth issue is sufficient testimony to its merits. There is no doubt that, in preparing such a work as this, and to keep the volume within a reasonable size, great difficulty must be experienced in determining what information to include or omit. The editor has used his dis- cretion wisely, with the result that the present issue should meet with general approval among photo- graphers. The importance and recent advances made in screen- plate colour-photography is sufficient reason for the first forty pages being devoted to this subject, and here the reader will find a capital résumé of the state of affairs up to the present time. Stereoscopic work is next dealt with, and in the twenty-seven pages in which this subject is treated many useful hints will be found. Nearly the same amount of space is confined to some useful notes-on development, including time, tank, and thermo methods. Practically the remainder of the book is taken up by the figures, facts, and formula, which always form the chief feature of this book. Being well up-to-date and in a handy form the bool: should continue its useful career. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] The Ratio between Uranium and Radium in Minerals. In his interesting letter (NaruRE, August 25) Mr. A. S. Russell describes the result of a determination of the amount of radium in a specimen of autunite from Autun, France, made by him in Prof. Marckwald’s laboratory, which he found to be only 27 per cent.. of the equilibrium amount. The ratio found by Mlle. Gleditsch in Mme. Curie’s laboratory for the same mineral was 80 per cent., while Miss Pirret and I recently, for an autunite from Guarda, Portugal, found 44 per cent. Some results | have obtained since the paper with Miss Pirret was pub- lished appear to put a new complexion on the matter. Dual measurements of the radium ratio and of the helium content of several specimens of Portuguese autunite have shown that both vary considerably for different specimens of the same mineral. Prof. Piutti (‘* Helium in Recent Minerals,’? Le Radium, 1910, vii., 178) found that autunite was the only radio-active mineral in which helium could not be detected. With a very delicate method, similar to that described for the detection of the helium produced from uranium and thorium (Phil. Mag., August, 1908), I have only failed to find helium in one specimen of autunite, while in another the amount was such that Prof. Piutti would have detected it easily. The latter case refers to the specimen for which Miss Pirret and I found 44 per cent. for the radium ratio. The amount of helium was 3-3 cu. mm. per gram of uranium. On the assumptions, which certainly are not true but may not lead to an entirely false result, that the uranium was initially free from all pro- ducts, and these have been all retained by the mineral, the age of the mineral. would be 77,000 years and the period of average life of the parent of radium 132,000 years. The material was, however, not a single piece, a batch of SepTEMBER 8, 1910] NALORE 297 specimens containing 40 per cent. of autunite, obtained direct from the mining syndicate, having been ground up together. From a fresh batch, obtained through a dealer, two single pieces were picked out, the first being an almost pure crystal weighing 2-3 grams, and of so fresh and new appearance that it looked as if it had been with- drawn from its. mother-liquor but yesterday, and the second an obviously older looking, greener, and much larger mass containing 46 per cent. of matrix. The first gave a radium ratio of 7o per cent., and in it helium could not be detected. The quantity was not greater than 0-002 cu. mm. per gram U. This quantity would form in about thirty years! For the second, the radium ratio was 44 per cent. and the helium 0-035 cu. mm. per gram U, which would be produced in about 600 years. Lastly, Mr. Russell very kindly gave me the remains of the specimén for which he found 27 per cent. for the radium ratio. It weighed less than 0-5 gram, but the helium was easily detectable. It amounted to more than 0-15 cu. mm. per gram U, some being lost. ¢ If these results are representative, the radium ratio decreases to a minimum and then rises more slowly as the helium content increases. If the latter is taken as a measure of the age of the mineral, the minimum appears to be reached after a few thousand years. This, of course, is exactly what would occur if, when the autunite was formed, the radium (but not its parent) associated. with the uranium in its former condition separated with the latter. This in itself is not only possible, but probable, owing to the isomorphism of radium and calcium. . But it is a somewhat startling result if initial radium can have any influence on the amount present in a mineral to-day, for this necessitates that the ages indicated by the helium content are not altogether below the truth, and that these beautiful crystals are actually even now in full process of formation. FREDERICK Soppy. Physical Chemistry Laboratory, University of Glasgow. Stagnant Glaciers IN the neiice of the Professional. Papers of the U.S. Geological Survey on the ‘‘ Glaciers, Goldfields, and Land- slides of North America,’’ published in Nature of July 21, attention is directed to the peculiar stagnant condition of some glaciers, and to the fact that certain glaciers, after being stagnant for long intervals, suddenly commence to move. : Although the movement of glaciers is such as would take place if they were viscous bodies, there is reason to believe that they have not all the same viscosity. I pointed out in a paper communicated to the Royal Society (Proc. Roy. Soc., 1908, p. 250) that the calculated viscosi- ties of several Swiss glaciers varied from 292-2 x10" to 3:17x10'* C.G.S. units. Although some of the data upon which these figures were based were only estimated ones, I do not think that the different viscosities found are due wholly tu errors in the data. In other words, that the viscosity of glacier ice is not a constant, as in the case of water, &c., but varies with variations in the granular structure of the ice, or that there is a limiting stress below which distortion does not take place as with plastic bodies. So far as I am aware, no glaciers have been proved actually to be stagnant by careful measurement. Gener- ally speaking, the conclusion that a glacier is dead is formed owing ‘to the absence of certain features which are generally associated with glacier movement. It is very desirable that such statements should be based upon actual measurements only, and also that the actual granular structure of the ice should be given, for there is every reason to believe that the viscosity of glacier ice varies with the size of the glacier grains. Were it not for the fact that the glacier grains are actually broken up by shear planes in the ice, they would gradually become larger and larger until they became so large, and the viscosity became so great, that the ice would scarcely move at all on small slopes. In such a case an earth- quake might give rise to fractures in the ice, and by temporarily decreasing the viscosity increase the rate of flow. R. M. DEELEY. Melbourne’ House, Osmaston Road, Derby, July 23. NO. 2132, VOL. 84] Ir chanced, strangely enough, that Mr. Deeley’s interest- ing letter reached me at a Norwegian port during the return journey of the Geological Congress party from Spitsbergen, on which Prof. R. S. Tarr, whose work has given rise to the letter, is a fellow-traveller with me. I have therefore taken advantage of the opportunity to discuss the subject with Prof. Tarr and other glacialists of our party. Mr. Deeley is right in his supposition that the stagnant condition of the ‘* dead ice’ in Alaska has been inferred from surface indications, and has not yet been tested by actual measurement. It is, indeed, not likely that the ice of the areas described as ‘‘stagnant’’ is absolutely motionless, nor do I think that this has been implied in the descriptions. Such motion as it may have must how- ever be very small, since it seems that the trees covering parts of the surface-moraines in the ‘* dead’’ areas show no sign of disturbance. As hinted in my review, it is evident that rapid advances of glaciers, comparable to those observed in Alaska, have taken place in regions where some other cause than an earthquake must be sought. During our recent journey in Spitsbergen, of which I hope shortly to give some account in these pages, we have been shown by our leader, Prof. G. de Geer, several cases of this kind which he has studied. It may be that Mr. Deeley’s explanation of ice-structure will explain these rapid spasmodic move- ments, but I shall not venture upon a discussion of this difficult physical question. Mr. Deeley has at any rate suggested a line of research which ought to be followed up and experimentally tested in the field. Stockholm, August 10. G. W. LampLuGH. The Leaning Tower of Pisa. Tue photograph of the ‘‘ Leaning’? Tower of Pisa in Nature of August 4 shows clearly that the top tier is not square with the rest. From a rough alignment with the edge of a postcard, the photograph appears as if the tower was of the order of 25 mm./metre out of plumb when the top tier was put on presumably plumb. Exact measures of this and of other parts of the tower might afford interesting data as to the epochs of the construction of the tower and of the progress of its “leaning.”’ Epwarp G. Brown. Turis famous tower will doubtless always be a question, like the man in the iron mask and other historical mysteries. Most architects, however, will be very slow to believe that it would have been built intentionally leaning on the general grounds that, however adventurous the architect, the clients would not have stood it. The analogy of the leaning towers of Bologna is hardly a sound one, as these plain shafts of brickwork, much like tall chimneys, can hardly be other than cases of settlement due to in« different foundations. It should be remembered that con- struction was not a strong point with the Italians in the Middle and Renaissance Ages. In the case of the Tower of Pisa, Taylor particularly remarks on the wedge-shaped courses, which show an attempt to straighten the shaft. The best explanation appears to be that the tower was commenced, settled on’ its marshy bed, and that when the building was continued after a long interval it was considered safe to continue the work up to the limit of stability which could be calculated by the mathematicians of the epoch. The overhang is given by Taylor as 13 feet. It is rather a pity that so much attention is concentrated by visitors on the tower, whereas the cathedral, Campo Santo, and particularly the Baptistery, are monuments of greater architectural importance. The design of the Baptistery is extremely interesting, and is perhaps the nearest expression of a Gothic dome. The construction in’ this case is highly interesting, because the outer dome is supported by a cone, as at St. Paul's, London, but without an inner dome. As, how- ever, the cone is not illuminated from the inside, it has a domical effect. The top of the cone shows externally, to the detriment of the general outline, not being cut off to carry a lantern as at St. Paul’s. 298 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 8, IGIO Sir Christopher Wren may have known from travellers or by converse with foreign men of science of this example, but it is not necessary to.jump to that conclusion, as an ordinary brick kiln or oast house would give the idea, aided by Wren’s mathematical analysis of cones as units of high carrying power. Taylor and Cresy’s drawings of the Pisan monuments have every appearance of being most trustworthy, and should be consulted by your correspondent. I had. the plates with me when visiting Pisa in 1890, and I had the Opportunity to go up the tower and round its galleries. Ruskin has a passage on the setting out of the lower part of the western facade of the cathedral, but I remember the impression produced by my examination was not favourable to his argument. ArtTHUR T. BoLton. Victoria Mansions, 28 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W. The Origin of the Domestic ‘‘ Blotched ” Tabby Cat. Tue question of the origin of the two types of our domestic cats has been the subject of much controversy, and it is therefore with diffidence that the views here ex- pressed are now put forward. It is, of course, well known that any domestic ‘‘ tabby ’’ can, at a glance, be assigned to one of the two colour patterns, ‘striped’? or “ blotched.”’ i In a recent paper (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1907, pp. 143-66) Mr. R. I. Pocock comes to the conclusion that the origin of F. catus (blotched tabby) is ‘“‘ at present quite un- known,”? and suggests that it is ‘‘ the survivor of some extinct, probably Pleistocene, cat of Western Europe ”’ (ibid., p- 160); in effect, he regards catus as a good species. It seems to have been pretty clearly shown by the same writer that the torquata breed (striped tabby) is either the direct descendant of F. sylvestris or is the result of a cross between that species and F. ocreata (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1907, p. 947, and Nature, vol. Ixxvii., p. 414), which latter is, no doubt, merely a geographical race of sylvestris. In his previous paper (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1907, p. 160) Mr. Pocock remarks that ‘‘ when two distinct species cross the hybrid sometimes reverts in some respects to the characters of a [supposed] common ancestor of both ”’; this cannot be denied, but such a cross more commonly results in a form intermediate between the two parents, usually designated as a mongrel. After much diligent search, I have been unable to find a single instance in which complete segregation has taken place in respect of all specific characters when two well-defined species are crossed. The two “types ’’ of tabby, when crossed, always. pro- duce individuals which are at once referable to one or the other variety; in short, we get complete (Mendelian) segregation in respect of this character. -It therefore seems to me to be incompatible with the above observed facts, that F. catus is the survivor of some extinct cat of Western Europe, for if catus were a good species, when crossed with torquata we would most certainly have some form of intermediate produced. This, as we know from everyday experience, is contrary to the expressed results of such a cross. From these facts it is suggested as a possible explanation that F. catus arose per saltum from F. sylvestris. In short, I believe that I. catus has arisen from F. sylvestris as a ‘‘ sport,’’? and when crossed with its parent species or inter se follows the Mendelian law of segregation, as many such discon- tinuous variations have now been proved to do. At the same time (from evidence which cannot be here brought forward), it would appear that only in extremely rare “ cases, if at all, can Mendelian action be accountable for the evolution of a species in nature. In opposition to such an origin, Mr. Pocock urges (Proce. Zool. Soc., 1907, p. 160) ‘‘ the complete absence of evidence that species of Felis are ever dimorphic in pattern, and the ascertained fact that they breed true to their specific and sub-specific type.’? The objection, of course, is a purely negative one, and there is some evidence to show that animals under domestication are more subject to pronounced variation than in a state of nature. In the leopard (F. pardus) we have a species of felis NO, 2132, VOLwa4l which can most certainly be regarded as dimorphic, im that it produces a black form, and (so far as the some- what meagre information on the subject goes) in its gametic behaviour is exactly comparable to the case of the ‘* blotched ’’ and ‘‘ striped ’’ tabby. There are, so far as I know, no data in the case to show which is the “dominant ’’ form, but, from analogy, it is almost certain the black would be dominant over the spotted. It is the hope of obtaining such information in the case of our common cats which has induced me to approach the sub- ject. Finally, it may be said that, although no direct proof can be brought forward in support of such a sugges- tion, I am convinced that a properly conducted series of experiments with the two types would bring to light much evidence in favour of such a view. Unfortunately, the writer is at present unable to carry out such a series of experiments, and it is hoped that others may hereby be induced to do so. H. M. Vickers. 81a Princes Street, Edinburgh, August 20. the attention > I am glad Mr. Vickers has directed of Mendelians to the question of our two types of ‘* tabby cat. With the same purpose in view, and in the hope of inducing someone with time and facilities at his disposal to carry out breeding experiments with these animals, I recently communicated to the Mendel Society a paper on this subject, which will appear in the forthcoming issue of the journal. The results of such experiments are sure to be interesting, but whether or not they will settle the origin of the ‘‘ blotched’ tabby is another matter. They may turn the balance of the evidence in favour of this or that theory, but it is doubtful if they will result in more than a hypothetical conclusion. For myself I have quite an open mind on the point. As stated in my original paper on English cats, the ‘* blotched ’’ tabby may be regarded provisionally either as a survivor of some extinct cat that ‘formerly inhabited Europe or as a ‘‘ mutation’’ of the “Striped ’’ tabby. I reserved the names ‘‘ catus’’ and “torquata’’ for these two types as a convenient means of designating them, following Linnzus’s method, which is still in vogue, of, assigning a specific epithet to our domesticated animals, like Ovis aries, Canis familiaris, and others, when their origin is uncertain or unknown. I think Mr. Vickers a little overstates the case wher he says there has been much controversy on the subject of the origin of these cats, and speaks of their existence as well known. It was the fact that the remarkable differences between them had been practically ignored or unappreciated by zoologists that induced me to discuss the question at some length three years ago. Nor do I think Mr. .Vickers himself quite appreciates the distinction I emphasised between dimorphism in pattern and dimorphism in colour. Experience with wild animals shows that pattern is far more stable than colour. Pattern is wonder- fully persistent; colour is not. No one would be greatly surprised at finding a black or white example in a litter of spotted hyanas, but it would be admittedly an extremely remarkable thing if a specimen resembling a striped hyazna in pattern occurred amongst them. Such a ‘mutation’? would be comparable to the ‘‘ mutation,” if mutation it be, of the ‘‘ blotched ’’ from the “‘ striped ’’ tabby cat. Such a mutation in pattern as that supposed in the case of the hywna may, of course, be produced to-morrow; but, so far as I am aware, no such variation has as yet been recorded, and I write this with full recol- lection of the curious variations in pattern that have been recorded of the common leopard. Finally, may I demur to one more statement made by Mr. . Vickers, namely, that animals under domestication are more subject to pronounced variation than those in a state of nature? I do not dispute this common assump- tion, but I am not satisfied that the evidence in its favour amounts to very much. The questions raised by Mr. Vickers are, however, full of interest; and all that I have said is in justification of the agnostic attitude that I think should be, for the pre- sent, preserved towards the origin of the ‘‘ blotched ’” tabby cat. R. I. Pocock. Zoological Gardens, August 24. SEPTEMBER 5, 1910] NATURE 299 LAKE BALATON.' AKE BALATON, or Platten See, is the largest lake in Austro-Hungary, and, in fact, in south- eastern Europe. It is fifty miles long, and is shallow in proportion to its size. It lies in a depression on the Hungarian plain at the foot of the hills of the Bakony Wald. The Hungarian Geographical Societv organised a commission, under the presidency of Prof. Ludwig von Loczy, to subject this lake to a thorough investigation. The results are being pub- lished in three volumes, of which the first is devoted to geography, geology, palzontology, hydrography, physics, and chemistry; the second to biology; the third to the social and ethnographical geography, in- cluding accounts of the watering-places and _ hot springs, and a bibliography. Four further sections of this work have now been received, and -one of them completes the second volume. As the parts are issued in the order of their completion, it is not easy to form from these — discon- nected frag- ments a clear impression of the work as a whole. Thus the only contri- bution yet issued to the introduction, which is to be a geographical memoir on the lake and its district, is a geo - physical appendix, deal- ing with the determination of gravity by R. von Ster- neck, with the influence of variations in gravity on the level of the lake surface by Baron Lorand Eodtvés, and a repoft on the magnetic ob- servations by Dr. L. Steiner. Dr. von Sterneck’s results show that gravity is normal over part of the middle of the lake, while it is above normal along a belt of the hills to the north, and it is below normal in a band still further to the north. Baron E6tvés has determined the relations of the 1 “Resultate der Wissenscha‘tlichen Untersuchungen des Balaton.” Vol. i, Physische Geographie des Balatonsees und seiner Umgebung: Prt i., Die Geomorphologie des Balatonsees und seiner Umgebung, Section ii , Geophysikalischer Anhang i. (I.) R. v. Sterneck, Untersuchungen tiber die Schwerkraft, pp. 31. 1 map; (II.) Baron L. Eétvis, Die Niveaufliche des Balatonsees und die Veranderungen der Schwerkraft auf diesem, pp. 61, 27 figs.; (II1.) L. Steiner, Erdmagnetische Messungen in Sommer 1991, pp. 30, 6 figs. Price 6 kroner. Part v. ., Die Physikalischen Verh altnisse des Wassers des Balatonsees : Section iv., E.v. Cholnoky,. Das Bis Balatonsees, pn. 14, xxi. plates, 122 figs. Price 19 kroner. Vol. ii., Die Biologie des Halatonsees und seiner Umgebung: Part ii., Die Flora, Section ii., Die Pflanzengeographischen Verhiltnisse der Balatonsee-gegend, appendix: A. l.ovassy, Die Tropischen N ymphzen des Hévizsees bei Keszthely, Pp: T09, iv. ates, 25 figs. Price 10 kroner. Wol. iii., Soziologische und Anthropologische « yeographie. der Umgebung des Balaton: Part i., Geschichte der Umgebung des Balaton, Division iii, R. Békefi, Kirchen und Burgen in der Umgebung des Balaton im Mittelalter, pp. 363, = map, 142 illustrations. Price 20 kroner.) Vienna: Ed. Hilzel, 1907-9-) NO. 2132, VOL. 84] Fic. 1.—Hummock formed from fresh ice on Lake Balaton, variations in gravity to the level of the lake surface by measurements made on the ice during the winter. His observations were interrupted by the mild winter of 1902, when the lake was inadequately frozen. His results show that Lake Balaton occurs along a _ tec- tonic line, and he recognises variations in level due to gravity, similar to those in India, but on a smaller scale. Dr. Steiner has determined the various, mag- netic elements for the area of the lake, and has inves- tigated the magnetic properties of the rocks. No other locality in Europe is so convenient for the study of the formation of wide ice-sheets on an inland sea as Lake Balaton, for, in spite of the comparative saltness of the water, its surface is more completely frozen than the Swiss lakes, which being much deeper, therefore cool more slowly. In _ ordinary winters the whole of Lake Balaton is covered over with a firm ice-sheet. Dr. von Cholnoky has made a- detailed study of the ice in all stages of its formation illustrated by numerous excellent photo- and decay, January 23, 1903. graphs. The’ ice-sheet is broken into separate floes separated by narrow leads, which are locally known as rianas, and the wind, driving the ice-fields together or against the shore, piles it into ice-hummocks, which on Lake Balaton are known as turolas. Many of the features of the Arctic ice-sheets are found repeated in southern Europe. Dr. Cholnoky, following Buckley and van Hise, draws an interesting comparison be- tween the movements of the ice-sheet and the earth’s crust. Blocks of the ice founder, forming areas of subsidence, and long strips sink between parallel faults forming rift valleys separated by horsts, while various overthrust faults are found in the pressure ridges. The volume on the biology of Lake Balaton is now completed by a memoir on the attempts to acclimatise various tropical water-lilies in the Hévizsee, a well- known bathing resort near Keszthely, to the north of the western end of Lake Balaton. This lake is about three hundred yards across, and is fed by hot 300 NALORE [SEPTEMBER 8, 1910 springs, so that the temperature of the water is from 32° to 38° C. in summer, and from 26° to 30° C. in winter, A chapter on the composition of the lake water, by G. v. Weszelszky, shows that it contains 07531 ‘part per thousand of salts, of which the chief are magnesium chloride, bicarbonate of lime, and sodium sulphate. The shape of the lake basin has been carefully determined by Dr. Jordan. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT SHEFFIELD. ROM the point of view of numbers, this year’s meeting of the British Association, with a total membership of about 1400, does not take a very high place among the great meetings of recent years; nevertheless, there is only one opinion as to its suc- cess. The arrangements have been admirably made, Dr. Lovassy has attempted to acclimatise tropical | and everyone agrees that no more perfect and con- water-lilies in this pond. He points out the interest- ng fact that the Nile lotus (Nymphaea lotus) is still living in the warm waters of Nagyvared, and a flower stem referred to this plant was discovered in Upper Pliocene calcareous tufa at Ganocz, in Szepes, by Prof. Pax, of Breslau, in 1904. Dr. Lovassy, there- fore, holds that the Nile lotus still lives in Hungary Fic 2.—Water-lilies in the Hévizsee. as a relic from its former wide extension over southern Europe. He insists that the plant was neither introduced by man nor birds, and that Nagy- yared is a natural subtropical oasis. Earlier attempts to plant tropical water-lilies in the Hévizsee were made between 1826 and 1842. Dr. Lovassy’s experi- ments lasted from 1898 to 1906, and were tried on many distinct species; and in connection with the i synopsis of the Nymphacee ; some species failed altogether, others lived, but would not produce and only a variety of the Indian Nymphaea rubra, for which he founds a new longiflora, has been successfully acclimatised. The longest of the four contributions recently re- ceived is a memoir by Dr. Békefi on the mediaeval churches and castles in the neighbourhood of Lake Balaton. It consists of a detailed account illustrated by plans and photographs, both of the buildings still ccupied and those represented by numerous pictur- que ruins. Je We Gs VOL. 84] work he has compile dz seeds, sub- species, a3 In foreground some specimens of Nyphaea lotus, L., and in background Nymphaea rubra longifiora, nov. subsp. venient place for the reception-room and accessory writing and other rooms could have been provided than has been furnished at the Cutlers’ Hall. The local committee, under the chairmanship of Prof. W. M. Hicks, is to be congratulated upon the busi- nesslike way in which it has organised the many and various general affairs of the meeting. ‘The scientific proceedings of the sections have been full of interest, but here no further reference need be made to them, -as accounts of the work of the sections will appear in later issues, The annual report of the council of the association was presented at the meeting of the general com- mittee on August 31. The council presented an address to the King upon his accession to the throne, and in a further letter expressed the hope that he would follow his august father in the patronage of the association. This the King has con- sented to do. At the Winnipeg meeting last year a resolution was formulated by the Anthropologie: il Section, relating to inquiries into Canadian ethnology, was supported by the general com- mittee, and referred to the council. This resolution, which was ~ for- warded to the Dominion Government by the council was as follows :— I. (1) ‘‘ That it is essential to scien- tific knowledge of the early history of Canada that full and accurate records n0uld be obtained of the physical character, geographical distribution and migrations, languages, social and political institutions, native arts, indus- tries, and economic systems of the aboriginal peoples of the country. (2) ‘‘ That scientific knowledge of the principles of native design and handicraft is an essential preliminary to any development of native industries such as has already been found practicable, especially in the United States, in Mexico, and in India, and that such knowledge has also proved to be of material assistance in the creation of national schools of design among the white population. (3) ** That, in the rapid developme nt of the country, the native population is inevitably losing its separate existence and characteristics. (4) ‘‘ That it is therefore of initiate, without delay, systematic YD urgent importance to observations and records of native physical types, languages, beliefs, and customs ; and to provide for the preserve ation of a complete collection ca) examples of native arts and industries in some central institution, and for public guardianship of prehistoric monuments such as village sites, burial grounds, mounds, and rock carvings. (5) ‘That the organisation necessary to secure these ) rjects, and to render the results of these inquiries accessible to students and to the public, is such as might easily be provided in connection with the National Museum at Ottawa, which already includes many fine examples of aboriginal arts and manufactures, and might be made a SEPTEMBER 8, 1910] NATURE 301 o centre for the scientific study of the physical types, languages, beliefs, and customs of the aboriginal peoples.’’ Il. To recommend the council to urge the Dominion Government to include in the schedules of the next Canadian census full inquiries as to precise place of origin, native language, previous status and occupation, year of immigration, and such other information as may be deemed of scientific value for the study of the effects of the Canadian environment upon immigrants of European origin. The resolution was referred to the Canadian Geo- logical Survey by the Privy Council, and in the course of a reply the director of the survey, Mr. R. W. Brock, stated that the Government had shown appreciation of the value of the work by enabling the survey three years ago to make a beginning in the direction indi- cated. An ethnologist is at present living with the Eskimo in the Arctic, and a preliminary report on his observations appeared in the Geological Survey summary report for 1908. With the assistance of the Canadian archzological societies and the support which the British Association gave in its resolution, the director expressed strong hopes that something worth while may be accomplished along these lines. It was subsequently reported to the council by the general officers that information had reached them that the Dominion Government of Canada had autho- rised the payment of the salary of an ethnologist for the Dominion, and also a grant for the collection of ethnological material. This may be regarded as a direct outcome of the representations made by the British Association. The important question of the relationship of the sections generally, and the possible desirability of a new subdivision and the incorporation of new subjects was referred to the council by the general committee at Winnipeg. A committee was appointed “by the council to consider the matter, and among its recom- mendations were (1) that the title of Section A be changed to ‘‘ Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy (including Cosmical Physics)’; (2) that the question of the combination of geology and geography into one section of two departments should receive further con- sideration; (3) that there should be a permanent sub- section of agriculture, attached to a particular: section annually, such as chemistry, economic: science, and botany. The proposed changes did not, however, meet with the approval of the general committee. It was resolved at the meeting of this committee on September 2 that the present title of Section A should remain unaltered, that Sections C and E should not be combined, and that the question of the sub-section of agriculture should be referred back to the council. Sir William Ramsay was nominated by the coun- cil to fill the office of president of the association for next year’s meeting at Portsmouth, and his nomina- tion was confirmed by the general committee. At the meeting of this committee on September 2 an invita- tion from Dundee to visit that city in 1912 was unaimously accepted. An invitation to meet in the capital cities of Australia was conveyed by Sir George Reid, High Commissioner of the Commonwealth, and Prof. Orme Masson. The proposal was that the asso- ciation should spend a few days each in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. The general com- mittee was informed that the Commonwealth Govern- ment has voted 10,000l1., which is earmarked for over- sea expenses, and that the contributions of the severat States will include free railway travelling. The mini- mum time needed for the visit, including the journey out and home, will be about three months. After discussion, it was proposed by Sir William Ramsay that the invitation should be accepted for 1914. The resolution was seconded by Prof. H. B. Dixon and carried by the general committee. NO. 2132, VOL. 84] On Tuesday afternoon a special degree congregation was held at the University, when the Duke of Nor- folk, as. Chancellor of the University, conferred honorary degrees upon the following distinguished visitors and two leading Sheffield men—the Lord Mayor (Earl Fitzwilliam) and Sir Joseph Jonas :— LL.D.: The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of Sheffield (Earl Fitzwilliam). D.Sc.: Mr. W. Bateson, F.R.S., Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., Mr. Francis Darwin, F.R.S., Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., F.R.S., Prof. E. W. Hobson, F.R.S., Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., Sir Norman Lockyer, K.C.B., F.R.S., Dr. H. A. Miers, F.R.S., Sir William Ramsay, K.C.B., ERS pe Eroies Comoe Shermington he R.S es Siri) ale Thomson, F.R.S. D.Eng.: Sir Joseph Jonas, J.P., Sir W. H. White, K.C.B., F.R.S. D.Met.: Mr. J. E. Stead, F.R.S. Subjoined is a synopsis of grants of money appro- priated for scientific purposes at the Sheflield meeting : Section A.—Mathematical and Physical Science. L Turner, Prof. H. H.—Seismological , Observations...... 60 Shaw, Dr. W. N.—Upper Atmosphere ........0.c...0000008 25 Preece, Sir W. H.—Magnetic Observations at Fal- INOUE E setonecs consti seen anes Cneeh chee cee ereas st esse ouietectn ee 25 Gill, Sir David.—Establishing a Solar Observatory in pele Auistraliageta cccoes score se aseasrecneseires socoes eee aan ne 50 Gill, - Sir» David.—Grant to the International Com- mission on Physical and Chemical Constants ...... 30 Section B.—Chemistry. Divers, Prof. E.—Study of Hydro-aromatic Substances 20 Armstrong, Prof.. H.. E—Dynamic. Isomerism............ 25 Kipping, Prof. F. S.—Transformation of Aromatic INIGrOAMINES® {Uesewes- secs occes-s RE ceateansécateorcecuocHecoeceac 15 Kipping, Prof. F, S.—Electro-analysis .. 15 Arnold, Prof. J. O.—Influence of Carbon, Corrosiontofi Steelhg vss c.cso- cesses cotetesesuaccaen wees 15 Section C.—Geology. Harker, Dr. A.—Crystalline Rocks of Anglesey......... 2 Tiddeman, R. H.—Erratic Blocks .............. Boel 8) Lapworth, Prof. C.—Palzozoic Rocks 10 Watts, Prof. W. W. Composition of Charnwood HROCKSHp cere sce ace ee eee recente ome naench ease anne screeead 2 Watts, Prof. W. W.—Igneous and Associated Sedi- mentary Rocks of «Glensaul) 2.2.2... 022.3. ..ceccescorcee 15 Bourne, Prof. G. C.—Mammalian Fauna in Miocene Deposits, Bugti Hills, Baluchistan ..............c.00e0 45 Section D.—Zoology. Woodward, Dr. H.—Index Animalium \............ess0e8e 75 Hickson, Prof. S. J.—Table at the Zoological Station Ate Nap lesMemaccusccnseantasesccncecccanarcusctesrec ser omresrsc oes 75 Shipley, Dr. A. E.—Feeding Habits of British Birds... 5 Shipley, Dr. A. E.—Belmullet Whaling Station ......... 30 Bourne, Prof. G. C.—Mammalian Fauna in Miocene Deposits, Bugti Hills, Baluchistan ...........essseeeee 30 Section E.—Geography. Chisholm, G. G.—Map of Prince Charles Foreland ... 30 Herbertson, Prof. A. J.—Equal Area Maps .............++ 20 Section F.—Economic Science and Statistics. Cannan, Prof. E.—Amount and Distribution of Income 5 Section G.—Engineering. Preece, Sir W. H.—Gaseous Explosions ............:0000+ 90 Section H.—Anthropology. Munro, Dr. R.—Glastonbury Lake Village ............+ 5 Myres, Prof. J. L.—Excavations on Roman Sites in rita ileeeee ete ti eantaeciaslacsccecxe sons ts sscaenayeasaceeknnta 10 Read, G H.—Age of Stone Circles ...........:.eee pe 30 Read, C. H.—Anthropological Notes and Queries 40 Munro, Dr. R.—Artificial Islands in Highland Lochs” ro Section I.—Physiology. Schafer, Prof. E. A.—The Ductless Glands .......+++s+++ 40 Sherrington, Prof. C. S.—Body Metabolism in Cancer 6 302 NATURE ey 3 [SEPTEMBER 8, 1910 Hickson, Prof. S. J.—Table at the Zoological Station atte NaDleS) | jets cecuea. eleacco (Ceyeat appeared -probable that if silicon in small quantity were to be melted with an iron-carbon-phosphorus alloy very rich in phosphorus, the two kinds of cementites would fall out of solution at a lower temperature, and would prob- ably not decompose into graphite and silico-austenite in cooling down after their. formation. To ascertain whether or not this would be ‘the case, a fusible iton-phosphorus- NO. 2132, VOL. 84] WATTS [SEPTEMBER 8, 1910 carbon alloy containing more than the eutectic proportion of carbon was made. It had the following composition :— Per cent. Tron 5c web el 5 a - 91-89 Phosphorus... =e 506 eee 0 see 5-377 Carbon a =e ecb ae ees oon) 202) Silicon, &c. tee “oe 530 0-10 Sulphur! a4 Sap 0-02 100-00 Four hundred grams were melted with sufficient silicon alloy to yield in the mixture :— Per cen. Carbon “3 = Boe Bt one 2-4 Phosphorus ... aoe coc Bee “ee 5:0 Silicon ae “a0 2-90 Sulphur ane 20 a 350 eee =.) 0102 When melted, a portion of it was cast in a sand mould; the remainder was allowed to cool in the crucible. When cold, that cooled in the crucible was quite grey, whilst the portion cooled in sand was white ‘at the lower part and grey on the top part of the casting, results which proved that the alloy was very unstable, and that decom- position of the lower part of the casting was arrested by the slight chilling effect of the cold sand. On microscopic examination of the white portion, the ground mass was found to consist of the binary phosphorus iron eutectic, whilst two different cementites were embedded in it; one much more rapidly coloured on “‘ heat- tinting ’’ than the other. The colours of the constituents of the properly heated and polished metal were as follows :— Cementite (a) aS White as (G) tose 500 Bcd Red Phosphide of iron ah cee 3 Purple Tron pearlite crystallites O30 405 ... Grey The part which broke with a grey fracture consisted of octahedral crystallites of silico-pearlite, the binary phos- phorus iron eutectic, and undecomposed (red) cementite crystals, but there was a complete absence of the (white) cementite crystals. Graphite was also present in exceed- ingly fine plates, resembling what is known as temper graphite. The evidence here is conclusive that even in the of sulphur :-— 1st. Two cementites had formed. 2nd. That one cementite is much more unstable than the other variety, and decomposes in advance into silico- austenite and graphite. e Having proved that two different kinds of cementite do actually form and crystallise in the phosphorus eutectic, it remained to ascertain in what way these crystallise in the absence of the phosphorus eutectic. For this purpose two hypo-eutectic alloys were prepared without any phosphorus, but with sufficient sulphide of iron to check the decomposition of the carbides. They contained :-— absence I 2 Per cent. Per cent. Carbon PT oe cro 2°40 2°10 Silicon... 3°17 710 Sulphur... 1'21 o'82 Phosphorus 0°02 0702 These when cold, after casting in sand, broke with white fractures. The carbides separated in the manner previously described contained :— Per mene Peg cent. Carbon Jibbkety aeetig eee nace On LOmmrace 3/00 Sulphur qc «-suse- signify the greater or less power which a piece of land possesses of producing crops under cultivation, or, again, the causes which make one piece of land yield large crops when another piece alongside only yields small ones, differences which are so real that a farmer will pay three or even four pounds an acre rent for some land, whereas he will regard other as dear at ten shillings an acre. If we go back to the seventeenth century, which we may take as the beginning of organised science, we shall find that men’ were concerned with two aspects of the question—how the plant itself gains its increase in size, and, secondly, what the ‘soil does towards supplying the material constituting the plant. The first experiment we have recorded is that of Van Helmont, who placed 200 Ib. of dried earth in a tub. and planted therein a willow tree weighing 5 Ib. After five years the willow tree weigh«d 310 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 2, 1910 169 lb. 3 oz., whereas the soil, when redried, had lost -but 2 0z., though the surface had been carefully protected meantime with a cover of tin. Wan Helmont concluded that he had demonstrated a transformation of water into the material of the tree. Boyle repeated these experi- ments, growing pumpkins and cucumbers in weighed earth, and obtaining similar results, except when his gardener lost the figures, an experience that has been repeated. Boyle also distilled his pumpkins, &c., and obtained therefrom various tars and oils, charcoal and ash, from which he concluded that a real transmutation had been effected, ‘*‘ that salt, spirit, earth, and even oil (though that be thought of all bodies the most opposite to water) may be produced out of water.’ There were not, however, wanting among Boyle’s con- temporaries men who pointed out that spring water used for the growing plants in these experiments contained abundance of dissolved material, but in the then state of chemistry the discussion as to the origin of the carbon- aceous material in the plant could only be verbal. Boyle himself does not appear to have given any consideration to the part played by the soil in the nutrition of plants, but among his contemporaries experiment was not lack- ing. Some instinct seems to have led them to regard nitre as one of the sources of fertility, and we find that ‘Sir Kenelm Digby, at Gresham College in 1660, at a meeting of the Society for Promoting Philosophical Know- ledge by Experiment, in a lecture on the vegetation of plants, describes an experiment in which he watered young barley plants with a weak solution of nitre, and found how their growth was promoted thereby; and John Mayow, that brilliant Oxford man whose early death cost so much to the young science of chemistry, went even further, for, after discussing the growth of nitre in soils, the pointed out that it must be this salt which feeds the plant, because none is to be extracted from soils in which plants are growing. So general has this association of nitre with the fertility of soils become, that in 1675 John Evelyn writes: ‘‘I firmly believe that where saltpetre can be obtained in plenty we should not need to find other composts to ameliorate our ground’’; and Henshaw, of University College, one of the first members of the Royal ‘Society, also writes about saltpetre: ‘‘ I am convinced, indeed, that the salt which is found in vegetables and animals is but the nitre which is so universally diffused through all the elements (and must therefore make the chief ingredient in their nutriment, and by consequence all their generation), a little altered from its first complexion.”’ But these promising beginnings of the theory of plant nutrition came to no fruition; the Oxford movement in the seventeenth century was but the false dawn of science. At its close the human mind, which had looked out of doors for some relief from the fierce religious controversy with which it had been so long engrossed, turned indoors ‘again and went to sleep for another century. Mayow’s work was forgotten, and it was not until Priestly and Lavoisier, De Saussure, and others, about the beginning of the nineteenth century, arrived at a sound idea of what the air is and does that it became possible to build afresh a sound theory of the nutrition of the plant. At this time the attention of those who thought about the soil was chiefly fixed upon the humus. It was obvious that any rich soils, such as old gardens and the valuable alluvial lands, contained large quantities of organic matter, and it became somewhat natural to associate the excellence of these fat, unctuous soils with the organic matter they contained. It was recognised that the main part of a plant consisted of carbon, so that the deduction seemed obvious that the soils rich in carbon yielded those fatty, ‘oily substances which we now call humus to the plant, and that their richness depended upon how much of such material they had at their disposal. But by about 1840 it had been definitely settled what the plant is composed of and whence it derives its nutriment—the carbon com- pounds which constitute nine-tenths of the dry weight from the air, the nitrogen, and the ash from the soil. Little as he had contributed to the discovery, Liebig’s brilliant expositions and the weight of his authority had driven this broad theory of plant nutrition home to men’s minds; a science of agricultural chemistry had been founded, and such questions as the function of the soil NO. 2132, VOL. 84] with regard to the plant could be studied with some pro- spect of success. By this time, also, methods of analysis had been so far improved that some quantitative idea could be obtained as to what is present in soil and plant, and, naturally enough, the first theory to be framed was that the soil’s fertility was determined by its content of those materials which are taken from it by the crop. As the supply of air from which the plant derives its carbonaceous substance is unlimited, the extent of growth would seem to depend upon the supply available of the other con- stituents which have to be provided by the soil. It was Daubeny, Professor of Botany and Rural Economy at Oxford, and the real founder of a science of agriculture in this country, who first pointed out the enormous differ- ence between the amount of plant food in the soil and that taken out by the crop. In a paper published in the Philosophical Transactions in 1845, being the Bakerian Lecture for that year, Daubeny described a long series of experiments that he had carried out in the Botanic Garden, wherein he cultivated various plants, some grown con- tinuously on the same plot and others in a_ rotation. Afterwards he compared the amount of plant food removed by the crops with that remaining in the soil. Daubeny obtained the results with which we are now familiar, that any normal soil contains the material for from fifty to a hundred field crops. If, then, the growth of the plant depends upon the amount of this material it can get from the soil, why is that growth so limited, and why should it be increased by the supply of manure, which only adds a trifle to the vast stores of plant food already in the soil? For example, a turnip crop will only take away about 30 lb. per acre of phosphoric acid from a soil which may contain about 3000 lb. an acre; yet, unless to the soil about 50 lb. of phosphoric acid in the shape of manure is added, hardly any turnips at all will be grown. Daubeny then arrived at the idea of a distinction between the active and dormant plant food in the soil. The chief stock of these materials, he concluded, was combined in the soil in some form that kept it from the plant, and only a small proportion from time to time became soluble and available for food. He took a further step, and attempted to determine the proportion of the plant food which can be regarded as active. He argued that since plants only take in materials in a dissolved form, and as the great natural solvent is water percolating through the soil more or less charged with carbon dioxide, therefore in water charged with carbon dioxide he would find a solvent which would extract out of a soil just that material which can be regarded as active and available for the plant. In this way he attacked his Botanic Garden soils, and compared the materials so dissolved with the amount taken away by his crops. The results, however, were in- conclusive, and did not hold out much hope that the fertility of the soil can be measured by the amount of available plant food so determined. Daubeny’s paper was forgotten; but exactly the same line of argument was revived again about twenty years ago, and all over the world investigators began to try to measure the fertility of the soil by determining as “‘ available ’’ plant food the phosphoric acid and potash that could be extracted by some weak acid. A large number of different acids were tried, and although a dilute solution of citric acid is at present the most generally accepted solvent, I am still of opinion that we shall come back to the water charged with carbon dioxide as the only solvent of its kind for which any justification can be found. Whatever solvent, however, is employed to extract from the soil its available plant food, the results fail to determine the fertility of the soil, because we are measuring but one of the factors in plant production, and that often a comparatively minor one. In fact, some investigators—Whitney and his colleagues in the American Department of Agriculture— have gone so far as to suppose that the actual amount of plant food in the soil is a matter of indifference. They argue that as a plant feeds upon the soil water, and as that soil water must be equally saturated with, say, phos- phoric acid, whether the soil contains 1000 or 3000° Ib. per acre of the comparatively insoluble calcium and iron salts of phosphoric acid which occur in the soil, the plant must be under equal conditions as regards phosphoric acid, whatever the soil in which it may be grown. This argu- * SEPTEMBER 8, 1910] NATURE 21I ment is, however, a little more suited to controversy than to real life; it is too fiercely logical for the things them- selves, and depends upon various assumptions holding rigorously, whereas we have more reason to believe that they are only imperfect approximations to the truth. Still, this view does merit our careful attention, because it insists that the chief factor in plant production must be the supply of water to the plant, and that soils differ from one another far more in their ability to maintain a good supply of water than in the amount of plant food they contain. Even in a climate like our own, which the text-books describe as ‘‘ humid’’ and we are apt to call “wet,” the magnitude of our crops is more often limited by want of water than by any other single factor. The same American investigators have more recently engrafted on to their theory another supposition, that the fertility of soil is often determined by excretions from the plants themselves, which thereby poison the land for a renewed growth of the same crop, though the toxin may be harm- less to a different plant which follows it in the rotation. This theory had also been examined by Daubeny, and the arguments he advanced against it in 1845 are valid to this day. Schreiner has, indeed, isolated a number of organic substances from soils—di-hydroxystearic acid and picoline-carboxylic acid were the first examples—which he claims to be the products of plant growth and toxic to the further growth of the same plants. The evidence of toxicity as determined by water-cultures requires, however, the greatest care in interpretation, and it is very doubtful how far it can be applied to soils with their great power of precipitating or otherwise putting out of action soluble substances with which they may be supplied. Moreover, there are as yet no data to show whether these so-called toxic substances are not normal products of bacterial action upon organic residues in the soil, and as such just as abundant in fertile soils rich in organic matter as in the supposed sterile soils from which they were extracted. As, then, we have failed to base a theory of fertility on the plant food that we can trace in the soil by analysis, let us come back to Mayow and Digby, and consider again the nitre in the soil—how it is formed and how renewed. Their views of the value of nitrates to the plant were justified when the systematic study of plant-nutrition began, and demonstrated that plants can only obtain their supply of the indispensable element nitrogen when it is presented in the form of a nitrate; but it was not until within the last thirty years that we obained an idea as to how the nitre came to be found. The oxidation of ammonia and other organic compounds of nitrogen to the state of nitrate was one of the first actions in the soil which was proyed to be brought about by bacteria, and by the work of Schloesing and Miintz, Warington and Winogradsky, we learnt that in all cultivated soils two groups of bacteria exist which successively oxidise ammonia to nitrites and nitrates, in which latter state the nitrogen is available for the plant. These same investi- gators showed that the rate at which nitrification takes place is largely dependent upon operations under the control of the farmer; the more thorough the cultivation, the better the drainage and aération, and the higher the temperature of the soil, the more rapidly will the nitrates be produced. As it was then considered that the plant could only assimilate nitrogen in the form of nitrates, and as nitrogen is the prime element necessary to nutri- tion, it was then an easy step to regard the fertility of the soil as determined by the rate at which it would give rise to nitrates. Thus the bacteria of nitrification became re- garded as a factor, and a very large factor, in fertility. This new view of the importance of the living organisms contained in the soil further explained the value of the surface soil, and demolished the fallacy which leads people instinctively to regard the good soil as lying deep and requiring to be brought to the surface by the labour of the cultivator. This confusion between mining and agri- culture probably originated in the quasi-moral idea that the more work you do the better the result will be; but its application to practice with the aid of a steam plough in the days before bacteria were thought of ruined many of the clay soils of the Midlands for the next half-century. Not only is the subsoil deficient in humus, which is the NO. 2132, VOL. 84] accumulated débris of previous applications of manure and vegetation, but the humus is the home of the bacteria which have so much to do with fertility. The discovery of nitrification was only the first step in the elucidation of many actions in the soil depending upon bacteria—for example, the fixation of nitrogen itself. A supply of combined nitrogen in some form or other is absolutely indispensable to plants and, in their turn, to animals; yet, though we live in contact with a vast reservoir of free nitrogen gas in the shape of the atmo- sphere, until comparatively recently we knew of no natural process except the lightning flash which would bring such nitrogen into combination. Plants take combined nitrogen from the soil, and either give it back again or pass it on to animals. The process, however, is only a cyclic one, and neither piants nor animals are able to bring in fresh material into the account. As the world must have started with all its nitrogen in the form of gas, it was difficult to see how the initial stock of combined nitrogen could have arisen; for that reason many of the earlier investigators laboured to demonstrate that plants themselves were cap- able of fixing and bringing into combination the free gas in the atmosphere. In this demonstration they failed, | though they brought to light a number of facts which were impossible to explain, and only became cleared up when, in 1886, Hellreigel and Wilfarth showed that certain bacteria, which exist upon the roots of leguminous plants, like clover and beans, are capable of drawing nitrogen from the atmosphere. Thus they not only feed the plant on which they live, but they actually enrich the soil for future crops by the nitrogen they leave behind in the roots and stubble of the leguminous crop. Long before this discovery experience had taught farmers the very special value of these leguminous crops; the Roman farmer was well aware of their enriching action, which is enshrined in the well-known words in the Georgics beginning, ‘‘ Aut ibi flava seres,’’ where Virgil says that the wheat grows best where before the bean, the slender vetch, or the bitter lupin had been most luxuriant. Since the discovery of the nitrogen-fixing organisms associated with legu- minous plants, other species have been found resident in the soil which are capable of gathering combined nitrogen without the assistance of any host plant, provided only they are supplied with carbonaceous material as a source of energy whereby to effect the combination of the nitrogen. To one of these organisms we may with some confidence attribute the accumulation of the vast stores of combined nitrogen contained in the black virgin soils of places like Manitoba and the Russian steppes. At Rothamsted we have found that the plot on the permanent wheat field which never receives any manure has been losing nitrogen at a rate which almost exactly represents the differences between the annual removal of the crop and the receipts of combined nitrogen in the rain. We can further postulate only a very small fixation of nitrogen to balance the other comparatively small losses in the drainage water or in the weeds that are removed; but on a neighbouring plot, which has been left waste for the last quarter of a century, so that the annual vegetation of grass and other herbage falls back to the soil, there has been an accumulation of nitrogen representing the annual fixation of nearly a hundred pounds per acre. The fixation has been possible by the azotobacter on this plot, because there alone does the soil receive a supply of carbohydrate, by the combustion in which the azotobacter obtained the energy necessary to bring the nitrogen into combination. On the unmanured plot the crop is so largely removed that the little root and stubble remaining does not provide material for much fixation. Though numerous attempts have been made to correlate the fertility of the soil with the numbers of this or that bacterium existing therein, no general success has been attained, because probably we measure a factor which is only on occasion the determining factor in the production of the crop. Meantime, our sense of the complexity of the actiofis going on in the soil has been sharpened by the discovery of another factor, affecting in the first place the bacterial flora in the soil, and, as a consequence, its fertility. Ever since the existence of bacteria has been recognised, attempts have been made to obtain soils in a 312 NATURE sterile condition, and observations have been from time to time recorded to the effect that soil which has been heated to the temperature of boiling water, in order to destroy any bacteria it may contain, had thereby gained greatly in fertility, as though some large addition of fertiliser had been made to it. Though these observations have been repeated in various times and places, they were generally ignored, because of the difficulty of form- ing any explanation: a fact is not a fact until it fits into a theory. Not only is sterilisation by heating thus effective, but other antiseptics, like chloroform and carbon bisulphide vapour, give rise to a similar result. For example, you will remember how the vineyards of Europe were devastated some thirty years ago by the attacks of phylloxera, and though in a general way the disease has been conquered by the introduction of a hardy American vine stock which resists the attack of the insect, in many of the finest vineyards the owners have feared to risk any possible change in the quality of the grape through the introduction of the new stock, and have resorted instead to a system of killing the parasite by injecting carbon bisulphide into the soil. An Alsatian vine-grower who had treated his vineyards by this method observed that an increase of crop followed the treatment even in cases where no attack of phylloxera was in question. Other observations of a similar character were also reported, and within the last five years the subject has received some considerable attention, until the facts became estab- lished beyond question. Approximately the crop becomes doubled if the soil has first been heated to a temperature of 70° to 100° for two hours, while treatment for forty- eight hours with the vapour of toluene, chloroform, &c., followed by a complete volatilisation of the antiseptic, brings about an increase of 30 per cent. or so. Moreover, when the material so grown is analysed, the plants are found to have taken very much larger quantities of nitrogen and other plant foods from the treated soil; hence the increase of growth must be due to larger nutriment and not to mere stimulus. The explanation, however, remained in doubt until it has been recently cleared up by Drs. Russell and Hutchinson, working in the Rothamsted laboratory. In the first place, they found that the soil which had been put through the treatment was chemically characterised by an exceptional accumulation of ammonia, to an extent that would account for the increased fertility. At the same time, it was found that the treatment did not effect complete sterilisation of the soil, though it caused at the outset a great reduction in the numbers of bacteria present. This reduction was only temporary, for as soon as the soil was watered and left to itself the bacteria increased to a degree that is never attained under normal conditions. For example, one of the Rothamsted soils employed contains normally about seven million bacteria per gram—a number which remains comparatively constant under ordinary conditions. Heating reduced the numbers to 400 per gram, but four days later they had risen to six million, after: which they increased to more than forty million per gram. When the soil was treated with toluene a similar variation in the number of bacteria was observed. The accumulation’ of ammonia in the treated soils was accounted for by this increase in the number of bacteria, because the two processes went on at about the same rate. Some rearrangements were effected also in the nature of the bacterial flora; for example, the group causing nitrifi- cation was eliminated, though no substantial change was effected in the distribution of the other types. The bacteria which remained were chiefly of the class which split up organic nitrogen compounds into ammonia, and as the nitrate-making organisms which normally _ transform ammonia in the soil as fast as it is produced had been killed off by the treatment, it was possible for the ammonia to accumulate. The question now remaining was, What had given this tremendous stimulus to the multiplication of the ammonia-making bacteria? and by various. steps, which need not here be enumerated, the two investigators reached the conclusion that the cause was not to be sought in any stimulus supplied by the heating process, but that the normal soil contained some negative factor which limited the multiplication of the bacteria therein. Examination along these lines then showed that all soils contain unsuspected groups of large organisms of the NO. 2132, VOL. 84] [SEPTEMBER 8, 1910 protozoa class, which feed upon living bacteria. These are killed off by heating or treatment by antiseptics, and on their removal the bacteria, which partially escape the treatment, and are now relieved from attack, increase to the enormous degree that we Nave specified. According to this theory, the fertility of a soil containing a given store of nitrogen compounds is limited by the rate at which these nitrogen compounds can be converted into ammonia, which, in its turn, depends upon the number of bacteria present effecting the change, and these numbers are kept down by the larger organisms preying upon the bacteria. The larger organisms can be removed by suit- able treatment, whereupon a new level of ammonia pro- duction, and therefore of fertility, is rapidly attained. Curiously enough, one of the most striking of the larger organisms is an amoeba akin to the white corpuscles of the blood—the phagocytes, which, according to Metchni- koff’s theory, preserve us from- fever and inflammation by devouring such intrusive bacteria as find entrance in the blood. The two cases are, however, reversed: in the blood the bacteria are deadly, and the amoeba therefore beneficial, whereas in the soil the bacteria are indis- pensable, and the amoeba become noxious beasts of prey. Since the publication of these views of the functions of protozoa in the soil, confirmatory evidence has been derived from various sources. grow cucumbers, tomatoes, and other plants under glass are accustomed to make up extremely rich soils for the intensive culture they practise, but, despite the enormous amount of manure they employ, they find it impossible to use the same soil for more than two years. ‘Then they are compelled to introduce soil newly taken from a field and enriched with fresh manure. Several of these growers here have observed that a good baking of this used soil restores its value again; in fact, it becomes too rich, and begins to supply the plant with an excessive amount of nitrogen. It has also been pointed out that it was the custom of certain of the Bombay tribes to burn vegetable rubbish mixed, as far as possible, with the surface soil before sowing their crop, and the value of this practice in European agriculture, though forgotten, is still on record in the books on Roman agriculture. .We can go back to the Georgics again, and there find an account of a method of heating the soil before sowing, which has only received its explanation within the last year, but which in some form or other has got to find its way back again into the routine of agriculture. Indeed, I am informed that one of.the early mysteries, many of which we know to be bound up with the practices of agriculture, culminated in a process of firing the soil preparatory to sowing the crop. My time has run out, and I fear that the longer I go on the less you will feel that I am presenting you with any solution of the problem with which we set out— ‘What is the cause of the fertility of the soil?” Evidently there is no simple solution; there is no single factor to which we can point as the cause; instead, we have indicated a number of factors any one of .which may at a given time become a limiting factor and determine the growth of the plant. All that science can do as yet is to ascertain the existence of these factors one by one and bring them successively under control; but, though we have been able to increase production in various direc- tions, we are still far from being able to disentangle all the interacting forces the resultant of which is represented by the crop. One other point, I trust, my sketch may have suggested to you: when science, a child of barely a century’s growth, comes to deal with a fundamental art like agriculture, which goes back to the dawn of the race, it should begin humbly by accepting and trying to interpret the long chain of tradition. It is unsafe for science to be dogmatic; the principles upon which it relies for its conclusions are often no more than first approximations to the truth, and the want of parallelism, which can be neglected in the labora- tory, gives rise to wide divergencies when produced into the regions of practice. The method of science is, after all, only an extension of experience. What I have endeavoured to show in my discourse is the continuous thread which links the traditional practices of agriculture with the most modern developments of science. For example, men who_ PU ia SEPTEMBER 8, 1910} NATURE 33, NOTES. Mapame Curie and M. Debierne have presented a joint memoir to the Paris Academy of Sciences announcing that they have succeeded in isolating pure radium. The metallic radium obtained is reported to be of a brilliant white colour, which blackens when exposed to the air. Ii burns paper, rapidly decomposes water, and adheres to iron. : Tue chief chemist of the Barrow works of Messrs. Vickers, Sons and Maxim announces the discovery of an alloy which is believed to be superior to anything of its kind hitherto manufactured, and 1s to be known as duralumin. While being slightly heavier than pure aluminium, it is reported to be as strong as steel, and it can be rolled, drawn, stamped, extended, or forged at suitable temperatures. It is less corrodable than other high aluminium alloys under all the usual corrosive tests, and possesses many valuable properties. It is only one- third the weight of brass. AccorpDINnG to Science, Dr. Charles Fahlberg, who was associated with Prof. Ira Remsen in the discovery of saccharine, died at Bad Nassau on August 15. Tue Times announces the death, at Cintra, of Prof. Pedroso, president of the Geographical Society of Lisbon. THE centenary of the death of the famous Italian naturalist Filippo Cavolini will be commemorated by a series of meetings to be held in Naples on September 12-14. The arrangements are in the hands of a committee, the presidents of which are Profs. Monticelli and Cavara, professors of zoology and botany in the Royal University _of Naples, and the inaugural meeting will be held in the Great Hall of that University on September 12 at 10 a.m. Tue following are the arrangements for the opening of the winter session of the London medical schools :—St. George’s Hospital, King’s College Hospital, and London Hospital will open on October 1. At the first-named Dr. S. Squire Sprigge will deliver an oration ‘‘ On Prizes.”’ St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital (at which Dr. F. W. Mott, F.R.S., will deliver the eighth Huxley lecture, on ‘“‘ The Hereditary Aspect of Nervous and Mental Diseases’), Guy's Hospital, London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women (at which an address on ‘‘ Women’s Sphere in Medicine ’’ will be given by Dr. E. W. Roughton), Middlesex Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, University College Hospital, and West- minster Hospital will reopen on October 3. The opening day for St. Thomas’s Hospital is October 4, and that of the London School of Tropical Medicine is October 14, when Dr. H. A. Miers, F.R.S., will give an address. At the opening of the medical school of the Victoria Uni- versity of Manchester, on October 3, Prof. W. Thorburn will speak on ‘* The Evolution of Surgery.” “Tue second International Congress for the Preservation of Game was opened at Vienna on Monday last. At one of the sections a message from King George to Mr. F. C. Selous, urging the desirability of making international provision for the: preservation of migratory game birds, especially woodcock and quail, was read. A_ resolution in the sense of the King’s message was adopted by the section. The next congress, which will meet in three years’ time, is to be devoted chiefly to the preservation of game outside Europe. é SPEAKING as president of the twenty-fifth Congress of the Royal. Sanitary Institute (now in session at Brighton), NO. 2132, VOL. 84] T Sir John Cockburn said the history of the growth of sanitary science is epitomised in that of the Royal Sanitary Institute, which during the last quarter of a century has exercised a continually increasing influence for good on the health of the nation.. Cleanliness, fresh air, pure food, and prevention of infection are the key- notes of modern medicine. In every city ample provision for baths should be made available for the masses. But cleanliness should not be confined to external appearance. Clean air is required. It is true that recent years have witnessed some improvements in this respect. The ventilation of our theatres also is not so bad as it was. It is perhaps in railway travelling that those who love to keep their bodies pure suffer most. There are smoking carriages for those who affect the weed; why not fresh-air carriages also, in which any occupant could demand that one at least of the windows shall be kept open? The objectors generally express the fear of catching cold. It is high time that this fallacy were exploded. What is called a cold in the head is an infectious disease, and is caught nowhere so readily as in close compartments. Fresh air, far from being the cause, is-the best preventive. Tue treaty by which the Sovereign rights of the Korean Emperor are transferred to the Emperor of Japan came into effect on Monday, August 29, when it was promul- gated in Seoul and Tokyo. The Korean peninsula, about equal in size to Great Britain, has thus become an integral part of Japanese territory. The Japanese Embassy has issued the following announcement, received from the Foreign Office at Tokyo, referring to the annexa- tion :—(1) Korea shall hereafter be named ‘‘ Chosen”’; (2) the Government-General shall be established in Chosen ; (3) the Residency-General and its accessory offices will be in existence for the present, and the Resident-General will exercise the functions of the Governor-General; (4) the issue of special passports for the people of Chosen is abolished, and hereafter the Chosens will be treated on an equal footing as the Japanese in the matter. It being possible to allot space in the Chemical Court of the reconstituted British Section of the Brussels Exhibition only to little more than half of the original exhibitors, a letter has been addressed by Sir Boverton Redwood, chairman of the Chemical Industries Com- mittee, to the remaining firms asking them to funish a descriptive account of their exhibits, with photographs if possible, for display on a wall space which has been appropriated for the purpose. It is suggested that a con- venient size for the framed account would be 4 feet by 3 feet, but in exceptional circumstances it is hoped that room may be found for a larger frame. Frames will be supplied free of cost by the Exhibition Branch of the Board of Trade, to whom photographs should be sent at the earliest possible date, as the new British Section of the exhibition is to be formally opened on September 15. Tne twenty-first annual general meeting of the Institu- tion of Mining Engineers is to be held at Nottingham on Wednesday, September 14, when the following papers will be presented :—The mining school at Bochum, Prof. H. Louis; -progress in the use of exhaust-steam power, Mr. J. Burns; the Elliott-Jones vertical coke-oven, Mr. T. C. Futers. In addition, the undermentioned communications, which have already appeared in the Transactions of the institution, will be open for discussion :—A storage-battery extension to a three-phase colliery power-plant, Mr. W. Maurice; measurements of the increase of temperature in 314 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 8, 1910 bore-holes, with the depth, the technics, and practical importance of the same for geological prognosis, with refer- ence to new measurements in Mexico, Borneo, and in Central Europe, Drs. J. Keenigsberger and M. Miihlberg ; experiments illustrative of the inflammability of mixtures of coal-dust and air, Prof. P. Phillips Bedson; some memoranda concerning coal-dust and the essential prin- ciples of the coal-dust theory, Mr. H. W. G. Halbaum; the use of concrete for mine support, Prof. W. R. Crane; fire-damp caps and the detection of fire-damp in mines by means of safety-lamps, Messrs. E. B. Whalley and W. M. Tweedie; equipment for the study of flame-caps and for miscellaneous experiments on safety-lamps, Prof. G. R. Thompson. Tue second International Conference for the Study of ‘Cancer is to be held in Paris on October 1-5 under the presidency of Prof. Czerny. French, English, and German are to be the official languages of the conference. Intend- ing members should give notice to the treasurer, Dr. A. de Rothschild, 6 rue Saint-Philippe de Roule, Paris VIIIe. Tue ninth International Conference on Tuberculosis will take place at Brussels on October 5-8. jects likely to be brought under consideration are :— Hereditary tuberculosis contagion; the pre-disposition to the disease; the protection of children against tubercu- losis ; tuberculosis and the school; the part of women in the campaign. against tuberculosis. Reports on the pro- ress of the war against tuberculosis in different countries, milk supply, solar radiation, international statistics, and international marks indicating the condition of the lungs will be presented, and a paper will’be read by Dr. Nathan Raw on the general measures recommended by the Inter- national Conference to the public authorities for the pre- vention of the spread of tuberculosis in different countries. The address of the Secretariat of the conference is Avenue Van Volxem, 253, Forest-Brussels. Turin. International Exhibition to be held in 1911, there is to be a competition in the transmission and reception of messages with Morse, Hughes, and Baudot apparatus. According to the Electrician, the tests will begin on August and will be open to members .of either sex of the staffs of telegraph administrations and army or navy telegraphists. he tests will include twenty minutes’ transmission and thirty minutes’ reception of messages by the Morse apparatus, the receiving being done with either the sounder or the writing instrument; and hour of transmission by Hughes or electrical, and with either E or W key; and one hour of transmission by Baudot quadruple apparatus. The will be in languages suitable to the operators, will be printed on sheets containing fifty words each, and will consist of words, groups of letters, and figures. The text will be ‘different for each system, but the same for competitors in the same system. a SEPTEMBER 15, 1910] NATURE $355) of every medical school in the United States and Canada under the heads of ‘t Entrance Requirements,” “Attendance,” **Teaching Staff,’’ *‘ Resources Avail- able,”’ ‘Laboratory Facilities,’ ‘t Clinical Facilities.” The condition of some of the commercial schools is scarcely conceivable, and Chicago is well called, in respect to medical education, the plague-spot of the United States. Englishmen will read with interest the report on the condition of medical education in Canada, and it is nice to hear that in point of con- struction and equipment the Toronto and Montreal laboratories are among the best on the continent. Praise is meted out to the medical school in the com- paratively new city of Winnipeg. It is the purpose of the Foundation to proceed at once with a similar study of medical education in Germany, France, and Great Britain, ‘‘in order that those charged with the reconstruction of medical education in America may profit by the improvements in other countries.’ We understand that Mr. Flexner will be in this country early in October to pursue his work. The report cannot but be most helpful. It is thoroughly well done: perhaps the only legitimate criticism is an insufficient appreciation by its author of the extraordinary progress which higher medical education has made in the United States in the past twenty-five years. THE SHEFFIELD MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. ee meeting of the British Association at Sheffield concluded with the usual votes of thanks on Wednesday of last week. The attendance of members from outside was quite up to the average, but the influx of new local members was small, with the result that the year was a lean one for grants for research, and it was found necessary to draw on the balances from former years. Notwithstanding, however, the small local support of the association itself, the recep- tion accorded was a very warm and hearty one, and the arrangements left little to be desired. _ A special feature of the meeting was the visits to the large works, the magnitude of the operations carried out, and the combination of science with practical organisation making a great impression on the association as a whole. Indeed, the hearty co- operation of city and University, and the way in which science is applied in all the large industries, has been a matter of constant reference amongst members, whilst the natural beauties of the surround- ing district have come as a surprise to all. With the possible exception of one or two sections, the scientific level of the papers read was high, and although no startling new discoveries were announced, there were many papers showing very real progress on old lines. Possibly the meeting may be remembered as that at which the achievement of at last isolating the positive electron was announced by Sir J. J. Thomson. The constitutional question of the relation between the sections and their constitution has been very fully discussed, but with no final result. The matter is a difficult one. The multiplication of sections tends to overweight the association, as well as to increase the difficulties of the locality to provide the accommoda- tion required for additional section and committee rooms with their assortment of lanternists and attendants. It is becoming increasingly difficult for a large town of the second rank adequately to house the association. It was admirably provided for in Sheffield—a citv of close “on 500,000 inhabitants—but the number of towns comparable with it can be counted on the fingers of the two hands. On the other hand, it is difficult to see to what already exist- NO. 2133, VOL. 84] ing action a new subject, such, for example, as agri- culture, could be attached as a sub-section. Some think no new branches should -be admitted; others suggest that the papers on such a branch should be distributed amongst existing sections according to their affinity; whilst yet another suggestion has been made that the papers should be read at a joint meet- ing of several sections interested, e.g. agricultural papers at a joint meeting of sections B, K, and F. At the . recent meeting, however, the sub- section of agriculture has been a very successful and live one, managed in all respects as a separate sec- tion, and with a full complement of good papers. At this year’s meeting the attempt to bring together men of science of different categories working in allied subjects has been tried to a larger extent than in former years. There have been quite a large number of joint meetings of sections for the discussion of definite questions. It cannot be said that the result has been so generally successful as could be desired. Everybody acknowledges theoretically the value of such meetings, and most of those who have attended them their practical failure—at least, with certain brilliant exceptions, which merely show what they might be. The truth is that the conditions of success for such meetings have not been grasped by the organisers or the openers. It would be good policy on the part of the council to call a meeting of past recorders and sectional presidents to discuss this par- ticular question. The complaint is very general that insufficient time is allowed, and no doubt there is some basis for this, but such discussions are apt to die out earlier than arranged, with consequent waste of time unless the whole discussions with set speakers is prearranged. Many of the most interest- ing discussions have been those arising spontaneously on some single paper. Not being reported, a speaker feels able to throw out half-considered suggestions or impressions of the moment, which strike fire and kindle the imagination of others, while all would hesitate to publish them in set form. Such discus- sions are really useful to the experts, and always interesting to the general audience. The failure of set discussions is as often as not due to the speaker who introduces the subject. Not a few feel called on to read a long paper of an hour’s duration, taking the edge off the attention of their hearers and distracting them with a mass of details, instead of succinctly laying before them the definite points which require discussion. These remarks have been illustrated by special cases at the recent meeting. The joint dis- cussions might be made so valuable that it is to be hoped the Council will take some steps to ensure that they are. SECTION C€. GEOLOGY. OpENING AppreEss BY Pror. A. P. Coreman, M.A., PHD., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. The History of the ‘‘ Canadian Shield.”’ Can there be any greater contrast than Pleistocene Boulder Clay resting on Archean gneiss, the latest of rocks covering the earliest, with almost the whole known history of the world in the interval between? It is a fascinating occupation for a geological dreamer to sit on some hillside in Scotland or Finland. or Northern Canada, where the schists. and gneisses rise in rounded ridges or bosses through Boulder Clay, and ponder on all the strange happenings that separate the clay from the rock beneath. The clay, melting from its enclosed boulders under the frosts and rain, seems the very emblem of the fleeting things of yesterday; while the Archazan gneiss and green- stones are the type of the solid, imperishable framework of the earth, on which all the later rocks rest. The Boulder Clay recalls the white surface of a 334 Continental ice-sheet with summer blizzards sweeping across it like those of the Antarctic tableland, while the gneiss beneath tells of a molten magma cooling during millions of years beneath miles of overlying rock. It is the meeting-place of the geological extremes, and their contact marks the greatest of all discordances. One thing the clay and the gneiss have in common— both were long neglected by geology ; the Pleistocene beds because they were “not rocks, but only ‘* drifts,’? confused and troublesome things, hiding the real rocks, the orderly stratified fonmeoneel the «Basal complex’? because its schists and gneisses were fossil-less, complex, and mysterious products of the dim beginnings of a world still ‘‘ without form and void.’ The: molten sphere, with its slowly consolidating crust, belonged rather to the astronomer than the geologist. Geology has, of course, long lost that attitude, and now finds some of its most seductive problems in these once neglected extremes of the earth’s history. Those who distrust the ‘‘ glacial nightmare ’’ are now .very few in number; but there are still revered veterans, like Prof. Rosenbusch, who speak of the Archean gneisses as parts of the earth’s Erstarrungskruste, and who frame theories of the earth’s cooling and wrinkling in its hot and furious youth. Over more than half of Canada the field geologist is forced to occupy himself with both the Pleistocene and the Archzan, since the two are almost everywhere together, while the fossil-bearing beds of the vast intervening time are absent. The seemingly unnatural conjunction is not entirely without advantages, for the Pleistocene has furnished the clue to certain very puzzling problems of the Archzean, as will be shown later. The geologists of the world have long known the broad outlines of the Canadian Archean or pre-Cambrian area through Suess’s masterly portrayal of the ‘‘ Canadian Shield,’? and through Dana’s account of the ‘‘ V Forma- tion,’’ about which the North American Continent was built up. It must be remembered, however, that, though most of the territory has been roughly traversed by Bell, Tyrrell, Low, and other explorers, only a few districfs in the south have had their geology worked out in detail, because of their valuable deposits of silver, nickel, and iron ores. It is only in these districts, and comparatively recently, that the succession of pre-Cambrian formations has been determined with certainty. In the wide spaces of the north only the most general relationships are known. It is intended to bring together here our knowledge of the most ancient chapters in the history of North America as disclosed by recent field work. Physiographic Features. In its physiography, the Canadian Shield shows the features that might be expected from one of the oldest and most stable land areas of the world. It was reduced in very early times to a peneplain, but later was elevated, permitting the rivers to begin a process of dissection. ws process had a recent interruption by the Pleistocene Ice Age, which blocked many of the valleys with moraines and gave rise to the most extensive tangle of lakes in the world. Physiographically, as well as geologically, the region shows a dramatic mingling of extreme youth with extreme old age. . The best account of this rejuvenated peneplain has been given by Dr. A. W. G. Wilson,? who shows that the gradients are very gentle, and suggests that two or more facets can be distinguished as having slightly different inclinations and as having been carved at different times. Here it will be unnecessary to take the matter up except in a general way. The peneplain has been unequally elevated, parts stand- ing 3000 or 4000 feet above the sea, and other parts sink- ing beneath its surface. Only at two marginal points can the Archzan surface be said to rise as mountains—in the Adirondacks, projecting south-east into the State of New York and in the Nachvak peninsula, just east of Ungava ay. To the south-west and south the shield sinks, almost 1 “The Laurentian Peneplain,”’ NO. 2133 Jour. Geol., vol. xl. No. 7, pp. 615-659. VoL. 84] NATURE [SEPTEMBER I[5, IGIO imperceptibly in many places, beneath the older Paleozoic rocks, and the same is true around the central depression of Hudson Bay. off suddenly along the great fault of Lawrence, and apparently the precipitous north-east shore of Labrador indicates faulting on even a larger scale. It has been suggested that Greenland, the Highlands of Scotland, Scandinavia, and Finland may have been parts of a single great shield, now separated through the settling down of the sea-bottoms. In detail, the region is full of variety of hill and valley, waterfall, river, and lake; but, on the whole, it is mono- tonous to the ordinary traveller from the constant repeti-— tion of similar forms, since there are no real mountain— ranges and few outstanding ‘“‘ monadnock ”’ hills to breale the sky-line. The sweep of horizon from every hilltop seems horizontal, the summits around seldom rising more than 200 or 300 feet above the valleys, and all reaching nearly the same elevation. The geologist finds, however, general flatness is deceptive. In reality, tures are usually more nearly vertical than horizontal, in most Archean regions. The schistose rocks, which form so much of the surface, commonly show dips of more than 60°, so that it is clearly a mountain region planed down to its foundations. The arrangement of valleys, ridges, closely these ancient rock forms. y that this impression of the rock struc- Geological Structure. Until recently, most of the geological work done in this northern territory has been track surveys following Indian canoe routes. Here and there moraines or old lake deposits hide the rocks for a space, but usually the geology is admirably displayed as one’s canoe threads the intricate waterways of sprawling lakes spilling over from one irregular basin into another. On entering a new district there seems a hopeless confusion of pinkish gneiss and grey-green schist, but presently orderly forms take shape upon the map as the numberless bays and islands are explored, and the ground plan of vanished mountain ranges begins to show itself. Dr. Andrew C. Lawson, in his brilliant study of the Lake-of-the-Woods and Rainy Lake regions in 1884 to 1888, first brought out distinctly the relationships, and later work has added greatly to our knowledge of these ancient structures. The typical arrangement is that of rounded or oval batholiths of gneiss, or of granite merging at the edges into gneiss, with schists dipping steeply away from them on all sides. Where the batholiths approach one another the green schists occupy narrow troughs between. As shown by Lawson, they are evidently the bottoms of synclines nipped in by the rising areas of granite and gneiss. Round these eruptive masses the schists have a strike parallel to the edge of the gneiss, so that they do not form ordinary synclines, but widen and narrow and swing in curves to adjust themselves to the varying rela- tions of the batholiths. The meshes of green schist are often not complete, the curving ends feathering out to a point. In such places erosion has eaten the surface down below the bottom of the syncline. The batholiths in Western Ontario are of all sizes, front a mile to sixty miles or more in diameter, and they are commonly somewhat elongated from west to east or from south-west to north-east. They do not always follow one another in orderly succession, but may lie scattered irregularly, almost like bubbles on foamy water. Yet on the large scale one can recognise a general trend in the direction of the longest axes of the batholiths, and the average strike of the schist in the various regions lies between 50° and 80° east of north, conforming to the same direction. This general east-north-east trend of the basement structures doubtless reveals the axial relations of the Archzean mountain ranges. It is sometimes stated that the so-called V formation of North America was made up of two ranges converging toward the south, the easterly arm of the V parallel to the Appalachian mountains and the westerly one to the Rocky Mountains. The structural arrangement just out- lined does not confirm this view, but suggests irregularly parallel chains, cutting the direction of the Rockies about Toward the south-east the shield breaks — the Lower St. as and hills generally follows more or less — - SEPTEMBER 15, IQIO} NATURE 335 at right angles and that of the Appalachians at an acute angle. Of what kind were the mountains erected on these hubble-like foundations of gneiss, set in meshes of schist ? In many places they do not seem to have formed con- tinuous ranges such as those of the Rockies, but rather groups of domes of various sizes. Some of them were comparatively low; others seem to have been lofty, though broad. Of the low ones, the best known is that of the Grande Presqu’ Isle in the Lake-of-the-Woods, an oval of gneiss eighteen by thirty-two miles in dimensions. Here the up-swelling could not have been great, since the schists dip away from the gneiss at low angles all round, and patches of green schist, remnants of the roof, or perhaps of unusually large blocks stoped from above, are found here and there in the interior. . On the other hand, the Rainy Lake batholith, thirty by fifty miles in dimensions, must have risen as a lofty dome, since the surrounding schists dip away at high angles (60° to go°). The arch of which they were the bases must have swung thousands of feet above the pre- sent surface of the batholith. Passing inwards from the Keewatin, one finds at first immense slabs of the schist shifted a little and enclosed in gneiss, then bands of green material with softened edges, and finally darker cloudy streaks in the gneiss, representing more perfectly digested bands. As Lawson has shown, the outer edge of the batholith is of greyish hornblende syenite gneiss or horn- blende granite gneiss, while the interior is of ordinary mica granite gneiss. The outer part has absorbed a certain amount of basic Keewatin material. One cannot doubt that this zone of green schist frag- ments, followed by greyish hornblende rock, originally extended over the dome as well as round its edges. In the middle there is now a width of ten or twelve miles of the ordinary Laurentian gneiss. This implies, of course, that the upper part of the dome, afterwards removed, was several miles in thickness, and that thé mountain mass rose correspondingly above the synclinal valleys. It must not be assumed that the dome had a regular surface, nor that it was unbroken. Such a batholith as that of Rainy Lake was not made by a single sudden up-welling of granite, but by a long succession of slow inflows from various quarters. Meantime, the rocks above must have been stretched and fractured during the long ages of elevation, and must have been exposed to the usual destructive forces, which may even have kept pace with the elevation during its late stages when differences of level became pronounced. The coarse-textured granitoid gneiss making up the Datholith must have cooled at great depths and exceed- ingly slowly. The Raising of the Domes. Some curious dynamical problems are involved in the raising of the domed mountains. It is conceivable that fluid lava could be forced by the unequal pressure of shifting mountain blocks through a suitable system of pipes into cisterns, so as to form laccolithic domes, but no such mechanism seems possible with batholiths. The granite of the batholiths was plastic rather than fluid, as shown by its having been dragged into the gneissoid structure. The areas affected covered sometimes 1000 square miles. We know of no system of dykes to serve as pipes or passages, of no solid floor beneath, of no faulted blocks to provide the pressure. It is generally assumed that the protaxial granites and gneisses in great mountain ranges have risen because of the relief from pressure beneath anticlines due to lateral thrust. It is doubtful if these irregularly scattered ovals, sometimes thirty miles across, can be adjusted to any system of anticlines. Some years ago I ventured another explanation. Granite is specifically lighter than most of the green- stones and schists of the Keewatin, and molten granite, even if not at a very high temperature, is lighter than the relatively cold rocks above it. If the rocks above were unequally thick, so that some areas were less burdened than others, it is conceivable that these differ- ences in gravity might cause the granite to creep slowly up beneath the parts with the lightest loads, while the NO. 2133, VOL. 84] overlying rocks sagged into synclines in the heavily loaded parts.’ Whatever their cause, these oval batholiths enclosed by meshes of schist are the most constant feature of the Canadian Archzan, though in many places erosion has cut so deeply that the meshes have all but disappeared, leaving only straight or curving bands of hornblende schist enclosed in the Laurentian gneiss. Very similar batho- lithic relations of the Laurentian with the Grenville series of Eastern Ontario are described by Drs. Adams and Barlow, though the batholiths are generally much smaller. Batholithic mountains were typical of the Archzan in North America, and, at least in some cases, also of Archean regions in other parts of the world. Subdivisions of the Canadian Pre-Cambrian. Until recently the rocks of the Canadian Shield were usually divided into three parts—the Laurentian, the Huronian, and the Animikie and Keweenawan, the last two being only doubtfully included in the pre-~Cambrian. These three divisions are still the only ones shown on the latest general map prepared by the Geological Survey. Lawson’s separation of the Keewatin as a lower group than the Huronian was generally recognised as_ valid, but in practice the subdivision of the two in mapping was difficult, and was only carried out in detailed surveys. His proof that the Laurentian was eruptive and later than the Keewatin was accepted. As the classification adopted by the American geologists in the Lake Superior region differed from that used in Canada, a Correlation Committee was appointed five or six years ago to draft a compromise, which runs as follows :— Keweenawan Unconformity Upper (Animikie) Unconformity Huronian+ Middle Unconformity Lower Unconformity Keewatin Eruptive Contact Laurentian This compromise system is now generally in use in Canada, though if Canadian relationships alone were con- sidered the Animikie would be separated from the Huronian and placed closer to the Keweenawan, and the Laurentian would be treated as consisting of eruptive rocks frequently later in age than the Lower Huronian. The most natural classification for Canada would be as follows :— Keweenawan Unconformity Animikie Great Unconformity Huroniar ff iste \ Lower Great Unconformity Keewatin Laurentian=post-Keewatin or post-Huronian granite and gneiss. The laccolithic domes described on previous pages were formed partly in the interval between the Keewatin and the Lower Huronian, but mostly later than the Lowef Huronian. Over much of the shield, however, our know- ledge of the relations is not sufficient to separate the mountain structures of the two ages. Let us now consider the history of the region during the successive periods suggested above. Conditions during the Keewatin. One naturally asks what the conditions were in Kee- watin times before the earliest known laccolithic moun- tains were raised. The granitic texture of the eruptives implies very slow cooling under great pressure. The old interpretation of these rocks, following the usual concep- tion of the nebular hypothesis, made them parts of the 1 Bull, Geol. Soc Aa., vol. ix. pp. 223-238. 336 NATURE earth’s original crust, which cooled under the tremendous weight of an atmosphere including everything volatile at red heat, an atmosphere 200 or more times heavier than at present. We know, however, that this cannot apply to the Laurentian gneisses of Canada, since they push up eruptively through great thicknesses of older rocks—the Keewatin in the north and west, and the Grenville series in the east, including large amounts of water-formed deposits. Though these older rocks are now found only on edge in synclines protected on each side by domes of gneiss, there can be no doubt that they once spread out wide and flat on the surface of the earth. The eruptives of the Keewatin have received most atten- tion, but sedimentary rocks occur in it at all levels and with thicknesses of hundreds or thousands of feet. They include Lawson’s Couchiching, with its great areas of mica schist and gneiss formed from what were originally muddy and sandy sediments. In other places quartzites and arkoses, slates and phyllites, represent less meta- morphosed clastic materials. The slate is often black with carbon. In the north-west there is little limestone or dolomite, but the Grenville and Hastings series of the cast, which are probably in part of Keewatin age, contain thousands of feet of limestone. All the ordinary types of sedimentary rocks were being deposited on the Keewatin sea-bottoms, and one type unlike modern sediments—the banded silica and magnetite or hematite of the “iron formation.’’ The rock last mentioned belongs to the top of the Keewatin, and is very widespread. Its crumpled jaspers have attracted much attention because of their association with iron ore, but in reality the other varieties of sedimentary rocks are present in far greater amount both as to thickness and extent. In almost every part of the western region there are associated with the sediments great sheets of basic lavas, agglomerates, and ash rocks, as well as smaller amounts of quartz porphyry, &c., showing that the Keewatin was one of the periods of great volcanic activity in the world’s history. It is somewhat puzzling to find these pre- dominantly basic volcanics in the Keewatin, while all the underlying eruptives of the Laurentian are decidedly acid, chiefly granite or syenite in composition. The extensive sedimentary and eruptive rocks of this earliest formation imply that the ordinary geological pro- cesses were at work at the verv beginning of known geological time, before the Archean mountains came into existence. There must have been broad land areas where rocks like granite or gneiss weathered to mud and sand, probably under a cool climate, for the greenish arkoses and slates charged with carbon suggest cold rather than heat. In the north-west volcanoes were active, but the east was comparatively free from eruptions. Both volcanic ash and ordinary clay and sand seem to have been spread out on the sea bottom in the Lake Superior region, and prob- ably seaweeds throve in the mud. In the Grenville region the waters seem to have been clearer, and limestones were deposited on a very large scale, sometimes pure, but often muddy and mixed with a good deal of carbon, so that fucoids probably flourished here also. If we reconstruct the conditions of the Keewatin, we must then assume continents which have entirely vanished, on which weather, rain, and rivers worked, sweeping sediments down to the shallow or deeper seas to be spread out on a bottom which has also disappeared. The sedi- ments and lavas and tuffs may be said to rest on nothing, for the once fluid or plastic Laurentian gneiss, cradling their synclines and pushing up from beneath them, could not have been the foundation on which they were laid down. Though the floor on which they once rested has nowhere been found, one may be certain that its materials included silica, alumina, and alkalies in the right propor- tions to fuse into a granitic magma, and this is practically all that is known of the pre-Keewatin world in Canada. Rise and Fall of the Early Laurentian Mountains. After the work of the voleanoes, of rain and frost and rivers, of winds and tides and currents, had piled up miles of rock in Keewatin times, there came a great upheaval of mountains over thousands of square miles of the early Archean surface. Possibly the earth was already shrink- NO. 2133, VOL. 84] ing through loss of voleanic material and of the steam and gases that exhale in eruptions. The Atlantic’ floor may have been settling down, thrusting inwards from the south-east, pushing up the weakened earth’s crust beneath the shield into mountain rows; or it may be that some other cause must be sought for the somewhat hap- hazard domes which arose over such wide areas. It may be suggested that the many thousands of feet of lava and stratified materials had so blanketed the lower-lying rocks that the heat from beneath crept up into them, softening and semi-fusing them, until in the slow lapse of time they began to flow sluggishly, ascend- ing to form the wide-based domes of the Laurentian mountains. The source of the internal heat need not be discussed here. Uranium, with its various progeny, may have been as active then as’ now, or a more rapid axial rotation may have kneaded the discrete particles of a mass of planetesimals, and so warmed them up to the heat of fusion. Then followed the deliberate and almost complete destruction of the great mountain system during a long period of time, which has left no known Canadian record. The sediments derived from this destruction may have been piled on the bed of the Atlantic as it sank. It is possible that Sederholm’s Bottnian in Finland may partially fill the gap. 3 Whatever disposal was made of the débris, | several thousands of feet must have been carved from the moun- tains and swept out of view during the immense interval which separates the Keewatin and early Laurentian from the Lower Huronian, for the next series of rocks rests with a great discordance on the upturned edges of the synclinally disposed Keewatin schists and the truncated domes of Laurentian gneiss. The Huronian. The Lower Huronian has very different relationships from the Keewatin. Where least disturbed, as north of Lake Huron and in the Cobalt region, the floor beneath it is often well preserved. Dr. Miller has shown that at Cobalt the surface of Keewatin and Laurentian was hilly or hummocky before the basal conglomerate of the Lower Huronian was deposited; and Prof. Brock, in describing the Larder Lake district to the north, refers to ** the clean-swept and often rounded surface of the older rocks on which it is frequently laid down.’’* The basal conglomerate of the Lower Huronian con- tains pebbles and boulders of all the Keewatin and Laurentian rocks that went before, and among them are found beautifully striated stones. It is the oldest known Boulder Clay or tillite. The vast period of subaérial destruction that carved away the early Laurentian moun- tains ended in a glacial period, the ice-sheets of which covered many thousands of square miles of North America, just as the last great period of peneplanation ended with the Pleistocene ice-sheets. It is not a little impressive to see modern till resting on the Huronian tillite, and including fragments of it as boulders. It is possible to break out from the modern glaciated surface stones the underside of which received their polish and striz in the Lower Huronian, while their upper surface has been smoothed and scratched by Pleistocene ice movements. At Cobalt the tillite is accompanied by slate, which may be compared in all essential characters except hardness with the stratified clay of adjoining lake deposits of Pleistocene Age. The most recent and unconsolidated beds make clear the origin of some of the most ancient and, in appearance, most different rocks in the world. In the Lake Huron region the action of ice was prob- ably followed by an invasion of the sea, for the tillite is succeeded by thousands ‘of feet of quartzite, arkose, and conglomerate, and by a few hundred feet of limestone. Possibly much or all of the limestones of the Grenville and° Hastings ‘series, which Dr. Adams reckons among the great limestone formations of the world, were formed at about the same time. ‘ é The Middle Huronian (Logan’s Upper Huronian) is separated by a basal conglomerate, possibly. glacial, from 1 “.Bur, Mines, Ort.”, 19¢5,P. 31+ [SEPTEMBER 15, 1910 I. = ot an bits yt » ona I have endeavoured in what follows to reflect as faith- fully as I can the different sets of views, and to add to them some views and suggestions, the result of my own experience. Evidence from 150 Graduates. First, as to the views of the 150 past students. These students all belong to the class for whom the earning of a living is imperative, and in the main they represent Oxford gn CamamceS and the Iondon institutions of university rank. ? 1 A paper read before the Educational Science Secti f th iti Association at the Sheffield meeting, by Mr. R. Blair. caer oe NO. 2133, VOL. 84] Among minor points made by them are these :—The engineers emphasise the need of workshop practice under commercial conditions, finding that their future is in danger of being marred by lack of ‘* works ’’ experience, and some of those who have become industrial chemists express the need for five years’ training: three for degree and two for research. The view of the engineer students needs no elaboration, for nowadays there is almost universal agree- ment that some form of the ‘‘ sandwich ’’ system affords the best possible method of training. The views of the chemists will be referred to later. The students also complain that posts are obtained not on merit, but through influence. This contention is pointedly illustrated by a university college professor, who states that he knows one man who holds a most important berth, and is undoubtedly a first-class man in every sense of the word. This man took his university training as a mechanical engineer, and graduated with first-class honours, and did this after having had works’ training extending over some eight years. On leaving college the man ap- proached every mechanical firm of importance in Scotland in the hopes of getting a start. He found it impossible to do so. Finally, through influence, he did manage to obtain a junior berth, and is now the head of an important concern. The most striking feature of the present occupations of the students is that only ro per cent. have found their way have into industry or commerce; another 10 per cent. entered the higher ranks of the Civil Service, including technical posts. Some half-dozen are in the Church; another half-dozen are practising medicine; the remainder have taken to teaching, and it is clear in a fair number of instances that selection of a profession was not a matter of choice, but one of necessity. Many a man, towards the end of his university career, discovers for the first time that he has nothing to offer in the industrial or com- mercial market in return for a salary. If he has no technical knowledge or skill, he is, so far as his education helps him, in the same position as a secondary schoolboy, even if he is not handicapped on account of his greater age. Of those, also, who possess technical knowledge or skill, such as students of engineering or chemistry, a good many find themselves offered terms which pride, or poverty, or both, forbid them to accept. With pride I have no concern and no sympathy. Poverty is a different affair. When a man has spent his last penny in completing his university career, and when there is also pressure from home, there is no real choice between teaching, which is obtainable at 2l. or 3l. a week, however inadequately equipped the man may be for this purpose, and an office or a workshop at anything from, say, 10s. to 30s. per week. Sometimes the factory, shop, or business-house offers nothing, and occa- sionally a premium is required. It will easily be under- stood that in such circumstances an appeal is made by the students for more help in finding posts for university honours men, who are not eligible for the Civil Service, and who do not care to turn schoolmasters, and it will not be difficult to appreciate that at the critical point in his career—the selection of a means of earning a livelihood—a man is apt to write harshly of some of the slackness of university life, and to complain, as one of the most suc- cessful of them has done, that he wanted to be made a chemist, but his university insisted on his wasting his time on Divinity and did not even ask for German! vidence from the Staffs of Universities and of Technical Institutions. A great change in the relations of the university and the market has occurred during the last quarter of a century. The general advance in the standard of education has pro- duced a larger sympathy on the part of the market for educational institutions and their products; and the move- ment in favour of technical education has widened the range of objects of university education and the social classes from which university students are drawn, and has per- aaps compelled the universities to have regard to the diversi- ties in’ the world’s work and to the functions they should discharge in preparing their students to live. During the period referred to a large number of technical institutions have sprung up all over the United Kingdom, and within quite recent years there have been strong influences at work to bring about coordination, if not incorporation of 346 NATURE | SEPTEMBER 15, 1910 the greatest of the technical institutions with the univer- sities within the area of which they have emerged. The danger in the process of amalgamation is that it may be premature. It may come about before the realisation of what each institution in its own way, and in its own time, has had to contribute to national problems, and before it has been fully recognised that the annexation of a technical school is not merely the end of a rival, but the beginning of a new public responsibility, and that in the result the vitality and, if you like, the harsh industrialism and commercialism of the technical institution may be too much submerged by ‘* academic control.’’ The evidence placed at my disposal shows, on the whole, a tone of great hopefulness. The hopefulness of tone to which I have referred is common. It is displayed by the newest of the large municipal technical institutions in the heart of a great industrial centre, and by some of our oldest universities. It is becoming evident that the institu- tions are recognising that. however much the market, in its quest after cheapness, has failed to distinguish the real from the spurious article, the institutions have been without much blame for placing inefficient machines on the market. An eminent professor of chemistry tells me that his whole “ professional life is strewn with examples of the unwillingness of industry and commerce, the State, and municipal authorities of this country to take advantage of the services of young men who have received the highest technical training as chemists.’’ But, he adds, ‘‘ there is a tolerably rapid improvement taking place,’? and ‘‘ we who are urging the importance of employing these highly trained young men have to remember that there has been a great lot of poor stuff turned out from the universities and technical colleges, and that the British manufacturer has a good deal to say in his own defence.”’ Agriculture and Allied Industries. It is in connection with the agricultural colleges that there appears to be the least difficulty in showing that the students have found posts in agriculture or in allied industries. The case of agriculture may be somewhat exceptional. There has been so much development in this industry in recent years that there was bound to be a considerable demand for trained men. Moreover, many of the young men who have undergone a course of training in agriculture have done so in order to fit themselves for farming, or otherwise dealing with land as land agents or farm managers, on their own account. Further, it has for a fair number of years now been obvious that study in the agricultural colleges had to be combined with practice on the farm. The agricultural colleges also report that there is a considerable demand for their students in various branches of foreign and colonial land development work, such as tea, coffee, cotton, and rubber planting, management and extension of irrigation ‘colonies, forestry, stock farming, and so on. A certain number of students trained at agricultural colleges are in demand for commercial undertakings in businesses as- ‘sociated with agriculture. For example, the German Potash Syndicate has a number of men representing their interests in various parts of the world who were educated at one of our oldest agricultural colleges, and the Per- manent Nitrate Committee and the Sulphate of Ammonia ‘Committee have also appointed agents or representatives who have gone through a similar course of training. The principal of the college attributes this preference for men who have received a college education instead of those who have had a business training only to the fact that the work undertaken by these representatives combines a large propagandist element with ordinary business management. In Ireland the State directly organises the application of scientific education and of scientific knowledge to agri- culture and allied industries. The Department of Agricul- ture and the county committees alone take advantage of young men who have received the highest technical training in agriculture. Since 1903 some sixty or seventy men have passed through the faculty of agriculture in the Royai College of Science, and all have been employed by the department or by the county committees. Farmers in Ireland operate on too small a scale to warrant them in employing experts as is done by large industrial concerns. Those who want expert assistance can get it through the ‘county committees, or, for special work, from the depart- NO. 2133, VOL. 84] ment. In this way the faculty of agriculture is exerting a strong influence on agricultural practice. | Leading farmers—those of the best education—make most use of the expert, and the smaller men follow them. In this way the influence of the Royal College of Science is far greater — than is usually supposed to be the case. The college course fits men to take up the important positions of — itinerant and special instructors, and the whole course has been designed specially for the one purpose. Moreover, the instructor and expert, after leaving college, are kept in touch with the work of the college and with that of instructors in other counties than their own or those adjacent. If the college taught, so to speak, in the air, and was not, as it is, part and parcel of a great organised system, it would do little good. No students of agri- culture attend except those selected to become teachers and experts under the department and the local authorities. For such teachers and experts there is always a demand, since some of those who have been trained and who have — worked as experts for a time leave—some to business, others go abroad to take up work as teachers or experts in the colonies. In addition to this main work, the college trains experts in forestry, horticulture, and creamery management, and in these branches of Irish industry the trained men perform the same functions towards these industries as the agri- cultural expert does to agriculture proper. While no one who intends to become a farmer takes the Royal College of Science course—since this last would be out of all pro- portion to the capital invested in even the larger farms ‘n Ireland—quite a number now attend shorter and less expensive courses at the Albert Agricultural College and elsewhere. There are thus other channels through which the higher technical training at the Royal College reaches those engaged in the agricultural industry, since these local colleges, stations, and winter schools are staffed by Royal College men who keep in touch with the central institution. The lesson which Ireland has to teach is that the faculty of agriculture in the Royal College of Science is part of a great organisation directly serving the interests of the agricultural industry, and not an independent institu- tion pursuing knowledge for its own sake, or educating students without certainty of their profitable employment. Engineering. The evidence from the engineering colleges and institu tions is also, on the whole, satisfactory. Here and there may be found somewhat doleful notes to the effect that the large majority of State departments and local authorities do not lay themselves out to take advantage of technically trained men, and in one case a view that has much popular currency has been put to me in fairly strong terms. It is to the effect that employers, especially those who have not very large and important undertakings, but who, neverthe- less, would have their businesses improved by securing technically trained men, have an ignorant prejudice against such assistance. It is suggested as the possible explana- tion of their attitude that the employers fear that if they engaged men of greater attainments than themselves, they would simply be raising up possible opponents in their own line of business. There may be much truth in this view, which does not, of course, apply to first-class firms. But there is, I think, another worth full consideration: that the size of the business concern (the amount of capital sunk in it) has much to do with the employer’s attitude. The employer does not possess the faith that will enable him to risk the addition of another salary to his working expenses ; and no one, without a fair trial, is able to give him the mathematical demonstration which he seeks that the salary might often be saved merely out of the waste of materials which exists owing to the absence of scientific knowledge on the part of his men of the materials they are handling, and to their having to feel their way by experiments that are more in the nature of guesses. Such firms will be converted only by the example of others. There is abundant evidence, however, that there is much less prejudice than formerly; that there is a growing tendency on the part of State and municipal authorities to secure for their services engineers who have received the highest training; and that this attitude is especially true of certain industries, the success of which depends abso- lutely upon highly competent, trained scientific experts, as, es Ss ee SEPTEMBER 15, IgIo] ISAT SELLE 347 for example, the steel industry. I suggest that the growth of this attitude corresponds generally in time with increased recognition on the part of the teaching institutions that engineers cannot be wholly made at college. The colleges have at length realised that the student must from the first learn the limitations of practical engineering, and that this can be done by the introduction of a practical atmo- sphere, and without sacrificing any of the physical prin- ciples of engineering already well taught at the colleges. One of our ancient universities says, ‘‘ We have not now much reason to be dissatisfied with the attitude of em- ployers towards our (engineering) students.’’ Several of the largest of the technical institutions say they have no difficulty in placing their best students, and one university college states that there is a standing demand as soon as the college year ends, from several of the heads of engineering establishments within the neighbourhood of the college for the best students. But these heads of firms demand the “‘ best,’’ and are willing to pay a living wage right off to youths who have never before been in works, and have only their college training as qualification. It is added that second- or third-rate men are in very little demand, and there is often a difficulty in not being able to recommend youths of sufficiently high standard to fill vacant posts. ‘This case recalis other colleges where students (the ‘‘ best,’’ at all events) have no difficulty in securing places owing to the personal connection estab- lished between the heads of the neighbouring works and the head of the engineering department. The return issued by the Appointments Board of the Uni- versity of Cambridge in February of this year is specially interesting. This return shows that the number of candi- dates for the mechanical sciences tripos whose names appeared in the honours lists of the years 1894 to 1906 inclusive was 252, that the Board obtained information as to the posts held by 176 of these men; of the 176, only 23 were engaged in teaching, while 122 were engaged as engineers in some manufacturing or commercial concern or in the public service at home or abroad. The return is the more satisfactory in that 133 of the names belong to the years 1g02 to 1906, and in that most of the men have to spend at least two years as probationers of some form in works before they can secure a definitive appointment of any kind. It has been pointed out to me, both by professors and the heads of large engineering firms, that there is still a defect in the college training of young engineers which ought to be immediately remedied. The view is so well presented by one of the colleges that I give it in extenso. *“ There are certain defects in the average college training. I consider that the question of cost in design, and the commercial side generally, receive quite inadequate atten- tion in most colleges. Practically all engineering firms exist for making profit. Modern competition makes economic design, good efficiency, and cheap upkeep abso- lutely imperative. The employer wants men who can in their designs give the most for the money. It is therefore insufficient to teach design on physical principles alone, Methods of production, ease of repair, depreciation, even conditions of transit in large machines, all these and more must be considered in effective design. Such limitations as these should, I think, be brought before the student in greater measure than they are attempted at present. This will tend to ‘ practicalise ’ the student while his mind is still formative.” Chemistry. The case of chemistry is more difficult. There is, un- fortunately, no room for doubt that the British chemical industry has suffered largely by foreign—chiefly German— competition; and possibly no section of British manu- facturers has been so severely lectured as those in whose processes applied chemistry was capable of playing a large part. The chemical manufacturers were told to follow their German rivals by enlisting the assistance of the chemist trained in the scientific laboratories at our lead- ing institutions, and that» the industrial face of Great Britain would be changed. The manufacturer did not apparently grasp the meaning of the arguments or the appeal: he may possibly have comforted himself with the feeling that as things had been, so would they be; he may even have looked at the works that needed reconstruction, NO. 2133, VOL. 84] at the state of the Patent Laws, at the character of the supplies of raw material, at labour, at capital, at agents, markets and means of transport, and may have come to. the conclusion that the professorial lecturers understood. none of these things; he may have chosen a chemist from an analyst’s office or from a medical school, and have failed to discover that chemists were of any value. What- ever he did, and for whatever reason he did it, it has been stated in the papers before me that he did not give much heed to the scolding from the professorial chairs: he could not be persuaded that scientific education was essential to his business. And so in time the penalty had to be paid, and that, unfortunately, by many who had no choice in the matter. Perhaps, after all, the chemical manufacturer merited less odium than has been heaped on him. It is a human quality to believe in your fortifications until they are reduced to ruins at your feet. It may be true, also,. that the chemical manufacturer was not tactfully wooed ; and it certainly is true that under the name of chemist enough rubbish was supplied to him to break down his faith in the panacea. Twenty years ago the research chemist qualified for industrial work could scarcely be obtained from English laboratories. He had to be imported from Germany. The English schools turned out only analytical machines. The influence of a few well~ known chemists and of the 1851 research scholarships has changed all this, but the manufacturer has not yet re- covered from his early disappointment. It is gratifying to find evidence of change. The public may not yet believe that ‘‘ scientific activity is the real and solid basis of national prosperity,’’ and all manu- facturers may not yet be fully prepared to endorse the view that ‘‘ industrial development is ultimately dependent on scientific development,’’ or everywhere to demand’ chemists trained in research writ large, but they are learn- ing or receiving lessons sometimes in ways not altogether creditable to British intelligence. One of our most dis- tinguished chemists, and a man of large experience inside and outside of the college laboratory, says :—‘* I am very clearly of opinion that, with very few exceptions, the State and municipal authorities do not lay themselves out to take advantage of men from twenty to twenty-two years of age who have received the highest technical training as chemists. Municipal authorities require the services of men who have had a specialised training as chemical experts in connection with the working of the Food and Drugs Acts, and there is a tendency on their part to prefer the services of men who are willing to take underpaid positions. This does not conduce to the efficiency of the working of the Food and Drugs Acts, and the general community suffers in consequence of the lax administra- tion of these Acts. Municipal authorities occasionally require the services of engineers and chemists in con- nection with municipal undertakings, as in gas and water supplies. As regards the chemists they employ in con- nection with such undertakings, I think, on the whole, the community is adequately served; the chemists employed, for example, in the manufacture of gas are, as a rule, well trained and competent to discharge their duties. As regards private employers, I am of the opinion that British manufacturers, as a body, are not yet fully sensible of the advantage which they might obtain by the employment of skilled chemists in manufactures in which chemistry plays a prominent part. There are, how- ever, exceptions. Some of the best equipped works of this country—usually wealthy concerns—strive to keep in the forefront of industrial progress. We have in this country an increasing number of men of foreign extraction who are engaging in chemical manufacture, and it is significant to note that such employers are far more prone to enlist the services of expert chemists than are the rank and file of our own manufacturers. I think this is due to the circumstance that the advantages of a university training” have come home to these people more directly than to our manufacturers, and they are more quick to perceive the material advantages of the application of the highest training in pure and applied science to their industries. I could give a number of illustrations of this fact by pointing to the existence of foreign firms who have secured for themselves in this country a pre-eminent position. The statement as to the increasing number of men of 348 NATURE [SEPTEMBER I5, 1910 foreign extraction engaging in chemical manufacture in England who are far more prone to enlist the services of expert chemists than are the rank and file of our own manufacturers points a lesson which is well illustrated from two other quarters. ‘The secretary of the Cambridge Appointments Board says (Empire Review, January, 1905):—* A feature of the lists of matriculations (at Cambridge) for the years 1880-95 is the recurrence of German names, with the note, ‘ Now assisting his father in business.’ From this it would appear that the repre- sentatives, naturalised in England, of the nation which has, more than any other, astonished the world by its industrial progress, have deliberately chosen for their sons a University career as a preliminary to business life.’ The other illustration comes from British business life. Only one letter from a British manufacturer emphasises the need of research, and that is signed by a chemical manufacturer with a German name. As to evidence of change, one of the largest technical institutions says :— ‘We are fairly sure of placing at once all the best men who have taken a graduating course in any branch of applied chemistry.’’ Another technical institution—prob- ably the largest—states:—‘ We have been unable, during the last three or four years, to meet all the demands upon us for trained chemists, and at this moment we are unable to make nomination to two or three most important posts for which trained chemists are required because all our men are satisfactorily placed.’’ From one of our oldest universities comes the statement :—‘‘ There is no difficulty in placing chemists of the highest rank in first-rate technical posts. By highest rank I mean people with approximately fellowship standing and great originality.”’ Sir William Ramsay writes :—‘‘ Some months ago I -had the curiosity to pick out from my class-lists, back to about 1890, one hundred names of men (and women) whose sub- sequent history I know. The result was, roughly: 60 in industry (analysts, private or in works, managers, pro- prietors of works, &c.); 25 in teaching posts (assistants in universities or university colleges, schoolmasters and a few professors—about 6); and 15 given up (married women, men who have changed their profession or dead).’’ The most gratifying fact about this analysis is that it suggests that 60 per cent. of Sir William Ramsay’s students are pursuing industrial chemistry for a living. An examination of the after-careers of the 1851 exhibitioners reveals the following results. It will be remembered that science scholarships are awarded annually by the Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibi- tion. The scholarships are awarded . for research in the experimental and observational sciences bear- ing upon industries. The nomination of scholarship holders is made by the authorities of twenty universities and university colleges within the British Empire, and, with rare exceptions, these nominations are confirmed by the Commissioners. The scholarships are of the annual value of 1501. a year, and are ordinarily tenable for two years. Between .1891 and 1906 there. were awarded 262 scholarships. Of the holders, 145 are now engaged as professors, assistant professors, lecturers, or assistants in science colleges or other educational institutions; 76 hold positions in manufacturing firms or in public departments, and the remainder may be conveniently classified thus : scholars recently retired, 6; continuing research in private capacity, 12; engaged in professional pursuits,.- 10; deceased, 6; occupations unknown, 3; no longer engaged in scientific work, 4, of whom 3 are ladies. I find on further analysis that, of 112 scholars whose branch of science was chemistry, 50 are, or have been, engaged in industrial chemistry. I am not able to provide more statistical details. As a rule, universities, university colleges, and technical institu- tions have not kept records of the after-careers of their students, and until quite recently most of the universities (and some not yet) have not had any organised means of giving «assistance to students who may be seeking posts at the end of their college career. Looking at the matter quite broadly, I see no reason for believing that the number of highly trained chemists who find their way from colleges into industrial chemistry is anything else than insignificant, compared with similar figures for Germany or the United States of America. ‘i 4T22 NO. 2133, VOL. 84] The following facts may aid in understanding the con- clusion of ** insignificane’’ which I have reached. In 1904 and 1905- an average of 400 chemists received the doctor’s diploma or the iechnical high school diploma in Germany; with the materials at my disposal I have been unable to convince myself that there were in 1908 300 students of all faculties of applied science taking a fourth- year day course in British universities and technical colleges. For some of these results our system of degree-giving is denounced in no measured terms. An able university pro- fessor says:—‘‘ The fact is, the whole thing—university teaching of chemistry—is turned upside down. Much of our university work is simply good secondary work. A pass B.Sc. degree, for example, is about the standard of a school-leaving certificate in a civilised country. Uni- versities lay down syllabuses, time-tables, hours of work, and spend a large proportion of their energies in examina- tion grinding. They teach for examinations instead of teaching for the diffusion and advancement of scientific knowledge. When a man arrives at a university he has a ‘curriculum,’ in other words, simply a glorified school syllabus, laid out for him, and is promised a degree in three years if he is a good boy. They do not do that in Germany. We are not,’’ he continues, ‘‘ really quite so bad in this country as regards our so-called ‘* honours ” degrees, but the centre of gravity is wrong for all that. . . + The centre of gravity of the English system is still in the examination hall, even though a good man does stay on for several years of research afterwards.’’ Others, who have clearly devoted themselves to a study of the matter, demand a five years’ course for the making of a chemist, three for degree and two for research. One of the most thoughtful memoranda sent to me by a university professor shows :—‘ On entering the-research laboratory the graduates are rarely independent thinkers, and their knowledge is essentially * book knowledge.’ When freed from the necessity to attend lectures or to work for examinations they seem to pass through a stage when they actually have to struggle to develop their resources, and often the students with the best degrees make the poorest research workers. .. . / Again, the busi- ness faculties of the students at this stage are poor, and their knowledge of modern languages as applied to scien- tific or commercial work is quite inadequate. These are deficiencies which I have to make good in the research department. . Students at this stage are not qualified to take up positions of responsibility. The graduate of twenty-two has, however, many latent possibilities which may be successfully developed by a course of research work.’’ The time spent by the graduates in research work in the university laboratory is from two to three years, and the average age of the students on leaving is twenty- four to twenty-five. ‘* Taking an average case,’’ the pro- fessor continues, ‘‘] can say that at the end of the first year the research student has commenced to think for him-_ self, to anticipate difficulties, and to overcome them when encountered. He begins by suggesting new working methods, and finally proposes new topics of research. He has a working knowledge of scientific and technical French and German, knows the original literature of his special topic, and is generally conversant with modern research thought. His business style has also improved greatly. A considerable advance in these respects takes place during the next year, and in most cases a two years’ course is sufficient to produce a man who has had a good education and who knows how to use it. It is my experi- ence that when students with this training enter technical work they master the literature of their new subject very quickly and effectively. They seem to be able in a short time to form an estimate of the present position and future possibilities of the new subject and to bring their speculative faculties into play. I therefore regard the time spent at research as a necessary part of scientific training if university graduates are to enter the field of technical work, and men thus equipped make most valu- able officials, even taking into account the fact that they have no previous experience in the supervision of work- men, and have generally no kaowledge of chemical engineering.’’ But the British parent does not care to afford to keep his sons at the university until they are SEPTEMBER 15, 1910] MALL ORR TE o4i2) twenty-four to twenty-five years of age, especially as a period of probation has afterwards to be served in works, unless he sees that his money is going to be a good invest- ment. And so we come back again to the manufacturer. Other Subjects. As to many of the other subjects in which the universi- ties and higher technical institutions touch industry and commerce—architecture, biology, economics, and modern languages—there is little to be said on the side of the institutions. Biology is comparatively an unploughed field; the opportunities for economics are not yet fully developed. Railways, banks, insurance companies, and great business houses might, say the colleges, pay more attention to the really able economist. At the School of Economics a course of lectures in administrative subjects Was arranged in the autumn of 1906 in order to equip officers for thé higher appointments on the administrative staff of the Army and for the change of departmental services. This course is now annually attended by thirty officers selected for the purpose by the War Office. In order to provide the teaching required by candidates for the degree of B.Sc. in the faculty of economics and political science with honours in transport, the depart- ment of the school dealing with this subject has been developed. The lectures in this department, besides being open to students in the faculty, are attended by some 300 students engaged in railway administration. These students are drawn mainly from the staffs of the follow- ing railway companies:—the Great Western, the Great Eastern, the Great Northern, the London and South- Western, the Great Central, and the Metropolitan, their fees being in many cases paid for them by their companies. The lectures are also attended by members of the staffs of the other London railways, and occasionally by officials of Indian, colonial, and foreign railways, and other persons. As for modern languages, it is alleged by the teaching institutions that the fundamental business attitude of England is entirely wrong. It will be seen later that this last view is amply confirmed from important and well- informed sources. One further point of view of the colleges. Personality is by far the greatest factor; no amount of training can produce an exceptional man out of a man whose initial natural qualities are only second class. Views OF INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL Firms. Answers to my inquiries have been received from a con- siderable number of large shipowners, from a few large shipbuilders, from nearly all the great railway companies, from a good many banking and insurance companies, from manufacturers of all kinds, and from employers’ federa- tions representing very large interests. Elementary School Training. Almost all explain their preference for elementary-school boys in such a way as to pay a well-deserved compliment, directly to the adaptability of the elementary-school boy, and indirectly to the existing system of elementary educa- tion. A good many speak in high terms of the value ot evening schools, including technical institutes and schools of art. Banks and insurance companies almost invariably (but other firms as well) seek for the secondary-school product. There is some call for the man trained at the highest institutions, but this call is so much confined to firms the works or business of which require technical skill, that it is fully evident that the others do not yet feel the need for such men, nor know how to use them. There appears, also, with some frequency, the traditional fling at the public schools and at the universities. Catch the boy as he leaves the elementary school, and induce him to attend evening classes; add to that the training of the workshop or the business house, and you have the fairly common plan of training those who will rise above the rank of ‘‘ hands.’’ From the best of these come the foremen; from those in turn the sub-managers are selected, and so on. It is interesting to see, however, that the possibility of a change is not unforeseen. ‘‘ It happens,’’ says one of our greatest industrial leaders, “that at the present moment all the men who fill the NO. 2133, VOL. 84] positions of responsibility in our office come from elementary schools. Naturally, they. belong to a_ period when secondary schools were not so accessible as now, and probably the same remark may not be applicable to their successors.’” There is much dissatisfaction with the existing sysfem in those trades or industries in which apprenticeship was once common. ‘* Time off ’’ is occasionally allowed to attend day technical classes. But there is evidence that such a plan of training would not be generally acceptable, and I am told by one representative of a large set of interests that ‘‘the whole question of the method of teaching boys their trade in and on the works, seems in need of reform, ... it is hardly possible for anything to be done in this way except by some compulsory scheme affecting all employers’’; and by a_ representative of another vast set of interests that ‘‘ As a matter of fact, the whole question of technical education is so unavoidably mixed up with the apprenticeship question in such a form as to make it impossible to deal with one without the other. Furthermore, the apprenticeship question is so clouded by the conflicting interests of the various unions, the unsatisfactory state of the law as regards employers, and other difficulties, that nothing short of a far-reaching Parliamentary scheme is likely, so far as my experience goes, to materially alter the situation.”’ The markets call emphatically for the “‘ practical ’’ man. A view more sympathetic with higher education, and not altogether uncommon, may be stated thus:—A man with practical training alone can do much; a man with technical training alone can do little; a combination is, therefore, essential. If only one can be had, which would be re- grettable, that must be the practical man. While, as I have already said, employers generally express the highest appreciation of the value of evening schools, technical institutes, and schools of art, as supple- mentary to the workshop, the factory, and the office, there is a good sprinkling of severe criticism. It is alleged that the schools are not practical, and that teachers of art as well as of science display much ignorance of the manu- facturing process and of the limitations imposed by materials, machinery, and generally of the conditions of work and organisation necessarily enforced in a commercial business. This is, of course, no new view. It has been expressed to me all over the three kingdoms, and I fear there is much truth in it. Part of the ignorance is due to the exclusiveness of the manufacturer, who dreads the theft of his secrets. But the impression left on the employers is partly the fault of the schools. It was one of the defects of the technical education movement that it was hasty and tumultuous. Schools were not graded. Teachers and institutes set up claims impossible of fulfilment, and the British public misunderstood. Hence the doing, un- fortunately not yet ended, of much mischief, which has had to be repaired. This is, perhaps, the best place to direct attention to one of the commonest features of the employers’ views. They think that evening schools, technical institutes, and schools of art may help the individual pupil; it does not enter their minds that such schools may aid their industries. I have devoted more attention to the elementary side of technical education than might, at first sight, appear necessary. My object has been to show what the employer thinks of what he comes most in contact with. His views in that respect may serve as a guide to the kind of appreciation he is likely to give to that of which he knows less. “ Higher Education. I am much disappointed to find that a works of a technical character and with a world-wide reputation, says, ‘* The men technically trained up to 20-22. years of age employed by us are comparatively few in number, and are generally such as have had special introduction to us,’’ and I amy also much surprised to find a large and well- known firm of engine-makers saying, ‘‘ We have never had any application from the universities.”’ Another firm, the name of which is a household word, says, ‘* There are no proper schools ’’ (naming an important and common article of commerce which forms the subject of large in- dustrial works), ‘‘ in this country such as are found on the Continent, so it would be difficult for us to get properly 350 NATURE trained men of 20 to 23 years of age straight from the university to fill the highest posts in our business.” On the other hand, a professor of chemistry at a uni- versity, in which great stress is laid on the value of chemical research, says, ‘‘It is, perhaps, an index of the slender relationship between commercial chem- istry and scientific work to state that although all the research done in my laboratory is in ’ (using exactly the same term as the firm), ‘‘ I have never had a single inquiry for a chemist from a manufacturer producing or using these compounds.’’ I hope to serve as a labour exchange between this laboratory and that factory. : There is, again, a common impression that the training in the universities and higher institutions is not sufficiently practical, and much fear is expressed that the university man would not care for the continuous and laborious routine of commercial life. A gigantic association in the north of England, with extensive business ramifications all over the world, and at the works of which considerable chemical knowledge and a general scientific training is necessary, says: * For our works, the youths who come to us have had a public school or grammar school education of modern type. They are taken from school and sent to the works for twelve months, after which, if they show ability, it is arranged that they should take a three-years’ day course at a technical school and obtain the degree of B.Sc. They then go to our own laboratory, and a training specially suitable to our requirements is given to them.”’ They add, ‘* Provided a youth appears to be energetic and not to have suffered materially from the defects often induced by such a course, we should upon the whole prefer a man who had been to a university. For our best positions in the commercial departments we prefer boys of 18 or 19 from good public schools’? ({ think it is the Manchester Grammar School type which is in mind), ‘‘ to those who are younger, and we are equally glad to have university men, provided they are energetic and fond of work. Our opinion of the usual result of a course at the university is that it is not calculated to induce this spirit. The length of the vacations, and the great freedom enjoyed by undergraduates, do not form a good preparation for the absolute tie, the long hours, and the very short holidays of a business life.’’ This particular view was written in the north of England. Whether true as a criticism of some phases of our uni- versity life and work, it represents too common a view to be omitted. It is not true of some of our largest technical institutions, and I cannot think that it is true of the younger universities. But it may serve to show these institutions what spade worl they must undertake. Let me return to criticisms. A general manager of one of our great railway companies says, *‘ We have in the past appointed a few university men, but it is not an experi- ment which we are repeating.’? On the other hand, the general manager of another large railway company says, ““In my opinion, no man is fitted for the higher posts in the engineering world unless he has received a full univer- sity education, and it is a great advantage to a man in the industrial and commercial world if he has had, and has made proper use of, a university training.’? And again by another, “‘ The university or other technical institute curriculum does not enter into our estimate of the fitness of the individual. It is certainly in favour of the lad who has enjoyed it, but it is, after all, only a means to an end, and unless it has been intelligently employed by the favoured student, the less fortunate lad with definite aim is not irremediably out of the running.”’ The head of a chemical manufac turing company, which employs university trained men, puts his views thus: ‘* We invariably find that men who come to us with the highest technical qualifications, either from a technieal institute or from the universities, require a considerable time before they are able to utilise their knowledge practically. An analyst, for example, will tale some time before he recog- nises the fact that analyses must be done quickly and accurately, and that, no mistake in analyses is permissible ; with regard to experimental work, it is also some time before a university man can be got to distinguish between results which are likely to be of practical value and those of only theoretical interest. Some men acquire their experience very quickly, others very slowly or not at all.”’ One more quotation under this head. A consulting NO. 2133, VOL. 84] engineer with a large practice, who employs twelve univer= sity or technical college trained men, in addition to a larg: technical staff of a lower grade, says, ‘Lam. thorough believer in university and scientific training, but there is, ne doubt, considerable difficulty in combining the university and practical training.” ‘ The general absence of replies of any importance fron salesmen and merchants not manufacturers, may be taken as indication that the minds of business men of that type are not interested in the problems presented to them by m letters of inquiry. The opportunities for the propagandist commercial traveller and for the economist have still to bi developed. But when the War Office and great railway companies make use of the School of Economics, other State and municipal departments and great corporations will, sooner or later, follow. Finally, the industrial and commercial firms point out, as. the colleges do, that other qualities than those which generally show in an academic career are necessary in the fields of commerce and industry. Those are the business or economic sense, alertness, capacity for work, loyalty te the firm’s interests, push, perseverance, social qualities, including good manners towards clients, tact towards sub-_ ordinates, and capacity to get the best out of them, and generally the power to control men and things. These qualities do not, as a rule, show early, and consequently firms should in their own interests make the basis of selection large and broad. In concluding this section, let me say that many British manufacturers,» especially those under younger manage- ment, are displaying their economic sense in a new and interesting direction. Firms manufacturing common com- modities and employing thousands of hands have invited me to visit their works, and have shown me that not only do they employ scientifically trained engineers and chemists, but they employ public-school men as managers, they employ on their permanent staff doctors and dentists for the sake of their hands, they provide much for the social and economic welfare of their workers, and generally they show that they take as much interest in the human as in the other material which comes into their works; and they — do this, not as philanthropists, but as business men. They — find that in the interests of their business the human — material, as much as the coal and the steel and the sugar and the flour, can respond with more efficiency to scientific and generally enlightened management. Wuat THE CoNSULS-GENERAL Say. It is impossible to ignore the unanimity of the story told by H.M. Consuls and the experience and earnestness and sense of responsibility of the men who tell it. The main question submitted to them was this: It has been said from time to time that British firms (merchants, manufacturers, and so on) do not sufficiently apply scientific methods to the canvassing of the various markets of the world, and in particular that, as a rule, their travellers and agents do not know the language o those with whom they are dealing; that advertisements, prospectuses, and so on are published in English, with English weights, measures, and money terms; that British firms do not sufficiently study the needs of. the markets; and that in general there is a want of activity and enterprise of the right kind. The answer is, “‘ To a large extent, true.’’ And this answer is so emphatic, so unanimous, and withal so moderately stated and so clearly expressed, that it is not possible to regard it as incredulous. The story is as follows. Commercial Education, British merchants and manufacturers (and British ship- owners) until about thirty years ago may be said to have had rather more than their share of the world’s trade, and, — comparatively speaking, made money so easily that they grew over-confident, relaxed their energies, and took little pains to improve their business methods as time went on and to learn from their competitors. It is,only from about that time that they have begun gradually and slowly td realise—through the falling “ofl of profits and through losing a share of the markets which they used to mono- manufacturers of other, Germany and of the and those of polise—that the traders countries, in particular ; United States, have made up their minds to have, and have already succeeded in obtaining, a larger proportion of the world’s trade than was previously lett to them by Great Britain. — . Our leading manufacturers are so strong, and their work of such excellence, that they can push themselves in any market; but it is not the same with other firms, and if these were to amalgamate they would acquire great strength. Cooperation is adopted in our shipping business with marked success, and should serve as an example for other industries. The Britisher believes in competition and the survival of the fittest. The results, it is alleged, are a limited number of robust units and a mass of mediocrity which cannot resist foreign cooperation either in the home or foreign markets. The great trouble is the lack of enterprise on the part of British firms in sending out travellers. Lamentation on this head is loud and frequent. Figures for two European countries are given to me. The first country is eminently suited for trade with England, more especially just now when the two countries have so much in common, and when “*‘ things English’’ are so much in vogue. The total number of commercial travellers’ licences issued at “A” (the capital) during 1909 was 1203. During the Same year 357 licences taken out at other towns were pre- sented to the “‘A” police for visa. The 1203 licences were issued as follows :—to German commercial travellers, 605; to British, 142; to other nationalities, the remainder. Of the 357 the Germans had 146, the British 37; the remainder were distributed among various nationalities. The other country is also one which would also appear to be eminently suited for British trade. In the year 1908 (the figures for 1909 were not available) 7000 com- mercial travellers visited this country; 4700 were of German nationality, 1500 French, 61 represented Great Britain, the rest various. In general, there is no complaint against the natural qualities of the British traveller; ‘*‘ a smart British busi- ness man accustomed to travel and deal with foreigners has no equal the wide world over, but, alas! there are too few of them.’’ Another says:—‘‘ As regards the other qualities—push, activity, enterprise, and so on— they all seem to exist in such satisfying degrees in the British commercial man that if he direct his attention to rectifying thé faults arising through this insular attitude, and the lack of commercial education which so narrows his outlook, the future would then look at least as hopeful as it does in any other country.’’ A third maintains :— *“‘ There is no inherent quality in the Britisher which pre- vents his being able to compete successfully, not only in capturing new markets, but also in ousting his rivals who have been there before him. On the contrary, he possesses in as great as, if not in a greater, degree than any other nation just those qualities which eminently fit him for such work—endurance, perseverance, reliability (a very great adjunct), and concentration.’”’ And so on. Until by scientific education the British realise that commerce means an intricate and complex organisation of intimately interconnected parts, they will lose many an opportunity, and their Consulates and Chambers of Com- merce will be unable to do for them the work which could easily be done. Engineering, it is pointed out to me, is looked upon as a science, but commerce is not. SEPTEMBER I5, 1910] Metric Measures. Failure to adopt the metric system places British manu- facturers at a decided disadvantage. A French merchant, accustomed to one system of weights and measures, uniform and exact, resents receiving quotations from England in quantities which are absolutely mysterious to him. Circulars and price-lists, printed only in English with English weights, measures, and prices, are often sent to the Continent of Europe beautifully, even artistic- ally, printed and illustrated; but they are of no practical use, as they are not understood by the persons for whose inspection they are intended. Only in cases where it is known that some member of the foreign firm is well acquainted with English, or has already dealt with English NO. 2133, VOL. 84] NATURE a) firms, can any practical result be looked for by sending out English catalogues. Further, a good deal of delay and inconvenience is sometimes caused at the Custom House through the use of the English system of weights and measures, owing to the fact that all weights and measures have to be reduced to the metric system before the goods are cleared. Foreigners will not buy goods simply because they are British. The man who wishes to sell and to increase the number of his clients must seek the goodwill and favour of the buyer, and not look to the buyer so much to accommodate himself to the ideas and business rules of the manufacturer. Enough stress cannot be laid on the vital importance of personal acquaintance with the country, the people, their customs, needs, weaknesses, likings, and prejudices; and also with the local methods of doing business—in short, with everything and anything that can and does affect the market. In this connection I would like to recall what Lord Cromer said to Lord Reay’s Committee on the Organisa- tion of Oriental Studies in London: ‘‘ It is quite possible for an Englishman to pass half his life in the East and never understand anything about Easterns.” Foreign Languages. If the requirements, industrial and commercial, of any country are to be understood thoroughly, a knowledge of the language of that country is essential. One Consul says:—*I have seldom met a foreign traveller who does not speak one or two languages besides his own.” Another says :—‘‘ I have very seldom, I might say almost never, met an English commercial traveller who knew a word of ” (the language of the European country from which he writes). If I were at liberty to identify the individual, by naming the country, it would be seen that his statement, while appearing incredulous, would really appear to be highly credible. Another Consul says —and others write to the same effect :—‘‘ Lastly, but perhaps first in importance, is the fact, which cannot be brought home too strongly to every young commercial man, viz. the absolute necessity of learning foreign languages. English, it is true, is spoken everywhere abroad, and alihough fresh business may possibly be secured in foreign countries by men who speak nothing but English, the circumstances are exceptional, and point to the fact that the goods are absolutely wanted and none others, and not to any special acumen on the part of the salesman. The majority of travellers, however, have goods to offer which are by no means unique, and in the sale of which they will have to compete very severely with rivals. The case of the man in this country (an extensive country, with large trade possibilities) who speaks nothing but English is too obvious to need any elaboration.”” to I will add but one further quotation :—‘‘ Until it is realised in the English system of education that modern languages are useful as means of communication between ersons, and are not merely theoretical subjects in which a knowledge of grammatical rules results in the pupil being awarded a prize, they will probably continue to be handicapped.” He adds, “‘I speak feelingly on this subject, as my own children have been able to converse comfortably in four or five languages, and after two or three years at a first-class school have since entirely for- gotten how to use them, although two of the said languages are in their regular school course. I under- stand, for instance, that although when conversing they use the subjunctive mood naturally and correctly after certain conjunctions, they are unable to write out a list of all the conjunctions which govern the subjunctive, and consequently they are made to spend their time learning this and such-like rules instead of adding to their vocabu- lary as an infant does by daily practice.” a The languages which these officers call upon the British traveller tg learn are French, German, and Spanish. A knowledge of French will carry any commercial traveller through France, Belgium, Russia, Italy, and Switzerland, as well as through many parts of Germany. For Germany and Austria, German is necessary. Spanish is wanted for the Peninsula and the South American trade. 352 Let me repeat that the views set out above are not mine. They are those of, His Majesty’s Consuls at stations distributed over four continents. Tue Present Position anp NEEDS. I have now come to the last section of this paper. For fear of being misunderstood, let me say at once that I have no lack of respect for our ancient universities, and that any appearance of such in this paper is quite un- intentional. 1t would, indeed, be difficuit to exaggerate the share which our oldest universities have had in ‘the formative life of this country, and the work of the past is still necessary. Universities must continue _ their detached work; they must pursue knowledge for its own sake or for the purely ‘mental training it gives; they must continue to produce statesmen and churchmen and lawyers and doctors and schoolmasters, and they must educate the leisured classes. I would even go ‘so far as to say that it is a national asset to have institutions setting the standard of efficiency and honour in national games. But the modern world needs something more, especially from the departments of applied science. The sympathy and ‘support which these departments have received from the public have, to a large extent, been based on the belief that they would contribute to the success of national indusiry and commerce. The same holds true of the large technical institutions with day departments for young manhood. There is a public need, and in some cases a public demand. It is our object to increase the demand. I have no magician’s wand to offer as a means of revolutionising public opinion, and 1 should like to make clear that I have no thought of advocating mere imitation of German methods, which would be extremely foolish, if not disastrous. The industrial and commercial conditions and the character and traditions of the people of Britain and Germany are dissimilar. Again, the German uniyersi- ties endeavour to send out men ready to take their place immediately, not in the ranks, but as officers in the industrial and commercial armies. Further, the British system of education is so different that not to give heed to what exists would certainly court failure. Many useful lessons may, however, be gathered from a study of German methods ; but possibly our most useful lessons are to be gathered from America, where the character of the people is more like our own, and where it is clearly realised that whatever training of the highest kind a man may have, he must still begin in the ranks and climb his way to the top. It has been said that British character and methods produce a few brilliant units and a mass of mediocrities. The surest road to success would probably be for the mass of mediocrities to adopt the methods of the brilliant units. The normal attitude of the employers, if public, may be expressed in three sentences those value higher education who have felt the (2) The purely practical man can do much, the purely theoretical man can do little; a combination is therefore necessary. Should one quality only be obtainable, which would be regrettable, that quality should be the purely practical. (3) Teaching institutions may assist individuals to get on; they form no essential part of our industrial or commercial system. For these three sentiments I suggest that we are all anxious to substitute three others :—(1) Setting aside exceptions, every man who achieves success must give so much time to fit himself for his worl, whether the time is given in college under guidance and discipline or is expended in self-education. (2) In the end, and again setting aside exceptions, the man who has received the highest training in college under guidance and discipline will, other things being equal, achieve by far the greatest success. (3) The work of research and training carried wn in technical school and university college is an integral part of any nation’s successful industrial and commercial organisation. not of. the :—(1) Only need for it. Organisation and Management. How is the substitution to be accomplished? The demand of the shareholders of an industrial or commercial concern for dividends forms a great stimulus to intelli- NO. 2133, VOL. 84] NATURE [SEPTEMBER 15, 1910. gence and activity on the part of the staff. Without such stimulus in a technical school or faculty of applied science there is a tendency for things to become comfortable. | suggest the following :— : ar ; (1) The management of all technical institutions and © departments of applied science should be put on a busi- ness footing. The ordinary governing bodies, as a rule, serve for ordinary governing purposes. The chief need is that of consultative committees attached to all specialised faculties or departments, such committees to be advisory and to be composed of industrial or commercial leaders or experts of the highest reputation. This is probably the best and: surest means of enlisting the full sympathy of industrial and commercial leaders. The faculty or depart- ment, the curriculum and the examinations, would benefit by having its work and methods criticised sympathetically by experts of the first rank. Such a committee would form the surest medium of communication between the college and the workshop; and its formation would certainly be followed by a wide extension of the apprecia- tion of the advantages of technical education, because the captains of industry would learn exactly the character of the work done in college and how in practice to utilise it. The head of the teaching department and his staff would by this means gain easy access to factory and workshop, and bring back some of their atmosphere to the laboratory. On the examining committee of the engineering depart- ment of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical college are the engineering director of the Fairfield Ship- building and Engineering Co. and the engineering director of John Brown and Co., Clydebank Shipbuilding and Engineering Works. Such men would probably be gener- ally recognised as the leaders in their particular profession on the Clyde. IT understand that it is their practice to look in great detail through worked papers and designs, and to give the engineering department of the college the benefit of their criticisms. Employers, parents, and students cannot but have faith in the instruction given in an institution so aided. Let me make it quite clear that I am not advocating a mixed governing body, but an advisory committee of experts attached to each technical department. Governing bodies should consult such advisory committees before appointing the head of a department or even the principal of a college or technical institution. In the qualifications of principals and heads of departments it is customary to give too much con- sideration to academic status and too little to industrial experience and business capacity. Such a consultative body as I have referred to would act as a corrective in this respect. (2) A connection should be maintained with old students and a record kept of their after-careers. One of the means of success of the American colleges is the list of after-careers of their students. It is almost incredible how little has been done in Britain in this respect. I hope parents and the public generally will develop a habit of asking for such a list. (3) At each technical institution and university there should be an organisation to assist students in getting placed. The Blue-book recently issued by the Board of Education shows how much English universities have in the past neglected this aspect of their work, and how much there is still to be done to establish appointments committees or bureaus. IT am not overlooking the fact that much excellent work has been done by individual professors and occasionally by the secretary or the prin- cipal. But this was unorganised. I am asking for an organisation. The manufacturer and the merchant have been denounced in no. measured terms by representatives of learning for their short-sightedness in not applying scientific methods to manufacturing and business pro- cesses; could not the manufacturer and the business man retaliate that not only have university and technical college goods been of such various qualities that it was impossible to discriminate, but also that scientific principles—even common business empirical methods—have not been applied to the marketing of school and college products? It is a discredit to the universities and technical colleges that they have so long neglected this obvious means of assist- ing students, this obvious means of promoting the cause they proclaimed. $ SEPTEMBER 15, 1910| NATURE 353 (4) A change in curriculum and in degree requirements. Let me read some remarks on American colleges which I wrote in 1904. ‘‘Again, there is, in each American institution, a considerable ‘ mortality’ or shedding of students. Some students find their general preparation insufficient ; some find the pace too great; others find their funds give out; and some are advised that they have made a bad selection. In such cases the American student accepts advice, and acts promptly. At every step a student’s work is known, and the faculty—staff of pro- fessors in each department—every four months discuss fully a student’s work. The middle of the third year is the critical point in a student’s career. At this stage the requirements of the Institute of Technology demand a final decision as to choice of work. Fifteen men in one depart- ment were, at this point, recently advised to change their courses or to withdraw from the institute. I was in- formed that, as a rule, 25 per cent. of the civil engineer- ing students drop off at the same stage. These numbers have to be added to those who have previously ‘ fallen by the way.’ The greatest patience is extended to the students, and the best advice is offered to them; but in the interest of the individual, as of the standing of the institute and of its influence on industrial work, such shedding of students is regarded as inevitable, and is acquiesced in. It does not follow that the men are “wasted.’ As a rule they find employment of a lower character than they were aiming at; they change the directions of their careers, to their own great advantage, or they pursue a course of studies on the same lines at a secondary institution—a two-year course school.” It appears to me that such kind of advice and action is necessary in British teaching institutions, but it is hardly possible under existing conditions. (5) Another means of bringing the college class-room and laboratory into closer connection with factory, work- shop, and office would be more liberal provision of short, specialised courses suitable to the heads of firms or their successors. I am not referring to that provision of evening courses which is made in technical . schools and schools of art, but to provision, whether day or evening, of advanced courses for industrial and com- mercial leaders or their successors in institutions which there could be no presumed loss of self-respect in attend- ing. Such courses are provided at several colleges; they need multiplication. I know that a large number of able men obtain, at much expense, instruction through private agencies, because the best institutions do not appear to cater directly for their needs under suitable conditions. (6) As to modern languages, three things are necessary for the majority of students :—(i) less the scholar’s and more the utilitarian point of view; (ii) more concentration during the later school and college years; and (iii) speak- ing generally, a better class of teachers. In conclusion, let me say that this preliminary study of a very large question has disclosed much hopefulness of the future. The obstacles which university and other highly trained men encounter in getting a footing in the industrial world are still formidable, and the breaking down of the barriers between our highest teaching institu- tions and commercial life forms a specially difficult task. But there is plenty of need for first-class men, and there is not much difficulty in getting the exceptionally good man placed. It is gratifying, too, to find that His Majesty’s Consuls speak in the highest terms of the personal qualities of our foreign commercial travellers. On the side of education, too, there is much hopeful- ness. A distinguished university writer not long ago stated that the object of university education “‘ was not how to keep our trade, but how to keep our souls alive.’’ Between such a representative of university education and the busi- ness man who inquires what is the money value of a degree there is little room for accommodation. But the writer did an injustice to the universities, and the facts as to the objects of university education are against him. It may be true that in the long view the keeping of our souls alive is the object of university education, but even the oldest of our universities’ are becoming conscious that the immediate condition of saving our souls alive is that of saving our trade. NO. 2133, VOL. 84] ROYAL SANITARY INSTITUTE. THE twenty-fifth annual congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute, held at Brighton from September 5-10, was attended by upwards of 1200 members. To the address of the president, Sir John Cockburn, K.C.M.G., we have already referred (NATURE, September 8). Seeing that no fewer than sixty-three papers were printed in extenso, and many of them “‘ taken as read’’ before discussion, it will be understood that it is impossible, within the limits of our space, to do more than glance at the general aspects of the work of the congress, endeavouring to indicate the drift of opinion on some of the more important questions which were raised. All problems relating to the health and physical well-being of the community are regarded as coming within the province of the Institute. In the Lecture to the Congress Dr. Arthur Newsholme set forth the now well-known statistics of diminishing birth-rate, and con- sidered the arguments in favour of, and against, the pre- sent crusade against infant mortality. ‘‘Is it worth while to dilute our increase of population by 10 per cent. more of the most inferior kind?’’ The diminishing fertility- rate is as noticeable in the ranks of skilled artisans as it is in the ranks of the well-to-do. He concluded that it has not been proved that the inferiority of the offspring of the most fertile class, the unskilled, is due to inferiority of stock so much as to the unsatisfactory conditions into which they are born, and he strongly deprecated the atti- tude of that section of eugenists whose pass-word is “Thou shalt not kill, but need’st not strive Officiously to keep alive.’ The services of health visitors and the adop- tion of the Notification of Births Act are, the lecturer considered, the most hopeful agents and means whereby the death-rate of early life may be reduced. The numerous papers and discussions we can_ but summarise under separate headings. The — Municipal Control of Tuberculosis.—Compulsory notification of all cases was strongly advocated, and the removal of cases which cannot be nursed at home, without risk of spreading infection, to the empty wards of fever hospitals and small- pox hospitals; the risk of cross-infection being nil if suit- able administrative measures be adopted. This system had its initiation in Brighton, so far as the use of hospitals is concerned, and its value has been thoroughly proved. Patients receive the educational treatment which gives them a practical understanding of the lives which, for the sake of other people, as well as for their own, they must henceforth lead. Preventive Medicine in School Life.— Much consideration was devoted to the work of the school medical officer, the administration of the Education Act of 1908 being, as everyone acknowledged, in a tentative and, in many respects, a very unsatisfactory phase. More financial support is needed. Inspection without school clinics is in many districts in which there is diffi- culty in obtaining treatment of very little use. The question of the periodical disinfection of school _premises led to warnings regarding the danger of ‘‘sprinking a little carbolic acid, and leaving the rest to Providence. ' There are, indeed, few subjects in which sanitary authori- ties themselves are more in need of education than in the use of disinfectants. Faulty drains are not reconstructed, nor are their dangers lessened by an antiseptic odour which allays the anxiety of the public. _ Several papers were read upon school planning, and opinion appeared to be universally in favour of the Derbyshire and Stafford- shire type, which provides efficient cross-ventilation of every class-room. Cross-lighting — must, however, be avoided as far as possible. Open-air. schools on the lines of the Thackley (Bradford) school, in which each class- room has a verandah for fine weather, were commended. Rectangular class-rooms with more direct lighting and warming by the sun’s rays are to be preferred to square Appliances for drying cloaks and shoes should Be provided. The treatment of tuberculous children and o the pre-tubercular was brought forward by Dr. Broadbent, who strongly advocated teaching such children in the open air, and a modified curriculum. The X-ray treatment of ring-worm was approved; but the utmost caution is neces- sary at the present time, lest its unskilful _application should throw it into disrepute. Disease Carriers.—Prob- rooms. 354 MAL OTE. [SEPTEMBER 15, 1910 ably about 3 per cent. of the cases of typhoid fever which have recovered from the disease continue to breed and distribute the germs (Briickner). To scarlet fever, diph- theria, cerebro-spinal meningitis, and measles some risk of the same kind is attached. The importance of this matter can hardly be exaggerated. Instruction in cleanli- ness, periodical examination of the excreta of typhoid carriers, disinfection of the alimentary canal by drugs, are obviously necessary; with restriction to such occupa- tions as afford the least opportunity for the dissemination of disease. Control of Foods.—There can be no hope of freeing the milk supply from the bacillus of tubercle with- out more effective control of milk growers and milk sellers. At present the milk supply can be stopped only for one particular district, and the farmer is at liberty to send the condemned milk to any other district without incurring any penalty. Housing and Town Planning.— Dr. Fremantle argued that the expense and Opposition which an attempt to proceed under the Regulations of 1910 will entail will deter municipalities from taking advantage of the Act. Sewage Disposal.C. Chambers Smith maintained that economy in the disposal of sewage may be carried much further than at present. Sedimenta- tion tanks and percolating filters are less expensive than contact beds. Shenton advocated the sterilisation of sewage effluents by hypochlorite of lime, proving with well- ordered figures the need for this final destruction of bacterial life, and showing the efficiency and inexpensive- ness of the agent recommended. An interesting paper on the influence of underground waters on health was read by Baldwin Latham, who associates the epidemic appear- ance of fever with a fluctuating level of subsoil water, and especially with an unusually low water level. A conference of women on hygiene was held under the presidency of the Countess of Chichester, at which ques- tions of great practical importance in relation to the artificial feeding of infants and the influence of the employment of married women upon infant mortality were discussed; but the subject which aroused most interest was “‘ Home-making Centres ’’—centres for the teaching of what in Canada is defined as household science. What- ever other items may be introduced into the curriculum to meet the needs of particular localities, the chief subjects taught at such centres must always be cooking, house- wifery, dressmaking, the care of infants and children, personal and domestic hygiene. In the popular lecture, which brought the proceedings of the congress to a close, Dr. Alex. Hill took the oppor- tunity of directing attention to some of the recent triumphs of sanitary science, quoting especially from the report of Sir Rubert Boyce on the condition of the West Indies :— Look to your laurels, Brighton! ‘The West Indies are rapidly becoming the sanatoria which nature surely in- tended them to be .’’? He next proceeded to expound the principles of Mendelism, answering, incidentally, Dr. Archdall Reid’s objection that they have only been shown to hold good for human abnormalities and for the characters of cultivated plants and domestic animals by pointing out that, unless characters are either so unusual as to be “‘abnormal’”’ or so much exaggerated by breed- ing as to be outstanding, it is impossible for the biologist to isolate them as allelomorphs. He then submitted a scientific basis for Dr. Newsholme’s contention that all infant lives must be cherished by the community by show- ing photographs of a white albino guinea-pig from which the ovaries were removed soon after birth and re- placed by those of a black guinea-pig; one of several litters of young, all black; and their white albino sire. The doctrine of the continuity of germ-plasm, the lecturer said, by throwing the origin of the individual so far back, has profoundly modified our ideas of the heritability of the moral and pathological characteristics of the immediate parents. The congress was fruitful in discussion, and those who attended it will carry away many new conceptions and discard some misconceptions; but amongst the many con- gresses which meet at this season that of the Sanitary Institute stands somewhat apart in that it supplies the stimulus for the publication of a large number of papers of permanent value. Medical officers of health and others stationed in distant parts of Britain find in it an oppor- NO. 2133, VOL. 84] tunity of putting their observations and reflections in print, and submitting them in this form rather than orally, a considerable body of their fellow-workers. An admir able and extensive Health Exhibition was organised i connection with the congress. INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF PHARMACY, “THE tenth International Congress of Pharmacy was hel in Brussels on September 1 to 6, and was attended b over five hundred pharmacists. The Governments whic sent official representatives were those of France, Italy Spain, Russia, the United States, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Greece, Hungary, China, Japan, th Ottoman Empire, Venezuela, the Argentine Republic, th Republic of San Salvadore, Guatemala, Haiti, and Chili. The delegates from the Pharmaceutical Society of Greai Britain were Mr. Edmund White, a member of the society’s council, and Mr. E. S. Peck, one of the permanent hon. secretaries of the British Pharmaceutical Conference. Th most important subject which came up for consideration related to analytical methods. ‘The international conference for the unification of the formule of potent drugs, hel at Brussels in 1902, defined standards for a number o drugs and galenical preparations, but different methods o} standardisation give different results, and it was one of th objects of the pharmaceutical congress to consider what steps could be taken to bring about the approximation 0} analytical methods. After a long discussion it was unani, mously resolved, on the motion of Prof. Bourquelot representing the French Government, to ask the Belgian Government to convene an interational conference, com- posed largely of practising pharmacists, for the purpose of unifying the methods of estimating potent drugs, with the recommendation that, for the estimation of allaloidal pre- parations, preference should be given to gravimetric methods. The congress also agreed that it was desirable that pharmacopceias should indicate the precise methods of — determining physical constants, and that in the case of — chemical tests the reactions should not be capable of giving — rise to any difference of interpretation. The related topic — of the international unification of analytical reagents also received consideration, and the congress resolved to request pharmacopceiz commissions to adopt as far as possible — normal reagents or some multiple of the normal. The decisions on these two questions constitute the most useful part of the work of the congress. ; Next in importance was the discussion on the sale of proprietary disinfectants, and the congress unanimously — resolved to recommend that the sale of proprietary anti- septic products and disinfectants should be officially” regulated. No such products should be sold unless the manufacturers of them shall have obtained a licence from — the Government, only to be granted after the products — shall have been officially examined both chemically and — bacteriologically with the view of ascertaining if they possess the properties claimed for them. It was also ~ resolved to recommend that all such products should be — labelled with the name and address of the seller as well as— the manufacturer, and that the bactericidal strength and — the date of manufacture should be stated on the label. — Among other subjects discussed were :—(1) The desira- bility of a large representation of pharmacists on the com- mission charged with the preparation of an international pharmacopeeia; the congress expressed approval of the principle. (2) The advisability of pharmacists making their own galenical preparations; the congress agreed that this was desirable where possible. (3) The limitation in each country by the State of the number of pharmacies; the congress approved of the principle of limitation and agreed on a method of limitation. (4) The desirability of institut- ing in schools of pharmacy courses on the macroscopy, microscopy, and chemistry of natural and pathological secretions ; the congress agreed that such a course of study might with advantage be instituted. In addition to the discussion on topics of general and pharmaceutical interest, several communications of purely scientific interest were presented. Prof. Bourquelot made a ~ further contribution to the biochemical method of ‘ examination of vegetable glucosides hydrolysed by emulsin. He pointed out the relation between the optical properties SEPTEMBER 15, I9IO]| NATURE 355 and reducing power of the products of hydrolysis by emulsin, and suggested as an index of enzymolytic reduc- tion the weight of reducing substances, calculated as glucose, formed in 100 c.c. by the action of emulsin corre- sponding to a rotation of 1° observed in a 2 dem. tube. After showing the different uses of this method, he gave a list of medicinal plants in which the presence of glucoside had been shown by this means, but which had fallen into disuse, as no active principle had been separated formerly. Prof. Herissey explained a chemical method of obtaining the true glucoside arbutin, which gives glucose and hydro- quinone on hydrolysis with emulsin. Commercial arbutin, extracted from uva wrsi, is a mixture of true arbutin and methyl arbutin, and this, on being treated with alcoholic potash, gives a precipitate of the potassium salt of true arbutin, from which the glucoside can easily be obtained in a pure state. This glucoside is apparently identical with that isolated recently from the leaves of the pear tree by Prof. Bourquelot and Mlle. Fiehlenhots. Mr. Leger described his experiments which had led to the establishment of the constitution of the aloins. These experiments show that barbaloin and isobarbaloin are glucosides which can with difficulty be split into aleemodin and a arabinose. These two aloins are stereo-isomers. Nataloin, treated with sodium peroxide, furnishes methyi- nanatcemodine, decomposable by hydrochloric acid into nataloemodin and methyl chloride. Nataloin appears to contain in its molecule a pentose sugar. Prof. Perrot described the method which he, in collabora- tion with Mr. Goris, has devised for obtaining dried plants in which the properties of the fresh plants are preserved ; the principle upon which the method is based is the destruction of the diastase. Mr. Hercod read a paper by himself and Mr. Maben on the assay of pepsin, and the congress decided to refer the question to an international committee with a view to establishing an international standard and method of assay. Mr. Moller read a paper dealing with the determination of colours, and the congress agreed to recommend the adoption, as an international code of colours, of the code of Klinksieck and Valette. The above is a brief summary of the work accomplished at one of the most interesting international meetings of pharmacists which has ever been held. It should also be mentioned that a decision was arrived at to form a per- manent international pharmaceutical association, the head- quarters of which will probably be at the Hague. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Mr. Puirie Warp, who has just been appointed a Com- missioner of National Education in Ireland, is the first national teacher to fill the position. He is a former presi- dent of the National Teachers’ Organisation. Tue following courses of Gresham science lectures are announced for delivery at the City of London School, Victoria Embankment :—Geometry, by Mr. W. H. Wag- staff, on October 4, 5, 6, and 7; physic, by Dr. F. M. Sandwith, on October 25, 26, 27, and 28; astronomy, by Mr. S. A. Saunder, on November 7, 8, 10, and 11. i Pror. GOLpWIN SmitH, according to the Toronto corre- spondent of the Times, has bequeathed the sum of 140,0001. to Cornell University ‘‘ to show my attachment as an Englishman to the union of the two branches of our race on this continent with each other and with our common mother’’; the greater part of Prof. Goldwin Smith’s library, and 18o0ol., are left to the University of Toronto. THE new calendar of the Battersea Polytechnic shows an increase of work in all departments. In connection with the engineering and building department, new even- ing classes are being commenced in pattern-making and architectural measurements, and in connection with the gun-making section a course of study extending over three years has been arranged in gun and ammunition manufacture. A course has also been arranged by request of the Institute of Certificated Grocers on subjects which NO. 2133, VOL. 84] appeal to the grocery and provision trade. The chemistry department is extending its work by providing more advanced instruction in paper-making and bacteriology, and new classes in soap manufacture. In the women’s depart- ment, a third-year day course of science as applied to housecraft has been arranged. The new library presented by Mr. Edwin Tate, at a cost of 8oo0ol., is to be opened by the Archbishop of Canterbury on Friday, October 21. Tue Belfast University Commissioners have decided to establish a faculty of commerce within the University, to consist of the professors and lecturers in the subjects of the faculty, and in addition there will be an advisory com- mittee. In framing the curriculum the needs of three classes of students have been borne in mind :—those who are, or expect to be, engaged in business; those who are preparing for the administrative work of the State or the municipality ; and those who contemplate social or philan- thropic work. It is proposed to grant a degree in the faculty to matriculated students who have pursued pre- scribed courses of study for at least three years and who have satisfied the examiners in certain subjects. To meet the case of students unable to devote to these subjects the time necessary for the acquisition of a degree, a diploma in commerce or a diploma in social science will be granted after a two years’ course and the passing of the prescribed examinations. Tue issue of the Bulletin of Armour Institute of Techno- logy, Chicago, for May last, which has reached us, is a general information number, which differs little in character from the calendars and prospectuses published at this time of the year by colleges and technical institu- tions in this country. The work of the institute in Chicago was begun in 1893. Four-year courses in mechanical and electrical engineering were first organised. A union was effected with the Art Institute of Chicago for the purpose of developing the course in architecture which that institution had maintained since 1889. The result was the establishment of the Chicago School of Architec- ture. In 1899 the course in civil engineering was added, in 1901 the course in chemical engineering, and in 1903 the course in fire-protection engineering. The courses in these subjects all lead now to the degree of Bachelor of Science. Each of these four-year courses represents a balanced group system of studies, combining a thorough and broad scientific training with the elements of liberal culture. Tue Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- tion for Ireland has issued its programme for technical schools and science and art schools and classes for next session. The regulations which were in operation during the session 1909-10 will continue in force, with one altera- tion only. Small schools are to be permitted to adopt specialised courses of instruction covering a period of two years only. A prefatory note points out that the schools and classes working under this programme are mainly, though not exclusively, evening schools, and adds that instruction in evening classes cannot form a substitute for the more general and systematic education given in day schools, whether primary, secondary, or technical. The work of such evening schools and classes constitutes a specialised form of education intended to fit those receiving it for industrial or commercial pursuits, or to render those already engaged in such pursuits more efficient in their work. Attendance is purely voluntary. Those attending are for the most part engaged, or about to be engaged, in some form of industry, and are meeting problems and difficulties which the evening technical school can help them to solve. They perceive that the higher branches of their calling may be reached only by increased technical skill and knowledge; but progress is hindered by several circumstances: hitherto the previous preparation of students joining evening technical schools has in many cases not been such as to fit them for the specialised form of instruction which it is the special function of such schools to impart. An attempt is made in these regula- tions to remedy this defect. Tue recently issued syllabus of classes at the Sir John Cass Technical Institute, Aldgate, for the coming session shows that graded curricula of study extending over 356 - NATURE [SEPTEMBER 15, IQ10 several years are provided for those engaged in chemical, electrical, and metallurgical industries. In addition, several special courses of instruction are to be given; in the chemistry department there is to be a course of work for those engaged in the fermentation industries, which includes lectures and laboratory instruction in brewing and malting and on the micro-biology of the fermentation industries, as well as a series of courses on liquid, gaseous, and solid fuels. In the metallurgical department special courses of an advanced character are provided on gold, silver, and allied metals, on iron and steel, and on metallo- graphy. The winter session at the Merchant Venturers’ Technical College, which has just commenced, is the fifty- first held in connection with this institution. It will be remembered that the faculty of engineering of the Uni- versity of Bristol is provided and maintained in the college. The new calendar, in addition to necessary general in- formation, supplies full particulars of the day classes of the Bristol School of Commerce, the faculty of engineer- ing of the University of Bristol, the extensive evening classes, and the school of art. The calendar also contains a list of gifts and loans to various departments of the college made by numerous manufacturing firms and learned societies, which shows that the college authorities are successful in securing the cooperation of employers of labour and others in the useful work they are doing in providing suitable technical instruction for the workers of the district. TuE first congress of the newly established Textile Institute, the objects of which are to promote the interests of the textile trades, was opened on Thursday last at Bradford by Lord Rotherham, who, in his inaugural address, said he looked for the institute to do its part in establishing cordial relations between men of science and practical spinners and manufacturers. The delivery of the address was followed by the reading of a paper by Mr. F. Warner on technical education in relation to the textile industries, in the course of which the author said that the existing system of education is overcrowding the office and starving the factory and workshop. Great Britain cannot afford to scrap from 5 to 7 per cent. of the working population, and the remedy for the present evil is more technical instruction and the practical training of the rising generation in industry and trade. The old apprenticeship system had manifest advantages, and its revival was suggested; but modern technical instruction, properly applied, offers advantages to the student for advancement which were impossible to the apprentice. Day classes should, by the cooperation of employers, be arranged to a far greater extent than was now the case, and in this respect England is far behind modern practice in the textile trades abroad. An essential requirement is proficient art teaching, for though in the perfection of cloth structure British goods are unsurpassed, in the class of fabric in which design and colour are required the repu- tation of our manufacturers is on a lower plane. Mr. Warner advocated the formation of a national department which, controlled by a council composed of captains of industry. in all branches of manufacture and commerce, and of artists, designers, and educationists, could deal directly with art and technical schools. A similar system should also be put in operation in local centres. The financial difficulty should be met both by local and Govern- ment aid. SOCIETIES “AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, September 5.—M. Bouchard in the chair.—Madame P. Curie and A. Debierne: Metallic radium. Starting with 0-106 gram of the purest radium chloride (atomic weight 226-5), the method of Guntz for the preparation of metallic barium was followed. The radium chloride in aqueous solution was electrolysed with a mercury kathode and a platino-iridium anode. After the electrolysis the solution contained o-oo85 gram of the salt. The amalgam decomposed water and was readily attacked by the air. The dry amalgam was rapidly trans- ferred to a clean iron boat, the latter placed in a quartz tube, and was rapidly evacuated. The distillation of the mercury from the amalgam offered NO. 2133, VOL. 84] some difficulties; to prevent visible ebullition, which resulted in loss by projection, the tube was filled with carefully purified hydrogen, the pressure of which was kept slightly above the pressure of the mercury vapour at the temperature of the boat. At the close of the opera- tion the metal was left in the boat, brilliantly white, and melting sharply at 7oo° C. The authors regard this as sensibly pure radium. The metal alters very rapidly in air, blackening immediately, probably owing to the forma- tion of a nitride. Some particles detached from the boat, falling on white paper, produced a blackening similar to a burn. Radium energetically decomposes water going into solution, indicating that the hydroxide is soluble. Radio-active measurements showed that the increase of activity followed the usual law for the production of the emanation, the limiting activity of the metal becoming normal. Since it was found that the metallic radium was much more volatile than metallic barium, it is proposed to purify the metal by sublimation in a vacuum.—Léon Kolowrat: The § rays of radium at its minimum activity. The author has repeated the experiments of O. Hahn and Mlle. Meitner, and has arrived at conclusions confirming the existence of a very absorbable 6 radiation.—Georges Baume and F. Louis Perrot: The fusibility curves of gaseous mixtures: compounds of methyl oxide and methyl alcohol with ammonia gas. The results of these cryoscopic researches are given in graphical form.—J. B. Senderens : The preparation of acrolein. It has been found that potassium bisulphate reacts catalytically with glycerol, so that, instead of adding the bisulphate in the proportion of twice the weight of glycerol, as is customary, one-fiftieth of this amount of the bisulphide is sufficient.—Paul Gaubert: Soft crystals and the measurement of their indices of refraction. Figures are given for the refractive indices of crystals of beeswax, ammonium oleate, ozokerite, paraffin, and lecithine.—R. Robinson: The vessels of the fork of the median nerve. A contribution to the study of the manual dexterity of man. CONTENTS. Bibliography of Atlases . . z Lead and Zinc Pigments. By Dr. A. P. Laurie . - 325 Meteorological Tables. By E.Gold .... + 326 Plants and Gardens) 2), 3 2). . OurBook Shelf. . 2c oo) oe 5 ee Letters to the Editor :— Lord Morton’s Quagga Hybrid and Origin of Dun Horses.—Proft. James Wilson; Prof. J. C. Ewart, F.R.S. . . si-3_ ys) ean An Undescribed Feather Element. ” (Illustrated.)— Fredk, J. Stubbs hosp SO An Interesting Donkey Hybrid. =R. 1 Pocock . . 329 British Marine Zoology.—Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S.; Prof. E. W. MacBride, F.R.S... . 329 The Origin of the Domestic ‘* Blotched x. Tabby Cat. —H.M. Vickers . . + 33m The Reform of Oxford University. By F. AWD. 331 Medical Education in the United States and Canada. ; 332 The Sheffield Meeting of the British Association 333 Section C.—Geology.—Opening Address by Prof. A. P. Coleman, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S,, Presi- dent of the Section icc - 383 Notesiji,. ; Dag OE Ee emalirarte Our Astronomical Column :— Metcalf’s'Comet; TolGs) ~ cies atin bene) ete eer Sere A Suspected New Planet .. PRE b a se ey a}! Definitive Elements for Comet 1852 IV. eh hs - 344 A Suggested Volcanic Origin of Martian Features . . 344 The Passage of the Earth through the Tail of the 1861 Gomet:.) . 3 344 The Spectrum. of Cyanogen é otis, col Sieroine sua Researches on the Colours of Stars) By cal colagsehote a: eae aE **Mock Suns” . . 345 The Relation of Science to Industry ‘and Com. reed UA ENe 6 5 Sb oo of ag, 0 ee Royal Sanitary Institute é AOL oer o.oo) International Congress of Pharmacy . cin oec ec siti! University and Educational Intelligence ..... 355 Societiesiand Academies). | cimen eo eienie) ene > ay a al ee re ee Se eee THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, tg1o. ANIMALS OF THE ANCIENTS. Die Antike Tierwelt. By Otto Keller. Erster Band, Saugetiere. Pp. xii+434. (Leipzig: W. Engel- mann, 1gog.) Price 10 marks. OR many years past the author of this interest- ing volume has been engaged in investigating the records relating to animals known to the ancients, with the object of identifying the various species described or depicted, and working out their past history and distribution, special attention, in the case of mammals, being directed to the larger and more interesting forms, and those which have been domes- ticated by man. The results of this protracted study are incorporated in the work, of which the first volume is now before me, and in many respects Dr. Keller is to be congratulated on the outcome of his labours, especially in regard to his treatment of the various species of the Primates and Carnivora, although even among these he does not appear to have made himself acquainted with all the recent literature on the subject, and notably the work of Dr. Lortet on the mummified animals of Egypt, now in course of publication in the Archives of the Lyons Museum. Even in the case of the Carnivora, I cannot, how- ever, agree with all the author’s conclusions, as, for instance, the statement on p. 72 that domesticated cats owe their origin in part to the jungle-cat (Felis chaus). Indeed, it is difficult to believe that he is fully acquainted with the characteristics of that species, or he would have hesitated in identifying with it the cat depicted in a fresco from Pompeii, which is reproduced on p. 72, the tail being much too long, and the ears showing no trace of the distinctive tufts. Leaving the Carnivora with this brief mention, I pass on to the Ungulata, where there is much more room for criticism, more especially in regard to the author’s identification of animals represented in the ancient sculptures and cylinders of Syria and adjacent parts of Asia Minor with species indigenous to Central Asia and other distant regions. Nor is this all, for when Dr. Keller attempts to identify animals represented in the frescoes of ancient Egypt with species inhabiting northern Africa, he is, in many cases, to say the least, far from happy in his con- clusions. In the upper figure on p. 295 we find, for instance, an antelope identified as a_hartebeest (Butalis), although it is much more probably a lesser kudu (Strepsiceros imberbis), and is identical with the fresco from the Ptahhetep Chapel, reproduced in Fig. 3 of the present writer’s paper on ‘‘Some Ancient Animal Portraits’? (NaturE, vol. Ixx., pp. 207-209, 1904), and provisionally identified with that species. Again, the animals in the lower figure (99) on the page cited are likewise termed Bubalis, although two species are clearly portrayed, one being the presumed lesser kudu, while the other is, I think, the brindled gnu (Connochaetes taurinus). Further, on p. 291, Fig. 94, we find a fresco identified with the addra NO. 2134, VOL. 84] NATURE a5 gazelle (Gazella dama ruficollis),' although it clearly represents G. soemmerringi, as does Fig. 2 in my above-cited article. The white oryx (Oryx leucoryx), Fig. 95, the addax (Addax nasomaculatus), Fig. 97, and the Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana), Fig. tot, are, on the other hand, correctly identified. Leaving animals indigenous to Egypt and the neighbouring countries, attention may be directed to Fig. 93a, which is the one reproduced in Nature for September 2, 1909, in a review of Countess Cesaresco’s “Man and Animals in Human Thought.” In that work the animals shown in this Assyrian relief are described as goats, but it was pointed out in the review that they are much more probably gazelles, although I was wrong in suggesting the addra, in which the females are horned. Dr. Keller is likewise of opinion that they are gazelles, but identifies them with the Tibetan goa (G. picticaudata), a species with which the ancient Assyrians cannot, I conceive, have been acquainted. Such an identification is, moreover, per- fectly unnecessary, seeing that in the goitred or Per- sian Gazella subgutturosa we have a practically local species which agrees in all respects—notably the horn- less females—with the relief. Having shown that the animals in this sculpture are of a local type, attention may be directed to Fig. 102, p. 301, which reproduces the figures on part of a cylinder brought by Sir H. Layard from Con- stantinople. One of the ruminants on this is identified by Dr. Keller with the Himalayan markhor (Capra falconeri), and the other with the Central Asian argali sheep (Ovis ammon). Both species, be it noted, are represented as being in captivity, under the charge of apparently Syrian attendants, and the female of the supposed markhor carries horns as long as those of the male, and has a kid. This renders it, I think, clear that both kinds were seen by the artist in the living condition, and if this be so, it is perfectly evident that they were not, respectively, markhor and argali; animals, the very existence of which could not, I submit, have been even known to the ancient Assyrians. It is no argument to state, as the author does on another page, that the Assyrians were in the habit of bringing two-humped Bactrian camels from Afghanistan, seeing that these animals now come as far south as the Crimea and the Caucasus. Moreover, the long horns of the female are fatal to the markhor theory. In my opinion there is every reason to regard the supposed markhor as Circassian domesticated | goats, in which both sexes carry long spiral horns. As to the supposed argali, I am less confident but unless they be domesticated sheep, it may be sug- gested that they are Pallas’s tur (Capra cylindri- cornis), of the eastern Caucasus, and in any case there can be little or no hesitation in regarding them as representing a more or less strictly local species. In connection with sheep, it must suffice to mention that there is great doubt as to the identification of those in the Negadah plate, B.c. 6000-5000 (Fig. 106, p. 310), with the domesticated Hausa sheep of Nigeria, as they appear to represent the wild udad, or Barbary sheep (Ovis lervia, or tragelaphus), of North Africa generally. 1 Antilope damma of the author. N 358 In place, therefore, of foreign species, with which it seems impossible for the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians to have been acquainted, it seems to me that all the ruminants referred to by Dr. Keller are local forms, well known to the artists and sculptors by whom they were painted or chiselled. The same remark will, I believe, apply to the representations of the Indian elephant, like the one on the obelisk of Salmanassar IT. (Fig. 130, p. 375), although the author regards these animals as of foreign origin. He ap- pears, however, to be unacquainted with the definite record that at an early date the Assyrian kings hunted the Indian elephant in the Euphrates valley, this record being confirmed by the occurrence of fossilised remains of the so-called Elephas armeniacus, which may have been merely a local race of the former species, in Armenia. The Indian elephant being thus shown to have been a local, instead of an imported, species in ancient Assyria, it may be suggested that if the unicorn animal on the obelisk of Salmanassar ii. be, as Dr. Keller suggests (p. 386, Fig. 133), the Indian Rhino- ceros unicornis, which is known to have had formerly a much wider distribution than at the present day, that species may likewise have ranged in Assyrian times into Mesopotamia; and, if this be the case, it will be practically certain that all the animals repre- sented by the artists of ancient Egypt and Assyria were more or less local species. More criticism of much the same nature might be added, but sufficient has been stated to show that while the volume under review contains a very large amount of valuable information concerning the early history of well-known animals, at least the portion relating to ungulates stands in need of revision by a writer with a fuller knowledge of that group than the author appears to possess. Ree THE DESIGN OF REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURE. (1) A Concise Treatise on Reinforced Concrete. By C.F. Marsh. Pp. viii+225. (London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1909.) Price 7s. 6d. net. (2) Concrete-Steel Construction. By Prof, Emil Morsch, Authorised translation from the third (1908) German edition, revised and enlarged by E. P. Goodrich. Pp. ix+368. (New York: The Engineering News Publishing Co.; London: Messrs. Constable and Co., Ltd., 1909.) Price 21s. net. (3) Il Cemento Armato e la sua applicazione practica. By Cesare Presenti. Pp. 141. (Milan: Hoepli,. 1910.) (4) Le prove dei materiali da costruzione e le costru- Ulrico sioni in Cemento Armato. By Giulio Revere. Pp. NMU+541. (Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1910.) — Price 11 lire. HE employment of reinforced concrete in connec- tion with engineering and architectural struc- tures has now become so general that a text-book on somewhat simpler and more condensed lines than NO. 2134, VOL. 84] NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1910 those of Mr. Marsh’s well-known treatise on *“ Re- inforced Concrete ’ will be gladly welcomed by many engineers and architects. The present volume (r) has been, to a certain extent, based upon a series of lectures delivered by the author in the winter of 1908-9 at the Central Technical College, London; hence, in all cases the derivation of important formule has been fully dealt with, but lengthy and detailed descriptions of the various systems of construction have been omitted; this latter portion of the subject was fully dealt with in the author’s manual. The first two chapters deal respectively with the properties and the behaviour under bending of rein- forced concrete, the important question as to the value of the modulus of elasticity (E.) for the concrete which should be adopted in the calculations required in con- nection with the design of struts and beams is very fully discussed, and Mr. Marsh shows that we may safely assume it to be 2,000,000 pounds per square inch when the concrete is two or three months old, or, in other words, that the ratio of E,/E, may be taken as 15. In the third chapter the various assumptions which have to be made for purposes of calculation are briefly explained, and their validity discussed; it is shown that, when calculations are based on the safe working stress for concrete, it is sufficiently accurate for all purposes to assume a straight line stress-strain relation for the concrete as well as for the steel. The rest of the book is devoted to methods of cal- culation; after a short discussion of the bending moments of beams and slabs partially built in at the supports, direct compression is taken up, and then the longitudinal, bond, and shearing stresses in rect- angular section and T section beams with single or double reinforcement; pipes and similar structures subjected to either internal or external pressure are then dealt with; a very thorough and complete in- vestigation is next given of the calculations which are necessary in the design of small, and large, span arches, and other pieces which are subjected to both direct stresses and to bending stresses. The design of reinforced concrete arches is always admittedly a difficult piece of work, and there is no doubt that the treatment which Mr. Marsh gives of this branch of reinforced concrete work will prove of great service to those who only occasionally have to deal with such structures, as the methods explained and discussed are simple and direct. In the last chapter a brief description is given of the general methods of reinforcement which should be adopted in structural work. Mr. Marsh, by his well-known treatise, established his position as a trustworthy guide in this important field of engineering and architectural design, and the present volume is quite worthy of the reputation thus acquired, (2) Prof. Mérsch, in his capacity as director of the technical bureau of the well-known firm of Wayss and Freytag, has been responsible for the design and erection of the reinforced structures built by this firm during the past fifteen years; he has, therefore, in ee SEPTEMBER 22, [910] NATURE 359 part ii. of this book, which deals with the applications | Prussian Ministry of Public Works, for the con- of reinforced concrete, confined himself entirely to work done by Messrs. Wayss and Freytag, and there is justification in regard to this choice, since the whole of the examples described have been designed in accordance with the rules and formula given by Prof. Morsch in the first half of the book, and many of them, in accordance with the recommendations for the design and construction of reinforced concrete structures, issued by the Verbands Deutscher Archi- tekten und Ingenieur Vereine, and the Deutscher Beton Verein in 1904. The theory of reinforced concrete is fully and thoroughly discussed in part i. of this book, and it is this section which will be of great service to English and American designers, because it includes a mass of experimental data not hitherto readily accessible to those who wished to make use of these results in connection with any new piece of design work. In an investigation as to the flexure of reinforced columns, Prof. Mérsch shows that a special calcula- tion of their safety against rupture by flexure will only be required in exceptional cases; for the strength of reinforced columns with spiral reinorcement, the author accepts the conclusions of Considére, who showed that the carrying capacity would be 24 times as great with such a system as when the same amount of reinforcement was employed in the shape of longitudinal rods. For calculations connected with simple bending, Prof. Mérsch adopts the usual hypothesis that the tensile strength of the concrete should be ignored; the gradual shifting upwards of the position of the neutral axis as the loading is increased is clearly shown by the plotted results of a series of careful tests made at the testing laboratory at Stuttgart. A valuable chapter is that devoted to the calculations necessary when bending is combined with axial forces; circular and annular sections are discussed, as well as those of rectangular form. In rectangular metal beams the shearing stresses are unimportant, and may usually be neglected, but in reinforced concrete they are of great importance in considering the arrangement of the reinforcement, and Prof. Moérsch devotes several chapters to the con- sideration of this branch of the subject, which is often inadequately treated in works on reinforced concrete design; after a mathematical investigation, he deals fully with the results obtained in numerous experi- mental investigations, which he has himself carried out on T beams, both when simply supported and when continuous; the results obtained from the latter tests are exceedingly interesting and of great importance to designers of structures in which such continuous members are largely used. In part ii. there are excellent illustrations of the use of reinforced concrete, examples having been selected from all the various types of buildings or structures for which this material has up to the present time been employed. ; The recommendations of the German _ societies, already referred to, and the regulations of the Royal NO. 2134, VOL. 84] struction of reinforced concrete buildings, are printed as an appendix. The translator, Mr. Goodrich, and the publishers are to be congratulated on the result of their labours. The illustrations, on the whole, are satisfactory, in spite of the difficulties connected with their reproduc- tion, referred to in the publishers’ note. (3) The author adopts the usual hypotheses in order to obtain fairly simple formula for the design of beams, both smple and continuous; he takes E,/E, as equal to 15, and deals fully with both simple rectangular cross sections and T sections. The various formulze are illustrated by numerous fully worked out examples. In the second part of the work is given a number of graphical and numerical tables for facilitating the rapid calculation of the dimensions of beams of various classes for certain lengths of span under known loads, and examples are given to show how much labour is saved by the use of-such tables; the maximum stresses permitted are those usually adopted in practice. (4) The first half of this book is devoted to the subject of the testing of the materials of construction —stone, wood, metals, cements, &c. There is nothing novel or exceptional in this section in the method of treatment of a subject to which so many text-books have now been devoted. A special chapter is given to the subject of the microscopical investigation of the structure of metals, and to the application of this method to commercial testing. The standard conditions for carrying out commer- cial tests of materials, as approved by the Italian Government, are printed in the form of appendices to the appropriate chapters, and will prove of interest to engineers who may have to carry out contracts for the Italian Government, or for local authorities in that country. The second half of the book treats of constructional worl: in reinforced concrete; here the usual order adopted in text-books is inverted; the first ninety pages of this section are occupied with illustrations and descriptions of works of all classes—buildings, bridges, silos, harbour works, &c.—which have been constructed in ferro-concrete, and then follow several chapters devoted to the theories underlying the design of such structures. Most of the works illustrated have been carried out in Italy, where ferro-concrete work has developed much more rapidly than in Great Britain, and this section of the book will prove useful to designers of similar works in this country, especially as many of the reproduced working drawings are fairly fully dimensioned. The mathematical treatment adopted in the chapter devoted to the design of columns and beams of all classes is that which has now become more or less stereotyped in text-books dealing with reinforced con- crete. There is only a brief treatment of the arch, but continuous beams are very fully discussed. Oe EL. eB 300 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, I9IO TEXT-BOOKS OF CHEMISTRY. (1) Practical Chemistry. By Dr. James Bruce and Harry Harper. Pp. viii+24o. (London: Mac- millan and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. (2) Qualitative Analysis. Tables for Use at the Bench. By E. J. Lewis. (Cambridge: University Press, 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. net. (3) Outlines of Organic Chemistry. A Book Designed especially for the General Student. By Dr. F. J. Moore. Pp. x+315. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1910.) Price 6s. 6d. net. (4) The Calculations of General Chemistry, with Definitions, Explanations, and Problems. Second edition. By Prof. William J. Hale. Pp. xii+175. (London: George Bell and Sons, rg10.) Price 4s. 6d. (5) A.B.C. Five Figure Logarithms and Tables for Chemists, including Electrochemical Equivalents, Analytical Factors, Gas Reduction Tables, and other Tables useful in Chemical Laboratories. By C. J. Woodward. Pp. iv+7o. (London: E. and F. N. Spon, Ltd.; Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Ltd.; New York: Spon and Chamberlain; Birmingham : Cornish Bros., 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. net. 1) HE first of these books contains in the space of 240 pages an account of the manipulative methods of chemical experiment, a selection of in- organic and organic preparations, instructions for physical measurements, such as the densities of liquids and vapour densities, qualitative analysis of simple salts, and a selection of volumetric and gravi- metric methods. In spite of the large amount of ground which is covered, the work is excellently done, and it is a great advantage to find in a single small volume nearly all that is needed in the way of text- book instruction for the practical work of a course passing well beyond the standard of an intermediate B.Sc. course, and almost up to the standard of the final examination. Such criticisms as may be made refer only to matters of detail, and are not intended to detract from the value of a book which is un- doubtedly one of the best that has appeared. It may, however, be noted that the method of making ethylene by means of phosphoric acid, as described by Newth in the Journal of the Chemical Society, is much Superior to the older method, in which sulphuric acid was used, and should be generally adopted. The gas- regulator shown on p. 5 is less efficient than those in which toluene is used, and the pyknometer (Fig. 42) shown on p. 98 has been improved by the use of two bulbs instead of one, as recently described by Mr. W. R. Bousfield. In the volumetric work it is to be regretted that only one method of preparing a standard solution (normal Na,CO, from NaHCO,) }!s given, as the checking of these methods against one another forms an excellent test of the accuracy of the work, and is of far greater value than the estimation of acids and alkalis in variable commercial samples; moreover, the estimation of acids is far more accurate if carried out with the help of a standard acid and intermediate alkali than when a standard alkali is used, as in the former case all the errors which arise NO. 2134, VOL. 8a] from uncertainty as to ‘‘end-point,’’ &c., are eliminated. Amongst the omitted methods are the preparation of standard caustic soda by weighing out sodium, dissolving in alcohol and diluting, and the preparation of standard acid by measuring the density of sulphuric acid of 80 to go per cent. strength, and diluting, as described by Marshall in the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry. In the experience of the present writer these methods, in the hands of students as well asin work of the highest attainable accuracy, lead to exact results more readily than most of those that have been described. In the use of permanganate it is doubtful how far it is safe to rely on the purity of the crystals, and as the solutions are not altogether per- manent, it would be well to treat them from the beginning as only approximately correct. (2) The best guarantee of the quality of the material printed on these cards is the name of the author, whose ‘Inorganic Chemistry’’ has almost created a new ideal in elementary text-books. How far the idea of using printed and varnished cards will prove superior to the system of practical text-books is a matter that can only be worked out by actual experi- ence in the laboratory. (3) In comparison with the majority of text-books of organic chemistry, this volume starts with one great advantage—that the authors have not attempted to make it into a dictionary or table of physical con- stants. They have, therefore, been enabled to deal in a small volume with an unusually large amount of interesting and ‘‘advanced”’ material, usually reserved for works of a more pretentious character. This is in many respects a distinct advantage. hand, they have omitted almost entirely the details of methods of preparation, and so have conferred on the subject with which they deal a certain impression of unreality, which might easily have been removed. If, however, the student who reads the book is at the same time carrying out a course of organic prepara- tions, the risk that he may come to regard the sub- ject as one of algebra and geometry—only loosely attached to experiment by the necessities of verifica- tion—will be removed, and the book may then prove both useful and suggestive. (4) The use of numerical examples is way of impressing upon a student the equivalents, vapour densities, molecular and atomic weights; it is also necessary in order to secure accu- racy in the calculation of analytical results, especially an excellent meaning of if this is to be done correctly under the hurried and- “practical — somewhat unpractical conditions of a examination.”’ This need the author has attempted with some measure of success to supply. The chief fault of the book arises from the fact that most of his examples appear to have originated in the study in- stead of in the laboratory. No chemist would be likely to use in actual work the bewildering array of standard solutions referred to in chapter x., 2N, N, N/2, N/4, N/5, N/6, N/8, N/ro, N/20, &c.; neither would anyone who had experience of the subject expect to obtain a theoretical yield of nitric oxide from 7N nitric acid and copper. These and other calcula- tions of a similar character suggest that the author ; On the other — SEPTEMBER 22, I910| NATURE 361 is merely attempting to teach chemical arithmetic with no regard for the opportunities which arise of teaching chemistry at the same time. The figures actually re- sulting from the best experiments are so _ readily accessible that a book which fails to make use of them and substitutes obvious fictions is scarcely to be recommended. (5) This book of tables is well compiled, and should prove useful, but the printing and binding are not as good as might be desired in view of the small size of the book and the price at which it is issued. MINERAL SPRINGS AND WELLS OF ESSEX. A History of the Mineral Waters and Medicinal Springs of the County of Essex. By Miller Christy and Miss May Thresh, with a critical note by ' W. H. Dalton. Essex Field Club Special Memoirs, vol. iv. Pp. vi+73. (Stratford, Essex: Essex Field Club; London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. net. HIS work forms vol. iv. of the Essex Field Club Special Memoirs, and has been reprinted from the Essex Naturalist, with additions. As in most other English counties, there are in Essex a number of springs and wells that have attained notoriety as mineral or medicinal waters, and the authors have done well to prepare a full and precise account of them. The earliest record is of a spring at Wanstead, which was regarded as a spa in 1619, but has long been lost to sight. Witham, Chigwell Row, and Upminster had mineral waters that were formerly reputed to be of medicinal value. No information is available concerning the particular constituents of the Witham Spa; the water of Chigwell Row was purga- tive, but of no importance; while that of Upminster contained Epsom salts. Tilbury water, obtained from a well, appears to have been most famous in Essex, but, as the authors remark, the saline ingredients were insufficient to justify its being considered a mineral water. Dr. Richard Russel, however, remarked in 1769 that the water ‘‘makes excellent Punch, and is extremely good for Tea.’’ The only genuine. mineral waters acknowledged in the present work are those of South Weald, Upminster, and Hockley, which con- tain as the more prominent ingredient magnesium sulphate. As the authors admit, every so-called mineral spring in Essex, with one exception, is now neglected, and almost forgotten; and as regards the waters in general they consider “that ‘ faith’ was an important, if not the chief, element in the ‘cures’ they are credited with.” Dovercourt Chalybeate Spa, discovered about 1852, is the sole remaining spa, and in a sample of the water sent in 1897 to Dr. J. C. Thresh, he reported that it contained under one grain of iron salts per gallon. The authors express their indebtedness to Dr. Thresh for assistance in dealing with the Essex waters from a chemical point of view, and to Mr. W. H. Dalton for notes on the strata whence the waters are derived. Reference should’ have been made to the Bagshot Sands on p. 63, as the waters of Hockley, as well as those of South Weald, are derived from that NO. 2134, VOL. 84] formation or the passage-beds above the mass of London Clay. There are no deep-seated mineral waters in Essex, but the subject, as shown by the authors, is one of considerable interest, and by no means devoid of scientific importance. H. B. W.- OUR BOOK SHELF. (1) Edible and Poisonous Fungi. Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. Pp. 28. With 25 coloured plates. (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1910.) Price Ww. (2) Guide to Mr. Worthington Smith’s Drawings of Field and Cultivated Mushrooms and Poisonous or Worthless Fungi often Mistaken for Mushrooms, Exhibited in the Department of Botany, British Museum ‘(Natural History). Pp. 24. (London: Printed by Order of the Trustees of the British Museum, Natural History, 1910.) Price 1s. (1) Tue publication of this pamphlet by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries is intended doubtless to broaden the ‘“‘mushroom” diet of country dwellers. Whether this object will be attained depends primarily on the doubtful possibility of creating an interest in a lethargic public, and further, in making quite clear the somewhat abstruse differences between the clean and the unclean. With regard to means of discrimina- tion, reliance is placed on coloured plates and short descriptions, to which are added a few hints on pre- paration for table. What is distinctly lacking is an attractive general account, with information regarding the kinds exposed for sale in foreign market places, where there is often a considerable variety. The list of edible species does not include either the chantarelle or the truffle, while another notable omission is a warning that individuals vary greatly in their power of digesting fungal ferments. (2) The pamphlet issuing from the British Museum (Natural History) is valuable both as a scientific ex- position by one of our most eminent fungologists and also as an authoritative guide for the use of those interested in mushroom cultivation. The descriptions are semi-popular, and the coloured figures are artistic, accurate and well rendered. The setting of the text, as also the plain directions for detecting the poisonous species, add to the practical utility of the pamphlet, which fulfils one of the chief objects of the Trustees, inasmuch as it provides accurate and useful information for the benefit of the general public. Fractures and Separated Epiphyses. By A. J. Walton. Pp. vii+288. (London: E. Arnold, 1910.) In a short preface the author explains that this boon is intended for the use of students and those first commencing hospital appointments, but there is every reason to believe it will prove of great value to prac- titioners in general. Mr. Walton does not confine himself to advising any one method of treatment, but concisely places before the reader the various treat- ments advocated, with an open-minded criticism of their several points. The chapters dealing with the etiology and general methods of treatment are, considering the largeness of the subject, both clearly and shortly dealt with, yet nothing of importance has been omitted. In de- scribing the fractures peculiar to each bone, with their treatment, special attention is given to the dates of union in the various epiphyses, and the injuries which they are liable to sustain. The accompanying illustrations, reproduced from radiographs of fractures seen at the London Hospital, are typical and excel- lent. The book show great care in preparation, and can be recommended to all who need a short, practical work on this subject. FRANK ROMER. NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, IQIO 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 munuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] Gauss and Non-Euclidean Geometry. PROBABLY someone will before this have directed your attention to a statement in Nature of June 30 regard- ing Gauss’s share in the discovery of non-Euclidean geo- metry; but im case this may have escaped notice, even after the lapse of three months, I venture to bring it again before your. readers. . Speaking « of Mannoury’s book— ‘“ Methodologisches: und Philosophisches | zur Elementar- mathematik Y—'"\G. \B, M.?. says “\ there is one remark- able’ statement made which deserves mention. Dr. Mannoury says that in December, 1518, F. K. Schweikart sent to Gauss a note asserting the existence of a geometry in which the sum of the angles. of a triangle is less than two, right’ angles, and in which the altitude of an isosceles triangle with ‘a finite base has a finite upper limit. This goes‘ far to demolish the claim made-for Gauss that he was the first to assert the possibility of a consistent system of geometry distinct from Euclid.” The: story of Gauss and the non-Euclidean geometry will probably always be incomplete, as he never published his investigations on this subject, and what is known of them has been gleaned from his correspondence and. some- notes only recently found among his papers (cf. Gauss, “ Werke,’ Bd. viii., Leipzig, 1900). But neither Engel nor -Stackel—to whom we owe much of what has been written onthe theory of parallels—nor any of: the other writers on this° phase of non-Euclidean geometry, have asserted that Gauss ever published any statement of his theory, ‘large or small. The most that has been claimed for Gauss is that before Lobatschewsky, in 1826, and Bolyai, in 1832, published their statement of the geometry which will always be associated with their names, also even before Schweikart in 1818 had drawn up the note. to which. reference is. made above, Gauss himself was con- vinced of the logical possibility of a geometry independent of the fifth postulate, and had mentioned many of his conclusions to-his friends, verbally or in writing. What happened with reference to Schweikart is well known. The whole story is to be found in Gauss’s letter of 1819 to Gerling, by whom the memorandum had been submitted to Gauss at the request of the author. Like the subject of a recent political controversy, it could be written on half a sheet of notepaper; and it called forth from Gauss the warmest praise. With it he fully agreed. In fact, his results were exactly the same as those he had already obtained. His own work, he added, he had developed so far as to have fully solved all the problems of the new geometry. Some of his results he sent to Gerling to be communicated to Schweikart himself. It is not of much importance whether before this date we have any reference to these investigations; but such is actually forthcoming in Wachter’s letter to Gauss two years earlier, where he speaks of their conversation at Gottingen, and wonders ‘‘ whether the anti-Euclidean geo- metry or your geometry is true.”’ And more valuable, as showing Gauss’s real position, is his well-known letter to Wolfgang Bolyai in 1832, when the had received from him a copy of Johann’s famous work :—‘‘ If I begin by saying that I cannot praise this work [of Johann’s] you will assuredly be surprised for a moment. But I cannot say anything else. To praise it would be to praise myself. In fact, the whole contents of this work, the path which your son has followed, and the results to which he has been led, agree almost com- pletely with my own meditations on this subject, some of them as old as thirty to thirty-five years.’’ This is but one of several statements of the same kind which we find in the correspondence of Gauss now avail- able. Still, he would have been the last person to assert any claim for himself in the matter. Indeed, it was “a very great pleasure to him that it was actually the son of his old friend who had made this advance ‘upon him in such a remarkable fashion.” Yet there is ample evidence that the ideas contained in Schweikart’s memor- NO. 2134, VOL. 84] andum were already known to him, and that with much of the work of Lobatschewsky and Bolyai he was familiar long before they themselves had made these discoveries. To them belongs the independent discovery of their geo- metry, and its complete and systematic development. By their names it will always be called. To Schweikart, to a small extent, to Gauss to a much larger, can be given the credit of having realised that, along the path which Lobatschewsky and Bolyai travelled, complete success was bound’ to be achieved. H. S. Carstaw. The University, Sydney, August 10. An Oblique Belt on Jupiter. Owine in the main part to the swift axial rotation of the planet Jupiter, it is usual to find the dark belts, which constitute the principal configuration of his visible surface, lying both parallel to one another and. to the planet’s equator. An_ instance of obliquity of one of the bands relatively to the others is rare, and a most. definite and striking example of the kind was recorded in the northern hemisphere in 1860." A> recent phenomenon: akin to this was observed in the spring months of the present year. Although in this case ‘the band was a faint one, yet the marked trend which. it exhibited called ‘for special notice, and the more important facts relating to it might be briefly recorded here. c ies ; It attracted my attention, when engaged in a systematic study of the planet, first on April 1, and was subsequently observed on the following nights :—April 6, 8, (23, 28, May 2 and 7. After the last-mentioned date it was not seen again, partly on account of its growing faintness, and partly because the prevailing telescopic seeing © was not inducive. to a‘close scrutiny of the planet. During this observed interval a number of careful. drawings. of, the region in question were executed, as well as a series of central-meridian transits of spots situated in and around the slanting belt. Some of these spots had been watched several months? prior to; the appearance of this belt, so that. the rotational velocity of the surface matter in this particular region was, on the, whole, fairly accurately ascertained. ; The oblique belt, which was a new formation, stretched itself across the white zone between the S. temperate and S.S. temperate belts. Nowhere, however, did it coalesce with these two belts, a point which can be better under- stood from the accompanying drawings than from a de- scription alone. Its separate existence was due, evidently, to a repulsive action exerted upon it by the belts, which seemed to form a barrier against any further displacement in latitude. The region of the oblique belt could always be readily recognised, even under poor definition, by reason of an abnormal dark patch of matter which occupied the site where the oblique belt crossed over the central part of the zone in which it was situated. This patch presented a concave outline both east and west, and the oblique belt passed uninterruptedly through it. A white spot (c) pre- ceded it, and a fainter one was at times seen on the following side. This curious patch became visible earlier than did the oblique belt, and its greater durability enabled it to remain in view long after the belt had ceased to be visible. The quicker drift of the spots A and B relatively to E, F, and G will be noticed in the drawings. The dark patch, with its condensation D, was carried along at about the same rate of velocity as A and B, and all, therefore, participated in one and the same current. The white spot C drifted at the same rate as the spots E, F, G, and, as will be noted, it was being gradually overtaken by the dark patch. Thus we observe the relative movements of two independent currents. They disclosed the noteworthy fact that the dark patch was in reality a distended part of the current about A and B, having evidently forced its way northwards across the slower current round C to the spots E, F, G. The condensation D formed part of the oblique belt. Whether the rest of this belt participated in the quicl: current of A and B is not known; but if such was really the case, we have here at least a clue as to the cause of the curious trend of the belt. The material of a 1 Opposit’on of Jupiter occurred on March 31, 1910. SEPTEMBER 22, I9IO] quick current often trespasses upon a slower mov'ng one, 1 fact manifested by wispy protruding considerably into an adjacent current. which is shadings and spots Such an intrusion of matter might have occurred in the region of the S.S. temperate belt, and by continuing its northerly course slowly but interruptedly, its rapid westerly drift combined would cause it to drift in a W.N.W. direction. The result would be for the matter to form a slanting strealk across the disc, and it is possible, and not improb- able, that the oblique belt under discussion has found its origin through a similar cause. NATURE Tests for Colour-vision. Aw article in Nature for August 18 deals aptly with the question of testing for colour-vision. It is to be hoped that the committee at present inquiring into the matter will advocate that testing should be carried out in future in conditions resembling as nearly as possible those on which seamen ordinarily follow their calling. It not quite practical or fair to test indoors a man’s ability pick up lights in the open. The conditions of light inside and outside vary much, as do those of and out- does seem to so inside : BELT ----S. TROP. ZONE ----S,. EQuA. BELT E An Oblique Belt in Jupiter, 1910. The movements of the seven spots lettered in the drawings are tabulated as under : S Average First and last date of | montlily . 5 See roation S | drift Rotation period (3 days)! i > % {| 1910, Feb. 9g) 3 ons C Lo8-c 1910, May 7/ | 2213 9 55 ‘ 1910, April 1) ore | a. . rs B 1910, Mav_7f +3t°0 | 9 54 59°5 Current I. 1910, April 1) > ) 5 | 5 : - 1910, May 7/ | ao Siseeas 1910, Jan. 16) | = > Cc 1910, April 23) | uals 955 181 = 1910, March 5 \ at Ms E 1910, April 23) | +15°8 955 197 Cc tIl FE 1909, Dec. 13) | ya ie MEER 1910, April 23) = 955 207 3 1909, Dec. 30) sy rei e 1910, April rf | 7175 9 55. 17°4) | The oblique belt was situated on the opposite side of the planet to the red spot, and the longitudes of the condensa- tion D might be given here 1910 Igta ‘. Apnil 1= 169°2 | Apuil 23=146°9 a O—TOr-O si) May 2=140'2 ” 8=156'1 | ” 7=133'4 Leeds, September 3. ScRIVEN Bo ton. _1 Relatively to the adopted zero meridian of System II., based on a rota- tion pe iod of gh. 55m. 40°6s. (Vantical Admanac). NO. 2134, VOL. 84] side darkness. A sailor’s business is not to match colours, but to pick up and distinguish instantly lights that may be seen, far or near, through varying conditions of atmo- sphere. [he sight of the average seaman, from practice, is prob- ably much keener than that of the average landsman. The sailor’s eyes are trained to adapt themselves to vary- ing conditions of outside darkness. The suggestion of spectrum tests is good, provided that such testing is made supplementary only to the practical open-air tests with flags by day and sidelights by night. The object of the tests is to ascertain the candidate’s faculty for instant recognition of a flag or light, and there is no difficulty whatever in providing efficient prac- tical tests. It is unnecessary, and even mischievous, to try to puzzle a candidate with combinations of lights and shades such as never occur in the course of his practical work. It is to be hoped that the committee which is investi- gating the matter will allow common sense and practical ability to rule its recommendations for future examina- tions. D. WiLson-BarRKER. The Thames Nautical Training College, H.M.S. Worcester, Greenhithe, September 109. Fireball of September 2. remark in NATURE the necessity of further height and velocity of the following note :— At 9.5 p-m. four miles south of meteor described by THE of September 8 (p. 318), as to for determining the me to send observations meteors encourages from Earlstone Common, I had a good view of the Herschel seen September 2, Newbury, the Rev. J. C W. on as 364 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1910 from near Wellington College. I have seen brighter meteors, but never one that remained so long in sight, and its course was marked for a long way by a streak of light, showing very clearly the route it had taken. When I first eat ee STE of it, it appeared to be rising in the sky, through the Camelopard, and it passed almost exactly over B and y of the Little Bear, over » Draconis, between m and p Herculis, and over a Ophiuchi, vanishing perhaps 15 degrees further south in the Serpent. Rising and fall- ing in its flight like a thrown cricket-ball, it seemed to be quite close at hand. Epmunp J. Wess. Burghclere, Newbury, September 9. Mr. Epmunp J. Wesp’s highly interesting account of the fireball of September 2, in conjunction with other descrip- tions which have now come to hand, enable the real path to be well determined. The radiant point of the meteor was near B Aurigze, or at about 87°+41°, and the height of the object from about 98 to 44 miles from over the North Sea to S.S.W. coast of England. The meteor had an unusually long flight right across the country from N.N.E. to S.S.W., and its visible course of 352 miles was probably traversed at a velocity of 40 miles per second. It is only rarely that a country with such an extended fireball is seen in this trajectory. Most of the observers only saw a part of the path. The radiant was near the horizon in N.N.E. The fireball was seen by the Rev. F. C. Lees, Sutton, Surrey; Rev. C. L. Tweedale, Otley, Yorks; Col. E. E. Markwick, Boscombe, Hants; and many other obser W. F. DENNIN The Law of Definite Proportions. Prruars a reader of Nature will be solve the following question. If an amount of heat is supplied to a volume of ice, water, and vapour at the triple point, and remaining at the triple point, and the same volume, while the heat is being supplied, are water and vapour formed in definite relative proportions from the ice? That is, is the ratio of vapour to water independent of the amount of heat. sup- plied, or of the original proportions of the three phas good enough to King Edward VII. School, Sheffield. FIRE TESES WITH TEXTILES.* HE frequent accidents caused by the ignition of highly inflammable wearing apparel have directed wide attention to the possibility, by suitabl treatment, of rendering materials like flannelette non- inflammable. The interest aroused by the subject is further increased by the fact that most of the fatal accidents occur to very young children, and apparently the number of such accidents is not diminishing. Thanks must be given to the British Fire Prevention Committee for the efforts being made to investigate the subject in a thoroughly scientific manner, and for the report before us, which contains the results of experiments on 456 samples of cloth. These were divided into the five following groups :—(a) Flannel- ette (‘‘non-flam,’’ commercial); (b) flannelette (‘‘ non- flam,”’ special); (c) flannelette (ordinary); (d) ‘‘ union’ (a mixture of cotton and wool); (e) flannel; (f) flan- nelette (fine finish). The method of testing employed was briefly as follows :—A yard of the cloth was sus- pended from three hooks fixed in a beam, the lower edge was kindled by the flame of a wax taper or spirit lamp. At the end of sixty seconds any flame was extinguished, carefully measured, and the portion of material burned In many cases photographs were 1 Fire Tests with Textiles. Flannelette known as ‘‘Non-Flam” Flan- nelette, Ordinary Flannelette, ‘* Union” Flannelette submitted for test by Messrs. Whipp Bros. and Tod, Ltd., Manchester. The Committee's Report, pp. 48 (“‘ Red Books” of the British Fire Prevention Committee, No. 148.) (London: The British Fire Prevention Committee, 1910.) Price 55. NO. 2134, VOL. 84] taken before and after the ignition, and these supply more vivid illustrations of the results than the pages of statistics which follow. In some cases made-up, garments were suspended on wire frames and tested as before. The different samples were also tested be- fore and after repeated washings. Manifestly this is a point of great importance, and it was proved that in the case of ‘‘non-flam ”’ materials there was practic- ally no difference as regards fire resistance between samples washed once and: those washed twenty times. The general nature of the results may be briefly stated. Unquestionably the flannelette known as *non-flam’’ justifies its name. Samples of this material are only charred where they have been in contact with the flame; they are non-inflammable. Ordinary flannelette as received from the manu- facturer burned up through the centre of the sample, (a) 7) Demonstration Tests with Garments: (a) Flannelette (‘ Non Flam Commercial) at 120 (4) Flannelette (Ordinary) at 60 seconds.—From “ Fire Tests with Textiles.” seconds. of the material was con- from gz to 100 per known as as might be and from 25 to 4o per cent. sumed, while after one washing cent. was destroyed. The material ‘union,’ a mixture of cotton and wool, expected, is less inflammable than flannelette; from 57 to 66 per cent. of the material, after one washing, was burnt. In the case of flannel the charring only reached as far as the power of the flame extended. Lastly, the flannelette (fine surface) is shown to be very like the ordinary, and in many cases the sample was com- pletely consumed. This investigation appears to have been carefully conducted, and the report should be widely circulated. The illustrations “explain them- selves: (a) a ‘“‘non-flam,’’ made-up garment, after 120 seconds; (b) a made-up garment, ordinary flan- nelette, after 60 seconds. SEPTEMBER 22, IQIO}] NATURE 305 THE CASTES AND TRIBES OF SOUTHERN INDIA." HIS, if not quite the most workmanlike, may justly claim to be the most voluminous contri- bution to the publications of the Ethnographical Sur- vey of India. The facts for which Mr. Thurston is personally responsible were collected in a series of tours throughout the Madras Presidency, in which he was able to combine the collection of specimens for the museum under his charge with a considerable amount of original work. He “gives a lively account of the difficulties which he experienced in examining and measuring the shy jungle folk in whom he was most deeply interested; and the combined tact and enthusiasm with which he conducted these in- guiries deserve hearty recognition. With his own personal investigations he has combined contributions from other writers, among whom the work of Mr. F. Fawcett, much of which is already familiar to students of the periodical bulletins of the Madras Museum, is the most valuable. To these have been added numerous extracts from census reports, district manuals, and similar literature; and the large series of excellent photographs adds largely to the interest and value of the work. It is, however, to be regretted that, apparently from pressure of other duties, Mr. Thurston has been unable to arrange this great mass of material in a form suited to the needs of students. The articles contain much undigested material, and little has been done to classify this in a series of well-ordered para- graphs, each provided with a marginal heading, and bringing together the accounts of tribal organisation, domestic ceremonies, religious beliefs, and the like. It is obvious that the bulk of the work might have been much reduced by judicious compression; and, as native States like Mysore and Cochin are engaged in ethnographical surveys of their own population, it was unnecessary to give more than references to their pre- liminary bulletins. There is nothing in the shape of a subject-index ; and though a good start was made by Mr. W. Francis in his report on the census of igor to compile a bibliography of the literature of the subject, Mr. Thurston has done nothing to sup- plement it. A protest must also be made against the habit of the writer, which has already greatly impaired the value of his useful ‘*Ethnographic Notes on Southern India,”’ published four years ago, of giving in the notes merely the names of his authorities without precise references. This gives a slovenly appearance to the work which it otherwise does not deserve. We might also have expected from the author an exposition of his views on the prehistoric ethnology of the province. The Dravidian question is always with us, and though he supplies some facts which may assist in its solution, his personal views on the subject are nowhere definitely stated; and he seems to have abandoned in despair any attempt to indicate how far the existing jungle tribes are related to that remarkable people who reared the great series of megalithic monuments which abound on the Nilgiri plateau, the relics from which, excavated by Mr. Breeks and others, form the most interesting collec- tion in the museum under his charge. Two important facts, however, can be gathered ‘trom his notes on the physical characteristics of the people; first, that the primitive Negrito element is not so widely distri- buted as some authorities have assumed. It is not ‘* The Castes and Tribes of Southern India” By Edgar Thurston, assisted hy K. Rangachari. Vol. i., A and B. Pp. Ixxtit+397. Vol. ii., C—T. Pp. sor. Vol. iii, K. Pp. 50D. Vol. iv.. K—M. Pp. 50r. Vol. v,, M—P. Pp. 487. Vol. vi., P—S. Pp. 458. Vol. vii, T—Z Pp. 439. (Madras: Government Press, 1909.) NO. 2124, VOL. 84] apparent among the Kotas and Badagas, who seem to be later immigrants into the hill country from the plains, and it is found only among the more primitive tribes, like the Irulas and Kurumbas. Even among them it is important to note that prognathism and wooliness of hair appear as aberrant characters. In the second place, when we speak of the Dravidian head form, we must remember that it is not con- sistently uniform throughout the Presidency. What- ever may be the causes of this variance of type—the influence of environment or miscegenation—about which Mr. Thurston, with his characteristic caution, declines to express an opinion, it is certain that the type in the northern district is subbrachycephalic or mesaticephalic, while it is only in the Tamil and Malayalim countries that we find it to be dolicho- or subdolicho-cephalic. The chief interest in the ethnography of southern India lies in the startling variances of culture which appear throughout the population. For an example of what is apparently the lowest type, we may turn platyrhine, to the Yanadis, a dark-skinned, under- Fic. 1.—Toda Woman. From ‘‘Castes and Tribes of Southern India.” inhabiting the Telugu country. Their religion is a crude form of animism; they make fire by friction; eat their food almost raw, merely scorch- ing or warming the flesh of the animals which they kill; and yet, with the curious inconsistency which pervades the Hindu social system, they are regarded by the higher classes as gentlemen of the forest, are allowed to draw water from wells used by high-caste people, and may carry it to Brahmans. In direct contrast to them we may refer to the Nayadis, a tribe in the plains little higher in culture than the Yanadis, who live by collecting jungle products, and are regarded as so impure that in their begging rounds they are compelled to stand at a distance from respectable houses, and to make their appeals for charity in stentorian tones. A higher tyne of cuiture is reached in the Badagas, the agriculturists of the hills, where the pastoral element is represented by the Todas, and the industrial sized tribe 366 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, I910 by the Kotas. Mr. Thurston’s account of these people forms one of the best articles in his work. They live in dread of the more savage Kurumbas, by origin non-Aryan tribes, who were regarded as quite outside the pale of orthodoxy. The result was twofold. In the first place, the line of distinction between the Brahman and the outcast was ye - ~) at more clearly marked than in the north; and, secondly, south Indian Brahmanism, affected by its environment, and saved from the disturbing influences of cataclysms to which it was exposed in north India from the successive invasions of foreign tribes like Scythians, Huns, and Mongols, was permitted to develop on lines peculiar to it- self, and thus assumed a char- acter very different from that which it displays in the Panjab, the Gangetic Valley, and the Delta of Bengal. The special characteristics of south Indian Brahmanism are most effectively illustrated by Mr. Faweett’s excellent account of the Nambutiris of Malabar, with their intense craving after what they deem personal purity, their elaborate system of tabus, and their placid, reflective life spent in an endless round of elaborate ceremonial and devyo- tion to the study of the Sanskrit Scriptures. In these respects Fic. 2,—Nayadis making Fire. Negritos, who, like many other secluded races, are supposed to possess the power of necromancy. Every Badaga family pays them a sort of retaining fee in the shape of an annual tax and special dues at funeral and pregnancy rites, in return for which the Kurumba is bound to treat cases of diabolical possession or of the evil eye by means of appro- priate spells. But the WKurumba needs to be cautious in exercising these uncanny powers, for instances are quoted of cases in which he has been suspected of unfair dealing, and “his hut is surrounded at night, and the entire household massacred in cold blood and their houses set on Hes At the head of the social systein stand the Brahman and the Toda. The entry of both into the social system of south India is compara- tively modern. Mr. Lewis Rice, in his recent summary of the epi- graphical evidence from Mysore and Coorg, finds that there is no record of Brahmans in those regions before the second century of our era; and other authorities, like that great scholar, the late Dr. Burnell, fix their migration from the north at even a later date. This fact ac- counts for two interesting character- istics of religious and _ social life. The Brahman being a newcomer, and not, as in northern India, evolved from the family priests of the invading tribes from Central Asia, reached the south with all his tabus and restrictions well estab- lished, and these were intensified by contact with the NO. 2134, VOL. 84] From ‘ Castes and Tribes of Southern India.” they hold a _ position unique among the Brahmans of India, and the remarkable phase of religious and social life illustrated by them deserves attentive study. Even more interesting is that remarkable race, the Todas. Mr. Thurston has wisely referred his readers Fic. 3.—Yanadis. From ‘‘ Castes and Tribes of Scuthern India.” to the exhaustive monograph on this tribe by Dr. W. H.R. Rivers, an excellent example of the success- ful application of the intensive methods of study SEPTEMBER 22, IQIO] NATURE 367 applied to one of the smaller groups. Mainly on the ground of the exceptional hairiness observable in the Nambutiri Brahmans, he is inclined to accept the brilliant suggestion made by Dr. Rivers from a study of their emigrations preserved by the tribe, that the Todas are comparatively new arrivals in the Nilgiri plateau, and that they are connected in race with the Malabar group of Brahmans. Mr. Thurston records a curious fact which escaped the observation of Dr. Rivers, that their extreme reverence for the herd of sacred bufialoes is shown by the rule that when the animals are driven from one grazing ground to another, the women of the tribe are not permitted to tread upon the track of the holy beasts, but must be lifted over it by the men of the tribe. In spite of the imperfections in the literary arrange- ment of his work, to which we have directed attention, Mr. Thurston’s volumes constitute. a monumental record of varied phases of south Indian tribal life, the traditions, manners, and customs of the people. Though in some respects it may be corrected or supplemented by future research, it will long retain its value as an example of out-of-door investigation, and will remain a veritable mine of information, which will be of value to his fellow-officers in acquiring a lknowledge of the people, and a storehouse from which the armchair ethnologist will draw abundant facts of the highest value and interest. A HISTORY OF BIRDS.* F the series of four volumes to be published under the title of “Animal Life: an Evolutionary Natural History,” the editor, Mr. Pyeraft, has himself contributed that on birds. The reader will at once be struck by two facts, first, that the subject is treated from the point of view of the evolutionist, as opposed to that of the systematist, and, secondly, that the author is never satisfied until he has inquired into, and, if possible, explained, the various phenomena that. meet the eye of the ornithologist. As he tells The volume begins with a brief but sufficient sum- mary of the general structure of birds, and proceeds to consider their phylogeny, their relationship to reptiles, and their development from climbing arboreal forms to those endowed with full powers of flighs. The writer’s views on this part of the subject are clearly shown by a ‘ genealogical tree,’ while a wood- cut is given of one of the hypothetical primitive types, or pro-ayes. From the ancestral forms of birds we pass on toa sketch of their present distribution and of the gener- ally accepted zoo-geographical regions. Mr. Pycraft accepts the theory that the entire class originated in the northern hemisphere, with the possible excep- tion of the Sphenisci; but the close connection of the latter in his tree of descent with the decidedly northern Colymbi seems to run counter to this contention. Environment and its effects next come under. dis- us in his preface, and as we gather from the excellent introduction by Sir Ray Lankester, which practically summarises the whole work, the study of birds is here presented as one of living organisms, moulded in part by an inherent constitution, and in part by the struggle for existence. A great array of facts is marshalled in order before us, and presented in attractive fashion, while Mr. Pycraft’s well-known skill is. particularly evident in the osteology and pterylography; but we must confess that he seems to us somewhat hard upon the *field-naturalist,"’ the results of whose labours he terms ‘‘a pitifully small gain to science.’’ It is true that such an one often lacks the training or oppor- tunity necessary. for scientific research, but his province is more especially to supply material. for the work of his fellows, and must never forget that Darwin and Wallace—not to mention later instances —were essentially field-naturalists. With an introduction by Pp. xxx+458.. (London: Methuen 1 “A History of Birds.”” By W. P. Pycraft. Sir Ray Lankester, K.C.B., F.R.S. and Co., 1910.) Price ros. 6. net NO. 2134, VOL. 84] Emperor Penguin brooding its Young. E 5 sg From ‘‘ A History of Birds.” | cussion, with selected examples of adaptation to the surroundings. Here we find the view definitely adopted that a moist atmosphere leads to darker pig- mentation and a dry atmosphere to lighter tints, but we are not inclined to follow our author implicitly here without further proof. Migration is always an interesting subject, and we concur with Mr. Pycraft in paying little attention to very precise ‘‘lines of flight’; whether, however, he is right in holding that the trend of. migration is due north and south, apart from physical obstructions, is a much-more debatable question. The: interrelations of birds and other animals, and their connections with plants, form the subject-matter of three well-written chapters, while an account of the relations between the sexes is not only instructive in itself, but naturally leads us on to the theory of sexual selection. The ‘displays’? of various species, the pugnacity of the males, and so forth, are set forth at , due length; but, on the whole, our author minimises 368 NATURE “?— [SEPTEMBER 22, 1910 the importance of sexual as opposed to natural selec- tion, and believes that the latter, working on the dis- continuous variations which undoubtedly occur, tends to preserve those varieties which finally persist. Nidification and incubation, eggs and young, and the care of the latter, are next considered, while Mr. Pycraft has much to tell us of what we may learn from the immature bird, whether in the embryonic stage or otherwise, of its precocity or helplessness, its downy condition, its seasonal changes, and its differ- ences from the adult. We notice that he thinks that nest-building is ‘‘a product of selection and is in- stinctive,’’ and that all eggs were perhaps originally white and assumed protective coloration only where necessary. Artificial varieties and the question of in- heritance of acquired characters are treated by the author at some length, while his natural bent towards anatomy enables him to deal fully and successfully with the interesting and important sub- jects of structural and functional adaptations, and to conclude a work, which we heartily commend to our readers, with a detailed account of various instances of homoplasy. The numerous illustrations, some of which are new, add much to the value of the book. REFORMS OF THE CALENDAR. N the August number of Himmel und Erde, Prof. + Forster has a paper on calendar reform, on which, though it is rather discursive, a few words may be of interest. The main point of the paper is to suggest that the International Congress of Chambers of Commerce should take up the question of altering the rule for keeping Easter, which has, from the beginning of the Christian Church, been regulated by luni-solar chronology. ‘That sort of chronology was observed over a large part of Asia, and is by the Jews to the present day, making the year consist of twelve and thirteen months alternately, the months following the moon. But, of course, this does not make the correspondence exact, and other intercalations were necessary. The old Roman calendar was also luni- solar, the months being made to contain twenty-nine and thirty days alternately, which would give only 354 days in a year, so that an additional or intercalary month had to be inserted in alternate years of varying length. ie Dr. Forster remarks, the old Roman calendar had degenerated into a true monster of chronological complication (‘zu einem wahren Monstrum von chronologischer Verwirrung’”’), when it occurred to Julius Czesar that it would be best to discard the moon altogether as a time-measurement and regulate the calendar by the sun, as had been done in the old Egyptian chronology, a country in which the annual overflow of the Nile was of surpassing importance, and, of course, depended on the solar season. Cezesar had no occasion to trouble about the days of the week in his calendar. All European nations have followed in the main his calendar, but have had to make a special case of the great Easter festival and the ecclesiastical dates depending on it. But there is no real necessity for falling back upon a Jewish or luni- solar method of reckoning in this respect. In the years 1872 and 1873 the Rev. J. Newland Smith, of Greenwich, published and distributed two pamphlets on “Eastertide,’’ pointing out that the present complicated rule for keeping Easter was not fixed by any Church regulation; the Council of Nicaea having only decided that it should alw ays be kept on a Sunday. Had Mr. Newland Smith lived (he died in 1880) he hoped that a Bill would have been intro- NO. 2134, VOL. 84| duced into Parliament on the question. The proposal in his first pamphlet was that Easter should be kept either on April 9 (that being one probable date of the first Easter day), if that “day were a Sunday, or, if not, on the following Sunday; in the second, that it should be always kept on the second Sunday April, which would include the oth. Dr. Forster, in the article before us, makes a similar proposition, which he commends to the International Congress of Chambers of Commerce, that Easter should be kept on the Sunday following April 4, so that it would always fall between the sth and 11th. He hopes that other changes may be effected in tne calendar, and particularly that the congress may be the means of inducing the Russians and the Greek Church generally to follow the Western usage and replace the Julian by the Gregorian calendar, or some modification of it. Perhaps we may be allowed the suggestion that the dropping of a leap year each 128th year would he both more convenient-and more accurate than the existing Gregorian rule. Wy ee THE DYNAMICS OF FOHN.* UCH has been written about the dynamics of Fohn, and the general principles involved in it are well understood, yet the processes by which an air current descends and displaces potentially colder air are still somewhat obscure. As in his previous studies of the same subject, Dr. Ficker has followed the method of examining in detail a large number of individual cases. The process is a laborious one, but we agree with the author that it is essential to follow out individual cases if we wish to arrive at a clear understanding of the processes involved. Average results may be very misleading; very prob- ably the condition of things represented by averages never actually occurs. In all cases examined, Fohn was preceded by typical anticyclonic conditions, with a very stable stratification of the atmosphere. In many instances the valley tem- peratures were actually lower than those observed simultaneously on the summits. Special attention was given to the time of commencement of F6hn at different stations, which can be accurately determined from thermograph traces. F6Ghn sets in earliest at the high stations at the head of the valleys, and makes its way gradually to lower levels. Stations at the same altitude experience the onset of Foéhn approxi- mately simultaneously, even though they be in different valleys. In a few instances, F6éhn made its appearance at Hachlaching, a station near Munich, on the Bavarian plateau, but on all such occasions the outbreak occurred there long after Fohn had estab- lished itself in the higher valleys. The suggestion that barometric minima skirting the north-west coast of Europe exert an aspirating action on the lower strata of the atmosphere, and so cause the Fohn, thus falls to the ground. Local conditions determine the outbreak of Fohn. During the continuance of anticyclonic conditions the valleys become filled with a mass of more or less stagnant air, cold, at any rate in winter, by reason of its contact with the mountain sides, which are chilled by radiation. Above this we find a region of potentially warmer air, and at the junction of the two layers there is often a sudden actual increase of temperature with altitude. The cold air drains away to lower levels. This process is accompanied by a gradual rise of temperature, but the winds associated with it cannot be regarded as true Féhn, because the vertical temperature gradient in them is much less 1 “Innsbrucker Foéhnstudien IV. Fohns.” Weitere Beitrage zur Dynamik der By Dr. H. y. Ficker. Pp. 6x. (Wien: Alfred Holder, 1910.) SEPTEMBER 22, 1910] NATURE 369 than the adiabatic for dry air. The air removed by drainage is replaced by air from above, which flows down the mountain valleys like a river, often with a tumultuous rush. In this descending current, which is the true Féhn, the temperature gradient is that of the dry adiabatic. The onset of Fohn at a given station occurs when the upper level of the cold air sinks to the level of the station. In their early stages all Fohns are fed by air which has travelled horizontally to the mountain ridges, and then descended on the northern side. There is no evidence of ascent of air on the southern side of the range during this first, or ‘‘anticyclonic,”’ stage. If Fohn persists, a condition of things often develops in which there is heavy rain, and a marked absence of diurnal range of temperature on the south side of the Alps, and simultaneously the temperatures are much lower to the south than to the north of the range. We have then unmistakable evidence of the ascent of air on the south and of its subsequent descent on the north of the range. The conditions which determine whether an ‘‘anticyclonic’’ Fohn shall develop into this second or “‘stationary”’ stage need further inves- tigation. 1G (Ge 1G IES RESPIRATION AT HIGH ALTITUDES.* ROF R. F. FUCHS, with Dr. Deimler, has confirmed the statement of Zuntz and his co- workers and of Durig, that the oxygen use of the human body during work is greatly increased at altitudes above 3000-4000 metres. While on the Colle d’Olen the O, use of Fuchs was only 3 per cent. more than at Erlangen; it was 36 per cent. more on the Capana Regina Margherita. Fuchs and Deimler lived in the hut on the top of Monte Rosa for some weeks, and proved this point conclusively. This increased use of oxygen explains why most tourists are taken with mountain sickness at altitudes above 3000-4000 metres. The oxygen needs cannot be supplied by the respira- tory and circulatory mechanisms in the face of the falling partial pressure of oxygen, and the high oxygen use. Training and acclimatisation economise the oxygen use, increase the oxygen combining power of the blood, the power of the respiratory and circulating mechanisms. The respiratory quotient sinks to a very low level, e.g. 0°53 after work, while the resting value is only 0°6-0'7 at these high altitudes. To explain this, it is supposed either that glycogen is built out of fat and protein in the body, or that substances are not com- pletely burnt in the body, but are given off as lactic acid in the urine. We know that lactic acid is excreted in the urine after a hard run, when the oxygen used is greater than the supply. A. Loewy and Franz Muller recently have found that the respiratory quotient is reduced by sea-bathing, e.g. from o'88 at Berlin to 0°73 at the North Sea. The diet was the same. There is some evidence that the protein metabolism is different both in high alti- tudes and after the sea-bathing, but further work is required to explain the low quotients. Under the special conditions substances, such as proteins and their derivatives, may be oxidised, which share but little in the combustion process of the body. Fuchs suggests that the new building of haemoglobin may explain partly the high oxygen use and the low respiratory quotient. It is generally agreed that a stay in high altitudes does increase the hamoglobin of the body. LeonarpD HI. 1 “* Physiologische Studien im Hochgebirge: Versuche iiber den repirator- ischen Stoffwechsel im Hochgebirge.” By R. F. Fuchs and T. Deimler. Sitzungsberichte der Physikalish-medizinischen Sozietat Band 41, 1909. NO. 2134, VOL. 84] in Erlangen. NOTES. Tue ninth meeting of the International Meteorological Committee will be held in Berlin on Monday next, Sep- tember 26, and following days. It will be preceded by meetings of the Commission for Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity, of which General Rykatcheff is president and Dr. A. Schmidt is secretary, and by meet- ings of the Magnetic Observations Committee of the Inter- national Association of Academies. Of other commissions which originated with the International Meteorological Committee, those concerning scientific aéronautics, the correlation of solar and terrestrial changes, a proposed Systeme Mondial, weather telegraphy, and maritime weather signals have held meetings in the past year, and their reports will come up for consideration at Berlin. Among new proposals to be considered is one by Prof. V. Bjerknes, of Christiania, for the organisation and publication of strictly synchronous meteorological hourly observations of the air at the surface and above at a large number of stations, with the view of studying in detail the precise changes that take place. Since the last meeting of the International Meteorological Committee, at Paris in 1907, many changes have taken place in the personnel of the committee. Death has removed. MM. Lancaster, Pernter, and Eliot, while M. Hepites has re- signed his directorship of the Roumanian Meteorological Service, and consequently ceases to be a member of the committee. The new members appointed to fill the vacancies are MM. van Everdingen (Holland), Ryder (Den- mark), Trabert (Austria), and G. T. Walker (India). Dr. W. N. Shaw, director of the Meteorological Office, is the president of the committee, and Prof. G. Hellmann, director of the Royal Prussian Meteorological Institute, is the secretary. Mr. R. Newsrteap, of the University of Liverpool, who, it will be remembered (see Nature, June 30, p. 530), was dispatched three months ago to Malta by the Liver- pool School of Tropical Medicine to investigate the rela- tion of sand-flies to public health, has now returned. It is understood that in the forthcoming report upon the expedition practical measures for dealing with the various disease-carrying insects in the island will be suggested, Mr. Newstead having brought back a considerable amount of material, not only with reference to sand-flies, but also to other carriers of disease. Tue National Fund Airship, which has just been com- pleted, made its first successful flight at Moisson on September 14. It is a little more than a year ago since Mr. Eric Stuart Bruce, the late honorary secretary of the Aéronautical Society of Great Britain, was asked to visit France to make an exhaustive examination into the various types of dirigibles in connection with the national air- ship, with the result that the Lebaudy type was selected. This latest Lebaudy airship may certainly be said to be the finest semi-rigid dirigible in the world. It is 337 feet ro inches long, 39 feet 53 inches in diameter, and has a gas capacity of 353,165-8 cubic feet. It contains three ballonets. The motive power is derived from two four- cylinder Panhard-Levassor petrol motors of 135 horse- power each. The two propellers are made of wood. Mr. Bruce is now acting as honorary secretary to the test committee of the National Fund Airship. ATTENTION has from time to time been directed to the flower gardens upon vacant land in the neighbourhood of the Strand. The Selborne Society has been investigating a still more interesting building site in Farringdon Street, 370 NATURE { [SEPTEMBER 22. 1910 scarcely removed from the heart of the city. Although this plot has only been cleared for about two years, no fewer than twenty-eight species of flowering plants and ferns have established themselves upon it. Mosses, liverworts, and others of the more simple plants are also represented. Mr. J. C. Shenstone is preparing a detailed list, which will be published in the October number of the Selborne Magazine. Tue council of the Concrete Institute has decided to offer a medal annually for the best paper submitted relating to concrete and its applications. Tue Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow announces that its Graham medal, awarded for original research in any branch of chemical science, is now open to competi- tion. Particulars as to the award are obtainable from the secretary of the society, 207 Bath Street, Glasgow. Tue Incorporated Institution of Automobile Engineers will hold its opening meeting for the present session on October 12, when the president, Mr. F. W. Lanchester, will deliver an address on ‘‘ Factors that have Contributed to the Advance of Automobile Engineering, and which Control the Development of the Self-propelled Vehicle.” Dr. FrepericK A. GENTH, jun., a prominent American toxicologist, died on September 1 at Lansdowne, Pennsyl- vania, at the age of fifty-five. He was a member of several foreign chemical and had held official positions at home in connection with the University of Pennsylvania, the Medico-chirurgical Hospital of Phila- delphia, and the State Department of Agriculture. societies, Mr. Josern A. Howmes, director of the technological branch of the U.S. Geological Survey, has been appointed by President Taft to the directorship of the newly estab- jished Bureau of Mines. The functions of the new office will be to investigate and report upon safety appliances, and to inquire into the improvement cf the methods of mining in general. Mr. Holmes, who is now in his fifty- jirst year, was professor of geology and natural history in the University of North Carolina from 1881 to 1891, and State geologist of North Carolina from 1891 to 1904, entered the service of the national geological survey. He was chief of the department of mines and metallurgy at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. when he Tue death is announced of Prof. William H. Niles, who was professor of geology and geography in the Institute of Technology at Massachusetts from 1871 to 1902, and head of the department of geology at Wellesley College since 1888. Although perhaps best known as a_ teacher and public lecturer, he was author of papers on glacial phenomena and on the physical geology and geography of Massachusetts. In 1874 he directed attention to natural disturbances which occurred in quarries, whereby anti- clinal structures were produced, owing to lateral pressure and the relief caused by the removal of rock. Prof. Niles was president of the Boston Natural History Society from He was born on May 18, 1838, and died on September 13 of this year. 1892 to 1897. Tue death is reported, at the ripe age of eighty-three, of Dr. Charles A. Goessmann, for nearly forty years professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Agricultural College. A native of Naumburg, he graduated at Gottingen, where afterward the assistant, made on the value of he was a favourite student, and of Wohler. A report he had sorghum as a source of sugar led to his invitation by a become After occupy- American fellow-student to scientific director of a sugar refinery in Philadelphia. ing that post ‘from 1857 to 1861, he spent eight years as where he made former chemist of the works, NO. 2134, VOL. 84] Onondaga salt important contributions to the chemistry of brines, mean- while devoting part. of his time to the professorship of chemistry at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, N.Y. The most valuable part of his life-work was done at the Agricultural College at Amherst, which he made a training ground for agricultural and technical chemists. The State of Massachusetts appointed him also director of its agricultural experiment station and analyst to its board of health. He is credited with having exerted, directly and through his pupils, a powerful influence over the attitude of American agriculturists to scientific education. WritinG in the Times of Friday last, Prof. R. Meldola says that it appears to have been overlooked that Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin, besides pro- phesying the introduction of steam as a motive power, foretold, in the following lines, the advent of aérial navigation :— ‘“Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar, Drag the slow barge and drive the rapid car ; Or on wide waving wings expanded bear The flying chariot through the streams of air ; Fair crews triumphant leaning from above Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move; Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd, And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud.” Tue first Universal Races Congress, ‘‘ to discuss, in the light of modern knowledge and the modern conscience, the general relations subsisting between the peoples of the West and those of the East, between so-called white and so-called coloured peoples, with a view to encouraging between them a fuller understanding, the most friendly feelings, and a heartier cooperation,’’ is to be held, under the presidency of Lord Weardale, in London on July 26-29, 1911. We notice that among the papers to be brought before the congress are the following :—Definition of race, tribe, and nation, by Brajendranath Seal; anthro- pological view of race, by Prof. v. Luschan; sociological view of race, by Prof. A .Fouillée; the problem of race equality, Mr. G. Spiller; differences in customs and morals and their resistance to rapid change, by Prof. G. Sergi; intellectual standing of different races and their respective opportunities for culture, by Mr. J. Gray; inter-racial marriage, by Dr. J. Deniker. Tue report for the past year of the Madras Government Museum, so long associated with the reports and bulletins issued by Mr. E. Thurston, now appears under the signa- ture Mr. J. R. Henderson. The most important addition during the year was the establishment of the marine aquarium, of which a description apneared This is now stocked with of his successor, in these columns (February 3). fish and other marine forms of life collected on the coast, and forms a most attractive exhibit. Numerous accessions to the numismatic cabinet are recorded, the most important being a Roman denarius attributed to Quintus Cassius Longinus (B.c. 60), and a second to the Emperor Augustus. These furnish additional corroboration of the importance of the sea trade between Rome and southern India during this period. The present specimens were unearthed in the Coimbatore district. Tue last issue (vol. v., part v.) of the Archeological Publication of the University of California is devoted to an account of the Chimariko tribe of Indians inhabiting Trinity County, in north California. They first came into contact with the whites early in the last century; but their final destruction began with the sudden eruption of gold miners in the early “fifties, by whom they were over- dispersed. The information now collected R. B. Dixon woman, the whelmed and was obtained by Mr. from a SEPTEMBER 22, 1910] NATURE 371 sole survivor of the tribe, and from a male member of a neighbouring group who was well acquainted with their language and customs. They seem never to ‘have assimilated their culture to that of the neighbouring powerful Huba tribe, and it has been suggested, with some degree of probability, that they were a branch of the Shastan stock, which advanced from the north in a south- westerly direction, and with which they exhibit in their mythology certain resemblances. All the scanty available information about their culture and language has now been adequately collected by Mr. Dixon. Messrs. Durau anp Co., Lrp., have published in the series of Drapers’ Company Research Memoirs a_ study of the mortality of the tuberculous in relation to sanatorium treatment, by Mr. W. Palin Elderton and Mr. S. J. Perry. The method adopted is to compare the number of deaths observed amongst the tuberculous with the number that would be expected on the basis of the English life-table (1) for patients of certain sanatoria, (2) for Pollock and Williams’s cases, which were observed before the days of sanatorium treatment. The authors show that the mortality of tuberculous patients who are undergoing or have undergone treatment is much heavier than that of the general population, and the mortality even of the apparently cured’cases is about twice as heavy. The mortality of sanatorium patients does not show any improvement on that of Williams and Pollock’s cases, but comparison is difficult, owing to the way in which the older figures were given. It is precisely this comparison, however, which is of importance. The fact that the mortality of sanatorium patients is greater than that of the general population has no bearing on the real question at issue, for even a perfect cure of tuberculosis could surely not be expected, as an incidental result, to turn a weakling into a strong man, nor to render the mortality of the highly selected population in question the same as that of the population at large. In the report of the Warrington Museum for the year ending on June 3o last, attention is directed to the large number of donations received, which included 2436 speci- mens, as against 1645 in the previous twelyemonth. In the September number of the Selborne Magazine Mr. E. G. Woodd states that an additional protected area for birds has recently been established by the County Council in east Sussex. The area extends from Eastbourne to Hastings, and inland so far as Lewes, and within these limits such birds and their eggs as specially need protec- tion have been scheduled. WE have received the report of the Sarawak Museum for 1908-9, in which it is announced that Mr. J. Hewitt has been succeeded as curator by Mr. J. C. Moulton. Collecting expeditions have been made to neighbouring districts, which resulted in the addition of interesting specimens, and a catalogue of the birds in the collection was completed during the period under review. Tue International Commission on Zoological Nomen- clature has issued through the Smithsonian Institution (Publication No. 1938) a series of twenty-five opinions in regard to matters of dispute in nomenclature. Among many cases, it will perhaps suffice to mention that the committee are in favour of retaining the generic name Simia for the orang-utan. Tue Entomologists’ Monthly Magazine for September contains a beautifully coloured plate of nine species of rare British beetles, all of small size. According to the authors—Messrs. Champion and Lloyd—of the accompany- NO. 2134, VOL. 84] ing notes, one of the most interesting of these is the species named by Dr. Sharp Eudectus whitei, of which the single known example was captured by its describer on the summit of Ben-a-Bhuid, Braemar, in the summer of 1871. A USEFUL catalogue of Danish zoological literature, com- piled by Mr. Svend Dahl, has been published by J. B. Lybecker at Copenhagen under the title of ‘‘ Bibliotheca Danica, 1876-1906.’’ It comprises 262 pages of text, of which 186 are devoted to a list of authors and their works. The manner in which this list is arranged is, however, difficult to understand, as the names are given neither in alphabetical order nor according to date of birth. | NATURE ai, laid on Scottish examples. Dr. W. F. Hume, in his “Notes on the Petrography of Egypt ’’ (Geol. Mag., 1908, Pp- 500) gives a concise sketch that ought to be reprinted for the use of travellers. Reichsanstalt, Bd. lviii., p. 527) describes the “‘ Kall- silikatfelse ’? near Mahrisch-Schonberg in the Sudetic, and shows them to have become mineralised by the granite ef the chain, while (p. 571) certain dyke-like pyroxene- pegmatites have arisen from the absorption of limestone into the invading igneous material. Dr. Hinterlechner and Mr. C. von John, in an elaborate paper on the eruptive rocks of the Bohemian Eisengebirge (ibid., Bd. lix., p. 127), show that the alteration of the sediments into crystalline schists is not here dependent on the amount of dynamic influence. Where pressure has been least, the crystallisation is most marked, and is due to the intrusion of a mass that was once regarded as a primitive core. This, the earliest granite of the area, is later than Lower Silurian sediments, and Dr. Hinterlechner believes that it was intruded after the folding of the district. Since Devonian beds are here involved, this red gneiss may be of Upper Devonian or Carboniferous age. A paper of this kind emphasises the fact that in true petrology the labora- tory merely subserves the work done in the open ce a GA. 5G: REPORTS ON CLIMATES. HE results of the meteorological observations at the principal stations in the system of the Deutsche Seewarte for the five-year period 1901-5, and for the ten- year period 1896-1905, recently published, complete the series of these valuable statistics for the thirty years 1876— 1905. They include the mean monthly, seasonal, and annual values, and extremes or other data relating to the various elements, deduced from observations generally made three times daily, and in practically the same form as in previous instalments. The heights of some of the barometers above sea-level have changed from time to time, but in order to permit easier comparison of one period with another, this inconvenience has been mini- mised by reducing the observations to agree with the levels given in previous publications. Otherwise, as usual in the case of barometrical observations at climatological stations, the readings are not reduced to sea-level. The meteorology of Peru is discussed by Dr. J. Hann in the Sitzungsberichte of the Vienna Academy of November 4, 1909. The observations of the various stations on which the discussion is based have been pub- lished in the Annals of the Harvard College Observatory, to which we have previously referred; the tables were carefully prepared for publication under the direction of Prof. S. J. Bailey, of Arequipa, and are mostly printed in extenso, with mean values, but without discussion. In the present work Dr. Hann has submitted the results of the various elements to minute investigation by the laborious process of harmonic analysis. This brings out many interesting points; we propose here only to make a few general remarks on the most important station, on the summit of the Misti (lat. 16° 16’ S., long. 71° 25’ W.), at the great elevation of 5850 metres above sea-level. Dr. Hann points out that the agreement of the daily range of the barometer with that of the highest stations in Europe and America is very noteworthy; the principal maximum occurs between noon and th. p.m., and the minimum about 5h. a.m. The mean annual temperature (1893-5) was —7:8° C.; January, —6-0°; May, June, and August, —g-7°. The thermometer, even on very fine days, rarely rose above freezing point. Above 4600 metres, only snow or hail was observed; a certain amount of snow remains during nearly the whole year, but a few clear days suffice to clear off the greater part of a heavy snowfall. A valuable paper on the climate of the Lower Guinea coast and hinterland, by Dr. R. Sieglerschmidt, appears in vol. xxiii., part i., of Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten; it is the more important from the fact that, with the exception of, a short discussion of the rain- fall of the Cameroons by Fitzner in 1907, no general paper on the climate of that district has been published for some NO, 2134, VOL. 84] Mr. F. Kretschmer (Jahrb. k.k. | years. Among the earlier papers may be specially men- tioned the results of the Loango expedition (published in 1878), observations at Vivi and other places by Freiherr v. Danckelman (1884), and the reports by Lancaster and Meuleman on the climate of the Lower Congo (1897). Dr. Sieglerschmidt’s article deals exhaustively with each of the meteorological elements, and the general results confirm those given by Dr. Hann in his “‘ Klimatologie,’’ that the air-pressure on the Lower Guinea coast has a single yearly range, and that the yearly means decrease from south to north, while the temperature (reduced to sea-level) increases considerably towards the interior, except in the extreme north. Rainfall increases along the coast from almost complete rainlessness to that of the second wettest district of the globe. The oceanic air-current, which from June to September (or October) extends from the north of Angola to the Cameroons far into the interior, has a great in- fluence on the yearly range of temperature, rainfall, &c., while in the hinterland of the north and south districts the yearly range is determined by the alternation of summer warmth and winter cold of higher latitudes. The climate of Berlin, part ii., air-temperature, by Prof. G. Hellmann (with the assistance of Messrs. G. v. Elsner and G. Schwalbe), forms part No. 6, vol. iii., of the Abhandlungen of the Royal Prussian Meteorological Institute. In this valuable and laborious investigation the observations are dealt with in great detail and for various periods from the year 1701. In the following table we quote the maximum and minimum readings for 1830-1907, and the mean monthly and yearly values for 1822-1907, in centigrade degrees :— Jan. Feb. March April May June Mean max. ... 14 Bes 70 12°9 18°5 22°5, Means mines 137250 — 2:0 o'2 453 8:8 12'8 (irmetmeangee ssc ler o'5 34 8-6 136 17-5 July August Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. Mean max. ... 23°38 22:8 19:0 12°9 63 27 Meanhminsy..e) | 1453) ISON S1075 64 1600 —1°4 True mean 189 618 ~=—ss«14°6 9°5 39 o'7 Yearly mean, 9-0; absolute maximum, 37-0 (July 20, 1865); absolute minimum, —25:0 (January 29, 1830, January 22, 1850). The author points out that the earlier period was some- what colder than the later; this was noticeable in all the winter months, especially in January, while greater heat in summer, especially in May and August, was observed, but he considers that it would be premature to assume that a permanent change of climate has taken place. The prin- cipal anomalies in the yearly range are the cold periods in the middle of February and June, and the warm periods near the end of September and middle of December. The cold spell of May 11-13, popularly known as the days of the Ice Saints, is not specially noticeable. The chief cause of these anomalies in the annual range of temperature is the distribution of air-pressure in Eurasia, especially the position of the barometric maximum. A comprehensive discussion of the rainfall of northern Spain and Portugal, by Dr. W. Semmelhack, is contained’ in Aus dem Archiv der Deutschen Seewarte (1910, No. 2). It deals with many aspects of the subject, including hori- zontal and vertical distribution of amount and frequency, isohyets and tabular means of years and seasons, thunder- storms, &c., embracing a period extending from 1861 to 1900. The rainfall is affected chiefly by conditions of pressure over the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and the Continent, and its yearly distribution is therefore subject to considerable fluctuation. To give details would require much space, but a rough idea may be gained from the fact that about 4 per cent. of the area in question receives an amount not exceeding 12 inches; 53 per cent., approximately 12-273 inches; 17 per cent., 273-393 inches; 23 per cent., 391-59 inches; 3 per cent., more than this amount. The extreme values are 9:6 inches at Palencia (Old Castile) and 113 inches at Sierra d’Estrella. The monthly extreme values vary very greatly; the highest are met with on the N., N.W., and W. coasts. In March, 1886, 48-7 inches were recorded at Sierra d’Estrella, but in the dry districts of the central plateau the greatest monthly amounts are little above 6 inches; rainless months occur at times at nearly all the stations. 378 NAT ORE: [SEPTEMBER 22, IGIO BIRD NOTES. O the July issue of the Quarterly Review Dr. H. Gadow communicates an instructive article on the nature and meaning of the colours of birds. After pointing out the fallacy of the idea that the colouring of such birds as the scarlet ibis or white egret can be in any sense pro- tective, the author discusses the diverse means by which colour is produced in birds, showing that while black and the red and yellow group are pigmentary, blues and greens are so-called structural tints, due to the reflection from the surface of the feathers of an undue proportion of short light-rays. Metallic colouring, which usually occurs in black feathers, is due, of course, to another cause. Dr. Gadow next proceeds to describe the sequence in which various colours replace one another with the advance of specialisation. As regards the cause of colour-specialisa- tion, the author rejects both natural and sexual selection, remarking that if the latter were the inducing factor, every grup and species would have its own taste, and each individual would strive to develop its yellow patches into orange and then into red. For the explanation offered in place of natural and sexual selection, we must refer our readers to the article itself. In the August number of Witherby’s British Birds the editor congratulates his readers on the satisfactory response which has been made this season to his appeal for assist- ance in marking birds. Nearly 11,000 rings were dis- tributed, and schedules recording the marking of between 5000 and 6000 birds have been already received. The cooperation is invoked of all into whose hands ringed birds may fall. In the same issue Mr. W. Frohawk describes and illustrates the feeding habits of the razor- bill, remarking that all the specimens which have come under his special notice fed on sand-launces. These fish, to the number in some cases of so many as half a dozen at a time, are held transversely in the beak, and the marvel is how the bird manages to capture and hold one after the other without losing those previously caught. Possibly each is killed when caught; but even then it is difficult to see how the catch is procured and retained. To the August number of the Popular Science Monthly Prof. F. H.. Herrick contributes the third and final instal- ment of an article on instinct and intelligence in birds. It is concluded that many of the alleged cases of intelli- gence are really due to habit, and that “all the intelli- gence which birds may on occasion exhibit seems to give way under the spell of any of the strange instincts. They seidom meet emergencies by doing the intelligent act, and, in spite of the anecdotes, probably but seldom come to the effective aid of their companions in distress. On the other hand, I have more than once seen a mother bird try to pluck a hair or piece of grass from the mouth of a nestling.” Another instance of intelligence is afforded, in the author’s opinion, when a gull, after feeding its young for three weeks on partially digested fish, offers them entire squids to swallow. The practice displayed by young king- fishers of arranging themselves in a row and showing a tendency to walk backwards is, however, attributed to habit formed underground; while the time it takes for hole-nesting birds to change their place of entrance when a more convenient access has been afforded is an instance of the dominance of habit over intelligence. THE. BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT SHEFFIELD. Section D. ZOOLOGY. ‘ OPENING ApDpRESS BY PRoF. G. C. Bourne, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., PRESIDENT. OF THE. SECTION. In choosing a subject for the address with which it is my duty, as President of this Section, to trouble you, I have feund myself in no small embarrassment. As one whose business it is to lecture and give instruction in the details of comparative anatomy, and whose published work, gqualecunque sit, has been indited on typical’ and, as men would now say, old-fashioned morphological lines, I seem to stand self-condemned as a morphologist. For morpho- logy, if I read the signs of the times aright, is no longer NO. 2134, VOL. 84] in favour in this country, and among a section of the zoological world has almost fallen into disgrace. At all events, I have been very frankly assured that this is the case by a large proportion of the young gentlemen whom it has been my fate to examine during the past two years; and, as this seems to be the opinion of the rising genera- tion of English zoologists, and as there are evident signs that their opinion is backed by an influential section of their elders, I have thought that it might be of some interest, and. perhaps of some use, if I took this oppor- tunity of offering an apology for animal morphology. It is a sound rule to begin with a definition of terms, so I will first try to give a short answer to the question ‘““What is morphology?’’ and, when I have given a somewhat dogmatic answer, I will try to deal in the course of this address with two further questions: What has morphology done for zoological science in the past? What remains for morphology to do in the future? To begin with, then, what do we include under the term morphology? I must, first of all, protest against the frequent assumption that we are bound by the definitions of C. F. Wolff or Goethe, or even of Haeckel, and that we may not enlarge the limits of morphological study beyond those laid down by the fathers of this branch of our science. We are not—at all events we should not be—bound by authority, and we owe no allegiance other than what reason commends to causes and principles enunciated by our pre- decessors, however eminent they may have been. The term morphology, stripped of all the theoretical con- ceptions that have clustered around it, means nothing more than the study of form, and it is applicable to all branches of zoology in which the relationships of animals are determined by reference to their form and structure. Morphology, therefore, extends its sway not only over the comparative anatomy of adult and recent animals, but also over paleontology, comparative embryology, systematic zoology and cytology, for all these branches of our science are occupied with the study of form. And in treating of form they have all, since the acceptance of the doctrine of descent with modification, made use of the same guiding principle—namely, that likeness of form is the index to blood-relationship. It was the introduction of this prin- ciple that revolutionised the methods of morphology fifty years ago, and stimulated that vast output of morpho- logical work which some persons, erroneously as I think, regard as a departure from the line of progress indicated by Darwin. We may now ask, what has morphology done for the advancement of zoological science since the publication of the ‘‘ Origin of Species’’? We need not stop to inquire what facts it has accumulated: it is sufficiently obvious that it has added enormously to our stock of concrete knowledge. We have rather to ask what great general principles has it established on so secure a basis that they meet with universal acceptance at the hands of competent zoologists ? It has doubtless been the object of morphology during the past half-century to illustrate and confirm the Darwinian theory. How far has it been successful? To answer this question we have to be sure of what we mean when we speak of the Darwinian theory. I think that we mean at least two things. (1) That the assemblage of animal forms as we now see them, with all their diversities of form, habit, and structure, is directly descended from a precedent and somewhat different assemblage, and these in turn from a precedent and more different asse to remote periods of geological time. Further, throughout all these periods inheritance combined changeability of structure have been the factors operative in producing the differences between the successive assem- blages. (2) That the modifications of form which this theory of evolution implies have been rejected or preserved and accumulated by the action of natural selection. As regards the first of these propositions, I think there can be no doubt that morphology has done great service in establishing our belief on a secure basis. The transmuta- tion of animal forms in past time cannot be proved directly ; it can only be shown that, as a theory, it has a much higher degree of probability than any other that can be brought forward, and in order to establish the highest possible degree of probability, it was necessary to demon- strate that all anatomical, embryological, and palaonto- = a a ai i as Oy) a. =... SEPTEMBER 22, I9I0| NATURE 379 logical facts were consistent with it. We are apt to forget, nowadays, that there is no a priori reason for regarding the resemblances and differences that we observe in organic forms as something different in kind from the analogous series of resemblances and differences that obtain in inanimate objects. This was clearly pointed out by Fleeming Jenkin in a very able and much-referred to article in the North British Review for June, 1867, and his argu- ment from the a priort standpoint has as much force to-day as when it was written forty-three years ago. But it has lost almost all its force through the arguments a posteriort - supplied by morphological science. Our belief in the trans- mutation of animal organisation in past time is founded very largely upon our minute and intimate knowledge of the manifold relations of structural form that obtain among adult animals; on our precise knowledge of the steps by which these adult relations are established during the development of different kinds of animals; on our con- stantly increasing knowledge of the succession of animal forms in past time; and, generally, on the conviction that all the diverse forms of: tissues, organs, and entire animals are but the expression of an infinite number of variations of a single theme, that theme being cell-division, multipli- cation, and differentiation. This conviction grew but slowly in men’s minds. It was opposed to the cherished beliefs of centuries, and morphology rendered a necessary service when it spent all those years which have been described as ‘*‘ years in the wilderness’ in accumulating such a mass of circumstantial evidence in favour of an evolutionary explanation of the order of animate nature as to place the doctrine of descent with modification on a secure foundation of fact. 1 do not believe that this foundation could have been so securely laid in any other way, and IJ hold that zoologists were actuated by a sound instinct in working so largely on morphological lines for forty years after Darwin wrote. For there was a large mass of fact and theory to be remodelled and brought into harmony with the new ideas, and a still larger vein of undiscovered fact to explore. The matter was difficult and the pace could not be forced. Morphology, therefore, deserves the credit of having done well in the past: the question remains, What can it do in the future? It is evident, I think, that it cannot do much in the way of adding new truths and general principles to zoological science, nor even much more that is useful in the verifica- tion of established principles, without enlarging its scope and methods. Hitherto—or, at any rate, until very re- cently—it has accepted certain guiding principles on faith, and, without inquiring too closely into their validity, has occupied itself with showing that, on the assumption that these principles are true, the phenomena of animal structure, development, and succession receive a reasonable explanation. We have seen that the fundamental principles relied upon during the last fifty years have been inheritance and variation. In every inference drawn from the comparison of one kind of animal structure with another, the morphologist founds himself on the assumption that dif- ferent degrees of similitude correspond more or less closely to degrees of blood-relationship, and to-day there are prob- ably few persons who doubt that this assumption is valid. But we must not forget that, before the publication of the “Origin of Species,’’ it was rejected by the most in- fluential zoologists as an idle speculation, and that it is imperilled by Mendelian experiments showing that char- acters may be split up and reunited in different combina- tions in the course of a few generations. We do not doubt the importance of the principle of inheritance, but we are not quite so sure as we were that close resemblances are due to close kinship and remoter resemblances to remoter kinship. The principle of variation asserts that like does not beget exactly like, but something more or less different. For a long time morphologists did not inquire too closely into the question how these differences arose. They simply accepted it as a fact that they occur, and that they are of sufficient frequency and magnitude, and that a sufficient proportion of them lead in such directions that natural selection can take advantage of them. Difficulties and objections were raised, but morphology on the whole took little heed of them. Remaining steadfast in its adherence to the prin- NO. 2134, VOL. 84] ciples laid down by Darwin, it contented itself with piling up circumstantial evidence, and met objection and criticism with an ingenious apologetic. In brief, its labours have consisted in bringing fresh instances, and especially such instances as seemed unconformable, under the rules, and in perfecting a system of classification in illustration of the rules. It is obvious, however, that, although this kind of study is both useful and indispensable at a certain stage of scientific progress, it does not help us to form new rules, and fails altogether if the old rules are seriously called into question. As a matter of fact, admitting that the old rules are valid, it has become increasingly evident that they are not sufficient. Until a few years ago morphologists were open to the reproach that, while they studied form in all its variety and detail, they occupied themselves too little—if, indeed, they could be said to occupy themselves at all— with the question of how form is produced, and how, when certain forms are established, they are caused to undergo change and give rise to fresh forms. As Klebs has pointed out, the forms of animals and plants were regarded as the expression of their inscrutable inner nature, and the stages passed through in the development of the individual were represented as the outcome of purely internal and hidden laws. This defect seems to have been more distinctly realised by botanical than by zoological morphologists, for Hofmeister, as long ago as 1868, wrote that the most pressing and immediate aim of the investigator was to dis- cover to what extent external forces acting on the organism are of importance in determining its form. If morphology was to be anything more than a descrip- tive science, if it was to progress any further in the discovery of the relations of cause and effect, it was clear that it must alter its methods and follow the course indicated by Hofmeister. And I submit that an inquiry into the causes which produce alteration of form is as much the province of, and is as fitly called, morphology as, let us say, a discussion of the significance of the patterns of the molar teeth of mammals or a disputation about the origin of the ccelomic cavities of vertebrated and inverte- brated animals. There remains, therefore, a large field for morphology to explore. Exploration has begun from several sides, and in some quarters has made substantial progress. It will be of interest to consider how much progress has been made along certain lines of research—we cannot now follow all the lines—and to forecast, if possible, the direction that this pioneer work will give to the morphology of the future. I am not aware that morphologists have, until quite recently, had any very clear concept of what may be expected to underlie form and structure. Dealing, as they have dealt, almost exclusively with things that can be seen or rendered visible by the microscope, they have acquired the habit of thinking of the organism as made up of organs, the organs of tissues, the tissues of cells, and the cells as made up—of what? Of vital units of a lower order, as several very distinguished biologists would have us believe; of physiological units, of micelle, of deter- minants and biophors, or of pangenes; all of them essentially morphological’ conceptions; the products of imagination projected beyond the confines of the visible, yet always restrained by having only one source of experi- ence—namely, the visible. One may give unstinted admiration to the brilliancy, and even set a high value on the usefulness, of these attempts to give formal representa- tions of the genesis of organic structure, and yet recognise that their chief utility has been to make us realise more clearly the problems that have yet to be solved. Stripped of all the verbiage that has accumulated about them, the simple questions that lie immediately before us are: What are the causes which produce changes in the forms of animals and plants? Are they purely internal, and, if so, are their laws discoverable? Or are they partly or wholly external, and, if so, how far can we find relations*of cause and effect between ascertained chemical and physical phenomena and the structural responses of living beings? As an attempt to answer the last of these questions, we have the recent researches of the experimental morpholo- gists and embryologists directed towards the very aim that Hofmeister proposed. Originally founded by Roux, the 380 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1910 school of experimental embryology has outgrown its infancy and has developed into a vigorous youth. It has produced some very remarkable results, which cannot fail to exercise a lasting influence on the course of zoological studies. We have learnt from it a number of positive facts, from which we may draw very important conclusions, subversive of some of the most cherished ideas of whilom morphologists. It has been proved by experiment that very small changes in the chemical and physical environment may and do produce specific form-changes in developing organisms, and in such experiments the consequence follows so regularly on the antecedent that we cannot doubt that we have true relations of cause and effect. It is not the least interesting outcome of these experiments that, as Loeb has remarked, it is as yet impossible to connect in a rational way the effects produced with the causes which produced them, and it is also impossible to define in a simple way the character of the change so produced. For example, there is no obvious connection between the minute quantity of sulphates present in sea-water and the number and position of the characteristic calcareous spicules in the larva of a sea- urchin. Yet Herbst has shown that if the eggs of sea- urchins are reared in sea-water deprived of the needful sulphates (normally o°26 per cent. magnesium sulphate and or per cent. calcium sulphate), the number and relative positions of these spicules are altered, and, in addition, changes are produced in other organs, such as the gut and the ciliated bands. Again, there is no obvious connection between the presence of a small excess of magnesium chloride in sea-water and the development of the paired optic vesicles. Yet Stockard, by adding magnesium chloride to sea-water in the proportion of 6 grams of the former to 100 c.c. of the latter, has produced specific effects on the eyes of developing embryos of the minnow Fundulus heteroclitus: the optic vesicles, instead of being formed as a widely separated pair, were caused to approach the median line, and in about 50 per cent. of the embryos experimented upon the changes were so pro- found as to give rise to cyclopean monsters. Many other instances might be cited of definite effects of physical and chemical agencies on particular organs, and we are now forced to admit that inherited tendencies may be completely overcome by a minimal change in the environment. The nature of the organism, therefore, is not all important, Since it yields readily to influences which at one time we should have thought inadequate to produce perceptible changes in it. It is open to anyone to argue that, interesting as experi- ments of this kind may be, they throw no light on the origin of permanent—that is to say, inheritable—modifica- tions of structure. It has for a long time been a matter of common knowledge that individual plants and animais react to their environment, but the modifications induced by these reactions are somatic; the germ-plasm is not affected, therefore the changes are not inherited, and no permanent effect. is produced in the characters of the race or species. It is true that no evidence has yet been pro- duced to show that form-changes as profound as those that I have mentioned are transmitted to the offspring. So far the experimenters have not been able to rear the modified organisms beyond the larval stages, and so there are no offspring to show whether cyclopean eyes or modified forms ‘of spicules are inherited or not. Indeed, it is possible that the balance of organisation of animals thus modified has been upset to such an extent that they are incapable of growing into adults and reproducing their kind. But evidence is beginning to accumulate which shows that external conditions may produce changes in the germ- cells as well as in the soma, and that such changes may be specific and of the same kind as similarly produced somatic changes. Further, there is evidence that such germinal changes are inherited—and, indeed, we should expect them to be, because they are germinal. The evidence on this subject is as yet meagre, but it is of good quality and comes from more than one source. There are the well-known experiments of Weismann, Standfuss, Merrifield, and E. Fischer on the modification of the colour patterns on the wings of various Lepidoptera. In the more northern forms of the fire-butterfly, Chryso- phanus (Polyommatus) phlaeas, the upper surfaces of the wings are of a bright red-gold or copper colour with a aarrow black margin, but in southern Europe the black NO. 2134, VOL. 841 tends to extend over the whole surface of the wing and may nearly obliterate the red-gold colour. By exposing pup of caterpillars collected at Naples to a temperature of 10° C. Weismann obtained butterflies more golden than the Neapolitan, but blacker than the ordinary German race, and conversely, by exposing pupze of the German variety to a temperature of about 38° C., butterflies were obtained blacker than the German, but not so black as the Neapolitan variety. Similar deviations from the normal standard have been obtained by like means in various species of Vanessa by Standfuss and Merrifield. Standfuss, working with the small tortoiseshell butterfly (Vanessa urticae), produced colour aberrations by subjecting the pupze to cold, and found that some specimens reared under normal conditions from the eggs produced by the aberrant forms exhibited the same aberrations, but in a_ lesser degree. Weismann obtained similar results with the same species. E. Fischer obtained parallel results with Arctia caja, a brightly coloured diurnal moth of the family Bombycide. Pupz of this moth were exposed to a tem- perature of 8° C., and some of the butterflies that emerged were very dark-coloured aberrant forms. Pallida Decemlineata and hybrids 66,4 16g, 14 9 | as Fe \ Pallida Pallida Decemlineata and hybrids 18 g; 23 ? 86,72 26 6,28 9 This is a much more detailed experiment than those of NO. 2134, VOL. 84] Standfuss, Merrifield, and Fischer, and it shows that the changes produced by the action of altered conditions on the maturing germ-cells were definite and discontinuous, and therefore of the nature of mutations in De Vries’ sense. In another experiment Tower reared three generations of decemlineata to test the purity of his stock. He found that they showed no tendency to produce extreme varia- tions under normal conditions. rom this pure stock seven males and seven females were chosen, and subjected during the maturation periods of the first two batches of ova to hot and dry conditions. Four hundred and nine eggs were laid, from which sixty-nine adults were reared, constituted as follows :— Twenty (12 g,8 9) apparently normal decemlineata. ‘Twenty-three (10 g, 1312)- pallida. Five (2 6,39) -. + - wnumaculotho. ax. Sixteen(g 6,72) - albida. These constituted lot A. The same seven pairs of parents subjected during the second half of the reproductive period to normal condi- tions gave 840 eggs, from which were reared 123 adults, all decemlineatas. ‘These constituted lot B. The decem- lineatas of lot A and lot B were reared side by side under normal and exactly similar conditions. The results were striking. From lot B normal progeny were reared up to the tenth generation, and, as usual in the genus, two generations were produced in each year. ‘The decem- lineatas of lot A segregated into two lots in the second generation. A’ were normal in all respects, but A’, while retaining the normal appearance of decemlineata, went through five generations in a year, and this for three successive years, thus exhibiting a remarkable physio- logical modification, and one without parallel in nature, for no species of the genus Leptinotarsa are known which produce more than two generations in the year. This experiment is a sufficient refutation of Weismann’s argu- ment that the inheritance of induced modifications in Vanessa urticae is only apparent, the phenomena observed being due to the inheritance of two kinds of determinants —one from dark-coloured forms which are phyletically the oldest, and the other from more gaily coloured forms derived from the darker forms. There is no evidence whatever that there was ever a species or variety of potato- beetle that produced more than two, or at the most, and then as an exception, three broods in a year. The modified albinic forms in this last experiment of Lower’s were weakly; they were bred through two or three generations, and came true to type, but then died out. No hybridisation experiments were made with them, but in other similar experiments, which I have not time to mention in detail, modified forms produced by the action of changed conditions gave typical Mendelian characters when crossed with unmodified decemlineatas, thus proving that the induced characters were constant and heritable according to the regular laws. I have thought it worth while to relate these experi- ments at some length, because they seem to me to be very important, and because they do not appear to have attracted the attention in this country that they deserve. They are confirmed to a very large extent by the experi- ments of Prof. Klebs on plants, the results of which were published this summer in the Croonian Lecture on ‘Alterations of the Development and Forms of Plants as a Result of Environment.’? As I have only a short abstract of the Croonian Lecture to refer to, I cannot say much on this subject for fear of misrepresenting the author; but, as far as I can judge, his results are quite consistent with those of Tower. Sempervivum funckit and S. acuminatum were subjected to altered conditions of light and nutrition, with the result that striking varia- tions, such as the transformation of sepals into petals, of petals into stamens, of stamens into petals and into carpels, avere produced. Experiments were made on Sempervivum acuminatum with the view of answering the question whether such alterations of flowers can be trans- mitted. The answer was in the affirmative. The seeds of flowers artificially altered and self-fertilised gave rise to _ twenty-one seedlings, among which four showed surprising deviations of floral structure. In two of these seedlings 382 NAL CEE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1910. ail the flowers were greatly altered, and presented some of the modifications of the mother plant, especially the transformation of. stamens into petals. These experi- ments are still in progress, and it would perhaps be. pre- mature to lay too much stress upon them if it were not for the fact that they are so completely confirmatory of tne results obtained by similar methods. in the animal kingdom. 1 submit to you that evidence is forthcoming that external conditions may give rise to inheritable alterations of structure. Not, however, as was once supposed, by producing specific changes in the parental soma, which changes were reflected, so to speak, upon the germ-cells. the new evidence confirms the. distinctions drawn by Weismann between somatic and germinal variations. It shows that the former are not inherited, while the latter are; but it indicates that the germ may be caused to vary by the action of external conditions in such a manner as to produce specific changes in the progeny resulting from it. It is no more possible at the present time to connect rationally the action of external conditions on the germ- cells with the specific results produced in the progeny than it is possible to connect cause with effect in the experiments of Herbst and Stockard; but when we com- pare these two kinds of experiments, we are no longer able to argue that it is inconceivable that such and such conditions acting on the germ-plasm can produce such and such effects in the next generation of adults. We must accept the evidence that things which appeared inconceiv- able do in fact happen, and in accepting this we remove a great obstacle from the path of our inquiries, and gain a distinct step in our attempts to discover the laws which determine the production of organic form and structure. But such experiments as those which I have mentioned only deal with one aspect of the problem. ‘They tell us about external conditions and the effects that they are observed to produce upon the organism. They give us no definite information about the internal changes which, taken together, constitute the response of the organism to external stimuli.. As Darwin wrote, there are two factors to be taken into account—the nature of the con- ditions and-the nature of the organism, and the latter is much the more important of the two. More important because the reactions of animals and plants are mani- fold; but, on the whole, the changes in the conditions are few and small in amount. Morphology has not succeeded in giving us any positive knowledge of the nature of the organism; and in this matter we must turn for guidance to the physiologists, and ask of them how far recent researches have resulted in the discovery of factors com- petent to account for change of structure. Perhaps the first step in this inquiry is to ask whether there is any evidence of internal chemical changes analogous in their Operation to the external physical and chemical changes which we have been dealing with. There is a great deal of evidence, but it is extremely difficult to bring it to a focus and to show its relevancy to the particular problems that perplex the zoologist. Moreover, the evidence is of so many different kinds, and each kind is so technical and complex, that it would be absurd to attempt to deal with it at the end of an address that has already been drawn out to sufficient length. But perhaps I may be allowed to allude to one or two generalisations which appear to-me to be most suggestive. We shall all agree that, at the bottom, production and change of form is due. to increase or diminution of the activities of groups of cells, and we are aware that in the higher animals change of structure is not altogether a local affair, but carries with it certain consequences in the nature of correlated changes in other parts of the body. If we are to make any progress in the study of morphogeny, we ought to have as exact ideas as possible as to what we mean when we speak of the activities of cells and of correlation. On these subjects physiology supplies us with ideas much more exact than those derived from morphology. It is, perhaps, too sweeping a generalisation to assert that the life of any given animal is the expression of the sum of the activities of the enzymes contained in it, but it seems well established that the activities of cells are, NO. 2134, VOL. 84] if not wholly, at all events largely, the result of the actions of the various kinds of enzymes held in combina- tion by their living protoplasm. ‘These enzymes are highly susceptible to the influence of physical and chemical media, and it is because of this susceptibility that the organism. responds to changes in the environment, as is clearly illus- trated in a particular case by Tower’s experiments on the production, of colour changes in potato-beetles. Bayliss and Starling have shown that in lower animals, protozoa and sponges, in which no nervous system has been developed, the response of the organism to the environment is effected by purely chemical means. In protozoa, because of their small size, the question of coadaptation of function hardly comes into question; but in sponges, many of which are of large size, the mechanism of coadaptation must also be almost exclusively chemical. Thus we. learn that the simplest and, by inference, the phyletically oldest mechanism of reaction and coordination is a chemical mechanism. In higher animals the necessity for rapid reaction to external and internal stimuli has led to the development of a central and peripheral nervous system, and as we ascend the scale of organisation this assumes a greater and greater importance as a _ co- ordinating bond between the various organs and tissues of the body. But the more primitive chemical bond persists, and is scarcely diminished in importance, but only over- shadowed, by the more easily recognisable reactions due to the working of the nervous system. In higher animals we may recognise special chemical means whereby chemical coadaptations are established and maintained at a normal level or in certain circumstances altered. These are the internal secretions produced by sundry organs, whether by typical secretory glands (in which case the internal secretion is something additional and different from the external secretion), or by the so-called ductless glands, such as the thyroid, the thymus, the adrenal bodies, or by organs which cannot strictly be called glands, namely, the ovaries and testes. All these produce chemical substances which, passing into the blood or lymph, are distributed through the system, and have the peculiar property of regulating or exciting the specific functions of other organs. Not, however, of all the organs, for the different internal secretions are more or less limited and focal in their effects, one affecting the activity of this and another the activity of that kind of tissue or organ. Starling proposed the name hormones for the internal secretions because of their excitatory properties (épyae, to stir up, to excite). Hormones have been studied chiefly from the point of view of their stimulating effect on the metabolism of various organs. From the morphologist’s point of view, interest chiefly attaches to the possibility of their regu- lating and promoting the production of form. It might be expected that they should be efficient agents in regu- lating form, for, if changes in structure are the result of the activities of groups of cells, and the activities of cells are the results of the activities of the enzymes which they contain, and if the activities of the enzymes are regulated by the hormones, it follows that the last-named must be the ultimate agents in the production of form. It is difficult to obtain distinct evidence of this agency, but in some cases, at least, the evidence is sufficiently clear. I will confine myself to the effects of the hormones pro- duced by the testes and ovaries. These have been proved to be intimately connected with the development of secondary sexual characters, such, for instance, as the characteristic shape and size of the horns of the bull; the comb, wattles, spurs, plumage colour, and spurs in poultry ; the swelling on the index finger of the male frog ; the shape and size of the abdominal segments “of crabs. These are essentially morphological characters, the results of increased local activity of cell-growth and differentiation. As they are attributable to the stimulating effect of the hormone produced by the male organ in each species, they afford at least one good instance of the production of a specific change of form as the result of an internal chemical stimulus. We get here a hint as to the nature of the chemical mechanism which excites and correlates form and function in higher organisms, and, from what has just been said, we perceive that this is the most primitive of all the animal mechanisms. I submit that SEPTEMBER 22, 1910| NATURE 383 this is a step towards forming a clear and concrete idea of the inner nature of the organism. There is one point, and that a very important one, upon which we are by no means clear. We do not know how far the hormones themselves are liable to change, whether by the action of external conditions or by the reciprocal action of the activities of the organs to which they are related. It is at least conceivable that agencies which produce chemical disturbances in the circulating fluids may alter the chemical constitution of the hormones, and thus produce far-reaching effects. The pathology of the thyroid gland gives some ground for belief that such changes may be produced by the action of external conditions. But, how- ever this may be, the line of reasoning that we have followed raises the expectation that a chemical bond must exist between the functionally active organs of the body and the germ-cells. For if, in the absence of a specialised nervous system, the only possible regulating and coadapt- ing mechanism is a chemical mechanism, and if the specific activities of a cell are dependent on the enzymes which it holds in combination, the germ-cells of any given animal must be the depository of a stock of enzymes sufficient to insure the due succession of all its developmental stages as well as of its adult structure and functions. And as the number of blastomeres increases, and the need for coordination of form and function arises, before ever the rudiments of a nervous system are differentiated, it is necessary to assume that there is also a stock of appro- priate hormones to supply the chemical nexus between the different parts of the embryo. The only alternative is to suppose that they are synthesised as required in the course of development. There are grave objections to this sup- position. All the evidence at our disposal goes to show that the potentialities of germ-cells are determined at the close of the maturation divisions. Following the physio- logical line of argument, it must be allowed that in this connection “ potentiality ’’ can mean nothing else than chemical constitution. If we admit this, we admit the validity of the theory, advanced by more than one physio- logist, that heritable ‘‘ characters’? or ‘* tendencies ”’ must be identified with the enzymes carried in the germ- cells. If this be a true representation of the facts, and if the most fundamental and primitive bond between one part of an organism and another is a chemical bond, it can hardly be the case that germ-cells—which, inter alia, are the most primitive, in the sense of being the least differentiated, cells in the body—should be the only cells which are exempt from the chemical influences which go to make up the coordinate life of the organism. It would seem, therefore, that there is some theoretical justification for the inheritance of induced modifications, provided that these are of such a kind as to react chemically on the enzymes contained in the germ-cells. One further idea that suggests itself to me and I have done. Is it possible that different kinds of enzymes exercise an inhibiting influence on one another; that germ- cells are “‘ undifferentiated ’’ because they contain a large number of enzymes, none of which can show their activi- ties in the presence of others, and that what we call “differentiation ’’’ consists in the segregation of the different kinds into separate cells, or perhaps, prior to cell-formation, into different parts of the fertilised ovum, giving rise to the phenomenon known to us as_pre- localisation? The idea is purely speculative; but, if it could be shown to have any warrant, it would go far to assist us in getting an understanding of the laws of the production of form. I have been wandering in territories outside my own province, and I shall certainly be told that I have lost my way. But my thesis has been that morphology, if it is to make useful progress, must come out of its reserves and explore. new ground. To explore is to tread unknown paths, and one is likely to lose one’s way in the unknown. To stay at home in the environment of familiar ideas is no doubt a safe course, but it does not make for advance- ment. Morphology, I believe, has as great a future before it as it has a past behind it, but it can only realise that future by leaving its old, home, with all its comfortable furniture of well-worn rules and methods, and embarking on a journey, the first stages of which will certainly be uncomfortable, and the end is far to seek. NO. 2134, VOL. 84] SECTION..E. GEOGRAPHY. OpenInG ApprEss By A. J. HeERBERTSON, M.A., Pu.D., PROFESSOR OF GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY, OF OxForp, PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. GEOGRAPHY AND SOME OF ITS PRESENT NEEDS. Geographical Progress in the Last Decade: At the close of a reign which has practically coincided with the first decade of a new century, it. is natural to look back and summarise the progress of geography during the decade. At the beginning of a new reign it is equally natural to consider the future. Our new Sovereign is one of the most travelled of men. No monarch knows the World as he knows it; no monarch has ruled over a iarger Empire or seen more of his dominions. His advice has been to wake up, to consider and to act. ‘This involves taking existing geographical conditions. into account. It will be in consonance with this advice if I pay more attention to the geography of the present and future than to that of the past, and say more about its applications than about its origins. Yet I do so with some reluctance, for the last decade has been one of the most active and interesting in the history of our science. Among the many geographical results of work in the past decade a few may be mentioned. The measurement of new and the remeasurement of old arcs will give us better data for determining the size and shape of the Earth. Surveys of all kinds, from the simple route sketches of the traveller to the elaborate cadastral surveys of some of the more populous and settled regions have so extended our know- ledge of the surface features of the Earth that a map on the scale of 1: 1,000,000 is not merely planned, but actually partly executed. Such surveys and such maps are the indispensable basis of our science. The progress of oceanography has also been great. The soundings of our own and other Admiralties, of scientific oceanographical expeditions, and those made for the pur- pose of laying cables, have given us much more detailed knowledge of the irregularities of the ocean floor. An international map of oceanic contours, due to the inspira- tion and munificence of the Prince of Oceanographers and ot Monaco, has been issued during the decade, and so much new material has accumulated that it is now being revised. A comparison of the old and new editions of Kriimmel’s ‘‘ Ozeanographie’’ shows us the immense advances in this subject. Great progress has been made on the geographical side of meteorology and climate. The importance of this knowledge for tropical agriculture and hygiene has led to an increase of meteorological stations all over the hot belt—the results of which will be of value to the geo- grapher. Mr. Bartholomew’s ‘‘ Atlas of Meteorology ”’ appeared at the beginning, and Sir John Eliot’s ‘‘ Meteor- ological Atlas of India’’ at the end, of the decade. Dr. Hann’s ‘‘ Lehrbuch’’ and the new edition of his ‘* Climatology,’’ Messrs. Hildebrandsson and _ Teisserenc de Bort’s great work, and the recent studies of the Upper Atmosphere, are among the landmarks of progress. The record is marred only by the closing of Ben Nevis Observa- tory at the moment when its work would have been most necessary. To appreciate the progress of climatology it is only necessary to compare the present number and dis- tribution of meteorological stations with those given in Bartholomew's Atlas of 1899. I have not time to recapitu- late the innumerable studies of geographical value issued by many meteorological services, observatories, and observers —public and private—but I may direct attention to the improved weather maps and to the excellent pilot charts of the North Atlantic and of the Indian Ocean published monthly by our Meteorological Office. Lake studies have also been a feature of this decade, and none are so complete or so valuable as the Scottish Lakes Survey—a work of national importance, undertaken by private enthusiasm and generosity. We have to con- gratulate Sir John Murray and Mr. Pullar on the com- pletion of a great work. In Geology, I might note that we now possess a map of Europe on a scale of 1: 1,500,000 prepared by inter- national cooperation, and also one of North America on 384 a smaller scale; both invaluable to the geographer. The thanks and congratulations of all geographers are due to Prof. Suess on the conclusion of his classical work on the Face of the Earth, the first comprehensive study of the main divisions and characteristics of its skeleton. English readers are indebted to Prof. and Miss Sollas for the brilliant English translation which they have prepared. A new movement, inspired mainly by Prof. Flahault in France, Prof. Geddes in this country, Profs. Engler, Drude, and Schimper in Germany, has arisen among botanists, and at last we have some modern botanical geography which is really valuable to the geographer. I wish we could report similar progress in zoological geo- graphy, but that, I trust, will come in the next decade. I pass over the various expensive arbitrations and com- missions to settle boundary disputes which have in many cases been due to geographical ignorance, also the important and fascinating problems of the growth of our knowledge of the distribution of economic products and powers, existing and potential, and the new geographical problems for statesmen due to the political, economic revolutions in Japan and China. It is quite impossible to deal with the exploration of the decade. Even in the past two years we have had Peary and Shackleton, Stein and Hedin, the Duke of the Abruzzi, and a host of others returning to tell us of un- known or little known parts of the globe. We hope to hear soon from Dr. Charcot the results of the latest investigations in the Antarctic. Further work is being undertaken by Scott and his companions, by Bruce, Amundsen, Filchner, and others in the South or North Polar ice worlds; by Longstaff, Bruce, and others in the mountains of India and Central Asia; by Goodfellow and Ryder in New Guinea; and by many other expeditions. One word of caution may perhaps be permitted. There is a tendency on the part of the public to confuse geo- graphical exploration and sport. The newspaper reporter aaturally lays stress on the unusual in any expedition, the accidental rather than the essential, and those of us who have to examine the work of expeditions know how some have been unduly boomed because of some adventurous element, while others have not received adequate popular recognition because all went well. The fact that all went well is in itself a proof of competent organisation. There is no excuse for,us in this section if we fall into the journalist’s mistake, and we shall certainly be acting against the interests of both our science and our section if we do so. The Position of Geography in the Association. It was not my intention in this address to raise the question of what is Geography, but various circumstances make it desirable to say a few words upon it. We are all the victims of the geographical teaching of our youth, and it is easy to understand how those who have retained unchanged the conceptions of geography they gained at school many years ago cavil at the recognition of geo- graphy as a branch of science. Moreover, the geography of the schools still colours the conceptions of some geo- graphers who have nevertheless done much to make school geography scientific and educational. Many definitions of geography are consequently itoo much limited by the arbitrary but traditional division of school subjects. In schools, tradition and practical convenience have, on the whole rightly, determined the scope of the different sub- jects. Geography in schools is best defined as the study of the Earth as the home of Man. Its limits should not be too closely serutinised in schools, where it should be used freely as a coordinating subiect. The present division into sections of the British Associa- tion is also largely a matter of practical convenience; but we are told that the present illogical arrangement of sections distresses some minds. No doubt, there are some curious anomalies. The most glaring, perhaps, is that of combining mathematics with physics—as if mathematical methods were not used in any other subject. There is undoubtedly a universal tendency to subdivision and an ever-increasing specialisation; but there is also an ever-growing interdependence of different parts of science. The British Association is unquestionably bound to take NO. 2134, VOL. 84] NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1910 the latter into account as well as the former. At present this is chiefly done by joint meetings of sections: a wise course, of which this section has been one of the chief promoters. It is possible that some more systematic grouping of sections might be well advised, but such a reform should be systematic, and not piecemeal. It is one which raises the whole question of the classification of knowledge. This is so vast a problem, and one on which such divergent opinions are held, that I must apologise for venturing to put forward some tentative suggestions. It might be found desirable to take as primary divisions the Mathematical, Physical, Biological, Anthropological, and Geographical groups. Mathematical applications might also be considered in each of the sections which use mathematical notations. In the Physical Group there should be the subdivisions Physics and Chemistry. Each would devote a certain proportion of time to its applied aspects, or these might be dealt with in sub-sections, which would include Engineering and Applied Chemistry. In the Biological Group there would be Botany, Zoology, in both cases including Palaontology and Embryology, and Applied Biology, which would be dealt with in one or other of the ways I have suggested, and would include Agriculture, Fisheries, &c. (Medicine we leave out at present.) In the Anthropological Group, in addition to the present Anthropology and Economics, there should be a section on Psychology, which might or might not be attached to Physiology, and have the Education Section as a practical appendage. In the Geographical Group there would be Geography and Geology, the practical applications of Geography and Geology being considered in joint meetings with other sections or else in sub-sections— for instance, Geography and Physics for questions of Atmospheric and Oceanic Circulation, Geography and Economics for questions of Transportation, Xc,. The Need for Classification and Notation in Geomorphology, &c. So much, then, for the classification of Geography with reference to the other sciences. I should like to say a few words about the subdivisions of geography and the vexed question of terminology. In the scheme of the Universe it is possible to consider the Earth as a unit, with its own constitution and history. It has an individuality of its own, though for the astro- nomer it is only one example of a_ particular type of heavenly bodies. As geographers, we take it as our unit individual in the same way that an anatomist takes a man. We see that it is composed of different parts, and we try to discover what these are, of what they are com- posed, what their, function is, what has been their history. One fundamental .division is into land, water, and air. Each has its forms and its movements. The forms are more obyious and persistent in the land. They are least so in the atmosphere, though forms exist—some of which are at times made visible by clouds, and many can be clearly discerned on isobaric charts. The land is the temporarily permanent; the water and atmosphere the per- sistently mobile, the latter more so than the former. The stable forms of the land help to control the distribution and movements of the waters, and to a less extent those of the atmosphere. How great the influence of the dis- tribution of land and water is on the atmosphere may be seen in the monsoon region of eastern Asia. The study of the land, the ocean, and the atmosphere has resulted in the growth of special branches of know- ledge—Geomorphology, Oceanography, and Climatology. Each is indispensable to the geographer, each forms an essential part of the geographical whole. Much research work is and will be carried on in each by geographers who find their geographical studies hampered for the lack of it. As geographical progress is to a considerable extent con- ditioned by progress in these subjects, it would be legitimate to examine their needs. Time, however, will admit only a note on one of the barriers to progress in geomorphology— the lack of a good classification and notation. ; Geomorphology deals with the forms of the land and their shaping. Three things have to be kept clearly in view? (1) The structure, including the composition, of the more permanent substance of the form; (2) the forces which __ * SEPTEMBER 22, 1910 NATURE 385 are modifying it; and (3) the phase in the cycle of forms characteristic of such structure acted on by such forms. We may say that any form is a function of structure, process, and time. The matter is even more complicated, for we have instances, e.g. in antecedent drainage systems, of the conditions of a previous cycle affecting a subsequent one—a kind of heredity of forms which cannot be neglected. - ; the geomorphologist is seeking for a genetic classifi- cation of forms, and in the works of Betrand, Davis, de Ja Noé and de Margerie, Penck, Richthofen, Suess, and Supan and their pupils are being accumulated the materials for a more complete and systematic classifi- cation of forms. As you all know, the question of terms for the manifold land-forms is a difficult one, and apt to engender much more controversy than the analysis of the forms themselves. I believe that we shall find it advan- tageous to adopt some notation analogous to that of the chemists. I have not yet had time to work such a nota- tion out in detail, but it might take the form of using different symbols for the three factors noted above—say, letters for different kinds of structure, Arabic figures for processes and Roman figures for the stage of a cycle the form has reached. Take a very simple set of structures and indicate each by a letter :— Undis- turbed Faulted homogeneous... bday 258 A’ horizontal ... B B’ Structure ...- layered ¢ tilted... ao LS C | folded si AD) Db’ mixed... Ra cen E’ If pervious or impervious, a p or an i could be added— e.g. a tilted limestone with faults would be C’p. Next, indicate the commoner erosion processes by Arabic numerals :— (moving water... 260 ech I ice ... Boo ee 2 Proc ay a ; ess ee 3 sea... 4 One process may have followed another, e.g. where a long period of ice erosion has been followed by water erosion we might write 2-1, where these alternate annually, say 21. The phase of the cycle might be denoted by Roman figures. A scale of V might be adopted, and I, III, and V used for youthful, middle-aged, and old-aged, as this has been called, or early, middle, and late phases, as I prefer to term them. II and IV would denote intermediate phases. A scarped limestone ridge in a relatively mature phase like the Cotswolds would be, if we put the process first, 1C*Ill.; a highland like the Southern Uplands of Scot- land would be denoted by the formula 1. 2-1 E' III. This is the roughest suggestion, but it shows how we could label our cases of notes and pigeon-hole our types of forms—and prevent for the present undue quarrelling over terms.‘ No doubt there would be many discussions, for example, about the exact phase of the cycle, whether ice, in addition to water, has been an agent in shaping this or that form, and so on. But, after all, these discus- sions would be more profitable than quarrels as to which descriptive term, or place-name, or local usage should be adopted to distinguish it. The use of such notations in geographical problems is not unknown. They were employed by K6éppen in his classifica- tion of climate; and now, in the case of climatology, there is coming to be a general consensus of opinion as to what are the chief natural divisions, and the use of figures and letters to indicate them has been followed by several other authors. This should also be attempted for oceanography. If any international agreement of symbols and colours could be come to for such things it would be a great gain, and I hope to bring this matter before the next Inter- national Geographical Congress. 1 What I wish to make clear is that it is not necessary to invent a new term for every new variety of land form as soon as it is recognised. It will suffice at first to be able to label it. The notation will also stimulate the search for and recognition of new varieties. NO. 2134, VOL. 84] The Need for Selecting Natural Geographical Units. We have still to come to Geography proper, which con- siders land, water, and air, not merely separately but as associated together. What are the units smaller than the whole Earth with which our science has to deal? When we fix our attention on parts of the Earth and ask what is a natural unit, we are hampered by preconcep- tions. We recognise species, or genera, families, or races as units—but they are abstract rather than concrete units. The reason for considering them as units is that they represent a historical continuity. They have not an actual physical continuity such as the component parts of an individual have. Concrete physical continuity in the present is what differentiates the geographical unit. Spealsing for myself, I should say that every visible concrete natural unit on the Earth’s surface consisting of more than one organic individual is a geographical unit. It is a common difficulty not to be able to see the wood for the trees; it is still more difficult to recognise that the wood consists ot more than trees, that it is a complex of trees and other vegetation, fixed to a definite part of the solid earth and bathed in air. We may speak of a town or State as composed of people, but a complete conception of either must include the spacial connections which unite its parts. A town is not merely an association of individuals, nor is it simply a piece of land covered with streets and build- ings; it is a combination of both. It is true that in determining the greater geographical units, man need not be taken into account. We are too much influenced by the mobility of man, by his power to pass from one region to another, and we are apt to forget that his influence on his environment is negligible except when we are dealing with relatively small units. The geographer will not neglect man; he will merely be careful to prevent himself from being unduly influenced by the human factor in selecting his major units. Some geographers and many geologists have suggested that land forms alone need be taken into account in deter- mining these larger geographical units. Every different recognisable land form is undoubtedly a geographical unit. A vast lowland, such as that which lies to the east of the Rocky Mountains, is undoubtedly a geographical unit of great importance, but its geographical subdivisions are not necessarily orographical. The shores of the Gulf of Mexico could not be considered as geographically similar to those of the Arctic Ocean, even if they were morphologically homologous. The lowlands of the polar regions are yerv different from those at or near the tropics. The rhythm of their life is different, and this difference is revealed in the differences of vegetation. I wish to lay great stress on the significance of vegetation to the geographer for the purposes of regional classification. I do not wish to employ a_ bio- logical terminology nor to raise false analogies between the individual organism and the larger units of which it is a part, but I think we should do well to consider what may be called the life or movement going on in our units as well as their form. We must consider the seasonal changes of its atmospheric and of its water movements, as well as the parts of the Earth’s crust which they move over and even slightly modify. For this purpose a study of climatic regions is as necessary as a study of morpho- logical regions, and the best guides to the climatic regions are the vegetation ones. By vegetation I mean not the flora, the historically related elements, but the vegetable coating, the space- related elements. Vegetation in this sense is a geo- graphical phenomenon of fundamental importance. It indicates quality—quality of atmosphere and quality of soil. It is a visible synthesis of the climatic and edaphic elements. Hence the vast lowlands of relatively uniform land features are properly divided into regions according to vegetation—tundra, pine forest, deciduous forest, warm evergreen forest, steppe, and scrub. Such differences of vegetation are full of significance even in mountainous areas. The search after geographical unity—after general features common to recognisable divisions of the Earth’s surface, the analysis of these, their classification into types, the comparisons between different examples of the types—seem to me among the first duties of a geographer. 356 Two sets of studies and maps are essential—topo- graphical and vegetational—the first dealing with the superficial topography and its surface irregularities, the latter relating to the quality of climate and soil. Much has been said in recent years—more particularly from this Presidential chair—on the need for trustworthy topographical maps. Without such maps no others can be made. But when they are being made it would be very easy to have a general vegetational map compiled. Such maps are even more fundamental than geological maps, and they can be constructed more rapidly and cheaply. Every settled country, and more particularly every partially settled country, will find them invaluable if there is to be any intelligent and systematic utilisation of the products of the country. Possessing both sets of maps, the geographer can proceed with his task. This task, I am assuming, is to study environments, to examine the forms and qualities of the Earth’s sur- face, and to recognise, define, and classify the different kinds of natural units into which it can be divided. For these we have not as yet even names. It may seem absurd that there should be this want of terms in a subject which is associated in the minds of most people with a superfluity of names. I have elsewhere suggested the use of the terms major natural region, natural region, district, and locality to represent different grades of geo- graphical units, and have also attempted to map the seventy or eighty major natural regions into which the Earth’s surface is divided, and to classify them into about twenty types. These tentative divisions will necessarily become more accurate as research proceeds, and the minor natural regions into which each major natural region should be divided will be definitely recognised, described, and classified. Before this can be done, however, the study of geomorphology and of plant formations must be carried far beyond the present limits. The value of systematic and exhaustive studies of environment such as those I suggest can hardly be exaggerated. Without them all attempts to estimate the significance of the environment must be superficial guess- work. No doubt it is possible to exaggerate the import- ance of the environmental factor, but it is equally possible to undervalue it. The truly scientific plan is to analyse and to evaluate it. Problems of the history of human development, as well as those of the future of human settlements, cannot be solved without this. For the biologist, the historian, the economist, the statesman, this work should be carried out as soon and as thoroughly as is possible in the present state of our knowledge. A beginning of systematic geographical studies has also been made at the opposite end of the scale in local geo- graphical monographs. Dr. H. R. Mill, one of the pioneers of geography in this country and one of my most dis- tinguished predecessors in this chair, has given us in his study of south-west Sussex an admirable example of the geographical monograph proper, which takes into account the .whole of the geographical factors involved. He has employed quantitative methods so far as these could be applied, and in doing so has made a great step in advance. Quantitative determinations are at least as essential in geographical research as the consideration of the time factor. At Oxford we are continuing Dr. Mill’s work. We require our diploma students to select some district shown on a sheet of this map for detailed study by means of map measurements, an examination of statistics and literature which throw light on the geographical condi- tions, and, above all, by field work in the selected district. Every year we are accumulating more of these district monographs, which ought, in their turn, to be used for compiling regional monographs dealing with the larger natural areas. In recent years excellent examples of such regional. monographs have come from France and from Germany. The geomorphologist and the sociologist have also busied themselves with particular aspects of selected localities. Prof. W. M. Davis, of Harvard, has published geomorphological monographs which are invaluable as models of what such work should be. In a number of eases he has passed beyond mere morphology and has directed attention to the organic responses associated with each land form. Some of the monographs published under NO. 2134, VOL. 84] NATURE. [SEPTEMBER 22, 1910 ~ the supervision of the late Prof. Ratzel, of Leipzig, bring — out very clearly the relation between organic and inorganic distributions, and some of the monographs-of the Le Play school incidentally do the same. ; “4 The Double Character of Geographical Research. ~ To carry on geographical research, whether on the larger or the smaller units, there is at present a double need—in the first place, of collecting new information, and, in the second place, of working up the material which is continually. being accumulated. The Need for the Systematic Collection of Data. The first task—that of collecting new information—is no small one. In many cases it must be undertaken on a scale that can be financed only by Governments. The Ordnance and Geological Surveys of our own and other ~~ countries are examples of Government departments carry- ing on this work. We need more of them. The presi- dents of the Botanical and Anthropological Sections are, | understand, directing the attention of the Association to the urgent necessity for complete Botanical and Anthropo- logical Surveys of the kingdom. All geographers will Warmly support their appeal, for the material which. would be collected through such surveys is essential to our geo- graphical investigations. Another urgent’ need is a Hydrographical Department, which would cooperate with Dr. Mill’s rainfall organisa- tion. It would be one of the tasks of this department to extend and coordinate the observations on river and lake discharge, which are so important from an economic or health point of view that various public bodies have had to make such investigations for the drainage areas which they control. Such research work as that done by Dr. Strahan for the Exe and Medway would be of the greatest value to such a department, which ought to prepare a whether by government departments or by private We shall see how serious the absence of such a depart- ment is if we consider how our water supply is limited, and how much of it is not used to the best advantage. We must know its average quantity and the extreme varia- tions of supply. We must also know what water is already assigned to the uses of persons and corporations, and what water is still available. We shall have to differentiate between water for the personal use of man and animals, and water for industrial purposes. The actualities and the potentialities can be ascertained, and should be recorded and mapped. The Need for the Application of Geographical Methods to already Collected Data. In the second direction of research—that of treating from the geographical standpoint the data accumulated, whether by Government departments or by private initiative—work has as yet hardly been begun. ‘ The topographical work of the Ordnance Survey is the basis of all geographical work in our country. The Survey has issued many excellent maps, none more so than the recently published half-inch contoured and_hill- shaded maps with colours “‘in layers.’’ Its maps are not all above criticism; for instance, few can be obtained for the whole kingdom having precisely the same symbols. It has not undertaken some of the work that should have been done by a national cartographic service—for instance, the lake survey. Nor has it yet done what the Geological Survey has done—published descriptive accounts of the facts represented on each sheet of the map. From every point of view these are great defects; but in making these criticisms we must not forget (1) that the Treasury is not always willing to find the necessary money, and (2) that the Ordnance Survey was primarily made for military purposes, and that the latest map it has issued has been prepared for military reasons. It has been carried out by men who were soldiers first and topographers after, and did not necessarily possess geographical interests. _ The ideal geographical map, with its accompanying geo- graphical memoir, can be produced only by those who have had a geographical training. Dr. Mill, in the monograph ‘within the province of the Ordnance Survey. ‘of the _ SEPTEMBER 22, 1910] NATURE 387 already referred to, has shown us how to prepare systematised descriptions of the one-inch map sheets issued by the Ordnance Survey. The preparation of such monographs would seem to fall If this is impossible, the American plan might be adopted. There the Geological Survey, which is also a topographical one, is glad to obtain the services of professors and lecturers who are willing to undertake work in the field during vacations. It should not be difficult to arrange similar cooperation between the universities and the Ordnance Survey in this country. At present the Schools of Geo- graphy at Oxford and at the London School of Economics are the only university departments which have paid atten- tion to the preparation of such monographs, but other universities will probably fall into line. Both the universi- ties and the Ordnance Survey would gain by such coopera- tion. The chief obstacle is the expense of publication. This might reasonably be made a charge on the Ordnance Survey, on condition that each monograph published were approved by a small committee on which both the universi- ties and the Ordnance Survey were represented. The Geological Survey has in recent years issued better and cheaper one-inch maps, and more attention has been given to morphological conditions in the accompanying monographs ; but it is necessary to protest against the very high prices which are now being asked for the older hand- coloured maps. The new quarter-inch map is a great improvement on the old one, but we want ‘drift’ as well as “‘ solid’ editions of all the sheets. The geographer wants even more than these a map showing the quality of the solid rock, and not merely its age. He has long been asking for a map which would indicate the distribu- tion of clay, limestone, sandstone, &c., and when it is prepared on the quarter-inch, or better on the half-inch, scale the study of geomorphology and of geography will receive a very great stimulus and assistance. The information which many other Government depart- ments are accumulating would also become much more valuable if it were discussed geographically. Much excel- lent geographical work is done by the Admiralty and the War Office. The Meteorological Office collects statistics weather conditions from a limited number of stations ; but its work is supplemented by private societies which are not well enough off to discuss the observations they publish with the detail which these observations deserve. The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries has detailed statistical information as to crops and live stock for the geographer to work up. From the Board of Trade he would obtain industrial and commercial data, and from the Local Government Board vital and other demographic statistics. At present most of the information of these departments is only published in statistical tables. Statistics are all very well, but they are usually pub- lished in a tabular form, which is the least intelligible of all. Statistics should be mapped, and not merely be set out in columns of figures. Many dull Blue-books would be more interesting and more widely used if their facts were properly mapped. I say properly mapped, because most examples of so-called statistical maps are merely crude diagrams, and are often actually misleading. It requires a knowledge of geography in addition to an understanding of statistical methods to prepare intelligible statistical maps. If Mr. Bosse’s maps of the population of England and Wales in Bartholomew’s Survey Atlas are compared with the ordinary ones, the difference between a geographical map and a cartographic diagram will be easily appreciated. The coming census, and to a certain extent the census of production, and probably the new land valuation, will give more valuable raw material for geographical treat- ment. If these are published merely in tabular form they will not be studied by any but a few experts. Give a geographer with a proper staff the task of mapping them in a truly geographical way, and they will be eagerly examined even by the man in the street, who cannot fail to learn from them. The representation of the true state of the country in a clear, graphic, and intelligible form is a patriotic piece of work which the Government should undertake. It would add relatively little to the cost of the census, and it would infinitely increase its value. NO. 2134, VOL. 84] The Need of Reorganising the Geographical Factor in Imperial Problems. With such quantitative information geographically treated and with a _ fuller analysis of the major natural regions it ought to be possible to go a step further and to attempt to map the economic value of different regions at the present day. Such maps would necessarily be only approximations at first. Out of them might grow other maps prophetic of economic possibilities. Prophecy in the scientific sense is an important outcome of geographical as well as of other scientific research. The test of geographical laws, as of others, is the pragmatic one. Prophecy is commonly but unduly derided. Mendeléeff’s periodic law involved pro- phecies which have been splendidly verified. We no longer sneer at the weather prophet. Efficient action is based on knowledge of cause and consequence, and proves that a true forecast of the various factors has been made. Is it too much to look forward to the time when the geo- graphical prospector, the geographer who can estimate potential geographical values, will be as common as and more trustworthy than the mining prospector? The day will undoubtedly come when every Government will have its Geographical-Statistical Department dealing with its own and other countries—an Information Bureau for the administration corresponding to the Department of Special Inquiries at the Board of Education. At present there is no geographical staff to deal geographically with economic matters or with administrative matters. Yet the recognition of and proper estimation of the geographical | factor is going to be more and more important as the utter- most ends of the Earth are bound together by visible steel lines and steel vessels or invisible impulses which require no artificial path or vessel as their vehicle. The development of geographical research along these lines in our own country could give us an Intelligence Department of the kind, which is much needed. If this were also done by other States within the Empire, an Imperial Intelligence Department would gradually develop. Thinking in continents, to borrow an apt phrase of Mr. Mackinder’s, might then become part of the neces- sary equipment of a statesman instead of merely an after- dinner aspiration. The country which first gives this training to its statesmen will have an immeasurable advantage in the struggle for existence. The Need for the adequate Endowment of Geography at the Universities. Our universities will naturally be the places where the men fit to constitute such an Intelligence Department will be trained. It is encouraging, therefore, to see that they are taking up a new attitude towards geography, and that the Civil Service Commissioners, by making it a subject for the highest Civil Service examinations, are doing much to strengthen the hands of the universities. When the British Association last met in Sheffield geography was the most despised of school subjects, and it was quite unknown in the universities. It owed its first recognition as a sub- ject of university status to the stimulus and generous financial support of the Royal Geographical Society and the brilliant teaching of Mr. Mackinder at Oxford. Ten years ago Schools of Geography were struggling into existence at Oxford and Cambridge, under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society. A single decade has seen the example of Oxford and Cambridge followed by nearly every university in Great Britain, the University of Sheffield’ among them. In Dr. Rudmose Brown it has secured a scientifically trained traveller and explorer of exceptionally wide experience, who will doubt- less build up a Department of Geography worthy of this great industrial capital. The difficulty, however, in all universities is to find the funds necessary for the endow- ment, equipment, and working expenses of a Geographical Department-of the first rank. Such a department requires expensive instruments and apparatus, and, since the geo- grapher has to take the whole World as his subject, it must spend largely on collecting, storing, and_ utilising raw material of the kind I have spoken of. Moreover, 1 professor of geography should have seen much of the World before he is appointed, and it ought to be an 3858 important part of his professional duties to travel frequently and far. I have never been able to settle to my own satisfaction the maximum income which a department of geography might usefully spend, but I have had consider- able experience of working a department the income of which was not very far above the minimum. Until now the Oxford School of Geography has been obliged to content itself with three rooms and to make these suffice, not merely for lecture-rooms and laboratories, but also for housing its large and valuable collection of maps and other materials. This collection is far beyond anything which any other university in this country possesses, but it shrinks into insignificance beside that of a rich and adequately supported Geographical Department like that of the University of Berlin. This fortunate department has an income of about 60001. a year, and an institute built specially for its requirements at a cost of more than 150,000l., excluding the site. In Oxford we are most grateful to the generosity of Mr. Bailey, of Johannesburg, which wili enable the School of Geography to add to its accommodation by renting for five years a private house, in which there will temporarily be room for our students and for our collections, especially those relating to the geography of the Empire. But even then we can never hope to do what we might if we had a building specially de- signed for geographical teaching and research. Again, Lord Brassey and Mr. Douglas Freshfield, a former President of this Section, have each generously offered sool. towards the endowment of a professorship if other support is forth- coming. All this is matter for congratulation, but I need hardly point out that a professor with only a precarious working income for his department is a person in a far from enviable position. There is at present no permanent work- ing income guaranteed to any Geographical Department in the country, and so long as this is the case the work of all these departments will be hampered and the train- ing of a succession of competent men retarded. J do not think that I can conclude this brief address better than by appealing to those princes of industry who have made this great city of Sheffield what it is to provide for the Geographical Department of the University on a_ scale which shall make it at once a model and a stimulus to every other university in the country and to all benefactors of universities. IONISATION OF GASES AND CHEMICAL CHANGE.' THE term ‘“‘ catalytic ’’ was introduced by Berzelius to describe a number of chemical actions which would only take place in the presence of a third substance, which itself was apparently unchanged throughout the reaction. The first cases of such actions were investigated by Sir Humphry Davy in 1817. He showed that many mixtures of gases were caused to unite in the presence of finely divided platinum at temperatures far below those at which union ordinarily took place. Some years afterwards Faraday investigated similar actions, and attempted to explain them by a supposed condensation of the gases on the surface of the metal. Thirty years ago Prof. H. B. Dixon investigated the behaviour of carbon monoxide and oxygen when they were dried as completely as possible, and he discovered that in these circumstances electric sparks caused no explosion. Some years before Wanklyn had discovered that purified chlorine did not act on sodium, but he did not identify the impurity, now known to be a trace of water, which causes the vigorous action which takes place in ordinary circum- stances. In 1882 Cowper investigated the action of dried chlorine on several metals, and found that the removal of moisture in many cases inhibited the reaction. In the following year, working in Prof. Dixon’s labora- tory at Balliol College, I. found that purified carbon could be heated to redness in dried oxygen, and that sulphur and phosphorus could be distilled in the same gas without burning. In the investigations which followed, some thirty simple reactions have been tried by myself and others. It has been shown that hydrogen and chlorine can be exposed _1 Discourse delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday, March 11, hy Dr. H. Brereton Baker, F.R.S. NO. 2134, VOL. 84] NALRGRE DY =<) [ SEPTEMBER 1910 to light without explosion, ammonia and hydrogen chloride mixed without union, sulphur trioxide can be crystallised on lime, ammonium chloride and mercurous chloride give un- dissociated vapours, hydrogen and oxygen can be exposed to a red heat without explosion, and lastly, in 1907, nitrogen” trioxide was obtained as an undissociated gas for the first time by carefully drying the liquid and evaporating into a dried atmosphere. The amount of water necessary to carry on these chemical reactions is extremely small, certainly less than 1 mg. in 300,000 litres. There is no accepted explanation of its — catalytic effect, and in the same way the catalytic power of platinum is still a mystery. Dr. Armstrong’s theory, that only water which is capable of conducting an electric current is capable of bringing about these chemical actions, seems to be supported by the fact that water can be formed in heated tubes containing very pure hydrogen and oxygen without the explosive combination of the gases taking place. That great purity does affect the chemical activity of water was proved by an experiment shown during the lecture. Two tubes, one containing water of a very high degree of purity and the other con- taining ordinary distilled water, were placed side by side in the lantern. Into each was filtered some liquid sodium amalgam, and while vigorous effervescence was seen in the less pure water, the very pure specimen was apparently without action for some minutes, and even at the end of the lecture its action had not attained the same vigour as that in the other tube. In 1893 Sir J. J. Themson (Phil. Mag., Xxxvi., 321) showed that if the combination of atoms in a molecule is electrical in its mature, the presence of liquid drops of water, or drops of any liquid of high specific inductive capacity, would be sufficient to cause a loosening of the tie between the atoms, and ‘this might result in chemical combination of the partially freed atoms to form new molecules. He showed in the same paper that drying a gas very completely stopped the passage of a current of 1200 volts. In the same year I was able in the same way to prevent the passage of discharge from an induction coil, a discharge which would traverse a spark gap of three times the distance in undried gas. Shortly after the discovery of Réntgen rays, it was found that they would ionise a gas through which they passed. At the time it was thought that this ionisation was similar to that taking place in electrolysis. If this were so the rays would probably cause chemical union to take place even in a dried gas, and accordingly Prof. Dixon and I undertook some experiments on the subject, which were published in a joint paper (Chem. Soc. Jour., 1896). The results were negative; no chemical action could be detected. Since that time the ionisation of gases has been shown to be of quite a different nature. The negative ion has been shown to be a particle of the mass of about 1/15ooth that of the hydrogen atom, and the positive ion is the residue. Since the ionisation of gases is different from that in electro- lysis, the retention of this term is much to be deprecated. It is suggested that the term ionisation should be retained for electrolytic dissociation, and for the different process which takes place in gases under the action of Réntgen rays, &c., a new name, electromerism, should be adopted. The electron would thus be the negative electromer. It is probable that electrolysis and true ionisation may take place in gases, as in the decomposition of steam by electric sparks of a particular length. An experiment recently devised seems to show that in mercury vapour, — which ordinarily consists of atoms, something of the nature — of ionisation without electrolysis can take place. If oxygen | be admitted to the interior of a mercury lamp from which the current has just been cut off, a considerable quantity . of mercuric oxide is produced, although the temperature of the lamp (about 150°) is far lower than would suffice to bring about the union of ordinary mercury vapour with oxygen. In order to test further the question as to whether electromerism can bring about chemical change, I have investigated the action of radium bromide on very pure and dry hydrogen and oxygen. The gases were sealed up ‘with some radium bromide contained in an open silica tube. The containing vessel was provided with a vacuum gauge, by means of which the combination of 1/soooth SEPTEMBER 22, Igto| NATURE 389 part of the gases could be easily detected. No action what- ever was observed, although the substances were left in contact for two months. A further experiment showed that, as was to be expected, very dry air undergoes electro- merism when subjected to the action of radium. Two more tubes were then set up, similar to the first, contain- | ing mixtures of carbon monoxide and oxygen, one very dry and the other containing traces of moisture, and although the radium bromide was in contact with them for more than three months, not the slightest contraction could be observed. In these cases, therefore, electromerism produces no chemical change. There was, however, a possibility that electromerism might bring about a chemical action in a mixture of gases which was under conditions which were nearly, but not quite, suitable for chemical action to take place. The gaseous mixtures mentioned only combine, even when moist, at a red heat. Since the experiments were done at 20°, they only show that electromerism does: not produce chemical action in gases which are otherwise unable to combine. There remained the possibility that if gases were just on the point of combining, increasing the electromerism might accelerate the rate of action. I sought for a case of simple chemical union which would proceed at a manageable temperature, and at a rate which could be measured. Of those tried, the reaction between hydrogen and nitrous oxide was found to be the most suitable. The gases used were as pure as possible, but dried only by passing through phosphorus pentoxide tubes. They were found to combine with great uniformity when heated in clean Jena glass tubes to 530°. An electric resistance furnace was used, consisting of a wide silica tube which formed the heated chamber. It is known that many substances when heated produce electromers in a gas; lime is fairly efficient, thoria more so, and, of course, radium bromide most of all. In the first experiment two tubes of the same Jena glass, con- taining the hydrogen and nitrous oxide mixture, were heated side by side. One contained some lime, and in order to make the conditions as similar as possible an equal quantity of powdered Jena glass was introduced into the other. As soon as the requisite temperature was reached, the action proceeded rapidly in the tube contain- ing lime, the rate in the first five minutes being five times the rate of combination in the tube containing only powdered glass. After fifteen minutes the second tube had caught up the first, and the rates of union were equal up to the completion of the action. With thoria the effect was still more marked, the rate increasing to twenty times the rate in the tube containing the glass. Finally, about 2 mg. of radium bromide was heated in the mixture of gases. As soon as the combining temperature was reached, the gases in the radium bromide tube exploded. From these three experiments it is seen that, as the amount of electromerism was increased, there was a rapid increase in chemical action. I have recently been able to show that if the union of carbon monoxide and oxygen takes place in a strong electric field, which has the effect of removing electromers, the chemical action is diminished. Similar experiments are in progress with the mixture of hydrogen and chlorine, combining under the influence of light. The next experiment tried illustrates one way in which the electromerism of a gas may bring about chemical change. Hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide can be mixed at the ordinary temperature in presence of traces of moisture, but in presence of liquid water decomposition takes place into sulphur and water. The gases were dried before mixing by calcium chloride, which leaves about 4 mg. of water vapour per litre in the gas. After mixing, a small open silica tube containing about 2 mg. of dried radium bromide was introduced. After six hours no apparent change had taken place in the gas; there was no deposit of sulphur on the sides of the jar, and it seemed at first as if no action had been produced. On opening the jar, however, an inrush of air was noticed, and the contents were almost odourless. On heating the radium tube a large quantity of watér was driven off, and a copious sublimate of sulphur was seen. The whole of the gaseous contents of the jar had condensed in the small tube con- taining the radium bromide. The explanation of this NO. 2134, VOL. 84] | action of radium bromide is probably simple. Water vapour condenses on the electromers emitted, liquid drops are formed, and in them the chemical action takes place.* Prof. Townsend has recently published an account of some experiments in which he has shown that there is a very marked decrease in the mobility of negative electromers in the presence of an amount of water vapour represented by a pressure of 1/10th mm. ‘The air, in his experiments, was subjected to the action of Réntgen rays. It is concluded that water in a form approaching to that of a drop is condensed on the electron even when a very small quantity is present. If this deposition of water molecules on electromers goes on when the amount of water present is still smaller, the theory of Sir J. J. Thomson affords a satisfactory explanation of the influence of moisture on chemical change, since some electromers are always present in ordinary gases. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. Tue Lancet states that the University of Bristol is to receive the sum of 1o0ol. from the estate of the late Miss J. L. Woodward for the foundation of a scholarship in music or botany, to be known as the ‘“‘ Vincent Stuckey Lean Scholarship.’’ Ir is proposed that the Congress of the Universities of the Empire shall be held in London in June, 1912, and a meeting of the Vice-Chancellors of the British universities is to take place in November next with the object of drawing up a provisional scheme of subjects to be dis- cussed at the congress, which scheme will then be sub- mitted to the overseas universities for suggestions. An Institute of Colonial Medicine has been established in connection with the faculty of medicine of the University of Paris. The first session will begin on October 13 and end at the close of the year. The following courses of instruction are announced :—Technical bacteriology and hematology, by Prof. Roger; parasitology, by Prof. Blanchard ; surgery in tropical countries, by Dr. Morestin ; ophthalmic affections, by Dr. lLapersonne; general epidemiology, by Prof. Chantemesse; tropical pathology and tropical hygiene, by Dr. Wurtz; and dermatology, by Prof. Gaucher in collaboration with Dr. Jeanselme. ATTENTION has been directed here from time to time to the movement in this country to establish universities in China. We learn from the Times of September 13 that the success of the proposed Hong Kong University seems assured. Sir Frederick Lugard, the Governor of Hong Kong, has taken a prominent part in demonstrating the advantages likely to accrue from the undertaking, and he has been generously assisted by large contributions from the leading Chinese and others in the colony. Sir Hormusji Mody has offered to erect the buildings, what- ever their cost (estimated at about 30,000l.), in accordance with the approved plans. Dr. Ho Kai, C.M.G., has given 18,o00l.; Mr. J. H. Scott, senior partner of Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, has announced a gift of 40,000l. on behalf of his own and allied firms; and the Central Government at Peking has sent a substantial contribution. The bare minimum sum required has now been practically raised, and Sir Frederick Lugard and his helpers are appealing to the British public for the amount required to make the University worthy of British prestige. It may be pointed out that though there is no antagonism between them, there is no connection between this scheme and that associated with Oxford and Cambridge for the establishment of a university at Hankau, on the Yang- tsze. Tue annual meeting of the Institution of Mining Engineers was held at the University College, Notting- ham, ‘last week. In welcoming the members, Sir Joseph Bright, clairman of the council of the college, said they hoped in the near future to establish a chair of mining 1] have invariably noticed that water collects in tubes containing radium preparations exposed to undried air. The salts are not at all de- liquescent, the crystals appearing quite sharp-edged under the microscope. I found that 10 mg. of radium bromide exposed to an atmosphere saturated at o° for two days caused a deposition of water on its surface weighing 1'5 mg. 599 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, I9IO engineering at the college. A paper was read at the meet- ing by Prof. H. Louis on the Mining School at Bochum, Westphalia, in the course of which he said that in Germany there are schools devoted to the better education of miners and the elementary training of colliery officials. The course lasts two years, and the men attend for eight hours weekly for a year and a half, and for ten hours weekly during the last six months. It cannot, he said, be imagined that the Germans would have continued those institutions for nearly a century had they not found that it paid them to do so. Surely it is high time to abandon our insular policy of not profiting by the experience of our neighbours in matters of such vital importance. In Prof. Louis’s opinion it would be easy enough for the various British coalfields to form miners’ funds like that raised in Westphalia for the same purpose. Future legis- lation should, he suggested, enact that in any coalfield where a large majority—say two-thirds—of the producers decide to take advantage of its provisions power shall be given to constitute a fund, and a levy upon the entire out- put of the field should thus be legalised, the fund to be administered and applied very much as the Westphalian miners’ fund has been. AN examination of the calendars, prospectuses, and announcements of the London polytechnic institutions for the session which is now commencing serves to show how well the metropolitan area is provided with facilities for technical and scientific instruction. The encouragement which is extended by the authorities to the plan of giving a distinguishing character to the curricula of certain of these colleges is well brought out by an inspection of the announcements in connection with the winter’s work at the Northampton Institute. We can only give a few examples. The classes in submarine cable work are being continued, and more advanced classes are projected in radio-telegraphy. The success of the pioneer courses in aéronautics given last winter has been so marked that the subject is being developed. The instruction in electro- plating is being brought more into line with the actual requirements of the trade, and arrangements have been made to extend the advanced work in sight-testing and physiological optics. The South-Western “Polytechnic at Chelsea continues to provide courses of study suited for a great variety of technological purposes, and also for university students. We notice from the calendar of the day work at this college that students are informed that those who enter for technical instruction should have re- ceived previously a sound English education, and should have acquired an elementary “knowledge of mathematics and, if possible, of physics and chemistry. The courses are arranged to occupy three years. On entering the student states whether he wishes to be trained as a mechanical or electrical engineer, or as a consulting or industrial chemist. In any “of these cases he has mapped out a complete course of study. Students who have com- pleted a three years’ course should be in a position to obtain situations in important industrial firms. Birkbeck College, too, continues its excellent work. The new calendar has again to point out that the usefulness of the college is curtailed by its limited accommodation, and its pressing need is for increased space. More spacious college build- ings, with additional class-rooms and larger laboratories better adapted to modern requirements, would give a great stimulus to the work of the college and add to its public utility. We notice that 1293 students attended its classes last winter, and that about a quarter of them were women. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, September 12.—M. Bouchard in the chair.—J. Guillaume and J. Merlin: Occultation of 7 Geminorum by Venus, July 26, 1910, observed at Lyons. As the planet was only 9° above the horizon, the images observed were unsteady. The data are given in full, and calculations made of the diameter of Venus.—Carl Stérmer: Theorems on the general equations of motion of a corpuscle in a magnetic and electric field superposed. —Paul Floquet: A comparison of the different methods NO. 2134, VOL. 84] of measuring the dielectric constant. Paraffin extracted from ozokerite has been shown by M. Malclés to possess no residual charge and to be without any appreciable con- ductivity. This paraffin has been utilised for comparing at the same instant the values of the dielectric constant obtained by two different static methods. The results agreed within 1 per cent., and a similar concordance was obtained for measurements based on the relative velocities in air and in paraffin of Hertzian waves.—Philippe de Vilmorin: Researches on Mendelian heredity.— J. Athanasin and J. Dragoin: The association of elastic and contractile elements in muscle—E. Roubaud : The evolution of instinct in Vespides. Remarks on the social wasps of Africa, genus Belonogaster.—Joseph Roussel: The existence of three horizons of calcium phos- phate in Algeria and Tunis. GOTTINGEN. Royal Society of Sciences.—The Nachrichten (physico- mathematical section), parts ii. and iii. for 1910, contain the following memoirs communicated to the society :— February 26.—R. Kénig: Conformal representation of the surface of a solid angle.—B. Durken: The behaviour of the nervous system after extirpation of the limb-rudi- ments in the frog.—O. Berg: The Thomson effect in Sno iron, and platinum. Ve 12.—Kurt Wegener: Aérological results obtained at ‘the Samoa Observatory in 1909. April 30.—R. Fuchs: Linear homogeneous differential equations of the second order with four essentially singular points. CONTENTS. PAGE Animals of the Ancients. ByR. L. . . - 357 The Design of Reinforced Concrete Structure. By Ath deh 38h Fa 8 Pe Darreric aie set, 0. sss Text-books of Chemistry : 3 Sh soda de One Oe Mineral Springs and Wells of Essex. “By H. B. W. 361 Our;BookiShelf; «: <- Sse solscte sees tes ee Letters to the Editor :— Gauss and Non-Euclidean Geometry.—Prof. H. S. Carslaw . . 362 An Oblique Belt on n Jupiter. (Zllustr vated, \—Scriven Bolton . . 362 Tests for Colour-vision. ‘Commander D. “Wilson- Barker : 363 Fireball of September 2, — Edmund Ve Webb; W.F. Denning. . Parr oh oie) The Law of Definite Proportions. 220) Eh ee 364 Fire Tests with Textiles. (JZ//ustrated.) ..... . 364 The Castes and Tribes of Southern India. (Zllus- trated.) . . prc lex, ates ae Sete sacd RC eS OS A History of Birds. (Qilustrated.)). se 2s > On Reforms of the Calendar. By W. T. L. a) 0 eae OMS The Dynamics of Fohn. By R. G, K. L. 368 Respiration at mee: Altitudes. veh Leonard Hill, IIR NS Bae 7 a c . 369 Notes .. Sito 36s Our Astronomical Column :— Further Observations of Halley's Comet 374 The Distances of Red Stars .... . 374 *©Mock Suns” at Eastbourne. . .. . 374 Astronomy in India 374 The Crusade against Consumption _ : sey ou Recent Papers on Petrology. By G. A. a (CHB ho) SWS Reports on Climates... . . shee) ee STeN Bird Notes. . . ao olint 378 The British Association at Sheffield. Section D —Zoology.—Opening Address by Prof. G. C. Bourne, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.S., Presi- dent of the Section 378 Section E.— eas a —Opening Address by A. ap Herbertson, M.A., Ph.D., Professor of Geo- graphy in the University of Oxford, President of the Section 3 283 Ionisation of Gases and Chemical Change. By Dr. H. Brereton Baker, F.R.S ......... 388 University and Educational Intelligence Peatees a tl Societies‘and Academies 2... 2 3) 0. 5 ss} 0 en 590 WALCO RE 301 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1910. HISTORY OF .BOTANY. A History of Botany, 1860-1900, being a Continuation of Sachs’ “History of Botany, 1530-1860.” By Prof. J. Reynolds Green, F.R.S. (Oxford: Claren- don Press, 1909.) Price 9s. 6d. net. OTANICAL science has been fortunate in having had as historian a botanist of such wide knowledge and mature judgment as the late professor of botany in the University of Wiirzburg. Sachs’ ‘“‘ History of Botany,” which covers the period from the sixteenth century up to 1860, will always rank, not only as a standard history of botany, but also as the model of a critical study of the growth and progress of scien- tific thought. Botanists will be grateful to the dele- gates of the Clarendon Press for. their decision to arrange for the continuation of the history of botany up to the close of the nineteenth century, the latter half of which has witnessed such a surprising de- velopment of the biological sciences under the stimulus of Darwin’s ‘‘ Origin of Species,’ published a year before the date at which Sachs’ * History of Botany ”’ stops. Sachs himself lays the greatest stress upon the change in outlook in morphological and systematic botany produced by Darwin’s epoch-making work; but though he frequently refers to the new conception .of evolution, he does not deal in detail with the Dar- Winian theory of evolution, owing, no doubt, to his conviction that it marked the beginning of a new era, rather than the close of the period under his con- sideration. : Dr. Green, who has undertaken the honourable task of continuing Sachs’ history, has therefore had, as he recognises in his introduction, a very clear start- ing point for his survey of botanical progress during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Yet he does not commence his history, as might have been ex- pected, with an account of the Darwinian theory of evolution. The fact that the publication of the “Origin of Species” took place a year prior to 1860, the date at which Dr. Green takes up the history, should not have been allowed to stand in the way of his dealing fully with the subject, since it received no detailed treatment in the earlier history. - Even if this omission is technically justifiable, one would at least have expected a chapter dealing with such botanical work as has confirmed, elaborated, or modified the Darwinian theory of evolution. Yet Darwin’s own amplifications of his theory as detailed in his ‘t Varia- tion of Animals and Plants under Domestication,” published in 1868, are not recorded, nor is the theory of pangenesis, put forward by Darwin in 1868, and elaborated by De Vries, either mentioned or criticised. One cannot help feeling that the omission of all dis- cussion of the theory of evolution is a serious blemish to this history of botany. It would indeed have been legitimate to have included a consideration of the work of Weismann and other zoologists who have contri- buted to the establishment of the theory of evolution. Some discussion, it is true, bearing on evolutionary NO. 2135, VOL. 84] principles is to be found in the chapters dealing with the morphology of plants, but the importance of the subject warrants a more special treatment. In general, Dr. Green has adhered to the lines on which Sachs founded the original work, and com- mences with a consideration of the advances in our knowledge of the morphology of plants. “In the first chapter, dealing with the nature of the alternation of generations, he discusses the classic work of Hof- meister, who first clearly established the homologies in the various groups of the Archegoniate, and formu- lated the theory of the alternation of generations obtaining in these plants. Then follows a careful and critical account of the later and divergent views as to the antithetic or homologous nature of these alter- nating generations, a divergence of opinion which continues to the present time. Dr. Green gives. us also an excellent and impartial summary of the oppos- ing views on morphology, on one hand the~ school of organographers led by Goebel, which considers that physiological requirement is the main factor affecting changes of structure, while the rival . school of Naegeli and Celakovsky attributes differentiation to some inherent tendency of the protoplasm to develop in the direction of increasing complexity. In this field of thought, too, the close of the century found active difference of opinion. ‘The difficulties, on~ the other hand, which had arisen with regard to the proper interpretation of the flower were, as is shown in the chapter on the morphology of the flower, largely over- come by the general acceptance of Goebel’s view of the independent morphological value of the sporan- gium. ; To the chapter on taxonomy is added a brief account of the various Floras published during the latter half of the nineteenth century, but this somewhat cursory treatment of the subject of geographical distribution of plants as an annex to systematic botany does not do justice either to the general importance from an evolutionary point of view of the distribution of plants, nor does it allow of an adequate consideration of the physiological and ecological bearing of the more recent work on plant geography. The publica- tion of the “Origin of Species,’’ it has» been said, “placed botanical geography on an entirely new basis,’ yet no one would gather this from the meagre treatment accorded it in this new history of botany. Sir Joseph Hooker’s great memoir on the “ Distribu- tion of Arctic Plants’ is dismissed in two lines, and yet, in conjunction with his “Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania,” it probably did more than any other publication to win the support of botanists for the Darwinian theory of evolution. The total omission of any mention of Warming’s “Ecology of Plants’ and of Schimper’s ‘‘ Plant Geography on Physiological Basis,” which represent the trend of modern studies in plant distribution, seems most un- fortunate., It is equally regrettable that the series of monographs which have appeared in Engler’s ** Jahr- biicher ” and the important work of Drude on plant geography have been left out of consideration. An interesting feature of the history is the inclusion O 392 of a special chapter on palazeobotany, a branch of study conspicuously absent from Sachs’ history, for before 1860 our knowledge of fossil plants, based mainly on plant impressions, was too inexact and too uncertain to be of much value in the discussion of the relation- ship of plants. But with the publication of the classic memoirs of Renault and of Williamson a precise knowledge of the extinct vegetation of at least one geological period led to striking advances in our knowledge of the extinct vascular cryptogams, and the discovery, at the beginning of the present century, of the seed- bearing nature of many of the fern-like plants of the Carboniferous period, led to a remarkable advance in our conception of the course of evolution of plants and an unexpectedly complete vindication of Hof- meister’s views. There is no more striking testimony of the stimulus given to the study of paleeobotany by Renault and Williamson than the band of still active workers in France and England, the work of which is passed in review in chapter v. It is perhaps in consonance with the general trend of advance in botanical science that physiology should receive a fairly lengthy treatment, but a perusal of book iii. certainly gives the reader the impression that the author has given a somewhat more detailed account of the problems of this branch of botany, and that subjects of equal importance connected with the anatomy of plants have been less generously treated. One must take into consideration that none of the chapters on physiology deal with the physiology of the reproductive processes. These are dealt with partly in connection with the alternation of genera- tions, and partly in connection with the morphology of the flower. But the physiology of reproduction really merits a chapter to itself, in which the modern views of the nature of fertilisation might have been more fully set forth, and the splendid work of Dar- win and Miiller on self- and cross-fertilisation might then have received ampler treatment. Grateful as we feel to Dr. Green for the sum- maries of worlk done in the various fields of botany, and recognising fully their usefulness, we close the book with a feeling that it lacks the breadth of treat- ment and the perspective of Sachs’ history. But in making this somewhat invidious comparison, we do not wish to detract from the careful and painstaking worl: of the author, which is shown by the very large number of books and papers which he passes under review. His task has been doubly difficult, partly owing to the fact that he has had to deal with innumerable memoirs rather than with a _ smaller number of great works, and partly owing to the fact that he has been called upon to write the history of a comparatively short period of scientific advance, a period, moreover, so recent as to make it difficult to get a proper perspective. These difficulties might have daunted the most courageous, and we feel duly indebted to Dr. Green for undertaking the onerous task and providing us with so useful a summary of the work done during the latter half of the nineteenth century in so many fields of botanical research. NO. 2135, VOL. 84] NATORE evolved, which is ambiguous. [SEPTEMBER 29, 1910 FUELS AND FURNACES. Fuel and Refractory Materials. By Prof. A. H. Sex- ton. Second edition. Pp. x+364. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1909.) Price 5s. net. HIS work deals generally with natural and pre- pared fuels, with coal-washing, recovery of by- products, the types of furnaces for metallurgical pur-_ poses, with the working of these furnaces in regard to the economical use of fuel, with the measurement of the high temperatures produced, and the commer- cial testing and calorimetry of fuels, as well as with the natural refractory materials and the apparatus made from these. The book is packed with information on this very extensive subject, although it is a little loose in places, sometimes in expression, at others with regard to information given. On p. 39 calorific power is defined as the heat On p. 59 coal is stated to be the only important fuel except natural gas and oil, but for much special Government work and for the higher class Sheffield steels, the irons made with charcoal fuel in Sweden and elsewhere are of the greatest importance; also, later, it is stated that char- coal has been used in blast-furnaces, whereas at least quite recently there was charcoal pig-iron being made in one blast-furnace in Cumberland, and it is also extensively made in such countries as Sweden. The time-honoured diagrams of charcoal burning in | piles remind one how they shocked. the commercial sensibilities of a former student, who was also a Swedish ironmaster, as all the beautifully. arranged trunks shown would, according to him, have been cut up into planks for sale, and visits to several charcoal- burning districts confirmed the statement. Coalite, the product of the coking of coal at a barely visible red-heat, is just mentioned, and as this new de- parture in coking is creating such an amount of interest in the hope that it may help in the future to reduce the smoke produced in those worst of offenders, domestic fire-grates, one would have liked a little more said about coalite. A good account is given of fuels generally, but the cost of illuminating gas is stated as varying from 2s. 6d. to 8s. per 1000, whereas in Sheffield it varies from 1s. 4d, to 1s. per 1000 cubic feet. The description of the use of steam in producers is very well done, but the statement that no producer is satisfactory that allows any sensible amount of CO, to pass into the gas is too severe, as in ordinary works practice it is not feasible to reduce the CO, below 4 to 6 per cent. by volume, and there is no advice given on the important matter of the thickness of the bed of fuel that should be kept for normal working. Silicon, manganese, &c., important fuels in metal- lurgical operations, are not mentioned. In dealing with standards of temperature it is not clearly enough stated that the present accepted standard is the gas thermometer, and in the descrip- tion of the Wanner pyrometer, the statement that SEPTEMBER 29, I910] NATURE 393 “W" is a Nicols prism will be apt to confuse the student. The resistance pyrometer is said to give the correct temperature to a tenth of a degree at 1000° C., but owing to the coating required to protect the platinum wire for most work, nothing like this accuracy will be obtained in practice. In speak- ing of the useful Féry spiral pyrometer, it is indicated that one of its objections is that it will only give “black body’’ temperatures, but surely this limitation applies to the other radiation pyrometers also. The account of the manufacture of Sheffield steel- melting crucibles is not correct, nor is the statement (p. 346) that the crucible is ‘‘put to dry, after which it is used without firing,”’ as these crucibles are sub- jected to a very careful firing, or annealing, on a very ingeniously designed annealing grate. Also, amongst the addition of non-plastic material added to enable the crucible to be made without cracking, are mentioned burnt clay, silica, and graphite; but in Sheffield work the material used is the best ground coke-dust, which not only has this effect, but by forming a solid skeleton to the material of the crucible at temperatures at which the fireclay material is quite soft, enables the crucible to stand the necessarily rough usage to which it is subjected during the making of crucible steel, without losing its shape. If from any little accident in the annealing of the crucible air has been allowed to impinge on any part of it so as to burn out the coke-dust, the crucible loses its shape at these portions, and is exceedingly difficult to manipulate. The whole subject-matter of the book covers a very wide field, and these critical observations are not in- tended to indicate that the work will not be a useful one for students, but are only intended to set them on their guard in cases where it will be necessary for them to know the exact state of practical work, or to compare with other authorities where their own ex- perience seems to differ from the statements made in the book. A. MeW1111aM. MEDICAL PARASITOLOGY. A Handbook of Practical Parasitology.. By Prof. Max Braun and Dr. M. Lihe. Translated by Linda Forster. Pp. viiit+208. (London: J. Bale, Sons and Danielsson, Ltd., 1910.) Price tos. 6d. net. HIS is a handy and very useful work by two ex- tremely competent authorities, and well worth translating into English for the benefit of medical men and others to whom the German language may present difficulties. The book is divided into three parts—(i.) Protozoa, (ii.) Helminthes, and (iii.) Arthro- poda. Each of these sections begins with an intro- ductory portion, in which, after a general account of the group, very full directions are given for its prac- tical study, with an excellent summary of the most important and useful methods of technique. The group is then dealt with systematically, those forms most important for the purposes of the book being described in their place in the classification, and for each main subdivision a common and easily obtained tvpe is described in detail with directions for procur- NO. 2135, VOL. 84] ing and studying it. The information given is in general accurate and up-to-date—the date, that is to say, of the German edition—and the figures are clear and well executed. In the Protozoa the step is taken of abolishing the class Sporozoa and elevating its two principal sub- divisions, Neosporidia and Telosporidia, to the rank of independent classes. The Neosporidia are placed immediately after the Rhizopoda, while the Telo- sporidia follow the Flagellata, but with subtraction of the Heemosporidia, which are classified with the Trypanosomide amongst the Flagellata as the third order, Binucleata, of that class. In their treatment of these organisms the authors take up an advanced neo- Schaudinnian standpoint with regard to certain highly controversial questions. The term Helminthes has no zoological significance, but is used in a sense convenient for medical require- ments to comprise the Trematodes, Cestodes, Nema- todes, and Acanthocephala; not, however, the leeches. In the section Arthropoda, which is a brief one, an account is given of the mites, Linguatulids, lice, fleas, and parasitic Diptera. The Arthropods which trans- mit parasites, such as ticks and ‘‘stinging-flies " (sic), are dealt with under the Protozoa. The translation is, in general, clear, but some curious results arise from the translator’s desire to anglicise scientific terms. It appears to be a rule with her to convert the termination ‘‘-idium,” plural ‘“idia,”’ into ‘‘-ide,” plural ‘‘-ides,’’ and the conse- quences are in many cases very puzzling. ‘* Coccide,” for instance, suggests a cochineal insect, but means in this book a coccidian parasite. No zoologist would ever guess the meaning of ‘‘ Myxides,”’ used to denote individuals of the common parasite of the bladder of the pike, Myxidium lieberkiihni. Most zoologists, and many people: who are not zoologists, are familiar with chromidia, disguised here as ‘‘chromides.’’ In these and many other cases the meaning of the term used can only be inferred from the context or deduced from analogy. It is also very misleading to use the term “carnivori”’ to denote birds of prey (p. 60); ‘‘small- pox’ on p. 32 should be carp-pox; and Trypanosoma, in the description of Fig. 14, should be Trypano- plasma. It is to be regretted that the eminent zoolo- gists and others, to whom the translator expresses her indebtedness for assistance, did not correct these vagaries. E. A. M. POPULAR ASTRONOMY. (1) Astronomy, a Handy Manual for Students and Others. By Prof. F. W. Dyson, F.R.S. Pp. vii+ 247. (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. net. (2) Chats about Astronomy. By H. P. Hollis. Pp. vi+226. (London: T. Werner Laurie, n.d.) Price 3s. 6d. net. ’ ANY signs point to the fact that the popular interest in astronomy grows from day to day. Perhaps in revolt against the merely utilitarian the world will not willingly let die the least obviously practical of the sciences. The production of books, NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, I191O- urged by this increased interest, and rendered neces- sary by the extraordinary modern progress of the science, is not behind the demand. That diverse tastes and capacities have to be catered for is clearly seen in the characters of the above books. The first, con- densed, but logical and lucid, will appeal essentially to the lover of astronomy having a mind comparatively trained to precise thinking, while the second frankly provides for the reader who needs spoon-feeding, and likes printed talk. (1) A simple account of the methods and results in astronomy, without unnecessary detail, and clearly stated for the student and general reader, is the aim and in great part the achievement of this handy little manual. Such faults as the book possesses spring mostly from a too great conciseness. In such subjects as the finding of the solar parallax and the estimation of the distance of the Milky Way, it is better to keep in mind the weaker brethren than the resolute student. Too great economy of words ceases to be a virtue. Jumps, however, requiring undue intellectual effort on the part of the reader are not of frequent occurrence, while the general precision and clarity are ample compensations. The work is comprehensive in scope, embracing the ancient astronomy and its development through the Copernican system to the most modern outlook on the universe. Recent work on astrophysics, the more intimate study of suns, near and far, is effectively presented. Very few mistakes have been noticed, though what seems an erroneous inference from diagram Ixxxiv. leads to the inversion of the relative masses of Sirius and its companion, while it might be inferred from a statement on p. 116 that a mag- netic field is a property of all sun-spots. This cer- tainly is not proven. The reproductions are effective and well chosen, and the diagrams, while efficient, have a home-made look about them which is quite pleasant, though the prac- tice of using Roman numerals to indicate them seems wholly without virtue. An efficient and tasteful bind- ing and handy format are further recommendations for a remarkably cheap book. (2) Though dealing somewhat discursively with such parts of astronomy as are of most popular appeal, the common sense and individuality of the writer prevent the treatment from becoming banal. To the man in the street interested in the phenomena of the skies, the book may be recommended, and he will no doubt read it with interest and profit. In great part the author restricts himself to the realm of naked-eye astronomy. Both the manner and matter and. the definiteness with which the subject is treated suggest and encourage a practical. acquaintance with the phenomena on the part of the reader. ‘The earth and its movements, stars and planets, sun-spots and comets,.and the changes of the moon are among the subjects informingly and chattily dealt with. A brightly and amusingly written chapter on astronomers and their work gives an excellent account of a much misunderstood profession. The inset reproductions are sufficiently good, but the general appearance of the book might certainly be improved. NO. 2135, VOL. 84] MARINE BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN BRITISH SEAS. (1) Bulletin Trimestrie: Conseil Permanent Inter- national pour l’Exploration de la Mer. Résumé des Observations sur le Plankton des Mers explorées par le Conseil pendant les Années, 1902-1908. Edited by Hi. M. Kyle. Part i. Pp. xxxiv+79,. and To plates. (Copenhague: And. Fred H¢st et Fils, 1910.) (2) The Decapod Natantia of the Coasts of Ireland. By Stanley M. Kemp. Scientific Investigations, 1908, Department of Agriculture and Technical In- struction for Ireland, Fisheries Branch. Pp. 190+23 plates. (Dublin: toro.) Price 3s.. 6d. (3) Report of a Survey of the Trawling Grounds on the Coasts of Counties Down, Louth, Meath, and Dub- lin. By E. W. L. Holt.. Part I., Record of Fish= ing Operations. Scientific Investigations, 1909, No. 1, Department of Agriculture and Technical In- struction for Ireland. Pp. 538+2 plates. (Dublin: 1910.) Price 3s. (1) ie 1908 the International Council resolved to prepare a report on the plankton work carried out by the countries participating in the international fisheries investigations, and the present bulletin con- tains the first instalment of this report. The bulletin begins with lists of the stations and times of investi- gation, and of the kinds of nets employed and the occasions on which they were worked. pecial reports are then given, in which various specialists deal with the annual and seasonal abundance of the main groups of animal and plant organisms represented in the catches. The groups so far summarised are the Tin- tinnoidea, Halosphera and Flagellates, Cladocera, Pteropoda, and Copepoda. Following these special reports are synoptical charts representing the abundance and seasonal distribution of the commoner species contained in the groups studied. The material thus summarised is very considerable ; 332 stations in all were worked, some 14,000 hauls were made, and altogether about Soo species of planktonic organisms were identified. It is evident, however, that the deduc- tion of general results from this mass of material has been a difficult task. The coordination of the observa- tions has been imperfect from the first; many changes have been made, and there has been confusion in the choice of methods of investigation. Nevertheless. the results obtained are of very great value, and general facts of distribution in relation to the physical changes taking place in the sea emerge clearly from the study of the data. The report provides a concise and valu- able summary of this extensive investigation. (2) This is a minute and careful account of forty- seven species of decapod natant Crustacea (fifty-four in all are recorded from the entire British sea-area) collected by the Irish Fishery cruiser Helga off the coasts of Ireland, the main localities investigated being Rathlin Deep, the Irish Sea between Dublin and the Isle of Man, the deep water of Counties Cork and Kerry, and the region near the Porcupine Bank. The report, which is a valuable addition to our knowledge of the British marine fauna, includes full details of SEPTEMBER 29, I9IO| NATURE 395 the localities fished, as well as the physical conditions ; of the sea during the operations. The economic aspect of the research is not neglected. (3) This is the first instalment of the results of an extensive survey of the Irish fishing-grounds, which is now being carried on by Mr. Holt and his colleagues. It is well known to those engaged in actual fishery administration that mere statistics of the quantities of fish landed at the ports afford, in themselves, in- formation of very little value for a rational regulation of the industry. Fishery authorities competent to their work must obviously obtain at first hand a knowledge of the natural conditions of the sea areas under their control, and this has been the object of the Irish sur- vey. The observations recorded are those of fishing operations carried on by the cruiser Helga at such times as her attention was not being directed to the detection of predatory trawlers; they include lists of the fishes present on the fishing-grounds visited, with the numbers taken per haul, and the individuai measurements of those caught. It is quite impossible to summarise the results here stated, but one may say with confidence that the report is a contribution of essential value for a real understanding of the natural conditions of the British fisheries. Toute OUR BOOK SHELF. Science in Modern Life. Prepared under the editor- ship of J. R. Ainsworth Davis. Vol vi., Engineer- ing. By J. W. French. .Pp. vi+-225. (London: The Gresham Publishing Co., 1910.) Price 6s. net. Tue first half of this book is devoted to the various systems of power production, and the other half to the application of such power to the manifold needs of mankind; there is also a short account of the proper- ties of, and the modern methods of manufacturing on a large scale, the chief materials used in constructional work. In a book of this nature, which is evidently in- tended to give non-technical readers an intelligent idea of the remarkable worl done by the engineer in pro- viding for the varied daily needs of communities living under the complex conditions of civilised life, it is a pity that space should have been given to descriptions of machines and methods which are obsolete, and are only interesting from the historical point of view. In dealing with high-speed engines, there are two illus- trations and some amount of letterpress devoted to the Willans and Robinson central valve engine, which is no longer made, though, of course, such engines are still to be found in generating stations and fac- tories where they were installed some years ago, and where they will remain until unfit for further service ; it is, however, an obsolete type. In discussing water- tube boilers Mr. French states that ‘‘of these types the most extensively adopted in the navies of the world is the Belleville water-tube boiler."’. This is in- correct; no recent British warship has been fitted with this steam generator, which did not prove altogether satisfactory. That the section which deals with the applications of power is well up to date is shown by the chapter dealing with aérial navigation and hydroplanes. The latest types of machines are described and- discussed. The cable-way illustrated on p. 127 was used in con- nection with the building of the new low-level light- house at Beachy Head, and not, as stated, for the Eddystone Lighthouse. There are a dozen excellent plates, and about 600 NO. 2135, VOL. 84] other illustrations, which will greatly increase the utility of the book to those readers who are not familiar with such technical matters. abs sls 18}. Vegetationsbilder. Edited by Prof. Dr. G. and Prof. Dr. H. Schenck. Eighth series. Trockensteppen der Kalahari. F. Seiner. Von den Juan Fernandez Inseln. Part 3. Die schwabische Alp. Otto Feucht. Part 4. Aus Bosnien und der Herzegovina. L. Adamovié. Parts 5-6. Die Flora von Irland. Prof. T. Johnson. With six plates in each part. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1910.) Price 4 marks each part. Tue eighth series has progressed rapidly, as six parts have been published within the year. For the first time the British Islands is represented, namely, in the double part dealing with the flora of Ireland, arranged by Prof. Johnson. It would be difficult to improve on the subjects chosen, which include Arbutus unedo, one of the original forest trees, Erica mackaii, Karsten Part I. Pantie Carl Slkottberg. Erica mediterranea, Daboecia polifolia, Euphorbia hibernica, Eriocaulon articulatum, and Eryngium maritimum,. ““Landerkunde Europas,’’ and of books on the date palm (1881) and the olive (1904). M. G. Cnavez was successful on Friday, September 23, in making a flight with a Blériot monoplane across the Alps from Brigue to Domo d’Ossola, but he had the misfortune to meet with a severe accident when landing, from the effects of which he died on Tuesday, Sep- tember 27. To traverse by aéroplane a distance of about thirty miles of snow-covered mountain, including the Simplon, which reaches a height of 6600 feet, is a notable achievement, even though it has a sensational aspect. M- Chavez started at 1.30 p.m., and reached Domo d’Ossola at 2.19; over the Simplon Pass he encountered a very high wind, which caused him to take the route over the Gorge of Gondo instead of going by the shorter route over the Mousoera Pass. Domo d’Ossola the wings of the monoplane appear to have broken, and the machine fell to the ground with M. Chavez beneath. Everyone will regret that the re- markable feat of crossing the Alps by aéroplane should have had such a melancholy termination. M. Chavez is the fifteenth airman who has been killed by flying accidents this year. WE record with regret the death, on September 16, of Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, at the age of eighty-four years. Mr. Rassam in 1845 joined Mr. (afterwards Sir) A. H- Layard to assist him in his Assyrian researches. He was sent out again by the trustees of the British Museum in 1849 to take part in Layard’s second undertaking, and carried on work for the British Museum until 1854. In 1864 he was selected by the British Government to pro- ceed to Abyssinia to try to persuade King Theodore to release Consul Cameron and other prisoners. Though at first he met with success with King Theodore, he was, after a few months, thrown into prison with the original prisoners, who had been retaken, and he was kept in chains for nearly two years. The occurrences led to the war with Abyssinia in 1868. Mr. Rassam conducted further Assyrian explorations from 1876 to 1882, and during the Turko-Russian war he was sent to Asia Minor, Armenia, and Kurdistan by the British Foreign Office- Among his published works may be mentioned “* British Mission to Theodore, King of Abyssinia, with Notices of the Country Traversed from Massowah through the Soudan, the Amhara, and back to Annesly Bay from Magdala,’’ two vols., and ‘‘ Asshur and the Land of Nimrod.” Tne second International Congress of Alimentary Hygiene will be held in Brussels on October 4-8. In addition to the usual meetings of sections, the following lectures are included in the provisional programme :— Tuesday, October 4: Prof. Dastre, ‘‘ The Ultra-violet Rays and their Application to Alimentary Hygiene ’’; October 5: Prof. Paterno, ‘‘ The Chemical Sciences ’’; October 6: M. Bordet, ‘‘ Hygiene and_ Bacteriology.’ Various social functions and visits to the exhibition, to the Colonial Museum, and to the Institut au Pare Leo- pold have also been arranged. Members and _ associates (subscription, 20 francs and 1o francs respectively) are admitted free to the Universal Exhibition during the time of the congress. Further information may be obtained of the honorary secretary, Mr. Cecil H. Cribb, 136 Shaftes- bury Avenue, London, W. Tue annual foray of the mycological section of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union was held at Sandsend, near Whitby, on September 17-22. The magnificent old woods When quite near the landing place at far 2 —— SEPTEMBER 29, I9IO]| NATURE at Mulgrave, with their deep, well-watered ravines in- variably produce a rich fungus flora independent of season, which to a very great extent determines the presence or absence of fungi in less favoured districts. Notwithstand- ing four previous visits, six agarics new to the British flora were met with, in addition to a species only previously recorded from Jersey. Mycena flavipes, a beautiful fungus with a pink cap and a bright yellow stem, was met with in some quantity. This fungus was first recorded as a British species from specimens collected in Mulgrave Woods about twenty-five years ago, and has not been met with elsewhere in this country. A consider- able number of rare and interesting British species were also collected. Several parasitic fungi were also noted. The total number of species collected amounted to between four and five hundred. During the evenings, discourses on mycological subjects were given by Mr. Harold Wager, F.R.S., Mr. A. Clarke, Mr. T. Gibbs, and Mr. Geo. Massee. Mr. Cheesman exhibited a collection of Myxogastres collected in the Rocky Mountains, and Mr. A. Clarke exhibited an extensive series of coloured drawings of fungi. Much of the success of the meeting was due to the facili- ties kindly afforded by the Rev. the Marquis of Normanby. Pror. FLINDERS PETRIE in Man for September records the discovery in the neighbourhood of the Pyramid of Sneferu (B.c. 4600) of a stone tomb dating from a time before the construction of the pyramid, the earliest private tomb in Egypt to which a date can be assigned. This burial is of the highest interest, as it shows that the body was completely unfleshed before it was wrapped in linen. It lies in a sarcophagus of red granite, the oldest stone sarcophagus known. It has long been known that in prehistoric burials the corpse was stripped of the flesh, the bones even being broken to extract the marrow. In the present case each bone was separately wrapped in linen; and the present discovery proves that the dissever- ing of the skeleton was the custom among the higher classes at the beginning of the Pyramid period. In the last progress report of work at Knossos Dr. A. J. Evans records a remarkable discovery of what he calls the “‘ Tomb of the Double Axes,’’ which has pro- duced more definite evidence regarding the sepulchral cult and the conception of the after-world than any grave yet opened in Crete or prehistoric Greece. Here the double axes were socketed in sacral horns of plaster, and _ it would seem that the tomb, besides being a place of sepulture, was also a chapel, where the protection of the Great Mother of the prehistoric Cretan cult was sought for the shade of the departed warrior, the stone benches round the shrine being probably arranged for some memorial function in which the family took part. Inside the tomb was found a bronze axe, not of the thin ritual type, but a real prehistoric implement, probably used by the workmen at some early reopening of the sepulchral chamber to admit of the presentation of offerings to the dead. AN interesting recent addition to the Maidstone Museum is a model of the fine dolmen situated at Coldrum, some 2; miles north of West Malling. The dolmen itself stands on the edge of a well-marked prehistoric cultivation terrace at the foot of the chalk escarpment and faces east, towards Kits Coty House, which is some six miles distant. It was in this dolmen that Mr. F. J. Bennett recently found some remains of prehistoric man, and it is to Mr. Bennett, assisted by Mr. Filkins, of Maidstone, that the model is due. It is built to scale, NO. 2135, VOL. 84] 401 the model of each stone having been made and fixed at the site of Coldrum itself, thus ensuring an accurate repre- sentation. Mr. Bennett has also had prepared plans of the Coldrum and Addington megaliths, together with a photographic survey of the former and a tracing of the 25-inch map showing additional sarsens, so that visitors to the museum may more clearly understand the relations of the various parts and their surroundings. With so many of our megalithic remains being neglected or wilfully despoiled, it is an urgent necessity that similar models, plans, &c., should be made of the few which still remain intact. ‘ A MEmorR on “‘ Factors in the Transmission and Preven- tion of Malaria in the Panama Canal Zone,’’ by Dr. S. T. Darling, in the Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasit- ology, vol. iv., No. 2, describes a number of very interest- ing observations and experiments on the development of the parasites of simple and malignant tertian malaria in mosquitoes, and on the infectivity of different species of anopheline mosquitoes in the region in question. Cellia albimana, the common white-hind-footed mosquito, a very hardy species, was found to be the most efficient trans- mitter of malaria, C. tarsimaculata scarcely less so; on the other hand, Arribalzagia malefactor belies its name, since it was not found possible to infect it. Incidentally, the author comes to a conclusion which will perhaps be a-surprise to many—that the characteristic musical note of the mosquito is caused by the vibration of the proboscis, not by the wings in flight. A RECENT number of the Philippine Journal of Science (vol. v., No. 1, Section B) contains seven’ papers by different investigators on the subject of the etiology of beriberi, together with a report of the discussion which followed the reading of these papers at the first biennial meeting of the Far-Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine, held at Manila in March. It was generally agreed, and a resolution was passed by the meeting to the effect, that ‘‘ beriberi is associated with the continuous consumption of white (polished) rice as the staple article of diet.’’? Evidence, experimental and otherwise, was brought forward to prove that in the process of polishing the rice the grains are deprived of certain outer layers, the pericarp and sub-pericarpal tissue, which appear to contain some substance or substances essential for the maintenance of the normal metabolism of nerve-tissues. On this view, beriberi is a disorder of metabolism, due to deficiencies of diet. The chief obstacle to the acceptance of this theory, it is pointed out, is that it does not explain the occurrence of beriberi in some tropical countries and its absence in others, such as Ceylon, where white rice is equally the staple diet of the natives. Some experts consider, therefore, that the diet is only the predisposing condition, and that the true cause of the disease has yet to be found. A synopsis of the Silurian fossils of the South Yarra district forms the subject of a paper by Mr. F. Chapman, paleontologist to the Melbourne Museum, in the August number of the Victorian Naturalist. The presence of an eurypterid of the genus Pterygotus, of the peculiar brittle- star described by the author as a new genus, Gregoriara, and of the bivalve Cardiola cornucopiae, is stated to link the fauna with that of the British and Bohemian Silurian. Tue September issue of the Irish Naturalist is devoted to a report of the sixth triennial conference and excursion of the Irish Field Club, held at Rosapenna, County Donegal, on July 8-13. Notes on the natural history and 402 NATURE [SEPTEMBEk 29, 1910 archeology of the district are contributed by a number of members of the club, among which reference may be made to Mr. Ussher’s announcement of the discovery of five specimens of the humerus of the great auk. Dr. A. C. Gtnrner, with the assistance of Mr. Tate Regan, has (in the Journa? des Museum Godeffroy, Heft xvii., Hamburg, 1910) co:apleted the description of the collection of fishes made in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific by Andrew Garrett. Four new species, Trygon ponapensis, Tetrodon regani, Opichthys macrops, and O. garretti, ave described. The report is very beautifully illustrated by twenty coloured plates. : ATTENTION has previously been directed in NATURE to the need for uniform orthography of geographical names in Government departments; this need is exemplified by the ‘‘ Return’ of the British Museum for 1910. In 1909 Mrs. J. A. Brooke presented to the museum a series of specimens sent from China by her son, the late Mr. J. W. Brooke, some of which went to Bloomsbury and others to Cromwell Road. Those at Bloomsbury are entered (p. 77) as having been obtained in Szechuan, while those at Cromwell Road are recorded (p. 123) as coming from Sze-chuen. WE have received copies of several papers on human skulls and skeletons and supposed evidence of human work, read by Dr. F. Ameghino before the Congreso Cientifico Internacional Americano, held at Buenos Aires in July last. In one he describes a skull from a cave in Cuba as a new species, under the name of Homo cubensis. Skeletons. from the Moro district, on the Atlantic coast of Argentina, are described in a second paper under the name of H. sinemento, and stated to be of a more primitive type than the Neanderthal H. primigenius. These remains are stated to be of Lower Pampean age; in a third paper the author describes another from the Upper Pampean, which is regarded as representing a third species, H. caputin- clinatus. The other four papers supposed evidence of man’s presence in various oldest of which is classed as Upper Eocene. To vol. xxviii., pp. 147-239, of the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History Dr. R. Broom con- tributes an important article on the relationship of the Permian reptiles of North America to those of South. After reviewing the leading types of each, he concludes that in the Upper Carboniferous northern South America was the home of a primitive vertebrate fauna from which originated both the North American Pelycosauria and the African Anomodontia (in the wider sense of the term). In the Permian this fauna invaded North America, where Early in the same epoch the skeleton, relate to formations, the it soon became isolated. Brazilian Mesosaurus reached Africa by a land-bridge, and later on appeared other types, which probably developed in the area now occupied by the South Atlantic. When sundered, the North American and African faunas under- went great development in divergent directions, the former undergoing many strange specialisations—notably in vertebral spines—while the latter showed a tendency to a great increase in the size of the limbs. This limb- lengthening, accompanied by the alteration of the phalangeal formula of the toes from 2.3.4.5.4 to 2.3.3.3-3, started the mammalian line of evolution, for directly the more specialised anomodonts raised their bodies above the ground they were well on the way to become mammals. Birds, in fact, “‘ are reptiles that became active on their hind limbs; mammals: are reptiles that acquired activity through the development of all four.’’ NO. 2135, VOL. 84] “An article entitled ‘*‘ Hunting Birds with the Camera,”’ contributed by Mr. W. Bickerton to the October number of the Royal Magazine, gives a good idea of the great patience required by anyone who desires to photograph birds. The article is accompanied by several striking illustrations, including two of a reed-warbler feeding a Mr. Bickerton says that, of all our summer visiting birds, the reed-warbler has its. nest used most frequently by ‘the cuckoo to deposit her eggs. He remarks, ‘‘In the area I am describing no fewer than seven different eggs of the cuckoo lay each in a different reed-warbler’s nest, left there for the latter bird to hatch out.” ; : young cuckoo. Tue second number of the botanical section of the current volume of the Philippine Journal of Science contains the latter portion of the critical enumeration of Philippine Leguminosz prepared by Mr. E. D. Merrill, a third set of bryological determinations by Dr. V. F. Brotherus, and a short list of indigenous fungi compiled by Messrs. H. and P. Sydow. AN investigation into the causes underlying a serious loss of gooseberry bushes in Cambridgeshire is recorded by Mr. T. F. Brooke and Mr. A. W. Bartlett in Annales Mycologici (vol. vii., No. 2). Two fungi fell under sus- picion, but definite proof in the shape of infection experiments was only obtained for Botrytis cinerea, although good reason is adduced for finding a second cause of disease in Cystoporina ribis. The diseases are not in any way connected and distinct macroscopic and micro- scopic characters are defined for each fungus; further, it is noted that in no case were both fungi discovered on the same plant. A xew and peculiar type of resin collector that has been tried in the pine forests of Florida, U.S.A., is described by Mr. J. S. Woolsey, jun., in the Indian Forester (August). The tree is tapped by two small tunnels, about an inch in diameter and five inches long, bored from a common opening or mouth tangentially through the sap wood. .The collector consists of two metal caps set at right angles, and connected by a hollow angle piece. One metal cap is fitted over the mouth, while a glass jar, into which the resin flows, is fitted to the other horizontal cap. It is claimed that the method gives an increased yield and a clean gum, and that evaporation is avoided. SysTEMATIC articles are prominent in the latest issue of the Kew Bulletin (No. 7), as, in addition to a long series of new species of Protea and other African diagnoses, Mr. J. S. Gamble contributes a second list of new Lauracez from the Malayan principally additions to the genera. Cinnamomum, Alseodaphne, and Notophcebe, and Dr. O. Stapf presents a revision of the Australian plant Epacris heteronema. Also Mr. G. Massee describes several new exotic fungi, including a Sphzrulina and a Phoma, both discovered on Welwitschia mirabilis in Damaraland. More important from an economic aspect is Eutypa cauli- vora (Sphzeriaceze), a parasite collected on rubber trees in Singapore, that kills its host by blocking up the water channels with mycelium. region, Tue Australian Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology has commenced the issue of a monthly report from January last. It is intended to embody, inter alia, discussions on current weather, daily observations at each of the capital cities, and extracts, or brief articles, on matters of general scientific interest, and, judging from the first number, it gives promise of taking a prominent place among the leading weather bulletins. The principal article in the SEPTEMBER 29, 1910] NATURE 493 January number deals with the disastrous flood during that month in the Upper Darling tributaries, owing io abnormally heavy rains, attributed by Mr. H. A. Hunt to the joint action of an anticyclonic area over the southern half, and a monsoonal depression operating in the northern half, of the continent. In the Namoi_ basin several places recorded more than 12 inches of rain between January 11 and 15, and at Bingara, in the area of the river Gwydir, 19-44 inches were registered, the normal for the whole month being 3} inches. The report states that, generally speaking, the amount of damage was inestim- able, but the deposit left by the subsidence of the water -has rendered the soil fertile over a vast area. WE have received copies of several papers which have been published recently by members of the staff of the Reichsanstalt at Charlottenburg, amongst them one on the thermal expansion of metals, by Dr. E. Griineisen, which appeared in the Annalen der Physik for August 5. The first part of the paper deals with the observations of expansion of platinum, palladium, copper, _ silver, aluminium, iron, nickel, and iridium made previously at the Reichsanstalt by Holborn, Day, Scheel and others, and the second part with observations made by the author on magnesium, zinc, cadmium, antimony, iridium, gold, lead, and bismuth by comparison of the expansion of a bar of each metal with that of a platinum standard bar by a method analogous to the double-mirror method of determining the bending of a beam. With the exception of zinc, cadmium, and possibly tin, the whole of the metals which have regular expansions confirm Thiesen’s law that the rate of expansion is proportional to a power of the absolute temperature. The author finds that the power lies between 0-06 and o-5, and is a periodic function of the atomic weight of the metal. Engineering for September 23 contains a photograph of submarine *‘ D 1,’’ which is the largest vessel of its class belonging to the British Navy. An interesting develop- ment in this vessel consists in the application of wireless telegraphy to submarine work. Successful experiments have been carried out recently with this vessel in Torbay, the crusier Bonaventure establishing and maintaining com- munication with the ‘‘D1’’ when submerged. The “D1” replied from below the surface. The installation was tested when the submarine was submerged to a depth just sufficient to keep the periscope above water, i.e. about one-half of the telegraphy mast was below water. The possibilities of such a development are considerable, as not only could the actions of submarines be directed by these means from larger vessels, but a flotilla of sub- marines will be able to use the system for the purpose of communicating among themselves when submerged, their value in naval warfare being thus considerably improved. THE progress of the great Barren Jack dam in Australia is described in the Engineer for September 23. This dam will be one of the largest in the world when finished. The design in plan gives a length of 784 feet, curved to a radius of 1200 feet, and a maximum height of 240 feet. The structure is of cyclopean concrete; the base is 163 feet wide and 20 feet high, with vertical sides, and this level has now been reached. The catchment area embraces 5000 square miles, mostly of hard shale formation, and much of it mountainous, which is snow-fed in winter. The maximum. depth “of water behind the dam will be 224 feet, and the capacity will be 33,380 millions of cubic feet. Nature has furnished a gorge in hills of granite, providing the best site and best materials for a dam, NO. 2135, VOL. 84] behind which is an unfailing supply of rainfall; a naturat 220-mile channel, and, at the proper place, a foundation for a distributing weir. That advantage is now being taken of this almost ready-made but long neglected irriga- tion opportunity is a matter for congratulation. It is not intended to wait for the completion of the work before putting it to use. The building contract provides for the wall reaching a height of 110 feet in August, 1911, when storage will be started, so as to ensure irrigation in the summer of 1911-12. The remainder of the dam is to be finished in August, 1913. WeE have received from Ozonair, Ltd., of 95 Victoria Street, a catalogue of apparatus suitable for laboratory and research work. Four arrangements. are described ranging in cost from 15/. to rool. for alternating, and from 25l. to riol. for direct current, for a complete installation operated from the street mains. It is claimed that the yield of ozone is greater than that of any other generator, and that the purity of the effluent is unapproached. A REPORT on recent progress in the chemistry of the sugars, by Mr. J. S. Hepburn, appears in the Journal of the Franklin Institute for August. This paper the work of Emil upon sugars and ferments, describes the synthesis of monoses, disaccharides, and glucosides, and discusses the fermentation of the sugars, the action of the various inverting enzymes, and the lock- and-key theory of enzyme action. The splitting of racemic sugar into their active components and asymmetric syntheses within the sugar are also considered. References are given to original papers, of which no fewer than seventy-four are by Prof. Emil and his colleagues or pupils.- reviews Fischer derivatives Fischer A SUPPLEMENT of eighty-four pages to the Columbia University Quarterly gives an account of the Charles Frederick Chandler testimonial, presented on the occasion of his retirement from the positions of head of the depart- ment of chemistry and dean of the School of Mines of Columbia University. Prof. Chandler has been a college teacher during fifty-four years, and his retirement marked the close of his forty-sixth year of service at Columbia- A bibliography of fiity publications testifies to the fact that his keen interest in pure science was allied with much work of a public and philanthropic kind. His work on behalf of public health in New York was of the utmost value, and the story of his midnight raid upon the cattle stalls of Washington Market, as set forth in the Columbia Quarterly, will form a fascinating feature in some future history of municipal cleansing; the ingenious methods by which in the following years he overcame the prejudice of the poorer people against the isolation of small-pox cases is an eloquent testimony to his versatile ability. Two important crystallographic papers, by Prof. Arm- strong and Messrs. Colgate and Rodd, have recently appeared -in’ the Journal of the Chemical Society. + The investigation has been in progress since 1892. The work now described includes the crystallographic examination of no fewer than twenty-nine derivatives of the p-di- halogenbenzenesulphonic acids; but considerable progress has already been made in the study of the five similar series of isomeric acids in which the two halogens occupy the ortho and meta positions relatively to one another. The series now described is comparatively simple in its crystallographic properties; almost all the compounds belong to one of the two types of close-packed arrange- ment which Barlow and Pope have indicated for . the benzene molecule, namely, the rhombohedral arrangement, 404 NATURE [SEPTEMRER 29, 1910 in which (a) one parameter has a value slightly below 2-780, or (b) two of the parameters are nearly equal. Amongst the sulphonic chlorides and bromides two iso- morphous series are seen, the second series being restricted to compounds in which an iodine atom is present; it is noteworthy that the two chloriodobenzenesulphonic chlorides are found in different series, and that one of them was on one occasion obtained in a labile form, the crystals becoming cloudy and opaque when removed from the solvent from which they had separated. This behaviour indicates clearly that certain members of the series are actually dimorphous, and the whole series may therefore be -regarded as isodimorphous. Isodimorphism was also detected amongst the anilides and toluides. It is remarkable that two other series, containing the halogen atoms in the meta position, which were examined by Dr. E. C. Jee in 1900, proved to be isotrimorphous and iso- tetramorphous respectively. The completion of the work on these series will be awaited with interest. A seconp edition of ‘fA Text-book of Zoology,’’ by Profs. T. Jeffrey Parker and W. A. Haswell, is announced as nearly ready by Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Ltd. The work has been subjected to careful revision throughout ; some parts have been to a great extent rewritten, and a considerable number of new illustrations have been added. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. VELOCITIES AND ACCELERATIONS OF THE EJECTA FROM Hattey’s Comer.—Profs. Barnard and Lowell and Senor J. Comas Sola all deal with the velocities and accelera- tions of the matter ejected from the body of Halley’s comet, during May and June, in No. 4441 of the Astro- nomische Nachrichten (pp. 11-16). From measures of photographs taken at the Yerkes Observatory (Y), Honolulu (H), and Beirut (B) on June 6, Prof. Barnard found the velocities of recession, of a well-marked feature in the tail, given in the following table :— Rete ance! Hourly Recession per second photographs ynelveyy From comet From sun Hours . Miles km. Miles km. Y-H ... 4°25 3°60 CRIS oa) ey/es B0°7), -.-)10379 Y-B ... 15°15 5°17 Z35cTeee- 59.3 49°7 ... 80'0 H-B ... 10°90 5°78 37.23) cen SORT 53°9 ... 8674 These results show a strong acceleration in the mass measured, which was about 1-5° from the head; from the last two photographs this acceleration was about 14 miles (22 km.) per second. Similar results are obtained by Prof. Lowell from the measures of two photographs taken, with rather less than an hour’s interval, on May 23. On these photographs are shown four knots in the tail, at distances varying from 1° 28’ to 6° 15’ from the head, and the measures give for the velocities of the particles composing the knots 13-6, 17-2, 19-7, and 29-7 miles per second respec- tively, thus showing an acceleration of the velocities as the particles receded further from the head. Senor Sola, dealing with the velocities of the gaseous globes ejected from the nucleus on June 4, shown on photographs taken on June 4, 6, and 7, finds that between June 4 and 6 the acceleration of these ejecta was 0-148 metre per second, and between June 6 and 7 was 0-248 metre per second. OBSERVATIONS OF ComEtTs.—New observations of three comets are published in No. 4441 of the Astronomische Nachrichten. A number of observers give positions, deter- mined during August, of Metcalf’s comet, r1910b, and generally describe it as a faint object, magnitude about 11-0, having a central condensation and a suspicion of a tail. D’Arrest’s comet was observed at the Algiers Observa- tory on August 26 and 29 and September 1 by M. Gonnessiat. The correction to Leveau’s ephemeris was NO. 2135, VOL. 84] 4 an increasing quantity, and on September 1 had the value —Im. 19-39s., +6! diffuse nebulosity: of 2’ or 3/ diameter, with a feeble, central condensation of about magnitude 14-5. With a g-inch refractor Mr. Innes found that, on August 11 and 12, Halley’s comet was a most difficult object, and was, therefore, much fainter than the magni- tude (7-4) given in No. 4423 of the Astronomische Nach- richten. Observations made between July 26 and August 11 indicate a correction of about —r11s. to the ephemeris given in the same place; the ephemeris is nearly correct in 6. When last seen the comet was a nebulous object, of 1’ diameter, showing a slight con- densation. Tue Sotar Puysics OpsERvatory, SOUTH KENSINGTON. —From the report published by the Board of Education, dealing with the work done at the Solar Physics Observa- tory, South Kensington, during 1909, we learn that spectroheliograms of the solar disc were obtained on 147 days during the year; of the 286 negatives secured, 231 have been selected for the measurement of flocculic areas in pursuance of the scheme for establishing a cooperative daily record of such areas. Fifty-seven photographs show- ing the calcium prominences at the limb were also secured with the spectroheliograph. Visual observations of the sun were possible on 232 days, and “‘no spots’’ was re- corded on five occasions. The spectra of 138 spots were observed visually, and show that the lines chiefly affected, in the region F-D, are ‘due to V, Ti, Sc, and Mg, associated with H. A powerful instrument for the photo- graphic recording of sun-spot spectra cannot be used owing to the vibration occasioned by traffic in the vicinity. Work with the 36-inch reflector on Halley’s comet and other objects was also restricted by the poor observing conditions. A large number of photographs of stellar spectra were secured with various prismatic cameras, those obtained with a calcite-quartz optical system being employed for the temperature-comparisons of various stars. THe DETERMINATION OF LoNnGiITUDE.—In an_ interesting brochure of sixty-two pages, now published as an extract from the journal L’Horloger, Dr. Jean Mascart recounts the history of the determination of longitudes, with a special chapter on the invention and development of marine chronometers, and an account of the voyage of the Flore, which had for its purpose the actual testing of the different methods of determination, in 1771-2. The brochure is well illustrated with portraits and cuts of historical instruments and their parts, and contains numerous references to the literature of the subject with which it deals. COMMISSION MONUMENTS. HE first report of the commission contains a general account of work already done, and an outline of the worl proposed to be done. The first volume of classified information the commission hopes to publish in the course of the present year, in the form of an inventory of monu- ments in the county of Montgomery. The task undertaken is truly immense. No type of monument nor available source of information seems to have been overlooked in the outline given. There are, of course, inevitable limitations to be considered, but it is not likely that the work in value and extent will ever be a subject for serious adverse criticism. As, however, the commission’s plan of campaign has been published at a time when that plan may be reconsidered in some details before the information collected has been cast into a final form, one may venture to direct attention to a class of facts which is not even mentioned in the report, but which may be shown to be by far the most important within the scope of the inquiry. : The most important documents are the monuments themselves. Whatever facts may be directly elicited from them. take precedence of all facts elicited from ‘“‘ finds,”’ folklore, and documentary information. They may be THE ROYAL ON WELSH 16:2"; the comet is described as a SEPTEMBER 29, 1910] called structural facts, and they are to be regarded as facts irrespective of any theory. So long as such facts may be gathered, as a rule, at every ancient site, there seems to be no valid reason why they should not be treated as of first importance in any examination of ancient: monuments. Opinions may differ greatly as to the value of deductions from the facts, but no difference of opinion can possibly justify a policy of turning a deaf ear to the positive testimony of the monuments themselves. The sharpest distinction should be made between the testimony of a structure and that of any “‘ finds,’’ and the commission’s chief object is to make an inventory of structures. Judging a structure by the finds alone, the popular epithet ‘‘ sepulchral’’ is often tolerable, but the epithet does not explain the structure even of a hermetic- ally closed ¢ist, which everybody would regard as sepulchral. Now, ‘‘ grave goods’’ have been given a place in the commission’s schedule, and for that reason alone one would claim recognition of the structural facts. The relation of a burial to the surface soil is particularised, and such details show that the structural facts, in a way, are included in the schedule. The facts I have chiefly in mind are measures, both angular and linear. Some measures of the sort, of course, are given in ordinary reports and plans of monuments, but measures made on the lines of a working theory, based on the sum of know- ledge already gained by measurements, must be much more to the point than any measures made with abso- lutely no theory in view. Even when a working theory is adopted, some technical knowledge is indispensable for making the required measures. The subject, I understand, has been considered by the commission. Some information bearing on the astro- nomical inquiry, which I had the honour of submitting at the Cardiff meeting, was accepted. I understand, further, that some arrangemenis have been, or are being, made for making measures. The report, however, gives us no light on the matter. There is not- even a recommendation of the inquiry. We are told what features of ancient churches are to be observed, but not a word about the one feature which usually gives character to the whole, orientation. If measures of monuments have any meaning—and if they were and likely to remain meaningless, to ignore them would be a reckless accommodation to our ignor- ance—that meaning must be the vertebral column of any body of information about them. In most, if not all, branches of scientific inquiry measurements take pre- cedence of any other data. If such a commission were appointed to gather anthropological data, is it likely that anthropometry would be given a second place in the inquiry? A similar method for archzological research has been devised in which measurement forms the first and best basis for a classification of monuments, all apart from any theory as to the significance of the measures. To those who are in the habit of regarding measures as constituting the very soul of a monument, the preserva- tion of measures is the best possible preservation of a monument. One can easily understand why a representative body of archeologists should hesitate a little before giving its endorsement to a line of inquiry which has to make its own way into favour. Probably at a mixed gathering of archeologists a majority might be found in favour of keeping it in abeyance. The commission might justify its silence, if not inaction, in such a matter, to such an audience, by referring to the element of prejudice which unfortunately is not confined to non-scientific bodies. There is, however, no evidence, so far as the commission is concerned, of such a slavish subjection of what shotld be.a free, open, and thorough inquiry to the idiosyncrasies of the human equation. Just as the commission seeks the sympathetic cooperation of the Welsh public in its work, it is to be hoped that a representation of this kind will receive an equally sympathetic treatment by the com- mission itself. The task of sifting and. sorting the contents of the vast drag-net which the commission has cast over Wales is not an enviable one, but a better master of method in handling such materials could hardly be found than the secretary, Mr. Edward Owen. Joun GRIFFITH. NO. 2135, VOL. 84] NATURE 405 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT LABORATORY. THE report of the principal chemist of the Government Laboratory, London, upon the work of the department during the last fiscal year, contains, as usual, a mass of information respecting the chemical examinations and inquiries made for the various branches of the executive. On former occasions we have described the general work of the laboratory in some detail, and will therefore, in the present instance, merely note a few of the many mis- cellaneous points of interest mentioned in the report. Conformably to the provisions of the White Phosphorus Matches Prohibition Act, 1908, which came into operation on January 1 this year, a number of samples of imported matches were examined in order to ascertain whether they were free from the white or poisonous form of phosphorus. In only seven instances, however, out of 647, was white phosphorus found to be present. The importation of the matches in these consignments was -prohibited. They were but an insignificant proportion of the total matches im- ported. Only doubtful cases are dealt with in the laboratory, as the absence of white phosphorus is shown in the great majority of cases by simple tests which have been devised for application by the local customs officials. The effect of the Act already has been to stamp out the use of white phosphorus in imported matches; and as regards matches made in the United Kingdom, samples of the paste used for ‘‘ tipping ’’ have been taken from the factories, but in no case has the use of white phosphorus been detected. A number of samples of beer and brewing materials were found to contain arsenic in excess of the limits laid down by the Royal Commission on Arsenical Poisoning. One sample of malt contained as much as one-eighth of a grain of arsenic per lb., and the beer brewed from it showed a considerable excess of the poison. The brewers were immediately warned of the danger of allowing such beer to go into consumption. On investigation, the presence of the arsenic was traced to the fuel used for kiln-drying the malt. Articles of food taken from the canteens on board naval vessels were not in all cases free from objection. Thus, of four samples of ‘‘ lard,’’ one consisted of cocoa-nut oil, one was considerably adulterated with cotton-seed oil and beef stearine, and the remaining two gave evidence of slight contamination with cotton-seed oil; and out of four samples of condensed milk, one was found to be a ‘‘ skimmed ”’ product and another was deficient in fat. The general Admiralty supplies, however, were found to be usually satisfactory. The tendency of makers of foodstuffs to work down to a “standard,’? when one has been fixed, is exemplified by a remark which the principal chemist makes in regard to the proportion of water in imported colonial butter. Since the fixing of the limit of water at 16 per cent., ‘‘ the quantity of water in colonial butter, formerly exceptionally low, is now nearer the limit, and occasionally exceeds it.’’ Two samples of imported ‘‘ pastry margarine ’’ were found to contain solid paraffin, in one case as much as 10 per cent. Amongst miscellaneous samples analysed may be mentioned certain feeding-meals which were examined in connection with alleged poisoning of cattle; in some instances the meal was found to contain Java or Rangoon beans, which, on digestion with water, produce prussic acid through the influence of an enzyme. In another case of cattle poison- ing, the food was found to have been contaminated with an arsenic-paste sheep dip. In connection with lead poisoning in the pottery industry, a large number of samples were examined. From works in which cases of plumbism had occurred, thirty-six speci- mens of glaze were taken. The proportion of lead oxide in these glazes varied from 12°6 to 47°5 per cent., and it is noteworthy that, with one exception, the lead was almost wholly present as a soluble compound. Samples of air from certain mines in Scotland were found to be very impure, proportions of carbon dioxide as high as 33 -per cent. being shown, and as much as 16 per cent of methane; whilst the oxygen in one sample had been reduced to 153 per cent. Arising out of suspected frauds in connection with claims 406 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1910 for old age pensions, the Government chemists were asked if possible to ascertain the date of entries made in family Bibles, old letters, and certificates. In some cases they were able to show, from the nature of the ink employed, that the writing was comparatively recent, and that the entries had been made for the purpose of manufacturing evidence in support of the claim. The total number of analyses and examinations made during the year at the two main laboratories (Clement’s Inn and Custom House) was 170,033, the greater number being in connection with dutiable articles. Legal pro- ceedings were taken in 223 cases for contraventions of revenue laws, and the total amount of fines paid was 28771. THE ARCHAOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NUBIA. HE last Bulletin of the Archaeological Survey of Nubia describes excavations in the cemeteries and buildings of the ancient district of Pselchis, which will become sub- merged when the new Nile barrage is completed. The results are to some degree unsatisfactory, owing to the prevalence, even from ancient times, of the practice of sebakh-digging by agriculturists in order to obtain fresh supplies of rich soil to re-fertilise the land, which is periodically covered by a layer of fine sand drifted by the prevailing wind. This results in the destruction of many interesting remains; and treasure hunters have also done much damage, but the operations of the latter can be easily distinguished from the ruder methods adopted by the farmers. The anatomical reports by Prof. G. Elliot Smith and Dr. D. E. Derry are, as usual, exhaustive, and present much valuable information. They disclose the advance in the Byzantine-Pagan period, between the second and fourth centuries A.p., of a group of negroes from the south with distinctive physical characteristics, customs, and arts. Their occupation of these new settlements was certainly not altogether peaceful, many skeletons showing evidence of death by wounds, and one, in particular, with such extensive cranial injuries that it is difficult to understand how the victim could even for a short time have survived. One of the negresses whose remains were discovered in this cemetery displays an extremely abnormal type of prognathism. While the alveolar index of adult Europeans is 96-2, and that of African negroes 104-4, this specimen gives an index of 123-3, which is little below that of the chimpanzee, 128:8. It would be interesting to identify this abnormal type with that of some modern race; and a clue may be found in the fact that the negroes whose remains were found here practised the custom of filing the teeth, which, with removal of some of the incisors, still prevails among the Masai and some of the Kavirondo Bantus. It seems to be generally believed that the latter races derived this custom from the Dinka and other allied Nilotic peoples, some of whom may have supplied the individuals whose remains have now, in such strange circumstances, been subjected to scientific examination. The question of the ancient prevalence of tuberculosis is also advanced by the fact that many of these people suffered from spinal disease due to this malady. It must have been common among them, because the high average of cases found in these cemeteries cannot be accounted for by the supposition that this site was used as a sanatorium for this class of disease. MANGANESE-ORE DEPOSITS. ‘THE paper referred to below gives an elaborate and interesting account of the occurrence of manganese ore in Sandur, one of the States of the Presidency of Madras; its value lies mainly in the abundance of detail given respecting this one particular occurrence, and it thus lacks the broader economic interest that attaches to that recent admirable memoir dealing with the manganese deposits of the whole of India, ‘‘ The Manganese-ore Deposits of India,’’ by Dr. L. L. Fermor, Mem. Geol. Surv. India, xxxvii., which appeared at the commencement 1 **Manganese-ore Deposits of the Sandur State.” By-A. Ghose. Excerpt from the Transactions of the Mining and Geological Institute of India, vol. iv., pp. 155-294+21 plates. Part 3, February, rgro. NO. 2135, VOL. 84] of the present year, and which has given so much valuable information regarding the occurrence and distribution of this ore. Mr. Ghose gives no figures at all to show the output of manganese from the State of Sandur, and thus avoids directing attention to its relative unimportance; it may therefore be as well to make up here for his shortcomings in this respect :— : Production of manganese ore during 1908 in the State of Sandur, 23,413 tons. Production of manganese ore during 1908 in the Presidency of Madras, 513,845 tons. : Production of manganese ore during 1908 in the whole of India, 2,584,525 tons. The production of ore, of which the paper treats, is therefore less than 1 per cent. of the output of India, and may be looked upon as economically negligible; it would accordingly be difficult to justify the concluding sentence of Mr. Ghose’s paper, in which he characterises these Sandur deposits as ‘‘ among the largest and most remarkable manganese-ore deposits of the world.’’ Such exaggeration of language is out of place in a scientific paper, especially seeing that, as a matter of fact, the Sandur deposits are considerably smaller than those of Nagpur or Balaghat, whilst the ore is also apparently of inferior quality. In the same way, the estimates of the probable ore reserves may be dismissed as resting on very slight foundation. The interest of the paper centres essentially in the geological description of the occurrences, and in the author’s views as to their formation, which differ entirely from those put forward by the India Geological Survey authorities. Dr. Fermor looks upon these manganese deposits as having ‘‘ been formed by the replacement at the surface of Dharwar schists, phyllites, and quartzites ’’ “in such a manner as to form a capping approaching to laterite in its character, and he accordingly designates these ores as ‘‘ lateroid replacement masses’’; this view appears, moreover, to be endorsed by Sir Thomas Holland. Mr. Ghose, on the other hand, considers that these ** deposits primarily owe their origin to sedimentary deposition from magmatic solution. Their economic value has _ been enhanced by secondary enrichment.’’? It should be noted that he does not use the term ‘‘ magmatic solution ’’ in the sense in which it has generally been employed by writers on ore deposits, but means in this case hot solu- tions containing iron and manganese, flowing in horizontal currents over the floor of an ocean. Apart from all other considerations, it is obvious that these two theories would assign widely different economic values to the ore deposits in question. If the former is correct, the extension of the ore bodies in depth is strictly limited, whereas the latter theory, according to which the deposits are syngenetic, would impose no such limits upon their extension, and the suspicion cannot be avoided that the author’s promulgation of his theory may have been unconsciously influenced by his desire to magnify the economic value of ore deposits, in the opening up of which he has taken a leading part. Seeing that the result of future mining operations will demonstrate without doubt which of these two conflicting theories is the correct one, whilst at present decisive evidence is lacking, it is hardly worth while to examine critically the bases upon which they rest, and the question may well be left for the future to settle, it being sufficient to record here that, whether his theories are right or wrong, the author has produced a full and interesting description of this system of deposits, and has thus contributed to our knowledge of the occurrences of ores of manganese. Hie ZOOLOGICAL WORK IN INDIA. N vol. ii, No. 8, of the entomological series of the Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture, the Govern- ment entomologist, Mr. H. Maxwell-Lefroy, commences a lavishly illustrated account of the life-history of Indian insects, dealing in this instance with beetles. Hitherto, it is stated, little definite information has been recorded with regard to the life-histories of the beetles of India, and entomologists will therefore welcomé the particulars given by the author in the case of eight of the commoner species. In seven out of the eight, the egg, larva, pupa, and imago are illustrated by coloured plates, executed in first-class style by the Calcutta Phototype Company. SEPTEMBER 29, 1910] NATURE 407 Three out of five numbers of the Records of the Indian Museum, recently to hand, contain articles on biting flies and gnats. In the first of these, vol. -iv., No. 1, Mr. F. V. Theobald describes certain new genera and species of Culicidz, typified by specimens in the Indian Museum. It is stated, however, that in the case of the Culices with banded proboscis, some at least of the determinations must be regarded as provisional, since certainty cannot be attained until both sexes have been bred in. captivity and the generative organs of the males and the larva carefully examined. In No.-3 of the same volume Mr. E. Brunetti records a protest against what he considers unnecessary subdivision and splitting in the Culicida, remarking that specialists in the Diptera must regard the present state of affairs as absurd, and. that Prof. Williston appears to be the only systematic dipterologist who has attempted to stem the tide. The plea of the unwieldiness of big genera cannot be upheld, it is added, since the systematist is quite accustomed to such genera: a similar protest, it may be mentioned, seems called for in the case of the excessive generic splitting now in vogue in the squirrel. and mice family. Mr. Brunetti concludes by stating that the sub- ject will be more fully discussed in the supplement to the catalogue on which he is now engaged. An article forming part ii. of the fourth volume, by Dr. Annandale, on Indian sand-flies (Phlebotomus), will be read with interest, since not only are these minute insects some of the greatest torments to Europeans in India, but, as may be inferred from the investigations made on their south European representatives, it is practically certain that they are also carriers of certain types of fever. Finally, in the fourth and last part of vol. iv., Mr. Brunetti publishes a systematic revision of the Oriental blood-sucking flies of the family Muscidz, with the description of a new genus. From among a dozen articles in the first and second parts of the fifth volume of the Records, it must suffice to direct attention to one by Dr. R. E. Lloyd, on variation in Indian rats. In a previous paper the author has adduced evidence in favour of discontinuous variation having played a prominent part in the production of races. Individual rats from any particular towns, for instance, sometimes show more or less marked differences from their fellows, and the evidence they afford for discontinuous evolution lies in the manner in which these are distributed among the multitude of whole-coloured specimens. In the present paper it is stated that, among the thousands of normally coloured rats infesting Poona, there is found a colony of about one hundred individuals characterised by the presence of a white breast-patch, these having appar- ently originated in the city itself. Again, it was found that the rats of Naini Tal differ from the normal type of plains-rat by their shorter tails, longer and greyer fur, and a more or less well-defined white breast-patch. Some rats in the district differ, however, from this type by the under side of the tail being white. Accordingly, we find that in a single limited area there live, under apparently similar conditions, two phases of a widely distributed species, differing from one another solely in one obvious feature, these two phases living apart from each other. Obviously, any explanation as to the origin of the white- tailed phase will apply equally to the case of the white- breasted Poona rats, and the author concludes by endeavouring to explain each instance by ‘the light of the theory of gametic factors. R. L. SECTION G. ENGINEERING. Openinc Appress By Pror. W.-E. Datrpy, M.A., M.Insr.C.E., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. British Railways: Some Facts and a Few Problems. Ir is remarkable how few among us really realise the large part that railways ‘play in our national life. How many of us realise that the capital invested in the rail- Way companies of the United Kingdom is nearly twice the amount of the national debt; that the gross income of the railway companies is within measurable distance NO. 2135, VOL. 84] -to 3:9 per cent. of the national income; that to produce this income every inhabitant of the British Islands would have to, pay annually 3l. per head; that they employ more than_ six hundred thousand people; and that about eight million tons of coal are burnt annually in the fire-boxes of their locomotives? I hope to place before you in the short time which can be devoted to a presidential address a few facts concerning this great asset of our national life and some problems connected with the recent develcp- ments of railway working—problems brought into exist- ence by the steady progress of scientific discovery and the endeavour to apply the new discoveries to improve the service and to increase the comfort of the travelling public. A great deal of interesting information is to be found in the Railway Returns issued by the Board of Trade. I have plotted some of the figures given, in order to show generally the progress which has been made through the years, and at the same time to exhibit the rates of change of various quantities in comparison with one another. Consider, in the first place, what the railways have cost the nation. This is represented financially at any instant by the paid-up capital of the companies. The total paid-up capital in 1850 was 240 millions sterling. In 1908 this amount had increased to 1310 millions. The curve marked ‘* Total ’’ in Fig. 1 shows the total paid-up capital plotted against the year. It will be noticed that UNITED KiNcDom. Fi i es a re cles oul GE 9 aes ES 1400 1200 +> . is aren ee ial eee Sete ra Aq De eels a ih Vodeenpurey’ | | A Be Aan ; ecaeee a « MEE ca aes = Pproqwany | | | : ee es E==4--ff------}---+— | the increase per annum is remarkably regular up to about 1896, and is at the rate of not quite 100 millions per annum. After this date the capital increases at a some- what greater rate, but in 1900 the rate drops with a tendency to a gradually decreasing value. Part of the increase immediately after 1896 is, however, due to nominal additions to the capital. The extent to which this process of watering the stock has been carried is indicated over the period 1898 to 1908 by the curve AB. In the year 1908 the nominal additions to capital amounted to 196 millions of pounds. Curves are also plotted showing the amounts of the different kinds of stock making up the total. It will be noticed that the ordinary stock is a little more than one- third of the total paid-up capital in 1908, viz. 38 per cent. In 1870 it was about 43 per cent. shows the The lower curve on the diagram gross receipts, which amounted to 120 millions of pounds in 1908. The dotted line -indicates the net revenue after deducting from the total receipts the working expenditure. This, for 1908, was 433 millions, corresponding to 3-32 per cent. of the total paid-up capital. If the net-receipts are reckoned as a percentage of the paid-up capital after deducting the nominal additions, the return is increased These figures practically represent the average dividend reckoned in the two ways for the year 1908. 408 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1910 Fig. 2 shows by the upper curve the number of miles ‘open for traffic plotted against the year. This curve indicates great activity of construction during the period 1850 to 1870, with a regular but gradually decreasing .addition of mileage from year to year afterwards. At the end of 1908 there were 23,205 miles open, corre- 500 2 we ° a : seems i im ‘sponding to 53,669 miles of single track, including sidings. Of this, 85 per cent. was standard 4 feet 3 inches gauge, 12-3 per cent. 5 feet 3 inches, and 2-2 per cent. 3 feet gauge. The remainder was made up of small mileages of 1 foot 11} inches, 2 feet 3 inches, 2 feet 4 inches, 2 feet 43 inches, 2 feet, 2 feet 9 inches, 4 feet, and 4 feet 6 inches gauges. The two lower lines of the diagram show, respectively, tthe number of passengers carried and the tons of goods carried from year to year. CENT PER The curves of mileage, passengers carried, and goods ‘carried increase regularly with the increase of capital, indicating that up to the present time the possibility of remunerative return on capital invested in railway enter- prise in this country is not exhausted. It is true that there is a maximum of goods carried in the year 1907; NO. 2135, VOL. 84] but the sudden drop in the curve between the years 1907 and 1908 suggests that the drop is only of a temporary character, and there is every reason to believe that the curve will resume its upward tendency with time. In 1908 the railways of the United Kingdom carried 1278 millions of passengers, exclusive of season-ticket holders, and 491 million tons of goods; the quantity of goods carried in 1907 was nearly 515 millions of tons. It is curious that, very approximately, the companies carry per annum one passenger and about o-4 ton of goods for every pound sterling of paid-up capital. The proportion of the gross receipts absorbed in carry- ing out this service is shown by the upper curve of Fig. 3. (he proportion has increased, on the whole regularly, from 47 per cent. in 1860 to 64 per cent. in 1908. The lower curve shows the net receipts as a percentage of the paid-up capital. From 1899 onwards the curve AB shows the net receipts reckoned on the paid-up capital exclusive of the nominal additions. It will be observed that the net receipts have not declined more than half a per cent. since 1870, notwithstanding the increase in working expenditure. Fig. 4 indicates the cost of working the traffic calcu- lated in terms of the train-mile, no data being available regarding the actual work done as represented by the ton- mile or the passenger-mile. In some respects the train- Cost of Working per Train-mile of Railways in England and Wales. 40 e fa) 4 z Lr) = 30 ral z > < a ha ro 20 LZ ce Ww Z “10 z =) 2) = o a Wi re) 99 1900 G1 O02 O3 OF OS 06 07 OB YEAR Fic. 4. mile is the fairest way of comparing costs, because when a train is running, whether it is full or empty, the same service must be performed by the majority of the depart- ments. The curves bring out clearly that the proportion of the total expenditure per train-mile absorbed by these several services remains fairly constant over a series of years. To the right is exhibited the average for the four years 1905 to 1908. The figures are also reproduced in the following table :-— TaBLe I. Average Working Costs per Train-mile of the Railways in England and Wales taken over the Years 1905 to 1908. Pe..ce per train-m le. Locomotive power Cac cae es. = 12:07 Repairs and renewals of carriages and waggons oc aos aco ns 3:60 Maintenance of permanent-way ... se LOR Traffic expenses a =a eee w. =12-78 General charges 1-68 Rates and taxes cs sat BOTA ere 1} !8)5 Government duty tA as tee soe) GO:22 Compensation... a6 0-47 Legal and miscellaneous 1:39 Total c66 20 41-63 SEPTEMBER 29, 1910] Locomotive power absorbs an amount about equal to the traffic expenses; and companies actually pay in rates and taxes a sum nearly equal to the whole amount required to maintain the rolling-stock in an efficient state. To the right is shown a scale, the divisions of which represent an amount estimated in pence per train-mile corresponding to 1 per cent. of the average dividend. This. shows that if the whole of the locomotive power could be obtained for nothing, the average dividend would only be increased by 13 per cent. Reckoned on the ordinary stock alone, however, the increase would be about three times. this amount. It may be of interest at this stage to compare the financial position and the cost of the working of railways in their earlier days with the state of things now. For this purpose the position of the old London and Birming- ham Railway is compared with the position of the London and North-Western Railway, the system into which it has grown. The years selected are 1840 and 1908. I have taken out the cost per mile of working the traffic of the London and Birmingham Railway from some accounts. given in Winshaw’s ‘ Railways.’’ The details are grouped somewhat differently in the list just given, but in the main the various items may be compared. The number of train-miles on the London and Birming- ham Railway recorded for the year January to December, 1839, is 714,998. The accounts given are for the year June, 1839, to June, 1840. The mileage record is thus not strictly comparable with the expense account, but it may be regarded as covering the same period with sufficient accuracy for our purpose. The costs work out as follows :— Taste II. Cost per Train-mile for the Year ending June, 1840, London and Birmingham Railway. Pence p r mile. Locomotive power mee a rc on ee Maintenance of way enc cro ee) re Traffic expenses, including repairs to Wwaggons oe see tee te see 25-9 General charges, including legal charges ... 4-5 Rates and taxes... ed ae oe neo 425 Government duty O60 ceo are 7-65 Accident account ... 580 on ct 0:35 Total ave on0 eee 93-30 The receipts amounted to 231d. per train-mile. Hence the working expenditure was 40 per cent. of the gross receipts. F The gross receipts for the year ending June 30, 1840, were 687,104]., which, after deducting charges for loans, rents, and depreciation of locomotives, carriages, and waggons, enabled a dividend of 9} per cent. to be paid on the ordinary stock. There are two noteworthy facts in these old accounts. First, the allowance for depreciation on the rolling-stock of nearly 4 per cent. of the receipts. Secondly, the fact that the cost of working the traffic is given per ton-mile. This method of estimating the cost of working has gradu- ally fallen into desuetude on British railways. One com- pany only at the present time records ton-mile statistics. Quite recently (in 1909) the committee appointed by the Board of Trade to make inquiries with reference to the form and scope of the accounts and statistical returns rendered by the railway companies under the Railway Regulation Acts have had the question of ton-mile and passenger-mile statistics under consideration. There was considerable difference of opinion concerning the matter, and in the end the committee did not recommend that the return of ton-mile and passenger-mile statistics should be made compulsory on the railway companies: Returning to the London and. Birmingham. Railway accounts, the actual figures given by Mr. Bury, the loco- motive: engineer, were, for the year ending December, 1839 :— Passenger Trains.—Toti-miles, 21,159,796, giving an average of 542,533 ton-miles per engine at 0-86 Ib. of coke per ton-mile costing o-17d. Goods Trains.—17,527,439 ton-miles, giving an average NO. 2135, VOL. 84] NATURE 409 of 584,247 per engine at 057 Ib. of coke per ton-mile costing o-r1d. per ton-mile. Table III. shows various amounts and quantities in comparison with one another. Beneath the actual figures are placed proportional figures, the London and Birming- ham item being in every case denoted by unity. TaBLe III. Comparison of Capital, Receipts, Miles Open, Train-miles, and Cost of Working between the London and Birmingham Railway for the Year ending June, 1840, and the London and North-Western Railway for the Year ending December, 1908. Stock and Share Loans and Gross Capital. | Debentures. cota Recents | | & Interest, & Interest bL | L DEI S URES per cent.| per cent. | 1840 . . .| 3,125,000) of | 2,125,900 4 250,000° 687,000- L. & Ni W: : See ee Ry., 1908. _./85,861,760) 5 39,175,374) 3 ——«4|1253037,134 15,515,334 app. | average. average | onall | | typesof| stock, L. & B: Ry.,; 1840 . . + I | I I | I Li & Ne We | Ry., 1908 . 2775 | 184 24 | 226 Miles Open oe | ee Expenditure in Equiva- fare: REEDS Ww ost of to Gross lent Single Rah Pee eo | ous ing Det|| Receipts: Waveke un. mile. Train-mile. per: cent. L.& B. Ry., : 1840... 250 714,998 | 231 pence ence re) L. & N. W. . ‘ ad i Ry., 1908.) 5,406 48,732,644 | 764 ,, SOAP Fy 65 L. & B. Ry., 1840.5: I 7 | I I I L. & N. W. : Ry., 1908. 21°6 68°37 0°33 O54 1°62 The comparison brings out some curious facts. For instance, it will be noticed that the gross receipts of the London and North-Western Railway in 1908 were twenty- two and a half times as much as those of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1840, and that the track mileage open was about twenty-two times as great. The money earned per mile of track open is thus practically the same after a lapse of seventy years. To earn the same amount per mile of track open, however, the trains of the London and North-Western Railway had in 1908 to run 68-3 times the number of train-miles that the trains of the London and Birmingham. Railway ran in 1840. That is to say, in order to earn a sovereign a London and North-Western train has- now to run three times the distance which it was necessary for a London and. Birmingham train to run to earn the same amount. Another point to notice is that although the mileage and the receipts per mile of) track open have each increased in the same’ proportion, yet the capital has increased at a greater rate, being on the total amount twenty-four times as much as in 1840, and the stock and share capital has increased twenty-eight times. So that with the necessity of running three times the train-mileage to obtain the same return per mile of track open, there runs the obliga- tion to pay interest on an ordinary stock which has been increased in a greater proportion than the mileage and in a greater proportion than the earning power of the line: Lower dividends are therefore inevitable. The cost of working per train-mile has decreased gradually to about half its value in 1840, but, at the same time, the receipts per train-mile have dwindled to one-third of the amount in 1840. ; These figures show that a more conservative. system of financing the railways might have been adopted in the \ earlier days with advantage. If, when the receipts per 410 train-mile were larger, a proportion of the revenue had been used annually for the construction of new works and for the provision of new rolling-stock, instead of raising fresh capital for everything in “the nature of an addition to the railway, the companies would to-day have been in a position to regard with equanimity the increasing cost of working. It is too late in the day to recover such a strong financial position, but even now on many lines a larger ‘proportion of the revenue could be sunk in the line with ‘great ultimate advantage to the financial position. The Problem of the Locomotive Department. During the last twenty years the demand on the loco- motive has steadily increased. ‘The demand has been met, though with increasing difficulty, owing to the constructive limitations imposed by the gauge. The transference of a train from one place to another requires that work should be done continuously by the locomotive against the tractive resistance. The size of the locomotive is determined by the rate at which this work is to be done. If T represents the tractive resistance at any instant, and V the speed of the train, then the rate at which work is done is expressed by the product TV. The pull exerted by the locomotive must never be less than the resistance of the whole train considered as a dead load on the worst gradient and curve combination on the road, and it can never -be greater than about one-quarter of the total weight on the coupled wheels of the engine. Again, ‘the tractive pull of the engine may be analysed into two parts—one the pull exerted to increase the speed of the train, the other the pull required to maintain the speed when once it has been reached. For an express train the number of seconds required to attain the journey speed is so small a fraction of the total time interval between the stops that the question of acceleration is not one of much importance. But for a local service where stops are frequent the time required to attain the journey speed from rest is so large a fraction of the time between stops that this consideration dominates the design of the weomotive, and, in fact, makes it desirable to ‘substitute the electric motor for the locomotive in many cases. An accurate estimate of the rate at which work must be done to run a stated service can only be made if there are given the weight of the vehicles in the train, the weight of the engine, the kind of stock composing the train, the speed and acceleration required at each point of the journey and a‘section of the road; and, in addition to this, allowance must be made for weather conditions. A general idea of the problem can, however, be obtained by omitting the consideration of acceleration, gradients, and the unknown factor of weather conditions, considering only the rate at which work must be done to draw a given load at a given speed on the level. Even thus simplified the problem can be solved only approximately, because, although the tractive resistance of a train as a whole is a function of the speed, the tractive resistance per ton of load of the vehicles and per ton of load of the engine differ both in absolute value and in their rates of charige for a stated speed, and, further, the ratio between the weight of the vehicles and the weight of the engine is a very variable quantity. For our purpose, however, it will be sufficiently accurate to assume that the resistance of the whole train, expressed in pounds per ton, is given by the formula v2 It follows that the horse-power which must be developed at the driving-wheels to maintain a speed of V miles per hour on the level with a train weighing W tons is =p eae HP=W \ 70" 96,000 J * Fig. 5 shows curves of horse-power plotted from this equation for various weights of train. From this diagram a glimpse of the problem confronting locomotive engineers at the present day can readily be obtained. To illustrate the point, consider the case of the Scotch NO. 2135, VOL. 84] NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, I910 express on the West Coast route. This is an_ historic service, and goes away back to 1844, in which year the first train left Euston for Carlisle, travelling by way of Rugby, Leicester, York, and Newcastle, and occupying 15; hours. It was not until 1847, however, that there was a through service to Edinburgh via Berwick. In September, 1848, the West Coast service for Edin- burgh was established by way of Birmingham and Carlisle, the timing being 8 hours 55 minutes to Carlisle, and 12 hours to Edinburgh. In September, 1863, the starting time from Euston was fixed at 10 a.m., and in 1875 the train ran via the Trent Valley between Rugby and Stafford, thus cutting out Birmingham and shortening the journey to Carlisle from 309 miles to 299 miles, the timing being 7 hours 42 minutes to Carlisle, and 1o hours and 25 minutes to Edinburgh. The speed has gradually been increased, and in 1905 the timing was 5 hours 54 minutes to Carlisle, and 8} hours to Edinburgh. Now the timing is 5 hours 48 minutes to Carlisle, but is still 8; hours to Edinburgh. Three specific examples are plotted on the diagram, showing the power requirements in 1864, 1885, and 1903 for this train. Typical trains in 1864, 1885, and 1903 weighed, including engine and tender, 100 tons, 250 tons, and 450 tons respectively. The average speeds were thirty- 1200 Fit Was. AS AST, Bie > aE Ht) Wh) HORSE POWER. MILES PER HOUR. Fic. 5. eight, forty-five, and fifty-two miles per hour respectively. A glance at the diagram will show that the power required to work this train was about roo horse-power in 1864, 4oo horse-power in 1885, and 1000 horse-power in 1903. It must not be supposed that the increase in the weight of the train means a proportionate increase in the paying load. Far from it. Ona particular day in 1903, when the total weight of the Scotch express was 450 tons approximately, the weight of the vehicles was about 346 tons. There were two dining-cars on the train, and the seating accommodation, exclusive of the seats in the dining-cars, was for 247 passengers, giving an average of 1-4 tons of dead load to be hauled by the engine per passenger, assuming the train to be full. In the days before corridor stock and dining-cars were invented the dead load to be hauled was about a quarter of a ton per passenger for a full train. In a particular boat special, consisting of two first-class saloons, one second. and third-class vehicles, one first- class dining-car,- one second and third-class dining-car, one kitchen-car, and two ‘brake-vans, seating accommoda- tion was provided, exclusive of the dining-cars, for 104 passengers, and the dead load to be hauled averaged 2-72 1 I am indebted to Mr. Bowen Cooke for particulars of the Scotch Express Service. sal tines b~—_ git "a0" 666s m- ue 4 = @ 4 Ke ea ne —_— = SCALE FOR IND HorSE Power SEPTEMBER 29, 1910] NATURE 4il tons per passenger. Notwithstanding this increase in the dead load of luxurious accommodation, the fares are now less than in former days on corresponding services. Similar developments have taken place in almost every important service, and new express services are all characterised by heavy trains and high speeds. Characteristic Energy-curves of Steam Locomotives. This steadily increasing demand for power necessarily directs attention to the problem, What is the maximum power which can be obtained from a locomotive within the limits of the construction-gauge obtaining on British railways? The answer to this can be found without much ambiguity from a diagram which I have devised, consist- ing of a set of typical characteristic energy-curves to represent the transference and transformation of energy in a steam locomotive, an example of which is given in Fig. 6. While examining the records of a large number ot locomotive trials, I discovered that if the indicated horse-power be plotted against the rate at which heat energy is transferred across the boiler-heating surface the points fall within a straight-line region, providing that the regulator is always full open and that the power is a=—=TypicGat CHARACTERISTIC ENERGY CURVES —= OF TEAM LocomoTIVES. Geate FAR BTU. PER MIN. 100000 200000 300000 400000 s090000 600000 700000 BT.U TRANSFERRED ACROSS H.S. PER MIN. Fic. 6. regulated by means of the reversing lever—that is to say, by varying the cut-off in the cylinders. It is assumed at the same time, of course, that the boiler-pressure is main- tained constant. I have recently drawn a series of characteristic energy-curves for particular engines, and these are published in Engineering, August 19 and 26, 1910. A typical set is shown in Fig. 6. The horizontal scale represents the number of British thermal units transferred across the boiler-heating surface per minute. This quantity is used as an independent variable. Plotted vertically are corresponding — horse- powers, each experiment being shown by a black dot on the diagram. The small figures against the dots denote the speed in revolutions of the crank-axle per minute. Experiments at the same speed are linked by a faint chain- dotted line. A glance at the diagram will show at once how nearly all the experiments fall on a straight line, notwithstanding the wide range of speed and power. The ordinates of the dotted curve just below the I.H.P. curve represent the heat energy in the coal shovelled per minute into the fire-box-—that is, the rate at which energy is supplied to the locomotive. The thick line immediately beneath it represents the energy produced by combustion. NO. 2135, VOL. 84} The vertical distance between these two curves represents energy unproduced, but energy which might have been produced under more favourable conditions of combustion. Some of the unproduced energy passes out of the chimney- top in carbon monoxide gas, but the greater proportion is found in the partially consumed particles of fuel thrown out at the chimney-top in consequence of the fierce draught which must be used to burn the coal in sufficient quantity to produce energy at the rate required. The rate of com- bustion is measured by the number of pounds of fuel burnt per square foot of grate per hour. In land practice, with natural draft, 20 lb. of coal per square foot of grate per hour is a maximum rate. In a locomotive the rate sometimes reaches 150 lb. per square foot per hour. In the diagram shown the maximum rate is about 120 Ib. per square foot, and the dotted curve begins to turn upwards at about 7o lb. per square foot per hour. The vertical distance between the curves shows what has to be paid for high rates of combustion. I found that in almost every case the curve representing the energy actually produced by combustion differed very little from a straight line, passing through the origin, showing that at all rates of working the efficiency of transmission is approximately constant. That is to say, the proportion of the heat energy actually produced by combustion in the fire-box which passes across the boiler- heating surface per minute is nearly constant, and is therefore independent of the rate of working. The lowest curve on the diagram represents the rate at which heat energy is transformed into mechanical energy in the cylinders of the locomotive. It seems a small rate in proportion to the rate at which heat energy is supplied to the fire-box, but it is not really so bad as it looks, because the engine actually transformed 60 per cent. of the energy which would have been transformed by a perfect engine working on the Rankine cycle between the same limits of pressure. The engine efficiency is repre- sented in a familiar way by a curve labelled ‘‘ B.T.H. per 1.H.P. minute.’’ It will be seen that the change of efficiency is small, notwithstanding large changes in the indicated horse-power. The diagram indicates that the indicated horse-power is practically proportional to the rate at which heat is trans- ferred across the boiler-heating surface, and as this is again proportional to the extent of the heating surface, the limit of economical power is reached when the dimensions of the boiler have reached the limits of the construction- gauge, the boiler being provided with a fire-grate of such size that, at maximum rate of working, the rate of com- bustion falls between 7o and 100 Ib. of coal per square foot of grate per hour. A boiler of large heating surface may be made with a small grate, necessitating a high rate of combustion to obtain the required rate of heat-produc- tion. Then, although a large power may be obtained, it will not be obtained economically. Returning now to the consideration of the tvpe of loco- motive required for a local service with frequent stops, the problem is to provide an engine which will get into its stride in the least time consistent with the comfort of the passengers. The average speed of a locomotive on local service is low. The greater part of the time is occupied in reaching the journey speed, and the brake must then often be applied for a stop a few moments after the speed has been attained. In some cases the stations are so close together that there is no period between acceleration and retardation. Without going into the details of the calculation, I may say that to start from rest a train weighing, including the engine, 300 tons, and to attain a speed of thirty miles per hour in thirty seconds requires about 1350 indicated horse-power. During the period of acceleration the engine must exert an average tractive pull of nearly fifteen tons. ‘ Mr. James Holden, until recently locomotive engineer of the Great Eastern Railway, built an engine to produce an acceleration of thirty miles per hour in thirty seconds with a gross load of 300 tons. The engine weighed 78 tons, and was supported on ten coupled wheels, each 4 feet 6 inches diameter. There were three high-pressure cylinders, each 183 inches diameter and 24 inches stroke. A boiler was provided with 3000 square feet of heating surface and a grate of 42 square feet area. Boiler 412 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, IGIO pressure, 200 Ib. per square inch. This engine practically reached the limit of the construction-gauge. An acceleration of thirty miles per hour in thirty seconds is considerably below what may be applied to a passenger without fear of complaint. But it is clear that it is just about as much as a locomotive can do with a train of reasonable weight. Even with a gross load of 300 tons nearly one-third of it is concentrated in the locomotive, leaving only 200 tons to carry paying load. The problem of quick acceleration cannot therefore be properly solved by means of a steam locomotive. But with electric trac- tion the limitations imposed on the locomotive by the con- struction-gauge and by the strength of the permanent way are swept away. The equivalent of the boiler-power of a dozen locomotives can be instantaneously applied to the wheels of the electric train, and every axle in the train may become a driving axle. Thus the whole weight of the stock, including the paying load, may be utilised for tractive purposes. If, for instance, the train weighed 200 tons, then a tractive force equal to one-fifth of this, namely, 40 tons, could be exerted on the train, but uniformly distributed between the several wheels, before slipping took place. The problem of quick acceleration is therefore completely selved by the electric motor. Electric Railways. December 18, 1890, is memorable in the history of railway enterprise in this country, for on that date the City and South London Railway was opened for traffic, and the trains were worked entirely by electricity, although the original intention was to use the endless cable system of haulage. This line inaugurated a wonderful system of traction on railways, in which independent trains, moving at different speeds at different parts of the line, are all connected by a subtle electric link to the furnaces of one central station. Since that epoch-marking year electric traction on the railways of this country has made a gradual if somewhat slower extension than anticipated. But electrically Operated trains have in one branch of railway working beaten the steam locomotive out of the field, and now reign supreme—that is, in cases, as indicated above, where a quick, frequent service is required over a somewhat short length of road. The superiority of the motor over the steam locomotive, apart from questions of cleanliness, ‘convenience, and comfort, lies in the fact that more power can be conveyed to the train and can be utilised by the motors for the purpose of acceleration than could possibly be supplied by the largest locomotive which could be con- structed within the limits of the construction-gauge. There are many other considerations, but this one is funda- mental, and determines the issue in many cases. A few facts relating to the present state of electric rail- ways in the United Kingdom may prove of interest. At ‘the end of 1908 there were in the United Kingdom 204 miles of equivalent single track worked solely by elec- tricity and 200 miles worked mainly by electricity, corre- sponding to 138 miles of line open for traffic. Of this, 102 miles belong to the tube railways of London and 201 miles to the older system formed by the District and the Metropolitan Railways and their extensions. It is not an easy matter to ascertain exactly how much ‘capital is invested in these undertakings for the purpose of electric working alone, since some of the lines originally ‘constructed for a steam locomotive service have been con- verted to electric working. On the converted lines there is the dead weight of capital corresponding to the loco- motive power provided before electrification took place. The capital invested in the 102 miles of tube railways in London is a little more than 25,000,000l. The total number of passengers carried (exclusive of season tickets) on the 138 miles of electrical track during the year 1908 was nearly 342 millions, being roughly one- third of the total number of passengers carried on all the railways of England and Wales during the same period. The average cost of working this traffic is 22-3d. per train-mile. This figure includes the service of the lifts, which is presumably returned with the traffic expenses. The charges work out in this way :— NO. 2135, VOL. 84] Taste 1V. Average Working Cost per Train-mile of the Electric Railways worked wholly or mainly by Electricity in England and Wales for the Year 1908. Pence per train-mile. Locomotive power 5 bos one --. 8-40 Repairs and renewals of carriages and waggons Sci O80 25 So wea) ta Maintenance of permanent way ene 2-40 Traffic expenses ... 080 ees aot Bee) 2 General charges ... 2a6 an3 ono soe) ete Rates and taxes ... cae th ac see 2-36 Government duty dio one mle +» 0088 Compensation “00 ope den Ce see O-TI6 Legal and miscellaneous oot cis 0-75 Total ose Bi ees 22:35 The corresponding total receipts were 38-65d. per train- mile. The working expenses are thus 58 per cent. of the total receipts. Comparing this with the figures given above for the whole of the lines in England and Wales, it will be seen that the cost for locomotive power on the electric railways appears to be about two-thirds of the cost on steam lines per mile run, the cost for repairs and renewals of carriages and waggons about one-half, and the cost for traffic expenses about one-half. The two kinds of working are no. however, strictly comparable, as all the conditions of traffic in the two cases are different, and the length of the electric lines is relatively so small that the problems which arise out of the transmission of electric power over long distances are excluded. ‘The traffic expenses and the cost of repairs and renewals of carriages and waggons, general charges, &c., are practically independent of the kind of power used for locomotive purposes, and, moreover, the difference in weight of electric trains and the steam-hauled trains is on the average so great that no comparison can be insti- tuted without ton-mile statistics." Method of Working. With two exceptions, the method of working the electrified lines of this country is in the main the same. A third conductor rail is laid on insulators fixed to the ordinary track sleepers, and is maintained throughout the whole of its length at as nearly as possible a pressure of 600 volts, except in a few cases where the pressure is — 500 or 550 volts. Collecting shoes sliding along the rails are fixed to the trains, and through them current is sup- plied to the armatures fixed to or geared with the axles. The current flows through the armatures back to the stations or sub-stations through the running rails, which are bonded for the purpose, or sometimes through a fourth rail carried on insulators fixed to the track sleepers, as in the cases of the District and Metropolitan Railways. _ Differences in the equipment arise out of the geographical necessities of the distribution. For a short line the power is produced at a central station, and is distributed | by feeders to the conductor rail direct. For longer lines power is produced at higher voltage (11,000 volts in the case of the District Railway), and is then distributed to sub-stations conveniently placed along the line, where it is transformed to a lower voltage, converted to direct current, and then by means of feeders is distributed at 600 volts or thereabouts to the third rail. In 1908 the Midland Railway Company opened for traffic the electrified line connecting Lancaster, More- cambe, and Heysham. The method of electrification was a departure from the general direct-current practice hitherto applied to electrified lines in this country. Power was supplied to the trains at 6600 volts, single phase, at twenty-five alternations per second, along an overhead conductor. “The pressure was reduced by transformers carried on the motor-coach itself, and was then used by single-phase motors. The traffic conditions on this line are simple. : 1 Most valuable information regarding the cost of converting the line between Liverpool and Southport from stepm to electric werking will be found in Mr. Aspinall’s presidential address to the Institution of Meckanical Engineers. SEPTEMBER 2y, 1910} In December, 1909, the electrified portion of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway from Victoria, round by Denmark Hill, to London Bridge was .opened for traffic. This work marks an epoch in the history of electric traction in England. For the first time the single- phase system was applied to meet the exacting traffic con- ditions of a London suburban service where the main cendition is that the trains should be accelerated rapidly. The system has shown that it can meet all the conditions of the service perfectly. Energy is purchased, and is dis- tributed by overhead conductors direct to the trains at 6600 volts, single phase, at twenty-five alternations per second, where it is used by the single-phase motors after suitable transformation by apparatus carried under the metor carriage. The results of this electrification will be of unusual interest, because not only has the method applied shown itself to be quite suitable for dealing with a stopping traffic where quick acceleration is the domin- ating condition, but it contains the germ of practicable long-distance electrification. The near future may see the extension of the system to the line between London and Brighton, giving a frequent non-stop service which would bring Brighton in point of time nearer than the suburbs on opposite sides of London are to one another. , Power Signalling. During the last ten years a considerable number of trial installations of power-signalling apparatus have been made by the railway companies of this country. The electric lines have generally adopted power signalling, and the District Railway has installed a complete system on all its lines and branches. The term ‘‘ power signalling’ is applied to any equip- ment in which the actual movements of the points and signals are done by power, the signalman’s work being thus reduced to the movement of small light control levers or switches. Of the several systems tried and proposed, three bulk largest in the equipments applied in this country, namely, the all-electric, the low-pressure pneumatic, and the electro-pneumatic systems. The ‘‘ all-electric ’’ system is represented by installations of the McKenzie-Holland and Westinghouse system on the Metropolitan and Great Western Railways, by installations of the ‘‘ Crewe ’’ system on the London and North-Western Railway, and by installations of Siemens Brothers on the Great Western Railway. The general feature of the all- electric system is that the points are operated by motors sunk in a pit by the side of the rails; the signals are pulled off electrically, and all the apparatus is controlled electrically. The low-pressure pneumatic system is represented by installations on the London and South-Western Railway and the Great Central Railway. The points and signal arms are moved by air compressed to about 20 lb. per square inch, and led to cylinders connected to the points and to the signal arms. ‘The control is also done by means of compressed air. small pipes leading from each air cylinder to the cabin. The electro-pneumatic system has found most favour in this country up to the present time. The equipment installed includes such notable stations as the Central at Newcastle with 494 levers, and the Glasgow Central with 374 levers, and the whole of the Metropolitan District system of underground railways. In this system an air cylinder is connected to each set of points and to each signal-arm. Air compressed at 65 lb. per square inch is supplied to the cylinders from a main running alongside the railway kept charged by small air-compressors placed at convenient intervals. Each air cylinder is provided with a small three-way air-valve operated by an electromagnet. The movement of each air-valve is controlled electrically from the cabin through the electromagnet associated with it. The system grouped round any one signal-cabin may be regarded as an engine fitted with a large number of cylinders, each working intermittently by compressed air, and where in each the valve-rod has been changed to an electric cable, all the cables being led to a signal-cabin, where the operation of the valves is done by means of an apparatus which is as easily played upon as a piano, with this difference, however, that the notes are mechanically interlocked, so that a signalman cannot play any tune he pleases, but only a tune which permits of safe traffic NO. 2135, VOL. 84] NATURE 413 movement. Moreover, the instrument is so arranged that. the movement of the small lever determining the move-- ment. of a- signal-arm cannot be completed unless the signal-arm aciually responds to the intention of the signal- man, thus detecting any fault in we connections between. the box and the arm. The obvious advantage of power signalling is the large reduction of physical labour required from the signalman. His energy can be utilised in thinking about the traffic movements rather than in hauling all day at signal levers. One man at a power frame can do the work of three at the ordinary frame. The claims made for power signal-- ling, in addition to the obvious advantage of the reduction of labour, are briefly that the volume of traffic which can be dealt with is largely increased, that the area of ground required for the installation is considerably less than with. the ordinary system, with its rodding, bell-crank levers, chains, and pulleys, and that where the conditions are such that power signalling is justified the maintenance cost is less than with a corresponding system of normal equip- ment. Automatic Signalling. Several of the power-signalling installations are auto-- matic in the sense that between signal-cabins on stretches of line where there are no junctions or cross-over roads. requiring the movement of points, the movement of the signal arm protecting a section is determined by the passage of the train itself. The most important equip- ment of this kind is that installed on the group of rail- ways forming the ‘* Underground ’’ system. This includes the District Railway with all its branches. On this line the particular system installed is the electro-pneumatic, modified to be automatic except at junctions. Signal- cabins are placed only at junctions and at places where points require to be operated. The stretch of line to be automatically signalled is divided into sections, and the entrance to each section is guarded by a signal-post. Call- ing two successive sections A and B, the train as it passes from Section A to Section B must automatically put the signal at the entrance to B to danger, and at the same time must pull off the signal at the entrance to A. These operations require the normal position of the signal-arm to be ‘‘ off ? instead of at danger, as in the usual practice- The position of the arm in this system conveys a direct message to the driver. If ‘‘on’’ he knows that there is a train in the section; if ‘‘ off’? he knows that the section is clear. Each signal-arm is operated by an air motor, as briefly described above, but the cables from the valves are now led to relays at the beginning and end of the section which the signal protects. The contrivance by means of which the train acts as its own signalman is_ briefly as follows. One rail of the running track is bonded, and is connected to the positive pole of a battery or generator- The opposite rail is divided into sections, each about 300 yards long, bonded, but insulated at each end from the rails of the adjacent sections, and each section’ is con- nected to a common negative main through a_resistance.. A relay is placed at the beginning and at the end of each section, and is connected across from the positive to the negative rail. Current flows and energises the relay, in which condition the relay completes a circuit to the electro- magnet operating the admission valve of the air cylinder on the signal-post, air is admitted, and the signal-arm is held off. This is the normal condition at each end of the circuit. When a train enters a section it short-circuits the relays through the wheels and_ axles, in consequence of which the relays, de-energised, break the circuit to the admission valve, which closes, and allows the air in the cylinder to escape, and the signal-arm, moved by. gravity alone, assumes the ‘on’? or danger position. At the same time the short circuit is removed from the: section behind directly the train leaves it, the relays are at once energised, the admission valve to the air cylinder on the protecting post of the section is opened, air enters, and the signal is pulled down to the “ off ’’ position. ‘ The speed at which traffic can be operated’ by this system of power signalling is remarkable. At Earl’s Court junction box forty trains an hour can be passed each way—that is, eighty per hour—handled by the one signal- man in the box. As the train approaches the box, both its approach to the section and its destination must be 414 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1910. notified to the signalman.. When it is remembered that with ordinary signalling, to take an express train, for example, a signalman hears some twenty-four beats on the gongs in his box, and sends signals to the front and rear box, which give altogether some twenty-four beats on the gongs in these two boxes, forty-eight definite signals in all, for every express train he passes into the section which his signals protect, it will be understood that the system must be profoundly modified to admit such a speed of operation as eighty trains per hour per man. ‘The modification is radical. No gong signals are used at all. There is a small cast-iron box standing opposite the Signalman with fifteen small windows in it, each about 1z inches square. Normally, each window frames a white background. A click in the box announces the approach of a train, and a tablet appears in one of the empty windows showing by code the destination of the train. The signalman presses a plug in the box, a click is heard, and a tablet is seen in a precisely similar apparatus in the next box. When the train passes the man presses another plug, and the tablet disappears. Four wires run between the signal-boxes along the rail- way, and by combining the currents along the four wires In Various ways fifteen definite signals can be obtained, a number sufficient for the District traffic. Each of the fifteen combinations is arranged to operate one particular tablet in the box. Current from these four wires is tapped off at intermediate stations, and is used to work a train indicator showing the passengers assembled on the plat- form the destinations of the next three trains. The whole equipment is a triumph of ingenuity and engineering skill, and is a splendid example of the way electricity may be used to improve the railway service, quite apart from its main use in connection with the actual driving of the trains. ; ; The facts and problems I have brought before you will I think, show the important influence that scientific dis- covery has had upon our railway systems. Scientific discovery and mechanical ingenuity have reduced the cost of locomotive working to a point undreamt of by the Pioneer locomotive builders. Electric railways are the direct fruit of the discoveries of Faraday. The safety of the travelling public was enormously increased by the Invention of continuous brakes and by the discovery of the electric telegraph, and is greatly increased by the ‘develop- ment of modern methods. of signalling ; and the comfort of travellers is increased by modern methods of train- lighting, train-warming, and the train kitchen. Inventions of a most ingenious character have from time to time been made in order to furnish a steady and ample light in the carriages. The smoothness of “travelling on our main lines is evidence of the thought which has been lavished both on the wheel arrangements of the carriages and on the permanent way. Problems in connection with the continuous brake are many and interesting. Some of the problems of modern signalling would have quite baffled the scientific electrician of a quarter of a century ago. When engineers endeavour to apply the results of Scientific discovery they often find themselves confronted by new problems unperceived by the man of science. Together they may find a solution, and thus enlarge the boundaries of knowledge, and at the same time confer a practical advantage on the community. The pure man of Science, the practical, engineer, act and react on one another both to the advantage of pure science and to the advantage of the national welfare. our railways depends upon the closer application of scien- tific principle both to the economic and engineering problems involved in their working, some decrease in un- profitable competition with one another, and a more just appreciation on the part of the State of the part railway companies play in our national well-being. ; The future success of SECTION H. ANTHROPOLOGY. OPENING ApprEss ny W., CROOKE, THE SECTION. B.A., PRESIDENT OF ONE-AND-THIRTY years have passed since the British Association visited this city. At that time anthropology Was in the stage of probation, and was represented by a NO. 2135, VOL. 84] branch of the section devoted to biology. Since then its progress in popularity and influence has been continuous, — and its claims to be regarded as a science, with aims and~ capabilities in no way inferior to those of longer growth, are now generally admitted. Its advance in this country is largely due to the distinguished occupant of this chair at our last meeting in Sheffield. During the present year Dr. E. B. Tylor has resigned the professorship of anthropology in the University of Oxford. Before this audience it is unnecessary for me to describe in detail the services which this eminent scholar and thinker has rendered to science. His professorial worl at Oxford; his unfailing support of the Royal Anthropological Institute and of this section of the British Association; his sympathetic encouragement of a younger generation of workers—these are familiar to all of us. Many of those now engaged in anthropological work at home and abroad date that interest in the study of man, his culture and beliefs, which has given a new pleasure to their lives, from the time when they first became acquainted with his ‘‘ Primitive Culture ’’ and ‘‘ Researches into the History of Mankind.’ These works enjoy the almost unique distinction that, in spite of the constant accumula- tion of new material to illustrate an advancing science, they still maintain their authority; and this because they are based on a thorough investigation of all the available material and a profound insight into the psychology of man at the earlier stages of culture. He has laid down once for all the broad principles which must always guide the anthropologist : that a familiarity with the principles of the religions of the lower races is as indispensable to the scientific student of theology as a knowledge of the lower forms of life, the structure of mere invertebrate creatures, is to the physiologist. ‘* Few,’’ he assures us, ‘* who will give their minds to master the general principles of savage religion will ever think it ridiculous or the knowledge of it superfluous to the rest of mankind. Nowhere are broad views of historical development more needed than in the study of religion. . . Scepticism and criticism are the very conditions for the attainment of reasonable belief.” I need hardly say that his exposition of the principles of animism, as derived from the subconscious mental. phenc- mena of dreams and waking visions, has given a new impulse and direction to the study of the religion of savage races. Dr. Tylor, on his retirement from the active work ef teaching, carries with him the respectful congratulations and good wishes of the anthropologists here assembled, all of whom join in the hope that the Emeritus Professor may be able to devote some of his well-earned leisure to in- creasing the series of valuable works for which we are already indebted to him. In his address from this chair Dr. Tylor remarked that twenty years before that time it was no difficult task to master the available material. ‘‘ But now,’’ he added, ‘even the yearly list of new anthropological literature is enough to form a pamphlet, and each capital of Europe has its anthropological society in full work. So far from any finality in anthropological investigation, each new line of argument but opens the way to others behind, while those lines tend as plainly as in the sciences of stricter weight and measure towards the meeting ground of all sciences in the unity of nature.” Since these words were written there has been a never- ceasing supply of fresh literature, which is well represented in the publications of the present year. Every contributor to this science must now be a specialist, because he can with advantage occupy only one tiny corner of the field of humanity ; and even then he is never free from a feeling of anxiety lest his humble contribution may have been antici- pated by some indefatigable foreign scholar. In short, the attempt to give a general exposition of the sciences devoted to the study of mankind has been replaced by the mono- graph. Of such studies designed to coordinate and interpret the facts collected by workers in the field we welcome two contributions of special importance. Prof. J. G. Frazer has given us a monumental treatise on totemism and exogamy, in which, relying largely on new Australian evidence and that collected from Melanesia by Dr. Haddon and his colleagues, Dr. Rivers and Dr. Seligmann, he endeavours to prove that totemism originated in a primitive explanation of the mysteries of conception and childbirth. As contributing causes he’ discusses the —- SEPTEMBER 29, 1910] NATURE 415 influence of dreams and the theory of the external soul, the latter being occasionally found connected with totemism ; and he points out that one function of a totem clan was to provide by methods of mimetic or sympathetic magic a supply of the totem plant or animal on which the existence of the community depends, this function being not meta- physical or based on philanthropic impulse, but on a cool but erroneous calculation of economic interest. He has also cleared the ground by dissociating totemism from exogamy, the latter, as an institution of social life, being, he believes, later in order of time than totemism, and having in some cases accidentally modified the totemic system, while in ochers it has left that system entirely unaffected. The law of exogamy is, in his opinion, based mainly on a desire to prevent the union of near relations, and.on the resulting belief in the sterilising effects of incest upon women in general and edible animals and plants. In dealing with totemism as a factor in the evolution of religion he gives us a much-needed warning that it does not necessarily develop, first into the worship of sacred animals and plants, and afterwards into the cult of anthropomorphic deities with sacred plants and animals for their attributes. In the stage of pure totemism totems are in no sense deities, that is to say, they are not propitiated by prayer and sacrifice; and it is only in Polynesia and Melanesia that there are. any indications of a stage of religion evolved from totemism, a conclusion which demolishes much ingenious speculation. It is hardly to be expected that in a field covered by the wrecks of many controversies these views will meet with universal acceptance. But the candour with which he discards many of his own theories, and the infinite labour and learning devoted to the preparation of his elaborate digest, deserve our hearty recognition. In his treatise on ‘‘ Primitive Paternity,’’ Mr. E. S. Hartland deals with the problems connected with the rela- tions of the sexes in archaic society. Mother-right he finds to be due not so much to the difficulty of identifying the father as to ignorance of physiological facts; and he supposes that the transition from mother-right to father- right originated not from a recognition of the physical coa- ditions of paternity, but from considerations connected with the devolution of property ; as Prof. Frazer states the case, it arises from a general increase in material prosperity leading to the growth of private wealth. We also record the steady progress of the great ‘* Encyclo- pzdia of Religion and Ethics,’’ under the editorship of Dr. J. Hastings, which promises to provide an admirable digest of the results of recent advances in the fields of comparative religion and ethnology. It is now admitted by all students of classical literature that thé material collected from the lower races is an indis- pensable aid to the interpretation of the myths, beliefs, and culture of the Greeks and Romans. Most of our univer- sities provide instruction of this kind; and Oxford has opened its doors to a special course of lectures dealing with the relation of anthropology to the classics. One of its most learned mythologists, Dr. L. R. Farnell, when about half-way through his treatise on the cults of the Greek states, admitted the increasing value of the science in elucidating the problems on which he was engaged. Even with this well-advised change of method he. has left. the field of peasant religion, nature-worship, and magic, which must form the starting-points for the next examination of Greek beliefs, practically unworked. The formation of a Roman Society, working in cooperation with and following the methods which have been adopted by the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, is a fresh indication cf the increasing importance of the work upon which we are engaged. In the field of archeology Dr. A. J. Evans has commenced the publication of the Minoan records, which Open up a new chapter in the early history of ihe Mediterranean. It is now certain that the origin of our alphabet is not to be found, as De Rougé supposed, in the hieratic script of Egypt, but in the Cretan hieroglyphs ; and that the influence of the Phoenicians in its development was less important than has been generally supposed. Before the full harvest of these excavations can be reaped we may have to await the discovery of some bilingual document, like the Rosetta Stone, which will solve the mysteries of the Minoan syllabary. ; NO. 2135, VOL. 84] As regards physical anthropology, the validity of the use of the cephalic index, particularly in discriminating the elements of mixed populations, has been questioned. ‘The recent Hunterian lectures delivered by Prof. A. Keith, as yet published only in the form of a summary, are designed to place these investigations on a more scientific basis. In particular increased attention is being given to the influ- ence of environment in modifying a structure generally so stable as the human skull. ‘hus it has been ascertained that the immigrant into our towns, by some process of selection or otherwise, develops a longer and narrower head than the countryman. The recent American Commission, under the presidency of Prof. Boas, reports that ** racial and physical characteristics do not survive under the new climate and social environment. . . . Children born even a few years after the arrival of their parents show essential differences as compared with their European parentage. G Every part of the body is infiuenced, even the shape of the skull, which has always been considered to be the most permanent hereditary characteristic.’’ Similar results appear from a comparison of the American negro with his African ancestor. I may here refer briefly to the work on_ foll-lore. Though in recent years it has not maintained the import- ance. which it at one time secured in the proceedings of this section, we still regard it as an essential branch of the study of man. The Follx-lore Society, after thirty-two years’ useful work, finds that much still remains to be done in these islands to secure a complete record of popular beliefs and traditions, many of which are rapidly disap- pearing. It has therefore formulated a scheme for more systematic investigation in those districts which have hitherto been neglected. A committee including representa- tives of the two allied sciences is also engaged on the necessary task of revising and defining the terminology of anthropology and folk-lore. The materials collected by field workers in various regions of the world, and popular: accounts of savage religion, customs, and folk-lore continue to arrive in such increasing numbers that the need of a central bureau for the classifi- cation of this mass of facts has’ become increasingly apparent. It-is true that we have suffered a set-back, it is to be hoped only temporary, in the rejection of an appeal made to the Prime Minister for a grant-in-aid of the Royal Anthropological Institute. But if we persist in urging our claims to official support the establishment of an Imperial Bureau of Ethnology cannot be long deferred. One result of this accession of fresh knowledge, largely due to improved methods of research, is to modify some of our conceptions of savage psychology. We now under- stand that side by side with physical uniformity there may be wide differences arising from varieties of race and environment. It is becoming generally recognised that we can no longer evade the difficulty of interpreting beliefs and usages by referring them to that elusive personality, primi- tive man. Between the embryonic stage of humanity and the present lie vast periods of time; and no methods cf investigation open to us at present offer the hope of suc- cessfully bridging this gap in the historical record. To use the words of Prof. Frazer: “‘ It is only in a relative sense, by comparison with civilised men, that we may legitimately describe any living race of savages as primitive.’’. Hence the hypothesis of the unilinear evolution of culture which satisfied an earlier school will no longer bear examination. Further, not to speak of the artistic endowments cf palzolithic man, we find to our surprise that a race like the Australian Arunta, whose lowness in the scale of humanity does not necessarily connote degradation, has worked out with exceptional ability through its tribal council their complex and cumbrous systems of group marriage and totemism. They have developed a cosmogony which postulates the self-existence of the universe; they have reached a belief in reincarnation and transmigration of the soul. So far from their social system being rigid it is readily modified to suit new corditions. They live in peace with neighbouring tribes, and have established the elements of international law. On-the moral side, though there is much that is cruel and abhorrent, they are not wanting. in kindliness, generosity, gratitude. The savage, in short, is not such an unobservant simpleton as some are inclined to suppose; and any interpretation of his 416 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1910 beliefs and usages which ignores this fact is certain to be misleading, This popularisation of our science has not, however, been universally welcomed. It has been urged with much reason that this overabundance of material tends to encourage an unscientific method, particularly the comparison of isolated facts without due regard to the context of culture to which they are organically related. here is much force in this contention ; and probably when the work of this generation comes to be critically reviewed we shall be rightly charged with rashly attempting a synthesis of facts not generically related, with reposing too much confidence in evidence collected in a haphazard fashion, and with losing sight cf their historical relations in our quest after survivals. Those who have practical experience of work among savage or semi-savage races understand the difficulty of collecting information on subjects outside the range of their material interests. Only a skilled linguist is able to inter- pret their hazy religious beliefs. We fail to evolve order from what is and always must be chaotic; we fail to discriminate religion from sociology because both are from the savage point of view identical; and generally it is only the by-products of religion, such as demonology, witch- craft, mythology which reward our search. The most dogmatic among us, when they consider the divergent views of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen and Strehlow, may well hesitate to frame theories about the Arunta. ¥ In the next place it has been objected that the scientific side of anthropology is in danger of being submerged by a flood of amateurism. It is only within recent years that a supply of observers trained in scientific methods has become available. Much of the work in India, the dominions, and other parts of the Empire has been done by amateurs, that is to say, by officers in the service of the Crown, mis- sionaries, or planters, who understand the languages, manners, and prejudices of the people, but have not received the advantage of scientific training. Some of this work is, in its kind, useful; but there seems reason to believe that inquiries conducted by this agency have almost reached their limit. The existing material may be supple- mented and corrected by workers of the same class; but from them no important additions to our knowledge can reasonably be expected. Criticisms such as these have naturally suggested pro- posals for improving the qualifications of this agency by providing a course of training for public servants before they join their appointments; and excellent arrangements with this object have been made by several of our univer- sities. In addition to this schemes are in the air for the establishment of a: School of Oriental Studies in London or of a College for Civilians in Calcutta. We must, however, recollect that the college established by Lord Wellesley at the beginning of the last century with the intention, to use his own words, of promoting among junior officers “an intimate acquaintance with the history, language, custome, and manners of the people of India,’’ failed to meet the aims of its founder. We must also remember that recruits for the Colonial services do not undergo any training in this country; and that in the case of the Covenanted Civil Service of India the period extends only to a single year, during which the candidate is expected to learn the rudi- ments of at least one Oriental language and to acquire some knowledge of the law and history of India. It seems obvious that this leaves little time for the scientific study of anthropology ; and the most that can be expected is to excite in the young official a desire to study the native races and to define the subjects to which his attention may usefully be directed. There is, again, the obvious risk cf letting loose the half-trained amateur among savage or semi-savage peoples. He may see a totem in every hedge or expect to meet a corn-spirit on every threshing-floor. He may usurp the functions of the arm-chair anthropologist by adding to his own proper business, which is the collec- tion of facts, an attempt to explain their scientific relations. As a matter of fact, the true anthropologist is born, not made; and no possible course of study can be useful except in the case of a few who possess a natural taste for this kind of work. Having then practically exhausted our present agency it is incumbent upon us to press upon the Governments throughout the Empire the necessity of entrusting the supervision of ethnographical surveys to specialists. This NO. 2135, VOL. 84] principle has been recognised in the case of botany, geology, and archeology, and it is high time that it was extended to anthropology. It is the possession of such a trained staff that has enabled the American Government to carry — out with success a survey of the natives of the Philippine Islands; and it is gratifying to record that the Canadian legislature, in response to resolutions adopted by this section at the Winnipeg meeting, has recently voted funds to provide the salary of a superintendent of the ethnological survey. We may confidently expect that other Governments throughout the Empire will soon follow this laudable example. These Governments will, of course, continue to collect at each periodical census those statistics and facts cf sociology and economics which are required for purposes of administration. But beyond these practical objects there are questions which can be adequately investigated only by specialists. The duties of such a director will necessarily be three- fold: First, to sift, arrange, and coordinate the facts already collected by non-scientific observers; secondly, to initiate and control special investigations, in particular that intensive study of smaller groups within a limited area which, in the case of the survey of the Todas by Dr. Rivers, has so largely contributed to our knowledge of that tribe. Such methods not only open out new scientific fields, but, and this is perhaps more important, establish a standard of efficiency which improves later surveys of these or neighbouring races. The field for inquiry throughout the Empire is so vast that there is ample room for expeditions independent of official patronage. In some respects the private traveller possesses advantages over the official—in his freedom from the bondage of red tape and from the suspicion which inevitably attaches to the servant of Government that his inquiries are conducted with the object of imposing taxation or of introducing some irksome measures of administra- tion. He is always sure to receive the aid of local officers, whose familiarity with the native races must be of the highest value. The third duty of the director will be to organise in a systematic way the collection of specimens for home and colonial museums. Our ethnographical museums, as a whole, have not reached that standard of efticiency which the importance of the Empire and the needs of training in anthropology obviously require; and our students have to seek in museums at Berlin and other foreign cities for collections illustrative of tribes which have long been subject to British law. It is only necessary to refer to the recent handbook of the ethnographical collections in the British Museum to see that there are wide gaps in the series which might easily be filled by systematic effort. No time is to be lost, because the tragedy of the extinction of the savage is approaching the final act, and our grand- children will search for him in vain except perhaps in the slums of our greater cities. Assuming then that in the near future anthropological inquiries will be organised on practical lines, I invite your attention to some special problems in India which deserve intensive study, and which can be solved in no other way. India is a most promising field for such inquiries. Here the student of comparative religion can trace with more precision than is possible in any other part of the Empire the development of animism and the interaction on it of the forces represented by Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. The anthropologist can observe the most varied types of moral and material culture, from those represented by the heirs of its historic civilisation down to forest and depressed tribes little raised above the level of savagery. The first question which awaits examination is that of the prehistoric races and their relation to the present popu- lation. Unfortunately the materials for this inquiry are still imperfect. The operations of the archaeological survey, with the scanty means at its disposal, have rightly been concentrated upon the remains of architecture in stone, which starts from the Buddhist period, and upon the con- servation of the splendid buildings which are our inherit- ance from older ruling powers. The prehistoric materials have been collected by casual workers who were not always careful to record the localities and circumstances of the dis- covery of their contributions to the local museums. Many links are still wanting, some altogether absent from Indian . ; f —~ = SEPTEMBER 29, 1910] NATURE 417 soil; others which systematic search will doubtless supply. We can realise what the position of prehistoric archeology in Europe would be if the series of Neolithic barrows, the bone carvings of the cave-dwellers, the relics from kitchen-middens and lake dwellings were absent. The caves of central India, it is true, have supplied stone implements and some rude rock paintings. But the secrets of successive hordes of invaders from the north, their forts and dwellings, lie deep in the alluvium, or are still covered by shapeless mounds. Tropical heat and torrential rain, the ravages of treasure-hunters, the practice of cremation have destroyed much of the remains of the dead. The epigraphical evidence is enormously later in date than that from Babylon, Assyria, or Egypt; and the oriental indiffer- ence to the past and the growth of a sacred literature written to subserve the interests of a priestly class weaken the value of the historical record. Further, India possesses as yet no seriation of ceramic types such as that devised by Prof. Flinders Petrie which has enabled him to arrange the Egyptian tombs on scientific principles, or that which Prof. Oscar Montelius has estab- lished for the remains of the Bronze Age. Mr. Marshall, the Director of the Archzeological Survey, admits that the Indian museums contain few specimens of metal work the age of which is even approximately known. Though the record of the prehistoric culture is imperfect, we can roughly define its successive stages. The paleolithic implements have been studied by Mr. A. C. Logan, whose work is useful if only to show the complexity of the problem. ‘Those found in the laterite deposits belong to the later Pleistocene period, and display a technique similar to that of the river-drift series from western Europe. The Eoliths, which have excited such ‘acute controversy, have up to the present not been dis- covered ; and so far as is at present known the palzolithic series from India appears to be of later date than the ‘European. Paleolithic man seems to have occupied. the eastern coast of the peninsula, whence he migrated inland, using in turn quartzose, chert, quartzite, limestone, ~ or sandstone for his weapons; that is to say, he seems not to have inhabited those districts which at a later time were seats of neolithic culture. Early man, according to what is perhaps the most reasonable theory, was first specialised in Malaysia, and his northward route is' marked by dis- coveries at Johore and other sites in that region. Thence he possibly passed into India. The other view represents palzolithic man as an immigrant from Europe.’ At any rate, his occupation of parts of southern India was ante- cedent to the action of those forces which produced its present form, ere the great rivers had excavated their present channels, and prior to the deposition of the masses of alluvium and gravel which cover the implements which are the only evidence of his existence. Between the palzolithic and the neolithic races there is a great geological and cultural gap; and no attempt to bridge it has been made except by the suggestion that the missing links may be found in the cave deposits when they undergo examination. There is reason, however, to believe that the neolithic and the Iron Age cultures were continuous, and that an important element in the present population survives from the neolithic period. Relics of the neolithic are much more widely spread than those of the palzolithic age. They extend all over southern India, the Deccan, and the central or Vindhyan range. Up to the present they are scanty in the Punjab and Bengal; but this may be due to failure to discover or identify them. Mr. Bruce Foote has discovered at various sites in the south factories of neolithic impie- ments associated with wheel-made pottery of a fairly advanced type, showing that the Stone Age has survived side by side with that of metal down to comparatively recent times. The Veddas of Ceylon, the Andamanese, and various tribes on the north-east frontier, in central and southern India, are, or were up to quite recent times, in the Age of Stone. In fact, when we speak of ages of stone or metal we must not regard them as representing division of time but generally continuous phases of culture. There is no trustworthy, evidence for the existence of an Age of Bronze. The single fine implement of this metal which has been discovered is probably, like the artistic vessels from the Nilgiri interments, of foreign origin; and other implements of a less defined type seem to be the NO. 2135, VOL. 84] ‘not seem to have been result of imperfect metallurgy. This is not the place to discuss the problem of the origin and diffusion of bronze. Babylon, Asia Minor, and China have each been supposed to be a centre of distribution. The Egyptian specimen attributed to the third dynasty, say before the fourth millennium B.c., is believed by Prof. Petrie to be the result of a chance alloy ; but the metal certainly appears in Egypt about 1600 B.c., and it is believed to have originated in central Europe, where the Zinnwald of Saxony or the Bohemian mines provided a suppiy of tin. The absence of a Bronze Age in India has been explained by the scarcity of tin and the impossibility of procuring it from its chief source in the Malay-Burman region, where the mines do worked in ancient times. But another view deserves consideration. Prof. Ridgeway has shown that all the sites where native iron is smelted are those where carboniferous strata and ironstone have been heated by eruptions of basalt; and iron.was thus produced by the natural reduction of the ore. In Africa as well es India the absence of the Bronze Age seems to be due to the abundant supplies of iron ores which could be worked by processes simpler than those required in the case cf bronze. In India iron may haye been independently dis- covered towards the close of the neolithic period, and iron may have displaced copper without the intervention of bronze. However this may be, the Copper Age in India, which has been carefully studied by Mr. V. A. Smith, is of great importance. Implements of this metal in the form of flat and bar celts, swords, daggers, harpoon, spear, and arrow heads, with ornaments and a_ strange figure probably human, have been found at numerous sites in northern India. In western Europe, according to Dr. Munro, the Copper Age was of short duration; but Mr. Smith believes that in India the variety of types indicates a long period of development. ' No mention of iron occurs in the Rig-veda ; but it appears in the Atharvan, which cannot be dated much later than 1000 B.c. It is now recognised that-there is a still obscure stratum of Babylonian influence underlying the Aryan culture; and if, as is generally supposed, the manufacture of iron was established by the Chalybes at the head-waters of the Euphrates, who passed it down the delta, its use may have spread thence among the Indo-Aryans. It cer- tainly appears late in the south Indian dolmen period ; and we have the alternatives of believing that it was introduced there by the Dravidian trade with the Persian Gulf, which certainly arose before the seventh century before Christ, cr that it was indepéndently discovered by the Dravidians who still extract it in a rude way from the native ores. The great series of dolmens, circles, and kistvaens: which cover the hills and plateaux of the Deccan and the region to the south seem to belong to the Iron Age. Whether the construction of these monuments was due to the migration of the dolmen-building race from northern Africa, or whether the builders were a local people utilising the material on the spot must remain uncertain. The excava- tions conducted by Mr. Breeks and others disclose tall jars, many-storeyed cylinders of varying diameter, with round or conical bases, fashioned to rest on pottery ring-stands, like the classical amphorz, or to be imbedded in softer soil. The lids of these vessels are ornamented with rude, grotesque figures of men, animals, or more rarely inanimate objects, depicting the arms, dress, ornaments, and domesti- cated fauna of the period. It has been suspected that these figurines may be of a date earlier than the implements of iron with which they are associated, and that they were deposited with the dead in a spirit of religious conservatism. At any rate, the costumes and arms represented on the older pottery present no resemblance to those depicted on the later series of dolmens and kistvaens. The pottery also seems to belong to different periods, the larger jars being of a later date than the true funereal urns which are found at a lower level, and contain a few cremated bones, gold ornaments, bronze and iron rings, with beads of glass) or agate. These people clearly regarded bronze as an article of luxury, as it appears in the form of ornaments or in the series of splendid vases preserved in the Madras museum. It is difficult to suppose that these were of local origin ; more probably they were imported in the course of trade along the western coast or from more distant regions. Another and equally remarkable phase of culture, com- 418 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1910 bining distinctly savage features with a fairly advanced civilisation, is illustrated by the Adittanalur cemetery ‘n the Tinnevelli district recently excavated by Mr. Rea. ‘Two skulls discovered here are prognathous, suggesting a mixture of the Negrito and Dravidian types. There is no trace of cremation, and in most cases the smallness of the urn openings implies that the corpses were exposed to birds of prey, and that only such bones as could be discovered after removal of the flesh were collected for interment; or, according to another interpretation of the facts, we have an instance of the custom of mourners carrying with them, like the modern Andamanese, the relics of the dead. These interments certainly extended over a long period, neolithic weapons being found in some graves, while in others iron arms were discovered fixed point downwards near the urns, as if they had been thrust into the ground by the mourners. In the richer graves gold frontlets, like those of Mycenze and other Greek interments, were fastened over the fore- head of the corpse. ‘These were, lilke the Greek specimens, of such a flimsy type that they could never have been used in real life. It is a remarkable instance of a survival in custom that at the present day some tribes in this region tie a triangular strip of gold on the forehead of the dead, the import of which, on the analogy of the death masks of Siam, Cambodia, ancient Mexico, and Alaska, we may interpret as an attempt to guard the corpse from the glances of evil spirits while the spirit is on its way to deathland, or to be used in processions of the corpse. The question remains: To what races may we attribute these successive phases of culture in southern India? The Tamil literature, as interpreted by Bishop Caldwell and Mr. V. Kanakasabhai, shows the existence of an advanced type of archaic culture in this region; but the evidence to connect this with the existing remains is as yet wanting. We may reasonably assume that neolithic man survives in the existing population, because we have no evidence of subsequent extensive migrations, except the much later arrival of Indo-Aryan colonies from the north, and that of the Todas, whom Dr. Rivers satisfactorily identifies with the Nayars and Nambutiri Brahmans of Malabar. The occurrence of a short-headed strain among some tribes in western India probably represents some prehistoric migra- tion by sea or along the coast line from the direction of Baluchistan or the Persian Gulf. The suggestion that it is the result of a Scythian or Hun retreat from northern India in the face of an advancing Aryan movement is not corroborated by any historical evidence, and is in itself improbable. The customs of dolmen and kistvaen burial sull persist among some of the present tribes, and they display some reverence for the burial places of their for- gotten predecessors. This feeling may, however, be due to the habitual tendency of the Hindu to perform rites of propitiation at places supposed to be the haunts of spirits, and need not necessarily connote racial identity. The most primitive type identifiable in the population of south India is the Negrito, which appears among the Veddas of Ceylon, and among the Andamanese, who retain the Negrito skin colour and hair, but have acauired, prob- ably from some Mongoloid stock, distinct facial characters. It has been the habit with some writers to exaggerate the Negrito strain in the south. But tribes like the Badagas and. Kotas, which have been classed as representative cf this type, possess none of the Negrito characters, which appear only among the more primitive Kurumbas, Malayans, Paniyans, and Irulas. In all the modern tribes the distinctive Negrito marks—woolliness of hair, prog- nathism, lowness of stature, and excessive length of arm —have become modified by miscegenation or the influences of environment. The resemblances in culture of the Indian Negrito with the cognate races to the east and south-east of the Penin- sula are too striking to be accidental. The Kadirs of Madras climb trees like the Bornean Dayaks, clip their teeth like the Jakun of the Malay Peninsula, and wear curiously ornamented hair combs like the Semang of Perak, among whom they serve some obscure magical purpose. The Negrito type deserves special examination in relation to the recent discovery of Pygmies in New Guinea, and the monograph on the Pygmy races in general by Dr. P. W. Schmidt, who regards them as the most archaic human type, from which he supposes the more modern races were developed, not by a process of gradual evolution, but per NO. 2135, VOL. 84] saltum. If there be any force in these speculations he is justified in expressing his conviction that the investigation of the Pygmy races is, at the present moment, one of the weightiest and most urgent, if not the most weighty and most urgent, of the tasks of ethnological and anthropo- logical science. This Negrito stock was followed and to ‘a considerable extent absorbed by that which is usually designated the Dravidian. The problem of the origin of this race has been obscured by the unhappy adoption of a linguistic term to designate an ethnical group, and its unwarrantable exten- sion to the lower stratum of the population of northern India. At present the authorities are in conflict on this, the most important question of Indian ethnology. One school denies that this people entered India from the north or north-west on the ground that the immigration of a dolichocephalic race from a brachycephalic area is im- possible, and insists that the distinction between the so-called Dravidians and Kolarians is linguistic, not physical. The other theory postulates the origin of the Dravidians from the north-west, that of the Kolarians from the north-east; and avoids the difficulty of head form by referring the Dravidians to one of the long-headed races of central or western Asia or north Africa, or by suggesting that their skull form has become modified on Indian soil Ly environment or miscegenation. Recent investigations, archeological or linguistic, throw some new light on this complex problem. Sir T. Holdich, in his recent work ‘‘ The Gates of India,’’ asserts that Makran, the sea-board division of Baluchistan, is full of what he calls ‘‘ Turanian,’’ or Dravidian remains. He explains the position of the Brahui tribe in Baluchistan, cn whom the controversy mainly turns, by assuming that while they now call themselves Mingal or Mongal and retain no Dravidian physical characters, the survival cf their Dravidian tongue is due to the fact that it is their mother language, preserved by Dravidian women enslaved by Tureo-Mongol hordes. Relics of the original Dravidian stock, he suggests, may be found in the Ichthyophagi, or fish-eaters, whom Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great, observed on the Baluchistan coast, living in dwellings made of whale-bones and shells, using arrows and spears of wood hardened in the fire, with claw-like nails and long shaggy hair, a record of the impression made upon the curious Greeks by the first sight of the Indian aborigines. In the next place, inquiries by Dr. Grierson in the course of the Linguistic Survey proye that what is called the Mon-khmer linguistic family, which preceded the Tibeto- Burmans in the occupation of Burma, at one time prevailed over the whole of Further India, from the Irawadi to the Gulf of Tongking, and extended as far as Assam. To this group the Munda tongue spoken by some hill tribes in Bengal is allied; or, at least, it may be said that lan- guages with a common substratum are now spoken not only in Assam, Burma, Annam, Siam, and Cambodia, but also over the whole of Central India as far west as the Berars. ‘It is,’? says Dr. Grierson, ‘“‘a far cry from Cochin-China to Nimdr, and yet, even at the present day, the coincidences between the language of the Korkus of the latter district and the Annamese of Cochin-China are strikingly obvious to any student of language who turns his attention to them. Still further food for reflection is given by the undoubted fact that, on the other side, the Munda languages show clear traces of connection with the speech of the aborigines of Australia.’’ The last assump- tion has been disputed, and it is unnecessary to discuss this wider ethnical grouping. Though identity of language is a slippery basis on which to found an ethnological theory, it seems obvious that the intrusive wedge of dialects allied to the Mon-Khmer family implies that the Central Indian region was at one time occupied by immigrants who forced their way through the Eastern Himalayan passes, their arrival being antecedent to the migration which introduced the Tai and Tibeto-Burman stocks into Further India. When the solution of this problem is seriously under- taken under expert guidance, the first step will be to make an exhaustive survey of the group of forest tribes, from the Santals and Pahdrias on the east, passing on to the Kols and Gonds, and ending with the Bhils on the west. At present our information of the inter-relations of these tribes is fragmentary, and their superficial uniformity does not exclude the possibility that they represent more than one SEPTEMBER 29, 1910} NATO RTE 419 racial element. It will also be necessary to push inquiry beyond the bounds of the Indian Empire, and, like the trigonometrical surveyor, to fix the base line as a datum in India, and extend the triangulation through the border- lands. It is in these regions that the ethnological problems of India await their final solution. Many of these countries are still beyond our reach. Until the survey of the routes converging at Herat, Kabul, or Kandahar is complete, the extent of the influence of the western races—Assyrian, Babylonian, Iranian, Arab, and Greek—cannot be deter- mined. Recent surveys in Tibet have thrown much light on that region, but it is still only very partially examined. In Nepal the suspicious native Government still bars the way to the Buddhist sites in the Tarai and the Nepal valley, and thus a wide chapter in the extension of Hindu influence beyond the mountain range remains incomplete. The second great problem is the origin and development of caste. We have yet to seelx a definition which will cover the complex phases of this institution, and effect a reconcile- ment between the views of Indian observers who trace it to the clash of races or colours, and that of the sociologists, who lay little stress on race or colour and rely more upon the influence of environment, physical or moral. We must abandon the insular method which treats it only in relation to India, and ignores the analogous grouping of rank and class which was prepotent in Western Europe and else- where, and is now slowly losing ground in the face of industrial development. It is by the study of ‘tribes which are on the borderland of Hinduism that we must look for a solution of the problem. The conflict of the Aryan and aboriginal culture, on which the religious and_ social systems of Hinduism were based, is reproduced in the contact between modern Hinduism and the forest tribes. Since the Hindus are the only members of the Aryan stock among whom we find endogamous groups with exogamous sections, the suggestion of Prof. Frazer that they may have borrowed it from the non-Aryans gains probability. The Dravidians within the Indian totemic area have worked out an elaborate system of their own, which is well described in the recent survey of the Malayans by Mr. FT. Richards. How far this is connected with their preference for mother-right and their strong family organisation, of a more archaic type than the joint family of the Aryans, is a question which deserves examination. The influence, again, of religion must be considered, and this can be done with the most hopeful results in regions like eastern Bengal, where a people who have only in a very imperfect way adopted Hinduism are now being converted wholesale to Muhammadanism. Again, when we speak of the tribe in India, we must remember that it assumes at least seven racial types, ranging from the elaborate exogamous groups of the Rajputs to the more archaic form characteristic of the Baloch and Pathan tribes of the western frontier, attached to which are alien sections affiliated by the obligation to join in the common blood-feud, which in process of time develops into a fiction of blood-brotherhood. Thus among the Marri of Baluchistan we can trace the course of evolu- tion: admission to participate in the common blood-feud, admission to participation in a share of the tribal land, and finally admission to kinship in the tribe. ‘This elasticity of structure has permitted not only the admission of non-Aryan tribes into the Rajput body in modern times, but prepares us to understand how the majority of the Rajputs were created by a similar process of fusion, the new-comers being known as the Gurjaras, who entered India in the train of the Huns in the fifth or sixth centuries of our era. The recognition of this fact, by far the most important contribution made in recent times to the ethnology of India, is due ‘to a group of Bombay scholars, the late Mr. A. M. T. Jackson, whose untimely death at the hand of an assassin we deeply regret, and R. G. and D. R. Bhandarkar. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar has recently proved that a group of these Gurjara Huns, possibly the tribal priests or genealogists, were admitted first to the rank of Brahmans, and then, by a change of function, of which analogies are found in the older Sanskrit literature, becoming Rajputs, are now wepresented by the Guhilots, one of the proudest septs. This opens up a new view of tribal and caste development. Now that we can certainly trace the blood of the Huns among the Rajput, Jat, and Gujar NO. 2135, VOL. 84] tribes, a fresh impulse will be given for the quest of sur- vivals in belief and custom connecting them with their Central Asian kinsfolk. In what I have said I have preferred to speculate on a problem for work in the future rather than dwell upon the progress which has been already made. In the sphere of religion we have passed the stage when, as Prof. Max Miller said, ‘‘ the best solvent of the old riddles of mythology is to be found in the etymological analysis of the names of gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines,’’ or when the ‘‘disease of language’’ theory was generally accepted. The position, in fact, has completely changed since Comparative Religion has adopted the methods of Anthropology. The study of myths has given way to that of cults, the former being often only naive attempts to explain the latter. India offers wide fields for inquiry by these new methods, because it supplies examples of cult in its most varied and instructive phases. The examina- tion of Hinduism, the last existing polytheism of the archaic type, is likely to explain much hitherto obscure in the development of other .pantheons. It is no longer possible to refer the complex elements of this or any other group of similar beliefs to a single class of physical concepts. The sun, the dawn, the golden gates of sunset, or the dairy no longer furnish the key which unlocks the secret. It is by the study of the Animism, Shamanism, or Magic of the lower tribes that Hinduism can be interpreted. This analysis shows that behind the myths and legends which shroud the forms of the sectarian gods the dim shape of a Mother goddess appears, at once chthonic or malignant because she gives shelter to the dead, and_ beneficent because she nurtures the sons of men with the kindly fruits of the earth. Beside her, though his embodiment is much less clearly defined, stands a male deity, her consort, and by a process of magic, mimetic, sympathetic, or homceo- pathic, their union secures the fertility of the animal and vegetable creation. Much, however, remains to be done before the prob- lems of this complex polytheism can be fully solved. The action of archaic religions, as has been well said, ““takes place in the mysterious twilight of sub-conscious- ness’’; and the foreign observer is trammelled by the elaborate system of tabu with which the Hindu veils the performance of his religious rites. This feeling extends to all classes, and the ceremonial of the jungle shrines is as little open to examination as the penetralia of the greater temples. The great army of mendicant friars jealously conceals the secrets of its initiation, rites, and beliefs, and this field of Indian religious life remains practically un- worked. Much may be done by the training of a body of native observers who are not subject to the tabu imposed upon the foreigner. Here the difficulty lies in the con- tempt displayed by the higher educated classes towards the beliefs and usages of the lower tribes. There are some indications that this feeling is passing away, and in recent years much useful ethnological work has been done by native scholars. The problems of ethnology, so far as they are concerned with the origin of prehistoric races and their relation to the existing population, are more or less academic. Ethno- graphy, which examines the religious, cultural, and in- dustrial conditions of the people, has more practical uses. At the present time it is incumbent upon us to preach, in season and out of season, that the information which it is competent to supply is the true basis of administrative and social reform. If, for example, we were now in possession of the facts which an anthropometrical survey of our home population would supply; many of our social problems would assume a clearer aspect. Such, for instance, are the questions of degeneration due to slum life and malnutrition, the influence of alcoholism on industrial efficiency, the condition of dangerous and sweated industries, and that of the aliens settled in our midst. It is characteristic of the genius of the English people, that while we are not yet prepared to admit the need of such a survey, the provision of medical inspection and relief for children in elementary schools will soon render it inevitable. This is more clearly the case in those regions where a large native population is controlled by a small European minority. The Negro question in America teaches us a useful lesson, applicable to native races in most parts of 420 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, I910 the Empire. In India, whenever the Government has made really serious mistakes, the failure has been due to ignorance or disregard of the beliefs or prejudices of the subject people. HE author, who was for fifteen months medical officer to the cable station at Cocos-Keeling, presents us with an interesting book on that atoll made classical by the researches of Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle. The account of the forma- tion and history of the colony is a romance vividly portrayed, but the main interest of the book lies in the author’s observations on coral-life and on the pro- cesses in operation which can shape an atoll. The true coral animal (Madreporaria) is a colonial sea-anemone, which continually deposits under itself carbonate of lime, thus raising its seat higher and higher above the bottom. It sits on the surface of the dried coral, such as it is commonly known to us, and in no way presents the features of an Alcyonacean, such as is represented in Fig. 6 of the book. It is reef corals is largely due to these alge, and their mode of growth is sympathetic to them in that the coral skeleton is deposited so as to expose the polyps to the maximum amount of light. Such appear to us the ordinary views of zoologists, but our author re- gards sediment as the main “factor to account for the variability of corals; that it is an important sub- sidiary factor cannot, of course, be denied. Some corals, such as Caenopsammia, have no alge, but pig- ments in granules in their cells; they, of course, are unaffected “by light. Yet others probably have similar pigment together with alge, but our author does not follow out what should be a most profitable line of research. The statement that corals know ‘‘no natural death,” does not rest on observation, and is contrary to the few facts we have. No zoologist would consider the rate of growth of corals slow. The observations on Fic. 1.—The Lagoon Shore of Pulu Tikus, to show the peculiarly unfortunate that this figure should have been inserted, since the skeleton of reef corals, with which the author is dealing, consists entirely of dead material. It exposes the writer to the suspicion that he is unacquainted with the real nature of the coral skeleton, and hence largely throws doubt on his really admirable observations on the growth of corals in rela- tion to their environment. These are in no way scien- tific, but consist of the notes of a painstaking naturalist. The extraordinary variability in coral skeletons is well known to zoologists, and may aptly be compared to the growth shown by our forest trees in different environments. Reef corals, too, resemble trees in that they are largely dependent for their food on chlorophyll, which is present in minute alge, living in their digestive cavities. The coloration of most 1 “Coral and Atolls.” By F. Wood-Jones. Lovell, Reeve and Co,, Ltd., 1910,) NO Pp. xxili+392. (London: Price 24s. net. 2136, vot. 84] Sand-piling by a westerly wind. | | | From ‘‘ Coral and Atolls. the forms of growth of corals are not convincing, since our author does not appear to have examined the zooids to see whether he is really dealing in any genus with one or more species. He hence not justified in stating that the distribution of atoll corals ‘‘is a dis- tribution of types and not of species The observa- tions on the effect of silt suggest research, such as has for some years been undertaken by Wayland Vaughan at the Tortugas; they are not definitive enough to be of much value. Vaughan, by the way, found no great difficulty in trz unsple inting corals. The third part of the book deals with the Cocos- is Keeling atoll and its problems, concluding with chapters on the formation of atolls in general. We agree with the author that ‘tit is almost impossible to judge of the method of formation of any atoll not actually visited and examined."’ The lagoon of Cocos- Keeling is filling up, we are told, both by organic OcToBER 6, 1910} NATURE 4 22 pore) growth within it and by material washed into it over the barrier. It may be so, but it does not justify the statement that ‘‘atoll lagoons tend, as a rule, to become smaller and shallower,’’ and there is no attempt by reference to other atolls to justify it. Solution and material swept out by the tides are said to have nothing to do with the formation of the lagoons of atolls. The picture of a high island within the calm of an encircling barrier reef appears to our author to be contrary to all natural laws. On what view does he explain Agassiz’s wonderful series of photographs of Fijian islands within barrier reefs? ‘In this (his own) de- scription,” he states, ‘it is assumed throughout that crumbling to pieces the lagoon is a slightly submerged reef’’; why this assumption without evidence? The encircling reef is said to be ‘‘a mosaic inlay of coral fragments, cemented together into a solid platform,’’ but there ts no evidence that it was ever really examined. It is supposed to have grown up as a platform, and many of its constituent organisms must surely have _ re- mained in their growth-positions. A similar platform is found at 13 feet above mean tide level; it is stated that such a platform this can only be formed below and other organisms are good, but a specialist should have been consulted, that the names of the coral genera might have been inserted. An obvious Actinian (p. 161) would not then have been labelled as an Alcyonarian. so RESEARCHES IN STELLAR HE Observatory of Yale College has acquired a deservedly high reputation for the zeal with which the staff has prosecuted the inquiry into stellar parallax and the standard of accuracy consistently maintained. This latest contribution to the subject cannot but enhance that reputation for accuracy, for the results sought do not aim so much at applying the method to fresh instances, as to the re-examination of previous investigations with the view of improving their trustworthiness. Of the stars, the distances of which are here discussed, two-thirds have already been the subject of inquiry at Yale or elsewhere, but on various grounds the results have been regarded with a degree of suspicion that made the repetition of the measures desirable. The new material falls into two classes, taining stars annual proper PARALLAX.? one con- having a _ larger motion than about o'4"; the other, selected stars in the Pleiades the observation of which might afford evidence as to the dis- tance of the group as a whole. As the results derived from these Pleiades stars are not regarded as conclusive, and do not enter into the final catalogue, they may be dismissed here. One star gave the value zero, indicating that the Pleiades group is at the same dis- tance as the star; the measures of another assigned the small negative parallax of .—o0.3”, ‘“‘a value that would give a possible limit of sys- tematic error’; while the third series, resulting in the value +0'6"’, suggests that the star does not belong to the group at all, but is nearer to our system, ‘‘and_ this Fic. 2.—Photograph of a Boulder of Alga-covered Dead Coral. Rock, to show the bites of a fish result would seem to be fairly of the genus Scarus. The black line marks the edge of the alga covering not bitten away assured.” The approxunate dis- by the fish.’ From “Coral and Atolls.” tance of the Pleiades group still remains a matter of conjecture. level, and its existence is explained as due to eleva- Naturally in a work so long and laborious, difficul- tion. ties arose in connection with the instrumental and Our author does good service in directing attention | optical equipment, necessitating interruptions in the to the important effects of sedimentation. Sedimen- tation banks largely form the foundations of reefs, but ‘‘it matters not what the base may be so long as its platform comes within the wind-stirred area.” ‘Any elevation which rises to this plane (the limiting line of sedimentation) will furnish the corals with a suitable basis.’’ The depth of this line varies. It is entirely a supposititious lime, and, so far as we can understand, may lie at any depth, Direct investiga- tion on the processes of sedimentation in the ocean is certainly needed. In conclusion, it cannot be said that Dr. Jones has much new to tell us. His volume is, how- ever, a very readable one, and most suggestive of lines of research on corals, which might profitably be pursued by more precise methods. His range of in- vestigation and reading were obviously too restricted to enable him to draw ‘conclusions as to the formation of coral reefs in general. The account of the fauna and flora is very good, and the note on Scarus as a coral-feeder intéresting. The illustrations of corals NO. 2136, VOL. 84] Wood- continuance of the sequences. The most formidable of these was a tendency for the field lens of the eye- piece to work loose, to which inconvenience it is not necessary to refer further, than to express our assur- ance that the skill and experience of the observers would succeed in effectually removing any traces of systematic error arising from this untoward accident. To show that this confidence is warranted, we may give the final results obtained by the three observers in the case of the Arcturus determination, a star the measures of which have been most scrupulously examined, since for a star of such brilliancy and large proper motion the earlier values of parallax were so suspiciously small, as to suggest that some inherent quality in* the star itself, such colour, or some peculiarity in the observers’ method of measuring, had influenced the result. With regard to the detection of as 1 Transactions of the Astronomical Observatory of Yale University Vol. ii., part ii. Parallax Investigations on thirty-five selected stars by Frederic L. Chase, Mason F. Smith, and William L. Elkin (Director). (New Haven: Published by the University, rgro.) 434 NATURE [OcTOBER 6, I910 a colour effect in the observations, to which a refer- ence is made in Nature (vol. Ixxv., 234), further examination has failed to disclose any systematic error attributable to that cause, while the arrangement and discussion of the several series of measures—Dr. Elkin himself made no fewer than seven—exclude the possibility of any personal peculiarity or habit escaping detection. The adopted parallax values for each of the three observers are as follows :— Probable Probable Errer No. of Observer. Parallax. Error. of Single Obn. Observation. ” a u Elkin +O0'O5I ... +0°013 +o0'240 126 Chase +0°085 +0°007 PROM27) yee Sa Smith +0'050 toot +0'126 123 After an elaborate system of “weighting,” for de- tails of which we must refer to the original paper, the finally adopted value of the parallax of Arcturus is 0°066" +0006". The interesting stars 61 Cygni and Groombridge 1830, notwithstanding the repeated attempts that have been made to determine the parallax, are among those stars of which it has been thought desirable to repeat the measures. Without entering into further parti- culars, it may be said that the results are equally consistent as those obtained in the case of Arcturus, and command equal confidence. The grand result of the work at Yale, which has occupied the three observers for some years, is to assign a parallax to 200 stars, with an accuracy that we belieye has not been attained elsewhere. The three stars in the Pleiades not being included, we have here a catalogue of 197 stars, which Dr. Elkin forms into groups depending on magnitude and_ proper motion. This table is so small that it can be con- veniently given here. It may seem but a modest out- come for so many years of careful and anxious work, but those who appreciate it most will be warmest in their congratulations to Dr. Elkin and his able col- leagues on the satisfactory completion of a task of no common difficulty. The table into which so much work is compressed is as follows: — 4 “ “a “ “ eben Mouenlig gies 0°34 "4x 0°54 0'55- 0°65 | 0°66 - o'96 eiacr a“ Mag. 0°0-2'5 aS; O31 (13) ee 100 (2)|+- 6 113 ag ae (ey) er 200 (2) s» 3°0-5°0|+0'026 (9)| +0" ‘024 (7)|+07114 (5), +0'091 (8)}+-0°162 (6) e 5 *1-7'0]—o'o10 (7)| +0'034 (14)|+.0'064 (16) +0°036 (20) +o*r11 (8) =H Gee ose (2) +0" 040 (23 3)\ +0032 (2 a) Fo% 018 (19)| +o"128 (12) The number in brackets after the parallax signifies the number of stars in each group. As Dr. Elkin remarks, ‘“‘ There is, with slight exception, manifest a very decided sequence of values, both with respect to magnitude and size of proper motion, such as one might expect.” Wi E. Be THE PERFILOGRAPH. HE perfilograph is an ingenious instrument for recording graphically the undulations of the bottom of a channel in depths up to about six or seven fathoms. It is the invention of Augustus Mercau, an Argentine engineer, by whom a paper was read at Buenos Aires before the Naval Section at the recent meeting of the International American Scien- tific Congress, in the course of which the instrument was fully described. The principles on which its construction depends and the practical results obtained from its use appear to present some points of interest. A heavy weight of from 150 to 200 lb. being slowly dragged along the bottom by a wire rope attached to the stern of a steam launch, it is obvious that as the depth changes the inclination of the wire will vary. By an ingenious mechanism, the sine of the angle NO. 2136, VoL. 84] made by the wire with the horizontal plane is regis- tered graphically in parallel ordinates on a roll of paper, which is slowly unwound by means of clock- work at a rate proportionate to that of the vessel. The lengths of the ordinates, being proportional to the sines of the varying angles, represent the undula- tions of the bottom referred to the horizontal plane, and are registered on a convenient scale on the paper by means of a system of levers. The instrument, mounted in the stern of the launch, is placed accurately at a height of 5 feet above the water-line, and the depths are measured from a zero line drawn by a pencil pressing against the roll of paper as it is unwound. The system of levers by which the sines of the angles are registered is con- nected to a length of tubing of small diameter, through which a thin guiding wire passes. One end of this wire, which is about 50 feet in length, is secured to a spiral spring attached to the weight on the bottom; the other end is led underneath the base of the instrument and secured. The spiral spring yielding to a strain of about 150 lb., the tension on the guiding wire is automatically relieved by throw- ing the excess of strain on to the towing cable, the length of which is adjusted accordingly. The guiding wire, being thus kept taut by a strain not exceeding . 150 lb., the length of tubing through which the wire passes tales up an inclination to the horizontal de- pendent on the depth of water, and in so doing it actuates the system of levers with which it is con- nected. The speed at which the weight can be towed should not exceed three or four knots. There is an arrange- ment for marking on the paper the instant at which the position of the vessel may be fixed by means of sextant angles. The horizontal scale of the diagram may thus be determined between successive “ fixes” by actual observation, independently of the rate at which the paper is being unrolled or the speed at which the vessel may be moving. Unless these two factors remain constant throughout the run, the hori- zontal scale will be subject to variation. It is desir- able therefore to reconstruct the diagram, so far as its horizontal components are concerned, from the data afforded by the “fixes.” The horizontal scale of the diagram is roughly about 1/1000 or about 7o inches to the nautical mile; the vertical scale is about + inch to a foot. The instru- ment has been adopted by the Argentine Hydrographic Service, and has been in constant use for some time past. It is understood that the results are considered quite satisfactory. An opportunity of witnessing a practical trial was courteously afforded to the present writer by the Argentine naval authorities. The instrument was readily set up and adjusted, and several sectional lines were run across the dredged channel leading to the docks at Buenos Aires. The resulting diagrams over the same section run in opposite directions agreed accurately, and no difficulty whatever was experienced during the trials. The following advantages have been claimed for the instrument : =a) Continuity of the section traced; (2) accuracy of results; (3) rapidity as compared with ordinary methods ; (4) economy of skilled labour; (5) facility of manipulation; (6) capability of use in circumstances of sea and weather when accurate soundings by the lead could not be obtained. The trials were carried out in open water with its surface considerably disturbed by a fresh breeze, and afforded a verv fair test of the capabilities of the instrument. There is certainly a source of error owing to the motion of the vessel. The section as shown on the diagram is necessarily a combination of OcToBER 6, 1910] NATURE 435 effects due to the pitching of the vessel and the actual form of the bottom. J In several of the diagrams the rapid scending of the vessel was noticeable in oscillations to the extent of 2 or even 3 feet; but it was not difficult to draw a mean line which would eliminate the motion with a fair degree of accuracy. Practically the speed of the launch scarcely exceeded that at which she might have proceeded with two leadsmen sounding in the ordinary manner, and the same number of hands are required, although they need not necessarily be skilled leadsmen. Two officers are necessary for fixing the vessel, as they would be in ordinary circumstances. On a rocky bottom, where dredging has been carried out, the weight would be constantly liable to catch in the inequalities of the bottom, and bring up the boat, thus causing delays and possibly breakage of gear. In such cases, moreover, the usual method of sweep- ing with an iron bar could not safely be dispensed with, however accurately each separate section might be obtained. On the whole, it may be said that the advantages to be derived from the invention do not at present seem so clearly pronounced as to make it likely that it would be adopted for use under the conditions usually prevailing in the examination of dredged channels. There might, however, be special circumstances in which it could be used advantageously. shes WE Re NOTES. A MONUMENT to Gregor Mendel, the naturalist, who was born at Amsterdam in 1822 and died at Briinn in 1884, was unveiled at the latter place on October 2. THe summer season, comprised by the six months from April to September, can in no sense be considered ideal, although from a meteorological point of view it has not differed very widely from the average. At Greenwich the mean temperature for the six months was 57-0°, which is 0:9° below the average of the past sixty years, but is o-9° higher than for the corresponding six months in 1909. The warmest month was August, with a mean temperature of 62-2°, and this was followed by a mean of 615° in June. May and June were the only two months with the mean temperature in excess of the average. The highest shade temperature during the summer was 82-3°, in June, and there was no other month with a temperature of 80°. The only years since 1841 with a slightly lower absolute maximum summer tempera- ture are 1853, 1862, 1879, and 1882. There were in all only fifty-one days with a temperature of 70° or above, and the only summers with so few warm days are 1860, 1879, and 1888. The most conspicuous month for the absence of warm days was July, when there were only six days with a temperature of 70° or above: this is the smallest number of such warm days in July since the establishment of trustworthy records in 1841. August had twenty days with a temperature of 70° or above, and June follows with seventeen; in September there were only two. The only instances of frost in the shade in the six summer months are two in April and one in May. The aggregate rainfall at Greenwich was 13-60 inches, which is 1-22 inches more than the average of the past sixty years, but is o-44 inch less than for the corresponding period in 1909. The rainfall was in excess of the average in each month, with the» exception of September, when there was a deficiency of 1-47 inches. The wettest summer month was July, with a total measurement of 3°55 inches, which is 1-15 inches more than the normal. In all, rain NO. 2136, VOL. 84] fell on ninety-two days, but only on three days in Sep- tember, when the aggregate measurement was 0-72 inch, and on one day the fall was 0-66 inch. The duration of bright sunshine was 966 hours, which is 165 hours fewer than the average, and May is the only month with an excess of sunshine. The sunniest month was May, with a total duration of 219 hours, and the least sunny month was July, with 112 hours’ duration, which is 124 hours fewer than the normal. The finest month of the six was undoubtedly September. Mr. Marconi has informed the Marconi Wireless Tele- graph Company that wireless telegraphic messages have been successfully transmitted between Clifden (Galway) and Buenos Aires, a distance of about six thousand miles, without the employment of an intervening relay station. We learn from a note in the Engineer for September 30 that the tramp steamer Nonsuch, whilst on her voyage from Bombay to Hull and Middlesbrough, was heard at the wireless station at the North Foreland calling her name when she was fifteen miles south of Cape de Gaa, at the south-east corner of Spain, a position distant 940 nautical miles from the North Foreland. This distance, across the obstacle of the whole of France and Spain, and the Pyrenees, is a remarkable range for wireless signals from a ship. The owners received a message through the station at Ushant, sent from the ship off Cape Roca, near Lisbon, no less than 610 nautical miles from Ushant. The Nonsuch is the first tramp steamer to be fitted with wireless telegraph. Tue council of the Institution of Civil Engineers has made the following awards in respect of papers published in Section ii. of the Proceedings for the session 1909-10 :— A Telford gold medal to Major W. W. Harts, U.S. Army (Nashville, Tenn.); a Watt gold medal to Mr. A. Trewby (London); a Crampton prize to Prof. A. H. Gibson and Mr. A. Ryan (Manchester); and Telford premiums to Messrs. W. R. Baldwin-Wiseman (Southampton), O. W. Griffith (London), Dr. W. E. Lilley (Dublin), W. Corin (Sydney), J. A. Saner (Northwich), and F. O. Blackwell (New York). The council has awarded the Indian premium for 1910 to Mr. C. W. Lloyd-Jones (Secunder- abad). Tue Paris correspondent of the Times has reported the death, in his sixty-ninth year, of Prof. Fulgence Raymond, clinical professor of diseases of the nervous system in the University of Paris, and superintendent of the Salpétriére. Prof. Raymond became known first by a special study on * L’Hémichorée, L’Hémianasthésie, et Les Tremblements Symptomatiques.’’ On the death of his friend and teacher Charcot, in 1894, Raymond was appointed to succeed to the chair of clinical professor of nervous diseases. He was the author of many works on nervous and kindred diseases, and was celebrated for the laboratories of patho- logical anatomy and physiological psychology which he instituted and superintended at the Salpétriére. Prof. Raymond was a member of many of the scientific societies of Europe. Tne ordinary meetings of the Royal Geographical Society for the winter session will begin on November 7, when Major P. Molesworth Sykes will lecture on his further journeys in Persia. Subsequent meetings have been provisionally arranged as follows :—November 21: some results of the Duke of the Abruzzi’s Karakoram expedition, Dr. Filippo de Filippi; December 5: the new geography and its aims, Mr. H. J. Mackinder, M.P.; December 19: the French Antarctic Expedition, 1909-10, 436 NATURE Dr. J. B. Charcot; January 16, 1911: the Michael Sars North Atlantic deep sea expedition, Sir John Murray and Dr. Hjort. A selection from the following papers may be expected during the session:—Recent explorations in Dutch New Guinea, Dr. H. A. Lorentz; the develop- ment of British Central Africa, Sir Alfred Sharpe; recent boundary Bolivia, Major P. H. Fawcett; the peoples of the Sudan, Dr. C. G. Seligmann; the geo- graphical conditions affecting the development of Canada, Prof. W. L. Grant; economic geography of the Tyne, Mr. A. J. Sargent; distribution of cotton culture within the British Empire, Mr. J. Howard Reed; researches in the Himalayas, Dr. Arthur Neve; explorations in western and northern Australia, Mr. A. W. Canning. Mr. C. G. Tuorp, 182 St. George’s Terrace, Perth, Western Australia, writes :—‘‘ I am endeavouring to prove the origin of obsidianites; it has been stated that Mr. Dunn’s bubble hypothesis is impossible on account of the occurrence of dumb-bells. I wish to endeavour to make a dumb-bell by the union of the drops of two bubbles. Perhaps one of your readers would help me to the forma- tion of a very viscid fluid that would dry.’? The inquiry was submitted to Prof. C. V. Boys, who has kindly sent the following reply :—‘‘ The best mixture for blowing bubbles that will solidify, not exactly dry, is resin con- taining one-tenth, more or less, of beeswax, melted and blown when fluid. Possibly the addition of Canada balsam would make the mixture more adhesive. No soap and glycerine mixture will make a bubble that will dry.”’ work in ” In a letter entitled ‘‘ An Undescribed Feather-element, which appeared in Nature of September 15, Mr. F. J. Stubbs described a remarkable feature of the structure of the primary feathers of certain birds, which he said ““seems to be hitherto undescribed.’? Two correspondents have written to point out that the peculiarity in question has been described before. Mr. W. P. Pycraft states that he published an account of the structure seventeen years ago in the pages of Natural Science (vol. iii., 1893, p. 197). Prof. R. v. Lendenfeld, of Prague, informs us that “these structures have been studied in my _ laboratory and carefully described and figured by one of my students, Dr. E. Mascha, in his paper ‘ Ueber die Schwungfedern ’ (Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. Ixxvii., 1904, pp. 606-51, nine text figures, Plates 29-31), on p. 614 ff, an English version of which appeared in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (vol. xlviii., 1905, 30 pp-, 15 plates) under the title ‘The Structure of Wing Feathers.’ ”’ IN Man for September Mr. W. E. Hardenburg, in an account of the Indian tribes of the Putumayo River, one of the principal tributaries of the Upper Amazon, describes what he terms a system of ‘‘ wireless telegraphy ’’ in use among this It consists of two logs of hard wood pierced by narrow holes of longitudinal section, burnt out by heated One log is always thicker than the other, producing two grave notes, while the smaller trunk gives out two which are acute. They are hung from the race. stones. roof timbers, and are beaten with a club tipped with rubber. A code is arranged based upon the differences of tone and the length and number of the messages blows, so that exchanged, on a clear day the sound reaching a distance of from 12 to 15 kilometres. can be A sERIES of experiments by Messrs. R. M. Yerkes and D. Bloomfield is described in the Psychological Bulletin for August, planned to answer the question, Do kittens kill instinctively ? decide in the mice The experiments NO. 2136, VOL. 84] fOcTOBER 6, t910 affirmative. They show that ‘‘ the instinct to kill may manifest itself in the kitten before the end of the first month of life, while the animal is yet feeble and barely able to eat a young mouse.’’ The instinctive reaction, though somewhat variable with individual kittens, is fairly definite in character. It appears quite suddenly, and is aroused by the movement of the mouse, and, after the first reaction, by the smell of the mouse. Usually it develops during the second month of the kitten’s life, and does not completely wane during the following two or three months, but “‘ it apparently becomes increasingly difficult to evoke. The practical inference is: allow a kitten to exercise its killing instinct when young if a good mouser is desired.’”’ The authors admit the great value of imitation and experience for the killing reactions of kittens, and for the modification and development of these reactions. But the prime object of their experi- ments is to show that kittens, reared in solitude, seize the mouse, even in the first kill, so that they cannot be bitten by it, and that the visual experience of movement is the primary condition for the initiation of the instinct. In the Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital for September Dr. C. L. Minor, of Asheville, N.C., has a paper on the use of the X-ray in the diagnosis of pul- monary tuberculosis. This subject was discussed at the recent annual meeting of the British Medical Association in London (see Nature, August 4). Dr. gives full directions as to the most suitable arrangement of the apparatus and of the dark-room, and as to the positions in which patients should be examined. His paper’ is chiefly interesting as representing the point of view of a physician in general practice in contrast to that of the X-ray specialist. In his opinion the general practitioner should confine himself to the use of the fluorescent screen. and leave the taking and the interpretation of photographie plates, with the great amount of detail they contain, te the X-ray specialist. He enters fully into the controversy regarding the comparative value of the clinical and the radioscopic methods of diagnosis of phthisis in its earliest stages. Many X-ray specialists, he says, insist that signs of early phthisis are shown by the R6ntgen rays before the physician is able to demonstrate them by the ordinary In Dr. Minor’s opinion this is due to the fact that many clinical physicians are not really expert in the method of physical diagnosis, and that they frequently overlook signs which a more trust- worthy diagnostician would have discovered. Dr. Minor’s own experience goes to show that there are few cases in which, although distinct shadows shown by the X-rays, no physical signs can be elicited in the chest. The present writer, however, has frequently had patients Minor methods of physical diagnosis. are sent for examination by thoroughly competent physicians with the statement that no physical signs of lung disease were present. He has then demonstrated to the physician the exact position and extent of the pulmonary lesion, and the physician has thereupon been able, by a careful examination, to detect definite signs at this spot. Dr. Minor directs special attention to the frequency of the discovery of enlarged lymphatic glands in the chest, and he describes the positions in which they are to be found. His conclusions lend further confirmation to the view, now generally accepted as true, that the X-ray examination of the lungs is a very valuable aid to the early diagnosis of pulmonary phthisis. Dr. P. L. Sctarer has contributed to the ‘* Handbook of Jamaica for 1910’ a revised list of the birds of Jamaica, based on the one by Messrs. A. and E. Newton ———— EEE EEEEE— OOOO OcToBER 6, 1910] NATURE 437 in the same publication for 1881. The new list, which is printed separately in pamphlet form, and can _ be obtained in London of Messrs. H. Sotheran and Co., con- tains notes on the distribution of the various groups. Tue European hedgehog has been hitherto considered to differ from other species of its genus in the peculiar form and single root of the third upper incisor and upper canine, while it has also been supposed to be characterised by the constant presence and relatively large size of the second upper premolar. From an examination of a large number of specimens, Mr. E. Hollis (Zoologist for Sep- tember) finds, however, that two of these characters are by no means constant. Thus, out of eleven British examples, in only one case was the upper canine single- rooted, while in six instances it was double-rooted, and in the remaining four in a kind of intermediate condi- tion. In the same series the second upper premolar was absent in three instances, rudimentary in one case, and normal in the remainder. From this it is inferred that Erinaceus europaeus is in a state of unstable equilibrium in regard to the latter tooth, thereby resembling the Asiatic E. micropus and E. pictus. Somewhat similar variations were observed in the collection of skulls of the European species in the British Museum, but in no instance was the third upper incisor observed to be double-rooted. A single root to this incisor may therefore still be character- istic of E. europaeus. Tue fourth part of the Flora of Glamorgan, dealing with the division Incomplete of the Dicotyledons, has been recently published. The flora is being prepared under the editorship of Prof. A. H. Trow by a committee, for whom Dr. and Miss Vachell act as secretaries. It is noted that several critical and polymorphic species require more detailed observation and study. A SECOND report on the Hymeniales of Connecticut, con- stituting Bulletin No. 15 of the State of Connecticut Geological and Natural History Survey, requires to be taken in conjunction with the preliminary report pub- lished as Bulletin No. 3, in which the keys to the genera were given. Analytical keys for the species are supplied in the present bulletin, and are accompanied by excellent illustrations of selected types. Prof. A. E. White, who is responsible for both reports, also provides a good account of some edible species of Agaricaceze; most of the species are similar to those recommended by British fungologists, but the author is bolder than some authorities in recom- mending Lactarius piperatus and Cantharellus aurantiacus. Tue plant formations of East Bolivia, which were briefly outlined and illustrated by Dr. Th. Herzog in a number of the Vegetationsbilder, are described at greater length in Engler’s Botanische Jahrbiicher (vol. xliv., part iii.). A well-defined formation is that of the Pantanales, developed near Carumba, in the extreme south-east, which is a fertile virgin forest, consisting largely of deciduous trees with a wealth of lianes. Piptadenia macrocarpa is a dominant tree, valued for its timber and astringent bark ; Tecoma Ipe is another magnificent tree, yielding a durable timber, and Calcophyllum multiflorum is also character- istic of the formation. The lianes include Urvillea laevis, Bignonia unguis cati, and species of Serjania. The author presents a graphic description of the magnificent palm, Orbignya phalerata, Physocalymma scaberrima (Lythracez), and various species of Tecoma, that inhabit the highlands of Velasco, and extols the beauty of the flowering shrubs found on the Cordilleras. NO. 2136, VoL. 84] Dr. FeLtx Oswatp, so well known for his geological map and description of Armenia, has published an account of the tectonic development of the Armenian highlands in Petermann’s Mitteilungen for 1910 (pp. 8,°70, and 126). The movements that affected the pre-Devonian rocks are obscured by the potency of the Hercynian and Alpine movements. The Alpine uplift was foreshadowed in Armenia by considerable folding in Upper Eocene times, but the resulting land-surface was reduced almost to a peneplain before the great transgression of the Miocene sea. This sea even spread over land that had remained unsubmerged since the opening of the Mesozoic era. Its invasion, however, was soon checked, since in the Upper Miocene epoch the Alpine folding set in, accompanied by great intrusions of ultrabasic rocks. This folding con- tinued long enough to involve the Sarmatian deposits on the south flank of the Caucasian chain. Dr. Oswald, with the aid of a map, explains the grouping of the main lines of folding, and discusses the breaking up of the highlands into elevated plateaus and regions of de- pression. He regards the volcanic phenomena as mani- fested along planes of fracture. When these, in Upper Miocene times, reached down to the ultrabasic regions, peridotites rose among the folded rocks. Regions of decreasing basicity have since been drawn on, and only the higher zones are now penetrated, as is evidenced by the recent rhyolitic lavas of the crater of Nimrud. Aw interesting lecture on ‘‘ Vegetation and Rainfall,”’ recently delivered at Perth, Western Australia, by Dr. A. Morrison, is reported in the West Australian of August 4. The author does not deal specially with the distribution of rainfall in the colony, but with the importance of a plentiful water supply and the warmth of the sun on vegetation generally, and on the influence of the latter in preserving the moisture of the soil. On hill-sides, with- out the protection of vegetation, the natural streams become choked with débris, causing floods and devastation in the country below, but vegetation gives time for water to percolate the soil without displacing it. The cosmic causes of rainfall must be carefully distinguished from local causes, which only modify the precipitation brought from distant parts. Irrigation during the dry season would do much in maintaining the desired moist condition of air and soil, and the plantation of trees would help to make it permanent; but when the settler has cleared the bush for cultivation he sometimes finds that a heavy fall of rain will run off the surface without having time to sink into the ground. The author considers that a large proportion of the country in Western Australia should be left in its original state, clothed with forests. WE have received a separate copy of Prof. L. Palazzo’s paper on his magnetic survey of Sardinia, which appeared last year in Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity. While the eastern side of the island appears to be normal, the western shows great abnormalities which are not due to surface rocks. While the equal vertical force lines run nearly east and west across the island, the equal horizontal force lines, which have the general direction north-east to south-west, are disturbed at points near the middle and north end of the west coast. The isogonic and isoclinic lines show irregularities near the same points. The annual secular changes are :— in west declination, —4-6’; in inclination, —1-5'; in hori- zontal force, +0-00020 dyne per unit pole. Tue South African Journal of Science for June contains an important paper by Dr. D. M. Tomory on modern methods of water purification. The Modder River water, 435 NATURE [OcToRER 6, 1910 from which Bloemfontein draws its supplies, refuses to settle clear, and cannot be effectively purified by sand filters, which, however, are very soon choked by the suspended clay. A remarkable improvement was effected by precipitating with lime and permanganate, and filter- ing rapidly through a mechanical filter, the deaths from enteric fever falling from $3 per 10,000 in 1896 and 20 per 10,000 in 1904 to 2-75 per 10,000 in 1908. In view of the necessity of increasing the plant, a tour was made to inspect the chief purification plants both in Europe and in America. England and the northern part of the States do not show many examples of river-waters of the Modder type, and appear to be admirably served by the “ fool-proof ’? method of sand-filtration. But in Egypt and in the southern States the author found many analogous cases in which extraordinary results were achieved by chemical precipitation followed by rapid mechanical filtration. He concludes that the extraordinary rapidity of the mechanical filtration is accompanied by no special risks of pollution when it is used intelligently in conjunction with a chemical precipitation process, and that in the case of non-settling waters, which can only be purified by such a precipitation, the rapid mechanical filtration is decidedly to be preferred on the ground of efficiency combined with economy. The paper will be read with interest by many who have been compelled to limit their observations of water purification to the some- what uniform which prevail in the water supplies of Great Britain. conditions Tue American Journal of Science for September con- tains an account of an important series of researches upon the complexity of tellurium, by Mr. W. R. Flint, of Yale University. The material used amounted to 500 grams of the redistilled metal; a series of five conversions of the basic nitrate 2TeO,.HNO, into the dioxide gave an atomic weight 127-45, with a maximum error 0-04. The material was fractionated by repeatedly precipitating the dioxide from solutions of the chloride by the addition of a large excess of water. Four precipitations reduced the atomic weight to 126-59, whilst ten precipitations gave the value 124-32 for a fraction amounting to 23 grams. This figure does not necessarily represent the lowest possible value for the atomic weight, but it agrees well with Mendeléeff’s prediction that the true value would be 123 to 126, and ‘‘ is apparently the nearest approach which has yet been made to the true atomic weight of the element tellurium.’’ The fractions less easily hydrolysed by water were also worked up, and yellow to green substances were isolated; these gave negative results when tested for the commoner elements, but gave nearly all the reactions of tellurium, and contain an unknown homologue. many perhaps Tue trials of H.M. second-class cruiser Bristol, com- pleted on September 27, form the subject of an illustrated article in Engineering for September 30. The Bristol is the first British ship tried with other than the Parsons type of turbine, her propelling machinery consisting of Curtis turbines of a special character designed by the builders, Messrs. John Brown and Co., of Clydebank. This firm has taken up the Curtis turbine on account of the following reasons :—(1) the potential advantages of acquiring experience with a type of marine turbine capable of using superheated steam, as in land _ installations ; (2) the attainment of economy at low powers, without the disadvantage of very close-fitting parts, and the extremely fine adjustments entailed thereby; and (3) the simplifica- NO. 2136, VoL. 84] tion of the connections and general engine-room arrange- ment, and also the expectation of attaining higher efficiency by an increase in size of the individual propellers. With characteristic thoroughness, the firm first constructed ex- perimental plant and conducted a lengthy research on several modifications of the Curtis turbine, the results of which are now embodied in the machinery of the Bristol. It is a pleasure to record that the result of this policy is that the Bristol on her official trials has secured the same mileage per unit of water consumption as has been obtained in the four ships of her class which preceded her, these having Parsons turbines, embodying the inventor’s latest improvements at the date of their construction. As this is the first Brown-Curtis installation, even better results may be looked for as the experience of the makers extends. ; Tue syndics of the University Press, Cambridge, have entered into an agreement with the directors of the Chicago University Press to undertake the publication and sale in England and in the British colonies of books issued by the Chicago University Press. This will apply to all future publications and, subject to certain existing arrange- ments, also to books already published. Tue October issue of the quarterly list of second-hand instruments which he has for sale or hire has been pub- lished by Mr. C. Baker, of 244 High Holborn, London. The catalogue contains details of 1635 pieces of apparatus, and is concerned with microscopes, surveying and draw- ing instruments, telescopes, spectroscopic apparatus, as well as instruments for use in the study of most other branches of physics. Messrs. H. F. Angus and Co., 83 Wigmore Street, London, have also sent a copy of their first catalogue of second-hand scientific apparatus and accessories. This department has been added to the busi- ness but recently, but the list shows that workers in science will find already a good selection of instruments likely to provide the apparatus of which they may be in search. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES IN OCTOBER :— October 7. 5h. 6m. to 6h. 23m. Moon occults 5 Scorpii (mag. 2°5). »> 10, Ith, 7m. Minimum of Algol (8 Perse). » 11. Mercury at greatest elongation west and visible as a morning star. »> 13. 7h. 56m. Minimum of Algol (8 Persei). ;, 18-22. Epoch of the October shooting stars (Ovzonds, radiant at 92°+15°). : s 26. 14h. 44m. to1sh. 5tm. Moon occults 7 Leonis (mag. 3°6). » 27. 22h. 52m. Venus and Jupiter in conjunction, Venus o 11’ N. », 29. 13h. 16m. Mercury and Jupiter in conjunction, Mercury o 21’ N. A Bricut Merrcor.—From a correspondent we have received the following particulars of a bright meteor seen at South Kensington during Monday night, October 3 :— Time, 12h. 50m.; approximate path, from 310°, +35°, to 294°, +35°; ze, about one-third diameter of moon; duration of flight, about three seconds; no trail; colour, whitish-vellow. Repiscovery OF Brooxs’s Pertopicat Comer (1889 V.), 19rod.—A telegram from the Kiel Centralstelle announces that Brooks’s periodical comet was rediscovered by Messrs. Aitken and Wilson, at the Lick Observatory, on Sep- tember 28. Its position at gh. 17-3m. (Lick M.T.) was R.A.=19h. 47m. 51s., dec.=28° 8’ 39” S., which agrees closely with the ephemeris by Prof. Bauschinger men- =" 2 © aaa 1 ———— atl lr aaa OcToBER 6, 1910] i “NALORE 439 tioned in these columns on September 8. This position lies in Sagittarius about 13° south-west of magnitude star w, and is on the meridian about 7.30 p.m. As the magnitude of the comet is given as 13-0, it is unlikely that observations in these latitudes will be possible for some time, but the southern declination is decreasing, and perihelion passage is not due until January 8, 1911. According to the ephemeris, the comet was at its nearest point to the earth early in August, and its present distance is about 155 million miles. Tue Luminosity of Comets.—As a reprint from Science, N.S., vol. xxxii.,. No. 817, we have received a paper in which Mr. W. L. Dudley discusses the causes which pro- duce luminosity in cometary bodies. According to the author’s reasoning, luminous comets are simply masses of Saseous matter illuminated by the heavy electric discharges constantly flowing from the sun to each of the planets. The “ionic breeze’’ thus produced renders the comet luminous, and at the same time brushes matter along with it to form the tail. Should the comet get into such a position as to be under the influence of two planets (kathodes) at the same. time, more than one tail is pro- duced by the streams of ions from the sun (anode). The author also offers explanations on this hypothesis for the production of multiple heads, the change of direction which sometimes takes place in the tail, and the polarisation of cometary light. CoLouRED STARS BETWEEN THE POLE AND 60° N. Deciination.—In continuation of previous lists, Herr Kriiger now publishes, in No. 4441 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, the North Pole and 60° N. declination. The list includes 1gt stars, and for each object gives the catalogue numbers, the colour on the Potsdam scale, Herr Kriger’s observed colour, on a scale where o&=white, 10%=red, the magnitude and the spectral type. Ninety-three of the stars lie within the colour-limits WG-G—, and are of the second and third types. OBSERVATIONS OF THE COMPANION OF Sirtus.—The observations of the companion of Sirius, made with the 40-inch refractor by Prof. Barnard during November 30, 1909, to March 15, are recorded in No. 617 of the Astro- nomical Journal. The values for position-angle and distance, for the mean epoch (1910-106), are 89-09° and 9-07" respectively. Tue Perse SHOWER, 1910.—In a note appearing in No. 617 of the Astronomical Journal Mr. E. F. Sawyer describes the meteor observations made by him at North Weymouth, Mass., on August 9, 11, 12, and 13. The hourly rates for one observer, covering one-sixth of the visible sky with the centre in Perseus, were 15, 15, 8, and 6 on these respective dates. The meteors generally were bright, and left streaks for one or two seconds; the radiant was found to be at 38-5°, +55-5°. A Mopiriep Metuop For Napir Opsservations.—In making the ordinary nadir observations, where a bright thread is made to coincide with its reflected image, there is always some little doubt as to when exact coincidence accurs. To obviate this difficulty, Mr. R. M. Stewart suggests a method where the reflected bright image is obliterated by a dark thread. Experiments made with the Ottawa meridian circle show that this method is simple, and gives greater accuracy than the older one. In making the observation, the bright reflected image and the illuminated thread are brought nearly to coincidence as usual, but the eye-piece, or attached plane mirror, is then slightly rotated so that the field becomes dark and the thread invisible, although the reflected image remains bright. A slight motion then causes the dark thread to occult the bright image, and it is stated that this opera- tion can be performed with much greater certainty than can the bringing into exact coincidence two bright lines (Journal R.A.S. Canada, vol. iv., No. 4). A New Mrcrometer.—Dr. Doberck describes a new micrometer in No. 4432 of the Astronomische Nachrichten NO. 2136, VOL. 84] the fifth- . a list of coloured stars which lie between made to his specifications by Messrs. Cooke and Son. In this instrument the frame carrying the wires is the only readily movable part, so that there is practically no fear of dragging, and the whole is built very rigidly and strongly, thus obviating any likelihood of derangement. The errors of the screw, as shown by an investigation involving 4000 settings, are extremely small, the correc- tions being considerably below the probable errors of setting on stars. The instrument is called the Elizabeth Thompson micrometer. Tue MEAN PARALLAX OF TENTH-MAGNITUDE STars.—From a number of measures, made during 1907-9, of the Engel- hardt companions of Bradley stars, Dr. E. Lau finds that the mean parallax of tenth-magnitude stars, taking Campbell’s value for the sun’s velocity, is 0-oo10"; this is smaller than the value found by Comstock. The value derived by Kapteyn’s method should be o-oo11", so that it would appear that these faint stars are not abnormal in constitution, nor is there indicated any marked absorp- tion in space (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 4430). HALLEY METEORS. Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer, Prof. Amherst College Observatory, N a communication to David Todd, of the writes as follows :— “So well established is the Schiaparelli-Newton theory of the connection between comets and meteors, that it is highly important to obtain, observations from every possible radiant, in order to ascertain whether there may be any that do not conform to the general law. “Particularly is it desirable to observe the meteors of the Halley stream. Prof. W. H. Pickering directed atten- tion to the possibility of observing such meteors early last May, when the earth was at its nearest, not to the comet, but to the comet’s orbit. Many astronomers kept an outlook for these meteors; and on the night of May 5-6 I made a balloon ascension for this purpose, with a certainty of clear skies, as the spring season had been especially cloudy. However, hardly more meteors than usual on a May night were seen, and none of them appeared traceable to the Halley radiant. Indeed, I had very little expectation of seeing Halley meteors on that occasion, as the region of the cometary orbit then nearest to us was that through which the comet had passed seventy-five years ago. “Quite different will be the conditions next month. On October 18 the earth is closest to that region of Halley’s orbit where the comet passed on March 13-15, 1910, and from which, therefore, it may be expected that many meteors will enter the earth’s atmosphere, as the comet has visited that region so recently. Very unfortunately, the moon fulls at just that time, so that all the faintest shooting stars would be lost. “Probably it will be well to begin the watch as early as October 15, as evidently the meteoric matter in this case is widely scattered along the comet’s path.’’ According to the Daily Mail of October 4, a very brilliant meteor is recorded to have been observed at Johannesburg on October 3. Perhaps this may be a forerunner of the swarm referred to by Prof. Todd. The account of this large meteor is as follows :— : ** JOHANNESBURG, Monday. “Johannesburg was startled at 8.50 this evening by the largest shooting star or meteor ever seen in the district. ““Its light was equal to that of a naval searchlight at fifty yards’ range. The sky was illumined for three minutes, and the streets were as light as if it were day. Natives were terrified, believing that the end of the world was at hand. ““The astronomical observers at the local observatory were nearly blinded. The director of the observatory estimated that. the meteor was only 150 miles from the earth. The head of the meteor, he says, was pear- shaped and half the size of the moon in diameter. The tail was straight at first, but afterwards turned towards { the south.”’ d 440 NATURE [OcTosrRr 6, 1910 THE AUTUMN MEETING OF THE IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE. HEN Buxton was selected as the locality for the autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute doubts were freely expressed as to the suitability of the choice. These doubts proved to be groundless, for the attendance of members was larger than usual, and visits to the Midland Railway works at Derby, the London and North-Western works at Crewe, and to the Staveley Iron Works afforded opportunities for instruction, while the beautiful weather conditions caused the Duke of Devon- shire’s garden-party at Chatsworth, and other excursions in Derbyshire, to be very successful and enjoyable func- tions. From a scientific point of view, the paper which attracted the most attention was that on the theory of hardening carbon steels, by C. A. Edwards, of Man- chester. As is well known, metallurgists have long been divided into two camps, the ‘‘carbonists’’ and the ‘* allotropists,”” and at times much heat has been intro- duced into the discussions which have taken place. The position advocated by Mr. Edwards is to an extent an intermediate one, as it is based on the assumption of the existence of three allotropic forms of iron, known as a, B, and y respectively. At the same time, the absolute necessity of carbon for true hardening is maintained. After a clear explanation of the elementary facts con- nected with the phase rule in its application to alloys in general, and particularly to the iron carbon series, the author concludes that the hardness of carbon steel is due to the retention, by quenching, of the solid solution of carbon, or carbide of iron, in y iron, and that the B-iron theory, as applied to the explanation of the increased hardness of steel, is untenable. The solid solution of carbon or carbide in y iron decomposes with slow rates of cooling, and some force must be applied to prevent inversion taking place. The force is mechanical, and is caused by the contraction of the outer shell. There is no constitutional difference between austenite and martensite, the apparent difference being due to the twinning of the y solid solution as a result of the mechanical pressure. In the discussion which followed the reading of this paper, Prof. Arnold warmly congratulated the author on his contribution, but contended that more facts were re- quired before generalisations were accepted, and pointed out that the cooling curves as given by himself, and con- firmed at Charlottenburg, did not agree with those pub- lished by Dr. Carpenter. The latter stated that the difference was not one of observation, but of methods of recording and of interpretation. Prof. Turner asked for evidence of twinning, and suggested that twinning in crystalline rocks or in the brasses | was the result of annealing after pressure, but that in the hardening of steels there was no such annealing. Two papers which also led to an interesting discussion were taken together, and dealt, inter alia, with the changes on the length of cast-iron bars when cooling in a sand mould. These papers were entitled ‘‘ The influence of Silicon on the Properties of Pure Cast Iron,’’ by A. Hague and Prof. T. Turner, and ‘‘ Manganese in Cast Iron, and the Volume Changes during Cooling,’’ bv H. I. Coe. It was pointed out that in Prof. Turner’s original papers on silicon in cast iron, published in 1885, the materials used were relatively impure, and though the results have been confirmed by very extended practical application, it was thought well to start with the purest available materials and to observe the temperature and contraction changes and the microstructure, which had not been examined in the earlier tests. White iron, when free from elements other than carbon, shows only two slight arrests in the rate of contraction, and these corre- snond with the eutectic and the pearlite points respectively. On adding silicon or manganese, the iron, though still white, expands during and immediately after solidification. With more silicon the carbon is thrown out of solution, and a marked additional expansion occurs. Though much manganese tends to make iron white, about 0-5 per cent. of manganese, in presence of silicon, produces more secondary graphite, and thus lowers the combined carbon. In the manganese series of white iron the expansions form NO. 2136, VOL. 84] a regular curve with the percentages of manganese, and -minima. are found corresponding with the existence of four definite carbides. In the grey-iron series the expansions were relatively large, and the pearlite point disappeared suddenly with about 3-5 per cent. of manganese. In the discussion references were made to the great detail involved in such an inquiry, and to the need of further work and generalisation. In a paper by S. Hilpert and E. Colver-Glauert, sulphurous acid was recommended as an etching agent for metallographic work. The acid is used as a saturated solution of sulphurous acid in water. It should be free from sulphuric acid, and should be diluted with water to about 3 or 4 per cent. of such acid. The time taken is said to vary from seven seconds to one minute. S. Hilpert, of Berlin, submitted a useful note on the preparation of magnetic oxides of iron from aqueous solutions, and stated that the production of Fe,O, from aqueous solution is only possible through the pre- cipitated FeO dissolving in the ammoniacal residue. The true magnetic oxide is Fe,O, in the form of ferric ferrate, and the magnetic properties of Fe,O, have their source in the acid properties of Fe,O,. The remaining papers of a varied programme dealt with briquetting iron ores, electric power and electric steel refining, the Hanyang iron works in China, the produc- tion of rolled H beams, and experiments on fatigue in metals. THE GEOLOGICAL CONGRESS AT STOCKHOLM. HE eleventh International Geological Congress in Stockholm from August 17-25 has been generally pronounced by the members to have been one of the most successful yet held. There was an attendance of about goo, including representatives of all European countries except Portugal, of Australia, China, and Japan, and a_ distinguished contingent from America. The excursions at this congress have been unusually various and instructive, and they were heartily enjoyed, thanks to their skilful organisation and management. Before the meeting there were excursions to Spitsbergen, Lap- land, and central Sweden; during it to the Archzan areas and glacial deposits around Stockholm and Upsala, and to the classical Silurian sections at Gothland; and after it to the chief iron fields and areas of geological interest in southern Sweden. The library of guide-books issued for the excursions forms an invaluable summary of the field geology of Sweden. The Swedes as a people are charac- terised by the thoroughness of their work and the charm of their manners; the foreign visitors return impressed by the excellence of Swedish contributions to geology and with pleasant memories of the hospitable reception from all classes, from the* gracious courtesy with which the King and Queen received us in the palace to the smiling welcome of the peasants in the field. So much work was done at the congress that no adequate account of it can be given in a short notice. Five sections and various commissions and committees met simultaneously.! The discussions were sometimes not influential, for they often followed the reading of several disconnected papers, and many of the speeches were rather further contributions to the subject-matter than discussions of the papers that had been submitted. The first formal meeting of the congress was held on August 18, when the honorary president, H.R.H. Prince Gustave Adolphe, welcomed the congress in a graceful speech, referring to the dependence of mining on geology and the increasing importance of science now that it is devoting more attention to practical questions. The King of Sweden then declared the congress open. Prof. de Geer was installed as president, and gave a lecture on ‘“The Geochronology of the last 12,000 Years.’”’ He re- marked the complete failure of previous attempts to measure geological time in years, and described his determination of the length of post-glacial time in the Stockholm dis- trict. He noticed there that the marine post-glacial clays 1 For notes on some of the meetings the writer is indebted to Prof. Hobbs, Prof. Cole, and Dr. J. W. Evans. OcTOBER 6, 1910} NATURE 44t thad been deposited in regular layers, which differ in colour and composition; the same succession is repeated time after time, with layers of varying thickness. He early suspected that each cycle in this series might repre- sent one year’s deposition, the layers laid down in the summer being thicker, as the floods then carried most mineral matter to the sea, and being brawn owing to oxidisation, the autumnal layers being thinner and also blacker, owing to the higher percentage of organic matter. Near Stockholm there are many small linear moraines, each line of which he thought might be the terminal moraine deposited in one year. After thirty years’ work he has discovered, by the correlation of the evidence of the seasonally banded clays, of the northward advance of their successive layers as they followed the receding ice front, of the annual moraines, and of the annual delta deposits laid down at the mouths of glacial rivers, that the retreat of the ice from Scandinavia was more rapid and less ancient than had been thought. The ice covered the site of Stockholm only a few thousand years ago, and withdrew at the rate of 200 metres a year. The latter part of the lecture was abridged, but Prof. de Geer announced that at Ragunda he had found a section which showed the full sequence of clays, from a layer formed in 1796, through a succession of lake clays and a fjord clay, to the seasonally banded clays deposited along the front of the receding ice-sheet; and, according to his determination, the ice receded from Ragunda only 7000 years ago. Prof. de Geer concluded his lecture with expressions of hope that the application of his method would allow of positive proof whether the glaciations of Seandinavia, the British Isles, and North America were synchronous. Prof. Van Hise then delivered a lecture on ‘‘ The In- fluence of Applied Geology and the Mining Industry upon the Economic Development of the World.’’ He confined his lecture to the conservation of natural resources, and considered mainly the cases of iron and coal, as_ the failure of other metals would involve only minor readjust- ments. The working of coal and iron on a large scale introduced the industrial revolution of the nineteenth _century, and gave commercial supremacy to countries endowed with both minerals. A civilisation can exist without iron; but a man with a wooden plough could till only one-tenth as much as with an iron plough, and hence the exhaustion of iron would mean that countries would support much smaller populations. The supply of high-grade iron ores will not last long in the chief iron- producing countries, but the quantities of low-grade ores are so immense that the total failure of iron ores is practically out of the question. Moreover, much of the iron extracted is available for all time. The coal ques- tion is more serious, as fuel when burnt is gone for ever, and the supply is so limited that it cannot last indefinitely. At the present rates of consumption, the coal in Britain and Germany may last from 500 to 1000 years, and the United States has sufficient for 6000 years; but if the consumption continues to increase at its recent rate all the coal in seams that can be worked under existing con- ditions will be used in 150 years; within 100 years rising prices will force men to turn to other sources of power— natural gas, petroleum, tides, and the sea; these, though all possible sources of power, are too expensive. The only perennial source of cheap power is water. The industrial future lies with countries rich in iron ores and water- power. Scandinavia has both, and it is especially favoured, as its recent glaciation has left so many lake basins, which provide easy water storage and the uniform discharge most suitable for the production of power. Prof. van Hise made an earnest appeal to men of science to ask how long our natural resources can last, and to protest against needless waste. Primitive man and any philosopher at the beginning of the nineteenth century would have felt confident that natural resources would last indefinitely. But it is now manifest that new prin- the conservation of our mineral ciples must apply to supplies, and it is our manifest duty to leave our descendants a fair sharé, so that they may enjoy the comfort and leisure necessary for the intellectual develop- ment by which they can attain the godlike destiny of man. NO. 2136, VOL. 84] Iron Ore Supplies. The question of the iron ore supplies of the world was subsequently considered in a conference opened by the Prime Minister of Sweden, M. Lindman, who declared the conservation of iron ores to be more necessary than of coal, as water supply offers a permanent source of power and heat. He stated the measures adopted by Sweden to limit the export of its high-grade ores; they appear to amount to the future nationalisation of the chief iron mines. Prof. Sjogren regarded the iron ore reserves as practic- ally inexhaustible, and he added some fresh data to those announced in the report on the iron ore reserves of the world. Estimates received from Mr. Inouye, of Japan, show that the reports as to the unlimited iron ores in China are without adequate foundation. According to Prof. Sjogren, the best idea as to the amount of ore avail- able in the less known regions of the world can be learnt by multiplying the area by a factor obtained by dividing the ore reserves, actual and potential, of Europe, the United States, and Japan, by their total area. On that assumption the ore supply available is 425,000 million tons. Prof. Beyschlag defended the estimates of German ore supplies prepared for the congress from some _ recent criticisms, and proposed a commission to secure official evidence as to the ore reserves of the United States and the chief iron-producing countries. M. de Launay, on the other hand, issued a warning against a serious possible source of loss, which is often disregarded by the advocates of conservation. There are in Europe vast quantities of low-grade ores, distant from supplies of fuel or power, that could not be worked in competition with the high-grade ores of many countries not yet iron-producing. If the European low-grade ores are not used now, in fifty years’ time they will probably be useless. M. de Launay claimed, therefore, that under such conditions the sound policy is to accelerate by all means the production of these ores. Prof. J. F. Kemp also repudiated the fears of an iron famine. He predicted a diminished demand on iron ores, as we are now passing from the age of steel to the age of cement, and also further discoveries of ores, such as that in Cuba, which will probably lead to the establish- ment of large iron works on the Atlantic coast of America. He insisted that the critical point with iron is not the supply of ore, but the exhaustion of the coking coals. Even if all the heat be supplied by electricity, half a ton of coking coal will still be required for the reduction of a ton of ore. The only speaker in the discussion, Prof. J. W. Richards, of Lehigh, also agreed that the danger is with the coking coal, and he suggested a commission on the supplies of this material. Glacial Erosion. The first sectional discussion was on glacial erosion, under the chairmanship of M. de Margerie. Papers were contributed by Profs. Hégbom, Penck, Davis and Reusch, and Dr. Nordenskiold, and in the discussion speeches were made by Profs. Wahnschaffe, Baltzer, Heim and Salomon, Dr. G. F. Becker, and Dr. Sederholm. Prof. Penck, in an eloquent summary of his paper, explained the evidence which has led him to attribute the main work in the formation of Alpine valleys to the action of ice. Prof. Davis insisted on the importance of the physiographic study of the question, and the comparison of never glaciated mountains, taken as the ‘‘ norm’? of mountain form, with those that have been glaciated: he advocated the formation of cirques by the “‘ plucking ’? away of the rocks at the head of a valley, until the whole mpuntain ridge at the head of the valley may be torn away. Prof. Higbom, while advocating the erosive power of ice, remarked the difficultv of explaining some Swedish valleys that had been filled with ice. which had not removed their soft, pre-glacial deposits. Prof. Wahnschaffe referred to cases where ice had covered soft deposits, and had not even shifted boulders lving on them. Prof. Reusch described the glaciated valleys near Christiania, which he thought were pre-glacial, and con- 442 NAT CU, [OcTOBER 6, 1910 trasted the effect of low-level ice in deepening and mould- ing valleys with the planing effect of high-level ice. The powerful influence of pre-glacial structures in determining the course and character of ice-worn valleys was also maintained by Dr. Becker, who attributed the Yosemite and other valleys in the Sierra Nevada to the existence of a vast system of joints, the decomposed rocks along which have been removed by ice. Dr. Nordenskjold insisted that long straight valleys like fjords can only be due to ice erosion. The adjourned discussion, with Prof. Wahnschaffe in the chair, was opened by Prof. Salomon, of Heidelberg, who remarked that erosion must take place where a glacier presses firmly on the ground; but we must wait for the ice to withdraw before we can study its effects, just as we have to wait for the dissection of a volcano before we can see what has been going on in the depths. He had seen cause fo change his mind, and to accept the potency of glaciers as eroding agents, especially where the rock-structures lend themselves to ‘“‘ plucking.” Joints in igneous rocks are not always evenly distributed, and thus one part of the same mass may show erosion while another resists. The suggestion of the action of freezing water in the rock-joints under a glacier deserves full consideration. Dr. von Dechy, from his studies in the Caucasus, urged that much seeming erosion was due to the clearing out of previously filled valley floors and of lake basins by glaciers, and by catastrophic glacier-slides. Prof. Wahnschaffe remarked that the Caucasian area was not comparable with that north of the Alps, since no great Piedmont glacier had formed north of the Caucasus. Prof. Heim, in a vigorous speech, said the rock-surfaces were palimpsests of river action and glacier action, and the work of each was thus obscured. While stream action concentrates itself in a portion of the valley floor, a glacier spreads too widely to compare with it in erosive power. So-called ‘‘ plucked ’’ masses had often merely fallen from above on to the ice, and had come out below. Glaciers have overriden Alpine landslides, but even then without carrying many blocks away. The broad, rounded form of glacier valley floors may even be due to the wandering of a previous stream from side to side within its valley walls. Then comes a glacier, and gives a final touch to the form, overriding the taluses of a previous age at either side. Prof. Hégbom, of Upsala, regarded the great chalk masses, said to have been moved in northern Germany and elsewhere by glacial erosion, as having been prepared by fractures. He compared a great glacier to the over- thrust mass in mountain-building, and the ground moraine to the breccia along the thrust plane. Erosion must be greatest under the vertical nose of an advancing glacier, and not much under the glacier as a whole. Prof. E. Stolley, of Brunswick, said the German chalk masses represented genuine plucking and pushing forward. Lakes due to glacial erosion occur even in the North German plain. Prof. Reusch confessed, like Salomon, to having changed his mind. He answered an objection in Heim’s speech by showing how a glacier must leave some up- standing masses in its floor, and cannot be expected to plane all equally away. Prof. Penck, on closing the dis- cussion, accepted excavating action of subglacial streams, especially along valley sides, and urged that the only differences between Prof. Heim and himself were now really quantitative. The Pre-Cambrian Fauna, The discussion on the sudden appearance of the varied Cambrian fauna showed the firm belief in the evidence of pre-Cambrian life as contended by Prof. Barrois from the graphite of Brittany, by Dr. Sederholm from traces of pre-Cambrian fossils in Finland, and by Prof. Roth- pletz from the oolitic pebbles and organic traces in the pre-Cambrian conglomerates of Sweden. The discussion showed a general agreement as to the influence of the absence of carnivorous organisms from the pre-Cambrian seas. Thus, according to Dr. J. W. Evans, creatures then had no need of defensive structures, and according to Dr. R. A. Daly there was, for the same reason, an accumu- lation of decomposing organic matter in the early seas, and the resultant ammonium carbonate led to the precipitation NO. 2136, VOL. 84] of the pre-Cambrian limestones; Profs. Sollas and Stein- mann both thought that the early organisms had no hard parts, which developed as the organisms became more complex. Prof. Walther suggested that the pre-Cambrian sea consisted of isolated basins, the waters of which differed in chemical composition, and that organisms living in water rich in silica secreted siliceous skeletons, those in water rich in carbonate of lime formed calcareous shells; the phosphatic skeletons of trilobites and some brachiopods were due to life in a sea rich in phosphate, and chitinous shells were developed in fresh-water basins. In the section on general and regional geology, Dr. Evans exhibited an elaborate and ingenious model to illustrate the movements along the line of the San Andreas fault during the recent Californian earthquake. It is constructed of two sets of flexible wooden strips held together by strings at their common edge; the one part was subjected to slow lateral stresses, and suddenly re- leased from the strain by cutting the strings. Vibra- tions were thus set up, the amplitudes of which were greatest at the adjacent edges, and a musical note was produced through the friction of metal attachments. Dr. Evans believed the earthquake stresses to be of slow accumulation, the larger vibratory movements after release causing the sensible shocks, the frictional small tremors the sounds. Prof. Hobbs gave a lecture on ‘‘ The Fracture Systems of the Earth’s Crust,’’ and urged their international investigation, owing to their importance in relation to land sculpture, the course of rivers, the discovery of obscure faults, and earthquake disturbances. Prof. H. F. Reid discussed the results of a recent paper on the California earthquake, and exhibited a model similar in principle, but not in construction, to that of Dr. Evans. Dissent from his views as to the cause of the earthquake was expressed by Prof. Rothpletz, Dr. Oldham, and the chair- man (Prof. Hobbs). An important paper by Prof. Tarr on the advance of glaciers in Alaska as a result of earthquake shaking indicated how the sudden advance and equally sudden subsequent stagnation of many Alaskan glaciers might be accounted for by masses of snow being shaken from the névé regions during the heavy earthquake of 1899. In discussing this paper, Prof. Frech showed how the ex- planation offered would account for the hitherto inexplic- able sudden advances of the glaciers of the Alps. Dr. H. Stille described the earth movements in the later rocks of north-western Germany, and showed the influence of the Paleozoic areas of the Rhine and the Harz. Pre-Cambrian Geology. The petrographic section met on Saturday, in the morn- ing under President van Hise, to consider the principles of pre-Cambrian geology and the cause of regional meta- morphism, and in the afternoon under M. Barrois, to discuss pre-Cambrian stratigraphic classification. There were fourteen papers and many speeches. The general result of the morning’s discussion was summarised at the close by Prof. Cole as showing the great advance in recent years of the views of Michel-Levy and Barrois as to the formation of crystalline schists by intense granitic injec- tions, which in recent years had been supported by Seder- holm in Finland and his own work in Donegal. These views were clearly expressed by a statement of the evidence from Brittany by Prof. Barrois. Prof. Adams opened the discussion by an account of the constant association with the crystalline schists of vast granitic batholites, to which he attributed the metamorphosis. Dr. Sederholm ex- hibited a map of a Finnish islet on the scale of one- twentieth of natural size, and he described the granitisa- tion of the pre-Cambrian sediments by injection with granite when the adjacent rocks were half melted and plastic. On the other hand, attention was directed to intrusive gneisses elsewhere which had a less metamorphic effect. Thus Prof. U. Grubenmann, of Zurich, contrasted the actions of the gneisses of Scandinavia and Finland with those of the Alps, which had done less in melting the adjacent rocks, but had a greater pneumatolitic effect. Prof. Coleman described the alteration of conglomerates at Sudbury, Ontario, into rocks that had been mapped as | _OcTOBER 6, 1910} NATURE 443 Laurentian gneisses, and contrasted the slight meta- morphism of the Lower MHuronian conglomerates of Cobalt with their alteration into gneiss at Michipicoten by infolding with Keewatin batholites. Dr. Lane stated the three possible sources of the gneissic rocks known as the Laurentian, and from a com- parison of the size of their constituents with those of the adjacent rocks concluded that the Laurentians must be due to the ascent of deep-seated fluid material. In the afternoon meeting various subdivisions of the pre-Cambrian rocks were advocated. Mr. W. G. Miller explained the classification used by the Geological Survey of Ontario, which adopts three main divisions: the Keweenawan for the upper sandstones, the Huronian for the underlying schists, quartzites, &c., and the Laurentian- Keewatin for the basal complex. Prof. Coleman objected to the retention of Laurentian except as a temporary 2onvenience, since the Laurentian are intrusive rocks of various ages. Dr. Sederholm explained the classification he had adopted for Finland and Scandinavia, where the pre-Cambrian system is broken up by great unconformities into divisions, each of which he thought from its thick- ness must correspond to the groups, and not to the systems, of the post-Cambrian rocks. He objected to the zerms previously used, and proposed to call the pre- Cambrian rocks the Progonozoic, and to divide them into three divisions, the Archeo-, Meso-, and Nzo-progonozoic. Another case of supposed Palaeozoic schists proving to be pre-Cambrian was described by Prof. J. F. Kemp from evidence displayed during recent work for the New York water supply. President van Hise supported the threefold division of the pre-Cambrians, and Mr. Fermor the twofold division found more convenient in India, and referred to Sir Thomas Holland's term Purana for the non-foliated pre- Cambrian sediments. Miss Raisin directed attention to the analogous case in the English Midlands, and to Lap- worth’s term Uriconian for the comparatively unaltered pre-Cambrian volcanic series. The petrographic section, under the presidency of Dr. Teall, devoted a morning to discussion of the principles of rock classification. Prof. Adams exhibited photographs of the structures he had produced in rocks, including the formation of flaser gabbro or augen gneiss by pressure at temperatures of 450° F. No fresh minerals were produced, but by mechanical movements the material of a massive diabase was rearranged as a gneiss. _ Prof. Vogt urged the claim of eutectics as a factor in rock classification. Dr. A. L. Day explained the aims and methods of the researches on mineral formation and stability conducted in the Carnegie Institute, and expressed confidence that their methods could in time be applied to even such complex mixtures as ordinary rocks. Dr. Whitman Cross defended the quantitative system of rock classification from recent criticisms, and said that the other systems were only less arbitrary in the degree that they were less definite. He referred to Becke’s petro- graphic types—the Atlantic and Pacific—as based on dis- tinctions that could not be sharply defined. Dr. Evans repeated his criticisms on the quantitative system, and the general discussion was continued by Dr. Benett, Prof. Koenigsberger, and Prof. Tschirwinsky. Meetings of the other sections were devoted to tectonic geology, especially of Switzerland, to the causes of the Ice age, to polar geology, applied geology, stratigraphy, and palzontology. At the final meeting it was decided that the next meet- ing, in 1913, should be in Canada, and the hope expressed that the meeting in 1916 should be in Belgium. THE THOMAS YOUNG ORATION. ROF. R. W. WOOD, in delivering the Thomas Young Oration at the Optical Society on Thursday, Sep- tember 29, described some apparatus with which he has been experimenting recently. The first of these, which he calls the echelette grating, is an instrument occupying a position between the echelon and the ordinary diffraction grating. It is a grating ruled with a crystal of carbor- undum on gold deposited on copper; the carborundum has the advantage over a diamond point of having perfectly NO. 2136, VOL. 84] straight sides meeting at an angle of 120°. The spacing is about ten times as coarse as usual. No metal is removed in ruling, but the gold is compressed so as to form ridges and hollows. The sides of these ridges are highly polished and almost optically flat. Such a grating may have various faults, such as having a flat or irregular top to the ridges, or the sides of one groove may be deformed in ruling the next; tests to determine whether the grating is free from faults were described. A variety of gratings is obtained by altering the posi- tion of the crystal in ruling; thus some gratings have their two sides equally inclined to the surface of the plate, and in others there are inequalities in the inclinations of various magnitudes. The gratings thus obtained, with a known form of groove, have been used to determine the causes which throw the greater part of the light of a definite wave-length into one particular spectrum. These gratings bear the same relation to heat waves that the ordinary diffraction grating bears to light waves; thus they are specially suitable for use in investigations into radiant energy, being many times more eflicient than prisms of rock salt. Diagrams were shown which demon- strated the greater resolving power of the grating com- pared with the rock-salt prism. A number of gratings were exhibited, and some of the tests for detecting faults were shown. A demonstration was also given of the ability of these gratings to concentrate the light of a definite colour into a particular spectrum. Prof. Wood next described his mercury telescope, in which the mirror is a_ vessel containing mercury, the surface of which is made to assume a steady parabolic form by rotation under gravity. The practical difficulties to be overcome in preventing ripples on the mercury surface due to vibration or to a very slight obliquity in the axis of rotation were described. The mercury vessel is mounted on an axis with two conical bearings, and the whole mount is placed on a stand with levelling screws. To avoid the excessive friction due to conical bearings, the greater part of the weight is taken by a steel ball under the centre of the objective. A magnetic drive was first attempted, but was abandoned in favour of a mechanical connection consisting of half a dozen fine threads of pure elastic, thus any vibrations in the motor are absorbed by the elastic threads. Some star trails taken with the instrument in and out of adjustment were described. Finally, some photographs of landscapes taken with infra-red light were shown. THE POLAR ESKIMOS.* ANTHROPOLOGISTS are now beginning to realise the necessity of supplementing the methods of a general ethnographic survey by a more intensive study of smaller groups within limited areas. A good example of this class of investigation is provided by the account of the Polar Eskimos by Dr. H. P. Steensby, who was a member of the expedition commissioned by the Danish Missionary Society in 1909 to establish a station in Greenland. The tribe known as the Polar Eskimos occupies the west side of the Hayes Peninsula, extending from north- west Greenland towards the west between the Kane Basin in the north and the Melville Sound in the south. At present they number about two hundred souls. Compared! with the people of the more southerly west Greenland,, they appear to be a different race, the Mongolian type prominent in the latter region being here replaced by that called by Dr. Steensby the Indian. The so-called’ Mongolian racial characters, the low nose, oblique eyes, flat face, broad and large cheek-bones, are more prominent in the women than in the men. The skull is of the dolichocephalic class. The skin has always a yellowish ground-colour, and the so-called ‘‘ Mongolian spot ’’ is present.in the sacro-lumbar region of children. Much of the existing culture of the tribe seems to be due to the emigration of a body of their kinsmen from the coasts of North Devon and Ellesmere Land in the early ’sixties, and they present the almost unique condi- 1 “Contributions to the Ethnology and Anthropogeography of the Polar Eskimos.” By Dr. H. P. Steensby. Pp. 253—406. (Copenhagen: Bianco- Luno, 1910.) 444 tion that during the comparatively short period since they came under European observation they have risen from practically the lowest to a comparatively high stage of culture. Kane, who in the early fifties first described them, found that they possessed little iron or wood, using sledge-runners of bone and pieces of barrel-hoops as knives. They did not hunt the reindeer, and were ignorant of the use of the bow and arrow; they could not catch salmon, and did not use the kayak. These cultural deficiencies were certainly survivals of their primitive social condition. During the ’sixties, however, they learned from emigrants from the American side of Smith’s Sound the art of rein- deer hunting, the use of the bow and arrow, skill in salmon catching, and the mode of building kayaks and hunting from them. The leader of this party of foreigners, Kridlarssuark, has now become the legendary culture hero. Finally, in 1891, Peary began his intercourse with them, which enabled them to obtain in exchange for their fox and bear skins the finest American weapons, with the result that the rapid destruction of game will probably soon destroy their main source of livelihood. Even up to the time of Peary’s first visit stone knives and axes were in use, and they used to make rude implements with cutting edges of meteoric iron, the source of which was discovered by Peary during a later expedition in 1894. Even now they make their harpoon points of iron with a head-piece of bone, and they work iron with much skill with the files they used for the older material. A similar course of evolution may be traced in the con- struction of their houses. In their original home they must have used whale-ribs for the support of the roof. Wood of sufficient span being now not procurable, they have, while retaining the primitive plan, adopted a new device for supporting the roof, planned on the model of the cantilever. With this modern and fairly advanced culture the Polar Eskimo combines many savage characteristics. He is, says Dr. Steensby, ‘‘a confirmed egoist, who knows nothing of disinterestedness. Towards his enemies he is crafty and deceitful; he does not attack them openly, but indulges in back-biting ; he will not meet his deadly enemy face to face, but will shoot or harpoon him from behind.” They practise a rude form of justice. One man, because he was a notorious liar, was summarily killed by two chiefs, one of whom annexed the wife of the deceased. We have said enough to show the interest and value of this account of a little known tribe. It is illustrated by characteristic sketches, the work of an Eskimo woman, which in style closely resemble the Bushman drawings recently published under the editorship of Mr. H. Balfour. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT SHEFFIELD. SECTION I. PHYSIOLOGY. Openinc Appress BY Pror. A. B. Macatium, M.A., M.B., PHD OCD slau skies. 90 | ERESIDENT sO snk SECTION. Tue record of investigation of the phenomena of the life of animal and vegetable cells for the last eighty years constitutes a body of knowledge which is of imposing magnitude and of surpassing interest to all who are con- cerned in the studies that bear on the organic world. The results won during that period will always constitute, as they do now, a worthy memorial of the intense enthusiasm of the scientific spirit which has been a dis- tinguishing feature of the last six decades of the nine- teenth century. We are to-day, in consequence of that activity, at a point of view the attainment of which could not have been predicted half a century ago. This body of knowledge, this lore which we call cyto- logy, is still with all this achievement in one respect an undeveloped science. It is chiefly—nay, almost wholly— concerned with the structural or morphological side of the cell, while of the functional phenomena our knowledge is only of the most general kind, and the reason is not far to seek. What little we know of the physiological side of the cell—as, for example, of cellular secretion, absorption, and nutrition—has only to a very limited extent been the outcome of observations directed to that end. It is in NO. 2136, VOL. 84] NATURE | OcToBER 6, I910_ very great part the result of all the inferences and generalisations drawn from the data of morphological re- search. This knowledge is not the less valuable or the less certain because it has been so won, but simply because of its source and of the method by which we have gained it; it is of a fragmentary character, and therefore less satisfactory in our estimation. _ This state of our knowledge has affected—or, to express it more explicitly, has fashioned—our concept of living matter. When we think of the cell it is idealised as a morphological element only. The functional aspect is not ignored; but we know very little about it, and we veil our ignorance by classing its manifestations as vital phenomena. It is true that in the last twenty years, and more par- ticularly in the last ten, we have gathered something from biochemical research. We know much concerning ferment or catalytic action, of the physical characters of colloids, of the constitution of proteins, and their synthesis in the laboratory promises to be an achievement of the near future. We are also in a position to understand a little more clearly what happens in proteins when, on decomposition in the cell, they yield the waste products, urea, and other metabolites, with carbon dioxide and water. Further, fats can be formed in the laboratory from glycerine and fatty acids, a large number of which have also been synthesised, and a very large majority of the sugars of the aldohexose type have been built up from simpler compounds. These facts indicate that some of the results of the activity of animal and vegetable cells may be paralleled in the laboratory, but that is as far as the resemblance extends. The methods of the laboratory are not as yet those of nature.. In the formation of carbo- hydrates, for example, the chlorophyll-holding cell makes use of processes of the most speedy and effective character, but nothing of these is known to us except that they are quite unlike the processes the laboratory employs in the artificial synthesis of carbohydrates. Nature works unerringly, unfalteringly, with an amazing economy of material and energy, while ‘‘ our laboratory syntheses are but roundabout ways to the waste sink.” In consequence, it is customary to regard living matter as unique—sui generis, as it were, without an analogue or parallel in the inorganic world—and the secrets involved in its actions and activities as insoluble enigmas. Impelled by this view, there are those, also, who postu- late as an explanation for all these manifestations the intervention in so-called living matter of a force other- wise and elsewhere unknown, biotic or vital, the action of which is directed, according to the character of the structure through which it operates, to the production of the phenomena in question. Living protoplasm is, in this view, but a mask and a medium for action of the un- known force. This is an old doctrine, but it has again made head- way in recent years owing to the reaction from the enthusiasm which came from the belief that the applica- tion of the known laws of physics and chemistry in the study of living matter would explain all its mysteries. A quarter of a century ago hopes were high that the solution of these problems would soon be found in a more profound comprehension of the laws of the «physical world. Since then there has been an extraordinary in- crease in our knowledge of the structure and of the pro- ducts of the activity of living matter without a correspond- ing increase in knowledge of the processes involved. The obscurity still involving the latter appears all the greater because of the high lights thrown on the former. Despair, in consequence, has taken the place of hope with some, and the action of a mysterious force is invoked to explain a mystery. It may be admitted that our methods of investigation are very inadequate, and that our knowledge of the laws of matter, seemingly comprehensive, is not at present profound enough to enable us to solve all the problems involved in the vital phenomena. The greatest factor in the difficulty of their solution, however, has been the fact that there has been a great lack of investigators specially trained, not only in biology, but also in physics and chemistry, for the very purpose of attacking intelli- gently such problems. The biologists, for want of such a OcTOBER 6, 1910] NATURE 445 wide training, have emphasised the morphological aspect and the readily observable phenomena of living matter ; while the physicist and chemist, knowing little of the morphology of the cell and of its vital manifestations, have been unable to apply satisfactorily the principles of their sciences to an understanding of its processes. The high degree of specialism which certain departments of biology has in recent years developed has made that difficulty greater than it was. It must also be said that in some instances in which the physicist and chemist attempted to aid in the solution of biological problems the result, on the whole, has not been quite satisfactory. In, for example, the phenomena of osmosis, the application of Arrhenius’s theory of ionisa- tion and van ’t Hoff’s gas theory of solutions promised at first to explain all the processes and the results of diffusion through animal membranes. These theories were supported by such an array of facts from the side of physics and physical chemistry that there appeared to be no question whatever regarding their universal validity, and their application in the study of biological phenomena was urged with acclaim by physical chemists and eagerly welcomed by physiologists. The result in all cases was not what was expected. Diffusion of solutes, according to the theories, should, if the membrane is permeable to them, always be from the fluid where their concentration is high to that in which it is low. This appears to happen in a number of instances in the case of living membranes—or, at least, we may assume that it occurs—but in one signal instance, at least, the very reverse normally obtains. In the kidney, membranes formed of cells constituting the lining of the glomeruli and the renal tubules separate the urine, as it is being formed, from the blood plasma and the lymph circulating through the kidney. Though the excreted fluid is derived from the plasma and lymph, it is usually of much greater osmotic concentration than the latter. It may be urged that this and other discrepancies are explained by the distribution (or partition) coefficient of the solutes responsible for the greater concentration of the product of excretion, these solutes being more soluble in the excreted medium than in the blood plasma, and distributing or diffusing themselves accordingly. If such a principle is applicable here as an explanation, it may be quite as much so in other physiological cases in which the results are supposedly due only to the forces postu- lated in the theories of van ’t Hoff and Arrhenius. Whether this be so or not, the central fact remains that the enthusiastic hopes with which the theories were applied by physiologists and biologists in the explanation of certain vital phenomena have not been wholly realised. The result has been a reaction amongst physiologists and biologists which has not been the least contributory of all the causes that have led to the present revival of vitalism. Another difficulty in accounting for the vital phenomena has been due, until recently, to a lack of knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of colloids and colloidal ‘‘ solutions.’’ The importance of this knowledge consists in the fact that protoplasm, ‘‘ the physical basis ”’ of life, consists mainly of colloids and water. Until eleven years ago, what was known regarding colloids was derived chiefly from the researches of Graham (1851-62), Ljubavin (1889), Barus and Schneider (1891), and Linder and Picton (1892-7), who were the pioneers in this line. In 1899 were published the observations of Hardy, through whose investigations very great progress in our know- ledge of colloids was made. In 1903 came the invention of the ultramicroscope by Siedentopf and Zsigmondy, by which the suspension character of colloid material in its so-called ‘* solutions ’’ was visually demonstrated. During the last seven years a host of workers have by their investigations greatly extended our knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of colloids, and now the science of Collochemistry bids fair, the more it develops, to play a very important part in all studies bearing on the constitution and properties of living matter. Then, also, there are the phenomena of surface tension. This force, the nature of which was first indicated by Segner in 1751, and described with more detail by Young in 1804 and Laplace in 1806 in the expositions of their NO. 2126. VOL. 841 theories of capillarity, was first in 1869 only casually suggested as a factor in vital processes by kngelmann. Since the latter date and until 1892, when Biitschli pub- lished his observations on protoplasmic movement, no serious effort was made to utilise the principle of this force in the explanation of vital phenomena. Even to-day, when we know more of the laws of surface tension, it is only introduced as an incidental factor in speculations regarding the origin of protoplasmic movement and muscular contraction, and yet it is, as I shall maintain later on in this address, the most powerful, the most important of all the forces concerned in the life of animal and vegetable cells. It may be gathered from all that I have advanced here that the chief defect in biological research has been, and is, the failure to apply thoroughly the laws of the physical world in the explanation of vital phenomena. Because of this too much emphasis is placed on the division that is made between the biological and the physical sciences. This division is very largely an artificial one, and it will in all probability be maintained eventually only as a con- venience in the classification of the sciences. The bio- logist and physiologist have to deal with problems in which a wide range of knowledge is necessary for their adequate treatment; and, if the individual investigator has not a very extensive training in the physical sciences, it is impossible for him to have at his command all the facts bearing on the subject of his research, unless the problem involved be a very narrow one. The lack of this wide knowledge of the physical sciences tends to specialism, and, as the specialism is ever growing, it will produce a serious situation eventually, for it will develop a condition in the scientific world in which coordination of effort and a broad outlook will be much more difficult than is the case now. This growing defect in the biological sciences can only be lessened by the insistence of those in charge of advanced courses in biological and physiological laboratories that only those whose training is of a very wide character should be allowed to take up research. It is, perhaps, futile to expect that such a rule will ever be enforced, for in the keen competition between universities for young teachers who have made some reputation for original investigation there may not be too close a scrutiny of the qualifications of those who offer themselves for post- graduate courses. There is, further, the difficulty that the heads of scientific departments are not desirous of limiting the output of new knowledge from their labora- tories by insisting on the wider training for the men of science who are in the process of developing as students of research. It is perhaps true, also, that there still remains a great deal unobserved or unrecorded in the fields of biology, physiology, and biochemistry, in the investigation of all of which a broad training is not specially required to give good service; and that, further, this condition will obtain for one or two decades still. It is quite as certain, how- ever, that the returns from such service will tend to diminish in number and value, and, if the coming genera- tion of workers is not recruited from a systematically and: broadly trained class of students, a period of com- parative sterility may supervene. As it is to-day, there are few who devote themselves to the direct study of the chemical and physical proper- ties of the cell, the fundamental unit of living matter. There are, of course, many who are concerned with the morphology of the cell, and who employ in their studies the methods of hardening and staining which have been of very great service in revealing the structural as well as the superficial chemical properties of the cell. On the facts so gained views are based which deal with the chemistry of the cell, and which are more or less widely accepted, but the results and generalisations drawn from them give us but little insight into the chemical con- stitution of the cell. We recognise in the morphologists’ chromatin a substance which has only in a most general way an individuality, while the inclusions in the nucleus and the cytoplasm, on the distinction by staining of which great emphasis is laid, can only in a most superficial way be classified chemically. The results of digestion experiments on the cell struc- 446 NATURE [OcTOBER 6, 1910 tures are also open to objection. The action of pepsin and hydrochloric acid must depend very largely on the accessibility of the material the character of which is to be determined. If there are membranes protecting cellular elements, pepsin, which is a colloid, if it diffuses at all, must in some cases, at least, penetrate them with difficulty. In Spirogyra, for example, the external mem- brane, formed of a thick layer of cellulose, is impermeable to pepsin, but not to the acid, and, in consequence, the changes which occur in it during peptic digestion are due fo the acid alone. Even in the cell the periphery of which is not protected by a membrane, the insoluble colloid material at the surface serves as a barrier to the free entrance of the pepsin. It is, however, more par- ticularly in the action on the nucleus and its contents that peptic digestion fails to give results which can be regarded as free from objection. Here is a membrane which during life serves to keep out of the nucleus, not only all inorganic salts, but also all organic compounds, except chiefly those of the class of nucleo-proteins. That such a membrane may, when the organism is dead, be per- meable to pepsin is at least open to question, and in consequence what we see in the nucleus after the cell has been acted on by pepsin and hydrochloric acid cannot be adduced as evidence of its chemical or even of its morpho- logical character. The results of digestive experiments on cells are, there- fore, misleading. What may from them appear as nucleo- protein may be anything but that, while, if the pepsin penetrates as readily as the acid, there should be left, not nucleo-protein, but pure nucleic acid, which should not stain at all. The objections which I now urge against the con- clusions drawn from the results of digestion experiments have developed out of my own observations on yeast cells, diatoms, Spirogyra, and especially the blue-green alge. The latter are, as is Spirogyra, encased in a membrane which is an effective barrier to all colloids. When, there- fore, threads of Oscillaria are subjected to the action of artificial gastric juice, a certain diminution in volume is observed owing to the dissolving power of .the hydro- ehloric acid, and an alteration of the staining power of certain structures is found to obtain; but the pepsin has nothing to do with these, as may be determined by examination of control preparations treated with a solu- tion of hydrochloric acid alone. It is thus seen how slender is our knowledge of the chemistry of cells derived from staining methods and from digestion experiments. That, however, has not been the worst result of our confidence in our methods. It has led cytologists to rely on these methods alone, to leave undeveloped others which might have thrown great light on the chemical constitution of the cell, and which might have enabled us to understand a little more clearly the causation of some of the vital phenomena. It was the futility of some of the old methods that led me, twenty years ago, to attack the chemistry of the cell from what appeared to me a correctly chemical point of view. It seemed to me then, and it appears as true now, that a diligent search for decisive chemical reactions would yield results of the very greatest importance. In ‘the interval I have been able to accomplish only a small fraction of what I hoped to do, but I think the results have justified the view that, if there had been many investigators in this line instead of only a very few, the science of Cytochemistry would play a larger part in the solution of the problems of cell physiology than it does now. The methods and the results are, as I have said, meagre, but they show distinctly indeed that the inorganic salts are not diffused uniformly throughout the cell, that in vegetable cells they are rigidly localised, while in animal cells, except those devoted to absorption and excretion, they are confined to specified areas in the cell. Their localisation, except in the case of inorganic salts of iron, is not due to the formation of precipitates, but rather to a condition which is the result of the action of surface tension. This seems to me to be the only explanation for the remarkable distribution, for example, of potash salts in vegetable cells. We know that, except. in the chloroplatinate of potassium and in the NO. 2136, vor. 841 hexanitrite of potassium, sodium and cobalt, potassium salts form no precipitates ; and yet, in the cytoplasm of vegetable cells, the potassium is so localised at a few points as to appear at first as if it were in the form of a precipitate. In normal active cells of Spirogyra it is massed along the edge of the chromotophor, while in the mesophylic cells of leaves it is condensed in masses of the cytoplasm, which are by no means conspicuous in ordinary preparations of these cells. This effect of surface tension in localising the distribu- tion of inorganic salts at points in the cytoplasm would explain the distribution of potassium in motor structures. In striated muscle the element is abundant in amount, and is confined to the dim bands in the normal conditions. In Vorticella, apart from a minute quantity present at a point in the cytoplasm, it is found in very noticeable amounts in the contractile stalk, while in the holotrichate infusoria (Paramecium) it is in very intimate association with the basal elements of the cilia in the ectosarc. This, indeed, would seem to indicate that the distribution of the potassium is closely associated with contraction, and, therefore, with the production of energy in contrac- tile tissues. The condensation of potassium at a point may, of course, be a result of a combination with por- tions of the cytoplasm, but we have no knowledge of the occurrence of such compounds; and, further, the presence of such does not explain anything or account for the liberation of energy in motor contraction. On the other hand, the action of surface tension would ex- plain, not only the localisation of the potassium, but also the liberation of the energy. In vessels holding fluids, the latter, in relation to surface tension, have two surfaces, one free, in contact with the air, and known as the air-water surface, the other that in contact with the wall of the containing vessel (glass). In the latter the tension is lower than in the former. When an inorganic compound—a salt, for example—is dissolved in the fluid it increases the tension at the air-water surface, but its dilution is much greater here than in any other part of the fluid, while at the other surface its concentration is greatest. In the latter case the condition is of the nature of adsorption. The condensation on that portion of the surface where the tension is least is responsible for what we find when a solution of a coloured salt, as, e.g., potassium perman- ganate, is driven through a layer of dry sand. If the latter is of some considerable thickness, the fluid as it passes out is colourless. The air-solution surface tension is higher than the tension of each of the solution-sand surfaces, on which, therefore, the permanganate condenses or is adsorbed. The same phenomenon is observed when a long strip of filter paper is allowed to hang with its lower end in contact with a moderately dilute solution of a copper salt. The solution is imbibed by the filter paper, and it ascends a certain distance in a couple of minutes, when it may be found that the uppermost por- tion of the moist area is free from even a trace of copper salt. If, on the other hand; an organic compound—as, for instance, one of the bile salts—instead of an inorganic compound is dissolved in the fluid, the surface tension of the air-water surface is reduced, and in consequence the bile salt is concentrated at that surface, while in the remainder of the fluid, and particularly in that portion of it in contact with the wall of the vessel, the concentra- tion is reduced. The distribution of a salt in such a fluid, whether it lowers surface tension or increases it, is due to the action of a Jaw which may be expressed in words to the effect that the concentration in a system is so adjusted as to reduce the energy at any point to a minimum. ; Our knowledge of this action of inorganic and organic substances on the surface tension in a fluid, and of the differences in their concentrations throughout the latter, was contained in the results of the observations on gas mixtures by J. Willard Gibbs, published in 1878. The principle as applied to solutions was independently dis- covered by J. J. Thomson in 1887. It is known as the Gibbs’ principle, although the current enunciations of it contain the more extended observations of Thomson. As formulated usually it is more briefly given, and its 2 OcroBEk 6, 1910| NATURE 447 essential points may be rendered in the statement that when a substance on solution in a fluid lowers the surface tension of the latter, the concentration of the solute is greater in the surface layer than elsewhere in the solu- tion; but when the substance dissolved raises the surface tension of the fluid, the concentration of the solute is least in the surface layers of the solution. It is thus seen how in a system like that of a drop of water with diflerent contact surfaces the surface tension is affected, and how this alters the distribution of solutes. It is further to be noted that for most organic solutes the action in this respect is the very reverse of that of inorganic salts. Consequently, in a living cell which con- tains both inorganic and organic solutes, and in which there are portions of different composition and density, the equilibrium may be subject to disturbance constantly through an alteration of the surface tension at any point. Such a disturbance may be found in a drop of an emulsion of olive oil and potassium carbonate in the well-known experiments of Butschli. When the emulsion is appro- priately prepared, a minute drop of it, after it is sur- rounded with water, will creep under the cover-glass in an amoeboid fashion for hours, and the movement will be more marked and rapid when the temperature is raised to 40° to 50° C. All the phenomena manifested are due to a lowering of the surface tension at a point on the surface, as a result of which there is protrusion there of the contents of the drop, accompanied, Butschli holds, by streaming cyclic currents in the remainder of the mass. Surface tension also, according to J. Traube, is all- important in osmosis, and he holds that it is the solution pressure (Haftdruck) of a substance which determines the velocity of the osmotic movement and the direction and force of the osmotic pressure. The solution pressure of a substance is measured by the effect that substance exercises when dissolved on the surface tension of its solution, or, to put it in Traube’s own way, the more a substance lowers or raises the surface tension of a solvent (water), the less or greater is the solution pressure (Haft- druck) of that substance. This solution pressure, Traube further holds, is the only force controlling osmosis through a membrane, and he rejects completely the bombardment effect on the septum postulated in the van ’t Hoff theory of osmosis. The question as to the nature of the factors concerned in osmosis must remain undecided until the facts have been more fully studied from the physiological point of view, but enough is now known to indicate that surface tension plays at least a part in it, and the omission of all con- sideration of it as a factor is not by any means a negligible defect in the van ’t Hoff theory of osmosis. The occurrence of variations in surface tension in the individual cells of an organ or tissue is difficult to demon- strate directly. We have no methods for that purpose, and, in consequence, one must depend on indirect ways to reveal whether such variations exist. The most effective of these is to determine the‘distribution of organic solutes and of inorganic salts in the cell. The demonstra- tion of the former is at present difficult, or even in some cases impossible. The occurrence of soaps, which are amongst the most effective agents in lowering surface tension, may be revealed without difficulty micro- chemically, as may also neutral fats, but we have as yet no delicate microchemical tests for sugars, urea, and other nitrogenous metabolites, and in consequence the part they play, if any, in altering the surface tension in different kinds of cells, is unknown. Further research may, how- ever, result in discovering methods of revealing their occurrence microchemically in the cell. We are in a like difficulty with regard to sodium, the distribution of which we can determine microchemically in its chief compounds, the chloride and phosphate, only after the exclusion of potassium, calcium, and magnesium. We have, on the other hand, very sensitive reactions for potassium, iron, calcium, haloid chlorine, and phosphoric acid, and with methods based on these reactions it is possible to localise the majority of the inorganic elements which occur in the living cell. By the use of these methods we can indirectly determine the occurrence of differences in surface tension in a cell. This determination is based on the deduction from the NO. 2136, VOL. 84] Gibbs-Thomson principle that, where in a cell an inorganic element or compound is concentrated, the surface tension at the point is lower than it is elsewhere in the cell. If, for example, it is concentrated on one wall of a cell, the surface tension there is less than on the remaining sur- faces or walls of the cell. The thickness of this layer must vary with the osmotic concentration in the cell, with the specific composition of the colloid material of the cyto- plasm and with the activity of the cell, but it should not exceed a few hundredths of a milimetre (0-02-0-04 mm.),, while it might be very much less in an animal cell the greatest diameter of which does not exceed 20 p. Numerous examples of such localisation may be observed in the confervoid protophyta. In Ulothrix, ordinarily, there is usually a remarkable condensation of the potassium at the ends of the cell on each transverse wall. The surface tension, on the basis of the deduction from the Gibbs-Thomson principle, should be, in all these cases, high on the lateral walls and low on those surfaces adjoin- ing the transverse septa. The use of this deduction may be extended. There are in cells various inclusions the composition of which gives them a different surface tension from that prevailing in the external limiting area of the cell. Further, the limit- ing portion of the cytoplasm in contact with these in- clusions must have surface tension also. When, therefore, we find by microchemical means that a condensation of an inorganic element or compound obtains immediately within or without an inclusion, we may conclude that there, as compared with the external surface of the cell, the surface tension is low. It may be urged that the condensation is due to adsorption only; but this objection cannot hold, for in the Gibbs-Thomson phenomena the localisation of the solute at a part of the surface as the result of high tension elsewhere of the solution is, in all probability, due to adsorption, and is indeed so regarded.’ It is in this way that we can explain the remarkable localisation of potassium in the cytoplasm at the margins of the chromatophor in Spirogyra, and also the extra- ordinary quantities of potassium held in or on the in- clusions in the mesophyllic cells of leaves. In infusoria (Vorticella, Paramoecium) the potassium present, apart from that in the stalk or ectosarc, is confined to one or more small granules or masses in the cytoplasm. ; How important a factor this is in clearing the active portion of the cytopiasm of compounds which might. hamper its action, a little consideration will show. In plants, very large quantities of salts are carried to the leaves by the sap from the roots, and among these salts those of potassium are the most abundant as a rule- Reaching the leaves, these salts do not return, and in consequence during the functional life of the leaves they accumulate in the mesophyllic cells in very large quanti- ties, which, if they were not localised as described in the cell, would affect the whole cytoplasm and alter its action. Enough has been advanced here to indicate that surface tension is not a minor feature in cell life. I would go even farther than this, ‘and venture to say that the energy evolved in muscular contraction, that also involved in secretion and excretion, the force concerned in the pheno- mena of nuclear and cell division, and that force also engaged by the nerve cell in the production of a nerve impulse, are ‘but manifestations of surface tension. On this view the living cell is but a machine, an engine, for transforming potential into kinetic and other forms of energy through or by changes in its surface energy. To present an ample defence of all the parts of the thesis just advanced is more than I propose to do in this address. That would take more time than is customarily allowed on such an occasion, and I have, in consequence, decided to confine my observations to outlines of the points as specified. It is not a new view that surface tension is the source of the muscular contraction. As already stated, the first to apply the explanation of this force as a factor in cellular movement was Engelmann in 1869, who advanced the view that those changes in shape of cells which are classed as contractile are all due to that force which is concerned in the rounding of a drop of fluid. The same view was expressed by Rindfleisch in 1880, and by Berthol@ 1 See Freundlich, ‘‘ Kapillarchemie,” p. 50, 190)- 448 NATORE ‘= [OcroBER 6, 1910 in 1886, who explained the protoplasmic streaming in cells as arising in local changes of surface tension between the fluid plasma and the cell sap, but he held that the movement and streaming of Amoeba and Plasmodiz are not to be referred to the same causes as operate in the protoplasmic streaming in plant cells. Quincke in 1888 applied the principle of surface tension in explaining all protoplasmic movement. In his view the force operates, as in the distribution of a drop of oil on water, in spread- ing protoplasm, which contains oils and soaps, over sur- faces in which the tension is greater, and as soap is constantly being formed, the layer containing it, having a low tension on the surface in contact with water, will as constantly keep moving, and as a result pull the proto- plasm with it. The movement of the latter thus generated will be continuous, and constitute protoplasmic streaming. In a similar way Bitschli explains the movement of a drop of soap emulsion, the layer of soap at a point on the surface of the spherule dissolving in the water and causing there a low tension and a streaming of the water from that point over the surface of the drop. This pro- duces a corresponding movement in the drop at its peri- phery and a return central or axial stream directed to the point on the surface where the solution of the soap occurred and where now a protrusion of the mass takes place resembling a pseudopodium. In this manner, Biitschli holds, the contractile movements of Amcebz are brought about. In these the chylema or fluid of the foam-like structure in the protoplasm is alkaline, it con- tains fatty acids, and, in consequence, soaps are present which, through rupture of the superficial vesicles of the foam-like structure at a point, are discharged on the free surface and produce there the diminution of surface tension that calls forth currents, internal and external, like those which occur in the case of the drop of oil emulsion. The first to suggest that surface tension is a factor in muscular contraction was D’Arsonval, but it was Imbert who, in 1897, directly applied the principle in explanation of the contractility of smooth and striated muscle fibre. In his view the primary conditions are different in the former from what obtain in the latter. In smooth muscle fibre the extension is determined, not by any force inside it, but by external force such as may distend the organ (intestine, bladder, and arteries) in the wall of which it is found. The ‘stimulus’? which causes the contraction increases the surface tension between the surface of the fibre and the surrounding fluid, and this of itself has the effect of making the fibre tend to become more spherical or shorter and thicker, which change in shape does occur during contraction. He did not, however, explain how the excitation altered the surface tension, except to say that its effect on surface tension is like that of electricity, with which the nerve impulse presents some analogy. In striated fibre, on the other hand, the discs constituting the light and dim bands have each a longitudinal diameter which is an effect of its surface tension, and this causes extension of the fibre during rest. When a nerve impulse reaches the fibre the surface tension of the discs is altered, and there results a deformation of each involving a shortening of its longitudinal axis, and thus a shortening of the whole fibre. According to Bernstein, in both smooth and _ striated muscle fibre there is, in addition to surface tension, an elastic force residing in the material composing the fibre which, according to the conditions, sometimes opposes and sometimes assists the surface tension. The result is that in the muscle fibre at rest the surface must exceed some- what that of the fibre in contraction. In both conditions the sum of the two forces, surface tension and elasticity, must be zero. In contraction the surface tension increases, and with it the elasticity also. Taken as a whole, this would not explain the large force generated in contrac- tion, for the energy liberated would be the product of the surface tension and the amount representing the diminu- tion of the surface due to the contraction. As the latter is very small the product is much below the amount of energy in the form of work done actually manifested. To get over this difficulty, Bernstein postulates that in muscle fibres, whether smooth or striated, there are fibrils surrounded by sarcoplasma, and that each fibril is formed of a number of cylinders or biaxial ellipsoids singly dis- NO. 2136, VoL. 84] posed in the course of the fibril, but separated from each other by elastic material and surrounded by sarcoplasma. Between the ellipsoids and the sarcoplasma there is con- siderable surface tension which prevents mixture of the substances constituting both. The excitation through the nerve impulse causes an increase of surface tension in these ellipsoids, and they become more spherical. In con- sequence, the decrease in surface of all the ellipsoids con- stituting a fibril is much greater than if the fibril were to be affected as an individual unit only by an increase of surface tension, and thus the surface energy developed would be correspondingly greater. The ellipsoids, Bern- stein explains, are not to be confused with the discs, singly and doubly refractive in striated fibre; for these, he holds, are not concerned in the generation of the contraction, but with the processes that make for rapidity of contraction. The extension of a muscle after contraction is due to the elastic reaction of the substance between the ellipsoids in the fibrils. Bernstein further holds that fibrils of this character occur in the protoplasm of Amcebe, in the stalk of Vorticella, and in the ectoplasma of Stentor, and this explains their contractility. It may be said in criticism of Bernstein’s view that his ellipsoids are from their very nature non-demonstrable structures, and, therefore, must always remain as postu- lated elements only. Further, it may be pointed out that he attributes too small a part to surface tension in the lengthening of the fibre after contraction, and that the elasticity which muscle appears to possess is, in the last analysis, but a result of its surface tension. As regards Quincke’s explanation of protoplasmic move- ment and streaming, as well as of muscular contraction, Bitschli has shown that it is based on a mistaken view of the structure of the cell in Chara and other plant forms in which protoplasmic streaming occurs. Biitschli’s own hypothesis, however, is defective in that it postulates a current in the fluid medium just outside the Amoeba and backward over its surface, the existence of which Berthold denies, and Biitschli himself has been unable to demonstrate, even with the aid of fine carmine powder in the fluid. He did, indeed, observe a streaming in the water about a creeping Pelomyxa, but the current was in the opposite direction to that demanded by his hypothesis. Further, his failure to demonstrate the occurrence of the postulated backflow in the water about the contracting or moving mass of an Ameeba or a Pelomyxa makes it difficult to accept the hypothesis he advanced to explain that backflow, namely, that rupture of peripheral vesicles (Waben) of the protoplasm occurs with a consequent dis- charge of their contents (proteins, oils, and soaps) into the surrounding fluid. Surface tension, further, on this hypothesis, would be an uncertain and wasteful factor in the life of the cell. On a priori grounds, also, it would seem improbable that this force should be generated out- side instead of inside the cell. One common defect of all these views is that they made only a limited application of the principle of surface tension. This was because some of its phenomena were unknown, and especially those illustrating the Gibbs- Thomson principle. With its aid and with the knowledge of the distribution of inorganic constituents in animal and vegetable cells that microchemistry gives us we can make a more extended application of surface tension as a factor in cellular life than was possible ten years ago. In regard to muscle fibre this is particularly true, and microchemistry has been of considerable service here. From the analyses of the inorganic constituents of striated muscle in vertebrates made by J. Katz and others we know that potassium is extraordinarily abundant therein, ranging from three and a half in the dog to more than fourteen times in the pike the amount of sodium present. How the potassium salt is distributed in the fibre was unknown before 1904, in which year, by the use of a method, which I had discovered, of demonstrating the potassium microchemically, the element was found localised in the dim bands. Later and more extended observations suggested that in the dim band itself, when the muscle fibre is at rest, the potassium is not uniformly distributed, and it was found to be the case in the wing muscles of certain of the Insecta—as, for example, the scavenger beetles—in which the bands are broad and con- OctToBER 6, 1910} NATORE 449 spicuous enough to permit ready observation on this score. In these the potassium salt was found to be localised in the zones of each dim band adjacent to each light band. Subsequently Miss M. L. Menten, working in my labora- tory and using the same microchemical method, found the potassium similarly limited in its distribution in the muscle fibres of a number of other insects. She deter- mined, also, that the chlorides and phosphates have a like distribution in these structures, and it is consequently probable that sodium, calcium, and magnesium have the same localisation. Macdonald has also made investigations on the distri- bution of potassium in the muscle fibre of the frog, crab, and lobster, using for this purpose the hexanitrite reagent. He holds, as a result of his observations, that the element in the uncontracted fibril is limited to the sarcoplasm in the immediate neighbourhood of the singly refractive substance, while it is abundantly present in the central portion of each sarcomere of the contracted fibril—that is, in the doubly refractive material. I am not inclined to question the former point, as I have not investigated the microchemistry of the muscle in the crab and lobster, and my only criticism would be directed against placing too great reliance on the results obtained in the case of frog’s muscle. The latter is only very slowly penetrated by the hexanitrite reagent, and, apparently because of this, alterations in the distribution of the salts occur; and, as I have observed, the potassium may be limited to the dim bands of one part of the contracted fibre and may be found in the light bands of another part of the same. In the wing muscles of insects in the uncontracted condition such disconcerting results are not so readily obtained, owing, it would seem, to the readiness with which the fibrils may be isolated and the almost immediate penetration of them by the reagent. Here there is no doubt about the occurrence of the element in the zones of the dim band immediately adjacent to the light bands. Whether the potassium in the resting fibre is in the sarcoplasm or in the sarcostyle I would hesitate to say. It may be as Macdonald claims; but I find it difficult to apply in microchemical studies of muscle fibre the con- cepts of its more minute structure gained from merely stained preparations. Because of this difficulty I have refrained from using here, as localising designations, other expressions than “‘ light bands’ and ‘‘ dim bands.” The latter undoubtedly include some sarcoplasm, but in the case of the resting fibre I am certain only of the presence of potassium, as described, in the dim band re- garded as an individual part, and not as a composite structure. Now, on applying the Gibbs-Thomson principle enunciated above, this distribution would seem to indicate that in the dim band of a fibril the surface tension is greatest on its lateral walls, in consequence of which the potassium salts are concentrated in the vicinity of the remaining surfaces, i.e. those limiting the light bands. This explanation would seem to be confirmed by the observations I made on the contracted fibrils of the wing muscles of a scavenger beetle. In these the potassium was found uniformly distributed throughout each dim band, which, instead of being cylindrical in shape as in the resting element, is provided with a convexly curved lateral wall, and therefore with a smaller surface than the mass of the dim band has when at rest. This con- tour suggests that the surface tension on the lateral wall is lessened to an amount below that of either -terminal surface, followed by a redistribution of the potassium salt to restore the equilibrium thus disturbed. The con- sequent shortening of the dim bands of the fibrils would account for the contraction of the muscle. How the surface tension of the lateral wall of the dim band is lessened in contraction is a question which can only be answered after much more is known of the nature of the nerve impulse as it reaches the muscle fibril, and of the part played by the energy set free in the com- bustion process in the dim bands. It may be that elec- trical polarisation, as a result of the arrival of the nerve impulse, develops on the surface of the lateral wall, and as a consequence of which its surface tension is diminished. The energy so lost appears as work, and it is replaced by energy, one may suppose, derived from the NO. 2136, VoL. 84] combustion of the material in the dim band. In this case the disturbance of surface tension would be primary, while the combustion process would be secondary, in the order of time. In support of this explanation may be cited the fact that the current of action in muscle precedes in time the contraction itself—that is, the electrical response of the stimulus occurs in the latent period and immediately before the contraction begins. It may, however, be postulated, on the other hand, that the chemical changes occur in those parts of the dim band immediately adjacent to the light bands, and as a result the tension of the terminal surfaces may be in- creased, this resulting in the shortening of the longitudinal axis of the dim band and the displacement laterally of the contents. This would imply that the energy of muscle contraction comes primarily from that set free in the combustion process, and not indirectly as involved in the former explanation. Whatever may be the cause of the alteration in surface tension, there would seem to be no question of the latter. The very alteration in shape of the dim band in contrac- tion makes it imperative to believe that surface tension is concerned. The redistribution of the potassium which takes place as described in the contracting fibrils of the wing muscles of the scavenger beetle can be explained in no other way than through the alteration of surface tension. In the smooth muscle fibre potassium is also present and in close association throughout with the membrane. When a fresh preparation of smooth muscle is treated so as to demonstrate the presence of potassium, the latter is shown in the form of a granular precipitate of hexa- nitrite of sodium, potassium, and cobalt in the cement substance between the membranes of the fibres. In the smooth muscle fibres in the walls of the arteries in the frog the precipitate in the cement material is abundant, and its disposition suggests that it plays some part in the réle of contraction. Inside of the membrane potassium occurs, but in very minute quantities, which, with the cobalt sulphide method, gives a just perceptible dark shade to the cytoplasm as a whole. Microchemical tests for the chlorides and phosphates indicate that the cytoplasm is almost wholly free from them, and consequently there is very little inorganic material inside of the fibre. Chlorides and phosphates, but more particularly the former, are abundant in the cement material, and their localisation here would seem to indicate that the potassium of the same distribution is combined chiefly as chloride. In smooth muscle fibre, then, the potassium is dis- tributed very differently from what it is in striated fibre, and on first thought it seemed difficult to postulate that the contraction could be due to alterations of surface tension. This, however, would appear to be the most feasible explanation, for the potassium salts in the cement substance might be supposed to shift their position under the influence of electrical force so as to reach the interior of the membranes of the fibres, in which case the surface tension of the latter would be immediately increased, and the fibre itself would in consequence at once begin to contract. The slowness with which this shifting into, or absorption by, the membrane of the potassium salts would take place would also account for the long latent period of contraction in smooth muscle. It is of interest here to note that the potassium ions have the highest ionic mobility (transport number) of all the elements of the kationic class, except hydrogen, which are found to occur in connection with living matter. Its value in this respect is half again as great as that of sodium, one-eighth greater than that of calcium, and one- seventh greater than that of magnesium. This high migration velocity of potassium ions would make the element of special service in rapid changes of surface tension. , Loew has pointed out that potassium in the condensa- tion processes of the synthesis of organic compounds has a catalytic value different from that of sodium. For example, ethyl aldehyde is condensed with potassium salts to aldol, with sodium salts to crotonic aldehyde (Kopf and Michael). Potassium is, but sodium is not, effective in the condensation of carbon monoxide. When phenol is 450 NATURE [OcToBER 6, 1910 fused with potassium salts condensation products like diphenol are produced, but when sodium salts are used the products are dioxybenzol and phloroglucin (Barth). It is, therefore, not improbable that potassium, along with those properties which come from its ionic mobility, has a special value in the metabolism of the dim bands of striated muscle fibre and in the condensation synthesis which characterise the chromatophors of protophyta (Spirogyra, Zygnema). With the use of this method of determining differences in surface tension in cells it is possible, in some cases at least, to ascertain whether this force plays a part in both secretion and excretion, and evidence in favour of this view can be found in the pancreatic cells of the rabbit, guinea-pig, and in the renal cells of the frog. In the pancreatic cells there is an extraordinary condensa- tion of potassium salts in the cytoplasm of each cell adjacent to the lumen of the tubule, and during all the phases of activity—except, it would appear, that of the co-called ‘‘ resting stage ’’—potassium salts occur in, and are wholly confined to, this part of each cell. It is difficult to say whether they pass into the lumen with the secretion and their place taken by more from the blood-stream and lymph, but the important point is that the condensation of potassium salts immediately adjacent to the lumen seems to indicate a lessened surface tension on the lumen surface of the cell. According to Stoklasa,’ the pancreas of the pig is much richer in potassium than in sodium, the dried material containing 2-09 per cent. of potassium and 0-28 per cent. of sodium, while the values for the dried material of ox muscle are, as he determined them, 1-82 and 0-26 per cent. respectively. It is significant that in the pancreas this large amount of potassium should be localised as described. In the renal cells of vertebrates there is usually a con- siderable amount of potassium salts distributed through- out the cytoplasm. These cells are always active in the elimination of the element from the blood, and it is in consequence not possible to determine whether there are differences in surface tension in them. Under certain conditions, however, these can be demonstrated. In the frogs which have been kept in the laboratory tanks throughout the winter, and in the blood of which the inorganic salts have been, because of the long period of inanition, reduced to almost hypotonic proportions, the renal cells are very largely free from potassium. When it is present it is usually diffused throughout the cyto- plasm. If now a few cubic centimetres of a decinormal solution of potassium chloride be injected into the dorsal lymph sacs of one of these frogs, and after twenty minutes the animal is killed, appropriate treatment, with the cobalt reagent, of a thin section of the fresh kidney made by the carbon dioxide freezing method, reveals in the cells of certain of the tubules a condensation of potassium salts in the cytoplasm immediately adjacent to the wall of the lumen. There is also a very slight diffuse reaction throughout the remainder of the cytoplasm, except in that part immediately adjacent to the external boundary of the tubule. In these cells the potassium injected into the lymph circulation is being excreted, and the condensa- tion of the element at or near the surface of the lumen is evidence that there the tension is less than at the other extremity of the cell. These facts are in their significance in line with some observations that I have made on the absorption of soluble salts by the intestinal mucosa in the guinea-pig. When the ‘‘ peptonate ’’ of iron was administered in the food of the animal it was not unusual to find that in the epithelial cells of the villi the iron salt was distributed through the cytoplasm, but its concentration, as a rule, was greatest in the cytoplasm adjacent to the inner surface of the cell, from which it diffused into the underlying tissue. Here also, inferentially, surface tension is lower than elsewhere in the cell. It would perhaps be unwise to form final conclusions at this stage in the progress of the investigation of the subject, but the results so far gained tempt one to adopt as a working hypothesis that in the secreting or the excreting cell lower surface tension exists at its secreting 1 Stoklasa gave the values in KoO and NasO. NO. 2136, VOL. 84] or excreting surface than at any other point on the ce surface. How this low surface tension is caused or main tained it is impossible to say, but, whatever the solution of the question may be, it is important to note that wi must postulate the participation of this force in renal excretion in order to explain the formation of urines of high concentration. These have a high osmotic pressure, as measured by the depression of the freezing point, while the osmotic pressure of the blood plasma determined in the same way is low. On the principle of osmosis alone: as it is currently understood, this result is inexplicable, for the kinetic energy, as required in the gas theory of solutions, should not be greater, though it might be less, in the urine than in the blood. It is manifest that in the formation of concentrated urines energy is expended. We know also from the investigations of Barcroft and Brodie that the kidney during diuresis absorbs much more oxygen per gram weight than the body generally, and that, assuming it is used in the combustion of a proteid, a very large amount of energy is set free, very much more, indeed, than is necessary. It has also been observed that a portion of the energy set free is found in a higher temperature in the excretion than obtains in the blood itself circulating through the kidney. This large expenditure of energy is, probably, a result of the physio- logical adaptation of the principle of the ‘“‘ factor of safety,’’ which, as Meltzer has pointed out, occurs in other organs of the body. In cell and nuclear division surface tension operates as a force, the action of which cannot be completely understood until we know more of the part played by the centrosomes and centrosphere. That this force takes part in cell reproduction has already been suggested by Brails- ford Robertson. He has devised an ingenious experiment to illustrate its action. If a thread moistened with a solution of a base is laid across a drop of oil in which is dissolved some free fatty acid, the drop divides along the line of the thread. When the latter is moistened with soap the drop divides in the same way and in the same plane. The soap formed in one case and present in the other, it is explained, lowers the surface tension in the equatorial plane of the drop, and this diminution results in streaming movement away from that plane which bring — about the division. He suggests that in cell division there is a liberation of soaps in the plane of division which set up streaming movements from that plane towards the poles, and terminating in the division of the cytoplasm of the cell. . I have observed in the cells of Zygnema about to divide a remarkable condensation of potassium in the plane of division. In the “resting ’’ cell of this Alga the potass- ium is, as a rule, more abundant in the cytoplasm near the transverse walls of the thread, and only traces of the element are to be found along the line of future division of the cell. But immediately after division has taken place the potassium is concentrated in the plane of division. This would seem to indicate that surface tension in the plane of division is, as postulated by the deduction from the Gibbs-Thomson principle, lower than it is on the longitudinal surface, and lower, especially, than it is on the previously formed transverse septa of the thread. One must not, however, draw from this the conclusion that in all dividing cells surface’ tension is lower in the plane of division than it is elsewhere on the surface of the dividing structure. All that it means is that in the dividing cell of Zygnema the condition already exists along the plane of division, which subsequently makes for low surface tension in the cell membrane immediately adjacent to each transverse septum in the confervoid thread. If the evidence of low surface tension vanished immediately after division was complete, then it might be held that it determined the division. As it is, the low surface tension ’ in this case is the result, and not the cause, of the division. This conclusion is corroborated by the results of observations on the cells of the ovules of Lilium and Tulipa. The potassium salts in these are found condensed in minute masses throughout the cytoplasm. When division is about to begin the salts are shifted to the peripheral zone of the cytoplasm, and when the nuclear membrane disappears not a trace of potassium is now OcToBER 6, 1910| NATURE 451 found in the neighbourhood of the free chromosomes, a condition which continues until after nuclear division is complete. The absence of potassium, the most abundant basic element in the cytoplasm, would indicate that soaps are not present, and appropriate treatment of such cells, hardened in formaline only, with scarlet red demonstrates that fats, including lecithins, are absent also. ‘This would seem to show that high instead of low surface tension prevails about the nucleus during division. During the ‘resting ’’ condition of the nucleus this high tension is maintained, for, except in very rare cases, and these of doubtful character, there is no condensation of in- organic salts in the neighbourhood or on the surface of the nuclear membrane. It is also to be noted that the nucleus, with exceptions, the majority of which are found in the Protozoa, is of spherical shape, which also postu- lates that high surface tension obtains either in the cyto- plasmic layer about the nucleus or in the nuclear mem- brane itself. It may also be suggested that high surface tension, and not the physical impermeability of the nuclear membrane, is the reason why the nucleus is, as I have often stated, wholly free from inorganic constituents. It does not follow from all this that surface tension has nothing to do with cell division. If, as Brailsford Robert- son holds, surface tension is lowered in the plane of division, then the internal streaming movement of the cytoplasm of each half of the cell should be towards that plane, and, in consequence, not separation, but fusion of the two halves would result. The lipoids and soaps would, indeed, spread superficially on the two parts from the equatorial plane towards the two poles, and, accord- ing to the Gibbs-Thomson principle, they would not dis- tribute themselves through the cytoplasm in the plane of division, except as a result of the formation of a septum in that plane. In other words, the septum has first to exist in order to allow the soaps and lipoids to distribute themselves in a streaming movement over its two faces. In Brailsford Robertson’s experiment this septum is pro- vided in the thread. If, on the other hand, surface tension is higher about the nucleus in and immediately adjacent to the future plane of division, then constriction of the nucleus in that plane will take place accompanied or preceded by an internal streaming movement in each half towards its pole, and a consequent traction effect on the chromosomes which are thus removed from the equatorial plane. When nuclear division is complete, then a higher surface tension on the cell itself limited to the plane of division would bring about there a separation of the two halves, a consequent condensation on each side of that plane of the substances producing the low tension else- where, and thereby also the formation of the two mem- branes in that plane. In support of this explanation of the action of surface tension as a factor in division I have endeavoured to ascertain if, as a result of the Gibbs-[homson principle, there is a condensation of potassium salts in the cyto- plasm at the poles of a dividing cell, that is, where surface tension, according to my view, is low. The difficulty one meets here is that, in the higher plant forms, cells pre- paring to divide appear to be much less rich in potassium than those in the ‘‘ resting ’’ stage, and under this con- dition it is not easy to get unambiguous results, while in animal cells potassium may even in the resting cell be very minute in quantity, as, for example, in Vorticella, in which, apart from the contractile stalk, it is limited to one or two minute flecks in the cytoplasm. Instances of potassium-holding cells undergoing division are, how- ever, found in the spermatogonia of higher vertebrates (rabbit, guinea-pig), and in these the potassium is gathered in the form of a minute and thin cap-like layer at each pole of the dividing cell. This of itself would appear to show that surface tension is less in the neighbourhood of the poles than at the equator of the dividing cell; but I am not inclined to regard the fact as conclusive, and a very large number of observations to that end must be made before certainty can be attained. I am, nevertheless, convinced that it is only in this way that we'can finally determine whether differences of surface tension in dividing cells account, as I believe they do, for all the phenomena of cell division. The difficulties to be encountered in such an investigation NO. 2136, VoL. 84] are, as experience has shown me, much greater than are to be overcome in efforts to study surface tension in cells under other conditions, but I am in hopes that what I am now advancing will influence a number of workers to take up research in microchemistry along this line. I must now discuss surface tension in nerve cells and nerve fibres. I have stated earlier in this address that I hold that the force concerned in the production of the nerve impulse by the nerve cell is surface tension. The very fact that in the repair of a divided nerve fibre the renewal of the peripheral portion of the axon occurs through a movement—a flowing outward, as it were—of the soft colloid material from the central portion of the divided fibre is, in itself, a strong indication that surface tension is low here and high on the cell body itself. This fact does not stand alone. I pointed out six years ago that potassium salt is abundant along the course of the axon and apparently on its exterior surface, while it is present but in traces in the nerve cell itself. In the latter chlorides also are present only in traces, and therefore sodium, if present, is there in more minute quantities, while haloid chlorine is abundant in the axon. Macdonald has also made observations as to the occurrence of potassium along the course of the axon, and has in the main confirmed mine. We differ only as to mode of the distribution of the element in the axon, and the manner in which it is held in the substance of the latter; but, whichever of the two views may be correct, it does not affect what I am now advancing. Extensive condensation or adsorption of potassium salts in or along the course of the axon, while the nerve cell itself is very largely free from them, can have but one explanation on the basis of the Gibbs-homson principle, and that explanation is that surface tension on the nerve cell itself must be high while it is low on or in its axon. The cenclusions that follow from this are not far to seek. We know that an electrical displacement or dis- turbance of ever so slight a character occurring at a point on the surface of a drop lowers correspondingly the surface tension at that point. What a nerve impulse fundamentally involves we are not certain, but we do know that it is always accompanied by, if not constituted of, a change of electrical potential, which is as rapidly transmitted as is the impulse. When this change of potential is transmitted along an axon through its synaptic terminals to another cell, the surface tension of the latter must be lowered to a degree corresponding to the magni- tude of the electrical disturbance produced, and, in con- sequence, a slight displacement of the potassium ions would occur at each point in succession along the course of its axon. This displacement of the ions as it proceeded would produce a change of electrical potential, and thus account for the current of action. The displacement of the ions in the axon would last as long as the alteration of surface tension which gave rise to it, and this would comprehend not more than a very minute fraction of a second. Consequently, many such variations in the surface tension of the body of the nerve cell would occur in a second; and, as the physical change concerned would involve only the very surface layer of the cell, a minimum of fatigue would result in the cell, while little or none would develop in the axon. It may be: pointed out that in medullated nerve fibres the lipoid-holding sheath, in close contact as it is with the axon, must of necessity maintain on the course of the latter a surface tension low as compared with that on the nerve cell itself, which, as the synaptic relations of other nerve cells with it postulate, is not closely invested with an enveloping membrane. In non-medullated nerve fibres the simple enveloping sheath may function in the same manner, and probably, if it is not rich in lipoid material, in a less marked degree. What further is involved in all this, what other con- clusions follow from these observations, I must leave unexplained. It suffices that I have indicated the main points of the subject, the philosophical significance of which will appear to those who will pursue it beyond the point where I leave it. In bringing this address to a close, I am well aware of the fact that my treatment of the subjects discussed has not been as adequate as their character would warrant. 452 The position which I occupy imposes limits, and there enters also the personal factor to account in part for the failure to achieve the result at which I aimed. But there is, besides, the idea that in applying the laws of surface tension in the explanation of vital phenomena I am pro- ceeding along a path into the unknown which has been as yet only in a most general way marked out by pioneer investigators, and in consequence, to avoid mistakes, I have been constrained to exercise caution, and to repress the desire to make larger ventures from the imperfectly beaten main road. Perhaps, after all, I may have fallen into error, and I must therefore be prepared to recall or to revise some of the views which I have advanced here should they ultimately be found wanting. That, however, as I reassure myself, is the true attitude to take. It is a far cry to certainty. As Duclaux has aptly put it, the reason why Science advances is that it is never sure of anything. Thus I justify my effort of to-day. Notwithstanding this inadequate treatment of the sub- ject of surface tension in relation to cellular processes, I hope I have made it in some measure clear that the same force which shapes the raindrop is an all-important factor in the causation of vital phenomena. Some of the latter may not thereby be explained. We do not as yet know all that is concerned in the physical state of solutions. The fact, ascertained by Rona and Michaelis, that certain sugars, which neither lower nor appreciably raise surface tension in their solutions, condense or are adsorbed on the surface of a_ solu- tion system, is an indication that there are at least some problems with a bearing on vital phenomena yet to solve. Nevertheless, what we have gained from our knowledge of the laws of surface tension constitutes a distinct step in advance, and a more extended application of the Gibbs- Thomson principle may throw light on the causation of other vital phenomena. To that end a greatly developed science of microchemistry is necessary. This should supply the stimulus to enthusiasm in the search for reactions that will enable us to locate with great precision in the living cell the constituents, inorganic and organic, which affect its physical state and thereby influence its activity. Literature. Barcroft and Brodie, Journ. of Physiol., vol. xxxii., p. 18; vol. xxxiii., p. 52. Bernstein, Arch. fiir p. 271. Berthold, ‘‘ Studien iiber Protoplasmamechanik,’”’ Leip- zig, 1886. Biitschli, “* Untersuchungen Schaume,” Leipzig, 1892. Engelmann, Arch. ftir die ges. Physiol., vol. ii., 1860. Willard Gibbs, Trans. Conn. Acad. of Sciences, 1878 ; also ** Thermodynamische Studien,’’ Leipzig, 1892, p. 321. Imbert, Arch. de Physiol., 5iéme ser., vol. ix., p. 289. A. B. Macallum, Journ. of Physiol., vol. xxxii., p. 95, 1905. M. L. Menten, Trans. Canadian Inst., vol. viii., 1908 ; ae “University of Toronto Studies,’’ Physiological Series On 72 J. S. Macdonald, Proc. Roy. Soc., B, vol. Ixxvi., P- 322, 1905; also Quart. Journ. of Exp. Physiol., vol. ii., die ges. Physiol., vol. Ixxxv., iiber Mikroskopische No. 1, 1909. Quincke, Ann. der Physik und Chemie, N.F. vol. xxxv., p- 580, 1888. T. Brailsford Robertson, University of California, 1909. J. Stoklasa, Zeit. fiir physiol. Chem., vol. Ixii., p. 47. J. J. Thomson, “‘ Application of Dynamics to Physics and Chemistry,’’ 1888. J. Traube, Arch. fiir die ges. Physiol., vols. c. Cxxiii. Bull. Physiol. Laboratory, and SECTION K. BOTANY. Opentnc Appress By Pror. James W. H. Trait, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. Tue honour conferred in the election to be President for the year of the Botanical Section of the British Associa- tion imposes the duty of preparing an address. I trust that my selection of a subject will not be attributed by NO. 2136, VOL. 84] NATURE [OcroBer 6, 1910 anyone to a want of appreciation of the worth and import- ance of certain sides of botanical research to which I shall have less occasion to refer. These have been eloquently supported by’ former Presidents, and I take this opportunity to express. the thanks .I1 owe for the benefit received from their contributions to the advance- ment of the science of botany. They have told us of the advance in departments of which they could speak as leaders in research, and I do not venture to follow in their steps. My subject is from a field in which I have often experienced the hindrances of which I shall have to speak both in personal work and still more as a teacher of students, familiar with the many difficulties that impede the path of those who would. gladly give of their best, but find the difficulties for a time almost insurmountable, and who are too frequently unable to spare the time or labour to allow of their undertaking scientific investigations that they might well accomplish, and in which they would find keen pleasure under other conditions. Those whose tastes lie in the direction of studying plants in the field rather than in the laboratory are apt to find themselves hampered seriously if they seek to become acquainted with the plants of their own Wicinity; and, if they wish to undertake investigations in the hope of doing what they can to advance botanical science, they may find it scarcely — possible to ascertain what has been already done and recorded by others. For a time the knowledge of plants was too much con- fined to the ability to name them according to the system in vogue and to a knowledge of their uses, real or imagined. The undue importance attached to this side of the study, even by so great a leader as Linnzeus, naturally led to a reaction as the value of other aspects of botany came to be realised, and as improvements in the instru- ments and methods of research opened up new fields of study. The science has gained much by the reaction; but there is danger of swinging to the other extreme and of failing to recognise the need to become well acquainted with plants in their natural surroundings. The oppor- tunities for study in the laboratory are so great and so much more under control, and the materials are so abundant and of so much interest, that there is for many botanists a temptation to limit themselves to such work, or at least to regard work in the field as subordinate to it and of little value. It is scarcely necessary to point out that each side is insufficient alone. Yet some find. more pleasure in the one side, and do well to make it their chief study ; while they should recognise the value of the other also, and learn from it. It is especially on behalf of the work in the field that I now wish to plead. There are few paths more likely to prove attractive to most students. The study of the plants in their natural environments will lead to an understanding of their nature as living beings, of their relations to one another and to other environments, of the stimuli to which they respond, and of the struggle for existence that results in the survival of certain forms and the disappearance of others. In this way also will be gained a conception of the true meaning and place of classification as an indispensable instrument for accurate determination and record, and not as an end in itself. To one that has once gained a true insight into the pleasure and worth of such studies, collections made for the sake of mere possession or lists of species discovered in a locality will not suffice. Many questions will arise which will prove a constant source of new interest. From such studies a deep and growing love for botany has in not a few cases arisen. The British flora has interested me for upwards of forty years, and has occupied much of my attention during that time—not only as desirous to aid by my own efforts to extend our knowledge of it, but also, as a teacher, seek- ing to assist my students to become able to do their parts also, and making use of the materials within reach to enable me to help them. Thus our present knowledge of the plants of our own country has become known to me, and the difficulties of acquiring that knowledge have also. become known through both my own experi- ence and those of my students. The nature of the hindrances and difficulties that at present bar the way has also become familiar, as well as the steps to be taken ——————eeeEEEEEEEEEEeEEEOeEeEeEeEeEeE—EEeEEeee { OcToBER 6, 1910] NATURE 453 to clear some of them away and to make the path less difficult to those who come after us; and I have also gained a fairly good acquaintance with the means at the command of students of the floras of other countries, so as to have a standard for comparison in the estimate to be formed of the condition of matters in our own country. In how far is the present provision for the study of the flora of the British Islands sufficient and satisfactory ? I venture to hope that the subject will be regarded as among those for the consideration of which the British Association was formed, and that a favourable view will be taken of the conclusions which I take this opportunity to lay before you. What, then, is the present provision for the study of our plants? Since the days of Morrison and Ray there have been many workers, especially during the past century; and an extensive literature has grown up, in the form both of books and of papers, the latter more or less comprehensive, in the scientific journals and in the transactions of societies. These papers contain much that is of great value; but, owing to the absence of any classified index, most of the information in it is beyond the reach of anyone, except at the expenditure of much time and labour. The constantly increasing accumu- lation of new publications makes the need for a classified index always more urgent; for the mass of literature is at present one of the greatest obstacles to the undertaking of new investigations, because of the uncertainty whether they may not have been already undertaken and over- looked through want of time or opportunity to search the mass exhaustively. While the early writers of descriptive floras sought to include every species of plant known to occur in Britain, this has not been attempted during the past seventy or eighty years, and instead of one great work we now have monographs of the greater groups, such as Babington’s “Manual”? and Hooker’s ‘‘ Student’s Flora’ of the vascular plants, Braithwaite’s ‘‘ Mossflora,”’ &c. Local floras still, in a good many cases, aim at including all plants known to grow apparently wild in the districts to which they refer; but they are often little more than lists of species and varieties and of localities in which these have been found. In some, however, there are descriptions of new forms and notes of general value, which are apt to be overlooked because of the place in which they appear. The early works were necessarily not critical in their treatment of closely allied species and varieties, but they are valuable as giving evidence of what plants were sup- posed to be native in England when they were published. Even the works that were issued after Linnaeus had established the binominal nomenclature for a time related almost wholly to England. Sibbald in ‘‘ Scotia Illustrata ”’ (1684) enumerated the plants believed by him to be native in Scotland, and of those then cultivated. Between his book and Lightfoot’s ‘‘ Flora Scotia,’”’ published in 1777, very little relating to the flora of Scotland appeared. Irish plants were still later in being carefully studied. The floras of Hudson, Withering, Lightfoot, and Smith, all of which include all species of known British plants, follow the Linnzean classification and nomenclature in so far as the authors were able to identify the Linnzean species in the British flora. ‘‘ English Botany,’’ begun in 1795, with plates by Sowerby and text by Smith, was a work of the first rank in its aim of figuring all British plants and in the excellence of the plates; but it shared the defect of certain other great floras in the plates being prepared and issued as the plants could be procured, and thus being without order. Its cost also necessarily put it beyond the reach of most botanists, except those that had the advantage of access to it in some large library. A second edition, issued at a lower price, and with the plants arranged on the Linnzan system, was inferior to the first, in the plates being only partially coloured and in having the text much curtailed. The so-called third edition of the ‘‘ English Botany,’’ issued 1868-86, is a new work so far as the text is concerned, that being the work of Dr. Boswell Syme, who made it worthily repre- sentative of its subject; byt the plates, with few excep- tions, are reissues of those of the first edition, less perfect as impressions and far less carefully coloured; and _ this applies with still greater force to a reissue of the third edition a few years ago. This edition, moreover, included NO. 2136, VoL. 84] only the vascular plants and Characee. As this is the only large and fully illustrated British flora that has been attempted, it is almost needless to add that in this respect provision for the study of the flora of our islands is far behind that of certain other countries, and very notably behind that made in the ‘‘ Flora danica.’’ Turning next to the provision of less costly aids to the study of British plants, we have manuals of most of the larger groups. The vascular plants are treated of in numerous works, including a considerable number of illus- trated books in recent years, inexpensive but insufficient for any but the most elementary students. Fitch’s out- line illustrations to Bentham’s ‘‘ Handbook to the British Flora,’’ supplemented by W. G. Smith, were issued in a separate volume in 1887, which is still the best for use in the inexpensive works of this kind. Babington’s ““Manual,’”’ on its first appearance in 1843, was gladly welcomed as embodying the result of careful and con- tinued researches by its author into the relations of British plants to their nearest relatives on the Continent of Europe; and each successive issue up to the eighth in 1881 received the careful revision of the author, and con- tained additions and modifications. In 1904 a ninth edition was edited, after the author’s death, by H. and J. Groves; but, though the editors included notes left by Prof. Babington prepared for a new edition, they were ‘“unable to make alterations in the treatment of some of the critical genera which might perhaps have been desirable.’’ The ‘‘ Student’s Flora of the British Islands,”’ by Sir J. D. Hooker, issued in 1870, took the place of the well-known ‘‘ British Flora’’ (1830, and in sub- sequent editions until the eighth in 1860, the last three being issued in collaboration by Sir W. J. Hooker and Prof. Walker-Arnott). The third edition of the ‘*‘ Student’s Flora ’’ appeared in 1884, and there has been none since. Mr. F. N. Williams’s ‘‘ Prodromus Flore Britannic,” begun in 1901, of which less than one-half has yet appeared, though a work of much value and authority, is scarcely calculated for the assistance of the ordinary student; and Mr. Druce’s new edition of Hayward’s ‘* Botanist’s Pocket Book’ ‘‘ is intended merely to enable the botanist in the field to name his specimens approxi- mately, and to refresh the memory of the more advanced worker.’’ In all the books that are intended for the use of British botanists, apart from one or two recently issued local floras, the classification is still that in use in the middle of last century, even to the extent in the most of them of retaining Coniferze as a division of Dicotyledones. Apart from this, the critical study of British plants has led to the detection of numerous previously unobserved and unnamed forms, which find no place in the ‘‘ Student’s Flora,’’ and are only in part noticed in the recent edition of the ‘‘ Manual.”’ The ‘‘ Lists’’ of vascular plants of the British flora that have recently been issued by Messrs. Rendle and Britten, by Mr. Druce, and as the tenth edition of the “‘ London Catalogue of British Plants,’ are all important docu- ments for the study of the British flora; but they illus- trate very forcibly certain of the difficulties that beset the path of the student eager to gain a knowledge of the plants of his native land. In these lists he finds it scarcely possible to gain a clear idea of how far the species and varieties of the one correspond with those of the other, owing to the diversities of the names employed. It would be a great boon to others, as well as to students, were a full synonymic list prepared to show clearly the equivalence of the names where those for the same species or variety differ in the different lists and manuals. Prob- ably in time an agreement will be generally arrived at regarding the names to be accepted, but that desirable consummation seems hardly yet in sight. Meantime, the most useful step seems to be to show in how far there is agreement in fact under the different names. Among the Cryptogams certain groups have fared better than the higher plants as regards both their later treat- ment and their more adequate illustration by modern methods and standards. Several works of great value have dealt with the mosses, the latest being Braithwaite’s “ British Moss-flora,’? completed in 1899. The Sphagna were also treated by Braithwaite in 1880, and are to be the subject of a monograph in the Ray Society’s series. The 454 NATURE [OcroBER 6, 1910 liverworts have been the subject also of several mono- graphs, of which Pearson’s is the fullest. Among the Thallophyta, certain groups have been more satisfactorily treated than others—e.g. the Discomycetes, the Uredineze and Ustilaginee, the Myxomycetes, and certain others among the fungi, and the Desmidiaceze among the alge; but the Thallophyta as a whole are much in need of thorough revision to place them on a footing either satisfactory or comparable to their treat- ment in other countries. Of the Thallophyta, many more of the smaller species will probably be discovered within our islands when close search is made, if we may judge by the much more numerous forms already recorded in certain groups abroad, and which almost certainly exist here also; but among the higher plants it is not likely that many additional species will be discovered as native, yet even among these some will probably be found. It is, however, rather in the direction of fuller investigation of the distribution and tendencies to variation within our islands that results of interest are likely to be obtained. The labours of H. C. Watson gave a very great stimulus to the study of the distribution of the flora in England and Scotland, and the work he set on foot has been taken up and much extended by numerous botanists in all parts of the British Islands. It is largely owing to such work and to the critical study of the flora necessary for its prosecution that so many additions haye been made to the forms previously known as British. Many local works have been issued in recent years, often of a very high standard of excellence. Besides these larger works, scien- tific periodicals and transactions of field clubs and other societies teem with records, some of them very brief, while others are of such size and compass that they might have been issued as separate books. A few of both the books and papers are little more than mere lists of names of species and varieties observed in a locality during a brief visit; but usually there is an attempt at least to distinguish the native or well-established aliens from the mere casuals, if these are mentioned at all. In respect of aliens or plants that owe their presence in a district to man’s aid, intentional or involuntary, their treatment is on no settled basis. Every flora admits without ques- tion species that are certainly of alien origin, even such weeds of cultivated ground as disappear when cultivation is given up, as may be verified in too many localities in some parts of our country. Yet other species are not admitted, though they may be met with here and there well established, and at least as likely to perpetuate their species in the new home as are some native species. Comparatively few writers seek to analyse the floras of the districts treated of with a view to determine whence each species came and how, its relation to man, whether assisted by him in its arrival directly or indirectly, whether favoured or harmfully affected by him, its relations to its environment—especially to other species of plants and to animals, and other questions that suggest themselves when such inquiries are entered on. It is very desirable that a careful and exhaustive revision of the British flora should be made on these and similar lines. In such a revision it is not less desirable that each species should be repre- sented by a good series of specimens, and that these should be compared with similar series from other localities within our islands, and from those countries from which it is believed that the species originally was sprung. Such careful comparison would probably supply important evidence of forms being evolved in the new environments, differing to a recognisable degree from the ancestral types, and tending to become more marked in the more distant and longer isolated localities. An excellent example of this is afforded by the productive results of the very careful investigation of the Shetland flora by the late Mr. W. H. Beeby. Within recent years excellent work has been done in the study of plant associations, but the reports on these studies are dispersed in various journals (often not botanical), and are apt to be overlooked by, or to remain unknown to, many to whom they would be helpful. The same is true in large measure of the very valuable reports of work done on plant-remains from peat-mosses, from lake deposits, and from other recent geological formations, researches NO. 2136, VOL. 84] that have cast such light on the past history of many species as British plants, and have proved their long abode in this country. Mr. Clement Reid’s ‘‘ Origin of the British Flora,’’ though published in 1899, has already (by the work of himself and others) been largely added to, and the rate of progress is likely to become still more rapid. Among the fruits and seeds recorded from inter-glacial and even from pre-glacial deposits are some the presence of which could scarcely have been anticipated, e.g. Hypecoum procumbens, in Suffolk. Some of the colonists, or aliens now almost confined to ground under cultivation, have been recorded from deposits that suggest an early immigration into the British Islands. While much re- mains to be discovered, it is desirable that what is already established should find a place in the manuals of British botany. Apart from the descriptive and topographical works and papers on our flora, there is a serious lack of information gained from the study of our British plants. Although a few types have received fuller study, we have little to compare with the work done in other countries on the structure and histology of our plants, on the effects of environment, on their relations to other species and to animals, and on other aspects of the science to which attention should be directed. On these matters, as on a good many others, we gain most of what information can be had, not from British sources, but from the literature of other countries, though it is not wise to assume that what is true elsewhere is equally true here. It is as well, perhaps, that for the present such subjects should find scanty reference in the manuals in ordinary use; but, when trustworthy information has been gained within the British Islands, under the conditions prevailing here, these topics should certainly not be passed over in_ silence. Students of the British flora have as yet no such works of reference as Raunkjaer’s book on the Monocotyledons of Denmark or the admirable ‘‘ Lebensgeschichte der Bliitenpflanzen Mitteleuropas,’’ at present being issued by Drs. Kirchner, Loew, and SchrGter. In a complete survey of the British botany there must be included the successive floras of the earlier geological formations, though they cannot as yet be brought into correlation with the recent or existing floras. In the brilliant progress made recently in this field of study our country and the British Association are worthily repre- sented. The present provision for the study of the British flora and the means that should be made use of for its extension appear to be these :— Much excellent work has already been accomplished and put on record towards the investigation of the flora, but much of that store of information is in danger of being overlooked and forgotten or lost, owing to the absence of means to direct attention to where it may be found. A careful revision of what has been done and a systematic subject-index to its stores are urgently required. The systematic works treating of the flora are in great part not fully representative of the knowledge already possessed, and require to be brought up to date or to be replaced by others. Great difficulty is caused by the absence of an authori- tative synonymic list that would show so far as possible” the equivalence of the names employed in the various manuals and lists. There is much reason to wish that uniformity in the use of names of species and varieties should be arrived at, and a representative committee might assist to that end; but, in the meantime, a good synonymic list would be a most helpful step towards relieving a very pressing obstacle to progress. There is need for a careful analysis of the flora with the view of determining those species that owe their presence here to man’s aid, intentional or unconscious ; and the inquiry should be directed to ascertain the periods and methods of introduction, any tendencies to become modified in their new homes, their subsequent relations with man, and their influence on the native flora, whether direct or by modifying habitats, as shown by Lupinus nootkatensis in the valleys of rivers in Scotland. Those species that there is reason to regard as not having been introduced by man should be investigated as regards their probable origins and the periods and methods OcrToBER 6, 1910] NATURE 455 of immigration, evidence from fossil deposits of the period during which they have existed in this country, their constancy or liability to show change during this period, their resemblance to or differences from the types in the countries from which they are believed to have been derived, or the likelihood of their having originated by mutation or by slow change within the British Islands, and their relation to man’s influence on them (usually harmful, but occasionally helpful) as affecting their dis- tribution and permanence. The topographical distribution, though so much has been done in this field during the past sixty or seventy years, still requires careful investigation to determine, not merely that species have been observed in certain districts, but their relative frequency, their relations to man (natives of one part of our country are often aliens in other parts), whether increasing or diminishing, altitudes, habitats, &c. From such a careful topographical survey much should be learned of the conditions that favour or hinder the success of species, of the evolution of new forms and their rela- tion to parent types in distribution, especially in the more isolated districts and islands, and of other biological problems of great interest. A most useful aid towards the preparation of topographical records would be afforded by the issue at a small price of outline maps, so as to allow of a separate map being employed for recording the dis- tribution of each form. A careful study of the flora is also required from the point of view of structure and development, with compari- son of the results obtained here with those of workers in other countries where the same or closely allied species and varieties occur. It is also needed in respect of the rela- tions between the plants and animals of our islands, both as observed here and in comparison with the already extensive records of a similar kind in other countries. On such topics as pollination, distribution of seeds, and injuries inflicted by animals and galls produced by animals or plants we have still to make use very largely of the information gained abroad; and the same holds good with regard to the diseases of plants. While ‘‘ English Botany” in its first edition was deservedly regarded as a work of the first rank among floras, it has long been defective as representing our pre- sent knowledge of British plants, and it has not been succeeded by any work of nearly equal rank, while other countries now have their great floras of a type in advance of it. There is need for a great work worthy of our country, amply illustrated so as to show, not only the habit of the species and varieties, but also the distinctive characters and the more important biological features of each. Such a flora would probably require to be in the form of monographs by specialists, issued as each could | be prepared, but as part of a well-planned whole. It should give for each plant far more than is contained in even the best of our existing British floras. identification must be provided in the description, with emphasised diagnostic characters; but there should also be the necessary synonymy, a summary of topographical distribution, notes on man’s influence upon distribution, abundance, &c., on any biological or other point of interest in structure or relations to habitat, environment, associated animals or plants, diseases, &c. Local names, uses, and folklore should also be included; and for this the need is all the greater, because much of such old lore is rapidly being forgotten and tends to be lost. In a national flora there should be included an account of the successive floras of former periods, and, so far as possible, the changes that can be traced in the existing flora from its earliest records to the time of issue should be recorded. A flora of this kind would not only afford the fullest possible information with regard to the plant world of the British Islands at the date of issue, but would form a standard with which it could be compared at later periods, so as to permit of changes in it being recognised and measured. In the meanwhile, the production of such a flora can be regarded only as an aim towards which to press on, but which cannot be attained until much has been done. But while the fulfilment must be left to others, we can do something to help it on by trying to remove difficulties from the way, and to bring together materials that may be used in its construction. I have sought to direct attention to the difficulties that NO. 2136, VoL. 84] Means of | | I have experienced and to directions in which progress could be made at once, and to provision which should be made for the advancement of the study of the British flora with as little delay as possible. There is, I feel assured, the means of making far more rapid and satisfactory progress towards the goal than has yet been accomplished. Many persons are interested in the subject, and would gladly give their aid if they knew in what way to employ it to the best purpose. As a nation we are apt to trust to individual rather than to combined efforts, and to waste much time and labour in consequence, with discourage- ment of many who would gladly share the labour in a scheme in which definite parts of the work could be under- | taken by them. I believe that a well-organised botanical survey of the British Islands would give results of great scientific value, and that there is need for it. I believe, also, that means exist to permit of its being carried through. There is no ground to expect that it will be undertaken on the same terms as the Geological Survey. A biological survey must be accomplished by voluntary effort, with possibly some help towards meeting necessary expenses of equipment from funds which are available for assistance in scientific research. Is such a survey not an object fully in accord with the objects for which the British Association exists? In the belief that it is so, I ask you to consider whether such a survey should not be undertaken; and, if you approve the proposal, I further ask that a committee be appointed to report on what steps should be taken towards organising such a survey, and preparing materials for a national flora of the British Islands. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. CampBripGe.—On Saturday last, October 1, Dr. Mason, the outgoing Vice-Chancellor, announced in his valedictory address to the Senate two munificent benefactions which have recently been offered to the University. The Drapers’ Company, which has already done so much for the Agricultural School, has offered a sum of 22,000l. towards the cost of erecting a new physiological labora- tory on the Downing site, and a further sum of 1oool. for fittings. The proposed new laboratory for psycho- physics, the cost of which has been collected by Dr. C. S. | Myers, will, it is hoped, be erected in the close neighbour- | hood of the proposed building for physiology. Since the foundation of the Schroder chair for German, the Cambridge Association has been turning its attention to the further endowment of the teaching of English. Through the instrumentality of Lord Esher, one of their members, Sir Harold Harmsworth became interested in the project, and he has very generously offered to endow a chair of English language and literature by presenting the University with 20,o0ool. The professor is to be called the King Edward VII. professor, and will be elected by the Crown. The next combined examination for sixty-seven entrance scholarships and a large number of exhibitions at Pem- broke, Gonville and Caius, King’s, Jesus, Christ’s, St. John’s, and Emmanuel Colleges will be held on Tuesday, December 6, and following days. Mathematics, classics, and natural sciences will be the subjects of examination at all the above-mentioned colleges. Forms of applica- tion for admission to the examination may be obtained at the respective colleges. Tue Child Study Society has arranged a number of lectures and discussions on the recreational activities of children, to be delivered at the Royal Sanitary Institute between now and Christmas. The programme includes the following subjects :—October 13: Some first results of an inyestigation into the play interests of English elementary-school children, Miss Alice Ravenhill ; October 27: games and toys for children under eight, Miss Clara E. Grant; November 3: story of some children’s games, Mrs. Lawrence Gomme; November 17: the origin of certain games and toys, Dr. A. C. Haddon, I.R.S.: November 24: philosophy of boys’ games, Mr. Felix Clay; December 1: the child’s inheritance, Dr. C. W. Saleeby. . 456 NATURE [OcToBER 6, 1910 session of the Bedford College for Women begins to-day. The college was founded in 1849 by Mrs. Elizabeth Jesser Reid, with the intention of offering to women the opportunity of a liberal education in the higher branches of knowledge. The number of students has increased steadily. We notice from the current calendar of the college that in 1889 the number of students was 145, in 1899 226, and in 1909 357. It will be remembered that the institution is now one of the constituent colleges of the University of London, and pre- pares its students for degrees in arts, science, and medicine. It is hoped that the new buildings of the college at York Gate, Regent’s Park—which will provide accommodation for from 400 to 500 students, with residence for about a quarter of the number—will be ready for occupation in 1912. THE new chemical and physiological laboratories for the University of Bristol are now complete, and were opened for students this week. The formal opening will take place on November 15 by Lord Winterstoke, Chancellor of the University. The new chemical department consists of thirty rooms and laboratories, and contains working places for two hundred students. The main laboratory is capable of accommodating eighty students working at one time. The laboratories have been wired for electrical experiments and so on, and heavy currents from the city supply are THE sixty-second available for — electro-metallurgical and physico-chemical investigations. Smaller laboratories, specially designed and equipped for physical, organic, biological, and photo- graphic chemistry, have been provided. The department of physiology is arranged to accommodate fifty students. The main lecture theatre has seats for about 120, and is served by a preparation room, store, and museum, all on the same floor. Chemical physiology is taught in a special laboratory. Optical work, photography, and gas analysis are allotted a fine room, to which is attached a _ well- ventilated dark-room of ample size. Experimental physi- ology has its own laboratory, and histology is housed in one of the finest rooms in the building, with north light, weaving-shed roof, and a gallery over. There is also a demonstration theatre, built on the model of the operating theatre of a hospital. Research is amply provided for; there is a room for the preparation of electrometer and other records by photography, and a fine suite of rooms apart from the teaching laboratories. Incubator room, constant temperature room, and cold store are also pro- vided. Altogether, between twenty and thirty rooms are comprised in the department, and they are thoroughly con- venient and up-to-date. It is noteworthy that nearly 5° oool. has been Sees 6 on these additions. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, Sept ember 26.—M. Bouchard in the chair.—The president announced the death of Mme. Pasteur.—M. Darboux presented vol. xiv. of the Travaux et Mémoires du Bureau international, contain- ing a full account of the measurements of the exact volume of the kilogram of water. Three different methods have been employed, and the mean of the closely -con- cordant results gives 1-000027 cubic decimetres as the volume of the kilogram of water at 4° C. and under normal atmospheric pressure.—A. Laveran: The treat- ment of different trypanosomiases by arsenic and antimony emetic. The compound used was obtained in large crystals by crystallising together under certain conditions aniline-ar senyl-tartrate and aniline-antimonyl-tartrate. Details of the methods and dosage are given. Fifteen guinea-pigs infected with T. evansi, T. gambiense, T. dimorphon, or by T. congolense were cured. In four of these cases there was a relapse, which was cured by a second treatment. The possibilities of application to the human subject are discussed.—R. Bourgeois: The comparison of two astronomical pendulums with the aid of electrical signals transmitted by a submarine cable of great length. A Thomson siphon recorder was modified in a manner to suit this work. The method will be used to determine the difference of time between Brest and Dakar, a distance of about 4500 kilometres.—A. Demoulin: The families of Lamé composed of surfaces NO. 2136, VoL. 84] | possessing singular points.—Gaston Darboux: Remarks cn the preceding communication.—Carl Stérmer: The canonical forms of the general equations of motion of a particle in a magnetic field, and an electric field super- posed.—H. Truc and C. Fleig: Experimental ocular action of the dust on tarred roads. Dust from tarred roads is shown experimentally to be capable of provoking much more serious eye troubles than dust from untreated roads, and the smaller the lapse of time since the road | has been tarred the more serious are the lesions produced. —H. Guillemard and G. Regnier: Observations on animal calorimetry made on Mt. Blanc. Increase of altitude has no sensible effect on the body temperature, but there is a marked increase in the amount of heat evolved by the body as the altitude increases, amounting to more than 30 per cent. between Chamonix and the summit of Mt. Blanc. A discussion of the results leads to the conclusion that protection against the cold is the best way of combating mountain sickness.—Charles Nicolle and E. Conseil: Properties of the serum of convalescents and animals cured of exanthematic typhus. Serum collected from the ninth to the fourteenth day of convalescence has well-marked preventive and curative properties against the disease. The curative effects dis- appear if the serum is collected later.—Joseph Roussel : The mode of formation of tricalcium phosphate in Algeria and Tunis. CONTENTS. PAGE The Mammals of Manitoba. By R.L....... 423 The Care of Trees . xp Po oo fo ee The Making of Beet- -sugar. By CoiShaeen seed Methods of Rock-analysis, By A.H. ...... 425 New Geographical Books. By B.C. W...... 426 Our Book Shelf. nf Boh Sh of laaberate) jokediralesket eee meneame og Letters to the Editor :— The Fur Trade.—Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell. . . . 428 An Attempt to Determine the Supposed Change in Weight Accompanying the Radio-active Disinte- gration of Radium.—Dr. Bertram D. Steele . . 428 The Habits and Distribution of Scutigera in India.— ASD: Imms AD - 429 Fire Tests with Textiles, Leonard Parry sh Geb eedeg) Customs at Holy Wells.—Zorah Godden. . . 429 A Meteorological Phenomenon. —Rev. R. Ashington Bullen 429 Radium Standards and Nomenclature. Prof. E. Rutherford, F.R.S. . ; SugtamMr= ovo. Z:Sle Heredity at the Church Congress g) Navies oPtsllse re eam Cocos-Keeling Atoll. (Z//ustrated.) . s egee) Researches in Stellar Parallax. By W. E. Pa 8 433 The Perfilograph. By A.M.F. .. 9 -« 434 Notes . RR Saket som ceases 435 Our Astronomical Column :— Astronomical Occurrences in October 438 A Bright Meteor 438 Rediscovery of Brooks’s iPeriodical Comet t (1889 V. ), RO LOZ es ie ; ids The Luminosity of Comets . 5 439 Coloured Stars between the Pole and 60° N. De- clination . 43S Observations of the Companion of Sings 439 The Perseid Shower, 1910. 439 A Modified Method for Nadir Observations) 439 A New Micrometer 439 The Mean Parallax of Tenth: magnitude Staven 439 Halley Meteors 439 The Autumn Meeting of the Iron and Steel In- stitute : pe bee ee The Geological Congress at Stockholm 440 The Thomas Young Oration . see 443 The Polar Eskimos . . 443 The British Association at "Sheffield. Section I.—Physiology.—Opening Address by Prof. A. B. Macallum, M.A., M.B,, Ph.D., Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S., President of the Section 444 Section K.—Botany.—Opening Address by Prof. James W. H. Trail, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., President of the Section : o Ui Sy, teem University and Educational Intelligence Aatmcteoa als Societies and Academies... . Baan ast ure 456 IVA TORE 457 THURSDAY, OCTOBER -13, 1910. THE HISTORY OF PHYSICS. Geschichtstafeln der Physik. By Prof. Felix Auerbach. Pp. v+150. _ (Leipzig: J. Ambr. Barth, 1910.) 4 mk. ROF. AUERBACH has embodied in this little book of 150 pages upon the chief discoveries in physics the result of notes made during many years for his personal use, in preparaticn for lectures. It consists of three parts : part i. (110 pages) is a chrono- logical list of the main steps in the development of physics, with the year and the name of.the discoverer, but without citing either the authority or the reference by which the discovery is fixed, and extending down to the year 1900. Part ii. (17 pages), a list of selected works, monographs, treatises, and text-books, with their authors, also to the year 1900. Part iii. (5 pages) is a selected list of leading physicists, except those still living, with their years of birth and death. There is also an alphabetical index of names. Doubtless such a list will be found convenient for reference-—much more convenient, for example, than Darmstaedter’s recent ‘‘ Handbuch zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik,’’ which is a more ambitious worl It also covers the ground much more fully than Prof. Lehfeldt’s list published in 1894 by the Physical Society. A good idea of its nature and scope will be gathered by the following selection of the entries about the suc- cessive steps in photography. Camera obscura; Levi ben Gerson. Improved camera obscura; Lionardo da Vinci. Blackening of chloride by sunlight; Fabricius. Improved camera obscura; Porta. Action of light on silver compounds; J. H. Schulze. Copying of silhouettes on silver chloride paper ; Beccaria. Photochemical reduction of silver; Scheele. Violet rays are photographically most active; Scheele. 1782, Colour sensitiveness of the silver compounds ; Senebier. The strongest chemical action lies in the ultra- violet; Ritter. silver 1802, Production of light-images on silver. chloride paper in the camera obscura; Davy. 1802, Photographic silver nitrate silhouettes; Wedge- wood. 1810, Photochemical production of colours by coloured illumination; Seebeck. ‘ 1816, First permanent and printable photographic plates; Niepce. 1826, Discovery of silver bromide and its sensitiveness to light; Balard. 1833, Invention of the actinometer; Herschel. 1837, Production of the first plates with silver iodide, and developed by mercury vapour; Daguerre. 1838, Achromatic landscape-lens ; Chevalier. NO. 2137, VOL. 84] 1839, Production of the first negatives copyable upon paper; Talbot. 1840, Foundation of microphotography ; Donne. 1840, Portrait-objective for photography; Petzval. 1842, First useful photographs of the solar spectrum ; f£. Beequerel and Draper. 1842, Printing-out process with iron salts; Herschel. 1843, Discovery of gold-toning of photograms; Fizeau. 1847, First photographs on albuminised plates; Niepce de St. Victor. 1850, Introduction of gelatine into photography; Poitevin. 1851, Wet collodion process for photography ; Archer. 1852, Chrome-gelatine process for photography ; Talbot. &e., &e., &e. The subsequent steps are narrated in similar detail; but, strangely enough, the name of Sir Joseph Swan is entirely omitted from the list. Similar lists might be adduced in every branch of physics. As might be expected from Prof. Auerbach, the list in acoustics is particularly complete, while those in optics and in magnetism are scarcely less so. The omission of all references to authorities renders criticism difficult; because the critic, even where he is fairly certain that some error exists, has no means of learning what the compiler of the list relies upon for his statement. Thus the author credits Wilcke, in 1757, With the introduction of the conception of electric resistance; he attributes to Scoresby, in 1827, the dis- covery of the destruction of magnetism by glowing heat; he credits to Hankel, in 1848, the suggestion of the hot-wire galvanometer. One would wish to know the authorities for these statements. There are several inexplicable omissions: Du Bois Reymond’s discovery of non-polarisable electrodes is not men- tioned; Shelford Bidwell and George F. FitzGerald are unknown to the author as having achieved any- thing in physics; Barrett’s discovery of recalescence is ignored, as is Osmond’s work in the same field. Earnshaw’s discovery of the dependence of the velocity of sound on its intensity is unnoticed. Lord Kelvin’s publication in 1855 of the doctrine of available energy is not referred to. Osborne Reynolds’s work on dilatancy is not mentioned. The foundation of crystal- lometry is attributed to Weiss in 1813; all reference to the work in that direction of Wollaston, of Hauy, and even of Steno being omitted! In several cases the dates need revision. Thus, Maxwell’s electromag- netic theory of light is given as 1871, several years too late. A reference to Dr. Gilbert, who died in 1603, is given as 1630. The first research to register the curves of alternating electric currents is attributed to Colley in 1885; Joubert has dropped out, even from the index. Aitken’s classical observations on dust nuclei are not recorded. Lord Kelvin’s mariner’s compass is dated back to 1868, though only patented in 1876. Foucault's use of gas retort carbon for electric light pencils certainly dates back before 1850; but here it is given as 1866. These blemishes can easily be removed when a second edition is called for—as it ought to be before long. Q xf 458 NATURE [OcToBER 13, 1910 PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY. (1) A. Text-book of Mental Diseases. By Prof. Eugenio Tanzi. Authorised translation from the Italian by Dr. W. Ford Robertson and Dr. T. C. MacKenzie. Pp. xvi+803. (London: Rebman, Ltd., 1g09.) Price 24s. net. : (2) Psychotherapy. By Prof. Hugo Minsterberg. Pp. xi+4o1. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1909.) Price 8s. 6d. net. 6 ie two books appeared towards the end of last year, the one being a thoroughly up-to-date work on psychology, normal and morbid, and the other dealing with the psychical treatment of disease, especially of mental disorder. (1) Prof. Tanzi’s book has already been published in Italy for nearly five years and from the first has been recognised as a _ standard work on mental diseases. It begins with a study of the seat of the psychical processes and considers seriatim the data of physiology and experimental anatomy, embryology, pathology and normal anatomy. Then follows a dis- course on the causation of mental diseases, and there is a chapter on the morbid anatomy of the brain, microscopical and macroscopical, in respect of mental diseases. About 150 pages are devoted to psychology of a practical kind, under the headings of sensibility (‘sensation ’’’ would have been a better translation), ideation, sentiment, movements and other external re- actions. This last chapter is really a disquisition on the conduct of the insane and deals with anomalies of the will, of the instincts, of emotional expression and of speech and writing. The classification adopted is mainly that of Kraepelin, but the author does not follow that authority with any slavish rigidity. It will seem curious to English physicians to find the study of mental diseases beginning with that of pellagra, but it will not be forgotten that this disease plays almost as large a réle in some parts of Italy as general paralysis does in this country. Many will object to the use of the term ‘‘amentia” in the sense of acute confusional insanity or acute hallucinatory insanity; but this is the sense in which the word has been used on the Continent ever since the days of Meynert, whereas in this country “amentia’’ means idiocy or imbecility. The term maniacal-depressive insanity does not appear; but melancholia, periodic melancholia, periodic mania, and circular insanity are discussed under the heading of “the affective psychoses.” Paranoia is more clearly defined and receives fuller consideration than we have seen in any other text- book. The author divides paranoiacs into those with abstract delusions (mattoids) and those with an ego- centric delusion (the querulants, the persecuted, the erotic and the ambitious). Under these various headings there are interesting references to the history of the Middle Ages and to the peculiarities of certain primitive races. There are also some very full accounts of individual cases of paranoia. The chapter on constitutional immorality is well worth reading. Prof. Tanzi takes a broad view of the subject, and criticises the penal law on the one hand and the narrow views of some of his own NO. 2137, VOL. 84] countrymen on the other. He rightly condemns stig- matising a person as a criminal merely because he possesses a certain number of the physical stigmata of degeneration, such, as a Darwinian ear, plagio- cephaly, hexadactylism, &c. There is a full and excellent index. The book is well illustrated and got up, and there are 132 figures which materially assist the reader in understanding the text. (2) Prof. Miinsterberg divides his book into three parts, the first being on the “ Psychological Basis of Psychotherapy,’”’ the second on the ‘Practical Work of Psychotherapy,’ and the third on the ‘‘‘ Place’ of Psychotherapy.”’ Part i. seems rather unnecessary to anybody who has studied psychology before and, to the practical physician, part iii. will appear rather redundant, as it deals with the relation of psychotherapy to the church, &c. The essential section of the book is part ii., and this will be found exceedingly interesting. It treats of the conditions in which psychotherapy is likely to be of use, general and special methods, and of mental and bodily symptoms. The special methods discussed are suggestion, hypnotism, side-tracking and psycho- analysis. The methods of psycho-analysis are beginning to be well understood in this country, although they have not yet reached the popularity they have in Austria, where the name of Freud, the propounder of its prin- ciples, has become a household word. Freud and his followers hold that by the psycho-analytic method they are able to discover in a patient some long-forgotten memory, and that in their discovery they bring to the surface a source of mental irritation, thus removing from the mind a foreign body in the same way as a surgeon picks a thorn from the finger. English physicians are disinclined to regard the method in this light; they consider that the proceeding is rather one of suggestion to the patient. The patient lies on a sofa whilst the operator sits at his head and reels off a series of words to which the patient is required to fit associated ideas; and the operator subsequently, from the study of the patient’s associations, evolves some incident in his past history. This he relates to the patient, and hey, presto! recovery. The same result, however, may be quite well attained by taking a careful history of the patient’s past life. Psycho- analysis is most suited for hysterical patients, but Minsterberg recommends it for cases of psychasthenia. Side-tracking is a somewhat different principle which, however, may be used in conjunction with psycho-analysis. Patients suffering from psychasthenia are obsessed with some thought which they are unable to dispel. By psycho-analytic methods the physician searches for an origin of the obsession and then, by devices of various kinds (side-tracking), he diverts the patient’s thoughts from the original incident into different channels. To take an example, a man found that he had developed a tendency to hesitate when walking in the street, and was unable to cure himself. Miinsterberg was consulted, and found that on a cer- tain occasion when the patient was running to catch a tram he suddenly saw almost immediately before him a big hole dug out for laying gas pipes. He was able OCTOBER 13, 1910] NATURE 459 to stop himself quickly enough to avoid falling into the hole, but he had a strong emotional shock from the experience. Munsterberg persuaded him under slight hypnosis to think himself once more in the situation of his run for the car, but, as soon as he reached the hole, to jump over it. He went through this motor feature on ten successive days with in- creasing energy, and from that time the trouble dis- appeared. Both books make a very useful addition to the libraries of people interested in the subjects with which they deal. COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. Physical and Commercial Geography. By Profs. H. E. Gregory, A. G. Keller, and A. L. Bishop. Pp. viii+46g. (London: Ginn and Co., n.d.) Price 12s. 6d. HE aim of this work is stated to be ‘‘to infuse orderliness and sequence into the chaotic data and statistics of trade,” and this the authors regard as constituting ‘“‘a new departure.” The question whether their work constitutes a new departure or not is, however, one of comparatively small importance. We may at least admit that the attempt to carry out this aim in their ‘town chosen way”’ is new, and we may add that that way is a good way, and, on the whole, admirably followed. We feel sure that no student or teacher of commercial geography could fail to profit greatly by the perusal of this work, and, above all, of its more general sections. The work is divided into three parts, each of which, we are told, belongs essentially to one of the three authors, though they have a joint responsibility for the outline and general character of treatment. The first part is entitled “‘ The Natural Environment,” the second ‘The Relation of Man to Natural Conditions,”’ and the third ‘‘The Geography of Trade.” It is in the first two sections that the aim of the work as above indicated, the tracing of the influence in the moulding of trade of what “might be called the environmental (or geographical) factors,” is kept most consistently in view, and with the most satisfactory results. The third part of the work is the most disappoint- ing. Here the geographical point of view is much less prominent. In it, the authors say, their treatment is “Topical, a short monograph upon each preeminent article of commerce occurring under the general politico-geographical section which leads in the pro- duction or use of the article in question.” But in some of the most important cases little or no attempt is made to show what, if any, geographical influences have been at work to help in creating that importance. Emphasis is laid on the remarkable lead which Great Britain takes in the cotton industry and in transmarine carriage; but the question whether geographical circumstances have had anything to do with this in either case is not even raised. There is very little comment on, the seats of manufacturing industry in the United States. There is a reference to water-power in certain cases, and coal, iron, and lime- stone, as determining the localisation of the iron in- NO. 2137, VOL. 84] dustries of Pittsburg and the Birmingham districts, but little else. The reason for this apparently is the attaching an exaggerated degree of importance to sources of power as localising manufacturing indus- tries, and overlooking the importance of the relation to labour supply and the market. When the latter relations are kept in view it may be shown that the fact that so few important manufacturing towns in the United States are situated on the coalfields is as much due to geographical causes as the fact that in England and Germany so many are. RESTORATIONS OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. Extinct Monsters and Creatures of Other Days; a Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life. By the Rey. H. N. Hutchin- son. New and enlarged edition. Pp. xxxiili+329. (London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1910.) Price 10s. 6d, net. — INCE the author of this volume was the first to recognise that the larger extinct animals of former ages presented a promising field for a popular work showing what these creatures probably looked like in life, he thoroughly deserved success in his attempt to fill a gap in literature, and we have there- fore great pleasure in congratulating him on _ the appearance of a second edition. In the volume now before us, Mr. Hutchinson has combined his original two works in one, with some condensation of the old matter, and with the addition of a large quantity of new material, both in the shape of text and illustra- tions, in order to bring it abreast of modern palaon- tology. Since 1892 and 1894, the respective dates of publication of ‘‘ Extinct Monsters” and ‘Creatures of Other Days,” vertebrate paleontology has indeed made vast strides, as is especially noticeable in the case of the anomodont reptiles and the proboscideans, and the author appears to have discharged the difficult taslx of bringing the work up-to-date in a satisfactory and interesting manner. From first to last the volume is thoroughly readable, and it is to be hoped that it may aid in dissipating the ignorance still so prevalent with regard to the relative ages of the mammoth and the iguanodon. In referring to the iguanodon as a smooth-skinned reptile, and then giving a plate of it clad in crocodile- like armour, the author appears to display inconsist- ency; and in the plate of Ceratosaurus the individuals in the background are depicted with relatively larger fore-limbs than the one in front. Reference might also have been made to the evidence in favour of an elephant-like pose of the bones afforded by the figure of an undisturbed limb of Diplodocus; and recent re- searches indicate that the restoration of Stegosaurus with a double row of plates is incorrect. A few im- provements might also be suggested in the text, as, for instance, on p. 169, where it is stated that the teeth of Claosturus resemble those of Hadrosaurus, without any clue being given as to the nature of the latter. Misprints and typographical inaccuracies are singu- larly few, although we notice Jakutsh on plate xliii., and Yakutsk in the first note on p. 276. The book is thoroughly deserving of a large sale. R. L. 460 NATURE [OcToBER 13, IGIO HINTS FOR THE GARDEN, (1) The Carnation Year Book, 1910. Edited by J. S. Brunton. The official organ of the Perpetual Flowering Carnation Society. Pp. 53. Price 1s. (2) Gardening Difficulties Solved. Expert Answers to Amateurs’ Questions. Edited by H. H. Thomas. Pp. 160. (London: Cassell and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Pricevus, net. (3) Leitfaden fiir géartnerische Pflanzenzuchtung. By M. Lobner. Pp. vii+160. (Jena: Gustay Fischer, 1909.) Price 1.50 marks. (4) Wild Flowers and How to Identify Them. Friend. Pp. 64. (London: Price Is: net. HE popularity of the carnation as a florist’s flower has already been enhanced by the spread of the American or perpetual flowering carnation, and will become more so as the qualities of this type are more generally recognised. Originally raised in France where they were known as “remontants,” their value was not realised until American growers took up their cultivation with excellent results. Only within the last decade have British horticulturists entered the field, but sufficient growers were found in 1906 to form the society which offers the ‘Carnation Year Book” (1) as its official organ. One important object of the society is to undettake the registration of new varieties; about a dozen have so far been registered, including the already famous Britannia and Mrs. H. Burnett, as compared with about 800 recognised by the corresponding American society. The volume contains several short articles, of which the most interesting deal with and hybridisation. (2) Amateur gardeners do not lack opportunities for obtaining assistance in their difficulties, as all the gardening papers are prepared to supply expert advice. The brochure edited by Mr. Thomas has been col- lated from replies to correspondents inserted in the columns of the Gardener. The questions cover a wide field, so that, although they are grouped in sections, it is a small chance that any specific matter for which the book is consulted will be mentioned therein. So far as it goes, the information is sound and practical, and some practical hints are conveyed in the illus- trations. By H. Robert Culley, 1910.) cultivation (3) The perusal of Herr Lébner’s book has afforded much pleasure and instruction, as it provides a suc- cessful combination of scientific teaching and practical experience. The book consists of a general part deal- ing with the acquisition of new plants by selection, hybridisation, importation, grafting, and here limited to vegetative anomalies—and a special part in which the origin of specific novelties is treated. It is only possible in the limited space to note that the author discusses seed-fixation, the means of get- ting seed from double flowers, fertile and infertile hybrids, and the keeping qualities of pollen. In the latter part no section is more interesting than that on roses which includes some account of the author’s experience. (4) The arrangement for identifying British plants offered by Mr. Friend is, to all intents and purposes, NO. 2137, VOL. 84] sports— the Linnean system, with the omission of many genera; species are only cited for eight genera, and then partially. The notes on season, habitat, and structure provide but little help towards identification, especially as no clear definition is given for some of the technical terms, e.g. fruit, bract, and stipule;. further, there is a singular confusion on p. 32 of bulb and root, corm and tuber. OUR BOOK SHELF. The Telegraphic Transmission of Photographs. By T. Thorne Baker. Pp. xi+146. (London: Con- stable and Co., Ltd., 1910.) Price 2s. 6d. net. Tuose who look at the illustrated papers, and especially readers of The Daily Mirror, are aware that the telegraphic transmission of photographs has already entered the commercial stage, and if the results are not yet all that can be desired it will generally be admitted that they reach a high standard of merit considering the very numerous difficulties that have had to be surmounted. This little book from the pen of Mr. Thorne Baker, who has been carrying out the work for The Daily Mirror during the last two-and-a-half years, is consequently very welcome. A brief historical survey of the earlier work is given, and a more detailed account of the later worl of Prof. Korn, M. Belin, and the author, which has resulted in the development of systems of actual com- mercial value. One is impressed throughout by the number of small difficulties which have had to be overcome by persevering experiment, and it is evident that the present state of the art owes its perfection considerably to the development of the kindred arts of photography and reproduction without which the advances on the purely electrical side would have been of slight avail. Problems such as this, though theo- retically simple of solution, present great difficulties on account of the amount of technical skill and know- ledge of a number of different subjects that is required. The book is well written and illustrated. A good deal will only be understood by the technical reader fairly well equipped with electrical knowledge, but there is sufficient simple description to enable the non-technical reader to acquire a very fair idea of the whole subject. Some of the phototelegrams which are reproduced are excellent, especially when looked at from a sufficient distance to render the ‘‘ grain” indistinct, and the two sketches transmitted by wire- less telegraphy, though poor in themselves, afford evidence of still further possibilities of development. Wile S) Liste des Observatoires Magnétiques et des Observa- toires Séismologiques. By E. Merlin and O. Somville. Pp. x+192. (Brussels: Havez, Rue de Louvain, 112, 1910.) To those who seek to establish definite relationships between solar and terrestrial phenomena, the multi- plication of well-distributed stations equipped for the observation of terrestrial magnetism and earth movements is a hopeful sign. Hitherto, one of the grave difficulties encountered in such researches has been the paucity of trustworthy and continuous data for sufficiently long periods. The list now published leads us to hope that a future generation may be more fortunate, for here we find some 220 observatories, of which at least eighty are devoted to the study of terrestrial mag- netism and electricity. The usefulness of such a list has been proved, in principle, by the publication of a similar list of astro- nomical observatories in 1907, and the Royal Ob- OcTOBER 13, 1910] NATURE 461 servatory of Belgium, under the auspices of which both were prepared and published, is to be congratulated upon having performed an exceedingly useful, if tedious, duty. As any attempt to separate magnetism and -seis- mology would have led to needless duplication and confusion, the arrangement is purely alphabetical. For each station are given the geographical position, the altitude, the nature of the ground on which the observatory stands, the publications wherein the results appear, the names of the staff, a brief history of the observatory, and the nature and distance of any disturbing elements, such as tramways, &c., and, finally, a description of the instruments and _ the special researches to which they are dedicated. Other lists show the continental and national distri- bution. of the two kinds of observatories, and, alphabetically, the names of the observers. Such a list was to have been prepared by the Inter- national Commission for Terrestrial Magnetism, but the project failed; the data then collected, however, have been placed at the service of the compilers of the present work, and have proved very useful. Wars. RS An Inconsistent Preliminary Objection against Posi- tivism. By Prof. Robert Ardigo. Translated by Emilio Gavirati. Pp. 52. (Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons, Ltd., 1910.) Price 1s. net. Tuts pamphlet, by the veteran leader of Italian posi- tivism, is issued in translation by a devoted admirer and disciple who wishes to find an English helper in the translation and publication of other works by the “great master.’’ Its argument is directed against those opponents who, on behalf of modern idealism, contend that in positivism there is to be found this fundamental fault—namely, that, according to the method which the positivist has prescribed to himself, the subject ought, in his system, to become an object which cannot have, therefore, any of the character- istics belonging to subjectiveness. Prof. Ardigo, .as St. George to the dragon of metaphysics, develops a subtle and closely reasoned argument for a positivist treatment of psychology, criticising the positions asso- ciated with the names of Bergson and Boutroux. He is also careful to show that positivism differs widely from materialism, with which there is—very naturally —a tendency to confound it. The substance of this pamphlet is contained in the second part of volume x. of Ardigo’s ‘‘ Philosophical Works.” Analytical Chemistry. By Prof. F. P. Treadwell. Authorised translation from the German by William T. Hall. Vol. ii. Quantitative Analysis. Second edition. Pp. x+787. (New York: John Wiley and Sons; London: Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1910.) Price 17s. net. A review of the first edition of Mr. Hall’s translation of Prof. Treadwell’s work on quantitative analysis was published in Nature of August 11, 1904 (vol. Ixx., p- 341). In the present issue certain additions have been made which are not found in the German text, and the main part of the work has been compared with the fourth German edition. Students’ Life and Work in the University of Cam- bridge. Two lectures by Prof. Karl Breul. Revised edition. Pp. 60. (Cambridge: Bowes and Bowes, 1910.) Price 1s. net. Tne two lectures delivered by Prof. Karl Breul to the students attending the University Extension summer meeting in 1908 give an interesting and in- formative account of the life and work of Cambridge undergraduates. In the revised edition a few cor- rections and additions have been made. NO. 2137, VOL. 84] LETTERS TO-THE EDITOR. [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. No notice is taken of anonymous communications.]| Early Burial Customs in Egypt. Att who are interested in the serious attempts that are being made to reconstruct the real history of ancient Egypt and to sift established truth from wild conjecture must deplore Prof. Flinders Petrie’s attempt (see NATURE of September 29, p. 401) to revivify the corpse of a belief in the supposition that the archaic Egyptians were in the habit of cutting up their dead, a view which has been so effectually hanged, drawn, and quartered during the last ten years. When Prof. Petrie states (op. cit., p. gor, quoted from Man, September) that ‘‘it has long been known that in prehistoric burials the corpse was stripped of its flesh, the bones even being broken to extract the marrow,’’ he should have written that he and M. de Morgan had stated that the prehistoric Egyptians dissected the bodies of their dead. But, even though Profs. Maspero, Sayce, Wiede- mann, and Lortet repeated these or similar statements (Sayce and Lortet invoking the aid of birds of prey to do the bone-cleaning!), the experience gained by other excavators has totally shattered and destroyed every scrap of evidence that could lend any support to the belief in the reality of such practices. In 1896 Prof. Petrie (‘‘ Nagada and Ballas,’ p. 32) attempted to explain the disturbed condition of the skele- tons found in many archaic Egyptian graves by saying “that bodies were sometimes—with all respect—cut up and partly eaten’’! Four years later Dr. George A. Reisner proved that such disturbances of the bones as Prof. Petrie mentioned were the result of the operations of grave-plunderers (see the Egyptian Exploration Fund’s Archzological Report for 1900-1, p. 25); and every year since then this explanation has been proved to be true in every case where disturb- ances have been found amongst many thousands of burials of all ages and in every part of Egypt and Nubia, which have been submitted to the most thorough and critical examination, not only by Dr. Reisner himself, but also of many independent witnesses. The evidence referring to Nubia is set forth in extenso in the First Annual Report of the Archeological Survey of Nubia, which is being published in Cairo this month. During my ten years’ association with Dr. Reisner, my collaborators in the anatomical branch-of the work and I have examined and made notes on the remains of more than 15,000 human beings buried in the Nile Valley, and we, e-not seen a single case which afforded any evidence whatsoever of the practices postulated by Prof. Petrie. Secondary burials, of course, occurred in ancient Egypt : but they were exceedingly rare, probably more so than in modern England. Perhaps some archeologist of the next millennium will find infinitely more evidence in English graveyards of the twentieth century in support of specula- tions on our ‘‘customs of mutilation of corpses and cannibalism ’’ than Prof. Petrie has been able to gather in Egypt. It would, indeed, be a matter for astonishment if such a people as the ancient Egyptians, whose respect for their dead is proverbial, did not attempt to restore to order the graves of relatives that had been desecrated by grave- plunderers. The surprising thing is not that we find instances of reburial, but that they are so exceedingly rare. During the Graco-Roman period in Egypt and Nubia, when the decadence of the art of mummification had definitely begun, it often happened that bodies handed over to the embalmers were treated in such a careless manner that they fell to pieces in an early stage of the process, and had to be rebuilt—sometimes with limb-bones reversed, leg-bones as skeletons for arms, portions of other skeletons introduced, and often foreign materials added. This ‘‘ faking ’? of mummies is described in detail in the forthcoming Report of the Archzeological Survey of Nubia. 462 Would it be unreasonable to suppose that in the early experimental stages of the art of embalming—correspond- ing to the epoch with which Prof. Petrie is dealing—similar failures may have occurred, and that such a condition, for example, as Prof. Petrie has described from Deshasheh, where the fibula was upside down (see ‘‘ Deshasheh,’’ 1898, Pl. xxxvii.), would receive a natural explanation ? Such cases are so exceedingly rare that it is idle to quote them as representing the ‘‘ custom ’’ of the country. Apart from these rare exceptional cases of secondary burial and embalmers’ ‘‘ faking,’’ all the disturbances of the bones of unplundered graves result from (1) the opera- tion of the force of gravity on bodies falling into decom- position, and (2) the occasional action of rodents moving small bones. That this is so has been conclusively demon- strated by Dr. Reisner in the minute and critical examina- tion of many thousands of burials in Egypt and Nubia. Thus there are very precise and definite reasons for dis- carding Prof. Petrie’s fantastic speculations, and _ for accepting in their stead the simple and perfectly obvious explanation of the disturbed state of the skeleton in many graves, which he who runs may read. The phrase ‘‘ the bones even being broken to extract the marrow ’’ (op. cit., NaTURE, p. 401) calls for some further comment. Does it mean that Prof. Petrie is re- affirming his former statement of a belief in the practice of cannibalism (already quoted)? Can he point to one single case where the bones of a prehistoric Egyptian have been broken post-martem, except by grave-plunderers, excavators, or the natural forces of the denudation of the soil and the disintegration of organic matter ? In ‘‘ Naqada and Ballas,’’ p. 32, Prof. Petrie referred to the forcible scooping out of the marrow as an evidence of cannibalism; but that statement was clearly inspired by his lack. of familiarity with the normal medullary cavity of a human long bone and its relation to the cancellous tissue at the ends. But he added, further, that “there were grooves left by gnawing on the bones ’—a sure sign of anthropophagy! Dr. Fouquet, who examined M. de Morgan’s material of a similar nature, also saw these grooves, but called them ‘‘ syphilitic ulcers.’? Two years ago (Lancet, August 22, 1908, p. 521) I was able to demonstrate that the bones of many pre-dynastic Egyptians were certainly gnawed, but neither by man nor the spirochete: the damage was inflicted by small necrophilous beetles. Although Prof. Petrie no longer refers to these signs of gnawing, he still speaks of the prehistoric Egyptian breaking human bones ‘to extract the marrow,’ i.e. presumably to eat it. The whole evidence afforded by excavations in Egypt goes to prove that this statement is pure fiction. i Zs ; ; G. Ex.iot Situ. The University of Manchester, October 1. British Marine Zoology. “ Tue proof of the pudding is in the eating,’’ and surely Prof. MacBride will admit that whether a biological station is or is not suitable for research must be decided, not by the expensiveness of the equipment, but by observ- ing whether research is being carried on there. ~ That one station is ten times as large and expensive as another is no advantage and no credit to it unless it is also ten times as efficient. That it is only in such an establishment that Prof. MacBride can “bring research to a successful issue ’’ is, of course, an important personal record, but it might be unsafe to generalise from one such observation. i _ I am sorry not to be able to agree with Prof. MacBride in the distinctions he draws between the stations equipped for research and others; and I cannot avoid a doubt as to whether he has personal knowledge of the smaller stations of this country. W. A. HERDMAN. October 1. I suatr gratify Prof. Herdman’s curiosity so far as to say that I have worked at more than one small station in this country. I fully agree that ‘‘ the proof of the pudding is in the eating,’’ and I am content to leave it to the judgment of NO. 2137, VOL. 84] NATURE [OcTOBER 13, 1910 my fellow-zoologists whether in reviewing the work done at the various zoological stations in this country Plymouth has not justified its superior equipment by the superiority of the original work, both as to quantity and quality, which has been accomplished there. E. W. MacBripe. Hormones in Relation to Inheritance. Witn reference to my presidential address to Section D of the British Association, of which a full report appeared in Nature of September 22, I must rectify an omission by pointing out that the theory of the possible influence of hormones in inheritance was first enunciated by Mr. J. T. Cunningham in a paper in the Archive fiir Entwicklungs- mechanik, vol. xxvi., 1908, entitled ‘‘ The Heredity of Secondary Sexual Characters in Relation to Hormones, a Theory of the Heredity of Somatogenic Characters.”’ It was through inadvertence that the reference to Mr. Cunningham's paper was not printed in the copies of the address distributed at the meeting at Sheffield. GiLbert C. BOuRNE. Savile House, Oxford, October 4. Pwdre Ser. My friend Mr. Frank Darwin has sent me the follow- ing additional information respecting the Pwdre Ser. ‘“ The ‘ Treasury of Botany’ says that Nostoc is called ‘ Falling Stars,’ and quotes Dryden (no reference)— “And lest our leap from the sky prove too far, We slide on the back of a new falling star, And drop from above In a.jelly of love.’ ““The note is signed M. J. B.=Berkeley, so it may be trusted so far as that it really refers to Nostoc.”’ T. McKenny HuGues. Ravensworth, Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge, September 30. Unemployed Laboratory Assistants. A number of lads who have been employed as labora- tory monitors in secondary schools, and whom the London County Council are unable to retain in their service beyond the age of sixteen years, have been referred to us by the London County Council with the view of our placing them. Some of them we have already been able to place in suit- able employment, but there are still one or two on our books for whom we seek situations. They all have an elementary knowledge of physics and chemistry. Some have learned glass-blowing and bending, and a few of the applicants have already passed the Board of Education examination in Chemistry (Stage I.). If any readers of Narure would like to have further particulars of these boys, I should be glad to supply them with in- formation. Goprrey E. Reiss (Hon. Sec.). Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment Association, 36 Denison House, 296 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, $.W., October 5. THE INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR COOPERATION IN SOLAR RESEARCH. *HIS union held a very successful meeting—the fourth since its foundation—on Mount Wilson Observatory, California, during the last week of September, when there was an assembly of nearly forty European astronomers and physicists, who had crossed the Atlantic for the meeting, and many more American men of science. England was represented, among others, by Sir Joseph Larmor, Profs. Newall, Turner, Fowler, and Mr. Dyson. The gathering, re- presentative as it was of all nations actively engaged in solar work, would have been even more so if a number of those who had signified their intention of being present had not at the last moment been pre- OcToBER 13, 1910] NATURE 463 o vented by illness or other causes from actending. Among them were Sir David Gill, Dr. Lockyer, Profs. Righi and Violle. To the great regret of everyone present, Prof. Hale was prevented by bad health, brought on through overwork, from taking part in the discussions. Together with Mrs. Hale, he re- ceived his guests at a garden-party at their home in Pasadena, and was able to come up to the observa- tory on the first day of the meeting, but on the advice of his doctor he returned to Pasadena, after deliver- ing a short address on the general worl: of the con- ference. As regards the results of the meeting, the first place must be given to the extremely “satisfactory report of the committee on the determination of standard wave-lengths. The requirements of modern spectroscopic research having rendered all previous measurements obsolete, even for purposes which onli require relative values, the Solar Union set itself the task of preparing new tables. The direct comparison between the wave-lengths of the red cadmium line with the standard metre carried out by Fabry and Pérot gave a result practically identical with that of Michelson, so that already three years ago its numerical value could be definitely adopted. Taking this line to be the primary standard, a_ sufficient number of iron lines had next to be compared with it, so that they might serve in subsequent work as secondary standards, with an accuracy hardly, if at all, inferior to that of the primary. This work was undertaken independently in three different labora- tories by Fabry and Buisson, at Marseilles, by Ever- sheim under Kayser at Bonn, and by Pfungst under Ames at Baltimore. The numbers obtained agree so well that we are now already in possession of a large number of lines with accurately known wave- lengths. How accurately? Usine the Angstrém (1o-* cms.) as unit, the average differences of the three inde- pendent determinations only amount to about three or four in the third decimal place, which means less than one part in a million. The few cases where the differences are somewhat greater are easily ex- plained by a deficiency in the homogeneity of the lines, except in a small region in the orange. The secondary standards are now sufficiently close together to serve as fixed points for interpolations, when gratings are used, and it is intended to pro- ceed immediately with the further determination of tertiary standards so near to each other, that even with a prismatic dispersion every observer will have at his command a system of lines on which he can depend entirely for comparison or interpolation. In the orange region referred to, some barium lines will have to be added, and the total length of spectrum dealt with, which extends from A 4282 to A 6494, will before long be substantially increased on the red side In order to avoid confusion between the new and old determinations, the now adopted unit will be known as the “international Angstr6m”’ (I.A.). If the Solar Union had done nothing else than this work on wave-lengths, it would have justified its existence. We next note the report of the committee on the investigation of sun-spot spectra, which was presented by Prof. Fowler. Its work is sufficiently indicated by the following recommendations, which were adopted by the meeting :— (1) That, notwithstanding the progress of photo- graphic work, visual observations of spot spectra should be continued, and that the committee should be re-appointed to continue the organisation of this work. g (2) That in view of our increased knowledge of spot spectra, the committee should be authorised to prepare and circulate a revised and extended scheme of visual observations. NO. 2137, VOL. 84] (3) That it is desirable that, for the use of visual observers, the separate sections of the new photo- graphic map of the sun-spot spectrum should not ex- ceed 60 centimetres in length, and should be on a scale of 5 mm. to the Angstrom. Another committee dealt with spectroheliograph work, and here also we may confine ourselves to quot- ing the more important resolutions :— (1) That daily photographs of the calcium flocculi be continued by the co-operating observatories. (2) That provision be made, if possible, for the measurement of the photographs. (3) That the desirability of utilising large spectro- heliographs of high dispersion for the study of the upper layers of the solar atmosphere is recognised by the committee. A report on the spectroheliograph work carried on at South Kensington was sent in by Sir Norman Lockyer, and will be printed in the transactions of the union, as also a discussion of solar phenomena as revealed by the spectroheliograph, which was pre- sented by M. Déslandres. An important, but from the nature of things some- what slowly progressing, committee deals with the study of solar radiation. Its work has been seriously retarded by the lamented death of Knut Angstrém, whose pyrheliometer had been adopted by the union as standard instrument, and who had undertaken per- sonally to standardise all pyrheliometers sent out from Upsala. Latterly serious defects in the con- stancy of the indications of the instrument have shown themselves, and unless a ready means is found to keep an accurate log of their changes by frequent comparison with some standard radiator, the union will be forced to modify its previous decision. Mr. Abbott presented the report of the committee, and gave an account of his own important work on solar radiations, which has revealed some fluctuations in the amount of heat and light which enters our atmo- sphere. - These. fluctuations, which, frequently amount to 5 or 6 per cent., may still be due to uncorrected influences of atmospheric absorption, and Mr. Abbott laid stress on the iniportance of establishing an inde- pendent station in a locality where the atmospheric conditions are favourable, so that simultaneous observations can be carried out, at least in two places, and atmospheric ineaualities still further eliminated. It remains to record an important alteration in the constitution of the union, which has decided. to extend its scope, and include astrophysics in the range of its activity. In voting for the change, the mem- bers of the union were fully aware of the importance of their decision. It was pointed out by several speakers that the union exposed itself to the danger of undertaking more than could be managed, and that before long the primary object of the union might be swamped by the additional problems now introduced. But, on the other hand, everybody re- cognised that the distinction between the sun and a star was an artificial and accidental one, and that the study of one was a necessary complement to the study of the other. The danger of being over- whelmed by the additional subjects is not great, be- cause only a few well-defined portions of astrophy sics are adapted for investigation by international co- operation. At the conclusion of an interesting dis- cussion, the vote went unanimously in favour of the change. A beginning of the new order of things was made at once, and a committee was appointed, with Prof. E. Pickering as chairman, to discuss the pos- sibilitv of coming to an agreement on the classifica- tion of stellar spectra. The next meeting of the union will be held at Bonn in the year 1913. ; ; ARTHUR SCHUSTER, 464 NATURE [OcTOBER 13, 1910 POPULAR BOOKS ON BIOLOGICAL (1) i somely Modern Life.” SUBJECTS. HE first of these books forms vol. iv. of the hand- got-up and well-illustrated ‘‘ Science in first eighty-eight “The pages are a | Fic. 1.—Transference of pollen to the bodies of insects by means of mechanism of the percussive type. the right-hand flower is being visited by a humble- bee, and the pollen-covered anther is in the act of striking the insect’s back. same inflorescence with three vopen flowers in different stages of development : left-hand side is being visited by a humble-bee which carries on its back pollen from a younger flower (3) A stamen of Salvia glutinosa with rocking (4) Longitudinal section through a flower of the same plant. interior of the flower. lower arm of the connective lever is pushed backward, and in consequence the pollen- covered anther at the end of the other arm of the lever is deflexed.—From “ Science in Modern Life.” (x) Part of an inflorescence of Salvia glutinosa; and is rubbing it off on to the deflexed stigma. connective. direction in which humble-bees advance towards the continuation of the account of botany previous volume, and deal with bution as influenced by climate, general systematic survey of the So much of the space is filled by very good) that the letterpress is exceedingly con- densed, and makes the style rather that of an en- cyclopzedia than of a book to be read, but the sub- stance is good. The section on zoology (114 pages) includes six pages on the history of the science, and ten on a general survey of the animal kingdom, and these are so much condensed as to be almost meaningless with- out further reading. The remainder is devoted to an account of the evolution of animals as revealed by their fossil remains. In this way descriptions are given of all the chief orders of animals, but short diagnostic descriptions of groups, sometimes with no illustration, convey little definite impression to begun in the geographical distri- &c., followed by a vegetable kingdom. illustrations (usually 1 (1) ‘‘Science in Modern Life.” : A Survey of Scientific Development, Discovery and Invention, and their Relations to Human Progress and Industry. Vol. iv. Edited by Prof. J. R. Ainsworth Davis; Botany (continued), by J. M. F. Drummond ; Zoology, by Prof. J. R. Ainsworth | Davis; and Science and the Sea Fisheries, by Dr. J. Travis Jenkins. Pp. x+236. (London: Gresham Publishing Co., n.d.) (2) ““A Bush Calendar.” By Amy E. Mack (Mrs. L. Harrison). Pp vi+109. (Sydney : Angus and Robinson, Ltd. ; London: Australian Book Company, 1909.) Price 3s. 6d. net. (3) ‘‘ Nature Studies by Night and Day.’ (London: T. Fisher Unwin, n. d. ) Price 2s. (4) “ Insect Wonderland.” By Constance M. Foot. Methuen and Co., ror1o.) Price 3S. 6d. net. | (5) ‘‘ The Landscape Beautiful A Study of the Utility of the Natural | By F. C. Snell. Pp. 319. Pp. xi+196. (London: the | reader, and the general effect is distinctly disappoint- | Landscape ; Its Relation to Human Life and Happiness, with the Applica- tion of these Principles in Landscape Gardening, and in Art in General. By F. A. Waugh. Pp. 336. (New York : Orange Judd Co., rgro.) (6) ‘‘ Bees for Profit and Pleasure.” By H. Geary. Farm and Garden Handbooks. Edited by T. W. Sanders. Pp. 114. (Loudon: W. H. and L. Collingridge, n.d.) Price 1s. net. NO. 2137, VOL. 84] ing. The physiological side of zoology, in which its relation with ‘‘modern life’’ is perhaps closest, is not dealt with. The pages devoted to fisheries are the most readable in the volume. The style is necessarily very concise, but the author succeeds in picking out the salient features and in making the subject interesting. The volume is provided with a full list of contents, but no index. (2) ‘‘A Bush Calendar” consists of a_ series of articles on nature in the neighbourhood of Sydney, reprinted from the Sydney Morning Herald. They are pleasantly written descrip- tions of the birds, flowers, &c., seen, with observations on their habits and haunts; and although to most Eng- lish readers the names will not convey any clear idea, to those living in that part of Australia it should be a useful little book. It is illustrated with pretty photographs, and for each month a list is given of the flowers, migrant birds, and nests which may be found. An Englishman is at once struck with the fact that there is no month in which some bird does not breed. One small blemish is that (2) Another part of the the lower flower on the The arrow indicates the (5) Same section; the generic names should be written with initial capi- tals. (3) ‘Nature Studies by Night and Day" does not claim originality, and consists of a series of discon- Fic. 2—Tadpole before the. emergence of the fourth limb.—From ‘‘ Nature Studies by Night and Day.” nected chapters on well-worn subjects—the opening and closing of flowers, protective coloration, the sun- dew, &c. The photographs are not very well repro- OcTOBER 13, 1910] NATOK 465 duced; perhaps the most interesting is that of a tad- pole with three legs, the right front limb not yet having emerged from the opercular fold. A book which might interest a novice in ‘‘nature-study."’ (4) In ‘Insect Wonderland"’ the author endeavours to interest little children in the natural history of insects by conversations between insects and flowers, birds, &c., to which the insects describe their life and habits. It may be doubted whether this method is really more attractive to children than straightforward accounts, if written simply and easily, but in any case, it is unfortunate to write of Mr. Bee when the individual speaking is a worker, or of the orange-tip butterfly as ‘“‘shr,’’ when the orange colour is confined to the male. Ihe flowers and insects described as talking together also are not all to be found at the same season. Otherwise the descriptions are clear and good; the illustrations are pretty, but not always easy to understand. (5) ‘‘The Landscape Beautiful’’ is written by an American “landscape architect,’ to encourage the appreciation of beauty in nature and in gardens. The first five chapters (‘‘Essays”’) are in praise of natural beauty in its broader aspects, followed by a chapter to prove that landscape gardening is entitled to a place among the fine arts, since it combines all the objects and technical difficulties of painting and sculpture. This subject is amplified in the succeeding chapters, which deal especially with American landscape garden- ing, and the need for a greater appreciation of beauty and care for its preservation by the American people. The concluding chapter on ‘‘Some Practical Applica- tions,’’ describing the methods used or suggested by the author for encouraging the study of natural beauty in schools is particularly interesting, and might well be read by teachers of ‘‘nature-study."’ The book is pleasantly written and illustrated by very pretty photo- graphs by members of “The Postal Photographic Club." (6) ‘Bees for Profit and Pleasure’ is a practical handbook to bee-keeping, written by an expert on the subject. It points out the advantages of keeping bees either for pleasure or as a supplementary source of income, gives a clear, concise account of their natural history and habits, and a good account of the various kinds of hives and other apparatus, with prices, but in some places the mention of apparatus not described until later in the book might cause some difficulty to the beginner. The instructions for successful management are straightforward and interesting, and the book is provided with an index. THE GEOLOGY AND ARCHASOLOGY OF ORANGIA.* | HIS work is the fourth of a series containing the author’s personal observations and conclu- sions on the economic geology and ‘archeology of South Africa. The present volume is devoted to Orangia, where the author -has’ resided -in practice as a mining engineer; his work gave him excellent opportunities for observation and research, and he has used his chances with admirable industry and judg- ment. ; ; x The first chapters are devoted mainly to the geology of Orangia, which is of less interest, owing to its monotonous‘uniformity, than that-of any-other South African State. Most of the country is occupied by rocks belonging to the Karoo system. The granitic mass of Vredeport outcrops near the northern frontier, and is surrounded by a+belt of rocks corresponding to those of the Rand goldfield, which is situated further ‘“ Geological and Archeological Notes on Orangia.” By J. P. Johnson. Pp. vi+1o2. (London: Longmans and Co., 1910.) Price ros. NO. 2137, VOL. 84] to the north. The extension of the Rand series under the Karoo has been proved by the bores recently made under the superintendence of Mr. A. R. Sawyer, and some of the results revealed by those boring opera- tions are stated in the work. Mr. Johnson gives a short account of the diamond-bearing pipes of northern Orangia; he describes especially the Roberts- Victor Mine, of which he was for sometime the mining engineer. This mine, among other points of interest, has yielded’ an eclogite boulder: containing diamonds, which has been described by Dr. Corstor- phine. The first such occurrence was found in the Newlands Mine at Kimberley, and is well known fron the classical paper. by Prof. Bonney. Mr. Johnson rejects the view that the eclogite was the original matrix of the diamond, and his conclusion is supported by the results of Mr. Gardner Williams’s elaborate test, which proved by testing a large number that these boulders at Kimberley are barren of diamonds. He adopts the conclusions that the kimberlite, the igneous rock that fills the diamond-bearing pipes, is due to the intrusion of a ‘ : magma at a com- paratively low temperature. Mr. Johnson’s archeological con- tributions include figures and de- scriptions of many rock paintings, of which one is here a reproduced; the figures show no new general re- sults, but they are interesting addi- tions to those pre- viously recorded. They are cruder than many of those found in South Africa, as shown by the / \ | exaggerated stea- ( topygy in one of the figures. Mr. Representation of Zebra, Hippotragus, and Johnson has dili- Quagga pecked and engraved on rock, gently K collected ae onipealtend Cas etingicat Nowe ee stone implements Orangia.” at many localities ia Orangia, and investigated the sites of many ancient settlements. At one site he collected zoo stone implements from a small area in a short time. Mr. Johnson’s most original archeological contribution is the claim that the stone implements belong to two separate periods, which he compares with the Acheulian and Solutrian of Europe. In some localities he found his Acheulic type —a common form of which he calls amygdaliths— below the alluvium and the Solutrian above it. The author candidly remarks at the end of his discussion of this question that his observations may merely prove that some of his Acheulic are older than some of his Solutric implements. This caution appears justified, as the results stated are not quite convincing, and more details as to the depths at which the imple- ments were found would be useful. In his agricultural notes the author directs atten- tion to the great progress that has been made in Orangia by the adoption of the methods often known as “dry farming,’’ which have long been used by farmers on our chalk downs. They have only recently been adopted in South Africa, where they have already 466 NATURE [OcTopER 13, 1910 proved remarkably successful; Mr. Johnson reports that the rainfall for the ten years’ records at Kimber- ley, Kronstad, and Bloemfontein are respectively 20°4, 271, and 252 inches; so the climate would not be regarded as arid in Australia, where wheat cultivation has long been undertaken in areas with a rainfall of as low as fourteen inches. Most of the rain in South Africa falls in the six summer months, and its amount is sufficient to justify Mr. Johnson’s confidence as to the future agricultural prosperity of the State. é J. W..G. SPORT ON THE MOORS AND BROADS.'* S° far as I am aware, Messrs. Malcolm and Maxwell are the first to present the public with a concise, authentic, and at the same time highly interesting account of the rise and expansion of modern grouse-shooting in the North—a sport which connection between grouse and heather, and grouse disease. At one time it was hoped that the number of grouse on a moor might be largely augmented by suitable treatment, but it is now ascertained that there is a limit to this. In view of the prospect of a second edition, Mr. Malcolm’s attention may be directed to a couple of obvious grammatical errors on the iatter part of the second page. The last six chapters are from the pen of Captain Maxwell, who discourses pleasantly on ancient and modern grouse-shooting, with a couple of chapters devoted to blackcock and ptarmigan. In urging the need for an extension of the close season in the case of blackcock, the author ought to enlist the support and sympathy of true sportsmen, since it is a crying shame that half-fledged ‘‘cheapers’’ should, as is so often the case, be shot in August. It is also satisfac- tory to find Captain Maxwell remarking that grouse- driving has resulted in a more or less indifference to natural history and wood-craft on the part of the — - --—- - - TET r - ore aero 7 Coot and Great Crested Grebe on their Nests. they rightly declare to have been rendered accessible to English sportsmen as a whole by the development of railways. In our own days the steadily increasing demand for well-stocked moors produced by these means has given rise to great improvements in the care and cult of the moors, themselves coupled with a large extension of the area devoted to grouse; and this, in turn, has added very considerably to the financial prosperity of many parts of North Britain. How enor- mous is the value of Scottish and Yorkshire moors is told in the second chapter of the volume by Mr. Malcolm, who also discourses, with the confidence of an authority, on the management of moors, the 1 ‘*Grouse and Grouse Moors.” By George Malcolm and Aymer Max- well. Illustrated hy Charles Whymper. Pp. vili+286. (London: A. and C. Black, 1910). Price 7s. 6a. net. ‘Life and Sport on the Norfolk Broads in the Golden Days.” By Oliver eady. Pp. (London: T. Werner Laurie, n.d.) Price 75. 6d. net. NO. 2137, VOL. 84| Xvi. +249. From “ Life and Sport on the Norfolk Broads. modern sportsman, who thereby falls far behind his grandfather, to whom such knowledge was essential. In commending the united efforts of the two authors, I must not omit a word of praise for the 16 coloured reproductions of sketches of Scottish game-birds and scenery, by Mr. C. Whymper, which add so greatly to the attraction of the volume. Mr. Ready, the author of the second volume men- tioned above, is a born ‘‘ Broadsman,” having been brought up in a rectory in the heart of the broad- country, where forty years ago no railway had penetrated, while a visit to Norwich entailed an eighteen-mile journey by coach. Those early days of the author’s life can be recalled only in memory, for the penetration of the district by the railway has altered its primitive character in many ways, although the charm of the more secluded portions of the Broads cannot, fortunately, be destroyed. OcTOBER 13, 1910] NATURE 467 That one who knows and loves his subject so thoroughly as does the author of this volume should furnish a mine of information about the Broads, is only what might be expected; but Mr. Ready is also possessed of a pleasant and readable style, although it may be noted that on the very first page he writes * Peninsular’ when he means “ Peninsula.’’ Perhaps the three most interesting chapters out of the twelve which form the volume are those on birds’ nests and fishing; and attention may be specially dir_cted to the account of the nests of the great grebe—locally known as loon—and the buzzard, the former being illustrated by an excellent reproduction from a photograph. In the chapters on fishing much space is devoted to eels and eel-spearing; and it may be noted that in the author’s opinion the old-fashioned spear on which eels were impaled is less cruel than the modern weapon in which they merely become entangled between the prongs. For while the former meant death, the latter allows a number of mangled fish to escape. The illustrations, in addition to the one of the grebe, depict broadland scenery, Wrexham Hall and Church, various implements connected with eel-fishing, and other local subjects. IR Ls DR. JOHN PEILE. HE death of the Master of Christ’s College, Cam- ; bridge, has removed from the University a striking figure, and from the college over which for twenty- three years he presided so successfully a great master. Dr. Peile came of a well-known Cumberland family. His father was Mr. Williamson Peile, of Whitehaven, a geologist of repute. The late master was born in 1838, and was educated at-Repton, whence he pro- ceeded to Christ's College in 1856, Dr. Peile had a distinguished university career, being bracketed Senior Classic in 1860, and winning the Craven Scholarship the year before, and being bracketed Chancellor’s Classical Medallist in 1860. Soon after taking his degree, he became a fellow and lecturer of his college, and in 1870 he began his most successful career as a college tutor. This lasted until 1884, in which year he was elected reader in com- parative philology in the University. In 1887 he suc- ceeded Dr. Swainson as master of the college, and four years later, becoming vice-chancellor, he resigned his readership. Dr. Peile took a large part in university matters. He was always on the side of progress, and, together with Henry Jackson and Henry Sidgwick, led many of the movements which have done much to advance learning in all its aspects at Cambridge during the last forty years. He was for an unprecedented time a member of the council of the Senate, and he took a foremost part in the movement for granting degrees to women, for the abolition of compulsory Greek, for the further provision of university. buildings for science and other subjects, in the work of University Extension, and in the rearrangement of triposes and other examinations. | He was in university affairs and politics a Liberal in the best sense of the word. His lifelong work in the cause of the higher educa- tion of women was recognised in the early ‘“nine- ties... when he succeeded the late Prof. Adams as chairman of the council of Newnham College; and it was a great pleasure to him and to his wife to learn that the new building, opened only this term, was to be called the Peile building. Dr. Peile’s services to philology were those of the teacher rather than the discoverer. He was one of the first to introduce the study into England, and his manual of comparative philology and the little NO. 2137, VOL. 84] primer long held the ground practically unchallenged. These books showed a touch of taste and literary charm which are not often found in comparative philologists, perhaps rarely in any branch of science. When Brugmann’s **Grundriss’’ summed up the re- sults of twenty years’ brilliant discoveries, Peile’s books ceased to be useful, though they could not cease to be interesting. He never revised them. All through the period of transition, however, he was keeping abreast of the new discoveries, and acting on them. He brought a critical mind to bear on these; he took nothing on authority, and very often suggested a way of his own to meet the case. What struck the hearer was his humorous common sense. He had a _ sense of the fitness of things that kept him from pedantry. And the dullest details were illuminated by some chance remark, as when he lectured on the moods, he said one day, ‘‘Now you -have Delbrtick’s view and my view; but I confess that I feel some misgiving when I see that we prove two contrary theories by the same examples.” The lectures on comparative syntax probably contained his most original work. These were never published. Peile’s infectious enthusiasm never failed to influence his hearers, and _ the impression is still quite strong after a quarter of a century. ; In his own college, Dr. Peile was singularly suc- cessful in promoting the study of science in its widest sense. Christ’s, which was the first college to award open scholarships in the natural sciences, has ever since maintained a high standard in science. Amongst Dr. Peile’s pupils were the late Prof. Marshall Ward and the late Prof. H. Newell Martin, Prof. .S. H. Vines, Prof. E. W. Hobson, Dr: W.’J. Sell, Dr. H. J. H. Fenton, Prof. Liversidge., Prof. Perey Gard- ner the president of Queen’s College, Dr. Rouse, Prof. J. -G; Adami,-Dr. A.:C. Haddon, Prof. E. W. Brown, of Yale University, Prof. Graham Kerr, Dr. E: A. TD. W: Budge, .Dr: .C. A... Barber,, Dr.. A. \W. Rogers, of the South African Geological Suryey, Prof. I. Gollancz, Mr. A. Hutchinson,’ Mr. R. H: Rastall, Mr. A. W. Clayden, Dr. F.-H.* A. Marshall} Prof. Gwynne-Vaughan, Mr. C.: Warburton, and many others who are holding up the lamp of science in all its forms in many parts of the world. The master was an untiring worker, and devoted his energies, which were great, whole-heartedly to the services of the University and of his college. During his mastership, Christ’s College has been greatly enlarged, and to a great extent rebuilt. The chapel and the hall have been decorated bv the late Mr. Bodley, and the same architect rebuilt and rearranged the library. A third court has been opened up, and contains a handsome building, with sets of students’ rooms, and a more recently constructed pile of lecture- rooms erected at the time of the quatercentenary of the college. John Peile was a wise counsellor, a loyal colleague, absolutely unselfish and unself-seeking, He has left an impress on his University and on his collere which can never be effaced. : NOTES. By the bequest of the late Mr. F. Tendron, for many years chairman of the St. John Del Rey Mining Com- pany, the trustees of the British Museum have recently acquired a few choice mineral specimens. Conspicuous among “them is a magnificent, and probably unique, crystal of pyrrhotite, measuring as much as fourteen centimetres across. The suite also includes smaller specimens of pyrrhotite, two specimens of the rare mineral chalmersite, some well-crystallised gold, &c. 468 NATURE [OcToRER 13. 1910 Tue States of the South African Union have decided to present to His Majesty the King a representative collec- tion of living specimens of the wild animals of the country, and arrangements are already in progress for bringing together the collection and transporting it to England. The latter part of the task will be under the superintend- ence of the Zoological Society of London, in whose menagerie it is hoped that the whole collection will be ready for exhibition next summer, under the title of the King’s African Collection. Ir is announced in Science that the original laboratory of Liebig in Giessen is to be purchased and preserved as a memorial to the eminent chemist. An anonymous donor has guaranteed 3000l. for this purpose. WE notice with deep regret the announcement that Mr. J. W. Clark, who until quite recently held the post of Registrary of the University of Cambridge, died on Monday, October 10, at seventy-seven years of age. Tue death is announced of Prof. W. H. Niles, Meredith professor of geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prof. Niles was appointed to the chair in 1871, and was known for his contributions to geology. Tue death is announced, at fifty-five years of age, of Dr. F. W. D. Fraser, formerly professor of anatomy and physiology at the Imperial University of Osaka, Japan ; and also of Mr. A. H. Stokes, until recently Chief In- spector of Mines in the Midland district, at sixty-eight years of age. We record with regret the death, on October 5 at East- bourne, of Mr. Cecil H. Leaf, known for his studies ‘of cancer. Mr. Leaf was in 1900 appointed to the staff of the Cancer Hospital, and at the time of his death was one of the senior surgeons of this institution. He was the author of numerous important surgical works on cancer of the breast, diseases of the rectum, experiments with chloroform, and other subjects. Pror. A. Vampeéry, the well-known Orientalist, com- pleted on Sunday his fiftieth year of membership of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In honour of the occasion the society presented him with a jubilee diploma on Monday, October 10. The Times correspondent at Vienna states that in the course of the day Prof. Vambéry received congratulatory visits from a large number of Hungarian men of science and others, as well as tele- grams of congratulation from learned bodies and friends in England and America. 230 cm. sec.-', volt cm.—’, but it rapidly dropped to 7-6 on the addition of oxygen up to 1 per cent. The velocity of the positive ion was unaffected by traces of oxygen impurity, and was 5-8 throughout. The change in the case of negative discharge might have been caused in two ways :—(a) by a great diminution with purity in the size of the negative ion in hydrogen; (b) by back discharge from the plate. If the latter were true the wind-pressure method breaks down, and the above values of velocity are not real. As it was certain that some back discharge was present, it seemed reasonable at the time to attribute the whole effect to this cause, but some recent -work of Franck shows that it was probably not correct to do so. Franck has shown (Verh. d. D. Phys. Ges., xii., 291 and 613, 1910) that in gases such as argon and nitrogen the specific velocities of the negative ions obtained by @ rays rapidly increased as the last traces of oxygen were removed. Thus in pure argon and nitrogen he obtained values as high as 206-4 and 144-6 respectively. As in the above, however, the positive ions were unaffected. In the light of these results it is probable that the negative ions in point discharge in hydrogen, like those in other oxygen-free gases, are either corpuscles or are very small, although in our work the unknown amount of back discharge present prevented the determination of their true specific velocity. These results throw considerable light on various pheno- mena occurring in point discharge, and I hope to publish later a more complete discussion. A. M. Tynpa.t. Physical Department, University of Bristol. An Irish Pteridosperm. Reavers of Nature familiar with the many valuable additions to knowledge made by British palaobotanists within the last twenty years will be interested to know that in the course of rearrangement of the fossil plants in my charge in the botanical division of the National Museum in Dublin I have found, while comparing the specimens of Sphenopteris in this collection with those in the collection of the Geological Survey of Ireland (of which my colleague, Prof. Grenville Cole, is director), that in the latter collection there is a specimen of Sphenopteris Hoeninghausi from the Coal-measures of Glengoole, co. Tipperary, which shows all the characteristic features of Lyginodendron Oldhamium (including its spines, sclerotic network, venation, and conchoidal pinnule segments). Moreover, the specimen shows, in direct continuity with the vegetative part, the Calymmatotheca Stangeri condition regarded first by Scott, and now by many others, as prob- ably the seed-producing part of Lyginodendron, from which the Lagenostoma Lomaxi seed has already, as Oliver and Scott have satisfactorily shown, in all probability fallen out. The specimen in question, if my interpretation is right, proves the correctness of the conjecture that C. Stangeri is part of the true pteridosperm Lygino- dendron. I hope to publish shortly an illustrated account of the find. T. Jounson. - Royal College of Science, Dublin, October 24. Fermat’s Theorem. Tue following proof of this theorem may be of some interest. Take the scale of notation the radix of which is x, and write down all the numbers of p digits, any or all of which may be zero. The number of these numbers is a?. From one number we can, in general, derive p—1 others by cyclical permutation, the exceptions being those numbers that are periodic with a period that is a sub- multiple of p. Suppose p to be a prime, so that its only submultiple is unity. Then all the numbers except the x numbers that have their digits the same can be arranged in sets of p each (which are easily seen to be mutually exclusive). Hence the number of these numbers, which is xP —x, is divisible by p, and if x is prime to p we see immediately that x?-*—1 is divisible by p, which is NO. 2130, VOL. 84] Fermat’s theorem. It is clear that this proof depends on permutations and combinations, not really on scales of notation, which, indeed, we have only used because of the clearness that they lend to its statement. H. C. POcKLINGTON. 11 Regent Park Terrace, Leeds. The Uganda-Congo Boundary. WitH reference to the note on this subject in NATURE of September 1, has not the writer fallen into a slight error in quoting (p. 268) the definition of limits in the “Berlin Act’’ as applicable to the Congo State? Refer- ence to the text of the Act will show that the passage quoted relates, not to the State, but to the Free Trade area in the Congo basin and neighbouring territories con- stituted at that time, with limits by no means coincident with those of the State. In fact, the ‘‘ Berlin Act ’’ had nothing to do with the State (as such), which was consti- tuted, not by the conference, but by agreements with individual Powers negotiated about the same time. The frontier originally claimed by the State in this region, and definitely accepted by several of the Powers, was the thirtieth meridian, for however unsatisfactory this might be, there could hardly, in 1885, have been a ques- tion of the adoption of the water-parting, which would at that date have involved far more uncertainty than the meridian. It was even doubtful to which of the two basins Lake Edward belonged. The mistake in 1894 seems to have consisted, not in the gratuitous introduction of the thirtieth meridian, but in its partial retention (viz. in the Ruwenzori district), to the detriment of Uganda, while replaced farther north by the water-parting, greatly to the advantage of the Congo State. Epwarp HeEawoop. t Savile Row, September 16. It is quite true that the definition quoted in the note was that of the Free Trade area, but as the recognition of the Congo State, on our part, contained no definition of frontiers, we were entitled in 1894 to maintain that, in default of any specific deviation agreed upon mutually, the two frontier lines were identical. So far as I am aware, up to the date of the treaty of 1894 we had not admitted, nor, indeed, seriously considered, any claim on behalf of the Congo State to territories outside the Congo basin. The history of the whole series of transactions is some- what complicated and difficult, but it seems that, what- ever were the intentions of the signatories to the Berlin Act and of the framers of the original agreements with the Congo State, any distinction between the State and the Free Trade area disappeared at an early period of their history, and had ceased to exist by 1894. THe WRITER OF THE ARTICLE. An Agaric with Sterile Gills. Tue occurrence of agarics with sterile gills is well known in certain species; it has been noticed most in those with purple spores. A few days ago I met with two specimens of Panaeolus campanulatus in Sutton Park, ~ near Birmingham, in which the gills were of a pinkish- grey colour, somewhat closely resembling the tint of the dry pileus. There was a total absence of the usual variegated, grey and black, appearance. The pileus was large and well developed, measuring 13 inches high and broad, stipe quite 4 inches long, and presenting all the characters of that of P. campanulatus. On examining sections of the gills it was seen that numerous basidia were present, projecting beyond the paraphyses; very many of them had the four sterigmata of full size, but not one over the whole of the gills of both specimens had produced a spore, nor were any produced afterwards, so long as the fungi were preserved. Unfortunately, they had been gathered before I saw them, so that it was impossible to ascertain if there was any visible cause for the sterility. W. B. Grove. The Botanical Laboratory, Birmingham University. 532 NATURE [OcToBER 27, 1910 ART THE COMRADE OF SCIENCE." Te has long been known that Mr. A. H. Thayer, the discoverer of the great principle of countershad- ing in nature, was preparing a fully illustrated exposi- tion of his observations and theories, and that his son was helping him in the enterprise. The present beau- tifully illustrated and finely printed work is the result. The great discovery of the obliteration of apparent solidity by means of countershading, first published Fic. 1. — Plymouth Rock Hen, lacking countershading, and therefore conspicuous against a background of Plymouth Rock skins. in 1896 (The convincingly Awk, vol. xiii., pp. 124 and 318), was illustrated in this country by the models prepared by Mr. A. H. Thayer, and presented to the natural history museums of London, Oxford, and Cambridge. An account of the principle, as well as the description of the Oxford model prepared by the present writer, appeared in Nature for April 24, 1902 (vol. Ixv., p. 596). After the great and wide-reaching discovery which has “probably been accepted by all naturalists who have studied it, the author has gradually extended his conclusion that the colours of animals are adapted for concealment, and carried it into regions where a very different interpretation had been accepted. Thus in his papers in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London (1903, pp+ 553-569), and in the. Popular Science Monthly (December, 1909, p- 550), Mr. Thayer maintains that appearances which have been explained as warning, mimetic, and sexual are to be interpreted by the one dominant and universal principle of conceal- ment in nature. It cannot be said that, in these. later developments, Mr. Thayer has suc- ceeded. in convincing any large number of naturalists, and it is. therefore of especial im- portance that a detailed, complete, and fully illustrated statement should have appeared in the present volume. The’ great bulk of the work, which opens with an introductory essay, dated 1907, by Mr. A. H. Thayer, is occupied, first, by a full and admirable exposition of the _ principle of obliterative shading and the combination with it of ‘picture patterns,’ and secondly, by a sketch of the distribution of these methods of con- cealment throughout vertebrate animals and insects, the birds being treated in far greater detail than any 1 ‘€Conceal’ng-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom.” An Exposition of the Laws of Disgnis e through Colour and Pattern: being a Summary of Abbott H. Thayer's Discoveries. By Gerald H. Thaver. With an Intro- ductory Essay by A. H. Thayer. (New York: The Macmillan Co. ; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1gc9.) Price 315s. €d. net. NO. 2139, VOL. 84] Fic. 2.—Bird-shaped Solid Model, other group. Mr. Thayer’s later views are not ex- pounded separately, but are to be found scattered in various parts of the volume, which must be carefully studied as a whole by any reader who would do justice to the author and his father. The value of obliterative countershading is well illustrated by figures of two breeds of fowl in which it is lacking. However closely such fowls may har- monise with the colour of a flat background, they must be rendered conspicuous against it by means of shadow, as is at once obvious in Fig. 1. A series of interesting photographs of models makes it clear that obliterative shading is even more important than markings for the purpose of conceal- ment. Thus, the model in Fig. 2 represenis a rela- tively inconspicuous gap in the pattern of the back- ground; that in Fig. 4, possessing the pattern, is by comparison a strikingly distinct and solid object. We are thus led to conclude that the perfect obliteration represented in Fig. 3 depends in larger measure upon the principle illustrated in Fig. 4 than upon that shown-in Fig. 2. The vast importance of this same principle is demonstrated, not only by diagrams, but by large numbers of representations of actual animals to be found in later pages of the work. A striking example is seen in Fig. 5, where the animal has been photo- graphed in a position which reverses the obliterative tendency of its colouring in the normal position. We here get maximum conspicuousness—the lightest tint in the strongest light, the darkest in the deepest shadow. The relation of the pattern to perspective is dis- cussed in an extremely interesting and original section (chapter iii.), where the conclusion is reached that ‘“‘the obliteratively shaded surface must bear a picture of such background as would be seen through it if it and correctly obliteratively shaded in full, but revealed by the want of pattern. lighted, were transparent.’ This is -well illustrated by the diagram shown in Fig. 6, where the smaller pattern against the details of the highest part cof the bird is seen receding, and therefore to the eye diminished, of the background. Mr. Thayer discriminates sharply between all such obliterative coloration depending on countershading combined with background picturing, and mimicry, or the simulation of a solid object. He truly points out OcToBER 27, 1910] NAT OIE ae) that the goal of the first principle is invisibility, of the second deceptive visibility. ‘* The latter principle is open to unlimited variations of method and result, whereas the former... is in its main essentials strictly limited. There are innumerable kinds of solid Fic. 3.—Model similar to that shown in Fig. 2, and similarly lighted, but concealed by possessing a pattern like that of the background, objects for animals to simulate in appearance, but | there is only one way to make a solid object in a natural lighting cease to appear to exist’’ (p. 25). The use of the term ‘“‘mimicry”’ to indicate the second category, although common, is to be deprecated. It is inconvenient to apply the same term to the resemblance of a moth to a wasp, and that of a caterpillar to a twig. The wasp-like moth is always spoken of as an example of mimicry; and the term imitation mav be conveniently used in a technical sense to include the twig-like caterpillar and all the other innumerable examples of special protec- tive resemblance. The important classifica- tion of cryptic resemblances, which Mr. Thayer now establishes more thoroughly and correctly than before, may be appropriately expressed by the use of the terms (1) oblitera- tive or aphanistic coloration, and (2) imitative or eikonic resemblance. No fewer than sixteen out of the twenty- seven chapters of the book are concerned with the coiouring of birds, the patterns being classified according to the nature or distance of the background that is pictured. A vast amount of patient and loving observation of nature is here summed up and expressed. We shall look forward with the deepest interest to the comments of those special students of bird-life in Europe and America, who will make a point of testing these conclusions by fresh observations made in the field from the author’s point of view. This is written in no spirit of doubt, for Mr. Thayer’s statements and illustrations are, with certain exceptions, to be considered later, most convincing. No naturalist could reasonably doubt, for example, the significance of the grass-pattern shown in Fig. 7, which the author justly describes as ‘“‘ one of the most remarkable photo- NO. 2139, VOL. 84] graphs ever taken of obliteratively coloured birds in nature” (p. 46). The two points by which the bird is most easily recognised are the dark eye and the dark shadow under the feathers, so that this wonder- ful illustration helps us to understand the importance of eye-masking markings (see pp. 81, 82), as well as of obliterative counter- shading. : The coloured plates of the ‘Male Ruffed Grouse in the forest’ (II.), the “Cottontail Rabbit’? (VII.), and the “Copperhead Snake on dead leaves”’ (XI.) are very remarkable illustrations, justly claimed by the author and his father to be “the first ever published, which rightly illustrate and in some respects do justice to the wonderful effects of obliterative coloration, based on the great law of obliterative shad- ing” (p. 128). The five coloured plates of cater- pillars (XII.-XVI.) are extremely beautiful, showing for the first time the important part played by oblitera- tive shading in these forms. The attitudes of caterpillars generally must be re-examined in the light now thrown upon them by this great artist-naturalist; for there is little doubt that many of the best-known and commonest illustrations represent an inaccurate position. It is unfor- tunate that the names of so few of the figured species were ascertained, but there should be little difficulty in the identification of such beautiful repro- ductions. There is an evident inadvertence in the orientation of Fig. C or D on plate XII., both repre- sented in a similar position, although D is described as the reverse of C. Fic. 4.—Model similar to that shown in Fig. 3, and similarly patterned, but . wrongly lighted and therefore conspicuous. The necessities of space prevent a further account of this remarkable and splendidly illustrated exposition of the principles of obliterative colouring, and its dis- tribution throughout the animal kingdom. We must now, in the concluding paragraphs, deal with special 534 NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1910 interpretations and later developments which are likely to cast an entirely undeserved suspicion upon this admirable account of a great discovery. In the first place, in the present state of our know- ledge of a most difficult subject and the great need for | numberless exact observations and precise records, | Fic. 5.—Domestic Hare laid on its back, out of doors, so that the oblite ative shading is reversed. Photographed from life. illustrations in which the background has_ been ‘copied, colour-note for colour-note,”’ from the animal itself, are a hindrance and not a help (plates I., III., VI., WHI., IX:; X., and “ig. '123):) Dhe aniferred environment is not necessarily incorrect—the rattle- snake (Fig. 123) at least is almost certainly represented with truth—but the inference is not scientific evidence, and it is likely to act as a hindrance, because some readers may be led into accepting it as a proof, others into scoffing at the whole subject. Furthermore, the inferred significance of the animal’s colouring may be wholly mistaken, as I doubt not is the case with the beautiful and poetic plates IX. and X., representing ‘flamingoes at dawn or sunset, and the skies they picture.” Such an interpretation is quite incon- sistent with the wonderful representation of flamingo life prepared by Dr. F. M. Chapman for the American Museum of Natural History, New York. The present writer had. seen the representation and knew well the unrivalled knowledge and experience which had gone to the making of it, and he therefore wrote to his friend and asked his opinion as to the meaning of the colours of these birds. Dr. Chapman kindly replied as follows :— My observations of flamingoes (which I should add were made only in the Bahamas) lead to the belief that our American bird (Phoenicopterus ruber) is protected by its haunts and habits rather than by its colour. At all times, whether feeding singly or when nesting and solidly massed in hundreds, it is from any point of view an exceedingly conspicuous object. Apparently, therefore, it thrives only when it is beyond the reach of predatory Mammalia and Reptilia, its centres of abundance being oceanic islands, like the Bahamas or Galapagoes, or small keys off the mainland. It is true that flamingoes formerly Visited the of southern Florida in great numbers, but they never been. known to nest there, and they frequented nly the vast shallow bays where they could feed far from land, and where it was almost impossible to approach them ; for it should be especially noted that these flamingoes are I they The character of the shores have shv as hv a are NO. 2139, VOL. 84] conspicuous. regions they frequent usually enables them to see as far as they can be seen, and the brilliancy of their colours seems to be compensated: for by their extreme wariness. For example, a professional hunter of flamingoes on the Florida coast tells me that for six days a week for two consecutive weeks he pursued a flock, estimated to contain 2000 flamingoes, without securing a single specimen. I am, -of course, aware that man should not be classed among the natural enemies of the flamingo, nor their colours be ex- plained from the human view-point, but the fact just mentioned at any rate illustrates the bird’s alertness and the difficulty with which it is approached. As, in the Bahamas, at any rate, the flamingo feeds only on molluscs, its colours are apparently not deceptive or aggressive. In short, it is my belief that the flamingo’s colours are to be placed among the cases where colour has run riot, unchecked by any need for protection from enemy or prey, and that the bird has continued to exist only where the dangers to which of necessity its colour would expose it are happily absent. The flamingo has been considered at some length. With regard to the pea- cock in the wood (plate I.), it can only be said here that the interpretation is hardly likely to be accepted by anyone who has watched the male bird display- ing before the female or in rivalry with another. male. Nor are many. naturalists likely. to be convinced by Mr. Thayer’s in- terpretation of recognition markings and warning colours, an interpretation rendered suffi- ciently clear by Figs. 8 and 9g. Here, as in all other examples of animal colouring, Mr. Thayer considers the one dominant interpretation to be concealment, Ze. | by animals’ patterns. The bird is supposed to be lLok:d at from the side and above so that the small-r pattern of its head and neck is against the more distant and therefore reduced pattern of the ground surface. Fic. 6.—Diagram showing the picturing of perspective the Spilogale’s ‘‘dark stripes passing for vegetation, and his white stripes for the sky.’’ This explanation of warning colours has been recently criticised, and in the opinion of the present writer entirely refuted, by Mr. R. I. Pocock (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1908, pp. 944-959), and the corresponding interpretation of recognition NA PORE , 1910] I~ fol} OcTOBER “stma'T uvag Aq ayt] wor paydessojoqq *ys9U Jay uo ues WWE} prytey-aryAA ulreyunoyy A poy—s 1g 139, VOL. 84} B) NO. 536 markings by Mr. E. Thompson Seton (* Life-Histories of Northern Animals”’). As regards the interpretation of the mimetic resemblances of butterflies as due to a syncryptie resemblance to flowers and the surrounding vegetation and its interstices, it is impossible to say Fic. 8.—Spiloga'e, or Little Striped Skunk, seen from above—man's and hawk’'s point of view~ graph of a stuffed skin, out of doors. more than that such a theory does not explain many well-known characteristics of the mimetic groups. Whatever be the verdict of the moment, a man will be judged and ought to be judged by what he has done, not by what he has failed to do. It has been Fic. 9.—Spilogale, seen from below—mouse’s and cricket's position. out of doors. said that ‘‘What’s hit is history, what’s missed mystery.’’ While the misses do not make the hits any the less, the mystery may serve to throw light upon a mind that has made history. Ee Be iP: the workings of NO. 2139, VOL. 84] NAT (Gi aS [OcTOBER 27, 1910 ETHNOGRAPHY AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM. ‘]° HE purchaser of this handbook will feel no regret that it is not cast in the form of a guide. Many, perhaps most, of those who buy museum publications do so as they leave the building, and although the fate of such mementoes cannot be determined with certainty, it may be assumed that they are sometimes read at leisure. A descriptive handbook on broad lines is, therefore, a better in- vestment for the average visitor than a guide of the old, and arid, type. The present example is worthy of the best fate ‘ that can befall it at the hands of the man who looks in from the street, and it will be cordially welcomed by those whose interest in ethno- graphy less casual and fortuitous. The introduction con- tains a brief survey of the progress of geo- graphical exploration from classical times on- ward, and traces the dis- coveries which rendered possible the develop- ment of the comparative study of mankind. The scope of ethnography is defined in a concise discussion of man in his relation to the material world, to his fellows, and to the supernatural. The greater part of the book, which deals with the collections as exhibited in the Museum, is arranged under geographical headings, and the limita- tions of the collections are naturally reflected in the handbook. Thus, under Persia, India, and Japan, the subject of arms and armour is practically the only one considered, whilst China only referred to incidentally. The culture of Tibet, Cey- lon, Indonesia, and some of the tribes of northern and_ central Asia, is entered into in greater detail. Useful summaries are given of the general conditions of the life and culture of the peoples of these is From photo- is areas, with reference not only to their arts and industries, but also to their customs and be- From photograph of stuffed skin, liefs. Racial origins and affinities are briefly considered, and the latest views are stated. The same treatment is adopted with regard to the peoples of Australia, Oceania, Africa, and America. Special mention may +704. (London: Price 2s. 1 Handbook to the Ethnographical Collections.” Pp. xv Printed by Order of the Trustees, British Museum, rgro.) OcTOBER: 27, Ig10] NATURE 37 ul be made of the able condensation of the complex sub- ject of the culture, distribution, and relationships of the Negro and Bantu tribes of Africa. An important feature, and one which will be widely number of of plates. illustrations, The appreciated, is the large many of them in the form geo- Contemporary portrait figure in wood of Bope, great chief of the Bu Shongo, ¢. 1790, Kasai District, Congo State. From the British Museum ‘* Handbook to the Ethnographical Collections. graphical and tribal index also adds greatly to the value of the book for reference purposes. Whilst giving ungrudging praise to the handbook, the hope must be expressed that the extension of the museum buildings will afford opportunity for the accommodation of the ethnographical collections under conditions that will enable them to be dis- NO. 2139, VOL. 84] played in a manner more worthy of their importance. ‘The provision of a section of technology, for example, would not only be an extremely popular addition, but would immensely increase the educational value of the collections. It seems doubtful, however, whether those who intermittently rule over us have yet been convinced that museums are educational institutions. It is certain that they have not appreciated the im- portance of the study of man, working-man excepted. Lileigrsis) del, SIGHT TESTS IN. THE MERCANTILE. MARINE. qoee Board of Trade has issued an important report (Cd. 5256) on the sight tests used in the mercantile marine during the year 1909. Out of 6084 candidates, 56 failed in form vision, and were not re-examined; while out of the remaining 6028 there were 86 failures in colour-vision, of whom 31 appealed and were re-examined, with the result that 15 were passed and 16 were finally rejected. The ‘total abso- lute rejections were, therefore, 71 in 6084, or 1749 per cent. During the first ten months. of the year, colour vision was tested by the three skeins of wooi originally recommended for the purpose by Holm- gren; but during November and December two other skeins, a purple and a yellow, were added. With these the rejections were in somewhat larger propor- tion (1°81 per cent. against 1717) than when only three skeins were used; but the total number of candidates examined by the new method (882) was. hardly suffi- cient to afford any basis for a conclusion. In the case of the fifteen men who, having origin- ally been rejected as colour-blind, were re-examined and accepted on appeal, the report gives no informa- tion on the very important point of the precise methods employed in testing them, or on the precise ‘matches ’’ made by them, either at the first ex- amination or at the subsequent one. In the case of those who were finally rejected, we are told what they did. ‘*A.B.,”’ for example, selected ‘* sage-grey, fawn, and greenish- yellow’ as matches for the green skein, * ‘ greenish- blue’ * as a match for the pink skein, “blue and carmine,’’ as a match for the red skein, and so on, until he is finally dismissed as ‘‘ com- pletely green-blind.”” But of a man who, having been rejected, ‘‘ appealed and passed,’’ we are not told anything but th at he had previously ‘ failed in the colour-vision tests,’’? and we have no information as to how the alleged “‘failure’’ was redeemed. There can be no question that, in every case in which an original rejection has been overruled, very clear evidence of error on the part of the first examiner, and of special care on the part of the second one, should be forthcoming. We- believe that failure to reach correct. conclusions by means of Holmgren’s three skeins would be due, probe ibly in all c neglect of Holmgren’s very precise instructions as to the manner in which they should be use d-sand. lt. a6 were found that the original conclusions of any ex- aminer were often overruled on appeal, an urgent necessity for reconsidering his fitness would arise. It is manifest that no original reiection should be set aside except upon the clearest and most satisfactory evidence ; because, however much we may sympathise with instances of. h: irdship, if such there be, or with worthy men deprived of a calling, it must be remem- bered that the difference between red and green is to the, normal-sighted so complete and absolute that they can scarcely understand even the possibility of con- founding them. A case in which the difference is less than this, a case in which there is any question, any possibility, of confusion between the two colours in any conditions of weather -or of illumination, is cases, to 538 NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1910 a SSS SEE one in which the benefit of any possible doubt should not be given to the individual examined, but to the persons who may possibly be carried in a ship or a train placed under his control. It follows that the evidence on which a re-examined man has _ been accepted is of far more public importance than that on which he has been rejected; and it is to be hoped that, in the next report upon the subject, this aspect of the question will be borne in mind. Of the 71 rejections for colour-blindness, 35 were on account of red-blindness (complete in 20, incomplete in 15), and 36 on account of green-blindness (com- plete in 23, incomplete in 13), so that the several de- fects are practically of about equal frequency. No case of monocular colour-defect is recorded. The last paragraph of the report announces that, after January 1, 1914, the standard of form vision in the mercantile marine will be raised, and that candidates will be required to possess full normal vision in one eye, and ‘‘ at least’? half normal vision in the other. It will probably be news to most of our readers that less than this very modest standard has hitherto been required; and ophthalmologists generally will, we think, agree with us that the possession of only half vision, in one of his eyes, by a young or middle - aged mariner, is a Cir- cumstance which would fully justify his being submitted to periodical re- examination. “Half - vision” would in many cases indicate disease, often of a character likely to be progressive. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION. HE aim of this stately book is to show how the various types of animals have solved the fundamental problems of life, and how their struc- ture is to be interpreted in terms of their functions and environment. The keynote of the book is to keep the animal alive and to study its adaptations. We must con- gratulate the author on the success of his endeavour, for he has written a worthy successor to the once- famous, now forgotten ‘‘ Anatomischphysiologische Uebersicht des Tierreiches,” by Bergmann and Leuckart. The outstanding merit of the achievement is in its unified or synthetic presentation of the facts— it is at once anatomical and physiological, cecological and evolutionist. This general biological outlook is very useful for the analytic student. Dr. Hesse has evidently worked for a long 1 “Tierbau und Tierleben in ihrem Zusammenhang betrachtet.”” By Prof. R. Hesse and Prof. Franz Doflein. Band i. Der Tierkérper als selbstandiger organismus. _ By Prof. Richard Hesse. Pp. xvii+7$9. Leipzig and Berlin: B. G. Teubner, rgro.) Price 20 marks, NO. 2139, VOL. 84] Episode in ‘‘ Courtship” of Crested time over his book—it is scholarly, up-to-date, and clear, and commands our warmest admira- tion. It deals with the individual organism and the processes of its life—such as movement and feeling, nutrition and reproduction. There is nothing remark- able in the mapping out of the subject; it is the working-out that is remarkable in its thoroughness and lucidity. In treating of reproduction, the author necessarily gets beyond the individual, and leads on towards the second volume, in which Prof. Doflein is to deal with the rela- tions of organisms with one another and to environ- mental influences. The book is illustrated with quite remarkable generosity and skill. It is not merely that the illustra- tions are very numerous and beautiful, but they are peculiarly fresh and interesting, and there is a de- lightful intellectual flavour about them. They not only adorn the tale, they tell a story by themselves. Dr. Hesse’s emphatically distinctive book has been well treated by the publishers, and we hope the result will be a great success. We have no counterpart of it in Britain. From Hesse and Doflein’s ‘‘ Tierbau und Tierleben.” Newt. RECENT INVESTIGATIONS ON PELLAGRA. HE visit of Dr. Louis Sambon to Italy to investi- gate the cause of pellagra has proved eminently successful. Dr. Sambon was sent out by the Pellagra Investigation Committee in March, 1910, in conse- quence of his having advocated for some time that pellagra was not caused by the consumption of diseased maize, as has been thought to be the case hitherto. Dr. Sambon was of opinion that pellagra was due to a protozoal infection, and that the disease was conveyed by an insect in much the same way as several other ailments are transmitted, such as malaria, sleeping sickness, kala-azar, filariasis, &c. The mem- bers of the Pellagra Investigation Committee, finding Dr. Sambon’s idea was based on sound scientific reasonings, proceeded to collect money for the purpose of enabling him to proceed to Italy and pursue inves- tigations on the spot. OcToBER 27, 1910] NATURE 539 Dr. Sambon visited the provinces of Bergamo, Milan, Brescia, Padova, Rome, and Perugia, and wherever he came in contact with the disease he found that the consumption of maize, whether diseased or not, had nothing to do with the prevalence of pellagra. Endemic centres of the disease have existed in Italy persistently for at least a century. The disease is not met with in towns, but only in certain parts of the country, namely, in the districts where a sandfly of the class Simuliida, and belonging to the genus Simulium, is met with. No actual parasite has as yet been discovered in the blood; but the geographical distribution of the disease, its epidemiology, and its close resemblance in behaviour to other diseases in which a parasite has been discovered, confirms Dr. Sambon in the belief that it is a protozoal infection carried by a sandfly that is the etiological factor in pellagra. As a parallel we have the case of yellow fever. In yellow fever we know the agent of transmission to be a mosquito. No parasite has been discovered in the blood in yellow fever, but the experiments carried out are so conclusive that the disease is of the nature of a protozoal infection that yellow fever is classed as one of the protozoal infection with a parasite that is ultra-microscopic. Pellagra is in the same category. There are certain factors in infections of this kind which enable us to conclude that a disease is of a certain class, although the microscope is at fault. Dr. Sambon proved :—(1) That the endemic centres of pellagra in Italy have remained the same since the disease was first described. (2) That the season of recurrence of pellagra coincides with the season of the appearance of the fully-fledged sandfly to the extent that even if the spring is early or late so the sandfly is early or late in appearing, and synchronously pellagra cases correspond in their appearance. (3) In centres of pellagra infection whole families are attacked at times simultaneously. (4) In non-pella- grous districts when a pellagrin is met with the disease never spreads to others, and the patient acquired in- fection during a sojourn in a pellagrous district. (5) In the case of a family that has moved from a pella- grous district to a non-pellagrous district the children born in the former are pellagrins, whilst those of the children born subsequent to removal to a non-pella- rrous district do not develop the disease. (6) The disease is not hereditary, although infants a few months’ old may become infected, especially if taken out to the fields in pellagrous districts, where their mothers work during the season, when the sandflies are in evidence. (7) Pellagra is not contagious, but is transmitted to each individual by an infected sandfly. Dr. Sambon, from the epidemiological and topo- graphical aspects of pellagra alone, has been able to show by well-nigh conclusive proof that pellagra is an insect-borne disease. It is hoped that money will be forthcoming whereby a study so well began and so fruitful in results shall be further investigated, so that not only Italy but the many countries in which pellagra is a scourge and a calamity may be freed of one of the most frequent causes of insanity. DR. MELCHIOR TREUB. HE death of this distinguished botanist, which occurred at Saint Raphaél, Var, on October 3, closes a career of remarkable brilliancy. Born at Voorschoten, near Leyden, on December 26, 1851, Melchior Treub entered the University of Leyden in 1869, and shortly after the completion of his under- graduate career was appointed assistant in the Botanical Institute there. This position he occupied from 1874 until 1880, when he was appointed, in his NO. 2139, VOL. 84] twenty-ninth year, to the directorship of the Botanic Garden at Buitenzorg, in Java, which had become vacant owing to the untimely death of the talented Scheffer, The striking quality of Treub’s early work, pub- lished before and during the tenure of his assistant- ship at Leyden, more than justified the selection, by the Netherlands Government of so young a man to fill so important a post, and afforded the happiest auguries for his success in this new and wider field. But high as were the expectations which Treub’s friends were entitled to entertain, their most sanguine hopes fell far short of what Treub was able to accom- plish during the twenty-nine years of his sojourn in Java. Succeeding as he did a man of high aims, whose unwearied exertions in giving effect to them were largely responsible for his early death, Treub, with rare administrative skill, brought the renowned insti- tution of which he had been given charge to a pitch of material perfection and a position of scientific importance far surpassing his predecessor’s fondest aspiration. While developing and extending the economic activities whose foundations had been laid by Scheffer, Treub was able in the midst of his multifarious and engrossing administrative duties to undertake and complete the investigation of many important scientific problems, the details of which enrich the pages of the famous ‘‘Annales du Jardin Botanique de Buitenzorg,’”’ founded by Scheffer, and edited from the second volume onwards by Treub. To the herbarium which has been associated with the Buitenzorg Garden since its foundation, and to the museum organised by his predecessor, Treub was able, almost from the outset of his directorship, to add a series of well-equipped and fully-staffed laboratories for the prosecution of technical and scientific research. One of his earliest acts was to persuade his Govern- ment to provide a special laboratory reserved for the use of foreign workers, who might care to visit Java and undertake, in the midst of its rich vegetation, original botanical study. Treub’s own contributions to the advancement of natural knowledge have been so numerous and -are so well known to all students of general botany that they need not be recapitulated here. One of the out- standing features of his worl: is its reflection of the catholicity of his interests, which prevented him from ever becoming a_ specialist. His excep- tional capacity for observation and his thorough mastery of method enabled him to enter with equal success many fields of study. Everything he had occasion to say on morphological, embryological, physiological, or phytogeographical subjects was worth saying, while his faculty for exposition enabled him so to present his results as always to arrest attention. The one field of botanical activity which he never entered was that of systematic study, with the needs of which, however, partly from the width of his sympathies, partly owing to his absorb- ing economic initerests, he was fully conversant; perhaps none have benefited more immediately or more greatly by his kind and ungrudging assistance than systematic students. Equally unnecessary here is any résumé of the re- sults of Treub’s practical activities or any recapitula- tion of the benefits thereby accruing to tropical agri- culture, forestry, and pharmacology. The great value of the assistance given by him to the industries con- cerned has, however, lain in the fact that the prac- tical results attained have always depended on scien- tific research. So ably did he teach the lesson that successful practice must depend on science, that he was enabled, towards the close of his career in Java, to 540 NATURE [OcToxEeR 27, 1910 effect the establishment of a truly scientific Depart- ment of Agriculture in the island, with himself as its head. In connection with this enterprise, he had occasion to visit various Eastern’ establishments, among them that organised by the United States Government in the Philippines. While in Manila, he contracted a severe illness the effects of which he was unable to shake off on his return to Buitenzorg, and some time thereafter he was compelled temporarily to relinquish his charge. sojourn of some months in the mountains of Java effected so much improvement in health that he was able to return to duty. But again his health gave way, and a little over a year ago he was reluctantly compelled to retire from the post he had filled with so much distinction for nearly thirty years. Under medical advice, he spent the winter in Egypt, and in spring went to live at Saint Raphaél, near Cannes. His retirement was a source of unmixed regret to his colleagues in Java, because of the loss of his hand from the helm. To his many friends in Europe, however, the necessity did not present quite the same aspect; these looked forward to the double pleasure of renewed personal intercourse with Treub, and to that increased scientific activity for which his release from heavv official duties promised him opportunities. This was not to be, and botanists throughout the world now mourn the loss of one of the ornaments of their science. To those who had the privilere of his personal friendship the blow is greater still. They have lost in Treub a brilliant, stimulating, and svm- pathetic colleague, one whose width of culture and charm of manner rendered intercourse with him a continual pleasure. Above all, they have lost a kind and constant friend. DR. SIDNEY RINGER. apate career of Dr. Sidney Ringer, which came to a close recently at Lastingham, Yorkshire, is a fine refutation of the common statement that the cares of medical practice do not permit of active scientific research in these days. Engaged in a large and suc- cessful consulting practice, and in teaching in a large medical school, he vet found time for much work in the advancement of pure science. His interests in medicine lay largely in therapeutics, in which his text-book remains authoritative, and his experimental researches appear to have arisen from the desire to put therapeutics upon a more secure foundation by investigating the effects of drugs on the animal organ- ism. From 1870 to 1880 he published a number of papers dealing with the effect of various alkaloids and other drugs on animals, and these were continued at intervals in his later years. Many of these have been confirmed by later workers, and have taken their place in literature along with the work of the other founders of the modern pharmacological school. Among other subjects taken up at this time, the mutual antagonism exhibited by some of the alkaloids appears to have interested him in particular, and his experience with these probably influenced his later investigations. From about 1880 Ringer struck out on a line of his own in his investigation of the inorganic salts of the blood and other tissues. At this time practically nothing was known of the biological significance of these, and their presence in the tissues was discounted in the physiology of the time. His investigations were so complete that the laboured investigations of a mul- titude of foreign observers in recent years have added little of fundamental importance. The — essential feature which Ringer demonstrated was that while each of the salts induces abnormal conditions when applied alone to the tissues, each of them is necessary NO. 2139, VOL. 84] for normal function; living matter requires inorganic salts, but these must be presented in certain propor- tions. In particular, the special rdéle played by lime salts in the economy of the tissues was first demon- strated by Ringer, and its antagonism to sodium and potassium was developed in a number of papers in the Journal of Physiology. The sodium and potass.- ium in the body fluids has to be counteracted by lime, and such “balanced” solutions, when formed artificially, are harmless to living tissues, as he showed in a number of instances. The solution of salts introduced by him, and universally known by his name, is to-day to be found in every biological laboratory, and its use has led to developments in many fields of research. The work on which its com- position is based has often received too little attention. This may be accounted for by the time at which it appeared : Ringer’s work was done before the modern views of diffusion and dissociation of salts in solution found their wav into biology. And the investigators who approached the study “of the biological relations of the salts from the side of the new physico- chemistry appear to have overlooked the work of those who had investivated the subject without the aid of the newer methods. Quite recently, however, some amends have been made in this respect, and it is now recognised that the pioneer in this work had reached in essentials the same nosition twenty years ago as has now been attained generally. From 1895 onwards, Ringer ceased active work in research, but his interest was unabated. Two years ago he might have ‘been seen in his old place in the physiological laboratory at University College investigating some point which had attracted his attention. One cannot help regret- ting that he could not devote himself wholly to experi- mental research, in which he showed outstanding powers: but, on the other hand, his clinical work could ill have been spared by medicine. Few in these modern times have been able to combine such insight in the biological aspect of medicine with an equal eminence in practice. Cc NOTES. On Wednesday, October 19, Sir William Ramsay con- ducted Mr. Francis Fox, chairman (who first suggested the utilisation of the Trenwith Mine pitchblende), and the other directors of the British Radium Corporation over their works at Limehouse. From the ore, which comes from the Trenwith Mine at St. Ives, 550 milligrams of radium as bromide have already been extracted, as well as the uranium which it accompanies, practically without loss. In an account which appeared in the Times of October 20, the in stating that Cornish pitchblende is richer in radium than.the Austrian ore; on the contrary, the constancy of the ratio between uranium and radium has been repeatedly confirmed. From inspec- tion of the Trenwith Mine, there appears good reason to hope that the present supply will be maintained, if not The productive capacity of the works at Lime- reporter is in error exceeded. house is about 100 milligrams a week. A Reuter message from Stockholm states that this year's Nobel prize for medicine has been awarded to Prof. Albrecht Kossel, professor of physiology in the University of Heidelberg. Each prize will amount on this occasion to 7734l. It is proposed to hold in Paris next spring an inter- exhibition concerned with agriculture, oyster- and fisheries. The organising committee has its _ Montmartre, Paris. national culture, office at 161 rue OcTOBER 27, 1910] NATURE 541 ‘Tue Royal Society informs us that the studentship on the foundation of the late Prof. Tyndall for scientific re- search on subjects tending to improve the conditions to which miners are subject has been awarded for the ensuing year to Dr. T. L. Llewellyn, of Bargoed, Wales, for research regarding the cause and cure of the disease in miners known as nystagmus. Dr. BAtnori, writing from Nagybecskerek, Hungary, informs us that the Hungarian Academy of Science has this year awarded the Bédlyai prize, of the value of 10,000 crowns, to Prof. David Hilbert, university professor of mathematics at Heidelberg. The jury consisted of two foreign mathematicians—Poincaré (to whom the prize was awarded in 1905) and G. Mittag-Leffler—and two Hungarians, Y. Konig and G. Rados, both from Buda- pest. News has been received from Italy of considerable damage wrought in the island of Ischia, accompanied by loss of life, due, in the first instance, to what is described as a cloud-burst. A hurricane has been referred to in the meagre accounts which have as yet-reached this country, and from the local character of the phenomenon it seems likely that it was of the nature of a tornado, with torrential rain. The disaster occurred during Sunday night and Monday morning, October 23-24. The Paris Bulletin International for Monday, October 24, makes no mention of the disturbance, and contains nothing apparently associated with the occurrence except that at Naples the rainfall, measured at 7 a.m. for the preceding twenty-four hours, was 1-30 inches, and at Rome 0-87 inch. At Naples a further rainfall of 1-28 inches for the twenty-four hours ending October 25 is recorded in the Paris Bulletin, making the aggregate fall in forty-eight hours 2-58 inches. At Cette, in the south of France, 3-11 inches of rain fell in the twenty-four hours ending 7 a.m. October 25. Earty in November the University of Leyden proposes to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Prof. J. D. van Bemmelen. Prof. van Bemmelen was born on November 3, 1830, and has been engaged in scientific work since 1856. He has contributed greatly to the foundation of the Dutch school of physical chemistry. Prof. H.-A. Lorentz, of Leyden, is the chairman of the committee organising the celebration, and Dr. W. P. Jorissen the secretary. It is proposed to publish as a memorial of the celebration a collection of memoirs by fellow-workers on the subjects with which Prof. van Bemmelen’s name is associated, and already some sixty have been received. The memoirs will be published in one volume by M. C. de Boer Junior, Helder, Holland. Tue annual general meeting of the Institute of Metals will be held at the Institution of Mechanical Storey’s Gate, Westminster, S.W., on Wednesday, January 17 and 18, 1911. At this meeting a number of papers will be presented, including some of an essentially practical character, together with the pre- liminary report to the corrosion committee. It will be remembered that this committee was appointed some months ago to investigate cases of corrosion of the non- ferrous metals. The preliminary report will show the present state of our knowledge of the corrosion of non- ferrous metals and alloys, and will, contain suggestions for a research into the causes of the corrosion by sea water of brass condenser tubes. The institute has now been founded just two years, and has celebrated its birthday by becoming an incorporated institution. NO. 2139, VOL. 84] Enginee Tuesday and SPEAKING at the inaugural meeting of the Oxford branch of the Research Defence Society on Monday, Lord Cromer gave a number of instances of the value of research in medicine. In the course of his remarks he said :—Step by step the micro-organism of all the principal diseases—re- lapsing fever, leprosy, typhoid, tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, tetanus, influenza, plague, and dysentery—has been tracked to its lair. There is so great a wealth of evidence to show the results already achieved that it is difficult to decide. which subject to mention particularly. The case of plague may, however, be taken as an example. When this terrible disease broke out in India some fourteen years ago a-panic ensued. Vast sums of money ,were’ spent on disinfectants and other perfectly useless remedies. All was in vain. The epidemic continued to ravage whole Then science took the matter up. The connec- tion .between the plague and the prevalence of rats was noticed. The fact that the rat flea, and not the rat itself, was the propagator of the disease was established. The anti-plague vaccine was discovered by Mr. Hafflkine—but it took some years of observation before all these results could be obtained. When they. were obtained science at last reaped its proud and well-merited reward. . Colonel Bannerman, a distinguished Indian bacteriologist, said. that in a number_of cases in the Punjab, the aggregate popula- tion of which is about 827,000, some 187,000 were inocu- lated four months before the plague appeared, and that some. 640,000 were not inoculated. Only 314 deaths occurred amongst the inoculated, while no fewer than 29,723 occurred amongst those who had not been inocu- lated. In other words, it may be said that experimental science saved the lives of about 8000 human beings, and those lives would not have been saved had it not been for the series of experiments conducted on living animals. districts. In the Harveian oration delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London on October 18, Dr. H. B. Donkin discussed ‘‘ Some Aspects of Heredity in Relation to Mind.’’ He pointed out that the hypothesis of hereditary criminality lacks substantiation, though “‘a considerably larger minority of persons with clearly appreciable mental defect, apparently of congenital nature, is found among convicted criminals than in the popula- tion at large.’’ It cannot be assumed that the criminal is a racial ‘‘ degenerate.’’ In inquiring into the causa- tion of ‘‘ congenital’? mental defect, Dr. Donkin retained a severely sceptical position. In some cases a_ lineal sequence of defectives is sufficiently frequent to render it highly probable that this condition is truly innate, and thus transmissible; in other cases it may be an indirect result of malnutrition and the like in the parent; and there are other possibilities. Dr. Donkin laid emphasis on the difficulty of making sure whether mental and moral characters are inborn or ‘‘ acquired,’’ but it may be pointed out that his view of the distinction is not exactly that held by most biologists. In regard to the inherit- ance of mental qualities, he followed Sir Ray Lankester in attaching great importance to ‘ educability.’’ ‘* The innate and transmissible factor of the mind of man is the organic potentiality for making mental acquirements.”’ He did not, however, enter into a discussion of the hereditary reappearance of distinctive mental traits, and we venture to point out that his identification of mental acquirements and modifications will not commend itself to biologists who care for precision. A very interesting feature in the oration was the collection of some of Harvey’s observations on heredity, in which Dr. Donkin was inclined to detect an “‘ inkling of the great question- regarding ‘ inherited’ and ‘ acquired’ characters.” 542 Ar the Royal Society of Medicine on October 21 Dr. Franz Nagelschmidt gave a demonstration on ‘“ The Thermal Effects produced by High-frequency Currents.”’ D’Arsonval directed attention, twenty-five years ago, to the ‘‘disagreeable burning sensation’’ that invariably accompanies the application of high-frequency currents. In the apparatus now shown this thermal effect is specially encouraged. Instead of the very high voltage (upwards of 100,000 volts) used in the ordinary forms of high-frequency application, the apparatus for diathermy gives about 800 volts, but the current which actually traverses the body reaches as much as 23 amperes. Stronger currents have been employed, but are not, in Dr. Nagelschmidt’s opinion, free from danger. The demonstrator placed two circular electrodes at opposite sides of a piece of raw liver, and ‘showed how the passage of the current produced a solid ‘column of coagulated liver, the borders of which were strictly limited by the diameter of the electrodes, the por- tions of liver immediately outside the cylindrical coagu- lated block remaining quite unaffected. The sharply limited action of the current was demonstrated even more graphically by means of a solution of white-of-egg con- tained in a glass trough. In this case, when the elec- trodes were placed near opposite ends of the trough, a column of coagulated albumin could be seen to form ‘between them, and if a small current (0-5 ampere) were used the coagulation commenced, not at the electrodes, but at a point midway between them, and extended thence to the electrodes. The practical applications of this current were described, and it was shown how masses of diseased tissue (such as cancers) could be removed without ‘loss of blood and without fear of damaging contiguous parts. Apart from this, many forms of localised pain could be relieved in a few minutes by applying an electrode to the area of skin overlying the painful region. Several other possible therapeutic uses of the diathermal currents were mentioned, including the power of these currents to strengthen and accelerate the heart’s action. The high- tension current is obtained by a motor generator giving alternating current. The current to be applied to the patient is easily regulated from a switch table. Lreut.-CoLtoneL L. A. WappELL, one of the leading authorities on the literature of Tibet, has deposited in the library of the India Office about one thousand books and manuscripts collected by him during the last expedition to Lhasa. These include a remarkable collection of ancient anatomical drawings from the Temple of Medicine at Lhasa, which preserve in pictorial form the old-world Indian beliefs regarding the structure and functions of the internal organs of the body. Much of this Indian surgical lore is probably of Greek origin, but the routes by which it may have reached India have not been clearly traced. This Tibetan series of drawings is believed to have reached Lhasa in the eighth century a.p. The collection will prove of much interest to students of Oriental surgery. TueE prehistoric boat discovered at Brigg, Lincolnshire, in 1886, formed the subject of a law-suit, the result of which was that it was awarded to Mr. Cary-Elwes, Lord of the Manor, who has now presented it to the Hull Museum. It is in a rather dilapidated condition, but has been repaired, so far as possible, under the supervision of the curator, Mr. T. Shepherd. In his useful series of museum manuals he has now given full details of the discovery, with various drawings and photographs illus- trating this remarkable exhibit. To this is appended a bibliography, which shows that few objects of antiquity NO. 2139, VOL. 84] NATURE = [OcToBEk 27, 1910 discovered in this country have given birth to a more extensive literature. In a supplement to the Annals of the Transvaal Museum Messrs. Gunning and Haagner have published a check-list of the birds of South Africa, based on Reichenow’s “Vogel Afrikas,’’ but bringing the subject up to date. The Zambezi-Cuneni line (lat. 16° S.) is taken as the boundary of the area, in which 919 species are recognised. To the Annals of the Transvaal Museum for February Mr. J. Hewitt contributes an article on the zoological region of South Africa as deduced from the composition of its Lacertilia. After mentioning that the Zambezi- Cuneni line does not form a natural zoological boundary, as there is an extensive overlap of the southern and tropical faunas, the author expresses the opinion that the southern districts of Africa possess a fauna sufficiently peculiar to entitle this area to be regarded as a distinct zoological region, divisible into several subregions. ‘‘ As regards the entity of the South African region as a zoological area, there can be no doubt but that the distinc- tion between the peculiar endemic fauna of southern Africa and tropical Africa is too pronounced to permit of our regarding the South African region as merely a province of the large Ethiopian area, and, indeed, but for the infiltration of tropical forms, no one would hesitate to unite South Africa with Madagascar as a region quite distinct from the more northern parts of Africa. But the question of ther northern -boundary of our area is quite another matter.’’ The author’s conclusions seem to be entirely based on reptilian and amphibian evidence. Great interest attaches to a paper by Mr. G. E. Pilgrim in vol. xl., part i., of the Records of the Geological Survey of India on new genera and species of mammals from the Indian Siwaliks, chiefly, it seems, those of the Punjab and Bugti Hills. Among numerous other forms, special reference may be made to Sivapithecus indicus, a new generic type based on the last lower molar of an anthro- poid, which agrees in size and general form with the corresponding tooth of the gorilla, but has lower cusps and no cingulum. Upper and lower jaws indicate a second new anthropoid, referred to the European genus Dryopithecus. If rightly assigned to Mceritherium—and the reference is only provisional—a small and primitive proboscidean molar from the Bugti Hills apparently indicates a migration of the ancestors of the elephant- group from northern Africa to north-western India, From a phylogenetic point of view, perhaps the most interesting of all the new ‘‘ finds ’’ is the genus and species described as Dorcabune anthracotheroides. This species, according to Mr. Pilgrim, ‘‘ shows the most extraordinary mingling of traguloid and anthracotheroid characters. Its upper molars may be described as like those of a Dorcatherium, only of an extreme bunodont and brachyodont type. . . . The same type of structure is displayed in the lower teeth, which, however, differ less, qualitatively, from Dorca- therium than the upper ones. ... On the whole, the genus may be appropriately placed in the Tragulid.”’ Tue determinations of a small collection of plants gathered by Dr. Th. Derbeck on the shores of the Gulf of Tartary, near the mouth of the Amur, are communicated by Mr. V. L. Komarov to the Bulletin du Jardin impérial botanique, St. Petersburg (vol. x., part iv.). A character- istic littoral formation was prevalent, in which Elymus mollis, Rosa rugosa, and Poa glumaris were conspicuous. Two new species are created in Leontopodium tataricum and Saussurea Derbecki. The list of 158 plants affords an interesting comparison with the flora of Saghalien. OcToBER 27, 1910] A sHorT article communicated to the Gardener’s Chronicle (October 22) by Mr. H. S. Thompson on botanising in County Kerry will interest the keen field botanist. Mt. Carrantual, the highest peak in Ireland (1041 metres), and a noted locality for Alpine plants, was the chief centre of attraction. The discovery of Juncus trifidus near the summit practically establishes a new record, and Sieglingia decumbens was also collected at an elevation above 1000 metres. Lower down, the two closely related species or varieties, Saxifraga decipiens and S. Sternbergii, were found in company with S. stellaris. Another find of great rarity was supplied by Sisyrinchiwm angustifolium growing with Drosera, Lobelia Dortmanna ‘and bog Asphodel by Lough Caragh. TuREE generic revisions are published in vol. xliv. of Engler’s Botanische Jahrbiicher: Dr. M. Burret discusses the relationships and distribution of African species of Grewia, Dr. W. Moeser amplifies a former collation of the genus Helichrysum in Africa, and Dr. Heinz Stiefelhagen contributes an account of the genus Scrophularia pre- paratory to the compilation of a monograph. The last survey of the genus Scrophularia was prepared by Bentham for De Candolle’s Prodromus, since which time the species have almost doubled in number, mainly owing to plants collected in Persia, China, and Tibet. The author is of opinion that the genus is in an early stage of development. He fails to find a natural group character in the absence of a staminode, and bases his primary divisions on the habit, i.e. whether the plants are herbaceous or shrubby with well-developed leaves or xero- phytic undershrubs with scanty leafage. A skeTcH of the flora and plant formations of the Kermadec Islands, contributed by Mr. R. B. Oliver to the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute (vol. xlii.), is the outcome of a visit for eleven months to Sunday Island and flying visits on the way home to the three smaller islands. Several species are added to the flora, bringing up the total to 114 ferns and flowering plants. The author makes a new species of a smooth-stemmed lofty tree fern, Cyathea kermadecensis, separating it from another endemic species, C. Milnei, that has a_ short, rough stem. The forest formations are the most extensive and important. The dry forest shows three tiers of vegeta- tion; the topmost consists almost entirely of trees of Metrosideros villosa about 60 feet in height; smaller trees such as Rapanea kermadecensis, Myoporuwm laetum, the palm Rhopalostylis Baueri, and Cyathea Milnei form the next tier, while Pteris comans supplies the ground vegeta- tion in many districts. The other Cyathea, characteristic of wet zones, in one locality forms a forest as lofty as the Metrosideros. The author proposes to include the Kermadecs, with Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, in a “subtropical islands’ province’? of the New Zealand region. Tue Rassegna Contemporanea for September contains two articles of scientific interest. One is the speech given by Cannizzaro at the complimentary banquet at Rome on the occasion of his receiving the Copley medal of the Royal Society, a copy having been preserved along with his copious scientific and political correspondence. A photograph of part of the manuscript is also reproduced. Another article, by Riccardo Dalla Volta, deals with the International Agricultural Institute recently founded to collect agricultural statistics on an international basis. There is a useful field of work in this direction. The methods of collecting statistics and of crop reporting vary considerably in different countries, and any organisation that makes for greater uniformity is to be welcomed. NO, 2139, VOL. 84] NATURE 243 Tue Agricultural Department of the Transvaal is con- tinually suggesting new crops and new industries to: farmers, and in a recent issue of its Journal (vol. viii., No. 32) one of its experts discusses the possibility of raising ostriches. The best feathers are only produced when the birds are sufficiently nourished, and a good supply of food is therefore necessary. Lucerne is so valuable a food that wherever it can be grown the birds may be expected to thrive; about 4o lb. of the green crop or 10 lb. of the hay is taken by an ordinary ostrich weigh- ing from 250 to 300 Ib. If maize or other concentrated food can be supplied less lucerne becomes necessary, and a larger number of birds can be kept on a given area. A number of districts are indicated where ostriches might be expected to do well. In the meteorological chart of the North Atlantic Ocean for November, published by the U.S. Weather Bureau, Prof. W. L. Moore points out that this month marks the beginning of the stormy season over the Transatlantic routes. For the purpose of illustrating the general behaviour of the storms, instructive synoptic weather charts are drawn for each day from November 11-16, 1909, inclusive, showing a typical case. The storm in question originated in high northern latitudes, and moved in a more or less easterly direction from Newfoundland to the north-east of ° the Azores. The chart for November 16 shows that the barometric depression had’ deepened and increased in size until the entire eastern part of the ocean was affected by the storm area. It also shows that a second barometric depression, apparently an offshoot of the central system, had formed about 500 miles: north-westward of the Azores, which gave rise to severe weather along the northern shipping routes. Its approach to the British Islands seems to have been checked by the: high-pressure system prevailing there. SNOWFALL in the Transvaal is a somewhat exceptional’ occurrence; so far as can be ascertained, there have been only eleven years out of the last fifty-seven (1853-1909) in which it has been recorded. On two occasions, 1903 and 1904, the falls were very slight, and none was experienced during 1905-8 inclusive. The South African Journal of Science for September contains an interesting article on the subject by Mr. H. E. Wood, of the Transvaal Meteor- ological Service, with special reference to the heavy storm of August 16-18, 1909. Although a rather heavy fall occurred at Johannesburg in May, 1892, the fact of the town being covered to a depth of several inches on the morning of August 17 was such an unusual event, especi- ally for the younger generation, that the day was cele- brated as a general holiday. The maps of the distribution of atmospheric pressure show that the snowfall was associated with the rapid approach of a high-pressure system towards a region over which low pressure had previously existed. In the author’s experience it has always been found that any widespread rainfall over eastern South Africa is connected with a rising barometer. Pror. A. Piuttr has sent us an abstract of a paper by him, read before the Royal Academy of Naples, on the absorption of helium in salts and minerals. Prof. Piutti has been able to detect helium in the gases extracted from borax and other salts, which have been melted and then suddenly chilled while a current of air. has been bubbling through them. This experiment he regards as throwing doubts on Prof. Strutt’s conclusions on the measurement of geological time from radio-active data. It is urged that helium may have been absorbed by the molten material of the igneous minerals, either from the atmo-— NAT ORE [OcTOBER 27, IGIO sphere or from gases existing in the interior of the earth, and that similar processes may even have occurred in the sedimentary rocks. Tue third part of Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmo- spheric Electricity for the present year contains two valu- able tables of corrections to the British Admiralty, the German Admiralty, and the United States Hydrographic Department magnetic charts of the North Atlantic, by Dr. L. A. Bauer and Mr. W. J. Peters, based on the observa- tions made by the magnetic ship Carnegie during her recent cruise. Over almost the whole area the three charts show too low values for the west magnetic declination, the error being generally less than a degree, but in some cases it is nearly 3°. As the error is in the same direction for 5000 miles, it may result in a serious error in the position of a vessel at the end of a voyage. The corrections to the dip are not always of the same sign; their average magnitude is nearly 2°, and the actual amount in one case exceeds 4°. Over most of the region the values of the horizontal intensity given in the charts are too high by 8 units in the third decimal, C.G.S. units. A new electric generating station was opened on October 12 at the Northampton Polytechnic Institute. The plant was supplied by Messrs. Siemens Brothers Dynamo Works, Ltd., chiefly for instructional purposes as an example of the latest ideas in central station prac- tice, and comprises electrical apparatus for alternating- and for continuous-current working. The buildings of the polytechnic are sufficiently large to present experimental facilities on an engineering scale for most of the problems which have to be handled in larger stations. It is in- tended to run the station on a thoroughly commercial basis; the coal, wages, and other expenses will be strictly charged up, and every unit of electrical energy supplied for the purposes of the work of the polytechnic will be metered regularly and sold to it. The senior students, with the help of the technical staff, will take charge of The main features of the plant are two gas- continuous-current ‘Tne this work. driven each consisting of one generator and one high-voltage alternator in tandem. polytechnic authorities have issued for the use of intend- ing students and others a full and well-illustrated descrip- tion of the details of the whole plant, including gas- engines, suction gas-producer plants, alternators, motor- generator set, switchboards, transformers, and so on. CoMMENTING on the Aflantic airship Engineer for October 21 does not pretend to any regret that the attempt has been an unqualified failure. Nothing of any value could have been expected from such a voyage arranged for spectacular purposes only. Enough, and more than enough, has been done to make the conquest of the air spectacular. If flight in its varied forms is to rise above the level of a mere sport, it is time that a little steady humdrum, useful work was entered upon, and that the praise of the public and the winning of prizes were forgotten. Much remains to be done, and it is well that it should be done steadily and scientifically by honest spade- work, and not under the glamour of popular sensa- tionalism. Tue successful launch of the White Star liner Olympic at Belfast on October 20 gives occasion for a long illus- trated article in Engineering for October 21. With a total weight of 27,000 tons, it can be understood that very careful provision had to be made to ensure the successful floating of the ship.. The standing ways were about Soo feet long and the sliding ways about 700 feet sets, voyage, the J > long. The ship overhung the cradle aft to the extent of | NO. 2139, VOL. 84] 80 feet, and forward to about 50 feet. The average pressure on the ways was only just above 3 tons per square foot. The declivity of the ways forward was g-inch per foot, and aft }-inch per foot. On the occasion of the launch the weather was perfect, with a slight stern wind. The pressure on the hydraulic ram of the trigger arrangement was 435 tons, and on this being released the ship moved at once, the hydraulic starting jacks not being used. The time taken was sixty-two seconds, and the maximum speed attained was 123 knots. When brought to rest, the bow of the vessel was 500 feet from the end of the ways. Messrs. Harland and Wolff deserve most hearty congratulations on their success, this success being due, in a large measure, to the minuteness and precision with which every detail connected with the operation had been anticipated. A Book on “ English Philosophy,’’ by Mr. Thomas M. Forsyth, is shortly to be issued by Messrs. A. and C. Black. Its aim is to give an outline of the development of English philosophy from Bacon to the present day. ErratuM.—The author of the review of Prof. Seward’s ‘““ Fossil Plants ’’ in Nature of October 20 writes :—‘‘ May I point out a slip, for which I am responsible, in my review? On p. 491, column 1, Arber and Parkin should be Arber and Thomas.”’ OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. A BRILLIANT METEOR ON OcTOBER 23.—Mr. W. F. Denning writes:—‘‘ A splendid meteor was seen by Mr. J. E. Clark at Purley, Surrey, on October 23, at 8h. 123m. It shot slowly from 52°+34° to 72°+ 40°, and left a streak for six seconds. The flight was directed from a radiant in the head of Aries, and the duration was four seconds. Irom Lincolnshire and the eastern counties the meteor must have appeared a magnificent object, and further descriptions of its apparent course will be very useful te aid in determining the real path above the earth.” SIMULTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS OF A REMARKABLE Metgeor.—Herr Sykora, in No. 4447 of the Astronomische Nachrichten, gives particulars of the path of a bright meteor, of which the trail was photographed at three different stations, Taschkent, Iskander, and Tschimgan, on August 11, 1909. The brightness of the meteor varied considerably during the flight, and as the knots and outbursts are similarly shown on all three photographs, it has been possible to determine the heights at which they occurred. The first part of the trail, then very faint, began at 112 km., and suddenly brightened up at 97-7 km.; then there were marked outbursts at 88 and 85 km. respectively, with a sudden falling off at 83 km. At 81 km., however, a sudden recalescence occurred, and final extinction took place at 80-7 km. The radiant was found to lie in the position a=44-0°, 6=+56-0°. Two REMARKABLE PROMINENCES.—No. 2, vol. xxxii., of the Astrophysical Journal (September, p. 125) contains a note, by Dr. F. Slocum, describing two remarkable prominences photographed with the Yerkes spectrohelio- graph during March and April. One of these was remarkable for the lengthy period of its existence, the other for its extreme activity and brief existence. The former was first seen disappearing over the western limb of the sun on March 4, but reappeared, larger and transformed, on March 16; it was last photo- graphed on April 28. On March 18 the prominence extended from latitude —20° to +25°, and its longitude was about 70°; throughout its existence, of probably about 55 days, the southern limit was practically constant, but the northern limit varied considerably. The recorded apparent height varied between 77,000 km. (March 18) and 12,000 km. (April 1); when last photographed (April 28) the height was 61,000 km., but prominence plates secured on May 11, 12, 13, and 14 showed no trace OcTOBER 27, 1910] of the outburst. A number of photographs, in H,, calcium, light are reproduced in the journal, and it is stated that visual observations on April 13 showed the prominence to have the same form and size in the radia- tions Ha, HB, and D,. The other ‘prominence was first noticed on a plate talen at 7h. 46-7m. G.M.T. on March 24. It was then conical in form, with a base extending from position-angle 230° to 235°, and an apparent height of 46,500 km. On a photograph taken March 25, at 2h. 54-9m., the promin- ence had assumed a rugged tree-form, with the trunk in position-angle 229-7°, and the height was 75,500 km. Then a rapid increase of height set in, and by sh. 55-4m. the greatest altitude shown on the plate was 319,500 km. _ (nearly 200,000 miles), but the top of the glowing mass was beyond that. The greatest motion was observed between gh. 56-1m. and 4h. 57-9m., during which period 11,600 km. were covered at a rate of 107 km. (66-8 miles) per second. This increase of height occurred in two ways, first by actual growth and then by detachment from the limb and the upward motion of the complete mass. At 7h. 43-3m. there was no trace of the prominence, which had apparently vanished upwards, and Dr. Slocum suggests that this floating away, rather than subsidence, is characteristic of eruptive prominences. THE RELATIONS BETWEEN SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA.—In No. 4, vol. viii., of Scientia Abbe Th. Moreux has a long article (pp. 279-305) dealing with the connections between solar phenomena and _ terrestrial meteorology, more especially rainfall. He points out that as yet the science is in its infancy, that we are still unable to forecast scientifically, and then proceeds to show, by an excellent review of what has already been done, what progress has been made and what hopes for the future are well founded. The labours of Herschel, Schwabe, Wolf, Norman Lockyer, Meldrum, Chambers, Briickner, Stone, Balfour-Stewart, W. J. S. Lockyer and others, are discussed, and it is shown that a gradual progress in the collection of data and the correlation of phenomena has taken place. A fitting tribute is paid to the English Government for the installation of the Solar Physics Observatory, and the related observatories in India and Mauritius. Finally, M. Moreux suggests that the excessive floods and rainfall of the present epoch are in accordance with precedent, heavy precipitation following the spot activity of 1905-7, and he suggests that the outlook for the future, ‘in the matter of establishing laws which will warrant forecasting, is hopeful. SEARCH-EPHEMERIDES FOR WESTPHAL’S CoMET, 1852 1V.— Three search-ephemerides for Westphal’s comet are given by Herr A. Hnatek in No. 4447 of the Astronomische Nachrichten; each ephemeris covers the period November 1, IgI0, to January 30, 1911. As the period of the comet is uncertain, these three ephemerides are given, based on elements which give it as 60, 61, or 62 years respectively. The declinations are all between 56° and 60° south, and the computed magnitudes range from 13-1 to 14:8. THE INTERNATIONAL, CANCER CONFER- ENCE AT PARIS. “THE first International Conference on Cancer was held in Heidelberg in 1906 under the auspices of the German Cancer Committee, on the occasion of the open- ing ceremony of a cancer hospital and laboratory erected and equipped through the efforts made by Prof. v. Czerny, the distinguished surgeon. Out of that conference there developed an International Association for the Study and Suppression of Cancer, modelled on the lines of the Inter- national Association for the Suppression of Tuberculosis. This body, together with the French Association for the Study of Cancer, was responsible for the second confer- ence, held in Paris on October 1-5 under the patronage of the President of the Republic. M. Doumergue, the Minister of Public Instruction, presided over the opening ceremony, attended by 150 delegates, including official representatives of the twenty-three foreign Governments. Dr. E. F. Bashford, director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, represented the British Government. NO. 2139, VOL. 84] NATURE 545 In his opening remarks M. Doumergue, after directing attention to the reunion of the nations in spontaneous congresses for the relief of physical, social, and moral miseries as a characteristic of the present age, pointed out the significance of the unanimity of these humanitarian endeavours, enlarged upon the advantages accruing from exchange of views and from the dissemination of dis- coveries, and asserted the futility of isolation. In_ his opinion the publicity obtained for the proceedings of such conferences is bound to bear fruit in a profitable collabora- tion between the medical profession, the public in general, and patients suffering from cancer. Prof. von Czerny, the president of the conference, then addressed the delegates, and was followed by Prof. Bouchard, president of the French association, and Prof. Landouzy, dean of the faculty of medicine. Each surveyed the cancer problems from different points of view, the question of parasitic etiology, the alleged increase of the disease, and the possibilities of surgery, radium, and electrotherapeutics being discussed by von Czerny. Landouzy took more the point of view of the physician, seeing in much of the work that had been done on immunity indications of ultimately obtaining a curative serum. The foreign delegates were afterwards called upon. The scientific papers were grouped in six sections :— (1) histology and histological diagnosis; (2) statistics ; (3) clinical diagnosis; (4) treatment; (5) etiology and experimental pathology; (6) comparative pathology. Section (1) appointed a committee to draw up an_inter- national nomenclature of new growths. The discussion on statistics and statistical methods revealed strong criticism of the methods and results expounded by Prof. George Meyer, of Berlin, and no progress was made towards the compilation of comparable international cancer statistics. The papers in Section (3), on clinical diagnosis and on the chemistry of cancer, showed that serum diagnosis could not be trusted to replace older methods. The papers on treatment were followed by important discussions on the value of aids to surgical treatment, e.g. fulguration, X-rays, radium. Little was said in favour of fulguration. The employ- ment of radium was very fully discussed. Few of the speakers were prepared to employ it in other than small superficial lesions without previous resort to surgery; although many speakers had employed radium, they appeared to be of the opinion that they had in their possession quantities too small to permit of satisfactory conclusions as to its ultimate value. In Section (5) von Dungern, of Heidelberg, gave an account of the immunity reactions to transplanted cancer; he confirmed the con- clusions of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund to the effect that the phenomena in question were due to the artificial induction of active resistance or ‘active’ immunity to the cancer cell. Dr. Fichera had applied the results obtained by immunising animals with normal tissues to the treatment of cancer in man. He claimed to have caused the disappearance or reduction in size of true malignant new growths. Dr. Borrel described the evidence he had collected bearing on the possibility of Cestodes and Demodex fulfilling the part of carriers of a hypothetical cancer virus. Dr. Borrel’s cautious state- ments called forth a vigorous criticism on the part of Durante. In the section of comparative pathology Prof. C. O. Jensen described tumours occurring on beets; no causative parasites were found in them. These tumours had been transplanted into other beets. From their general biological behaviour he very cautiously inclined to regard them as analogous in the vegetable kingdom to cancer in the animal kingdom. The delegates were entertained in the most hospitable and attentive manner, both officially and privately. Much of the time officially devoted to discussion was absorbed by what were really new unannounced contributions, and, apart’ from the discussions on clinical matters and on treatment, very little serious discussion took place in the official sittings. This shortcoming was, to some extent, compensated for by the willingness of the delegates to discuss their respective points of view in private inter- course; nevertheless, purely scientific and theoretical ques- tions suffered by being crowded out by matters assumed 546 NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1910 to be of more pressing importance from the point of view of the lay public. As in the opening ceremony, so also in the closing ceremonies, interest centred round the utterances of Dr. Bashford with reference to the attitude of Great Britain towards the International Association, the organisation and proceedings of which have, in the past, not met with unanimous approval. The abstention of Great Britain from membership of the International Association was possibly in M. Doumergue’s mind during his opening re- marks, and was unambiguously referred to at that cere- mony by Dr. Bashford, who explained that in Great Britain the opinion is held that the time is hardly ripe for congresses concerning a disease of which so little is known as cancer, and which, at present, it is impossible to prevent, there being at the same time nothing revolu- tionary for such conferences to agree upon or to discuss. What is wanted at present is rather an army of independent active workers, for, as in the past in regard to other matters, so in the future with regard to cancer, advances in knowledge are to be expected from individual investigation rather than from the deliberations of national committees or international conferences. Still, workers in Great Britain have done all that is practicable to further: inter- national intercourse and collaboration, and will do’so in the future. In his closing remarks von Czerny, as president, ex- pressed the hope that the objections to the organisation and assumed functions of the International Association will be removed before the conference is again called together, probably in Dresden in 1913. It may be recalled that the proposal to hold a second International Conference in Paris was made after a pro- posal to hold the first International Cancer Congress in London had been rejected by responsible persons in this country. REPORTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORIES. REMEN, “ Meteorological Year-book’’ (1909).—This volume, the twentieth of the series, gives a short monthly summary of the weather, observations thrice daily (in the form adopted by the International Committee), two-hourly readings of the self-recording instruments, and monthly and yearly résumés. The results for earth temperature at various depths (0-300 cm.), evaporation, solar and terrestrial radiation, &c., for a number of years are shown both graphically and in tabular form. The curves of duration of sunshine, evaporation, and solar radiation all exhibit a similar and peculiar kink from July to August. Dr. Grosse points out that, whereas Hann considers that evaporation is most intimately connected with temperature, he (the author) thinks it is more closely connected with the duration of sunshine. The rainfall at Bremen is greatest between June and October inclusive ; July has a decided maximum. Liverpool Observatory (1909).—The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, which maintains this important institu- tion in the interest of navigation, has caused a second seismometer to be erected under Prof. Milne’s super- vision, and some devices of great delicacy were introduced in order to solve certain problems connected with the physics of the earth’s crust. The instrument has not been long at work, but it is said that the records indicate clearly a deformation of the surface due to the load of tidal water in the Mersey estuary. We have before pointed out that the automatic meteorological instruments include anemo- meters designed by Osler, Robinson, and Dines respec- tively ; the tables show for each day the velocities recorded by the Dines’ instrument, the horizontal motion of the air, and the extreme pressure on the square foot—in addition to the direction. The mean temperature of the year (mean of maximum and minimum), 48-1°, was 1° below the average; the absolute maximum, 76-4°, occurred in May, and was 12-7° below the highest record; the minimum was 22-3°, in December, 13-8° above the lowest record. The rainfall, 28-45 inches, was very slightly below the normal. NO. 2139, VOL. 8al Royal Alfred Observatory, Mauritius (1909).—From tables showing the means and extremes of the principal meteorological elements, it appears that the mean tempera- ture of the year was 72-9° as compared with the average, 734° (1875-1905); mean of daily maxima 80-4°, minima 66-7°; absolute maximum 89-3°, in December; minimum 547°, in July. Maximum in sun’s rays 163-4°, in January; minimum terrestrial radiation 45-7°, in May. Rainfall, 47-83 inches, as compared with an average of 47-95 inches; the principal feature was a total excess of 11-23 inches above the normal in June and July. The rainfall of June was the greatest on record in all parts. The annual amount for the whole of the island (mean of seventy-two stations) was 90-50 inches, as com- pared with an average of 82-37 inches. During the year eight cyclones occurred in the South Indian Ocean ; tracks of six of them in January and March are given. The mean magnetic declination was 9° 16-34 W. The magnetic disturbance which occurred on September 25-26 was the greatest on record, the total movement in hori- zontal force being o-00650 C.G.S. unit. Photographs of the sun were taken daily when weather permitted, and 103 negatives were forwarded to the Solar Physics Committee. Transvaal Meteorological Department (1908-9).—The number of stations reporting to the Johannesburg Observa- tory during the year ended June 30, 1909, was 599, an increase of fifty-two since the last report; these are mostly rainfall stations. The year was the wettest since accurate statistics have been collected, but several such rainy seasons will be required before the springs can regain their former activity. The average for the whole colony was 40-6 inches, on eighty-three days; the greatest rainfall was on the eastern slope, in the Leidenburg district, where more than 10g inches on 133 days were recorded. Maps are given showing (1) the rainfall for 1908-9, and (2) the mean for the last five years; the latter shows that only the eastern part of the colony has an average of more than 30 inches. No snowfall was reported by any station. but some was seen on the hills on August 21, 1908. The meteorological tables include hourly or two-hourly readings at Johannesburg and Pretoria. Daily weather forecasts are issued, and are exhibited at all postal telegraph offices. The Johannesburg Observatory is well provided with self- recording instruments, and it is expected that a set of Wiechert’s instruments for recording earthquake pheno- mena will be shortly installed; at present the department distributes and collects postcards giving particulars of any earthquakes noticed. Deutsche iiberseeische meteorologische Beobachtungen (Heft xviii.)\—As in several past years, this very valuable series of observations has been published by the Deutsche Seewarte, with the assistance of the German Colonial Office. The present. volume includes monthly and yearly summaries of the stations under the control of the See- warte, also observations at the imperial observatory at Tsingtau and affiliated stations, and those made in East Africa, some of which are printed in extenso. The data refer mostly to 1908, with a few arrears, and useful refer- ences are given in many cases as to where the earlier observations may be found. We note in the Acta (1909) of the Solar Commission of the International Meteor- ological Committee, which proposes to publish certain meteorological data for the whole globe in a condensed form, that the German oversea observations will be turned to good account. The headquarters of the commission (of which Sir Norman Lockyer is president) are at present in London, in connection with the Solar Physics Observatory at South Kensington. TREES AND TIMBER. HE difficulty of identifying timbers exported from partially explored countries is only too well known, so that any attempt to arrange an authentic collection of specimens of tropical timbers deserves recognition. With this object, Dr. M. Biisgen has placed on record in the Mitteilungen aus den Deutschen Schutzgebieten (vol. xxili., part ii.) the distinguishing characters of the trees noted on an expedition through the German Cameroons, and has published a series of figures illustrating sections OcTOBER 27, 1910] NATURE 547 of representative timbers, of which original specimens are stored at the Forestry College in Miinden.. The author records a preponderance of species for the families Leguminose, Apocynaceze, Euphorbiacee, and Moraceax. Among the more important trees are Chlorophora excelsa, apparently identical with African teak; Enantia chlorantha, a yellow-wood; Entandophragma Candollei, a source of mahogany; Lophira alata, known as ironwood; and Mimusops djave, that furnishes Congo mahogany. In connection with the economic side of Indian forestry, Mr. R. S. Troup has prepared reports on the fissibility of some Indian woods and the prospects of the match industry in the Indian Empire, the former published in the Indian Forest Records (vol. ii., part ii.), the latter in the Indian Forest Memoirs (vol. ii., part i.). The experiments on fissibility indicate that splitting depends mainly on the nature of the grain, and that a hard wood with straight grain, such as Acacia catechu, splits more readily than a cross-fibred soft wood, such as Bombax malabaricum. Tests were also made to compare the cleaving force re- quired in tangential and radial planes, with the result that for most timbers cleavage proved to be easier in the tangential plane. The memoir on match woods is very comprehensive, and sets out the results of practical manipulation with different woods, suitable locations for factories, the possibility of obtaining supplies, and an article on the manufacture of matches. Species of poplar, willow, and alder—the trees that yield wood used in European factories—are found in parts of India, but not in sufficient quantity. Fortunately, a number of Indian trees yield suitable wood, amongst which Bombax insigne and B. malabaricum are expected to furnish the bulk of supply. An article in the Kew Bulletin (No. 6) on new trees and shrubs, contributed by Mr. W. J. Bean, refers with one exception to Chinese introductions. Three conifers are described: Larix Potaninii, a larch attaining a height of 70 feet; Picea complanata, a flat-leaved spruce; and Tsuga yunnanensis. Of the dicotyledons, a pinnate-leaved species of Syringa is a novelty collected by Mr. Wilson for Messrs. Veitch; Pyrus Folgneri is an attractive horticultural addition to the genus, and Meliosma Veitchiorum possesses both morphological and horticultural interest, as it is the only tree in the family Sabiacezee hardy enough for out- door cultivation in this climate, and promises to be a most ornamental acquisition to the garden. Considerable interest attaches to a revision of the genus Entandophragma communicated by Mr. T. A. Sprague, because various species of the genus, and the allied genera Pseudocedrela and Swietenia, are important sources of timber. SELECTIONS FROM AMERICAN ZOOLOGICAL WORK. ATURE for 1908, vol. lviii., p. 140, contained an illustrated account by Mr. N. H. Corquodale of a pair of hartebeest horns attacked by a tineid larva. Another instance of antelope horns—in this instance those of a waterbuck—being attacked by such larve is illus- trated by Mr. A. Busck in vol. Ivi., No. 8, of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. The author claims to have shown the nature of the larval tubes—apparently the work of Tinea vastella—more distinctly than has been done before. The spolia of the Smithsonian Expedition to East Africa continue to afford the bases for new work, among which we may refer to a description by Mr. W. H. Dall, in No. 10 of the volume just.cited, of three new land-shells, two referable to Buliminus and the third to Limicolaria. It is always satisfactory when two or more observers arrive independently at the same conclusion. An instance of this is afforded in a paper on chimeroid fishes by Messrs. Bean and Weed, published in Proc. U.S. Nat Mus., No. 1723, where the authors come to the conclusion that the Japanese species described by Mr. S. Tanaka under the new generic title of Anteliochimzra is not separable from the long-beaked chimeras of the genus Harriotta, a view which had been previously adopted by Messrs. Holt and Byrne, although this was unknown to the authors until their paper was in type. Excellent figures are given of the typical Harriotta raleighana. NO. 2139, VOL. 84] In this connection it may be mentioned that the part of the Journal of the College of Science of Tokyo University containing Mr. S. Tanaka’s description of the so-called Anteliochimzra has only lately been received, although it is dated October, 1909. Among papers relating to the North American fauna, mention may be made of Messrs. Meek and Hildebrand’s list of fishes inhabiting the lakes, rivers, and lagoons of the Chicago district, issued as No. 9 of vol. vii. of the Zoological Publications of the Field Museum. Special in- terest attaches to the fish-fauna of the district owing to the changes caused by the growth of the great city; and it is hoped that the paper will lead to careful study of these changes, as well as to observations on the distribution and habits of the various species. In another faunistic paper, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 1719, Mr. D. Coquillett supplies a list of the type-species of North American genera of Diptera, a subject which comes very opportunely at a time when so much attention is being devoted to the biting flies of the world. That there was need for revision is exemplified by the statement that a certain fly, Tachina vulgaris, has been redescribed and renamed 257 times, one writer alone having made from it 245 species, arranged in five genera; this being only one—it may be hoped the worst—out of many cases- The author carries priority in nomenclature to the bitter end, a matter of less moment in this than in many other groups. Perhaps the most important of all the papers in the batch on which these notes are based is one by Mr. A. H. Clark (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 1756), on Proisocrinus. ruberrimus, a new genus and species of stalked crinoid from the Philippines. The new form is by far the tallest existing member of the group hitherto discovered, the height, exclusive of the root, exceeding 40 inches. In colour it is brilliant scarlet, thereby differing from the purples and greens of the Pentacrinidz, and the yellows of the Apiocrinida and Bourgueticrinidae. The family posi- tion of the new genus is still uncertain; the general structure of the calyx and arm-bases recalling Bathycrinus,. while the arms and pinnules are of the type of those of the Pentacrinidz, although most of the stem resembles that of Calamocrinus. There is also an approximation— apparently more than superficial—to Millericrinus. In No. 1759 of the aforesaid Proceedings Mr. J. A-~ Cushman describes a collection of arenaceous Foraminifera obtained by the Albatross during her recent cruise in the Philippines. Ten species and one genus (Sphzrammina), are believed to be new. In the new genus the test consists of a series of spheroidal or ovate chambers arranged on a straight axis, with the one last formed envleoping the rest- In several respects it recalls the Miocene Ellipsoidina ellipsoides. R. L. DISTRIBUTION OF WEEDS. THE numerous means by which nature ensures the dis- tribution or dispersal of seeds of wild plants are well known to students of botany. For example, some seeds (Papaver, Orobanche) are very light and easily scattered by the wind; others (Cnicus, Senecio, Rhinanthus) bear flight organs or ‘“‘ wings,’’? by means of which they sail away on the breeze; some seed vessels are so constructed that on ripening and opening they throw out the seed with considerable force (Lupinus); while some fruits bear hooks, by which they become attached to animals and man, and so secure distribution (Galium, Arctium). Un- happily, many serious weed pests are also distributed by man in agricultural and horticultural seeds and various other means, and doubtless many botanists have read of the emigrant Scotchman who, in the pride of his heart, took specimens of the national emblem to Australia, and so introduced a very harmful weed. A few months ago an advertisement, resembling a paper butterfly, was widely distributed, and, probably for realism and novelty, it was made to bear the burr of the burdock (Arctium Lappa). This advertisement doubtless received attention owing to the fact that recipients attached it (by the ‘“burrs’’) to the clothing of other members of the household! It appears that the same method has been utilised—perhaps by the same advertisers—in Australia, 548 NATURE [OcToBER 27, 1910 and the following extract from the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales (August 2) is of interest :—‘‘ The Chief Quarantine Officer for Plants has informed the Under-Secretary for Agriculture of a most extraordinary method whereby an objectionable weed might be broad- casted throughout the State. It appears that, as an advertising medium, some printed paper, representative of a flying insect, has been sent to Australia, and the genius who invented this particular style of advertisement, in an endeavour to make it more realistic or uncommon, had attached to each specimen the burr or seed of the noxious weed ‘ Burdock’ (Arctium Lappa). The authorities in Western Australia had called the attention of the Director of Quarantine to the use to which the burr of this noxious weed was being put. It is needless to say that business firms stopped the issue of the advertisement under notice as soon as they knew there was a serious objection to its use. Burdock is a very troublesome weed, and it is clear that our colonial friends have to be on the alert if they are to prevent the introduction of new plants in the manner outlined. THE LANCASHIRE SEA-FISHERIES LABORATORY. THE eighteenth report of the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries Laboratory (for the year 1909) contains an account of work carried cut at the University of Liverpool, at the sea-fish hatchery at Piel, and at the Port Erin Bio- logical Station. Mr. James Johnstone describes five species of internal parasites of fishes from the Irish Sea, the three genera discussed being Lebouria, Prosthecobothrium, and Echeneibothrium. The same author reports on the measurements of some 55,000 plaice from the district, curves representing the frequency of fish at each unit of length for the most important fishing grounds being given. The average weights of plaice at each unit of length from various fishing grounds have also been determined. Taking Heincke’s formula wee where w is the weight in grams and I the length in centi- metres, the monthly variations in the value of k have been calculated for several of the grounds.. The value shows a maximum in July, and the minimum appears to be in January, at which time of the year very little food is found in the stomachs of the plaice. A considerable section of the report is occupied by papers on hydrographical worl done in the Jrish Sea by Mr. Johnstone and Dr. H. Bassett. It is doubtful, however, whether the comparatively slender data contained in the papers.of the latter writer can be usefully employed in the way suggested by him, in connection with the prediction of climatic conditions over extended periods of time. Very much more research will be necessary before such predic- tions can have any but a speculative value. The report concludes with a paper by Prof. Herdman, Mr. A. Scott, and Mr. Dakin on plankton work carried out off the Isle of Man in 1909. The paper as a whole tends to confirm the doubts, which have often been expressed, as to the value of the quantitative methods of plankton work, as at present practised. Until some trust- worthy instrument has been devised for accurately measur- ing the quantity of water which has passed through the net on each occasion, the elaborate methods of counting the organisms captured would hardly seem to repay the time which must necessarily be employed upon them. ZOOLOGY AT THE. BRITISH ASSOCIATION. HE attendance of zoologists at the meetings of Section D was affected by the fact that the International Congress of Zoology at Graz and the International Con- gress of Entomology at Brussels had taken place so recently. These meetings abroad were probably responsible for the absence of a few of those who in previous years have contributed papers to the section. The programme, being a little less crowded than usual, was taken at a more comfortable pace, and reasonable time was available consideration. The attendance at the meetings of the section was very satisfactory, especially in the circum- stances, and the interest in the proceedings was fully main- tained to the end; indeed, the concluding meeting was one of the best of the series. Coral Snakes and Peacocks. The popular lecture, which for several years has been a feature of the programme of the section, was given before a large audience by Dr. H. F. Gadow, F.R.S., who chose for his subject *f Coral Snakes and Peacocks,’’ and illustrated his remarks by a series of lantern-slides in colour. He first described some of the physical features of Mexico, during a visit to which country his observa- tions on coral snakes (Elaps) were made. The red, black, and yellow markings of these snakes have been said to be of the nature of ‘‘ warning coloration,’? but Dr. Gadow pointed out that, although the markings are conspicuous when the snakes are lying in a dish or other vessel, the colours commingle, especially in the dusk, with the natural surroundings of the animal, so that it becomes very inconspicuous. Coral snakes are entirely nocturnal in habit; they lie in hiding during the day, so that the explanation of their coloration as ‘‘ warning’? is un- warrantable. Many harmless snakes are coloured in a similar manner to the coral snakes, e.g. among a large collection of Coronella from various places in Mexico examples of one species were found which seem to have ‘“ mimicked ’’ several of the colour patterns exhibited by species of Elaps. But Dr. Gadow pointed out that the specimens of Elaps and Coronella found in the same locality do not exhibit the same colour pattern. Dr. Gadow’s conclusion, stated briefly, was that the resem- blances in colour pattern between Coronella and Elaps are instances of pseudo-mimicry. In the second part of his address Dr. Gadow traced the gradual transition from a comparatively simple feather with light and dark bands to the ‘‘eyed’’ feather, with fully developed metallic lustre, of the mature peacock’s ‘‘ fan.’’ He then described the retrogressive changes leading from the ‘‘ eyed ”’ feathers to the modified feathers of the back and margin of the e fan.’’ Coccidia and Coccidiosis in Birds. Dr. H. B. Fantham described his observations on the life cycle of the sporozoon Eimeria (Coccidium) avium, which produces a form of “ enteritis’’ in grouse, fowls, and. pheasants, especially -in young birds. Resistant odcysts of the parasite are voided in the faces of the infected birds, and are acquired by other birds in their food or drink. A mature odcyst contains four sporocysts, in each of which are two active motile sporozoites. - After the odcysts have been swallowed by a bird, the cyst wall is softened by the pancreatic juice, the sporozoites creep out and penetrate the epithelial cells of the duodenum, in which they become rounded and grow, feeding passively on the host cell. After attaining a certain size, the nucleus and protoplasm of the parasite—now a schizont— divides into a cluster of merozoites arranged en barillet, i.e. like the segments of an orange. Very little residual protoplasm remains after the formation of merozoites. These small, vermicular merozoites glide away and invade other cells, within -which they grow to schizonts and multiply. A number of generations of merozoites is pro- duced in this way, and the destruction of the epithelium and the derangements resulting therefrom in some cases cause death of the host. In most instances some mero- zoites pass down into the caca, where they grow and multiply, producing intense inflammation. Sooner or later a limit is reached, both to the power of the bird to provide nourishment. for the parasites and to the multiplicative capacity of the parasite itself, and then sexual forms are produced. Some of the organisms become large and con- tain much reserve food material. These are the macro- gametocytes, each of which, after the maturation changes, becomes a single macrogamete. Slightly smaller parasites, with little or no reserve material, undergo nuclear multi- plication and give rise to many minute biflagellate micro- gametes, which disperse and swim away in search of macrogametes. Each of the latter has _precociously for discussion and remarks on the various subjects under | invested itself with a cyst wall, in which a micropyle is NO. 2139, VOL. 84] OcTOBER 27, I9IO} NATURE 549 left for the entry of the microgamete. One microgamete only fuses with the macrogamete, and then the odcyst wall ‘is completed by closure of the micropyle. This series of changes, from infection to the formation of odcysts, ex- tends over about eight or ten days in the grouse. At first the odcysts are uninucleate, and their contents com- pletely fill them; later the contents concentrate into a spherical mass, the nucleus divides into four, around each of which the protoplasm aggregates, forming four round sporoblasts. Each sporoblast develops into an _ oval sporocyst, in which two sporozoites are formed. The odcysts, when dropped, are very hardy; some which had been taken from a moor a year previously were found to be still alive. Coccidiosis is accompanied by an increase in the number of polymorphonuclear leucocytes in the blood of the host, together with a decrease in the number of the erythrocytes. Young birds are much more susceptible to coccidiosis than older ones, but older birds which have become “‘ chronics ”’ serve as reservoirs of odcysts, and are constant sources of infection. Lime dressing of the soil, which destroys odcysts, is the most effective treatment at present known for combating coccidiosis. The Formation and Arrangement of the Opercular Chaetae of Sabellaria. Mr. Arnold T. Watson contributed an account of the opercular cheetae of Sabellaria alveolata. ‘The operculum, with which this tube-building polychaete defends the open- ing of its tube, consists of two crescent-shaped structures, each of which is composed of three concentric rows of palez, of characteristic form, borne at the distal extremity of the peristomial lobe. Viewed from above, the exposed portions of the paleze of the outer and middle rows are seen to be arranged in an imbricated manner, their free ends directed outwards, while the free ends of the pale of the innermost row, the chetae of which alternate in position with those of the middle row, are directed inwards and upwards. Mr. Watson has found that there are two “nests ’’ for the formation of the chetae, an outer one supplying the outer palez and an inner one producing the middle and inner paleze, which are packed alternately in the nest. The chzetae can be traced, and evidently travel, in a somewhat spiral fashion to reach, in rotation, their respective positions at the dorsal end of each opercular crescent. A similar process was observed in Sabellaria Spinulosa, but in this species there are, in each lobe, two or three long, curved, acicular dorsal chzetae in addition to the three rows of chetae which form the operculum. In certain members of the family, e.g. Pallasia, the operculum is armed with only two rows of palez, but there exist, in addition, two or more hooks, placed dorsally, in positions corresponding to the acicula above mentioned. These hooks have been regarded by some zoologists as homologous with the missing middle row of opercular pale, but this view is rendered very doubtful by the conditions found, and described above, in Sabellaria spinulosa. The Anatomy and Physiology of Calma glaucoides. Calma is a small nudibranch molluse living exclusively on the eggs of fishes, which it simulates closely in appear- ance. Mr. T. J. Evans described the modifications which this animal has undergone in response to its specialised diet.. The radula, a rasping instrument in other gastro- pods, has become a saw for cutting open the eggs, the teeth being reduced to a single row. The stomach is enormously enlarged, and in well-fed specimens is filled with a hard, albuminous mass. During the feeding period the growth of the genital organs is retarded; they do not develop until the contents of the stomach have been digested, by which time space is available for the growing gonads. The gonads are not massed as in an ordinary Eolid, but are packed in the angles between the liver diverticula, and the male duct has been pushed forward to the level of the mouth. There is no intestine or anus, and- the excreta of the first year remain on the floor of the stomach and liver branches under the food of the second year. In the cerata certain amoeboid cells of the hemoceel enter into relations with the liver cells and NO. 2139, VOL. 84] absorb protein from them. When fully impregnated with nutritive material they fall back into the hamoccel as oval glassy cells, and the protein contents are gradually absorbed during the winter fast. Sex and Immunity. Mr. Geoffrey Smith gave the results of further work on the effects of the parasitic cirripede Sacculina on the spider crab Inachus. He has previously shown that the effect of the parasite is to cause the male host to assume adult female characters externally, and, after the death of the parasite, internally also, for large ova were pro- duced in the testes. The effect of the parasite on the young female crab is of a similar nature, for the young infected female is forced to assume adult female characters at a premature stage. Mr. Smith suggested an ingenious explanation of these phenomena. He showed that, in an infected Inachus of either sex, the Sacculina-roots manu- facture yolk similar to the ovarian yolk of a normal female Inachus. The parasite thus forces the crab, whether male or female, to produce substances in the blood from which the Sacculina-roots can manufacture yolk; as fast as these substances are produced the Sacculina takes them up and, by anchoring them, stimu- lates their continued production. These yolk-forming sub- stances, saturating the body fluids of infected crabs, both male and female, cause the development of the secondary sexual characters. When the parasite dies and its roots no longer assimilate the yolk-forming substances, they are taken up by the remains of the gonad (which, while the crab was parasitised, had been reduced and non-functional), which consequently proceeds to form ova. In the parallel case of Peltogaster, parasitic on Eupagurus, Mr. Potts has shown that small ova are formed in the testes of the host while the parasite is still alive, so that, in this case, the excess of yolk-forming substances is taken up by the gonad during the life of the parasite. This over-produc- tion of a substance which is being anchored by a parasite is regarded by Mr. Smith as closely analogous to the production of antibody in immunisation. By supplying the Sacculina with the yolk-forming substances, the crab protects other nutritional substances necessary for its vital organs from being abstracted by the parasite. In answer to comments by Prof. Bateson, F.R.S., and Prof. Hartog, regarding the nature of the eggs found in the testes of male crabs recovering from the attacks of Sacculina, Mr. Smith stated that such ova are as large and as fully formed as normal eggs, become pigmented (red) like the latter, and, so far as structure is concerned, are entitled to be regarded as ordinary eggs. Replying to observations by Mr. Doncaster regarding the presence or absence of ‘‘ femaleness ’’ in the male crab, Mr. Smith said that the conditions indicated that the male contains latent female potentialities, for these latter could not be introduced by the Sacculina, and yet complete formation of morphological female characters took place in recovering males. The Colours of Insect Larvae. Prof. Walter Garstang described a series of experiments which he had carried out this summer on the effects of foods deficient in chlorophyll on the coloration of phyto- phagous larvae of Lepidoptera. The experiments were designed to confirm and extend the results obtained in 1892 by Prof. Poulton, who showed that, in the case of Tryphaena pronuba, larve fed on the white mid-ribs of cabbage retained a white ground colour (with the addition of superficial black pigment in the later stages), while larve fed on yellow etiolated leaves developed the same green and brown pigments as those fed on green leaves. Prof. Garstang obtained very similar results, using the larve of Euplexia lucipara. Larve fed from the time of hatching on the yellow inner leaves of lettuce developed the same green pigments as those fed on green leaves, while larvae fed on the mid-ribs acquired a semi-trans- parent whitish colour, very faintly tinged with green or yellow. The superficial blackish markings developed in all cases. On the other hand, the larve of Mamestra brassicae fed on mid-rib of lettuce and on carrot, while failing to produce the normal green colours, also showed a marked 318) 2) NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1910 deficiency of the black superficial pigments which formed a conspicuous element in the coloration of normal green- fed larva during the last two stages. Several larve fed on mid-rib were practically white at the time of pupation; those fed on carrot were slightly darker. Further experi- ments would be necessary to show whether the deficiency of black pigments was due to altered metabolism or was comparable with the many cases among Geometrid and Vanessid pupz, &c., in which the formation of black superficial pigment-screens is subject to inhibition from white or yellow backgrounds. The latter interpretation of this case was regarded by Prof. Garstang as improbable en the evidence available, for the mid-rib set had been kept for the most part in a dark cupboard, and two of these larve, transferred, when half grown, to purple cabbage in the light, had shown the same features to a pronounced degree. In the discussion which followed, Mr. Doncaster in- clined to the other interpretation, and suggested that the light reflected from the alimentary canal of the specimens on purple cabbage (which became blue-green after inges- tion) may have had an inhibitive effect. Insect Coloration. Mr. Mark L. Sykes exhibited specimens of various insects among leaves and other natural objects, and in his remarks held that the colours of these insects sup- ported the view of protective coloration. Mr. G. Storey, commenting on some remarks of Mr. Sykes on mimicry, mentioned Prof. Punnett’s experiments on certain Ceylon butterflies of the genus Papilio, which are supposed to afford one of the most striking cases of mimicry. These experiments, he thought, were by no means sufficient to overthrow the theory of mimicry, but they showed that the mimickers derived little protection from their deception from certain classes of their enemies. The Biology of Teleost and Elasmobranch Eggs. Dr. W. J. Dakin confirmed the results reached by Botazzi and others which indicated that the osmotic pressure and salinity of the blood of marine teleosts were different from that of the external medium in which they lived, but were affected by changes in the salinity of the water. The blood of the eel has a lower osmotic pressure in fresh water than in the sea, and the blood of fresh- water fishes is less saline than that of marine fishes. The osmotic pressure of the blood of elasmobranchs is anast identical with that of the sea water in which they ive. Dr. Dakin extended his observations to the eggs of certain fishes, and showed that the specific gravity of plaice eggs can be altered by varying the salinity of the water in which they are living. The egg-contents are therefore not independent of the sea water. He also showed that the salinity and osmotic pressure of the egg- contents was much less than that of the medium in which the eggs were living, and about the same as that of the blood of the adult fish. There is therefore an equilibrium between the sea water and the egg-contents which does not consist in an equality of osmotic pressures; while both osmotic pressures are very different, a change in that of the water produces a small but definite change in that of the egg-contents. Death of the egg-contents destroys the conditions under which this equilibrium is sustained, and the egg-contents increase in salinity by reason of the influence of the surrounding sea water; a corresponding increase in specific gravity takes place, and the egg is no longer able to float. The osmotic pressure of elasmobranch eggs is very different from that of teleost eggs, though both may be living in water of the same salinity. The relation exist- ing between the egg-contents of dog-fish eggs and the water is the same as that between the blood of the adult fish and the medium in which they live. Semination in the Sanderling. Prof. C. J. Patten has already pointed out that examples of the sanderling (Calidris arenaria), apparently in nuptial plumage, and occurring along our shores at the height of the breeding season, are not fully matured, their plumage NO. 2139, VOL. 84] presenting a slight difference from the true nuptial garb. To this plumage the name pre-nuptial was applied. Prof. Patten found, on examining the testes of such birds, that although a certain amount of spermatogenesis had taken place, no real functional activity had been reached. Of the sanderlings which occur on our coasts during the period when they ought to be nesting, those birds not pairing seem to divide into small parties and to lead a sort of nomadic life from shore to shore until about the end of August, when they tend to muster; in September they join company with migrants coming from northern climes, the latter, as a rule, being young birds in first autumn plumage. There are thus formed flocks of young and partially matured birds. The fully adult birds arrive about October. Prof. Patten considers that there is reason to believe that other species of shore-birds take more than a year to reach maturity, and that, prior to this period, their desultory migratory movements correspond in the main with those of the sanderling. Investigations into the question of semination in these cases would afford elucidation of some points of importance regarding avian migration and geographical distribution. Anatomical Adaptations in Seals to Aquatic Life. Dr. H. W. Marett Tims exhibited a series of lantern- slides illustrating some of his observations on the collec- tion of embryo seals obtained by the Discovery expedi- tion, and directed attention to the adaptations to aquatic life which these animals present. The rotation of the limbs to the adult position takes place at an early stage of development. The shortening of the neck is produced by a great ventral curvature of the spine in the cervical and anterior dorsal regions. This, too, is indicated at a very early embryonic stage in both male and female. Dr. Tims remarked, incidentally, that the manner in which the cervical region of the skeletons of seals in our museums was set up, namely, with the vertebrae almost in a straight line, was quite wrong. The prevention of the entrance of water into the lungs is brought about by a secondary growth of the posterior edge of the soft palate, whick becomes fused with the wall of the cesophagus. The fact of the very early establishment of these modifications affords an instance of what some would regard as examples of the inheritance of acquired characters. The Temporal Bone in Primates. Prof. R. J. Anderson contributed some notes on the temporal bone in primates, pointing out that the squamosal shell, which has three or four ossific centres, sometimes shows a separate zygomatic part and occasionally a separate upper triangular part. The antero-posterior and vertical measurements of the bone in several primates were given; they vary from 5:1 in Pithecia to less than 2:1 in Semnopithecus. The various antero-posterior dimen- sions were regarded as evidence of facial influence and the vertical ones of cranial influence. The Oxford Anthropometrical Laboratory. Dr. E. Schuster presented some first results from the Oxford Anthropometrical Laboratory. One of the most interesting tests there carried out was that devised to measure the power of concentration. A pattern, made by pricking nine holes in a piece of cardboard, was shown to the subject five times, on each occasion for only a small fraction of a second. The subject was then asked to make a map of it on squared paper, which he generally failed to do correctly ; he was shown the pattern again five times, and asked to make a fresh map, and so on until he produced a correct one. It was found that those men acquitted themselves best under this test who subsequently did well in the final schools, and that men reading science and mathematics were, on the whole, better than those reading other subjects. The Relation of Regeneration and Developmental Processes. After dealing with a large number of examples illus- trating this subject, Dr. J. W. Jenkinson pointed out that, in development, three processes are clearly recognisable— cell and nuclear division, growth, differentiation. Differ- OcTOBER 27, Ig!o]| NATURE 551 entiation—the main problem—is determined by external ranges of flat-topped hills. These hills have been carved factors, such as the physical and chemical environment, and by internal factors, e.g. the initial structure of the germ and the interaction of developing parts. Experiments prove that there exist in the cytoplasm definite organ- forming substances arranged in a definite manner, and sometimes stratified and graded. Such an arrangement accounts for the observed progressive restriction of the potentialities of parts. During cleavage these substances are segregated into cells, but the order in which this takes place seems to be immaterial; the essence of segmentation is the reduction of the ratio of cytoplasm to nucleus. In regeneration—the production of a whole structure by a part in a differentiated organism—similar processes and factors may be observed. The regenerate often differs quantitatively or qualitatively (heteromorphosis) from the original ; reversal of polarity is a special case of the latter. Features common to all regeneration are :—(1) the cover- ing of the wound; (2) cell multiplication (resulting in the reduction of the cytoplasm-nucleus ratio); (3) growth, always at right angles to the cut surface, and at a rate which alters like the ontogenetic rate; (4) differentiation, which usually follows the ontogenetic order, but may differ from it (anomalous behaviour of germ layers). Of the external factors concerned little is known except that the actual injury is the prime stimulus; the internal factors are :—(1) interaction of parts; (2) size (there is a minimal size); (3) degree of differentiation (power of regeneration decreases with age); (4) level or material (necessarily cytoplasmic, since the nuclei are all alike); (5) polarity, which may be expressed in terms of a graded stratifica- tion of materials. The adult organism contains the same organ-forming substances as were present in the germ, and arranged in a similar way; the difficulty is that the former is divided into cells. A further difficulty is pre- sented by the anomalous behaviour of the germ layers and by the fact that a part, in which these substances exist, ex hypothesi, in other than the correct proportions, can yet form a whole. This indicates that the problem is fundamentally one of assimilation; and Dr. Jenkinson pointed out, in conclusion, that metabolism and regenera- tion in the protozoa are solely dependent on the presence of the nucleus. Prof. C. S. Minot gave an address, which, however, cannot be summarised in a few lines and without the aid of diagrams, dealing with the relations of the primitive streak, blastopore, neurenteric canal, and medullary folds in various vertebrates. Cytological papers by Prof. Hartog and Dr. Edwin Hindle were contributed to the joint meeting of Sections D and K, and Dr. E. J. Russell read, to the joint meeting of Section D and Sub-section B, a paper on the part played by micro-organisms, other than bacteria, in deter- mining soil fertility. A notice of these papers will be found in the reports of the proceedings of Section K and of Sub-section B. J. H. Asuwortn. GEOGRAPHY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. [% his presidential address on some of the more pressing needs of geography, Prof. A. J. Herbertson spoke of geographical classification and terminology especially with regard to the genetic classification of land forms, and gave suggestions as to a suitable form of notation. In speaking of geographical units, he laid great stress on the signi- ficance of vegetation to the geographer, for which a study of climatic regions is as necessary as a study of morpho- logical ones. Dr. Herbertson’s address was printed in full in Nature of September 22. The first paper was by Dr. J. D. Falconer, on the origin of some of the more characteristic features of the topo- graphy of northern Nigeria. The rivers belong to two great hydrographical systems, the Niger-Benue and the Chad systems. The watersheds are lofty plains of a mature topography, while the prominent hills exert only a secondary influence on the drainage system. In their upper and middie courses the rivers flow over open plains the surface of which is diversified by numerous isolated granite domes, turtlebacks, and inselberge. In their lower courses they often flow in deep valleys bounded on either side by NO. 2139, VOL. 84] out of horizontal sedimentary rocks, while’ the isolated domes of the upper plains are clear evidence of a crystalline floor. The peculiar character of the river valleys is entirely due to the recent origin of the whole river system. Two papers were read by Dr. W. S. Bruce, the first on Prince Charles Foreland, Spitsbergen, the second on his plans for a second Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. During the summers of 1906, 1907, and 1909, Prince Charles Foreland was explored by Scottish expeditions under Dr. Bruce’s leadership. The expedition of last year in the steam-trawler Conqueror was on the most extensive scale of the three, and practically completed the exploration of the island. The chief object of the work was to make a detailed map of the Foreland on a scale of two miles to the inch. This map is a continuation of similar work carried on by the Prince of Monaco on the mainland, and by Norwegians under his direction. The island is about fifty- four miles long and from three to seven and a half miles broad, with an area of 262 square miles. An almost con- tinuous range of hills, the northern Grampians, occupies the northern two-thirds of the island, and rises to 3800 feet in Mount Monaco and 3300 in Mount Jessie. Separating these from the Ross heights at the southern end is an extensive low-lying part, called the Foreland Laichs, ap- parently a raised sea bottom. On the east an almost continuous ice-sheet flows from the northern Grampians to Foul Sound, but the west is free from glaciers. A bathy- metrical survey of Foul Sound demonstrated a bar towards the northern end over which vessels drawing more than 12 or 15 feet have difficulty in finding a passage. The rocks are mainly Hekla Hook schists and graywackés, with a small pocket of tertiary beds on the east near Ferrier Haven. The completed topographical map will be one of the mosi detailed ever made ot any part of the polar regions. The plans for a second Scottish National Antarctic Ex- pedition were first published in 1908, but have since been matured and elaborated. It is intended first of all to com- plete the bathymetrical survey of the South Atlantic between Buenos Aires and Cape Town, and Cape Town and the South Sandwich group. A course will then be set for Coats Land, discovered by Dr. Bruce in 1904. Wherever a suitable landing-place can be found along this coast, the base of the expedition will be established. From this base Dr. Bruce will endeavour in the following summer to cross Antarctica vid the Pole to Victoria Land, a long journey, but one which for the greater part of the way will be over entirely new ground, and must result in con- siderable light being thrown on the complex and difficult problem of the structure of Antarctica. After landing Dr. Bruce and his party on Coats Land the ship will continue eastward, conducting oceanographical work along the edge of Antarctica. On this work Dr. Bruce lays particular stress. It is also hoped to map in the ‘‘ missing ’’ coast line between Coats Land and Kaiser Wilhelm Land. After refitting at Melbourne, the ship will proceed southward to pick up Dr. Bruce at some point on Victoria Land, and then make for New Zealand. Thence via Cape Horn a course will be made for Coats Land to embark the remainder of the party left there, who will have been conducting meteorological work during two winters and one summer. From Coats Land the expedition will return home. The exploratory work will be conducted entirely in the Weddell and Biscoe quadrants, for Dr. Bruce recog- nises that the Ross sea and adiacent lands are the special province of Captain R. F. Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton. The total cost of the expedition will be about 50,000l. In the afternoon Captain J. K. Davis, of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s recent expedition, read a paper on the voyage of the Nimrod from Sydney to Monte Video. Attempts were made to locate certain doubtful islands, viz., Royal Company Islands, Emerald Island, the Nimrod group, and Dougherty Island. None of these islands were found, and deep soundings were obtained on or near their supposed positions. They may therefore be removed from the chart. A visit to Macquarie Island resulted in some in- teresting collections. The two-hourly meteorological ob- servations taken during this voyage, which extended through May and June, should prove of great importance. Friday morning was devoted to a joint meeting with Section C. Three of the papers dealt with local geo- NAT ORE [OcTOBER 27, 1910 552 graphy. Mr. C. Johns gave an account of the geology of tne Sheffield district. He was followed by Prof. A. McWilliam, who read a paper on the metallurgical industries in relation to the rocks of the district. Sheffield is a striking example of a town that has arisen in response to local geographical controls. In past times the thick woods of the district supplied the principal metallurgical fuel, charcoal. The clay ironstone yields excellent pig-iron suitable for castings and the best qualities of wrought iron. The bulk of the ironstone now used, however, is brown iron-ore, hydrated ferric-oxide, from Northampton, Leicester, and Lincoln, though for the best steels the hematite ores of Lancashire, Cumberland, and Spain are imported, and Swedish wrought irons are used for cutlery and edge tools. The district is one of the richest in the kingdom in regard to coal supply. Different beds are found suitable for making coke for crucible, cupola, and blast furnaces, and even one that fulfils the very exacting needs of the cementa- tion furnace. The sandstones of the coal measures, often containing 98 per cent. of SiO,, yield excellent ganister. Fireclay is abundant and of exceedingly good quality. The sandstones of the coal measures, not millstone grit, are now principally employed for grindstones. The carboniferous limestone is available as a flux, while fluorspar, easily obtainable in the great heaps of gangue left by the lead miners of Derbyshire, is used to help in desulphurising steel. Lastly, a soft Upper Permian sandstone makes an ideal moulding sand, since, from the nature of the com- ponent grains, it exactly strikes a compromise between binding properties on the one hand and porosity on the other. Speaking after this paper, Prof. Kendall directed attention to the importance to Sheffield of the unoxidised iron ores of Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, which are almost identical with the Cleveland iron ore. When the oxidised ores of Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire are exhausted in about thirty years’ time, these will be of great value to Sheffield. Prof. Herbertson insisted on the im- portance of improving the Trent as a waterway in connec- tion with the eastward extension of the coal-field. The Humber during the human period was the subject of a communication by Mr. T. Sheppard. With the help cf a series of maps, he showed the changes that have occurred in the Humber and on the coast of Holderness from the time of Henry VIII. until the present day. The rapid destruction of the coast at the rate of several feet a year is, in a sense, compensated for by the silting up of the Humber and the growth of new land. Hull is slowly but steadily moving southward to maintain its position as a deep-water port. Dr. Tempest Anderson gave a description of Matavanu, a new volcano which broke out in Savaii in the Samoa Islands in 1905. Other papers read before the joint meeting of Section E and C were, on the present Triassic conditions in Australia, by Mr. E. C. Spicer, and one by Dr. W. H. Hobbs on some considerations concerning the alimentation and the losses of existing Continental glaciers. In the afternoon Dr. Hamilton Rice gave a lecture on his journey across South America from Bogota to Mandos, the object of which was to discover the sources of the Uaupés River. The route from Bogot& was to Villavicencio, and thence over the Andes to San Martin and the densely forested area of the Amazon basin. He described the aborigines inhabiting the banks of the Uaupés, among whom he found both Caucasian and Mongoloid types. On Monday, September 5, the first paper was by Mr. J. Howard Reed on the geography of British cotton- growing. A shortage in the supply of raw cotton threatens seriously to affect Lancashire. The quantity of cotton used to-day in Lancashire is only a trifle more than was the case twenty years ago, but the amount used on the Continent has nearly doubled, and the total is now more than twice that of the British figure. The American mills now consume an amount nearly equal to the whole of the continental demand and about double the British demand. Mr. Howard Reed foresees a serious crisis for the Lanca- shire mills unless supplies of raw cotton can be obtained from other than American fields. It is only by fostering and developing cotton-growing in British colonies that, he believes, the English cotton industry can be saved from virtual extinction. Hence the efforts of the British Cotton- growing Association. . Considerable success has attended the efforts of the association in the British West Indies, NO. 2139, VOL. 84] but the greatest results are expected from Uganda, Nyasa- land, and Nigeria. The increased production of cotton, due to the efforts of the association, has been progressive from year to year, but the needs are so enormous and the work so colossal that the increased supplies obtained during seven years only reach about one-thirtieth of Lancashire’s average yearly demand. Mr. Reed said that a sum of five millions might well be employed in the development of cotton-growing, and the African colonies he looked upon as an incomparable field. Mr. G. G. Chisholm, in making some remarks on this paper, declined to take anything like so pessimistic a view with regard to the future of our cotton industry, nor, on the other hand, was he so hopeful with regard to the effect on Lancashire of the remedies suggested. Major R. G. T. Bright followed with a paper on the Uganda-Congo boundary survey, in which he described the country on the western frontier of the Uganda protectorate. Captain E. M. Jack communicated a report on the survey of the 30th meridian arc, Uganda protectorate, 1908-9. Lieutenant P. T. Etherton, Indian Army, gave an account of a journey from India through Gilgit, Hanza, across the Pamirs, and thence by Chinese Turkestan, Mongolia, and Siberia to the Trans-Siberian railway. Lieutenant Etherton left Lansdowne in the Himalayas in March, 1909, and reached the Siberian railway in February, 1910. From the Pamirs the route was by the Ili Su Pass (16,750 feet) tc the Yarkand River, and thence to the Kulan Urgu valley by a previously unexplored pass at 17,400 feet. Three months were spent in the Tian Shan mountains, during which time the little-known Great Yulduz valley was traversed. Thence the expedition passed by the Ili valley to the town of Kulja. From here Lieutenant Etherton struck through the Sairam Nor and Ebi Nor country to Chuguchak, and reached the foot of the Altai mountains on the northern side of the Black Irtish valley in the depths of winter. After considerable difficulty the .expedi- tion reached Zaisan, a small town on the _ Siberian- Mongolian frontier, early in January this year. Big game shooting was the chief object of the journey. On Tuesday, September 6, the first paper was by Mr. William Wilson, on a new globe-map of the world. The author emphasises the importance of the globe in geo- graphical teaching, and he overcomes the drawbacks of its high price and cumbrous nature by mounting a special globe map on thin cardboard and cutting out the" gores. The two ends of the map are joined to form a cylinder by a clip at the equator; a spindle is introduced, and the tips of the gores are passed down over the ends of the spindle by means of holes punched at the ends of each gore where the poles would be. A metal clip at each end holds the tips in position, and serves as a convenient means of handling the globe. The apparatus can be made up or dismantled in a few minutes, and can be studied flat or as a globe. The world from equator to pole is divided intc three belts of 30° each, which form the primary divisions o* latitude. The longitudes are divided primarily into eight groups of 45° each, a group forming a gore. By these primary divisions the world is divided into forty-eight sections. The sections can be enlarged to any extent, forming an atlas on a simple equal scale that is readily grasped. A set of ‘‘ window ’’ diagrams, each one com- bining a section of one belt on this plan and the same area as shown on Mercator, makes an instructive demonstration of the exaggeration necessary to Mercator. | Two papers followed dealing with regional surveys of selected areas of the British Isles on the lines indicated some years ago by Dr. H. R. Mill. Mr. James Cossar dealt with the Midlothian district. After pointing out the configuration of the area, Mr. Cossar dwelt on its geology so far as it affects the place relations, local con- ditions, or economic development. Thus the volcanic action of the past gave rise to hills and ridges in the western part of the region, which have in cases offered sites for fortifica- tions, as Edinburgh Castle and Inchkeith, and have materially affected the lines of communication. The export of road metal and the physical conditions at Queensferry, which favoured the construction of the Forth Bridge, both entail a discussion of geological facts. The importance of the glacial period was considered, firstly in its influence on the physical structure, secondly on the drainage system, and thirdly on the economic resources. In this connection OcTOBER 27, 1910] NATURE 553 Mr. Cossar examined and described a remarkable series of dry valleys which have resulted from glacial action. The history of the rivers and their present economic value were discussed, and then successively Mr. Cossar examined the climate, vegetation, mineral resources, industries, occupa- tions, and distribution of the population. Mr. O. G. S. Crawford’s regional survey was of the Andover district, which he discussed under the successive headings of physical features, natural vegetation, industries, including agriculture, settlements, and communications, concluding with a survey of the reaction of man upon his natural surroundings. Mr. H. Brodrick read a paper on the underground waters of the Castleton district of Derbyshire. To the west of Castleton is a long valley, in the base of which runs one of the transverse Pennine faults which brings down the carboniferous limestone, so that the streams to the north run over the Yoredale beds to sink into the limestone. Of the several streams, only one ends in a cave of any size, the Giant’s Hole. It was this stream principally that Mr. Brodrick explored. Dr. C. A. Hill read a paper on the further exploration of the Mitchelstown caves in Ireland, carried out by him- self and Mr. Brodrick. At the Dublin meeting in 1908 the author gave an account of these caves, but since that date an exhaustive survey of both caves has been carried out. Several papers of geographical interest were contributed to other sections, but special attention must be directed to the discussion, opened by Prof. P. F. Kendall in Section C, on the concealed coalfield of Nottingham. In the course of his remarks Mr. Kendall announced that the coal measures had been reached at Scunthorpe, eleven miles east of Thorne. Borings are also in course of progress at Thorne, Snaith, Selby, and Newark. This coalfield, he considered, vould be the hope and support of industrial England in the uture. ENGINEERING AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. HE first meeting of the engineering section was held on Thursday, September 1, when, in addition to the president’s address, only one paper was taken—the test- ing of lathe tool steels, by Prof. Ripper. Two methods of testing lathe tools are commonly employed; in one, the object of the test is to ascertain the length of time the tool will run under given conditions before it has to be reground; in the second, the object is to ascertain the actual cutting speed which would entirely destroy the tool in twenty minutes. Prof. Ripper was of opinion that both these methods were of doubtful utility, the latter because, in order to determine the standard speed, so many tests had to be made. He had, therefore, devised another method, which he called the speed-increment test. In this method the tool was started at a standard cut— at a surface speed of, say, 30 feet per minute—and the speed of cutting was then gradually increased by equal increments of 1 foot per minute until the tool broke down. Prof. Ripper showed a number of curves to illus- trate the results obtained by this method of testing, and, after the reading of the paper, he gave a demonstration in the University laboratory. The variation of the speed was obtained by means of an electrical drive. The first business of the section on Friday, September 2, was the discussion on the third report of the committee on gaseous explosions. The chief experimental work undertaken by the members of the committee had been the determination of the amount of radiation from flames. Prof. Callendar had experimented on the radiation from open flames in the laboratory, and Prof. Hopkinson on radiation from gases in a closed combustion chamber. These experiments showed that a flame was, to a certain extent, transparent to the same radiation that it emitted, Prof. Callendar finding that two similar flames placed one behind the other radiated nearly twice as much as a single flame. Before the discussion opened, Prof. Dixon described the experiments he had recently carried out on the ignition of gases by adiabatic compression. The gases were rapidly compressed in closed glass tubes, and a con- tinuous photograph was taken by means of rapidly moving films. Prof. Dixon pointed out that it had been antici- NO. 2139, VOL. 84] pated that such gases would be uniformly heated, and that they would, therefore, ignite simultaneously at all points; he did not, however, find this to be the case— the explosion was never sharp nor violent; the ignition invariably began at one point, and then spread through- out the tube. The discussion largely turned on the ques- tion of the part played by radiation in regard to the missing quantity in gas-engine heat balances. Captain Sankey pointed out that the modern gas engine had an efficiency of 80 per cent. to go per cent. when compared with the standard theoretical gas engine, and that there was thus only a loss of some 10 per cent. to 20 per cent., there being, therefore, not much scope for further improvement. The remaining business for the day was the reading by Prof. Ripper of a paper on a new method of testing the cutting quality of files. Until the invention of the Herbert file-testing machine a few years ago, the only method of testing the cutting power of files had been the hand tests carried out by expert workmen. From some experiments he had been asked to carry out, the author was of opinion that the results obtained in the Herbert file-testing machine were not normal, and he considered that this machine had a serious defect; owing to the fact that the file moved across the face of the test bar through an absolutely constant path, the teeth of the file, each stroke, worked in identically the same grooves or furrows on the face of the test bar, the result was that the surface of the test bar became occasionally, as it were, glazed, and the file ceased to cut properly. With the view of over- coming this defect, Prof. Ripper designed an addition to the Herbert machine with the object of making the path of the file no longer a constant one. To secure this result the file was no longer held rigidly at each end, but was connected by ball joints, the effect of which was equiva- lent to the wrist movement at each end of the file during ordinary hand-filing. The eccentric motion at one end of the file was obtained by a worm gearing actuated by the reciprocation of the machine. The author found that with this addition the Herbert file-testing machine gave extremely concordant results, and a number of curves were shown to illustrate this point. After the conclusion of the day’s proceedings a demonstration of the machine was given in the engineering laboratory. The section opened its proceedings on Monday with a paper by Mr. P. Dawson on the electrification of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway between Victoria and London Bridge. The author had been responsible for the design of this important work. Bear- ing in mind the possibility of future developments, he had decided to adopt single-phase electric traction at 6700 volts, with a periodicity of 25. The motors would develop 115 horse-power for one hour, with a rise of temperature of only 70°, and 60 horse-power for twelve hours con- tinuously under the same conditions; there were four motors to each car. Great trouble was experienced in overcoming the difficulties due to the low head room at certain of the overhead bridges; thus while the normal height of the overhead wires was 21 feet 6 inches above rail-level, there was only available a height of 13 feet 9 inches at some of the bridges, and the collector bow had to be adapted to this extreme variation in height. So far the installation had proved entirely satisfactory. This paper was followed by one by Mr. H. E. Wimperis on the use of an accelerometer in the measurement of road resistance and horse-power. The accelerometer de- signed by the author consists of a brass box, which con- tains a copper disc mounted on a vertical pivot, with its motions damped by a permanent magnet. The centre of gravity of the disc is not in the axis, hence, when the box moves forward, one side of the disc tends to lag behind, and thus to wind up partially a coiled spring, and so actuate a pointer moving over a scale. An ingenious gearing prevents the reading from being affected by any accelerations at right angles to the direction of motion. By the use of this instrument road resistances can be read off at sight, and the brake and indicated horse-power of the engine can be obtained for various speeds. Prof. Coker next described his experiments on the cycli¢al changes of temperature in a gas-engine cylinder near the walls; it was found that the highest temperature 554 near the walls could be measured by couples made from 10 per cent. alloys of iridium and rhodium with platinum ; the author estimated that the maximum temperature at the place of measurement was between 1850° and 1900° C, The business of the day concluded with a discussion on the principles of mechanical flight, opened by Prof. Bryan. As a matter of fact, owing to the line of argument adopted by the opener, there was practically no discussion on principles, but there was a somewhat heated debate as to the respective provinces of the mathematician, the physicist, and the engineer in solving the problems of mechanical flight. If the engineer is to wait until the mathematician has evolved a completely satisfactory theory as to the stability, &c., of aéroplanes, it is quite clear that little further progress will be made. The successful developments of most of the mechanical devices now employed by man have followed lines very different from those which seem good to Prof. Bryan; and mathe- matical theory has generally followed, and not preceded, the engineer’s victory over the forces of nature. The proceedings were opened on Tuesday, September 6, by a paper by Prof. Coker on the optical determination of stress. Prof. Coker has been working for some time at this problem, utilising the well-known fact that glass is rendered doubly refractive by stress; as glass, however, owing to the difficulty of obtaining suitable pieces free from initial strains, has proved unsuitable, the author has fallen back on the use of xylonite, which answers admir- ably. The apparatus necessary included an are lamp to supply the beam of light, and lenses and prisms. The author showed a number of lantern-slides of the per- manent records he had obtained by making use of Lumiére colour plates. Prof. Dalby then read his paper on the measurement of the air supply to a gas-engine cylinder; the air on its way to the engine flows through an orifice into a chamber, from which it passes to the suction valve; the engine is fitted with an apparatus which enables the temperature corresponding to the pressure and volume at an assigned crank angle to be measured, and thus all the data required for calculating the weight of air passing through the orifice per second are accurately known. Prof. S. P. Thompson next read a paper on the laws of electromechanics; the author stated that his object was to put into concrete form the chief laws governing the performance of various electromagnetic mechanisms, and a number of formule was deduced. Mr. F. Bacon then read his paper on heat insulation, in which he described his researches into the heat-insulating efficiency of a number of materials; the heat which was transmitted was produced electrically, and_ electrical methods were employed to measure the temperatures. In the discussion it was pointed out that in lagging steam- pipes there was with each material a definite thickness which it was uneconomical to increase, as the increase of external surface increased the radiation at a greater rate than the increased thickness diminished it. The last paper of the day was by Prof. E. Wilson and Mr. W. H. Wilson on a new method of producing high- tension electrical discharges. In this method energy is taken from an alternating or continuous current source, and is stored in a magnetic field by inductance; it is then allowed to surge into a condenser, which together with the inductance forms a low-frequency oscillatory circuit. When the energy has accumulated in the condenser, the condenser is mechanically bridged across the primary winding of an induction coil, with which it forms a high- frequency oscillatory circuit. The energy is then trans- mitted by the secondary winding of the induction coil to the work circuit, and may be either oscillatory or unidirec- tional. The apparatus is suitable for radio-telegraphy or any work employing high-tension electricity. The concluding meeting of the section was held on Wednesday, September 7, when the first paper was one by Mr. R. W. Weekes on self-raising rollers for maps and plans, descriptive of an ingenious arrangement for mounting plans, maps, and diagrams. The next paper was entitled ‘‘ Machine for Testing Rubber by Means of its Mechanical Hysteresis,’’ by Prof. Schwartz. The author had designed a machine in which a specimen of rubber of standard dimensions was loaded at a given rate to a given percentage of the maximum ' NO. 2139, VOL. 84] NATURE [OcToBER 27, 1910 load. The load was then gradually removed, and a com- plete stress-strain diagram automatically taken; as rubber possesses very considerable mechanical hysteresis, the stress diagram was of a loop form; from this the chief physical characteristics of the sample could be readily deduced. Prof. Fessenden then gave his paper on the utilisation of solar radiation, wind power, and other intermittent natural sources of energy. The author estimated that the total first cost of the solar plant per horse-power would be about 2o0/., and the annual charge about 30s. per horse-power ; he stated that a plant of 3000° horse-power was at present in course of erection. In the discussion Sir William White expressed the view that in all these schemes for the working of intermittent sources of energy the cost of works of construction generally proved prohibitive. The last paper was by Mr. Cook on an experimental investigation of the strength of thick cylinders. The author described his investigations into the strength of cast-iron and mild steel thick cylinders when subjected to gradually increasing internal pressure up to the bursting point. Mr. Cook had found in the case of the mild steel cylinder that the tensile stress at the yield point, as calcu- lated by Lamé’s equation, agreed closely with the value of the tensile stress at the yield point in an ordinary tension test of the steel. The proceedings closed with votes of thanks to the president and secretaries of the section. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL : INTELLIGENCE. BrIsToL.—The first congregation for the presentation of degrees in the University of Bristol was held on October 20 before a crowded assembly. Owing to failing health, the Chancellor, Mr. H. O. Wills, was not present, and his place was filled by the Vice-Chancellor, Sir Isambard Owen. The degree list was a long one, as besides the ordinary graduating students there were fifty-two old students of University College and the Merchant Venturers’ Technical College, who, having taken degrees in other universities, were admitted to ad eundem degrees in the University. In a few special cases, also, degrees of Bachelor were awarded to associates of these institutions. Only one honorary degree was conferred, and that, the Doctorate of Science, on Prof. Conwy Lloyd Morgan, F.R.S., lately Vice-Chancellor of the University and sometime principal of University College, Bristol. He was introduced by Prof. F. R. Barrell, dean of the science faculty, who in the course of his address said :—*‘ Expert in knowledge of the fossil past, expert in knowledge of the living present, he stands renowned in varied fields of thought; keenly has he observed, acutely has he analysed the workings of the mind in man and bird and beast; at his behest the artless infant and the unfeathered chick alike disclose the secrets of their nascent reason; psycho- logy, zoology, geology, all acknowledge in him a master. A teacher of teachers, he has o’erstepped the boundaries of this isle; in southern Africa he has dwelt and taught; not once or twice alone has he been called across Atlantic seas to inform the wisdom of the West. With fertile pen and with lucid speech he has made clear the subtle mazes of philosophy; his written word is read where’er the English language penetrates, and done into the German tongue it guides the Teuton in the study of nature.” Campripce.—Mr. A. E. Shipley, F.R.S., fellow and tutor of Christ’s College, has been elected master of the college in succession to the late Dr. John Peile. Dr. Tempest Anderson will deliver a lecture in the Sedgwick Museum on ‘‘ Matavanu, a New Volcano in Savaii, German Samoa,’’ illustrated with lantern photo- graphs, on Saturday, November 5, at 5 p.m. The Henry Sidgwick memorial lecture, to be given by Sir George Darwin, K.C.B., F.R.S., on “ William and Caroline Herschel,’’ will take place in the hall of Newn- ham College at 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 3, instead of November 12, as previously announced. It is stated in Science that the Tuskegee Institute will receive about 80,0001. from-the estate of Mrs. Dotger, and OcTOBER 27, 1910] NATURE Bho. the Hampden Institute will receive about 50,0001. from the estate of Miss Alice Byington. By the death of Mrs. Loomis, the estate of the late Colonel John Mason Loomis, amounting to more than 200,000l., will, it is said, go to the establishment of a technical school at Windsor, Conn. Tue College of the City of New York has acquired, says Science, the complete private library of the late Prof. Simon Newcomb, consisting of about 4000 volumes and 7ooo pamphlets dealing with astronomy, mathematics, and physics. Both pamphlets and books are being catalogued, and are now accessible to research students, in accordance with the expressed desire of Prof. and Mrs. Newcomb. On October 22 Mr. T. Fenwick Harrison laid the foundation-stone of new engineering laboratories for the University of Liverpool. The cost of the building will be met by a gift of 35,0001. received from Mr. Fenwick Harrison, Mr. J. W. Hughes, and Mr. Heath Harrison. Prof. Watkinson thanked Mr. Harrison for laying the foundation-stone, and in the course of his remarks said it is intended to make special provision for teaching and research work in connection with all branches of engineer- ing, internal-combustion. engines, steam turbine engines, refrigeration, and fuel testing, and in this respect the laboratories will be second to none in the kingdom. The donors intend that the subject of heat engines, and par- ticularly of internal-combustion engines, shall be developed on a much.more important scale than has been hitherto attempted. As shipowners who use three hundred thousand tons of coal a year they see the advantages to be derived from the successful application of the internal-combustion engine, so far as ships are concerned, for it means the reduction of coal consumption to one-half, and possibly to one-third, of that now required for steam engines. It is humiliating, said Prof. Watkinson, that the names associated with the invention of. internal-combustion engines are almost without exception German, and nearly all the internal-combustion engines being built to-day in this country are being built under licence from Germany. Greater scientific knowledge is required than in the design of steam engines, and it is reasonable to conclude that the greater success of the Germans.is due to their better training in scientific principles. Last year Prof. Watkin- son visited all the principal schools of engineering in the United States and in Canada, and in nearly every one he found that their gigantic laboratories were being greatly extended. Both the Germans and the Americans realise far more than we do in this country the value of a uni- versity training, and they also realise that in this age, when machinery plays such a large part in almost every industry, that this training is the best for those who are to control and direct most of the great industries. That is well illustrated, said Prof. Watkinson, by the fact that there are about 17,000 students taking a four years’ course in the American schools of engineering, which is about eight times the number of students taking the normal three years’ course in this country. TuHE introductory address at the London School of Tropical Medicine was this year delivered by Dr. Henry A. Miers, F.R.S., principal of the University of London. The subject of the address was scientific observation, and Dr. Miers directed attention to an aspect of scientific re- search and of training in scientific investigation which, he said, seemed in danger of escaping notice. Under present conditions scientific research is seldom pursued save by those whose object is clear and whose minds are con- centrated upon a special line of investigation in which they are alive and alert to the exclusion of any distracting side-issues. Each new discovery is pursued with ever- increasing rapidity and with a system which is fruitful in results; the searchlight’ of investigation is turned with mechanical ‘precision upon every new problem, and it would appear unlikely that anything of importance should be overlooked. But teachers and investigators do not sufficiently bear in mind two possible dangers that beset them under modern conditions of work. ‘It is inherent in our senses and our intelligence, first, that those whose attention is too minutely fixed upon one thing will fail to perceive other things which are equally discernible and equally important; and, secondly, that those who look or NO. 2139, VOL. 84] listen too intently for a thing may actually see or hear that which they desire, even though it be not there. Later in his address Dr. Miers gave it as his opinion that, taken as a whole, scientific men are not better general observers than other people, though some. among them undoubtedly are. It has been too often assumed that scientific training has a special value as developing the general powers of observation, and that because students have been exercised in special observations they have be- come practised observers of things in general, whereas the reverse may be nearer the truth, and in many instances certainly is so. Some practice in all-round observation should be incorporated in the training of the specialist if we are to have our students quick to observe details that do not form part of their conscious exercises; neither should they bé led to suppose that, because they have been practised in observing one thing, they are therefore good observers of everything else. To him who has eyes to see, the most trivial detail may be the germ of an important discovery. Our laboratory training gives the student his eyes, but does not always teach him to use them widely or wisely. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, October 10.—M. Emile Picard in the chair.—The president announced the death of M. Treub, correspondant in the section of botany, and of Ernst von Leyden, correspondant in the section of medicine and surgery.—Henri Douvillé: The formation of the loam of the plateaux. This loam, consisting of a very intimate mixture of clay and fine sand, is well developed in the neighbourhood of Paris and in the north of France. Two hypotheses have been put forward to explain its formation, deposition from water and transport by wind. The former hypothesis is shown to be in better accord with the observed facts; to explain the height above the sea at which these deposits are found, the floods carry- ing the deposits are supposed to have been caused by the sudden melting of snows, the lower portion of the valley being blocked by glacier.—Serge Bernstein: A generalisa- tion of the theorems of Liouville and Picard.—F. Robin: The law of resistance to crushing of cylindrical bodies as a function of their dimensions. The general law of resistance to crushing as a function of the dimensions of the test-pieces is expressed geometrically by a hyperbolic paraboloid.—H. Pelabon: Batteries with antimony and antimony selenides. An element formed of antimony and antimony selenide, with an acid solu- tion of antimony trichloride as the electrolyte, shows varying electromotive force under the action of light. If sulphur or tellurium is substituted for the selenium the phenomena described are not produced. The effect is strongest when the element is exposed to the yellow and red rays.—G. Charpy and S. Bonnerot: The reduction of oxide of iron by solid carbon. Ferric oxide and graphite, intimately mixed, were heated in a vacuum at temperatures up to 950° C., and the reaction studied by measuring the amount of gas evolved per hour. The speed of reaction diminished as the pressure maintained in the apparatus was reduced, and became practically zero when the pressure in the tube was of the order of o-oo1 mm. of mercury. Hence it is concluded that solid carbon does not reduce oxide of iron at 950° C.—P. Mahler and J. Denet: The presence of a small quantity of carbon monoxide in the air of coal mines. The amounts found varied between o and 4o volumes per million, with an average of 19. The maximum amount of carbon monoxide corresponded with the minimum of methane, and the maxi- mum methane was found in the sample containing no carbon monoxide.—Paul Vuillemin: A natural preventa- tive to the oak-tree disease. The disease of the oak, caused* by an Oidium, is kept in check by a Cicinnobolus, a parasite preventing the multiplication of the Oidium by. conidia, and its preservation by the mycelium.—E. L. Trouessart: The mammalian fauna of Europe.—Ch. Gravier: The coral reefs of the Gulf of Aden and their madrepores.—Paul Marechal: Contributions to the bio- logical study of Chermes.—Edouard Chatton : The exist- 556 ence of Dinoflagella, coelomic parasites. Syndinium in the pelagic copepods.—A. Fernbach and E. Vulquin: The microbicidal power of macerations of yeast and cereals. The poison elaborated by yeast is not identical with that obtained from cereals._-A. Briquet : Geology of the Gallo- Belgic region. ; October .17.—M. Emile Picard in the chair.—P. Helbronner: The complementary. geodesic triangulations of the upper regions of the French Alps (eighth expedition). The work done included fixing the position of eighty-seven stations, twenty of which were above 3000 metres altitude. —A. Jacquerod and M. Turpaian: The application of the principle of Archimides to the exact determination of gaseous densities. A bulb of about 200 c.c. in volume is suspended inside a tube of slightly larger dimensions by means of a platinum wire to the arm of a balance, a suit- abie counterpoise being suspended from the other arm. The suspended bulb is surrounded by the gas the density of which is being measured, the exact temperature being maintained by an external water bath. The instrument was calibrated by hydrogen and oxygen, the densities of which are exactly known. The accuracy obtainable is of the order of 1 in 10,000.—G. A. Hemsalech: The relative duration of the lines of the spectrum emitted by magnesium in the electric spark. The results tabulated confirm the view put forward in a previous paper, that the observation of the relative durations of the lines of the spectrum may, in certain cases, furnish useful indications in the analyses of bodies containing unknown impurities.—A. Lafay: The influence of a local heating on the value of the pressures supported by a body placed in a regular stream of air.—Léo Vignon: The influence of chemical affinity in certain adsorption phenomena.—Jean de Rufz de Lavison: The elective réle of the root in the absorption of salts. The stem absorbs indifferently, and in the same proportion, salts which are presented to it in solution, whilst, on the contrary, the plant furnished with roots exercises a marked selective action on certain salts.— Victor Henri, A. Helbronner, and Max de Reckling- hausen: New researches on the sterilisation of large quantities of water by the ultra-violet rays. A description of an improvement of the form of apparatus given in an earlier paper. Three-fourths of the rays emitted by the tube are now utilised. An experiment was carried on for six weeks continuously, during which 25 cubic metres of water per hour were passed through the apparatus, with an expenditure of 26 watt-hours per cubic metre of water, the exit water being sterile—Jules Amar: A singularity in the working of the human machine.—A. Knapen: Should materials be impermeable or porous?—L. Landouzy, H. Gougerot, and H. Salin: Experimental bacillary serious arthritis——Charles Nicolle, A. Conor, and E. Conseil: Some properties of the exanthematic virus.—Eugéne Daday de Dées: A new phyllopod collected by the Antarctic expedition of the Pourquoi Pas ?— Edouard Danois: The spermaceti organ of MKogia breviceps.—A. Péesi: The lines of fracture of the earth’s crust.—Louis Besson: Observations of the upper bitan- gent arc of the halo of 46°. GOTTINGEN. Royal Society of Sciences.—The Nachrichten (physico- mathematical section), part iv. for 1910, contains the following memoirs communicated to the society :— May 28.—L. Geiger: Determination of earthquake foci from the times of arrival—D. Hilbert: Outlines of a general theory of linear integral equations (vi.). July 23.—O. Miigge: Deformations in the crystals of potassium chlorate (KCIO,), according to investigations by Paul Fischer.—E. Heeke: Non-regular prime numbers and Fermat’s theorem. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. WEDNESDAY, NoveMBER 2. En {TOMOLOGICAL Society, at 8 —Experiments in 1909 and 1910 upon the Colour-relation between Lep dopterous Jarve and Pupe and their sur- mous zs: Elizabeth Briggs. Society or Pusiic ANALysTs, at 8.—The Estimation of Lactose in the pres ence of the commonly occurring Sugars: Julian L. Baker and Fi. E: Hulton. —The Colorimetric Estimation of Hydrogen Cyan‘de : NO. 2139, VOL. 84] NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1910 A. Chaston Chapman.—The Polarimetric Estimation of Milk. Sugar : H. Droop Richmond.—A New Method of Estimating Phosphoric Acid : G. F. Wesley Martin. THURSDAY, November 3. Roya Society, at 4.30. —Probable Papers: The Origin of the Hydro- chloric Acid in the Gastric Tubules: Miss M. P. Fitzgerald.— (1) Trypanosome Diseases of Domestic Animals in Uganda. II. T>ry- panosoma Brucei. (Plimmer and Bradford) ; (2) Trypanosome Diseases of Domestic Animals in Uganda. III. Trypanosoma vivax (Ziemann): Colonel Sir D. Bruce, C.b., F.R.S., and others.—Further Results of the Experimental Treatment of Trypanosomiasis ; being a Progress Report to a Committee of the Royal Society: H. G. Plimmer, F.R.S., Capt. W. B. Fry, and Lieut H. S. Ranken —On the Peculiar Morphology of a Trypanosome from a case of Sleepng Sickness and the possibility of its being a new Species : Dr. J. W. Stephens and Dr. H. B. Fantham.— Note upon the Examination of the Tissues of the Central Nervous System, with Negative Results, of a case of Human ‘I rypanosomiasis, which apparently had been cured. for years by Atoxyl Injections : Dr. F. W. Mott, F.R.S.—On a remarkable Pharetronid Sponge fiom Christ- mas Island: R. Kirkpatrick. Linnean Society, at 8.—Biscavan Plankton, Part XIII. The Siphono- phora: H. B. Bigelow.—Plankton Fishing in Hebridean Seas: Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S. R6NTGEN Society, at 8.15.—Presidential Address : Dr. G. H. Rodman. CONTENTS. PAGK AncientyPlants. By DijEaiSi esse) sc) eee British Rainfall . . ares O68 See Indian Crustacea. By W. ero . ee yar Naturalists’ Notes from the old Spanish Main. . 525 Graphical Chemistry . . Peo 0 S25) Amateur Astronomy, By W. E. Rolston... . . 520 Our Book Shelf. . ae See Smart lo OT Letters to the Editor :— The Biological Laboratories at Woods Hole.—Francis B. Sumner. 527 The Cocos-Keeling Atoll. —Dr, E. ‘Wood-Jones ; 2 The Reviewer. . 528 Early Burial Customs in Egypt-—Prof. G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S. .. 20) Effect of Heat on Soils. —C. Harold Wright .- eo The Colours and Spectrum of Water.—T. W. Back- house . ; 4 30 3) a ee Luminous Paint. —R. G. Durrant . . : 530 Velocity of Negative Ions in Hydrogen at Atmosphere Pressure.—A. M. Tyndall . . 2 2 a An Irish Pteridosperm.—Prof. T. Johnson . Rie S\5) Fermat’s Theorem. — Dr. H. C. Pocklington, LOS 5 ae 531 The Uganda- Congo Boundary. Edward Heawood; The Writer of the Article due > mee An Agaric with Sterile Gills —W. B. Grove < a soe Art the Comrade of Science. Nea By Vis 18s LE 5 532 Etbnography at ‘the British Museum. | (itustrated.) By Hes HoH. . 3 PR Sst! Sight Tests in the Mercantile Marine 3) pe ema Structure and Function. (///ustrated.) .....-. 538 Recent Investigations on Pellagra ....... 538 Dr. Melchior Treub. . ba hats Le 2 ee Dr. Sidney Ringer. ByC. ..... 2 2 a eee Notes! i) b 0 ee Our Astronomical Column :— A Brilliant Meteor on October 23. . - 544 Simultaneous Photographic Observations of a Re- markable Meteor . . . oe SCM ss Two Remarkable Prominences . . 544 The Relations between Solar and Terrestrial ‘Pheno- mena 5 - 545 Search- -ephemerides for Westphal’s Comet, 1852 Iv. - 545 The International Cancer Conference at Paris. . . 545 Reports of Meteorological Observatories. . . . . 546 Trees and Timber 546 Selections from American ‘Zoological Work. By Rose SAS a toss) Are 0 Sl Distribution. of Weeds ie os, cee tn The Lancashire Sea-fisheries Lavoratory . 2 «548 Zoology at the British Association. By Dr. J. H. Ashworth . . san ie ay eS Geography at the British Association Peet io: opis) Engineering at the British Association .... . 553 University and Educational Intelligence ..... 554 Societies and Academies . . ......+-e+- + «= 555 Diary ofiSocietiess)..).,« sesh Crome nemaESSe A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. “To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’,—WorpswortTh. No. 2139, VoL. 84] Registered asa . Newspaper at the Genera al ‘Post Office. 1 LANTERN POLARISCOPE. Elbow Polariscope, for illustrating the various phenomena of polarized light, with polarizing glass plates, prism and lenses, mounted in brass, with rack adjustment to focus tube, in case, complete, 4&7 Ws. NEWTON & CO., 8 FLEET STREET, LONDON. JOHN J. GRIFFIN & SONS, LTD., Makers of Scientific Apparatus, KINGSWAY, LONDON, W.C., have received the following awards at the Brussels International Exhibition, 1910, GRAND PRIX. DIPLOMA OF HONOUR. 2 GOLD MEDALS and 1 SILVER MEDAL. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1910 | [Price SIXPENCE _ {All Ri ghts Reserv: ed. REYNOLDS & BRANSON, Ltd, Manufacturers of Chemical ae Physical Apparatus. THE Sree ts ” ELECTROSCOPE. This paraffin insulator, remains charged for at least a day, and has been used with the greatest satisfaction in many secondary schools for the last ten years. A customer states that the batch of two dozen, obtained two years previously, has in efficient condition during that time. Electroscope, with remained (a) Price with attachment for two Wires and top re- | S/- each movable for cleaning the glasses.. “4 oon} 2 (6) Ditto, with two glass tubes for Shonine the leak- age caused by a radio-active gas.. 5/6 each. (ec) Ditto, with transparent scale, lecturer's pattern’ for projection of image of gold leaf and tern, '7/G each. by means of a lantern.. a 14 COMMERCIAL STREET, LEEDS. NEGRETTI & ZAMBRA’S Standard . . Meteorological Instruments. Awarded Grand Prix and Gold Medal, BRUSSELS INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1gto, for Scientific Instruments. Full particulars post f «e on application to 88 HOLBORN VIADUCT, LONDON, 'E.C. 45 CORNHILL, E.C.; and 122 REGENT ST., W. | Branches: clxxxiv NOTIGE: A new volume of NATURE, the 85th, will begin on Thursday next ; the occasion is therefore favourable for the commencement of subscrip- tions. @, For particulars as to the cost of subscriptions (which are payable in advance), see p. cxci of the present number. ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON, W.C. ee IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Including the ROYAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, ROYAL SCHOOL OF MINES, and CITY AND GUILDS COLLEGE. Special Courses of Advanced Lectures, as follows, November next :— SuBjEctT. “COLOUR VISION" ... will begin during ConDUCTED By :— { Sir Witttam DE W. Apney, K.C.B., DSc.) D:C. Lo ERS) ("i Percy Groom, M.A., D.Sc., “TIMBER: ITS STRUCTURE, . ” F.L.S., Assistant Professor of DEFECTS, AND DISEASES Botany in the Imperial College. Particulars of these and other Courses to follow free on application to the SECRETARY, ——————— eee EAST LONDON COLLEGE. (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.) MILE END ROAD, E. The College is situated close to stations on the G.E.R., District Railway and L.T. and Southend Railway, and is approached from The Royal Exchange in 15 minutes by motor omnibus. FACULTIES of ARTS, SCIENCE and ENGINEERING. PASS AND HONOURS COURSES, Latin, Greek, English, French, German, English History, Mathematies, Physies, Chemistry, Botany, Geology. CIVIL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING. FEES, TEN GUINEAS PER SESSION. PRELIMINARY AND MATRICULATION CLASSES. FACILITIES for POST-GRADUATE and RESEARCH WORK. Valuable Scholarships are offered annually by the Drapers’ Company. Calendar post tree on application to the REGISTRAR, or to J. L. S. HATTON, M.A., Principal. CITY OF LONDON COLLEGE. ACTING IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE LONDON GHAMBER OF COMMERCE. WHITE ST., and ROPEMAKER ST., MOORFIELDS, E.C, (Near Moorgate and Liverpool Street Stations.) PRINCIPAL: SIDNEY HUMPHRIES, B.A., LL.B. (Cantab.) EVENING CLASSES in SCIENCE. Well-equipped LABORATORIES for Practical Work in CHEMISTRY, BOTANY, GEOLOGY, and all branches of PHYSICS. Special Courses for Conjoint Board, Pharmaceutical and other examin- ations. Classes are also held in all Commercial Subjects, in Languages, and Literature. Art Studio. All Classes are open to both sexes. SATURDAY CLASSES for Chemistry and Physics. DAY MODERN SCHOOl.. Preparation for a COMMERCIAL or BUSINESS career or the CIVIL SERVICE. Prospectuses, and all other information, gratis on application. DAVID SAVAGE, Secretary. Several Laboratory Assistants are required for a large Chemical Factory near Glasgow. Applications may be addressed to ‘‘Cuemist,” Messrs. Wm. Porteous & Co., Glasgow, and om panied by particulars of expericnce, qualifications and should ke acc a NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1910 RKBECK COLLEGE BREAMS BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE, E.C. DAY AND EVENING ‘CLASSES. Courses of Study under Recognised Teachers of the University o London for Degrees in Science, Arts and Economics. fA. McKenzig, D.Sc., M.A., Ph.D.; G. Wi Chemistry “1 CrLoucn, B.Sc. fA. Grirritus, D.Sc.; D. Owen. BA., B.Sc. Physics “1 B. W. Crack, B.Sc. ; H. R. NerrLeTon, B.Sc Botany H. C. I. Fraser, D.Sc. ; E. Ler, A.R.C.S. H. W. Untuank, B.A., B.Sc. | J. W. Evans, D.Sc. ; A. Mortev Davigs, D.Sc. E. H. Smart, M.A.; C. V. Coates, M.A. F. A. Wricur, M.A.; G. S. Ropertson, M.A. J. H. Lopspan, M.A. » Language J. H.G. Grattan, B.A. French... _...... V.E Kastner, B.és.L.; J.S. WesTLake, M.A. German on J. Birnect, M.A, Geography .. J. F. Unstgeap, M.A. History sees T. SECCOMBE, M.A. Logic \ {& ARMITAGE-SmiTH, M.A., D.Lit. Economics /"'"" G. C. Rankin, M.A. British Constitution. G. H. J. Hurst, M.A. Assaying. Metallurgy. Mining. G. Patcuin, A.R.S.M. Prospectus free, Calendar 3d. (post free 5a.), from the Secretary. ————— THE SIR JOHN CASS TECHNICAL INSTITUTE. JEWRY STREET, ALDGATE, E.C. Principal—Cuartes A. Kgang, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.I.C. EVENING CLASSES in CHEMISTRY, PHYSICS and MATHE MATICS designed to meet the requirements of those engaged ir CHEMICAL and ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES and in trade: associated therewith. Also preparation for the B.Sc. Examination of London University. Courses for Honours B.Sc. in Physics, { CHARLES A. Keane, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.I.C. Chemistry Z| H. Burrows, A.R.C.S., Ph.D., F.I.C., and A. R. Smitu, M.Sc., A.I.C. Physi JR. S. Wittows, M.A., D.Sc., and NES "UB. J. Hartow, B,Sc., A.R.C.S. Mathematics ... . E. C. Snow, B.A. Every facility for Advanced Practical Work and Research in well-equipped laboratories both in the afternoon and evening. NEW SESSION began MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. For details of the Classes apply at the Office of the Institute, or by letter to the PRINCIPAL, ——— SOUTH-WESTERN POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, MANRESA ROAD, CHELSEA, S.W. Day Courses in preparation for London University degrees in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, in Chemistry, Physics and Natural Science. Session Fee, £15. Similar Evening Courses. Session Fee, £3 10s. Technical Day Courses arranged to extend over 3 years and prepare for Engineering, Electrical, Chemical and Metallurgical professions. Mathematics *W. H. Ecctes, D.Sc. ; *J. Lister, A.R.C.S. Physics es Skinner, M.A. ; *L. Lownps, B.Sc., Ph.D., ys tee 4 eae Jona ant ¥, Howes B.Sc. 5 - B. Coceman, A.R.C.S. ; *J. C. Crocker, M.A., Chemistry... {Dp sovand se He Lows, M.Sc. : *H. B. Lacey; S. E. CHanpLer, D.Sc., and Botany es { *H. J. Jerrery, A.R.C.S. Geology *A. J. Mas_en, F.G.S., F.L.S, Zoology ... ye M.A. . = *W. Campsett Houston, B.Sc., A.M.I.C.E.; Engineering { *A. Macktow Situ, B.Sc., and H. AuGuHTIE. Electrical fe J. Maxower, M.A.; *B. H. Morpuy and Engineering U. A. OscHwa cp, B.A, * Recognised Teacher of the University of London. Full prospectus from the SECRETARY, post free, 4d.; at the Office, price ra. SIDNEY SKINNER, M.A., Principal. TLE SWINEY LECTURES ON GEOLOGY, IgIo. Under the direction of the TRUSTEES of the BRITISH MUSEUM. A Course of Twelve Lectures on ‘THe Coasts or GREAT BRITAIN | AND IRELAND” will be delivered by T. J. JEHU, M.A., M.D., F-R.S-E:, | in the Lecture Theatre of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Ken- sington (by permission of the Board of Education), during the month of November, on Mondays and Tuesdays at 5 p.m., and Saturdays at 3 p.m., beginning Saturday s, and ending Tuesday 29. The Lectures will be illus. trated by Lantern Slides and Lime-light. Admission Free. Entrance in Exhibition Road. - British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, S.W. ——— FOR SALE.—To Lecturers, Publishers, and AUTHORS, a large number of LANTERN SLIDES by Newton and others, Barrier Reef and miscellaneous, property of late W. Saville- Kent; also Photographs, all kinds of subjects, by the same, specially Fungi and Orchids. —‘* Bexsiro,” Milford-on-Sea, Hants. OcTOBER 27, 1910] NATURE clxxxv DERBYSHIRE EDUCATION COMMITTEE. CHESTERFIELD GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL. The Governors invite applications for the post of HEADMISTRESS the above School. Candidates must be Graduates of a University or ve an equivalent qualification. Commencing salary, £250. : Applications, to be made in writing (on foolscap paper) and accompanied copies of three recent testimonials. should be addressed to the under- ned on or before November 21, 1910. EVAN W. SMALL, county Education Office, Director of Education. Derby. NIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE. ‘LEG PRIFATHROFAOL DEHEUDIR CYMRU A MYNWY. “he Council of the College invites applications for the post of REGIS- tAR. The salary will be £400 per annum. : ‘urther particulars may be obtained from the undersigned, by whom jlications, with not more than four testimonials, must be received on or ore Wednesday, November 2, 1910. D. J. A. BROWN, Acting-Registrar. Tniversity College, Cardiff, October, 1910. ‘O SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICAL MASTERS. January (1911) Vacancies. sraduates in Science and other well-qualified masters seeking posts in blic and other Schools should apply at once, giving full details as to ulifications, &c., and enclosing copies of testimonials, to :— MESSRS, GRIFFITHS, SMITH, POWELL & SMITH, Tutorial Agents (Estd. 1833), 34 Bedford Street, Strand, London. Immediate notice of all the best vacancies will be sent. CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE. ipplications are invited for the post of DEMONSTRATOR OF AP.- IED MECHANICS AND MATHEMATICS at the City and Guilds chnical College, Finsbury. He will be required to take charge of the boratory of Applied Mechanics. Candidates must have had a college ining and practical engineering experience. Salary, £100 per annum. pies of the Programme of the College and particulars of the conditions ached to the appointment may be obtained on application to the REGIS- ar, City and Guilds Technical College, Leonard Street, Finsbury, adon, E.C. BIRMINGHAM MUNICIPAL TECHNICAL SCHOOL. plications are invited for the post of SENIOR LECTURER in CHEMATICS. Commencing salary, £200. Appointment to date (if sible) from January 1, r91t. Applications by November 25, 1910. For particulars apply to GEO. MELLOR, Secretary. Iffices of the School, Suffolk Street, October 19, 1910. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION. FORTHCOMING EXAMINATION. SARTOGRAPHERS in the miralty (17-25), November ro. “he date specified is the latest at which applications can be received. ey must be made on forms to be obtained, with particulars, from the 2RETARY, Civil Service Comm ssion, Burlington Gardens, London, W. Hydrographic Department of the UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. \pplications are invited for the post of SENIOR DEMONSTRATOR 1D ASSISTANT LECTURER IN ZOOLOGY, now vacant in con- uence of the appointment of Dr. W. D. Henderson to the Lectureship Zoology in the University of Bristol. Details as to the emoluments of ' post and further particulars may be obtained on application to the ‘GISTRAR, Applications must be sent in before Monday, October 31. SITISH BIRDS’ EGGS.—For Sale, with cabinet, over two thousand Eggs, in sets. They represent nearly all the birds breeding in British Islands. All in perfect order and con- dition. To be hada bargain. Particulars on application to ‘ Avis,” c/o Mr. O'Neil, Post Office, Handsworth, Birmingham. EE EE eee eee OR SALE.—Analytical Balance of superior make by Becker—sensible 7; milligramme ; never been used ; bought recently, will take 8 Guineas. A genuine bargain.—Owen, 3 Adelaide Road, Shepherd’s Bush. PLATINUM. this week.—R. OLPHERT, Jeweller, 19 Elm Grove Parade, Barnes, S.W. Bankers: London, City and Midland (Barnes branch). BROWNING'S SPECTROSCOPES. THE MINIATURE SPECTROSCOPE. These Instruments will show many of the Fraunhofer lines, the bright lines of the metals and gases, and the absorption bands in coloured gases, crystals or liquids, and may be used for showing many of the leading experiments in Spectrum Analysis. They are made with combinations of three prisms at prices from 20s. to 35s., or with five prisms, giving much greater dispersion, and therefore showing the lines and bands more distinctly, at prices from 25s. 6d. to 70s. RAINBAND SPECTROSCOPE (Grace's). This instrument is specially adapted for predicting coming rain. It is a very powerful, portable, and efficient spectroscope, and is applicable to every purpose for which a Direct Vision Spectroscope can be used. Prices: £3 8 6, £4 O O, ano £5 15 O “HOW TO WORK WITH THE SPECTROSCOPE ” By JOHN BROWNING, F.R.A.S., &c, Fourth Edition, entirely rewritten and revised. Price 9d., or with Coloured Chart of 14 Spectra, 1s. 6d. Post Free. Price Lists of Spectroscopes, Telescopes, &¢., Post Free. JOHN BROWNING, optics, 146 STRAND, LONDON Estas, 1765. Tex. No.: 7804 CENTRAL. H.M. DOCKYARD SCHOOLS, WANTED, a JUNIOR ASSISTANT MASTER. Candidates must possess a University degree or some equivalent qualification, and should have had experience in laboratory work, The scale of salary is £150, rising to £200 by annual increments of 410, with a pension and prospects of promotion. Duties will commence on January 1, rgrr. Applications should be addressed to the SECRETARY OF THE ADMIRALTY (C. E.), Whitehall, London, S.W. UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER. A Course of about Twenty Lectures on ‘* FOSSIL REPTILIA ” will be given by Mt. D. M. S. Watson, M.Sc., on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 5 p.m. First Lecture, November 7 next. Fee, £1 1s. FOR SALE.—Contents of the private Chemical Laboratory of a gentleman going abroad. Comprising large collection of Metallic and Organic Compounds, large stock of Glass and Iron Chemical Apparatus, Combustion Furnace, Tépler Mercury Pump, Gas Analysis Apparatus, Glass Taps, 7-inch Harvey & Peak's Induction Coil, X-Ray Tubes and Screens, Gas Cylinders, Reagent Bottles, Rare Minerals, &c., &c. Can be seen by appointment. Apply “C., Box 6,” c/o NaTuRE. OLD PLATINUM, GOLD Scrap, &c., valued or purchased. SPINK & SON, Ltd., 17 & 18 PICCADILLY, W., and at 6 KING STREET, ST. JAMES’, LONDON, S.W. ESTD. 1772. Gems for experimental work at moderate prices, Extraordinary prices given for platinum scrap. Cash or offer by return post. 40 ozs. wanted 500 ozs. wanted. TYPEWRITING OF HIGHEST QUALITY. General MSS., rod. per 1000 words. Carbon copies, 3d. per 1000 words. Accuracy Guaranteed. NORA DICKINSON, 1 Sackville Gardens, Ilford, Essex. ey clxxxvi Hee eS [OcTroBER 27, 1910 OZONE APPARATUS FoR RESEARC 12 Page Illustrated Pamphlet fully describing various forms of apparatus and method of using them, Post Free to Readers of ‘* NATURE.’’ Allsmirennonn]] re | : OZONAI| we Ltd., 96 Victoria § Westminster, ee S.V “porar TREATMENT = i ae SFOR PUNPOTTLE 2 5 i ee eo Y ————————— oe THE D- See highly favourable review, NATURE, Feb. 28, 1907, page 41 6 E phate ee COELESS SEW GRANTA” GALVANOMETER THE TEC ae | I (AN our bes is a new deparcurssn Moving Coil Blac 4-inch Bow F It is substantially made, easy to manipu- late and can be supplied with a sensitivity as high as between 10-9 to 10 10, Price from £3 each. Write for Special Pamphlet. cil Compass,¥ knee joints nut and | needle point, point and lens ening bar ; 5-1 Improved ] tern Hair DC der ; Ink, Per Spring Bo 2 Drawing Pe . (Ry s Le Price complete, 42/- In Mahogany with Tray, or EcereIN Ge Leather COvereD eee oe Ar t ti i an urve WwW. H. HARLING, Ba omunstrument Manufacturer, 47 FINSBURY PAVEMENT, LONDON, E.:; AND AT GROSVENOR WORKS, HACKNEY Established Established rsx. eee ae ld. Catalogue (covering all kinds) Post F Mens REAGENTS & CHEMICAI For ANALYTICAL, MICROSCOPIC, BACTERIOLOGICAL an Ww. G. PYE & CO., GRANTA WORKS, CAMBRIDGE. G. BOWRON, 57 EDGWARE ROAD, LONDON, W. PHOTOGRAPHIC PURPOSES, are the has always on hand a large and varied stock of STANDARDS OF PURITY, RELIABILITY Al N D- H AN D ay GENERAL EXCELLENCE. E To be had through the regular Trade Channels, or Wholesale from Rance Wo) -y-Noe Wm Obs) E. MERCK, 16 Jewry St., LONDON, E Head Office and Works: DARMSTADT. BY STANDARD MAKERS, IN PERFECT WORKING ORDER, AT EXTREMELY MODERATE PRICES. As supplied to the National Physical Laboratory ; Aberdeen, Aberystwyth | CHANGE OF ADDRESS. Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and Notting sham Universities ; Bedford, | Bradford, Clifton, Heriot Watt and Yorkshire Colleges ; Regent Street TYPEWRITING AND SHORTHA’™ Polytechnic ; and twenty other Scientific Institutions, Polytechnics, &c. UNDERTAKEN BY HIGHLY EDUCATED WOMEN AC | : : gm- Nature says: ‘‘ Teachers requiring efficient apparatus at a low | TOMED TO SCIENTIFIC MSS. (Classical Tripos, Camb cost for lecture or laboratory purposes might consult the list with | Intermediate Arts, London). Research and Revision. The Cam} Type-v ASD Agency, 5 Duke Street, Adelphi, London, advantage.” VAStGAA PEL CANON Dy oHENTonTReAN ATURE: (formerly 10 Duke Street). Telephone : 2308 City. SECOND-HAND CLARKSON’S v4 SS y | a SECOND-HAND MICROSCOPES, 3{*Nitenel m= OPTICAL MART, aN TELESCOPES, teal ( 338 HICH HOLBORN, Ax PRISM LONDON, W.C. (Opposite Gray's Inn Road.) . it ra f .< BINOCULARS, &c. I ” au = =< cs 72 3 Bo i< D a aioe Shion msarasct seatepprenrtintnn ees apie Pra eco ar ieerow hoc annette tr . wa Ta netene penta ener pote pha tatea ie iphemene in oe emer tree Petr Ratio one ores