45 4 oes iv ee ‘2. ae cate Ke ees may He Uae PRN dl i Bandi ash stainiiht ree . ens =o i's cette F vik. _ 2 rat cree i ” Su twa” vet a beers Het Xe ste ie ures RNAS rs aes ie ee aD ie Fak rey tng arta te cat ARTA Aect best arona AH , “ pe reat Soe aera a Se cit bones SHESEER . Uruaertegies woh ees a “9 t ) ay aoe eee tent ees Wis sites avaacey, Tarea iy Sead 1 denen ei ths Reet pte a> ss Prey: yf) Efe san hy eabehibredereiead * ee Sa ae ae oss enya dg etby eth ves edelettocsa revels Aaagas as REN wi ty, pGae tes tee neds tie et fad eugene : a ngeateter vibe aie Wi Tetra pas ; rit wee nN PEAS wit pete ‘a ange Se omme mes eter eo here as piel ae ete we oteee mica gt dnt PARP dan he Regie NS a ot os Were ager a %. Pte ess pare be > gare aot ie wen syee oid ie ere Sub bode hehehe gene geese she pith bet ro ‘ ne a rae gees qyeghctts je 094 a frye Peet em eens a Beratrenerere ate steweveced at Am fe eHiiteeris ein! in a “ +478 oa eel poten ie dete ae imnaty pera A ae AE ea » vate 2 ay ay a taehed ane bag i be “ ie pet rs ea baer ri ht tAAlae tish Ag dpe e ye ae pian “t+ ie Que Explorer, on West Coast of Africa, brought back , 111; the Pigmies of Africa, Dr. H. Schlichter, unity of the African Negro from Yellow Fever, Dr. phton, 200, 222; Meteorological Observatories at . Etienne, 255 ; the Uganda Question, 280; Dr. nn’s Survey of Road to Victcria Nyanza, 280 ; Dis- a New Great Lake (Lake Eiassi), 280; Diamond from a South African Museum, 332; Geodetic of South Africa, 362; African Travels, 407; In- I Resources of Nyasaland, John Buchanan, 407 ; African plogy, 407; the Mombasa-Victoria-Nyanza Survey, ailways in Tropical Africa and Native Passengers, ounding of Robinson Commemoration Association y of Hausa Language and People, 572; Camels in South-West Africa, 598; the Dra Dwarfs, E. G. nberg, 616; Mr. Joseph Thomson’s Journey to the Bangweola Region, 620 e : Egyptian Agriculture, Prof. Robert Wallace, 15 ; t on the Relations of Fruit Production in New South to the English Market, F. W. Ward, 39; Agriculture 7 INDEX in United States ; Official Denial of the reported intention of the Government to introduce Mongoose to exterminate trouble- some Rodents in the West, 39; Live Stock, Prof. Wrightson, 76; Appearance of the Diamond-back Moth in Yorkshire and Northumberland, 108 ; Soils and Manures, John M. H. Munro, 125; A New Method of Rabbit Destruction in New South Wales, 161; Perfume-flower Farming in New South Wales, 161; The Carob-bean Tree in New South Wales- F. Turner, 210; Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal, 262 ; Vermin of the Farm, J. E. Harting, 262 ; Yorkshire College, Leeds : The County Lectures to Farmers, 300 ; Coffee, Cacao and Rubber Cultivation in Ceylon, J. Ferguson, 300; Uti- lization of Stripped Autumn Plants as Green Manure, P. P. Dehérain, 364; The Vole Plague in the Border Districts, 395 ; Copper Sulphate Spray as Fungicide, 422 ; Agricultural Education at University College of North Wales, Bangor, 474; the Manufacture of Iron in its Relations with Agri- culture, Sir Lowthian Bell, 525; Contagious Foot Rot in Sheep, Prof. G. T. Brown, 560; A Text-book of Agricultural Entomology, Eleanor A. Ormerod, 561; Allotments and Small Holdings, Sir J. B. Lawes and Dr. Gilbert, 602 ; Dr. Leather’s Method of Detecting and Estimating Castor-oil Seeds in Cattle Foods, 602 ; The Improvement of the Potato in Australia, 617 ; Birds versus Insects in Malta, 618 Aikman (C. M.) Farmyard Manure, 100 Ainos of Japan, the, Mrs. Isabella Bishop, 119 ; R. Hitchcock, 421; Arrow Poisons used by, Romyn Hitchcock, 475 Air, Radiation of Atmospheric, C. C. Hutchins, 67 Air Leyden, A New Form of, Lord Kelvin, P.R.S., 212 Aitken (John, F.R.S.), on Some Phenomena connected with Cloudy Condensation, 90 Akroyd (William), the Law of Colour in relation to Chemical Constitution, 23 Alaska, Acclimatization of Reindeer in, by Dr. Sheldon Jack- son, 109 Alaskan Grave, Ancient Chinese Coins discovered in an, Lieut. Dix Bolles, 574 Albino Animals in Japan, Importance attached to, Herr J.-L. Janson, 493 Albumen in Plants, the Active, O. Loew, 491 Alcock (Dr. A.), the Marine Survey of India, 549; The Red Ocypode Crab, 549; the Little Estuarine Crab Gelasimus, 74 Aldabra Island, Seychelles, the Gigantic Land Tortoise of, Riseley Griffiths, 398 Algeria, Miocene Formations of Western, Jules Welsch, 628 Alheilig(M.) Recette, Conservation et Travail des Bois, 246 ‘Alloys, the Microscopic Structure of, Behrens, 72 Alloys, on Certain Ternary, Aluminium, &c., C. R. A. Wright, F.R.S., 188 Alloys of Iron and Chromium, the, R. A, Hadfield, 526 Alluaud’s (Charles), Researches in the Island of Mahé (Seychelles), 230 Absine Glaciers, the Present Extension of; the Glacier des Boisons, 370 Alpine Glaciers, the Periodic Variations of, F. A. Forel, 386 Alpine Trias, Brachiopods of the, A. Bittner, F. A. Bather, 25 Alterations of Personality, Alfred Binet, 219 Alternative Hypothesis, Natural Selection and, F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., Edward B, Poulton, F.R.S., 533 vi Index [ Smgghennns to Nature. ecember 1, 1892 j Aluminium, the Uses and Applications of, G. L. Addenbrooke, 3 Aluminium, eps Heat and Latent Heat of Fusion of, J. Pionchon, 312 see (E. H.), Elements of Critical Point of Carbonic Acid, 96 Amber Mines of Upper Burma, Dr. Noetling, 549 Ambronn (Dr. L.), the Trapezium in the Orion Nebula, 334 America: Discovery of Australian-like Mammals in South America, R. Lydekker, 11; Paleeonictis in the American Lower Eocene, Henry F. Osborn, 30; Revision of the Species of Rumex occurring North of Mexico, W. Trelease, 40; American Journal of Science, 67, 310, 627; American Journal of Mathematics, 68, 627; the Development of Ame- rican Armour-plate, F. L. Garrison, 86; Science in America, the Walker Prize awarded to Prof. J. D. Dana, 158; Alleged Discovery by Cyrus Thomas of the Key to the Central American Inscriptions, 160; Projected Marine Biological Laboratory in Jamaica in commemoration of Quater-Cen- tenary of Discovery of America, 176; Discovery of America to be Celebrated in Hamburg, October 11-12, 230; Ame- rican Meteorological eet ee 235, 435, 483, 5553 Locusts i in America, C. V. Riley, 256; the Tertiary Rhynchophora of North America, S. H. Scudder, 256; Proposed American Psychological Association, 419; American Association for the Advancement of Science, President’s Address, 408 ; Rochester Meeting, 453; Section A, some Problems in the Old Astronomy, J. R. Eastman, 424; Annual Convention of American Association of State Weather Services, 493 ; Science in the United States, W. Kent, 494; the First Chart of America, Juan de la Cosa’s, 453 Amsterdam Royal Academy of Sciences, 72, 216, 263, 628 Analytical Statics, a Treatise cn, Edward J. Routh, F.R.S., Prof. A. G, Greenhill, F.R.S., 145 Anatomy, Quain’s Elements of, 6 Anatomy Museum at Pennsylvania University, Endowment by General Wister of, 38 Anatomy, Physiology, Morphology, and Development of the Blow-fly (Calliphora erythrocephala), B. Thompson Lowne, 26 7 Anchor Ring, the Potential of an, F. W. Dyson, 92 Anderson (Ernest), Some Victorian Lepidoptera, 595 Anderson (Dr. W., F.R.S.), Inaugural Address as President of Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 42 Andes, Collections from the, Edward Whymper, H. J. Elwes, 147 Andrew (Captain Edgar H.), Ice in the South Atlantic, 173 Andrussoff (Dr.), Results of the Recent Russian Investigations on the Black Sea, 408 Anemometer, Timchenco’s, Prof. Klossovsky, 594 Angell (John), Elements of Magnetism and Electricity, 610 Animal Coloration: an Account of the Principal Facts and Theories aeeg: to the Colours and Markings of Animals, F, E. Beddard, F.R.S., Edward B. Poulton, F.R.S., 533 Animal Heat and Physiological Calorimetry, Prof. Rosenthal, 403 Animal Intelligence, the Limits of, Edward T. Dixon, 392 ; C. Lloyd Morgan, 417; Dr. St. George Mivart, F.R.S., 4 Animal Life Past and Present, Phases of, R. Lydekker, 74 Animals, Land, the Origin of ; a Biological Research, W. J Sollas, 271 Animals in Captivity in Lower Bengal, a Handbook on the Management of, Ram Bramha Sanyal, 314 Annelid, the Protective Device of an, A. T. Watson, 7 Annuaire Géologique Universel, L’, 109 Anniversary Meeting of the Royal "Gangreliicsh Society, President’s Address, 87 Ant-bear in Cape Colony, the Extermination of the, A. C. Macdonald, 522 Antarctic Expedition, Abandonment of the Proposed, 230 Antarctic Whaling Expedition ; Sailing of the Dundee, 477 Ants in Ceylon, W. F. Liesching, 15 Ants and Saccharine, H. Devaux, 573 Ants, Habits of Parasol, J. E. Tanner, 595 Anthropology : the Religious and Social Ideas of the Chinese, as illustrated in the Ideographic Characters of the Language, + Prof. R. K, Douglas, 23; Anthropological Institute, 23, 119, 238 s 3 Anthropology as a branch of University Educa- tion, Yr. Arenig Age, on the Radiolarian Chert of, Messrs. Bishop, 119; R. Hitchcock, 421, 475; the British Associé tion’s Notes and Queries on Anthropology, 160; th Todas, 160; the Acceleration of Mortality in France, Delauney, 168 ; ; the True Basis of Anthropology, Horat Hale, 206 ; Immunity of the African Negro from Yelloy Fever, Dr. eo Creighton, 200, 222 ; an Ethnological Enquir into the Basis of our Musical System, Dr. Wallaschek, 238. Easter Island, W. J. Thomson, 258; Opening Address i Section H, by Prof. Alexander Macalister, F.R.S., at th British Association, 378; on the Organization of Loca Anthropological. Research, E. W. Brabrook, 432; on t Discovery of the Common Occurrence of Palzeolithic Weapons ip Scotland, Rev. Frederick Smith, 432; Weapons and Articles of Clothing used by the Toba Indians of the ** Gran Chaco,” J. Graham Kerr, 432; ‘ Pre-Paleolithic” Flints, J. Montgomerie Bell, 432; on the Present Inhabitants o Mashonaland and their Origin, J. Theodore Bent, 432; the Value of Art in Ethnology, Prof, A. C. Haddon, 432 ; 0 the Similarity of certain Ancient Necropoleis i pe the Pyrenees and in North Britain, Dr. J. S. Phené, 432: etric Identification, Dr. Manouvrier, 432 ; Ccntndl Ae nclogd s BY ay ee Clouston, 432, Dr. Benedikt, 433 ; Coiffure of : Kanaka Labourer, Sir William Turner, 433; Prehensile Power of Infants, Dr. Louis Robinson, 433; on the Con- temporaneity of the Maori and the Moa, H. O. Forbes, 433. Human Osteometry, Dr. Garson, Sir William Turner, 433 ; Observations as to the Physical Deviations from the Norma as seen among 50,000 Children, Dr. Francis Warner, 433, on some Facial Characters of the Ancient Egyptians, Prof. Macalister, 433; Ancient Skeletons from Medum, Egypt, Dr. Garson, 433; German Anthropological Congress, 420 Copper Implements and Ornaments in Ohio Mounds, Prof. F. W. Putnam, 455; the Ulu or Woman’s Knife of the Eskimo, O. T. Mason, 559; the Dra Dwarls, E, G. Don- nenberg, 616 Anthropometric Identification, Dr. Manouvrier, 432 Anticyclone over British Islands and Atlantic, 38 Anti-Friction Material for Bearings used without Lubrication, Killingworth Hedges, 430 Aphanapteryx and other Kemains in the Chatham Islands, Henry O. Forbes, 252 Apiculture: Amount of Honey nese to enable Bees to) secrete one pound of Wax, A. J. C 255, Aplysiide, Physiology of the Glands of Bohicioch in the, G. F; Mazzarelli, 163 Apodidz, the : a Morphological Study, H. M. Bernard, Prof, E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., 267 5 Apodide, the: a Reply, Henry M. Bernard, 366 Archean History, Subdivisions in, Prof. James 1). Dana, 1 52 Archeology: the Tell el-Amarna Tablets in the British Museum, 49; the Coming Moscow International Congress of Prehistoric Archeology, 108; Proposed Testimonial to Signor G. Fiorelli on his Retirement, 176; Discovery of Buddhist Antiquities at Bhatuprolu, A. Rea, 178 ; Herr K. Flegel’s Discoveries in Kalymnos, 521; the Recent Dis- covery of an Ancient Lake- Village in Somersetshire, Dr. A. Munro, 617 4 Archipelago, Eastern, the Deep-Sea Deposits of the, P. W. Bassett-Smith, 69 Archoplasmic Body, on the Relationships and Kole of the, during Mitosis in the Larval Salamander, J. E. 5S. Moore, 404, Arctic Expedition, the J/anche, 397 Arctic Exploration: the Relief of the Peary Expedition, 476. Arctic Regions; Prof, Pouchet’s Visit to Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen, 453 a Peach and Horne, 428 ; Arithmetic, Mental, G. Daehne, 247 Arithmetic for Beginners, Key to, J. and E. J. Brooksmith, a4 Arithmetical Chemistry, C. |. Woodward, 610 } Arloing (M.), the Phylacogenic Substance in Ordinary Liquid Cultivations of Baczllus anthracis, 240 Armour-plate, American, the Development of, F. L. Garrison, D. G, Brinton, 39; the Ainos of Japan, Isabella 4 Armstrong (Prof. H. E., F.R.S.), the International Conference on Chemical Nomenclature, 56 ; the Origin of Colour, ii., the Constitution of Coloured Nitro-compounds ; iii. Colour as an Evidence of Isodynamic Change, 142; British Associa- tion Procedure, 291 ment to Spel mber 1, 1892 index isons used by the Ainos of Japan, Romyn Hitchcock, ..@’), Physiological Effects of Alternating Currents isoidal Variations, 240 and White Handbook to the Academy and New ures, ogy, the Value of, Prof. A. C. Haddon, 432 Omalius d’Halloy the author of the Theory of the Origin of the, Dr. Brinton, 278 Functional Hermaphrodite, Prof. W. A. Herdman, . the Geographical Distribution of, Prof. W. A. , F.R.S., 405 ntral, Brick Manufacture in, Edouard Blanc, 604 s (Dr. R.) Aspiration Apparatus, 361 ; Treatment of ack by Lightning, 521 ; meration of, 372 id Perennial Sunflowers, J. G. Baker, 14 ), Atomic Weight of Boron, 403 _ Astronomical Column, 16, 41, 64, 86, 110, 134, II, 229, 257, 279, 301, 334, 362, 371, 400, 423, 496, 524, 551, 575, 597, 619; Prof. Tacchini on ; Photographs of Sun-spots, 258 ; the Influence ts on Terrestrial Magnetic Conditions, 278 ; Depressions and their Analogy with the Move- n-spots, M. Camille Flammarion, 280 ; Sun-spot s atthe Lyons Observatory, E. Marchand, 340; the Moon, May 11, 17; Comet Swift (March 6), 87, 230, 258, 423, 453 ; Spectrum of Swift’s 2) W. W. Campbell, Prof. Konkoly, 17 ; Nova >rof. Konkoly, 17, ‘‘ L’Astronomie,” 161, Rev. n, 453, H. F. Newall, 489, Herr Belopolsky, - Holetschek, 576 ; Nebular Spectrum of, shine, 68; the Libration of Hyperion, H. 8; Distribution of Stars in Space, Kapteyn, 72 ; ervatory Keport, 86; Stars with Remarkable 86; Light Variations of y Cygni, Prof. Dunér, 87, Yendell, 134; Nebule, Mr. Burnham, 87; Cata- 2 of Nebulz, £35; Variable Nebule, E. E. Barnard, _Winnecke’s Periodic Comet, 1892, 110°; Saturn’s Rings, yourdan, 110, Rev. A, Freeman, 150 ; Stone Circles, Sun and the Stars, A. L. Lewis, 127; Active Lunar , Prof. Pickering, 134; Photographic Measures of les, 161 ; the Planet Mars, 162 ; Colours on the Sur- s, Prof. Pickering, 179 ; Opposition of Mars, 258, Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., 443; Observations of Perrotin, 482 ; Measures of the Diameter of Mars, Flammarion, 460; Earth-fractures and Mars ‘‘ Canals,” A. Lebour, 611 ; Deathof Narasinga Row, 176; a nisphere, 177; a Planet beyond Neptune, Prof. Mr. R oberts, 179 ; Total Solar Eclipse, April 15-16, ; Variation of Latitude, Mr. Chandler, 211 ; Com- Spectra of High and Low Sun, 211; Coronoidal s, M. I. Pupin, 211 ; the Red Spot on Jupiter, J. er, 229, W. F. Denning, 391 ; Position of Jupiter, covery of a New Satellite to Jupiter, 476, 592 ; Dis- a Fifth Satellite to Jupiter, W. F. Denning, 492 ; Fifth Satellite, Prof. Barnard, 620; Jupiter and his Miss E. M. Clarke, 620; a Mean Time Sun-dial, eneral Oliver, 230; Stars’ Proper Motions, J. G. 230; Determination of Angle of Polarization of ’ Venus, J. J. Landerer, 240; Lunar/Photography, Dr. L. Weinek, Prof. Holden, 257; Remarkable Prominences, M. Trouvelot, 258; Influence of Place of External Thermometer in Observations of Zenith Distances, M. Perigaud, 263; a New Nebulous Star, E. E. Barnard, 279; Yale College Observatory Report, Mr. Brown, Dr. Elkin, 280; Madras Observatory, 301; Oxford University Observatcry, 301 ; Natal Observatory, 362; In Starry Realms, Sir Robt. S. Ball, F.R.S., 315 ; Solar Observations at the R. Osservatorio del Collegio, Romano, Prof. Tacchini, 334; a Remarkable Prominence, J. Fényi, 334; the Trapezium in the Orion Nebula, Dr. L. Ambronn, 334; New Results with Regard to Hydrogen obtained by Spectroscopic Study of Sun, M. Deslandres, 340 ; Geodetic Survey of South Africa, 362; the Perseids, W. F. Denning, 371, J. Edmund Clark, 442; Himmel und Erde, 371; Astronomy at the Columbian Ex- position, 372; Numeration of Asteroids, 372; Thermal Absorption in the Solar Atmosphere, E. B. Frost, 400; Hydrogen Spectrum in the Solar Atmosphere, M. Deslandres, 401; Refraction in Micrometric and Photo- graphic Measures, Dr. S. C. Chandler, 401; Com- parison Stars of the Planet Victoria, Dr. Gill, 423; International Time, Major the Hon. E. Noel, 423; Some Problems in the Old Astronomy, J. R. Eastman, 424; the Staff at the Lick Observatory, 452; the Observations of Klinkerfues Reduced, Prof. William Schur, 452; Photo- graphs of Solar Phenomena, Prof. G. E. Hale, 452; A Meteorite, H. L. Preston, 452; Mounting of Objectives, Prof. Hale, 452; Discovery of a New Comet by Mr. Brooks, 453; Observations of New Planet M. Wolf, G. Bigourdan, 4°0; the Planet Venus, E. L. Trouvelot, 468 ; Variation of Latitude, Dr. Chandler, 476; the Varia- tion of Latitude at Pulkova, B. Wanach, S. Kostinsky, 524; Double Star Observations, Prof. Asaph Hall, 524; New Observatories, 476; Solar Observations at Rome, Prof. Tacchini, 476, 524 ; Proposed School of Practical Astronomy, H. C. Russell, 496 ; Double Star Measures, S. W. Burnham, 496; Comet Brooks (1882, August 27), 496; Comets of Brorsen (1846 VII.) and Brooks (1892 ‘‘d”), W. F. Denning, 514 ; Comet Brooks (August 27, 1892), F. Risten- pert, 551; Comet II. 1892 (Denning, March 18), 541, 551 ; Astronomische Nachrichten, 552; Appeal by Harvard Observatory for Donation to construct Refracting Telescope, -E. C. Pickering, 548; the Present Comets, T. W. Back- house, 561; Total Eclipse of the Sun, 1893, John King, William M. Martin, 561; Luminous Night Clouds, W. Foerster and O. Jesse, 575 ; Minor Planets, 576; Report of Mr. Tebbutt’s Observatory, 576 ; Photographic Chart of the Heavens, H. C. Russell, 576; Dr. Rambaut, the New Royal Astronomer for Ireland, 615 ; A New Comet discovered by Prof. Barnard, 597; our Sun’s History, Lord Kelvin, 597 ; Silvering Glass Mirrors, Mr. Common, 597; Himmel und Erde, 598; Researches in Stellar Parallax by the aid of Photography, Prof. Chas. Pritchard, F.R.S., 612; Comet Barnard (October 12), 619 ; Discovery of Three New Planets by Photography, 619; Rutherfurd Measures of Stars about 8 Cygni, Harold Jacoby, 619 Atlantic, Icebergs in the, 160 Atlantic, North, Pilot Chart of, for April, 38 Atlantic, North, the Crinoids and Echinoids of the, Dr. Danielssen, 333 Atlantic, South, Ice in the, Robert H. Scott, F.R.S., 173; Capt. Edgar H. Andrew, 173 Atlas of Clinical Medicine, Dr. Byrom Bramwell, 389 Atomic Weight of Boron, Prof. Ramsay and Miss Aston, 493 Atomic Weight of Oxygen, Robert Lehfeldt, 151 Atmosphere, the General Circulation of the, J. Carrick Moore, -R.S., 7 Atmospheric Depressions and their Analogy with the Move- ments of Sun-Spots, M. Camille Flammarion, 280; F. Howard Collins, 489 Auriga, the Late New Starin, 161 Aurora, Dr. Veeder, 29, H. Geelmuyden, 55, James Porter, 151; Remarkable Aurora Borealis over Moscow, 39; Aurora in Canada, 361; Aurora Borealis, Warington Stock, 79, A. Butcher, 368, Rev. Edmund McClure, 368, J. Lloyd Boyward, 368, Henry Harries, 391 ; Aurora Australis, William White, 368, H. S. Dove and G. W. Easton, 368 Vill Lndex [* upplement to Nature, December 1, 1892 Austen (Prof. Roberts), Effect of Small Quantities of Foreign Matter on the Properties of Metals, 402 Australia: Discovery of Australian-like Mammals in South America, R. Lydekker, 11; the Spread of Foxes in Australia, 15; F. W. Ward’s Report on the relations of Fruit Production in New South Wales to the English Market, 39 ; Photographs of Coral Reefs and Marine Fauna of Great Barrier District of, W. Saville-Kent, 45; Excursion of Victoria Field Naturalists’ Club to the Grampians, 63 ; the Sanderling in Australasia, Prof. Alfred Newton, F.R.S., 177; Australian Crustacea : a Tube-dwelling Amphipod (Cerapus flinderst) from Port Jackson, Charles Chilton, 178 ; Australian Mud Springs, Prof. Edgeworth David, 256; Fruit Culture in Australia, 494; the Great Barrier Reef of Aus- tralia, W. Saville-Kent, 523; the Improvement of the Potato in Australia, 617 Ayrton (Prof. W. E., F.R. ey r Workshop Ballistic and other shielded Galvanometers, 2 Azoimide, N,H, Inorganic Synthesis of, A. E. Tutton, 286 Babes (V.), Carceag, an Enzootic Disease of the Sheep in Roumania, 436 Backhouse (T. W.), Numbering the Hours of the Day, 392; the Present Comets, 561 Bacteriology: Structure of Bacterial Cells, W. K. Wahzrlich, 39 ; a New Bacterium (Veuskia ramosa), A. Famintzin, 68 ; Micro-organisms in their Relation to Chemical Change, Prof. Percy F. Frankland, F.R.S., 135 ; the Nitric Organisms, R. Warington, F.R.S., 151; Prof. Percy F. Frankland, F.R.S., 200; Bacteriologisches Practicum .zur Einfiihrung in die practischwichtigen bacteriologischen Untersuchungsmethoden fiir Aerzte, Apotheker, Studirende, Dr. W. Migula, Mrs. Grace C. Frankland, 198; the Phylacogenic Substance in Ordinary Liquid Cultivations of Aact/lus anthracis, M. Arloing, 240; Action of Heat on Tuberculous Matter, Prof. T. Forster, 263 ; Development of Bacteria in a temperature of Melting Ice, Prof. T. Forster, 264 ; Culture of Nitrification Organisms, M. Beyerinck, 264; Fermentation of Arabinose by Bactllus ethaceticus, P. F. Frankland and J. Macgregor, 311; Bacterian Origin and Bilious Fever of Hot Countries, Domingos Freire, 460 ; Ptomaine obtained from Cultivation of Micrococcus tetragenus, A. B. Griffiths, 508; a New Chemical Function of the Comma-Bacillus of © Asiatic Cholera, 436 Baddeleyite and Geikielite, two New Mineral Species, L. Fletcher, F.R.S., 620 Bailey (Dr. G. H.), Impurities of Town Air, 402 \ Bailey (Alderman W. H.), Paris Free Libraries, 617 Baily (Walter), the Construction of a Colour Map, 23 Baker (H. B.), Action of Light on Silver Chloride, 189; In- vestigation of the Phenomena which accompany the burning of Carbon and Phosphorus in Oxygen, 431 Baker (J. G.), Asters and Perennial Sunflowers, 14 Baker (J. L.), Studies on Isomeric Change, iv. : Derivatives of Quinone, ii., 142 Baldwin (James Mark), Hand-book of Psychology: Feeling and Will, 1 Ball (E. J.), the Elimination of Sulphur from Iron, 115 Ball (Sir Robt. S., F.R.S.), In Starry Realms, 315 Ball (W. W. Rouse), a Newtonian Fragment on Centripetal Forces, 71 ; Mathematical Recreations and Problems of Past and Present Times, 123 Ballou (S. M.), the Eye of the Storm, 435 Baltic, the Storms of the, B. von Nasackin, 521 ee Hydrography of the Kattegat and, Prof. Pettersson, 40 Halogen Baltimore, Report of Peabody Institute, 398 Bangor, University College of, North Wales, Agricultural Edu- cation at, 474 Baoussé Roussé Caves, the Marquis de Nadaillay, 574 Bar of Iron, Propagation of Magnetic Impulses along a, V. A. Julius, 392 Barbados, the Geology of, A. J. Jukes Brown and J. B. Harrison, 59 Barnard (E. E.), Variable Nebule, 211; a New Nebulous Star, 2-9; Nova Aurigez, 496; a new Comet discovered by, 597; Barnard Comet (October 12), 619; Jupiter’s Fifth Satellite, 620 Barometer, a New Mercury-Glycerine, Dr. J. Joly, 71 Barometer, a High, Rain with, Robt. M. W. Swan, 442 Barrows (A. E.), Estimation of Slag in Wrought Iron, 189 _ Barter (S.), Manual Instruction ; Wood-work ; the Englist Sloyd, 244 Barus te. ), Change of Heat Conductivity on passing Isothermal} from Solid to Liquid, 310 * B Basalt Cavern at Mont Dore, Curious, M. Martel, 400 Bashforth (Rev. F.), Calculation of Trajectories of Blongat d Projectiles, 366 Bassett (A. B., F.R.S.), Reflection and Refraction of Light from a Magnetized Transparent Medium, 191; A Treatise on Physical Optics, Arthur Schuster, 267 ; Bassett’s Physica Optics, 315 ; Modern Dynamical Methods, SIG) ne a Basset (Lieut. Ww. B. ), Ingenious Coin-counting Machine in the Royal Mint, 430 my Bassett-Smith (P. W.), the Deep Sea Deposits of the Eastern ' Archipelago, 69 Batalin (Dr. A. F.), Appointed Director of Botanic Garden at ~ St. Petersburg, 107 : Bateson (William), ‘he Alleged ‘‘ Aggressive Mimicry ” 4 Volucella, 585 Bather (F. A.), an International Zoological Record, ATs Brachiopoden der Alpinen Trias, A. Bittner, 25 Bayard (F. C.), English Climatology, 1881-90, I9I { Bayley (C. C.), a Fireball, 62 Bear, an Albino, caught in Yezo, 493 Beard (Dr. J.), on Larve and their Relations to Adult Forms, j 404 Bearings, Anti-Friction Material for, used without Lubrication, Killingworth Hedges, 430 3 Beck (Cc. R.), Platinous Chloride as a Source of Chlorine, ood Beddard (F. E., F.R.S.), a New Branchiate Oligochete (Bran- chiura sowerbyi), 338 ; Animal Coloration: an Account of the Principal Facts and Theories Relating to the Colours and Markings of Animals, Edward B. Poulton, F,R.S., Bees: Amount of Honey needed to enable them to secrete a Pound of Wax, A. J. Cook, 255 . Bees for Pleasure and Profit, G. Gordon Samson, W. Tuckwell, elven (Mr.), the Microscopic Structure of Alloys, 72; ‘Prof. W. Spring’s Brass made by Compression, 216 Belgium, the Telephone System in, 399 Belgium, the Royal a aud Society of Geography and the Local Geography of, 301 { Bell (Sir Lowthian), the Manufacture of Iron in its Relations with Agriculture, 525 : : Bell (Mr.), Glacial Papers, 428 Bell (J. Montgomerie), Pre-Palzeolithic Flints, 432 Bellew (H. W.), Death of, 331. Belopolsky (A.), Nova Aurigze, 552, 576 Bemmelen (M. van), the Existence of the Crystalline Hydrate off Fe,O3, 628 : Benedikt (Dr.), Criminal Anthropology, 433 i Bengal, Lower, a Handbook on the Management of Animals in _ Captivity in, Ram Bramha Sanyal, 314 : Benham (W. Blaxland), Note on the Occurrence of aF reshwater "J Nemertine in England, 611 a Bennett (Alfred W.), Protection against Rain in the Elder, — 201 Bent (J. Theodore), on the Present Inhabitants of Mashonaland 7 and their Origin, 432 Bergbohm (Dr. Julius), Neue Rechnungsmethoden der Hoheren — Mathematik, 199; Neue Integrationsmethoden auf Grund ~ der Potenzial- , Logarithmal -und Numeralrechnung, 199 q Bergen, New Marine Biological Station at, 548 1 Bérillon (Dr.), Hysterical Amaurosis, 363; ‘Hypnotism i in Educa- Y tion, 364 i Berlin Geographical Society, 369 Berlin Meteorological Society, 120 Berlin Physical Society, 263 Berlin Physiological Society, 96, 168, 263, 340 ~ e Bernard (Henry), Are the Solpugidze Poisonous? 223 ; The Apodidz: a Morphological Study, Prof. E. Ray Lankesters4 F.R.S., 267 ; the Apodidze—a Reply, 366 Bernheim (Prof. ), Hysterical Amaurosis, 363. ; Berthelot (M.), Employment of Calorimetric Shell, 339 ; Heat of Production by some Chlorine Compounds, 4303 Persul-" phuric Acid and the Persulphates, 575 Ss Bertrand-Geslin (Baron), Tanning with Chestnut Wood, 617 _ Besant (W. H., F.R.S.), Elementary Hydrostatics, 172 R Beyerinck (M.), Culture of Nitrification Organisms, 264 ia tent to ae” | ber 1, 1892 Lndex ix Prof. von), Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere, 450 k des Professors der Zoologie und Vergl- Anatomie, Dr. g von Graff, 54 , A.J.), an Obvious Demonstration of the 47th Propo- Euclid, 315 ‘ relford, F.R.S.), on the Changes produced by Mag- in the Length of Wires Carrying Currents, 140 (G.), Saturn’s Rings, 110; Observations of New Zi Les Altérations de la Personalité, 219 1e Protective Device of an Annelid, A. J. Watson, Surface-Film of Water, and its Relation to the Life ants and Animals, Prof. L. C. Miall, 7; Structure of rial Cells, W. K. Wahrlich, 39; the Echinoderm of Kingston Harbour, Jamaica, 40; Photographs of ‘auna of Great Barrier District of Australia, W. ent, 45; the Deep Sea Deposits of the Eastern lago, F. W. Bassett-Smith, 69 ; Change of Liverpool logical Station to Port Erin, Isle of Man, 83 ; the and Biological Station, 83; Enlargement of the oll Marine Biological Laboratory (Mass. ), 83, 493 ; er Garstang appointed to Naturalist’s Post at 83; opening of the Liverpool Marine Biological Port Erin, 155; Mr. E. W. L. Holt’s Investiga- 3, 158; the Plymouth Laboratory Specimen Supply, logy of the Glands of Bohadsch in the Aplysiide, elli, 163; Projected Marine Biological Labora- searc Sollas, 271 ; the Crinoids and Echin- 1e British Association, 342 ; Endowment by Mr. C. H. ty of Marine Biological Laboratory at St. Andrews, 369 ; of Recording Curves of Muscular Contraction, Prof. >Kend 404; Prof. G. Fritsch on the Origin of the erves in the Zorpedo, Gymnotus, Mormyrus, and “us, 404; Dr. J. Musgrove, the Blood-vessels and es of the Retina, 404; H. O. Forbes, Sub-fossil of Extinct Birds of New Zealand and the Chatham 404; Dr. J. Clark on the Natural Relations between erature and Protoplasmic Movements and the Functions he Nucleus in the Vegetable Cell, 404; Dr. Francis mer, Co-ordination of Cellular Growth and Action by orces, 404; M. Louis Olivier, La Canalisation des la Continuité de la Matiére vivante chez les et les Animaux, 404; a Sketch of the Scotch s, chiefly in their scientific aspects, during the past -92, Prof. McIntosh, F.R.S., 404; Prof. Ewart ea Fisheries, 404; E. W. L. Holt on the Destruction Immature Fish, 404; Dr. W. Ramsay Smith, the Food of shes, 405; A. P. Swan, the Effect of Sea-water on the tality of the Salmon Fungus, 405; Prof. E. G. Prince on ‘ormation of Argenteous Matter in the Integument of steans, 405; Prof. E. E. Prince, the Development of haryngeal Teeth in the Labride, 405; Dr. Carlier on in of the Hedgehog, 405; the A/datross Voyage: a narkable Stalked Crinoid, 421; Fertilization of the Fig Caprification, C. V. Riley, 455; Beitrage zur Biologie lanzen, Dr. Ferdinand Cohn, 461; Lichen Hyphe on Shells of Marine Mollusca, 475; new Biological oratory to be established in Calcutta Zoological Gardens, 3; the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory, 493; the T'rans-: ssion of Acquired Characters through Heredity, Prof. C. Riley, 3; new Marine Biological Station at Bergen, the Problem of Marine Biology, George W. Field, rn Gorges Movement for Prevention of Wanton De- tio > 495 Native New Zealand, Earl of Onslow, 502 Lancashire, F. S. Mitchell, 540 1s, Wild, the Question of Legislative Protection for, nubley, 595 ite Isabella), the Ainos of Japan, 119; Journey to ttle Tibet, 135 ; Lesser Tibet, 406 , a “Viper,” W. A. Rudge, 270 (A.), Brachiopoden der Alpinen Trias, F. A. Bather, rknes (V.), the Individual Properties of Metals in Absorbing he Energy of Electric Waves, 573 Haast g a aa Black Sea, Results of the Recent Russian Investigations on the, Dr. Andrussoff, 408 Black and White Handbook to the Academy and New Gallery Pictures, the, 8 Blaikie (James) and W. Thomson, Geometrical Deductions, 291 Blanc (Edouard), Brick Manufacture in Central Asia, 604 Blanford (W. T., F.R,S.), the Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma, 5 Blandford (Mr.), Sugar-cane Borers in the West Indies, 531 Blondlot (R.), Velocity of Propagation of Electro-magnetic Un- dulations in Insulating Media, 340 Blood, the Germicide and Antitoxical Properties of the Serum of, Herr Buchner, 495 Blood-vessels and Lymphatics of the Retina, Dr. J. Musgrove, 404 Blow-fly (Cailiphora erythrocephala), Anatomy, Physiology, ae eey and Development of the, B. Thompson Lowne 207 Blue Sharks, Pilchards and, Matthias Dunn, 368 Boar, Cheetah killed by Wild, C. Meares, 178 Boden (I. S.), Pigment Cells of Retina, 339 Bois, Travail des, M. Alheilig, 246 Bois (H. E. J. G. du), Reflection and Transmission of Light in certain Afolotropic Structures, 483 Bois (Dr. du), on Leaky Magnetic Circuits, 384; on Polariz- ing Gratings, 385; on a Magnetic Balance and its Practical Use, 385 Bolles (Lieut. Dix), Ancient Chinese Coins discovered in an Alaskan Grave, 574 Bolletino della Societa Botanica Italiana, 90 Bones, Sub-fossil, of Extinct Birds of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, H. O. Forbes, 404 — Bonn, Kekulé Festival at, J. E, Marsh, 205 Bonney (Prof. T. G., F.R.S.), the So-called Gneiss of Car- boniferous Age at Guttannen, 95 ; the Microscope’s Contri- butions to the Earth’s Physical History, 180 ; Paleozoic Rocks, 428 Bonnier (Gaston), Influence of Electric Light on Tree-structure, 532; Effect of Electric Light on Herbaceous Plants, 580 Bordage (Edmond), Prehistoric Epochs, 418 Borneo : its Geology and Mineral Resources, Theodore Pose- witz, 540 Bornet (Dr.) Lichen Hyphz growing on Shells of Marine Mol- lusca, 47 5 Bornmiiller’s (M. J.) Botanical Exploring Expedition in Persia, 2 523 Boron, Atomic Weight of, Prof. Ramsay and Miss Aston, 403. Boruttau (Dr.), Experiments to Determine Cause of Difference in Latent Period during Direct or Indirect Stimulation of Muscles, 96 Bose (K. R.), the Student’s Manual of Deductive Logic, Theory and Practice, 561 Boston Society of Natural History ; the Walker Prize awarded to Prof. J. D. Dana, 158 Botanical Papers at the British Association, 554 Botany: Projected Exhibition of ‘‘ Worst Weeds” from all States and Territories of the Union at Chicago, 14 ; Catalogue of the Hanbury Herbarium, 14; Dr. Bretschneider’s Bota- nicon Sinicum, Part II., 14; Asters and Perennial Sun- flowers, J. G. Baker, 14; Vegetable Physiology in United States (in connection with the University Extension move- ment), 15 ; Revision of the American Species of Rumex occur- ring north of Mexico, W. Trelease, 40; the Culture of Sisal Grass in Mexico, 63; Mr. Pratt’s Collections in Western China, W. B. Hemsley, F.R.S., 69 ; Phychological Memoirs, 75; Viticulture in the Punjab, 86; Botanical Gazette, 90, 214, 436; Movements of Leaves of Porlieria hygrometrica G. Paoletti, 90; the Embryology of Amgiopteris evecta, J. B. Farmer, 92 ; the Question of Nomenclature, 159 ; German Proposition for Revision of Botanical Nomenclature, 257 ; the Nomenclature Negotiations, 549; Dr. A. F. Batalin ap- pointed Director of Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg, 107 ; Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, 107; Botanical Society of France, 107 ; Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, W. Botting Hemsley, F.R.S., 122 ; Chrysanthemum growing in Jamaica, 161 ; Gynodicecism in the Labiate, J. C. Willis, 167; the Limits of Tree-Vegetation in the Kola Peninsula, 178; Damage to Plants from London Fog, Prof. F. W. Oliver, 185 ; A Dowhle Cocoanut, 185 ; English Botany, N x Index | Sa to Nature, : December 1, 1892 E. Brown, James Britten, 197; the Coming International Botanical Congress at Genoa, 208; the Nebraska Sugar School, 210; Journal of Botany, 214, 436; Alleged Remark- able Epiphyte Orchids in Southern Formosa, D. J. Mac- gowan, 228; the Mustard Beetle, F. Enock, 238; Linnean Society, 238; Presentation by Mr. Thomas Hanbury to ‘Genoa Institute of late Prof. Willkomm’s Collection of Vas- cular Plants, 254; Iron in Plants, Dr. H. Molisch, 255; the Kew Bulletin, 277-8; Somali-land Sansevieria - Hemp Fibre, 277; New Bamboo Garden at Kew, 278; Specialization of Teaching at Zurich, 300; Arbeiten aus dem K. Botanischen Garten zu Breslau, 300; the Orchids of Grenada, R. V. Sherring’s Collections, 300 ; Marine Floras of the Warm Atlantic and Indian Ocean, G. Murray, 405; on the Structure of Cystopus candidus, Harold Wager, 405 ; on the Affinity of Nuclein for Iron and other Substances, and a Method of Staining Nuclei by Chemical Means, Prof. G. ‘Gilson, 405; Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano, 436; Bulletino della Societa Botanica Italiana, 436 ; Opening of the Hanbury Institute at Genoa, 448; Fertilization of the Fig and Caprification, C. V. Riley, 455; Comparative Assimilation of Plants developed in Sun and in Shade, L. G. de Lamarliére, 460; Kew Bulletin, 473; the Cork ‘Oak, 473; Lichen Hyphe growing in Shells of Marine Mollusca, Dr. Bornet, 475; Report of Calcutta Botanic Garden for 1891-2, 494; Sugar-cane Borers in the West Indies, 531; M. J. Bornmiiller’s Exploring Expedition in Persia, 523; Death of Henri Douliot, 548 ; Botanical Papers at the British Association, 554 ; Observations on Secondary Tissues in Monocotyledons, Dr. Scott and Mr. Brebner, 554 ; on the Simplest Form of Moss, Prof. Goebel, 554; on the Cause of Physiological Action at a Distance, Prof, L. Errera, 5553 Notes on the Morphology of the Spore-bearing Members in the Vascular Cryptogams, Prof. F. O. Bower, 555; on the arrangement of Buds in Lemna Minor, Miss Nina F. Layard, 555; Tubercles on the Thallus of Cystoclonium purpurascens, Prof. F. Schmitz, 555;. Calamostachys Binneyana Schimp., T. Hick, 555; Myeloxylon from the Millstone Grit and Coal- Measures, A. C. Seward, 5553 Death of Robert Bullen, 572; Death of R. D. Fitzgerald, 572; Fourcroya in Flower in Royal Botanic Society’s Gar- dens, 573 ; Fungous Diseases and their Remedies, Prof. J. E. Humphrey, 574; Lao Tea, 593; Lehrbuch der Botanik Nach dem Gegenwirtigen Stand der Wissenschaft, Dr. A. B. Frank, 610 Bottomley (Dr.), Vacuum Tubes without Electrodes, 44 Bottomley (Dr. J. T., F.R.S.), Thermal Radiation in Absolute Measure, 603 Bottone (S. R.), a Guide to Electric Lighting, 221 Boulonnais, Bas, Geology of the, E. Rigaux, 109 Bourgade la Dardye (Dr. E. de), Paraguay: the Land and the People, Natural Wealth and Commercial Capabilities, 488 Bournemouth Drift, Lava in the; Musical Sand, Cecil. Carus- Wilson, 316 Boussinesq (J.), Sea-gauges ; Necessary Additive Correction for Sea-swell, 288 ; for Choppy Sea, 312 Bower (Prof. F. O.), Notes on the Morphology of the Spore- bearing Members in the Vascular Cryptogams, 555 Bower (John A.), How to Make Common Things, 561 Bower (Lieut.), Discovery of an ancient Birch-bark Sanscrit Manuscript by, Dr. Hoernle, 370 Boys (Mr.), Photographs of Flying Bullets, 45 Boyward (J. Lloyd), Aurora Borealis, 368 Brabrook (E. W.), on the Organization of Local Anthropological Research, 432 Brachiopods of the Alpine Trias, A. Bittner, F. A. Eather, 25 Brain, the Temperature of the, Prof. Angelo Mosso, 17 Brain and Spinal Cord, the Structure and Functions of the, Victor Horsley, F.R.S., 606 Bramwell (Dr.), Hypnotism in Yorkshire Medical Practice, 363 Bramwell (Dr. Byrom), Atlas of Clinical Medicine, 389 Brass made by Compression, Prof. W. Spring’s, M. Behrens, 6 21 Braun (Prof. F.), Absolute Electrometer for Lecture Purposes, 150 Bread, the Dietetic Value of, John Goodfellow, 54 Bread, White, and Tooth Culture, Sir James Crichton Browne, 229 Bread, Impure Water in, 514 Breath Figures, W. B. Croft, Rev. F. J. Smith, and Prof. 1 Thompson, 236 Brebner (Mr.), Observations on Secondary Tissues in Monocc cc tyledons, 554 Bredikhine (Th.), the Radiants of the Andromedides, 68 = (William), Photometric Observations of the Sun an y, 204 F Bretschneider’s (Dr. ) Botanicon Sinicum, part ii., 14 Brick Manufacture in Central Asia, Edouard Blanc, 604 Bright Streaks on the Full Moon, Prof, Pickering, 476 Brinton (Dr. D. G ), Anthropology as a Branch of University Education, 39 ; Omalius d’Halloy the Author of the Euro: sg Origin of the Aryan Race, 278; Fuegian Tapguag Sy 27 BRITISH ASSOCIATION: Meeting at Edinburgh, 298, 316, 341; F. Grant Ogilvie, 270; British Association ure, Henry Armstrong, 291 ; Inaugural Address at Edinburgh by Sir Archibald Geikie, LL.D., Bei Sec.R.S., 3175) British Association ctrical ae Section A (Ma bye SS Schuster, ran F.R.S., ’ 383; Di ion on Nomen 2 : Report on Underground Temperature, 383 3 Seo on cs " Discharge of hashes from Pointe, 383; L andard ards of E sistance, Dr, Lindeck, 383; Dr. Kahle on k Cell, 383 ; Preliminary Account of Oceanic Circulation based onthe - Challenger Observations by Dr. A. Buchan, 383; Physical _ Condition of the Waters of the English Channel, H. V. Dickson, 384; on Primary and Secondary Cells in which the Electrolyte is a Gas, Prof. Schuster, F.R.S., 384; o Leaky Magnetic Circuits, Dr. du Bois, 384 ; Bipedinental on the Electric Resistance of Metallic Powders, Dr. Dawson. Turner, 384; on the Stability of Periodic Motions, Lord Kelvin, F.R.S., 384; on the Specific Conductivity of Thin Films, Profs. Reinold and Riicker, 384; a Contribution t the Theory of the Perfect Influence Machines, J. Gray, 384 ; Experiments with a Ruhmkorff Coil, Magnus Maclean — and A. Galt, 384; the Application of Interference Metho to Spectroscopic Measurement, Prof. A. Michelson, 385 ; on a Periodic Effect which the Size of Bubbles has on their Speed of Ascent in Vertical Tubes containing Liquid, Dr. — F. T. Trouton, 385 ; on a Method of Determining rmal Conductivities, C. H. Lees, 385 ; a Magnetic Curve Tracer, Prof. Ewing, 385 ; on a Magnetic Balance and its Practical — Li Prof. du Bois, 385 ; on Earth Current Storms in itoag . H. Preece, 385; on the Dielectric of Condensers, W. © 1 Preece, 385; on Polarizing Gratings, Prof. du Bois, . NEDO O 385 ; the Volume Effects of Magnetism, Dr. C. G. Knott, 385 ; an Estimate of the Rate of Propagation of et rccl tion in Iron, Prof. Fitzgerald, 385; Experimental Proof that the Co-efficient of Absorption is not Affected by — Density of Illumination, Dr. W. Peddie, 385 ; on Disper- sion in Double Refraction due to Electric Stress, Dr. John Kerr, 385; on a Delicate Calorimeter, J. A. Harker and Pots Hartog, 385; on Graphic Solutions of Dynamical Problems, Lord Kelvin, 385 ; Reduction of Every Problem of Two Freedoms in Conservative Dynamics to the Drawin “4, of Geodetic Lines on a Surface of given Specific aceite ; Lord Kelvin, 386 a Section B (Chemistry)—Opening Address by Prof. Herber McLeod, F.R.S., President of the Section, 327; Prof. © Cram Brown on Electrolytic Synthesis, 4o1 ; Prof. Ramsay on the Impurities in Chloroform, 401 ; Prof. Lewes on the Luminosity of Hydrocarbon Flames, 401 ; Experiments on— Flame, Prof. Smithells, 402 ; the Reaction of Hydrogen with Mixtures of Hydrogen and Chlorine, Dr. J. A. Har- ker, 402 ; Prof. Clowes on a New Safety Lamp, 402 ; Prof. Roberts Austen on the Effect of Small Quantities of Foreign Matter on the Properties of Metals, 402 ; Dr. Gladstone on the Molecular Refraction and Dispersion of Metallic Cz bonyls and of Indium Gallium and Sulphur, 402 ; Dr. G. oe Bailey on Impurities of Town Air, 402 ; Prof. Ramsay and Miss Aston on the Atomic Weight of Boron, 403 Section C (Geology)—Opening Address by Prof. C os apworthy ent to at ter 1, 1892 S., President of the Section, 372; Messrs. Peach and e on the Radiolarian Chert of Arenig Age, 428; ic Rocks, Prof. Sollas, Prof. Bonney, 428; Papers, Dr. Crosskey, Mr. Lomas, Mr. Bell, Messrs. a a Horne, 428; Palzontological Papers, E. T. n, M. Laurie, 428 ; Petrological Papers, Mr. Ussher, jodchild, Mr. Harker, Mr. Teall, Mr. Somervail, zandslips in the South Tyrol, Miss Ogilvie, 428 ) (Biology)—Opening Address by Prof. William ord, F.R.S., President of the Section, 342; Prof. th Reid on Vital Absorption, 403 ; Prof. Rosen- Heat and Physiological Calorimetry, 403; chart Gillespie on Proteid-hydrochlorides, 403 ; Dr. Carlier on the Hibernating Gland of the Hedgehog, _G. Mann on the Functions, Staining and Struc- Nuclei, 403 ; Dr. Henry C. McCook on the Social of Spiders, 403; Prof. A. Crum Brown ona Use of nal Ear, 404 ; Prof. Lloyd Morgan, the Method itive Psychology, 404; J. E. S. Moore on the n eo geri Réle of the Archoplasmic Body during ie Larval Salamander, 404; Dr. G, Mann on n of Sex, 404; Dr. J. Beard on Larve and their ns to Adult Forms, 404; Method of Recording ves of Muscular Contraction, Prof. McKendrick, 404 ; Fritsch on the Origin of the Electric Nerves in the ynnotus, Mormyrus and Malapterurus, 404; Dr. ove, the Blood-vessels and Lymphatics of the 404 5 H. QO. Forbes, Sub-fossil Bones of Extinct New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, 404 ; Dr. tk on the Natural Relations between Tewperature plasmic Movements, 404; Dr. J. Clark, Experi- ervations on the Functions of the Nucleus in the > Cell, 404 ; Dr. Francis Warner, Co-ordination lar Growth and Action by Physical Forces, 404; is Olivier, La Canalisation des Cellules et la con- de la Matiére Vivante chez les Végétaux et les x, 404; Dr. John H. Wilson, some Albucas and orids, 404; Prof, McIntosh, F.R.S., a Sketch of ch Fisheries, chiefly in their Scientific Aspects, he Decade 1882-92, 404; Prof. Ewart on our Sea » 404; E. W. L. Holt on the Destruction of Im- ish, 404; Dr. W. Ramsay Smith, the Food of 3 A. P. Swan, the Effect of Sea Water on the the Salmon Fungus, 405; Prof. E. G. Prince nation of Argenteous Matter in the Integument ns, 405; Prof. E. E. Prince, the Development ngeal Teeth in the Labride, 405; Dr. Carlier e Hedgehog, 405 ;G. Murray, Comparison Marine Floras of the Warm Atlantic and Indian . 405; Mr. Harold Wager on the Structure of pus candidus, 405; Prof. G. Gilson onthe Affinity of for Iron and other Substances, 405; Dr. Arthur on's Obser on the Development of the Pos- Cranial and Anterior Spina! Nerves in Mammals, of. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., on the Geographical ation of Ascidians, and on the Presence of Atrial es in various Genera of Tunicata, with a Suggestion their Function, 405 ; Dr. J. Symington on the Cere- Commissures in the Marsupialia and Monotremata, rof, J. Playfair McMurrich, the Early Development € lsopods, 486 ; Prof. G. B. Howes and J. Harrison the Skeleton and Teeth of the Australian Dugong, 406 ; H. G. McCook, Can Spiders Prognosticate Weather ges? 406; Observations on Secondary Tissues in otyledons, Dr. Scott and Mr. Brebner, 554; on the lest Form of Moss, Prof. Goebel, 554; on the ise of Physiological Action at a Distance, Prof. L. era, 555; Notes on the Morphology ofthe Spore-bear- _ Members in the Vascular Cryptogams, Prof. F. O. ower, 555; on the Arrangement of Buds in Lemna Minor, iss Nina F. Layard, 555 ; on Tubercles on the Thallus of toclonium purpurascens, Prof. F. Schmitz, 555 ; Cada- mostachys Binneyana, Schimp, T. Hick, 555 ; Myeloxylon i the Millstone Grit and Coal Measures, A. C. Se- » 555 ton E (Gergraphy)—Opening Address by Prof. James _ Geikie, F.R.S., President of the Section, 348; the First Ascent of Oraefa Jékull, F. W. W. Howell, 406; Dr. J. ess on Place Names, 406; Effect of Rainfall in For- mosa, John Thomson, 406; Lesser Tibet, Mrs. Bishop, Lndex x1 406; the North Atlantic, the Prince of Monaco, 406 ; Detailed Oceanography and Meteorology, 406; the Desert of Atacama, Mrs. Lilly Grove, 406 ; Photography and Sur- veying, Colonel Tanner, 407 ; Determination of Longitude by Photography, Dr. H. Schlichter, 407 ; African Travels, 407 ; Industrial Resources of Nyasaland, John Buchanan, 407 ; African Meteorology, 407; Prof. Penck’s Proposed New Map of the Globe, 407; Recent Travels, Walker Harris, 408 ; H. O. Forbes’s Visit to the Chatham Islands, 408 ; Sub-section on Chemical Oceanography, J. Y. Buchanan, 408; Prof. Pettersson on the Hydrography of the Kattegat and Baltic, 408; Results of the Recent Investigations on the Black Sea, Dr. Andrussoff, Russian 4 Section G (Mechanical Science)—Opening Address by W. Cawthorne Unwin, F.R.S., President of the Section, 355 ; Electrical Lighting of Edinburgh, Prof. George Forbes, 429 ; Disposal of Town Kefuse, Prof. George Forbes, 429 3. the Refuse-destructor Question, G. Watson, 429; Absorp- tion and Filteration of Sewage, R. F. Grantham, 429 ;. Shield Tunneling in Loose Ground, G. F. Deacon, 429 ; Proposed Ship Canal between the Forth and the Clyde, D. A. Stevenson, 429 ; Mechanical System for the (istribu- tion of Parcels, D. Cunningham, 429; Electric Loco- motives, Alexander Siemens, 429; a Tide-Motor, F. Purdon and H. E. Walters, 429; Marine Machinery at Glasgow, 430; Necessity for Connection between Stack Pipes and Earth, W. H. Preece, F.R.S., 430; Power Transmission by Alternating Current, Gisbert Kapp, 430 ; New Design of Electric Locomotive, E. H. Woods, 430 ;. Ingenious Coin-counting Machine in the Royal Mint, Lieut. W. B. Basset, 430; Anti-Friction Material for Bearings. used without Lubrication, Killingworth Hedges, 430; Petroleum Engines for Fog Signalling, D. A. Stevenson, 430; Influence of Acoustic Clouds, David Cunningham, 430; Sound-carrying Power of Water, A. RK. Sennett, 430; on the Progress of the Dioptric Lens as used in Lighthouse Illumination, C. A. Sievenson, 431; Smoke Prevention, A. R. Sennett, 431; Col. E. Dulier, 431 ;. Investigation of the Phenomena which accompany the Burning of Carbon and Phosphorus in Oxygen, H. Brereton Baker, 431; Fire Extinction on board Ship, H. C. Carver, 432 Sectton H (Anthropology)—Opening Address by Alexander Macalister, F.R.S., President of the Section, 378; E. W. _Brabook on the Organization of Local Anthropological Research, 432; Rev. Frederick Smith on the Discovery of the Common Occurrence of Paleolithic Weapons in Scot- land, 432; J. Graham. Kerr, Weapons and Articles of Clothing used by the Toba Indians of the ‘‘ Gran Chaco,” 432; J. Montgomerie Bell, ‘‘Pre-palzolithic” Flints, 432; J. Theodore Bent on the Present Inhabitants of Mashonaland and their Origin, 432; Prof. A. C. Haddon on the Value of Art in Ethnology, 432; Dr. J. S. Phené on the Similarity of certain Ancient Necropoleis in the Pyrenees and in North Britain, 432; Dr. Manouvrier on Anthropometric Identification, 432; Criminal Anthro- pology, Dr. J. S. Clouston, 432; Dr. Benedikt, 433 > Coiffure of a Kanaka Labourer, Sir William Turner, 433 ;. Prehensile Power of Infants, Dr. Louis Robinson, 433 ; on the Contemporaneity of the Maori and the Moa, H. O. Forbes, 433 ; Human Osteometry, Dr. Garson, Sir William Turner, 433; Observations as to the Physical Deviations from the Normal as seen among 50,000 children, Dr. Francis Warner, 433 ; on some Facial Characters of the Ancient Egyptians, Prof. A. “Macalister, 433; Ancient Skeletons from Medum, Egypt, Dr. Garson, 433 British Colonies, Elementary Geography of the, Geo. M. Dawson, F.R.S., and Alexander Sutherland, 100 British Earthworms, New, Rev. Hilderic Friend, 621 British Guiana, North-western District of, Everard im Thurn, 2 Britch Insects, Sketches of, Rev. W. Houghton, 540 British Isles, Land and Freshwater Shells peculiar to the, T. D. A. Cockerell, 76; R. F. Scharff, 173 i British Medical Association, Sixtieth Annual Meeting, 298 British Museum, the Tell el-Amarna Tablets in the, with Auto- type Facsimiles, 49 ’ > British Museum, Improvements in Natural History Collection, 473 XIl British Ornithologists’ Union, 572 Britten (James), English Botany, N. E. Brown, 197 Bromley, Flora and Fauna of, J. French, 316 Brooks (W.), Discovery of a new Comet by, 453 Brooks, Comet (1882, August 27), 496 Brooks (1892 ‘‘@”), Comets ot Brorsen (1846 VII.) and, W. F. Denning, 514 Brooksmith (J. and E. J.), Key to Arithmetic for Beginners, 441 Brorsen (1846 its ), Comets of, and Brooks (1892 ‘'d@”), W. F. Denning, Brown (Mr.), Vale College Bg Me dad Report, 280 Brown (Prof. A, Crum, F.R.S.), on Electrolytic ehtitheats, 401; ona use of the External Ear, 404 Brown (Prof. G. T.), Contagious Foot Rot in Sheep, 560 Brown (N. E.), English Botany, James Britten, 197 Brown-Séquard (M.), Treatment of Cancer and Cholera by Testiculary Liquid, 484 ; Physiology of Epilepsy, 507 Browne (A. J. Jukes) and J. B. Harrison, the Geology of Barbadoes, 59 Brugsch Pasha (Henry), Lake Moeris, 15 Brunton (T. Lauder, M.D.), an Introduction to Modern Therapeutics, 172 Buchan (Dr.), Diurnal Variations of Summer Barometric readings in Polar Regions, 262; Preliminary Account of Oceanic Circulation based on the Challenger Olservations, 383 Buchanan (john), Industrial Resources of Nyasaland, 407 Buchner (Herr), Germicide and Antitoxical properties of the Serum of Blood, 495 Buckley (T. E.), the Birds of Sutherland and Caithness, 279 Buddhist Antiquities at Bhatuprolu, Discovery of, A. Rea, 178 Bullen (Robert), Death of, 572 Bulletino della Societ Botanica Italiana, 436 Bumping in the Lane Fox Mercurial Pump, 394 Burbury (S. H., F.R.S.), and Rev. H. W. Watson, F.R.S., Maxwell’s Law of Distribution of Energy, 100 Burgess (Dr. J.), Place Names, 406 Burma, the Tin District in, H. Warth, 522 Burma, Upper, the Amber and Jade Mines of, Dr. Noetling, 549, 550 Burmeister (Hermann), Death and Obituary Notice of, 176 Burnham (S. W.), Nebulz, 87 ;-Double Star } Measures, 496 Burton (W. K.), the Great Earthquake i in Japan, 1891, 34 Butcher (A.), Aurora Borealis, 368 Buti (Prof. J.), Variations of Iemperature and Rainfall at different heights, 299 Butler (G. W.), the Lithophyses in Obsidian of Rocche Rosse, Lipari, 95 ; Eruption of Vulcano (August 3, 1888, to March 22, 1890), 117 Butterflies: a Colias edusa in London, H. Rowland-Brown, 228 ‘Buxton, the Deep Dale Bone Cave near, J. J. Fitzpatrick, 521 iByssus Silk Manufacture at Malta, late Rev. H. Seddall, 229 ‘Cables, Electric Light, 290 Cailletet (L.), Experiments at the Eiffel Tower on Falling Bodies and Air Resistance, 262 Calamostachys Binneyana Schimp, T. Hick, 555 -‘Caiculus, an Introduction to the Study of the Elements of the Differential and Integral, ot eer G. L. Cathcart, Prof. A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S., ‘Calcutta: Annals of the Royal "Botanic Garden, W. Botting Hemsley, F.R.S., 122; Report of Calcutta Botanic Garden, 1891-2, 494; Proposed Systematic Enquiry into Snake Poison at the Calcutta Zoological Gardens, 14; New Bio- logical Laboratory to be established in the Calcutta Zoological ‘Gardens, 493 ‘Caldwell (Prof. E. C.), Oleomargarin, 522 ‘Calendar, Change in Samoan, 552 California, Climate and Meteorology of Death Valley, 255 ‘California, Pearl Fishery of the Gulf of, C. H. Townsend, 333 ‘Callendar (H. L.), Platinum Pyrometers, 115 Calliphora erythrocephala, Anatomy, Physiology, Morphology, and Development of the siete B. Thompson Lowne, 267 “Calorimeter, on a Delicate, J. A. Harker and P. J. Hartog, 5 Calorimetric Shell, Employment of, M. Berthelot, 339 ‘Calorimetry, Physiological, Animal Heat and, Prof. Rosenthal, 403 Lndex Catalogue of the Specimens Illustrating the Osteology of Bis ores to Nature, ecember 1, 1892 Cambridge Philosophical Society, 143, 156 Camels in German S. W. Africa, 598 Cameroon, the Development of the Resources of, 40 Campania, Cunard s.s., Launch of, 472 Campbell (W. W.) ), Spectrum of Swilt’s Comet (a 1892), I Motion in the Line of Sight, 64 Canada, Meteorological Service of Reports from Oct. 1, 189 to Oct. 31, 1891, 62 : Canada, Aurora in, 361 Canadian Guide Book, Charles G, I). Roberts, 54 ; Canalisation des Cellules et la Continuité de la Matiére Vivant chez les Végétaux et les Animaux, La, Louis Olivier 494 : Canals, Mars, Earth Fractures and, G. A. Lebour, 611 E; ere by Testiculary Liquid, Treatment of, M. Brown-Séquar 1, ca * Diogo), the First Portuguese Explorer, Two Pilla rs Erected on West Coast of Africa by, brought back to Lis j bon, III e Cape Colony, Meteorological Commission, Report of, 493 i Cape Colony, the Extermination of the Antbear in, ‘A, C. Mac: donald, 522 ne ee Captivity, Ania in, a Handbook on the Management of, in Lower Bengal, 7 Carbon and Pacsoherks in Oxygen, Investigation of the Phe- nomena which accompany the Burning of, H. Brereton Baker, | 431 Carbonic Acid in France, the Industrial Pg ip: of, 399 Carbonyls, Metallic, Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., 230 a Carbonyls, Molecular Refraction and Dispersion of Metallic, and of Indian Gallium and Sulphur, Dr. Gladstone, 402 : Carburization of Iron, on the, John Parry, 283. Carbuit (John), on Results achieved by Mr. F. E. Ives i in Colour Photography, 13 Carceag, an Enzootic Tlacliae of the Sheep in Roumania, Etiology of, V. Babes, 436 Carlier (Dr. E. W. ), on the Hibernating Gland of the Hedge- hog, 403 ; on the Skin of the Hedgehog, 405 Carnivorous Caterpillars, Juliet N. Williams, 128 ; R. MeLach- lan, F I5I Carnot canoes Occurrence of Fluorine in Different Varieties” of Natural Phosphates, 48; Application of Chemical Analysis - for Fixing Age of Prehistoric Human Remains, 412 ' Carob-bean Tree in New South Wales, the, F. Turner, 210 ‘a Carroll (Dr. A.), Alleged Decipherment of the Eastern Island Inscriptions, 494 Carter (Brudenell), Apparatus for Measuring Colour-blindness,, | 44 Carter’s (G. T.) Journey into Interior of Lagos, 55 Carus- Wilson (Cecil), Musical Sands, 44, 316; Lava in the Bournemouth Drift, 316 Carver (H. C.), Fire Extinction on Board Ship, 432 Cash (Dr. J. T., F.R.S.), Action of Paraffin Nitrites on Mus. cular Tissue, 339 Caspian, Formation of a New Islet inthe, 212. T Cassiopeiz, Variable Star, Cuthbert E. Peek, 443. Castell-Evans (John), a New Course of Experimental Chemistry, with Key, 511 Vertebiated Animals, Recent and Extinct, contained in the Museum of the eho College of Surgeons of England, | B. Bowdler Sharpe, 1 Cee Catelvoroia, ae N. Williams, 128; R. McLach- lan, F.R.S., 151 Cathcart (G. L.), an Introduction to the Study of the Elements — of the Differential and Integral Calculus, Axel Harnack, Prof. A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S., 218 3 Caucasus Petroleum Trade, the, 333 Cellular Growth and Action by Physical Forces, Co- ordination of, Dr. Francis Warner, 404 ; Century of Scientific Work, a, 504 Ceratodus, the, Prof. Baldwin Spencer, 161 ; a Trip to Queens- land in Search of, Prof. W. Baldwin Spencer, 305 Cerebral Commissures in the Marsupialia and Monotremata, — Dr. J. Symington on the, 405 Ceylon, Ants in, W. F. Liesching, 1 Ceylon, Coffee, Cacao and Rubber Cultivation in, J. Ferguson, 300 Ceylon, Wild Strawberries i in, Mr. Nock, 494 Chain-making Machine (the ‘‘ Triumph %) A. New, 527 lement to | C 1, 1892 Lnaex Xl Observations, Preliminary Account of Oceanic ion based on the, Dr. A. Buchan, 383 ’s Encyclopaedia, 221 (Dr.), Variation of Latitude, 211, 476; Refraction in col tric and Photographic Measures, 401 man (C. H.), An Elementary Course in Theory of Equa- Sir. H. C.), the Brain of the Gorilla, 229 rs, Acquired, the Bearing of Pathology upon the Doc- the Transmission of, Henry J. Tylden, 302 -s Acquired, the Transmission of, through Heredity, i » 504 Darbode(MM. ), the Calculator Inaudi, 167 .), A Shaking Cure for Nervous Complaints, 451 (Aug.), the Retardation in the Perception of the lays of the Spectrum, 192 of the Heavens, Photographic, H. C. Russell, 576 y (A.), on the Laws of Electrolysis, 47 am Islands, Aphanapteryx and other Remains in the, ary ‘O. Forbes, 252 Islands, Discovery of the Bones of a Flightless Bird 2», H. O. Forbes, 408 wh Killed by Wild Boar, C. Meares, 178 try: Prof. Emil Fischer on the Constitution of the ‘Group, 16; Chemical Society, 22, 94, 141, 189, n, Prof. A. H. Church, F.R.S., 22; the Separa- senic, Antimony, and Tin, J. Clark, 22; Platinous as a Source of Chlorine, Shenstone and Beck, 22; osition of Mannitol and Dextrose by Baczllus etha- Frankland and Lumsden, 22; Adhesion of Mercury ass i nce of Halogens, W. A. Shenstone, 22; Preparation of Glycollic Acid, H. G. Colman, 22; n of Silicon Tetrachloride on substituted Phenylamines, Reynolds, 22; Chemistry of Compounds of Thiourea ind Miocarbimides with Aldehyde-Ammonia, A. E. Dixon, ; Atomic Weight of Boron, J. L. Hoskyns-Abrahall, 23 ; rof. Ramsay and Miss Aston on the Atomic Weight of 1, 403; Boron Trisulphide, H. Moissan, 340; Boron sulphide, H. Moissan, 364 ; Death and Obituary Notice of . A. W. Hofmann, 37; Proposed Institute in Memory of von Hofmann, 449; Acetyl Fluoride, prepared by M. Maurice Meslans, 40 ; the Nature and Chemical Behaviour f Acetyl Fluoride, Meslans, 63; a New Case of Abnormal Solution, Decrease of Solubility of Ethyl Bromide in Ether with increase of Temperature, F. Parmentier, 48 ; Occurrence _of Fluorine in different varieties of Natural Phosphates, Ad. Carnot, 48 Fossil Wood containing Fluorine, T. L. Phip- ‘son, 580; Thermal Value of Replacement of Hydrogen in _ Phenol; preory, M. de Forcand, 48; the International ynference on Chemical Nomenclature, Prof. H. E. Arm- ong, F.R.S., 56; Molecular Masses of Dextrine and Gum rabic, as ined by their Osmotic Pressures, C. E. nebarger, 67; Action of Potassium Cyanide on Ammo- ucal Copper Chloride, E. Fleurent, 71; Sodium Trimethyl- bino Forcand, 71; the New Element, Masrium, A. ‘utton, 79; Masrite and Masrium, H. D. Richmond and - Hussein Off, 94; the Existence of two Acetaldoxines, Dun- ethene Dymond, 94 312; Sulphonic Acids derived from 3 ils (i.), G. T. Moody, 94; Formation of Trithionate by .ction of Iodine of mixture of Sulphite and Thiosulphate, Spring, 94; Determination of Temperature of Steam m boiling Salt Solutions, J. Sakurai, 94; Note on Observation by Gerlach, of the Boiling-point of Solution of Glauber’s Salt, J. Sakurai, 94; Con- Wwe = chutzenberger, 96 ; Elements of Critical Points of Carbonic id, E. H. Amagat, 96; Odoriferous Properties of Fatty cohols, Jacques Passy, 96 ; Laboratory Practice, a Series of ‘periments on the Fundamental Principles of Chemistry, iah Parsons Cooke, 99 ; on the Relative Densities of Hydro- m and Oxygen, Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S., 101; Density of ‘itrogen, Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S., 512 ; Cyanide of Arsenic, . Guenez, 109 ; Dibromomalonic Acid, G. Massol, 119 ; een Chemistry: Soils and Manures, John M. H. unro, 125; Micro- Organisms of the Soil, Prof. _ Alfred Springer, 576; Jahrbuch der Chemie, 133; Redetermination of the Atomic Weights of Copper, Dr. Richards, 134 ; Micro-Organisms in their Relation to Chemi- «al Change, Prof. Percy F. Frankland, F.R.S., 135; bution to the History of Silico-Carbon Compounds, P.° ‘the Magnetic Rotation of Compounds supposed to contain Acetyl or of Ketonic Origin, W. H. Perkin, 141; the Ori- gin of Colour : ii. the Constitution of Coloured Nitro-Com- pounds ; iii. Colour as an Evidence of Isodynamic Change, . E. Armstrong, 142; Studies on Isomeric Change; iv. Halogen Derivatives of Quinone, I., A. R. Ling, 142; Halo- gen Derivatives of Quinone, II. A. R. Ling and J. L. Baker, 142 ; Crystalline Forms of Sodium Salts of Substituted Anilic Acids, W. J. Pope, 142; Formation of a Hydrocarbon (C,,4,,) from Phenylpropionic Acid, F. S. Kipping, 142 ; Met- allic Derivatives of Acetylone, R. J. Plimpton, 142; Note on Diastatic Action, E. R. Moritz and T. A. Glendinning, 142 ; a Hydrosilicate of Cadmium, G. Rousseau and G. Tite, 144; the Atomic Weight of Oxygen, Robt. Lehfeldt, 151; Application of Measurement of Density to Determination of Atomic Weight of Oxygen, A. Leduc, 387; the New Laboratory of the Case School- Cleveland, Ohio, C. F. Mabery, 160; the Crystal, lography of Certain New Salts (Fluoximolybdates of Copper and Zinc) obtained by Prof. F. Mauro, Prof. E. Scacchi, 162 ; Conditions of Formation and Decomposition of Nitrous Acid, V. H. Veley, 188 ; Certain Ternary Alloys, vi. Aluminium, &c., C. R. A. Wright, F.R.S., 188; Ethylene Derivatives of Diazoamide Compounds, R. Meldola and F. W. Streatfield, 189 ; Action of Light on Silver Chloride, H. B. Baker, 189 ; Estimation of Slag in Wrought Iron, A. E. Barrows and T. Turner, 189 ; Corydaline, ii. J. J. Dobbe, and A. Lauder, 190; Action of Bromine on Althylthiocar- bimide, A. E. Dixon, 190; Hydrolytic Functions of Yeast, i., O'Sullivan, 190; Lapachic Acid and _ its Derivatives, S. C. Hooker, 190; the Oxidation of Nitrogen by Means of Electric Sparks, Dr. V. Lepel, 210; Me- tallic Carbonyls, Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., 230; Dr. Gladstone on the Molecular Refraction and Dispersion of Metallic Carbonyls and of Indium, Gallium and Sulphur, 402, Estimation of Uric Acid in Urine, F. G. Hopkins; 236; Watts’ Dictionary of Chemistry, Forster Morley and M. M. Pattison Muir, Sir H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S., 242; the Precise Determination of the Critical Density, E. Mathias, 263; the Composition of Water and Gay-Lussac’s Law of Volumes, A. Leduc, 263; on the Carburization of Iron, John Parry, 283 ; Inorganic Synthesis of Azoimide (N,H), A. E. Tutton, 286; Determination of Density of Gases, H. Moissan and H. Gautier, 288; Production of Pyridine Derivatives from Lactone of Triacetic Acid, N. Collie and W. S. Myers, 311 ; Fermentation of Arabinose by Aaczd/us ethaceticus, P. F. Frankland and J. Macgregor, 311; Re- solution of Lactic Acid intoits Optically Active Components, T. Purdie and J. W. Walker, 311 ; New Method of Determin- ing Number of NH, Groups in certain ‘Organic Bases, R. - Meldola and E. M. Hawkins, 311; Preparation of Alkyl Iodides, J. Walker, 312; Products of Dry Distilla- tion of Bran with Lime, W. F. Laycock and. F. Klingemann, 312; Proto-iodide of Carbon, H. Moissan, 312 ; Action of Paraffin Nitrites on Muscular Tissue, Dr. J. T. Cash, F.R.S., and W. R. Dunstan, 339 ; Sal-Soda manu- facture in United States, Prof. C. F. Mabery, 332; Exist- ence in Earth of an Acid Mineral Substance as yet undeter- mined, P. de Mondesir, 387 ; the Industrial Preparation of Carbonic Acid in France, 399 ; Opening Address in Section B by Prof. Herbert McLeod, F.R.S., at the British Association, 327; Prof. Crum Brown on Electrolytic Synthesis, 401 ; Prof. Ramsay on the Impurities in Chloroform, 401 ; Prof. Lewes on the Luminosity of Hydrocarbon Flames, 401 ; Ex- periments on Flame, Prof. Smithells, 402; the Reaction of Hydrogen with Mixtures of Hydrogen and Chlorine, Dr. J. A. Harker, 402; Prof. Clowes on a proposed new Safety Lamp, 402; Prof. Roberts Austen on the Effect of Small Quantities of Foreign Matter on the Properties of Metals, 402; Dr. G. H. Bailey on Impurities of Town Air, 402 ; Sub-section on Chemical Oceanography, 408; Application of Chemical Analysis for fixing age of Prehistoric Human Remains, Adolphe Carnot, 412; Heat of Production of some Chloride Compounds, M. Berthelot and Matignon, 436; Quantitative Determination of Peptone, L. A. Hallopteau, 436 ; Echinochrome, a Respiratory Pigment, A. B. Griffiths, 508; Ptomaine obtained from cultivation of A/icrococcus tetragenus, A. B. Griffiths, 508 ; a New Course of Experi- mental Chemistry, with Key, John Castell-Evans, 511 ; Fuels and their Use, Dr. J. Emerson Reynolds, F.K.S., 527 5 Action of Bromine in presence of Aluminium Bromide on XIV I; ndex (“4 lement to Nature, ecember 1, 1892 Cyclic Chain Carbon. Compounds, W. Markovnikoff, 532; a New Course of Chemical Instruction, Grace Heath, 540; Silver Salt of Sulphimide obtained by Dr. Wilhelm Traube, 551; the Standard Course of Elementary Chemistry, E. J. Cox, 559; on the Origin of Elementary Substances and on some new Relations of their Atomic Weights, Henry Wilde, F.R.S., Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., 568 ; Laying Foundation Stone of new Chemical Laboratory of St. Petersburg Uni- versity, 572; Persulphuric Acid and the Persulphates, M. Berthelot, 575 ; Comparative Evaporation of Solutions of Sodium and Potassium Chloride and Pure Water, Pierre Lesage, 580; a Lecture Course of Elementary Chemistry, H. J. Lilley, 585; Glycol Aldehyde, Fisher and Land- steiner, 596; New Method of Preparation and Photometry of Phosphorescent Sulphide of Zinc, Chas. Henry, 504 ; Arithmetical Chemistry, C. J. Woodward, 610; a New Method of Preparing Acetylene Gas, M. Maquenne, 619; Certain Points in Interaction of Potassium Permanganate and Sulphuric Acid, G. A. Gooch and E. W. Danner, 627; the existence of the Crystalline Hydrate of Fe,O;, M. van Bemmelen, 628 Cherski (Prof.), Reported Death of, 576 Chert, Radiolarian, of Arenig Age, Messrs. Peach and Horne on the, 428 Chestnut Wood, Tanning with, Baron Bertrand-Geslin, 617 Chibret (M.), Waste of Nitrogen from Excessive Fatigue, 364 Chicago Exhibition: Projected Exhibit of ‘*‘ Worst Weeds” from every State and Territory in the Union, 14; Mining at the, 178, 601; Department of American Archeology and Ethnology, 228 ; Solid Gold Brick Exhibit at, 256; the Ken- tucky Tobacco Exhibit at the, 278 ; Model of Ocean Currents at, 451; Ethnology at the, the Native American Section, Prof. F. W. Putnam, 454 Chicago University, 594 Chilton (Charles), a Tube-dwelling Amphipod (Cerapus flin- derst) from Port Jackson, 178 China : the Religions and Social Ideas of, as Illustrated in the Ideographic Characters of the Language, Prof. R. K. Douglas, 23; Tidal Phenomena at Kiungchow, Hainan, FE. H. Parker, 63 ; To the Snows of Tibet through China, A. E. Pratt, 150; the Non-Chinese Dialects of Hainan, Mr. Parker, 179; Per- sian Ideas in China, Rev. Dr, Edkins, 522; Ancient Chinese Coins Discovered in an Alaskan Grave, Lieut. Dix Bolles, 574 Chisholm (Geo. G.), Longmans’ School Geography for North America, 585 Chisholm (Grace E.), a Meteor, 490 Chlorine, the Reaction of Hydrogen with Mixtures of Hydrogen and, Dr. J. A. Harker, 402 Chloroform, on the Impurities in, Prof, Ramsay, 401 ; Fall of Blood-pressure under, owing to its Action on Brain, not Heart, Surgeon-Major Laurie, 572 Cholera: the Sanitary System Adopted by the Venice Con- ference for the Prevention of Cholera, P. Brouardel, 215 ; the Life of Cholera-Germs, Dr. Daremberg, 436 ; Prevention and Vaccination, 466 ; Treatment of Cholera by Testiculary Liquid, M. Brown-Séquard, 484; Places of Origin of Cholera Epidemics, J. D. Tholozan, 555; Asiatic Cholera; a New Chemical Function of the Comma-Bacillus, J. Ferran, 436 Chromium, the Alloys of Iron and, R. A. Hadfield, 526 Chronograph for Cape Town Observatory, Sir Howard Grubb’s New, 167 Chronophotography, Movements of Minute Organisms Analysed by Means o', M. Marey, 47; the Movements of the Heart Studied by Chronophotography, M. Marey, 604 Church (Prof. A. H., F.R.S.), Turacin, 22 Church Congress, Vivisection at the, 557 Cirro-stratus, J. Porter, 541 Civil Engineers, Institution of, 131 Civil List Pensions for Year ending June 20, 1892, 254 Cladonema, a New Habitat for, Henry Scherren, 541 Clark (J.), the Separation of Arsenic, Antimony, and Tin, 22 Clark (Dr. J.), on the Natural Relations between Temperature and Protoplasmic Movements, 404 ; Experimental Observa- tions on the Functions of the Nucleus in the Vegetable Cell, 404 Clark (Jf. Edmund), the Height of the Nacreous Cloud of January 30, 127; a Solar Halo, 222; the Perseids, 442; Reflection on Valley Fog, 514 Clark Cell, Dr. Dahle on the, 8 Clayton (Helen), Tornado of July 26, 1890, at St. Lawrence Mass., 420 Bec, Clayton (H. H.), Recent Efforts towards Improvement of Dai Weather Forecasts, 435 : Clerke (Miss E. M.), Jupiter and His System, 620 4 Climates, Mountain, Physiological Effects of, M. Siault, 240 Clinical Medicine, Atlas of, Dr. Byrom Bramwell, 389 Clouds, Luminous, W. Clement Ley, 294 Clouds, Luminous Night, W. Foerster, O. Jesse, 575 Clouds, Invitation to observe the Luminous Night, W. Foerster and Prof. O. Jesse, 589 Clouston (Dr. T. S.), Criminal Anthropology, 432. Clowes (Prof.), Miners’ Safety Lamp converted into instrument ~ for detecting coal damp, 44; Investigations of a proposed Safety Lamp, 402 t Clutt (J. A.), Innervation of Cerata of some Nudibranchiata, — 9 j CouTar Colouring Matters, Gustav Schultz und Paul Julius, — R. Meldola, 313 : a Coast Lines, the Geographical Development of, Prof. James — Geikie, 348 at ‘ Cockerell (T. D. A.), Land and Freshwater Shells peculiar to the British Isles, 76; a Suggestion for the Indexing of — Zoological Literature, 442; the West Indian Fauna in South — Florida, 458; Peripatus Re-discovered in Jamaica, 514 ; Cocoanut, a Double, 185 i Cohn (Dr. Ferdinand) seitrige zur Biologie der Pflanzen, 461 Coiffure of a Kanaka Labourer, Sir William Turner, 433 Coin-counting Machine in the Royal Mint, Ingenious, Lieut. — W. B. Basset, 430 . Cole (¥rof. G. A. J.), the Lithophyses in Obsidian of Rocche ~ Rosse, Lipari, 95 . : Collie (N.), Production of Pyridine Derivatives from Lactone of Triacetic Acid, 311 Collins (F. Howard), Atmospheric Depressions and their — Analogy with the Movements of Sunspots, 489 = Colman (H. G.), the Preparation of Glycollic Acid, 22 ing Colorado, Polybasite and Tennantite from, Penfield and Pearce, — 310 qi Coloration, Animal, an account of the Principal Facts and Theories relating to the Colours and Markings of Animals, — F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., Edward B. Poulton, 533 Colardeau (E.), Experiments at Eiffel Tower on Falling Bodies and Air-Resistance, 262 Colour: the Constitution of a Colour Map, Walter Baily, 23; — the Law of Colour in relation to Chemical Constitution, — William Akroyd, 23 a { Colour-blindness, Apparatus for Measuring, Brudenell Carter, — 44 \ Colour Phenomena connected with Cloudy Condensation, John — Aitken, F.R.S., 91 ; Colour Sense, Current Theories regarding, Prof. William — Rutherford, F.R.S., 342 Colour Vision, E. Hunt, 485 Colour Vision, Report of the Royal Society’s Committee on, 33 Colour and Light, our Unit of Measurement of, J. W. Lovibond, 93 Colouring Matters, Coal Tar, Gustav Schultz und Paul Julius, — R. Meldola, 313 q Colours, Photography in, 12 Colours, the Photography of, E. Lippmann, 24 . Colours on the Surface of Mars, Prof. Pickering, 179 | Columbian Exposition, Astronomy at the, 372 Columbus, the Fourth Centenary of, 185 Columbus Celebration, Projected publication by Berlin Geo- — graphical Society of Atlas of unpublished early maps as memento of, 424 Columbus Exhibition, the: Tuan de la Cosa’s (the first) Chart of America, 453 ‘ Comets : A new Comet discovered by Prof. Barnard, 597 ; Comet Barnard (October 12), 619 ; Comet Brooks (August 27, 1882), 496; Comet Brooks (August 27, 1892), F. Ristenpert, 551 >. Comets of Brorsen (1846 VII.) and Brooks (1892 ‘*d”), W. F. Denning, 514; Comet, 1892, Denning (March 18), ~ 65 ; Comet II., 1892 (Denning, March 18), W. F. Denning, — 541, 551; Swift’s Comet, 1892, 17; Spectrum of Swift's — Comet (a 1892), W. W. Campbell, 17, Prof. Konkoly, 17 ; Comet Swift (March 6, 1892), 65, 87, 230, 258; Comet — Swift (March 6, 1892), 423, 453; Winnecke’s Periodic pet 8 » 1892, 110; Discovery of a new Comet by Mr. 3; the Present Comets, T. W. Backhouse, 561 .), Silvering Glass Mirrors, 597 a Things, How to make, John A. Bower, 561 ative Spectra of High and Low Sun, 211 ly Continuous Closed Surface, To Draw a Mercator ‘on One Sheet Representing the whole of any, Lord a, PLR.S., 541 Qt Songer a Mendip Valley : (rok. oe. C.), Determination of the Constant of its Inhabitants and Pe and and Fresh-water Shells Peculiar to the The, T. D. A. Cockerell, 76; R. F. Scharff, 173 2 of Delegates of Corresponding Societies, 443; 1 Photography, 434; Destruction of Wild Birds’ . E. P. Knubley, 434 » State : Reported Death of M. Hodister, 424 of Experimental Psychology, International, 362 ; F. Myers and James Sully, 261 eSS | ae Et saaonaek exer Botanical, 208 German nthropological, 420 s of Orientalists, International, 107, 472 s of Prehistoric Archeology and Zoology, the Coming sow International, 108 of the Sanitary Institute, the Thirteenth, 449 of ‘Physiologists, International, 449 ctic he cane of Southern Continents, T. Mellard 713 rof, J. P. O'Reilly, 1or to Electric Heating for, M. Olivet, 522 of Aberration, Determination of the, Prof. G. C. ock. eavhasives Direct Determination of the, by means Joep etaiag a Lecture Experiment, A. M. Worthing- s Foot Rot in Sheep, Prof. G. T. Brown, 560 Relative, of t e Water-Surface by Equal Quan- Different Substances, Miss Agnes Pockels, 418 por: of the Maori and the Moa, H. O. Forbes, Ms Sails: the Former connection of, T. Mellard sad aay P. O'Reilly, ror y’s (Mr.) Mountaineering Expedition to the Himalayas, a Explorations in the Hindu-Kush, 370 ok (A. é: a conga of Honey Needed to Enable Bees to ‘ound of aon) 255 Death of, 276 HL), Geographical Distribution of the Land- of the Philippine Islands, 142 “Qosiah Parsons), Laboratory Practice : a Series of Ex- ents on the Fundamental Principles of Chemistry, 99 of Practical Receipts, W. North, 463 ), Nebular Spectrum of Nova Aurige, 464 © ion of the Atomic Weight of, Dr. Richards, cana and Ornaments in Ohio Mounds, Prof. F. » 455 : the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, W. Saville- BBS ecviy, the Microscope and Histology for the Use Siewniy Students in the Anatomical Department of the, on Henry Gage, W. H. Dallinger, 440 er (J. H.), Sifting and Hauling Appliances in Portsmouth wall West), Earth uake in, 61 idal Discharges, the, M. J. Papin, 211 _Application of Conventional System of Rectangular oordir to Triangulation of Coasts of, M. Hatt, 556 f Aine de: la) First Chart of America, 453 si ne for Town Readers, K. B. Baghot de la Bere, (Gelasimus), the Little Rustesine; Dr. A. Alcock, 574 ni lia, the, Prof. J. C. Ewart, 405 a in Glaciers, R. Von. Lendenfeld, 466 ; "André Delebecque, 490 reighton (Dr ch Charles), a History of Epidemics in Great Bri- 1 from A.D. 664 to the Extinction of Plague, 148 ; Immu- nity of the African Negro from Yellow Fever, 200, 222 Index XV Crew (Henry), an Unusual Sunset, 391 ; Daytime Seeing at the Lick Observatory, 465 Crichton-Browne (Sir James), Sex in Education, 13 ; Tooth Culture and White Bread, 229 Criminal Anthropology, Dr. I. S. Clouston, 432: Dr. Bene- dikt, 433 Cristiani (H.), Removal of the Ss ey in the White Rat, 484 Croft (W. B.), Breath Figures, 236 Crompton (Mr.), the Backward State of Electrical Appliances in the Navy, 338 Crookes, (W., F.R.S.), Experiments of Electric Currents of High Potential and Extreme Frequency 4 la Tesla, 44; Burning Nitrogen, 185 ; London Water Supply for Septem- ber, 1892, 617 Cross (Whitman), Post-Laramie Deposits of Colorado, 311 Crosskey (Dr.), Glacial Papers, 428 Crustacea: a Tube-dwelling Amphipod (Cerapus flindersi) from Port Jackson, Charles Chilton, 178 ; the Red Ocypode Crab of India, Dr. A. Alcock, 549; ‘the Little Etuarine Crab, Gelasimus, Dr. A. Alcock, 574 Crystal Palace, Magic Lantern Illuminated by Arc Light at, 9 Crostal Palace, the National Electrical Exhibition at the, 176 Crystals, the Optical Indicatrix and the Transmission of Light in, L. Fletcher, 581 Cuckoo in the East, F. C. Constable, 151 Culverwell (Edward B.), Lord Kelvin’s Test Case on the Max- well-Boltzmann Law, 76 Cumming (L.), the Temperature of the Human Body, 541 Cuneiform sn the Tell el-Amarna Tablets in the British Museum, 4) Cunningham OD. ), Mechanical System for the Distribution of Parcels, 429 Cunningham (David), Influence of Acoustic Clouds, 430 Curves of Muscular Contraction, Method of Recording, Prof. McKendrick, F.R.S., 404 Cyclone in Kansas, Destructive, 108 Cyclones, Another Blow to the Ascent Theory of M. Faye, 144 Cyclones, Tropical, Maxwell Hall, 393 Cygni, Y., Light Variations of, Prof. Dunér, 87, 134; Mr. Yendell, 134 B Cygni, Rutherfurd Measures of Stars about, Harold Jacoby, 61 19 Cystoclonium purpurascens, Tubercles on the Thallus of, Prof. F. Schmitz, 555 Cystopus candidus, on the Structure of, Harold Wager, 405 Daehne (G.), Mental Arithmetic, 247 Dale (C. W.), Effects of the Weather (during April, 1892) upon Insect Life in Dorsetshire, 109 Dallas (W. L.), Appearance and Progressive Motion of Cyclones in Indian Regions, 435 Dallinger (W. H.), the Microscope and Histology for the use of Laboratory Students in the Anatomical Department of the Cornell University, Simson Henry Gage, 440 Dana (Edward Salisbury), the System of Mineralogy of Ja me Dwight Dana, 1837-68, Descriptive Mineralogy, 217 Dana (Prof. James D.), Subdivisions in Archzean History, 152 ; the Walker Prize (Boston Natural History Society) awarded to, 158 peli cae (Dr.), the Crinoids and Echinoids of the North Atlantic, 333 Danner (E. W.), Certain Points in Interaction of Potassium Permanganate and Sulphuric Acid, 627 Darboux and Charcot (MM..), the Calculator Inaudi, 167 Daremberg (Dr.), the Life of Cholera-germs, 436 Darton (N. H.), Fossils in Archeean Rocks of Central Piedmont, Virginia, 311 Darwin (Major L.), Methods of Examination of Photographic Objectives at Kew Observatory, 188 eae on (M.), Pamir Journey, Geographical Results -of, 302 David (Prof. Edgeworth), Australian Mud Springs, 256 Davis (Prof. W. M.), Winter Thunderstorms, 483 Davison (Chas.), the Recent Earthquakes, 401 ‘Dawkins (Prof. Boyd, F.R.S.), the Museum Question, 280 Dawson (Geo. M., F.R.S.) and Alexander Sutherland, Ele- mentary Geography of the British Colonies, 100 D Xvi In ‘wilex keeper a: —- 4 | Dawson (Sir J. W., F.R.S.), Fossil Entomology of Nova Scotia, 236 Day, Numbering the Hours of the, T. W. Backhouse, 392 Daytime Seeing at the Lick Observatory, Henry Crew, 455 De la Rive (M.), Production of Hertz Oscillator Spark in Liquid Dielectric instead of Air, 532 Deacon (G. F.), Shield Tunneling in Loose Ground, 429 Deadman (H. E.), Electricity in Navy, 337 Death from Paraffin and Members of Parliament, 223 Debatable Land, a; Plants or Animals? George Massee, 365 Declination, the Discovery of Line of No, W. de Fonvielle, 532 Declinations of Stars for Reduction of Variations in Latitude, 6 5 Deduction, Induction and, E. E. Constance Jones, 293, 586; Fiancis C. Russell, 586 Defforges (G.), Measurement of Absolute Intensity of Gravity at Breteuil, 288 Deformation ‘of the Earth’s Crust, on the Causes of the, Prof. E. Reyer, 224; T. Mellard Reade, 315 Dehérain (P. P.), Utilization of Stripped Autumn Plants as Green Manure, 364 Deivpeia pulchella caught near Southampton, the rare crim son speckled, 160 Delauney (M.), the Acceleration of Mortality in France, 168 Delboeuf (Prof.), Power of Somnambulist of judging Ti me, 363 Demontzey (P.), the Lava of July 12, 1892, St. Gervais Catastrophe, 387 Denay (Dr.), the Oviparity of the large Victorian Peripatus, 239 Denning (W. F.), Comet II. 1892 (Denning, March 18), 65, 541, 551; the Perseids, 371; Discovery of a Fifth Satellite to Jupiter, 492; the Red Spot on Jupiter, 391 ; Comets of Brorsen (1846 VII.) and Brooks (1892 ‘*d@”), 514 Density of Nitrogen, Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S., 512 Denza (Prof.), Photographs of the Lyra Ring Nebula, 41 Depth of Water in a River, an Acoustic Method whereby the, may be measured at a Distance, Fred. J. Smith, 246 Deslandres (M.), New Results as to Hydrogen, obtained by Spectroscopic Study of the Sun, 340; Hydrogen Spectrum in the Solar Atmosphere, 401 Despeignes (M.), Earthworms and Tuberculosis, 263 Dessoir (Dr.), the Sense of Temperature, 340 Determination of the Constant of Aberration, Prof. G. C. Comstock, 41 Deutsche Seewarte Meteorological Observations at Distant Stations, 255 Devaux (H.), Ants and Saccharine, 573 Diabetes, Pancreatic, Lancereaux and Thiroloix, 412 Diamonds, Hardness of, not Perceptibly reduced by Cutting and Polishing, W. A. Rogers, 257 Dickson (H. V.), Phy-ical Condition of the Waters of the English Channel, 384 Dictionary ( Watts’) of Chemistry, Forster Morley and M. M. Pattison Muir, Sir H. E. Roscoe, F.R:S., 242 Dielectric of Condensers, on the, W. H. ‘Preece, F.R.S., 385 Diet, a Farinaceous, the Effect on Animals of, Prof. Voit, 618 Dietetic Value of Bread, John Goodfellow, 54 Dioptric Lens, Notes on the Progress of the, as ie in Light- house Illumination, Chas. A. Stevenson, 431, 5 Disinfection, Contributions to the Study of, Prof. fi Maschek, Mrs. Percy Frankland, 613 Disks on Axis Rotating at High Speeds, Prof. Neesen’s Re- searches on Notion of Loose, 168 Dispersion in Double Refraction due to Electric Stress, Dr. John Kerr on, 385 Distant (W. L.), Protective Resemblance, 254 ; the White Rhinoceros, 29 ; are the Solpugidz Poisonous ? 247 Distribution of Energy, Maxwell’s Law of, Rev. H. W. Watson, F.R.S., and S. H. Burbury, F.R.S., 100 Dixon (A. E.), Chemistry of Compounds of Thiourea and Thiocarbamides with Aldehyde-ammonia, 23; Action of Bromine on. Allylthiocarbimide, 190 Dixon (Edward T.), the Grammar of Science, 269; the Limits - of Animal Intelligence, 392 Dixon (H. H.) Mode of Walking of the Arthropoda, 167 Dobbie (J. J.), Corydaline, ii., 190 Doberck (Mis;), Appointed Assistant Meteorologist at Hong Kong, 108 Dockyard, Portsmouth, Shipbuilding in, W. H. White, F.R.S., 337; Lifting and Hauling Appliances i in, J. T. Corner, 338 Dogs, Tuberculous Vaccination of, Héricourt and Richet, 168 | Dynamics: Dynamics of Rotation : an Elementary Introduc- Earthworms and Tuberculosis, Lortet and Despeignes, 263 Dohrn’s (the late Dr. C. A.), Entomological Collections, 616: 7 Donaldson (Dr.), Investigation of Laura Bridgman’s Braigj 394 Sénnenbkee (E. G.), the Dra Dwarfs, 616 Double Star Measures, S. W. Burnham, 496 Double Star Observations, Prof. Asaph Hall, 524 F Douglas (Prof. R. K.), the Social and Religious Ideas of the Chinese, as mora? in the Ideographic Characters of the Language, 2 Douliot (Hear), Death of, 548 Dove (H. S.), Aurora Australis, 368 Drygalski (Dr. von), German Scientific Expedition to West Greenland under, 38 a Dublin Royal Society, 167 a Dublin, University of ; Tercentenary Celebration, 203 q Dugong, Australian, on the Skeleton and Teeth of the, Prof, i G. B. Howes and J. Harrison, 406 3 Dulcitol Group, Prof. Emil Fischer on the Constitution of the, i 16 Dulier (Col. E.), Smoke Prevention, 431 Dundee Antarctic Whaling Expedition, Sailing of the, 477 Duner (Prof.), Light Variations of y-Cygni, 87, 134 Dunn (Matthias), Pilchards and Blue Sharks, 368 3 Dunstan (W. R.), the Existence of two Acetaldostalale 94, 312 5 Action of Paraffin Nitrites on Muscular Tissue, 339 ‘i Duparc (Prof.) Theory of Cause of St. Gervais Disaster, 299 Duquesnay (M.), Résistance des Matériaux, 221 Dust Storm at Sea, Prof. John Milne, F.R.S., 128 Dwarfs, the Dra, E. G. Dénnenberg, 616 Dwelshauvers-Dery (V.) Etude experimentale calorimétrique ce la Machine 4 Vapeur, 221 Dybowski (M.), Return of, 301 Dyeing, Silk, Printing, and Finishing, Geo. H. Hurst, 15 Dyer (Col. H. S.), the Production of Fine Iron in the ‘Basie Furnace, 114 Dymond (T. $ ), the Existence of Two Acetaldoximes, 94; 312 tion to Rigid Dynamics, A. M. Worthington, 4 ; Spinning Tops, John Perry, 4; Maxwell’s Law of Distribution of En- ergy, Rev. H. W. Watson, F.R.S., and §S. H. Burbury, F.R.S., 100 ; the Elementary Part of a Treatise on the Dyna-. mics of a System of Rigid Bodies, E. J. Routh, F.R.S., nie A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S., 145 ; Key to J. B. Lock’s Elementa Dynamics, G. H. Lock, 173 ; Weight, Prof. A. G. Greenhil F.R.S., 247 ; Key to El tary Dy S. L. Loney, ase Dynamo- Electric Machinery, Prof, i Gray, F.R.S., adi om Graphic Solutions of Dynamical Problems, Lord F.R.S., 385 ; Reduction of Every Problem of Two ae Determination of the Gravitative Constant by means or a Tuning-fork : a Lecture Experiment, A. M. Worthington, 490; Determination of G by means of a Tuning-fork, A. M. | Worthington, 561 ; Modern Dynamical Methods, A. B. Bas-— set, 516; to Drawa Mercator Chart on One Sheet Represent- — ing the whole of any pone Continuous Closed urfacess ¥ Lord Kelvin, P.R.S., 541 Es: Dyson (F. W.), the Polential of an Anchor-ring, 92 ome on a Use of the External, Prof. A. Crum Brown, F.R.S. a 404 | Earth, the Motion of the Ether near the, Dr. Oliver J. Lodge, = F.R.S., 497 F Earth Cae Storms in 1892, W. H. Preece, F.R.S., 385 — Fractures and Mars ‘‘Canals,” Prof. G. A. Lebour,” Earth’ s Crust, on the Causes of the Deformation of the, Prof, ¥ E. Reyer, 224: T. Mellard Reade, 31 Earth’s Physical History, the Microscope’s Contributions to the, Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., 180 x Earthquakes: the Great Earthquake in Japan, 1891, 343 Earth- | quake in West Cornwall, 61 ; at Madras, tog ; in Italy, 132 in Guadalajara, 209 ; the Recent Earthquakes, Chas. Davison, ~ 401 ; an Earthquake Investigation Committee, D. Kikuchi, 418 ; Earthquake at Huelva, 548; Earthquakes in Roumania and Servia, 594; the New Zealand System of Earthquake Observation, G. Hoghen, 594 = Earthworms, New British, Rev. Hilderic Friend, 621 lement to Nature, 1, 1892 I[ndex XVii d, William J. Thomson, 258 nd HIasriptions, Alleged Decipherments of the, Dr. U. R) Some Problems in the Old Astronomy, 424 G. W.), Aurora Australis, 368 ome, a Respiratory Pigment, A. B. Griffiths, 508 n Fauna of Kingston Harbour, Jamaica, G. W. ag Lunar, May 11, 1892, 64, 372 the Total Solar, April 1 - 16, 1893, 201; John King Martin, 561 of Industry, Elements of, Prof. Alfred Marshall, (E.): a Portable Instrument for Measuring Magnetic 93 5 ; Experiments on Magnetized Watches, 93 eS Edinburgh Royal Society, 143, 262 ; Edinburgh ‘of the British Association, 316; F. Grant Ogilvie, ectrical Lighting of Edinburgh, Prof. Geo. Forbes, inburgh Summer Meeting, Vacation Courses, 449 ev. Dr.), Persian Ideas in China, 522 : ‘Sex in Education, Sir James Crichton-Browne, he University Extension Movement in the United States, 1e Edinburgh Summer Meeting, Vacation Courses, Townshend Scholarships, 449 5 ; Anthropology as h of University Education, Dr. D. G. Brinton, 39 ; nal Home Reading Society, 84 ; ; the Association ating a Teaching University for London, 253; tural Education at the University College, North Bangor, 474; Technical Education: Sydney Tech- _ Museum taken over by Department of Public m, 85; the Nebraska Sugar-School, 210; the d Laboratory for Electrical Engineering at University me de further Gift by Drapers’ Company towards University College Technical Schools, 276 ; : Caiias of London Institute Woodwork Examination, Westminster Technical Institute, 449 F. van), Hypnotic Cases at Amsterdam, 363 x Machine, New, M. Mesdran, 39 ; ig aa Agriculture, Prof. Robert Wallace, 15 ; the Tablets in the British Museum, 49 ; the Origin con via amg ‘Prof. G. Nicolucci, 162 ; Ancient from Medum, Dr. Garson, 433 ; on some Facial of the Ancient Egyptians, Prof. A. Macalister, Discovery by Dr. O. Baumann of a new African ) eriments on Falling Bodies and Air-Resistance Sailletet and E. Colardeau, 262 ctior against Rain in the, Alfred W. Bennett, 201 A Mnemonic Table for changing from Electro static c ig C.G.S. Electromagnetic Units, W. Gleed, . Thomson’s New Edition of Clerk Maxwell’s | Slectricity and Magnetism, 38; an Elementary le book of Magnetism and Electricity, R. Wallace Stewart, 41; Elements of Magnetism and Electricity, John Angell, Magic Lantern illuminated by Arc Light at the Crystal 39; Vacuum Tubes without Electrodes, Dr. omley, 44 ; Electric Sparks in and to Water, Prof. Oliver noe ; Electric Retina, Prof. Oliver Lodge, 44 ; Experi- ts of Electric Currents of High Potential and Extreme uency a la Tesla, W. Crookes, 44; New Electrical od of Determining very High Temperatures, Prof. H. “appa 453 Electric Tram Chronograph, Rev. F. J. mith, 45; on the Laws of ‘Electrolysis, A. Chassy, 47 ; Art of Internal [lumination of Buildings by, W. H. Preece, . 62; the Crocker-Wheeler Motor for Gatling W. B. i Hamilton, 62; Mr. George Forbes and the ract Construction Company for Transmission of Elec- tical Power from Niagara Falls to Buffalo, 84; Trans- rmers, 90; a2 New Ballistic Galvanometer, F. H. Nalder, 3 5 a Portable Instrument for Measuring Magnetic Fields, wr and Stansfeld, 93; Experiments on Magnetized shes, Edgar and. Stansfeld, 93; Institution of Elec- Engineers : the Salomons Scholarship, 131; the sed Electrical Engineering Laboratory at University ge, 227; Electrical Engineering as a Profession, and ow to Enter it, A. D. Southam, 608; Difficulty of Obtain- ing Iron adapted for Electrical Parposes in United States, W. S. Key, 133; the Pressure at which Electrical Strength is a Minimum, Prof. J. J. Thomson, 143; Propaga- ' Nitrogen, W. Crookes, F. R.S., tion of Electrical Oscillation, H. Poincaré, 144; Absolute Electrometer for Lecture Purposes, Prof. F. Braun, 150; a New Electrolytic Galvanometer, J. Joly, 167; a New De- termination of Ratio wv between Electro-magnetic and Electrostatic C.G.S. Units, H. Abraham, 168; Burning 185; the Oxidation of Nitrogen by Means of Electric Sparks, Dr. V. Lepel, 210; Current Curves, Major R. L. Hippesley, 187 ; Electro- dynamics as Affected by the Nature of the Mechanical Stresses in Excited Dielectrics, the Theory of, J. Larmor, 189 ; Improved Form of Electrodynamometer for Measure- ment of Telephonic Currents, P. J. Kipp and Sons, 399; the Co-existence of Dialectric Power and Electrolytic Condue- tivity, E. Bouty, 192; the National Electrical Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, 176; the Coronoidal Discharges, M. I. Pupin, 211; a New Form of Air Leyden, Lord Kelvin, P.R.S., 212; Some Points Connected with Electromotive Force of Secondary Batteries, Dr. Gladstone and W. Hib- bert, 214; Workshop, Ballistic, and other Shielded Gal- vanometers, Prof. W Ayrton, F.R.S., and T. Mather, 214; a Guide to Electric Lighting, S. R. Bottone, 221 ; Electric Light Cables, 290; Electrical Lighting of Edin- burgh, Prof. Geo. Forbes, 429; Influence of Electric Light upon Tree-Structure, Gaston Bonnier, 532; Lepidoptera and the Electric Light, D. S. Stewart, 552; Effect of Electric Light on I{erbaceous Plants, Gaston Bonnier, 580; the Electric Current, Edward Hamilton, 223; the Future of Electricity, Prof. E. J. Houston, 229; the Rationalization of the Dimensional Formule of Electrical Quantities, W. Williams, 237; Breath Figures, W. B. Croft, Rev. F. J. Smith, and Prof. S. P. Thompson, 236; Measurement of Internal Resistance of Cells, E. Wythe Smith, 237; Electro- Therapeutics, Physiological Effects of Alternating Currents with Sinusoidal Variations, A. d’Arsonval, 240; Execution by Electricity in New York State, Dr. C. F. Macdonald, 256 ; the Herring Fishery and the Electric Telegraph, 278 ; Distribution de lElectricité, R. V. Picou, 291; the Position of 4 Electromagnetic Units, Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S., 292; Oliver Heaviside, F.R.S., 292; Dynamo-Electric Machinery, Prof. A. Gray, F.R.S., 296 ; Method of Increasing Range of the Capillary Electrometer, John Whitmore, 311 ; the Measurement of the Dielectric Constant, A. Perot, 312 ; the British Association on Electrical Standards, Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R S., 334; Electricity in Navy, H. E. Deadman, 337; Mr. Compton, 338; Velocity of Propagation of Electromag- netic Undulations in Insulating Media, R. Blond, 340; Report on the Discharge of Electricity from Points, 383; Re- port on Electrical Standards, 383; Wire Standards of Elec- tric Resistance, Dr. Lindeck, 383 ; on Primary and Secondary Cells in which the Electrolyte is a Gas, Prof. Schuster, 384 ; Experiments on the Electric Resistance of Metallie Powders, Dr. Dawson Turner, 384; on Dispersion in Double Refrac - tion due to Electric Stress, Dr. John Kerr, 385 ; a Property of Lamellar Bimetallic Conductors submitted to Electromag- netic Induction, Ch. Reignier and G. Parrot, 387 ; Prof. Crum Brown on Electrolytic Synthesis, 401 ; on the Origin of the Electric Nerves in the Zorfedo, Gymnotus, Mormyrus, and Malaperurus, Prof. G. Fritsch, 404; the World’s Con- gress of 1893, Prof. Elisha Gray, 450; Electric Locomotives, Alex. Siemens, 429; New Design of Electric Locomotive, E. H. Woods, 430; Prof. Elihu Thomson’s Prize for the De- velopment of Theoretical Knowledge of Electricity, 451 ; Magnetic Disturbances caused by Electric Railways, Prof. F. P. Whitman, 455; Electro-Metallurgy, J. Wilson Swan, 478 ; Electricity of Waterfalls, Ph. Lenard, 484 ; a Phosphoroscope with Spark Illumination, Ph. Lenard, 484; a New Form of Induction Apparatus, J. Morin, 484 ; a Pocket-book of Elec- trical Rules and Tables, John Munro and Andrew Jamieson, 486 ; Generalization of ‘‘ Mercator’s” Projection performed by aid of Electrical Instruments, Lord Kelvin, P.R.S., 490 ; Thermal Variation of Electrical Resistance of Mercury, C. E. Guillaume, 508 ; Electrical Heating for Conservatories, M. Olivet, 522; the Liverpool Overhead Railway, J. H. Great- head, 526 ; Production of Hertz Oscillator Spark in Liquid Dielectric instead of Air, Sarasin and De lai Rive, 532 Luminous Fountain built by M. G. Trouvé for Mme. Patti at Craig: y-Nos, 549; the Individual Propertiesof Metals in Ab- sorbing the Energy of Electric Waves, V. Bjerknes, 573 ; Method of Exhibiting Hertzian Oscillations! to a large Audience, L. Zehnder, 573 ; Phenomena exhibited at Nega- D2 XVill Lundex & upplement to Nature, December 1, 1892 tive Poles of Vacuum Tubes, Prof. E. Goldstein, 594; Len- ard’s Phosphoroscope for Use with the Electric Spark, 618 ; the Age-coating in Incandescent Lamps, E. L. Nichols, 627 Element, the New, Masrium, A. E. Tutton, 79 Elements, the Line Spectra of the, Prof. C. Runge, 109, 200, 247; Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S., 29, 126, 222, 268 Elkin (Dr. ), Yale College Observatory Report, 280 Ellis (William), Magnetic Variations, 67; Mean Daily Tem- peratures at Greenwich on Average of Fifty Years (1841-1890), I9I Elwes (H. J.), Supplementary Appendix to Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator, Edward Whymper, 147 Embletop (Dr.), John Hancock, 255 Embryog eny of Gnetum, Herr Karsten, 260 Emin Pasha’s Return Expedition to the Equatorial Lakes, Dr. Stuhlmann, r10 Emin Pasha’s Expedition, Additional Pactionlars of, Dr. Stuhl- mann, 302 Encyclopedia, Chambers’s, 221 Encyclopédie Scientifique des Aide- Memoire, 221 Energy, Maxwell’s Law of Distribution of, Rev. H. W. Watson, F.K.S., and S. H: Burbury, F.R.S., 100 Engano, Dr. Modigliani’s Recent Explorations in Central Su- matra and, Prof. Henry H. Giglioli, 565 England, Note on the Occurrence of a Freshwater Nemertine in, W. Blaxland Benham, 611 English Channel, Physical Condition of the Waters of the, H. V. Dickson, 384 Enock (F.), the Mustard Beetle, 238 Engineering: Recent Developments of Engineering, W. Caw- thorne Unwin, F.R.S., 355; Launch of the Cunard s.s. Campania, 472; Death of Dr. Jas. Thomson, F.R.S., 38 ; Institution of Civil Engineers, 131 ; Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Salomons Scholarship, 131 ; Fro ose Electrical Engi 22 ectrical Engineering as a Profession and How to Water Lt A. D. Southam, 608 ; Institute of Marine Engineers, Lord Kelvin’s Inaugural Address, 132 ; Ordinary General Meeting of Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 41; Inaugural Address of President, Dr. W. Anderson, F.R.S., 42; Report of Marine Engine Trials Research Committee of Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 43; Institution of Mechanical En- gineers, 276, 593; Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Summer Meeting, 298, 337; on Shipbuilding in Portsmouth Dockyard, W. H. White, F.R.S., 337; Electricity in Navy, H. E. Deadman, 337; Mr. Crompton, 338 ; Lifting and Haul- ing Appliances in Portsmouth Dockyard, J. T. Corner, 338 ; Federated Institution of Mining Engineers, 131 Entomology: Ants in Ceylon, W. F. Liesching, 15 ; Entomo- logical Society, 24, 70, 166, 603; Protective Resemblance, Rev. Canon Fowler, W. L, Distant, 24; Insects taken by Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences Expedition to Greenland in 1891, 40; Annual Exhibition of South London Entomological and Natural History Society, 46; Experi- ments on Effect of Temperature on Pupze of certain Species in Causing Variation, F. Merrifield, 46; Locusts in India, ‘86; Peripatus from St. Vincent, R. J. Pocock, 100; Ap- pearance of the Diamond-back Moth in Yorkshire and North. umberland, 108; Mr. fetched by Specimens of Extinct British Lepidoptera, 109 ; Arthur Nash’s Sale, High Prices 405 _ Ewing (Prof. J. A., F.R.S.), a Magnetic Curve Tracer, 385 ; | : Effect of the Weather (during April 1892) upon Insect Life © ‘in Dorsetshire, C. W. Dale, 109; the Process of Oviposition as observed in Cattle Tick, R. T. Lewis, 165; Mode of Walking of the Arthropoda, H. H. Dixon, 167; Carnivorous ‘Caterpillars, R. McLachlan, F.R.S., 151; Are the Solpu- gidee Poisonous? Henry Bernard, 223; W. L. Distant, 247 ; A Colias edusa Butterfly in London, H. Rowland- Brown, 228 ; the Mustard Beetle, 238; Fossil of Nova Scotia, Sir J. Ww. Dawson, F.R.S., 236; the Tertiary Rhynchophora of North America, S. H. Scudder, 256; Locusts in America, ‘C. V. Riley, 256; Directions for Collecting and Preserving Insects, C. V. Riley, 416; Abundance of Moth (Dedopeca pulchella) in Malta, A. C. Gatto, 474; a Sydney Bird-catching Spider, Mr. Rainbow, 474; Sugar-Cane Borers in the West Indies, 531; Sketches of British Insects, Rev. W. Houghton, 540; a Text-book of Agri- cultural Entomology, Eleanor A. Ormerod, 561; Ants and Saccharine, H. Devaux, 573; the Alleged ‘* Aggressive Mimicry ”’ of the Volucelle, William Bateson, 585; Habits -of Parasol Ants, J. E. Tanner, 595; Some Victorian Lepi- . Execution by Electricity i in New York State, Dr. C. F. Mac- _ Etheridge (R., jun.), a Peculiar Form of Womerah, 86 ; Re- ; doptera, Ernest Anderson, 595 ; a Wave of ,Wasp Life, G. Vi Peckham, 611 ; the Late Dr, C. A. Dohrn’s Collections, én Eocene, Palzonictis in the American Lower, Henry | Osborn, 30 ‘gq Epidemics, a History of, in Great Britain, from A.D. 664 to th 1e Extinction of Plague, Dr. Charles Creighton, 148 4 Epidemics, Plagues, and Fevers: their Causes and Prevention, Hon. Rollo Russell, 413 P. Epilepsy, Physiology of, M. Brown-Séquard, 507 Epochs, Prehistoric, Edmond Bordage, 418 ! gg ek an Elementary Course in Theory of, C. H. Chap- aes "Prof L.), on the Cause of Physiological Action at a Distance, 555 a Eruption of Etna, 254, 276, 299, 331, 361, 371, 398; the Recent, 450, 460; Gaetano Platania, 542 ' Eruption at Sangir, the, 287 ; George Ormsby, 457 Eruption of Vulcano (August 3, 1888, to March 22, 1890), G, W. Butler, 117 Eskimo, the Ulu or Woman’s Knife of the, O. T. Mason, 550° 5 Espin(T. E.), a New Variable, 17; Nova Auriga, 476 +s Essays and Criticisms, Dr. St. George Mivart, 265 Essex Field Club, the, 132 4 Ether, Motion of the, near the Earth, Dr. Oliver J. Lodge, | F.R.S.5 497 a Ether and Matter, Historical Summary of our Knowledge of the © Connection between, Prof. O. J. Lodge, F.R.S., 164 a markable Specimen of Belonostomus from Queensland, 256 | Ethiopians, the ig 8 of the, W. Hammond Tooke, 78 dom, 615 Ethnology: Ethnology of Egypt, Prof. Nicoluecci on hell Origin of the Ancient Egyptians, 162; Non-Chinese Dial of Hainan, Mr. Parker, 179; an Ethnological Enquiry into the Basis of our Musical System, Dr. Wallaschek, 238 Omalius d’Halloy the Author of the Theory of the Europes D Origin of the Aryan Race, Dr. Brinton, 278; the Ainos of Japan, R. Hitchcock, 421 ; Summer Ceremonials at Tusayan Pueblos, F. W. Fewkes, 421 ;the Value of Art in Ethnology Prof. A. C. Haddon, 432 ; a Maid of Wolpai, Dr. Shufeldt, 451 ; Evolution of House Building among the Navajo Indians, Dr. Shufeldt, 451; Ethnology at the Chicago Exhibition, the Native American Section, Prof. F. W. Putnam, 454 ; Found- ing of a Robinson Commemorative Association for Study ) Hausa Language and People, 572; Ancient Chinese Coins Discovered in an Alaskan Grave, Lieut. Dix Bolles, 574 if Etienne’s (Dr. ) Meteorological Observations at Banana, Africa : 255 Etna (Mt.), Eruption of, 254, 276, 299, 331, 361, 3715 508 5 i Fresh Eruption of, 450; the Present Eruption of, M. Wal lerant, 460 ; Gaetano Platania, 542 Euclid, an Obvious Demonstration of the 47th Proposition of A. fa Bickerton, 315 a Europe, the Glacial Succession in, Prof. James Geikie, 143 Europe, Time Standards of, Dr. Hugh Robert Mill, 174 Europe, Statistics of the Vineyards of, 450 a Ewart (Prof. J. C.), on the Cranial Ganglia, 405 ; Sea Fisheries 1 Magnetic Induction, 552 donald, 256 Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, the National Electrical, 176 Exhibition, Chicago, Mining at the, 178; Solid Gold Bri . Exhibit at, 2 Exhibition, the Columbus ; of America, 453 Expedition, the Relief of the Peary Greenland, 476; Sailing of the Dundee Antarctic Whaling Expedition, 477 Expression, Facial, Relations of the Motor Muscles of the Eye to;:Dr-GeTt, Stevens, 86 Eyes, Relitions to Facial Expression of the Motor Muscles o O the, Dr. G. T. Stevens, 86 fa 4 Juan de la Cosa’s, the First Char Fabre (Charles), Traité Encyclopédique de Photographie, 464 % Facial Characters of the Ancient Egyptians, on Some, Prof. Macalister, 433 .¥ Famintzin (A.), a New Bacterium, Wevskia ramosa, 68 Ee: Farmer (J. B.), the Embryology of Angiopteris evecta, 92 7 2 to aid | ber 1, 1892 Lnudex Xix d Manure, C. M. Aikman, 100 British India, including Ceylon and Burma, W. T. r BR. Sa .), Means of Prodhcing Rain Artificially, 24 ; Another yw to the Ascent Theory of Cyclones, 144 ated Institution of Mining Engineers, 131 yi (J.), a Remarkable Prominence, 334 | (J.), Coffee, Cacao and Rubber Cultivation in Ceylon, M )s Annual Loss to U.S. Forestry Bureau through eves and Fire, 454 _ : ; 1 (J.), New Chemical Function of Comma Bacillus of » 43 ), Scientific Measuring Instruments, 388 ldo), ‘‘Recenti Progressi nelle Applicazioni tricita, (C. E.), Elements of Physic, 245 ous, of Hot Countries, Bacterian Origin of, Domingos idemics, Plagues and, Hon. Rollo Russell, 413 J. S.), Summer Ceremonials at the Tusayan Pueblos, W.), the Echinoderm Fauna of Kingston Harbour, 40; the Problem of Marine Biology, 623 lization of the, and Caprification, C. V. Riley. Pee. Conductivity of Thin, Profs. Reinold and dition to the Kola Peninsula, 178 xx Guiseppe), Proposed Testimonial to, on his 176 at St. John’s, the Cause of the, 295 on on Board Ship, H. C. Carver, 432 ng, the Methods of, Walter Hough, 474 a =» Fi: al z, the 7 r (Prof. Emil), on the Constitution of the Dulcitol States, Pacific Coast Fisheries, 63; the North es, E. W. L. Holt’s Investigations, 158; Scien- igation of the Scottish Fishery Board, 395 ; on the ion of Immature Fish, E. W. L. Holt, 404; the Fishes, Dr. W. Ramsay Smith, 405 ; the Herring 1 the Electric Telegraph, 278 ; Pearl Fishery of California, C. H. Townsend, 333 ; a Sketch of Fisheries chiefly in their Scientific Aspects during Decade 1882-92, Prof. McIntosh, F.R.S., 404; rt on our Sea Fisheries, 404 ; Damage by Naphtha Fisheries, 421 nil), Glycol Aldehyde, 596 md), the Hypothesis of a Liquid Con ition of the Interior, considered in connection with Darwin’s of the Genesis of the Moon, 166 (Prof.), the Discussion on a National Physical ry, 383 ; an Estimate of the Rate of Propagation of ization in Iron, 385 d (R. D.), Death of, 572 Experiments on, Prof. Smithells, 402 : 2s, on the Luminosity of Hydrocarbon, Prof. Lewes, 401 arior (M. Camille), Atmospheric Depressions and their logy with the Movements of Sun-spots, 280 ; Measures of e Diameter of Mars, 460 ia (Prof. Giovanni), Death of, 254 ’s (Herr K.), Archzological Discoveries in Kalymnos, er (L., F.R.S.), the Optical Indicatrix and the Trans- on of Light in Crystals, 581 ; Geikielite and Baddeleyite, new Mineral Species, 620 at (E.), Action of Potassium Cyanide on Ammoniacal per Chloride, 71 lints, Pre-Palzeolithic, J. Montgomerie Bell, 432 a and Fauna of Bromley, J. French, 316 da, South, the West Indian Fauna in, T. D. A. Cockerell, rer (E, A.), the Geology of the Northern Etbai or Eastern Jesert of Egypt, 70 uorine contained in Fossil Woods, T. L. Phipson, 580 Flying-Machine Work, L. Hargrave, 556 Foerster (W.), Luminous Night Clouds, 575; Invitation to bserve the Luminous Night Clouds, 589 9g, London, Damage to Plants from, Prof. F. W. Oliver, 185 Fog Signalling, Petroleum Engines for, Dr. A. Stevenson, 430 Fog, Reflection on Valley, J. Edmund Clark, 514 Fonvielle (W. de), the Discovery of Line of no Declination, 2 Forbes (George) and the Cataracts Construction Company for the Transmission of Electrical Power from Niagara Falls, 84; a Planet beyond Neptune, 179; Electrical Lighting of Edinburgh, 429 ; Disposal of Town Refuse, 429 Forbes (Henry O.): Aphanapteryx and other Remains in the Chatham Islands, 252; Sub-fossil Bones of Extinct Birds of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, 404; Discovery of the Bones of a Flightless Bird in the Chatham Islands, 408 ; on the Contemporaneity of the Maori and the Moa, 433 Forcrand (M. de), Thermal Value of Replacement of Hydrogen in Phenolic Hydroxyl, 48 ; Sodium Trimethylcarbinol, 71 Forel (Prof.) : Theory of Cause of St. Gervais Disaster, 299 ; Table showing Behaviour of Small Lake at Great St. Bernard with regard to Cold, 371; the Periodic variations of Alpine Glaciers, 386 Forest, Submerged, 128 Forest Map of North Germany during Middle Ages, Dr. E. H. L. Krause, 620 Forestry in United States; the Annual Loss to Government through Thieves and Fire, M. Fernow, 454 Formosa, Southern, Remarkable Accounts of Interior of, D. J. Macgowan, 228 Formosa, Effects of Rainfall in, John Thomson, 406 : Foster (Prof. T.), Action of Heat on Tuberculous Matter, 263 ; Development of Bacteria in a Temperature of Melting Ice, _ 264 Fossil Botany, a New Genus of Permio-Carboniferous Stems G. retinodendron, Rigolloti), B. Renault, 412 Fossil Entomology of Nova Scotia, Sir J. W. Dawson, F.R.S., 236 Fossil Remains, Discovery of Australian-like Mammals in South America, R. Lydekker, 11 Fossils, Triassic, Brachiopoden der Alpinen Trias, A. Bittner, F. A. Bather, 25 Fossils, Vertebrate, Prof. Marsh’s, 595 Fossils, Vertebrate, the Washington Collection of, R. Lydek- ker, 295 : Fossil Wood containing Fluorine, T. L. Phipson, 580 Fowl Enteritis, the Etiology and Pathology of Grouse Disease, Dr. E. Klein, F.R.S., 2 Fowler (A.), the Lightning Spectrum, 268 Fowler (Kev. Canon), Protective Resemblance, 24 Foxes in Australia, the Spread of, 15 Frampton (Cyril), Origin of Idea that Snakes Sting, 418 France: Botanical Society of France, 107; the Acceleration of Mortality in France, M. Delauney, 168 ; Geography in France, 258 ; the Subterranean Geography of, E. A. Martel, 258; the Industrial Preparation of Carbonic Acid in France, Freak (Dr. A. B.), Lehrbuch der Botanik nach dem gegen- wirtigen Stand der Wissenschaft, 610 Frankland (Prof. Percy F., F.K.S.), Micro-organisms in their Relation to Chemical Change, 135; the Nitric Organisms, 200 ; Fermentation of Arabinose by. Bacillus ethaceticus, 311 Frankland (Mrs. Percy), Bacteriologisches Practicum zur Einfiihrung in die practischwichtigen bacteriologischen Unter- suchungsmethoden fiir Aerzte, Apotheker, Siudirende, Dr. W. Migula, 198 ; Contributions to the Study of Disinfection, Prof. J. Maschek, 613 Freeman (the late Prof.), and his Services to Geography, 135 Freeman (Rev. A.), Saturn’s Rings, 150 ; Nova Aurigw, 453 Freire (Domingos), Bacterian Origin of Bilious Fever of Hot Countries, 460 French (J.), Flora and Fauna of Bromley, 316 Freshwater Nemertine in England, Note on the Occurrence of a, W. Blaxland Benham, 611 Fresnel’s Theory of Double Refraction, L. Fletcher, 581 Friend (Rev. Hilderic), New British Earthworms, 621 Fritsch (Prof. G.), on the Origin of the Electric Nerves in the Torpedo, Gymnotus, Mormyrus, and Malapterurus, 404 Frog Heart Apparatus, Williams’s, Prof. R. Kobert, 177 __ Fromm’s (Lieut.) Explorations in Southern German East Africa, 525 : Frost (E. B.), Thermal Absorption in the Solar Atmosphere, 400, 455 5 .Fruit Culture in Australia, 494 Fuegian Languages, Dr. Brinton, 278 Fuels and their Use, Dr, J. Emerson Reynolds, F.R.S., 527 xx Lndex [f upplement to Nature, December 1, 1892 Fullerton (Capt. J. D.), Modern Aérial Navigation, 63 Functional Hermaphrodite Ascidian, a, Prof. W. A. Herdman, S., 561 Fungicide, Copper Sulphate Spray as, 422 Fur-bearing Animals in Nature and Commerce, Henry Poland, 605 Gage (Simson Henry), the Microscope and Histology for the use of Laboratory Students in the Anatomical Department of the Cornell University, W. H. Dallinger, 440 Gage (Prof. Simon Henry), the Comparative Physiology of Respiration, 598 Galileo, Proposed Festival at Padua in honour of, 572 ; Gall (John) and David Robertson, Popular Readings in Science, 291 : Gallwey (Capt.), Canoe Canal traced through Benin-Lagos Deltaic Swamps, 65 Galopin (Paul), Variations in Temperature of Water suddenly compressed to 500 atmospheres between o° and 10°, 240 Galt (A.), Experiments with a Ruhmkorff Coil, 384 Galvanometer, a New Electrolytic, J. Joly, 167 Galvanometers, Workshop Ballistic and other Shielded, Ayrton and Mather, 214 Garden Design and Architects’ Gardens, W. Robinson, 585 ‘Gardner (Prof. R. L.), the Speech of Monkeys, 451 Garman (S.), Fishes of Families Cyclopteride, Liparopside, and Liparidide, 422 ‘Garner (R. L.), the Speech of Monkeys, C. Ll. Morgan, 509 Garrison (F. L.), the Development of American Armour- plate, 86 Garson (Dr.), Ancient Skeletons from Medum, Egypt, 433 ‘Garstang (Walter), appointed to Naturalists’ Post on Staff of Marine Biological Association at Plymouth, 83 ; the Develop- ment of the Stigmata in Ascidians, 93 : Gas Compression and Temperature, a Question in Physics, Prof. H. A. Hazen, 55 Gas, Pressure at which Electric Strength of, is a Minimum, Prof. J. }. Thomson, 143 Gas Pressures, Scale for Measurement of, Orme Masson, 294 Gas Engines in United States, 595 Gases, on a Proposition in the Kinetic Theory of, Rev. H. W. Watson, F.R.S., 29 i Gases, Waterston’s Theory of, 30 Gatto (A. C.), Abundance of Moth (Deiopeia pulchella), in Malta, 474 Gatty (C. H.), Endowment of Laboratory at St. Andrews by, 369 Gaudry (Albert), the Pythonomorphs of France, 387 Gaultier’s (M. J.), System of Photographic Surveying, 525 Gautier (A.), Residual Life, 71 Gautier and Landi (MM.), the Products of the Residual Life of the Tissues, 167 Gautier (H.), Determination of Density of Gases, 288 Geelmuyden (H), Aurora, 55 Geikie (Sir Archibald, LL. D., For.Sec.R.S.), Inaugural Ad- dress at the Edinburgh Meeting of the British Association, 317 Geikie (Prof. James, F.R.S.), the Glacial Succession in Europe, 143; Opening Address in Section E of the British Associa- tion, 348 Geikielite and Baddeleyite, two new Mineral Species, © L. Fletcher, F.R.S., 620 Genoa, the Coming International Botanical Congress at, 208 Genoa Botanical Institute, Presentation by Mr. Thomas Han- bury of the late Prof. Willkomm’s Collection of Vascular Plants to, 254 Genoa, Opening of Hanbury Botanical Institute at, 448 General Circulation of the Atmosphere, J. Carrick Moore, oh Sas : Geodesy : Geodetic Survey of South Africa, 362; Prof. R. S. Woodward’s Iced-Bar Base Apparatus, 455; a Standard Yard and Metre on Polished Steel, Prof. W. A. Rogers, 455 ; M. J. Gaultier’s System of Photographic Surveying, 525 ; Application of Conventional System of Rectangular Co-ordi- nates to Triangulation of Coasts of Corsica, M. Hatt, 556; Progress of Indian Surveys during last Field Season, 576 Geography: Military Geography, Col. J. F. Maurice on, 14; Henry Brugsch Pasha on Lake Meeris, 15; German Scien. tific Expedition to West Greenland under Dr. von Drykalsgi_ 38 ; Imérina, the Central Province of Madagascar, Rey, James Sibree, 47; Geographical Notes, 65, 135, 162, 230 258, 280, 301, 453, 476, 525, 552, 576, 598, 620; the Neg- lect of Scientific Geography in England, Louis Léczy, 65 ; the Mississippi River Commission Report on the Levees, ee Canoe Canal traced by Capt. Gallwey through Benin and Lagos Deltaic Swamps, 65 ; Mr. G. T. Carter’s Journey into the Interior of Lagos, 65 ; the Former Connection of Southen Continents, J. Mellard Reade, 77 ; Prof. J. P. O'Reilly, 101 ; Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, President’s Address, 87 ; the Royal Geographical Society’s Soirée, 180; Women to be admitted Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society, 258 ; Berlin Geographical Society, 369 ;_ Projected Publication by Berlin Geographical Society of Atlas of Unpublished Early Maps as Memento of Columbus Cele- bration, 424 ; Elementary Geography of the British Colonies, Geo. M. Dawson, F.R.S., and Alexander Sutherland, roo ol Emin Pasha’s Return Expedition to the Equatorial Lakes, Dr. Stuhlmann, 110 ; Additional Particulars of Emin Pasha’s Expedition, Dr. Stuhlmann, 302; Sir William M. or’s Explorations in New Guinea, 110; Lieut. Mizon’s Explora- tions in Africa ; Two Pillars Erected by Diogo Cao, the first Portuguese Explorer, on West Coast of Africa, brought back to Lisbon, 111; the Pygmies of Africa, Dr. H. Schlichter, 135; the Ordnance Maps of Great Britain, 135; the late Prof Freeman and his Services to Geography, 135; Sefior — Julio Popper’s Expedition to Argentine Tierra del Fuego, — 135 ; Mrs. Isabella Bishop’s Journey to Little Tibet, 135, 406 ; Dr. W. L. Abbot on the Climate of Kilima-Njaro, 160; Report on the New Road across the Andes, 162; a New Russian Expedition to Tibet to be Led by M. Potanin, 162; — the Gold Medal Presentations of the Paris Societé de Geo- — graphie, 162 ; the Hypothesis of a Liquid Condition of the — Earth’s Interior Considered in Connection with Darwin’s — Theory of the Genesis of the Moon, Osmond Fisher, 166; — the Marshall Islands, 180; Mr. Schwatka’s Yukon Expedi- tion, 180; Return of Prince Henry of Orleans from the Upper Mekong, 180; Death and Obituary Notice of Capt. W. G. Stairs, 180 ; Death of Joseph Martin, 211; Crossing of the Kalahari Desert, 211; Completion of Aden Survey, 212; Russian Geological, &c., Expedition to East Siberia, 212; Formation of a New Islet in the Caspian, 212; Mr. Conway’s Mountaineering Expedition to the Himalayas, 212, 370, 525; Remarkable Accounts of Interior of Southern Formosa, D. J. Macgowan, 228; Charles Alluard’s Re- | searches in the Island of Mahé (Seychelles), 230; Collapse and Abandonment of the Proposed Antarctic Expedition, 230 ; Discovery of America to be Celebrated in Hamburg, October 11-12, 230; Manchester Geographical Society, 230; a Synoptical Geography of the World, 246; Geography in — France, 258; the Piratical Tugere Tribe of New Guinea, 258; the Subterranean Geography of France, E. A. Martel, 258 ; the Uganda Question, 280; Projected Antarctic Whaling — Cruise from Dundee, 280; Dr. O. Baumann’s Survey of — Road to Victoria Nyanza, Discovery of a New Great Lake (Lake Eiassi), 280 ; New Zealand Alpine Club Journal, 280; — Return of M. Dybowski, 301 ; the Royal Belgian Society of — Geography and Local (Belgian) Geography, 301; Scottish ~ Geographical Magazine, 302 ; M. Dauvergne’s Pamir Journey, — Geographical Results of, 302 ; Death of Dr. Theodor Menke, — 302; Opening Address by Prof. James Geikie, F.R.S., in Section E. of the British Association, 348 ; the Geographical — Development of Coast Lines, Prof. James Geikie, F.R.S., — 348 ; International Geographical Congress (1895), 361; the First Ascent of Oraefa Jokull, F. W. W. Howell, 406; © Place Names, Dr. J. Burgess, 406; Effects of Rainfall in — Formosa, John Thomson, 406; the North Atlantic, Prince ~ of Monaco, 406 ; Detailed Oceanography and Meteorology, — J. Y. Buchanan, 407; the Desert of Atacama, Mrs. Lilly ~ Grove, 407 ; Photography and Surveying, Colonel Tanner, — 407 ; Determination of Longitude by Photography, Dr. H. — Schlichter, 407; African Travels, 407; Account.of the In- — dustrial Resources of Nyasaland, John Buchanan, 407; Prof. — Penck’s Proposed New Map of the Globe, 407; Recent — Travels, Walker Harris, 408; H. O. Forbes’s Visit to the Chatham Islands, 408; Sub-section on Chemical Oceano- — graphy, J. Y. Buchanan, 408; Prof. Pettersson on the Hydrography of the Kattegat and Baltic, 408 ; Results of the — Recent Russian Investigations on the Black Sea, Dr. An- — drusoff, 408 ; Reported Death of M. Hodister, 424; Model bles oes | December 1, 1892 Lndex Xxi ar Currents at Chicago Exhibition, 451 ; Montenegro, assert, 453 ; the Mombasa-Victoria- Nyanza Survey, Railways in Tropical Africa and Native Passengers, Prof. Pouchet’s Visit to Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen, enant Ryder’s East Greenland Expedition, 453; t (Juan de la Cosa’s) Chart of America, 453; dor Coast: a Journal of Two Summer Cruises Dr. A. S. Packard, 462; the Relief of the edition, 476 ; Sailing of the Dundee Antarctic dition, 477 ; Completion of the Jaffa-Jerusalem “477 the Gilbert Islands brought under British nm, 477; White and Hoffman’s Journey in Sikkim, by Th. Thoroddsen of Unknown Lake . 4775 Mount Milanji in Nyassaland, Alex- , 482; Korea and the Koreans, 522 ; overy of Line of no Declination, 532; Change in . Calendar, 552; Return of Capt. Lugard, 552; Dr. iani’s Recent Explorations in Central Sumatra and abe Sees # H. Giglioli, 565 ; the Melanesian Sub- an Alleged Submerged ‘Continent, C. Hedley, epo ted Death of Prof. Cherski, 576 ; Progress of In- during last Field Season, 576 ; Longmans’ Ee Geography for North America, Geo. G. Chisholm and wees 585; Measurement of Mount Orizaba by J. , 598 ; Change in Small Lakes near Mansfield, | Germany, through Brine-pumping from Salt Mines, ‘Death of Dr. Karl Spruner von Merz, 598 ; "3 _ in _ German South-west Africa, 598; Lieut. ms in Southern German East Aftica, 525; ficanditions of the Weissensee, Carinthia, Dr. K. inger, 525; Coas} Line of United States, 525; M. J. nier's em of Photographic Surveying, 525; Mr. s Journey to the Lake Bangweola Region, De: E. H. L. Krause’s Forest Map of North Germany preside Ages, 620: Geographical Society—See sae Division According to Terrestrial Latitudes and jitudes of the Geological Groups on the Earth, A. de 24; Brachiopoden der Alpinen Trias, A. Bittner, F. ther, 25; the Geology of Barbadoes, J. B. Harrison J. Jukes Browne, 59 ; Influence of Swamp Waters in ion of Phosphate Nodules of South Carolina, Dr. C. : el Geological Society, 70, 95, 165, 190, 238; a Processes of Mineralization of Fossil Remains, Fossil Nautilus and Starfish, Prof. W. C. Wil- S., 70; the map legy of the Northern Etbai or 1 Desert of Egypt, E. A. Floyer, 70; the So-called of Carboniferous Age at Guttannen, Prof... Baie F.R.S., 95; the Lithophyses in Obsidian of Rocche apari, Cole and Butler, 95 ; L’Annuaire Géologique 109 5 ; Geology of the Bas Boulonnais, E. 7a ; the Glacial Succession in Europe, Prof. 143; Tertiary Microzoic Formations of Trini- : “oy Be L. Guppy, 190; Geology of the Nile Valley, vie Lacy se Pasha and H. D. Richmond, 190; Russian ; mn to East Siberia, 212 ; on the ‘Causes of vc sarc of the Earth’s Crust, Prof. E. Reyer, 224, meetare: Reade, 315; the Saurischia of Europe and Africa, . H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., 238; the Speeton Clays and Equivalents, Prof. A. Pavloff and G. W. Lamplugh, Geology of Easter Island, 258 ; Post-Laramie Deposits acca Whitman Cross, 311; Origin of Terraces in t “ ; Regions, R. S. Tarr, 311; Cambrian Rocks of in fae. C. D. Walcott, 311 ; Fossils in Archzean Rocks ntral Piedmont, Virginia, N. H. Darton, 311 ; Inaugural \dres: by Sir Archibald Geikie, LL.D., For.Sec.R.S. at Eaten Meeting of the British Association, 317; Open- ; Address by Prof. C. Lapworth, F.R.S., in Section C of _ British jation, 372: Messrs, Peach and Horne on Radiolarian Chert of Arenig Age, 428 ; Palzeozoic Rocks, of. Sollas and Prof. Bonney, 428; Glacial Papers, Dr. osskey, Mr. Lomas, Mr. a, Messrs. Peach and Horne, 3 Palzontological Papers, E. J. Newton, M. Laurie, 8; Petrological Papers, Mr. " Ussher, Mr. Goodchild, ir. Harker, Mr. Teall, Mr. Somervail, 428; Landslips in the South Tyrol, Miss Ogilvie, 428; the Pliocene Mollusca New Zealand, Prof. F. W. Hutton, 474 ; International Geo- logical and other Records, H. J. Johnston-Lavis, 441; the e of Granite Rock into’ Fertile Soil, Alexander ohnstone, 517; Earth Fractures and Mars “ Canals, ” Prof. G. A. Lebour, 611 ; Miocene Formations of West i Jules Welsch, 628 — Geometrical Deductions, James Blaikie, W. Thomson, 291 Geometry : to Draw a Mercator Chart on one Sheet represent- ing the whole of any complexly continuous closed Surface Lord Kelvin, P.R.S., 541 - . German Anthropological Congress, 420 German Scientific Expedition to West Greenland under Dr. von Drygalski, 38 Germany : on Anomalies of Temperature in, Observations based on Synoptic Weather Chart, Dr. Schwalbe, 120 Germany: Exhibition at Niirnberg by the German Mathematical Association, 204 Germany, North, during Middle Ages, Forest Map of, Dr. Baer. Lb. Krause, 620 Gibbs (J. Willard), Thermodynamische Studien, 245 Giglioli (Prof. Henry H.), Dr. Modigliani’s Recent Explora- tions in Central Sumatra and Engano, 565 Gignac, Remarkable Jade Head found at, M. de Lapouge, 421 Gilbert (Prof. G. K.), the Origin of Coon Butte, Arizona, 454 Gilbert (Dr.), Allotments and Small Holdings, 602 Gilbert Islands brought under British Protection, 477 Gill (Dr.), Comparison Stars of the Planet Victoria, 423 Gillespie (Dr. Lockhart), on Proteid-hydrochlorides, 403 Gilson (Prof. G.), on the Affinity of Nuclein for Iron and other Substances, 405 Giltay (Dr. E.), the Use of the Camera Lucida in Drawing Bacteria, 69 Giordano (Dr. Felice), Death of, 331 Glacial Papers, Dr. Crosskey, 428 ; Mr. Bell, 428 Glacial Succession in Europe, the, Prof. James Geikie, 143 Glaciers : Glacier Slip Disaster at St. Gervais les Bains, 254; Theories of the Cause of, Profs. Duparc and Forel, 299; the Lava of July 12, 1892 (St. Gervais Catastrophe), P. Dementzey, 387 ; Causes of St. Gervais Catastrophe, 420 ; Alpine Glaciers, the Present Extension of, the Glacier des Boissons, 370; the Periodic Variations of Alpine Glaciers, F, A. Forel, 386 ; oa Depressions in Glaciers, R. von Lendenteld, Cisdeions (Dr.) : Some Points connected with Electromotive Force of Secondary Batteries, 214 ; Molecular Refraction and Dispersion of Metallic Carbonyls and of Indium, Gallium and Sulphur, 402 Glasgow, Marine Machinery at, 430 Glass Mirrors, Silvering, Mr. Common, 597 Glassford (W. A.), Progress of Meteorology in United States, 483 Glazebrook (R. T., F.R.S.), the Discussion on a National Physical Laboratory, 383 Gleed (W.), a Mnemonic Table for Changing from Electrostatic to Practical and C.G.S. Electro-magnetic Units, 23 Glendinning (T. A.), Note on Diastatic Action, 142 Globe, Prof. Penck’s Proposed New Map of the, 407 Gnetum, Embryogeny of, Herr Karsten, 260 God of the Ethiopians, the, W. Hammond Tooke, 78 Godwin- Austen (H. H.), the Mustakh Exploration, 464 Goebel (Prof.), on the Simplest Form of Moss, 554 Gold Brick Exhibit, Solid, at Chicago Exhibition, 256 Goldstein (Prof. E. ), Phenomena Exhibited at Negative Poles of Vacuum Tubes, 594 Gomphostemma, the Genus, D. Prain, 122 Gooch (F. A.), Certain Points in Inter-action of Potassium Permangahate and Sulphuric Acid, 627 Goodchild (Mr.), Petrological Papers, 428 Goodfellow (John), the Dietetic Value of Bread, 54 Gooseberries, Rats and, by G. Reade, 550 Gorilla, the Brain of the, Dr. H. G. Chapman, 229 Gothard (Herr E. von), the Spectrum of Nova Aurigz, 620 Gottingen Royal Scientific Society, 580 Gottingen Royal Society of Sciences, 72 Gouilly (Al.), Air Comprimé ou Raréfié, 221 Grabham (M.), Peripatus Re-discovered in Jamaica, 514 Graff (Dr. Ludwig von), Bibliothek des Professors Zoologie und Vergl. Anatomie, 54 Grammar of Science, the, 221; Karl Pearson, 97, 199, 247; Edward T. Dixon, 269; Dr. St. George Mivart; F.R.S., 269 Granite Rock, the Passage of, into Fertile Soil, Alexander Johnstone, 517 des XXil Geanthiam (R. F.), on the Absorption and Filteration of Sewage, 2 niet Graphic Solutions of Dynamical Problems, Lord Kelvin, F.R.S., 395 Grasses, C. H. Johns, 487 Gravitative Constant, Direct Determination of the, by Means of a Tuning-fork: a Lecture Experiment, A. M. Worthington, Gray: (Prof. A., F.R.S.), Dynamo- -Electric Machinery, .), Synthesis of Crocoite and Pheenicochroite, 311 iversazione of the Royal Society, 184 e Canal traced by Capt. Gallwey through Benin- ‘aic arenes 65; Mr. G. T. Carter’s Journey into Le 5 ge in Somersetshire, the Recent Discovery of an r. R. Munro, 617 — L. G. de), Comparative Assimilation of Plants in Sun and in Shade, 460 tigations of a Proposed Safety, Prof. Clowes, 402 (G. W.), the Speeton Clays and their Lincolnshire van ire, the Birds of, F. S. Mitchell, 540 x (M.), Pancreatic Diabetes, 412 reshwater Shells peculiar to the British Isles, R. F. arff, oe ‘se a eae Anim the Origin of ; a Biological Research, W. J. » 271 nderer (J. J.) the Red Spot on Jupiter, 229 ; Determination of Angle of Polarization of Venus, 240 u ;in the South Tyrol, Miss Ogilivie, 428 .), Residual Life, 71 and Gautier (MM.), the Products of the Residual Life of Tissues, 167 steiner (Dr.), Glycol Aldehyde, 596 e Fox Mercurial Pump, Bumping in the, 394 (Victor von), Einleitung in die Theoretische Physik, eas a test of Mental Capacity, Horatio Hale, 206 er (Prof. E. Ray, F.R.S.), the Apodidz, a Morpho- cal Study, H. M. Bernard, 267 ern, Magic, at Crystal Palace illuminated by Arc Light, > Tea, 9 : . apouge ie de), Remarkable Jade Head found at Gignac, (Prof. C., F.R.S.), Opening Address in Section C of Bnitish Association, 372 Larmor (J.), Application of the Spherometer to Surfaces not Spherical, 143; the Theory of Electrodynamics as affected by the Nature of the Mechanical Stresses in Excited Dielectrics, 189 } Larvee and their Relations to Adult Forms, Dr. J. Beard, 404 sey Declinations of Stars for Reduction of Variations in, 5 Latitude Observations at Waikiki, Mr. Preston, 64 Latitude, Variation of, Dr. Chandler, 211, 476 Latitude, Variation of, at Pulkova, B. Wanach, 524 ; S. Kostin- sky, 524 Latitudes, the Variation of Terrestrial, M. Antoine d’Abbadie, 65 Lauder (A.), Corydaline, ii., 190 Laurie (M.), Paleontological Papers, 428 Laurie (Surgeon-Major), Fall of Blood-pressure under Chloro- form owing to its action on Brain, not Heart, 572 Lava in the Bournemouth Drift, Musical Sand, Cecil Carus- Wilson, 316 Lawes (Sir J. B.), Allotments and Small Holdings, 602 Layard (Miss Nina F.), on the Arrangement of Buds in Lemna Minor, 555 Laycock (W. F.), Products of Dry Distillation of Bran with Lime, 312 Leaky Magnetic Circuits, Dr. du Bois on, 384 Learning and Research, Prof. Virchow, 593 Leather’s (Dr. J. W.) Method of Detecting and Exterminating Castor-oil Seeds in Cattle Foods, 602 Lebour (Prof. G. A.), Earth-Fractures and Mars Canals, 611 Le Chatelier (Prof. H.), New Electrical Method for Determin- ing very High Temperatures, 45 Le Chatelier Pyrometer, a Modification of the, Prof. W. C. Roberts-Austen, 526 Leduc (A.), the Composition of Water and Gay-Lussac’s Law of Volumes, 263; Application of Measurement of Density to Determination of Atomic Weight of Oxygen, 387 Leeds, Yorkshire College: the County (Agricultural) Lectures to Farmers, 300 Lees (C.H.), on a Method of Determining Thermal Conduc- tivities, 385) Leete (C. H.), Longmans’ School Geography for North America, 8 Lehieldt (Robt. ), the Atomic Weight of Oxygen, 151 Lemna Minor, on the Arrangement of Buds in, Miss Nina F. Layard, 555 Lenard (Ph.), Electricity of Waterfalls, 484 ; a Phosphoroscope with Spark Illumination, 484, 618 Lendenfeld.(R. von), Crater-like Depressions in Glaciers, 466 Lens, a new Giant Lighthouse, J. R. Wigham, 71 Lepel (Dr. V.), the Oxidation of Nitrogen by means of Electric Sparks, 210 wees Lepidoptera and the Electric Light, D. S. Stewart, 550 Lepidoptera, some Victorian, Ernest Anderson, 595 Lepidoptera Heterocera, a Synoynmic Catalogue of, W. F. Kirby, 487 Lepinay (J. M. de), Experimental Illustration of Mirage, 617 Lewes (Prof.), on the Luminosity of Hydrocarbon Flames, ol fowls (A. L.), Stone Circles, the Sun and the Stars, 127 Lewis (R. T.), the Process of Oviposition as observed in Cattle Tick, 165 Ley (W. Clement), Luminous Clouds, 294 Leyden, a New Form of Air, Lord Kelvin, P.R.S., 212 Libraries, the Paris Free, Alderman W. H. Bailey, 617 Lick Observatory, the Staff at the, 452 ; Day-time Seeing at the, Henry Crew, 465 | Liesching (W. F.), Ants in Ceylon, 15 Life and Death, Prof. Armand Sabatier, 560 Life in Motion, or Muscle and Nerve, John Gray McKendrick, F.R.S., 583 Life of Plants and Animals, the Surface-film of Water and its Relation to the, Prof. L. C. Miall, 7 Light and Colour, an Unit of Measurement of, J. W. Lovi- bond, 93 : ; Light, Absence of, Effects upon Animal Life, 421 Light in Crystals, the Optical Indicatrix and the Transmission of, L. Fletcher, 581 Light, Lessons in Heat and, D. E. Jones, 610 Light of Various Colours, on the Polarization of, by the Atmo= sphere, N. Piltschikoff, 627 XXV1 Lndex [oer to Nature, December 1, 1892 Laight, the Reflection of, by Moving Bodies, H. A. Lovenby, 62) ; Light, Electric, Effect on Herbaceous Plants on, Gaston Bon- nier, 580 Light Variations of y Cygni, Prof. Dunér, 87, 134; Mr. Yen- dell, 134 Lighthouse Illumination, on the Progress of the Dioptric Lens as used in, C. A. Stevenson, 431; Chas. A. Stevenson, 514 Lighthouse Lens, a New Giant, J. R. Wigham, 71 Lightning Spectrum, A. Fowler, 268 Lightning, Treatment of Persons Struck by, Dr. R. Assmann, 521 Lightning, Globular, Curious Instance of, 548 Lilienfeld’s (Dr.) Investigations on Distribution of Phosphorus in Various Tissues, 263 Lilley (H. T.), a Lecture Course of Elementary Chemistry, 595 Limits of Animal Intelligence, the, Edward T. Dixon, 392; C. Lloyd Morgan, 417; Dr. St. George Mivart, F.R.S., 466 Lindeck (Dr.), Wire Standards of Electric Resistance, 383 Linebarger (C. E.), Molecular Masses of Dextrine and Gum Arabic, as Determined by their Osmotic Pressures, 67 Line of Sight, Motion in the, W. W. Campbell, 64 Line Spectra of the Elements, Dr. G. Johnstone Stoney, F.R.S., 29, 126, 222, 268 ; Prot. C. Runge, 100, 200, 247 Ling (A. R.), Studies on Isomeric Change, iv. ; Halogen Derivatives of Quinine, 142 Linnean Society, 143, 190, 238 Linnean Society of New South Wales, 572; Proposed Publica- tion in Memory of Sir William Macleay, 227 Lippmann (G.), the Photography of Colours, 24 Litten (Prof.), a Phenomenon of Human Respiration, 263 Live Stock, Prof. Wrightson, 76 as Sg Marine Biological Station at Port Erin, Opening of the, 155 Liverpool Observatory, Mr. W. E. A. Plummer appointed Director of, 276 Liverpool Overhead Railway, the, J. H. Greathead, 526 Lizards (popularly called Horned Toads), a Curious Habit of, mary 4 ay, 59 i Lock (G. H.), Key to J. B. Lock’s Elementary Dynamics, 173 Lockyer (J. Norman, F.R.S.), Origin of the Year, 104; the Opposition of Mars, 443 Lockyer (N. J.), the Locomotive Engine and its Development, Clement E. Stretton, 538 Locomotive Engine and its Development, the, Clement E. Stretton and N. J. Lockyer 538 Locomotive, New Design of Electric, E. H. Woods, 430 Locomotives, Two Electric, Alex. Siemens, 429 Locusts in India, 86 Locusts in America, C. V. Riley, 256 Loczy (Louis), the Neglect of Scientific Geography in England, 6 5 Lodge (Prof. Oliver J., F.R.S.), Electric Sparks in and to Water, 44; Electric Retina, 44 ; Historical Summary of our Knowledge of the Connection between Ether and Matter, 164 ; the Motion of the Ether near the Earth, 497; the Position of 4m Electromagnetic Units, 292; the British Association Committee on Electrical Standards, 334; Units Discussion at the British Association, 368 ; the Discussion on the Nomenclature of Units, 383; Discussion on a National Physical Laboratory, 382 ; a so-called Thunderbolt, 513 Loew (O.), the Active Albumen in Plants, 491 Loewy (Prof.), Experiments on Respiration under reduced atmospheric pressure, 168 Logic, the Student’s Manual of Deductive, Theory and Practice, K. R. Bose, 561 Logic: Induction and Deduction, Francis C. Russell, 586 ; E. E. Constance Jones, 293, 586 Lohse (Dr.), Photographs of Sun-spots, 258 London Institute, City and Guilds of, Woodwork Examination, 300 London, a Professorial University of, 121 ‘London University, the New, 151, 169 London University of the Future, the, 193 London Water Supply for September, 1892, Profs. W. Crookes and W. Odling, 617 Loney (S. L.), Key to Elementary Dynamics, 268 Longitude, Determination of, by Photography, Schlichter, 407 Dr. +1. Longmans’ School Geography for North America, Geo. G, Chisholm and C. H. Leete, 585 ta Longstaff (Dr. G. D.), Death of, 520 aaa Lorentz (H. A.), the Reflection of Light by Moving Bodies, 8 62 Lortet (M.), Earthworms and Tuberculosis, 263 : g Lovering (Prof. Joseph), Memorial of, 521 a Lovibond (J. W.), an Unit of Measurement of Light and Colour, 93 2 Lowe (E. J., F.R.S.), Raindrops, 95 : Lowne (B. Thompson), Anatomy, Physiology, Morphol Development of the Blow-fly ( Cad/iphora erythroce, Lugard (Capt.), Return of, 552 Luminosity of Hydrocarbon Flames, Prof. Lewes on the, 401 Luminous Clouds, W. Clement Ley, 294 Luminous Night Clouds, W. Foerster and Prof. O. Jesse, 575, 8 ; and @), 267 5°9 Lunar Eclipse, May 11, 1892, 372 Lunar Photography, Dr. L. Weinek, Prof. Holden, 257 Lunar Volcanoes, Active, Prof. Pickering, 1 : Lydekker (R.), the Discovery of Australian-like Mammals in South America, 11 ; Phases of Animal Life, Past and Present, 743; the Washington Collection of Fossil Vertebrates, 295 Lyra Ring Nebula, Photographs of the, Prof. Denza, 41 ee ee ee Mabery (Prof. C. F.) Sal-Soda Manufacture in the United States, 332 Macalister (Andrew, F.R.S.) Opening Address in Section H — of the British Association, 378 ; on Some Facial Characters — of the Ancient Egyptians, 433 ~ McClure (Rev. Edmund), Aurora Borealis, 368 ’ McCook (Dr. Henry C.), on the Social Habits of Spiders, 403 ; Can Spiders Prognosticate Weather Changan slant Macdonald (A. C,), the Extermination of the Antbear in Cape Colony, 522 Macdonald (Dr. C. F.), on the Success of Execution by Elec- — tricity in New York State, 256 ‘ / pe Macgowan (D. J.), Remarkable Accounts of Interior of Southern Formosa, 228 ; : i Macgregor’s (Sir Wm.) Explorations in New Guinea, 110 Macgregor (J.), Fermentation of Arabinose by Bacé/lus ethacet- icus, 311 Machinner Dynamo-Electric, Prof. A. Gray, F.R.S., 296 _ McIntosh (Prof., F.R.S), a Sketch of the Scotch Fisheries, © chiefly in their Scientific Aspects, during the past Decade 1882-92, 404 ; \ McKendrick (John Gray, F.R.S), Life in Motion, or Muscle and Nerve, 583 ; Method of Recording Curves of Muscular Con- traction, 404 E MacLachlan (R., F.R.S.), Carnivorous Caterpillars, 151 Maclean (Magnus), Experiments with a Ruhmkorff Coil, 384 Macleay (Sir Wm.), Proposed Memorial Publication of Linnean Society of New South Wales, 227; Memorial Volume, the Proposed, 572 : j McLeod (Prof. Herbert, F.R.S.), Opening Address in Section B of the British Association, 327 McMurrich (Prof. J. Playfair), the Early Development of the Tsopods, 406 j Madagascar, Imérina, the Central Province of, Rey. James — Sibree, 47 3 Madras, Earthquake, 109 ; Madras Observatory, 301 a8 , Magnetism : Magnetic Storm of February in Mauritius, 20; Prof. — J. J. Thomson’s new Edition of Clerk Maxwell’s Treatiseon Magnetism and Electricity, 38; Wave-Propagation of 9 Magnetism, Fred T. Tronton, 56; Magnetic Variations, ~ William Ellis, 67 ; on the Changes Produced in the Length \g of Wires Carrying Currents by Magnetization, Shelford Bid- \ well, F.R.S., 140; a:Compound Magnometer for Testing Magnetic Properties of Iron and Steel, G. F.C. Searle, 143; ; the Volume-Effects of Magnetization, Dr. C. G. Knottand A. Shand, 143, 262; the Measurement of the Magnetic Pro- perties of Iron, Thomas Gray, 163; the Volume-Effects of Magnetism, Dr. C. G. Knott, 385 ; Leaky Magnetic Circuits, — Dr. du Bois, 384; ona Magnetic Balance and its Practical — Use, Prof. du Bois, 385; Magnetic Curve Tracer, Prof. — Ewing, 385; an Estimate of the Rate of Propagation of “@ Magnetization in Iron, Prof. Fitzgerald, 385 ; Propagation of Magnetic Impulses along a Bar of Iron, V. A. Julius, 3925 — \ t to Nature, I, 1892 L[ndex XXVIII ementary Text-book of Magnetism and Electricity, R. se Stewart, 441; Magnetic Disturbances Caused by ic Railways, Prof. F. P. Whitman, 455; Magnetic ction, Prof. J. A. Ewing, F.R.S., 552; Elements of tism and Electricity, John Angell, 610 de la Source (Dr.), Analyse des Vins, 170 of British India, G. King, F.R.S., 122 chelles), Charles Alluaud’s Researches in the Island isitors, Birds, 210; Byssus Silk In- Malta’s ag . Seddall, 229; Remarkable Rainfall at, late Rev. ; Birds versus Insects in, 618 of British India, W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., 5 immal; Australian-like, Discovery of, in South America, R. -ydekker, 111 : e Arctic Expedition, the, 397 F.RS .» 280 d Naturalists and Archeologists’ Society ; Visit infredi (Dr. L.), the Contamination of the Street Surface of Large Cities, with Special Reference to Naples, 163 Mann (Dr. G.), on the Functions, Staining Reactions, and tructures of Nuclei, 403 ; on the Origin of Sex, 404 lanouvrier (Dr.), Anthropometric Identification, 432 la » North any, change through Brine-pumping from Salt Mines, in Small Lakes near, 598 Instruction; Woodwork, the English Sléyd, S. er, 244 re, Farmyard, C. M. Aikman, 100 : i and the Moa, on the Contemporaneity of the, H. O. of the Globe, Prof. Penck’s proposed New, 407 of the Heavens, a aarte, 274 of Great Britain, the Ordnance, 135 e (Mr.), a New Method of Preparing Acetylene Gas, ] d (E.), Sun-spot Observations at Lyons Observatory, -), Movements of Minute Organisms Analysed by photography, 47; the Movements of the Heart Chronophotography, 604 ology: Endowment by Mr. C. H. Gatty of boratory at St. Andrews, 369; the A/batross Voyage; narkable Stalked Crinoid, 421 ; the Wood-Hole Marine Laboratory, 493 ; the Hopkins Seaside Laboratory, 49338 Problem of Marine Biology, George W. Field, as alae Marine Engineers, Institute of ; Lord Kelvin’s Inaugural Address End . Floras of the Warm Atlantic and Indian Ocean, G. aie nati b 405 ik ‘Marine achinery at Glasgow, 430 Marix ser a Means of Bringing Two Non-miscible Liquids into Intimate Contact in Definite Proportions, 144 arkovnikoft (W.), Action of Bromine in Presence of Aluminium Bromide on Cyclic Chain Carbon Compounds, 532 Se Planet, re ' — on —- a of aE Prof. ering, 179; the Opposition of, 258, 400; J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., 443; Measures of the Diameter of, Camille Le marion, 460 ; Observations of the Planet Mars, M. _ Perrotin, 482 ; Earth Fractures and Mars “Canals,” Prof. Mant gE) etuté Festival at B V Fas Ua ekule Festival at Bonn, 205 Marsh’s (Prof.) Vertebrate Fossils, 595 — Marshall (Prof. Alfred), Elements of Economics of Industry, 27 - Marshall Islands, the, 180 Martel (E. A.), the Subterranean Geography of France, 258 _ Martel (M.), Curious Basalt Cavern at Mont Dore, 400 Martin (Joseph), Death of, 211 Martin (William M.), Total Eclipse of the Sun 1893, 561 Mascart (M.), the White Rainbow, 532, 555 _ Maschek (Prof. J.), Beitraige zur Theorie und Praxis der _ Desinfection, Mrs. Percy Frankland, 613 ‘ cheste! epi Society, 230 che: ter, Address to the Museums Association, Prof. Boyd — 3 Abundance of Moth (Detopeia pulchella) in, A. C. Mashonaland, on the Present Inhabitants of, and their Origin, J. Theodore Bent, 432 Mason (O. T.), the Ulu or Woman’s Knife of the Eskimo, 550 ;°Women and Musical Instruments, 561 Masonry Dams, a Text-Book on Retaining Walls and, Prof. Mansfield Merriman, 415 Masrium, the New Element, A. E. Tutton, 79 Massee (George), A Monograph of the Myxogastres, 365 Massol (G.), Dibromomalonic Acid, G. Massol, 119 Masson (Orme), Scale for Measurement of Gas Pressures, 294 Masters (Dr. Maxwell T., F.R.S.), Contributions to Horti- cultural Literature, William Paul, 582 | Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Elements of, C. A. Armand | Mathematics: Graduated Mathematica Is, Observations on the Development of the Posterior | al and Anterior Spinal Nerves in, Dr. Arthur Robinson, Semple, 28 Exercises, A. T. Richardson, 54; Some Theorems relating to Groups of Circles and Spheres, Prof. W. W. Johnson, 68 ; a Newtonian Fragment on Centripetal Forces, W. W. Rouse Ball, 71; Einleitung in die Theoretische Physik, Victor von Lange, 73; the Potential of an Anchor Ring, F. W. Dyson, 92; Mathematical Recreations and Problems of Past and Present Times, W. W. Rouse Ball, 123 ; Application of the Sphero- meter to Surfaces not Spherical, J. Larmor, 143 ; the Calcu- lator Inaudi, MM. Charcot and Darboux, 167 ; Mathematical Society, 71, 191; Bulletin of New York Mathematical Society, 236, 435; Moveable Hyperboloid of One Sheet, Prof, Henrici, 191 ; the Second Discriminant of the Ternary Quantic x's + y/u + 2'w, J. E.Campbell, 191 ; Neue Rechnungs- methoden der Héheren Mathematic, Dr. Julius Bergbohm, 199; Neue Integrationsmethoden auf Grund der Potenzial- Logarithmal- und Numeralrechnung, Dr. Julius Bergbohm, 199; Exhibition at Niirnberg by the German Mathematical Association, 204; an Introduction to the Study of the Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus, Axel Harnack, G. L. Cathcart, Prof. A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S., 218; Memoirs of the Mathematical Section of Odessa University, 236 ; on the Stability of Periodic Motions, Lord Kelvin, F.R.S., 384; Opening Address in Section A of the British Association by Prof. Arthur Schuster, 323; General- ization of ‘*Mercator’s” Projection performed by Aid of Electrical Instruments, Lord Kelvin, P.R.S., 490; Printing Mathematical Symbols, Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S., 13 Maries (T.), Workshop Ballistic and other Shielded Galvano- meters, 214 33 ‘ Mathias (E.), the Precise Determination of the Critical Density, 26 matioie (M.), Heat of Production of some Chlorine Com- pounds, 436 Maurice (Col. J. F.), on Military Geography, 14 Mauritius, Magnetic Storm of February in the, 20 Mauritius Hurricane (April 29, 1892), the, 84, 108; Dr. C. Meldrum, F.R.S., 128; Mr. Jerningham, 277 Maxwell’s (Clerk) Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, Prof. J. J. Thomson’s New Edition of, 38 Maxwell’s Law of Distribution of Energy, Rev. H. W. Watson, F.R.S., and S. H. Burbury, F.R.S., 100 Maxwell-Boltzmann Law, Lord Kelvin’s Test-case on the, Edward B. Culverwell, 76 4 Mazzarelli (G. F.), Physiology of the Glands of Bohadsch in the Aplysiidz, 163 : Mean Time Sun-Dial, Major-General Oliver, 230 Meares (C.), Cheetah Killed by Wild Boar, 178 Measurement of Gas Pressures, Scale for, Orme Masson, 294 Measuring Instruments, Scientific, General Ferrero, 388 Mechanics: the Potential of an Anchor Ring, F. W. Dyson, 92; an Instrument for Drawing Parabolas, R, Inwards, 93; a Treatise on Analytical Statics, Edward John Routh, F.R.S., 145 ; the Elementary Part of a Treatise on the Dynamics ofa System of Rigid Bodies, Edward John Routh, F.R.S., Prof, A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S., 145 ; Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 337 ; Opening Address by W. Cawthorne Unwin, F.R.S., in Section G of the British Association, 355; Elec- trical Lighting of Edinburgh, Prof. Geo. Forbes, 429; Disposal of Town Refuse, Prof. Geo. Forbes, 429; the Refuse-Destructor Question, G. Watson, 429; Absorption and Filteration of Sewage, R. F. Grantham, 429 ; Shield Tunneling in Loose Ground, G. F, Deacon, 429; Proposed Ship Canal between the Forth and the Clyde, D. A. Steven- XXVili & ge ears to Nature, ecember 1, 1892 son, 429 ; Mechanical System for the Distribution of Parcels, D. Cunningham, 429 ; Electric Locomotives, Alex. Siemens, 429; a Tide-Motor, F. Purdon and H. E. Walters, 429 ; Marine Machinery at Glasgow, 430; Necessity for Connec- tion between Stack Pipes and Earth, W. H. Preece, F.R.S., 430; Power Transmission by Alternating Current, Gisbert Kapp, 430; New Design of Electric Locomotive, E. H. Woods, 430: Ingenious Coin-Counting Machine in the Royal Mint, Lieut. W. B. Basset, 430; Anti-Friction Material for Bearings used without Lubrication, Killingworth Hedges, 430; Petroleum Engines for Fog Signalling, D. A. Steven- son, 430; Influence of Acoustic Clouds, David Cunningham, 430; Sound-Carrying Power of Water, A. R. Sennett, 430 ; on the Progress of the Dioptric Lens as used in Lighthouse Illumination, C. A. Stevenson, 431, 514; Smoke Preven- tion, A. R. Sennett, 431; Col. E. Dulier, 431; Investi- gation of the Phenomena which Accompany the Burning of Carbon and Phosphorus in Oxygen, H. Brereton Baker, 431; Fire Extinction on Board Ship, H. C. Carver, 432 ; Artificially, M. Faye, 24; Anticyclone over British Island: and Atlantic, 38; Pilot Chart of North Atlantic for April, 38, 493 ; Two New Russian Monthly Meteorological Bulletins, 38 ; Remarkable Aurore Boreales over Moscow, 39 ; Aurora Borealis, Warington Stock, 79 ; Henry Harries, 391 ; Aurora, James Porter, 151; a Fireball, C. C. Bayley, 62; Meteoro- logical Society’s Hints to Meteorological Observers, 62; Meteorological Service of Canada, Report from Oct. 1, 1890, to Oct. 31, 1891, 62; Tidal Phenomenon at Kiungchow, Hainan, China, E. H. Parker, 63; Magnetic Variations, William Ellis, 67; Transmission of Sunlight through Earth’s Atmosphere, ii; Scattering at Different Altitudes, 69; a New Mercury-Glycerine Barometer, Dr. J. Joly, 71 ; Meteoro- — logical Work for Agricultural Institutions, Pamphlet issued — by Washington (U.S.) Weather Bureau, 85; Ff z Observations (1890) in East .Indian Archipelago, 85; Observations (1890) at Batavia Observatory, 85; on some — Phenomena Connected with Clondy Condensation, | John Aitken, F.R.S., 90; Raindrops, E. J. Lowe, F.R.S., > 95; Comparison of Richard’s Anémo-cinémographe with Standard Beckley Anemograph at Kew Observatory, G. M. Whipple, 95; Levels of River Vaal at Kimberley, South — Africa, compared with Rainfall of Watershed, W. B, Tripp, 95; Miss Doberck appointed Assistant Meteorologist at — Hong Kong, 108 ; Destructive Cyclone in Kansas, 108; Fall — of Hail and Dust in Sweden and Norway, 108; Brilliant — Meteor over Tiflis, 108 ; Observations on Anomalies of Tem- — perature in Germany, based on Synoptic Weather-Charts, — Dr. Schwalbe, 120; the Height of the Nacreous Cloud of — January 30, J. Edmund Clark, 127; Notes on the Climate. of the British Isles, R. H. Scott, 132; Devastation by © Storm of the Petroleum District, Pennsylvania, 133; Con- tributions to Knowledge of Saharian Climate, G. Rolland, 144; another Blow to the Ascent Theory of Cyclones, M. Faye, 144 ; the Meteorological Council Tables of Improved Means of Temperature, Rainfall, and Sunshine, 159; Dr. J. Hann’s Further Researches into the Daily Oscillations of the ~ Barometer, 159; a Second Attempt to Build an Observatory on Mount Blanc, 159; Icebergs in the Atlantic, 160; Ice in the South Atlantic, Robert H. Scott, F.R.S., 173; Capt. | Edgar H. Andrew, 173; Solar Observations during First — Quarter of 1892, M. Tacchini, 167 ; Diurnal Fluctuations of Atmospheric Pressure in United States, General A. W. Greely, 177; Royal Meteorological Society, 191; English — Climatology, 1881-90, F. C. Bayard, 191; Mean Daily Temperature at Greenwich on Average of Fifty Years, 1841- Magnetic Induction, Prof. J. A. Ewing, F.R.S., 552 Medical Association, British, Sixteenth Annual Meeting, 298 Medicine, Atlas of Clinical, Byrom Bramwell, 389 Mediterranean, Varying Colours of the Waters of the, 84 Melander (G.), Expansion of Gases at Low Pressures, 602 Melanesian Submarine Plateau, the, an Alleged Submerged Continent, C. Hedley, 574 Melbourne, Royal Society of, Victoria, 239 Meldola (Prof. R., F.R.S.), Ethylene Derivatives of Diazo- amido Compounds, 189; New Method of Determining Number of NH, Groups in certain Organic Bases, 311 ; Coal Tar Colouring Matter, Gustav Schultz and Paul Julius, 313 ; a Modern Revival of Prout’s Hypothesis, Henry Wilde, F.R.S., 568 Meldrum (Dr. C., F.R.S.), the Hurricane in Mauritius, 128 Mendip Valley, a, its Inhabitants and Surroundings, Theodore Compton, 268 Menke (Dr. Theodor), Death of, 302 Mental Arithmetic, G. Daehne, 247 Mercator Chart, to Draw a, on One Sheet Representing the Whole of any Complexly Continuous Closed Surface, Lord Kelvin, P.R.S., 541 Mercator’s Projection, Generalization of, Performed by Aid of Electrical Instruments, Lord Kelvin, P.R.S., 490 Mercurial Pump, Bumping in the Lane Fox, 394 Mercury Mining in Russia, 86 Mercury, Thermal Variation of Electrical Resistance of, C. E. Guillaume, 508 Merriman (Prof. Mansfield), a Text-book on Retaining Walls and Masonry Dams, 415 Meslans (M. Maurice), Acetyl Fluoride prepared by, 40; the Nature and Chemical Behaviour of Acetyl Fluoride, 63 Metallurgy ; the Development of American Armour-plate, F. L. Garrison, 86; Sir F. Abel’s Presidential Address to the Iron and Steel Institute, 111 ; Experiments with Basic Steel, W. H. White, F.R.S., 114 the Production of Pure Iron in the Basic Furnace, Colonel H. S. Dyer, 114; the Elimination of Sulphur from Iron, Ball and Wingham, 115, E. Saniter, J. A. Stead, 527; Platinum Pyrometers, H. L. Callendar, 115; Prof. W. Spring’s Brass made by Compression, Mr. Behrens, 216; Metallic Carbonyls, Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., 230; on the Carburization of Iron, John Parry, 283 ; Experi- ments on the Electric Resistance of Metallic Powders, Dr. Dawson Turner, 384; Effect of Small Quantities of Foreign Matter on the Properties of Metals, Prof. Roberts Austen, 402 ; the Manufacture of Iron in its Relations with Agri- culture, Sir Lowthian Bell, 525; an Apparatus for Auto- ' graphically Recording the Temperature of Furnaces, Prof. W. C. Roberts-Austen, 526; the Alloys of Iron and Chromium, R. A. Hadfield, 526; Failures in the Necks of Chilled Rolls, C. A. Winder, 527; a New Chain-making (the **Triumph ”’) Machine, 527 Meteorology: the General Circulation of the Atmosphere, J. Carrick Moore, F.R.S., 7; the Week’s Weather, 13, 38, 61, 85, 108, 132, 159, 177, 209, 227, 254, 277, 299, 332, 361, 369, 399, 420, 449, 473, 493, 521, 548, 573, 594, 616; a New England Weather Service, 14; New Meteorological Obser- vatories at Chaman and Murree (India), 14; Magnetic Storm of February in the Mauritius, 20; Terrible Hurricane (April 29, 1892), in Mauritius, 84, 108; Dr. C. Meldrum, F.R.S., Mr. Jerningham, 277; Means of Producing Rain 1890, W. Ellis, 191 ; L’Atmosphére, a new Meteorological Journal, 209 ; a Solar Halo, J. Edmund Clark, 222 ; Wash- ington Weather Bureau Report for last Six Months of 1891, 228 ; Stags Smothered by Snow in Scotland last Winter, 228 ; American Meteorological Journal, 235, 435, 483 ; Meteorology in the Schools, Prof. W. M. Davis, 235 ; Thunderstorms in New England during 1886, R. de C. Ward, 235; Storm of March 1-4, 1892. J. W. Smith, 235 ; Flood-stage River Predictions, Prof. T. Russell, 235 ; Snow- storms at Chicago, A. B. Crane, 235 ; Climate and Meteoro- logy of Death Valley, California, 255 ; Deutsche Seewarte Meteorological Observations at Distant Stations, iv., 255 ; Dr. Etienne’s Meteorological Observations at Banana, Africa, 255; Diurnal Variations of Summer Barometric Readings in Polar Regions, Dr. Buchan, 262; Luminous Clouds, W. Clement Ley, 294 ; Invitation to Observe the Luminous Night Clouds, W. Foerster and Prof. O. Jesse, 575, 589; Pubbli- cazioni of the Vatican Observatory, vol. ii., 299; -Varia- tions of Temperature and Rainfall at Different Heights, Prof. J. Bute, 299; Project of Atlantic Ocean Observatories, Prince of Monaco, 312 ; the Sonnblick Observatory, 332; Aurora in Canada, 361; Dr. R. Assmann’s Aspiration Apparatus, 361 ; Report of Director of Hong Kong Observatory, 361 ; British Rainfall for 1891, 399; the Devonshire Blizzard of 1891, 399; Summary of Climate of British Empire for 1891, 399 ; Detailed Oceanography and Meteorology, 407; Advantages to Meteorology and Navigation of daily telegraphing Atmospheric Conditions of the North Atlantic to Europe, Prince of Monaco, 407; Investigations of New England — Meteorological Society, 420; Tornado of July 26, 1890, at St. Lawrence (Mass.), Helen Clayton, 420; Rainfall at Trinidad for Thirty Years ending 1891, F. H. Hart, 420; Appearance and Progressive Motion of Cyclones in Indian Region, W. L. Dallas, 435; the Eye of the Storm, zt to | 1, 1892 Index XX1X . Ballou, 435; Recent Efforts towards Improve- of Daily Weather Forecasts, H. H. Clayton, 435 ; th a High Barometer, Robt. M. W. Swan, 442; De- ve Wind-rush in Slavonia, Prof. Mohoroiéié, 450 ; in Coast-storms of 1878-87, E. Herrmann, 450 ; Ther- mics of the Atmosphere, Prof. von Bezold, 450; New 2s Rainfall during 1890, Mr. Russell, 473; Mete- of Perak for 1891, 473; Remarkable Rainfall in '3; Progress of Meteorology in United States, W. ford, 483 ; Winter Thunderstorms, Prof. W. M. 83; Atmospheric Depressions and their Analogy Movements of Sunspots, F. Howard Collins, 489 ; * Cape Colony Meteorological Commission for ; Tract of Drift of two Halves of Derelict Ship, 3. Taylor, 493; Annual Convention of American n of State Weather Services, 493; the Storms of _ B. von Nasackin, 521 ; the Treatment of Persons “4 Lightning, Dr. R. Assmann, 521; Relation of il to Climate, Prof. E. W. Hilgard, 521 ; the White Rain- , M. Mascart, 532, 555 ; Cirro-Stratus, J. Porter, 541 ; > Meteorological Observations on Pic du Midi, , 548; Curious Instance of Globular Lightning, erstorms in New England during 1887, R. de d, 5555 Effect of Topography on Thunderstorms, R. t, 555 ; Timchenco’s Anemometer, Prof. Klossovsky, Annuaire of Montsouris Observatory, 1892-93, 594; a ation of a, L. Simon, 48 ef Central Pennsylvania, Chemical Analysis of, W. G. Owens, 67 the Culture of Sisal Grass in, 63 Dicovery of Onyx Deposits in, 495 f. L. C.), the Surface-film of Water and its Relation Life of Plants and Animals, 7 n (Prof. A.), the Application of Interference Methods ectroscopic Measurement, 385 Acorn-eating Birds of, Dr, Morris Gibbs, 495 ic and Photographic Measures, Refraction in, Dr. S. ler, 401 isms in their Relation to Chemical Change, Prof. Frankland, F.R.S., 135 isms of the Soil, Prof. Alfred Springer, 576 Prof. Penhallow’s Improved Method of Labelling ; the Deep-Sea Deposits of the Eastern Archi- o, P. W. Bassett-Smith, 69; the Use of the Camera in Dra Bacteria, Dr. E. Giltay, 69; the Micro- of Alloys, Behrens, 72 ; the Process of Ovi- on as observed in Cattle Tick, R. T. Lewis, 165; enetration in the Microscope, E. M. Nelson, 163 ; the Ob- _ servation of Rings and Brushes of Crystals, E. M. Nelson, 165; the Microscope’s Contributions to the Earth’s Physical ¢ iaiory, Prof. T. G. Bonney, F.R.S., 180; Quarterly of Microscopical Sciences, 338 ; a new Branchiate hete (Branchiura sowerbyi), ¥. E. Beddard, 338 ; nt-cells of the Retina, I. S, Boden and F. C. Spranson, Primitive Segmentation of Vertebrate Brain, B. H. 39; Osculaand Anatomy of Leucosolenia clathrus, _ A. Minchin, 339; Innervation of Cerata of some Nudi- branchiata, Dr. W. A. Herdman and J. A. Clutt, 339; the -M scope and Histology for the Use of Laboratory Students in the Anatomical Department of the Cornell University, ‘Simson Henry Gage, W. H. Dallinger, 440 “Micule cu (C.), a Re-determination of the Mechanical Equiva- lent of Heat, 618 ula (Dr. W.), Bacteriologisches Practicum zur Einfiihrung _ die practischwichtigen bacteriologischen untersuchungs- ~methoden fiir Aerzte, Apotheker, Studirende, Mrs. Grace C, Frankland, 198 ‘ilanji, Mount, in Nyassaland, Alexander Whyte, 482 itar hy, Colonel J. F. Maurice on, 14 <, the Antiseptic Properties of, Herr Winternitz, 550 1(Dr. Hugh Robt.), Time Standards of Europe, 174 (Prof. John, F.R.S., the Great Earthquake in Japan, 1891, 4; Dust Storm at Sea, 128 jicry, the Alleged Aggressive, of Vo/uce//z, William Bateson, Min cry, Protective, Rose Haig Thomas, 612 Minchin (E. A.), Oscula and Anatomy of Lezcosolenia clathrus - 339 ; a Plea for an International Zoological Record, 367 Mineralogy: Mineralogy, Dr. F. H. Hatch, 149; the System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana, 1837-68, Descriptive Mineralogy, Edward Salisbury Dana, 217; Polybasite and Tennantite from Colorado, S. L. Penfield and S. H. Pearce, 310 ; Synthesis of Crocoite and Phoenicochroite, C. Ludeking, 311 ; Specific Heat and Latent Heat of Fusion of Aluminium, J. Pionchon, 312; Diamond Robbery from South African Museum, 332; Discovery of Onyx Deposit in Mexico, 495 ; the Tin District in Burma, H. Warth, 522; the Amber and Jade Mines of Upper Burma, Dr. Noetling, 549, 550; Geikielite and Baddeleyite, two new Mineral Species, L. Fletcher, F.R.S., 620 Mines and Mining at the Chicago Exhibition, 178, 601 Mining, Coal: Model illustrating Phenomena of Explosions through Dust Particles, in explanation of Colliery Explosions, Prof. T. E. Thorpe, 44; Miner’s Safety Lamp converted into Instrument for detecting Coal-damp, Prof. Clowes, 44 Mining Engineers, Federated Institution of, 131 Mining, Mercury, in Russia, 86 Minor Planets, Photography and, 576 Mirage, Experimental Illustration of, J. M. de Lépinay and A. _ Perot, 617 Mississippi Kiver, Commissioners Report on the, Levees, 65 Mitchell (F. S.), the Birds of Lancashire, 540 Mivart (Dr. St. George, F.R.S.), Exsays and Criticisms, 265 ; the Grammar of Science, 269; the Limits of Animal In- telligence, 466 Mizon (Lieut.), Explorations in Africa, 110 Mockler-Ferryman (Captain A. F.), Up the Niger, 512 Modigliani’s (Dr. Elio) Recent Explorations in Central Sumatra and Engano, Prof. Henry H. Giglioli, 565 Moeris, Lake, Henry Brugsch Pasha, 15 Moissan (H.), Determination of Density of Gases, 288 ; Boron Trisulphide, 340; Boron Pentasulphide, 364 ; Proto-iodide of Carbon, 312 Molisch (Dr. H.), Iron in Plants, 255; Die Pflanze in ihren Beziehungen zum Eisen, 512 Mombello (Prof. di), Trattato di Fisico-Chimica secondo la Teoria Dinamica, 439 Monaco (Prince of), Project of Atlantic Ocean Observatories, 312; Oceanography, 406; North Atlantic, 406 ; Advantages to Meteorology and Navigation of daily telegraphing Atmospheric Conditions of the North Atlantic to Europe 07 Mond (Ludwig, F.R.S.), Metallic Carbonyls, 230 Mondesir (P. de), Existence in Earth of an Acid Mineral Sub- stance as yet Undetermined, 387 Mongoose, Official Denial of Reported intention of U.S. Government to Introduce, to Exterminate Troublesome Rodents in West, 39 ; Monkeys, the Speech of, Prof. R. L. Gardner, 451; R. L. Garner, C. Ll. Morgan, 509 Monocotyledons, Observations on Secondary Tissues in, Dr. Scott and Mr. Brebner, 554 Mont Dore, Curious Basalt Cavern at, M. Martel, 400 Montenegro, Dr. Hassert, 453 Monti’s (Dr.) Experiments on Absorption of Oxygen by Tissues after Death, 263 Montsouris Observatory, Annuaire of, 594 Moody (G. T.), Sulphonic Acids derived from Anisoils (i.), 94 Mon, the Late Partial Eclipse of the, 64 Moon, the Cause of the Absence of Water and Air from the, Dr. G. J. Stoney, F.R.S., 71 Moon, Observations of the, Mr. Stone, 179 Moon, Bright Streaks on the Full, Prof. Pickering, 476 Moore (J. Carrick, F.R.S.), the General Circulation of the Atmosphere, 7 Moore (J. E. S.), on the Relationships and Réle of the Archo- plasmic Body during Mitosis in the Larval Salamander, oO. Masbolonys Pancreatic Diabetes, Lancereaux and Thiroloix, 412; the Life of Cholera-Germs, Dr. Daremberg, 436 ; a New Chemical Function of the Comma Bacillus of Asiatic Cholera, J. Ferran, 436; Treatment of Cancer and Cholera by Testiculary Liquid, M. Brown-Séquard, 484; Places of Origin of Cholera Epidemics, J. D, Tholozan, 555 ; Carceag, an Enzootic Disease of Sheep in Rumania, V. Babes, 436 ; Bacterian Origin of Bilious Fever of Hot Countries, Domin- XXX ludex if auaplames to Nature, : December 1, 1892 4 gos Freire, 460 ; Physiology of Epilepsy, M. Brown-Séquard, 507 Morgan (Prof, Lloyd), the Method of Comparative Psychology, 404; the Limits of Animal Intelligence, 417 ; the Speech of Monkeys, R. L. Garner, 509 Morin (J.), a New Form. of Induction Apparatus, 484 Moritz (E. R.), Note on Diastatic Action, 142 Morley (Forster), and M. M. Pattison Muir, Watts’ Dictionary of Chemistry, Sir H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S., 242 Morphology: Anatomy, Physiology, Morphology, and Develop- ment of the Blow-fly (Cadliphora erythrocephala), B. Thomp- son Lowne, 267; the Apodidz, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., 267; Henry M. Bernard, 267, 366; Notes on the Morphology of the Spore-bearing Members in the Vascular Cryptogams, Prof. F. O. Bower, 555 Morse (E. S,), the Older Forms of Terra-Cotta Roofing Tiles, 474 Moscow, Remarkable Aurore Boreales over, 39 Moscow International Congresses of Prehistoric Archeology and Zoology, the Coming, 108 Moscou, Bulletin de la Société des Naturalistes de, 236 Moss, on the Simplest Form of, Prof. Goebel, 554 Mosso (Prof. Angelo), the Temperature of the Brain, 17 Moth (Deiogeia pulchella) in Malta, abundance of, A. C. Gatto, 474 Moth, Diamond-back, appearance in Yorkshire and Northum- berland of, 108 Moths of the World, W. F. Kirby, 487 Motion in the Line of Sight, W. W. Campbell, 64 Motion, the Laws of, Part II., Prof. Tait, 262 Motion, Life in, or Muscle and Nerve, John Gray McKendrick, -R.S., 583 Mott (Albert C.), the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, 77, Mountaineering Party in the Himalayas, Mr. sigsiy f S, 525 Mountains ; Measurement of Mount Orizaba, by J. T. Scovell, 598 Mouchez- (Admiral), Paris Observatory Report, 86; Death of, 208 ; Obituary Notice of, 253 Mud Springs, Australian, Prof, Edgeworth David, 256 Muggenburg (Dr. S. S. von), Death of, 14 Muir (M. M. Pattison) and Forster Morley, Watts’ Dictionary of Chemistry, Sir H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S., 242 we? (John), a Pocket-book of Electrical Rules and Tables, 486 Munro (John M. H.), Soils and Manures, 125 Munro (Dr. R.), the Recent Discovery of an Ancient Lake- Village in Somersétshire, 617 Murray (G.), Marine Floras of the Warm Atlantic and Indian Ocean, 405 Muscles, Experiments to Determine Cause of Difference in Latent Period in Direct and Indirect Stimulation of, Dr. Boruttau, 96 Muscular Contraction, Method of Recording Curves of, Prof. McKendrick, F.R.S., 404 Museum of Anatomy at Pennsylvania University, Endowment by General Wister of, 38 Museum of Perthshire Society of Natural Science, 472 Museum Question, the, Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., 280 Museum, South African, Diamond Robbery from, 332 Museums Association, Annual Meeting of, 276 Musgrove (Dr. J.), the Blood-vessels and Lymphatics of the Retina, 404 Music: an Ethnological Enquiry into the Basis of our Musical System, Dr. Wallaschek, 238 Musical Instruments, Women and, Otis T. Mason, 561 Musical Sands, T. S. Hall, 279 Musical Sand and Lava in the Bournemouth Drift, Cecil Carus- Wilson, 316 Mustakh Exploration, the, H. H. Godwin Austen, 464 Myeloxylon from the Millstone Grit and Coal-Measures, A. C. Seward, 555 Myers (F. W. H.), International Congress of Experimental Feychology, 261 ; Hallucination by Crystal Vision, 363 Myers (W. S.), Production of Pyridine Derivatives from Lactone of Triacetic Acid, 311 Myristica of British India, the Species of, G. King, F.R.S., 122 Myxogastres, a Monograph of the, George Massee, 365 Nacreous Cloud of January 30, the Height of the, J. Edmui Clark, 127 ee Nadaillay (Marquis de), the Baouss¢ Roussé Caves, 574 Nalder (F. H.), a New Ballistic Galvanometer, 93 Naphtha, Damage to Volga Fisheries by, 421 Naples Academy of Sciences, 162 Naples, the Contamination of the Street Surface of large Cities, | with special reference to, Dr. L. Manfredi, 163 Nasackin (B. von), the Storms of the Baltic, 521 Natal Observatory, 362 National Home Reading Society, the, 84 4 National Physical’ Laboratory, Discussion ona, Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S., 382 ; Mr. Glazebrook, 383 ; Prof. von Helm- — holz, 383; Lord Kelvin, F.R.S., 3833 Prof. Riicker, 383 ; Prof. Fitzgerald, 383 ‘- Natural History : John Hancock, Dr. Embleton, 255 ; London Entomological Natural History Society, ; Excur-— sion of Victoria Field Naturalists’ Club to the Grampians _ ' the Essex Field Club, 132; Bulletin de la | Société des Naturaliste de Moscou, 236; Norfolk and | Norwich Naturalists’ Society, 450 ; Tmprovement in British | Museum Natural History Collection, 473; Trinidad Field Naturalists’ Club, 522; Manchester Field Naturalists’ and ( Australia), 63; Archeeologists’ Society’ s Visit to Buxton, 549 ; the Alleged _ ‘* Aggressive Mimicry” of Volucelie, William Bateson, 585 5 Natural Selection and Alternative Hypothesis, F. E. cine 5 F.R.S., Edward B. Poulton, F.R.S., 533 Navajo Indians, Evolution of House-building among the, Dr. Shufeldt, 451 Navy, Electricity in, H. E, Deadman, 337 we Nebraska Sugar-Schools, the, 210 i i Nebula, Photographs of the Lyra Ring, Prof. Denza, 41 Nebula, the Trapezium in the Orion, Dr. L. Ambronn, 334 Nebule, Mr. Burnham, 87 Nebule, Catalogue of, 135 Nebule, Variable, E. E. Barnard, 211 Nebular Spectrum of Nova Aurigze, Ralph Copaiimaae 464 Nebulous Star, a New, E. E. Barnard, 279 Necropoleis in the Pyrenees and in North Britain, on am seri larity of Certain Ancient, Dr. J. S. Phené, 432 Neesen’s (Prof.) Researches on Motion of Loose Disks on Axis : Rotating at High Speeds, 168 Nelson (E. M.), Penetration in the popes 164 ; the Ob- — servation of Rings and Brushes of Crystals, 165. Nemertine, Freshwater, Note on the Occurrence of a, in Eng- : land, W. Blaxland Benham, 611 Neptune, a Planet beyond, Prof. Forbes, 179; Mr. Roberts, © 179 pierre: Growth and Structure of Shell in, B. B. Woodward, 215 Nervous Complaints, a Shaking Cure for, Dr. Charcot, 451 Neutral Point in the Pendulum, Wm. Flinders Petrie, 293 New England during 1887, Thonderstorms i in, R. de C. Ward, 1887, 555 * New Guinea, Sir Wm. Macgregor’s Explorations in, 110; the — Piratical Tugere Tribe in, 258 New South Wales: a New Method of Rabbit-Destruction in, 161; Perfume-Flower-Farming in, 161; Royal Society of . New South Wales, 191 ; the Carob-bean Tree in, F. Turner, . 210; Fine Specimen of Saw Fish, Mr. Pedley, 257; New — . South Wales Rainfall during 1890, Mr. Russell, 473 New York Mathematical Society’s Bulletin, 68, 236, 435 New York State, Execution by Electricity in, Dr. ou: donald, 256 New Zealand: Miss C. F. Gordon-Cumming’s story AR : {i irds Volcanic District in, 254; Sub-fossil Bones of Extinct of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, H. O. Forbes, 404 5 Native New Zealand Birds, Earl of Onslow, 502; New Zea- | land a of Observing Earthquake Phenomena, G. Hog- ben Newall ah F.), Nova Aurige, 489 Newton (Prof. Alfred, F.R.S.), Range of the Sanderling in Winter, 177, 222 Newton (E. T.), Palzeontological Papers, 428 — Rings, on a New Method of Viewing, T. C. Porter, Wineice Falls to Buffalo, Mr. George Forbes, and the Cataract ac- \ the Pliocene Mollusca of, Prof. F. W. Hutton, 474; : 4 t to org ber 1, 1892 Index XXxXi ruction Company for the Transmission of Electrical from, 84 (E. L.), the Age-coating in Incandescent Lamps, 627 i (Prof. G.), the Origin of the Ancient Egyptians, 162 p the, Capt. A. F. Mockler-Ferryman, 512 rganisms, R. Warington, F.R.S., 151; Prof. Percy n , F.R.S., 200 Burning, W. Crookes, F.R.S., 185 ; Density of, Lord F.R.S., 512 . J.), Elementary Plane Trigonometry, 488 jor-General), Death of, 84 Wild Strawberries in Ceylon, 494 orthe Hon. E.), International Time, 423 Dr.), the Amber and Jade Mines of Upper Burma, re, the International Conference on Chemical, _E. Armstrong, F.R.S., 56 menclature of Units, Discussion on the, Prof. Oliver J. rdge, F.R.S., 383 iclature, Rules of, W. A. Herdman, 417 Hk Norwich Naturalists’ Society, 450 America, Longmans’ School Geography for, Geo. Chis- Im and C. H. Leete, 585 Atlantic, Prince of Monaco, 406 Sea Fisheries, the ; Mr. E. W. L. Holt’s Investigations, Handbook for Travellers in, 390 y and Sweden, Fall of Hail and Dust in, 108 urigee, 400; Prof. Konkoly, 17; Rev. A. Freeman, Rev. T. E. Espin, 476; Prof. Kiistner, 476; H. F. , 489; Dr. F. Ristenpart, 496; Herr Cand. F. 496; Prof. E. E. Barnard, 496 ; H. Seelinger, , soeposty, 552, 576; Dr. J. Holetschek, 576; agnitudes of, J. M. Schaeberle, 423 ; Nebular ectrum of, Ralph Copeland, 464 ; the Spectrum of, Herr E. Gothard, 620 ‘otia, Fossil Entomology of, Sir J. W. Dawson, F.R.S., . Scotian Institute of Sciences, 550 on the Functions, Staining Reactions and Structures of, n, on the Affinity of, for Iron and other Substances, Prof. ui Fit the Vegetable Cell, Experimental Observations on the Functions of the, Dr. J. Clark, 404 ‘lumbering the Hours of the Day, T. W. Backhouse, 392 ion of Asteroids, 372 Giornale Botanico Italiano, 90, 436 , Exhibition at, by the German Mathematical Asso- On nd, Industrial Resources of, John Buchanan, 407 aland, Mount Milanji in, Alexander Whyte, 482 jjectives, Mounting of, Prof. G. E. Hale, 452 ervations of Klinkerfues Reduced, the, Prof. Wilhelm Schur, +) a ee servatories : Paris Observatory Report, Admiral Mouchez, ; Annual Visitation of the Greenwich Observatory, 156 ; Mr. W. E. Plummer appointed Director of Liverpool Observa- ory, 276; Yale College Observatory Report, Mr. Brown, Dr. Elkin, 280; Vatican Pubblicazioni, vol. ii., 299; Madras servi » 301 ; Oxford Univer-ity Observatory, 301 ; Solar vations at the R. Osservatorio del Collegio Ro- 10, Prof. Tacchini, 334: Natal Observatory, _ Staff at the Lick Observatory, 452: Daytime ng at the Lick Observatory, Henry Crew, 465; Observatories, 476; Harvard Observatory, Appeal for nations to Construct Great Refracting Telescope, E. C. ckering, 548; Report of Mr. Tebbutt’s Observatory, 576 ; _ Meteorological Observatories: the Sonnblick, 332; Hong Kong Observatory, Report of Director, 361 un Currents at Chicago Exhibition, Model of, 451 nic Circulation, Preliminary Account of, based on the Observations, Dr. A. Buchan, 383 phy, Prince of Monaco, 406 phy, Chemical, 408 ography, Detailed, and Meteorology, 407 3a University, Memoirs of Mathematical Section of, 236 Odling (W.), London Water Supply for September, 1892, 617 Off (Hussein), Masrite and Masrium, 94 Ogilvie (F. Grant), the Edinburgh Meeting of the British Asso- ciation, 270 Ogilvie (Miss), Landslips in the South Tyrol, 428 Oil as a Wave-Calmer, 22 Oleomargarin, Prof. G. C. Caldwell, 522 Oliver (Prof. F. W.), Damage to Plants from London Fog, 185 Oliver (Major-General), 2 Mean Time Sun-dial, 230 Olivier (M. Louis), La Canalisation des Cellules et la Continuité de la Matiére vivante chez les Végétaux et les Animaux, 404 Olivet (M.), Electric Heating for Conservatories, 522 Omori (F.), Comparison of Earthquake Measurements in a Pit and on the Surface, 8 Onslow (Earl of), Native New Zealand Birds, 502 Onyx, Deposits in Mexico, Discovery of, 495 Ophidia, Alimentation in, Léon Vaillant, 364 Opposition of Mars, 258, 400; J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S.,. 443 Optics: Apparatus for Measuring Colour-Blindness, Brudenell Carter, 44 ; on a New Method of Viewing Newton’s Rings, T. C. Porter, 80; an Unit of Measurement of Light and Colour, T. W. Lovibond, 93; Reflection and Refraction of Light from a Magnetized Transparent Medium, A. B. Bas- set, F.R.S., 191; a Treatise on Physical Optics, A. B. Bas- sett, F.R.S. ; Arthur Schuster, 267 ; Basset’s Physical Optics, A. B. Basset, 315 ; Refraction of Rays of Great Wave-length in Rocksalt, Sylvine and Fluorspar, Rubens and Snow, 483 ; Reflection and Transmission of Light in Certain AZolotropic Structures, H. E. J. G. du Bois, 483 ; the Optical Indicatrix and the Transmission of Light in Crystals, L. Fletcher, 581 ; Some Optical [llusions, Dr. Joseph Jastrow, 590: Optical Projection, Sir David Salomon, 625 ; the Polarization of Light of Various Colours by Atmosphere, N. Piltschikoff, 627 ; the: Reflection of Light by Moving Bodies, H. A. Lorentz, 628 Oraefa Jokuell, the First Ascent of, F. W. W. Howell, 406 Orchids of Grenada, the, Mr. R. V. Sherring’s Collections,. 00 Giiaince Maps of Great Britain, the, 135 O’Reilly (Prof. J. P.), the Former Connection of Southern Con- tinents, IOI Organisms, the Nitric, Prof. Percy F. Frankland, F.R.S., 230 Orientalists, the International Congress of, 107, 456, 472 Orientation ; Stone Circles, the Sun, and the Stars, A. L. Lewis, 12 Origin of Land Animals, W. J. Sollas, 271 Origin of the Year, J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., 104 Orion Nebula, the Trapezium in the, Dr. L. Ambronn, 334 Orizaba (Mount), Measurement by J. T. Scovell of, 598 Orleans (Prince Henry of), Returnof, 180 - Ormerod (Eleanor A.), a Text-Book of Agricultural Entom- ology, 561 Ormsby (George), the Eruption at Sangir, 457 Ornithology: Imitation Habits of Starling, 15; the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Albert C. Mott, 77 ; the Range of the Sanderling in Winter, Prof. Alfred Newton, F.R.S., 177, 222; Curious Case of Malformation in Beak of Indian. Parrakeet, Captain D. Phillott, 190 ; Malta’s Spring Visitors, 210; Aphanapteryx and other Remains in the Chatham Islands, Henry O. Forbes, 252 ; the Birds of Sutherland and Caithness, T. E. Buckley, 279; Ridgway on the Humming- birds, R. W. Shufeldt, 465 ; Acorn-eating Birds of Michigan, Dr. Morris Gibbs, 495 ; Native New Zealand Birds, Earl of Onslow, 502 ; the Question of Legislative Protection for Wild Birds’ Eggs, E. P. Knubley, 595; the Birds of Lancashire, F. S. Mitchell, 540; a Siberian Pectoral Sandpiper Killed at Yarmouth, 549; the British Ornithologists’ Union, 572 ; the Madagascar Pratincole at the Zoological Gardens, 616 Osborne (Henry F.), Palzonictis in the American Lower Eocene, 30 Osteology of Vertebrated Animals, Catalogue of the Specimens Illustrating the, Recent and Extinct, contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, R. Bowdler Sharpe, 125 Osteometry, Human, Sir William Turner, 433 Ostwald’s Klassiker der Exacten Wissenschaften, 391 O’Sullivan (J.), Hydrolytic Functions of Yeast, 190 Owens (Prof. W. G.), Chemical Analysis of Meteorite from South Pennsylvania, 67 E XXX Lndex ‘ig upplement to Nature, December 1, 1892 ‘Oxford, Dr. J. S. B. Sanderson appointed Waynflete Professor of Physiology at, 37 ‘Oxford University Junior Scientific Club, 71, 95, 262 Oxford University Observatory, 301 ‘Oxygen, the Atomic Weight of, Robert Lehfeldt, 151 “Oxygen, Investigation of the Phenomena which accompany the Burning of Carbon and Phosphorus in, H. Brereton Baker, 431 vOxygen and Hydrogen, on the Relative Densities of, Lord Rayleigh, Sec.R.S., 101 ‘Pacific, Further Notes on a Recent Volcanic Island in the, Captain W. J. L. Wharton, F.R.S., 611 Pacific, Central, Gilbert Islands brought under British Pro- tection 477 ‘Pacific Coast Fisheries, United States, 63 ‘Packard (Dr. Adolphus S.), the Labrador Coast, 462 Padua, Proposed Festival in Honour of Galileo at, 572 \Paleography, Alleged Discovery by Cyrus Thomas of the Key to the Central American Inscriptions, 160; Discovery of an ‘Ancient Sanscrit Birch Bark Manuscript by Lieutenant ‘Power, Dr. Hoernle, 370 ; Alleged Decipherment of the Easter Island Inscriptions, Dr. A. Carroll, 494 Paleolithic Man discovered in Hermann’s Cave (Harz), Inter- esting Trace of, 39 ‘Paleolithic Weapons in Scotland, on the Discovery of the Common Occurrence of, Rev. Frederick Smith, 432 ‘Palzonictis in the American Lower Eocene, Henry F. Osborn, 30 ‘Paleontology: the Baoussé Roussé Caves, Marquis de Nadaillay, 574; Discovery of Australian-like Mammals in ‘South America, R. Lydekker, 11; Palzonictis in the Ame- ‘rican Lower Eocene, Henry F. Osborn, 30; Delphino- _gnathus conocephalus, Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., 166; Further Evidence of Endothiodon bathystoma, Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., 166; the Discovery of Mammoth Remains in Endsleigh Street, Dr. Henry Hicks, F.R.S., 166; Aphan- apteryx and other Remains in the Chatham Islands, Henry -O. Forbes, 252; Analysis of Fossil Bones from the Natchez Bluff, Mississippi, Dr. Thomas Wilson, 255; Remarkable -Specimen of Belonostomus from Queensland, R. Etheridge, _jun., 256; the Tertiary Rhynchophora of North America, S. H. Scudder, 256; the Washington Collection of Fossil Vertebrates, R. Lydekker, 295; the Pythonomorphs of France, Albert Gaudry, 387; Application of Chemical Analysis for Fixing Age of Prehistoric Human Remains, Adolph Carnot, 412 ;° Paleontological Papers, E. T. Newton, M. Laurie, 428; the Deep Dale Bone Cave near Buxton, J. J. Fitzpatrick, 521 03 ‘Paleozoic Rocks, Prof. Sollas, Prof. Bonney, 428 Pantelleria, Sponge Deposits discovered near, 474 Paoletti (G.), Movements of Leaves of Porlieria hygrometrica, go Palestine, Progress of the Akka-Damascus Railway, 279 Parabolas, an Instrument for Drawing, R. Inwards, 93 Paraffin, Death from, and Members of Parliament, 223 ‘Paraguay, the Land and the People, Natural Wealth and Com- mercial Capabilities, Dr. E. de Bourgade La Dardye, 488 Paris Academy of Sciences, 24, 47, 71, 96, 119, 144, 167, 192, 215, 240, 262, 288, 312, 339, 364, 387, 412, 436, 460, 484, 507, 532, 555, 580, 603, 627 Paris Free Libraries, the, Alderman W. H. Bailey, 617 Paris Observatory Report, Admiral Mouchez, 86 ‘Parker (E. H.), Tidal Phenomenon at Kiungchow, Hainan, China, 63; the Non-Chinese Dialects of Hainan, 179 Parmentier (F.), a New Case of Abnormal Solution ; Decrease of Solubility of Ethyl Bromide in Ether, with Increase of Temperature, 48 Parrot (G.), a Property of Lamellar Bimetallic Conductors submitted to Electromagnetic Induction, 387 ‘Parry (John), on the Carburization of Iron, 283 ‘Passy (Jacques), Odoriferous Properties of Fatty Alcohols, 96 Pathology: the Bearing of Pathology upon the Doctrine of the Transmission of Acquired Characters, Henry J. Tylden, 302 Paul (William), Contributions to Horticultural Literature, Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, F.R.S., 582 Pavloff (Prof. A.), the Cephalopods found in the Speeton Clays, 257 Peabody Institute of Baltimore, Report of, 398 ‘Philadelphia Loan Collection of Objects used in Worship, 84 . 3 Peach and Horne (Messrs. ), on the Radiolarian Chert of Arenig Age, 428; Glacial Papers, 428 a | Pearce (S. H.), Polybasite and Tennantite from Colorado, 310 Pearl Fishery of Gulf of California, C. H. Townsend, 333 Pearl-shell Diving at Tahiti, A. G. Howes, 301 Pearson (Prof. Karl), the Grammar of Science, 97, 199, 247 Peary Expedition, the Relief of the, 476 a Peckham (G. W.), a Wave of Wasp-life, 611 § Peddie (Dr. William), a Manual of Physics, 52; Experimental Proof that the Coefficient of Absorption is not affected by — Density of Illumination, 385 4 Pedicularis of the Indian Empire, the Species of, D, Prain, 122 Pedley (Mr.), Fine Specimen of Saw Fish, New South Wales, | 257 Peek (Cuthbert E.), Variable Star T Cassiopeize, 443 Penck’s (Prof.) Proposed New Map of the Globe, 407 Pendulum on its Plane of Suspension, Nature of Rotation of | Knife-edge of, G. Defforges, 263 F Pendulum, Neutral Point in the, Wm. Flinders Petrie, 293 \ | / Penfield (S. L.), Polybasite and Tennantite from Colorado, © 310 Penhallow (Prof.), an Improved Method of Labelling Slides, i | 6 Pennavignale University, Endowment by General Wister of Ki Museum of Anatomy at, 38 7 Pennsylvania, Devastation by Storm of Petroleum District, 133 _ Pensions, Civil List, for year ending June 20, 1892, 254 2 Peptone, Quantitative Deterraination of, L. A. Hallopteau, 436 — Perak during 1891, Meteorology of, 473 Perigaud (M.), Influence of Place of External Thermometer in - Observations of Zenith Distances, 263 - Hy Periodic Effect which the Size of the Bubbles has on their — Speed of Ascent in Vertical Tubes containing Liquid, A, Dr. F, T. Trouton, 385 Bs se) eae Periodic Variations of Alpine Glaciers, F. A. Forel, 386 Peripatus from St. Vincent, R. I. Pocock, 100 ; é Peripatus, the Oviparity of the Larger Victorian, Dr. Dendy, — 2 Petipaial Re-discovered in Jamaica, M. Grabham and T. D. A. — Cockerell, 514 Jae ’ Perkin (W. H.), the Magnetic Rotation of Compounds supposed — to contain Acetyl or of Ketonic Origin, 141 Perot (A.), the Measurement of the Dielectric Constant, 312 ; — Experimental IlJustration of Mirage, 617 is Perrotin (M.), Observations of the Planet: Mars, 482 j Perry (John), Spinning Tops, 4 a Perseids, the, W. F. Denning, 371 ges Perseids, the, J‘ Edmund Clark, 442 Be Persia, M. J. Bornmiiller’s Botanical Exploring Expedition in, — 2 pow Ideas in China, Rev. Dr. Edkins, 522 Personality, Alterations of, Alfred Binet, 219 ; Perthshire Society of Natural Science, Museum of, 472 Pests, Insect ; Appearance of the Diamond-back Moth in York- shire and Northumberland, 108 5 Petrie (Wm. Flinders), Neutral Point in the Pendulum, 293 - Petroleum District, Pennsylvania, Devastation by Storms of, — 2 a = = Ee ot | I Reitilauk Engines for Fog Signalling, D. A. Stevenson, 430 Petroleum Trade, the Caucasus, 333 a Petrological Papers, Messrs. Ussher, Goodchild, Harker, Teall — and Somerville, 428 | Pettersson (Prof.), on the Hydrography of the Kattegat and Baltic, 408 Pflanze in ihren Beziehungen zum Molisch, 512 Pharyngeal Teeth in the Labride, Development of the, Prof. E. E. Prince, 405 2 oe. Phené (Dr. J. S.), on the Similarity of Certain Ancient ~ Necropoleis in the Pyrenees and in North Britain, 432, Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences Expedition to — Greenland in 1891, Insects taken by, 40 Eisen, die, Dr. Hans im | Philadelphia, Zoological Society of, 133 : if Philippine Islands, Geographical Distribution of the Land- — Mollusca of the, Rev. A. H. Cooke, 142 bi a Philippine Islands: Volcanic Eruption at Great Sangir, 287, 299, 332 ae Philippon (G.), Effect of Sudden Release on Animals placed in ~ Compressed Air, 312 a ment to se ber 1, 1892 Lnaex XXXiil ott (Captain D.), Curious Case of Malformation in Beak ian Parrakeet, 190 zy: Alleged Discovery by Mr. Cyrus Thomas of the to the Central American Inscriptions, 160; Fuegan uages, Dr. Brinton, 278 phische Studien, Wundt’s, 133 n (T. L.), Fossil Wood containing Fluoride, 580 te ope for use with the Electric Spark, Lenard’s, raphy: Beginner’s Guide to Photography, 6; Photo- phy in Colours, 12; Mr. John Carbutt on Results d by Mr. F. E. Ives in Colour Photography, 13 ; the ography of Colours, G. Lippmann, 24; Colour Photo- , Prof. Vogel’s Method, 263; Photographic and 1 Magnitudes of Stars, Prof. J. C. Kapteyn, 41 ; Photo- of the Lyra Ring Nebula, Prof. Denza, 41; Photo- ns of Flying Bullets, Mr. Boys, 45; Photographs of Reefs and Marine Fauna of Great Barrier District of ralia, W. Saville-Kent, 45 ; Photographic Measures of leiades, 161 ; Method of Examination of Photographic ctives at Kew Observatory, Major L. Darwin, 188; the ocess of Enlarging, J. A. Hodges, 210 ; Proposed National stographic Record Survey, W. J. Harrison, 209; Lunar Of aphy, Dr. L. Weinek, Prof. Holden, 257; Dr. ses Photographs of Sun-Spots, 258; Photographic Map the Heavens, 274; Photographic Chart of the Heavens, C. Russell, 576; Refraction in Micrometric and Photo- phic Measures, Dr. S. C. Chandler, 401; Photography Surveying, Colonel Tanner, 407; Determination of Long tude by Photography, Dr. H. Schlichter, 407 ; Photo- _ graphic Magnitudes of Nova Aurige, J. M Schaeberle, 423 ; otography of Spectra in Natural Colours, H. Krone, 449 ; : oueen of Solar Phenomena, Prof. G. E. Hale, 452; ar Photography, Prof. G. E. Hale, 455 ; Traité Encyclo- de Photographie, Charles Fabre, 464 ; Minor Planets ' Photography, 576 ; Discovery of Three New Planets by Photography, 619; Mr. J Gaultier’s System of Photographic Surveying, 525 ; Photographic Dry Plates, 588 ; Researches in Stellar Parallax by the Aid of Photography, Prof. Charles Pritchard, F.R.S., 612 Photometric Observations of the Sun and Sky, William Bren- and, 284 ycological Memoirs, 75 ysics: On a decisive Test-Case disproving the Maxwell- ‘olizmann Doctrine respecting distribution of Kinetic , 21; Physical Society, 23. 93, 164, 214, 236, 263 ; a Proposition in the Kinetic Theory of Gases, Rev. H. . Watson, F.R.S., 29 ; Waterston’s Theory of Gases, 30; Manual of Physics, William Peddie, 52; a Question in ‘Physics, Prof. H. A. Hazen, 55; Radiation of Atmospheric ir, C. C. Hutchins, 67; Atmospheric Radiation of Heat and its Importance in Meteorology, Prof. Cleveland Abbe, 67; the Cause of the Absence of Hydrogen from the Earth’s Atmosphere and of Water and Air from the Moon, Dr. G, J. Stoney, F.R.S., 71; Mathematics used in Physics, Victor Von Lange, 73; Lord Kelvin’s Test-Case on the Maxwell- EA mann Law, Edw. B. Culverwell, 76; on some Pheno- mena connected with Cloudy Condensation, J hn Aitken, _ F-.R.S., 90; the Potential of an Anchor Ring, F. W. L’yson, 2; Study of Physical and Chemical Phenomena under nfluence of very Low Temperatures, Raoul Pictet, 144; a _ means of bringing Two Non-miscible Liquids into Intimate _ Contact in definite proportions, Paul Marix, 144; Historical Summary of our Knowledge of the Connection between Ether and Matter, Prof. O. J. Lodge, F.R S., 164; the Hypothesis __ of a Liquid Condition of the Earth’s Interior considered in connection with Darwin’s theory of the Genesis of the Moon, d Fisher, 166; Prof. Neesen’s Researches on motion of J.oose Disks on Axis Rotating at High Speeds, 168 ; Relation of Dimensions of Physical Quantities to Directions in Space, W. Williams, 237; Variations in Temperatures of. Water _ suddenly compressed to 500 atmospheres between 0° and 10°, Paul Galopin, 240; Elements of Physic, C. E. Fessenden, - 245; Experiments at the Eiffel Tower on Falling Bodies and Air-Resistance, L. Cailletet and E. Colarteau, 262; the _ Laws of Motion, part ii., Prof. Tait, 262; Nature of Rotation of Knife-Edge of Pendulum on its plane of suspen- _ sion, G. Defforges, 263 ; Experiments on the Measurement High Temperatures, Dr. Wien, 263; a Treatise on hysical Optics, A. B, Basset, F.R.S., Arthur Schuster, fi SS a: > 267 ; Basset’s Physical Optics, A. B. Basset, 315 ; Determin- ation of Density of Gases, H. Moissan and H. Gautier 288 ; Measurement of Absolute Intensity of Gravity at Breteuil, G. Defforges, 288 ; Change of Heat Conductivity on passing isothermally from Solid to Liquid, C. Barus, 310; Opening Address in Section A of the British Association by Prof. Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., 323 ; Employment of Calori- metric Shell, M. Berthelot, 339 ; Velocity of propagation of Electromagnetic Undulations in Insulating Media, Rk. Blond- lot, 340; Physics at the British Association, 382 ; Opening Address in Section A, by Prof. Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., at the British Association, 323; Discussion on a National Physical Laboratory, Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S., 382; R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., Prof. Fitzgerald, F.R.S., 383 ; Discussion on Nomenclature of Units, 383 ; Report on Underground Temperature, 383 ; Report on the Discharge of Electricity from Points, 383 ; Report on Electrical Standards, 383 ; Wire Standards of Electric Resistance, Dr. Lindeck, 383 ; Dr. Kahle on the Clark Cell, 383 ; Preliminary Account of Oceanic Circulation based on the Chad/enger Observations by Dr. A. Buchan, 383; Physical Condition of the Waters of the English Channel, H. V. Dickson, 384; on Primary and Secondary Cells in which the Electrolyte is a Gas, Prof. Schuster, F.R.S., 384; on Leaky Magnetic Circuits, Dr. du Bois, 384 ; Experiments on the Electric Resistance of Metallic Powders, Dr. Dawson Turner, 384; on the Stability of Periodic Motions, Lord Kelvin, F.R.S., 384; on the Specific Conductivity of Thin Films, Profs, Reinold and Riicker, 384 ; a Contribution to the Theory of the Perfect Influence Machines, J. Gray, 384; Experiments with a Ruhmkorff Coil, Magnus Maclean and A. Galt, 384 ; the Application of Inter- ference Methods to Spectroscopic Measurement, Prof. A. Michelson, 385; on a Periodic Effect which the Size of Bubbles has on their Speed of Ascent in Vertical Tubes con- taining Liquid, Dr. F. T. Trouton, 385; on a Method of Determining Thermal Conductivities, C. H. Lees, 385; a Magnetic Curve Tracer, Prof. Ewing, 385; on a Magnetic Balance and its Practical Use, Prof. du Bois, 385 ; on Earth Current Storms in 1892, W. H. Preece, 385; on the Di- electric of Condensers, W. H. Preece, 385 ; on Polarizing Gratings, Prof. du Bois, 385 ; the Volume Effecis of Magnet- ism, Dr. C. G. Knott, 385; an Estimate of the Rate of Pro- pagation of Magnetization of Iron, Prof. Fitzgerald, 385 ; Experimental Proof that the Co-efficient of Absorption is not Affected by Density of Illumination, Dr. W. Peddie, 385 ; on Dispersion in Double Refraction due to Electric Stress, Dr. John Kerr, 385; on a Delicate Calorimeter, J. A. Harker and P. J. Hartog, 385; on Graphic Solutions of Dynamical Problems, Lord Kelvin, 385 ; Reduction of every Problem of Two Freedoms in Conservative Dynamics to the Drawing of Geodetic Lines on a Surface of given Specific Curvature, Lord Kelvin, 386; Application of Measurement of Density to Determination of Atomic Weight of Oxygen, A. Leduc, 387; Scientific Measuring Instruments, General Ferrero, 388 ; Propagation of Magnetic Impulses along a Bar of Iron, V. A. Julius, 392; on the Relative Contamination of the Water-Surface by Equal Quantities of Different Sub- stances, Miss Agnes Pockels, 418; Investigation of the Pheromena which accompany the Burning of Carbon and Phosphorus in Oxygen, H. Brereton Baker, 431 ; Observa- tions as to the Physical Deviations from the Normal, as seen among 50,000 children, Dr. Francis Warner, 433 ; Heat of Combustion of some Chlorine Compounds, MM. Berthelot and Matignon, 436; Trattato di Fisico-Chimica secondo la Teoria Dinamica, Prof. di Mombello, 439 ; Generalization of ‘* Mercator’s”’ Projection performed by Aid of Electrical In- struments, Lord Kelvin, ERS., 490; Aberration Problems, Dr. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S., 497 ; Calorific Distribution of Sun heat at surface of Northern and Southern Hemispheres of Earth, Le G. de Tromelin, 508 ; the Temperature of the Human Body, L. Cumming, 541; Measurement of High Temperatures, L. Holborn and W. Wien, 602 ; Expansion of Gases at Low Pressures, G. Melander, 602; Specific Gravity and Fusion of Ice, J. von Zakrzevski, 602 ; Thermal Radiation in Atsolute Measure, Dr. J. T. Bottomley, F.R.S., 603 ; a Redetermination of the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat, C. Miculescu, 618; Polarization of Light of various Colours by Atmosphere, N. Piltschikoff, 627 Physiology : the Temperature of the Brain, 17; Dr. J. S. B. Sanderson appointed Waynflete Professor at Oxford, 37; XXXIV L[ndex ‘ie upplement to Nature, December 1, 1892 Movements of Minute Organisms Analysed by Chrono- photography, M. Marey, 47; Residual Life, Gautier and Landi, 71; the Relations of the Motor Muscles of the Eyes to Facial Expression, Dr. G. T. Stevens, 86 ; the Embryology of Angiopteris evecta, J. B. Farmer, 92; the Shoulder- girdle in Ichthyosauria and Sauropterygia, J. W. Hulke, F.R.S., 93 ; the Development of the Stigmata in Ascidians, Walter Garstang, 93; Experiments to Determine Cause of Difference in Latent Period during Direct and Indirect Stimu- lation of Muscles, Dr. Boruttau, 96; Physiology of the Glands of Bohadsch in the Aplysiide, G. F. Mazzarelli, 163; the Products of the. Residual Life of the Tissues, Gautier and Landi, 167; Experiments on Respiration under Reduced Atmospheric Pressure, Prof Loewy, 168 ; Williams’s Frog Heart Apparatus, Prof. R. Kobert, 177 ; the Brain of the Gorilla, Dr. H. C. Chapman, 229 ; Physiological Effects of Mountain Climates, M. Viault, 240; the Rotatory Movements of the Human Vertebral Conon, Dr. A. W. Hughes, 262; Berlin Physiological Society, 263, 340; Dr. Monti’s Experiments on Absorption of Oxygen by Tissues after Death, 263; Dr. Lillienfeld’s Investigations on the Dis- tribution of Phosphorus in Various Tissues, 263 ; a Pheno- menon of Human Respiration, Prof. Litten, 263 ; Anatomy, Physiology, Morphology, and Development of the Blow-fly (Calliphora erythrocephala), B. Thompson Lowne, 267; Effect of Sudden Release on Animals placed in Compressed Air, G. Philippon, 312; Action of Paraffin Nitrites on Mus- cular Tissue, Dr. J. T. Cash, F.R.S. and W. R. Dunstan, 339; Pigment Cells of Retina, I. S. Boden and F. C. Spraw- son, 339; Primitive Segmentation of Vertebrate Brain, B. H. Waters, 330; Oscula and Anatomy of Lezcosolenia clathrus, EicA. Minchin, 339} Innervation of Cerata of some Nudi- branchiata, Dr. W. A. Herdman and J. A. Clutt, 339; the Sense of Temperature, Dr. Dessoir, 340; Effect of Muscular Exertion on Alkalinity of Blood of Carnivora as compared with Herbivora, Prof. Zuntz, 340; Waste of Nitrogen from Excessive Fatigue, MM. Chibret and Huguet, 364; Prof. Waymouth Reid on Vital Absorption, 403; Prof Rosenthal on Animal Heat and Physiological Calorimetry, 403 ; Dr. Lockhart Gillespie en Proteid-hydrochlorides, 403; Dr. E W. Carlier on the Hibernating Gland of the Hedgehog, 403 ; Dr. G. Mann on the Functions, Staining Reactions and Struc- tures of Nuclei, 403 ; the Physiology of the Invertebrata, Dr. A. B. Griffiths, F. R. S., 414; Effects of Absence of Light upon Animal Life, 421; International Congress of Physiolo- gists, 449, 477; Removal of the Thyroid in the White Rat, H. Cristiani, 484; the Active Albumen in Plants, 491 ; Physiology of Epilepsy, M Brown-Séquard, 507 ; Echino- chrome, a Respiratory Pigment, A. B. Griffiths, 508; the Temperature of the Human Body, L. Cumming, 541; G. M Stewart, Dr. W. Hale White, 588; on the Cause of Physiological Action at a Distance, Prof. L. Errera, 555: Respiratory Globuline in the Blood of Chitons, A. B. Griffiths, 580; the Comparative Physiology of Respiration, Prof. Simon Henry Gage, 598; the Movements of the Heart studied by Chronophotography, M. Marey, 604; the Struc- ture and Functions of the Brain and Spinal Cord, Victor Horsley, F.R.S., 606; the Physiological Effect of a Farina- ceous Diet on Animals, Prof. Voit, 618 Pickering (E. C.), Appeal by Harvard Observatory for Dona- tions to Construct Great Refracting Telescope, 548 Pickering (Prof.), Active Lunar Volcanoes, 134 ; Colours on the Surface of Mars, 179; New Variable Stars, 334; . Bright Streaks on the Full Moon, 476 Picou (R. V.), Distribution de l’Electricité, 291 Pictet (Raoul), Study of Physical and Chemical Phenomena under Influence of very Low Temperatures, 144 Pilchards and Blue Sharks, Matthias Dunn, 368 Piltschikoff (N.), Polarization of Light of Various Colours by Atmosphere, 627 Pionchon (J.), Specific Heat and Latent Heat of Fusion of Aluminium, 312 Place Names, Dr. J. Burgess, 406 Plagues and Fevers, Epidemics, Hon. Rollo Russell, 413 Planet Mars, the, 162; Colours on the Surface of the, Prof. Pickering, 179 ; Opposition of, 258, 400 ; J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., 443; Observations of, M. Perrotin, 482; Measures of the Diameter of, Camille Flammarion, 460; Earth Frac- tures and Mars ‘‘ Canals,” Prof. G. A. Lebour, 611 Planet beyond Neptune, a, Prof. Forbes, 179 ; Mr. Rober ‘ 179 Planet Victoria, Comparison Stars of the, Dr. Gill, 423 Planet Venus, the, E. L. Trouvelot, 468 * Planets : Discovery of Three New Planets by Photography, 61 > Planisphere, a New, 17 é Plants or Animals, a Debatable Land, George Massee, 365 ty Plants, New Contributions to the Biology Ohi 461 — is Plants, the Active Albumen in, O. Loew, 491 4 Plants, Herbaceous, Effect of Electric Light on, Gorton Bonnier, _ 580 7 Platania (Gaetano), the Recent Eruption of Etna, 542 Pleiades, Photographic Measures of the, 161 Plimpton (R. T.), Metallic Derivatives of Acetylene, 142, Plumbing, Principles and Practice of, S. Stevens Hellyer, 584 Plummer (Mr. W. E.), appointed Director of Liverpool Obser- | vatory, 276 “3 Pockels (Miss Agnes), on the Relative Contamination of the, ~ Water-surface by Equal Quantities of Different se ele 418 Pochek (1 R. J.) Peripatus from St. Vincent, 100 Poincaré’s Thermodynamics, 76 Poincaré (H.), Propagation a Electrical Oscillations, 144 Poincaré (Dr. Leon), Death of, 572 ve Poisonous? are the Solpugidee, Henry Bernard, 223; W. L. — Distant, 247 a Poisons, Arrow, used by the Ainos of Japan, Romyn Hitch- cock, 475 e Poland (Henry), Fur-bearing Animals i in Nature and Commerce, 4 60 eh, Polavlantian of Light of Various Colours by Atmosphere, N. & Piltschikoff, 627 Polarizing Gratings, on, Prof. du Bois, 385 Ai Political iconomy, a ‘Text-Book of, Prof. Alfred Marshall, 27 = Polynesian Society, 209 Pope (W. J.), Crystalline Forms of Sodium Salts of Substituted Anilic Acids, 142 Popper’s (Sefior Julio). Expedition to Argentine Tierra a Fuego, 135 Port Erin, Opening of the Liverpool Marine Biological station 4 eh gt Sasa i a che at, Porter (James): Aurora, 151; Stars’ Proper Motions, 230 5 ft Cirro-stratus, 541 Porter (T. C.), ona New Method of Viewing Newton’s Rings, 80 q Portrush, at, James Rigg, 418 Portsmouth Dockyard: Shipbuilding in, W. H. White, F.R. S. Bee 3373 Lifting and Hauling Appliances in, J. T. Corner, 338 Posewitz (Theodore), Borneo: its Geology and Mineral Rev sources, 540 Posterior, Cranial and Anterior Spinal Nerves in hese: 7 Observations on the Development of the, Dr. Arthur | Robinson, 405 ae Potato in Australia, the Improvement of the, 617 Pouchet’s (Prof.) Visit to Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen, 453 3] Poulton (Edward B., F.R.S.), Animal Coloration: an Ac- — count of the Principal Facts and Theories en? the. @ Colours and Markings of Animals, F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., ci rm ae a eaitsina eae pues yiccialeeaniecdl ea Transition by Alternating Current, Gisbert Kapp, 430 Prain (C.), the Species of Pedicularis of the Indian Empire ~ and its Frontiers, the Genus Gomphostemma, 122. Pratt (A. E. i to the Snows of Tibet through China, 150 Preece (W. H., F.R.S.), the Arts of Internal Illumination by — Electricity, 62; on Earth Current Storms in 1892, 385; on — the Dielectric of Condensers, 385; Necessity for Connection — between Stack Pipes and Earth, 430 (see Prehensile Power of Infants, Dr. Louis Robinson, 433. Prehistoric Archeology and Zoology, the Coming Moscow Inter- ‘s national Congress of, 108 Prehistoric Epochs, Edmond Bordage, 418 . Pre- Paleolithic Flints, J. Montgomerie Bell, 432 a Prescott’s (Prof. A. B.), Address to the American Astoulaisat : for the Advancement of Science, 408 (7 Preston (Mr.), Latitude Observations at Waikiki, 64 Hf 4 Preston (H. L.), a Meteorite, 452 “a Prince (Prof. E. E.), Development of the Pharyngeal Teeth in — the Labride, 405 - Prince (Prof. E. G. ), on the Formation of Argenteous Matter i in [ the Integument of Teleosteans, 405 , ent to | é 1,1 Index XXXV ze ard (Prof. Chas., F.R.S.), Researches in SteJlar Parallax the Aid of Photography, 612 ems in the Old Astronomy, some, J. R. Eastman, 424 edings of Royal Society of Victoria, 459 ssorial University of London, 121 les, Calculation of Trajectories of Elongated, Rev. F. Ostical, Sir David Salomon, 625 e, a Remarkable, J. Fényi, 334 es, Remarkable, M. Trouvelot, 258 of Magnetic Impulses along a Bar of Iron, V. A. yainst Rain in the Elder, Alfred W. Bennett, 201 stive Device of an Annelid, the, A. T. Watson, 7 ve Mimicry, Rose Haig Thomas, 612 Resemblance, Rev. Canon Fowler, 24; W. L. iroct orides, Dr. Lockhart Gillespie on, 403 ic Movements, on the Natural Relations between ture and, Dr, J. Clark, 404 pothesis, a Modern Revival of, Henry Wilde, F.R.S., Meldola, F.R.S., 568 the Human Mind: a Text-book of Psychology, ly, 1; Hand-book of Psychology: Feeling and ill, James Mark Baldwin, 1 ; Text-book of Psychology, iam James, 1 ; the Limits of Animal Intelligence, Edward f mn, 392 ; C. Lloyd Morgan, 417; Dr. St. George vart, F.R.S., 466 ; the Method of Comparative Psychology, oyd Morgan, 404; Proposed Formation of an 2 Psychological Association, 419; International Sal, 2013 P Psychology, 362; F. W. H. Myers J? of ’ 261; Prof. Sidgwick’s Address to 362 ; the n of Colour with Sound, Prof. Gruber, 363 ; Curious yf Sudden Loss of Memory, &c. (L’Aboulie), Prof. P. 363; Hypnotic Cases at Amsterdam, Dr. F. van . 363 ; Hysterical Amaurosis, Prof. Bernheim and Dr. 363 agi in Yorkshire Medical Practice, Dr. 363 ; Power of Somnambulist of Judging Time, 3; Hallucination by Crystal Vision, F. W. of. P. Janet, 363; Report of Census of Hallu- rof, Sidgwick, 363 ; Hypnotism in Education, Dr. 64; Experiments in Thought-Transference, Mrs. 364; Investigation of Laura Bridgman’s Brain, n, 364; some Optical Illusions, Dr. Joseph sd from Cultivation of Micrococcus tetragenus, th, a Treatise on Hygiene and, T. Stevenson, 609 Variation of Latitude at, B. Wanach, 524; S. Kos- i ng in the Lane Fox Mercurial, 394 iticulture in the, > ; Casualties for 1891 from Wild Beasts and Snake Bites, T.), the Coronoidal Discharges, 211 , Resolution of Lactic Acid into its Optically Active ents, 211 ), a Tide-Motor, 429 parrow’s Antipathy to, G, D. Haviland, 394 (Prof. F. W.), the Native American Section at Chicago on, 454; Copper Implements and Ornaments in Mounds, 455 | of Africa, the, Dr. H. Schlichter, 135 _ Platinum, H. L. Callendar, 115 , a Modification of the Le Chatelier, Prof. W. C. erts-Austen, 526 a elements of Anatomy, 6 tly Journal of Microscopical Science, 338 land are Specimen of Belonostomus from, R. ridge, jun., 25 sland, a Trip to, in Search of Ceratodus, Prof. W. Bald- Spencer, 305 Destruction in New South Wales, a New Method of, arian Chert of Arenig Age, Messrs. Peach and Horne on wa: , Progress of Akka-Damascus, 279 Railway, Jaffa-Jerusalem, Completion of, 477 Railway, the Liverpool Overhead, J. H. Greathead, 526 Railways, Electric, Magnetic Disturbances caused by, Prof. F. P. Whitman, 455 Rain, Protection against, in the Elder, Alfred W. Bennett, 201 Rain with a High Barometer, Robt. M. W. Swan, 442 Rain-production, Means of Artificial, M. Faye, 24 Rainbow, the White, M. Mascart, 532, 555 Raindrops, E. J. Lowe, F.R.S., 95 Rainfall in Formosa, Effect of, John Thomson, 406 Rainbow (Mr.), a Sydney Bird-catching Spider, 474 Raisin Industry in Victoria, Development of, J. Knight, 256 Ram Bramha Sanyal, a Handbook on the Management of Animals in Captivity in Lower Bengal, 314 Rambaut (Dr. A. A.), the New Royal Astronomer for Ireland, 15 Ramsay (Prof.), on the Impurities in Chloroform, 401 ; Atomic Weight of Boron, 403 Range of the Sanderling in Winter, Prof. Alfred Newton, PiR.S.; 177, 222 a White, Removal of the Thyroid in the, H. Cristiani, 404 Rats and Gooseberries, G. Reade, 550 Rayleigh (Lord, Sec.R.S.), Waterston’s Theory of Gases, 30 ; on the Relative Densities of Hydrogen and Oxygen, 101 ; Density of Nitrogen, 512 Rea Aaa Discovery of Buddhist Antiquities at Bhatuprolu, 7 Reade (G.), Rats and Gooseberries, 550 Reade (T. Mellard), Causes of the Deformation of the Earth’s Crust, 315; the Former Connection of Southern Continents, 77 Recette, Conservation et Travail des Bois, M. Alheilig, 246 Record, an International Zoological, F. A. Bather, 417 Red Spot on Jupiter, J. J. Landerer, 229; W. F. Denning, 391 Reese (Dr. C. L.), Influence of Swamp Waters in Formation of Phosphate Nodules of South Carolina, 67 Reflection on Valley Fog, J. Edmund Clark, 514 Refraction in Micrometric and Photographic Measures, Dr. S. C. Chandler, 401 Refraction, Double, Fresnel’s Theory of, L. Fletcher, 581 Refuse-destructor Question, G. Watson, 429 Regel (Eduard von), Obituary Notice of, 60 Reid (Prof. Waymouth), on Vital Absorption, 403 Reignier (Ch.), a Property of Lamellar Bimetallic Conductors submitted to Electromagnetic Induction, 387 Reindeer in Alaska, Acclimatization by Dr. Sheldon Jackson of, 109 Reinold (Prof., F.R.S.), on the Specific Conductivity of Thin Films, 384 Religion: Philadelphia Loan Collection of Objects used in Worship, 84 Renault (B.), a New Genus of Permio-Carboniferous Stems (G. Retinodendron rigolloti), 412 Research, Gift by Mr. Thomas Hodgkins to Royal Institution for Promotion of Scientific, 572 Respiration under Reduced Atmospheric Pressure, Experiments on, Prof. Loewy, 168 Respiration, the Comparative Physiology of, Prof. Simon Henry Gage, 598 Retaining Walls and Masonry Dams, a Text-Rook on, Prof. Mansfield Merriman, 415 Retina, the Blood-vessels and Lymphatics of the, Dr. J. Mus- grove, 404 REVIEWS avd OUR BOOKSHELF :— ' The Human Mind: a Text-book of Psychology, James Sully, 1 Hand-book of Psychology: Feeling and Will, J. M. Bald- win, I Text-book of Psychology, William James, 1 Dynamics of Rotation: an Elementary Introduction to Rigid Dynamics, A. M. Worthington, 4 Spinning Tops, John Perry, 4 The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burmah, W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., 5 Tanganyika: Eleven Years in Central Africa, Edward Coode Hore, 6 XXXVI L[ndex [5 upplement to Nature, December 1, 1892 Beginners’ Guide to Photography, 6 Quain’s Elements of Anatomy, Edited by E. A. Schiifer, F.R.S., and G, D. Thane, 6 Brachiopoden der Alpinen Trias, A. Bittner, 25 Elements of Economics of Industry, Prof. Alfred Marshall, 27 Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics ; including the whole or the Remedies of the British Pharmacopceia of 1885 and its Appendix of 1890, C. E. Armand-Semple, 28 Elementary Lessons in Heat, 8, E. Tillman, 28 The Tel el-Amarna ‘Tablets in the British Museum, with Autotype Facsimiles, 49 A Manual of Physics, William Peddie, 52 The Dietetic Value of Bread, John Goodfellow, 54 Graduated Mathematical Exercises, A. T. Richardson, 54 Bibliothek des Professors der Zoologie und vergl. Anatomie, Dr. Ludwig von Graff, in Graz, 54 The Canadian Guide- book, Charles G. D. Roberts, 54 Einleitung in die Theoretische Physik, Victor von Lange, 73 Phases of Animal Life, Past and Present, R. Lydekker, 74 Silk Dyeing, Printing, and Finishing, George Hurst, 75 Phycological Memoirs, George Murray, 75 Live Stock, Prof. Wrightson, 76 The Grammar of Science, Karl Pearson, M.A., 974 Laboratory Practice : a Series of Experiments on the Funda- mental Principles of Chemistry, Josiah Parsons Cooke, 99 Elementary Geography of the British Colonies, George M. Dawson, F.R.S., and Alexander Sutherland, 100 Farmyard Manure, C. M. Aikman, too Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta: (i.) Species of Pedicularis of the Indian Empire and its Frontiers, D, Prain ; (ii.) the Magnoliaceze of British India, G. King, F.R.S. ; (iii.) the Genus Gomphostemma, D. Prain ; (iv.) the Species of Myristica of British India, G. King, W. Bot- ting Hemsley, 122 Mathematical Recreations and Problems of Past and Present Times, W. W. Rouse Ball, 123 Soils and Manures, J. H. M. Munro, 125 Catalogue of the Specimens Illustrating the Osteology of Ver- tebrated Animals, Recent and Extinct, contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, R. Bowdler Sharpe, 125 A Treatise on Analytical Statics, Edward John Routh, F.R.S., Prof. A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S., 145 The Elementary Part of a Treatise on the Dynamics ofa Sys- tem of Rigid Bodies, E. J. Routh, F.R.S., Prof. A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S., 145 Supplementary Appendix to Travels ra the Great An- des of the Equator, Edward Whymper, H. J. Elwes, 147 A History of Epidemics in Great Britain from A.D. 664 to the Extinction of the Plague, Charles Creighton, 148 Mineralogy, Frederick H. Hatch, 149 To the Snows of Tibet through China, A. E. Pratt, 150 Analyse des Vins, Dr. L. Magnier de la Source, 170 ‘An eager ae to Modern Therapeutics, T. Lauder Brunton, ,172 re gene Hydrostatics, W. H. Besant, F.R.S., 172 The Threshold of Science, C. R. Alder Wright, F.R.S., 173 Key toJ. B. Lock’s Elementary Dynamics, G. H. Lock, 173 English Botany, N. E. Brown, James Britten, 197... Bacteriologisches Practicum zur Einfiihrung in die practisch- wichtigen bacteriologischen Untersuchungsmethoden fiir Aerzte, Apotheker, Studirende, Dr. W. Migula, Mrs. Grace C. Frankland, 198 Neue Rechnungsmethoden der Hoheren Mathematik, Dr. Julius Bergbohm, 199 Neue Intergrationsmethoden auf Grund der Potenzial-, Logarithmal-, und Numeralrechnung, Dr. J. Bergbohm, 199 An Elementary Course in Theory of Equations, C. H. Chap- man, 199 The System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana, 1837-68 ; Descriptive Mineralogy, Edward Salisbury Dana, 217 An Introduction to the Study of the Differential and Integral Calculus, Axel Harnack, Prof. A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S., 21 Les Altérations de la Personnalité, Alfred Binet, 219 Volcanoes : Past and Present, Edward Hull, F.R.S., 220 Encyclopédie scientifique des Aide-memoire, 221 Résistance des Matériaux, M. Duquesnay, 221 Die Grundziige der Theorie der Statistik, Harald Westergaard, Etude Expérimentale Calorimétrique de la Machine & be. eur, V. Dwelshauvers- Dery, 221 Air comprii é ou raréfié, Al. Gouilly, 221 Chambers’s Encyclopzedia, vol. ix., 221 A Guide to Electric Lighting, S. R. Bottone, 221 Outlines of Zoology, J. A. Thomson, 241 Watts’ Dictionary of Chemistry, Forster a and M, M. q Pattison Muir, Sir H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S., Manual Instruction ; Woodwork ; the English Sloyd, Ss. af Barter, 244 Thermodynamische Studien, J. Willard Gibbs, 245 Elements of Physic, C. E. Fessenden, 245 Recette, Conservation et Travail des Bois, M. Alheilig, 246 Country Thoughts for Town Readers, K. B. Bagh é de la, # Bere, 246 x A Synoptical Geography of the World, 246 Essays and Criticisms, St. George Mivart, F.R.S., 265 A Treatise on Physical Optics, A. B. Basset, F.R.S., Arthur — Schuster, 2 Be Ms Bernard, = The Apodidz, a Morphological Study, Prof. E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., 267 Anatomy, Physiology, Morphology, and Development of the Ben: -fly (Calliphora erythrocephala), B. Thompson Lowne, 207 A Mendip Valley : dore Compton, 2 Key to Elementary Dynamics, S. L. Loney, 268 The Etiology and Pathology of Grouse Disease and Fowl Enteritis, E. Klein, F.R.S., 289 Electric Light Cabies, 290 Distribution de l’Electricité, R. V. Picou, 291, PopularjReadings in Science, John Gall and David Robertson, 291 Geometrical Deductions, J. Blaikie and W. Thomson, 291 Tabellarische Uebersicht der _ kiinstlichen organischen Farbstoffe, Gustav Schultz und Paul Julius, R. Meldola, its Inhabitants and Surroundings, Theo- 313 A Handbook on the Management of Animals in Captivity in Lower Bengal, Ram Bramha Sanyal, 314 In Starry Realms, Sir R. S. Ball, F.R.S., 315 A Monograph of the Myxogastres, George Massee, 365 Atlas of Clinical Medicine, Byrom Bramwell, 389 Hand-book for Travellers in Norway, 390. Ostwald’s Klassiker der Exacten Wissenschaften, 391 Epidemics, Plagues and Fevers: their Causes and Prevention, a Hon. Rollo Russell, 413 4 The Physiology of the Invertebrata, A. B. Griffiths, 414 A Text-book on Retaining Walls and Masonry Dams, sis Mansfield Merriman, 415 — for Collecting and Preserving Insects, C. V. Miley i 4! 437 Trattato di Fisico-Chimica secondo la Teoria Dinamica, Enrico dal Pozzo di Mombello, 439 The Microscope and Histology for the Use of Laboratory . Students in the Anatomical Department of the Cornell Uni- versity, Simson Henry Gage, W. H. Dallinger, 440 3 An Elementary Text-book of Magnetism and Electricity, R. Wallace Stewart, 441 Key to Arithmetic for Beginners, J. and E. J. Brooksmith, 441 Beitrage zur Biologie der Pflanzen, Dr. Ferdinand Cohn, 462% ‘ The Labrador Coast: a Journal of Two Summer Cruises in that Region, Adolphus Spring Packard, 462 ee The Transactions of the Sanitary Institute, 1891, 463 Cooley’s Cyclopzedia of Practical Receipts, W. North, 463 Traité Encyclopédique de Photographie, Charles Fabre, 464 | Colour Vision, E. Hunt, 485 A Pocket-book of Electrical Rules and Tables, John Munro : and Andrew Jamieson, 486 A Synonymic Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera (Moths), — F. Kirby, 487 Grasses, C. H. Johns, 487 Elementary Plane Trigonometry, R. C. J. Nixon, 488 Paraguay: the Land and the People, Natural Wealth ands s eanaie ta Capabilities, Dr. E. de Bourgade La Dardye, » — 8 es 4 The Speech of Monkeys, R. L. Garner, C. LI. Morgan, 509 _ to a | 1, 1892 Lndex XXXVIi Sees for Pleasure and Profit, G. Gordon Samson, W. Tuck" I 510, ‘w Course of Experimental Chemistry, John Castell- 511 nze in ihren Beziehungen zum Eisen, Dr. Hans nh, 512 Niger, Captain A. F. Mockler-Ferryman, 512 Joloration : an Account of the Principal Facts and ies relating to the Colours and Markings of Animals, Beddard, F.R.S., Edward B. Poulton, F.R.S., 533 » Amy Johnson, 537 motive Engine and its‘ Development, Clement E. n, N. J. Lockyer, 538 of British Insects, Rev. W. Houghton, 540 is of Lancashire, F. S. Mitchell, 540 neo Jog Geology and Mineral Resources, Theodor Pose- ssays on Heredity, Dr. A. Weismann, 558 . the Standard Course of Elementary Chemistry, E. J. Cox, la Vie et la Mort, Armand Sabatier, 560 ous Foot Rot in Sheep, Prof. G. T. Brown, 560 ow to Make Common Things, John A. Bower, 561 ne Student’s Manual of Deductive Logic, Theory and Practice, K. R. Bose, 561 xt-book erod, 561 tical Indicatrix and the Transmission of Light in s, L. Fletcher, 581 tions to Horticultural Literature, William Paul, Dr, well T. Masters, F.R.S., 582 tego a or, Muscle and Nerve, John Gray Mc- » BLR.S., 53 ss and Practice of Plumbing, S. Stevens Hellyer, 584 ure Course of Elementary Chemistry, H. T. Lilley, of Agricultural Entomology, Eleanor A, “ ” School Geography for North America, G. H. n and C. H. Leete, 585 Design and Architects’ Gardens, W. Robinson, 585 zg Animals in Nature and Commerce, Henry ie tructure and Functions of the Brain and Spinal Cord, or Horsley, F.R.S., 606 ; ene. a Profession, and How to Enter it, Southam, g on Hygiene and Public Health, 609 n der Botanik nach dem gegenwirtigen Stand der nschaft, Dr. A. B, Frank, 610 trical Chemistry, C. J. Woodward, 610 in Heat and Light, D. E. Jones, 610 of Magnetism and Electricity, John Angell, 610 - zur Theorie und Praxis der Desinfection, Prof. J. _ Maschek, Mrs. Percy Frankland, 613 (Prof. E.), on the Causes of the Deformation of the th’s Crust, 224 ; ids (J. E.), Action of Silicon Tetrachloride on substituted nylamines, 22 ids (Dr. J. Emerson, F.R.S.), Fuels and their Use, 527 the White, W. L. Distant, 29 Dr.), Re-determination of the Atomic Weight of rae er, 134 : ison (A. T.), Graduated Mathematical Exercises, 54 dson (Dr. B. W.), French and English Methods of Rigaux (E.), Geology of the Bas Boulonnais, 109 Rigg (James), at Portrush, 418 iley C. V ), Locusts in America, 256; Directions for ollecting and Preserving Insects, 416; Fertilization of the and Caprification, 455 ; the Transmission of Acquired ter through Heredity, 504 ewton’s, on a new Method of Viewing, T. C. Porter, Ring: Saturn’s, Rev, A. Freeman, 150 ‘Ristenpart (Dr. F.), Nova Aurigee, 496 a . River, an Acoustic Method whereby the Depth of Water in a,. may be Measured at a Distance, Fred. J. Smith, 246 Roberts (Mr.), a Planet beyond Neptune, 179 Roberts (Charles G. D.), the Canadian Guide Book, 54 Roberts- Austen (Prof. W. C.), an Apparatus for Autographi- cally Recording the Temperature of Furnaces, 526 Robertson (David) and John Gall, Popular Readings in Science,. 291 Robertson (Prof. Geo. Croom), Death of, 520 Robinson (Dr. Arthur), Observations on the Development of the Posterior Cranial and Anterior Spinal Nerves in Mam- mals, 405 Robinson (Rev, J. A.), Association founded for Study of Hausa Language and People in Commemoration of, 572 Robinson (Dr. Louis), Prehensile Power of Infants, 433 Robinson (W.), Garden Design and Architects’ Gardens, 585 Rock Structure, Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., 317 Rogers (Prof. W. A.), the Hardness ot Diamonds not Percep- tibly Reduced by Cutting and Polishing, 257; a Standard: Yard and Measure on Polished Steel, 455 Rolland (G.), Contributions to Knowledge of Saharian Climate,. 144 Rolls, Chilled, Failures in Necks of, C. A. Winder, 527 Romanes (Dr. Geo. J., F.R.S.), Hairlessness of Termina Phalanges in Primates, 247 Romano, Solar Observations at the R. Osservatorio del: Collegio, Prof. Tacchini, 334 Rome, R. Accademia dei Lincei, 387 Rome, Solar Observatious at, Prof. Tacchini, 476, 524 Roscoe (Sir H. E., F.R.S.), Watts’ Dictionary of Chemistry,. M. M. Pattison Muir and Forster Morley, 242; Obituary Notice of Dr. Carl Schorlemmer, F.R.S., 394 Rosenbaum (Herr), a new Theory of Sleep, 595 Rosenthal (Prof.), on Animal Heat and Physiological Calo- rimetry, 403 Rotation, Dynamics of: an Elementary Introduction to Rigid. Dynamics, A. M. Worthington, 4 Roumania, Earthquake in, 594 Roumeguére (M.), Death of, 61 Rousseau (G.),.a Hydro-silicate of Cadmium, 144 Routh (Edward John, F.R.S.): a Treatise on Analytical Statics, . 145: the Elementary Part of a Treatise on the Dynamics of a System of Rigid Bodies, 145 Row (Narasinga), Death of, 176 Rowland-Brown (H.), a Colias edusa Butterfly in London,. 228 ; Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal, 262 Royal Dublin Society, 71, 167 Royal Geographical Society, 258, 552; Anniversary Meeting. of the, President’s Address, 87 ; Royal Geographical Society’s Soirée, 180 Royal Institution, Gift of Mr, Thomas Hogkins for Promotion. of Scientific Research to, 572 Royal Meteorological Society, 95, 191 Royal Microscopical Society, 69, 165 Royal Society, 21, 69, 90, 140, 163, 187, 236, 339, 603 ; Royal Society’s Committee on Colour Vision, Report of the, 33 > Selected Candidates, 35 ; Royal Society’s Soirée, 44 ; Model Illustrating General Phenomena of Explosions through Dust Particles, in Explanation of Colliery Explosions, Prof. T. E. Thorpe, 44; Miner’s Safety Lamp converted into Instrument for detecting Coal-damp, Prof. Clowes, 44; Vacuum Tubes without klectrodes, Dr. Bottomley, 44; Musical Sands, C. Carus- Wilson, 44; Apparatus for measuring Colour-blind- ness, Brudenell Carter, 44; Captain Weir’s Azimuth Diagram, 44; Electric Sparks in and to Water, Prof. Oliver Lodge, 44; Electric Retina, Prof, Oliver Lodge, 44 ; Experi- ments of Electric Currents of High Potential and Extreme: Frequency 4 la Tesla, W. Crookes, 44; New Electrical Method for determining very High Temperatures, Prof. H. Le Chatelier, 45; Electric Tram Chronograph, Rev. F. J.. Smith, 45; Photographs of Flying Bullets, Mr. Boys, 45 ;. Photographs, &c., Illustrating Coral Reefs and Marine Fauna of Great Barrier District of Australia, W. Saville-Kent, 45 ;- the Yearly Admissions to the Royal Society, Lieut.-General R. Strachey, F.R.S., 116; the Ladies’ Conversazione of the: Royal Society, 184 Royal Society of New South Wales, 191 Royal Society of Victoria, 459 XXXVili Index [4 upplentent to Nature, a December 1, 1892 Rubens (H.), Refraction of Rays of Great Wave-length in Rock Salt, Sylvine and Fluorspar, 483 Riicker (Prof., F.R.S.), the Discussion on a National Physical Laboratory, 383 ; on the Specific Conductivity of Thin Films, 384 Rudge (W. A.), a Viper Bite, 270 Rufler (Armand), the Imperial Institute at St. Petersburg, 520 Ruhmkorff Coil, Experiments with a, Magnus Maclean and A. Galt, 384 Rumex occurring North of Mexico, Revision of the Species of, W. Trelease, 40 Runge (Prof. C.), the Line Spectra of the Elements, 100, 200, 247 Russell (Francis C.), Induction and Deduction, 586 Russell (H. C.), Photographic Chart of the Heavens, 576; Proposed School of Practical Astronomy, 496 Russell (Hon. Rollo), Epidemics, Plagues and Fevers, their Causes and Prevention, 413 Russia, Mercury Mining in, 86 Russian Monthly Meteorological Bulletins, Two New, 38 Rutherfurd (Lewis Morris), Obituary Notice of, 206 Rutherford (Prof. William, F.R.S.), Opening Address in Section D of the British Association, 342 Rutherfurd Measures of Stars about 8 Cygni, Harold Jacoby, 619 Sabatier (Prof. Armand), Essai sur la Vie and la Mort, 560 Saccharine, Ants and, H. Devaux, 573 Saharian Climate, Contributions to Knowledge of, G. Rolland, 144 St. Andrews Marine Laboratory, 369 St. Bernard, Great, Table showing Behaviour with regard to Cold of Small Lake at, Prof. Forel, 371 St. Gervais les Bains, Terrible Glacier Slip Disaster at, 254; Theories of the Cause of, Profs. Duparc and Forel, 299 ; Causes of, 420 ;-the Lava of July 12, 1892, P. Demontzey, 387 . St. John’ s, the Cause of the Great Fire at, 295 St. Petersburg : Bulletin de l’Academie des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, 68; Memoirs of St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, 68; Dr. A. F. Batalin appointed Director of Botanic Garden at, 107; Ruffer, 520; Laying Foundation Stone of New Chemical Laboratory of St. Petersburg University, 592 St. Vincent, Perifatus from, R. I. Pocock, 100 Sakurai (J.), Determination of Temperature of Steam from Boiling Salt Solutions, 94; Note on an Observation by hen of the Boiling-points of a Solution of Glauber’s alt, Sal-Soda S Nbisaitactine in United States, Prof. C. F. Mabery, 332 Salamander, on the Relationships and Réle of the Archoplasmic Body during Mitosis in the Larval, J. E. S. Moore, 404 Salet (G.), Stokes’s Law (Spectrum Analysis), its Verification and Interpretation, 364 Salmon Fungus, the Effect of Sea-water on the Vitality of the, A. P. Swan, 405 Salomons (Sir David), Optical Projection, 625 Samoan Calendar, Change in, 552 pene tio (G. Gordon) Bees for Pleasure and Profit, W. Tuck- we Sand, Musical, a, S. Hall, 279 ; C. Carus-Wilson on, 44, 316 Sanderling, Range of the, in Winter, Prof. Alfred Newton, MR tip 795 222 Sanderson (Dr. J. S. B.), appointed Waynflete Professor of Physiology at Oxford, 37 Sangir, Volcanic Eruption at Great, 287; George Ormsby, 487 Sanitation, French and English Methods ‘Compared, Dr. B. W, Richardson, 299 Sanitation, the Victorian Era, the Age of, Sir Charles Cameron, 472 Sanitary Inspectors’ Association, General Meeting, 299 Sanitary Institute, the Thirteenth Congress of the, 449 ; Sanitary Institute and its Transactions in Review, 463; Sir Charles Cameron’s Presidential Address, 472 Saniter (E.), the Elimination of Sulphur from Iron, 527 Sanscrit Birch-bark Manuscripts, Discovery by Lieut. Bower of, Dr. Hoerale, 370 the Imperial Institute at, Armand |; Sarasin (M.), Production of Hertz Oscillator Spark in Liqu Dielectric instead of Air, 532 E Satellite, Jupiter’s Fifth, Prof. E. E. Barnard, 620 4 Saturn’s Rings, M. Bigourdan, 110; Rev. A. Freeman, 150 — Saville-Kent (W.), Photographs, &e., Illustrating Coral Ree and Marine Fauna of Great Barrier District of Australia, 45 the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, 523 Saw Fish, New South Wales, Fine Specimen of, Mr. Pedley, 257 Scacchi (Prof. E.), the Crystallography of Certain New Salts © (Fluoximolybdates of Copper and Zinc) obtained by Prof. F. Mauro, 162 4 Scale for Measurement of Gas Pressures, Orme Masson, 204 b Schaeberle (J. M.), Photographic Magnitudes of Nova Aurigee, 423 ; a New Variable Star, 620 ¥ Scharff (R. F.), Land and Freshwater Shells peculiar to the British Isles, 173 4 Scherren (Henry), a New Habitat for Cladonema, 541 = Schlichter (Dr. H.), the Pygmies of Africa, 135 ; Determination — of Longitude by Photography, 407 Be Schmitz (Prof. F.), Tubercles on the Thallus of Cystoclonium i urpurascens and other Red Seaweeds, 555 Schénland (Dr. S.), Zebra’s Stripes, 6 ¥ Schorlemmer (Dr. Carl, F.R.S.), Obituary Notice of, Sir H. E. — Roscoe, F.R.S., 394 Schultz (Gustav) "und Paul Julius, Tabellarische Uebersicht | der kiinstlichen organischen Farbstoffe, R. Meldola, 313 Schur (Prof. Wilhelm), the Observations of Klinkerfues pereha : 452 Schuster (Arthur), a Treatise on Physical Optics, A. Be Basset, F.R.S., 266 Schuster ‘(Prof. Arthur, F.R.S.), Opening Address in Section A | of the British Association, 323; on Primary and Secondary Cells in which the Electrolyte is a Gas, 384 Es Schutzenberger (P.), Contribution to History of Silico-Carbon Compounds, 3 Schwalbe (Dr.), Observations, based on Syagpete Weather- — Charts, on Anomalies of Temperature in Germany, 120 Schwatka’s (Mr.) Yukon Expedition, 180 ; Science: the Grammar of Science, 221; Prof. Karl Pearson, 97, 199, 247; Edward T. Dixon, 269 ; ; Dr. St. George Mivart, F.R.S., 269; Science in America, the Walker Prise awarded to Prof. J. D. Dana, 158; the Threshold of — Science, C. R. Alder Wright, F. R.S. -» 173; Popular Read- — ings in Science, John Gall and David Robertson, 291; — Scientific Investigation of the Scottish Fishery Board, 2%: ; Science and the State, Right Hon. T. H. Huxley, F.R Sm 416; the American Association and Science in the United States, W. Kent, 494 ; a Century of Scientific Work, 504 ; Forthcoming Scientific Books, 505 Scotland : Stag Smothered by Snow last Winter in, 228 ; the Birds of Sutherland and Caithness, T. E. Buckley, 279 ; 4 Scottish Geographical Magazine, 302 ; Scientific Investigation of the Scottish Fishery Board, 395 ; a Sketch of the Scotch Fisheries, chiefly in their Scientific Aspects, during the Past Decade 1882-92, Prof. McIntosh, F.R.S., 404; on the Discovery of the Common Occurrence of Paleolithic Weapons in Scotland, Rev. Frederick Smith, 432 Scott (Dr.) Observations on Secondary Tissues in Monocoty- ledons, 554 4 Scott ( Prof. ), Cancer in Fish, 373. F Scott (Robert H., F.R.S.), Tee in the South Atlantic, 173 : Whirlwinds in the Indian Ocean, 294 i Scovell (J. T.), Measurement of Mount Orizaba by, 598 c Scudder (S. H.), the Tertiary Rhynchophora of North America, 256 a 25 : } Sea, Dust Storms at, Prof. John Milne, F.R.S., 128 \ Sea Fisheries, Prof. Ewart, 405 E Sea-gauges : Necessary Additive Correction for Sea-swell, J. — Boussinesq, 288 ; Necessary Additive Correction for a Choppy Sea, J. Boussinesq, 312 i Sea-water, Varying Colours of the Mediterranean, 84 Sea-water, the Effect of, on the Vitality of the Salmon Fungus, | A. P. Swan, 405 ' Searle (G. he ), a Compound Magnetometer for testing — Magnetic Properties of Iron and Steel, 143 Secondary Tissues in Monocotyledons, Observations on, Dr. x Scott and Mr. Brebner, 554 Seddall (late Rev. H.), Byssus Silk Industry at Malta, 229 io aa ement to Haters: ber 1, 1892 (Prof. H. G., F.R.S,), Delphinognathus conocephalus, Further Evidence of Lxdothiodon bathystoma, 166 ; ischia of Europe and Africa, 238 (H.), Nova Aurige, 552 y: the Great Earthquake in Japan, 1891, 34; Com- of Earthquake Measurements in a Pit and on the ce, K. Sekiya and F. Omori, 85 ; Thunderstorms ..), Comparison of Earthquake Measurements in a Pit 2 O5 . E. Armand), Elements of Materia Medica and tics, including the whole of the remedies of the *harmacopeeia of 1885, and its Appendix of 1890, 28 , R.), Sound-carrying Power of Water, 430; Smoke n, 431 Blood, the Germicide and Antitoxical properties of fen Basho, 15 rthquake in, 594 Valley Field Chib, 572 DS and Filteration of, R. F. Grantham, 429 C.), Myeloxylon from the Millstone Grit and Coal sures, 555 _ the Origin of, Dr. G. Mann, 404 n Education, Sir James Crichton-Browne, 13 les: the Gigantic Land Tortoises of Aldabra Island, Griffiths, 3 , the Volume Effects of Magnetization, 262 ue, Pilchards and, Matthias Dunn, 368 _ Bowdler), Catalogue of the Specimens illustrating steology of Vertebrated Animals, Recent and [xtinct, ed in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons land, 125 (T. §S.), the Influence of Sunspots on Terrestrial tic Conditions, 278 Contagious Foot Rot in, Prof. G. T. Brown, 560 in Roumania, Carceag, an Enzootic Disease of, V. Babes, : nd and Freshwater, peculiar to the British Isles, D, A. Cockerell, 76; R. F. Scharff, 173 ) . A.), Adhesion of Mercury to Glass in presence 22; Platinous Chloride asa source of Chlorine, eee) Collections : the Orchids of Grenada, sling in Loose Ground, G. F. Deacon, 429 proposed between the Forth and the Clyde, D. A. Launch of the Cunard s.s. Campania, 472 Portsmouth Dockyard, W. H. White, F.R.S., gle Ridgway on the Humming-birds, R. W. an Geological, &c., Expedition to East, 212 James), Imérina, the Central Province of Mada- (Prof. H.), Address to International Congress of Ex- ee Psychology, 363 ; Report of Census of Hallucina- 5, 363 (Mrs. H.), Experiments in Thought-Transference, Alex.), Two Electric Locomotives, 429 Motion in the Line of, W. W. Campbell, 64 m, Journey in, White and Hoffman, 477 yeing, Printing, and Finishing, Geo. H. Hurst, 75 dustry at Malta, Byssus, late Rev. H. Seddall, 229 g Glass Mirrors, Mr. Common, 597 ‘L.), Observation of a Meteor, 48 in Mexico, the Culture of, 63 ons, Ancient, from Medum, Egypt, Dr. Garson, 433 hes of British Insects, Rev. W. Houghton, 540 , Photometric Observations of the Sun and, William Bren- 2, Destructive Wind-rush in, Prof. Mohorovicié, 450 New Theory of, Herr Rosenbaum, 595 the English, S. Barter, 244 _(E. Wythe), Measurement of Internal Existence of Cells, 1 (Rev. F. J.): Electric Tram Chronograph, 45 ; Breath es, 236; an Acoustic Method whereby the Depth of ater in a River may be Measured at a Distance, 246; on L, ndex 4 XXXI1X the Discovery of the Common Occurrence of Palolithic Weapons in Scotland, 432 Smith (Dr. W. Ramsay), the Food of Fishes, 405 Smithells (Prof.), Experiments on Flame, 402 Smoke Prevention, A. R. Sennett, 431; Colonel E. Dulier, 431 Snake, a Bird’s-egg Eating, 185 Snakes Sting, Origin of Idea that, Cyril Frampton, 418 Snake-bites and Wild Beasts in Punjab, Casualties for 1891 from, 133 Snake-Poison, Proposed Systematic Enquiry (in India) into, 14 Snow (B. W.), Refraction of Rays of Great Wave-length in Rock Salts, Sylvine, and Fluorspar, 483 Snow in Scotland, Stags Smothered last Winter by, 228 Social Habits of Spiders, Dr. Henry C. McCook, 403 Soil, Micro-organisms of the, Prof. Alfred Springer, 576 Soils and Manures, John M. H. Munro, 125 Soirée, the Royal Society, 44 Solar Atmosphere, Researches on the, G. E. Hale, 192 Solar Atmosphere, Hydrogen Spectrum in the, M, Deslandres, 401 Solar Atmosphere, Thermal Absorption in the, E. B. Frost, 400, 455 Solar Eclipse, the Total, April 15-16, 1893, 201 Solar Halo, a, J. Edmund Clark, 222 Solar Observations during First Quarter of 1892, M. Tacchini, 167 Solar Observations at R. Osservatorio del Collegio Romano, Prof. Tacchini, 334 Solar Observations at Rome, Prof. Tacchini, 476, 524 Solar Phenomena, Photographs of, Prof. G. E. Hale, 452 Solar Photography, Prof. G. E. Hale, 455 Sollas (W. J.), the Origin of Land Animals, 271 Sollas (Prof.), Palzeozoic Rocks, 428 Solpugidz Poisonous? are the, Henry Bernard, 223; W. L. Distant, 247 Somersetshire, the Recent Discovery of an Ancient Lake- Village in, Dr. R. Munro, 617 Somerville (Mr.), Petrological Papers, 428 Sonnblick Observatory, the, 332 Sound-Carrying Power of Water, A. A. Sennett, 430 South Kensington Museum, Reopening of the Wrought Iron Work Gallery, 133. South London Entomological and Natural History Society, 46 Southam (A. D.), Electrical Engineering as a Profession, and How to Enter it, 608 Spain: a New Meteorological Journal, 616 Sparrow’s Antipathy to Purple, a, G. D. Haviland, 394 Specific Conductivity of Thin Films, Profs. Reinold and Riicker, 304, Spectrophotometer, Prof. Koenig’s New, 263 Spectrum Analysis: the Construction of a Colour Map, Walter Baily, 23; the Line Spectra of the Elements, Dr. G. John- stone Stoney, F.R.S., 29, 126, 222, 268; Prof. C. Runge, 100, 200, 247; Stars with Remarkable Spectra, 86; Researches on the Solar Atmosphere, G. E. Hale, 192; the Retardation in the Perception of the Different Rays of the Spectrum, Aug. Charpentier, 192 ; Comparative Spectra of High and Low Sun, 211; New Results as to Hydrogen, obtained py Spectroscopic Study of Sun, M. Deslandres, 340 ; Hydrogen Spectrum in the Solar Atmosphere, M. Deslandres, 401; the Lightning Spectrum, A. Fowler, 268; Stokes’s Law, its Verification and Interpretation, G. Salet, 364; the Application of Interference Methods to Spectroscopic Measure- ment, Prof. A. Michelson, 385; the Photography of Spectra in Natural Colours, H. Krone, 449; Nebular Spectrums of Nova Aurige, Ralph Copeland, 464 ; the Spectrum of Nova Aurige, Herr E. von Gothard, 620; Recent Spectro- scopic Determinations, G. Johnstone Stoney, 513 Speech of Monkeys, the, Prof. R. L. Gardner, 451; R. L. Garner, C. Ll. Morgan, 509 Spencer (Prof. Baldwin), the Ceratodus, 161 ; a Trip to Queens- land in search of Ceratodus, 305 Spherometer, Prof. Prof. Abbe’s Improved, 472 Spider, a Sydney Birdcatching, Mr. Rainbow, 474 Spiders, the Social Habits of, Dr. Henry C..McCook, 403 Spiders, Can they Prognosticate Weather Changes? Dr. H. C. McCook, 406 Spinal Nerve-Impulses and Electromotive Changes, Victor Horsley, F.R.S., 606 xl Index rs upplement to Nature, December 1, 1892 Sponge Deposits discovered near Pantelleria, 474 Spot, the Red, on Jupiter, J. J. Landerer, 229; W. F. Denning, 9 Spotted Woodpecker, the Lesser, Albert C. Mott, 77 Sprawson (F. C.), Pigment Cells of Retina, 339 Spring (W.), Formation of Trithionate by action of Sodine on mixture of Sulphite and Thiosulphate, 94 Spring; s (Prof. W.), Brass made by Compression, Mr. Behrens, Sataaer (Prof. Alfred), Micro-Organisms of the Soil, 576 Spruner von Merz (Dr. Karl), Death of, 598 Stack Pipes and Earth, Necessity for Connection between, W. H. Preece, F.R.S., 430 Stairs (Capt. W. G. ), Death and Obituary Notice ot, 180 Standards, Time, of Europe, Dr. Hugh Robert Mill, 174 Stansfield (H.), a Portable Instrument for Measuring Magnetic Fields, 93 ; Experiments on Magnetized Watches, 93 Starling, Imitative Habits of, D. L. Thorpe, 15 Stars: Photographic and Visual Magnitudes of Stars, Prof. J. C. Kapteyn, 41; Star Magnitudes, Captain Abney, 41; Declinations of Stars for Reduction of Variations in Lati- tude, 65; Distribution of Stars in Peg ag Kapteyn, 72; Stars with Remarkable Spectra, 86; Stone Circles, the Sun and the Stars, A. L. Lewis, 127 ; Stars’ Proper Motions, J. G. Porter, 230; a New Nebulous Star, E. E, Barnard, 279 ; New Variable Stars, Prof, Pickering, 334; a New Variable Star, Prof. Schaeberle, 620; Variable Star T Cassiopeiz, Cuthbert E..Peek, 443; Comparison Stars of the Planet Victoria, Dr. Gill, 423; Double Star Measures, S. W. Burn- ham, 496; Double Star Observations, Prof. Asaph Hall, 5243 Rutherfurd Measures of Stars about 6 Cygni, Harold Jacoby, 619; in Starry Realms, Sir Robert S. Ball, F.R.S., 315 Stas (Jean Servais), Text of his Famous Obituary Notice of, 81 State, Science and the, Rt. Hon. T, H. Huxley, F.R.S., 416 Statistics: Die Grundziige der Theorie der Statistik, Harold Westergaard, 437 Stead (J. A.), the Elimination of Sulphur from Iron, 527 Steel, Experiments with Basic, W. H. White, F.R.S., 114 Steilar Parallax, Researches in, by the Aid of Photography, Prof. Charles Pritchard, F.R.S., 612 Stevens (Dr. G. T.), the Relations of the Motor Muscles of the Eyes to Facial Expression, 86 Stevenson (Chas. A.), Notes on the Progress of the Dioptric Lens as used in Lighthouse Illumination, 431, 514 Stevenson (D. A.), Proposed Ship Canal between the Forth and the Clyde, 429; Petroleum Engines for Fog Signalling, Address, 130; 430 Stevenson (T.), a Treatise on Hygiene and Public Health, 609 Stewart (D. S.), Lepidoptera and the Electric Light, 550 Stewart (Dr. Hunter), the Ventilation of Public Buildings, 143 Stewart (G. N.), the Temperature of the Human Body, 588 Stewart (R. Wallace), an Elementary Text-book of Magnetism and Electricity, 441 Stock (Warington), Aurora Borealis, 79 Stone (Mr.), Observations of the Moon, 179 Stone Circles, the Sun, and the Stars, A. L. Lewis, 127 Stone Houses, Ancient, in Easter Island, 259 Stone Images of Easter Island, 259 Stoney (Dr. G. Johnstone, F. RS. ), the Cause of the Absence of Hydrogen from the Earth’s Atmosphere, and of Water and Air from the Moon, 71; the Line Spectra of the Ele- ments, 29, 126, 222, 268 ; Recent Spectroscopic Determina- tions, 513 Strachey (Lieut. G. R., F.R.S.), es Yearly Admissions to the Royal Society, 116 Stratigraphical Geology, Prof. C. Lapworth, F.R.S., 372 Strawberries, Wild, in Ceylon, Mr. Nock, 494 Streatfeild (F, W. ), Ethylene Derivatives of Diazoamido-Com- pounds, 189 Stretton (Clement E.), the Locomotive Engine and_ its Development, N. J. Lockyer, 538 Struve (H.), the ae of Hyperion, 68 Stuhlmann (Dr.): Emin Pasha’s Return Expedition to the Hquaterial Lakes, 110; Additional Particulars of Emin Pasha’s Expedition, 302 Sub-fossil Bones of Extinct Birds of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, H. O. Forbes, 404 Submerged Forest, 128 Sugar-Cane Borers in the West Indies, 531 Sugar-School, the Nebraska, 210 Sully (James), The Human Mind ; chology, I ; Sully (James), and F. W. H. Myers, International Congress Experimental Psychology, 261 a Sulphur, the Elimination of, from Iron, E. Saniter, Ji AL Stead, 527 4 Sumatra and Engano, Dr. Modigliani’s Recent Exploration i in Central, Prof. Henry H. eee 565 : Sun: Comparative Spectra of High and Low, 211; the Total | Eclipse of the, 1893, John King, William M. Martin, 561; New Result as to Hydrogen obtained by Spectroscopic Study — of the Sun, M. Deslandres, 340; Stone Circles, the Sun, antl the Stars, A. L. Lewis, 126 ; Photometite Observations of — the Sun and Sky, William. Brennand, 284; our Sun’s — History, Lord Kelvin, P.R.S., 597; Calorific Distribution of — Sun-heat at the Surface of the N’ orthern and Southern Hemis- | pheres of the Earth, Le G, de Tromelin, 508 ; Transmission of Sunlight through the Earth’s Atmosphere, Part IT., Scat tering at Different Altitudes, Capt. W. de W. Abney, — F.R.S., 69; an Unusual Sunset, Henry Crew, 391 2 Sunshine, Amy Johnson, 537 ae Sun-Spots: Prof. Tacchini, 16; Dr. Lohse’s Photégraphs | J of 258 ; the Influence of, on Terrestrial Magnetic Conditions, _ a Text-book of S. Shearmen, 278 ; ‘Atmospheric Depressions and their | ‘ Analogy with the Movements of, M. Camille Flammarion, 280 ; Observations of, at Lyons Observatory, E. Marchand, 340; Thunderstorms and, 488 ; Atmospheric Depressions : and their Analogy with the Movements of, F, Howard 3 Collins, 489 y Sun-Diai, a Mean Time, Major-General Oliver, 230 — {a Surface- Film of Water, the, and its Relation to the: Life of Plants and Animals, Prof, L. C. Miall, 7 Survey of India, the Marine, Dr. A. Alcock, 549 Surveying, Photography and, Col. Tanner 407 Sutherland (Alexander), and George M. Dawson, FR. S., Elementary Geography of the British Colonies, 100 t Swan (A. P,), the Effect of Sea-water on the Vitality of the. Salmon Fungus, 405 Swan (J. Wilson), Electro Metallurgy, 478 Swan (Robert M. W.), Rain with a High Barometer, 442 i Sweden and Norway, Fall of Hail and Dust in, 108 — Swift’s Comet, 1892, 17 ; Spectrum of Swift’s Comet, W. W. — Campbell, 17, Prof. Konkoly, 17; Comet Swift, 1892 (March iq 6), 65, 87, 230, 258, 423, 453 ; Switzerland : Terrible Glacier Slip Disaster at St. Gervais les Bains, 254; Theories of Cause of St. Gervais Disaster, 420; — Profs. Dupare and Forel, 299; the Lava of July 12, 1892, el P. Demontzey, 387 “I Sydney : Royal Society of New South Wales, 191, 556 Sydney: a Bird-catching Spider, Mr. Rainbow, 474 Sydney Technological Museum taken over by Department. of & Public Instruction, 85 Symington (Dr. J.), on the Cerebral Commissures in the Mar- supialia and Monotremata, 405 Synoptical Geography of the World, 246 Synthesis of Azoimide N,H, Inorganic, A. E. Tutton, 286 Synthesis, Electrolytic, Prof. Crum Brown on, or Tablets in the British Museum, the Tel el- yey 49 Tacchini (Prof.), Sun-Spots, 163 Solar Observations during First Quarter of 1892, 167 ; Solar Observations at the R. Os) servatorio del Collegio Romano, 334; Solar Observations at ~ Rome, 476, 524 p} Tahiti, Pearl-shell Diving at, A. G. Howes, 301 Tait (Prof.), the Laws of Motion, Part II., 262 re cn oa Eleven Years in Central Africa, Edward Coote a ore Tanner (Col.), Photography and Surveying, 407 Tannor (J. E.), Habits. of Parasol Ants, 595 Pie Tanning with Chestnut Wood, Baron Bertrand-Geslin, 617 ; a 4 Tarr (R. S.), Origin of Terraces in Glaciated Regions, 311; ~ Effects of Topography on Thunderstorms, 555 4 Tate (A. Norman), Obituary Notice of, 298 Taverny, pe of Remarkable Grotto at, 449 Tea, Lao, Teall (Mr. ° "Poudogion Papers, 428 to Nature, } 1, 1392 | ’s Observatory, Report of, 576 i scant Sydney, taken over by Department of wa lon, 05 on the Formation of Argenteous Matter in the t of, Prof. E. G. Prince, 495 Syste in Belgium, the, 399 the Theory of the, Fred T. Trouton, 466 } eens, Improved Form of Electrodynamometer ment of, P. J. Kipp and Sons, 399 by Harvard Observatory for Donation to t Refracting, E. C. Pickering, 598 _ ‘Tablets in the British Museum, the, with Auto- 49 of the Brain, Prof. Angelo Mosso, 17 re, Gas Compression and, a Question in Physics, A. Hazen, 55 re of the Haman Body, L. Cumming, 541; ; GN. 588; Dr. W. Hale White, 588 e, the Report on Underground, 383 re, the Sense of, Dr. Dessoir, 340 ¢ and Protoplasmic Movements, on the Natural between, Dr. J. Clark, 404 Lord), the Death of, 572 Celebration, University of Dublin, 203 langes in Primates, Hairlessness of, Dr. Geo. J. F. S., 247 Rooting Tiles, the Older Forms of, E. S. Morse, Latitudes, the Variation of, M. enone d’ Abbadie, 1, the Varley, 369 — in England, W. Blaxland Benhan, 611 tics : Elements of Materia Medica and, C. A. Armand as an Introduction to Therapeutics, T. Lauder Brun- .D., 172 ; a Shaking Cure for Nervous Complaints, larcot, 451; Treatment of Cancer and Cholera by y »M. Brown-Séquard, 484 | hy in the Solar Atmosphere, E. B. Frost, tien, on a Method of Determining, C. H. en jon in Absolute Measure, Dr. J. T. Bottomley, ey Variation a Electrical Resistance of Mercury, C. E, ics : re Qaestion in Physics, Prof. H. A. Hazen, aré’s Thermodynamics, 76 ; _ Thermodynamische “Willard Gibbs bs, 245 Pancreatic Diabetes, 412 ), Places of Origin of Cholera Epidemics, 555 meget or piud of the Key to the Central homa: (Rose B ), Protective Mimicry, 612 son (Prof. Silvanus P., F.R.S.): Breath Figures, 236 ; g Mathematical Symbols, 513 nson (Prof. Elihu), Prize for Development of Theoretical ) e of Electricity, 451 . James, F.R.S.): Death of, 38 ; Obituary Notice (John), Effects of Rainfall in Formosa, 406 . Arthur), Outlines of Zoology, 241 0 mrs (Prot J. J.) New Edition of Clerk Maxwell’s Treatise Electricity and Magnetism, 38 ; Pressure at which Electric h of Gas is a Minimum, 143 n’s Sen Joseph) Journey to the Lake Bangweola = Or 2 (Wim J.), Easter Island, 258 m: W.) and James Blaikie, Geometrical Deductions, ddsen (Th.), Discovery of Unknown Lake in Iceland by, rpe (D. L). Imitative Habits of Starling, 15 pe (Prof. T. E.), Model illustrating General Phenomena of on through Dust Particles in explanation of Colliery 44 : lt, a so-called, Dr. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S., George H Hewitt, 513 u orms in New England during 1887, R. de C. Ward, 555; Effect of Topography on Thunderstorms, R. S. Tarr, > Index evens Culture and White Bread, Sir James Crichton-Browne xi Thunderstorms and Sun-Spots, 488 Tibet, Little, Mrs, Bishop's Journey to, 135 Tibet, Lesser, Mrs. Bishop, 405 Tibet, to the Snows of, a China A. Pratt, 150 Tidal Phenomenon at Kiungchow, Ef dose, China, E. HH. Parker, 63 Tide-motor, a, F. Purdon and H. S. Walters, 429 em del Fuego, Argentine, Sefior Julio Popper’ s Exp edition 135 Tiles, Terra Cotta Roofing, the Older Forms of, E. S. Morse, 474 Tillo (A. de), the Division according to Terrestrial Latit udes and Longitudes of the Geological Groups on the Earth, 2 4 Timchenco’s Anemometer, Prof. Klossovsky, 594 Time, International, Major the Hon. E. Noel, 423 Time Standards of Europe, Dr. Hugh Robert Mill, 174 Tin District in Burma, the, H. Warth, 522 Tite (G.), a Hydro-silicate of Cadmium, 144 Toads, a Curious Habit of Horned, O. P. Hay, 596 Toba Indians of the ‘* Gran Chaco,” Weapons and Articles o! Clothing used by the, J. Graham. Kerr, 432 Tobacco Exhibit at the Chicago Exhibition, the Kentucky, 278 Todas, the, 1 Tooke (W. Heainonns the God of the Ethiopians, 78 ’ Torpedo, Gymnotus, Mormyrus, and Malapterurus, on the Origin of the Electric Nerves in the, Prof. G. Fritsch, 404 Tortoises of Aldabra Island, Seychelles, the Gigantic, Riseley Griffiths, 398 Total Solar Eclipse, April 15-16, 1893, 201; William M. Martin, 561 Town Air, Impurities of, Dr. G. H. Bailey, 402 Town Refuse, Disposal of, Prof. Geo. Forbes, 429 Townsend (C, H.), Pearl Fishery of Gulf of California, 333 Townshend (Chauncey Hare) Scholarships, the, 449 Trajectories of Elongated Projectiles, Calculation of, Rev. F. Bashforth, 366 Transformers, 90 John King, | Transmission of Acquired Characters, the Bearing of Pathology upon the Doctrine of the, Henry J. Tylden, 302 Transmission of Acquired Character through Heredity, Prof. C. V. Riley, 504 Trapezium in the Orion Nebula, the, Dr. L. Ambronn, 334 Traube (Dr. Wilhelm), Silver Salt of Sulphimide obtained by, 51 ioe biradars, Influence Gaston Bonnier, 532 Trelease (W.), Revision of the Species of Rumex occurring North of Mexico, 40 Triassic Fossils : Brachiopoden der Alpinen Trias, A. Bittner, F. A. Bather, 25 ° Trigonometry, Elementary Plane, R. C. J. Nixon, 488 Trinidad Field Naturalists’ Club, 522 ‘* Triumph,” the, a New Chain-making Machine, 527 Tripp (W. B.), Levels of River Vaal at Kimberley, South Africa, compared with Rainfall of Watershed, 95 Tromelin (Le G. de), Calorific Distribution of Heat of Sun at Surface of Northern and Southern Hemispheres of Earth, of Electric Light on, 508 Trepical Cyclones, Maxwell Hall, 393 Trouton (Fred T.), Wave-Propagation of Magnetism, 56; the Theory of the Telephone, 466 Trouton (Dr. F. T.) on a Periodic Effect which the Size of Bubbles has on their Speed of Ascent in Vertical Tubes con- taining Liquid, 385 Trouve (G.), rorya Fountain built for Madame Patti at Craig-y-Nos by, 54) Trouvelot (E. L. fs ‘he Planet Venus, 468 ;_ Prominences, 258 a Vaccination of Dogs, Héricourt and Ch, Richet, I ‘ Tuberculosis, Earthworms and, Lortet and Despeignes, 263 Tuckwell (W.), Bees for Pleasure and Profit, G. Gordon Samson, 510 Tunicata, on the Presence of Atrial Tentacles in Various Genera of Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., 405 Tuning-fork, Direct Determination of the Gravitative Constant Remarkable by Means ofa, A. M. Worthington, 490 xii Index [ee to Nature, December 1, 1892 Tuning-fork, Determination of G by Means of a, Prof. A. M. Worthington, 561 Tupaia javanensis, the Javanese Insectivore, 160 Turacin, Prof. A. H. Church, F.R.S., 22 Turkestan, Chinese: Discovery of an Ancient Birch-bark (Sanscrit) Manuscript by Lieut. Bower, Dr. Hoernle, 370 Turner (Dr. Dawson), Experiments on the Electric Resistance of Metallic Powders, 384 Turner (F.), the Carob-Bean Tree in New South Wales, 210 Turner (T.), Estimation of Slag in Wrought Iron, 189 Turner (Sir William), Coiffure of a Kanaka Labourer, 433; Human Osteometry, 433 Tutton (A. E.), the New Element, Synthesis of Azoimide N,H, 286 Tylden (Dr. Henry J.), the Bearing of Pathology upon the Doctrine of the Transmission of Acquired Characters, 302 ; Death of, 331 Tyrol, South, Landslips in the, Miss Ogilvie, 428 Masrium, 79; Inorganic Uganda Question, the, 280 Uganda, Return of Capt. Lugard from, 552 Underground Temperature, the Report on, 383 United Kingdom, an Ethnographical Survey of the, 615 United States: University Extension Movement in, 15 ; Pacific Coast Fisheries, 63 ; difficulty of obtaining Iron adapted for Electrical Purposes in America, W. S. Key, 133 ; Sal-Soda Manufacture in the United States, Prof. C. F. Mabery, eh bay Forestry ae the Annual Loss to Government through Thieves and Fire, M. Fernow, 454; Volcanic Craters of, Prof. R. T. Hill, 456; the American Association for Advancement of Science in the United States, W. Kent, 494; Coast Line of United States, 525 ; United States, Gas Engines in, 595 Units, Discussion at British Association, Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S., 368 Units, Discussion on the Nomenclature of, Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S., 383 Universities : Chicago University, 594; the Proposed Labora- tory for Electrical Engineering at University College, 227 ; Prof. Ramsay’s Report as Dean of the Faculty of Science at University College, 253; Agricultural Education at Univer- sity College of North Wales, Bangor, 474; University of Dublin: Tercentenary Celebration, 203; University Intel- ligence, 21, 140, 163, 186, 213, 338, 411, 579, 602, 627; University of Japan, imperial, 551: a Professorial University of London, 121; New London University, 151, 169; the London University of the Future, 193 ; University Extension Movement in United States, 15; University Observatory, 301 Unwin (W. Cawthorne, F.R.S.), Opening Address in Section G of the British Association, 355 Urine, Estimation of Uric Acid in, F. G. Hopkins, 236 Ussher (Mr.), Petrological Papers, 428 Vacation Courses, the Edinburgh Summer Meeting, 449 ‘— of Dogs, Tuberculous, Héricourt and Ch. Richet, I Vaillant (Léon), Alimentation in Ophidia, 364 Valley Fog, Reflection on, J. Edmund Clark, 514 Variable Nebulz, E. E. Barnard, 211 Variable, a New, T. E. Espin, 17 Variable Star, a New, Prof. Schaeberle, 620 ; Variable Star T Cassiopeiz, Cuthbert E. Peek, 443 Variable Stars, New, Prof. Pickering, 334 Variation of Latitude, Dr. Chandler, 211, 476 Variation of Latitude at Pulkova, B. Wanach, 524; S. Kos- tinsky, 524 Yee in Latitude, Declination of Stars for Reduction of, 5 Variations, Magnetic, William Ellis, 67 Variations, Periodic, of Alpine Glaciers, F. A. Forel, 386 Neer of Terrestrial Latitudes, the, M. Antoine d’Abbadie, 5 Varley Testimonial, the, 369 Vascular. Cryptogams, Notes on. the Morphology of the Spore- bearing Members in the, Prof. F. O. Bower, 555 Vatican Observatory, Pubblicazioni (vol. ii.) of, 299 Veley (V. H.), Conditions of Formation and Decomposition of Nitrous Acid, 188 Veeder (Dr. M. A.), Aurora, 29 Ventilation of Public Buildings, the, Dr. Hunter Stewart, I Venus, the Planet, E. L. Trouvelot, 468 Venus, Determination of Angle of Polarization of, J J Landerer, 240 Be: Vertebrates, Fossil, the Washington Collection of, R. Lydekker, 29 \ Wace, Mount, the Eruption of, 132, 277 Viault, (M. ); Physiological Effects of Mountain Climate 240 Victoria, the Planet, Comparison Stars of, Dr. Gill, 423 ; Victoria: Victoria Field Naturalists’ Club ; Excursion to the Grampians (Australia), 63 ; Development of Raisin Industry in Victoria, J. Knight, 256; Proceedings of Royal Society of Victoria, 459 ; Movement for Prevention of Wanton Destruc- tion of Birds in Victoria, 495 ; Some Victorian ae Ernest Anderson, 595 Vineyards of Europe, Statistics of the, 450 “Viper” Bite, a, W. A. Rudge, 270 Virchow (Prof.) on Learning and Research, 593 Vision, a 5-Sensation Theory of, E. Hunt, "435 ‘ Visual, Photographic and, Magnitudes of Stars, Prof. J oa Kapteyn, 41 Vital Absorption, Prof. Waymouth Reid, 403 Viticulture in the Punjab, 86 Vivisection at the Church Congress, 557 Vivisection Controversy, the, 593 Vogel’s (Prof.) Method of Colour Photography, 263 Voit (Prof.), the Physiological Effect of a Farinaceous Diet on Animals, 618 : Vole Plague in the Border Districts, the, 398 Volcanoes : the Eruption of Mount Etna, 254, 276, Fl 331, 361, 371, 398, 450; the Present Eruption of Mount M. Wallerant, 460 ; Gaetano Platania, 542; Volcanic — at Great Sangir, 287, 299, 332; the Eruption of Vesuvius, 132, 277 ; Active Lunar Volcanoes, Prof. Pickering, 1343; Volcanoes, Past and Present, Edward Hull, F.R.S., 220; Miss C. F, Gordon Cumming’s Paintings of Volcanic _ District in New Zealand, 254; the Origin of Coon Butte, Arizona, Prof. G. K. Gilbert, 454; Craters of United States, Prof. R. T. Hill, 456 ; Further Notes on a Recent Volcanic © Island in the Pacific, Capt. W. J. L. Wee F. RS., 611 Volga, Poisoning by Naphtha.of the, 421 pigs the Alleged ‘‘Aggressive Mimicry” of, William Bate- : son, 585 Vulcano, Eruption of, (August 3, 1888, to March 22, sige G. W. Butler, 117 Wager (Harold), on the Structure of Cystopus candidus, 405 © Wahrlich (W. K.), Structure of Bacterial Cells, 39 Waikiki, Latitude Observations at, Mr. Preston, 64 Walcott (C. D.), Cambrian Rocks of Virginia, 311 a Wales, University College (Bangor) of North, Agricultural, Education at, 474 | Walker Prize of Boston Natural History Society awarded to Prof. J. D. Dana, the, 15 i Walker (J.), Preparation of Alkyl Lodides, 312 : Walker (J. W.), sro of Lactic Acid into its ‘Optically Active Components, Wallace (Dr. Alfred R \ Award of Linnean Society's Gold» Medal to, 37 ; Correction in ‘‘ Island Life,” _ Wallace (Prof. Robert), Egyptian Agriculture, = Wallaschek (Dr.), an Ethnological Enquiry into the Basis of our Musical System, 238 Wallerant (M.), the Present Eruption of Mount Etna, 460 | Walters (H. S.), a Tide-motor, 429 | Wanach (B.), Variation of Latitude at Pulkova, 524 Ward (F. W.), Report on the Relations of Australasian Fruit Production to the English Market, 39 _ Ward (R. de C.), Thunderstorms in New — during — 1887, 555 Warington (R., F.R.S.), the Nitric Organisms, 1 51 f Warner (Dr. Francis), Co-ordination of Cellular Growth and — Action by Physical Forces, 404 ; Observations as to the — Physical Devistinel from the Normal as seen among 50,000 Children, 4 Warth (H.), = Tin District in Burma, 522 Washington Collection of Fossil Vertebrates, R. Lydekker, - 295 “Wasp-life, a Wave of, G. W. Peckham, 611 Water: the Surface-film of, and its Relation to the Life of Plants and Animals, Prof. L. C. Miall, 7; Variations in Temperature of Water suddenly Compressed to 500 Atmo- spheres between 0° and 10°, Paul Galopin, 240; an Aconstic ‘Method rg Maral Depth of Water in a River may be _ Measured at a Distance, Frederick J. Smith, 246 ; Sound- carr Power of Water, A. R. Sennett, 430; Impure Water in Bread, 514 ; Electricity of Waterfalls, Ph. Lenard, 484 ; Water Supply, London, for September 1892, Profs. " Crookes and W. Odling, 617; on the Relative contami- § nation of the Water-surface by Equal Quantities of Different > poo agent Miss Agnes Pockels, 418 ; Physical Condition of the Waters of the English Channel, H. V. Dickson, 384; . e ts in East Yorkshire, J. Lovel, 246 Waters (B. H.),: Primitive Segmentation of Vertebrate Brain, ‘Wakanton's (J. J.) Theory of Gases, 30 _ Watson (A. J.), the Protective Device of an Annelid, 7 _ Watson (Dr. Forbes), Death of, 331 - Watson (G.), Refuse-destructor Question, 429 _ Watson H, W., F.R.S.), on a Proposition in the Kinetic ‘Theory y , 29; Maxwell’s Law of Distribution of pe F 9 100 — Watts’ Dicti of Chemistry, Forster Morley and M. M. Pattison Muir, Sir H. E. Roscoe, F.R.S., 242 Wave of Wasp-life, a, G. W. Peckham, 611 | Wave- zation of Magnetism, Fred. T. Trouton, 56 | Waves, the Use of Oil for Calming, 228 x bc a4 Savage ; a Peculiar form of Womerah, R. Etheridge, _ Weapons and Articles of Clothing used by the Toba Indians of the Gran Chaco, J. Graham Kerr, 432 aer Changes? Can Spiders Prognosticate, Dr. H. C. boi McCook, v ale 's, Worst, at Chicago, Projected Exhibition of, 14 t, Prof. A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S., 247 k (Dr. L.), Lunar Photography, 257 ;(Capt.), Azimuth Diagram, 44 an (Dr. A.), Essays on Heredity, 558 the, Carinthia, Physical Conditions of, Dr. K. ch (, ales, Miocene Formations of Western Algeria, 628 I Fauna in South Florida, T. D. A. Cockerell, st Indies, Sugar-cane Borers in the, 531 ergaard (Harold), Die Grundziige der Theorie der Statis- ter Technical Institute ; the Townshend Schvlarships, haling Expedition, Sailing of the Dundee Antarctic, 477 harton (Capt. W. J. L., F.R.S,), Further Notes on a Kecent Joleanic Island in the Pacific, 611 hipple (G. M.), Comparison of Richard’s Anémo-cinémo- graphe with Standard Beckley Anemograph t+ Kew Ob- . 5 nd ike South Indian Ocean, Robert 1. Scott, 294 nbow, M. Mascart, 532, 555 0 the, W. L. Distant, 29 Riser. een saaigaL H., F.R.S.), Experiments'with Basic Steel, 114 ; ilding in Portsmouth Dockyard, 337 V. Hale), the Temperature of the Human Body, Prof. F. P.), Magnetic Disturbances caused by ilways, 455 e (John), Method of Increasing Range of Capillary 1 » 3 yte (Alexander), Mount Milanji in Nyassaland, 482 _ Whymper (Edward), Supplementary Appendix to Travels __ amongst the Great Andes of the Equator, H. J. Elwes, 147 Vie ’s Annalen der Physik und Chemie, 483, 602 en oe 7; on on the Measurement of High Tempera- am (J. R.), a New Giant Lighthouse Lens, 71 ‘. e (Henry, F.R.S.), on the Origin of Elementary Sub- _ stances and on some New Relations of their Atomic Weights, Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., 568 Williams’s Frog Heart Apparatus, Prof. R. Kobert, 177 Supplement to Nature, ey 4 “December 1,1892- | Index xiii Williams (Juliet N.), Carnivorous Caterpillars, 128 Williams (W.), Relation of Dimensions of Physical Quantities to Directions in Space, 237 i Williamson (Prof. W.C., F.R.S.), Two Common Processes of Mineralization of Fossil Remains illustrated by Fossil Nau- tilus and Starfish, 70 Willis (J. C.), Gynodicecism in the Labiate, 167 — ina iro Death of, 361 ilson (Dr. omas), Analysis of Fossil Bone: 2 Natchez Bluff, Mississippi, tom erecdwding Winder (C. A.), Failures in Necks of Chilled Rolls, 527 Wines, the Analysis of, Dr. L. Magnier de la Source, 170 Wingham (A.), the Elimination of Sulphur from Iron, 115 Winnecke’s Periodic Comet, 1892, 110 / Winter, Range of the Sanderling in, Prof. Alfred Newton F.R.S., 177, 222 Winternitz (Herr), the Antiseptic Properties of Milk, 550 Wire Standards of Electric Resistance, Dr. Lindeck, 383 Wister (Geo. I. T.), Endowment of Museum of Anatomy at Pennsylvania University by, 38 Wolpai, a Maid of, Dr. Shufeldt, 451 Women and Musical Instruments, Otis T. Mason, 561 ** Womerah,” a Peculiar Form of, R. Etheridge, jun., 86 Wood Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, the, 493 Wood-work, the English Sloyd, S. Barter, 244 Woods (E. H.), New Design of Electric Locomotive, 430 Woodpecker, the Lesser Spotted, Albert C. Mott, 77 ee B.), Growth and Structures of Shell in Neri- idee, 21 Woodward (C. J.), Arithmetical Chemistry, 610 Woodward’s (Prof. R. S.) Iced-bar Base Apparatus, 455 World, Synoptical Geographv of the, 246 Worthington (Prof. A. M.): Dynamics of Rotation, an Ele- mentary Introduction to Rigid Dynamics, 4; Direct Deter- mination of the Gravitative Constant by means of a Tuniny- fork, a Lecture Experiment, 490; Determination of G by Means of a Tuning-Fork, 561 Wright (C. R. Alder, F.R.S.), the Threshold of Science, 173% Certain Ternary Alloys, vi., Aluminium, &c., 188 Wrightson (Prof.), Live Stock, 76 Wundt’s Philosophische Studien, 133 Loe College Observatory Report, Mr. Brown, Dr. Elkin, 2 Year, Origin of the, J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S., 104 Yeast, Hydrolytic Functions of, J. O’Sullivan, 190 Yellow Fever, Immunity of the African Negro from, Dr. C. Creighton, 200, 222 Yemen, Journey through, Walker Harris, 408 Yendell (Mr.), Light-Variations of Y Cygni, 134 Yorkshire College, Leeds ; the County (Agricultural) Lectures to Farmers, 300 Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, 107 Yukon Expedition, Mr. Schwatka’s, 180 Zakrzevski (J. von), Specific Gravity and Fusion of Ice, 602 Zebra’s Stripes, Dr. S. Schénland, 6 Zehnder (L.), Method of exhibiting Hertzian Oscillations to a large Audience, 573 Zoology : the Zebra’s Stripes, Dr. S. Schénland, 6 ; Zoological Gardens, additions to, 16, 41, 64, 86, 110, 134, 161, 179, 211, 229, 257, 279, 301, 333, 362, 371, 400, 422, 451, 475, 496, 524, 551, 575, 597, 619 ; Zoological Gardens, the Madagascar Pratincole at the, 616; the White Rhinoceros, W. L. Distant, 29 ; Award of Linnean Society’s Gold Medal to Dr. A. R. Wallace, 37; Bibliothek des Professors der Zoologie und Vergl. Anatomie, Dr. Ludwig von Graff, in Graz, 54 ; Zoological Society, 70, 142, 215; Phases of Animal Life, Past and Present, R. Lydekker, 74; Perifatus from St. Vincent, R. J. Pocock, 100; the Oviparity of the larger Victorian Peripatus, Dr. Dendy, 239; Peripatus rediscovered in Jamaica, Grabham and Cockerell, 514; the Coming Moscow International Congress of Prehistoric Zoology, 108 ; Zoological Society of Philadelphia, 133 ; Geographical Dis- tribution of the Land-Mollusca of the Philippine Islands, Rev. H. H. Cooke, 142; Death and Obituary Notice of Hermann Burmeister, 176; A Bird’s-Egg Eating Snake, 185 ; Growth and Structure of Shell in Neritidez, B. B. Woodward, 215 ; Outlines of Zoology, J. Arthur Thomson, 241 ; Hairlessness xliv Lndex of Terminal Phalanges in Primates, Dr. Geo J. Romanes, -F.R.S., 2473 a Handbook on the Management or Animals. in Captivity in Lower Bengal, Ram Bramha Sanyal, 314; | _ the Crinoids and Echinoids of the North Atlantic, Dr. | | Marsupial | Monotremata, zs Danielssen, 333 3a Plea for an International Zoological Record, | |McMurrich, the Early Development of the — E. A. Minchin, 367; an International Zoological Record, | es and J, is . the F, A. Bather, 417; the Gigantic Land Tortoises of Aldabra | Teeth of the Australian Dugong, 406 Island, Seychelles, Riseley Griffiths, 398; Dr. Henry C. | ~ i \S -McCook on the Social Habits of Spiders, 403 ; Prof. Lloyd” | _ Suggestion for the Inde: Morgan, the Method of Comparative Psychology, 404; J. E. | . A. Cockerell, 442; the S. Moore on the Relationships and Role of the Archoplasmic | —T, | ( . Body during Mitosis in the Larval Salamander, 404; Dr. G.| of the Principal Facts Mann on the Origin of Sex, 404; Dr. J. Beard on Larve | and Markings and their Relations to Adult Forms, 404; Observations on | B. Poulton, F/R.S., the Development of the Posterior Cranialand Anterior Spinal | | and Commerce, 605 Las Nerves in Mammals, Dr. Arthur Robinson, 405; the Cranial | Zuntz (Prof.), Effects of Muscular Ganglia, Prof. J. C. Ewart, 405; Prof. W. A. Herdman, | Blood of Carnivora as compared \ ele le: B8s Po Ree 7) x a 5 > a h He Wf > j i - a. * ig ety a or aes r 5 ‘ ary A 6 NMG iG ¥ & Het | ¥ Ps ¢ PULH Wahoo 7 AS SER: 43 2 OP AaeOW he! 4 ag ¢ € a t ' Rink gt 7 *t / J rei | J i] Tiyed ‘ ee 4 bd Cf ‘3 } Vv : ? : | F st Py ies i 3 * ‘ i Fe) te # ig . j ae / t) 7 } ? 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OF, SCIENCE. ** To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye.’—WoORDSWORTH, feta ‘THURSDAY, MAY 5, 1892. £ ix: uman Mind: a Text-book of ff he By ‘Sully, M.A., LL.D. Two Vols. (London: ins, 1892.) of Psychology: Feeling and Will, By James Pelduin, eA, Ph.D. (London: Macmillan, of Psychology. By William James. (London: millan 1892.) ; his treatise on the “Human Mind,” Mr. Sully has not attempted to supplant, but rather to supplement, own admirable “Outlines of Psychology.” The 10d in the two works is the same, and the arrange- nt of the subject-matter, though it differs slightly in ) Is, is, on the whole, essentially and in prin- sim similar. A chapter has been added on the physical 5 sof ‘mental life, dealing briefly with the nervous m and with neuro-psychical correlations. But the bewinaly refers his readers to text-books of physio- to manuals of physiological psychology for a full it of these matters. He also gives an adequate iccount of the recent experimental researches on the aature and conditions of some of the simpler responsive ties, but is not blind to the difficulties and uncer- nties of this so-called experimental psychology. t is well known that Mr. Sully lays great stress on the 1etic method in psychology. Tt is evident,” he says, “that we require a knowledge 0 ao psychical elements [reached by analysis] and of oat of their combination, in order to account for the lex products of the mature human consciousness. ; tfect account of a thing means the history at thing from its first crude to its completed form. n the psychologist has succeeded. by analysis, aided bjective observation and hypothesis, in obtaining requisite data, he proceeds to reconstruct the course ychical development. ? m the standpoint of biology and evolution, this ic aspect of psychology is of especial importance, NO. 1175, VOL. 46] ‘and can prove little. and we cannot be too grateful to. Mr. Sully for his able, | clear-headed, and, on the whole, cautious presentation of this view of the matter. But it is one which, as Mr. Sully himself well knows, is of peculiar difficulty. Few of us remember anything of the genesis of our modes of psychological procedure in the early days of our life; and when we do remember scraps here and there, we are only too apt to interpret them in terms of our adult procedure. with which we are so much more familiar. It is, more- over, well nigh impossible for the psychologist to realize the nature of the psychical processes of the child, so that infant psychology is a field wherein we may suppose much Mr. Sully again and again appeals to the supposititious child. “The child, for example,” he says, “begins to note that some varieties of living things, e.g. flies or birds, die. He then compares these results, and, extracting the common relation, finds his way to the more compre- hensive generalization, ‘ All animals die.’ Later on he compares this result with what he has observed of flower- ing and other plants, and so reaches the yet higher and more abstract generalization, ‘ All living things die.’ ” Ot course there may be a child here and there who proceeds, or, in the absence of all instruction in the matter, might proceed, thus. But children and unedu- cated persons very rarely reach a general and universal concept, properly so called. The child notes that its pets and other animals die or are killed: this begets a stronger and stronger expectation that other animals will likewise die or be killed some day ; and the expectation may rise to practical certainty without anything like a universal concept taking even vague and indefinite shape in the mind. We therefore question the statement that “by induction the child reaches a large number of general or universal judgments,” though it is unquestion- able that he may have a large number of expectations which the logician may cast in universal form. He may even state them in universal form himself, and say, “ Animals die,” “ Apples have pips,” the language he uses being here, as in so many cases, in advance of his conceptions. In the discussion of the development of the moral sentiment, the distinctively moral feeling is perhaps > B 2 NATURE [May 5, 1892 hardly differentiated with sufficient care from the merely prudential. The prudential does not pass up into the, moral on the same line of development; but the pru- dential and the moral are separate and sometimes widely divergent lines of development. It is sometimes said that the prudential is self-centred while the moral is social. But is not what is socially right different from what is socially prudent? Or, in other words, is not morality something other than social prudence? Remorse for wrong has a different psychological quality from regret for error, no matter what the social implications of the error may be. Mr. Sully does not seem to have sufficiently brought out this distinction in his account of the genesis of the moral sense. But though there may be room for some difference of opinion as to the exact course of genetic development by which our more complex and more highly evolved psycho- logical states have been reached, there can be no question that Mr. Sully’s painstaking and thoughtful discussion of their possible or probable mode of evolution is and will long remain of real and sterling value. No living writer has paid more attention to this important aspect of psychology. There is one more point on which we may comment before we pass on to Prof. Baldwin’s work. It is the doctrine of residual fusion. “The simplest form of assimilation,” we read, “is to be found in that process by which a present sensation (or sensation complex) is re-apprehended or ‘ recognized’ as something familiar... . What takes place here is the calling up by a present sensation of the trace or residuum of a past sensation (or sensations), which trace merges in or coalesces with the new sensation, being discernible only through the aspect of familiarity which it imparts to the sensation. . . . We have to conceive of the nervous process somewhat after this manner. A given central element or cluster of elements is re-excited to a functional activity similar to that of a previous excitation. The residuum of this previous activity or surviving ‘ physio- logical disposition ’ somehow combines with and modifies the new activity ; which blending of nervous processes has for its psychical correlative the peculiar mode of con- sciousness known as recognition, sense of familiarity, or identification. Here, however, our physiological psychology seems to be more than usually conjectural.” ‘And again— “Tn recognition the percept and the image are fused, the presence of the latter being indicated merely in the peculiar appearance of familiarity which the percept assumes.” This so-called “fusion” of the percept and the image seems to us an awkward figure by which to describe the facts, The sequence of states of consciousness in the case of (a) practical or perceptual, and (4) reflective or con- ceptual recognition, seems to be briefly as follows. Sup- pose I recognize a man, A, as one whom I have met before, say at a dinner party. Then I have first a percept A where A is the individual in question in the G88 7 focus of consciousness, and gz y the “ fringe” generated by his present surroundings, more or less out of focus. This percept is immediately followed by the image oipyiah where A appears amid different surroundings. This constitutes practical or perceptual recognition. In NO. 1175, VOL. 46] reflective or conceptual recognition there follows an act of introspection (or retrospection), whereby the common central element in the two states of consciousness is explicitly identified. There is no fusion in either case, | except in so far as sequent states of consciousness have © a central or focal element which is identifiable. If we simply recognize A as someone we have met somewhere, we do not remember where, there is associated with the - focal image, A, an indefinite fringe of pastness serving to — differentiate it from the percept with its fringe of present surroundings ; and if, on the other hand, we recognize A as a quite familiar person whom we have seen again and again amid all sorts of surroundings, there is a fringe which we can only describe as involving both pastnes; and frequency. Inthe case of the animal or the child, recognition presumably does not pass beyond the practical stage—that is to say, a percept A with this fringe is followed by an image A with that fringe. Reflective re- cognition, involving retrospection and a comparison of the two images (A with this fringe and 4 with that fringe) and the identification of the element common to both, is a product of conceptual processes of later genesis, In conclusion, it is sufficient to say that by his treatise on the human mind Mr. Sully fully sustains his reputation as a psychologist, In his volume on: “ Feeling and. Will,” Prof. Baldwin has completed the survey of the mind begun in his © “ Senses and Intellect.” The first three chapters contain an adequate physio- logical introduction. There is, however, one statement which seems to us awkward if not misleading. After briefly noting the views that have been suggested as to the relation of consciousness to the so-called nervous conditions, Prof. Baldwin says :— “Tt has become apparent that nervous activity, con- sidered by itself alone, does not bring us into the range of psychological science. However we may decide the inquiry as to whether such activity is ever entirely free from consciousness, it is yet true that it may be quite. outside of what is called the individual’s consciousness. . .- In other words, the greater part of our ordinary nervous reactions are not above the threshold of our conscious lives. So we reach a distinction between sen- tience as a nervous property and sentience as a conscious phenomenon, between sentience and sensibility, Sensibility is synonymous with the usual consciousness of the indi- vidual’s experience, and sentience is the nervous function which may or may not be accompanied by consciousness or inner aspect in general.... The transition from simple sentience to the full consciousness is through a stage of subconscious modification.” With no desire to be hypercritical, this does not seem to us altogether satisfactory. Sentience is spoken of as_ “the nervous function which may or may not be accom- panied by consciousness.” The words we have italicised seem to imply that sentience belongs to the physical, not the psychical order of existence. If so, the “ transi- tion from simple sentience to full consciousness” is a transition from the physical to the psychical order, and consciousness becomes a mode of energy. We do not think that this is the author’s meaning ; but in that case it would be well so to define sentience as to clearly show that though it may not rise to the level of consciousness, it is none the less of the conscious or psychical order. NATURE 4 re] hen we leave the physiological and enter the psychical id, appeal is constantly made to the “principle of ppt ception” or “selective synthesis.” But does not wuthor go somewhat beyond what is justified by our mperfect knowledge of the facts of cerebral physio- when he asserts that “after we enter consciousness, : i principle of apperception to which there is no ‘in physiological integration”? Elsewhere he Now, as a fact, the great principle of mental on, selective synthesis, finds no apparent nterpart in physics.” In direct opposition to this - ee? venture to contend that nothing is more re- le than the parallelism (if it be no more) of selec- ve synthesis in the physical and the psychical spheres. mipeyerl world this is best seen in the formation of com s and their segregation in crystalline of apperception. This is, however, only the expression eoaneptenl sphere of a principle which, stripped of metaphysical implications, must be extended to the “heady psychical life, as a general law of psycho- |. In the organic world (at any rate the animal i) the two principles (if two they be) meet. And if, hstanding the splendid work done in bionomics, th the application of “natural selection” to the ‘ior of the problem, we have not. yet reached a ion of selective synthesis in organic life | growth, wee is no proof that there i isno such selective . Baldwin divides feeling into the two great classes sensuous feeling, and (2) ideal feeling. Sensuous x relates to the bodily functions. “Sensuous y life or its advancement ; and sensuous pain, | ‘effect of that which makes for the decline the weaily life or its limitation.” Ideal feelings, on omgra are the modifications of sensibility which y the: exercise of the apperceptive function. : may be defined as “the conscious effect of ee for the continuance of the apperceptive . or its advancement ; and ideal pain, the conscious ct of that which makes for the decline of the apper- ive life or its limitation.” But though sensuous feel- can have no reference to the conceptual or apper- ptive life, ideal feeling has reference (however much we ct to despise or ignore the mere body) to physical as as intellectual well-being. Hence Prof. Baldwin des “that ideal tone (pleasure or pain) refers to al well-being as a whole.” We must pass over without comment an important interesting discussion of “reality and belief,” which | worthy of careful consideration, and may proceed to “note ‘the somewhat unusual sense in which the author uses the word “ ideals.” — eo vyhich only means that what we call ideals are emotional n ‘their nature, expressing the drift or felt outcome of the constructive process, not any actual attainment of it. If man, for example, were an intellectual construc- I would be able to describe him. . NO. 1175, VOL. 46] he says, “are not mental constructions at constructed they would no longer be ideals: . Ideals, there- : ui n. Inthe psychical world it is seen in the so-called prin- edattasice sith the general principles he adopts, | | re,” says the author, “may be defined as the con- } ect of that which makes for the continuance of | fore; are the forms which we feel our conceptions would jtake if we were able to realize in them a satisfying degree iof unity, harmony, significance, and universality.” | This seems to us somewhat strained. It is a descrip- tion of theoretically ideal ideals which have been emptied ‘of all practical value. There are assuredly practical ‘ideals which, though unattainable, can be definitely real- ‘ized as intellectual constructions permeated with emo- tional tone. And it is these practical ideals which are ‘influential on conduct. The distinction between subjective and objective ends ‘in ethics is carefully drawn., Subjective ends are the felt and more or less definitely realized motives of the voluntary process. They alone have psychological value as the immediate determinants of conduct. Objective ends are a matter of cognition. “ Even though it were granted that all voluntary action ‘arose and survived by exclusive reference to pleasure or ‘to self-realization, yet it would be a patent fallacy to say ‘that the only voluntary end is either of them—that con- sciousness has all along been versed in our biology or our | speculative ethics, and has aimed to fulfil the one or the ‘other. Consciousness has no inkling of the divayis of ‘Aristotle, or the connatus of Spinoza, or the 7ried of “Wundt and Schneider ; of the ‘strife [szc] for existence’ ‘of Spencer, the theoretic ‘ reverence for law’ of Kant, the self-realization ° of Green, or the dialectical ‘be- ‘coming’ of Hegel, Let us discover these things if we nek but do not let us say that a man is not moral unless as a realizing sense of them.” We have left ourselves no space to deal with Prof. : Baldwin’s discussion of the phenomena of the will. We ‘do not by any means agree with all that he says thereon, but it is worthy of careful consideration. Prof. James’s “ Text-book of Psychology” is a re- arranged abridgment of his larger “ Principles,” with the addition of some description of the senses and sense- }organs. We have so recently (NATURE, vol. xliii. p. 506) expressed our opinion of the value of the larger work, that we can, without injustice to Prof. James, afford to be brief in our notice of this abridgment, merely selecting the chapter on “Instinct” on which to offer a few comments. Every organism comes into the world with an innate capacity to perform, more or less definitely, certain activities under the appropriate environing circumstances. Of these activities, a certain number which are (1) com- plex in character, and (2) per‘ormed (a) in a definite way, (4) without foresight of the end to be attained, (c) with no previous education in the performance, and (¢@) uniformly by all normal individuals of the species concerned, are now by pretty common consent described as instinctive. Clearly such instinctive actions are the outcome of the innate capacity of the animal which performs them ; but they are a peculiar and special manifestation of this innate capacity: they, have definite and clearly assignable characteristics. Now no one can question that man comes into the world with a relatively enormous store of innate capacity, and that he has innate tendencies to perform half a hundred particular activities. And yet he has but few instincts. He leads a life of hesitation and choice, an intelligent life. To say with Prof. James that this is “not because he has no instincts—rather because Raiacveloaisagll ‘he has so many that they block each other’s path” practically to abandon the position which has been diaine fully and slowly gained by those who have thought and written on instinct. Instinct is a definite and special manifestation of innate tendency: here the innate ten- dency is not manifested in this definite and special way, but is thwarted. To call both manifestation and non- manifestation alike instinct is, in our view, a retrograde step, which we regret that a psychologist of Prof. James’s insight and influence should have taken. We cannot, however, leave the book with a note of dissent ; for we find far more in this text-book to agree with than to dissent from. Whether we agree or dissent, we always find Prof. James full of stimulating thought ; and we advise all who are interested in psychology to read at least the chapters on “ Habit,” “The Stream of Consciousness,” and “ The Self,” if they read no more. Cc. Ly. M. DYNAMICS OF ROTATION. Dynamics of Rotation: an Elementary Introduction to Rigid Dynamics. By A. M, Worthington. Pp. 155. (London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892.) Spinning Tops. By John Perry. Pp. 136. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1890.) HE persistence of spinning tops and of running bicycles in rearing themselves erect are common examples of a wide class of dynamical phenomena which are influenced or governed by the presence of rapidly rotating parts, and which have a prominent place in all departments of physical science, from the relations of the systems of the stars down to molecular actions. In formal treatises on abstract dynamics we are accus- tomed to find the properties of freely rotating systems relegated to an advanced part of the development of the subject, and expounded with all the powerful help which mathematical analysis can afford. If we are to have a complete theory of the circumstances which determine the stability and transformations of rotational motions, this analytical aid is none too extensive. But there is another mode of approaching a physical subject, which consists in learning from observation and properly varied experiment what are the phenomena that are persistent and stable, and then applying known dynamical principles to the elucidation of the properties of the motions thus known in fact to exist—a problem which need not in those simpler cases which are fundamental require any great amount of analytical knowledge. As an additional reason for the customary abstract development of dynamics, there may perhaps be counted the historical fact that the questions that were of para- mount importance when dynamical principles concerning extended systems of bodies were being evolved, related to the orbital and axial motions of the heavenly bodies, and their reconciliation with the law of universal gravitation. The absence of frictional resistances, and the long dura- tion and delicacy of astronomical observations, had led to a minute knowledge of the motions of the solar system, which taxed all the resources of Clairaut, D’Alembert, Laplace, and Lagrange, to verify and explain. Many of the dynamical principles which are now NO. 1175, VOL. 46] [May 5, 1892" treated as elementary and fundamental were thus come upon in special analytical investigations relating to” It was, for example, in this way that the principle of the conservation of angular momen= > — tum for the solar system was discovered by Laplace, and. then generalized to a system with any kind of, internal :_ connections which is not subject to forces from outside it. . How far a general principle of this kind, when divested — of its analytical dress, enables us to see into the general — A striking illustration is _ physical astronomy. causes of things is well known. the af7r¢u of Prof. James Thomson, that when once the , trade winds have been explained as a consequence of the. earth’s rotation, they involve of necessity the existence also of anti-trades or south-west winds in the temperate. zone ; for if the trades blew by themselves’ their friction against the earth would always be acting round in the, same direction, and therefore would tend to stop the earth’s rotation, not by wholly destroying its motion, but , by transferring its angular momentum undiminished to the atmosphere, where it would continually accumulate. This simple remark thus shows that the trades blowing to the equator must be compensated by anti-trades blow-. ing from it; and therefore also explains the existence of a region of high barometer between them. It will also occur to memory how much J. Purser, W. Thomson, and specially G. H. Darwin, have established in the tidal evolution of the earth-moon system, by studying the possibilities of development that are allowed subject to the conservation of its angular momentum and the degradation of its energy. It has been reserved for our own half- celia to thing out the wealth of general dynamical ideas that is con- tained in ‘the magnificent analytical presentation by Lagrange of the results of the application of the laws of motion to systems of bodies, the number of variables or co-ordinates being of necessity (for analytical purposes) restricted to the number of degrees of freedom, and every- thing turning out to be expressible in terms of one funda- mental function—the energy of the system. It will be apparent, on looking through Prof. Cayley’s Reports on Dynamics to the British Association, how much the pro- gress of this department of abstract dynamics was indebted to the necessities of astronomy. That science presented a problem which was in one sense quite definite and precise, on account of the smallness of the planetary masses, but which nevertheless required a minute explanation of the perturbations to which the planetary bodies are subjected owing to their mutual actions. The methods which proved comprehensive and efficient for this purpose also showed themselves, when they were examined from a more general standpoint, to reveal principles of a far-reaching character, that applied to dynamical systems however complicated. The final stage of analytical development was reached when the keen perception of Sir W. R. Hamilton saw that the whole subject could be removed from special considera- tions of space and time, and attached to the purely analytical treatment of a single varying action function ; and the commentary of Jacobi showed precisely how to pass from this general differential analysis to the solutions of special dynamical questions. At the present time there seems to be no ‘Sunes of the interruption of progress by too close an adherence to the | May 5. 1802! lus. The fact is, that nearly all the problems of umerical calculation of perturbations which were at the beginning of the century, in order to bind ‘solar system to the scheme of universal gravitation, W and -been satisfactorily disposed of. There is no ger the same need for the greatest intellectual power to slf to put right some periodic or secular inequality, nd often, ‘more. New ground has been broken since there i is the great array of the physical sciences, ng to become purely dynamical, néna of matter and motion, on which they ‘are to a great extent concealed from direct obser- or exploration. “Under such circumstances the of progress is to carefully cherish, and reduce e such as will appeal directly to the under- , all the general principles which have become roblems of which the data are thoroughly known; them as a key for the dynamical interpreta- numerical verification of their results. The mode atv the powerful inverse analysis of ce and Lagrange to methods more akin to those were worked by Newton. y be stated as a general rule that the relations ly intelligible and most flexible in this kind of 0 are properties of constancy, or of maximum , such as belong in fact to the more obvious of the continuous growth of pure quantity. The sf energy, of linear momentum, of angular the minimum energy criterion of equilibrium, which Wakacmnine the motion following the appli- impulses specified either by their actual amounts the velocities they produce at their points of appli- \—these may all be cited in illustration. © The crown . edifice will be Maupertuis’s principle of Least ‘whose range of exact application, initiated for ic: by Lagrange and Hamilton, is now being ex- d eset of physics, thus working out swer.to the question—To what extent can the suc- oO i of phenomena i in inanimate Nature from instant ant be treated as governed bya principle analogous - of minimum expenditure of effort in the sentient ch ny for example, a great circle on a sphere—be e shortest between two points within a given range of seats, but may cease to have that property when the nit In asimilar way, in statics, a certain region of Stability is determined around each position of equi- ibrium, such that, if the system is not disturbed beyond region, it will not leave the neighbourhood ; while, in nar nics of a particle, such a region is more vaguely ermined around each orbit by the nature of the loping curves or surfaces of the neighbouring orbits. From the point of view of the direct appreciation of namical ideas, the small books at the head of this NO. 1175, VOL. 46] mamenires all the battery of analysis that is available, but all n this by the fact that the dynamical machinery, id in the course of dynamical investigations relat- mor 2 recondite phenomena by the aid of analogies’ s has thus veered from the analytical to the’ y point and the final point are taken too far apart . NATURE P article form a very welcome addition to the ordinary text- books. The work of Prof. Perry, popular lecture though it be—and one feels constrained, from the confident style, to believe that his audience of operatives understood every word of it—leads on the reader by vivid illustration into contact with the boldest flights of dynamical speculation. After the ordinary effects of spin have been copiously illustrated, we are taken into a world in which matter has two kinds of inertia ; and, by aid of a chain of balanced gyrostats, we learn that a cord cannot ever transmit motion straight on without also twiddling about. It is fortunate for those of us who have to follow or teach mechanical pursuits that this new species of matter is not often heard of, and is only called up in relation to such unnoticeable, and practically insignificant, phenomena as rotation of the plane of vibration of light waves. The relations of ordinary mass to gravitation, and such like are sometimes intricate enough things to discuss; the introduction of a second kind of mass, and that of a vector character, might lead to despair. The great pioneer in this field of work, of eliciting the concealed dynamical mechanism of tangible phenomena, is, of course, Lord. Kelvin, by whom nearly all our knowledge on the subject has been originated, at any rate in its present exact form. Prof. Perry’s book is all the more welcome and suggestive, in that it claims to be chiefly a connected account of what he has learned at first hand from the teaching of Lord Kelvin ; an account which has possibly not been published before by anyone, at least in a consecutive form. Prof. Worthington, after an elementary quantitative introduction to dynamical principles, has gone over the part of dynamics of rotation which relates to a single spinning solid, in the manner of a text-book with numeri- cal illustrations ; and there is no doubt that a mastery of his explanations would be a very valuable part of the outfit of a student of physics. | ge THE MAMMALIA OF BRITISH INDIA. The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Published under the authority of the Secre- tary of State for India in Council. Mammalia. Part II. By W. T. Blanford, F.RS. (London: Taylor and Francis, 1891.) N our issue of September 27, 1888, we had the pleasure of bringing before the notice of our readers the first part of Mr. Blanford’s valuable monograph on the Mammals of British India. The second part, completing this important work, has lately been published. The delay, as is explained in the preface, has been caused by the necessity Mr. Blanford has been under of spending much time in editing the five volumes of the same series that kave appeared since the first part of the present work was issued. His labours in this respect have been increased by two unfortunate and unforeseen circum- stances—the lamented death of Mr. Francis Day, and the expiration of the leave of Mr. E. W. Oates, in both cases before the termination of the portions of the work, on fishes and birds respectively, upon which they were en- gaged, and the completion of which has thus fallen upon Mr. Blanford himself. 6 NATURE [May 5, 1892 In the preface of the present part, the origin of the series to which it belongs is thus related :— ‘The need for new and revised descriptive works had, for some years before 1881, been felt and discussed amongst naturalists in India, but the attention of the Government was, I believe, first called to the matter bya memorial dated September 15 of that year, prepared by Mr. P. L. Sclater, the well-known Secretary of the Zoological Society, signed by Mr. Charles Darwin, Sir J. Hooker, Prof. Huxley, Sir J. Lubbock, Prof. W. H. Flower, and by Mr. Sclater himself, and presented to the Secretary of State for India. This memorial recommended the preparation of a series of hand-books of Indian zoology, and my appointment as editor. It is scarcely necessary to add that to the re- commendation of men so highly respected and well known in the world of science, the publication of the present ‘Fauna of British India’ is greatly due, and that Mr. Sclater is entitled to the thanks of all interested in the zoology of India for the important part he. took in the transaction.” -We are also glad to learn from the same source that the series of works on the fauna of British India will not be confined to the Vertebrata, the preparation of three volumes on Moths by Mr. G. F. Hampson having been commenced. We trust that these will be followed by others dealing with those groups of which sufficient material is available, and for which authors may be forth- coming capable of treating them in a manner worthy to be placed by the side of those already issued. The second part of the Mammalia contains the orders Chiroptera, Rodentia, Ungulata, Cetacea, Sirenia, and Edentata. It is fully equal to its predecessor in careful selection of the material which is most likely to be useful | and attractive to those readers for whom the work is chiefly intended. The descriptions, geographical distri- bution, and accounts of the habits of the various species can be thoroughly relied upon. a thorny subject in zoology, and though Mr. Blanford is usually most careful and judicious in his work in this department, we cannot agree with him in substituting the specific name of #zaximus for the time-honoured and ' The inconvenience of | universally used Zl¢phas indicus. changing the name by which such a familiar animal is Nomenclature is always | designated in thousands of books and museums, is so_ great that it can only be justified by some more imperious necessity than appears to exist in the present case. That maximus was applied by Linnzus to both the then known | species, and that it is incorrect and misleading (the other. existing, and many of the extinct, species being as large as, or larger than, the Indian elephant) are sufficient reasons, in our judgment, for leaving the name in the oblivion in which it has slept for nearly a century. Moreover, if indicus be rejected, the claims of Blumenbach’s as¢aticus cannot be overlooked. The illustrations of the present part are far superior to those of the former one, and show a marked advance in the art of process-printing directly from the artists’ draw- ings, without the intervention of the wood-cutter. Many of those by Mr. P. Smit, though printed from blocks in the text, have all the softness and delicacy of the finest “specimens of lithography, and add greatly to the attrac- tiveness of this valuable work. © W. H. F. NO. 1175, VOL. 46] } OUR BOOK SHELF” | -*' ; va Tanganyika: Eleven Years in Central. Africa, B B Edward Coode Hore, Master Mariner. (London: Edward Stanford, 1892. ; oe 7 t t yep tee Mr. Hore was for eleven years a member of the Central — African Mission established at Lake Tanganyika by the © London Missionary Society, his special task being to undertake all the work that could be most effectually — accomplished by one who had the knowledge and experi- — ence of a master mariner. In the present book he gives an account of his labours. The narrative contains many elements of interest, and will be read with pleasure by th -all who like to think of devoted courage in the service of great moral ideas. Mr. Hore became very familiar with Lake Tanganyika, which he surveyed in the'first instance on board a native boat. Afterwards the British supporters of the mission enabled him to build two vessels in which he had opportunities of doing his work in a style worthy of its magnitude and importance. Of the physical characteristics of the lake and the surrounding regions he gives an unpretending but sound and sometimes. pic- turesque account. He has also much to say about the natives, whose confidence and good-will he seems to have had a rare power of winning. He has a very favourable opinion of their capacities, and knows of no good reason why they should ever be treated by Europeans otherwise than with kindness and patience. isa ue ae Beginner's Guide to Photography. By a Fellow of the. — Chemical Society. (London: Perken, Son, and Ray- ment, 1892.) ‘ 1 Fadil | THIs yery cheap and useful little guide has now reached its fourth edition. The reader is led through all the phases of manipulation that at first sight seem so bewildering, but which with clear explanations are soon rendered more simple and eventually mastered. All questions relating to “ How to buy a Camera, and how to use it,” may be said to be here fully answered, and by following the instructions an amateur may be saved from much dis- appointment and expense. The explanations throughout the book are both clear and explicit, and the omission of such technicalities as might confuse rather than enlighten a reader will be found distinctly advantageous. _ Quain’s Elements of Anatomy. Edited by E. A. Schifer, F.R.S., and G. D. Thane. In Three Vols. Vol, II., Part 2. By Prof. Thane. Tenth Edition, (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892.) IT is necessary here only to record the fact that the publishers have issued the second part of the second volume of this magnificent edition of Quain’s standard work, The editor is Prof. Thane, and the Daag dealt with are arthrology, myology, and angeiology. There are no fewer than 255 illustrations, many of which are coloured, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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.] iThe Zebra’s Stripes. ALMOST every writer who treats of the colours of animals refers to Galton’s observations that in the bright starlight of an African night zebras are practically invisible éven at a short distance ; but there can be no doubt that their peculiar striped appearance is also of great protective value in broad daylight. On. a recent zebra hunt near Cradock, in which I took part, several members of our party commented on the difficulties of seeing 4 May 5, 1892] NATURE 7 zebras even at moderate distances, although there was nothing > hid e them, the black and white stripes blending so completely t the animals assume a dull brown appearance quite in ar with the general colour of the locality in which they are nd, and in which, for instance, Rooi Rehbok ( Pe/ea capreolata) o well ce on account of its peculiar brownish coat. ember of our y, who on another occasion gave proof that 2 is possessed excellent eyesight, and who ‘hea Heciiesitty hunted in similar localities, saw a zebra which was wounded in ne of the front legs at a distance of about 400 yards, and e to say he mistook it fora big baboon. In a letter which ceived from him a few days ago, he said, ‘‘It galloped like jon from me, and I could only see that the colour was brown. At about 500 yards from me it ran on toa krantz, and mounting the highest rock, drew its body her just as a baboon does when its four feet are all together the summit of a little rock.” His remark as to the greyish- yn colour of the animal is the more valuable, as I believe entleman, Mr. Wrench, A.R.M. of Cradock, is quite ejudiced, In my own letter to him, which drew forth these s, I had only asked him for the distance at which he saw ra, and I did not ask him how it was that he mistook a ack white zebra for a brown baboon on a perfectly clear th African day. My own observations also confirm that the pes of the zebra are of protective value. Riding along a : I suddenly saw four zebras within 100 yards above me. were galloping down the hill, but stopped when they caught of me. As soon as they stopped I saw their stripes pretty After I had fired and wounded one of them, they ty mon ascended the next slope, which was not more than 1500 is away from where I stood with a native servant. Yeteven ax-eyed native could not see them going up this slope. vanished from us. it ma: ‘interest some of your readers that zebras are entiful tiful on the rugged hills west of Cradock. A ty-one individuals was seen, on the very ground over e hunted, a short time before we arrived. Our party en in two days, but I believe three were seen on two a three different occasions. This would reduce their o eight, if not to five. They are protected by Govern- also by the farmers themselves, but I am afraid that that their days are numbered. They are said to be ve to wire fences, and as the inclosing of farms with ces is steadily on the increase in this colony, many a ner will have, though perhaps reluctantly and in defiance of the to take 3 ed gun and clear them off his property. There then probably be an outcry by people who know the ul bf South African farming only from books written by of vellers who hurry through South Africa ina first-class railway _ carriage ; but those who really know South Africa well will say is a great, pity, but it cannot be helped, unless Govern- ent pr es speedily an abode for these and other animals tened with extinction. The first step in the right direction ld perhaps be the establishment of a Government Zoological den, but I hope others who are more competent than 1 am will stir the people of Cape Colony up before it is too late, so that something more than mere game-laws may be done to preserve them. S. SCHONLAND, Albany Museum, Grahamstown, The Protective Device of an Annelid. IN September last I forwarded to NATURE the description of an effectual cere device adopted by a small tubicolous Annelid which had been sent to me from Jersey; the device ccoweny Seale coiling-up of the end of the tube. I have reget able to submit specimens to Prof. W. C. McIntosh, St. Andrews, who has kindly identified the builder as Sade//a saxicava, a form which he tells me is common in the Channel Islands, and occurs also on our southern coast. So far as I can learn, this iar and interesting habit of an Annelid had “hot i observed. ARNOLD T. WATSON. Sheffield, May 1892. NO. 1175, VOL. 46] The General Circulation of the Atmosphere, In that excellent lecture by Dr. Pernter, delivered before the Scientific Club at Vienna, published by you in NATURE (vol. xlv. p. 593), the theory of the trade winds being occasioned by the rising of the rarefied air at the equator causing an upward current, while cold air from north es south flows in to supply its place, coupled with the earth’s rotation to the east, is attributed to Dr. Dove. ‘‘ Dove was the first person. . .” But that theory will be found distinctly enunciated by Sir John Herschel in his ‘‘ Treatise on Astronomy” (1833), where he attributes it to Captain Basil Hall, ‘‘ where this is distinctly, and, as far as I am aware, for the first time reasoned out.” Herschel was not aware that it had been distinctly reasoned out by George Hadley, F.R.S., in the thirty-ninth volume of the Philo- sophical Transactions, a century before Basil Hall. . J. CARRICK MOoRE. THE SURFACE-FILM OF WATER, AND ITS RELATION TO THE LIFE OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. | itd is necessary to the exposition of my subject that I should begin by reminding you of some well-known properties of the surface of water. These are familiar to every student of physics, and are set forth in many elementary books. They are well explained and illus- trated, for instance, in Prof. Boys’s deservedly popular book on “ Soap-bubbles.” But there may be some per- sons here who have not quite recently given their thoughts to this subject, and it will only cost us a few minutes to repeat a few simple experiments, which will establish some fundamental facts relating to the surface-film of water. The following experiments were then shown :— (1) Mensbrugghe’s float. Proves that the surface-film of water offers resistance to the passage of a solid body from beneath. (2) Aluminium wire made to float on water. Proves that the surface-film of water offers resistance to the passage of a solid body from above. The resistance is proportional to the length of the line of contact of the solid with the water. (3) Copper gauze made to float on water. Here, a number of intersecting wires are employed instead of a single wire, and the consequent increase in the length of the line of contact greatly increases the weight which can be supported. (4) Frame with vertical threads, carrying a light plate of brass. The threads hang vertically at first, but when the whole is dipped into soapy water, the adhering film exerts a pull upon the sides of the frame, draws the threads into regular curves, and raises the brass plate. When the film is broken, the threads resume their pre- vious vertical position, and the plate falls. ) Aluminium wire supported by vertical copper wires. Each end of the aluminium wire forms a loop, which fits lonsely to one of the copper wires. When the apparatus is dipped into soapy water, the contraction of the film draws the aluminium wire upwards. After pulling it down with a thread, the wire can be again drawn up, This is another illustration of the tendency of the film to contract. We use soapy water, because the film lasts for a considerable time, but the surface-film of pure water, though less viscous than that of soapy water, is even more contractile. We have already seen that the surface-film clings with considerable tenacity to any solid body introduced into it, and that its hold increases with the length of the line of contact. It is for this reason that fine meshes offer so great a resistance to the passage of the surface-film. Air can pass through the meshes with perfect ease ; water also, if not at the sur- face, can pass through readily enough, but the surface- film in contact with air will only pass through with t Lecture given at the Ro Institution, March 4, 1892, by L. C. Miall, Professor of Biology at the Yorkshire College, Leeds. me passages were omitted in delivery, for want of time. 8 NATURE {May 5, 1892 difficulty, and if there is water behind it, the water may thus be restrained from passing through the meshes. (6) Muslin bag hung in front of the lantern. Water poured into the bag (a large spoonful) does not flow out ; but when the muslin beneath the water is rubbed with a rod, it becomes wetted, the surface-film passes to the outside of the bag, and the water trickles through. : There are many plants which take advantage of this property of the surface-film of water, viz. that it will not penetrate small spaces, in order to keep themselves dry. You must have observed how the hairy grasses repel water. The surface-film is unable to pass into the fine space between the hairs, and accordingly the water above the surface-film is kept from contact with the leaf. This simple artifice is often employed by plants which float at the surface of water. Here it is important that they should keep dry, not only for the purpose of respira- tion, but for another reason too. They commonly have great power of righting themselves when accidentally submerged, and this self-righting property depends upon the fact that the under surface of each leaf is always wet, while the upper surface is incapable of being wetted. Fic. r.—Duckweed (Lemna minor), magnified. a, single frond; a, scar of attachment to parent. A ridge extends from a@ to 4 across the upper surface of the frond, gently subsiding towards J. 3, frond, budding-out two new fronds. c, longitudinal section from a to 4 (a), showing ascending capillary curves at a and D, transverse section, at right angles to the last. The margins of the frond in this plane are level with the surface of the water. N.B. The form of the fronds is somewhat variable. Minor inequalities occur along the margin, but the principal ascending curves, which are also centres of attraction, are at a, 4, and c. The microscopic hairs which thickly cover the upper sur- face are sufficient to exclude the water. A leaf of Pistia is now submerged, and shown as an opaque object in the lantern. You see by the gleaming of its surface that it is overspread by a continuous flat bubble of air, which looks like quicksilver beneath the water. I will next invert a leaf of Pistia by means of a rotating lever. It is now brought up beneath the surface of the water in an inverted position, and you see that, notwithstanding its buoyancy, it is unable to free itself and rise to the sur- face, because of the air-bubble, which adheres both to the leaf and to the disk at the end of the lever, and ties both together. Complete separation of the leaf from the disk would involve the division of the air-bubble into two smailer bubbles, one adhering to the leaf and the other to the disk. In this operation the surface-film would neces- sarily be extended directly in opposition to its natural tendency to contract. Several other water-plants exhibit the same properties as Pistia. I will mention two of the water-ferns—Salvinia and Azolla. Salvinia is found floating on still water in the warmer parts of Europe, as well as in other quarters of the globe. The leaves are attached on opposite sides of a horizontal stem. Long NO. 1175, VOL. 46] hairy roots (or what look like roots, and really ans the same purpose) hang down into the water. Sal has in a remarkable degree the power of rising when § submerged, of always rising with its leaves up and its | roots down, and of rising with the upper surface of its | leaves perfectly dry. It is obvious that these qualities | are most useful to a plant which may be pressed under | Fic, 2.—Salvinia natans. a, combined surface-view and section of floating showing leaf, modified from a figure in Sachs’s ‘‘ Botany,” ing the air- cavities, the submerged hairs of the lower surface, and the groups of _ stiff hairs on the upper surface. These latter inclose s into which water cannot enter, even when the leaf is completely submerged. 8B, one group of hairs from the upper surface, seen from above. . ' water or drenched with rain. Its nutrition, like that of all green plants, depends Jargely upon substances ex- tracted from the air ; and to be overspread with water, which disappeared only by a slow process of evaporation, would be disadvantageous, especially if the water were not absolutely clean. Every leaf of Salvinia is, to begin with, excavated by a double layer of air-spaces, which lodge so much air as to give it great buoyancy. On the Fic. 3.—Azdlla caroliniana. a,-stem with leaves, magnified; B, longi- tudinal section through part of ditto, highly magnified. ‘The air-cavities of the leaves are shown, the narrow spaces between the leaves, into which water cannot enter, the fine hairs of the upper surface, the sub- merged leaf-lobes, and t e vascular bundles. . upper surface are placed at regular distances a number. of prominences, each surmounted by a group of about four stiff, spreading hairs, which keep the water from: reaching the surface of the leaf. When forcibly depressed, the Salvinia takes down with it a layer of air, which forms a flat bubble over the leaf, and of course gives great power of self-righting, for the specific gravity of the upper q May 5, 1892] NATURE g ‘side is greatly reduced, while the lower side is weighted, before, by the long, water-logged roots. Once restored the surface, the bubble bursts, and the little drops into hich it is instantly resolved roll off like drops of quick- ver. Azolla, which is found in most hot countries, is often grown in hothouses, behaves ina very similar . Here the leaves are far smaller, and crowded zether upon a branching stem of minute size. There are a few hairs upon the upper surface, and between the leaves are narrow clefts, connected with globular cavities, which occupy the centre of every leaf. These cavities, which are often closed, and never possess more than an _ outlet of extreme minuteness, are always filled with air ; so are the clefts between the leaves. No water can lodge on the upper surface, apparently because the surface-film _ is stretched from the raised edge of one leaf to that of the _ next; and thus buoyancy, self-righting, and repulsion of _ water are efficiently secured. __ Many plants which ordinarily float on the surface of the _ water (salvinia, Azolla, Duckweed, Potamogeton natans, _ &c.) sink on the approach of winter. At this time it is _ very curious to see how completely they lose both their _ buoyancy and their power of repelling water. I do not _ know how this change is brought about, but the result is _ one of obvious advantage. The leaves, or in some cases the entire plants, sink to the bottom, and hibernate there, _ out of the reach of frost. Many perish ; some are broken _up by decay into isolated buds. When spring returns, _ the few survivors float up, and soon cover the surface with ' leaves. It would be interesting to know something of _ the mechanism by which these seasonal changes are . ed. One of the commonest objects in Nature, which is apt _ to escape our notice on account of its minute size, for it _ is less than one-quarter of an inch in length, is the egg- raft of the gnat. This was beautifully described 150 _ years ago by Réaumur. The eggs of the gnat are cigar- _ shaped, and 250 or 300 of them are glued together, so as make a little concave float, shaped like a shallow boat. ie upper end of each egg is pointed; the lower end Tocavided with a lid, through which the larva will ultimately issue into the water. The gnat in all stages, en while still in the egg, requires an ample supply of r. It is therefore necessary that the egg-raft should _ float at the surface; it is also necessary that it should _ always float inthe same position, so as to facilitate the ote of the larva. This is effectually secured by a provision of almost amusing simplicity. Let us first _ notice how efficient it is. If we take two or three of _ these tiny egg rafts, and place them in a jug of water, we may pour the water into a basin again and again ; every _ time the egg-rafts float instantly to the surface ; and the _ moment they come to the top, they are seen to be as dry _ as at first. The fact is that the surface-film cannot pene- _trate the fine spaces between the pointed ends of the eggs. ‘The cavity of the egg-raft is thus overspread by an air- _ bubble, which breaks the instant it comes to the top. _ The larva of the gnat, when it escapes from the egg, _ floats at the surface, and it is enabled to do so in conse- _ quence of the properties of the surface-film. When the _ larva changes to a pupa it becomes buoyant, and floats ' at the surface, except when alarmed. ‘To enable it to _ free itself without unnecessary effort from the surface of _ the water, the respiratory tubes of the pupa are furnished _ with a valvular apparatus, which can cut the connection _ with the airin a moment, and restore it at pleasure, when _ the pupa again floats to the surface.’ _ Another Dipterous insect, whose larva inhabits rapid _ streams, makes an ingenious use of the properties of the surface-film. This is the larva of Simulium, of which I have given some account in the lecture just quoted. At ° "The larva and pupa of the gnat are more fully described in my Dritish Association lecture on “Some Difficulties in the Life of Aquatic Insects,’’ reported in Nature, vol. xliv. p. 457- NO. I175, VOL. 46] the time of the delivery of that lecture, I was wholly unable to explain how one difficulty in the life of the insect is surmounted. The larva clings to the water-weeds found in brisk and lively streams. The pupal stage is passed in the same situation. But a time comes when the fly has to emerge. Now the fly is a delicate and minute insect, with gauzy wings. How does it escape from the rushing water into the air above, where the remainder of its life has to be passed? This was a question upon which I had spent much thought, but in vain. It appeared to me for many months completely insoluble. However, I was informed last year by Baron Osten Sacken of a paper written by Verdat, seventy years ago, in which the emergence of the fly of Simulium is described. Guided by Verdat’s description, I had little difficulty in seeing for myself how the difficulty is actually overcome. During the latter part of the pupal stage, the pupa-case becomes inflated with air, which is extracted from the water, and passed through the spiracles of the fly into the space immediately within the pupal skin. The pupal skin thus becomes distended with air, and assumes a more rounded shape inconsequence. At length it splits along the back, in the way usual among insects, and there emerges a small bubble of air, which rises quickly to the surface of the water and there bursts. When the bubble bursts, out comes the fly. It spreads its hairy legs, and runs upon the surface of the water to find some solid support up which it can climb. As soon as its wings are dry, it flies to the trees or bushes overhanging the stream. A very interesting inhabitant of the waters, which makes use of the properties of the surface-film to con- struct for itself a home beneath the surface, is the water- spider (Argyroneta aquatica). This interesting little animal has been described by many naturalists, some of whom, judging from their accounts, had no personal acquaintance with its habits. But among the number is the eminent naturalist Félix Plateau, son of the physicist to whom we are so much indebted for our knowledge of the phenomena of surface-tension. I need hardly say that in his account of the water spider, Prof, Plateau gives a full and adequate account of the scientific prin- ciples concerned in the formation of its crystalline home. Plateau remarks that the water-spider, like most other spiders, is an air-breathing animal. It dives below the sur- face, and spends nearly its whole life submerged. In order to do this without interruption to its breathing, the spider carries down a bubble of air, which overspreads the whole abdomen as well as the under side of the thorax. These parts of the body are covered with branched hairs, so fine and close that the surface-film of water cannot pass between them. The spider swims on its back, and the air lodges in the neighbourhood of the respiratory open- ings, which are placed on that surface which floats upper- most. When the spider comes to the top, as it does from time to time to renew its supply of air, it pushes the abdomen out of the water, and we can then see that this part of the body is completely dry. When it sinks, the water closes in again at a little distance from the body, and the bubble forms once more. It would be inconvenient to the water-spider to be obliged to come frequently to the surface for the purpose of breathing. A predatory animal on the watch for its victims must lie in ambush close to the spot where they are expected to appear, and the water-spider accordingly requires a lurking-place filled with air, beneath the surface of the water. It has its own way of supplying this want. Relying on the fact, already illustrated by our muslin bag, that the surface-film of water will not readily pass through small openings, the spider proceeds as follows. It begins by drawing together some water-weeds with a few threads, in such a way that they meet at one or more points. It then fetches from the surface a fresh supply of air, and t “Observations sur Y’Argyrontte aquatique,” Bull, Acad. Roy. de Belgique, 2me. sér., tom, xxiii., 1867. IO NATURE [May 5, 1892 squeezes part of it out by pressing together the bases of its last pair of legs. The bubble rises, but is detained by some of the threads previously spun across its path. Then the spider returns to the surface to fetch another bubble, and repeats the operation as often as is necessary. Now and then she secures the growing bubble by additional threads, and before long has a bubble nearly as big as a walnut, inclosed within an invisible silken net, which imprisons the air as effectually as a dome of glass would do. The spider takes care to conceal her home from observation, and before long the minute Algz, growing all the more vigorously because of the air brought to them, effectually conceal the habitation. The mouth of the dome, which is of course beneath, is narrowed to a small circle, and Plateau has observed a cylindrical horizontal tube, seven to eight millimetres in diameter, by which the spider is enabled to enter or leave her home without being observed. The air within is renewed as required, by the visits of the spider to the surface. Besides this home, which is the ordinary lurking-place of the spider, another is required at the time when the young are hatched. The new-born spiders are devoid of the velvety covering of hairs, and would drown in a moment if placed in a nursery with a watery floor. The female spider therefore makes a special nest for this particular occasion, which floats on the surface of the water, rising well above it. It is bell-shaped and strongly constructed. The upper part is partitioned off, and con- tains the eggs. Beneath the floor of the nursery the mother takes her station, and watches over the safety of her brood, defending them against the predatory insects which abound in fresh waters. It is interesting to see how the faculty of spinning silk, used by the house-spider for her snares, and at other times for the fluffy cocoon in which the eggs are enveloped, furnishes to the water- spider the materials of her architecture. It is not less interesting to observe the economy of material which results from the use of the tenacious and contractile sur- face-film, in place of a solid wall. We will next consider another property of the surface- film, which is turned to account in the daily life of the very commonest of our floating plants, I mean the duck- weed, which overspreads every pond and ditch. A num- ber of the green floating leaves of duckweed are now placed in a shallow dish in the field of the lantern, and I will ask you to observe how they are grouped. They have spontaneously arranged themselves in a very irregular fashion, forming strings and chains which spread hither and thither over the surface of the water. This isnot the way in which most floating bodies behave. Let us re- move the duckweed, and replace it by another dish of water in which I will put anumber of small disks of cork.! You will see that the bits of cork are attracted one to another and crowd together in one place. Let us inquire why the floating bits of cork are thus attracted towards one another. If any solid capable of being wetted by water is partly immersed in water, the liquid rises round it in an ascending capillary curve. If the solid is not wetted by water, the curve will turn downwards. We may get as- cending or descending capillary curves in other ways. If, for instance, I were to lay a sheet of paper upon water, and turn its edges up at certain places, we should get marked ascending curves at these points. The raising of some parts of the surface causes other parts to sink, and may bring about descending curves, or make previously formed descending curves more marked. We shall find it helpful in our experiments to notice one very simple plan of producing a descending capillary curve round the edge of a vessel. If we take a glass of water, and fill it until the water is level with the brim, we naturally speak of the glass as fu//; but if we are careful to avoid rude t In order to avoid the inconvenience caused by the attraction of the sides of the vessel, the dish should be over-full of water. . NO. 1175, VOL. 46 | shaking, we may still add a considerable quantity of wat without spilling any. The glass will then become what we may Call over-fud/, and its surface will be bounded b a descending capillary curve. Now, it is of immediate importance to us to observe that /¢ke capillary curves, whether ascending or descending, attract one another, | The theo- — retical explanation of this point is not difficult, butit must | To place the fact itself beyond ~ and that w#like curves repel one another. not detain us here. dispute, we will try a_ little experiment. A circular dish of water is now placed in the field of the lantern, 7 and we will introduce into it a small disk of wood. Both the disk and the side of the vessel are wetted by water, and an ascending capillary curve rises round each. The result is that the two bodies attract one another. Every time the disk is moved away it is powerfully drawn towards the side of the vessel. With a little syringe we will add water to the dish in sufficient qua to raise the level above the edge of the vessel. You will observe that the wooden disk is now repelled by the edge of the vessel, and floats free in the centre. By sucking up a little water, it becomes attracted once more, and so we may go on, causing it to be attracted or repelled, accord- ing as we add or subtract a small quantity of water. But what has all this to do with the duckweed? In order to explain the behaviour of duckweed, I must ask you to examine a careful representation of its form. This com- mon plant has not, to my knowledge, been faithfully represented in any botanical book. You will see that the leaf is of an irregular oval shape, broader at one end © than at the other, and that the narrow end is pointed. A raised ridge extends along the length of the leaf, from the point to the middle of the opposite or rounded border. Duckweed almost invariably propagates itself by budding. New leaves are pushed out symmetrically on each side of the point. They grow bigger and bigger, and gradu- ally free themselves. The point upon each leaf marks the place where it was last attached to the parent leaf. Sometimes the budding is so rapid, that, before a fresh pair of leaves have become free, they have already budded out a second pair, which we may call the grand- daughters of the parent leaf. The pointed end of the leaf, and also the opposite end of the ridge, are raised above the general level, and very marked capillary curves ascend from the general water-level to these points. The free edge of every bud is also raised above the general water-level, and a capillary curve ascends to meet it. Hence, when a number of leaves of duckweed are float- ing freely on water, they are powerfully attracted one to another at certain points, while at intervening points they are relatively inert. If you take a floating leaf of duck- weed, and bring near it a clean needle or a pencil-point, or any similar object, provided that it is not greasy, you will see that the leaf is at once attracted towards the point, but it always turns itself so as to bring one of its ascending curves round to the needle or pencil. We all see in the lantern how readily a leaf of duckweed is made to rotate rapidly by causing a needle-point to revolve round it, without ever touching it. Let us now try to imitate the behaviour of the leaves by some rude models. I have here some elliptical paper floats, cut out with a pair of scissors, and having each of the pointed ends a little turned up. We place these one by one on the sur- face of the water, and you see in the lantern how they are attracted to one another, point to point, and how they form long chains, which have a tendency to break up into stars. It is the existence of such points of attraction on the margin of the leaves which causes the duckweed to form chains and strings, so long as there is any unoccu- pied surface in the pond. shows how profitable this tendency is to the plant. Were the duckweed to crowd together like the floating bits of | cork, the pressure towards the centre of any considerable - | ae A moment’s consideration . May 5, 1892] NATURE II ass of plants would be so great that the new leaves idded out would find no room in which to expand; but, ‘virtue of one very simple provision, viz. the existence inequalities of level along the edges of the leaves, clear spaces and lanes are left between the floating leaves, so long as any unoccupied space remains. ¥ oe ta to the air, especially in still weather, ects the life of 8 alia in a material way. Dust and ecaying organic substances give rise to a pellicle, which ‘most mischievous to floating plants ; and I think I could how, if time allowed, how much the habits of duckweed ave been altered thereby. But, apart from visible im- jurities, mere exposure to air gives, as Lord Rayleigh _ has taught us, a considerable degree of superficial vis- _cosity to water. Hence, the leaves of duckweed, when @ surface is contaminated, will tend to lie in whatever positions they: may be thrown by accidental causes, such s wind, and the attractions due to capillarity will be ‘or less impeded. But the effect of the superficial ity will in time be overcome by the attractive forces, that bably does not in the long run greatly affect distribution of the leaves over the surface of water. : a other floating plants, but not all, behave more or ss like duckweed, and for the same reason. As yet I now of none which space themselves quite so effec- lly, and the extreme abundance of the common duck- ,as well as its world-wide distribution, may be partly the completeness of its adaptation to capillary . Some dead objects may accidentally take a shape ‘causes them to spread out over water, but I have with none which have particularly struck me. Float- natural objects, such as sticks or seeds, behave, in y cases at least, very differently, and become densely or Aeteeepl was first called to this subject by how different was the grouping of duckweed from ‘some seeds of Potamogeton natans, which were the same pond. pillary forces which spread the leaves of duck- zoll m the surface of water are indirectly serned in the transport of these and like plants to h sites. If we put a stick into water overspread with kweed, we cannot fail to notice how the leaves cling to stick.. They cling in a particular way, which enables bear transport more safely. The wetted surface, ous physical reasons, is attracted to the wetted and the water-repellent surface, which is that which sists drying, is outwards. The tenacity with which eed clings to the legs of water-birds, and the which it almost inevitably takes under such cir- 's, may have a good deal to do with the safe of the plant to distant pools. It is not, I think, 0 1 to say that the prosperity of duckweed depends largely upon the capillary forces which come into ‘at the surface of water. We have now exhausted our time, though I have been ged to leave unnoticed many special adaptations of ngs to the peculiar conditions which obtain e of water. Had time allowed, I should een glad to say something about the aquatic animals which creep on the surface-film as on a ceiling, and about the insects which run and even leap upon e surface-film without wetting their minute and hairy ae eay ydies.! All small animals and plants which float on water necessarily come into contact with the surface-film, and have to deal with the difficulties which result from _ it. We have seen that they generally manage in the long run to convert these natural difficulties into positive vantages. OF mane 46 thank my colleague, Dr. Stroud, for his fre- _ quent explanations of the physical principles upon which _ these adaptations depend, and also for much practical __and valuable help in the preparation of suitable experi- x 1 See Nature, vol. xliv. p. 457. NO. 1175, VOL. 46] THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIAN-LIKE MAMMALS IN SOUTH AMERICA, (PRE year 1891 proved a notable one in regard to marsupials. The existing mole-like marsupial (Notoryctes) from the deserts of Central Australia having been made known to us, news came of the dis- covery in the Tertiaries of Patagonia of remains of car- nivorous marsupials closely allied to the existing pouched wolf, or Thylacine, of Tasmania. This discovery was immediately recognized as one likely to considerably modify some of our views regarding the distribution of mammals. A preliminary account of these new marsu- pials was given by Dr. Florentino Ameghino in a paper written for the new serial, Revist. Argent. Hist. Nat. This description seems to leave no doubt as to the cor- rectness of the diagnosis of the fossil remains. Before going further, it may be well to remind our readers that, with the single exception of the opossums (Didelphyide) of America, all marsupials are now ex- clusively Australasian. The carnivorous types, such as the Thylacine (Z7hylacinus) and the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus), are distinguished from all living mammals in that their upper cutting-teeth (incisors) are either four or five in number on either side, while in the lower jaw there are invariably three. This rela- tion is shown in the figure of the skull of the Tus- Front view of the skull of the Tasmanian Devil. (After Flower. ) manian Devil—a near ally of the Thylacine—where, between the large tusks of the upper jaw, we see the four pairs of incisors opposed to only three pairs in the lower jaw. In ordinary mammals, on the other hand, the number of pairs of incisors in each jaw does not exceed three, the number of those in the two jaws being usually equal. A further peculiarity of marsupials is that the cheek or grinding teeth comprise four true molars and not more than three premolars ; whereas in ordinary mammals the typical number is three molars and four premolars, there being no known instance of the presence of four true molars except in some indi- viduals of the fox-like Ofocyon. Another peculiarity of most marsupials is the distinct inflection of the lower posterior extremity, or “angle,” of the lower jaw, while very frequently the bony palate of the skull has unos- sified spaces. The new forms described by Dr. Ameghino were ob- tained from the lower part of that great series of freshwater formations with which so large an area of South America is covered. It has been inferred that the Patagonian deposits in question are as old as the Lower Eocene of Europe; but, although they are undoubtedly of considerable age, this inference can scarcely be regarded as an established 12. NATURE fact, since the occurrence of mammals allied to those of the European Lower Eocene is quite capable of explana- tion by their survival to a later period in South America. One of the new Patagonian forms, to which Dr, Ameghino applies the name Prothylacinus, is stated to be an animal of the general conformation of the Thylacine, having apparently the same number of teeth, although the upper incisors are unknown. The main distinction of the fossil genus is, indeed, said to consist merely in the circumstance that the lower premolars are more widely separated from one another ; the molars of the two forms being described as absolutely identical in character. The fossil likewise exhibits the marsupial inflection of the angle of the lower jaw. The absence of the upper in- cisors in the specimens of Prothy/acinus is fortunately compensated in another genus described under the un- couth name of Protoproviverra. Here we find that the number of teeth is exactly the same as in the Thylacine, there being four upper and three lower incisors, a canine, three premolars, and four molars on each side of the skull. This dentition agrees numerically with that of the Tasmanian Devil; with the exception that there is an additional premolar in each jaw. These fossils also exhibit the inflection of the angle of the mandible, and the presence of unossified vacuities in the palate, which we have seen to be marsupial features. As might ‘have been expected to be the case, Dr. Ameghino also states that there appears to be a complete passage from these marsupial forms to others belong- ing to that group of primitive carnivores known as Creo- donts, of which the European Upper Eocene Hy@nodon and Pterodon are well-known examples. Now, if we are to trust these descriptions (and there appears every reason why we should), we must admit that Prothylacinus and Protoproviverra are veritable marsupials of an Australian type. Then comes the question, How are we to explain the occurrence of such closely allied forms in areas so remote from one another as Patagonia and Australia? It had long ago been urged that the occurrence of car- nivorous marsupials in South America and Australia and nowhere else (at the present time) indicated a former connection between those two areas. To this, however, Mr. Wallace (“Distribution of Animals,” vol. i. p. 399) objected that the American opossums (Dide/phyide) were not an Australian type, and that they occurred in the Tertiaries of Europe; and hence he argued that both the American and Australian marsupials probably took their origin from the presumed marsupials of the European Jurassic rocks. This explanation, on Mr. Wallace’s own showing, will not, however, hold good for the close re- semblance stated to exist between. the American Prothy- lacinus and the Tasmanian Thylacine, since it is quite impossible to believe that two such similar forms could have maintained their likeness in such remote regions after having diverged from a common European ancestor as far back as the Jurassic period. It has, however, been long known that there are certain very.remarkable relationships between the fauna and flora of all the great southern continents. For instance, among mammals, the rodent family Octodontide is peculiar to South (including Central). America and Ethiopian Africa. Then, again, among fishes, the family of the Chromide is confined to the rivers of South America and Africa, with one outlying genus in India; while the true mud-fishes (Lefzdosiren and Protopterus) are solely South American and Ethiopian, the third re- presentative of the same family being the Baramunda (Neoceratodus) of Queensland. Again, the connection between the flora of Africa and that of Western Australia is so intimate as to have induced Mr. Wallace (of. czt., p. 287) to express his belief that there must have been some kind of land connection, although not necessarily a continuous one, between these two widely distant areas. NO. 1175, VOL. 46] The connection between the fauna of India.and that of F Ethiopian Africa is now too well known to standinneed | of comment. The matter does not, however, end here; — for if we go back to the Mesozoic epoch there are ~ equally striking evidences of the connection between the faunas and floras of the southern continents. For, instance; the extinct saurian genus /esosternum, which appears to have been allied to the Plesiosaurs of the Lias, is known from early Secondary strata in Brazil and South Africa, and nowhere else. Then, again, the remarkable Anomo- dont reptiles (Licynodon, &c.) of South Africa. are closely connected with those of India; while the re- spective alliances between the Labyrinthodont amphi- bians and the Mesozoic floras of South Africa, India, and Australia are too well known to need more than mention, , It appears, then, that, altogether apart from the new discovery, the common factors connecting the faunas and floras of the four great southern prolongations of the con- tinental land of the globe undoubtedly point, not only to a more or less intimate connection between these several areas, but also to their more. or less partial isolation from the more northern lands. , ey Reverting to the new discovery, it may be observed that our comparatively intimate acquaintance with the Tertiary faunas of Europe and North America renders it in the highest degree improbable that marsupials of an Australian type lived during that time in either of those areas. It is, however, quite possible that they may turn up at any time in Tertiary formations in Africa, ~ while there is nothing to show that they may not also have existed in peninsular India. Indeed, if we put aside as improbable any connection by way of the Pacific between South America and Australia, it seems impos- sible to give any explanation of the occurrence of allied marsupials in Patagonia and Australia without the assumption that their ancestors existed in some part of the great area lying between eastern South America and Western Australia. R. LYDEKKER. © PHOTOGRAPHY IN COLOURS. . Bas Comptes rendus for February 2, 1891, contained a brief note on colour photography, describing the method employed by M. G. Lippmann, who had been able to produce photographically the image of the. spectrum with all its colours. summary of this note was given in NATURE at the time (see vol. xlviii., . 360). . M. G. Lippmann, who has been continuing his re- searches, has communicated further results, which appear in the Comptes rendus for April 25 (No. 17, vol. cxiv.). These results show that we are not far off the solution of a question which has been the aim of all the latest photo- graphic researches. The following is a translation of the note in question:— In the first communication which I had the honour to make to the Academy on this subject, I stated that the sensitive films that I then employed failed in sensitiveness and isochromatism, and that these defects were the chief obstacle to the general application of the method that I had suggested. Since then I have succeeded in improving the sensitive film, and,falthoughmuch still remains to be done, the new results are sufficiently encouraging to permit me to place them before the Academy. On the albumen-bromide of silver films rendered ortho- chromatic: by azalin and cyanin, I have obtained very brilliant photographs of ,spectra. 3: Alljthe colours appear at once, even the red, without the interposition of coloured screens, and after an exposure varying from five to thirty seconds, ’ 4 May 5, 1892] 1 two of these c/ich¢s it has been remarked that the urs seen by transmission are very plainly comple- ary to those that are seen by reflection. ¢ theory shows that the complex colours that adorn tural objects ought to be photographed just the same the simple a = a spectrum. There was no cessity to verify the fact experimentally. The four clichés that I have the honour of siibeensieleen to the Academy represent faithfully some objects sufficiently verse, a stained glass window of four colours, red, green, e, yellow ; a group of draperies ; a plate of oranges, surmounted by a red poppy; a many-coloured parrot. These showed that the shape is represented simultaneously the colours. he draperies and the bird required from five to ten linutes’ exposure to the electric light or the sun. The other objects were obtained after many hours of exposure to a diffuse light. The green of the foliage, the grey of stone of a building, are perfectly produced on another hé ; the blue of the sky, on the contrary, was repre- sented as indigo. It remains, then, to perfect the ortho- atism of the plate, and to increase considerably its tas Bia NOTES. THE Royal Society’s soirée is being held as we go to press. We hope to give next week some account of the principal objects SE |= . THE Bureau des Longitudes is sending an expedition to | Senegambia to observe the total solar eclipse of April 1893. ait a __ THE first session of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy is to be held in the theatre of the Geological Museum, Jermyn Street, on Wednesday, May 18, when the President, Mr. George Seymour, will deliver the inaugural address. There will be an inaugural supper at the Criterion. _ Ar the Royal Academy dinner Sir John Lubbock responded ‘science. He said that no class derived more benefit and ajoyment from works of art than men of science. Sir Tohn referred also to the growing importance of art in relation ‘to the material prosperity of the country. Our merchants and ufacturers, he said, could no longer rely entirely on ice of material and solidity of workmanship, but had look to artistic charm and beauty of design. to k Ar the annual meeting of the Royal Institution on May 2, the following gentlemen were elected officers for the ensuing _ year: the Duke of Northumberland, President; Sir James 3 Crichton-Browne, Treasurer; Sir Frederick Bramwell, Tr is reported from Melbourne that Sir Thomas Elder has _ decided not to send out another exploring expedition into Central _ Australia at present. He attributes the failure of his recent _ eXpedition, under Mr. Lindsay, to the severity of the season, the drought having been unusually trying. a q ON May 7 the members of the Geologists’ Association will _ make an excursion to Walthamstow, Mr. J. Walter Gregory acting as director. The object of the excarsionists will be to examine sections on the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway. The best section: is about half a mile from St. James’s Street, and shows the lower terraces of the Lea Valley gravels resting om a very eroded surface of London Clay. Masses of the London Clay stand up, which were probably once islets. The alterations in the position of the bed of the Lea are well shown by this cutting. NO. 1175, VOL. 46] NATURE zs 0 ON Tuesday next (May 10) Mr, Frederick E. Ives will begin a course of two lectures at the Royal Institution on photography in the colours of nature, AT the meeting of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, on March 16, Mr, John Carbutt made some remarks on the results achieved by Mr. Frederick E. Ives in the field of colour photo- graphy, which, in his judgment, so far as practical results were concerned, were far in advance of anything that had as yet been accomplished elsewhere. Mr. Carbutt urged that it was eminently fitting for the Institute to recognize the value of the woik of one of its own members, and moved that the subject of Mr, Ives’s investigations and results in the field of colour photo- graphy should be referred to the committee on science and the arts for investigation and appropriate recognition, The motion was carried, Sir JAMES CRICHTON-BROWNE delivered the annual oration at the 118th anniversary meeting of the Medical Society of London, held on Monday evening. He chose as his subject ‘*Sex in Education.” He showed that the female brain is lighter than that of the male, not only absolutely, but relatively to the respective statures and weights of the two sexes ; that the specific gravity of parts of the female brain is less than that of corresponding parts of the male brain; and that the blood supply, whichin the male is directed more towards the portions which are concerned in volition, cognition, and the ideo-motor processes, is in the female more directed towards portions which are mainly concerned in the discharge of sensory functions. Sir James urged the necessity of such structural differences being taken into account in the conduct of education ; and, while dis- claiming any intention of bringing a wholesale indictment against high schools for girls, he nevertheless held that some of their methods were capable of leading to great evils, especially when not controlled by a judicious and sympathetic mistress. He pointed out the difficulty of obtaining trustworthy information as to either the methods of many schools or their effects, more especially as the pupils themselves were often hostile to the in- quiry ; but he referred to one school at which he had been per- mitted to ascertain the facts, and in which he found that, out of 187 girls belonging to the upper and middle classes, well-fed and clad and cared for,} and ranging from ten to seventeen years of age, as many as 137 complained of headaches, which in 65 instances occurred occasionally, in 48 frequently, and in 24 habitually. He cited the authority of Sir Richard Owen for the position that children have no business with head- aches, and that something must be wrong in the school in which they frequently suffer from them. An account was given of the modus operandi of excessive brain work as a factor in the produc- tion of ill-health, and statistics were quoted to show the special liability of the female organism to disease at the period of life which the educator has seized on forhis own. He attached great import- ance to loss of appetite, especially morning appetite, as a result of overstrain, and as one which was calculated to be itself the fruitful parent of other evils; and he strongly condemned the recent decision of the University of St. Andrews to open its classes in arts, science, and theology to women as well as to men, thus, as he declared, taking not a retrograde step, but a down- hill step towards confusion and disaster. ‘‘ What was decided amongst the prehistoric protozoa cannot be annulled by Act of Parliament; and the essential difference between male and female cannot be obliterated at a sweep of the pen by any Senatus Academicus,” THE weather during the past week has been unsettled ' generally, and showers of cold rain, hail, or sleet have occurred NATURE [May 5, 1892 in many districts. sharp frosts at night; on April 29 the thermometer on the grass fell as low as 20° in London, and heavy snow fell at Wick. From official reports for the week ended April 30 the temperature was several degrees below the mean for the week in ‘all districts, although the bright sunshine had exceeded the | Gales were experienced on our exposed north | ham, F.R.S., President of the Committee, would in that ca-e normal amount. and west coasts, but for the most part the wind has been light. Bright aurora has again been seen at several places. On May 1 the thermometer rose to 60° or more at several inland stations, but this improvement was not maintained. The winds, which during a few days were northerly and north-westerly, again | became easterly over the whole of the British Isles, with unsettled and unseasonable weather. A SPECIAL meeting of the New England Meteorological Society was held in Boston on April 6, when the recom- mendation of the Council to transfer the weather service of the Society to the National Weather Bureau at Washington, with the object of forming a New England Weather Service under the direction of that Bureau, was formally ratified. The New England Weather Service will continue to gather and publish observations of temperature and rainfall, and the monthly Bulletin will be continued as heretofore, While that part of the Society’s work, in which the greater number of persons is involved, is thus transferred to the New England Weather Service, the meetings and investigations of the Society will be continued as during the past eight years. Three meetings will be held annually, and the proceedings will be published in the American Meteorological Journal, while the investigations will be published in the Annals of the Harvard College Observatory. In the Aud/etin for March, it is stated that it is the intention of the Weather Bureau to make a special study of thunderstorms during the coming summer. The observations are to be made in several States, from May to August inclusive. THE Deutsche Seewarte (Hamburg) has recently issued an atlas of thirty-five charts, with introductory text, showing the physical conditions of the Indian Ocean, on a similar plan to that published for the Atlantic Ocean some years ago, The rich materials at the disposal of the Seewarte have been dis- cussed by Dr, Koéppen and others in every form that can be of use both to seamen and physicists. Several charts are devoted to the currents, temperature and specific gravity, winds and monsoons, while the magnetic elements have been. specially investigated by Dr, Neumayer. THE Indian journals received by this week’s mails report that Mr. John Eliot, the Meteorological Reporter to the Govern- ment of India, has returned to Simla from Chaman and Murree, where he has been establishing new meteorological observatories. On Friday last Colonel J. F. Maurice, Professor of Military Art and History to the Staff College, read at the meeting of the’ Royal United Service Institution a most interesting paper on military geography. This he described as a science dealing with ‘all those conditions of the surface of the world which affected armies, campaigns, and battles. He sought to show how in) the case of each of the great European’ countries strategic methods are affected by geographical conditions, OPINIONS are being expressed by scientific workers in India in favour of the making of systematic experiments with snake poison. The Committee for the Management of the Calcutta Zoological Gardens are constructing, from private subscriptions a snake-house with the most modern improvements, which will contain specimens of all the principal poisonous snakes in NO. 1175, VOL. 46] The day temperatures have been low, with | the country. If the necessary funds were available, at rs ments could be made to fit up a small laboratory in connection — with the snake-house, for the purpose of conducting inquiries of — all descriptions bearing upon the pathology of snake-bite and cognate subjects, and in future there would be no difficulty in arranging for the carrying out of any special experiments that might be required. It is understood that Dr. D. D. Cunning- be willing to take an active part in organizing and promoting such inquiries and carrying out such experiments, including the testing of the various alleged remedies for snake-bite which are from time to time brought to notice. A Calcutta paper, quoted by the Pioneer Mail, understands that if the Government of India will make a grant of Rs. 5000 towards this object, the Lieutenant-Governor will endeavour to meet the balance from Provincial funds, THE well-known mycologist, Dr. Stephan Schulzer von Miiggenburg, has just died at the age of ninety. At the coming ‘‘ World’s Columbian Exposition” at | Chicago, it is proposed to have an exhibition of the ** worst weeds ” from all the States and Territories of the Union. UNDER the editorship of Mr. E. M. Holmes a Catalogue has just been issued of the ‘‘ Hanbury Herbarium” in the Museum of the Pharmaceutical Society. The collection consists of above | 600 dried specimens of plants yielding products used in pharmacy, — or believed to have medicinal properties, each specimen being labelled with its locality or the source whence it was obtained, and often accompanied by notes or extracts from letters of foreign correspondents. ‘The collection was formed by the late Daniel Hanbury, F.R.S. ; and, by the desire of his executors, who presented it to the Pharmaceutical Society, it is Pre ved ina separate room, known as the ‘* Hanbury Rodaye on the premises of the Society in Bloomsbury Square. THE second part of ‘‘Botanicon Sinicum,” by Dr. Bret- ~ schneider, the learned physician to the Russian Legation in Pekin, has just been issued in Shanghai in the Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The work | deals with the botany of the Chinese classics, the object being to identify as far as possible the plants mentioned in the writ- ings of Confucius, Mencius, and the other great sages of ancient China. Dr. Bretschneider takes each name in succession, supplies all the information given by native commentators on these ancient writers, and by lexicographers ; then he gives all that can be gleaned from Japanese authorities, and follows this by the identifications of European students ; concluding with the results of his own study and observation. Those whom Dr. L’retschneider’s labours for the past twenty-five years have taught to expect profound learning, research, and thoroughness from him will not be disappointed in this work. AMONG the contents of the new number of the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society are the interesting papers read at the Conference on asters and perennial sunflowers, held at Chiswick in October last. The proceedings of the Conference were opened by an address by Mr. J. G. Baker, which is now printed. In this excellent address, in which the general botanical outlines of the subject are sketched out, Mr. Baker mentions that aster as it stands at present contains 200 or 300 species, and is concentrated in the United States. Nearly all our garden Michaelmas daisies belong to the species that grow wild in the Eastern United States. There are forty species of aster in the ‘Rocky Mountains and fifteen in California, most of which are different from the eastern species, and have not been brought into cultivation. The papers published with Mr. Baker's May 5, 1892] I sunflowers, by Mr. D. Dewar and the daltate u .. Mr. E. H. ae nbers. “‘ It must be very disheartening,” says the writer, ‘‘to “who have stock of any kind to lose, to find themselve Bo biticire writes from Carlisle to the Zoologist that : s in that district often reproduce the notes of the inttrtaicher and curlew with wonderful accuracy. On il 3 he was surprised to hear the call of the landrail ; ‘appeared to be the familiar ‘“crake-crake” of that bird undoubtedly, but on further investigation he ascertained that a starling ‘was reproducing the call-note of the rail. The bird had bere _ his lesson of last summer remarkably well. Mr. he e also mentions that, during severe -weather in January st, a friend of his (the Rev. H. A. Macpherson) was astonished 1e day to hear the call-note of the common sandpiper repeated nicety as to completely deceive him, until the starling in the act of rehearsing this summer cry. A CAPITAL lecture on Egyptian agriculture was delivered by of, Robert Wallace at the meeting of the Society of Arts on pr in the current number of the Society’s ring to the Tewfikieh College of Agriculture, says that it was named in honour of the late ewfik Pasha), who took a special interest in its had its origin in a desire which sprang up little re than two years ago in the Egyptian Government to develop the agricultural resources of the country by calling in the aid of ce. The result has been a success far beyond the most sagaine anticipations. During the first year of its existence College contained about 60 students, selected from about applicants, and the numbers of the second, the current year, which began last October, have not fallen off. A number of the sons of large land-owners have taken advantage of the instruction offered, and it is hoped by this means to spread in all directions a knowledge of improved varieties of crop plants, aie rotations, improved implements, and improved m 3, not neccessarily altogether new to the country, but t of being more widely known. W. F. Lisscuinc, writing in the new number of the Selborne Society’s Magazine on ants in Ceylon, says he saw one day a string of ants streaming forth, evidently in search of ** pastures new.” He flicked away the leader, and waited to see the result. An immediate halt was made by the foremost «ants, dascene of the utmost confusion ensued. The ants from behind kept arriving at the scene of the catastrophe, and there NO. 1175, VOL. 46] bic Ceti 15 was soon a black crowd of ants huddling and jostling one another. Some detached themselves from the main group and took a turn round, trying to find traces of their leader. At last the tail end of the line arrived, and after brief consultation they all started off again, and a line soon began to unravel itself from the tangled mass moving back to the hole from which the whole company had so lately started on ‘‘ pleasure bound or labour all intent.”’” While Mr. Liesching was watching the return journey, a leech stung his leg. He took the creature off, and put it down in the line of march. Ants will carry offa worm, why not a leech? It was, however, most amusing to see how carefully all avoided the leech. HENRY BrucscuH PASHA read an interesting paper on Lake Mceris at the meeting of the Société de Géographie Khediviale on April 8. He had just returned from a visit to the neighbour- hood of the supposed site of the lake, so that the subject was fresh in his mind. The 7imes has given a good abstract of the paper. M. Brugsch said there was abundant monumental evi- dence that at a very early period of Egyptian history there existed near the plateau of Hawara an immense basin of water, which gave its name to a whole province, the Fayfim, or ‘* lake district.” In ancient times there were forty-two divisions or nomes of Egypt, each having its own capital, local govern- ment, and cz/¢us, and all more or less worshipping Osiris. From these the Fayfim was excluded. It was divided like the parent country into nomes with their governors, and save in the necro- polis at Hawara was given over to the worship of Sebak, the crocodile god. It was known in the hieroglyphs as To She, the lake district, which in Coptic became P-ium, the maritime dis- trict, and survives to-day in the Arabic Fayfim. It is evident from the celebrated Fayim papyrus, of which there are two copies, that the term Mer-uer, the great water or lake, was also applied to it; and perhaps herein lies the origin of the name ‘* Meeris.” The waters of this lake must have reached to the plateau of Hawara, the necropolis of the inhabitants of a town called Shed, on the site of which stands the modern city of Medinet-el-Fayfim. It was in ancient times a Royal residence, and contained a magnificent temple dedicated to Sebak, whose dimensions far exceeded those of the temples at Thebes, Tra- dition gives Amen-em-hat III. of the twelfth dynasty as the constructor of Lake Meeris, and his burial-place is the crude brick pyramid at Hawara ; but fragments bearing the cartouches of Amen-em-hat I. and Usertsen II., found near Medinet, would prove it of more ancient date. Moreover, it was hardly possible that a town of such dimensions as Shed would be built at any distance from water. A canal named Hune, or Hunet, cut from the Nile, fed the lake and provided for the needs of the city ; the mouth of it was called in the hieroglyphs La Hune, ‘‘the open- ing of the canal,” a name which survives in the modern ‘ EI- Lahtin.” There is an intetesting allusion to this ‘‘ opening of the canal ” in the celebrated Stela of Piankhi, written about the eighth century B.c. M. Brugsch also suggested that Ra-pa-ro- hunet, ‘‘ the temple of the mouth of the canal,” might give us the derivation of the word labyrinth. WE have received the third number of Natural Science, the new monthly review of scientific progress. Among the con- tributors are Prof. G. Henslow, Mr. G. A. Boulenger, Sir J. W. Dawson, and Prof, W. C. Williamson. Messrs, CHARLES GRIFFIN AND Co, have published the ** Vear-book of the Scientific and Learned Societies of Great Britain and Ireland.” Thisis the ninth yearly issue. It pre- sents lists of papers read before various Societies during the year 1891, together with information as to official changes. In most cases the Societies themselves have contributed the lists of papers. ‘The names of those Societies concerning which no information has been received are entered in the index only. 16 NATURE [May 5, 1892 Messrs. W. AND A. K. JOHNSTON have issued, under the authority of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, a valuable series of eight diagrams representing the life-history of the wheat plant. The diagrams are reproductions of original drawings by Francis Bauer, now in the Botanical Department of the British Museum, and are printed in colours. With each set is sent a pamphlet by William Carruthers, F.R.S., con- sulting botanist to the Society, entitled ‘‘The Wheat Plant : How it Feeds and Grows.” This pamphlet consists of notes explanatory of the diagrams. Dr. L. MESCHINELLI AND Dr. S. SQUINABOL announce for publication a Tertiary Flora of Italy. Four lectures upon recent. stellar spectroscopy and the new star in Auriga will be delivered in Gresham College, by the Rev. Edmund Ledger, at 6 p.m. on the evenings of May Io, II, 12, and 13. ANOTHER contribution to our knowledge of the sugars and their related compounds is published by Prof. Emil Fischer in the current number of the Berichte. It relates to the constitution of the group of substances at the head of which stands dulcitol, CH,OH—(CHOH),—CH,OH, the hexahydric alcohol ob- tained from Madagascar manna, and prepared artificially by the reduction of milk sugar. It has already been established that the aldehyde corresponding to dulcitol is galactose, CH,OH— (CHOH),—COH, the glucose obtained from many gums, and which is formed when milk sugar is boiled with dilute acids. Moreover, it has long been known that, when either dulcitol or galactose are oxidized by means of nitric acid, a dibasic acid of the composition COOH—(CHOH),—(COOH) is produced. This acid, although expressed by the same forniula as saccharic acid, the acid obtained by the oxidation of common cane-sugar, differs considerably in properties from that acid, and has been termed mucic acid. It is now known to be a geometrical isomer of saccharic acid—that is to say, the two compounds only differ with regard to the relative positions of the atoms comprising their molecules. Saccharic acid, as obtained from cane-sugar, is probably unsymmetrically built up, for its solution rotaies the plane of polarization of light to the left. The main result of the work now described has been to show that the molecules of mucic acid are, on the contrary, symmetrically constructed, and that its observed optical inactivity is due to this fact. Theoretical considerations, based upon the postulates of the Van ’t Hoff- Wislicenus hypothesis concerning the arrangement of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in space, lead to the view that, of the ten possible geometrically-isomeric dibasic acids of the constitu- tion (CHOH), . (COOH),, two must be optically inactive, These two optically inactive isomers would be represented re- spectively by the formule Be at SN BS ee cleaminne ar ek eR | be OHOHOHOH and i H OHOH H See beer ek COOH—C—C—C—C—COOH. by | OHH HOH One of these two was presumably mucic acid. It was evident that if the molecules possessed a configuration similar to that roughly indicated in one plane by either of the above formule, upon reduction to a monobasic acid there would be an equal number of chances of each of the two end carboxyl groups being attacked by the reducing agent and converted to CH,OH groups. Consequently it was to be expected that equal quanti- NO. I175, VOL. 46] ties of two geometrically isomeric monobasic acids would be | obtained, one dextro- and the other lzvo-rotatory. Such has, indeed, been found by Prof. Fischer to be the case; for, upon 4 reducing cither the ethyl ester or the lactone of mucic acid (the acid itself being unattacked) by means of sodium amalgam, an optically inactive acid of the constitution CH,OH—(CHOH),— COOH was obtained, which formed a salt with strychnine yielding two distinct kinds of crystals, resembling the well- known complementary racemates of Pasteur. From these two kinds of crystals solutions of the free acids were obtained, which were respectively dextro- and lzvo-rotatory, and each was again converted into mucic acid upon oxidation. One of these, the right-handed variety, was identical with the common galactonic acid prepared by oxidation of galactose. Moreover, by further reduction of the inactive acid, an inactive glucose was obtained, from which eventually common dextro- and also levo-galactose were isolated by fermentation ; and finally, by still further reduc- tion of the galactose, dulcitol itself was obtained. Hence, the symmetrical structure of the dulcitol group may be considered as proved, and the work also completes the artificial synthesis of these compounds ; for, given the synthesis of any one by the method previously described by Prof. Fischer, any of the others may be prepared from it by the processes now described. THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include a Rhesus Monkey (Macacus rhesus) from India, presented by Miss Beatrice Raymond; a Wild Swine (Sus scrofa @) from ‘Tangiers, presented by Mr, E, H. Banfather; a Great Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) from Australia, presented by Mrs. Frazer; a Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea), European, presented by Captain Woodward; a Bateleur Eagle (Helotarsus ecaudatus), a Tawny Eagle (Aguila nevioides) from Africa, presented by Captain Webster ;a Raven (Corvus corax), European, presented by Mr. F. J. Stokes; seven Common Vipers (Vigera berus), British, presented by Mr. T. A. Cotton, F.Z.S.; a Rufous-necked Weaver Bird (Hyphantornis textor) from West Africa, purchased; an English Wild Bull (Bos ¢aurus), born in the Gardens. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Sun-spots.—In the March number of the Mewarts della Societa degli Spettroscopisti Laliani, there are some interesting notes relating to spots and prominences. Prof. Tacchini gives a tabulated statement of the solar observations made at the Royal Observatory for the last three months of the year 1891, The most frequent records of faculz occurred in the zones 10° 30°, only one: being seen as high as the zone + 40°+ 50°. As regards the spots, the greatest frequency of groups took place in the zones + 10° + 20°, 23 and Io being observed in the north and south respectively. Profs. A. Mascari and J. Fenyi both contribute some’ notes on the large group of spots visible in February last, the latter pointing out that the relation of the eruption to the large group was such that its centre was situated very near the side of the great nucleus of the south spot, but was entirely outside the spot itself, M. H. Deslandres records also his observations with respect to the remarkable protuberance visible on March 3 at about 10 a.m, From spectroscopic observations he obtained a radial velocity of 200 kilometres per second, using the hydrogen and helium lines. He also obtained a photograph of the invisible ultra-violet region, which furnished him with ‘‘an exact image” of this protuberance. The H and K lines were extraordinarily brilliant, and the negative contaived the entire series of ultra- violet rays of hydrogen. It may be mentioned that at the ap- pearance of this large protuberance no special indication was registered on the curves of the magnetic instruments which M. Deslandres obtained from M. Wolf. Prof. Tacchini communicated to the Paris Academy on April 25 the results of solar observations made at the Roman | College during the first three months of this year. Spots and q May 5, 1892] NATURE facule were observed on 56 days, viz. 19 in January, 19 in February, and 18 in March. The results are shown below :— ea Relative frequency Relative magnitude 7 j a - of days 1892. of spots. without ofspots. of facula. Saar 7 spots. eeneary +. 19°63 ... 0°00 79°79 ... 56°58 eit 23" 31. ..:,0°00 15361 ... 60°28 March ... 13°12 ... 0°00 61°67 ... 86°39 The following are the results for prominences :— eh Days of Mean Mean Mean «) 1892. observation. number. height. _—_ extension. anuary ... 13 6°39 39°6 16 eel aes 13 7°00 36°0 16 Marchi. ©... 14 8°14 36°4 as ___ The frequency and magnitude of spots during these months _ are much greater than during the preceding quarter, but promi- nences do not show a marked increase. No augmentation of this class of phenomena appears to have accompanied the great spot of February, if the mean numbers for the month be taken, _ Eclipse oF THE Moon, May 11.—A partial eclipse of the moon will occur on May 11, and, if weather permits, it should _ be widely observed. The magnitude of the eclipse is 0'953, the _ moon’s diameter being represented by 1. But although it is not total, important naked-eye observations can be made on the _ darkness of the shadowed moon for comparison with previous _ eclipses, and possessors of telescopes will doubtless take advan- _ tage of the occasion to obtain some new facts. The following _ times are from the ‘‘ Nautical Almanac ” :— ¥ M.T. . m. y First contact with the penumbra, May 11 7 55°9 E aa ey >> shadow z 9 10'2 * ‘Middle of the eclipse » 10 53°4 % Last contact with the shadow bs «12 36° s ” ” »» penumbra » 13 50°9 i. Bi, = AD ‘fo a SPECTRUM oF SwiFT’s CoMET (a 1892).—Mr. W. W. Campbell observed the spectrum of Swift’s comet on April 6, by means of a spectroscope having one prism of 60° attached © the 36-inch of the Lick Observatory (Astronomical Fournal, No. 262). The spectrum could be distinguished from about C ‘ Three bright bands had the wave-lengths of their less refrangible edges determined as 5630, 5170°4, and 4723, by _ comparison with spark-spectra of iron and magnesium. The _ intensities of the bands were estimated to be in the ratio 1:6: 2. CoMET Swirt, 1892. — Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3087, contains the following ephemeris of Swift’s comet :— For 12h. Berlin Mean Time. a] a 892. R.A. Decl. log r «log & ~—CiBBz. yy Pi h. m. Ss. 6 4 May 5 2245 25 +23 41°7 drip nO... 22 70) 24 2t°5 ecg ae Sk 12 25 05 o'0608 O'III5 0°70 ; » 8 2254 3 25 38°7 ‘e » 9 2256 53 26 16°2 9 MO 225941 826 52°9 . ssw me at 43" 2 28 27 28°9 0°0723 _-:0°1236 0°62 _ The brightness on March 10 is taken as unity. e On he 5th the comet will be found to form very nearly an Sea id ile triangle with the stars A and « in Pegasus, while on the rith it will _ ._ Comer Swirt, 1892.—The spectrum of this comet has been observed by Prof. Konkoly, who contributes his observa- _ tions to the Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3087. The ‘Spectrum on April 1 appeared very bright, and showed five bright lines whose intensities were as follows:—I. = 0°4; it = 0-3; III = 10; aN = 0°2 be = o'1, the con-, _ tinuous rum extending from A = 580 to A = 440. * The follo a near 8 in the same constellation. u 17 I. = 558°82 um Il, = 544°94 IIl. = 516°30 IV. = 472°54 Venm 468°78 Similar observations were also repeated the next night, only by means of a larger telescope and spectroscope. The continuous spectrum was found to extend from A = 559 mu to A = 449 uu. The intensities were I. = 0°5; IT. = 0°3; Ill. = 1.0; IV. = 0°2; V. = o'r. The mean values of the five measures obtained for each line were :— 1. = 558°40 up II. = 543°82 Ill, = 516°26 IV. = 472°70 V. = 46810 Nova AURIGA:.—Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3083, contains some measurements and remarks by Prof. Konkoly relative to the spectrum of this Nova. Five lines were, accord- ing to him, very satisfactorily measured on March 20, and the means of six measures for each were as follows :— I, = 531°80 wu II. = 516°50 Ill. = 501°95 IV. = 492°30 V. = 48615 Using a 10-inch objective prism on the 21st, he found that II. was the brightest line, III. being somewhat feebler ; I. was very weak, while IV. was not bright, but broad; V., again, seemed quite visible. With regard to the dark lines, he was only able to suspect them in the region of C and F (especiall y the latter), owing to their feebleness. The hydrogen lines on the 21st appeared feebler than those in 7 Cassiopeiz. A NEw VaRIABLE.—A circular (No. 32) that we have received from the Wolsingham Observatory contains the following :— The star D.M. + 55° 1870— 16h. 39m. 49s. ; +55° 12’; 9°2 7°7, April 26; 29. Variable. Spectrum like was found 7°3 ; Mira. EspIn. THE TEMPERATURE OF THE BRAIN. ‘THE Croonian Lecture was delivered this year by Prof. Angelo Mosso, Professor of Physiology in the University of Turin. His subject was the temperature of the brain, especially in relation to psychical activity. Prof. Mosso’s earlier investigations on the human brain only related to the blood circulation. He then found that the blood pressure rises during psychical work, and that during such more blood is sent from the peripheral parts of the body. Prof. Mosso also found that the blood circulation in the brain showed fluc- tuations which are not dependent on psychical activity. These and other variations in the brain circulation led him to suspect that Dr. Schiff’s theory about brain temperature as introduced into physiology required revision. In a published work on fatigue,” Prof. Mosso gave his views on the influence of pre work on the organism, especially on the muscular orce. We do not yet know what form of phenomena subserves the first condition of thought. Fatigue caused by psychical activity acts as a poison, which affects all organs, but especially the muscular system, This is clearly demonstrated by Prof. Mosso’s investigations on men who have been subjected to great mental strain. The blood of dogs, fatigued by long racing, acts as a poison, and when injected into other dogs they exhibit ‘all the symptoms of fatigue. The characteristic phenomena of fatigue depend more on nerve-cell products than on a deficiency of suitable material, During investigation into the physical conditions during psychical activity, Prof. Mosso’s attention was directed to the subject of the temperature of the brain. To avoid errors arising from blood changes he endeavoured to keep the blood temperature and that of the organs in agreement with that of the brain., For such a purpose he found that the thermo-electric pile which Dr, Schiff employed would not suffice, and he had wing measures are the means of five direct scale __teadings of the above-mentioned lines :— NO. 1175, VOL. 46] « “Kreislauf des Blutes in menschlichen gehirne,” Leipzig, 1881. ?** Die Ermudung,”’ Leipzig, 1892. 18 NATURE May 5, 1892 therefore made by Baudin, of Paris, some very sensitive mer- | curial thermometers. The investigations made with the help of | these instruments on the brain and blood temperatures bring to | light new evidences of activity in the nerve centres. There are | sometimes very extensive temperature developments under the influence of special excitements quite independent of psychical activity. The change in the nutrition of the nerve-cells, and not their specific activity, seems to be the most important source of heat in the brain. Thus Prof. Mosso would explain the marked effect on brain temperature of ordinary irritants where the increase is far higher upon the introduction of such than upon any psychical work done by the brain. The following is an abstract of Prof. Mosso’s Croonian Lecture :-— In his investigations on the temperature of the brain the author SES PSPS E ES i 20 Fic. 1.—Dog rendered insensible with laudanum. B, blast of a trumpet; C, D, E, electric stimulation of the brain, periods of ten minutes. has employed, in preference to the thermo-electric pile, exceed- ingly sensitive mercurial thermometers, constructed specially for the purpose. Since each thermometer contains only four grams of mercury, the instruments respond very rapidly to changes of temperature, and a change of not more than o°‘oo2 C. can easily be measured by means of them. The author has stttdied the temperature of the brain, comparing it with that of arterial blood, of the muscles, and of the interior of the body. His obser- vations were made on animals under the influence of morphia or various anesthetics, and also on man. The curves of the observations made show that in profound sleep a noise, or other sensory stimulus, is sufficient to produce a slight development of heat in the brain, without the animal necessarily awakening. In profound sleep the temperature of the brain may fall below NO. 1175, VOL. 46] eee & | Lh 30 40 580 6 410 that of the blood in the arteries. This is due to the very great radiation of heat which takes place from the surface of the head. The brain when subjected to the action of the ordinary in- terrupted current rises in temperature. The rise is observed earlier in the brain than in the blood, and the increase is greater in the brain than in the general blood-current or in the rectum. During an epileptic seizure, brought on by electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex, the author observed within twelve minutes a rise of t° C. in the temperature of the brain. As arule the temperature of the brain is lower than that of the interior of the body ; but intense psychical processes, or the action of exciting chemical substances, may cause so much heat to be set free in the brain that its temperature may remain for some | time 0°'2 or 0°'3 C. above that of the interior of the body. fae go" s The upper (thin) line represents the temperature of the interior of the body, the middle (thin line the temperature of the blood in the carotid artery, the third (thick) line the temperature of the brain. A, injection of 3 c.c. laudanum ; The ordinate is marked in tenths of a degree Centigrade, the abscissa in When a dog is placed under the influence of curare, the tem- perature of the brain remains fairly high, while that of the muscles and that of the blood falls. The difference of tem- perature thus brought about is great and constant. In one in- stance, the temperature of the brain was 1°'6 C. above that of the arterial blood in the aorta. Such observations warn us not to regard the muscles as forming, far excellence, the thermo- genic tissue of the body. In order to show how active are the chemical processes in the brain, it is sufficient to keep the animal in a medium whose temperature is the same as that of the blood. When the effects of radiation through the skull are thus obviated, the temperature of the brain is always higher than that of the interior of the body, the difference amounting to o°*5 or 0°'6 C. May 5, 1892] Observations made while an animal is awake tend to show that the development of heat due to cerebral metabolism may be very considerable, even in the absence of all intense psychical activity. The mere maintenance of consciousness belonging to the wakeful state involves very considerable chemical action. The variations of temperature, however, observed in the brain, as the result of attention, or of pain or other sensations, are exceedingly small. The greatest rise of temperature ob- served to follow, in the dog, upon great psychical activity was not more than 0°01 C, When an animal is conscious, no Fic. 2.—Dog (fémale) rendered insensible with chloroform and then with laudanum. middle (thicker) Jine that of the brain, the lower that of the arterial blood in the carotid artery. of the brain ; D, injection of 14 c.c. NATURE if | change of consciousness, no psychical activity, however brought about experimentally, produces more than a slight effect on the temperature of the brain. The author shows an experiment by which it is seen that, as part of the effect of opium, the brain is the first organ to fall in | of the stimulation, indeed, often for half an hour. temperature, and that it may continue to fall for the space of | eighteen minutes, while the blood and the vagina are still rising in temperature. The author discusses the elective action of narcotics and anzesthetics. He shows that these drugs suspend the chemical functions of the nerve-cells. In a dog rendered completely in- NO. 1175, VOL. 46] Ig sensible by an anesthetic, one no longer obtains a rise of temperature upon stimulating the cerebral cortex with an electric current. These results cannot be explained as merely due to the changes in the circulation of the blood. The physical basis of psychical processes is probably of the nature of chemical action. In another experiment, in an animal rendered insensible with chloral, the curves of temperature show that when the muscles of a limb are made to contract, the temperature of the muscles rises, but falls rapidly as soon as the stimulation ceases, soon returning to the normal, This is not the case, however, with The upper ine represents the temperature of the vagina, the la and B, psychical emotion; c, electric stimulation laudanum (intravenous); E and 1, electric stimulation of the brain the brain excited by an electric current. Here the stimulus gives rise to a more lasting production of heat ; the temperature may continue to increase for several minutes after the cessation This may possibly explain why, upon an electric stimulation of the cerebral cortex, the epileptiform convulsions are not imme- diately developed, but only appear after the lapse of a latent period of several minutes. This experiment may be exercised upon the brain by stimulant remedies, of ro centigrams of cocaine hydrochlorate prod made to show the elective action The injection ices a rise of temperature in the brain of 0°'36 C., without any change in the temperature of the muscles or of the rectum being observed. In a curarised dog, the intervention of the muscles being thereby excluded, the action of the cocaine may produce a rise of as Fic. 3.—Dog rendered insensible with chloral. brain, the lower line that of the muscles of the thigh. | the magnet was in oscillation, the force increasing, and reach- | ing a maximum at 13h. 43m., after which it began to decrease, . | the minimum being reached at oh. 15m. on the 14th. Further abrupt movements occurred at 4h. 30m. on the 14th, the oscil- | PRAISE WER, SE! The upper line represents the temperature of the rectum, the middle (thicker) line that of the A and B, electric stimulation of the muscles; c, injection of zo centigrams of cocaine int the saphena vein; D, E, spontaneous variations in the temperature of the rectum. much as 4° C. in the temperature of the brain, the author having observed a rise from 37° to 41° C. i ing the calorific topography of the organism a high place must be assigned to the brain. THE MAGNETIC STORM OF FEBRUARY IN MAURITIUS. At that took place on April 7, Mr. Meldrum read a short pap er on the sun-spots, magnetic storm, cyclones, and rainfall of | February 1892. The photographs of the sun that he exhibited, which were taken at the Royal Alfred Observatory from February 5 to 18, showed the very large group of spots, their approximate latitude on the gth being from 6° to 16° south. Leading on to the occurrence of the great magnetic storm which began at 8h. 55m. on the 13th, he states that its com- mencement was distinctly recorded on the three curves, the horizontal force suffering the greatest disturbance. Up to 14h} NO 1175, VOL. 46] This shows that in arrang- | a meeting of the Meteorological Society of Mauritius, | | lations, as shown by the curves, being very numerous, but at 19h. the magnets became more steady, and were quiet by 3h. | onthe 15th. ‘The ranges obtained at the Mauritius Observa- | tory were the largest ever recorded there. | Cyclones were not absent during this month. One lasted | from the 11th to the 14th, and another from the 25th to the | 28th, while a third was also experienced on the 21st and 22nd, | about 550 miles south of Mauritius. The rainfall for February, as | shown by returns from the numerous stations, was from 4°30 to 16'96 inches above the average for periods of 7 to 29 years. | At Antoinette the fall for the month amounted to 12°53 | inches, while that at Cluny came to 34°37 inches. St. | Aubin and Nouvelle France came in for a considerable | quantity of rain, the falls in the 24 hours ending at 8 a.m. | on the 13th reaching the figures 5°00 and 18°20 inches re- | spectively. Referring lastly to the magnificent displays of aurorze | that have been observed both in Europe and America, he mentions that, although at Mauritius the sky was overcast, under | similar conditions with respect to solar activity and terrestrial | magnetism, a greatdisplay was visible in 1872, Mr. Meldrum, May 5, 1892] NATURE 21 ‘in his concluding remarks as to whether ** there is a causal -connectior between solar activity (as indicated by outbursts on the sun) and magnetic disturbances, auroras, cyclones, and rain- all,” remarks that with regard to the two former there can rdly be any doubt, but with regard to the two latter he is of on that a very close connection does exist, there being a erable preponderance of evidence in its favour. ~ UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL Dt, INTELLIGENCE, _ Oxrorp,—Annual Abstract of Accounts.—The abstract of counts of the University for the year ending December 31, just been published. _ It exhibits both the accounts of Cu of the Chest and the financial position of the Uni- ity institutions. The receipts show an income of £66,986 NRES! | 3a: aor seein £65,175 175.. 2d. last year. The principal ‘sources of internal P3d., th + 23 - ' 6 ‘ income include estates £9978 12s. 8d., the ity Press £5000, University dues £11,153 5s., examina- 1 fees £5659 Is., degree fees £9600. The Proctorial fines mt toonly £313, nearly £100 less than last year. In con- ction with the present agitation against Proctorial jurisdiction item is interesting. The total payments amounted. to 4557 6s. There was transferred to capital account 5 16s.4d., and a balance carried forward of £203 10s. 2d, In expenditure, we find institutions and public buildings 085, the Jargest item under this head being the Bodleian _ Lib 7772 45. 4@., while the Taylor Institution absorbed £2245. The expenses in connection with lectures in large towns amounted to £729 11s. 8¢., and the interest and sinking - fund on loans for University purposes came to £6157 8s. 4d. _ . The Joans account shows that the amounts remaining to be aid are £36,000 at 4 per cent. on the £60,000 New Schools an, and £7666 13s. 4d. at 2} per cent. on the £10,000 vlogi ory Loan. — 7 uty and the County Councils.—The report on the rip teaching in scientific and technical subjects carried on various country uistricts under the sujervision of the Oxford Delegates for University Extension, acting in concert with the echnical Instruction Committees of County Councils during has just been published. The report states that the es for University Extension were requested by _ representatives of eight County Councils in England to vide for the delivery of 227 courses, embracing 2271 lectures, chemistry, agriculture, geology, botany, veterinary science, siology, and hygiene. ‘These courses have been regularly at ended b ' more than 10,000 persons in all grades of society. e relations between the University Extension Committees Universities and the County Councils, in refer- ‘the matter of technical instruction, has now become so that a Conference was summoned last week, under the _ presidency of the Provost of Queen’s College, to consider this connection, and to profit by the experience already gained, an ex snce, which in some cases extends over two years. It was _ felt that there are certain mistakes, inevitable in the commence- _ ment of any large scheme, which might be advantageously _ removed, so as to promote greater harmony, and possibly more _ economy in the fuller development of the scheme. Many organizing and others interested in the scheme _ attended the Conference, which extended over two days. per ipencipel subjects were under discussion, first, the pro- _ vision of summer courses of instruction in Oxford, Cambridge, and other University towns for teachers in elementary schools ; _ secondly, the methods of organization of peripatetic teaching in _ regard to hours of lectures, classes, cost, and local management. connection with the first point, it was announced that Oxford, _ Cambridge, and the Yorkshire College, Leeds, would be pre- Byaed.to offer accommodation to students this :ummer ; the _ Victoria University has, however, made no such provision. he method of procuring instruction in practical agriculture and perimental farming occupied much of the attention of the eeting, and much stress was laid upon the importance of tring the co-operation of farmers to look after the exyeri- ental stations. On the matter of peripatetic teaching, it was felt by some it no very great assistance could be expected from the element- _ ary teacher, and that reliance must be placed upon the teacher ' supplied by the Universities, in some cases advantageously ca pagheslaen by the teachers in secondary schools. ot the least important feature in the Conference was the NO. 1175, VOL. 46] tay . anxiety displayed by all present to urge on to the uimost of their power the great work of the dissemination of technical and scientific instruction, influenced solely by disinterested motives for the public service. CAMBRIDGE.—Prof. Bonney, F.R.S., Fellow of St. John’s College, will this year deliver the Rede Lecture in the Senate House, on Wednesday, June 15, at noon. The subject is ‘* The Microscope’s Contributions to the Earth’s Physical History.” aL The Adams Memorial Committee have issued a circular inviting contributions towards, the erection of a monument to the late Prof. J. C. Adams in, Westminster Abbey. These may be paid to one of the treasurers (Dr. Searle, Master of Pembroke, and Prof. Liveing), or to one of the secretaries (Dr. Porter, Master of Peterhouse, Dr. Donald MacAlister, St. John’s,.and Dr. Glaisher, Trinity), or to the account of the Adams Memorial Fund at Messrs. Mortlock’s Bank, Cambridge. We do not doubt that the invitation will meet with a generous response from the admirers of the great astronomer, AND ACADEMIES. LONDON, Royal Society, April 28.—‘‘On a Decisive Test-case dis- proving the Maxwell-Boltzmann Doctrine regarding Distribution of Kinetic Energy.”” By Lord Kelvin, Pres. R.S. The doctrine referred to is that stated by Maxwell in his paper **On the Average Distribution of Energy in a System of Material Points’ (Camb. Phil. Soc. Trans., May 6, 1878, republished in vol. ii. of Maxwell's ‘* Scientific Papers”) in the following words :— i **In the ultimate state of the system, the average kinetic energy of two given portions of the system must be in the ratio of the number of degrees of freedom of those portions.” Let the system consist of three bodies, A, B, C, all movable only in one straight line, KHL: B being a simple vibrator controlled by a spring so stiff that when, at any time, it has very nearly the whole energy of the system, its extreme excursions on each side of its position of equilibrium are small: C and A, equal masses : ‘C, unacted on by force except when it strikes L, a fixed barrier, and when it strikes or is struck by B : A, unacted on by force except when it strikes or is struck by B, and when it is at less than a certain distance, HK, froma fixed repellent barrier, K, repelling with a force, F varying, according to any law, or constant, when A is be Gx SOCIETIES tween K and H, but becoming infinitely great when (if at any time) A reaches K, and goes infinitesimally beyond it. Suppose now A, B, C to be all moving to and fro. Thecollisions between B and the equal bodies A and C on its two sides must equalize, and keep YF equal, the average kinetic energy of A, immediately oA before and after these collisions, to the average kinetic energy of C. Hence, when the times of A being in the space between H and K are in- cluded in the average, the average of the sum of the potential and kinetic energies of A is equal to the average kinetic energy of C. But the potential energy of A at every point in the space HK is positive, because, according to our supposition, the velocity of A is diminished during every time of its motion from H towards K, and increased to the same value again during motion from K to H. Ilence, the average kinetic energy of A is less than ec the average kinetic energy of C! This is a test-case of a perfectly representative kind for the theory of temperature, and it effect- ually disposes of the assumption that the tem- perature of a solid or liquid is equal to its average kinetic energy per atom, which Maxwell pointed out as-a consequence of the supposed theorem, and which, believed to be thus estab- > lished, has been largely taught, and fallaciously ; used, as a fundamental proposition in thermo- L dynamics, It is, in truth, only for an approximately ‘‘ perfect ” gas—that is to say, an assemblage of molecules in which each molecule ——H eB 22 NATURE (May 5, 1892 moves for comparatively long times in lines very approximately straight, and experiences changes of velocity and direction in comparatively short times of collision—and it is only for the kinetic energy of the translatory motions of the molecules of the ‘* perfect gas,” that the temperature is equal to the average kinetic energy per molecule, as first assumed by Waterston, and afterwards by Joule, and first proved by Maxwell. **Researches on Turacin, an Animal Pigment containing Copper ; Part II.” By A. H. Church, M.A., F.R.S., Pro- fessor of Chemistry in the Royal Academy of Arts, London. This paper is in continuation of one read before the Society in May 1869 (Phil. Trans., vol. clix. pp. 627-36). It con- tains an account of observations made by other investigators on turacin and on the occurrence of copper in animals ; a table of the geographical distribution of the Touracos, and a list of the twenty-five known species ; a chart of turacin spectra (for which the author is indebted to the kindness of Dr. MacMunn) ; and a further examination of the chemical characters and the compo- sition of turacin, The more important positions established by the present inquiry are these :-— 1. The constant occurrence in eighteen out of the twenty-five known species of Musophagide, of a definite organic pigment containing, as an essential constituent, about 7 per cent. of copper. 2. The ‘‘turacin-bearers’’ comprise all the known species of the three genera, 7uracus, Gallirex, and Musophaga; while from all the species of the three remaining genera of the family J/xso- phagide—namely, Corytheola, Schizorhis, and Gymnoschizorhis —turacin is absent. Furthermore, the zoological arrangement of the genera constituting this family is in accord with that founded on the presence af tee, 3. The spectrum of turacin in alkaline solution shows, be- sides the two dark absorption bands previously figured, a faint broad band on either side of line F, and extending from A 496 to A 475. 4. The spectrum of zso/ated turacin in ammoniacal solution shows, besides the three bands already named, a narrow fourth band, lying on the less-refrangible side of line D, and extending from A 605 to A 589. It probably arises from the presence of traces of the green alteration-product of turacin formed during the preparation of that pigment in the isolated condition; an alteration-product which is likely to prove identical with Krukenberg’s turacoverdin. 5. Turacin in ammoniacal solution remains unchanged after the lapse of twenty-three years. 6. Turacin in the dry state, when suddenly and strongly heated, yields a volatile copper-containing red derivative, which, though undissolved by weak ammonia-water, is not only soluble in, but may be crystallized from, ether. v7. Turacin in the dry state, when heated in a tube surrounded by the vapour of boiling mercury, becomes black, gives off no visible vapour, is rendered insoluble in alkaline liquids, and is so profoundly changed that it evolves no visible vapour when afterwards strongly heated. 8. The accurate analysis of turacin offers great difficulty. The percentage composition, as deduced from those determi: nations which seem most trustworthy, is— Carbon ... 53°69 Hydrogen 4°60 Copper ... 701 Nitrogen 6°96 Oxygen... 27°74 These numbers correspond closely with those demanded by the empirical formula Cy,H,,Cu,N,O3., although the author lays no stress upon this expression. g. Turacin presents some analogies with hematin, and yields, by solution in oil of vitriol, a coloured derivative, turaco- porphyrin. The spectra of this derivative, both in acid and alkaline solution, present striking resemblances to those of hematoporphyrin, the corresponding derivative of hzematin. But copper is present in the derivative of turacin, while iron is absent from its supposed analogue, the derivative of hzematin. Chemical Society, April 7.—Dr. W. H. Perkin, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair.—The following papers were read :—The separation of arsenic, antimony, and tin, by J..Clark. .The mixed sulphides of arsenic, antimony, and tin obtained in the ordinary course of quantitative analysis are dissolved in a strong solution of ferric chloride in hydro- chloric acid, and the arsenic distilled off and weighed as trisulphide. The residual liquor contains the antimony as NO. 1175 VOL. 46] — trichloride, and the tin as stannic chloride, together with Without removing the iron salts, the antimony is precipitated with hydrogen sulphide in a tepid solution containing from one-quarter to one-third of its — volume of hydrochloric acid and a considerable quantity of q The precipitate, which is free from tin, is washed first with water, then with alcohol, and finally with carbon — ferrous and ferric chlorides. oxalic acid. disulphide, and weighed as Sb,S, after being dried at 130% When the antimony precipitate is large, it must, after drying, be digested in carbon disulphide to extract the whole of the sulphur. To obviate this, the author reduces the excess of ferric chloride with thin sheet-iron, as soon as the yellow colour has disappeared the undissolved iron is removed, and the antimony which has come down is redissolved by cautiously add- ing ferric chloride till the solution is distinctly yellow, showing that all the tin is in the stannic state ; a warm solution of oxalic acid containing about one-third of its volume of hydrochloric acid is then added, and the precipitated antimony trisulphide washed and weighed astabove. After removal of the antimony, the hydrogen sulphide is expelled by boiling, the oxalic ‘ad idien- posed with potassium permanganate, the tin precipitated in a hot solution with hydrogen sulphide, and allowed to stand till cold. The stannic sulphide thus obtained is filtered, washed, ignited, and weighed as SnO,.—Platinous chloride and its use as a source of chlorine, by W. A. Shenstone and C, R. Beck. The authors have examined chlorine prepared from six mens of platinous chloride of independent origin, and have found oxygen and hydrogen chloride to be present in them all. From these results they conclude that platinous chloride made by any of the processes hitherto recommended, including that lately suggested by L. Pigeon, contains a very perceptible quantity of some basic compound, which gives off water, together with the gases previously mentioned. mercury has been exposed to the action of chlorine, in the presence of a trace of water, it becomes capable of absorbing hydrogen chloride; it is not yet certain whether this action depends on the presence of oxygen or not.—Note on the ad- hesion of mercury to glass in the presence of halogens, by W. A. Shenstone. The author finds that carefully purified chlorine, bromine, and iodine affect mercury like ozone, causing it to adhere to glass in a remarkably perfect manner.—The decom- position of mannitol and dextrose by the Bacillus ethaceticus, — by P. F. Frankland and J. S. Lumsden. The authors find that the products of fermentation of both mannitol and dextrose by B. ethaceticus consist of ethyl alcohol, acetic. acid, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and traces of succinic acid. A considerable quantity of formic acid is also formed when the fermentation | proceeds in a closed space, whilst, in fermentations conducted in flasks merely plugged with cotton wool, formic acid, except in traces, is an exceptional product. This phenomenon has pre- viously been found to occur with fermentations by means of 2B. ethacetosuccinicus. Formic acid is doubtless a primary product of the fermentation, but tends to break down into carbon dioxide and hydrogen. In the closed space, however, equilibrium is soon established between the formic acid and its decomposition products, and part of the formic acid is subsequently found in the solution. This view is supported by the fact that carbon dioxide and hydrogen are found in almost equal volumes. The proportions ‘in which the several products are obtained from mannitol are approximately represented by the equation— 3C,H,40, = H,O = C,H4O, + 5C,H,O ee 5CH,0, =m CO, In the case of dextrose the products occur in the proportions : 2°5C,H,O : 1°5C,H4O,:3CH,O,:CO,. There is 2 close quali- tative and quantitative resemblance between fermentations by 3. ethaceticus and those occurring by means of the Pxewmococcus (Friedlander), which renders it probable that this ethacetic decom- position is a very general and typical form of fermentative change. —The preparation of glycollic acid, by H. G. Colman. Glycollic acid may be readily prepared by boiling concentrated potas- sium chloracetate solution for 24-30 hours. Lhe liquid is then distilled under reduced pressure, and the residue mixed with acetone. On evaporation of the filtered solution, glycollic acid - crystallizes out in colourless crystals, containing only about 0°5 per cent. of ash, This acid would seem to be dimorphous. Glycollic anilide may be prepared by heating glycollic acid for some time to 240°, and boiling the product with aniline, — Researches on silicon compounds and their derivatives ; Part vi. The action of silicon tetrachloride on substituted phenyl- ~ amines, by J. E. Reynolds. Diphenylamine combines with silicon tetrachloride to form an unstable addition compound, It was also noticed that after “i —_—— = ee ee eee ee Ne ee ee ee 6 a SS ae a : _ hydrochloride separa D deft-of thes May 5, 1892] NATURE 23 which is decomposed below the boiling-point of benzene. | Ethylaniline is easily acted on by the tetrachloride, ethylaniline | ) tes, and a compound having the compo- sition Si(PhNEt), is formed. Diethylaniline is but feebly eed. on by silicon tetrachloride ; the compound PhNEt, HCl is formed, and probably a substance of the composition ‘Si(C,H,NEt,),,—Chemistry of the compounds of thiourea and thiocarbimides with aldehyde-ammonia, by A. E. Dixon. ‘The alkyl and allied thiocarbimides react with aldehyde- ammonia, in accordance with the following equation— 'R.NCS + 2R‘CH(OH)NH, = CSN,H,R(CHR’), + 2H,0. ‘It was ed that some connection might exist between ‘the class of substances so formed and the compounds obtained by the action of thiourea on the aldehyde-ammonias. From Similarity in behaviour of the compounds derived from _thetwo sources, theauthor infers that they are members of thesame class. Sy, ip thiourea and aldehyde-ammonia readily interact, ‘it_ was fou impossible, under any conditions, to cause sub- stituted thioureas to act on aldehyde-ammonia. The author ‘considers that this fact indicates that the monosubstituted ie Ae .% NH, N a thioureas are of the form HN 1c and not CS . ee SH \NH, —The atomic weight of boron, by J. L. Hoskyns-Abrahall. “The deceased author determined the atomic weight of boron by et ing the amount of silver necessary to precipitate the ‘bromine ‘a known weight of boron bromide. The mean atomic weight obtained is 10°816 + 00055. Silver is taken as 107923, and bromine as 79°951. ts corr Society, April 8.—Dr. J. H. Gladstone,-F.R.S., Past dent, in the chair.—Mr. Walter Baily read a paper on the construction of a colour map. By the term “ colour map,” ‘the author meant a diagram, each point of which defines by its position some particular colour. Captain Abney had shown that Saag! except the purples, could be formed by adding white ‘light to some spectrum colour, whilst all except the greens could be made to produce white by the addition of some spectrum ur. were, therefore, two ways in which colours, other than greens and purples, could be indicated. In one of _ these, the ordinate of a point might represent the spectrum colour 4 its wave-length, and the abscissa, measured to the ‘right of a vertical spectrum line, the amount of white light to be added to the trum colour to produce the colour represented by the point, In the other, the abscissa of a point situated on 1¢ left of the spectrum line represents the quantity of white ht produced by the addition of the spectrum colour to the indicated by the point. Regarding the spectrum colours is formed by mixing three primary colours (red, green, and violet) in varying proportions, three curves were drawn to the line whose abscissze represented respectively the is of the three primary colours present in the cor- Tr ing spectrum colour. Horizontal distances from any it to these curves show the proportions in which the primary colours are to be mixed produce to the particular colour defined ‘that point. For points between the curves, the horizontal . 4 are not measured all in one direction, and therefore indicate abnormal or imaginary colours. The principle of the ‘map was further illustrated by a sort of colour staff, consisting of tives hotlzontel lines representing the three primary colour sensations (see figure) of such luminosities that equal lengths of Red A s i R S A Green x, Violet ++- x the three lines indicate white light. If points, R, G, v, be taken in these lines, then a cross line A will cut off lengths A R, AG, A V, whose mixture will produce a certain colour. If now a be moved parallel to itself towards the right, the colour will ‘change by the addition of white light ; moving A to the left means a subtraction of white light. When R, G, and Vv are properly chosen, a certain position, s, of the cross line,corresponds toa s m colour. The whole of the series of colours which can be obtained by adding white light to that spectrum. colour can then be represented by sliding A towards the right. Positions s’ and a’ give colours complementary to s and A. e distinguishing features of such a series of colours are the differences R - G and G — V, and theauthor calls the ratio —< the ‘colour index.” Passing up the spectrum from red to violet, NO. 1175, VOL. 46] the index, which is first large and positive, diminishes and becomes negative between yellow and blue; it then passes through infinity, and becomes positive and decreases to zero. The subject of determining the indexes of colours resulting from the mixture in various proportions of two other colours whose indexes were known, was considered, and diagrams showing the various curves, exhibited. Experimental methods of determining the proportions of the primary colour sensations constituting the spectrum tints were described. A_ visitor inquired how the author’s system provided for the class of colours outside the red and violet. He also desired a definition of “* white light.” He himself had never been able to produce pure white by mixture of colours, for a reddish violet generally resulted, On the other hand, he found it possible to match any other colour by mixture. Prof. Carey Foster thought Helmholtz was the first to propound the law which the author had attributed to Captain Abney, He wished to know how the amounts of colour sensation were supposed to be measured. White light he considered ought to be defined as light in which a normal eye, not fatigued, could perceive no preponderance of any colour. Mr. Blakesley said that if white light was a mixture, and only two unknowns were necessary, then any colour Could be produced by the mixture of two other colours. Dr. Sumpner seg a out that white light was by no means a constant colour, ut fk nage greatly on the source. He thought the author’s map of a more absolute nature than that proposed by Maxwell. Dr. Hoffert inquired whether the intensities of each spectrum colour had been considered equal or otherwise taken into account, and also whether the results arrived at would be true for intensities other than those chosen. Mr. Baily, in reply, said Captain Abney had found the light from the crater in the positive carbon of an electric arc to be the most constant white, and in his method of experimenting errors due to variations of the source cancelled. The quantity of any spectrum colour was de- fined by the breadth of the band used, the breadth being small and measured on the scale of wave-lengths.—A paper on a mnemonic table for changing from electro-static to practical and C.G.S. electro-magnetic units was read by Mr. W. Gleed. In the table, which is given below, the abbreviations Stat and Mag are used to denote the ‘electro-static and electro-magnetic units respectively, and wv stands for 3 x 10° :— Units of Capacity. Resistance. Potential. Current: Quantity. Powers of 10 for prac- tical and magnetic units ove we 9 a S fs emtd Noe Sappinale ove Small unit... Stat .. Mag .. Mag .. Stat... Stat Practical unit + Farad .. Ohm «. Volt ... Ampere... Coulomb M Stat ... Stat ... Mag ... Mag Large unit ... par Factor for Stat and Mag dee on eee - v owe «6 oon DU To form the table, the numbers 981 in the middle of the second line give the value of ». The end numbers are duplicated, giving 99,811. Below them in the fourth line come the names of the practical units, the initials forming the word /ovac. Remembering that the electro-magnetic units of resistance and peers were too small for practical use, one places Mag above Ohm and Volt. Ohm’s law and definitions then show that the practical units of capacity, current, and quantity must be less than the electro-magnetic units, hence Mag must be written below Farad, Ampere, and Coulomb. Since the actical units are intermediate in magnitude between Stat and ag, the vacant spaces are then filled in by Stat. The v’s in the bottom line are added from memory, Several examples showing the use of the table are worked out in the paper accompanying the table.—A paper on the law of colour in relation to chemical constitution, by William Akroyd, was read by Mr. Blakesley. The author has observed that, in cases of compounds having a constant radical, R, and a yariable radical R’, the effect of an increase in the molecular weight of R is to make the colour of the compound tend towards the red end of the colour scale. Exceptions are, however, noted. Mr. H. M. Elder questioned the author’s conclusions, saying that in many cases the colours tend towards blue. Anthropological Institute, April 26.—Dr, Edward B. Tylor, F,R.S., President, in the chair.—Prof. R. K, Douglas read a paper on the social end religious ideas of the Chinese, as illustrated in the ideographic characters of the language. The paper begins with a short introduction, show- ing that the Chinese ideographic characters are picture-writings, and that as such they supply an interpretation of the meaning of words as these were understood by the inventors of the 24 NATURE [May 5, 1892 characters representing them. Following on this is an account of the earliest. or hieroglyphic form of the writing, with ex- amples, and the development of this resulting in the ideographic characters. These are taken as being illustrative of the ideas of the people on political, social, scientific, and religious ideas. For example, the importance which was attached to the quali- ties of a sovereign is exemplified in the choice of the symbol employed to express a supreme ruler, the component parts of which together signify ‘‘ ruler of himself.” By means of the same graphic system a kingdom is shown as ‘‘men and arms within a frontier.”” Passing to the social habits of the people, their domestic life is illustrated by a number of ideograms descriptive of their household arrangements and relationships. In succession are traced in the written characters the ideas associated with men and women, their virtues and their failings ; the notions associated with marriage; and the evidences of pastoral as well as of agricultural habits among the people. Turning to the popular religious faiths it is shown how promi- nent is the belief in the god of the soil, whose presence brings blessings, and whose averted countenance is followed by mis- fortune. The ideas associated with objects of nature are next treated of, and the paper concludes with references to the coinage of the country as described in the ideograms employed to represent its various forms.—Mr. Joseph Offord, Jun., read a paper on the mythology and psychology of the ancient Egyptians. Entomological Society, April 27.—Mr. Robert McLach- lan, F.R.S., Treasurer, in the chair.—Mr. C. G. Barrett exhibited, for Mr. Sabine, varieties of the following species : viz. one of Papilio machaon, bred by Mr. S. Baily, at Wicken, in 1886 ; one of Argynnis lathonia, taken at Dover in Septem- ber 1883; one of A. euphrosyne, taken at Dover in 1890; and one of A. se/ene, taken at St. Osyth, in 1885, by Mr. W. H. Harwood. He also exhibited a long series of Demas coryli, reared by Major Still from larvae fed exclusively on beech, which he said appeared to be the usual food of the species in Devonshire, instead of hazel or oak. Mr. Barrett also ex- hibited, for Mr. Sydney Webb, a number of varieties of Arge galathea, Lasiommata megera, Hipparchia tithonus, and Cenonympha pamphilus, from the neighbourhood of Dover.— The Rev. J. Seymour St. John exhibited a variety of the female of Hybernia progemmaria, taken at Clapton in March last, in which the partially developed wings were equally divided in point of colour, the base being extremely dark and the outer portion of the wing very pale.-—The Rev. Canon Fowler made some remarks on the subject of protective resem- blance. His attention had been recently called to the fact that certain species of Aal/ima apparently lose their protective habit in some localities, and sit with their wings open; and Dr. A. R. Wallace had informed him that he had heard of a species sitting upside down on stalks, and thus, in another way, abandoning its protective habits. Mr. W. L. Distant referred to certain species of South African butterflies, which, when at rest, were protected by their resemblance to the plants on which they reposed, or by their resemblance to the rocks on which they settled, but which frequently abandoned their protective habit and sat with open wings. Mr. Barrett Mr. McLaclan, Mr. Jacoby, Mr. Champion, Mr. H. Goss Canon Fowler, and Mr. Frohawk continued the discussion.— Mr. Goss informed the meeting that, in pursuance of a resolution of the Council passed in March last, he and Mr. Elwes had re- presented the Society at the recent Government inquiry as to the safety and suitability of the proposed rifle range in the New Forest, held at Lyndhurst by the Hon. T. W. H. Pelham, on the 2oth, 2Ist, 22nd, and 23rd inst., and that they had given evidence at such inquiry. PaRIS. Academy of Sciences, April 25.—M. d’Abbadie in the chair.—On the photography of colours (second note), by M. G. Lippmann. In his first communication on colour photography, M. Lippmann remarked that the results would have been much better if isochromatic films had been employed. He has now obtained some new pictures, and presented them to the Academy. Silver bromide films, stained with azalin and cyanin, were used in connection with the arrangement previously explained. The solar spectrum appears to have been photographed in all its beauty with an exposure of about thirty seconds. On two of the plates the colours viewed by transmitted light are seen to be complementary to those given by reflected light. A photograph of a window containing red, green, blue, and yellow glasses ap- pears to be very satisfactory. Others of a group of drapery and a parrot were obtained with an exposure of from five to ten NO. 1175, VOL. 46] minutes, Several hours’ exposure were given to a plate of oranges surmounted by a poppy, diffused light being employed. In all -cases the forms of the objects were reproduced as well as the colours.—On the means employed in producing rain artificially, by M. Faye. The author states Espy’s opinions on the formation of cyclones and other atmospheric dis- turbances, and quotes a letter on rain-making experiments carried out in Florida in 1857. He is of opinion that the theory which led to the experiments is wrong. For, according to M. Faye, (1) water-spouts, tornadoes, and cyclones move quickly during calm weather : ascending columns of heated air do not move. (2) Tornadoes and water-spouts whirl vigorously in a certain direction: ascending columns of air do not rotate, or only do so very faintly. (3) Tornadoes and water-spouts are cold in the centre: ascending columns of air are warm. (4) Tornadoes and water-spouts descend from clouds: ascending columns rise towards the clouds, &c.—On the division, according to terrestrial latitudes and longtitudes, of the geological groups on the earth, by M. Alexis de Tillo. The following are the sums of the distribution of groups of rocks, &c., given in the tables for every ten degrees of latitude ; the dimensions are expressed in millions of square kilometres :— ‘Pre-Cambrian 19°85 Glaciers in 04 Primary 17°18 Igneous rocks mae Mie 396 Secondary 19°85 Coral islands ix al Tertiary 8°71 ‘ Explored ‘03 Quaternary 19‘I7 Repion Unexplored 36°16 Gravels 7°35 Total sas sae 134°19 Tables are also given showing the proportion of the known surface of the globe occupied by each of the above groups, and also showing the distribution in longitude.—Observations of two new planets, discovered at Nice Observatory on March 22 and April 1, by M. Charlois. Observations for position are given.—Photography of the Ring Nebula in Lyra, by M. F. Denza.—Solar observations made during the first quarter of 1892, by M. Tacchini. (See Our Astronomical Column).—On a problem in mathematical analysis connected with equations in dynamics, by M. R. Liouville.—Direct and indirect measures of the angle which the surface of a liquid makes with glas; which it does not wet, by M. C. Maltézos.—On thermo-electric phenomena produced by the contact of two electrolytes, by M. Henri Bagard.—Addition to the law of the position of nervous centres, by M. Alexis Julien.—Analysis of a chromiferous clay from Brazil, by M. A. Terreil.—On the waters and muds of the lakes of Aiguebelette, Paladru, Nantua, and Sylans, by MM. L. Dupare and A. Delebecque. CONTENTS. Text-books of Psychology. By C. Ll. M. I Dynamics of Rotation. By J. L 4 The Mammalia of British India. 5 Our Book Shelf :— Hore: *‘ Tanganyika : ElevenYears in Central Africa” 6 ‘* Beginner’s Guide to Photography”. .....+ + 5 6 7 SE iw) Pe Oe. oe © je wl elves a Malice ele By WW, BicPendtutse Thane : ‘‘ Quain’s Elements of Anatomy ” a oe Letters to the Editor :— The Zebra’s Stripes.—Dr. S. Schénland yharhitos The Protective Device ofan Annelid.—A. T. Watson The General Circulation of the Atmosphere.—J. Carrick Moore, F.R.S. . =. 0 aie eee a 7 The Surface-Film of Water, and its Relation to the Life of Plants and Animals. (J//ustrated.) By Prof. L.C, Miall . .. t0)5 re we ie EO ey A The Discovery of Australian-like Mammals in South America. (J//ustrated.) By R. Lydekker ee State Photography in Colouts:.7) 570.3. .0 5 seuss ae § 12 NOtes wk ee ee ee ‘ 12 Our Astronomical Column :— Sun-spots i. ssi ycee ae poe ree en ‘ae 16 Eclipse of the Moon, May1r ......... . 17 Spectrum of Swift’s Comet (2 1892) ..... 3 17 Comet: Switt/Wso2n noe pee ihe aoe ae 17 Nova Aurige '. (6 ehete ce) ep Us le: een eS beg A New Variable). a <2 5. 8 4. ah oe 17 The Temperature of the Brain. (/i/ustrated.) By Prof. Angelo MOSEO 2) ss. 5. *\.0 eee PSD ty ASN The Magnetic Storm of February in Mauritius . 20 University and Educational Intelligence ..... estan : Societies and Academies... |...) ae ee 21 NATURE 2 THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1892. 'RACHIOPODS OF THE ALPINE TRIAS. opoa der Alpinen Trias. Von .A. Bittner. Abhanal. ad.k.k. geologischen Reichsanstalt, Bd. xiv. es 325 pages, 41 plates, and numerous zincotypes in @ text. (Vienna : A. Hdélder, 1890.) oO OKS on Triassic fossils, helping as they do to a bridge over the gap in our knowledge of those life- that led from the ancient times to the middle of earth-history, will always be welcomed by both gist and biologist, especially when, as in the fine before us, they show signs of wide learning and fe research, and are accompanied by such figures Piligrens as Blace their stores of information within y reach of all. Triassic rocks and Brachiopods best known to a collectors, and indeed to geologists in general, h the writings of Miinster, v. Klipstein, and Laube = one hand, and Suess and Zugmayer on the other, those of the St. Cassian argillaceous beds and of the limestone. Besides these, the Brachiopods of Alpine Muschelkalk have been largely worked out by aro th and Boeckh. In addition to those from these is from a large number of other beds, including the ic, few of which beds have been systematically i before, but all of which may be compared with ‘the above-mentioned better-known types. . Bittner has divided his work into two parts : the cies and the comparison of faunas ; the second deal- = the morphology and distribution of the several It will be convenient to follow a similar order Past I. ‘Glows primarily a stratigraphical, and second- ‘a topographical arrangement, so that the species are ; cribed under various faunas. In one place, however, the author stops to give us two interesting essays, one on his +genus Ha/orella, the other on the Triassic species Rihynchonella, both of which should by rights have 2e in the second part of his work. The descriptions are based chiefly on materials in the Museum of the Geologische Reichsanstalt and the Hof- _ museum in Vienna, although a very large number of _ other collections—private and public—have been con- sulted by the author. Among these, however, we fail to Otice the British Museum, which contains many of _ y. Klipstein’s types. Mr. Bittner, it should be men- toned, invites collectors and others to send him all their aterial, and promises to determine the species carefully and to describe any new ones. The present volume is sufficient guarantee that the work will be carefully done. It may well be imagined that the task set before our author was no light one. There appear to be 398 species «a of Brachiopods in the Trias of the Alps, and of these 216 _ are named for the first time in this work. But we wish that Mr. Bittner had made his book a little more of _ what one expects it to be from its size and scope—namely, _ a monograph of the Brachiopods of the Alpine Trias. NO. 1176, VOL. 46] Such a monograph would have included a diagnosis, if not a figure, of every species of Brachiopod known to occur in these beds ; it would have summarized the litera- ture of the subject, and it would have shown at a glance under each species in what beds and at what localities it occurred. Such a work, which need not have been a page longer than the present, would have been worth a library to students of these fossils. The author, however, has elected merely to crowd our shelves with one more book, and not even a book in the highest sense of the word. He has unfortunately not thought it necessary to give even descriptions of previously named species, unless he has something new to say about them, while his whole volume is innocent of any serious attempt at a diagnosis. Here is an example—no unfavourable one—of his method :— “ Rhynchonella Attilina, nov. sp.” “A small Rhynchonella occurring in numbers, which at first sight reminds one of the above-described 2h. trinodost m. The simplest examples are very near that species and easily confused with it.” He then goes on to contrast &. Azéilina with R. trino- dost, point by point, for twenty-seven lines, and so ends without any independent description of his new species, and with nothing to say how it differs from the ninety other Triassic species of the genus, not to mention the rest. And there are many worse instances than this. We are aware that Mr. Bittner is by no means the only offender in this respect ; were he so, our complaints would be unnecessary. He is merely an example of a body of writers, far too numerous in our own country, who seem to have the notion that this sort of thing is science. It is what science has to put up with, and if possible to make science out of; but there is generally about as much science in it as in an auctioneer’s catalogue, The writers in question seem never to have heard of Linnzus. Had they studied his writings, they would understand that, for systematic purposes, the diagnosis is everything, that every new species described often necessi- tates a re-diagnosing of all other species in the genus, and in many cases involves a fresh diagnosis of the genus itself. Were this appreciated, fewer synonyms would disgrace our lists. To return to Mr. Bittner, whose work is after all more scientific than that of most of these name-mongers. It is noticeable that he, as a rule, gives no measurements, leaving it to readers to gather these from the plates. The. task of calculating average measurements is of course irksome ; still it is often possible to compare species more accurately by their means than by any other. Neither does our author ever take the trouble to inform us of the meanings of his trivial, or even generic names. “Why 2. ¢rinodosi?” we ask, and infer—though from nothing under the head of the species itself—that it is due to the association of the species with Ceratites trino- dosus. But there are many names that still remain to the present writer unsolved enigmas: such are S. fia, S. avarica (unless this means avaricensis), and R. gene- rosa. Itis also rather difficult to understand why three species of Rhynchonella, all from the same district, should be called 2. cémbrica, R. teutonica, and R. venetiana. We venture to think, however, that the climax of nomen- clatural aberration is reached in such a name as “ Xo- Cc 26 NATURE [May 12, 1892 ninckina Leopoldi Austria nov. spec.’ Here the author is following the bad example of “ SAzriferina Maaimiliani Leuchtenbergensis Kiipstein sf.,” and similar preciosities of the older writer. If emperors and dukes need such distinctive appellations, what must be done for ordinary mortals? Some day we shall see ‘‘ Rodinsonia Gulielmi- Smithi-South-Kensingtonensis Jones sp.” Seriously, no amount of snobbishness can make these names binomial. Mr. Bittner will need no apology for these remarks, for he has written :— “Es wiire nur zu wiinschen, dass man sich auch gegen andere . . . Uebelstande und Missbrauche in der No- menclatur . . . in so eifriger Weise aussprechen.. . méchte.” In his investigations into the internal structure of some of these Brachiopods the author has received much help from the researches of Mr. H. Zugmayer, many of which are here published for the first time. Like the Rev. Norman Glass, Mr. Zugmayer has devoted much atten- tion to the shape of the lophophoral support. While Mr. Glass, however, works his specimens out by careful dis- section, Mr. Zugmayer adopts the fashionable method of cutting a series of sections. Morphologists, as we know, look down on palzontologists, and their real reason is that the latter cannot use the Caldwell microtome; but the figures here published will go far to remove that re- proach. One could wish, however, for more diagrams elucidating the results obtained by the sections. The author has made a large: number of new subgenera and a few new genera, the details of which are too tech- nical for reproduction here. The following forms may be noted as strictly characteristic of the Trias :—The Koninckinide, especially Koninckina and Amphiclina; the Thecospiride; certain Rhynchonellide, viz. - Halorella, Dimerelia, and the subgenera Austriella and _Norella; Camerothyris and Cruratula, which are two subgenera of Waldheimia; Nucleatula and Juvavella, two new genera of the Centronelline type of Terebratulide ; long-beaked forms of Re¢zéa ; most of the diplospire Sfz77- gere; the septate Spirigere (Amphitomella); Ment- selia, a subgenus of Spzriferina ; the doubtful Badiotella ; and some peculiar Cyrtine. Turning now to Part II. of the work, we may note the following details concerning some of the above forms. The numerous groups of Sfiriferina, though con- venient, are of uncertain value; for it is uncertain whether, in determining affinities, more weight should be attached to the structure of the beak or to the ribbing, Ribbing varies greatly in forms with the same beak-struc- ture, ¢.g. the A/rsuta group. This is an instructive in- stance of the difficulty of classifying on other grounds than those of phylogenesis. The Cyrtin@ are interesting. C. Fritschid is a new species in which the pseudo-deltidium, which in other Brachiopods is a single plate closing in the peduncular aperture, consists of two rows of separate scale-like plates alternating with one another. C. Buchitand C. Zittelii appear to have been attached, at least in youth, by the apex of the larger valve, which | is often curiously distorted. This fact may explain the pseudo-deltidium of C. Fritschit, - for it may have been flexible to allow of the passage of a short peduncle or byssus. These forms lead up to Cyrto- NO. 1176, VOL. 46] theca, which was attached by one of thebroad surfaces supporting the beak of the larger valve. The unique original of this genus has unfortunately been lost. i The genus Sfcvigera is divided into numerous groups, many of which have a secondary lamella running along- side of the main lamella that supports the spires of the lophophore ; they are therefore said to be “ diplospire.” — This structure is extremely rare in Palaeozoic species of the genus. The Koninckinidz form the most widely distributed family of the Upper Alpine Trias ; and of it, as well as of the four genera belonging to it, a complete description is given. In Mr. Bittner’s opinion this family has been shown by the researches of Mr. Zugmayer to be closely allied to the Spiriferide. The lophophore support is diplospire. Amphiclinodonta, anew genus of this family, has an extremely complicated hinge and teeth. Badiotella is a remarkable genus founded on a single unsymmetrical large valve. Its resemblance to Stvepéo- rhynchus suggests that it is probably a relic of the Strophomenide. Juvavella and Nucleatula are two new genera of the Centronellinz found in the Hallstatt limestone. This group has not hitherto been found in rocks of so late an age. The general relations of the Triassic Brachiopods of the Alps may be summarized as follows :— In the Lower Trias there are only two species, ly Lingula and a Discina. In the Muschelkalk there are forty-two species, refer- able to Lingula, Discina, Terebratula, Waldheimia, Rhynchonella, Spirigera, Retzia, Spiriferina, and Ment- selia, All these, in closely allied or even identical forms, appear again in the Upper Trias. The Upper Trias contains over 300 species, including all the types already mentioned. This, therefore, is a truer representation of the Brachiopod fauna of the Triassic period. ‘The faunas of the Lower and Middle Trias are less, merely because the conditions were no so favourable in the Alpine area. In the Triassic fauna hingeless genera are very rare. __ Among the hinged genera two families, each containing over 100 species, are noticeable: the Spiriferide for the large number of genera, subgenera, and minor groups, combined with a paucity of individuals; the Rhyn- chonellidz for the large number of individuals, with few well-marked genera or subgenera. The philosophic naturalist is tempted to suggest that the few divisions recognized in the latter family may be due to the very richness of the material. The spire-bearers almost exactly equal the non-spire- bearers in the number of species. The latter, however, exceed in individuals, and, from this period onwards, in- crease in importance, while the spire-bearers soon dis- appear from the rock record. It is, therefore, very noteworthy that, just before their extinction, the spire- bearers should not only develop new branches—the Koninckinide and (?) Thecospiride—but should also break up into so many genera, subgenera, and minor groups. A similar efflorescence, as Mr. Bittner observes, marked the later history of the Terebratulidz, a family now almost extinct. May 12, 1892] NATURE 27 . 7 _ These facts are certainly opposed to the statement of _ Hyatt that stems give off numerous forms in their early a 2a when the field is free, but not in old age, when hey begin to be crowded out by the struggle for existence. Possibly, however, the opposition is more apparent than real, and will disappear when the Brachiopoda shall have been studied under the guidance of modern principles of _ evolution. Such a study has begun in America, but we regret to see little sign of it inthe present work. No loubt Mr. Bittner is only waiting to complete his know- edge, before entering on a field where he will meet with worse obstacles than hard rocks and battered specimens— with illusion and ignorance, prejudice and envy, obstinacy and superstition. When he does start, we shall be the first to wish him good speed. F. A. BATHER. | A TEXT-BOOK OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. Elements of Economics of Industry. Being the first volume of ‘‘Elements of Economics.” By Prof. Alfred Marshall. (London : Macmillan and Co., 1892.) ) ‘THE nomenclature of this work reminds us of the Ss +. ancient custom according to which the alternate _ generations of a family were named alike. As the son of _ Hipponicus was called, not after Hipponicus, but after _ Hipponicus’ father, Callias ; so the “ Economics of In- dustry,” though sprung from the “ Principles of Econo- mics,” of which it is a miniature, yet does not derive its _ title from that work, but from the predecessor of that work, _ the well-known text-book which saw the light some thir- = teen years ago. The first and the second “ Economics of Industry ” are unlike in form ; but a general family resem- __ blance may be traced between the two generations. A sort 4 of reversion is presented by the circumstance that trades unions are discussed in the latest as in the earliest of our author’s books ; but not in the intermediate “Prin . of Economics.” The character of the _ Economics of Industry” the younger, and its position 4n the family group, may best be indicated if, comparing it with its immediate predecessor, the second edition of the “ Principles of Economics,” we notice what has been retained what has been omitted, and what has been added. +The fundamental principles of political economy as --enounced by Prof. Marshall in his magnum opus, have been transferred to the pages before us without altera- - tion. The conception of economics as_ he science of measurable—not necessarily selfish—motives is again the starting-point. Thence we are led to the con- . struction of demand-curves, and that construction by which the benefit which the consumer derives from fallin price is represented. Corresponding to demand- curves and “consumer’s rent” are, on the other side of _ the counter, so to speak, supply-curves and rent proper. But the correspondence is not close, and the diagrammatic representation of the conditions of supply presents pecu- liar difficulties. It is perplexed by the principles of “increasing” and “decreasing returns.” Difficulty is caused by the distinction—first clearly indicated by Prof. Marshall—between “long periods” and “short periods.” An effort is required to realize the idea NO. 1176, VOL. 46] of supply, as it were, projected through time—the vast conception of skilled work put upon a future labour-market by parental providence for vicarious remuneration. The forces of demand and supply deter- mine price, acting simultaneously, in the sense in which equations are called simultaneous. “Just in the same way, when several balls are lying in a bowl, they mutually determine one another’s position.” The law of demand and supply—the gravitation of the economic system— governs widely distant spheres; not only exchange in the proper narrow sense, but also distribution. Prof. Marshall was, we believe, the first clearly to discern this identity. But, while contemplating the unity of the genus, he has not lost sight of the diversity of the species. No one else has so fully enumerated and allowed for what may be called the Zropria of the different markets ; such as the circumstance that many of the disadvantages in bargaining to which the workman is subject are cumulative. \tis this union of wide general views with minute knowledge of concrete details which imparts © peculiar weight to Prof. Marshall’s recommendations respecting questions of practical moment, such as the limitation of the hours of labour. These lessons have now been made easier by the omission of much that is accessory and abstruse in the original volume ; in particular, the literary criticisms and the mathematicaldemonstrations. Among the latter class of omissions two seem conspicuous : the difficult formula for discounting future pleasure, and what may be called the higher theory of the supply-curve, including its possible plural intersection with the demand-curve. Difficult, the present writer may well call these theories, for he has to confess that he was mistaken in some strictures passed upon them in a.review of the first edition of the “Principles of Economics” (NATURE, August 14, 1890). The fuller statements about those subjects contained in the second edition made it evident that there had occurred what more frequently occurs than is acknowledged : the author was right, and the critic was wrong. The little incident may be referred to as justifying the plan of abridgment which has been adopted—by omission rather than compression of difficult demonstrations. “It seemed that the difficulty of an argument would be increased rather than diminished by curtailing it and leaving out some of its steps.” There results a text-book eminently fitted for the purpose of education, embodying the result of original reflectionsin a shape adapted to the needs of beginners; complete in itself, yet capable of being supplemented by the judicious teacher who, refer- ring to the “ Principles of Economics,” may point to that higher world of thought and lead the way. Practical exigencies have induced Prof. Marshall to forestall the discussion of trade unionism which may be expected in the second volume of the “Principles of Economics.” In the work before us he thus states the claim of unions to make economic friction act in favour of the workman :— “A viscous fluid in a vessel tends to form a level surface; but, if from time to time an artificial force pushes down the left side, which we may take to corre- spond to wages, it may reasonably be maintained that the average position of the left side is lower than it would have been without such interference, in spite of the in- 28 disputable fact that the force of gravitation is constantly tending to reinstate the position of equilibrium. What unions claim to be able to do corresponds to applying frequent and stronger pressure on the right-hand side, thus causing profits to yield the higher level to wages.” To this argument, there is opposed a preliminary objection, that friction is not strong in the labour-market, that competition is much more effective than unionists assume. There is wanting, indeed, an exact measure of this friction, as in the case of so many economic forces ; one must be content with a rough mean between the divergent statements of experienced persons. The claim on behalf of the unions may now be con- sidered under two heads—with reference to a single trade, and where the union is supposed to be ex- tended to all the trades of a country. But we cannot here follow the subtle argument into all the in- tricacies of the subject. We shall refer only, or chiefly, to the latter case—which, in view of the developments of the new unionism, cannot be regarded as imaginary—the case of asupposed universal union. The main argument ‘against this sort of unionism is that a rise of wages obtained at the expense of profits tends to cause a diminution, or at least a check to the growth, of those accumulations from which the remuneration of the labourer is derived. “This old argument has both gained and lost strength in recent times.” Upon a balance of considerations, it still appears weighty ; it is even cumulative, the diminution of the national dividend being progressive from year to year. Two counter-argu- ments are urged by unionists. First, they claim that through their policy the machinery of the labour-market works more smoothly ; thus it saves the employer trouble and anxiety to be able to buy his labour—just as it does to buy his raw material—at wholesale prices (a fixed minimum rate of wage). After a detailed consideration of the policy of trade unions, Prof. Marshall concludes that in some cases—especially where the invigorating effect of foreign competition is felt—“ trade unions, on the whole, facilitate business.” It is sometimes otherwise with trades which have a monopoly of some special skill. A second great argument in favour of trades unions is that they have increased the efficiency of workmen, thereby increasing the total produce. The beneficial effect on the standard of life is to be admitted in cases like that of the London Docks. “ But this answer is not open to those unions or branches of unions that in effect foster dull and unenergetic habits of work.” Where reasons are so conflicting, it were to be wished that direct observation were available. But here, as elsewhere in economics, history is difficult to interpret.. There is, indeed, the patent fact that- those occupations in which wages have risen most in England are those in which there are no unions—namely, the kinds. of domestic service and the employments of women for which there has been an increase of demand and a check of supply. On the other hand are urged cases in which higher wages have. attended stronger unions. But we cannot be quite certain that the gain of one trade is not ob- tained, at the expense of a greater loss to some other trade. Also prosperity may be rather a. cause than a consequence of the prevalence of trades unions. The general conclusion appears to be that NO. 1176, VOL. 46] NATURE | May 12, 1892 unions are not to’ be condemned or extolled in the abstract, but only after attending to the particular character of each, and considering whether its policy complies with the conditions of success. Where the consequences for good or evil are so widespread, and the issues are to a large extent moral—whether unionists are procuring a small good immediately and for themselves at the expense of a greater loss in the future or to other classes—it is natural to appeal to public sympathy and criticism. ‘ Public opinion, based on sound econo- mics and just morality, will, it may be hoped, become ever more and more the arbiter of the conditions of in- dustry.” Among the means of educating public opinion we should place high the study of the “ Economics of Industry.” ¥. 3 ae OUR BOOK SHELF. Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics ; including the whole of the Remedies of the British Pharmacopeia of 1885 and its Appendix of 1890. By C. E. Armand Semple, B.A., M.B. (Cantab.), M.R.C.P. Pp. 480. (London : Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892.) WHEN a knowledge of medical botany was absolutely necessary to the student of materia medica, such works as Pereira’s ‘‘ Elements” and Bentley’s “ Text-book of Organic Materia Medica” supplied a real wantin this direction. But with the altered ideas of modern teaching there is a growing tendency among examiners to demand rather a thorough knowledge of the chemistry and intimate action of the active principles of drugs than of their botanical ‘sources. This being the case, it is a little difficult to understand why the work at present under notice has been written. Mr. Semple thinks that by the aid of his book and of the illustrations contained therein, the student will be able to master the subject, and will have the facts impressed upon him more vividly by the pictures. We think, however, that most will agree with us that one of the already well-known text-books, such as the excellent one by Mitchell Bruce, or the larger and more comprehensive one by Brunton—used in connection with a materia medica museum—will make the subject at least equally interesting, and enable the worker to pass a far better examination. Since the 440 illustrations included in the text appear to be brought forward as the strong point of Mr. Semple’s cram-book, we must draw attention to a few of their peculiarities noticeable at a glance. In the first place, non-officinal parts of plants are sometimes illustrated, and not the officinal parts. Again, some of the plates, though good enough in themselves, such as those illustrating the extraction of tar and the collection of asafcetida, narrowly escape being ludicrous in a work on materia medica. Others, such as that showing a sulphuric acid factory, give the student no idea of the principles involved in the processes of preparation, and it is these alone which are of importance to him. Many sketches are evidently inserted simply because the blocks were at hand. Lastly, in the inorganic portion we regret to notice the complete absence of chemical equations and formule, without a knowledge of which the student’s knowledge is indeed rudimentary. Elementary Lessons in Heat. By S. E. Tillman, Professor of Chemistry, U.S. Military Academy. Second Edition. (New York : John Wiley and Sons. London : Gay and Bird. 1892.) THE “Lessons” presented in this volume were originally prepared for the use of students at the U.S. Military Academy. They are well fitted for students who can devote only a limited time to this branch of science, for ' . May 12, 1892] NATURE 29 _ the author not only knows his subject thoroughly, but understands how to deal with it in a way that shall be readily intelligible. His main object has been to direct attention only to important facts and principles, and to bring out the various links by which they are logically connected with one another. There are eleven chapters, in which he treats of thermometry, dilation of bodies, calorimetry, production and condensation of vapour, cha of state, hygrometry, conduction, radiation, thermo-dynamics, terrestrial temperatures, aérial meteors, and aqueous meteors. Few changes have been made in the present edition, but the author has introduced a col- lection of elementary problems, which, as he says, may be “ advantageously solved in connection with the subject- ‘matter to which they appertain.” ' LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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. ] Aurora. THERE was a fine aurora visible in this locality on Saturday night, April 23. It was seen at intervals, when- ever the clouds broke away, until after midnight. This display ‘specially interesting, because it forms the continuation of a fies of recurrences, at the precise interval of twenty-seven Gove: which began in December, the dates being as follows: ‘December 9, January 5, February 2, February 29, March 27, and April 23. Some of these displays have been brilliant, and of them have been well defined. In the table of auroras which I have constructed, based upon a periodicity correspond- ‘to the time of a synodic revolution of the sun—namely, y-seven days, six hours, and forty minutes—there was, for ‘al years preceding the sun spot minimum in 1889 and 1890, | return each spring of series of recurrences associated with the ‘same part of the sun as that above described. A corresponding systematic tabulation of the records of solar conditions shows this association bears a direct relation to reappearances at eastern limb of an area which has been much frequented b ts and faculze, and which has been located persistently sout of the sun’s tor. In like manner there are other areas located in the sun’s northern hemisphere which have been auch disturbed, and whose reappearances at the eastern limb ave been attended year after year by series of recurrences of _ the aurora, in the autumn months chiefly, if not exclusively. From this it would appear that, in order that a solar disturbance may have its full magnetic effect upon the earth, it is necessary hat it should be at the sun’s eastern limb, and as nearly as It appears, also, that ssible in the plane of the earth’s orbit. ‘the disturbances which recur upon certain parts of the sun so persistently year after year have greater magnetic effect than those of comparatively sporadic character located elsewhere. Lyons, N.Y., April 25. M. A. VEEDER. The White Rhinoceros. __ In my “ Naturalist in the Transvaal” (p. 5), I recently dep peea the supposed fact that a perfect skin or skeleton of _ Rhinoceros simus was unknown in any Museum ; and I relied for my information on the interesting communication in your ‘columns made by Dr. Sclater (vol. xlii. p. 520). T have just received a very welcome letter from Dr. Jentink, ‘the Director of the Leyden Museum, stating that there are two skins to be found in that collection, ‘‘ one in a rather bad state, ___ but the othera beautiful stuffed specimen, measuring more than 34 metres,” ‘Dr. Jentink had published this information in Notes from ‘the Leyden Museum (October 1890), a communication I had not seen when I returned from the Transvaal and wrote on the matter, This is a most gratifying fact for all zoologists,and the Leyden Museum appears to have a unique treasure, Purley, Surrey, May 3. NO. 1176, VOL. 46] W. L. DISTANT. The Line Spectra of the Elements. In Prof. Runge’s article on the spectra of the elements in last week’s issue of NATURE (p. 607) he refers to my explanation of double lines.in the spectra of gases (‘‘ Cause of Double Lines in Spectra,” Trans. of the Roy. Dublin Soc,, vol. iv. 1891, p.563); and says :—‘‘I do not understand the decomposition of the arbitrary curve” [rather, of the actual motion of the electric charge within the molecules of the gas] ‘‘in a series of superposed ellipses ” [rather, into a series of pendulous motions in ellipses]. ** For the movement is supposed not to be periodical” [rather, is not known to be periodical], ‘‘and Fourier’s theorem then would not apply, at least the periods of the superposed ellipses would not be definite, as long as there are no data except the arbitrary curve itself” [rather, no data except those furnished by the positions and intensities of the spectral lines]. Prof. Runge will pardon me if I say that this objection seems to me to be of the same kind as a doubt with respect to the value of tables of logarithms on the ground that many logarithms are incommensurable with integer numbers, and therefore cannot equal decimal fractions. Take, for example, a simple vibratory movement of an electron within the molecules, represented by =a sin( art) + dsin (20™ . (1) a J which would give rise to two lines in the spectrum with oscilla- tion-frequencies 7 and wm in each jot of time. This, Prof. Runge objects, cannot be analyzed by Fourier’s theorem, because it is not periodic. But x = asin (2=%**) + dsin (23889 mi emis, Ax€2) J J } x = asin (2""*) + dsin ( 2+3-742598 > + «{3) S. em 6 sid (2*%*) + dsin (2s mt, - (4) &e., &c., &e., being periodic, can be so analyzed. The motion represented by the first of these (Equation 2) approximates for a certain time to the actual motion which is, represented by Equation 1. The motion represented by the next (Equation 3) approximates more closely and for a longer time; and so on. So that Fourier’s theorem can be applied to motions which approximate to the non-periodic motion represented by Equation 1, in any assigned degree and for any assigned time ; just as a decimal can ap- proximate in any assigned degree to the value of log 8, although no decimal can equal that logarithm. G. JOHNSTONE STONEY. 9 Palmerston Park, Dublin, May 1. On a Proposition in the Kinetic Theory of Gases. In last month’s Phzlosophical Magazine there is a paper by Lord Rayleigh criticizing a demonstration by Maxwell of the equality of the products df, . . . dfn, 2. . dyn, and dPy...dPn, dQ, ..+dQn, where the 7’s and P’s are the momenta, and the q’s and Q’s the co-ordinates, of a system at the beginning and end of any interval of time. Lord Rayleigh correctly points out that the assumption of E, the total Energy, as an independent variable, vitiates the proof, and he suggests the substitution of Hamilton’s principal function S for the characteristic function A, with 4, the time, as an inde- pendent variable. ; Prof. Boltzmann took a similar objection to Maxwell’s de- monstration in a paper to the Philosophical Magazine in the year 1882, in the course of some comments on my use of the proof in a small treatise on the kinetic theory of gases, and I then privately suggested to him the substitution of S$ for A, with ¢ independent, as proposed by Lord Rayleigh. But unfortunately, as I now see, the rag dp,...dgn = dP,... dQn, with t independent, although doubtless true, has no application to the particular problem in the kinetic theory of gases to which I was applying it. My object was to abbreviate and simplify the proof of a funda- mental theorem in the subject originally given by Boltzmann, and which may be fairly well illustrated by the following simple case s— Suppose that in the plane of a projectile there are two infinite 30 NATURE [May 12, 1892 parallel straight lines, A and B, and we introduce such a relation between vo, Yo, x, and y as will express that when the former is a point on the line A the latter will be a point on B, each of the four quantities «, y, #, v may then be expressed as a function of Xo, Vo. %o, Vo, and it may be proved that ax dy du du= 0. diy dy) aun av ; where Vp and V are the resolved parts of the projectile’s velocity perpendicular to the two lines as it crosses A and B respectively. For instance, let the lines be vertical x = @ and x = 4, where 4—a=c. Our equations are— , X—Xy =e = Ut 2 ¥ — IJ = Vt —*— A 2 v= UW — gf 2 : ¢ ge Ue ge, ce 2S KH, VEH—2, 4£=&%, KSA toyv=H=yt+——--~ PETA uy’ 0 Uo. 0 0 ot % Uo 2)? and A=1="%, uy - Also here ot soe . ¢ = — is mot constant, as it depends upon zp. ut 0 . Next let the lines be horizontal, y = a, y = 3, -a=c. We then have 2 ()y- yen og ~& (2) 2 = 45 eee a ut = Uy 4 V= UV) — ot From (1) . Atty _ YU — Av)? — 2¢ u ere ta pageeiee wai x= Xt (20 - Jv - 26¢) ye =p Fc, u = Ub, v= n/vo" — 208; and our determinant A is | 1, 0, Uy — NU"? — 268 My { ¢ % } wc oS QT CE me Be eM wean S & Alu" — 2¢g- 0): 1; 0, fe) O07. Op! 2; fe) v 0, O, O, —— 9 Uy" — 2cg et @ : If our lines were y = mx andy = mx + ¢, our additional condition would be I-Iq = M(X- HK) +05 and the result mentioned could be arrived at, although with a little additional work. : The actual problem proposed by Boltzmann is the same as this in principle, although of much greater complexity, and it is treated by him with the utmost generality. The important thing here is to show that the S function with ¢ constant is of no application, inasmuch as in both of these very simple illustra- tions we have ¢ a dependent variable depending upon 2, or 7%. - I-am only pointing out that the S method, with ¢ inde- pendent, would not help to establish the particular proposition to which I am referring. It. may lead. to the determination of a law of permanence of distribution independently of this proposition and by a simpler treatment. The Boltzmann treat- ment, however, avoids the difficulty which may arise from the fact that excounters, whether of finite or infinitely short dura- tion, involve the assumption of discontinuous forces, and, therefore, of. a corresponding discontinuity in the form of the S function. , A. little consideration shows that the condition E constant cannot lead to any determinate relation between the differential products dp, ... .dgn and dP,...dQnu For to take again the simple case of the projectile. Here we get four equations between the nine quantities, x9 yw Wp, x y uv and ¢, whence it is clear that the elimination of ¢ NO. 1176, VOL. 46] between the remaining eight quantities, and therefore that we cannot express x, y, “, v separately as determinate functions of Xo Vo Uo Y- ways. It may be one of the conditions above considered lead- ing to the equation dx dy du dv = ie dxy dyy duo dvy, or it may be the condition ¢ constant leading to the equality of these differential products, and so forth ; but the condition E constant supplies no additional relation between the eight variables. This conclusion holds equally for # degrees of freedom, follow- ing from the two partial differential equations in 9g,... gn, Q,- +. Qx, to which the characteristic function A is subject, so that the condition E constant leads to no determinate relation between the differential products. This conclusion is not inconsistent with Maxwell’s proof. That proof takes the form— dp,...dgn = *dP,... dQn, or where A is equal to A’, but it may be proved that in this case A and A’ are separately zero, and therefore that, as stated above, no relation can be established between the two differential products. H. W. WATson. Berkeswell Rectory, Coventry. Palzonictis in the American Lower Eocene. PALAONTOLOGISTS will welcome Dr. T. L. Wortman’s discovery of a nearly complete skull of Palgonictis in the Wahsatch Lower Eocene of Wyoming. ‘The only specimens of this form known hitherto are the two fragmentary lower jaws from the Suessonian lignites of France upon which De Blain- ville founded the genus in 1841. This specimen includes the facial region of the skull and the complete lower jaws in fine preservation. We owe it to the expert skill of Dr. Wortman, for the fossil was found completely dissociated ; he carried several sacks of the débrts surrounding the fragments fifteen miles to the nearest river, and by careful washing recovered all the teeth. : The skull is about the size and form of that of the Puma (Felis concolor), without the long muzzle so characteristic of all the early Carnivores or Creodonts. The dental series is remark- ably compressed and reduced, especially in the upper jaw, the formula being: I 3, C +, P ¢, M3. The third upper molar has entirely disappeared, the second is as small as the little tuber- cular in the modern cats, the first is smaller than the fourth premolar. The latter tooth, in conjunction with the first true lower molar, is in course of transformation into a sectorial, This and many other features point to the conclusion that Palaonictis is closely related to the Eocene ancestors of the Felide—which have hitherto been considered a gap in the fossil series. The type, which we may call P. occidentalis, will soon be fully figured and described. HENRY F. OSBORN. American Museum of Natural History, April 19. WATERSTON S THEORY OF GASES. ( N the 11th of December, 1845, a paper by Mr. J. J. Waterston, entitled “On the Physics of Media that are composed of Free and Perfectly Elastic Molecules in a State of Motion,” was communicated by Captain Beaufort, R.N., to the Royal Society. This paper was not published at the time, but was relegated to the Archives. It now, however, has just been issued as a part of the current volume of Philosophical Transactions. It is preceded by an introduction by Lord Rayleigh, one of the Secretaries of the Royal Society, and we can- not do better—in order to call attention to this remarkable paper, which anticipates the present theories in many respects, and to explain how it is that it now appears— than print Lord Rayleigh’s introduction as it stands, and also the introduction to the memoir itself. To enable us to do this we need one additional — condition, and this may be supplied in an infinite number of 1 q * 4 does not enable us to arrive at more than three equations «— May 12, 1892] NATURE 3I oe “Introduction by Lord Rayleigh, Sec.R.S. _ The publication of this paper after nearly half a _ century demands a word of explanation ; and the oppor- tunity may be taken to point out in what respects the received theory of gases had been anticipated by Water- ston, and to offer some suggestions as to the origin of certain errors and deficiencies in his views. _ So far as I am aware, the paper, though always acces- sible in the Archives of the Royal Society, has remained absolutely unnoticed. Most unfortunately the abstract printed at the time (Roy. Soc. Proc., 1846, vol. v. p. 604 ; . . ) gave no adequate idea of the scope of the memoir, and still less ef the nature of the results arrived at. The deficiency was in some degree supplied by a short account in the Report of the British Association for 1851 (. ..), where is distinctly stated the law, which was afterwards to become so famous, of the equality of the kinetic energies of different molecules at the same temperature. « My own attention was attracted in the first instance to aterston’s work upon the connection between molecular _ forces and the latent heat of evaporation, and thence to a per in the Pzlosophical Magazine for 1858, ‘On the Theory of Sound.’ He there alludes to the theory of _ gases under consideration as having been started by : i i igs in 1821, and he proceeds :— __ *Mr, Herapath unfortunately assumed heat or tempera- _ ture to be represented by the simple ratio of the velocity _ instead of the square of the velocity—being in this _ apparently led astray by the definition of motion generally _ received-——and thus was baffled in his attempts to recon- cile his theory with observation. If we make this change ‘in Mr. Herapath’s definition of heat or temperature, viz. that it is proportional to the v7s viva, or square velocity of the moving particle, not to the momentum, or simple ratio of the velocity, we can without much difficulty deduce, not only the primary laws of elastic fluids, but Iso the other physical properties of gases enumerated above in the third objection to Newton’s hypothesis. In the Archives of the Royal Society for 1845-46, there is a aper “ On the Physics of Media that consist of Perfectly stic Molecules in a State of Motion,” which contains ‘synthetical reasoning upon which the demonstration hese matters rests. The velocity of sound is therein iced to be equal to the velocity acquired in falling 1 three-fourths of a uniform atmosphere. This does not take account of the size of the molecules. It assumes that no time is lost at the impact, and that if pact produce rotatory motion, the vs v7va thus bears a constant ratio to the rectilineal vzs sO as not to require separate consideration. It ‘also does not take account of the probable internal motion of composite molecules; yet the results so ‘closely accord with observation in every part of the subject as to leave no doubt that Mr. Herapath’s idea of the physical constitution of gases appproxi- ‘mates closely to the truth. M. Krénig appears to have _ entered upon the subject in an independent manner, and arrives at the same result ; M. Clausius, too, as we learn from his paper “On the Nature of the Motion we call Heat” (Phil. Mag., vol. xiv., 1857, p. 108).’ __ “Impressed with the above passage and with the general ingenuity and soundness of Waterston’s views, I took the first opportunity of consulting the Archives, and saw at once that the memoir justified the large claims _ made for it, and that it marks an immense advance in the direction of the now generally received theory. The omission to publish it at the time was a misfortune, which probably retarded the development of the subject by ten or fifteen years. It is singular that Waterston appears to have advanced no claim for subsequent publication, whether in the Transactions of the Society, or through some other channel. At any time since 1860 reference would naturally have been made to Maxwell, and it cannot be doubted that he would have at once recommended NO. 1176, VOL. 46] that everything possible should be done to atone for the original failure of appreciation. “Itis difficult to put oneself in imagination into the position of the reader of 1845, and one can understand that the substance of the memoir should have appeared speculative, and that its mathematical style should have failed to attract. Butit is startling to find a referee expressing the opinion that ‘the paper is nothing but nonsense, unfit even for reading before the Society.’ Another remarks ‘that the whole investigation is con- fessedly founded on a principle entirely hypothetical, from which it is the object to deduce a mathematical representa- tion of the phenomena of elastic media. It exhibits much skill and many remarkable accordances with the general facts, as well as numerical values furnished by observation. . . . The original principle itself involves an assumption which seems to me very difficult to admit, and by no means a satisfactory basis for a mathematical theory, viz. that the elasticity of a medium is to be measured by supposing its molecules in vertical motion, and making a succession of impacts against an elastic gravitating plane.’ These remarks are not here quoted with the idea of reflecting upon the judgment of the referee, who was one of the best qualified authorities of the day, and evidently devoted to a most difficult task his careful attention ; but rather with the view of throwing light upon the attitude then assumed by men of science in regard to this question, and in order to point a moral, The history of this paper suggests that highly speculative investigations, especially by an unknown author, are best brought before the world through some other channel than a scientific Society,which naturally hesitates to admit into its printed records matter of uncertain value. Per- haps one may go further, and say that a young author who believes himself capable of great things would usually do well to secure the favourable recognition of the scientific world by work whose scope is limited, and whose value is easily judged, before embarking upon higher flights. * One circumstance which may have told unfavourably upon the reception of Waterston’s} paper is that he men- tions no predecessors. Had he put forward his investi- gation as a development of the theory of D. Bernoulli, a referee might have hesitated to call it nonsense. It is probable, however, that Waterston was unacquainted with Bernoulli’s work, and doubtful whether at that time he knew that Herapath had to some extent foreshadowed similar views. ; “ At the present time the interest of Waterston’s paper can, of course, be little more than historical. What strikes one most is the marvellous courage with which he attacked questions, some of which even now present serious difficulties. To say that he was not always successful is only to deny his claim to rank among the very foremost theorists of all ages. The character of the advance to be dated from this paper will be at once understood when it is realized that Waterston was the first to introduce into the theory the conception that heat and temperature are to be measured by vis viva. This enabled him at a stroke to complete Bernoulli’s explana- tion of pressure by showing the accordance of the hypo- thetical medium with the law of Dalton and Gay-Lussac. In the second section the great feature is the statement (VII.), that ‘in mixed media the mean square molecular velocity is inversely proportional to the specific weight of the molecules.’ The proof which Waterston gave is doubtless not satisfactory ; but the same may be said of that advanced by. Maxwell fifteen years later. The law of Avogadro follows at once, as well as that of Graham relative to diffusion. Since the law of equal energies was actually published in 1851, there ‘can be no hesita- tion, I think, in attaching Waterston’s name to it. The attainment of correct results in the third section, dealing with adiabatic expansion, was only prevented by a slip of calculation. 32 NATURE [May 12, 1892 ‘In a few important respects Waterston stopped short. There is no indication, so far as I can see, that he recog- nized any other form of motion, or energy, than the translatory motion, though this is sometimes spoken of as vibratory. In this matter the priority in a wider view rests with Clausius. According to Waterston the ratio of specific heats should be (as for mercury vapour) 1°67 in all cases. Again, although he was well aware that the molecular velocity cannot be constant, there is no antici- pation of the law of distribution of velocities established by Maxwell. “A large part of the paper deals with chemistry, and shows that his views upon that subject also were much in advance of those generally held at the time. “The following extract from a letter by Prof. McLeod will put the reader into possession of the main facts of the case :— “Tt seems a misfortune that the paper was not printed when it was written, for it shadows forth many of the ideas of modern chemistry which have been adopted since 1845, and it might have been the means of hastening their reception by chemists. “¢ The author compares the masses of equal volumes of gaseous and volatile elements and compounds, and taking the mass of a unit volume of hydrogen as unity, he regards the masses of the same volume of other volatile bodies as representing their..molecular weight, and in.the case of the elements he employs their symbols to indicate the molecules. “* In water he considers that the molecule of hydrogen is combined with half a molecule of oxygen, forming one of steam, and he therefore represents the compound as HO}. He does not make use of the term “ atom” (although he | speaks of atomic weight on p. 18, but thinks it divisible), and if he had called the smallest proportion of an element which enters into combination an atom, he would prob- ably have been led to believe that the molecules of some | of the simple bodies contain two atoms, and he might have adopted two volumes to represent the molecule, as is done at the present time. The author calls one volume or molecule of chlorine Cl, one volume or molecule of hydrogen H, and one volume or molecule of hydrochloric acid H;Cl}. If he had regarded the molecules as con- taining two indivisible atoms, these bodies would have been represented, as now, by the formule Cl,, H,, and HCI respectively, all occupying two volumes. § 15 shows how near he was to this conception. fourth part of his “Traité de Chimie Organique,” pub- lished in 1856, points out the uniformity introduced into chemical theory by the adoption of this system. ***For carbon he makes C = 12, as now accepted, although I do not find how he arrives at this number. He seems to have anticipated one of Ramsay’s recent dis- coveries, that nitrous anhydride (hyponitrous acid, ONg, No. 26 in the table) dissociates on evaporation into nitric oxide (binoxide of nitrogen, No. 23) and nitric peroxide (nitrous acid, No. 25). “¢ The values for the symbols for sulphur, phosphorus, and arsenic, taken from the vapour densities (and which | are multiples of what are believed to be the true atomic weights), cause some complexity in the formule of their compounds. “* There seem to be errors in the formule of alcohol and ether on p. 49, for they do not agree with those in the table. They ought probably to be written . 2(HC,) + 0,2H, and 4(HC;) + 042H,. “* Considering how nearly Waterston approached what is now believed to be the true theory, it is disappointing to read his controversy with Odling in 1863 and 1864 (PAil.. Mag., vols. xxvi. and xxvii.), where he seems to oppose the new formule then being introduced. He is very dogmatic about the constitution of hydrate of potash : NO. 1176, VOL. 46] Gerhardt, in the | he very properly insists that we can only obtain a know- ledge of the molecular weight of bodies that can be volatilized, and of which the vapour densities can be de- termined, but he does not see the analogy between the — hydrate and oxide of potassium with alcohol and ether, probably because he regards these latter bodies as com- binations of water with different quantities of olefiant gas. He writes water HO; =9, alcohol CH,HO; = 23, and ether C,H4. HO; = 37, whilst he considers potassic hydrate KO;.HO,= 56, and oxide of potassium KO; = 47, the hydrate having a higher molecular weight than the oxide. If we regard these compounds as derived from water by the replacement of hydrogen by ethyl and potassium respectively, the analogy between the two series is complete (ethyl was discovered in 1849, and is mentioned by Waterston). H,O. = 18 H.O., ia (C,H;)HO = 46 KHO = 56. (CsH5)20 = 74 K,O = 94. “¢From a remark in the Phz/, Mag. (vol. xxvi. p. 520), I imagined that Waterston had arrived at the double atomic weights of many of the metals now adopted, for he gives that of iron as 56 and that of aluminium as 27, calculated from their specific heats, but there is an error in his arithmetic, for 3°3 divided by the specific heat of iron ‘1138 gives 28°998, and 3°3 divided by the specific heat of aluminium ‘2143 gives 15°399. ; “ With the exception of some corrections relating merely to stops and spelling, the paper is here reproduced exactly as it stands in the author’s manuscript.— December 1891.” The author’s own introduction to his memoir, which occupies eighty pages of the Philosophical Transactions as now printed, runs as follows :— “Of the physical theories of heat that have claimed attention since the time of Bacon, that which ascribes. its cause to the intense vibrations of the elementary parts of bodies has received a considerable accession of probability from the recent experiments of Forbes and Melloni. It is admitted that these have been the means of demonstrating that the mode of its radiation is identical with that of light in the quantities of re- fraction and polarization. The evidence that has been accumulated in favour of the undulatory theory of light has thus been made to support with a great portion of its weight a like theory of the phenomena of. heat ; and we are, perhaps, justified in expecting that the complete development of this theory will have a much more important influence on the progress of science, because of its more obvious connection and wis 4 eat blending with almost every appearance of Nature. H is not only the subject of direct sensation and the vivifier of organic life, but it is manifested as the accompaniment of mechanical force. It is related to it both as cause and effect, and submits itself readily to measurement by means of the mechanical changes that are among the most pro- minent indications of its change of intensity. The un- dulatory theory at once leads us to the conclusion that, inasmuch as the temperature of a body is a persistent quality due to the motion of its molecules, its internal constitution must admit of it retaining a vast amount of living force. Indeed, it seems to be almost impossible now to escape from the inference that heat is essentially molecular vzs v7va2. In solids, the molecular oscillations may be viewed as being restrained by the intense forces of aggregation. In vapours and gases these seem to be overcome ; vibrations can no longer be produced by the inherent vzs zusita of the molecules struggling with attrac- tive and repellent forcés ; the struggle is over and the molecules are free; but they, nevertheless, continue to maintain a certain temperature; they are capable of heating and being heated; they are endowed with the < ASSN aE OA May 12, 1892] NATURE 9? 99 ape a ' quality heat, which, being of itself motion, compels » us to infer that a molecule in motion without any ' force to restrain or qualify it, is in every respect to be _ considered as a free projectile. Allow such free pro- _ jectiles to be endowed with perfect elasticity, and likewise extend the same property to the elementary parts of all ies that they strike against, and we immediately troduce the principle of the conservation of vzs viva to c te the general effects of their fortuitous encounters. er gases do consist of such minute elastic pro- iles or not, it seems worth while to inquire into the _ physical atttibutes of media so constituted, and to see _ what analogy they bear to the elegant and symmetrical _ laws of aériform bodies. _ “Some years ago I made an attempt to do so, pro- _ ceeding synthetically from this fundamental hypothesis, _ and have lately obtained demonstration of one or two ppoits where the proof was then deficient. The results _ have appeared so encouraging, although derived from _ very humble applications of mathematics, that I have _ been led to hope a popular account of the train of reason- _ ing may not prove unacceptable to the Royal Society.— 4 September 1, 1845.” REPORT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY'S COM- MITTEE ON COLOUR VISION. | A COMMITTEE, consisting of Lord Rayleigh as a _Chairman, Lord Kelvin, Mr. Brudenell Carter, Prof. _ Church, Mr. J. Evans, Dr. Farquharson, M.P., Prof. q Michael Foster, Mr. Galton, Dr. Pole, Sir G. Stokes, and Captain. Abney, as Secretary, was appointed by the -- Council of the Royal Society in March 1890, to consider the question of testing for defective colour vision. Their report has just been presented to the Royal Society, and ‘possesses great practical interest for all classes, con- sidering that on the average one male out of every - ia ee suffers more or less from this form of blindness. _ The Committee have taken evidence as to the tests in % Lserped use on the railw ays, and also as to those which have _ been for some time adopted by the Board of Trade for _ the mercantile marine service, and have supplemented it __ by carrying on practical examinations on their own _ account. Experts have also given evidence as to the different forms of colour-blindness to be found, and the _ fact that it may be induced by disease as well as be _ congenital has been brought prominently forward by Dr. _ Priestley Smith, of Birmingham, and Mr. Nettleship, of _ St. Thomas’s Hospital], and we have it on their authority _ that this type is not a negligible one. As an outcome of _ their investigations, the Committee have unanimously _ agreed to the following recommendations :— B (1) That the Board of Trade, or some other central _ authority, should schedule certain employments in the >. me € marine and on railways, the filling of which by _ persons whose vision is defective either for colour or form, _ or who are opleye of the names of colours, would involve to life and property. __ (2) That the proper testing, both for colour and form, _ of all candidates for such employments should be com- i _ (3) That the testing should be intrusted to examiners _ certificated by the central authority. s (4) That the test for colour vision should be that of Holmgren, the sets of wools being approved by the central authority before use, especially as to the correct- ness of the three test colours, and also of the confusion colours. If the test be satisfactorily passed, it should be followed by the candidate being required to name _ without hesitation the colours which are employed as signals or lights, and also white light. NO. 1176, VOL. 46] (5) That the tests for form should be those of Snellen, and that they should be carried out as laid down in Appendix VI. It would probably, in most cases, suffice if half normal vision in each eye were required. (6) That a candidate rejected for any of the specified employments should have a right of appeal to an expert approved by the central authority, whose decision should be final. 58 (7) That a candidate who is rejected for naming colours wrongly, but who has been proved to possess normal colour vision, should be allowed to be re-examined after a proper interval of time. (8) That a certificate of the candidate’s colour vision and form vision according to the appointed tests, and his capacity for naming the signal colours, should be given by the examiner; and that a schedule of persons examined, showing the results, together with the nature of the employments for which examinations were held, should be sent annually to the central authority. (9) That every third year, or oftener, persons filling the scheduled employments should be examined for form vision. (10) That the tests in use, and the mode of conducting examinations at the different testing stations, should be inspected periodically by a scientific expert, appointed for that purpose by the central authority. (11) That the colours used for lights on board ship, and for lamp signals on railways, should, so far as possible, be uniform, and that glasses of the same colour as the green and red sealed pattern glasses of the Royal Navy, should be generally adopted. (12) That in case of judicial inquiries as to collisions or accidents, witnesses giving evidence as to the nature or position of coloured signals or lights should be them- selvestested for colour and form vision. These recommendations have been framed after duly’ weighing all the evidence they have collected, and from the results of the experiments they have carried out during the last two years ; and the reasons for adopting them are set forth at some length in the report. The Committee have, perhaps wisely, refused to endorse any particular hypothesis of colour vision, though they have described two, those of Young and Hering, in some detail, no doubt con- sidering that everything which might be debatable had better be avoided when practical recommendations alone were inquestion. It is, however, a matter of some regret that this should be the case, as a Committee so strongly constituted should have been able, if not to convince every one, at least to lead opinion into proper channels. What little they have said in the notes to the report leads one to suspect that they are not satisfied that either Young or Hering has given a theory which will satisfy all requirements. Leaving, however, the question of theory, we may point out that the practical necessity of insisting, on the grounds of public safety, that certain posts on railways and on _ board ship should only be filled by persons possessing normal colour vision, no sane man_ would call in question. The peril that must arise, for instance, if an engine-driver could by any possibility mistake a red signal of danger for a green signal of safety, or if a look- out man on board ship should be liable to make a similar error, is self-evident ; and it is to prevent any such risks being run that the Committee buckled to the task of recommending tests which should be efficient and per- fectly trustworthy. There has been for a long time a suspicion, if not more than a suspicion, that the examina- tions carried on for colour vision by the Board of Trade in the mercantile marine were inadequate in both re- spects ; and what little was known regarding the tests em- ployed by the various railway companies engendered the: same feeling of distrust, in those who had considered the subject in a scientific spirit. The evidence shows that the Board of Trade examiners have passed on a second 34 NATURE [May 12, 1892 or third examination candidates who have been rejected on their first trial. This is a proof of one of two things : (1) either that the tests employed were bad, or else that colour-blindness had been cured or mitigated. There is no evidence to show that congenital colour-blindness is curable; infact, what thereis is in exactly the contrary direc- tion. For although it is true that reds and greens may be correctly named by a colour-blind person, by making him notice certain slight difference in the intensity or purity of the one colour which represents both of these to him, yet no amount of education or coaching would enable him to distinguish between them under the varying atmo- spheric conditions under which the signals are seen. The Committee had practical trials of various tests made before them at Swindon and elsewhere, with the result that the Board of Trade tests for the mercantile marine allowed several individuals to be passed as possessing normal colour vision whom other tests distinctly proved to be markedly and probably dangerously colour-blind. Under these circumstances it is not: surprising that they have condemned such a system of testing, more especially as it is one which necessitates the naming of colours, and recommend those of Holmgren, which have long given practical proof of their ability to discriminate between normal and even slightly defective colour-perception. The Holmgren test consists in requiring a candidate to select from a large assortment of wools those colours which appear to him to match a skeiti of pale yellowish green, a pale pink, and a bright crimson. These pale colours are sure to be matched ‘by the colour-blind with colours which are totally different in hue, and the nature of the’ mistakes made infallibly indicate the character and danger of the blindness. ait 9 ’ The evidence shows that some railways have been under the impression that they were using the Holmgren test, but when the colours were examined critically it was found that the hues of the test-skeins of wool were per- fectly different from those determined by the distinguished Swedish investigator.. If the two trial test-colours of Holmgren were more brilliant and of rather different hues, it is quite possible that persons, with defective colour sense might make correct matches, and pass an examina- tion which they really never should do. It is for this reason that the Committee recommend that the standard test-colours should be officially passed by an expert attached to the. Board of Trade, as also those colours with which the colour-blind would most probably match them. . There are several of the recommendations which are especially valuable ; for instance, that one by which the test should only be intrusted to examiners certified as com- petent to conduct the examinations. It is obvious that to have an efficient examination, not only should the test be efficient, but also the examiner. We have heard of a rail- way foreman being armed with a variegated bunch of wools, and insisting on candidates for employment naming them, and rejecting those who failed to give the name which he considered should be given. Such a test by such an examiner is evidently useless and cruel. The right of appeal by the rejected candidates is also whole- some, though it will probably be very rarely exercised ; and as the tribunal to whom such an appeal can be carried is an expert, we may be certain that substantial justice will be meted out. _ The whole report is valuable, but the labour will be thrown away unless legislative measures are taken to render it effective. It is no use telling railways what they ought to do, but only what they #zwzs¢ do, in such examina- tions as are in question. The subject of colour vision is one which is so open to fads that the public require to be safeguarded from faddists who might happen to have ear of Boards of Directors or general managers ; for this reason we hope that reasonable legislative action may be taken within a reasonable time. NO. 1176. VOL. 461 THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE IN JAPAN, 18911 WHILE the occurrence of a great earthquake ina _ district intersected by railways, and traversed by telegraph wires, brings forcibly before the mind—even of the most casual reader of newspaper reports—the awful » and destructive results of such a catastrophe, the scientific man cannot fail to note that it is under such conditions © as these the best opportunities will be found for obtaining the necessary data upon which to reason concerning these terrible and still little understood movements of theearth’s crust. In connection with the Seismological Society of Japan, a system of reporting the times and chief features of earthquake-shocks has been for some years in successful operation, and all station-masters and Post Office agents are required to transmit their records to a central office ; the electrical control of the clocks of course giving these reports a value which they would not otherwise possess. ai Two considerable earthquakes in recent years have occurred in areas where it was possible to obtain a great mass of accurate time and other observations, and these can scarcely fail to be of great value to the seismo- logist. The terrible earthquake of Charleston, oh August 31, 1886, was felt over a great part of the United States ; and at the railway stations, post offices, and other places where the accurate time was kept, many valuable obser- vations were made. The vast mass of material collected has been dealt with by Prof. Simon Newcomb and Captain C. E. Dutton; and from the Report published by the United States Geological Survey, some remarkable and striking conclusions regarding therate of movement of earthquake waves would appear to have beenestablished. The Gifu or Ai-Gi earthquake of October 1891 has yielded data which the able seismologists of Japan may | be trusted to make the fullest use of, when sufficient time - has elapsed for the comparison and discussion of the reports. 3 As a preliminary notice and striking memorial of the catastrophe, the beautiful volume now before us will be gladly welcomed. The book consists of twenty-nine permanent photographic plates, printed on excellent paper, and forty-six pages of letterpress. The energetic authors of the book were on the scene of the earthquake immediately after its occurrence, and all ‘the plates, except three, are reproductions of photographs taken by Prof. Burton for the Imperial University. It is difficult to realize that the collection of the materials for this handsome book, with the execution of its luxurious typography, illustrations, and binding have been all com- pleted within the short space of two months, and it says much for the enterprise and activity of the Japanese publishers, as well as of the authors, that such a result should have been possible. One of the most striking effects of the Charleston earthquake, as described in Captain Dutton’s report, was the twisting laterally of the permanent way on railway lines. On Plate x. of the work before us a similar serpentine twisting of the railway, suggesting a perma- nent compression in the line of the rails, is shown: to have been effected, and the photograph constitutes a beautiful permanent record of the result. Still more striking are the phenomena displayed at some of the, railway bridges, especially that of Nagara Gawa, which; is very fully illustrated in Plates xxil., xxill., XXIV., xxv., and xxvi. Our illustration is a reproduction of one of these plates. Not only have the lattice-work sec- tions of the bridge been snapped asunder, but the great tubular piers have been thrust through the floor on which the railway lines are laid, these latter being forced up in i «© The Great Earthquake in Japan.” By John Milne, F.R.S., Professor of Mining and Geology, and W. K. Burton, C.E., Professor of Sanitary En- gineering, Imperial SG ntveraicy of Japan. With Plates by K. Ogawa, (Yokohama, Japan : Crawford and Co. London: E, Stanford, 1892.) i lea Stee eae es Poe bi i | pale?’ ee Se ae May 12, 1892] great curves. Many of these photographs tell, inci- dentally, a very sad story of the loss and suffering endured by the people of the district. In the short descriptive remarks which accompany the plates, Prof. Milne has succeeded in giving us much valuable information concerning the earthquake. The Gifu plain is situated about the centre of the Japanese Empire, and consists of a thick alluvial deposit resting on metamorphic rocks, the district being highly cultivated and thickly populated. The severely shaken district, in NATURE which complete destruction of buildings and engineering | works occurred, measured 4200 square miles, but the effects were felt over an area of 92,000 square miles ; and with the name of each candidate the statement of his qualifications. ROBERT YOUNG ARMSTRONG, Lieut.-Colonel R.E., From 1870 to 1875 was Assistant Instructor in Submarine Mining and Electricity; and from 1875 to 1882 was Instructor. From 1884 to the present date, Inspector of Submarine De- fences of the United Kingdom, Military Ports, and Coaling Stations. From June 1883 to December 1888, adviser to the 3oard of Trade in electrical matters connected with the Electric Lighting Acts. Was connected with the development of the present apparatus and electrical and mechanical processes em- ployed in submarine mining, and with the compilation of the ee ; | army instructional books and methods on electricity and sub- ten thousand people lost their lives, while fifteen thousand | marine mining since 1870. Distinguished as an electrical were wounded. The earthquake is believed to have originated in the Mino Mountains ; but it was in the soft engineer. ; defensive torpedo warfare in this country-is very largely due to his ability and energy. alluvial plain adjoining that the earth-movements were | most severely felt. supported a population of about 800 to the square mile. The district thus violently affected | Earthquakes have been recorded as occurring in this | area, which lies quite away from any volcanic centres, j j j 5 in 1880; and during the | : Dei : in 1826, in 1827, in 1859, and in 188 ee ee | (Parts xxxiii., xlviii.) ; ‘‘ Nephridia of Acanthodrilus and of last ten centuries there have been many terrible cata- strophes affecting this area which are noticed in the Japanese records. We look forward with much interest to the publication of the full account of this destructive, and in many respects remarkable, display of seismic energy, which is promised to us by the Professors of the Imperial Uni- versity of Japan. J. W. J. THE ROVAL SOCIETY SELECTED CANDIDATES. HE following fifteen candidates were selected on Thursday last (May 5) by the Council of the Royal Society to be recommended for election into the Society. | to the Zoological Society. It may be said that the present satisfactory state of FRANK EVERS BEDDARD, M.A, (Oxon.), Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy, Guy’s Hospital. Prosector Author of the following papers :— ** Report on the Isopoda, collected by H.M.S. Challenger Pericheta ” (Proc. Roy. Soc., 1886-87); ‘‘ Structure of Mega- | scolea” (Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., 1883) ; ‘‘ Minute Anatomy of | the Ovary of Echidna” ; ‘ Subdivision of the Ccelom in Birds | and Reptiles” (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1886-88); ‘‘ Visceral and | Cambridge. Muscular Anatomy of Scopus” (zdid., 1885); ‘* Anatomy of various little-known Types of Birds” (7éd.) With other papers on Comparative Anatomy in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., bis, and Quart. Fourn, Micros. Sct. JOHN AMBROSE FLEMING, M.A. (Camb.), D.Sc. (Lond.). Professor of Electrical Engineering in Uni- versity College, London. Late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. Fellow of University College, London. Some time Demonstrator inApplied Mechanics in the University of Author of the following papers, among others :— ‘ Lecturer in Mathematics. Senior Wrangler, 1880. fessor of Mathematics Queen’s College, Galway. of the Royal University of Ireland. Examiner in S at the University of London. Author of the :—“‘ Application of Generalized Space Co- ordinates, P tials, and sabe Elasticity ” (Trans. Phil. Soc., vol. xiv.); ‘“‘Least Action” (Proc. Lond, Math. Soc., ager XV.) 5 ie Flow of Electricity in Linear Conductors ”’ _ Xvi. ); *‘Characteristics of an Asymmetric Optical bs n” (idid., vol. xx.) ; ‘* Electro-magnetic Induction in ' Sheets and Solid Bodies” (Pz. Mag., 1884) ; and - other ee on Pure and Applied Mathematics. oie in ‘the Yorkshire College. . Prof. Miall has ale: ing papers and books :—Keports on its (Rep. Brit. Assoc., 1873-74): the first trans- introduction, to S. Anton Fritsch’s ‘‘ Fauna der Perm- Fossil Teeth of Ceratodus (Palzont. nid and Beeaeterycian Ganoids, Part I. (Palzeont. on Labyrinthodonts, Rhizodus, Ctenodus, and . Journ. Geol. Soc.) : Studies in Comparative: | Aamtony ‘I. Skull of Crocodile, II. Anatomy of the Indian Elephant (jointly with F. Greenwood), III. The Cockroach price H. Denny) ; Vertebrate Paleontology in Geol.. (Sa b-editor), In 1875 received the Wollaston Donation Society. a Bu i - BENJAMIN NEVE PEACH, eee F. G. S. District Surveyor of the Ge plogical Survey ' of Scotland. Past President of the Physical Society of Edinburgh. ee of the Wollaston Donation Fund of the Geological Societ ociety in 1887. For thirty years actively engaged on the — Geolc “a toemebell during which time he has mapped many of Bolo ed districts of Scotland. Has charge pe the North-West Highlands, and has taken the leading es cl a , velling the remarkable structural complications of _ Author of various papers on palzeontological sub- s :—** On some New Crustaceans from the Lower Carboni- q ad s Rocks of Eskdale and Liddesdale” (Trans. Roy. Soc. vol. xxx., p. 73); ‘‘On some new species of Fossil 4 from the Carboniferous Rocks of Scotland” (zdéd., Le Lp srs **Further Researches among the Crustacea and eer of the Carboniferous Rocks of the Scottish Border” Pe poe 3 ‘*On some Fossil Myriapods from the Lower ‘Red ne of Forfarshire” (Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. “Bains vol. vii. p. 179). Joint author with Mr. J. Horne of ‘many papers on stiatigraphical and physical geology, including: — laciation of the Shetland Isles” (Quart. Journ. Geol. # iy vol. v. p. 778); ‘‘The Glaciation of the Orkney Islands” ., Vol. xxxvi. a 648) ; ** The Old Red Sandstone of She ” (Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edin., vol. v. p. 30); The GI ion of Gulthoess” (idid., vol. vi. p. 316); “ Re. NO. 1176, VOL. 46] a —~.* Camb..| Beat of the Mammalian Heart”. (Phil. Trans., 1889) ~ Louis’ C. MIALL, ty Romande, 1881) ; chemist, August Wilhelm Hofmann. NA DACRE 37 port on the Geology of the North- West of Sutherland” (NATURE, vol. xxxi. p. 31); ‘* The Old Red Sandstone Volcanic Rocks of Shetland” (Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. xxxii. p. 539); ** Report on the Recent Work of the Geological Survey in the North-West Highlands of Scotland, based on the Field Maps of B. N. Peach, J. Horne, W. Gunn, C. T. Clough, L. Hinx- iia H. M. Cadell” (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xliv. Pp. 378). ALEXANDER PEDLER, F.C.S., F.I.C., Fellow of the University of Calcutta ; Professor of Chemistry, Presidency College, Calcutta; Meteorological Reporter to the Government of Bengal ; and Curator of the Bengal Government Museum at Calcutta. Author of papers on ** An Isomeric Modification of Valeric Acid,” ‘‘ Calcutta Coal Gas,” ** The Use of the Radiometer as a Photometer, ”. ** Cobra Poison,” ‘*The Past-and Present Water Supplies of Calcutta,” ** Technical Education for Bengal,” ‘‘ The Faln Point Cyclone of September 22, 1885,” published in the Proc. Roy. Soc., the Journ. Chem. Soc., the Journ, Asiat. Soc. Beng., and elsewhere. Avucustus D. WALLER, M.D.,. Lecturer on eereey at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School. Distinguished as a Physiologist. Lauréat de l'Institut de France (Prix de Physiologie Expérimentale). Contributions to the Royal Society :—‘‘ On’ the Influence of the Galvanic Cur- rent on the Excitability of the Motor Nerves of Man” (with Dr. de Watteville, Phil. Trans., 1882) ; ‘‘On the Influence of the Galvanic Current on the Excitability of the Sensory Nerves of Man” (Roy. Soc. Proc. 2 1882) ; **On the Action of the Excised Mammalian Heart’”’ (with 'Dr. Reid, -Phil. Trans., 1887); ‘‘On the Electromotive Changes connected ae on- tributions to the Journal of Physiology :—‘*On the Rate of Propagation of the Arterial Pulse Wave ” (vol. iii.,:1880) ; ‘*A Demonstration in Man of Electromotive Changes. accompanying the. Heart’s Beat’’ (vol. viii., 1887) Contributions to other journals, English and foreign :—‘‘ Die Spannungen in den Vorhéfen des Herzens” (Arch. f. Anat. u. Physivol., 1878); “©On Muscular Spasms known. as Tendon. Reflex”. (Brain, 1880) ; ‘‘ Nouvelles Expériences sur -les Phénoménes nommés Réflexes tendineux ” (with Dr. Prévost, Rev. Méd. de fa Suisse ‘* Sur la Contraction del’ Ouverture ” (Fourn. de Physio ; 1882), & &c. NOTES. Tue Council of the British Association for the Advancement ‘of Science have nominated Dr. J. S. Burdon Sanderson, F.R.S., Waynflete Professor of Physiology in the University of Oxford, President for the meeting of the Association which will be held next year at Nottingham. Dr. Sanderson has accepted the nomination. : THE Gold Medal of the Linnean Society has this year been awarded by the Council to Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace for his important contributions to the literature of zoology. The medal will be presented at the forthcoming anniversary meeting of the Linnean Society, to be held at Burlington House on the 24th inst. WE regret to have to record the death of the illustrious He died on May 5. Prof. Hofmann was well known in England, where he spent many of his best years. On Liebig’s recommendation he was appointed in 1848 Superintendent of the Royal College of Chemistry, in London. This institution, which made great progress under his care, was in 1853 merged in the Royal School of Mines as the Chemical Section. He became a Warden of the Royal Mint in 1855. In 1864 he accepted the chair of chemistry at Bonn, and in the following year he was called to Berlin, where he spent the rest of his life as Professor of Chemistry. Ile made many contributions to the /xnalen der Chemie, to the Transactions of the Chemical Society, and to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, of 38 NATURE [May 12, 1892 which latter institution he was made a Fellow in 1851, in recognition of his services to science. In 1854 he was awarded a Royal Medal for his ‘‘ Memoirs on the Molecular Constitution of the Organic Bases.” Some of his discoveries led to industrial results of the highest importance. The high respect. in which Prof. Hofmann was held in Germany was shown at his funeral, which took place on Monday. It was very largely attended, and, according to the Berlin correspondent of the Standard, ‘was in all respects worthy of a prince of science.” The correspondent says :—‘*‘ The Empress Frederick, immediately on receiving the news of the Professor’s death, telegraphed to his widow, ‘My deepest sympathy in your great, your irre- parable loss. I am deeply shocked by the quite unexpected news of your dear husband’s death.’ Her Imperial Majesty sent a splendid laurel wreath bearing her initials, to be placed on the coffin, and a Court Chamberlain represented Her Majesty atthe funeral. The Minister of Education and numerous officials of his Department, all the members of the Berlin Academy, and almost all the professors and students of the University, accom- panied the funeral procession to the cemetery.” r WE regret also to have to announce the death of Dr. James Thomson, F.R.S., Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering in the University of Glasgow, Lord Kelvin’s brother. Dr. Thomson died on Sunday last. He was seventy years of age. THERE are vacancies for zoological students at the Cambridge University’s tables in the Zoological Station at Naples, and in the Marine Biological Society’s Laboratory at Plymouth. Applica- tions are to be sent to Prof. Newton, Chairman of the Special Board for Biology and Geology, by May 30. GENERAL Isaac T. WIsTER, President of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, has placed in the hands of trustees for the benefit of the University of Pennsylvania, 100,000 dollars for the erection of a Museum with laboratories, to contain the Wister and Horner Museum of Human and Comparative Anatomy. He has also given an endowment of 3000 dollars a year for the maintenance of a curator, whose occupation shall consist largely of original research. WE referred lately to the interesting Horticultural Exhibition for which preparations were being made at Earl’s Court. The Exhibition was formally opened on Saturday last by the Duke of Connaught, and promises to be a great success. A GERMAN scientific expedition under Dr. Erich von Drygalski started from Copenhagen for West Greenland on May 1. Dr. von Drygalski is accompanied by Dr. H. Stade, the meteorologist, and Dr. E. Vanhéffen, the zoologist. They were to make in the first instance for Umanak Fjord. They do not intend to return until the autumn of 1893. WE are glad to welcome a third edition of Clerk Maxwell’s great ‘‘ Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism” (Clarendon Press). The task of seeing the proofs through the press could not be undertaken by Mr. W. D. Niven, who had charge of the second edition ; so the duty has been fulfilled by Prof. J. J. Thomson, who, we need scarcely say, has done his work admirably. Twenty years have passed since the work was written, and during that time the sciences of electricity and magnetism—thanks in part to the influence exerted by this treatise—have made rapid progress. Prof. Thomson explains that when he began to prepare the present edition he intended to give in foot-notes some account of the advances made since the publication of the first edition, not only because he thought it might be of service to students, but because all recent in- vestigations have tended to confirm in the most remarkable way Maxwell’s views. He soon found, however, that if this intention were carried out the book would be disfigured by a disproportionate quantity of foot-notes. His notes have ac- NO. 1176, VOL. 46] cordingly been thrown into a slightly more consecutive form, 3 and will be published separately. A few foot-notes a isclated points which could be dealt with briefly are giver 7 Prof. Thomson has added something in explanation of argument in those passages in which he has found from. his — experience as a teacher that nearly all students find consider- q able difficulties. He has also attempted to verify the results — which Maxwell gives without proof. He has not in all instances succeeded in arriving at Maxwell’s results, and in such cases he has indicated the difference in a foot-note. Maxwell’s method of determining the self-induction of a coil is reprinted from his paper on the dynamical theory of the electro-magnetic field. AT the time of our last issue, an anticyclone lay over the ; whole of the British Islands and part of the Atlantic, with north _ and north-east winds of some force, under the influence of ade- pression existing over North Germany. Daily temperatures were, 3 generally, considerably below the normal values ; slight snow — fell on the south coast on the morning of the 6th, and the grass thermometer fell as low as 18° on that night in London, The anticyclone afterwards moved southwards, while a depression, which had set in at the northern stations, spread towards the North Sea, the winds shifted to west and north-west, and temperatures gradually increased ; the maxima exceeded 60° over the inland parts of England on Sunday, and even reached 70° at several stations on Monday, with fine weather generally. The amount of rainfall is considerably below the average. The . Weekly Weather Report for Saturday last shows that the deficiency, since January 3, amounts to 7°7 inches in the west of Scotland and to 5°3 inches in the south-west of England. During the last few days this country has again been under the influence of an anticyclone, with fine, warm weather generally. 3 THE Pilot Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean, in its review of weather during April, says that the storms on the Atlantic, like those of the preceding month, were confined almost entirely to the American coast and the western part of the ocean, and they again followed somewhat abnormal northerly tracks. Two of the most severe storms whose tracks are plotted on the chart, occurred during the last few days of March. During the first week of April, pleasant anticyclonic weather prevailed along the _ American coast south of Hatteras, but two severe storms moved eastward over Labrador on the 3rd and 6th respectively, the first of which was followed by a storm of slight energy that formed south of Cape Race on the 4th, and the second by onethat reached Hatteras from inland the morning of the 8th, but neither of these, nor those of the 9th to 11th, and 15th to 16th, along the Nova Scotia coast, were at all severe. The only remaining storms of any noteworthy severity, so faras indicated — by data received at the office of the Pilot Chart up to date of publication, were those that originated between the Grand Banks and Bermuda on the 13th and 18th respectively. The track of a depression of considerable energy is indicated near the Azores on the 6th, 7th, and 8th, and another, but of slight energy only, in the English Channel on the 15th and 16th. The persistent anticyclonic weather over the British Isles and ~ Central Europe during the last week of March and the first half of April, may be said to have turned to the northward the storms that formed over the ocean, and it seems probable that the persistent northerly winds thus caused off Labrador and | $ Newfoundland helped along the ice that is now working its way southward off the Grand Banks. Fog has been reported in increasing quantities, also, and it will continue to increase unti 4 midsummer. : | : | : | . WE note the publication of two new monthly meteorological — bulletins for Russia, which are issued nearly closely up to date, viz. by Prof. A. Klossovski, Odessa, with Russian and German May 12, 1892] NATURE 39 lj ‘next, and by Prof. P. Brounof, Kieff, in Russian, with a few ‘notes in French. Both bulletins contain observations taken times daily, with daily and monthly means, while the eet petition contains monthly rainfall values, and maxi- mum and minimum temperatures for about a hundred stations a n South-West Russia. The Kieff observations are preceded by ome remarks (in Russian only) on the temperature and density of snow at various depths. -nree a REMARKABLE aurora borealis was seen at Moscow during ‘the: night of April 26-27. It began at 11.50 p.m. with a ‘dark segment fringed by a bright border, the summit of “which stood a few degrees to the west of the meridian. Bright “rays: were projected to the constellations of Auriga, Perseus, and Cassiopoeia, while the longest rays reached the Pole star. wig its maximum at 11.56, but four minutes later it “began to die away, no traces of it being seen at 12.15 a.m. At a.m. three beams of light appeared again for a few seconds. g worthy of note that on April 26 a large accumulation of "sunspots: was observed at Moscow ; it consisted of ten groups of spots. It may also be added that another aurora borealis, than the above, was seen at Moscow on March 1, at 4 am. “It lasted for nearly half an hour. ALL who have occasion to use the magic lantern. will be E saasduen: in the fact that a lantern may now be seen at the Crystal Palace finely illuminated by the arc-light. This was designed by Mr. T. C. Hepworth, F.C.S., who uses it to illustrate lecture entertainments in connection with a Palace Electrical Exhibition. The lamp employed is [ tm: Brockie-Pell, which has been modified by Messrs. Newton _ to makeit more suitable for the particular work required. It _ gives a pure white light, and its brilliance is said to be several : _ times that of the lime-light. The electric arc-light has before . | to lantern projection, but it is claimed that the j Coal er nae is on quite an unprecedented scale. RAN, | of Paris, sends us a prospectus, in which he fiaey the merits of a machine he has invented for the proper of eggs. Hitherto, it seems, mankind have boiled eggs ly false principle. M. Mesdran claims that he has problem, and that his invention is nothing short of both from the hygienic and the gastronomic _ The invention has been patented in England. trace of Palzolithic man has lately been dis- ooasoagal Hermann’s Cave in the Harz. Excavations were _ being carried on in the cave, under the superintendence of Herr } _Grabowsky, when a flint which had all the appearance of having into the form of a knife was found among the remains of reindeer and other glacial or Arctic animals. The _ object could not have been brought into the cave by non-human “means, as flint is not found anywhere i in the neighbourhood. A r on the subject appears in the current number of Globus, the editor of which appends a note to the effect that the flint (which lay before him as he wrote) has undoubtedly been _ astificially worked into its present shape. Dr. DaNntEt G. BRINTON has issued an interesting pamph- det, in which he urges the claims of anthropology as a branch es, ‘University education. “He gives an account of the aims a and methods of the science, and then sketches a general _ scheme of anthropological instruction. Dr. Brinton would P with lectures on somatology, including internal somato- , external somatology, psychology, and developmental and somatology. Then would come ethnology, in con- me with which he would deal with sociology, technology, sligion, linguistics, and folk-lore. Under ethnography he - would discuss the origin and subdivisions of races ; and archzo- logy he would divide into ‘‘ general” and ‘‘ special.” Labora- NO. 1176, VOL. 46] ; ‘ , 3 d _ 4 i) i a tory work would include (in the physical laboratory) such tasks as the comparing and identifying of bones, the measuring of skulls, &c. ; and (in the technological laboratory) the study of stone and metal implements, textile materials, &c. There would also be library work and field work. Students who might wish to obtain an adequate notion of the science would have to attend a course of thirty or forty lectures, and give twice as many hours to laboratory work. That would be the mini- mum amount of study. Those who might desire to instruct others, or to prepare for independent research, would devote to the science the greater part of their time during two or three years. THE structure of the cells of Bacteria continues to occupy the attention of biologists, and a communication on the subject to the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists (AZemoirs, vol. xxi., Botany), by W. K. Wahrlich, is worthy of notice. Careful study of several species of Bacteria has led the author to the conclusion that only two substances are to be de- tected in the cell—chromatin, and linin, which surrounds the former. The leading part in the formation of spores belongs to chromatin, which is used entirely for this purpose, while the linin substance is used for the formation of the exosporium. As to the involutional forms, the author can only confirm the opinions of De Bary, Nigeli, and Biichner as to their being representative of a pathological state, or of a degeneration of the cell; chromatin disappears in such cells, and two or three vacuoles appear in their linin part. The bacterial cells thus appear to be simple nuclei, surrounded by membranes, but devoid of cytoplasm ; chromatin is their most important part, and when it disappears the cell can no longer ee itself or continue an independent life. A REPORT was lately spread in the United States to the effect that the Government intended to introduce the mongoose in the West to exterminate the rodents which annoy farmers there. The editors of the Vaturalist wrote to the’ Department of Agriculture for information on the subject, and received in reply a letter to the effect that no such “rash act” had ever been contemplated, the introduction of exotic species being contrary to the Department’s policy. The Maturalist expresses cordial approval of this answer, evil having, it maintains, ‘‘in- variably resulted from the introduction of exotic animals into countries when no adequate natural restriction to their increase exists.” . Mr. F. W. WarD was commissioned last year by the Hon. Sydney Smith, then Minister of Agriculture in New South Wales, to report upon the relations of fruit production in that colony to the English market. The report was presented some time ago, and is printed in the February number of the Agri- cultural Gazette of New South Wales. Mr. Ward is convinced that London offers an attractive market for the fruit products of Australasia in their green, dried, and canned forms. All testi- mony, and most emphatically that of the European growers, is, he says, to the effect that London is, and always will be, the great fruit market of the world. There is also, he adds, a con- sensus of opinion to the effect that Australasia will gain the largest share of the advantage in regard to this market, con- sequent upon the reversal of the seasons. Other territories in the southern hemisphere will dispute the market with Austral- asia ; but Mr. Ward anticipates that the energy and intelligence of Anglo-Saxon communities, operating upon good and cheap soil, an unsurpassed, if not an unrivalled, climate for fruit pro- duction, and splendid facilities of over-sea carriage, will fully or more than compensate for the one great disadvantage of geo- graphical distance. The London market for Australasian fruit resolves itself, for the most part, into a question of carriage. What needs to be done is to minimize the cost of conveying 40 NATL URE [May 12, 1892 green fruit from (say) Sydney to London, and to solve the chemical problems attaching to the attempt to utilize the cool chambers of swift steam-ships in such a way as to preserve the appearance and flavour of so perishable a commodity as fruit through the unavoidable space of time and varying latitudes of the journey. Mr. Ward is of opinion that there are sound reasons for expecting that ‘‘ these problems will be solved and that the market will be captured.” THE Echinoderm fauna of Kingston Harbour, Jamaica, seems to be remarkably numerous and varied. Mr. George W. Field, who has been investigating it, contributes some notes on the subject to the April number of the ‘‘ Johns Hopkins University Circulars.” About twenty-eight species of Echinoderms were found in Kingston Harbour and about the cays at its mouth, and a longer residence and dredging in the deeper waters would probably, Mr, Field thinks, have increased the number con- siderably. The difficulties of dredging were very considerable, arising in part. from the nature of the bottom, from the unmanageableness: of the boat, and chiefly from the wind. There aiways seemed to be a perfect calm or a gale; the calm periods between exceedingly short. _ However, considerable dredging was done by various members of his party. The surface tow-net showed a wonderful richness of the larval Echinoderms in the pelagic fauna, chiefly however, during their stay, confined to Ophiurid, Echinid, and Spatangid plutei, the relative abundance being in the order named. During the month of June they were abundant, and in early July. they were extremely numerous. They were found in greatest numbers in tows made about sunrise. In the evening towing they were invariably absent. These larvee, says Mr. Field, appear to ccme to and remain at the surface from midnight until about sunrise ; after that to gradually disappear until three hours after sunrise, when they are rarely found at the surface. Their appearance seemed to be little or not at all influenced by the tide, but did depend very much upon the quantity of flood water poured into the harbour by the various rivers. In its general aspect the Echinoderm fauna shows no very considerable variation from that of the Bahamas and Southern Florida, though apparently richer in species and in individuals. ACCORDING to an official report published in the Deutsches Kolanialblatt for April, the Germans have every reason to be satisfied with the way in which the resources of Cameroon are being developed. The industry and trade of the colony are said to be in a flourishing condition. The chief products are palm oil and palm kernels. There are many elephants in the territory, and ivory is still exported. “Caoutchouc is also obtained in con- siderable quantities, and ebony fetches good prices. In 1891 there were in Cameroon 166 Europeans, of whom Io were women. There were 109 Germans and 31 Englishmen. The exact number of natives is not yet known, but it is calcu- lated that there aré 20,oco Dualla on the Cameroon river, 25,000 Bakwiri in the Cameroon Highlands, and 20,000 Bamboko towards the west of the hilly district. A VALUABLE paper presenting a revision of the American species of Rumex occurring north of: Mexico, by. William Trelease, appears in the third annual: report of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and has also been issued separately. Rumex is a genus which has beer. neld to include from 100 to about 130 species, the greater part of which belong to. the. north temperate region of both continents. ‘‘ Of the twenty- one species,’ says Mr. Trelease, ‘‘recognized by me_ as occurring within our flora, eleven were characterized and named by Linnzeus in the first edition of the ‘Species Plan- tarum,’ and only five have been named by American botanists.” The biological interest.of the genus arises chiefly, as he points out, from the protective acidity of the sorrels and some docks, NO. 1176, VOL. 46] and the occurrence of tannin and a bitter principle in others; their protandry and exclusive adaptation to wind pollination ; and the adaptation of the greater number of species to wind — dissemination, by the enlargement of the inner segments of the — perianth during ripening, although some of those with fimbriate. valves may profit by attachment to animals. IN the latest instalment of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Messrs. H. Skinner and — L. W. Mengel give an account of some of the insects taken by the expedition which the Academy sent to Greenland in 1891. The insects captured were divided among the different orders as. follows :—Hymenoptera 25 specimens, Coleoptera 4 specimens, - Lepidoptera Rhopalocera 143 specimens, and Heterocera 143. . They were captured by Mr. L. W. Mengel, entomologist to the expedition, and Dr. W. E. Hughes, ornithologist. The specimens are all from the West Coast, and were taken at three principal localities, McCormick Bay, Herbert Island, and Disco. ACETYL FLUORIDE,CH;COF, has been prepared by M. Maurice Meslans, and is described by him in the current number of the Comptes rendus. As was to be expected, it is a substance con - siderably more volatile than acetyl chloride. Its. boiling- point is 19°°5, very near that of hydrofluoric acid itself, and hence upon a warm day it takes the form of a gas, while at tem- peratures below 19°'5 it assumes the liquid state. -It has been prepared by M. Meslans by causing various inorganic fluorides to react upon acetyl chloride. Thus when silver fluoride and | acetyl chloride are heated together in a sealed tube to 260°, a small quantity of acetyl fluoride is formed. The acetyl chbvtie, however, is much more completely converted to fluoride when it is passed in the state of vapour through a long silver tube filled with dry silver fluoride and heated to 300°. Upon allow- ing the issuing vapour to pass into a strongly cooled receiver, acetyl fluoride condenses in the liquid form. Another mode of preparation consists in allowing arsenic fluoride to fall drop | by drop upon acetyl chloride contained in a copper vessel, when energetic action at once occurs in the cold. The exit tube is attached to a spiral of leaden tubing, arranged as an inverted condenser, in order to retain either of the liquid reacting sub- stances, and the last traces of acetyl chloride are removed by subsequently allowing the escaping vapour to pass through a. copper [J-tube filled with fragments of silver fluoride and heated in a bath of nitrates to 300°. The acetyl fluoride may then be condensed in a strongly cooled receiver. Instead of arsenic fluoride the solid trifluoride of antimony may be employed, and the operation performed in a glass flask, an ordinary inverted glass condenser being used to retain any escaping acetyl chloride. By far the most advantageous mode of preparation, however, consists in reacting with acetyl chloride upon zinc fluoride. One hundred grams of zinc fluoride are introduced in successive portions of ten grams each into a strong glass. flask cooled by a freezing mixture and containing a hundred and fifty grams of acetyl chloride. The flask is then sealed, warmed to 40°, and again cooled. It is subsequently opened, while surrounded by the freezing mixture, and placed in connection with a leaden worm whose extremity passes down into a second flask surrounded by ice and containing a little dry zinc fluoride, - The acetyl fluoride is then distilled over into the second flask, | and upon redistillation over the zinc fluoride contained in the flask it is obtained in an almost pure condition. The liquid may be preserved unchanged in a dry glass vessel, but if moisture — obtains access the glass is rapidly attacked. If the vessel, con-. taining the liquid is placed in connection with a tube standing over mercury, and the liquid warmed by holding the vessel in the hand, the new fluoride may be collected in the gaseous state, 5 and preserved as a gas, provided the temperature of the room is superior to 19°°5. 4 4 1 E . Both the liquid and the gas are colourless. : Ee. 4 May 12, 1892] WATURE a xy burn with a blue flame upon ignition, producing water , carbon dioxide, and hydrofluoric acid. They possess in odour somewhat resembling that of carbonyl chloride. Water lissolves about twenty times its volume of the gas, but the liquid es not mix with water, a very small proportion only being ed, and suffering slow decomposition. Alcohol, ether, ne, and chloroform dissolve it in all proportions. E additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during past week include a Rhesus Monkey (AMacacus rhesus 6) India, presented by Mr. C. Drew; a Grivet Monkey opithecus griseo-viridis @) from North-east Africa, pre- d by Mr. George Conquest ; a Grey Ichneumon (Herfestes ), from India, presented by Mr. J. E. Barber; a Com- ‘ox (Canis vulpes ?), British, presented by Miss Nora Junn ; a Song Thrush (Zurdus musicus), British, presented by - Baldwin M. Smith; an Alexandrine Parakeet (Pa/eornis exandri 6) from India, presented by Mr. E. Bond; two Vipers (Vipera cerastes) from Egypt, presented by Holled Smith; a Lizard (Amphibolurus sp. inc., tralia, presented by Mr. Herbert E. Swayne; a Baboon (Cynocephalus sphinx @) from West Africa, a hesus Monkey (A/acacus rhesus §), a Grey Ichneumon (Her- es griseus) from India, two Punctated Agoutis (Dasyprocta ), a King Vulture (Gyfagus papa) from Central America, eyebrowed Guan (Peneloge superciliaris) from South- tol Me ie) from Australia, eight Ruffs (Machetes pugnax 4 6 @), British, purchased ; 2 Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus 9) the Gardens. AND VISUAL MAGNITUDES OF STARS,— : : Academy of Sciences on April 2, Prof. J. C. communicated the results of an investigation on the ¢ differences between the photographic and visual es of stars in different regions of the sky. The com- of the photographic diameters of stars of equal visual ide (according to Gould and Schonfeld’s estimations) on tes of the southern sky, shows that the actinic effect of or near the Milky Way is much greater than that of ) galactic latitudes. Prof. Kapteyn has examined causes which lead to this variation. There is, first TOGR: PHIC errors in the catalogue of visual magnitudes ; and thirdly, peculiarities in the light of e discussion leads to the conclusion that the ‘magnitude is not appreciably affected by the first causes. And since, taking everything into con- , the errors of estimated visual magnitudes could not exceed 0°3 magnitude, there is no doubt that the differ- half a magnitude or more, indicated by the photographs, ‘to the quality of light emitted. It is said that Prof. ys idea that the Milky Way ought to be considered as an ion of stars of the first type is only sufficient to account ra difference of about o°1 magnitude. Thus it appears that = light of stars in or near the Milky Way, like those of ‘oup IV., is richer in violet rays than that of other stars. © GRAPHS OF THE LyrA Rinc NesuiLa.—In addition work on the Carte du Ciel, Prof. Denza, of the Vatican atory, has taken up the photography of nebule. Be- with the Ring Nebula in Lyra, he has made five ex- on this object, from half an hour up to nearly two hours’ ation. To bring out the fine detail, development has n catried on fur about twenty minutes in each case. The e which had received the longest exposure was pre- to the Paris Academy on April 25. Viewed microscopic- the star at the centre of the nebula is seen to be joined er one near the nebulosity, and each of them can be oken up into other more or less brilliant points. A large umber of condensed regions are well visible in the nebula. The location of these leads Prof. Denza to agree with Secchi that N9. 1176, VOL. 46] of. different meteorological conditions ;. 4! ‘¢ L’anneau se prolonge dans le sens du plus grand axe, et que les parties les plus denses sont dans la direction du petit axe.” DETERMINATION OF THE CONSTANT OF ABERRATION. — Prof. G. C. Comstock contributes the provisional results of a determination of the constant of aberration to the As/ronemica/l Fournal, No. 261. The method adopted in the investigation is a modified form of that used by M. Loewy, three reflecting surfaces being placed in front of the objective of the telescope instead of two. Images of stars in different portions of the heavens are thus simultaneously produced in the focal plane of the objective, and a micrometer is used to measure the distance between those of two given stars, when each pair of surfaces is successively employed. Then, if @ represent the distance between the images of two stars as measured with the micro- meter, A the angle subtended at the earth by the stars, R the effect of refraction in changing the true A into an apparent A’, and K a correction depending upon the squares of the errors of adjustment of the mirrors, we have— A=120 +K+d+R. The provisional value of the aberration constant derived from Prof. Comstock’s observations is— 20"°494 + 0”'017. An investigation of the refraction has also been made, resulting in the detection of a real variation. The refraction is at a maximum near the time of the winter solstice and a minimum near the summer solstice, but the exact epoch and amplitude have not yet been det: mined. STAR MAGNITUDES. —‘‘ The Estimation of Star Magnitudes by Extinction with the Wedge,” was the subject of an interest- ing paper by Captain Abney before the Royal Astronomical Society, many of the experiments from which his conclusions were drawn being made from a paper which he and General Festing communicated to the Royal Society on colour photo- metry. In the experiment for determining the amount by which the intensity of any ray of the spectrum would have to be re- duced before it became invisible, the absolute intensity of the D line was fixed upon for the basis, from which all the other in- tensities could be directly calculated. With the arrangement he described, the D line was reduced to the 350 ten-millionths part of a standard amyl lamp, while under the same conditions the green light E had to be reduced to 65, F to 150, G to 3000, and the red to 110,000 ten-millionth part. By making the rays equal to one amyl lamp the numbers obtained were for D 350, E 35, F 17, G15, and for C 22,000 ten-millionths part. These numbers showed that to produce extinction for two lights of equal luminosity, say of colours C and G re- spectively, the latter. was mearly 1500 times greater than that required for the other. He then réferred to the extreme persist- ency of the violet sensations, they being 1500 times more persistent ‘than the red and about 25 times more than the green, pointing out that the violet sensation would be the last to be extinguished. . The function of the wedge, then, was not to obliterate the, spectrum but to eliminate the violet sensation contained in its light. By determining star magnitudes by this method of ex- tinction, the results obtained, he says, ‘‘ should agree better with those obtained by photography than those obtained by eye estimation,” the first being obtained by estimation of the E light, the second of the light between G and F, and the third from that near D, Referring to colour extinction he mentions that although most of the faint stars are known to be of a bluish colour it does not follow that ‘‘ they are not red.” The blue tint is brought about by the faintness of the light, which makes all colours appear grey, and ‘‘as the violet sensation disappears last, it frequently happens that you get the red and green sensations as grey, and the violet just above the colour limit, thus giving a grey blue.” He suggests that with telescopes of large aperture these stars might be seen in colours. THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. AN ordinary general meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers was held on the evenings of Thursday and Friday of last week. There were two items of exceptional interest on the programme, the first being the inaugural address 42 NATURE [May 12, 1892 of the new President, Dr. William Anderson, F.R.S. ; and the second the report of the Committee appointed by the Institution to make trials on marine engines. The President in his address gave a brief review of the progress of the Institution since its foundation in 1847. For the first thirty years of its existence the Institution was a provincial Society, having its head-quarters in Birmingham. In 1877 it was determined to remove to London, as it was thought that the wealth and influence that had been acquired was sufficient to give a position of national im- portance which could hardly be held by a Society having its head-quarters in any other city than the metropolis. There was naturally a strong opposition to the migration, but the change was made, and since then the importance of the Institution has gone on steadily increasing, until at the present day it is second only to the Institution of Civil Engineers, The Institution was started in 1847 with 107 members, the annual income being 4515. During the first thirty years the membership increased about tenfold, but at the end of the fourteen years that the head- quarters have been in London it has increased to twenty-fold ; that is to say, in 1877, when the migration was made, the numbers were about one thousand, whilst last year they were over two thousand—actually 2077. The annual income was last year £7212, and the accumulated investments of the Institution are now £22,536. A somewhat acrimonious correspondence has been published lately in the pages of a weekly journal, and the President, some- what unnecessarily perhaps, thought fit to reply to this. A -complaint had been made that the papers were few and poor. Dr. Anderson referred to the large number of scientific Societies now existing, and the difficulty of providing good papers. ‘‘ We have been spoiled and cloyed,” he says, ‘‘ by the rapid progress of mechanical engineering ; so that papers which are not revela- tions of something new are condemned as unworthy of the Institution, Is there any form of steam-engine, for example, which it would be worth while now to describe, unless it be some monster of exceptional proportions, the details of which we should like to see in our Transactions? Who would like to read a paper on a bridge of even 800 feet span, and to illustrate it with all the type and plates which characterized the two accounts of the Britannia Bridge, when the Forth Bridge, a structure of more than double that opening, has recently become familiar tous ?~ I am afraid that, in consequence of the state at which we have arrived, and, in respect of originality, the un- toward age in which we live, we must be content with many papers that may justly be termed poor so -far as novelty alone is concerned. We must, therefore, rely for excellence on a more scientific treatment of our subjects, and on the care with which the details of construction are worked out and presented in the illustrative drawings. Our critics should remember also that originality is not our only quest—that we are not all veterans to whom design comes almost by instinct: we have a large body of younger and less experienced members, and to them I feel + sure, from my past experience, that our proceedings offer practical examples and guidance which are appreciated all over the world, and the desire to possess which is, [ take it, the main cause of the ever-increasing strength of the Institution.” The President next reterred to the work done by the different Research Committees of the Institution which have been en- gaged for some years past in investigating engineering subjects upon which information appeared most desirable. There have been Committees on. riveting, on friction, on steam-jacketing engine cylinders, and other matters, including marine-engine trials, the last report of the Committee on the latter subject having been presented at the meeting now under notice. It would be difficult to imagine a more useful ‘and legitimate purpose upon which the funds of the Institution could be spent. The work that is over and over again done, generally in a partial and imperfect manner, by private firms, in getting information on many points of engineering practice, represents a sad loss of time and money. The work of the Research Committees of the Institution should put an end to a great deal of this, and will so help the advance of engineering practice, to the benefit not only of engineers, but of the whole civilized world. The President made another suggestion which would tend to the same end, and which it is hoped may be carried out. ‘* There is,” he said, ‘‘ another sphere of usefulness in which our abundant means would enable us to do good service ; it is in the compilation of a brief reference index to all mechanical matters at home and abroad. Were we to establish a staff—and it might be a very modest one—whose duty it would be to index under proper heads every important NO. 1176, VOL. 46] article relating to mechanical science which comes out week by week, we should in time, and at moderate cost, form an invalu- able record, from which an inquirer would be able to find ina few minutes where to look for complete information on any sub- ject connected with our special branch of engineering.” The generally ; and in the United States Messrs. Haferkorn and Heise have compiled a most useful index of books printed in English relating to technical matters, but the work stops at 1888, and does not contain references to the isolated letters and papers which appear in English and foreign journals. Dr. Anderson, as every one knows, holds the important post of Director-General of Ordnance Factories, and it was natural he should make some reference to the various establishments— the chief of which, of course, is Woolwich Arsenal—under his control. Here, again, public criticism has been exercised of late, not altogether favourably, and a good part of the address was taken up with an apology for Woolwich. Taking the side of the case selected by Dr. Anderson for discussion, there is no doubt he made out a very goodcase. It is perfectly impossible that all inventions should be adopted, and therefore it is evident the authorities with whom these matters rest must reckon with a great many hostile critics. The address gave some interesting details of the way in which the Ordnance departments are managed, but into this question we need not now enter. The difficulty of finding subjects for papers which were altogether novel had been previously referred to in the address ; but, not- withstanding that there is little scope for originality, Dr. Ander- son pointed out that some problems still remain to be solved. Among them is one which is of the greatest practical importance to mechanical engineers, while at the same time it is of extra: ordinary theoretical interest. This was the question of the nature and composition of steel, and alloys generally. Since the year 1879 the Institution had been engaged in trying to unravel the mystery which surrounds the behaviour of steel in connec- tion with its chemical and molecular composition, combined with changes of temperature. he researches of Sir Frederick Abel, Dr. Sorby, Mr. Osmond, Mr. Hadfield, and Prof. Roberts-Austen, aided by the Le Chatelier pyrometer, have given the inquiry new life. Dr. Anderson expressed great hope that the active measures taken by the Institution, through the Alloys Research Committee, would result, at no distant time, ‘in the solution of the enigma, and in the establishment of definite laws. The problem, how- ever, is excessively involved. It amounts, in fact, to a considera- tion of the number of permutations or combinations possible among some ten variables, the relations of which to each other are also dependent, not only on actual temperature, but also on the rate of its changes, and on the uniformity of these changes, throughout the mass, The address next made reference to the fact that pure iron is allotropic, and exists in both the hard and soft state. Carbon also exists in two forms in steel, either combined or suspended in the mass ; and there are other ingredients necessary to take into account. In con- sequence of changes due to temperature also, the chemist 1s impotent to pronounce from mere analysis what the quality of steel may be. On the other hand, the ordinary mechanical tests are not of much avail, because the specimens are not and cannot be in the same condition of internal stress—on which again the molecular arrangement appears to depend—as the masses from which they are cut. Moreover, specimens for mechanical test- ing cannot always be taken from the central parts of the huge forgings and castings now in use for many purposes. Under these circumstances Dr. Anderson considered that the method of noting the rate of cooling by curves automatically traced—as now so ingeniously worked out by Roberts-Austen— olg 5 % 5 1 “a ie Royal Society is doing a similar work for scientific papers 7 —_ affords the best promise of placing in the hands of the mechanic — a means of judging at any rate of the uniformity in com- position of the material, and even perhaps of its actual chemical nature, so far as this affects his wants. As additional advan- tages the thermo-electric autographic apparatus is cheap ; it occupies but little space, it can be employed in an ordinary room, and the results sought can be obtained in a few minutes. The use of petroleum or mineral oil next occupied a place in the address, the author being of opinion that as a source o” power it would rapidly gain ground. In 1888, Priestman Bros. brought out their engine, working with a heavy oil having a high flashing temperature. That engine was tested by the pre- sent Lord Kelvin (then Sir William Thomson) and the author independently, and gave an efficiency of one brake horse-power NATURE May 12, 1892 | 1°73 lb. of oil. At the next year’s show the consumption ‘to 1°42 lb. ; in 1890, to 1°'243 Ib., and Prof. Unwin this reports that a brake horse-power has been obtained by the ustion of 0°946 1b. Much yet remains to be done. The fal work on the brake is under 14 per cent. of the energy atent in the fuel, while the heat carried off by the water jacket gund the cylinder, and by the exhaust is equivalent to 75 per i tg the total thermal capacity of the fuel. Dr. Anderson ion that a combination of the direct combustion igine with the spirit-engine of the Yarrow type would give the est results, expecially if a more advantageous cycle than that the Otto gas-engine can be adopted. address next proceeded to deal with the question of the of the earth to supply the ever-increasing demand for etroleum, and to enquire whether it would be possible to ubstitute it largely for coal as a source of heat, owing to the et that we should have to go deeper and deeper in the future ble coal measures. In connection with this the address gave particulars of the researches of eeff, and described his theory of the continuous forma- “petroleum by the action of water on the molten rocks in anterior of the earth. The speculation is one of great t, but has already been dealt with in these pages. vote of thanks to the President for his address was Sir Frederick Bramwell and carried with accla- : tian ped of the address the Report of the Marine Trials Research Committee, which had been prepared Chairman of the Committee, Prof. Alexander B. W. , was read. This report dealt with the trials of the 2 channel steamer Ville de Douvres, which had been asly placed at the disposal of the Committee by the Bel- rment. This vessel is one of the line which carries s between Ostend and Dover, and was built and engined ociété Cockerill, of Seraing, Belgium, and is a com- ew vessel, having been delivered in the year 18go. ¢ machinery consists of a pair of compound sur- gpaddleengines. Vessels of this class are mainly a view to speed, as the chief object desired is to ™ ers and mails quickly from port to port. three hours’ duration, it would obviously not pay > under way is comparatively small when considered n to the time spent in raising steam and cooling down critics appeared to forget during the discussion. eers are apt to base their estimates of efficiency, jis a good thing to save fuel if it can be ‘without too much sacrifice. An examination of ch Committee illustrates this important point. We hardly w to deal with this paper. It is full of information of rc alt to make an abstract, and we have not space th Perhaps the best plan will be to me of the leading facts ; and, although these may appear hat bald standing alone, they will enable our readers to 1 estimate of the scope of the trials, and those who are interested will go to the original, in the Transactions of 29 feet broad, and 15°5 feet deep, moulded. Her 3 _ She was run for nine hours especially for the trial in the The engines are of the compound inclined, surface- meter, with 72 inches stroke. Neither cylinder is steam- keted, but there is an intermediate receiver encircling the i towards efficiency. The air, feed, and bilge pumps are from the main engines. The circulating pump is The surface condenser contains 6540 square feet of tube irface, and it is so arranged that the circulating water passes ‘is such that the coldest water meets the hottest steam. This is Naturally not the best arrangement, for the circulating water even after it had been somewhat raised in temperature by the coldest steam. On the other hand, circulating water having any refinements with a view of economizing fuel. ‘is a point which should be borne in mind, but in marine practice, too much on an _ economy ails of the various trials of steamships made by the . description, but its very fullness renders it ar details in full. n, for fuller details. The Vz/le de Douvres is 271 d tonnage is 855 gross; and her displacement 1090 ing type, with cylinders 50°12 inches and 97°12 inches ig -pr cylinder; an arrangement which certainly does ep ri te, and is estimated to develop 47 indicated horse-power. ree times through the condenser. The course of the water ‘would still be efficient for taking heat from the hottest steam, NO. 1176, VOL. 46] been heated by the steam at highest temperature, will be com- paratively inefficient to further cool down steam already cooled to a great extent. In any case, if a good vacuum be ulti- mately obtained, the refrigerating surface will be far less effective. The paddle-wheels are 22 feet 10 inches over the floats, the latter being 10 feet broad and 4 feet 4 inches deep. The immersion on trial was 17 inches. There are four single-ended return-tube boilers, 13 feet by 10 feet. The grate area is 236 square feet, and the total heating surface 7340 square feet. There is forced draught on the closed stokehold system. The total weight of all machinery, exclusive of paddle-wheels, and all water is 361 tons. Block fuel was used throughout the trial. The calorific value, calculated from analyses made, was 14,390 ‘thermal units per pound. This corresponds to an evaporation of 14°90 pounds of water from and at 212° F. A number of samples of furnace gases were collected and analyzed, with the following mean results :— SS toy om Oxygen. Nitrogen. By volume per cent. ... 11°55 0°00 7°95 ... 80°50 By weight per cent. ... 16° 0°00 8°44 ... 74°72 There was a little uncertainty about the temperature of the chimney gases, but the mean temperature wa; assumed to be g1o° F. The mean draught was equal to a pressure of from 0°92 to I'22 inches on the water-gauge. A notable feature about these trials was that the feed measurement was made by meters. This is a vast improvement, in one respect at least, and that of great importance, on the measuring tank system. Measuring tanks are always cumbersome and difficult to fit ; so much so that they generally prove the greatest bar to proper trials being made of the efficiency of marine machinery. The meters used were of the Kennedy type, and appear to have answered the purpose admir- ably. There is no trouble in taking a meter reading, whilst the measuring tanks require constant attention. We look on the introduction of the water meter for this purpose as a most im- portant step in advance, and one which will lead to engineers obtaining more frequent information on the efficiency of marine engines. It is most desirable that the performance of the boiler should be separated from that of the engine. The indicated horse-power and coal consumption give the economy of the whole machine ; but when results are not satisfactory it is often difficult to say whether the fault rests in the boiler compartment or the engine-room. Another step in advance is the effort made to measure the amount of priming water. In the present day we do not have so much trouble from priming as in past times, when lower pressures were in use and the steam space was practically what it is now, Still, there are yet large quantities of unevaporated water often carried over to the engines by the rush of steam. It is obviously useless to exercise great care in measuring the feed if a considerable part of it is carried from the boiler to the condenser simply as water. . In such a case the boiler is credited with a high evaporative efficiency by reason of its very fault; and the engine is debited with steam which it never receives, but on the contrary is having its action impaired by the presence of water in the cylinders. The method of testing for priming is as follows :—A quantity of steam from the main steam-pipe is condensed in a special surface-condensing apparatus, and collected, and at the same time a sample of water is taken separately from the boilers. Both of these samples are carefully analyzed to determine the quantity of salt presentineach. As the whole of the salt found in the sample from the steam-pipe must have come over from the boiler in conjunction with priming water, and not with steam, a simple calculation will show how much boiler water corre- sponds with the quantity of salt, if any, found in the steam-pipe sample. From this it is easy to determine what percentage of the whole feed-water has passed from the boilers in the form of water, or, in other words, what percentage there is of priming. The chemical determination for salt is a very simple one, and is capable of being carried with ease to an exceptional degree of certainty. The observed and calculated data of the trial are given in a full table appended to the report. The mean boiler pressure was 105°8 lbs. above atmosphere, the vacuum 10°12 lbs. below atmosphere, the revolutions 36°82 per minute, the mean indicated horse-power 2977, the fuel per square foot of grate per hour 31°3 lbs., and the feed-water per indicated horse-power per hour 20°77 lbs., allowing for auxiliary engines. The efficiency of the boiler was 66°1 per cent., and of the engines 11°7 per cent. The combined efficiency of engine and boilers was 7°7 per cent. 44 NATURE [May 12, 1892 A very interesting discussion followed the reading of the report, but a great part of this it would be useless to give, as many details of the. trial have necessarily been omitted from our brief abstract. A paper was next read ‘‘On Condensation in Steam-Engine Cylinders during admission.” This was a contribution by Lieutenant-Colonel English, of Jarrow. In former papers on this subject the author had given experimental data, but it was objected that he had left out of account the range of temperature in the cylinder. In order to show that this was not the case, he submitted the following formule, which, he claimed, proved his case. The former papers, a study of which is necessary to a proper understanding of the facts, may be found in the Transactions of the Institution for the years 1887 and 1889. In jacketed cylinders the weight of steam condensed per stroke and not re-evaporated at cut-off is represented by the exprcssion : 56 x (S. ae S;) uae ed Rowena) a ats Pis \/revs. per second . L where S, is the unjacketed clearance surface in square feet, S, the fresh surface exposed during admission up to cut-off, p, the initial density of the steam in pounds per cubic foot, and L the latent heat of evaporation in thermal units." If @ be the diameter of the cylinder in feet, 7 the length of stroke in feet, m the proportion of stroke up to cut-off, « =—— eit ——) 2 x area of cylinder and N the number of revolutions per minute ; then S, = un- , 2 “a ih SAO jacketed clearance surface = re, S, = mdml; Nrevs. per second IN : : : = os ; and the foregoing expression may be written Weight condensed = a (“2 ry nim \p L, x JN ary een! (5- a) em Lx JN\m dj) 4 72 ‘ \ But" saad is the weight of steam per stroke uncondensed at cut-off, and 868 may be taken as an approximate value for L; therefore for jacketed cylinders ; weight condensed i: 558 ie a weight uncondensed == /N \wl_— ad For unjacketed cylinders a similar approximate expression is a.) Be JN\ml ad] The author supported his views by means of a voluminous table, in which he gathered together the observed data on a number of steam-engine trials made by various well-known authorities, to which he attached the results obtained by calcu- lation on his system. A short discussion fullowed the reading of this paper, and the meeting was then brought to a conclusion by the usual votes of thanks. The summer meeting of the Institution will beheld at Ports- mouth, on July 26 to 29. THE ROYAL SOCIETY SOIREE. “THE annual sozrée of the Royal Society, which took place on - Wednesday, May 4, may be said to have been the most successful that has been held for many years. All the necessary arrangements, which were by no means few in number, were carried out without a hitch, while the exhibits were of a most attractive nature. As regards the latter, the following are a few notes of the most novel and important objects displayed :— Prof. T. E. Thorpe exhibited a mod! to illustrate the general ‘phenomena of explosions as brought about by the presence of dust particles, in explanation of the causes of colliery explosions. This apparatus consisted of two long narrow boxes, fitted together in the form of a cross. On the bottom of these boxes was thinly strewn a quantity of fine Lycopodium powder, while at one end of the longer box there was a small chamber in which a blank cartridge was fired. The firing of this cartridge corresponded to the direct action of a ‘‘ blow-out shot,” while the dust raised NO. 1176, VOL. 46] by the concussion, which carried the flame throughout the entire apparatus, took the place of the fine coal dust. The apparatus also showed that the progress of such an explosion was always accompanied with increase of violence. ee Prof. Clowes showed an ordinary miner’s safety-lamp which had, by a very simple contrivance, been converted into a delicate instrument for detecting minute proportions of fire-damp, To the ordinary burner an additional tube is made to pass through 7 the oil reservoir, one end of it being connected, by means of a flexible tube, with a small portable bottle of compressed - hydrogen. The hydrogen when turned on becomes ignited close to the oil burner, the flame of which is extinguished by turning down the wick ; by adjusting the flame of hydrogen to the standard height, a luminous column of light is seen vertically over it, from the behaviour of which the amount of inflammable gas can be directly estimated. At the conclusion of the experi- ment the wick is simply turned up, and ignited from the hydrogen flame ; the latter is then disconnected from the bottle. From 0°25 to 3 per cent. of fire-damp hasin this way been estimated, while greater quantities than these have been measured by reducing thesize of the flame. Vacuum tubes without electrodes, exhibited by Dr. Bottom- ley, These tubes, which were of a variety of shapes and kinds, illustrated very beautifully all the phenomena of stratification. They were sensitive also to magnetic and electro-dynamic in- fluence, and showed the phenomena of molecular bombardment. The brilliant illumination of a piece of Iceland spar contained in a glass sphere afforded an excellent means of displaying the electrical excitements. [For an account of experiments with vacuum tubes, see a letter by Mr. Bottomley in NATURE, January 6, 1881, vol. xxiii. p. 218.] Mr. Cecil Carus- Wilson exhibited some natural and artificial sands, from which he was able to produce many musical notes. These notes, as he explained, were the results of the rubbing together of the surfaces of the grains of sand, but he had met with several sands from which he could not obtain a vestige of anote. One special artificial sand sang only when rubbed in some sort of vessel. Apparatus for measuring degrees of incompleteness of colour vision, exhibited by Mr. Brudenell Carter. The object used for the tests is a group of various colours, which were such that they could be seen by either reflected or transmitted light. The | amount of illumination that was required to recognize the colours distinctly was a measure of the ‘*‘degree of incomplete- ness.” In order to control this amount of illumination, light of known intensity had to pass through a variable aperture before it fell on the test object, the size of this aperture being read off in square millimetres. Captain Weir’s azimuth diagram was exhibited by Mr. J. D. Potter. It is claimed for this diagram that besides being most ingenious, it furnishes one of the most successful modes of graphic solution of a mathematical problem that has ever been invented. It is used for finding the true azimuth of a heavenly body, taking into account the ever-changing errors of the compass, which in our days of iron ships have to be so carefully watched and recorded. ‘The errors as usually determined are obtained from observations made of the compass-bearing of a heavenly body (the sun generally being taken) with its true bearing, and it is for the simplification of this method that this azimuth diagram has been found to be practically useful. Prof. Oliver Lodge had three exhibits. The first was the projection of interference bands on a screen, being produced by a modified method of Michelson. Very striking also were the electric sparks in and to water, illustrating lightning effects and multiple flashes. Ina shower, with too great spark-length for a strong discharge, a multitude of violet streams or spurts filled the air, resembling somewhat lightning flashes. The spark — to water spread itself out over the surface, showing that the surface layer was a feeble dielectric, while the spark under water was brief Lut very vivlent, treating the water as a dielectric, and producing concussion. The electric retina, illustrating the possible meaning of the rod-and-cone structure, was very in- teresting ; radiation from spheres which were in a suddenly disturbed and oscillatory electrical condition falling upon a graduated series of end-on cylinders, which responded by vibrating transversely. Mr. Crookes repeated many of those beautiful ex- periments of electric currents of high potential and extreme frequency that were first carried out by Tesla. The discharges from a battery of Leyden jars were sent through the primary May 12, 1892] NATURE 45 ire of an oil induction coil. The frequence of alternation nted to no less than 1,000,000 a second, while the electro- ive force reached the enormous amount of 100,000 volts. haps it was as well that this frequency was great, otherwise physiological action might have been rather surprising to ¢ who trusted implicitly in Mr. Crookes, The resistance d by the sheet of vulcanite to the’strong current produced e fine flashes, while very pretty were the examples of brush harges, St. Elmo’s fires, &c., at the secondary poles of the induction coil. he electrical apparatus shown by Captain Holden, R.A., onsisted of Some very important new instruments, among which = may mention the high-speed chronographic pen for taking a ber of successive records of short intervals of time, the pen automatically reset after each record ; an improved simple’ pensated voltmeter on the hot wire system, and the dead-beat rating current ammeter worked by a heated metal strip and from self-induction. Prof. Roberts-Austen exhibited a new electrical method for exact determination of very high temperatures, which has ered possible the construction of a very simple instrument, ed by Prof. H. Le Chatelier, that can be placed in the hands workman. The latter depends on the comparison of the ; ity of the radiation emitted by a glowing body (the tempera- ture of which has to be determined) with that of a standard ‘source of light. To use the instrument it is pointed in such a tion as to have the light from the heated mass of metal in ; field of view, so that the colour can be distinctly observed ; in the same field of view a series of standard colours can also be ‘made apparent (situated side by side with the heated metal), by turning a milled head screw which carries a pointer over a aduated scale. By matching the colours a direct reading of : position of the eng gives the required temperature. ote J. Smith exhibited an electric tram chronograph he had devised for measuring small periods of time, from one-fourth to one-twenty-thousanth part of a md. This instrument consists of a metal girder furnished with a T-shaped end, carries two steel rails, and is supported on V-groove, hole, od gay system. The carriage, on which is a slightly smoked glass plate, runs on these rails, driven y a weight or by a coiled spring. A metal pillar, carried dove, hole, and plane system, is placed in front of the ce, and supports electro-magnetic styli which can be contact with the smoked surface ; a tuning-fork ced that the traces are found to be recorded on the ate so as to afford a means of measuring the time The two motions of the pillar, of rotation and vertical allow a large number of observations to be made on plate. There are also continuous contact-breakers, when a photographic plate is fixed in the carriage, (gs 3g sled moving objects may be obtained: This ent has been applied to the measurement of the velocity rojectiles, and periods of time in physiological research, _to the photography of insects and falling drops of rhaps the most unique exhibit of the evening was the series rt s of flying-bullets which Mr. Boys had obtained modification of an old method. The photographs showed utifully the waves in the air caused by the rapid flight of the et analogous to those produced by a fast-going steamer. In one slide the small pieces of paper through which the bullet had passed were also seen ploughing their way through the air, ducing quite as definite waves as the projectile itself, only of such large dimensions. The passage of a bullet through a ce of wire was also very curious, the piece of wire that was it off not having time to fall before it was seized by the light- eye of the camera. The photograph showing a magazine bullet piercing a glass plate brought out some very interest- g facts. glass appeared to be thoroughly scattered in a ion opposite to that in which the bullet was proceeding, } greatest scattering’ taking place on the side which the jeetile touched first. The waves set up on the glass plate @ measures of the wave, length of the tremor caused, and the dcity of travel. The bullets used for these pictures were of ous kinds, and the velocities varied from 750 to as much as 3000 feet per second, the former from a pistol and the latter a »btai _ from a magazine rifle, the bullet being composed of alaminium to obtain this great velocity. _ The Committee of the Kew Observatory exhibited a testing camera for photographic objectives that had been designed by NO. 1176, VOL. 46] Major L. Darwin, With this instrument all the most important features of a lens can be accurately and swiftly determined. We may mention here that arrangements are being made that any lens sent to them will be thoroughly examined in all respects under the superintendence of Mr. G. M. Whipple, certificates of examination being made out, as is at present done in the case of other instruments. We must now pass on to the photographs. Astronomy was well to the fore with the exhibits of Messrs. Lockyer and Roberts. The former showed a fine spectrum of Nova Aurigz, that had been enlarged twenty-five times from a negative taken with only a 6-inch object-glass and prism by the Brothers Henry and Hilger respectively; several fine photographs of stellar spectra illustrating the main evolutionary types accord- ing tothe metéoritic hypothesis, and photograplis of the 3-foot reflector at Kensington that is now near completion. Mr. Roberts showed some photographs of celestial objects ; the original negative of Nova Cygni, taken with a 20-inch reflector with a two-hours’ exposure, showing the Nova as a star of the thirteenth magnitude. An enlargement of the region in which Nova Aurigze was situated when the star was of the fourth magnitude was also displayed, together with the original photo- graph taken with the instrument before mentioned, but with an exposure of three hours. The photographs showing the great sun-spot of February last, exhibited by the Solar Physics Committee, may be said to be the best series that has ever been obtained. The series included nine days, and showed the remarkable changes that occurred during the interval from February 5 to February 17. Mr. W. Saville-Kent exhibited a series of photographs, over a hundred, taken by himself, enlargements of the same, and water- colour sketches, illustrating coral reefs, coral animals, and the marine fauna generally of the Great Barrier district of Australia. A lantern exhibition illustrating the same subject was also included in the evening’s programme. The reef views, which portrayed extensive areas of growing corals of innumerable varieties, were, as explained by the exhibitor, taken at abnor- mally low spring tides, and are as a matter of fact very. rarely visible to the extent depicted. Among the more important points associated with this exhibit were the facts that in a large number of instances accurate measurements had been taken of the individual corals that compos ed the reefs photographed, such reefs being in easily accessible positions, where their sub- sequent amount and rate of growth could be periodically deter- mined. This exhibit, more particularly with relation to the illustrations of living coral polyps—those of the mushroom corals, genus Fungia, being particularly noteworthy—represented the first occasion in which photography has been systematically applied to this highly interesting biological subject. A second novelty exhibited by Mr. Saville-Kent was a pear! of fine quality and considerable size that the exhibitor had caused the mother- of-pearl shell animal, Me/eagrina margaritifera, to produce by means of a delicately ipul operation on the living animal. From the Zimbabwe ruins, Mashonaland, some very valuable finds in the shape of pottery, gold crucibles, weapons, ingot moulds, &c., were exhibited by Mr. Theodore Bent and the Royal Geographical Society ; while by the same exhibitors were shown a model of the circular temple at Zimbabwe, built of small blocks of granite without mortar; and several plans of ruins in Mashonaland. No less interesting also were the photographs of ancient Central American monuments and build- ings from the ruins at Chichén Itza (Yucatan), Palenque (Chiapas), &c., exhibited} by Mr. Alfred P. Maudslay; and a selection from the proof-plates to the first memoir of the archzeo- logical survey of Egypt that is being undertaken by Mr. Percy E. New One of these proof-plates showed all the suc- cessive stages of a wrestling match between a black and a white man, more than‘a hundred different positions being recorded ; the white man, we are sorry to say, seemed to be getting the worst of it in many of them. ‘Several important discoveries were made during the Royal Dublin Society’s survey of the fishing grounds on the west coast of Ireland ; specimens of several fish then obtained were exhibited by Prof. A. C. Haddon and Mr. E. W. L. Holt. Many new to British waters were found, while one quite new to science (Nettophichthys retropinnatus, Holt) was caught. Some very curious worms composed Mr. F. E, Beddard’s exhibit. They were specimens of Branchiura Sowerbii, and were found in a tank in the Regent’s Park Botanical Gardens. ry = 46 NATURE [| May 12, 1892 They possess a dorsal and ventral series of contractile gills, which make them differ from all other knowa fresh-water worms. To summarize shortly a few of the other exhibits, we may mention Messrs. Pike and Harris’s high tension apparatus; Mr. H. L. Callendar’s platinum resistance pyrometers ; the original specimen of Asteropecten Orion (Forbes), and a specimen of a slab of mountain limestone Bolland showing the passage of a foraminiferal ooze into crystalline calcite, by Prof. Cc. Williamson ; Prof. Percy Frankland’s crystals of active calcium glycerate (levorotatory) ; and the two exhibits of turacin, one Dr. C. A. MacMunn, showing the very remarkable spectrum it produces; the other by Prof. A. H. Church, who discovered this red pigment in the wing-feathers of certain plantain-eaters or Touracos. A very ingenious process of so-called colour photo- graphy was explained by Mr. F. Ives, of Philadelphia, who showed several pictures by means of a special optical lantern. THE SOUTH LONDON: ENTOMOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. "THE annual Exhibition of this Society was held on the 5th and 6th inst., at ‘‘ The Bridge House,” London Bridge, S.E. The President, Mr, C. G. Barrett, F.E.S., in opening the Exhibition, gave a short account of the history of the Society from its formation by eleven South London entomologists in 1872; and he referred to the work done by members in render- ing popular the study of biological science. The exhibits were arranged in four rooms, and were very varied, including examples of nearly every order of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. _In the first room Mr. C. S. Cooper exhibited an almost per- fect collection of British wild flowers and leaves; the Lambeth Field Club, Mollusca ; Mr. J. T. Carrington, land shells from the Riviera, arranged so as to show variation; Mr. C. H. Collings aid Mr. D. W. Collings, British and Australian birds’ eggs aud British birds; Mr, H. J. Turner and Mr. Rice, nests and egys of British birds, the latter having a double nest.of the great titmouse (Parus major). The tables around this room were set apart for the exhibition of objects by aid of the micro- scope, and among so many it is difficult to make a selection ; but the more important objects were those of Mr, T. D. Ersser, who showed the circulation of the blood in a gold carp, a most interesting subject ; Mr. J. H. Stanley, spawn of perch; Mr. H.. Groves, the circulation of sap in Nitella; Mr. R. Macer, heads and eyes of various species of spider; Mr. West, fresh- water Polyzoa; Mr. i. Hinton, preparations of the Hydroids, including the beautiful sea pen, killed with the tentacles fully extended ; Mr. W. B. Medland, the pulsation in the heart of a snail; Mr. J. B. Medland, a section of the jaw of a mole, with the teeth 2 sz¢w (polarized), In the second room Mr. J. A. Cooper’s birds’ nests and eggs in natural clutches occupied one end, and were much admired : one of the principal features of this collection being that it is arranged to show the variation in different clutches of the eggs in one species. This was particularly noticeable in those of the red-backed shrike. Among the eggs there were white varieties of those of the chaffinch, lapwing, and great black- ‘backed gull ;, variable series of the guillemot, razorbill, lapwing, and golden plover ; also a series of nests containing eggs of the cuckoo, including nests of the wagtail, tree pipit, chaffinch, greenfinch, hedge sparrow, robin, flycatcher, yellow bunting. In the class Insecta some of the more important exhibits were those of Mr. J. H. Leech, with sixteen drawers containing Palzarctic Lepidoptera. ‘This collection attracted considerable attention. Mr. J. Jenner Weir showed exotic Rhopalocera, illustrating forms of mimicry, and fine examples of South African Ornithoptera. Mr. S. Edwards also: contributed a large exhibit of exotic Rhopalocera. Adjoining these, was the Society’s typical collection of Canadian Lepidoptera. Four drawers of European Neuroptera were shown by Mr. R. McLachlan. Mr. H. Moore exhibited a number of wasps’ nests. Mr. T. R. Billup’s exhibit comprised British Coleoptera, con- taining types of nearly all the known species ; three drawers of Hemiptera-Heteroptera and one of Homoptera were beautifully arranged, and the adoption of a system of labelling giving the name of the species, the locality where taken, and date of capture, is much to be commended ; seven drawers of Hymenoptera Aculeata, containing many rare species, also long series of Ichneumonidz, many of the specimens being new to science, and others new to NO. 1176, VOL. 46] Britain ; also two drawers of life-histories of Hymenopterous and Dipterous parasites, together with the larve and imagines of the Lepidopterous host, This last exhibit was one of the — most interesting and instructive of the exhibition. Of British Lepidoptera there was a magnificent display, there being some forty exhibitors. Mr. R. South showed nearly the whole of his collection of Pyrales, Crambi, Pterophori, and Tortrices, a selection of Voctue, among which were extreme series of most of the polymorphic species in the group ; a drawer of Ly'c@na icarus, showing the colour range of both sexes, one very blue female : without black discoidal spots was especially interesting ; a drawer of Geometree showing that the colour and orna- mentation of the female parent is transmitted to a large proportion of her offspring ; Mr. C. G. Barrett, Pieris napi, one female of a light canary-yellow colour from Norfolk, others | suffused with grey from South Wales, others with black spots and tips and dark nervures from the north of Ireland ; varieties of Anthocharis cardamines ; long series of Odonestis potatoria, showing extreme variation, the colour in the males ranging from chocolate to a pale buff; also extensive series of varieties of Agrotis cursoria and A. tritici, from the east coast of England. Mr. Barrett also exhibited a drawer of varieties of Rhopalocera lent to him for the purpose of figuring in his book on the British Lepidoptera, by the Rev. Joseph Greene, the Rev. O. Pickard Cambridge, Dr. Wheeler, Mr. J. E. Robson, Mr. E. Sabine, and Mr. Sydney Webb. It is doubtful whether such a collection of varieties has been seen before, and those Lepido- pterists who pay special attention to the question of variation were much interested in the extraordinary varietiesshown. Mr. F. Merrifield, examples of Se/enia tllustraria, S. illunaria, S. lunaria, Eugonia alniaria, Vanessa urtice, Platypteryx falca- taria, Arctia caia, Bombyx quercus and var. callune, bred by him in his experiments on the effect of temperature on the pupee of certain species in causing variation. Labels were attached to each specimen showing the conditions to which the pupz had been subjected, and the results obtained from these. It appeared that a lower temperature produced examples which were darker and more intense in colour than those subjected to higher temperatures. A third drawer of S. tllustraria and S. illunaria was shown, as illustrations of the effect of temperature applied for a very few days to pupz at a sensitive stage, z.e. just before they began to show the colour, the forcing temperature was about 77 ; the natural temperature about 40° to 50°; a range of 15° or less (at a point which it appeared was not yet actually ascertained between 57. and 73°) was sufficient to produce the full temperature effects shown in the first two cases, but a range of much less than 13°, if at the right part of the thermometric scale, pro- duced substantial difference of colouring. Mr. W. Farren contributed examples from Cambridge including fine yellow specimens of Bryophila perla, and extensive series of JZ. muralis and B, impar of Warren ; these gave rise to consider- able discussion among visitors as to whether zmpar was a true species or only a variety of mzralis. Mr. R. S. Standen, a small box showing extreme varieties of Avgynnide. Mr. Tugwell, a selection from his cabinet, including long series of Augonza alniarta, Esp., melanic forms of Phigalia pedaria, Boarmia repandata, Tephrosia biundularia, &c., and striking varieties of Abraxas grossulariata, Mr. C. G. Gregson also put in a magni- ficent series of varieties of this last-named species, some of the specimens being entirely suffused with the black markings, in others the yellow-coloured markings were wanting, and many were very pale forms, the black markings being ab- sent; Mr. Gregson also showed Diéanthecia conspersa, from various localities, to illustrate the local variation in that species—many of the forms were so extreme that he had given them varietal names. Mr. J. R. Wellman, his collection of Dianthcecia and Acidalia, also a drawer of Czdarta russata, bred and captured from various parts of Great Britain, a most interesting drawer as showing local variation. Mr. F. W. Hawes, Rhopalocera, reared in 1890 and 1891, chiefly from ova obtained by searching or from the captured female, thus enabling: Mr. Hawes to ascertain the early life-histories of this group ; among them were examples of Hesperia lineola, the species recently added to the British list by Mr. Hawes. Variation in Arctia catia was shown by Mr. Goldthwait, Mr. T. W. Hall, and Mr. A. Mera. Mr. C. H. Williams included in his series a gynandrous specimen of Argynnis paphia taken by him last summer in the New Forest, and much attention was paid to this beautiful specimen. Life-histories, the larvee being mounted on May 12, 1892] NALUREL 47 / natural food-plant, were shown by Mr. J. A. Simes, Mr. A. a Mr. A. J. Croker, the latter gentleman’s Phoro- ma smaragdaria being especially noticeable. Mr. R. Adkin hibited a collection of British Sphinges and Bombyces, nged with a view to showiug local variation, such variation ng well defined in some of the species of the genus. Sp#/o- __ Also a collection of Macro-Lepidoptera made at nnoch, Perthshire, in.1891, illustrating an article on the ocal variation prevailing in that district recently contributed othe Zntomologist. Mr. Tutt, extremely long and variable eries of Noctuz. Mr. Machin four drawers from his cabinet ; ‘among the rarer species were Dicranura ticuspis and Drepana third room there was a large exhibit of marine ca, by Mr. Conishbee. Mr. Step’s exhibit of living afforded a capital opportunity for comparing the -as well as theirshells. Between thirty and forty species rere thus shown, each in a separate glass, and ranged from : substantial Helix fomatia to the graceful Clausilia rugosa among land snails; and from the large Axodons to the fragile Planorbis linentus among the aquatic species, Pond life was shown by Mr. Perks ; living newts, &c., by Mr. R. Adkin, Jun. ; id living snakes, &c., by Mr. Gee. A gigantic sponge was exhibited by Mr. Kedgley. In a fourth room Mr. Reeves exhibited and explained an ul set of diagrams, showing the correct positions of horses’ ile walking, trotting, and galloping, and to demonstrate s the diagrams were transferred to a zoétrope. large room was set apart for lectures, and during each vening crowded audiences listened to Mr. F. Enock, who red on ** The Life-history of the British Trap-door Spider.” lecture was illustrated by Mr. Enock’s original micro- raphic slides, shown by means of the oxy-hydrogen Mr. E. Step’s ‘‘ Talk about Toadstools ” was listened to ly on each evening. The figures thrown on the screen ‘Mr. Siep’s own photographs and drawings. A third : was given by Mr. George Day, illustrated by micro- graphic slides, entitled ‘‘ Domestic Friends and Foes.” IMERINA, THE CENTRAL PROVINCE OF : Pees MADAGASCAR. C)N Monday evening the Rev. James Sibree read a valuable _ paper on Imérina, the central province of Madagascar, the Royal Geographical Society. After an account of of recent explorers, of whom the French surveyors, _and Maistre, and the English missionary, Mr. Baron, no st important, Mr. Sibree came to the main subject of , of which the following is an abstract. randidier, who is now completing a splendid atlas of adagascar, published a map of Imérina on the scale of : 200,000 in 1880, and in 1883 an orographical map coloured cording to the contour lines. The road from the port of atave to Antananarivo, the Hova capital, in the centre of the Imérina province remains a mere footpath, impassable either to wheeled vehicles or to beasts of iain ; and now, as O years : ers are the only means of transport. P Tatton (the elevated ”) is bounded on the east by the steep ek forest-girdled mountain sloping to the Indian Ocean. 1¢ other boundaries are indistinct, and the total area of the ‘ovince may be estimated at 7000 square miles. The general vel of the province is from 4000 to 4500 feet above the sea. [t is a mountainous region, abounding in peaks, which rise high Paar the breezy plateau, and marked also by many valleys. Fr : e most prominent summits are Angavokély to the east, Ambdhimiangara in the extreme west, [haranandriana to the south, Milangana, Ambohimanda, and Andringitra more cen- ral, and Ambohipaniry and Vodhiléna to the north. The south- west of the province is dominated by the central mass of Ankaratra, a denuded volcano of great size, its peaks forming the culminating points of the island, and reaching nearly 9009 feet _abovethesea, The mountain-peaks are usually granite or gneiss, “sometimes occurring in great rounded bosses, sometimes in fan- ‘tastically carved pinnacles resembling from a distance Titanic forts, castles, and cathedrals. Decomposed granite covers a _ great part of the country with thick deposits of clay, sometimes white but more often tinted deep red by ferric oxide. _Iron is abundant, gold has recently been discovered, gra hite, galena, ‘copper, and other useful minerals are also found in Imérina. NO. 1176, VOL. 46] The watershed of the island lies much nearer the east coast than the west, and the two chief rivers rising in the extreme east traverse the breadth of the province on their way to the Mozambique Channel.’ The Ikdpa, fed by the Sisaony, the Andrémba, the Mamba, and other streams, flows north-westward through the fertile plain of Bétsimitatatra, and farther north is joined by the Bétsibdka, under which name the united stream runs on to the sea at the Bay of Bembatoka. Lake Itasy is the only large body of water in Imérina, and probably owes its origin to volcanic subsidence. On account of its altitude Imérina has a pleasant temperate climate, although lying within the tropics. The south-east trade- winds, blowing fresh and moist over the forest belt and the wooded plains of the east, make the atmosphere peculiarly bracing in the cooler season. The annual rainfall at Antana- narivo is about 53 inches. Through the clear pure air distant landscapes stand out with remarkable sharpness of outline. Towards sunset Imérina is seen in its most attractive aspect ; the hills, range beyond range, assume the richest shades of purple, the sky flames with crimson and gold, and the long clay walls of the native compounds glow like streaks of vermilion. The general aspect of the province is bare, except for patches of primzeva! forest in the northern districts. Moor-like hills, which would look utterly dreary but for the marvellous atmo- spheric effects, predominate. Near Antananarivo the dried-up bed of an ancient lake, known as Bétsimitatatra, formsa great plain, covered with rice-fields, which support a dense population. The steep sides of the river valleys are terraced, like great green stair- cases, with rice-plots, where the grain is sown broadcast, and whence the young plants are transplanted in the larger fields refi the river-plains and in the meadows left by dried-up es. The political subdivisions of Imérina are mainly tribal, and are used for purposes of taxation, and for the apportionment of military levies and forced labour. No census has been taken, but an estimate based on the number of villages and houses justifies the estimate of the population at about 1,100,000, Except Antauanarivo, there are only small villages in the pro- vince, but these are clustered very closely together, especially to the north and north-west of the capital. Several of these were formerly tribal capitals, and Ambohimanga still retains nominal equality with Antananarivo in royal speeches. The old villages were always built on hills for purposes of defence, and surrounded by double or treble lines of fosses and embankments dug out of the hard red clay. A narrow bridge of the red clay leads to the gateway, which is formed of blocks of rock, either a circular slab 10 or 12 feet in diameter, which was rolled between upright gate-posts so as to block the way, or massive upright monoliths bearing strong wooden gates. In recent times the Hovas have largely deserted these fortresses, and built them- selves villages close to the rice-fields. Graves of the aboriginal Vazimba are scattered over the province, but local feeling prevents any examination of these from being made. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. PARIS, Academy of Sciences, May 2.—M. d’Abbadie in the chair.—The movements of minute organisms analyzed by means of chronophotography, by M. Marey. Using an arrangement described in the Revue Générale des Sciences in November last, and in NATURE, vol, xlv. p. 228, M. Marey has obtained photo- graphs of the movements of blood corpuscles in the capillaries, and has analyzed the movements of zoosphores in the cells of a Cladophora. Enlargements from these negatives have been resented to the Academy. By taking a series of pictures at intervals of about one-tenth of a second, and projecting them upon a screen at about the same rate, the effect of the real motions of the object can be reproduced. The arrangement for doing this will be described in a future communication, —Ob- servations of Swift’s, Denning’s, and Winnecke’s comets, made at Algiers Observatory with the coud equatorial, by MM. Rambaud and Sy. Observations of position are given.—On the approximation of functions of very large numbers, by M. Maurice amy.—On the tautochronism in a material system, by M. Paul Appell.—On the laws of electrolysis, by M. A. Chassy. When a substance having the formula M,R, is electrolyzed, M desig- nating an electro-positive and R an electro-negative radicle, one equivalent of the radicle R, and equivalents of the radicle M 48 NAL OIE [May 12, 1892 are, disengaged when one equivalent of hydrogen is set free in a voltameter included in the circuit. Wiedemann and others have found exceptions to this law, for in the case of some salts, % equivalent of the radicle R and one equivalent of the other radicle are disengaged. M. Chassy proposes to sub- stitute the following law for those previously enunciated, all cases being included in it : ‘‘ Lorsqu’on électrolyse une substance quelconque il se dégage toujours l’équivalent d’hydrogéne ou la quantité correspondante du radical électropositif.””—A new case of abnormal solution: saturated solutions, by M. F. Par- mentier. The author finds that the solubility of ethyl bromide in ether decreases rapidly with increase of temperature.—The occurrence of fluorine in different varieties of natural phosphates, by M. Ad. Carnot. From the results of the analyses of a num- ber of sedimentary phosphates it is concluded that in the sedi- mentary phosphates the proportion of fluorine is sensibly equal to that in apatites having an equal percentage of phosphorus. Phosphorites of fibrous, semi-crystalline structure have almost the same composition as crystallized apatites. Earthy or com- pact phosphorites contain a less proportion of fluorine. Con- cretionary, zoned, and mammillated phosphorites contain barely ‘any fluorine. ‘Estimation of small quantities of carbon monoxide by means of cuprous chloride, by M. L. de Saint-Martin.— ‘Thermal study of the value of the replacement of hydrogen ‘in phenolic hydroxyl, by M. de Forcrand. C,H,O sol. + Na sol. = C,H,;.ONa sol. + H gas. . . + 39°10 cal. This is practically the mean value for the replacement of H by 27°89 5017 _ f 39 703, —On an ethylnitroketone and an acetyInitroketone derived from camphosulphophenols, by M. P. Cazeneuve.—Determination of the surface of ebullition of normal paraffins, by M. G. Hinrichs. —Action of pyridine bases on ‘certain sulphites, by M. G. Denigés. Compounds of the type SO,M”, C;H;N have been obtained and examined.—Preparation and physical properties of acetyl fluoride, by M. Maurice Meslans. (See Notes).—Diamido- phenyl sulphone and some of its derivatives, by M. Ch. Lauth. —Colouring matters and azo and alkyl compounds derived from chrysaniline, by MM. A. Trillat and De Raczkowski.—On a soluble naphthol derivative, by M. Stackler.—Remarks on some fishes from Upper Tonkin, by M. Léon Vaillant. —On Cerataspis petiti?, Guérin, and on the systematic position of the species Cerataspis, Gray (Cryptopus, Latreille), by MM. A. Giard and J. Bonnier.—On an embryological law for the orders Rhabdo- celida and Triclada, by M. Paul Hallez.—On the circulation of the blood in young spiders, by M. Marcel Causard.—On the discovery of Bactryllium in Meurthe-et-Moselle Trias, by MM. Bleicher and P. Fliche. —Applications to normal physiology and pathology of the al aa loss of the activity of tissues by local cocainisation, by M Francois-Franck.—Observation of a meteor, by M. L. Simon (extract from a letter to M. Wolf). The meteor was observed on April 24, at 1th. 55m. in the evening. It moved from east to west at an altitude of about 70° or 80°. Na in tertiary alcohols and acids, for DIARY OF SOCIETIES. LONDON. THURSDAY, May 12. RovaL Society, at 4.30.—Transformers: Prof. Perry, F.R.S.—On the Probable Effect of the Limitation of the Number of Ordinary Fellows elected into the Royal Society, to Fifteen in each Year, on the Eventual Total Number of Fellows: General Strachey, F.R.S.—On the ba ger girdle in Ichthyosauria and Sauropterygia: J. W. Hulke, F.R.S.—On the Embryology of Augiopteris evecta (Hoffm.): J. B. "lon —Note on Excretion in Sponges: G. Bidder.—On the Development of the Stig- mata in Ascidians: W. Garstang. MATHEMATICAL Society, at 8.—On an Operator that produces = the Co-variants and Invariants of any System of Quantics: Dr. W. FE. Story.—Applications of a Theory of Permutations in Circular Procession to the Theory of Numbers : Major MacMahon, F.R.S. INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 8.—Notes on the Light of the Electric Arc: A. P. Trotter. (Discussion.)—On the Cause of the Changes of Lgapkd pee? Force in Secondary Batteries: Dr. J. H. Glad- stone, F.R.S. ert. INSTITUTION OF Cav. PnciwunaasScidents’ Visits to the Beckton Gas Works, the Northern Outfall Sewer, the Victoria and Albert Docks, and the P. and O.s.s. Oceana. Leave Fenchurch Street at 9.18 a.m. ee at .3.—The Chemistry of Gases: Prof. Dewar, FRIDAY, May 13. Roya. ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, at 8. PHYSICAL SOCIETY, at 5.—An Instrument. for Drawing Parabolas: R. Inwards.—Some Electrical Instruments: F.. H.: Nalder.—An Instrument for Measuring Magnetic Fields: E. Edser and H. Stansfield. NO, 1176, VOL. 46] INSTITUTION OF CrviIL ENGINEERS.—Students’ Visits to Woolwich Arse the Works of the London Electric Supply Corporation at Deptford, the Tower Bridge. Students’ Annual Dinner at the Holborn Restaurant. a RoyaL InstiruTion, at 9.—The New Star in Auriga: Dr, William | Huggins, F.R.S. AMATEUR SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY, at 7.—Exhibition of Oe of interest. | ——At 8.—Recent Additions to Botanical Science: L. A. Boodle.—The — Copper Production of North America: W. Semmons. SATURDAY, May 14. RovaL Botanic SOciETy, at 3.45 Roya. INSTITUTION, at 3.—J. 5. Bach’s Chamber Music (with many Musical Illustrations) : E. Dannreuther. MONDAY, May 16. Victoria INSTITUTE, at 8.—On Primitive Man: Sir W. Dawson and ev. J. Meilo. TUESDAY, May 17. ZOOLOGICAL SociETy, at 8.30.—On the Geograpiicg Distribution of the Land-Mollusca of the Philippine Islands: Rev. A. H. Cooke.— Itats des Recherches Ornithologiques faites au Pérou par pce Jean ‘Kalinowski : Graf Hans von Berl=psch, C.M.Z.S., and M. n Stolzmann.—On Lucioperca marina: G. A. Boulenger. —On the. ‘Aateloans of the Genus Cephalophus: Oldfield Thomas. INSTITUTION OF CIvi1L ENGINEERS, at 8.—The Distribution and Measure- ment of Illumination: A. P. Trotter. Onn Measurement of High Temperatures: Prof. W. C. Roberts-Austen, F.R.S. RovaL INSTITUTION, at 3.—Photography in the Colours of Nature: Frederick E. Ives. WEDNESDAY, May 18. Royat MeTEoROLOGICAL Society, at 7.—Results of a Comparison of Richard Anémo-Cinémographe with the Standard Beckley Anemograph at the Kew Observatory: G. M. Whipple.—Rain-drops: E. J. Lowe F.R.S.—Levels of the River Vaal at Kinberiey South a with Remarks on the Rainfall of the Watershed: W. B. T; Roya Microscopicat Society, at 8.—On the Organs Of tion in certain sacl Ticks: R. Lewis. —The Penetrating ee ‘of the Microscope: E. M. Nelson.—The Rings and Brushes of Crystals: E. M. Nelson. THURSDAY, May 109., Roya. SOcIETY, at 4.30. Cuemica Society. ai 8.—Magnetic Rotation of some Acetyl Derivatives : . H. Perkin, F.R.S.—Studies on Isomeric Changes, No. IV. ; Derivatives of Quinone, Part’ I.: R. Ling —Note on Diastatic Action: E. R. Moritz and T. A. Glendinning.—Formation of the Hydro- carbon’ CjgHy,2 from Phenylpropionic Acid: Dr. Kipping. INSTITUTION OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, at 8. oo at 3.—The Chemistry of Gases; Prof. Dewar, FRIDAY, May 20. Roya. INSTITUTION, at 9.—Electro-Metallurgy : J. Wilson Swan. SATURDAY, May 21. " RoyaL INSTITUTION, =F 3.—]J. S. Bach’s Chamber Music (with suany Musical Illustrations) : E. Dannreuther. CONTENTS. PAGE Brachiopods of the Alpine Trias. By F, A. Bather. 25 A Text-book of Political Economy. By F. ¥. E. . 27 Our Book Shelf :— Semple: ‘‘Elements of Materia Medica and Thera- peutics” . Seah Ne Tillmann: ‘‘ Elementary Lessons in Heat” 0022 Letters to the Editor :— Aurora.—Dr. M.A. Veeder... . et ee ee The White Rhinoceros.—W. L. Distant. . : The Line Spectra of the Elements. —Dr. G. John- stone Stoney, F.R.S. On a Proposition in the Kinetic Theory of Gases.— Rev. H. W. Watson, F.R.S. ceils: Palzonictis in the American Lower Focene.—Henry Osborn \—. 3! 2 a pay eee ee Waterston’ s Theory of Gases" Sa: Report of the Royal Society’s Committee on Colour Vision. . The Great Earthquake in Japan, 1891, 28 28 29 (29 29 29 (Iiustrated. ) By iW. J... Sy Sy ata The Royal Society Selected Candidates oie deg oh Notes... boy FOC se mer Our Astronomical Column :— Photographic and Visual Magnitudes of Stars . . . Photographs of the Lyra Ring Nebula ...... Determination of the Constant of Aberration... - Star Magnitudes. .. . argc sh The Institution of Mechanical Engineers. eos ees The Royal Society Soirée .. . The South London Entomological and Welieal History Society .... “ew Imérina, the Central Province of Madagascar. Rue Societies and Academies .. . *. 6 ee Diary of Societiés ee pe Leave Charing Cross at 9.40 a.m.—At 7.30.—_ NATURE 49 BRITISH MUSEUM. e Tell el-Amarna Tablets in cp British Museum, with , 1892.) PRING the summer of 1887, a woman belonging to _ the household of one of the “antica” dealers ve at or near Tell el-Amarna, in Upper Egypt, it to follow her usual avocation of digging in and and loose earth at the foot of the hills for antiquities. Every man, woman, and child in hbourhood spent, and probably still spends, winter season they were able to sell at ae the scarabs, rings, fragments of beautifully ae to this place, until quite recently, a1 r who has visited the spot has been able to ‘served to illustrate and explain processes in the cal arts known to the Egyptians. In the early of t this century, when the scientific staff attached to on s expedition to Egypt was compiling the ma- the pes. map of Egypt afterwards edited ‘But whatever things have been dug out from sat their importance, nothing possessing the histori- ‘scientific value of the antiquities discovered by > Tell el-Amarna woman in 1888 hath ever rewarded _searc er before. The exact details of her search will ver be known, neither can the exact spot where she her great discovery be identified (for the Arabs took obliterate all traces of the diggings made by them spot after her “‘find”), but it is certain that in a lamber at no great depth below the surface, she und a number of clay tablets the like of which had never sen before dug up in Egypt. The number of these tab- lets and fragments is variously given, but it seems that th outside limit may be set at three hundred and thirty ; this matter, however, and indeed in making any state- it which is based upon the word of many sellers of anticas ” in Egypt, the writer (and the reader) must pro- t himself by saying after the manner of the pious Mu- , “But God knoweth.” Of this “find” the ‘Trustees of the British Museum secured eighty-two tablets, the Gizeh Museum in Egypt about sixty, and the Berlin [useum about one hundred and sixty pieces, of which a large number are fragments which give no connected 3 sense. The authorities of this last institution published E _ the texts from their own collection together with those NO. 1177, VOL. 46] C fii several European collections of Egyptian from the tablets at Gizeh by lithography under the editor- ship of Drs. Abel and Winckler, but the results already gleaned by scholars from this edition appear to be meagre when compared with the quantity of material which the originals offer for study. The Tell el-Amarna tablets are different from all other known cuneiform documents. They lack the symmetrical form of the tablets from the libraries of the old Baby- lonian temples, or of those from the library at Kouyunjik, founded by the mighty kings of the last Assyrian Empire —Sargon, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Assurbanipal ; the material is, in many cases, ill-kneaded, and contains fragments of flint or other coarse materials ; the colour of the clay varies from a light toa dark dusk tint, and from a flesh colour to dark brick-red. They are written in a hand which, to some extent, resembles the Neo- Babylonian writing used commonly in Babylonia and Assyria for about seven centuries before Christ. It pos- sesses, however, characteristics different from those of any other style of cuneiform writing of any period now known to exist, and nearly every tablet contains forms of characters which have hitherto been thought peculiar to the Ninevite or Assyrian style of writing. The large, bold hand found upon some of the tablets suggests the work of the unskilled scribe, but more careful examina- tion shows that it is the result of unconventionality rather than ignorance. The details of the peculiarities of spelling need not be discussed here, but the expert will find many rare and important examples of Assyrian orthography never dreamt of before. The Semitic dialect in which the tablets are written is very closely related to the Hebrew of the Old Testament, and the “ Canaanite” forms of pronouns, &c., are of peculiar interest for the student of the Bible, for many of them are new, and they afford the means of explaining certain difficulties which now exist in Semitic grammar. Although these tablets offer a satisfactory solution of some difficulties, they raise many questions which will probably remain unanswered for some time, and among these there is one, not the least important, of how it happens that a governor of Egypt, who was a vassal, and ruling in Syria, should bear the name of Itagamapairi, which is neither Semitic nor Egyptian? The Tell el-Amarna tablets are unique as an archzo- logical “find,” and they are also unique as a means of weaving together the threads of the histories of two or three of the greatest nations of antiquity at a critical period. As we are able to say, With comparative certainty, that they were all written between the years 1500-1450 B.C., they have an authority possessed by few of the documents coming down from this remote period. They partly fill, moreover, a gap in the history of the dynasties of Mesopotamia and Syria, for although much compara- tively is known concerning the period in which the Assyrian Empire was founded—about B.c. 1800—and although we have annals of many kings between B.C. 1320 and 620, the history of the period between B.c. 1800 and 1320 is almost unknown. The Tell el-Amarna tablets in the British Museum con- sist of a series of despatches written from kings of Babylonia, Alashiya, Mitani, Phoenicia, Syria, and Pales- tine to Amenophis III., and to his son, Amenophis IV., frequently named Khut-en-aten, or Khu-en-aten, and the D 50 NATORE [May 19, 1892 “heretic king”; among them also is the draft of a de- spatch from Amenophis III. to a king of Karaduniyash. Many of them are of a personal and private nature, and these are, of course, the most interesting, for they reveal details of the family life of the great kings of the East, which the ordinary inscriptions have failed to preserve for us; the remainder refer to State business, and show beyond all doubt how close was the connection between the kings of Babylonia, Mitani, and Karaduniyash and the kings of Egypt, and also how great was the commerce and intercourse between these countries. It will be re- membered that the Egyptians gained their first foothold in Syria under Amasis I., who, about B.C. 1700, brought the war of independence toa successful close, and marched into Sharuhen, a city to the south of Gaza, mentioned in Joshua xix.6. -His successor, Amenophis I., made no further advance‘into Syria or Mesopotamia ; but Thothmes I., about B.c. 1633, marched into Northern Syria, called Ruthen, and set up a tablet to mark the limit of the frontier of Egypt. His son made no attempt to ‘enlarge the borders” of Egypt in this direction, and the “wild woman” Hatshepset was too much occupied with fitting out her expedition to Punt to trouble about such things ; but when Thothmes III. ascended the throne of Egypt, about B.C. 1600, he at once set out to crush the rebellion which had broken out all over the country to the north-east of Egypt. Making his way by the penin- sula of Sinai, he passed into Syria, and within a month from the time he set out he defeated the rebels, whose head- quarters were at Megiddo, and captured the city. During the next few years he marched through the country round about, carrying off spoil, and establishing the worship of Amen-Ra and other Egyptian gods in the principal cities. At a city on the Euphrates called Ni, he set up a tablet near one set up by his grandfather several years before, and it is clear that his hold upon Western Mesopotamia was no shadowy power. Indeed his conquest of the city of Ninip, and the worship of the gods of Egypt established there by him, is referred to by the inhabitants of that place when they write to Amenophis III. more than one hundred years later. When Amenophis III. ascended the throne of Egypt about B.C. 1500, he was, thanks to the bloody victories of his predecessors, able to assume the sovereignty of Western Mesopotamia and Syria without much fighting, and it seems that his expeditions to these parts were undertaken as much for the sake of the lion hunts which he conducted there as for the purposes of conquest. He boasts on his scarabs that in the first ten years of his reign he slew 102 lions with his own hand. That the country of Mitani offered fine opportunities for sport we know from one inscription which says that Thothmes III. slew 120 elephants there; and Tiglath- Pileser I. (B.C. 1120) boasts in his annals that on foot he slew 120 lions with his own hand in Mitani (Rawlinson, “Cuneiform Inscriptions,” i. pl. 16, 76-79). While on one of these semi-warlike expeditions he fell in love with a fair-haired, blue-eyed, graceful girl named Thi, the daughter of parents whose names were Iuaa and Thuaa, and she was brought to Egypt in the tenth year of the king’s reign, accompanied by another wife of Amenophis, and 317 of her ladies. Thi was evidently the Egyptian monarch’s favourite wife ; she became far excellence the NO. 1177, VOL. 46 | “ Queen of Egypt,” and her son Amenophis IV. became King of Egypt. Amenophis III. also married a sister and daughter of Kallimma-Sin, King of Karaduniyash, and made proposals for another of his daughters, named Suk- harti, while she was still a child, and he took to wife also the sister and daughter of Tushratta, the King of Mitani. A letter from Burraburiyash also reveals the hitherto unknown fact that his son married a daughter of the King ofEgypt. One of the most interesting of these tablets is the draft of a letter from Amenophis III. to Kallimma-Sin, King of Karaduniyash, a country conterminous with Assyria ; it is the only known letter of Amenophis in Babylonian, and is written upon a tablet of Nile mud. The subject of the letter is a proposal for the hand of Sukharti, whose father, Kallimma-Sin, writes back to Egypt asking what has become of his sister who married the King of Egypt many years before? In reply to this Amenophis invited Kallimma-Sin to send messengers to see and to converse with the lady, and to carry back news of her to her brother. Anembassy was sent to Egypt, but its members were too young to be able to remember what the lady had been like, and they failed to identify her satisfactorily. Kal- limma-Sin is not unwilling to discuss the marriage of his younger daughter Sukharti, but he points out that he usually gives his daughters to the “kings of Kara- duniyash,” who make handsome presents to himself and his messengers. Not to be defeated in his desire by the paltry question of gifts to the wife’s relatives, Amenophis says that he is not only willing to give for Sukharti as much as all the other suitors could or would give put together, but he will send a gift to Kallimma-Sin in honour of this king’s sister, who is now living with him in Egypt. This point satisfactorily settled, Amenophis proceeds to discuss the proposal of Kallimma-Sin for an Egyptian princess, and he plainly but forcibly tells him that “ the daughter of the king of the land of Egypt hath never been given to a ‘nobody.’” Kallimma-Sin replies, “Why not? Thou art king, and canst act as thou pleasest”; but, willing to be satisfied with a lady of less rank than a princess, he adds, “ Surely there be daughters of nobles who are beautiful women in Egypt. Now, if thou knowest a beautiful lady, I beseech thee to send her unto me; for who here could say that she is not a princess?” What Amenophis finally arranged for “his brother Kallimma-Sin” we know not, but it seems that he gave him a large quantity of gold, and that he married Sukharti after all. The letters of Burraburiyash to Amenophis III. are scarcely less interesting, for they refer to old intrigues of the Canaanites, to commercial treaties, and they give some account of this king’s gifts to the daughter of Amenophis who was about to marry his son. The most important correspondent of Amenophis in the land of Mitaniwas Tushratta, whose sister and daughter he married, and who writes to his son-in-law with a mixture of affection and avarice amusing to contemplate. For example, having acknowledged the receipt of a letter from Amenophis, and said that its “contents pleased him | so greatly that even if it were possible to dissolve all the friendship which had existed between them in times gone by, the words of this message alone would, for himself, suffice to re-establish their friendship for ever,” he next begs him to send him much gold, and artfully refers — toa gold libation bow] and vessels profusely decorated with May 19, 1892] NATURE 5! Yas _ gold ornaments which Amenophis had sent to his father, thereby hinting that similar gifts would be most accept- __ able to himself, In true Oriental fashion he says, “ Wher y brother has sent the gold, if I ask, ‘Is it enough? ‘ answer may be, ‘ Fully enough’ ; or I may ask, ‘ Is it the full amount?’ and the answer may be, ‘ It’ is more _ than the full amount.’” In the latter case Tushratta ares that he will be “very glad”! In another letter hratta gives an account of his accession to the throne. = that when his father Shutarna died, his brother a iumara became king, but was shortly after slain by - Though quite young, Tushratta rallied his friends S| ers, and after some trouble succeeded in sl g his brother’s murderers. Facts of this nature are great importance for restoring the history of this long- otten country. It is an interesting fact that together ee such letters there always arrived gifts, which of horses, chariots, gold vessels, ornaments de of gold and lapis-lazuli, eunuchs and ladies for the ng’s ee and the relatives of the Mesopotamian esses who had become wives of the King of Egypt ve forget to send them gifts of earrings of gold, choice oil for anointing, &c. Sadto relate, however, some of the of these letters complain that Amenophis did not nd them gifts in return. Ina third letter Tushratta men- ‘that the goddess “Ishtar of Nineveh, lady of the id,” had gone down into Egypt during his own reign during that of his father, and he begs Amenophis to ease the worship of this goddess in Egypt tenfold. . A fourth letter of Tushratta is sent to the “Queen of ” who can be none other than the blue-eyed, fair- d Thi. from theletters which refer to Amenophis’s mar- contracted with Mesopotamian princesses, we come relating to the matter-of-fact business of the Government of that day. These consist of re- sasters to the Egyptian power and of success- igues against it, coupled with urgent entreaties for inting to a condition of distraction and weakness ‘and her dependencies. Some of them must ve ean ‘addressed to Amenophis III. towards the e of his long reign of about thirty-six years, but the eater number clearly belong to the reign of his son ienophis IV., for the disorganized condition of the syptian provinces in Phoenicia and Syria which they ect could only have come into existence when Egypt _ herself was torn by the rival factions which sprang up _ when that king endeavoured to substitute the worship of the Disk for that of Amen, the mighty god of Thebes. The chief cities of Phcenicia, Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, 2 3 and Simyra (which commanded the road to , representing the Egyptian power, were being ly attacked by the ever-increasing forces of the enemy, , seeing the impotence or supineness of Egypt, grew older and bolder. Nor did the brave and loyal defence _ of such men as Rib-Adda, governor of Byblos, and Abi- Milki,’King of Tyre, stave off for long the overthrow of 4 the Egyptian power in Phcenicia. The desperate posi- _ tion of this latter loyal officer is almost pathetic in its _ hopelessness. In one letter to the King of Egypt he j says, “ My lord, my sun, my god, seven times and seven _ times do I prostrate myself at the feet of the king, my _ lord. Iam the dust beneath the feet of the king, my NO, 1177, VOL. 46| lord, and that upon which he treadeth. me) my king and lord, thou art like unto the god Shamash and to the god Rimmon in heaven. Let the king give counsel to his servant. Now the king, my lord, hath appointed me the guardian of the city of Tyre, the ‘royal handmaid,’ and I sent a report in a tablet unto the king, my lord ; but I have received no answer thereunto.” He then announces the delivering of the city of Simyra into the hands of Aziru the rebel, by Zimrida, governor of Sidon, who had also captured the city of Sazu, wherefrom Abi-Milki drew his supplies of wood and water, for neither existed natur- ally on {the bleak rock of Tyre; in consequence many Tyrians died of want. Moreover, Zimrida, Aziru, and the people of Aradus attacked the forces of Abi-Milki in chariots by land and in ships by sea. In conclusion he sadly adds, “I am surrounded on all sides with foes, and Ihave neither wood to warm myself, nor water to drink ; I send this tablet to_ the king by the hands of a common soldier, and may the king send me an answer speedily.” When his condition becomes more desperate he sends another despatch, and with it a gift of five talents of copper, hoping thereby to extort an answer from the king of Egypt; in this he reports events with a Cesar-like brevity thus :—‘‘ The king of the land of Danuna is dead, and his brother has succeeded him ; there is peace in his land. One half of the city of Ugarit has been destroyed by fire. The soldiers of Khatti have departed Itagamapairi of Kadesh and Aziru have rebelled, and are fighting against Namyawiza. Zimrida, governor of Sidon and Lachish, is gathering together ships and men.” A letter of considerable importance is that of Akizzi, governor of Katna (Cana), for it refers to the origin of the worship of the sun in Egypt. It appears that the King of Khatti came to Katna, and carried off the image of the Sun-god, and Akizzi writes to Amenophis III., asking for money to ransom the image ; he makes his appeal on the ground that Shamash the Sun-god, the god of his fathers, became also the god of the ancestors of Amenophis, and that they called themselves after his name. Now this clearly has reference to the title “ son of the Sun,” which was adopted by nearly every king of Egypt, and indicates that Akizzi believed that the worship of the sun was in- troduced into Egypt from Asia. Space forbids our quoting more from these interesting documents, but sufficient has been said above to show what an important contribution to our knowledge of Oriental diplomacy about 1500 B.c, the Tell el-Amarna tablets offer. Incidentally they reveal many new facts of history ; they offer a new field for the researches of the geographical student, and the identification of many towns and countries mentioned in the Bible and in the Egyptian inscriptions has already been obtained; they give us for the first time the names of Artatama, Artashu- mara, and Tushratta, kings of Mitani, and of Kallimma- Sin, king of Karaduniyash ; they supply the reasons why and show how the Semites came to have such power in Egypt ; and depict the inevitable anarchy which prevails in dependencies or colonies when the dominant power totters or declines. We have already said that the Tell el-Amarna tablets are different from any other cuneiform documents known, and it is precisely this difference which has made their publication a difficulty. To make a satisfactory edition 52 NATURE {May 19, 1892 of these texts it was necessary to unite the skill of the Assyriologist with the accuracy of the photographer, for the former could only transcribe the characters moreor less accurately, being powerless to give their exact shape and form, and the latter, while reproducing their exact shape and form, could only show the characters on the flat-sided tablets, those on the rounded edges remaining invisible. The Trustees of the British Museum, then, decided to print in cuneiform type a full transcript of the texts in characters as closely resembling the originals as possible, and in addition to give a number of cha- racteristic specimens reproduced by the autotype pro- cess, so that the student who is unable to visit the Museum may be able to make himself thoroughly ac- quainted with the various complex and unusual forms of characters in which these tablets are written. In ad- dition toithe printed texts and autotype plates, a summary of the contents of each tablet is given, accompanied by notes, chiefly philological and geographical, which we believe will be of use to the reader. The summary is preceded by an introduction, in which the finding of the tablets and many points of interest concerning them are discussed in brief paragraphs. It will be remembered that some thirty years ago, when Sir Henry Rawlinson began to publish his monumental work, the “ Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia,” he contemplated adding translations of all the texts given therein. It was, how- ever, found impossible to do this satisfactorily ; and not- withstanding Sir Henry’s thirty years’ additional labour on the Assyrian inscriptions, it would still be somewhat rash to publish word-for-word translations of such difficult texts as those from Tell el-Amarna. Plain, historical narrative, like the great Tiglath-Pileser inscription, could be and was well enough rendered into English by Sir Henry Rawlinson so far back as 1857; but letters and despatches of a new kind, containing words and forms hitherto unknown, cannot be thus treated. The summary of each tablet will tell the general reader what the tablet is about, and will help the student more than a literal translation of the verbose Oriental phrases would have done. In publishing these texts with autotype repro- ductions and summaries of contents, the Trustees of the British Museum have made a new departure, and we believe that the edition will be as useful to the general student of antiquity as to the cuneiform expert. A TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSICS. A Manual of Physics. By William Peddie, D.Sc., F.R.S.E. (London: Bailli¢re, Tindall, and Cox, 182.) HE attempt made by Dr. Peddie to supply a manual of physics suitable for English students and English teachers. is altogether worthy of praise, and his effort has undoubtedly been, on the whole, successful. The best works at present in use in higher schools and in colleges as text-books of physics are the well-known English translations of two French books, Ganot and Deschanel. These are, no doubt, excellent books in their way, and in the hands of able English translators the original French compilations have re- ceived great improvement. A recommendation also of these French books is to be found in the beautiful NO. 1177, VOL. 46] «us. diagrams and pictures of experimental apparatus. These we miss in every English book, including the book before English translations are not altogether satisfactory for English teaching purposes, and Dr. Peddie’s work, supplying a need which is very generally felt, will be most warmly welcomed. The subject has been, on the whole, judiciously treated. It is compressed in an admirable way into very moderate compass. If, now and then, one feels regret that some particular portion has not been more fully dealt with, re- flection on the moderate size of the book, and on the way in which each part is treated in the space prescribed to it by the author, often affords a timely and sufficient consolation. While speaking about size and form, it may be remarked that the paper, the printing, and the binding, make this a pleasanter text-book to hold and to use than any which has appeared for many a day. In this respect the beok can scarcely be too highly praised. Commencing with four preliminary chapters, in which general laws are stated and explanations given as to certain necessary mathematical ideas and formulas, the author proceeds in chapter v. to the treatment of ele- mentary kinematics ; and in chapter vi. to the general principles of dynamics, including the general equations of fluid motion and of the equilibrium of a fluid. It is needless to say that these subjects are very briefly touched upon ; but teachers will at any rate find a very succinct indication, to say the least, of the parts of mathematics and of dynamics which are most essential to a orppet understanding of the physics which is to follow. Chapters vii. to xiii. inclusive are devoted to properties of matter: general properties of solids, liquids, and gases are dealt with; a good account of gravitation is given ; elasticity, diffusion, and the allied subjects, as | well as cohesion and capillarity, are discussed ; while in chapters xii. and xiii. we find a very fair account—short, of course—of atomic theories, including the modern kinetic? theory of matter, Perhaps the chapters just referred to, on properties of matter, constitute the most thoroughly successful portion of the book. We cannot call to mind any book in which an account of these subjects so good, and in itself so complete, can be found. The remaining chapters—with the exception of the last two, which are devoted to the electro- magnetic theory of light and “ the ether ”—treat in detail of sound, light, heat, electricity, and magnetism. It is in the last-named portion of the book that students will feel a want of fuller and more complete treatment. The subject of heat in particular will be felt by many to be unduly compressed, and the same must be said of parts at least of electrodynamics and electromagnetism. A book such as we have described, covering so wide a field, and brought into the narrow limits of 500 small octavo pages, must obviously, if it be well arranged and well written, be an important contribution to our scientific literature. We have no hesitation in giving it high commendation. There is, perhaps, not much that is absolutely novel in the treatment of the subjects, or in the matter, but that is hardly to be expected in a manual of this kind: the novelty is rather to be seen in the idea of the production of such a book. Nevertheless, even the modified and improved — a a ee ge ee ae Saas May 19, 1892] NATURE 53 While thus giving to the author warm praise and congratulation, we cannot avoid noticing serious faults both of commission and omission. First it seems simply deplorable to drag quaternion notions and notation into an elementary book of this kind, unless it be to show how ridiculous the riders of the quaternion hobby can at times become. The explanations and definitions at the commencement of chapter v. will be nothing to the majority of learners and teachers but a mass of confusion thrown over one of the simplest and most important of subjects. To prove by quaternions the formula S = VT (space described in a given time with constant velocity), which needs only a knowledge of the multiplication table ; or the formula x = 4g7? for falling bodies, which can be explained by common-sense (but not by quaternions) to a boy of twelve in half an hour, is simply inexcusable. Wherever quaternions are introduced in this book we find an easy matter made difficult—if not, as in the case of simple harmonic motion, absolutely unintelligible. Unfortunately, Dr. Peddie is not the first writer who has contrived, by means of quaternions, to make a subject unnecessarily difficult and repulsive. But by far the most serious defect of this book, and it is one which will greatly mar both its usefulness as a text-book and also its popularity as a somewhat ele- mentary work for reading and consultation, arises from the failure of its author to catch, even in a remote degree, the spirit which has animated and directed the whole of the best experimenting in physics for the last twenty-five or thirty years. Z¢ Zgnem regunt numeri is the motto of Fourier’s great work ; and a realization of the fact that numbers (not merely numerical ratios) must be sought _ for as the crown of physical laws is that which has given pre-eminent value to the labours of experimenters during the last half-century, and has forced workers in this great field into precision and definiteness. The example set by Gauss and Weber, Joule and Thomson, and by the British Association Committee on Standards of Elec- _ trical Resistance appointed in 1861, has revolutionized ideas as to what is the ultimate object of experiment- ing in physics ; and we can no longer be satisfied with knowledge as to almost any physical phenomenon until we are able to apply to the phenomenon and to our laws the searching test of arithmetical calculation in absolute “numbers. — _ Unfortunately, in the book before us there is no recog- nition of these necessary conditions for completeness of knowledge, and very little recognition of recent investiga- tions of the kind here indicated. The failure will be felt most seriously in the important subjects of heat, magnetism, and electricity. In electricity there is not to be found the resistance, whether in ohms or in C.G.S. units, of any wire of any material! There are pages of algebra on dimensions of units, to puzzle the unfortunate learner, but nowhere can he find what an ohm, or ampere, or volt is: unless, “ ohm=10° C.G.S.” can be taken as a definition, when the meaning of a C.G.S. unit is not explained. Faraday’s laws of electrolysis, got fifty years ago, are stated ; but the deter- minations of Lord Rayleigh and Kohlrausch of the amount of silver deposited by an ampere current in a second are not even referred to. Tait’s thermo-electric curves, and some forms of galvanic cells are described ; but how to find the NO. 1177, VOL. 46] electromotive force of any one combination in volts is not indicated. We must not multiply instances. It would be only wearisome. Magnetism, electro-dynamics, are treated in precisely the same way ; and the student would find it impossible to calculate from data in this book how much heat is conducted across a stone slab in an hour under given conditions, or how much heat is lost from the surface of a sooted globe ina minute, though there is a great deal of exposition of Jaws of heat ex- changes, and of the algebra pertaining thereto. Diffusion of matter is another subject which suffers from defective treatment in a similar way. The word “ diffusivity,” intro- duced by Thomson, is correctly defined on p. 131; but ten lines lower down the definition is departed from, and a column of relative numbers is substituted for the now fairly known absolute diffusivities. A very thorough change of all these parts of the book ought to be made in areprint or new edition, in order to make the work con- formable to modern knowledge and requirements. It would be ungracious to point out too many minor faults in a first edition ; but a few must be mentioned. Faraday seems to have been forgotten in connection with liquefaction of gases! and Melloni, though not perhaps absolutely trustworthy, surely deserved to have his name mentioned in connection with radiation of heat. Mayer’s name is not mentioned ; and, whatever Dr. Peddie may think on the subject of the celebrated controversy, no one will agree with him that the name should be omitted. We cannot help feeling that there is too much local colouring about many parts of the book. A book of this kind is sadly marred by want of proportion- ate distribution of treatment; even the occupation of space with minute treatment of a favourite subject becomes an injustice with regard to those subjects which are unduly curtailed for want of more space. We trust it will not hurt the feelings of anyone if we remark that the book should be a little more cosmopolitan, and a good deal less Scotch. On p. 337, there is a mistake which will bear compari- son with Lord Brougham’s celebrated idea that people carry weights on their heads to have them farther from the centre of the earth, and therefore less attracted. The formation of ice in “very hot” countries on shallow pools is compared with Faraday’s experiment of freezing mercury in a white-hot crucible. It is radiation, not forced evaporation, which is the cause of the phenome- non referred to. We regret, also, that Dr. Peddie has thought it advis- able to follow the example of Maxwell and others in changing Andrews’s diagram right for left. There is no reason for doing so. The diagram was much better as Andrews originally gave it; and it would be better also without the dotted line said to separate the region in which liquid and gas can exist together from the regions in which the substance is entirely liquid or entirely gaseous. The former is a region concerning which there has been much speculation of an unprofitable sort. The elementary student need not be troubled with it, and it cannot be explained to him in a single sentence. On p. 95 there is a diagram of a cord being pulled through a tube. Perhaps it cannot be asserted that the diagram is absolutely wrong, because the cord is said in the text to be perfectly flexible. But the cord, passing 54 NATURE [May 19, 1892 round corners which look as if they were sharp angles, is so strikingly unlike anything which can be realized (and the results explained in this section can to a great extent be experimentally realized), that the diagram be- comes at least misleading. If the corners are sharp by intention, then the diagram 7s absolutely wrong. In spite of the faults and defects we have been obliged to notice, this book is, as we have said, an admirable attempt at a very worthy object, and with some remodel- ling it can be made into an excellent text-book. We wish it all success, feeling well satisfied that it meets a decided want. OUR BOOK SHELF. The Dietetic Value of Bread. By John Goodfellow, F.R.M.S. (London: Macmillan and Co.) THIS book is another addition to the useful series of ‘** Manuals for Students,” published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. The author states in his preface that the object of the work is twofold. First, to lay before the general public an account of the various kinds of bread, by which their merits may be judged; and, secondly, to afford technical information to students and others on the im- portant subject of the true value of bread as a food. These objects have in every way been fulfilled. No one is more qualified to write such a book than Mr. Goodfellow, who by his previous writings has shown such a grasp of the subject with which he has to deal, The first section of the volume is concerned with “Food, Diet, and Digestion.” This is a very difficult matter to treatin a popular manner. It involves some of the most complicated problems of physiology. The author, however, has not shirked his task ; anyone, how- ever ignorant he may formerly have been on the processes by which food matters are rendered suitable for absorp- tion and after-use by the human organism, if he reads through these pages carefully, cannot but help gaining much knowledge on the functions of the stomach and intestinal canal, and of the waste and work of the body. The nature of the digestive fluids is not, of course, considered with the minuteness of detail necessary for a - medical examination, but enough is said to render the following sections perfectly intelligible, although they are treated in a scientific manner. “ White Bread” is first considered. An introductory chapter is given describing the structure of the wheat grain, and the changes which flour undergoes when ex- posed to heat and the process of fermentation. Not only are the chemical and physiological properties of bread considered, but economical principles are gone into, and it is shown “that bread is one of the cheapest foods, not only with regard to the actual weight of nourishment ob- tained, but also with regard to the variety of the nutrient constituents ; and the purchaser who expends his modest 24d. in a 2-lb. loaf may rest assured that he could not spend his money to better advantage.” We further learn, however, that white bread is not a perfect food ; those who partake of it should take care to supplement it largely with other foods, in order to make up for the lack of calcareous matter. On no account should it form part of the diet of children unless sup- plemented by milk or other foods rich in lime and phos- phates. Turning to “‘ Whole-meal Bread,” full descriptions are given of its composition, amount and nature of the salts present and their solubility ; its digestibility, the waste present, and the action of bran on the intestine ; its flavour, satiety, and dryness ; andits effects on infants and children. The ordinary whole-meal bread is not a desirable food, NO. 1177, VOL. 46] and far inferior to good white bread as regards the weight of actual nourishment and the thoroughness of the diges- tion. Its ingestion is often followed by diarrhoea, and the action of the bran increases the waste of food. After a short consideration of some special forms of bread, such as “aérated,” “bran,” “rye” bread, &c., Mr. Goodfellow proceeds to speak of Meaby’s Triticumina bread, of which he has a very high opinion, and believes that it is as near a perfect food as such a bread can be, and deserves the universal commendation which has been accorded to it by the medical and analytical world. “Germ,” “diastase,” “gluten” bread, &c., are then de- scribed, and the book finishes with short chapters on the diseases of bread and its medicinal properties. To all who are interested in this subject, or wish to extend their knowledge of “the staff of life,” we heartily recommend this volume. Graduated Mathematical Exercises. Second Series. By A. T. Richardson, M.A. (London; Macmillan and Co., 1892.) ON a previous occasion we have referred to the first series of exercises by Mr. Richardson. In these he led the student through a set of graduated examples, com- mencing with arithmetic and reaching those on cube root, compound interest, and quadratic equations. In the present series, which is intended to be a con- tinuation of the first, the relatively higher flights of mathematics have been dealt with. The problems have been arranged on the same lines, the more difficult of them being reached as advance is made, and include those on algebra, logarithms, trigonometry, mechanics, and analytical geometry. An idea of the range over which each subject spreads can be gathered from the fact that all the problems will about suffice to cover such examinations as those of the Oxford and Cambridge Locals,and Army and Navy, allowing a small margin of safety. Great care seems to have been taken to insure ac- curacy, every example having been worked out at least twice. For class work these examples will be found handy and a great saving of time, while for use at home the book should be widely employed. Bibliothek des Professors der Zoologie und vergl. Ana- tomie, Dr. Ludwig von Graff, in Graz. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1892.) PROF. VON GRAFF is the lucky owner of a fine scientific library, which was formed mainly by Carl Theodor von Siebold, his father, and his grandfather, all of whom were professors. This library came into the possession of Prof. von Graff in 1882, and as it was too large for the modest dimensions of a German professor’s house, he exchanged many books relating to practical medicine for zoological monographs and periodicals. At Graz the library is freely used by his assistants, pupils, and colleagues, and it is mainly for their benefit that the present catalogue has been issued. It consists of 337 closely printed pages, and is a compilation of considerable value, not only because it gives lists of authors and their works, but because of the admirable way in which the lists are arranged. The contents of the library are grouped under four headings—periodicals, auxiliary books (including works on University systems, bibliographical writings, dic- tionaries, &c.), zoologia generalis, and zoologia specialis. The Canadian Guide-book. By Charles G. D. Roberts. (London : William Heinemann, 1892.) TOURISTS and sportsmen in Canada ought to be very much obliged to Mr. Roberts for having provided them with this excellent Guide-book. The method he has adopted is that of Baedeker’s Hand-books, and the result is in every way worthy of the models he has chosen. The work includes full descriptions of routes, cities, points of , SS (The Editor does not hold hi. _to determine the Spe May 19, 1892] NATURE 55 interest, summer resorts, fishing places, &c., in Eastern Ontario, the Muskoka district, the St. Lawrence region, the Lake St. John country, the maritime provinces, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. In an appendix are given fish and game laws, and official lists -of trout and salmon rivers and their lessees. The author gener- ally compresses his information into as small a space as possible, but in dealing with the more interesting Canadian scenes has sought to make his descriptions lively and attractive. The volume is prettily printed, and is well supplied with maps and illustrations. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR if responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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.] A Question in Physics. __ CAN there be a crowding of the particles of a gas to a much smaller compass without its being markedly heated? Can a gas expand without being cooled? It is probable that nearly every physicist will give negative answers to these questions, and yet the fact that such conditions may occur sometimes seems well established. The present writer, in 1889, attempted to d i actual heating of air when compressed by a mp connected with the cylinder by a long tube, and found that the temperature was raised about 4° F. for a compression of In like manner, on ex- and then open the connection with B, the compressed air will rush from A to B, and an equilibrum will be established very quickly, the pressure in each cylinder being at two atmospheres, The air in A will be slightly chilled because of the work of imparting a certain velocity to the particles entering B, and the air in B will be slightly warmed from the impact of the particles rushing from A, but there will be no heating due to the work of an external force making the compression. Instead of allowing the air in A to rush into B, suppose we open communication with the outside air, The resistance to the rush of air will be much less than before, and the chilling in A, due to the work of imparting a certain velocity to the air, would be slightly greater than in the previous case, but it is obvious that this will be vastly less than that given by the formula. We may say, then, that the conditions suggested by the questions above may be very easily brought about. The compressed air in a cylinder has a potential energy or capacity to do work, and this energy may be transmitted to another cylinder having air at atmospheric pressure without loss, and plainly without imparting or losing any heat. We might compare it to the head of water in a pond. This water has a certain capacity to do work depending upon its head. We may enlarge the pond somewhat, and the capacity for doing work will remain almost unchanged. The extremely important bearing of these views upon problems in meteorology is very apparent. The convection theory of storms demands a cooling from the work of expansion in an ascending column of moist warm air ; it would appear, however, that the cooling must be vastly less than has generally been considered probable. H. A, HAZEN. -¥o inches above atmospheric pressure. | yanding this compressed air into the free atmosphere, it was found agentes PERHAPS it may interest some of your readers to see a short abstract of the observations of aurora made here during the last at Ferrel and Prof. Marvin. as follows :— ce hat the cooling was about 4°. These results were published in Science, vol. xv. p. 387, and were strongly combated by Prof. ; Prof. Ferrel advanced, as applic- able in this case, the well-known thermodynamic formula for the computation of the heat developed in a gas when compressed, 2 * ( Ay 8 which ¢ and 7 are the absolute temperatures corresponding to pf and ~. Sir Wm. Thomson has given this ‘formula in slightly different form, and with a larger exponent ‘ Encyclopedia Britannica,” vol. vii. p. 814). Prof. Ferrel ; ‘ found that, under the experimental conditions above, the heating ‘should have been 43°, and the cooling 45°? (38°) (see Ame- rican Meteorological Journal, vol. xii. pp. 339 and 340). It seems very evident, however, that this formula can be used months, this winter having been by far the richest in well- developed northern lights since the winter 1870-71. Beginning with the magnificent display of February 13, which lasted almost the whole night, sometimes with vivid red and green tints (it was first noted at 6h. 45m., and faded away in the moonlight between 15h. and 16h. astronomical time), and whose beams converged several times from a large part of the horizon towards the magnetic zenith (formation of corona was noted at 7h. 2m., 1oh., and 13h.), we have had aurora on February 14, 15, 24, 25, March 1 (at 7h. high arch, with the highest part through a and 8 Cephei, 7h. 55m. corona, between 8h. and toh. pulsating and flashing light, sometimes with apparently screw-formed motion), March 2, 3, 6 (at Ioh. curtains and corona, yellow-green colours), March 24, 25, 26, 27, April 23, 24 (at 10h, rom. curtains, yellow-green) April 25 (strong light visible through small openings in only when all the heat due to the work of compression is con- ; led in the compressed air, and conversely when the air expands inst an external resistance. An experiment by Joule will serve to elucidate this point. He determined the mechanical equivalent of heat by immersing the cylinder into which the air was to be compressed and the compressing pump in _ the same water-bath, and then determining the amount of com- pression and the total heat developed. This enables us to advance the proposition : /f air when compressed ts to be raised to cumulo-stratus in the north), The last display was on May 1, with corona at gh. 40m., after roh. flashes, curtains, and beams, at 13h. beams. About Ith. there was a_ peculiar downward motion of reddish light near the north horizon. The magnetic disturbances of February 13 were also the greatest we have had for some years. The magnetometers, of the Gaussian construction, are generally observed at 2h. and 2th., but on February 13 observations were made every hour the temperature indicated by theory, it is very essential that all «the heat develo, 1 in the work of compression should enter the air. This seems self-evident ; nevertheless, nearly all the errors that have entered the various discussions of this question have arisen from a neglect of this very obvious consideration. ie sale _ pump e’s experiment let us suppose that the compressing been in one bath, and the cylinder into which the air Under these conditions, if no heat from II p.m., in correspondence with Bosekop in Finmarken, where the German observers, MM. Brendel and Baschin, were taking magnetical observations and photographs of tbe aurora during February and part of January. In Christiania the per- turbations were comparatively small in declination (westerly maximum 12° 35’ noted at 12h. 10m., minimum 11° 42’ at 15h. 18m., but neither of them absolute, the observations not being continuous); but the horizontal intensity, which had was compressed in another. ; already begun to increase a little at 21th., February 12, varied by more than 0°03 C.G.S. units, a maximum of 0'171 having been noted at 2h. 30m., and a minimum of about o'140 from 12h, om. to 13h. 20m. ; as the ‘mirror of the magnet was in both cases outside the scale, the values could only be roughly measured. At 16h. om. the bifilar had returned to the small end of the scale, but a nearly constant value of the horizontal intensity was only attained after 5h., February 14. The inclination had a maximum of 73° 18’ at 13h. 10m., from which it gradually diminished, with some fluctuations, towards the normal value, about 71° o’. With reference to Mr. Backhouse’s observation of nacreous were lost, the first bath would have received very much the By: egy’ amount of heat. Now, if the compressed air in passing the pump to the cylinder became cooled to the outside _ temp re, it is evident that all the heat due to the work of compression would have been disposed of outside the cylinder, -and would not have been available for raising the temperature of the compressed air. __ Instead of connecting the pump directly with the cylinder, let us take two cylinders of the same size, and connected by ‘atube. Compress the air in the first cylinder (A), to three atmospheres, the air in the other (B) being at atmospheric pressure. If we cool the air in A to the outside temperature, NO 1177, VOL. 46] 56 NATURE [May 19, 1892 clouds in the morning of January 30 (NATURE, xlv. p. 365), I may add that the same beautiful but as yet mysterious pheno- menon was seen here January 30 and 31, both days in the south-west after sunset. Since the display of December 1885, mentioned by Mr. Backhouse, it has been seen here every year, except 1888, mostly for a day or two in January or February. H. GEELMUYDEN, University Observatory, Christiania, May 3. Wave-Propagation of Magnetism. IN an interesting article in last month’s Phzlosophical Magazine, Mr. Trowbridge has given an account of some experiments made by him with the view of examining for any indication of a definite rate of propagation in the magnetization of iron. In these ex- periments no indication was observed. It seems to me, however, that nothing of this sort is likely to be observed where the magnetizing force is as great as that used by Mr. Trowbridge, and that there are two classes of disturb- ances to be carefully distinguished. For example, in Prof. Ewing’s well-known magnetic model, something which -looks very like a definite rate is to be seen in the case of a disturbance not sufficiently large to cause toppling over of the ‘‘ molecule magnets”; that is to say, to cause the little magnets to pass through their positions of unstable equilibrium. On the other hand, with a larger disturbance the phenomenon visibly partakes of a different character, Here, throughout the medium, there are to be seen at irregular moments what may be considered as cases of precipitation of energy, owing to the occurrence of these positions of unstable equilibrium. These two stages should be carefully distinguished, for an essential in wave-propagation as opposed toa rate of precipitation of energy (such as a rate of ignition, &c.) is obviously that the medium should not be permanently. altered. In some experiments made by me, very much smaller alternat- ing currents than those used by Mr. Trowbridge were employed. But the occurrence of spurious effects, simulating to a remarkable degree the interference. nodes looked for, must have effectually obscured in my experiments the true phenomenon, supposing its existence. So that, considering the conditions of both our ex- periments, I still think the subject requires further investigation before coming to a decision in the matter. Indeed, when larger currents are used, no indication is to be found. of even these spurious effects. : In Prof. Ewing’s model, when the magnets point on the whole the same way (representing a high state of magnetization), the rate of propagation of a small disturbance affords a more definite problem. Tried experimentally, this latter case might afford more satisfactory results. FRED. T. TROUTON. Gorrection in ‘‘ Island Life.” In Dr. Merriam’s recently published paper on ‘‘ The Geo- graphical Distribution of Life in North America,” an important, and to me almost inexplicable error in my work ‘‘ Island Life” is pointed out. It occurs at page 41 in the first edition, and is unfortunately repeated at the same page in the recently pub- lished new edition, and consists chiefly in stating that the moles (Talpide) are almost confined to the Palearctic region. But a little further on in the same work (page 48 of first edition, and page 49 of second edition) it is correctly stated that there are three peculiar genera of moles in North America, and the same statement is made at page 115, and again at page 190 of vol. ii. of my *‘ Geographical Distribution of Animals.” At page 182 of vol. i. of the latter work, however, the error first appears, and it is this erroneous passage that has remained unnoticed till now, and was unfortunately repeated in ‘‘Island Life.” In the same paragraph an error of a similar kind also occurs as to the distribution of the lynxes. To correct these errors pages 41 and 42 of the new edition of ‘‘ Island Life ” are being reprinted, and will be sent to all who possess the volume if they will forward a stamped and directed envelope to the publishers. ALFRED R. WALLACE. THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CHEMICAL NOMENCLATURE. T the meeting of the International Chemical Con- gress, held in Paris in the summer of 1889, a special Section was appointed to consider the unification of NO. 1177, VOL. 46] — chemical nomenclature, and, after discussing a variety of propositions, some of which were adopted, it was decided to form an International Commission for the further study _ of the subject.! a The members resident in Paris, having been constituted — a permanent committee of the Commission, have devoted an immense amount of time and care to the preparation of a scheme, and it was to discuss their report” that we met at Geneva on Easter Monday last. The French Committee had issued invitations, not only to members of the Commission, but also to many other prominent chemists, so that the meeting was a thoroughly repre- sentative one. It is worth mentioning, as an illustration of the sympathetic treatment accorded by public bodies in France to men of science, that the Paris-Lyons-Mar- seilles Railway Company granted a reduction of one-half on the fare over their line to members of the Congress. Very happily, the local committee had arranged that all might stay at the one hotel—the Métropole—and it was here that we first met in friendly union on the Monday evening.* The next morning the Congress assembled at the Hotel de Ville, M. Richard, the Cantonal Minister of Education, being in the chair. After an admirable address of welcome from this gentleman, who yp to thoroughly appreciate the importance of the object in view, on the motion of Prof. Cannizzaro it was wisely decided not to follow the complimentary, but somewhat unbusinesslike, Continental practice so frequently adopted, of appointing a different chairman each day, but to have only one. M. Friedel, who had taken the chair at all the numerous meetings of the Paris Committee, having been chosen by acclamation President of the Conference, formal business was at once entered into, and, after the necessary interval for lunch, the sitting was resumed in the afternoon. We met in like manner on the two following days, and the final sitting took place on the Friday morning, but many had left before this. On Tues- day evening, by invitation of the local committee, wevisited _ the theatre, a very beautiful building. On the Wednesday ~ evening, we were entertained by them at a dinner at the Hotel Métropole, on which occasion a very striking speech was delivered by Prof. von Baeyer, who, after point- * The following chemists eventually consented to serve on the Com- mission :—MM. Béhal, Berthelot, Bouveault, Combes, Fauconnier, Friedel, Gautier, Grimaux, Jungfleisch, Schiitzenberger (all re resenting France), Graebe (Switzerland), Alexejeff and Beilstein ( nein von Baeyer and Nélting (Germany), Lieben (Austria), Paterno (Italy), Franchimont (Holland), Armstrong (England), Istrati (Roumania), Calderon (Spain), Cleve (Sweden), Boukowski-Bey (Turkey), Ira Remsen (United States), and Mourgues (Chili). : Ab bo * This report had been prepared by the following:—MM. Friedel (President). Béhal, Bouveault, Combes, Fauconnier, Gautier, and Grimaux. 8 The following is the official list of those who took part in the Conference : —MM. H. E. Armstrong, professeur & la Central Institution, Londres, secrétaire de la Chemical Society ; A. ud, professeur au Muséum, 2% Paris ; Adolphe von Baeyer, professeur & I’Université de Munich; Barbier, professeur a Ja Faculté des sciences de Lyon; Aug. professeur 2 Ecole supérieure de pharmacie de Paris; Louis Bouveault, docteur és sciences, Paris ; Stanislas Cannizzaro, professeur 4 I’ Université de Rome ; Paul Cazeneuve, professeur Ala Faculté de médecine de Lyon; oy acre Combes, docteur és sciences, Paris ; Alphonse Cosso, directeur de la Station expérimentale d’agriculture, & Turin; Maurice De Lacre, professeur & l'Université de Gand; Michel Fileti, professeur A ‘l'Université de Turin ; Emile Fischer, professeur & I’ Université de Wiirzbourg ; A.-P.-N, Franchi- mont, professeur & I’Université de Leide; Charles Friedel, membre de l'Institut, professeur & la Sorbonne, Paris ; Dr, J. H. Gladstone, F.R.S., Londres; Carl Graebe, professeur & l'Université de Genéve; Philippe- Auguste Guye, professeur & 1’ Université de Genéve ; Istrati, professeur VYUni ité de B ; Albert Haller, professeur & la Faculté des sciences de Nancy; Maurice Hanriot, professeur agrégé a la Faculté de médecine, Paris; A.-R. Hantsch, professeur a I’Ecole polytechnique de Zurich ; Achille Le Bel, docteur és sciences, A Paris; A. Lieben, professeur & l’ Université de Vienne ; Léon Maquenne, docteur és sciences, ai le-naturaliste au Muséum, Paris: von Meyer, professeur & l’Université de Leipzig ; Denis Monnier, professeur' 2 I’Université de Genéve; R. Nietzki, professeur & Université de Bale; Emilio Noelting, directeur de l'Ecole de chimie de Mulhouse; Emmanuel Paterno, professeur & I’Université de lerme ; Amé Pictet, privat-docent & I’Université de Genéve; William Ramsay, F.R.S., professeur & l'Université de Londres; Zdenko-H. Skraup, rofesseur A l'Université de Graz; Ferdinand Tiemann, professeur 2 T Université de Berlin. " > Le Comité local d’organisation se composait de:—MM. Emile Ador, H.-W. de Blonay, Alex. Claparéde, Professeur C. Graebe, Professeur Ph.-A. Guye, Alex. Le Royer, Professeur Denis Monnier, Amé Pictet, Fréd- Reverdin, Professeur Albert Rilliet, Edouard Sarasin. ; May 19, 1892] NATURE 57 / ing out that experimental chemistry had been carried, early in the century, into Germany from France by Liebig, __ who was tutored by Gay-Lussac, proceeded to say that, although the science had now undoubtedly reached its highest development in Germany, it was more than probable that, in the future, circumstances would arise which would lead. to some other nation—France, Russia, Italy, or England—coming to the fore. On this occasion, on the motion of M. Le Bel, it was unanimously decided to appoint M. Marignac Honorary President of the Congress, and a letter to him expressing our regret that ill-health prevented his taking part in its work was at once signed by all present. We were indebted in many other ways to the local committee, and there is no doubt that the success of the meeting was in large measure due to the forethought and hospitable care exercised by them on our behalf; absolute amity pre- vailed throughout, and it was clear that all were bent on co-operating to secure the carrying out to a succcessful issue of a very difficult but most important work. The great advantage to be derived from the personal inter- course which such meetings promote was soon apparent: gradually, the doubts which many entertained as to the possibility of devising a practical rational scheme of nomenclature were dispersed, and ere many hours had elapsed the sympathies of all present were enlisted on behalf of the work ; thus a mission has been sent forth which will explain the enterprise to chemists generally. _ The resolutions passed at the meetings are appended to this article. These, I think, are in no way to be taken as in all respects final, but they will serve to prepare the way and to indicate the lines on which the work is to be carried out. The position in which we found ourselves placed, in fact, was not one which justified our arriving at decisions which could fairly be regarded as binding. report of the French Committee was placed in our hands only on the morning of the first meeting, and it was impossible to master its contents at so short a notice, and still less to criticize and test the application of its recommendations in detail. That the scheme would __ serve but as the basis for discussion was soon evident, when at the very outset a system of nomenclature for the hydrocarbons was adopted very different and far more significant than that recommended in the report ; and numerous other departures from its recommendations were carried in the course of the proceedings. Again, some of the most active members of the Congress had confessedly paid attention only to special groups of com- pounds, and had not tested the application of proposals which they strenuously advocated to compounds of other groups ; but as a nomenclature admirably adapted to one class may be open to all sorts of objections when applied to another, the general bearing of recommendations made with reference to special groups will have to be fully con- __ sidered before they can be finally adopted. The resolu- tions relating to fatty acids (Nos. 18, 19) are of this kind, and their adoption was warmly opposed by an important minority on the ground that, however well they might be adapted to acids pure and simple derived from open- chain hydrocarbons, their application to acids derived from closed-chain hydrocarbons and acids containing other radicles in addition to carboxyl was beset with difficulty. In order to name an acid in accordance with this resolution, the formula of the corresponding hydro- carbon must be constructed from that of the acid by changing carboxyl into methyl ; for example, citric acid, CH.(CO,H). C(OH)(COOH). CH.(COOH), would have to be regarded as a derivative of methylpentane, and would be named methylpentanoltrioic acid, numerals being added to indicate the positions of the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups; in like manner, mellithic acid, C,(COOH),, would be named hexamethylbenzenehexoic acid, although no methyl is present in it. The mental effort involved in visualizing the formulz from such names as these would NO. 1177, VOL. 46] appear to be far greater than if they were respectively named propanoltricarboxylic acid and benzenehexacar- boxylic acid, or simply propanoltri-acid and benzenehex- acid, the use of the term aczd being understood to imply the presence of carboxyl. A decision on points such as these can only be arrived at after careful study of the general effect of such a proposal, and there was no time for such a comparison during the brief debate possible at a Con- ference. In some cases, there can be no doubt that the full force of objections raised to proposals in favour of which a majority subsequently voted was not felt, owing to the difficulty which necessarily arises at an international Conference if the language used be not equally familiar to all present, and consequently full expression cannot be given by all to their views. More- over, although it is easy to criticize destructively even at short notice, constructive criticism under such circum- stances is very difficult ; consequently a proposal may be accepted even in face of serious objections toits adoption simply because nothing better can be suggested at the time. An instructive case of the kind arose on discussing thio-compounds. The proposals in the French report were not regarded as altogether satisfactory, and an amend- ment was suggested and carried which to many appeared most undesirable: the next morning, when the time came to confirm the resolutions arrived at on the previous. day, the discussion was reopened, and a slight modifica- tion of the original proposal. was suggested, which was. recégnized to be an improvement, and the objectionable resolution was rescinded. Clearly at such meetings much must depend on the right expression being found by happy inspiration at the right moment. The one resolution which covers all others and which defines the nature of the task to be undertaken is the first. Whatever name we may choose to apply to a sub- stance colloquially, it is clearly an absolute necessity of the times that every compound should bear a systematic name of such a character that it can be at once translated into the corresponding formula ; and that, vice versd, a name corresponding to any particular formula may be devised which we may count on finding in the offictal: register, if the compound thought of have been described. The value of such a systematic nomenclature to original workers as wellas to students cannot be over-estimated,. and few who are qualified to take part in such a work will grudge the time they may spend on it. There was con- siderable difference of opinion at the meeting as to whether a systematic nomenclature should be devised merely for: the purpose of an official register, or whether the object. aimed at should be a system of wider application: the majority, I believe, came to the conclusion that it should certainly subserve the one, but if possible both purposes. There can be little doubt, however, that the future student will cut the knot by declining to burden his memory witha double vocabulary in the case of all but the commonest substances, and that therefore there is but one course open to us (cf. Res. 26). Although sufficiently conservative to retain methane, ethane, propane, and butane, the Congress decided not to adopt the proposal to continue the use of the names formic, acetic, propionic, and butyric for the first four acids of the acetic series, which was advocated by a sub- stantial minority on the ground that their retention would facilitate the change from the old to the proposed new system. This is one of the questions demanding careful consideration. Many will, no doubt, prefer to retain old unsystematic names as far as possible, but it is easy to see that the desire to avoid change may carry us too far in this. direction ; it will undoubtedly be very inconvenient to the present generation of chemists to abandon familiar and cherished names, but nevertheless it may be a wise course to boldly face the difficulty, rather than inflict on coming generations a partially illogical and unsystematic nomen- clature. The argument that the present familiar names. 58 NATURE | May 19, 1892 may still be used colloquially is, as I have already said, scarcely a justification of the dismissal of such names from the official nomenclature, as our successors may be expected to object more and more decidedly to a multiplex system as chemical science progresses, and to insist on the adoption of the official as the sole system : the extent to which familiar trivial names shall be rétained in the official system is therefore a matter of great importance. As one aim and object must be to devise a system which is significant and logical throughout, no considera- tions must be allowed to prevail which will defeat this, and it will not suffice to quote present usage in support of illogical proposals; but this has been done. Thus the Congress decided (Res. 46) to name compounds of the type R’. N,. R’ azo-compounds, while retaining the name diazo-chloride for CgH;.N.Cl. It matters not to us that the manufacturers have chosen to call the colours derived from dzazo-compounds azo-dyes ; if substances such as (CsH;)oS are termed ¢zo, and compounds such as (C,H;).S_ «zthio-compounds (Res. 43), we are bound to be consistent, and apply the significant term diazo- to substances containing two nitrogen atoms. Resolution 46 ought therefore to be in part rescinded. I call atten- tion to this case as an illustration of the tendency to break away from uniformity in favour of what may fairly be termed popular prejudice, which will require to be most carefully guarded against if the various sections of our system are to harmonize. It will be gratifying to English chemists that the pfin- ciple advocated for many years past by our Chemical Society, and enforced in its “Instructions to Abstractors ” —that particular terminations should be regarded as in- dicative of particular functions, and should therefore be restricted to particular classes of compounds—has been legalized and extended by the Congress. This is a step of great importance, as we may expect that it will affect even trivial names, and that in future names will be given to new substances which will to a certain extent afford a clue to their nature; the hopeless confusion which now reigns supreme in the pages of the Derichte, for example, owing to the disregard of this principle by our German colleagues—who have hitherto been, as a rule, almost uni- formly neglectful in matters of nomenclature—will, it may be hoped, ere long give way to more orderly treatment. But the importance of applying this principle logically was not fully grasped even at the Congress, inasmuch as it was decided to affix the termination zme to acetylenic hydrocarbons, notwithstanding that this termination is admittedly indicative of basic properties. If, however, a suitable suffix ending in exe could be thought of, there would probably be little difficulty in securing its accept- ance, in which case unsaturated hydrocarbons generally would have names ending in eve, and saturated hydro- carbons names ending in ave, and these terminations could be reserved exclusively for hydrocarbons. It will be obvious from the foregoing remarks that although a solid foundation for our future system of nomenclature has been laid, much remains to be done before a mature design, perfect in all its details, can be presented for adoption. At the meeting the hope was expressed that a decision might be speedily taken, to enable Beilstein to utilize the proposals in the preparation of the third edition of his marvellous work ; but it is clear that we are not yet so far advanced as to make this pos- sible or even desirable, and it would be most unfortunate if Beilstein were at the presentjuncture to promulgatea system which is manifestly incomplete: nothing can be worse in such a case than to consent in haste, when it is evident that this would surely involve repentance at leisure. Those of us who are interested in the work, and com- petent to advance it, must now test in detail the application of the proposals which have been provisionally adopted, and we must assist in contributing to the ultimate estab- lishment of a system on the broad lines of policy laid NO. 1177, VOL. 46] down for our guidance at the Congress. As it is not improbable that in the future, owing to the extended use of our language, the major proportion of chemical students will speak English, it is essential that due attention be paid to the matter here in England, so that a system may be devised which we can make use of without difficulty. HENRY E. ARMSTRONG. késolutions prises par le Congres. 1. A cdté des procédés habituels de nomenclature, il sera établi un nom offczel permettant de retrouver chaque corps sous une rubrique unique dans les tables et dictionnaires. Le Congres exprime le voeu que les auteurs prennent l’habitude de mentionner dans leurs mémoires, entre parenthéses, le nom officiel 4 cété du nom choisi par eux. 2. On décide de ne s’occuper, pour le moment, que de ce qui concerne les composés de constitution connue, et de remettre a plus tard la question des corps 4 constitution inconnue, 3, La désinence ave est adoptée pour tous les hydrocarbures saturés de la série grasse. 4. Les noms actuels des quatre premiers hydrocarbures saturés (méthane, cthane, propane, butane) sont conservés; on emploiera les noms dérivés des nombres grecs pour ceux qui ont plus de quatre atomes de carbone, Ces noms désigneront les hydrocarbures normaux. 5. Les hydrocarbures 4 chaine arborescente sont regardés comme dérivés des hydrocarbures normaux, et on rapporte leur nom 4 la chaine normale la plus longue qu’on puisse établir dans leur formule. 6. Le numérotage des chaines latérales partira de l’atome de . carbone terminal le plus rapproché d’une chaine latérale ; dans le cas out les chaines latérales les plus voisines des extrémités seraient placées symétriquement, la plus simple décidera du choix. 7. Lorsqu’un résidu se substitue dans une chaine latérale, on emploie métho-, étho-, etc., ala place de méthyl-, éthyl-, prefixes réservés pour le cas ot la substitution se fait dans la chaine principale. 8. Dans les hydrocarbures ayant une seule double liaison, on remplacera la terminaison ame de l’hydrocarbure sature correspondant par la terminaison 2ve (ex. éthéne) ; s'il y a deux doubles liaisons, on terminera-en diene (ex. propadiéne), s'il y en a trois, en ¢vzéne, etc. Si cela est nécessaire, la place de la double liaison est indiquée par le numéro du premier atome de carbone sur lequel s’appuie cette double liaison. g. Les noms des hydrocarbures 4 ¢viple liaison se termineront pareillement en ize, diine et triine (ex. éthine pour acétylene. propine pour allyléne, hexadiine pour dipropargyle). 10. Dans le cas ot il y aurait simultanément des doubles et triples liaisons, on emploiera les désinences éuine, diénine, etc. . 11. Ence quiconcerne les hydrocarbures saturés 4 chaine fermée, ils prendront les noms des hydrocarbures saturés corre- spondants de la série grasse précédés du préfixe cyclo (ex. cyclo- hexane pour hexaméthyléne). : 12. Lesatomes de carbone d’une chaine latérale seront désignés par le méme chiffre que l’atome de carbone auquel la chaine est attachée. [Ils porteront un indice qui indiquera leur rang dans la chaine latérale en partant du point d’attache. Dans le cas out deux chaines seraient attachées au méme atome de carbone, les indices de la plus simple d’entre elles seront accentués. Le méme mode de numérotage est adopté pour les chaines latérales des chaines fermées. : 13. Les hydrocarbures non saturés seront numérotés comme les hydrocarbures saturés correspondants. Dans le cas d’ambiguite ou d’absence de chaine latérale, on placera le n° 1 au carbone terminal le plus rapproché de la liaison d’ordre le plus élevé. 14. Le numérotage des hydrocarbures est conserve pour tous leurs produits de substitution. 15. On nommera les alcools et les phénols du nom del’hydro- carbure dont ils dérivent, terminé par le suffixe o/ (ex. pentanol, penténol, etc.). i 16. Quand on a affaire 4 des alcools ou 4 des phénols poly- atomiques, on intercalera, entre le nom de l’hydrocarbure fonda- mental et le suffixe o/, une des particules az, ¢7z, tétra, etc.,, suivant l’ordre de la polyatomicité (ex. propane-triol pour glycérine). : 17. Le nom de mercaptan est abandonné, et cette fonction sera désignée par le suffixe ¢hzo/ (ex, éthane-thiol). May 19, 1892] NATURE 59 i 48. Dans les acides de la série grasse, le carboxyle sera _ considéré comme faisant partie intégrante du squelette de = , carbone. ____ 19, Le nom de tous les acides monobasiques de la série grasse est tiré de celui de ’/hydrocarbure correspondant suivi du suffixe _ On désignera les acides polybasiques par les terminaisons divique, trivique, tétroigque, etc. _ 20. Les résidus monovalents des acides seront dénommés en transformant en oy/e la terminaison oigue de l’acide. 21. Dans les acides monobasiques 4 chaine normale saturée ou symetrique, le carbone du carboxyle porte le n° 1. _ 22. Les acides dans lesquels un ou plusieurs atomes de soufre remplacent autant d’atomes d’oxygéne du carboxyle seront désignés comme suit : le soufre simplement li¢é 4 un atome de sarbone sera désigné par le suffixe ¢Azo/ ; si la liaison est double, on emploiera le suffixe ¢hion. Exemples : CH;.CO.SH Acide éthane-thiolique. CH;.CS.OH Acide éthane-thionique. CH3.CS.SH Acide éthane-thionthiolique. 23. Le Congrés donne son adhésion a la proposition suivante sans émettre de vote définitif a ce sujet : _ Les éthers-oxydes seront désignés par les noms des hydro- carbures qui les composent, reliés par le terme -oxy- (ex. pentane- oxy-ét pour oxyde d’éthyle et d’amyle). 24. Les anhydrides d’acides conserveront leur mode actuel de désignation d’ le nom de leurs acides (ex. anhydride éthanoique 25. (12 dis). Dans le cas de deux chaines latérales attachées 1 méme atome de carbone, l'ordre dans lequel ces chaines énoncées correspondra a leur ordre de complication. 26. Une discussion plus approfondie sur la nomenclature des mposés 4 fonctions complexes est ajournée, et l’étude de cette stion est renvoyée 4 Ja Commission internationale, pour qu’elle are sur ce point un projet qui sera présenté 4 un prochain *s ; la Commission cherchera 4 concilier les exigences dela iture parlée avec celle d’une terminologie applicable aux 27. On conseryera les conventions habituelles pour les sels ou ses lactones seront désignées par le mot o/éde, indiquant un anhydride interne d’alcool et d’acide. La position onction alcoolique, par rapport au carboxyle de |’acide @ot dérive la lactone, pourra étre exprimée par les ques a, B, y, 5, a cOté du numérotage habituel des s latérales : Veta COO Saga | | 1.4 pentanolide ou 1.4 pentanolide. _ 29. Les acides lactoniques dérivant d’acides bibasiques seront nommés comme les lactones dont ils dérivent, en ajoutant le suffixe oigue, caractéristique des acides. 30. La discussion sur les chaines fermées est ajournée jusqu’au _ moment oi la publication des idées de M. Armstrong, sur ce Sujet, aura permis 4 la Commission internationale de les comparer avec les propositions de M. Bouveault. 31. Dans la série aromatique et tous les corps renfermant une _ chaine fermée, toutes les chaines latérales seront considérées comme des substituants. _ 32. Aldéhydes. Seront désignées par le suffixe a/ (méthanal, - than). ___ Aldéhydes sulfurées : suffixe ¢hia/. | __—‘«:33. Acétones: suffixe ove (CH;.CO.CH,.CHs, butanone 2). ____ Diacétones, triacétones : suffixes dione, trione. _ Acétones sulfurées : suffixe thione. 34. Quinones: Le suffixe guznone sera conservé pour les corps _ homologues de la quinone ordinaire. _ Les corps ayant plusieurs fois le chainon CO.CO seront des diquinones ou triquinones. _ Ammoniaques composées: pas de changement (ex. eta thre , éthéne-diamine). corps ou le groupe bivalent —NH— ferme une chaine formée de radicaux positifs seront appelés imines (ex. éthéne- imine), osphines, arsines, stibines, sulfines: la nomenclature en e est conservée. ; 36. Hydroxylamine : ce nom est conserve, NO. 1177, VOL. 46] elt 37. Oximes: seront désignés en suivant les régles actuelle- ment admises; les corps isonitrosés seront nommés comme oximes. (Ex. CH(NOH).CH,.CH,CH, 1 Butanoxime CH;.CH,.C(NOH).CH, 2 Butanoxime.) 38. Amides: ce nom sera conservé (ex. Ethanamide NH,.CO.CH,.CH,.CO.NH, Butane-diamide COOH.CO.CH3;.C H,.CO.N Hy Acide butanamidoique). Imides : seront conservées, Amidoximes: ce nom sera conservé. (Ex. CH;.C(NOH).NH, Ethanamidoxime. ) Urée: le mot générique wrée sera conservé, on l’emploiera comme suffixe pour les dérivés alcoylés de l’urée, tandis que les dérivés par substitution acide seront des urdéides. Les corps dérivant de deux molécules d’urée seront désignés par les suffixes diurée, diuréide, Les uréides acides prendront le nom d’acides uréiqgues. On rejettera les désinences uramique et urique. 39. Amidines: ce suffixe sera conservé. (Ex. CH3.C.NH.NH, Ethanamidine). Pour les dérivés, le nom sera dédouble, et l’on fera précéder du nom du groupe substituant, soit amino, soit amidine, suivant le cas. . (Ex. CH;.C(NC,H;).NH, Ethanaminoéthylimidine. CH;.C(NH).NHC,H, Ethanéthylamino-imidine.) Guanidines : le mot générique guanidine est conservé, mais différentes guanidines seront nommées comme dérivés substitués de la diamidocarbo-imidine. 40. Bétaines: suffixe éaine. (Ex. N(CHs);—O Ethanoyltriméthyltaine. ) CH, ore) 41. Nitriles : la question est laissée en suspens pour la série grasse. Pour la série aromatique, on adopte le préfixe cyan (comme nom de substituant). 42. Carbylamines: la nomenclature actuelle est conservée. 43. Sulfones: ce nom est conservé. (Ex. CgH;.SO.CgsH,; Benzéne-sulfone-benzéne.) ‘Sulfures : on les désignera en intercalant ¢4zo entre les noms des deux composés saturés (décision provisoire). (Ex. C,E5.S.Cg,H,;. Benzéne-thio-benzéne. ) Disulfures : seront désignés de méme par dithio, 44. Ethers isocyaniques: suffixe carbonimide.. Ex. Ethyl- carbonimide désignera le cyanate d’éthyle de Wurtz; on dira de méme éthylthiocarbonimide pour le dérivé sulfuré correspondant. Cyanates: ce nom est conservé aux vrais éthers qui, par saponification, donnent de l’acide cyanique ou ses produits directs d’hydratation. On remplacera le nom de sulfocyanate par celui de ¢hzocyanate. 45. Corps nitrés: rien 4 changer 4 la nomenclature actuelle. 46. Corps azoiques: les dénominations azo et diazo seront conservées, mais le mode d’énonciation de ces composés sera modifié comme suit : (Ex. C,H;,N,.Cl Chlorure de diazobenzéne. C,H;.N,.CgsH; Benzéne-azo-benzéne. C,H;.N,.CgHs.N,.CgsH, Benzene - azo - benzene - azo- benzéne.) THE GEOLOGY OF BARBADOS. oD Rin oceanic series of Barbados forms a group of beds which is clearly marked off from the Scotland series below, and the coral limestone above. The oceanic deposits do not, however, appear everywhere as a con- tinuous band between the two other formations, because the elevation of the island from oceanic depths was ac- companied by a considerable amount of faulting, and tracts of the oceanic deposits were dropped down between blocks of the Scotland series. Although this faulting 1 “The Geology of Barbados. Part II. The Oceanic Deposits.” By A. J. Jukes Browne and J. B. Harrison. Abstract of paper printed in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, May 1892. 60 NATURE [May 19, 1892 interferes with the continuity of the oceanic deposits, it is abundantly clear from numerous sections that they rest unconformably upon the Scotland series, and are as distinct in respect of age as they are in respect of litho- logical composition, and a greater contrast in all respects can hardly be imagined than these two formations present. The oceanic series is more than 300 feet thick, and is divisible into five portions, which, however, blend into one another. These are, in descending order— (1) Grey siliceous mudstones, consisting chiefly of fine volcanic dust, with a few fragments of siliceous organisms. (2) Very fine-grained argillaceous earths, often red or pink, but sometimes yellow or buff ; these are analogous to modern oceanic “ red clays.” (3) Pulverulent chalky marls and earths, being consoli- dated. foraminiferal oozes passing down into calcareo- siliceous earth with Radiolaria ; proportion of carbonate of lime, 80 to 44 per cent. (4) Siliceous Radiolarian earth, consisting mainly of Radiolaria, with sponge spicules and Diatoms, and a small amount of fine calcareous matter. - (5) Calcareo-siliceous earths, with 25 to 40 per cent. of carbonate of lime passing down into purer chalky earth, with 60 to 80 per cent., which is in some places converted into limestone by the infiltration of calcite. There is a considerable variation in the amount of chalky matter even on what appears to be the same horizon, and within short distances. The whole series is more calcareous in the northern than in the southern part of the island. ; Interstratified layers of volcanic sand and dust occur at several horizons, some of them being light grey pumiceous and felspathic sand, and others a mixture of such material with Radiolarian earth stained brown by what seems to be petroleum. With respect to organic remains, the calcareous earths have yielded Foraminifera in abundance, a preliminary examination of six samples by the late Dr. H. B. Brady resulting in the discovery of 81 species. The siliceous earths have furnished the specimen of Cystechinus crassus recently described by Mr. J. W. Gregory, and they abound in Radiolaria, as is very well known. Certain marls and limestones on Bissex Hill prove to consist mainly of Globigerina. , The bearing of these fossils is discussed with regard to (1) the age, (2) the conditions of depth, at which the deposits were formed. The age is Pliocene, or Pleisto- cene, while stratigraphical considerations make it most probable that they are of Pliocene date. The depth of water indicated by the Foraminifera is from 500 to 1000 fathoms, according to Dr. Brady. The Cystechinus is considered by Mr. Gregory as strong evidence for a depth of over 1000 fathoms, and is quite consistent with a depth of over 2000; while the Radio- laria are, in Prof. Haeckel’s opinion, most nearly allied to those which occur in the deepest parts of modern oceans, Z.e. about 3000 fathoms. The coloured clays are remarkable for the almost com- plete absence of carbonate of lime ; they correspond in all essential points to those modern argillaceous oozes which occur at from 2500 to 3000 fathoms, and have little or no carbonate of lime. The available evidence points to the conclusion that the depth of water varied from 1000 to 2500 fathoms, -and there may have been two epochs at which it was over 2000 fathoms. Radiolarian deposits have for some years been known to exist in Trinidad, and the authors, having obtained samples, are able to announce that these closely resemble the Barbadian earths in general aspect, .in chemical composition, and in microscopical structure. Similar earths also appear to exist in Hayti. Finally, they discuss the changes in physical geography NO. 1177, VOL. 46] which are indicated by the existence of these deposits, and their. probable equivalent in part of the white lime- stone of. Jamaica ; and they infer that the whole Central — American and Caribbean region was deeply submerged during the Pliocene period, and that during this time there was open and free communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The separation of the two oceans, and the deflection of the Gulf Stream, were changes accomplished by the upheaval of which evidence was adduced in a former paper, and this upheaval is a comparatively recent event. The minute structure of the rocks is described in reports presented by Mr. W. Hill and Miss C. A. Raisin ; the former showing that the Barbados chalk is similar in all essential points to the Chalk of England. EDUARD VON REGEL, THE learned and genial] Director of the St. Petersburg Botanic Garden, Dr. Eduard von Regel, died on April 27,,in his seventy-seventh year. He was the son of a Gotha parson, and developed a taste for gardening while still quite young. During the hours that might have been given to play he was usually en- gaged at his favourite pursuit in his father’s garden. After the usual course of education, he spent several years in various botanic gardens, and about 1842 he was appointed “ Obergirtner” in the Botanic Garden at Zurich. Here, in conjunction with Dr. O, Heer, the celebrated palzontologist, one of whose daughters he subsequently married, he at once founded a Swiss journal for agriculture and horticulture, and was exceedingly active in promoting horticulture, both in writing and practically. In 1852 he founded the now well-known and still flourishing Gartenflora, which, however, he ceased to edit after 1885. He soon gained fame, and when the important post of Scientific Director of the St. Peters- burg Botanic Garden became vacant in 1855, it was offered to and accepted by Regel, and held by him to the last. There he found a wide field for his energy and abilities: but although he accomplished much meri- torious botanical work, Russia is far more indebted to him for the improvements he effected in horticulture generally than for his botany. At the time when he first went to St. Petersburg, gardening was at a very low ebb, and the vast strides that have since been made in this industry are very largely due to his untiring efforts. He wrote treatises, introduced superior varieties of fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and succeeded in gaining the influence and support of exalted persons for his projects both botanical and horticultural. It was mainly through his exertions, we believe, that the first flower-show was held in St. Petersburg. This was in 1858, and now such a thing is no uncommon event. He was also in- strumental in getting botanists attached to the Russian exploring expeditions in Central and Eastern Asia, whereby the gardens and herbaria, not only of Russia, but of Europe, have been greatly enriched, and botanical science advanced. Regel himself ‘elaborated many of the dried collections thus obtained, besides describing a large number of plants cultivated in the garden from seeds or bulbs sent thither by various travellers. One of the best of his numerous writings is a monograph of the genus Adum—“ Alliorum adhuc cognitorum Mono- graphia,’—-the number of species described exceeding 250, including a large number previously undescribed, the fruits of the explorations in Asia. He was also joint author of an enumeration of the plants collected in Siberia by Semenoff, Radde, Stubendorff, and. others. Although gradually declining in health during the last year or so, he continued to discharge the duties of his office; and although not so active with his pen as formerly, he contributed some descriptions of new plants May 19, 1892] NATURE 61 o the Gartenfiora as recently as February of the present . Dr. Regel was the recipient of many honours in adopted country, and he was elected a foreign mem- of the Linnean Society of London in 1890. This is > second of her few prominent botanists that Russia s lost within a year. NOTES. ice ssitual meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute will be at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 25 Great George London, on Thursday and Friday, May 26 and 27, ncing each day at 10.30a.m. Sir Frederick Abel, F.R.S., President, will deliver an address on Thursday, May 26. following papers will be read and discussed on the same lay, as far as time permits :—(1) On experiments with basic _ by W. H. White, F.R.S., Director of Naval Con- ion and BelitenController of the Navy; (2) on the tion of pure iron in the basic furnace, by Colonel H. S. Elswick Works, Newcastle-on-Tyne ; (3) on experiments elimination of sulphur from iron, by E. J. Ball, A. Wingham, London; (4) on platinum pyrometers, -L. Callendar, London. On Friday, May 27, the papers will be read and discussed :—(5) On the manu- d application of chilled cast iron (Gruson’s system), by , Technical Director of the Gruson Works, Madge- , near Glasgow ; (7) on the calorific eficiciey of the g furnace, by Major Cubillo, Trubia Arsenal, Spain ; (8) s, by A. Wingham, London; (9) notes on fuel, and ead in [mie operations, by B. H. Thwaite, dois meeting of the Society of German Men of Physicians will be held at Niirnberg from September At the same time and place there will be a meeting of Mathematical Association. In connection with these there will be a mathematical exhibition, including m™m drawings, apparatus, and instruments used in teaching and research in pure and applied mathematics. The project has the support of the Bavarian Government, and those who 2 organizing the exhibition have secured the co-operation of ous competent men of science, and of the mathematical depart- sof eas besides that of prominent publishers and n technical institutions. Space will be granted free of OF. gy SR Gray, Chairman of the Committee on the cal Congress to be held in connection with the Chicago n, is about to visit all the important electrical centres Old World. He will attend meetings of the different z organizations, and hopes to strengthen the interest of ‘European electricians in the Exhibition. WE learn from Science that Mr. Timothy Hopkins has made provision for the endowment. and maintenance of the seaside laboratory at Pacific Grove recently established under the ices of the Leland Stanford Junior University. The Hopkins Laboratory will be under the general direction of Profs. Gilbert, Jenkins, and Campbell. It will be open during the summer vacation, and its facilities will be at the disposal of persons wishing to carry on original investigations in biology, as well as of students and teachers. Microscopes, microtomes, and 3 other instruments necessary for investigations will be taken from ___ the laboratories of the University. _ THE great surgeon Richet has been succeeded in the Paris Seri of Sciences by Dr. Guyon. NO. 1177, vol. 46] THE distinguished mycologist, M. Roumeguére, of Toulouse, died on February 29 at the age of sixty-three. He had been for fourteen years sole editor of the quarterly Revue Mycologique, and was the author of a number of mycological works, the best- known being ‘‘ Cryptogame illustrée, Champignons d’ Europe,” with 1700 illustrations. AN interesting course of lectures is being delivered in con- nection with the Palestine Exploration Fund. They are being given in the lecture-room of the Royal Medical Society. On Tuesday, Canon Tristram lectured on the natural history of Palestine. The following are the remaining lectures of the course :—May 31, twenty-seven years’ work, by Mr. Walter Besant ; June 7, the Hittites up to date, by Dr. W. Wright ; June 21, the story of a ‘* Tell,” by Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie ; June 28, the modern traveller in Palestine, by Canon Dalton. THE members of the Geologists’ Association will make an excur- sion to Down on June 18.»The directors will be Mr. W. E. Darwin and Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S. Having arrived at Urpington, the party will walk up the valley to Green Street Green, where shells and bones have been found in the gravel that forms the bottom of the dry upper part of the valley of the Cray. The walk will be continued through High Elms Park to Down (34 miles from the station). From Down a short stroll eastward gives a good view of a fine chalk valley. An opportunity will be taken for examining the clay-with-flints which caps the chalk over the higher grounds. The formation of this clay will be discussed, with a notice of Darwin’s remarks thereon, and with reference to other like deposits. The general geology of the district will also be described, and the marked features ‘| caused by the clayey covering over the chalk, by the fine escarp- ment of the lower London Tertiaries, and by the London Clay hills beyond. By permission of Mrs. Darwin, the house and grounds rendered classic as the residence of Charles Darwin (Down House) will be shown to members, and Mr. De B. Crawshay will exhibit specimens of the flint implements that have lately been found over the high grounds of the neighbour- hood. Messrs. Allen will exhibit others. The return journey will be made across the Tertiary escarpment at Holwood Park, and then down the dip-slope of the Blackheath Beds, over Hayes Common to Hayes (a walk of four miles). ON Saturday afternoon, May 28, Prof. H. Marshall Ward will begin at the Royal Institution a course of three lectures on some modern discoveries in agricultural and forest botany. ORCHID-LOVERS find much to admire in the latest of Mr. William Bull’s exhibitions. An enthusiastic writer in the Times describes Mr. Bull’s orchid- mage as ** at present a dream of beauty.” EARLY on Tuesday morning some parts of West Cornwall were visited by an earthquake. The Zzmes says that in the village of Manaccan, in the Lizard district, the shock was sc severe that the villagers almost without exception were awakened from their sleep by the shaking of their beds and the rattling of articles intheir rooms. Their houses, too, distinctly shook, and in one case a person who was awakened from his sleep saw the door of his bedroom thrown wide open. At Redruth, some 12 or 15 miles distant, the shock was also felt. At first it was thought there had been an explosion somewhere in the neigh- bourhood. DurincG the past week a complete change of weather conditions has taken place over the British Isles. The anti- cyclone which had lain over the country with such persistency for several weeks showed signs of giving way on the 12th, and during the two following days a large but shallow depression spread over the kingdom: from west and north-west, while the wind shifted to south-westward with unsettled and showery weather. The temperature, though cooler, was somewhat high for the time of 62 NATURE [May 19, 1892 year, the maxima varying from nearly 60° over Scotland to 65° and 70° over England and Ireland. Solar halos were observed on several days, and thunder was reported from the North Fore- land on the 13th. Subsequently the westerly winds increased in force, especially in Ireland, and the sea became rough on our exposed western coasts. Some decrease of temperature also occurred, the- maximum readings after Sunday only reaching about 60° in a few places. The conditions have been favour- able to rain, but the fall has been slight, except in the north and west, and there is still a large deficiency in nearly all parts of the United Kingdom. THE Royal Meteorological Society has published a third edition of ‘‘ Hints to Meteorological Observers ” (42 pages large octavo). It is pointed out in the preface that meteorological ob- servations, to be of scientific value, must be made on a uniform plan, otherwise the results will not be mutually comparable. The directions given are clear and concise, and the various instruments, both desirable or necessary, for a station of the second order, at which observations are taken at least twice daily, are plainly illustrated. The work also comprises several tables which are essential to the proper reduction of the obser- vations recorded. No one can doubt that, notwithstanding the regulations laid down by several Conferences, there is still want of uniformity, not only when comparing observations of one country with another, bat even among the observers of our own country. Take, for instance, the observation of rainfall, tem- perature, sunshine, cloud, and fog. It would be easy to show that the methods employed by various observers differ consider- ably, especially as to what constitutes a rainy day and how snow is measured, while the estimation of fog is very uncertain. Sunshine values by various kinds of instruments are hardly comparable cuter se, and the accurate observation of clouds, whether of height, motion, amount, or description, is un- doubtedly difficult, and presents a stumbling-block to many observers. Therefore, we cannot but welcome the exertions of the Meteorological Society to obtain uniformity. The work in question will be found very useful for the purpose, and might perhaps be rendered more so, in future, by the addition of the most approved pictures of clouds, and fuller information as to the importance of their careful observation. THE Report of the Department of Marine (Ottawa) for the fiscal year,ended June 1891, contains a report upon the Meteorological Service of Canada for the period extending from October 1, 1890, to October 31, 1891. This Service is divided into two branches: (1) the collection and utilization of obser- vations taken simultaneously for the purposes of weather pre- diction, and (2) the reduction of observations taken by volunteer observers and others for climatological purposes. The publication of the results obtained from the second division has been continued annually, since the establishment of the Service in 1872; but it is now proposed to deal with the accumulated observations, and to publish them in a serviceable and readable form. This will be the first authoritative Govern- ment publication on the climate of Canada; and it will be useful for immigration purposes, and for showing the suitability of the climate, in various localities, for raising agricultural crops. It is expected that the work will require three years to complete. Among the stations in connection with the Canadian Service is one at Bermuda, towards the maintenance of which an annual contribution is paid to the Government of that island, and cable messages are received daily in the interests of the shipping on the Atlantic coast. The Cable Company transmit the messages at half the ordinary rates. Many severe storms have occurred in Canada since the last report, and in each instance warnings were issued from Toronto ; of these 80°7 per cent. are stated to have been veri- fied. Warnings of approaching snowstorms were also issued to NO. 1177, VOL. 46]| railways, and it is proposed to extend this service to Manitoba, a and as far west as Qu’Appelle. AN excellent paper on ‘‘ The Art of Internal Illumination of — Buildings by Electricity,” was read by Mr. W. H. Preece, F.R.S., in the rooms of the Royal Institute of British Archi- — : tects on Monday evening. In the course of his remarks Mr. Preece noted that the electric light was not always absolutely — safe. Security was to be obtained only by good design, perfect materials, first-class workmanship, and rigid inspection. Im- perfect materials erected by cheap contractors had led to many disasters. On the other hand, it was stated that no fire had occurred in buildings fitted up under the rules and regulations, and inspected by the officers, of the insurance companies in this country. In Mr, Preece’s opinion, everything ought as much as possible to be kept in view, and the conductors ought not to be hidden under wainscots or floors or above ceilings. The glow lamp excited by three watts per candle was at present the most perfect source of domestic light, and when the patent ex- pired—in a year or two—would be obtainable at about one-third of the present price. Mr. W. B. L. HAMILTON, writing in the American journal Electricity on ‘‘ Electricity in the United States Navy,” says the latest use of the electric motor in taking the place of human energy in the manipulation of the death-dealing Gatling gun has been found to work with great success. The Crocker- Wheeler Motor Company, at the request of the United States Navy Bureau of Ordnance, constructed a special type of motor, which is attached to the breech of the gun. Hitherto the services of two men have been necessary in the working of these guns—the gunner, whose duty is to train the gun and drop the shot, and another man to operate the crank which sets in motion the mechanism which causes the balls to hail down upon the enemy. The adaptation of the Crocker-Wheeler motor not only does away with the services of the latter, but enables the gunner to train and operate the gun at will by touching an — electric button. So completely is the Gatling gun under the control of the gunner, that he is enabled to fire either a single shot, or to fire them at the rate of 1200 per minute. Science of April 29 prints the following account of a fire; ball, by C. C. Bayley :—‘‘ A telephone wire was supported on cedar posts 20 feet high and 20 rods apart. During August, 1889, we had a thunderstorm, during which there was a sharp and heavy crash. Several of the poles were found to have been struck, and portions to have been taken out through their entire length. One of these portions, of the size of a medium rail, was thrown into an adjoining field some rods from the pole. Portions from the others were smaller and more or less shattered. Near the southernmost pole struck, a family were in a house with doors and windows open, and a luminous ball seemed to ° leap from the wire, pass through the open door and a window, and pursue its course some rods through the open space behind the house. A boy in the room grasped his thumb and cried out, ‘I’m struck,’ and Mr. Hewett felt a sensation of numbness in his left arm for sometime. A girl seized her. shawl and rushed out of the house to chase the ball. She reported that she pur- sued it some distance, while it bounded lightly along, until it seemed to be dissipated in the air without an explosion. The size of the ball was about that of the two fists, and its velocity about that of a ball thrown by the hand.” WE learn, from a Florentine source (La Nazione, May 3); that in the spring of the year 1890, Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, of the Peabody Museum of American Archeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Mass.—whose interesting memoir on ‘‘ Ancient Mexican Shields’ was recently noticed in these columns—recog- nized the great importance of an anonymous Spanish-Mexican MS. preserved in the National Central Library of Florence. May 19, 1892] NATURE 63 4 ‘This MS. has never been published. It is entitled ‘‘ Libro de la vida que los Yndios antiguamente hazian, y supersticiones y ‘malos ritos que tenian y guardavan ” (A/SS. Magi., ClassIII., ‘Pal. 11, Cod. 3). It treats of the costumes and religious rites fthe ancient Aztecs, and is full of coloured designs which Mrs. Nuttall has had reproduced in fac-simile by photographic litho- , It is her intention to publish this MS., at her own cost, panied by a preface, an English translation of the text, and illustrative notes. Congress of Americanists, which will be held in Spain this autumn to celebrate the fourth centenary of the discovery of ‘America. An edition of 200 copies will be issued, and held on sale at the Peabody Museum of American Archzology. AN interesting paper on the uses and applications of aluminium ; read by Mr. G. L. Addenbrooke before the Society of Arts 2 May 11, and is printed in the current number of the Society’s Referring to the applicability of aluminium to opera and field glasses, he said there was an example on the table of aglass made in 1854, which had ever since been in ant use. In 1870 the wheel of a carriage passed over it, but it was afterwards straightened out and made usable. It has ‘made two voyages across the Atlantic, two across the Pacific, and has had other shorter experiences of the sea air, besides lying on one occasion for some time in salt water. Mr. Adden- brooke has kept strips of aluminium for two or three weeks in salt water, and has noted very little effect. _ Towarps the end of last year—from November 21 to Decen nber 5—the members of the Victoria Field Naturalists’ Club made an excursion to the Australian chains of hills called The excursion seems to have been remarkably 7 Gspeu but the scientific results did not quite come up to _ the expectation. According to an account given in the Club’s Journal, the botanists were far and away the most successful. _ A really good collection of plants of the district was obtained. In bird life there was little observable that is not so elsewhere nearer Melbourne ; neither was there any great variety of snakes or lizards, and to the collectors of these, as also to the entomo- logist, the excursion was especially disappointing. From the well-known extensive variety of flowering shrubs in the Gram- pians, coupled with the fact that several are peculiar to the district, it was fully expected that at least a few clearly repre- sentative Lepidoptera or Coleoptera would be secured, but not specimen of either. otpaaa was seen that is not common in and around Melbourne. Mr. E. H. PARKER, the British Consul at Kiungchow, in Hainan, a large island off the southern coast of China, mentions a curious phenomenon in connection with the tides of that port. The tides inside the inner harbour, he says, require several years of careful observation before they can be tabulated. It appears certain, however, that there are always two tidal waves a day, 2 though one i isso much more considerable than the other that the effect is often practically that of one single tide in the __ twenty-four hours. The easterly and westerly currents through _ the straits are not necessarily connected with the rise and fall of the water, either there or in port. The phenomenon of “slack _ water” (morte eau) is also observable every ten days or so at : omen and is probably owing to much the same causes as at _Hoihow. At Tourane in Tonquin, too, it is popularly thought that there is usually but one tide within the twenty-four hours, This tide is felt away up to the citadel of Quangnam. In the __ Gulf of Tonquin the incoming tidal wave flows from the south, a fact which perhaps accounts for the singular circumstance that the westerly current in the Hainan Straits always sets for six- teen hours. One at least of the tidal waves from the east which pass Hoihow cannot get through the straits to Tonquin so soon as that portion of the same wave which takes a circuitous course by way of Annam. NO. 1177, VOL. 46] It will be dedicated to the approaching’ THE Pacific Coast Fisheries of the United States appear to be in a most flourishing condition. According to a recent census bulletin, they employed 13,850 persons in various capacities in the last federal census year ; 6,498,239 dollars were invested in them, and the products were valued at 6,387,803 dollars. The canning of salmon is the most important fishery industry in the Pacific States. SISAL grass, according to a Mexican authority quoted in the new number of the Board of Trade Journal, is likely to prove a very important source of wealth for Mexico. It grows in long, narrow blades, often to the length of four or five feet, and these, when dry, curl up from side to side, forming a flexible string, stronger than any cotton cord of: the same size ever manufac- tured. It is in great demand among florists and among manufacturers of various kinds of grass goods ; and it is said to be capable of being applied to many new uses. Ropes, cords, lines of any description and any size may be manufactured of it, and a ship’s cable of sisal grass is one of the possibilities of the future. It is almost impervious to the action of salt water, and — is not readily decayed or disintegrated by moisture and heat. It takes its name from the port of Sisal, in Yucatan, through which it was formerly exported. A PAPER on modern aérial navigation was read by Captain J. D. Fullerton, R.E.,° before the Royal United Service Institution on Friday last. His object was to show that the science of aéronautics was based upon simple rules and common sense, and not upon wild and vague theories opposed to all principles of nature. He divided aérial navigation into two distinct branches : (1) ballooning, or navigation by means of machines lighter than air; and (2) aération, or navigation by means of machines heavier than the air. Proceeding to discuss the first branch, the lecturer sketched the history of attempts at propelling balloons. Describing the requirements of a proposed war balloon, he said these were: (1) that it should be able to carry three or four passengers, a supply of explosive shells, and a machine gun or two; (2) that it should be able to travel at the rate of about 30 miles an hour on a still day, which would enable it to keep up with almost any warship afloat. In regard to aération, Captain Fullerton said the chief characteristics of this system were that a large supporting surface, either in the form of wings or in that of an aéroplane, was used. to carry the weight ; that the lifting or supporting power of this surface was dependent upon its velocity and the angle of inclination which it made with the horizon ; and that the horizontal resistance to motion de- pended upon the velocity and angle of inclination in the same manner. The great difficulty both in ballooning and aération was to get a sufficiently light motor. THE first number of a new journal, called the Canal Fournal, has been issued. Its aim will be ‘‘ to assist the cause of canals and inland navigation generally.” It promises to be of con- siderable value and interest to the class of readers for whom it is especially intended. THe German publisher, Friedrich Brandstetter, announces that he will issue in the course of the present year a second and improved edition of Dr. J. J. Egli’s ‘‘ Nomina Geographica.” The number of explained names has been much more than doubled. FurtTHer details concerning the nature and chemical behaviour of acetyl fluoride, CH,COF, the new substance whose prepara- ~ tion and physical properties were described in our note of last week (p. 40), are contributed by M. Meslans to the current number of the Comptes rendus. It may be remembered that this interesting substance was shown to be liquid at tem- peratures below 19°'5, and gaseous at temperatures superior to this, its temperature of -ebullition, both the liquid and the 64 NATURE [May 19, 1892 gas being colourless, and endowed with an odour somewhat reminding one of that of carbonyl chloride. In contact with water, acetyl fluoride is found to react eventually in a manner similar to its well-known analogue, acetyl chloride, forming hydrofluoric and acetic acids, CH,;.COF + H,O = CH;.COOH + HF. But there is a considerable difference in the degree of energy with which the decomposition occurs, for while the behaviour of acetyl chloride is almost violent, acetyl fluoride only reacts with great slowness. When a small quantity of the fluoride if dropped into water the two liquids do not mix, and the globule of fluoride only disappears after long standing. Strong solutions of potash or soda, however, decompose it rapidly, with formation of fluoride and acetate of the alkali. The action of caustic lime upon acetyl fluoride is interesting ; the gas is rapidly absorbed by it, and calcium fluoride and acetic anhydride formed. 2CH;3.COF + CaO = CaF, + (CH .CO),0. Ammonia gas reacts with considerable energy with the liquid, producing a white crystalline mass, consisting of ammonium fluoride and acetamide, CH3.CONH,. The latter may readily be isolated in good crystals by extraction with ether and sub- sequent evaporation. The gaseous fluoride reacts with ammonia in the proportion indicated by equation— CH;.COF + 2NH, = CH;.CONH, + NH,F; that is, two volumes of ammonia react with one volume of acetyl fluoride gas. Aniline likewise acts with energy upon the liquid, forming hydrofluoric acid and acetanilide, CgHs.NH.CH;.CO. The action of absolute alcohol is _pecu- liar ; it dissolves the liquid fluoride in all proportions, but after an interval of a few hours, interaction occurs with production of hydrofluoric acid and acetic ether. The latter may readily be separated by the addition of water. CH;.COF + C,H;OH = CH;.COOC,H; + HF. Acetyl fluoride is ‘much more stable in presence of alkaline acetates than its chlorine analogue. Even after four hours’ heating in a sealed tube to 100° with sodium acetate, only a small proportion of sodium: fluoride and acetic anhydride were formed. Still more stable is acetyl fluoride towards sodium amalgam, there being no appreciable reduction to aldehyde or alcohol. Metallic sodium is likewise without action upon liquid acetyl fluoride, but when heated to redness in the gaseous fluoride, the metal decomposes it with incandescence, sodium fluoride being formed and carbon deposited, together with a few drops of a liquid whose characters have not yet been ascer- tained. From these reactions it is evident that acetyl fluoride is a substance of a much more stable character than its analogue, acetyl chloride. THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include an Egyptian Ichneumon (Aerfestes ichneumon) from North Africa, presented by Dr. J. Anderson ; a Ring-tailed Coati (Wasua rufa), a Kinkajou (Cercolepies caudi- volvulus), a Blue-bearded Jay (Cyanocorax cyanopogon) from Brazil, presented by Mr. J. E. Wolfe, C.M.Z.S. ; two Laughing Kingfishers (Dacelo gigantea), from Australia, presented by Mrs, H. M. Stanley; two Grey Hypocoliuses (Hyfocolius ampe- linus 6 @) from Scinde, presented by Mr. W. D. Cumming ; two Ravens (Corvus corax), British, presented by Mr. Gregory Haines; a Crowned Horned Lizard (Pirynosoma coronatum) from California, presented by Mr. R. Thorn Annan ;a Common Fox (Canis vulpes), British, three Palm Squirrels (Scturus palmarum) from India, a Brown-throated Conure (Conurus @ruginosus) from South America, deposited; a Grey-headed Porphyrio (Porphyrio poliocephalus) from Persia, purchased; a Persian Gazelle (Gazella subgutterosa $),a Vulpine Phalanger (Phalan- gista vulpina 2), born in the Gardens. NO. 1177, VOL. 46] ‘is such that the pole returns at the end of a year to nearly its OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ' LATITUDE OBSERVATIONS AT WAIKIKI.—The Hawatiaw Gazette for March 8 contains an account by Mr. Preston, of the — U.S. Coast Survey, of the latitude observations which are being — In it we made at Waikiki on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. read :—‘‘ The motion of the pole is, of course, extremely small, and the effect is that here in Honolulu we are about 50 feet This nearer the equator now than we were some months ago. el change does not, however, go on indefinitely, but the motion original position. Besides this annual movement, there seems to- be reason to believe that there is a secular change extending over a period of at least sixty years,” But no definite conclusions can be arrived at until the observations made at Honolulu are discussed in connection with those made on this side of the earth. In. order to test the theory that changes of latitude are produced by the movements of large masses of molten matter in the interior of the earth, the force of gravity is measured on every night that latitude observations are made. As this is done with the idea of detecting variations, the relative and not absolute in- tensity is all that is required. ‘The arrangement employed is. such that if from any cause the acceleration due to gravity should be increased by only one five-hundredth of an inch, it could be easily measured. The observations will be completed in the fall of the year, but the final results cannot be known before the latter part of 1893. moe MOTION IN THE LINE OF SIGHT.—Astronomy and Astro- Physics, No. 104, contains a very important contribution by Mr. W. W. Campbell, on the reduction of spectroscopic ob- servations in the line of sight. The papercontains an explana- tion of the construction and use of the tables, the limit of precision adopted being one-hundredth of a mile per second. The first table gives the velocities of the star corresponding to a known displacement of one tenth-metre in the various parts of the spectrum, from which the velocity corresponding to any observed displacement.can be directly obtained. The formula - a= V sAr gives this velocity corresponding to any measured AA, V. being taken directly from the tables. Table II. gives the earth’s orbital velocity, V«, and the devia- tion, z, when the sun’s longitude is ©. These values are obtained from the formulzee— Bly? esin(© — 71) I +ecos(® —- M1) and Wickes J = : elt + ecos(® — m)]secZ, . I-e and when found are substituted in the equation— V.sin(A — © + 2)cosB. By tabulating V, and z as functions of ©, their values can be very easily found, and vg consequently reduced from the last- mentioned equation. The value of the lunar correction has been taken into account here, omitting any errors due to ellipticity of the orbit and its inclination to the ecliptic. Its value is obtained from the for- mula— Senta: Va Ug = — 0°29 sin ¢ cos 6 cos 9, the latitude used being that of Mount Hamilton, but corre- sponding corrections for any other latitudes can be found from these by multiplying them by 7 where ¢’ is the new lati- tude required. THE LATE PARTIAL ECLIPSE OF THE Moon.—Fine weather was generally prevalent during the partial eclipse of the moon: on May 11, affording many observers a good opportunity for noting any new features connected with such an occurrence. Considering that the eclipse was only a partial one, it may be rather difficult to decide whether it should be classed in the category of ‘“‘bright” or ‘“‘dark” eclipses. Undoubtedly it. was not a very dark one, for during the greatest immersion the whole surface of the moon could be distinctly seen, especially. with the help of a telescope, with which craters could be picked out. On the hypothesis that ‘‘dark” and ‘‘ bright” eclipses are brought about owing to the different states of the solar atmosphere, the present one should have been at any rate more inclined to be * bright” than ‘‘dark,” for as we are approach~ May 109, 1892] NATURE 65 r -a spot maximum the sun’s atmosphere is becoming more and more disturbed. At the time of greatest obscuration the _ blood-red tinge, caused by the absorption of our atmosphere, ‘became very apparent, but this gradually wore off as the brighter t of the moon made its appearance. fom a series of photographs of the eclipsed moon taken at rvals of about a quarter of an hour, the penumbra in some m was very distinct, especially in those taken near the of greatest obscuration, the exposures then being compara- ee At mid eclipse an attempt was made to obtain a raph of the whole disk of the moon, as it appeared so -and clear on the ground glass, but even an exposure of using extra rapid dry plates and a 30-inch reflector, was not nt to bring it out, although the extent of the tright nt and penumbra was very much increased. INATIONS OF STARS FOR REDUCTION OF VARIATIONS JDE.—No. 263 of the Astronomical ¥ournal contains tions of thirty-six stars, which have been obtained prime-vertical transit of the United States Naval tory. The observations were made for the determina- constant of aberration, and consequently at the periods im erration effects, but their present publication, as J. Brown states, is owing to the ‘‘ many requests for rved declinations of these stars for use in discussing and periodical changes in latitude.” The this list are comprised in the zone 36° 37/—38° 40’. nication contains a brief account of the methods of ployed, together with a reference to the instrumental A A me number of the Fourna/ contains also some results servations of a Lyre, made during the years 1862-67 same instrument as mentioned above. The discussion srvations was first made when Euler’s value of 306 periodical variation of the latitude was in vogue, Newcomb, in the present case, has taken Mr. ‘uve’s constant of aberration... + 0006 nt of aberration ... oi 20451 iscy 2) ony, one + 07°24 t of sun’s azimuth in declination + 0”°507 snN_... Ag a ans +0 Tae 0 ‘cosine N ee ore eee ef c a = 0” 087 of : . of N being assumed zero at 1864°50, increasing ally. ion which he gives for the variation of the t Washingt + Vie rs gis is Bp = 0"*122 cos 308° (¢ - 1864°94), nce between the poles, or the semi-amplitude of the the latitude, being 0122. r 1892 DENNING (MArcH 18).—The following ris are given for this comet in the AY lachrichten, No. 3089, computed from three ons made at the Hamburg Observatory :— T = 1892 May 11°22042 Berlin M.T. or 4 w = 129 18 34°4 Q = 253 25 41°6 > M. Equator 1892’0, te 8542 43 log g = 0°294619; Ephemeris for 12h. Berlin M.T. ae " hae log ». log. 4. Br. 3.49 27) +52 13°5 52 26 51 57°7 55 22 51 41°8 0°2947 0°4423 0°80 5° 15 51 25°9 48 § 51 10°0 3 52 50 54°71 6 37 50 38°2 0'2948 0°4466 0°79 26 9 19 50 22°3 ; The brightness at the time of discovery is taken as unity. NO. 1177, VOL. 46] CoMET 1892 Swirt (MARCH6).—The elements and ephemeris of this comet are given in the. Zdinburgh Circular (No. 26), from which we make the following extract :— 1892. R.A. Decl.« log 4. logi % Br. - m Ss. e May19 23 23 44 +3! 52°2 20 26 16 32 22°2 21 28 47 32 51°6 O°1522. 0°1035 0°53 22 31 16 33 20°4 23 33 44 «=. 33. 48°'7 24 36 10 34 16°5 25 38 34 34 43°7. 0°1628 oO'11166 0°47 26 40 56 35 10°4 The brightness at the time of discovery is taken as unity. The comet is situated in the constellation of Pegasus, and on the 22nd will form very nearly an isosceles triangle with 8 Pegasi and a Andromedz, the comet then lying nearly midway between n Pegasi and « Andromede. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. . M. Louis Loczy, in his annual address to the Hungarian Geographical Society at the commencement of the current session, expressed surprise that scientific geography was so little appreciated in England, ‘‘It is sad to see,” he said, ‘‘ that, despite the efforts of the oldest of Geographical Societies, the great Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have not yet established chairs of geography, and that lectureships even have only been established with difficulty.” IN the Report of the Mississippi River Commission, the extent of the levees confining the river below Cape Girardeau (Missouri) is given as 1300 miles. During the high water of 1891, the levees gave way in five places, and the total length of the breaches made in the embankment was about one mile. By far the most serious gap was that at Ames Plantation, opposite New Orleans, which attained a width of 1665 feet, and a maximum discharge of about 91,000 cubic feet per second. It overflowed 2000 square miles, one-tenth being cultivated land. The cause of this crevasse was a badly constructed rice-flume, and as the great Nita crevasse of 1890 had a similar origin, the Commission has resolved to discountenance the use of such flood-gates in future. All of the crevasses of 1891 put together discharged less water than the Nita crevasse alone in the previous year, and it was only one out of about fifty breaks which occurred during the great floods. A NEW map of Dahomey, on the scale of 1 : 500,000, has been Mid ore by M. A. L, d’Albeca, and published as a supplement to the new journal, Za Politigue Coloniale, All available data have been employed in its preparation, much being of course derived from itineraries unchecked by observation. CAPTAIN GALLWEY, Vice-Consul for the Oil Rivers Protectorate, has succeeded in tracing a channel navigable for canoes through the deltaic swamps between Benin and Lagos, a distance of 160 miles. THE Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society for May contains a letter from Mr. Gilbert T. Carter, Governor of Lagos, describing a recent journey into the interior. From the summit of a hill near Ode Ondo he obtained a magnificent view to the south-east over a foreground of rocky forest-clad hills, backed by a fine range of mountains about twenty miles away, which have not previously been reported. The height of the most con- spicuous summits is estimated to be from 5000 to 8000 feet above sea-level. THE VARIATION OF TERRESTRIAL LATITUDES. a letter addressed to M. R. Radau by M. Antoine N r d’Abbadie, which appears in the March number of the Bulletin Astronomique, the writer gives an interesting his- torical account of the work that has been done with regard to this question. As it contains also some suggestions for future work, the following résumé may be of service. 66 NATURE [May 19, 1892 The author states that M. Fergola, the astronomer at Naples, may be looked upon as the one who first drew attention to this question, Of the earlier astronomers, Sir George Airy was led to the conclusion that the latitude was subject to a slight varia- tion, and he published in 1854 and 1875 the greatest and least values for the co-latitude 38° 31’ 22°16, and 38° 31’ 21°35 respectively, obtained from observations of the pole. Many other results were obtained by him, which caused him to assign reasons for the fluctuations, but he deemed it wiser to publish the results at a time when the measurement by graduated circles was considered more concise. One of the first causes to which these variations were attri- buted was refraction, and it was with the intention of settling this point that Airy undertook with his zenith telescope the measurements of the zenith distance of y Draconis, as this star culminated near the zenith at Greenwich. M. Faye, towards the year 1846, found out the advantages of such an instrument as that used by Airy, and his installation was composed of three instruments, a zenith telescope, a mercury trough, and a nadir telescope, the last two of which provided a means of obtaining the true nadir point. Porro, an Italian officer, adopted several of these improve- ments in his instrument: he added to his telescope a trough with a glass bottom, the plane surface of which was placed in a horizontal position, and reflected feebly the image of the central thread of the zenith telescope. By filling the trough with water, another image of the same wire was obtained, which remained visible during the transit of the star, and it was possible to take several measures of the distance between the star and image. The next observer we find occupied in this research was Respighi, who, in the year 1872, published the nadir distances of several stars measured at Rome. The stars he observed were those which culminated so near the zenith that they could be seen in the telescope after reflection from mercury. From a series of seventy-seven observations, taken during five months of the year 1869, he observed the transits of two stars reflected at his nadir. During this interval he found a difference of 2’ ‘07 between the greatest and least of his results. In the method of Horrebow, the divided arc on his instrument gave a rough reading of the inclination of his telescope, while for greater precision he used the readings taken from a level fitted to the telescope. M. d’Abbadie here condemns the use of levels altogether for really accurate work, and backs his opinion with facts which he has obtained from personal experience. He mentions that, as far back as 1837, he made a study of their accuracy, but the levels he used were not good ones, Later, after having pur- chased some from the best-known makers in Paris, Munich, London, and Hamburg, he repeated his experiments in a cellar in an old chdteau, and he found that the results given were of a most unsatisfactory kind. Admitting, then, that there was a variation in the latitude, it was not long before periods were established. Peters, in the year 1845, from observations at Pulkova, derived one of 303°9 days with a maximum on November 16, 1842. r. Nyrén ex- tended this to 305°6 days, with a maximum on December 13, 1867, while Mr. Downing, from ten years of observations made at Greenwich, deduced a period of 306‘o days, with a maximum on October 12, 1872. Leverrier, and Hough at Albany, also found variations that were confirmed at Abbadia. M. d’Abbadie then refers to the variation of the true azimuth, which, as he says, did not escape the notice of Airy. In the year 1848 he estimated it as 4” or 5”, while fifteen years later he extended it to 6” or 7”. Of course, if the pole suffers any displacement, such as an increase in elevation, at its two elongations it will be displaced by the same amount, and the azimuths in these cases would be increased. The greatest dis- placement we have mentioned is 2”°07, but M. d’Abbadie says ‘. 5 3 5. sce tans 64 The Late Partial Eclipse ofthe Moon ....... 64 Declinations of Stars for Reduction of Variations in i Latitude: | :''s “erte vei gs 7 ess Ge tea en nee ee 65 Comet 1892 Denning (March 18). ...-...-. - 65 Comet 1892 Swift (March 6)... . 1 «6 se 2 2 « 65 Geopraphical Notes™. i. 0). fee 4 8d eee OS The Variations of Terrestrial Latitudes. By W.J.L. 65 Magnetic Variations. By William Ellis ...... 67 Scientific Serialg {4° 00500. See ee 0 ge Societies and Academies ......cees2.ces- 0 NATURE 73 THURSDAY, MAY 26, 1892. MATHEMATICS USED IN PHYSICS. ileitiuny in die Theoretische Physik. Von Victor von Lange. Second Edition, Enlarged and Revised. (Braunschweig : Vieweg, 1891.) S work is intended to give an account of the _ mathematical processes employed in physical in- ‘Iti is divided into chapters dealing with the » mechanics, gravitation, Te siciey, solids, fluids, gases, light, and oi very difficult in such a book to decide how > in mathematical processes, and Herr von Lange ised his discretion wisely in this matter. At the how little to assume known he has certainly a the direction of assuming too much, for he es proofs of simple differentiations and integra- n he requires them, which had much better be : Bt claiisoncty in an elementary treatise on the cal- culus. No English student would use a book of this ed character without some preliminary mathe- ica training, and it is very doubtful whether anybody ing up the calculus in this haphazard fashion could e it in his own investigations ; and if it is no use hn this, would it not be a great saving of time ; ‘for him to depend on the investigations of ; without going through all their work, just as an tigator of magnetic declination need hardly expect ‘time to work through the lunar and planetary that help in the calculations of the Nautical ln he uses? A work of this kind is of great service a concentrated store of information for those who want yhysics, and who have sufficient mathematical ¢ training to be able to use the mathematical involved ; but it cannot successfully compete special treatises on the elements of solid geometry, atial calculus, &c., as a means of supplying the ; jatical training required in order to use these Fea > 4 to st i ces: Sos? bh : EHredictag: into awork of the scope of this book any Miihediaty dynamics. The subject, however, wastes q only a few pages, and it may very well be worth while in- “eign it in order to avoid references and explanations 4 might be quite as long. His discussion of the 4 atte of mass is hardly satisfactory without a descrip- tion of apparatus and methods of experimenting, but, so far as it goes, is fairly sound. He does not point out with sufficient clearness where definition ends and ob- b < servation comesin. These are, however, really physical _ questions, with which a mathematical work might very _ well dispense. In discussing the rotation of a solid sub- -yect to forces, he bases his investigation on Airy’s _ mathematical tracts, but he does not safeguard himself with all the provisos Airy so carefully introduces ; and in consequence there are many pitfalls, carefully hidden. od is based upon supposing the body given a series of blows, and appears on the face of it to be purely kinematical. It is on the other hand evident that, in general, dynamical questions, such as the centrifugal ac- NO 1178, VOL. 46] celeration introduced when the a»:'s «f rotation is not a principal one, must come into consideration when dis- cussing the forces that must be applied to a real body in order to make it move in a given way. A student of this investigation would be puzzled to understand how it happens that a solid sphere, when rotating round an axis and given a blow, begins to rotate round a new axis, new both inside the sphere, and in space, while a gyroscope takes up a wobble. It is possible by a series of blows given to a sphere to cause its axis of rotation to move round in space while preserving its position in the sphere, but a series of blows in general would not produce this result. The kinematic investigation of rotation of a solid round an axis accompanied by an angular acceleration round a rectangular axis is an interesting geometrical question, but must be carefully distinguished from the dynamical question of what forces must be applied to a real solid in order to produce this motion, and these two different questions not being sufficiently clearly distin- guished make the investigation unsatisfactory. In con- nection with the motion of a solid, it is to be regretted that a short account of the theory of screws was not included. Under gravitation at one place, there is a full account of free fall, pendulums, balances, bifilar suspensions, torsion balance, &c. Then he proceeds to questions depending on gravitation at different places, the figure of the earth, the constant of gravitation. Here he mentions Foucault’s pendulum, and notices that the elementary investigation is insufficient, without, however, giving more than the result of the complete investigation, not even explaining why the elementary investigation fails, owing to the precessional motion of the axes of the ellipse in which the bob of the pendulum necessarily moves, and which becomes comparable with the motion looked for, unless the amplitude ‘be very small and the suspending thread very long. This chapter concludes with an account of the theorems connected with forces varying inversely as the square of the distance. It is doubtful whether it would not have been better to deal with this subject in the first place from the hydrodynamical point of view. Such theorems as that the flow is equal across every section of a tube of flow, and its numerous consequences, such as that equal quantities of electricity exist at the ends of a tube of force, that the total normal force over any surface is equal to 4m times the quantity of electricity within, &c., are all intuitively evident in hydro- dynamics, and it is well to call a student’s attention to the way in which he can safely argue from the familiar to the unfamiliar. The chapter on magnetism is very complete, though the action of two magnets on one another is done in a fearfully long-winded way ; and in the account of the determination of magnetic declination the spherical trigonometry required in order to. calculate the azimuth of the terrestrial meridian from the astronomical obser- vations is not given. It would also appear as if the determination of variations of dip by means of an in- duction vertical force magnetometer were quite a different thing from determinations of the variation of vertical force by means of a balance magnetometer. Magnetic induction is the usual mathematical investigation of simple cases where the permeability is assumed constant. An E 74 NATURE [May 26, 1892 edition dated 1891 might have included some of the mathematics of hysteresis. Electrostatics is treated as fully as it should be, though perhaps a single chapter on the law of the inverse square, containing most of the theorems required in magnetism and electricity, would have given a sounder view of the mathematics involved. It was hardly to be expected that a mathematician should avoid the temptation of de- scribing Mossotti’s theory of dielectrics:without a warning that it can hardly be complete, and in consequence gives the electrical displacement as K—-1I "4a instead of a3 times the electrical force, thus making the displacement zero in a vacuum, and justifying this by saying that the results differ very little, while it would really overturn the whole electro-magnetic theory of light. This same overturning is calmly got over when the electro- magnetic theory of light is considered further on by a reference to this place, and this very remarkable state- ment that K —1 differs but little from K. There seems to be some confusion, arising from the fact that in electro- magnetic measure K is nearly 10%’, but such a muddle is inexcusable. He further on gives the theory of pene- tration of electric force into conductors, without referring back to an investigation he has previously given of the concentration of alternating currents on the surface of a wire, not appearing to appreciate that they are the same. He also actually explains wave propagation in dielectrics by induction from layer to layer because the inducing force is very small initially at a distance. He has not learnt the A B C of action by means of a medium, but is still hampered by the dry bones of theories of action ata distance. In consequence of this, his investigation of the magnetic action of electric currents is all bristling with the action of elements upon one another, and little or no attention given to the energy stored in the medium, or how it goes from place to place. The chapter on solids begins with some rather doubtful physical paragraphs that are out of place in a mathematical work. Is it sound to call heat a force (K7a/?) that holds the particles of bodies asunder? Is it sound to say that the difference between solids and liquids is the difficulty of separating the parts of the former, when it is known that it often takes hundreds of pounds per square inch to separate the parts of a liquid from one another, and when it is the resistance of the material to shear that he really uses as the characteristic of solids? That mistake of making the difficulty of separation and not the difficulty of shearing the characteristic of solids seems quite common : it occurs in many books. The mathematical theory of elasticity is given in the usual analytical way, and applied to some of the simpler cases of bending, &c. Periodic motion is then introduced, and the more im- portant cases of wave motion and vibrations of solids con- sidered. In the consideration of torsion he omits to give any warning as to difficulties arising in the case of non- cylindrical prisms. The chapter concludes with an investigation of the impacts of solid spheres in a manner that brings it into connection with the kinetic theory of gases. The chapters on liquids and gases are fairly complete. NO. 1178, VOL. 46 | There is an interesting numerical calculation of the height of a statical tide; this is an example of how com- plete and varied are the physical questions of which the mathematics is given by Herr von Lange. mentary kinetic theory of gases is given, but without any discussion of the distribution of velocities amongst the molecules. gaseous laws is discussed, and along with it the theory of cubic equations is given in a rather skimpy form—an example of how difficult it is to teach the higher physical . mathematics in a way that applies to the particularcase in hand, except by teaching the part of the higher mathematics involved from a wider point of view than the particular solution requires. The chapter on light is hardly so full as such an im- portant subject demands. Diffraction is run through, but the absence of bands inside a shadow is not discussed, and the theory of definition in telescopes is separated from the same question in microscopes in a very unscientific way. There isa lot of reflection theory, anda paragraph on the direction of the vibration relative to the plane of polarization ; but no notice is taken of the theory of the blue sky, nor of the electro-magnetic method of determina- tion, nor of Wiener’s proof that it is the electric force — which acts on silver salts, and is consequently the one probably effective in most chemical actions, and there- fore in irritating the retina. that iron salts may be acted on by the magnetic force. The last chapter is on conduction of heat and on the mechanical theory of heat. The first part is an account of the simpler parts of Fourier, as any book on conduction of heat must be, and the latter is a good account of thermodynamics. ,It is to be regretted that he does not give some mechanical illustrations of temperature, though a discussion, of the nature of temperature would have been out of place. The chapter concludes with a variety of applications of thermodynamics to such questions as the relations of electromotive force, compressibility, and — surface tension, to temperature, as well as the usual one, vapour pressure. It is much easier to point out defects. than adequately to describe excellences. It must not. therefore be concluded from the fact that much of this. review is concerned with the former that the defects pre- ponderate over the excellences of Herr von Lange’s. work. On the contrary, the work is full of excellences. The way in which physics and mathematics are tending” to grow each purer—one in the direction of mathe- matical abstractions, complexes, matrices, and such like ;. the other in the direction of experimental methods, accuracy, phenomena, and such like—makes it daily more important for physical investigators especially to have by them aconvenient 7ésumé of those parts of mathematics that are most often useful to them in their investigations, and this has been ably supplied by Herr von Lange. PHASES OF ANIMAL LIFE, Phases of Animal Life, Past and Present. Lydekker, B.A. (Cantab.). Co., 1892.) HE sixteen essays which make up the volume are reprints, with a few alterations, of articles origin- ally published in Knowledge. “They are intended,” the By R. The ele-. Van der Waals’s modification of the simple ~ It is possible, however . (London : Longmans and. — POG See = 2 ie ee Pe ais a ~ May 26, 1892] NATURE 75 author tells us, “to illustrate in a popular manner a few __ of the various modes in which animals—especially verte- _ brates—are adapted to similar conditions ; and also to _ demonstrate some of the more remarkable types of structure obtaining among the higher vertebrates.” _ The subject is one upon which Mr. Lydekker is well _ qualified to write ; this is alone a decided recommenda- _ tion to the book. As a rule, the writing of “ popular ” books and magazine articles is done by persons who have __ no special knowledge of the matters of which they treat, 7 and the result of this is not at all gratifying to instructed _ readers. Mr. Lydekker recognizes the fact that it is _ impossible to write upon zoology without using plenty of _ technical terms. When such terms are used they are _ introduced without any apologies. There are some authors who have the habit of invariably interpolating an q apologetic remark in brackets whenever an unusually _ lengthy word is used. This practice is not at all _ humorous ; and, besides, it is insulting to the intelligence _ of the reader. Anyone who is likely to read an article upon zoology is perfectly well able to take care of himself when he meets with a strictly technical explanation of _ some fact. Mr. Lydekker is therefore, in our opinion, : quite right in speaking of “Condyles,” “ Dinosaurs,” _ “Iguanodons,” &c., with perfect freedom. Sometimes, _ however, he goes out of his way to invent or borrow an English equivalent for a scientific name; thus the Ichthyosaurus is always referred to as a “ fish-lizard.” It seems to us that if there be any fossil creature whose _ name is absolutely without need of translation it is the _ Ichthyosaurus ; we cannot remember the time when this _ mame was :unfamiliar to us; besides, to speak of these _ reptiles as “fish-lizards” implies that they are inter- mediate between fishes and lizards, which is by no means the case. It would have been in every way much more reasonable if Mr. Lydekker had spoken of the Dinosaurs as “ bird-lizards.” The chapter dealing with these same Dinosaurs is _ perhaps the most interesting. The information which is _ given must be newer to the general reader. There is a _ figure of one of the splendid skeletons of the Iguanodon recently unearthed in Belgium, and now on view in the _ Brussels Museum ; the reproduction of the plate illustrat- _ ing M. Dollo’s memoir upon these remains is not, how- ver, very good ; it is difficult to distinguish the numerous small bones which lie along the vertebral column, and which are an indication of the immense development of the tendons of the muscles used to move the powerful tail of the reptile. M. Dollo thought that the Iguanodon lived principally in marshes swimming with the aid of the tail, and only occasionally coming forth to browse upon shrubs on the dry land. ' There is naturally a chapter upon the Monotremes. _ Quite close to the beginning of the chapter it is stated that “within the last few years” these Mammals have been discovered to be oviparous, like reptiles and birds. Mr. Lydekker’s book deals mainly with extinct forms of life, and he must have forgotten that in this chapter he was dealing with historical and not with geological time. It is surely unnecessary to remind the author that the oviparity of the Monotremata is not a discovery of the last few years ; the ve-discovery by~Mr. Caldwell of this remarkable fact strikingly shows how an important point NO. 1178, VOL. 46] of this kind may be utterly forgotten. The history of the whole question has been the subject of an interesting article in this journal by Prof. Baldwin Spencer, which appeared two or three years ago. F. E. B. OUR BOOK SHELF. Silk Dyeing, Printing, and Finishing. By George H. Hurst, F.C.S. (London : George Bell and Sons, 1892.) PUBLISHED information connected with the application of colouring matters to silk is somewhat limited, and for the most part scattered throughout the various pamphlets issued by coal-tar colour manufacturers, the periodicals devoted to dyeing, &c. The present publication is therefore very acceptable, since it brings together, in a convenient and useful form, much of this diffused information, and constitutes one of the well-known series of technological hand-books edited by Sir H. Trueman Wood, Secretary of the Society of rts. The author, Mr. Hurst, has here rewritten and brought up to date his articles on the subject of silk-dyeing which appeared during 1889 in the pages of the Dyer and Calico Printer, and has added chapters on silk printing and finishing, and on the testing of dyed silks. The language and style of the book are clear and ex- plicit, and it has evidently been written with distinctly practical aims, so numerous are the working details given througheut the work. The opening chapter contains an account of the origin, structure, composition, and properties of the most import- ant varieties of silk, followed by one on the preliminary operations of “ boiling-off” and bleaching. Special chap- ters are devoted to the dyeing of blacks, fancy colours, and mixed fabrics. The concluding chapters deal with silk printing, the machinery used in dyeing and finishing, and the examination and assaying of raw and dyed silk. Some 170 selected and also original recipes, together with 66 dyed patterns of yarn and cloth, appear as an appendix. Altogether the author has succeeded in com- pressing into a somewhat limited space of about 230 pages, a considerable amount of useful practical information. In the body of the work, containing numerous technical details of dyeing, explanations of the principles under- lying the different processes involved are here and there interspersed, so that the volume may be recommended as a handy book of reference not only for the practical dyer and his apprentice, but also for the student and teacher in technical schools where silk dyeing is taught. Phycological Memoirs. Edited by Geo. Murray,F.R.S.E., F.L.S. Part I. (London: Dulau and Co., 1892.) THE establishment of this new serial is an indication of the increased attention given in this country during recent years to the study of Algz, whether marine or fresh-water. It is intended to form a medium for the publication of the results of researches on Algz carried on inthe Depart- ment of Botany at the British Museum, and for making known the treasures of the Museum; and the present number is full of promise of valuable additions to our phycological literature. The place of honour is given to a paper by Miss Margaret O. Mitchell and Miss Frances G. Whitting on Splachnidium rugosum, a well-known seaweed of the Southern Seas, hitherto included under the Fucaceez, but which the authors regard as a new type of Algz occupying possibly an intermediate position be- tween the /ucacee and the Laminariacee. Yor reasons which certainly seem cogent, they are of opinion that the reproductive organs contained in the conceptacles are not sexual oogones and antherids homologous to those of 76 NATURE [May 26, 1892 the Fucacez, but non-sexual sporanges containing zoo- spores similar to those of the Laminariacee. Mr. E. A. L. Batters describes an interesting new genus of perforat- ing marine Alge, Conchocelis, belonging to the order Porphyraceeg, which forms pink stains on empty shells, especially those of Mya truncata and Solen vagina. Miss Ethel S. Barton describes malformations produced in two seaweeds, Ascophyllum nodosum and Desmarestia aculeata, by the attacks respectively of a new species of Nematode, 7ylenchus fucico/us, somewhat similar to that which produces the well-known “galls’’ of Vaucheria, and of an undetermined Copepod. The editor himself has two papers, one on a fossil Alga belonging to the genus Caulerpa, from the Oolite (Kimmeridge clay of Dorset- shire), a new species, which he names C. Carruthersii ; and one on the genus of marine Alge, Dictyospheria, the position of which he retains among the Va/onzacee, near to Valonia and Anadyomene. The present number is illustrated by eight well-executed plates, most of them coloured. A. W. B. Live Stock. By Prof. Wrightson. (London: Cassell, 1892.) THIs is the third of Cassell’s series of agricultural text- books, and though hardly equal to other writings of Prof. Wrightson, will be found useful as a reader in elementary classes. The illustrations are well done, and the text is pretty clear, except perhaps on pp.52-53, in a paragraph upon the “effect of food on milk.” Here it is said that ‘*The quantity of milk is therefore in some degree dependent on liberal feeding. The quality of the milk is much less easily controlled, and it is doubtful if any special feeding will materially alter the percentage of butter-fats or cream in milk.” Then, at the end of the paragraph we have— “ Watery foods, such as silage, grass, grains, and dis- tillery wash, increase the quantity of milk, but lower the quality, and in town dairies, where a large amount of milk is the principal object, they are much employed.” This paragraph is contradictory and confusing, for Prof. Wrightson himself admits that the quality of milk may be lowered by using watery foods, and we are decidedly of opinion that it may be increased by means of rich, oily foods. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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. } Lord Kelvin’s Test Case on the Maxwell-B2ltzmann Law. IN his recent communication to the Royal Society, of a case disproving the Boltzminn law, Lord Kelvin seems to have over- looked an important consideration. It is well known that in an atmosphere near the earth, under conductive (not convective) equilibrium of temperature, the mean kinetic energy (z.¢., the temperature) would be uniform not- withstanding the attraction of the earth, which causes each molecule to move more rapidly at the lower end of its path than at the upper end. This is due to the effect of gravity in sifting out the less rapidly moving particles, preventing them from reaching the upper layers, so that, of the particles in any one layer which reach a higher layer, the great proportion are those which move rapidly in the lower layer. Thus there will be fewer particles in the upper layer, but the mean kinetic energy of a particle will be the same in both. Applying these considerations to Lord Kelvin’s example, it appears that the C particle, when going rapidly, will penetrate a considerable distance into the region of the repulsive force, while, when going slowly, it will only penetrate a short distance. Thus the duration of a slow flight might be much shorter than NO. 1178, VOL. 46] that of a quick one (with a force varying directly as the dis- tance, the durations would be equal). It is quite different with — the A particle, which moves uniformly to the end of the tube and ~ back again. The duration of a slow flight will belong and of 4 quick flight short, being always inversely proportiona to the velocity. Again, it appears evident that the chances for C having a great or small initial velocity at B are exactly the same as those for A. Hence, if we compare the velocities of A and C at an instant arbitrarily chosen, the probability of our happening on a time when A is moving slowly may be less than that of our happening on a time when C is moving slowly, and we cannot conclude that the mean kinetic energy of A is greater than that of C ; indeed, a comparison of this case with that of the atmosphere, would lead us to expect that the mean kinetic energies of A and C would be equal. There are cases in which the Boltzmann-Maxwell distribution does nothold. For instance, the case of a large particle con- fined at the end of a tube, with numerous small particles bom- barding it. The mean kinetic energy of the large particle will depend on the range of its motion in the tube. This example would suggest the conclusion that in such cases as. gases in contact with solids and liquids, where the molecules of the latter are so confined by molecular forces as to approxi- mate to the condition of the large particle at the end of the tube, the conditions of temperature equilibrium can hardly be determined by the Boltzmann-Maxwell law. 40 Trinity College, Dublin. Epw. P, CULVERWELL. Poincaré’s Thermodynamics, RENTRANT a Paris aprés une assez longue absence, je prends seulement connaissance de la derniére lettre de M. Tait. Je ne veux pas continuer une discussion qui ne saurait se prolonger sans dégénérer en une simple logomachie. II résulte en effet des débats que M. Tait n’attribue pas le méme sens que moi 4 cer- taines expressions, et en particulier au mot force électromotrice. Il me semble seulement, puisque c’était mon livre qu’il criti- quait, que c’était a lui d’adopter mon langage, qui est d’ailleurs celui de tout le monde, Je m/arréterai done Ja, quoiqu’il arrive. Je suis pourtant obligé d’insister sur un point, parce que je ne veux pas laisser suspecter ma bonne foi. M. Tait a écrit: ‘* Nothing is said, in this connection, about Joule’s experiments.” En ne tenant pas compte de ces mots ‘‘in this connection,” j’aurais dénaturé sa pensée. Ces mots ne m’avaient pas échappé. Ils signifient, si je ne me trompe: ‘‘ dans ses rapports avec la déter- mination de la température absolue.” Et c’est pourquoi, aprés. avoir rappelé que j’avais décrit ces expériences a la page 164, j’ai ajouté que j’avais expliqué 4 la page 169 comment elles per- mettent de déterminer la température absolue. POINCARE, [I need scarcely say that I never dreamt of doubting the good faith of M. Poincaré. What I did (and still do) doubt is my having made my meaning clear to him. For I cannot see how such a discussion could degenerate into a mere war of words. So far as I understand myself, I have been dealing mainly with the validity of certain modes of establishing physical laws, of with the mere terms employed in describing the experimental facts on which they are founded.—P. G. T.] Land and Freshwater Shells Peculiar to the British Isles. THERE cannot be any reasonable doubt that the inland Mollusca of Britain present some peculiar features, but it is surprising, con- sidering the amount of attention that has been devoted to them, how little exact knowledge we have of this subject. This want. of knowledge is doubtless due to two principal causes—first, that so many conchologists consider varieties, and especially slight varieties, to be of little or no importance ; and secondly, because those who study our native shells are, as a rule, but ill acquainted with foreign species and varieties. The publication of a list of supposed peculiar forms in the new edition of Dr. Wallace’s ‘‘ Island Life,” will, it is hoped, direct attention to this matter. Although this list is more or less provisional, and will doubtless require much alteration as time goes on, I antici- pate that the number of forms actually peculiar to our islands, when fully ascertained, will considerably exceed eighty-three, the number at present listed. On the other hand, no doubt, several at present in the list will have to be eventually struck out. ; May 26, 1892] Ratemrnnny~ NATURE 77 — With regard to the peculiar species: Limnea involuta is ubtless an isolated derivative of the feregra-type, to which e curious and distinct var. durnetti of Scotland may be said lead. Assiminea grayana and Hydrobia jenkinsi belong to @ brackish-water and salt-marsh fauna, which, as has been ll observed, formerly extended far beyond its present limits. ‘© this now-restricted fauna belong many of our peculiar Lepidoptera (see the list in ‘‘Island Life,” pp. 347-350), and the probability is that most of these are destined shortly to become extinct, as the large copper butterfly (Chrysophanus dispar) already is. The fourth species, Geomalacus maculosus, is not strictly peculiar, being also found in Portugal ; but it is a survival of the Lusitanian fauna, to be classed with numerous ints milar range, recorded in ‘‘Island Life,” p. 364. s, of the four species given as peculiar, one only is strictly lemic, having regard to its whole history; and the three others are apparently best regarded as survivals of faunz which were formerly more widely spread. Tur now to the varieties, we meet with a much larger ropo of truly endemic forms, though from our want of snowledge there is much uncertainty. Zzmax marginatus var. maculatus is quite common in parts of Ireland, and as it is a very striking form, it could not easily have been overlooked had it arores on the Continent. The same applies with perhaps greater rce to the beautiful var. alsolateralis of Arion ater, which abounds in parts of Wales. agrestis is ‘instead of black, but I am not aware that even this melanism exists on the Continent, though, it is true, _ they have the dark brown var. ¢ris/is. _ This melanism is well illustrated by other British slugs— namely, two forms of Limax flavus, and two of Amalia sowerbyi, and may be compared with the well-known cases of melanism so our Lepidoptera. That there is a strong Savatage’ to formation of melanic races in these islands cannot, I think, be doubted; and insular melanism elsewhere has been well « lished as a fact. There is another class of varieties, noticed especially in the shells, characterized by a slight and yet real difference from the €or at: . This sort of variation is as yet very little d out, but most conchologists who have received common 2s in numbers from abroad, must have noticed how fre- they b a different /aczes from those familiar to us in ‘itain, though the actual difference may be so slight that we Id hesitate to separate them as varieties. Quite recently, M. Bourguignat has regarded certain British specimens of Clausita and Unio as constituting new species. Probably hardly anyone will be found to follow him in this decision, but ators ow thoroughly he and his colleagues have ransacked a pote. eh especially France, for novelties, so we may rest assured that in all probability these shells represent variations not existing on the Continent. _ Another class consists of forms which might be set down by some as mere monstrosities, but which, nevertheless, are local in _ their distribution. Such are sinistral forms, which occur rarely _ in many es, hut in many instances frequently in certain AS his form of variation is certainly inherited, and in ict has become the character of species and genera. White _ shells of coloured species are apt to be scoffed at as mere albinos, _ but the character is undoubtedly an important one, since in _ Hyalinia we have every gradation of species from those which rarely resent white varieties, to those which are normally and ndeed invariably white. The colourless variety of Cochdicopa Jubrica is frequent in one or two British localities, at least, but I never of its occurrence on the Continent, nor in North America, where the species is abundant. _ The sources of possible error, in estimating the number of peculiar forms, are obviously many, and hence the need for prolonged and careful research in the future. Helix virgata ei subdeleta is very common in England, and I formerly at it endemic ; but recently Mr. J. T. Carrington found tat Toulon ; and Helix dautezi, Kobelt, a supposed species Et from near Algesiras and Gibraltar, is almost precisely identical g gh it, so far as I can judge from specimens collected by the ev. J. W. Horsley. The variety /eucozona of the same species also seemed characteristic of the British fauna, but a form from NO. 1178, VOL. 46] -May 5 (p. 11), with the greatest interest. of a single exception. Toulon differs but slightly from it. Arion hortensis var. fallax, with orange slime, is given as peculiar. It may, however, be the same as var. swfuscus, C. Pfr., which is of a brownish colour, or var. rufescens, which is described as reddish or orange. These would look extremely like /a//ax when the latter was covered with slime ; but there is an element of un- certainty, since Dr. Scharff has shown thatin A. subfuscus, Drap., there are two forms, one coloured reddish only by its slime, as in fa//ax, and the other with a yellow pigment in the skin. Similarly, we remain doubtful about Helix aspersa var. lutescens, a form not rare in some English localities. I know nothing described from the Continent that would agree with it, but when it loses its epidermis it agrees with the description of a French variety, and if we suppose the type of the latter to have been a weathered specimen, the two must be identical. T. D. A, COCKERELL. Institute of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica, May 3. The Former Connection of Southern Continents. I READ Mr. Lydekker’s article on ‘‘ The Discovery of Australian-like Mammals in South America,’ in NATURE of It is worth while calling attention to a physiographic fact pointing towards a former connection between South America and Southern Africa, such as appears to be required on biological grounds, as pointed out by Mr. Lydekker. The island of South Georgia in the Antarctic Ocean lat. 54° S., long. 37° W., is composed of clay-slate, the mountains, rising precipitately from the ocean, attaining to altitudes of from 2000 to 3000 metres (NATURE, March 27, 1884, p. 509). It is about 1200 miles due east of Cape Horn, and almost exactly one-third of the way between that cape and the Cape of Good Hope. The full significance of these facts seems hardly to have been realized, especially from a geological point of view. The existence of clay-slate rock forming mountains of an Alpine character indicates with certainty that the island is a portion of a submerged land of great extent. In ‘*The Origin of Moun- tain Ranges” I have dwelt upon and developed the law that all great mountain ranges (not volcanoes) are thrown up only in areas of great sedimentation. This is true of every mountain range that has been geologically examined, and I do not know Keeping this law well in view, clay- slate mountains of an Alpine character protruding directly from the ocean become invested with deep meaning. They indicate vast horizontal extensions of thick sedimentary deposits which have been subjected to great lateral pressure, and have become ridged up along lines of least resistance. That such sedimentary rocks exist far and wide, forming the ocean bottom about the island of South Georgia, I have not the least doubt. A con- tinental stepping-stone one-third of the way is a somewhat important independent support towards the land connections required by biologists between two great continents. _ Park Corner, May 9. T. MELLARD READE. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. THE lesser spotted woodpecker is rather a rare bird, and per- haps the following notes may be worth recording. This house is in the fields, at the foot of the Cotswolds. Opposite my bedroom window, and only four yards distant, there is a very tall old Lombardy poplar, with a stem two feet thick. One of these birds visited this tree almost every day from the latter part of March till the 12th of this month, coming every morning between 6 and 8, and sometimes also at other hours. He fixed himself always on the same part of the stem, opposite my window, and about 25 feet from the ground ; and as there are only a few small brauches there, he was very plainly seen He made a remarkable sound, very loud, like the boring of a large auger, continued for one or two seconds, and repeated again and again at short intervals, While the sound continued his whole body seemed in rapid vibration, and he was tapping the tree with extreme rapidity with the point of his beak. During the intervals his head was generally moving quickly from side to side, and his beak was often turned over to plume him- self, At this time the crest on his head became often a splendid object. When the sun shone on it, it was like a flash of flame, or the glitter of polished copper foil. The bird was about six inches long, with a rather thick, fluffy-looking body, the tail and back striped black and white, the stripes broadest at the tail. What he was really doing I could not determine. The 78 NATURE [May 26, 1892 stem of the tree at that place seems to be hollow, and the bark is cracked, but no hole has been bored, and no insects are seen there. I have had it examined with a long ladder. The bird has now disappeared. I think his nest has been in the stem of an ash-tree in a field not far off. There is a hole in it about the size of a tea-cup, but out of reach, I have not seen his mate, or heard any answering cry. ancestors of all the Eastern Bantu tribes from the River Dana to the Great Fish River, whose descendants still retain the name 4 ; in their vocabularies, and still hold it in veneration. On the western coast this name seems replaced by a word _ which may be most conveniently referred to under its most common form Nzambi. ALBERT C. Mort. di Wala) . Name of God. ‘ i Wala 7 Detmore, near Cheltenham, May 21. iSubu f° Nyambi The God of the Ethiopians, prneet i ro aie IF we were to classify the various African tribes which speak ba Sete} nis Nyambi dialects of the Bantu language-branch (the Ethiopians of oRungu_... ine asa Anyambi Herodotus and Pomponius Mela, of Dos Santos and Merolla) m Pongwe ... Njambi according to the names by which they designate the Deity, the m Bete . j... Ndshambi greater number of them would be found to fall into two great a Shira Aniembie, Njambe groups. ba Kele Nshambi Those on the eastern coast worship a god who is known under ba Nyombe... Ndzambi some form of the word Unkulunkulu. Loango tribes Zambi Tribe. Name for God. Root, ec on ; great” or Derivative. ama Mpondo ... . | Ukulukulu a inkulu = great, old ama Xosa : ubukulu = greatness ama Zulu vekwinekpin sha ukukulwa cee make great be Chuana rei < vi «| (Mokholokholo)! Kholo ... ekholo = in Inhambane tribe ve ie «+ vay} Mulungulu Tribe at L. Moero _ ... Ne we 1 >) ae} Mulungu »» 9) L. Tanganika Cr Mulungu wa Yao... u “8 Mulungu ... od ... | ukulungwa = greatness, a Nyika Mulungu ... Kulu wa Kamba Mulungu ma Konde aS . Mlungu ma Koa, Mocambique Moloko (Muluku) =p Quillimane ... Mulugo rf Rovumah Mlugu Sofala tribes .. eae Mes Murungu... guru “A », Of Dos Santos .. Molungo Sena tribes as 7 Murungu... Kuru ikuru = great Tete tribes .... Muungt ... Kuru L. Bangweolo tribe Mungu Kukuu = old Kwanza = ony es A Kuu = moral wa Swahili, Zanzibar ... Muungt ... Ku ir t % C. Delgado Mlungu Kubwa = physically hy ukuu aaa ukubwa f "© wa Pokomo Mungo ... Ku ba Yanzi (Central Africa) Molongo ; ou kuru = antiquity ova Hererd (South-West Africa) Mukuru . Kare 3 sah a ova kuru = ancestors ova kurupa = old age 1 This term means simply a very old person, and is not applied to God. It will be seen that the least corrupted form of the word Unkulunkulu, or Ukulukulu, is found in the Zulu, Xosa, and Pondo dialects of the Kaffir language. The word itself is formed from the Zulu or Xosa adjective nkulu (root kulu) ‘‘ great,” ‘‘ grown,” hence ‘‘adult,” ‘ old.” Unkulunkulu therefore means primarily ‘‘ the great (or old) one of the great (or old) one.” The cult paid to Unkulunkulu is a typical instance of that form of monotheism which takes its origin from ancestor worship. The Kaffirs callhim their progenitor. Unkulunkulu ukobu wetu. The above table appears to show that, in Molungo, Mulungulu, Mlugu, or Mungu, the term thus variously modified is derived directly from the full form Unkulunkulu (perhaps originally Munkulunkulu), and thereafter corrupted by phonetic decay, instead of being in each case derived independently, like the archaic form, from the adjective signifying ‘‘ great” in the language to which it belongs. The inference, therefore, seems to be that the word Munkulun- ’ kulu was used (not necessarily in its present sense) by the common NO, 1178, VOL. 46] Kabinda tribes... Nzambi Pongo Ka Kongo ne Zarmbi Angoy tribes ba Sundi Ndzambi a pungo ba Teke Ndshambe, Nshami, &c. ba Yansi Nzambi, Nyambi ba Buma Ndshambi eshi Kongo Nzambi, Nzambi a ba Lunda Zambi ba Bunda Onzambi ma Ngala Nsambi ba Bihe Nzambi ba Rotse Nyampe ova:Herero .. Nayambi The worship of Nzambi is inextricably commingled with that of fetishes and idols, and has doubtless been still further corrupted by contact with the Portuguese missionaries who were so active in the work of conversion in the Congo Empire in the seventeenth century. But there is reason to believe that in its P this y é outlying = of language and architecture which distinguish the to dim high into May 26, 1892 | NATURE 79 / oo. conception Nzambi was a celestial being or force, a ature spirit like Zeus or Indra, who ruled the sky or controlled 4 ny the tempest. __.__ Among the Isubu, ¢.g., a cognate form signifies ‘‘ heaven,” and such is the case also at Cape Lopez. Winwood Read’s t ere raised their hands to heaven when they appealed to N to save them from the hurricane ; and his Ashira slave pointed in the same direction when questioned on the subject of the deity. The Manyombe regard Nyambi as heaven, and the Basundi call him the “‘ spirit on high” ; and according to Kdlbe the otyi Herero term Karunga Ondyambi= “‘heavenly bestower,” ** who gives and withholds rain.” _ The word bears little evidence of change, and is perhaps of com ively modern origin. It appears, therefore, that while the Eastern Bantus, who _ worship Unkulunkulu, indulge in ahnen-cult, the western adherents of Nzambi are more or less Nature worshippers. In they appear to approach the Negroes of the Gold, Slave, and Oil Coasts A third and smaller, but very distinct group apply the term _ Morimo or Molimo to their conception of the deity. I refer to the Barolong, the Basuto, the Batlapin, and other clans, which are ly classed together as the Bechuana tribes. ‘‘ Morimo” s the singular form of a word the plural of which, barimo, Pe _ balimo, bedimo, bazimo, is found almost universally among the _ Bantu tribes to denote the spirits of the dead. ication of the singular form, Morimo, Molimo, in a and restricted sense to the Supreme Being is con- _ fined almost entirely to the Bechuana tribes, and has perhaps been only recently used in this monotheistic sense ; although ae Pory mentions (in his edition of Leo Africanus, A.D. 1600) Muzimo as the one god of the Monomotapa tribes, and Graven- broek (A.D. 1695) says of the Kaffirs of Zimboe, ‘‘ Divinitatem aliquem Messimo dictam in lucis summo cultu venerantur.” other tribe, the Lomwe, who live east of Lake Kilwa among the Namuli Hills, use the word Murimu for God; in differing from their Makoa foes, who worship Mlugu ; rather leads one to conclude that this tribe is an Bechuana clan. Mr. O’Neill has pointed out the is W. HAMMOND TOOKE. we from their neighbours. ape Town. Aurora Borealis, HAVE any of your readers observed the display of aurora borealis to-night (Wednesday)? I regret that insufficient know- ledge of astronomical technicalities does not permit me to describe more exactly the size and position of the display. It ap] between 11 and 11.30 p.m., as white streaks or bands ht, varying in width and intensity, now shooting up a ved ade distance, now dying away. It was especially brilliant just to the right of the constellation of Cassiopeia, and _ this was its furthest eastward limit ; it extended more or less across the whole northern sky, and at times was bright enough the stars it covered. The rays appeared to shoot up the Sa above Cassiopeia. It was a very beautiful was possibly more distinct in more northern WARINGTON STOCK. . es. _§. Paul’s Vicarage, Derby, May 18. THE NEW ELEMENT, MASRIUM. F URTHER details concerning the new element, whose probable existence was announced in a paper com- ‘municated to the Chemical Society at their meeting on April 21, are contributed to the number of the Chemiker Zeitung dated May 11. The mineral containing the new substance was discovered in 1890 by Johnson Pacha in the bed of an old river in Upper Egypt long since dried up, but of the former existence of which there are records dating back some 6000 years. Indeed, the name by which it is known in the neighbourhood is “ Bahr-bela-Ma,” or “river without water.” Here and there in the track of the old watercourse are small lakes whose water is of considerable repute for its medicinal value. Specimens of the mineral were sent by Johnson Pacha to the Khedivial Laboratory at Cairo, where it was examined by Messrs. H. Droop Richmond and Hussein Off, the authors of the NO. 1178, VOL. 46] paper laid before the Chemical Society. The mineral is found to be a fibrous variety of a mixed aluminium and iron alum containing ferrous, manganous, and cobaltous oxides. In addition, however, to these ordinary con- stituents, a small quantity of the oxide of another element would appear to be present, having properties entirely different from those of any yet known. This element the discoverers have termed masrium, from the Arabic name for Egypt, and the mineral has accordingly received the name of masrtte. The symbol adopted for masrium is Ms. The composition of masrite may be expressed by the formula (Al,Fe),O; . (Ms, Mn, Co, Fe)O. 4SO, . 20H,O. The amount of masrium present is very small, averaging only about o*2 per cent., but by working upon fifteen kilo- grams of the mineral a considerable quantity of the ele- ment in the form of various salts has been accumulated. A typical analysis of masrite published in the Proceedings of the Chemical Society is as follows :— Water aay oe aaa 0° Insoluble matter... we “<“s Be pie Alumina : ale 10°62 Ferric oxide ... 1°63 Masrium oxide 0°20 Manganous oxide 2°56 Cobaltous oxide 1°02 Ferrous oxide 4°23 Sulphuric oxide 36°78 100°00 Suspicions that the mineral contained some hitherto unknown constituent were first aroused by the fact that when it was dissolved in water, and sulphuretted hydro- gen was passed slowly through the solution in presence of acetic acid, instead of the expected black pre- cipitate of sulphide of cobalt a white insoluble substance was first precipitated. This white precipitate continued to form until the new substance in the solution was all used up, when black sulphide of cobalt began to be thrown down. By decantation before the formation of the latter, and subsequent washing with dilute hydrochloric acid, the white substance was isolated in a state of tolerable purity. It was found to dissolve in boiling nitrohydro- chloric acid. The solution in agua regia was evaporated in order to remove the excess of acid, and ammonium hydrate added, when a voluminous white precipitate of the hydrate of the new metal was thrown down. The hydrate was washed by decantation, and subsequently dissolved in the minimum excess of sulphuric acid. The solution of the sulphate of the new metal was next evaporated to syrupy consistency, water was added until complete solution was just effected, and the solution mixed with an equal bulk of alcohol. The effect of this addition of alcohol was to cause immediate precipitation of crystals of the sulphate of the new metal, a further crop of which was also obtained upon evaporation. By repeated recrystallization most of the small quantity of iron present was removed. In order to eliminate the last traces of admixed ferrous sulphate, the crystals were redissolved in water, and excess of sodium hydrate added. As the hydrate of the new metal is soluble in excess of soda, the hydrated oxide of iron was readily removed by filtration. Upon the addition of ammonium chloride the white hydrate was precipitated in a gelatinous form ; the hydrate was redissolved in hydrochloric acid, and again hes and washed. The almost perfectly pure ydrate so obtained was then finally converted to chloride by solution in hydrochloric acid. In order to obtain data as to the atomic weight of masrium the following determinations were made. A known quantity of the chloride solution was precipitated by ammonia, and the hydrate thus obtained was ignited, and the remaining oxide weighed. A second portion was precipitated by a solution of microcosmic salt in presence of ammonia, and the phosphate obtained ignited 4 rete) NATURE {May 26, 1892 and weighed. The chlorine contained in a third portion was determined by means of silver nitrate in the ordinary manner. From the numbers so obtained the equivalent of masrium was calculated. A pure preparation of masrium oxalate was also obtained by precipitating the neutral solution of the chloride with ammonium oxalate, masrium oxalate resembling the oxalate of calcium in being insoluble under such conditions. The precipitated oxalate was washed, dried, and ignited in a combustion tube whose forward end was filled with copper oxide, when the salt was decomposed with elimin- ation of its water of crystallization, which was absorbed and weighed in the usual manner. The residual oxide was also weighed, and the oxalic acid, in another quantity of the salt, was determined by means of a standard solution of potassium permanganate. The crystals of the oxalate were thus found to contain 52°70 per cent. of masrium oxide, 15°85 per cent. of oxalic anhydride, and 31°27 per cent. of water. From the whole of the analytical data yet obtained, assuming, as the reactions of the salts would indicate, that masrium is a divalent element, the atomic weight would appear to be 228. An element of atomic weight about 225 is, indeed, required to occupy a vacant place in the periodic system in the beryllium-calcium group, and masrium appears likely to be the element in question. Masrium has only yet been observed to combine with oxygen in one proportion, to form the oxide MsO. Masrium oxide is a white substance much resembling the oxides of the lime group. The chloride, MsCl,, is obtained upon evaporation of a solution of the oxide or hydrate in hydrochloric acid. The nitrate, Ms(NOg)., crystallizes from 50 per cent. alcohol, and the crystals contain water, the amount of which has not been determined. The sulphate, MsSO, . 8H,0, is a white salt which crystallizes badly from water, but which separates in well-developed crystals from 50 per cent. alcohol. It combines with sulphate of alumina to form an alum, also with potassium sulphate to form a double sulphate. The oxalate above referred to, MsC,0,.8H,0, is a white salt, soluble in acetic acid, and also in excess of masrium chloride. The most important reactions of the salts of masrium, as far as they have yet been studied, are the following. Sulphuretted hydrogen produces no precipitate in pre- sence of hydrochloric acid, but yields a white precipitate in presence of acetic acid. Ammonia precipitates the white hydrate of masrium from solutions of the salts ; the hydrate is insoluble in excess of ammonia. Ammonium sulphide and carbonate produce white gelatinous pre- cipitates, likewise insoluble in excess of the reagents. Ammonium phosphate yields a white precipitate of phos- phate. Caustic alkalies precipitate the hydrate, but the precipitate is readily soluble in excess of the alkaline hydrate. Potassium ferrocyanide produces a white pre- cipitate which is soluble in excess of masrium chloride, but not in dilute hydrochloric acid. Potassium ferricyan- ide yields no precipitate. Potassium chromate precipi- tates yellow chromate of masrium, which is soluble in a further quantity of masrium chloride. Potassium tartrate yields a white tartrate precipitate which dissolves in ex- cess of the reagent, but the solution is not reprecipitated by the addition of ammonia. Metallic masrium has not yet been obtained. Attempts to isolate it by heating the chloride with sodium under a layer of common salt, and by the electrolysis of a solution of the cyanide proved unsuccessful. The chloride, more- over, is not sufficiently volatile to permit of its vapour density being determined. From the above interesting reactions, however, it will be evident that masrium possesses a strong individuality, although on the whole behaving somewhat like the metals of the alkaline earths and those of the zinc group. Further work will doubtless afford more definite information con- cerning its nature and properties. A. E. TUTTON, NO, 1178, VOL. 46] ON A NEW METHOD OF VIEWING NEWTON’S RINGS. [fF we observe the reflection of a rectangular strip of any opaque substance (A) about + inch wide ina piece of plate glass of about the same thickness, it appears — thus :— ; | A | Fic. 1. A, A, being the reflections caused by the upper and lower surfaces of the glass respectively. : If a second glass plate, of the same thickness, be added beneath the first, there is a third reflection (A,) added below A, thus, drawing only the reflections for simplicity’s sake :— a At | Az | ee | ) Now if the upper slab of glass be gradually raised above the lower, the opaque strip remaining in position, the re- flection A, (Fig. 2), which generally exhibits traces of colour when plate glass is used, splits up into two (A, A;), | thus :— bs Al nt | Az | | Eo As | i Aa #4 Thus it is proved that A, (Fig. 2) is the resultant of the reflections of the strip by the lower surface of the upper plate, and the upper surface of the lower plate (A, and A;, Fig. 3, respectively). In saying that A, is the reflection of A caused by the top surface, we mean that light which would fall on that surface and be reflected to the eye is prevented from so doing by the presence of A; and so with respect to the other reflections : thus, if any one of the reflections is not perfectly dark, we can assert that the light seen in it is at any rate not due to reflection (for the first time) at the corresponding surface ; e.g. A, (Fig. 2) appears anything but dark, and we may assert that the light seen in it-is not reflected from the bottom surface of the lower plate (at all events for the first time). Now by means of two similar rectangular strips A and B, placed with their long sides parallel to the surface of the glass, B being further from the observer and from the top plate, itis very easy to arrange them so that B,— the reflection of B in the lower surface of the lower plate— May 26, 1892] NATURE SI a) __ apparently coincides with A,—the reflection of A in the _ upper surface of the upper plate ; and thus, neglecting for the time light which has undergone more than one rel on, we see this A,B, combination of reflections iluminated by light which has undergone reflection at the two inner surfaces only. _ It is clear that if we substitute for the two glass plates the apparatus generally sold for exhibiting Newton’s rings, we can by this simple method view the rings by o the light proceeding from the two inner surfaces only. _ Thus viewed, the central dark spot appears of a rich elvety black, and the coloured rings very brilliant. The eriment can easily be projected, and the difference in appearance of the rings on the screen, with and with- the opaque screens, is very striking. he effect of the two screens can be still more simply by cutting a slit in a piece of blackened cardboard of ut the same width as the thickness of one of the glass tes in the rings apparatus; it is almost needless to that the cardboard in the region of the upper and r edges of the slit performs the functions of the : B and A respectively. In this way the backing of lower glass plate (to get rid of the reflection from its surface) may be avoided ; an obvious advantage it is desirable to show the interference in the itted as well as in the reflected light. the interest of the method does not only lie in its city. Besides affording an easy proof that the re caused by light reflected at the inner surfaces of s, it also gives a method of seeing and possibly entiating the interference curves produced by light h has undergone only one reflection, ze. the rings known as Newton’s, from the curves produced iterferences of waves which have undergone two is or more (and these last, so far as I know, can own by this method) ; for if, using the ring us and a single opaque screen, say 3 inches X re look into the central reflection (A,) carefully, s of rings, intersecting, can be seen. These cannot to light reflected at the points whence the rays oe primary rings are reflected—by what has ‘0 indicate, without attempting for the present any analysis, how some of the other interference s may be rendered visible :—Take a strip of sened cardboard, say 8 inches X 2} inches, and view reflections in the Newton’s rings apparatus. C (see ig. 4) being the lower portion of this new screen, its Fic. 4. _ reflection will be seen to consist of a number of shaded E 4 ba pl C,, Cx C;, &c..; and in each of these will be evident different interference curves (plainer, of course, No. 1178, VOL. 46] when monochromatic light is used); in C, the primary rings; in C, two series of rings crossed; in C, still more complicated forms, and so on; each set fainter than the last, the light to which it is due having under- gone more reflections than its predecessor. The method suggested for the experimental analysis of these inter- ference systems can only be sketched roughly here. It is, by the use of a second screen, possibly a third, so to combine the reflections of the screens with observations of the consequent alteration in the interference curves, as to completely verify the results a mathematical analysis of the problem would predict. T. C. PORTER. JEAN SERVAIS STAS. | ee if any, among the men of science of the present day have at once done such important work and earned so little popular recognition as Jean Servais Stas. The names of Faraday, Liebig, Dumas, Darwin, have become household words beyond the laboratory and the lecture theatre, and are frequently taken in vain by the purveyors of “science for the million.” But, whether: among the ‘‘classes” or the “ masses,” if we mention Stas we are apt to be asked, Who was he? What has he done? If we mention his determination of the atomic weights, we have to follow this statement up with a popu- lar lecture on stéchiometry, and are then told that there is not much init. Stas was born at Louvain, on August 21, 1813. Like many young men of scientific tastes in the earlier part of the century, he entered upon the study of medicine, and graduated as M.D. But, feeling himself strongly drawn to chemicai research, he came to the conclusion that the life of a practising physician was not his true sphere. So early as 1835 he undertook, in conjunction with his friend De Koninck, an investigation of the root-bark of the apple-tree, and discovered phloridzine, an interesting crystalline body. However, at the outset he merely succeeded in obtaining this body in its pure state and in ascertaining its behaviour with reagents. He decided to go further, and to study the constitution and trans- formations of phloridzine. To this end he stood in need of further instruction. But the methods of organic in- vestigation were at that time little advanced. The art of research was taught only by Liebig at Giessen, and by Dumas at Paris. Stas made choice of Dumas, and after overcoming endless difficulties, was admitted as a pupil in the laboratory of that distinguished Academician. Here, he resumed the study of phloridzine, and soon succeeded in determining its formula, and those of its principal derivatives. He ascertained that in contact with acids, phloridzine was split into glucose and phloretin, thus belonging to the class of glucosides, bodies the prototype of which had been discovered by Liebig and Wohler in amygdaline. Berzelius,a man by no means lavish of praise, declared that “ from an investigator who has carried out such a research much may be expected.” Impressed with the ability of his pupil, Dumas re- quested him to undertake a series of investigations in concert with himself. The first of these researches was the examination of the action of potassa-lime on alcohols. They determined that, without exception, alcohols were transformed into corresponding acids. By their powers methylic alcohol yielded formic acid, and ethylic alcohol yielded acetic acid. Fusel-oil gave a valerianic acid exactly agreeing in its properties with the natural valeri- anic acid—a discovery of great importance consider- ing the paucity of synthetic organic compounds then known. In conjunction with his master, he ascertained the molecular weight of valerianic acid by a determination of its vapour density and by its conversion into tri- and tetra-chlorvalerianic acid, thus justifying their joint belief 82 NATURE [May 26, 1892 as to the alcoholic nature of fusel-oil. This conclusion was experimentally confirmed by the conversion of fusel- oil into valeraldehyde. Immediately after these experiments, Stas, aided by Dumas, entered on the most important work of his life. It had been already found that on the combustion of the more highly carbonized hydrocarbons the sum of the carbon and hydrogen was decidedly greater than the weight of the substance taken for analysis. Two possible explanations were suggested. The excess might be due to a constant error in the method employed, but on care- ful and frequent repetition of the experiments no such error could be traced ; or there remained the possibility that the composition either of carbon dioxide or that of water had not hitherto been accurately determined. In deciding this question Dumas and Stas developed pre- cautions which had never been equalled, and which cer- tainly have not been since surpassed. It must be remembered that, like Darwin in another department of science, Stas was his own most acute and formidable critic. He seems never to have wearied in devising possible objections to his methods and results, nor of suggesting loop-holes through which errors might possibly have crept. In redetermining the atomic weight of carbon, graphite (natural and artificial) and diamonds were submitted to combustion in a current of perfectly dry oxygen. After the checking and re-checking of results, the operators were forced to conclude that the true atomic weight of carbon was lower than hitherto had been universally accepted. It had been determined by Berzelius and Dulong as 12°24. Dumas and Stas made it simply 12, and confirmed the result by carefully repeated analyses of many substances of known composition. Hence Dumas was led to accept for the atomic weight of oxygen 16, and for that of nitrogen 14. Whilst Dumas and Boussingault executed their determinations in Paris, Stas carried out the same experiments by the same method at Brussels. These startling results recalled the attention of chemists to the hypothesis of Prout, z.e. that the atomic weights of all the elements must be multiples of that of hydrogen (H = 1), by aseries of whole numbers. Into this question Dumas and Stas threw themselves heart and soul. The experimenters came to separate conclusions. Stas entered the investigation in the full conviction that he should find the principle of Prout exactly confirmed. At the conclusion of his arduous labours, he found his expectations to be “ pure illusion.” On the other hand, Dumas sought to retain the hypo- thesis in a modified form. Neither of these eminent researchers seems to have paid sufficient attention to the fact that the atomic weights of a considerable number of the elements differ but very slightly, in excess or in deficiency, from the values which the hypothesis of Prout would require. It is quite possible we are here in presence of a residual phenomenon which interferes with the exactitude of the law. In a paper recently read by Prof. W. Spring before the Belgian Academy of Sciences the speaker gave an abstract of the unpublished researches of Stas. In a certain -memoir, “ On Silver,” was discussed a treatise by Dumas on the quantity of gases absorbed by silver, in which Dumas had conceived doubts as to the conclusions of Stas on the hypothesis of Prout. For the critical purpose Stas prepared absolutely pure silver, containing not a trace of gases nor of kindred metals. At the melting-point of iridium the silver was volatilized without revealing by the spectroscope any trace of sodium, a metal which Dumas had suggested as being possibly present. This pure silver gave the same atomic weight as the silver used previously by;Stas. Hence the atomic weight of silver must retain the value which Stas, in his earliest determina- No. 1178, VOL. 46 | tions, had assigned to it, and consequently the objections of Dumas fall to the ground. A second Stas memoir, recently brought to light, fully investigates the question whether the elements sodium, potassium, lithium, calcium, strontium, barium, and thal- lium can be mutually transformed either by intense heat or by electric action. To carry out his experiments, undertaken in consequence of the views lately expressed, that the spectra of the above metals assume a different aspect at very high temperatures, Stas required materials chemically, or rather spectroscopically, pure. This diffi- cult task took him eleven years to accomplish. As a re- sult he found that even at the melting-point of iridium (from 2200° to 2500°) the spectral lines of the metals remained unaltered, and that consequently the trans- mutation of elements under the special circumstance is devoid of foundation. The error may have arisen, as Stas suggests, from the use of materials not absolutely pure. In this course of experiments he verified the distinction pointed out by Bunsen between the flame spectra and the electric spark spectra of metals. The flame spectrum of sodium, even at the most intense temperature, shows the well-known double yellow line. But in the complete electric spark spectrum there appear six double lines, lying respectively in the orange red, the yellow, the greenish-yellow, the green, the greenish blue, and the violet. In the solar spectrum all these six double lines are represented by black lines. In the spectrum of the electric arc may be recognized the six double lines, but in the intense white light of the poles merely the flame spectrum with its double yellow line. The results of his investigation Stas describes in a discourse entitled “‘ De la Nature de la Lumiére Solaire,” delivered in 1891. From the coincidence of the lines of the metals as recognized in the spark-spectrum with Frauenhofer’s dark lines in the solar spectrum, Stas in- ferred that the heat and light of the chromosphere were produced by disruptive discharges. - The daily life of Stas was by no means devoid of troubles. Posts of honour, indeed, were showered upon him both in his own country and abroad. He was Vice- President of the Belgian Sanitary Council, technical assessor of the National Bank, a perpetual member of the Council of Administrators of the University of Brus- sels, a member of the Statistical Bureau, President of the Belgian Academy of Sciences, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society (which conferred on him the Davy Medal), Corresponding Member of the French Academy of Sciences, and of the majority of the more distinguished Academies and scientific Societies. So far back as 1873, he was elected an honorary member of the German Chemical Society. He was also a Grand Officer of the Belgian Order of Leopold and of the French Legion of Honour, as well as a knight of many orders throughout Europe. His earliest remunerative position was that of Pro- fessor of Chemistry at the Military School of Brussels, a post he successfully filled for more than a quarter of a century. So paltry was the salary attached to this office that he finally petitioned Government for an increase. His request was granted, but in a fashion worse than refusal. He was voted an additional salary of 200 francs —a sum he naturally disdained to accept. Soon after he suffered from an affection of the larynx, which put an _end to the delivery of lectures. He was compelled to tender his resignation, but as he had not completed the thirty years of service extorted by law he missed his pension. From this plight he was rescued by the offer of a post in connection with the Mint (Commissaire des Monnaies). The respite from trouble was brief. A syn- dicate of speculative capitalists proposed to the Govern- - ment to coin an enormous sum of francs. With the full ae Cs Sere < May, 26, 1892] NATURE 82 o 4 / _ concurrence of the Minister of Finance, Stas resolutely _ resisted a scheme he considered dangerous to the in- _ terests of the nation. With a change of Ministry the gam measure was carried, Stas forthwith resigned his post in the Mint, preferring to sacrifice emolument rather than countenance a step which he knew to be detrimental. _ Stas not unfrequently engaged in tasks which appeal more directly to the popular mind than the determination of atomic weights. In 1850, Belgium was thrown into excitement by a poisoning case not less sensational than that of Palmer in our own country. It has been said of Belgium that it is less permissible to knock down an _ ouvrier than to murder a nobleman. A Count Bocarme oT ageiei his brother-in-law. Had the crime in sy tion been committed by one of the Zeofp/e, it might, not condoned, have been inquired into in a somewhat nctory manner. But as the only man to whom suspicion pointed was an aristocrat, a searching inves- tion was demanded by an indignant public. The emical investigation conducted by Stas was performed n a masterly manner. The unerring chemist not only detected nicotine poison, but also the exact quantity which had been administered. The guilt of Count Bocarme was much more satisfactorily established than that of Palmer in the Rugeley case. _ With characteristic thoroughness Stas was not satisfied _ with the mere detection and quantitative determination of nicotine. He elaborated a general method for the 2 a a of organic poisons in chemico-legal inves- tigations. His method of detection, revised and perfected ora Otto, is still in general use among toxicologists, under the name of the Stas-Otto process. At the London International Exhibition of 1862, to as was intrusted the report on the industry of oils and € question was discussed whether the old method ‘saponification by means of alkalies or the recently in- ented acid saponification was to be preferred. The ex- nents of Stas demonstrated not only the superiority he acid process from an economical point of view, ‘supplied the industrial world with the working details of a method still followed by the manufacturers of candles. ___ At the initial meeting of the International Committee of Weights and Measures held at Paris in 1875, Stas _ appeared as the Belgian representative, and took a very ive part in its labours. From 1877 to 1879 he was associated partly with H. Ste. Claire Deville, and partly with C, J. Broch in the selection of the metals to be used as standards or prototypes for weights and measures. The alloy selected consisted of 90 per cent. of platinum, metals. Unfortunately they have been published, so far _as the writer is aware, only in the Procés-Verbaux du Comité International des Poids et Mesures, documents not readily accessible. The results have still to find their Way into the text-books and metallurgical manuals. uent collision with the “clerical party,” which in _ Belgium plays a 7é/e similar to that of the ethicists and __ self-constituted “ anti- ” Societies in Britain. On January 1, 1891, at the King’s New Year reception he courageously reminded the Ministry of the respect ‘which a Government owes to science. We regret we have not met with the text of this discourse, which would be NO. 1178, VOL. 46] worth reproduction in England. The insulting replies to the bold utterance of Stas were drowned in the loud and general approval of the country. It is pleasant to add that the personal character of Stas was in harmony with his scientific pre-eminence. He was a man of whom it could be said, “ Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit.” It was one of his great distinctions that, unlike many illustrious men of science, he was not followed to the grave by the ghosts of dead theories. NOTES. MEN of science were glad to see that the list of those on whom birthday honours were conferred included Dr. John | Evans, who has become a K.C.B.; Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, who has been made a C.I.E. ; and Mr. H. H. Howorth, who has been made a K.C.I.E. THE annual visitation of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich will take place on Saturday, June 4. THE Secretary of the British Association Committee for arranging for the occupation of a table at the laboratory of the Marine Biological Association, at Plymouth, requests us to announce that applications for the use of the table during the present summer should be addressed to him (Mr. S. F. Harmer, King’s College, Cambridge) not later than Friday, June 10. Mr. WALTER GARSTANG, M.A., Berkeley Fellow of the Owens College, Manchester, and formerly assistant to the Director of the Marine Biological Association, has been appointed to a naturalist’s post upon the staff of the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth, and will have charge of the dredging and collecting operations conducted at the station. IN the fifth Annual Report of the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee (December 1891), Prof. Herdman suggested that the marine biological station might with advantage be changed from Puffin Island to some more easily accessible part of the district, where a fresh area could be investigated. After a careful con- sideration of several sites, the Committee decided upon Port Erin, at the south end of the Isle of Man, and a suitable building for a marine laboratory, of three rooms, has now been erected, on the beach immediately below the Bellevue Hotel, from plans pre- pared by Prof. Herdman. This laboratory being ready for workers, and a number of members of the Liverpool Biological and other scientific societies, and also of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society, having expressed an interest in the progress of the undertaking, the Committee have resolved to inaugurate the station by a formal opening on Saturday, June 4. The Lieutenant-Governor of the Island, Mr. Spencer Walpole, has consented to perform the ceremony; and His Excellency, and the Bishop of Sodor and Man, have accepted the invitation of the Committee to be present at a luncheon to be given at the Bellevue Hotel on the occasion. THE Puffin Island Biological Station has been taken over by several members of the staff of the University College of North Wales, Bangor, and will be worked henceforth in connection with that College: Dr. Philip White, the lecturer on zoology, has been appointed director of the station. The island is in full view of, and within easy reach of, the College. Thestation, as formerly, will be entirely supported by voluntary contributions. THE Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood’s Holl, Massa- chusetts, will be open for investigators from June 1 to August 30. The demand for tables at the laboratory has been so great 84 NATURE [May 26, 1892 that the trustees decided some time ago to enlarge the building, and a spacious new wing will be ready for use on July'1. Various courses of instruction in zoology, botany, and microscopical technique will be given, as usual, during the season. Lectures on special subjects will also be delivered by members of the staff. THE annual conversazione of the Society of Arts will take place at the South Kensington Museum on Wednesday evening, June 29. THE German Anthropological Society will hold its general meeting this year at Ulm, beginning work on July 31. Arrange- ments have been made for some very pleasant excursions in the neighbourhood. Major-GENERAL Nose, R.A., died on Tuesday, May 17, in his fifty-eighth year. He was well known, not only as the author of books on military subjects, but as the inventor of various scientific instruments connected with the manufacture of guns and gunpowder. THE University of Heidelberg has conferred the degree of Doctor of Natural Philosophy, Zonorzs causd, on the well- known entomologist, Baron Osten Sacken. THE beautiful illustrations contained in the Black and White Hand-book to the Royal Academy and New Gallery pictures are sure to be welcomed by those who have not already seen them, while to those who have visited these Galleries good reproductions of them will not be amiss, ‘The different coloured tints given to the pictures produce a pleasant variety of impression, while the fidelity to the original details, which is the chief feature of photographic processes, is here thoroughly maintained. Not only the pictures, but the specimens of sculpture, are reproduced in the same way, the results being equally successful. As an introduction to the volume, a brief but interesting account is given of the Royal Academy, together with illustrated biographies of the present Academicians and Associates. ParT I. of Mr. G. J. Romanes’s treatise, ‘‘ Darwin and after Darwin,” wa3 published a day or two ago by Messrs. Long- mans, Green, and Co. It deals in a critical manner with the distinctively Darwinian theory, or the evidences of evolution as a fact, and of natural selection (with sexual selection) as a method. It is copiously illustrated, for the most part with original woodcuts, and runs to 450 pages. We gather from the preface that Part II. is to treat in a similar spirit of ‘* Post-Dar- winian Theories” (heredity, utility, isolation, physiological selection, &c.); and understand that it will probably be ready for publication in the autumn season. On April 29, Mauritius was visited by the most. terrible hurricane that is known to have ever devastated the island. According to the official telegram from the Acting Governor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, one-third of Port Louis was destroyed. The Royal College, twenty-four churches and chapels, and many sugar-mills in the country were completely wrecked. There were over 600 deaths in Port Louis ; over 300 deaths in the country and over 1000 wounded. ‘‘In Port Louis district,” the telegram continued, ‘‘ returns incomplete ; probably same amount. No loss among the military. Esti- mated reduction of crop one-half. Destruction to property enormous. No famine apprehended. All relief measures taken. Relief committee appointed. Panic allayed. Order and quiet reign, but, in presence of thousands of homeless people, pecuniary assistance urgently needed.” A public sub- NO. 1178, VOL. 46] scription in aid of the sufferers was at once opened by the Lord Mayor. It is to be hoped that the Observatory at Mauritius has been spared. It was thence that Dr. Meldrum — announced that at Mauritius the hurricanes and wrecks varied with the sun-spots. We have again a maximum of sun- spots | aud unprecedented devastation. ‘Sh THE National Home Reading Society will hold two summer _ assemblies this year, one at Weston-super-Mare, the other at. Bowness. The former will last from June 25 to July 2, the latter from June 27 to July 2. At both meetings science will be well represented among the subjects of study. At Weston- super-Mare, Prof. Lloyd Morgan will lecture on ‘‘ The Physical History of the Mendip Hills,” Sir Robert Ball on ‘‘ How came the Great Ice Age?”, Dr. Dallinger on ‘‘ Ants: a Study of Sociology and Politics among Insects,” Dr. C. W, Kimmins on ‘Flowers and their Insect Visitors,” Mr. A. W. Clayden on is Storie and the Formation of Scenery.” At Bowness, J. E. Marr and Mr, G. Massee will give geological ae botanical lectures, but the chief work of the classes in geology and botany will be done in the course of excursions to the places of scientific interest in the Lake District. Both assemblies are likely to be of great service to all who attend them. Mr. GEORGE Forsks arrived on May 6 at the Niagara Falls in company with the executive officers of the Cataract Con- struction Company. He is acting as the Company’s adviser in connection with the plans he submitted to them in 1890 for the transmission of electrical power from the Falls to Buffalo. : When the Company appointed a commission of Sir William Thomson, Mascart, Colonel Turrettini, and others to examine the plans, Mr. Forbes gave them as his mature opinion the assur- ance that they must use alternating currents, and for motors — either the ordinary alternator, as first used by Wilde, or the rotating field (Drehstrom), as then used by Tesla, which Mr. } Forbes had tested at Pittsburg. These alternating currents to be used with transformers for lighting, and coupled to motors . as described for general power, but for electric tramways and some other purposes the alternating motors were to drive con- tinuous current dynamos. These plans were not approved by the commission, and a resolution was nearly passed saying that ~ alternating currents could not be used for the purpose. There ~ was only one dissentient voice, but in the end no resolution was” passed. Turrettini and Mascart are now both converted, and- Mr. Forbes’s plans have been adopted, Mucu interest has been jexcited in Philadelphia by a loan collection of objects used in worship, exhibited in the Museum of Archeology of the University of Pennsylvania. Most of the leading religions of the world are represented in the collection. The objects are arranged in accordance with the plan adopted at the Guimet Museum, Paris, and the managers have tried to make up for gaps by notes in the catalogue, which is a closely printed octavo of 174 pages. One result of the exhibition has been that it has brought to light many objects of scientific importance, the significance and value of which were not formerly known by the possessors. : Mr. JoHn ,H. Cooke has made a valuable addition to the Museum of the Malta University. The Mediterranean Naturalist describes the gift as a suite of the Maltese fossil Echinoidea, similar to those that have lately been presented by the same gentleman to the British Museum and to the University _ of Bologna. A wRITER in the May number of the Mediterranean | Naturalist, speaking of the colours of the waters of the Medi- — May 26, 1892] NATURE 85 anean, says they vary considerably at different seasons of the and in different localities. During storms and boisterous ther the sea assumes a deep green and sometimes a brownish but when calm and undisturbed it is of a bright, deep blue. the Bosphorus, and among the islands of the Archipelago, the e : of varying tints, in some places being of a liquid blue z into a brighter green, and in others assuming a blue ‘in its intensity as to almost approach a purple. _ Mr. K. Sekiya anv Mr. F. Omori contribute to the new volume of the Transactions of the Seismological Society of in a most careful paper presenting a comparison of earth- € measurements made in a pit and on the surface ground. erally thought that the earthquake motion is consider- ss in a pit than on the surface. The conclusion of these is that for small earthquakes there is no practical e between the surface and underground observations. rincipal undulations of severe earthquakes a difference but not to any marked degree ; but for small quick the difference is considerable. Though the calculation prs may be only approximate, their maximum ‘maximum accelerations are found to be very great, , many times greater than those for the principal Thus, if these ripples are really in great part ed away in the pit, it is very likely that in the case of ather during the past week has been less settled 1 | for some time past, although for the most part it d dry over the south and east of England. The dis- atmospheric pressure was favourable to a westerly e barometer being highest over the south of our and west over Scotland. An anticyclone was situated ance and Spain throughout the period, and the southern 0 England came greatly under its influence. Several ons reached the northern parts of the kingdom from the lantic, and caused strong winds and gales at some places. he rainfall was considerable in the north and west, amounting at Stornoway on Monday, but slight in other parts. was less prevalent ; the Meteorological Office : ended the 21st shows that it was below the average in al districts except the Channel Islands, A thick fog surre dover the south of England and parts of the Channel Sunday. , Temperatures have been rather high recently, the a x¢ 70° and upwards, in places, since Sunday. THe Weather Bureau of Washington, U.S., has issued, under title of ¢ vie Meteorological Work for Agricaltural Institutions,” let containing suggestions as to observations and in- $ regarding the relations of climate to agriculture | districts, as distinct from the work carried on at and stations established in towns. These sug- 7 are equally useful for observers in any country ; we refore draw attention to some of the points referred to. Problems of temperature ; ; such as the differences that cur in quiescent air, between places that are close together. ese se differences depend on solar and terrestrial radiation, the of the soil, &c. The subject of protection from frosts i cil further study. (2) Moisture in the air ; especially _ measurements of evaporation, both from a water surface and ; - from different kinds of soil. The transpiration of plants should also be measured, in such a way that the evaporation from a r. plant can be compared with the precipitation over the surface _ occupied by the plant. (3) Condensation and precipitation of moisture. An accurate record of the amount of dew is much wanted ; at present, no observations are regularly made. A _ drosometer has, however, been recently constructed by Kap- NO. 1178, VOL. 46] peller, of Vienna; it is described in the Meteorologische Zeit- schrift of March last, and is said to give good results. Snow presents many features of interest, such as its density, and the relation of the character of the flake to the character of the weather at the time of the fall. The density of fog, also, should be recorded on some uniform plan, such as the distance at which a slender pole can be seen. The average size and usual forms of hail-stones should also be recorded. (4) Local weather predictions, independent of the daily weather charts, should be carefully studied. The special study of thunder- storms and other local disturbances will result in enabling them to be predicted several hours in advance. Systematic observa- tion with the rain-band spectroscope should also be made. These are but a few of the questions raised in Prof, Harrington’s interesting memoir, WE have received from the Director of the Batavia Observatory (1) rainfall observations in the East Indian Archipelago, and (2) observations made at the Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory, Batavia, both for the year 1890. The daily and monthly rainfall values are given for 193 stations, together with the mean values, calculated from five or more years for 171 Stations. The summaries show that the rainfall which accom- panied the eastern monsoon was copious over the whole area, and that both in the years 1889 and 1890 he amount during the months of May to September was abr >rmally high in the eastern parts of the archipelago. In addition to the hourly meteorological observations for 1890, results for twenty-five years, 1866-90, are published in this volume. Dr. Van der Stok considers the fact proved beyond doubt that at Batavia the moon has an appreciable influence on the number of thunder- storms. The cloud curve also shows an increase of cloudiness as the moon rises above the horizon. After the moon has set, the cloudiness does not decrease at a continuous rate, but ap- parently remains constant. WE have received the January number of the Revista do Observatorio, which is a monthly publication of the Observatory of Kiode Janeiro. This pamphlet, which, by the way, is an index number, contains in tabulated form all the meteorological observations made during that month at the several places from which regular observations can be obtained. The tables show the daily as well as the hourly reduced readings. THE Technological Museum of Sydney was taken over by the Department of Public Instruction on January 1, 1890. In his first annual report, just received, Mr. J. H. Maiden, the Curator, says the public have shown their appreciation of the usefulness of the Museum by presenting it with a large number of objects, many of which are of great value. The authorities of the Museum have done excellent service by supplying lecturers with specimens, diagrams, and apparatus for illus- trative purposes, and by answering questions sent to them by public school teachers—chiefly in country districts—on such matters as the naming of minerals and plants. Technological museums have been, or are being, formed in all those towns in New South Wales which already possess technical colleges. Mr, Maiden says that the matter has been taken up warmly in country districts, and that the formation of local collections is felt to fill up an important gap in the arrangements for technical education in the colony. A flourishing scientific society at West Maitland offered its valuable collection of natural history speci- mens to. the Department of Public Instruction on condition that suitable accommodation should be found for them, and facilities given to the members for access to them. The specimens having been ‘accepted by the Minjster on these terms, they form a valuable addition to the West Maitland Technological Museum, constituting a natural history ‘‘side” to it. As local scientific societies are always likely to be useful in securing 86 NATURE [May 26, 1892 specimens for local museums, and in concentrating the scientific activity of a district to the advantage of the local technical college, and of the district in general, Messrs, Sach and Ross, the resident science masters at Goulburn and Bathurst respec- tively, have formed scientific societies in their respective cities. These societies have already a good number of members, who meet regularly for the discussion of scientific questions, and they seem to Mr. Maiden to give promise of much usefulness, AT the meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales on March 30, Mr. R. Etheridge, Jun., read a paper on, and exhibited, a very peculiar form of ‘‘womerah.” It is from an unknown locality, but its history is partially known, and a clue is furnished by three very similar weapons in the Macleay Collection from Port Darwin. It is lath-like in form, slightly curved in outline, and altogether a remarkable implement, very unlike anything, to the author's knowledge, previously described. Dr. G. T. STEVENS publishes in Science of May 6 an interesting preliminary note on the relations of the motor muscles of the eyes to certain facial expressions. He has for some years closely observed the anomalies of the muscles which govern the movements of the eyes, and has been struck by the fact that remarkable changes often follow the modification of the conditions of these muscles. This led him not only to regard such facial changes with greater care, but to bring to the subject the aid of photography, by means of which alone the expressions could be accurately registered. Photographic portraits giving a direct front view of more than two thousand persons have thus been made. In each case a record, as full as he has been able to obtain, of the state of the eye muscles has been made, and in the majority of cases careful observations have been repeated many times during some weeks or months. Photographs have been taken at various stages of modification of these muscles, so that a comparative study of the face under varying conditions of the eye muscles has been rendered possible. The result of the investigation has been to demonstrate that ‘‘ certain well-defined types of facial expression are not only associated with, but are dependent upon, certain relative tensions of the oculo-motor muscles.” The object of his paper is to present the general characteristics of some of the most typical forms of expression _ which have their origin in efforts to adjust the eyes. THE first part of a paper on the development of American armour-plate, by Mr. F. Lynwood Garrison, appears in the May number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. It was the author’s original intention to present in the form of a report the results of the recent armour-plate trials at Indian Head. As, however, these trials have been described in an excellent report by the Chief of the Bureau of Ordance of the U.S. Navy, Mr. Garrison has preferred to give a sketch of the develop- ment of armour-plate, combining with this the more important details of the official report. He writes from the standpoint of the metallurgist rather than that of the military engineer. At present great interest is centred upon the use of the complex steel alloys and the methods adopted to harden them, and it is to these subjects more particularly that he calls attention. The detailed methods of producing such alloys as well as the several methods for quenching and tempering armour-plate are kept secret by steel manufacturers ; but the results are made putlic at the trials, and ‘‘the possible deductions to be made there- from,” says Mr. Garrison, ‘‘are patent to every observing and thinking engineer.” The fact that he has had exceptionally good opportunities of making such observations is a sufficient reason for the publication of his views. SoME interesting details as to the production of mercury in Russia have been submitted by Prof. Emile Muller, of NO. 1178, VOL. 46] Taschkent, to the Paris Geographical Society. A bed of this, rare metal, discovered at Ekaterinoslav, is now worked with great © a energy, and 20,c0o pouds (320,000 kilogrammes) of pure mercury — are obtained, The entire demand for the metal in Russia is — supplied from this source, and a surplus of 14,000 pouds (224,000 kilogrammes) is exported. During the past year — mercury was discovered in the district of Daghestan, in the — Caucasus, and it is expected that the discovery will lead to the growth of a profitable industry in that region. THE vine industry in Bashahr, in the Punjab, was formerly of great importance; but of late years it has declined in con- sequence of the old trees having been attacked by a disease. — Mr, Coldstream, the Deputy Commissioner of Simla, proposes to revive the industry, if possible, and has secured a large num- ber of cuttings for the State. ‘ THE Pioneer Mail (Allahabad) of May 5 says that locust swarms are reported from the frontier, and that stragglers have been observed again passing over Lahore. It is thought that they have chosen a bad time, as the district is full of the migratory hosts of starlings which come at this season of the year to feed upon wild mulberries, and few of the stragglers are likely to ‘‘ run the gauntlet ”’ successfully. THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the . past week include a Bonnet Monkey (acacus sinicus 9) from - India, presented by Mr. M. McPherson ; a Crested Porcupine (Hystrix cristatus) from Africa, presented by Mr. J. Bullock ; a Common Pea-fowl (avo cristatus) from India, presented by Colonel Bagot Chester ; two Yellow-bellied Toads (Bombinator bombinus), European, presented by Mr. A. M. Ansler; two Black Bears (Uses americanus) from North America, de- posited ; a Japanese Deer (Cervus sika 8) ; a Bennett’s Wallaby (Halmaturus bennetté @); two Himalayan Monauls (Lopho- phorus impeyanus); two Greater Black-backed Gulls (Larzs marinus), bred in the Gardens. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. PARIS OBSERVATORY REPORT.—The annual report on the state of the Paris Observatory for the year 1891, presented by Admiral Mouchez, shows that a considerable amount of work, as in former years, has been accomplished during the past year. After mentioning briefly some of the last reports that have been communicated by those who are undertaking the work of photo- graphically charting the heavens, he gives a résumé of the reso- lutions that have been adopted during the session of 1891. In the table showing the zones allotted to the different Observatories, that given to Greenwich lies between declinations + 90° and + 65°, and that to Oxford between + 31° and + 25° ; the number of plates for each zone being 1149 and 1180 respectively. A résumé of the meridional observations for the year informs us that no less than 19,458 observations were made, while those of the planets amounted to570. M. Paul Henry, M. Wolf, and | M. Deslandres, have all been busily engaged in their respective sections, their work having been previously mentioned in these columns. The second volume of the catalogue and the second volume of the observed positions (6h. to 12h.) have been completed and published ; while Part III. (12h. to 18h.) is still in preparation. The observations for 1884 are now quite finished, and those for 1885 will be ready by the end of this year. The verification of the reduction of the observations made in 1884-86 for the formation of a catalogue of twenty-four stars very near the Pole has already been commenced, and should, when completed, form a most important volume, ‘The indi- vidual works that have been published from time to time are also referred to here. The meteorological observations and time service have been continued as usual. STARS WITH REMARKABLE SPECTRA.—No, 3090 of the | Astronomische Nachrichten contains a list of stars with remark- able spectra, continued from a former number (3023) of the — same periodical, and communicated by T. E. Espin. The num- - May 26, 1892] NATURE 87 ; _ ber of spectra described here is no less than 121, and the star places have all been brought up to the year 1900. _ Comet 1892 SwirT(MARcH6),—The ephemeris of this comet for this week is as follows :— 1892. R.A. Decl. log 4. log ~ Br. bem s. ehete 23 43 17 +35 36°6 28 45 36 36 2:2 29 47 54 36 27°4 O°1727 0°1297 0°42 30 50 Io 36 52°15 31 52 24 37 16°2 I 54 36 37 39°9 a 56 46 38 3°2 o1821r o'1429 60°38 | ‘The brightness at the time of discovery is taken as unity. On the the comet will lie in the prolongation of the line ‘joining v and @ Andromedz, being about twice the distance n @as is o. ___Licur VaRIATIONs oF Y CyGni.—In Astronomische Nach- _ vichten, No. 3091, Prof. Dunér discusses the results of his observations, made during the interval April 1891 to April 1892, Y Cygni, with respect to the cause of the anomalies in the light _ variations. The number of minima observed amounted to ___ twenty-seven, and onitheir reduction (together with many others), by gr differences between observation and calculation ‘im a particular way, the values for the normal deviations were obtained. These figures showed that the even and odd epochs deviated on the positive and negative sides respectively ; and oo went calculation, in which +2 represented constant V’ the even from the odd minima, the numerical value of < was found not to be constant, but a slowly-increasing quantity. Mr. Yendell, who has previously considered this ‘question, explained the possibility of representing such differ- ences by a periodical function, but Prof. Dunér, assuming a tic difference between the even and odd epochs, explains otherwise—‘‘ that the star Y Cygni consists of two equally ht components, which revolve around their com- gravity in an elliptic orbit with a period of revo- on of 2d. 23h. 54m. 44s. ; the perihelion passages occurring tween the even and the odd epochs.” If the value of z be found to be real, and not as at present only suspected, we might _ Suppose ‘‘a third body, dark or only slightly luminous, which _ should cause a perturbation in the position of the lines of apsides, _ Such as we recognize in the planets and satellites of our solar eo To facilitate observation, Prof. Dunér gives an ephemeris for _ the times of minima expressed in Greenwich mean time. From ___ the latest observations these times may be probably half an hour Minimum. d. he m. — 1341 m 1892 June 9 9 33 1361 July 9 8 40 3 1381 < August 8 7 46 1401 ‘ : September 7 6 52 1421 oi October 7 5 58 (441 is November 6 5 5 fy nae December 6 4 12 _ NEBULA.—The Monthly Notices for April contain some notes On observations of nebule made by Mr. Burnham with the _ 36-inch refractor of the Lick Observatory. The work was un en by him during the months of September and 1891, in order to give fuller details concerning the descrip places, and actual existence of several of these objects included in the general catalogue. All the places derived from the measures are referred to the epoch 1860 of the general _ €atalogue, while the numbers used in all cases are those of _ Dreyer’s general catalogue. During this path several new nebulz were found, although i to tctelse cn, e to search for new objects. The following dist i ; some of these, together with some of the doubtful _ . No. 707.—R.A. th. 44m. 31s., Decl.—9° 12/0. In the in. ediate vicinity of this a new nebula was found, R.A. th. 43m. 3Is., Decl. —9° 13'"4. _No. 874.—R.A. 2h. gm. 43s., Decl. — 23° 50'°5. No nebula _ found near this place. Probably a faint star had beem seen, as _ many are near this position. 0. 942.—R.A. 2h. 21m. 30s., Decl. —11° 27''2. Near NO. 1178, VOL. 46] this position are three fainter nebule, two of which have been observed before, but one quite new. The places for these three are Neb. (a) (new) 2h. 22m. 0 5s., Decl. — 11° 27’"9 ; Neb. (4) 2h. pie Pg haem —11° 281; and Neb. (c) 2h. 22m. 22°7s., — 11° 27°. No. 988.—R.A. 2h. 28m. 34s., Decl. —9° 57’"9. No sug- gestion of any nebulosity about this star after very careful | scrutiny. Barnard.—R.A. 5h. 14m. 33s., Decl. + 3° 20'°7. In sweep- ing for this double nebula, another nebula was found in the immediate vicinity, R.A. 5h. 14m. 40s., Decl. + 3° 10'°4. No. 1988.—R.A. 5h. 29m. 4s., Decl. + 21° 7'°7. Not the least trace of nebulosity here. Dreyer stated that Tempel pointed out that supposed nebula was only a false image of the star. New observation endorses this view. No. 7447.—R.A. 22h. 53m. 6s., Decl.—11° 16'°7. object certainly does not exist. No, 1086.—Near this nebula are two others— This Neb. I. 2h. 4om. 49s., Decl. + 40° 28’'5. Neb. II. 2h. 41m. 12s., Decl. + 40° 28'°6. ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. THE anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society was held on Monday afternoon, when the Right Honour- able Sir Mountstuart E. Grant Duff was re-elected President. The following changes have taken place amongst members of the Council :—Sir Henry Rawlinson and Mr. Clements R. Markham have been appointed Vice-Presidents in the room of Sir Frederick Goldsmid and Sir Beauchamp Walker, both of whom remain on the Council, Sir Beauchamp Walker being appointed Foreign Secretary in place of the late Lord Arthur Russell. In addition to the Councillors who have been elected Vice-Presidents, the following have retired by rotation :—Sir George Bowen, Dr. R. N. Cust, Sir Alfred Dent, the Duke of Fife, and General Maclagan. _ Iu their place Lieut.-Colonel J. C. Dalton, Sir Arthur Hodgson, Mr. John Murray (the publisher), Mr. E. G. Ravenstein, Sir Rawson Rawson, and Colonel Tanner have been elected. During the meeting the Royal Medals for the Encouragement of Geographical Science and Discovery were presented, the Founder's Medal being given to Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace in re- cognition of the high geographical value of his great works, **The Geographical Distribution of Animals,’’‘‘ Island Life,” and **The Malay Archipelago,” and his further claim for distinc- tion as co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of natural selection. The Patron’s Medal was presented to Mr. Edward Whymper for the results of his journey in 1879-80, recorded in his work, ‘‘ Travels among the Great Andes of the Equator,” London, 1892, 2 vols., besides a volume on the aneroid barometer. The Murchison Grant for 1892 went to Mr. Robert Swan, surveyor and geologist, who accompanied Mr. Bent in his expedijion to Mashonaland, making a careful route- map of the country traversed down to the East Coast at Beira ; the Back Grant to the Rev. James Sibree, for his many years’ work on the geography and bibliography of Madagascar; the Cuthbert Peek Grant to Mr. Charles W. Campbell, for his important journeys in Korea ; and the Gill Memorial to Mr. G. H. Garrett, for important geographical work done during the past fifteen years in Sierra Leone. Mr. Mackinder and Mr. Buchanan gave a short account of the Geographical Lectureships at Oxford and Cambridge. The scholarships and prizes given by the Royal Geographical Society to students in training colleges for 1892 were also presented. The President delivered the annual address on the progress of geography, in the course of which, after referring to the even- ing meetings and to the Proceedings for the past year, he said :— - ‘With our meetings all Fellows of the Society who live in London, and with our Proceedings all Fellows of the Society, may be taken to be more or less familiar, but our Fellows by their contributions do a great deal more for their science than to make it possible to hold meetings and to publish Proceedings ; nor does it seem unadvisable to remind them, from time to time, what they are doing in other ways for’ science and the body politic. They are aware that an annual vote of £500 is taken in the Estimates in aid of the Society's 88 NATURE [May 26, 1892 finances. In return for that it is bound to keep open for the public at large, and does keep open, a map collection of great importance. During the last year some 2500 persons visited the map room, which is in charge, as you all know, of Mr, Coles, a most competent officer ; but if we had more room we could be much more useful. We could, for example, store, in such a way as to make it quite easy to refer to them, all the 25-inch Ordnance Survey maps. That at present is perfectly out of the question. We should like also, if we had the space, to have a room where any Member of Parliament or person holding an official position could at once be supplied with all the information he could desire upon any of the innumerable questions where politics and administration cross the frontiers of geography. ‘* Another of our duties is to collect and keep together a large collection of books, maps, diagrams, photographs, and other helps to earth-knowledge. Of the first of these we have about 40,000, valued at not less than £10,000. Of the second and third, about 50,000 maps and charts and 7000 atlases ; and of the fourth about 4oco copies, together valued at about £8000. We keep, too, a stock of instruments, which we lend from time to time to travellers who satisfy us that they can use them; 4680 worth of these have been lent to Government officials since 1888. substantial portion of our strength into improving education, and having come to an affirmative conclusion, took the matter up with characteristic energy. The Council was of the same mind, and ere long it was determined— Bi; ‘*t, To send Mr. Keltie to report upon geographical teaching at home and abroad. id Reh ‘‘ 2, To open, under the auspices of the Society, an Educational Exhibition, in which all the best appliances for the teaching of geography should be brought together, : ‘© Mr, Keltie accordingly commenced his investigations, travel- ling very widely while he carried them into effect. His Report was published, and excited much attention. The. Exhibition was open during December 1885 and January 1886, and was visited by several thousands of persons interested in education. The collection contained in it has been lent to the Teachers’ Guild, and is now exhibited in the museum of that body in Gower Street. : ‘« The movement thus inaugurated resulted in various changes in our policy. We concluded a treaty with the University of Oxford in 1887, and with Cambridge in 1888, by which it was stipulated that we should go shares with each of these learned bodies in paying the salary of a lecturer to teach geography to such of their members as choose to avail themselves of his services. An argument, if it deserves the name, has some- times been advanced, to the effect that we should not teach geography at our Universities, ‘because it is a graphy and not a logy! : ‘Throughout Germany the question has been settled. In | that country, as well as in Austria and elsewhere, professors of geography are lecturing, and lecturing to excellent pur- pose, without interfering either with the domain of their historical colleagues on the one side or their geological col- leagues on the other. Whether it is taught or not taught in schools and Universities, geography must in the nature of things rule the territory in which the sciences relating to organic life, _ from history down to the structure of the humblest animate thing, meet the sciences which have to do with inorganic nature. Mey May 26, 1892] NATURE 89 1 it a ‘graphy,’ or a ‘logy,’ or a ‘Kunde,’ or what you “ase, it remains the body of knowledge which has to do with ueatre of the activity of man and all things that have life. ay stunt and injure the activity of the next generation by zy to teach it, but eventually it must obtain the position he greatest of living systematic botanists claimed for it ‘It must permeate,’ he said, ‘the whole of educa- the termination of the University career, every subject having a geographical aspect.’ hen, in spite of foolish objections, we had sown the seeds - we may hope, having regard to the slowness with which row in our English climate, to be vigorous saplings about nd of the century and respectable denizens of the forest he year 2000, we turned to the training schools, and con- ed a convention with the Education Department, whereby aged to give certain scholarships and prizes to such of ents as were reported by the Inspectors of Schools with the conduct of the examinations to be worthy of sti Then, further, we entered into arrangements _ with the directing Delegates of the Oxford University n Lectures, by which we agreed to give, on certain yearly grant of £60, in aid of geographical teaching. e resolved to set on foot regular courses of geo- lectures in London, which will commence probably vember, and be given by Mr. Mackinder and other ; 1S. very latest measures for the improvement of geo- sal education have been :— “*t. To agree to some modifications in the distribution of the prizes to the training colleges which the officers of the Education nt Seman f and which will better promote the object the Society has in view. 'o co-operate with the Manchester Geographical Society y the governing body of the Victoria University to luce geographical teaching into the curriculum by making ti os for that purpose. ‘o a travelling scholarship of £100—our share 4£50—after an examination held at Oxford. This was by a young man, Mr. Grundy, who was bound, under ions ibed, to travel for at least three months in number of districts from which he might take his ‘and communicate the results to us. He has selected cotia, and will, I make no doubt, furnish the Society ere long 3 gece Naneble information. € continue the prizes given at the Oxford and Cambridge mations, and to the boys of the training ships. ng to the same period of our history as the Public als, but with them we have been more successful. spondence with the Scotch Education Depart- the best method of further encouraging geographical ‘th desvan side of the Tweed, where it has long been rel, ular. ems to a quite certain that this part of our activity will fill a larger and larger space in the thoughts of all of us fora long time to come. The day will arrive when it will be of very little importance. Common-sense has a way of conquering the end, and the proposition that it is highly desirable for Higent creatures inhabiting this planet to have a good ral notion of the opportunities which it affords them is so If-evident, that one would think it did not require a very merous and powerful Society to urge its general acceptance upon the scholastic world. _** Geography and history are relegated to a subordinate place almost all our schools which consider themselves to belong the first or second rank, while the utmost prominence is given, to reading the classics, to getting thoroughly imbued with ical ideas, and to having the mind filled with whatever of ood and great the ancient world has bequeathed to us, but gely to accomplishments in the way of turning out pretty ces of verse or prose, in the ancient tongues, which bear much same r to serious intellectual pursuits as do to the per works and ways of an intelligent dog the art of jumping hrough a hoop filled with paper, or that of balancing on his nose a piece of biscuit till he is told that it is ‘paid for.’ + omcipp who have given the best years of their lives to se accomplishments naturally abhor the idea of diminishing ir importance, and when they are asked to find a reasonable lace for history and geography in their schools they piteously Oint to their time-tables and say, ‘How are we to manage ‘it?’ Manage it by the elimination of rubbish. Put composition _ in the ancient tongues as a piece of regular ‘school business’ NO. 1178, VOL. 46] ae OiLIONs behind the fire, and greatly diminish the amount of time given to learning by heart in the interest of Latin and Greek composition. Neither geography nor history will ever obtain their proper position in education until we can get rid of the superstition as distinguished from the religion of the classics. No reasonable man who has a competent acquaintance with the subject can tolerate the idea of the classics being neglected. They form a most important part, and must always continue to form a most important part of literature, and literature is for a large class of minds a most excellent training. For a great many minds, how- ever, it is not anexcellent training, and to a considerable pro- portion of those susceptible of being trained by it the ancient languages present no attractions. I maintain that for a great many minds geography and history, well and carefully taught, would be much more educative than the two studies which as late as the time at which I took my degree, not quite forty-two years ago, almost absolutely monopolized attention in Oxford and Cambridge. Then, too, we must remember that while for everybody classics are mainly educative, and in a much less degree instructive, and while mathematics are instructive in a high degree only to those who are going into any of the no doubt numerous careers for which they are essential, geography and history are instructive in a very high degree to all, even to those to whom they are not educative. ** What I think we as a Society should keep chiefly in view is to try to have a clear and connected account of the leading facts which are known about the theatre of man’s activity, together with an intelligent idea of the leading causes which have brought those facts about very much more widely extended through all ranks than they are now. We must keep our aims moderate in geography. ‘There are undeniably a few persons to whom both geography and history, teach them as you will, are thoroughly abhorrent. Well, teach the very minimum of them to such people. A large number of people can be cultivated, and very highly cultivated, better through geography and history than anything else. AIlI ask foris, that in the education of such people these two sciences should play a very much larger part than they do now. I think thatif we could see some thoroughly good hand-book of physical geography and another of political and commercial geography made part of the teaching of all secondary schools, and a subject of the leaving examination which should be borrowed from Germany, if we continue to hold up as we are doing at Oxford, and elsewhere, a very high standard of professorial teaching in our subject, while we at the same time persist in the other lines of educational activity to which I have alluded, we should have done a good deal ; but it is far from improbable that we may ere long see our way to giving further stimulus to sound geographical teaching in various parts of the country. The Society, however, may be assured that we will remember the maxim /estina lente, and not waste the resources with which its members supply us in any rash experi- ments. Geography is rooted in the physical sciences, and makes each of them tributary to her, while history which is not rooted in geography, and which does not learn from geography all it has to teach about the existing conditions of man’s dwelling- place, is simply bad history.” The President then referred to the year’s exploration. Herr Merzbacher’s work in the Caucasus, and Mr. Howell’s ascent of Orzefa Jokull in Iceland, were noticed as the chief moun- taineering feats. In Asia military exploration had gone on steadily on the northern frontiers, and the Society was making efforts to have the results of such work made more accessible to the public. Lord Lamington’s journey in the Shan States, Captain Bower’s and Dr, Thorold’s adventurous crossing of Tibet also opened up new ground. In Africa Mr. E. A. Floyer crossed the Egyptian Desert from Assouan to the Red Sea; and in the region of the Great Lakes Captain Lugard, Emin Pasha, Dr. Stuhlman, and the late Father Schynse have added to our knowledge. The Italians have been energetic in exploring Somali-land, and the French, despite the disaster to M. Crampel, have not abandoned their efforts to reach Lake Chad from the west. Captain Gallwey and Mr. Gilbert T, Carter have made important discoveries in Lagos and Benin. Mr. Bent’s well-known exploration of Zimbabwe, and Mr. Joseph Thomson’s study of Lake Bangweola, which ill-health still prevents him from recording, are the most important pieces of work in South Africa. The semi-Arctic regions of Labrador and Alaska have received much attention in America, and their topography is . being more definitely ascertained. In Australia the Elder expedition has unfortunately collapsed, 90 NATURE [May 26, 1892 after doing much good work, but Sir William MacGregor has been very active in opening up British New Guinea, Reference was also made to the progress of the hydro- graphic surveys in different parts of the world. In the evening the anniversary dinner of the Society took place at the Whitehall Rooms, Hétel Métropole, and was attended by a large gathering of Fellows, with many of the leading scientific men and members of the Diplomatic Service as guests, The President occupied the chair. A clever speech was delivered b Mr. Whymper, in response to the toast of ‘* The Medallists.” Mr. Bryce, Colonel Maurice, Prof. Flower, Mr. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, and Mr. Norman Lockyer responded to the toast of ‘‘ The Allied Sciences and Sister Departments.” TRANSFORMERS ALTHOUGH transformers are in constant use for changing alternating currents of electricity from high to low or from low to high potential, exact calculations concerning them have hitherto been looked upon by scientific men as impossible because of the complicated law of magnetization which must subsist in iron, Calculations on the assumption of constant magnetic permeability were thought to be worthless, therefore, although these were the only ones which could be made. Certain graphical methods of representing what occurred were, however, based upon the constant permeability hypothesis, and although such graphical methods could only be useful in illustrative work, they were thought to be accurate enough when great accuracy was impossible. The absence of a theory was supplied by vague statements regarding the effects of hysteresis ; and the cycle of magnetization being supposed to be exactly the same, however rapidly performed, and Foucault currents being ignored, it was possible for any writer to get his literature on this subject published and read and commented upon. Prof. Perry has for a long time preached the doctrine that the only theory of the transformer that can be carefully worked out—namely, that in which hysteresis is ignored—ought to be worked out and compared with experimental results ; and he insisted that when the known phenomena of magnetic leakage and slight saturation and Foucault currents are taken into account, the results of this theory explain all observed experi- mental results. In the present paper he takes up the general case of a trans- former with many primary and secondary circuits with magnetic leakage, Foucault currents, choking coils and condensers in series with or in parallel to any or all the circuits. He clears away much of the old difficulty by proving that, in all calcula- tions except that of the idle current supplied to an unloaded transformer, in all practical cases, exactly the same answers are obtained, to four significant figures or more, whether we assume the most complicated of hysteresis cycles or whether we assume the very simplest, which is that of constant permeability. It is, for example, interesting to observe that a formula never hitherto published as correct, often enough used by manufacturers as sufficiently correct for practical purposes, is really a very correct formula. It is also shown that the mathematical difficulties introduced by condensers and magnetic leakage efface themselves completely now that the complete problem has been attacked, and that the numerical working out of the most complicated cases is a very simple matter. The one problem on transformers in which it is necessary to consider the law of magnetization of the iron—namely, the calcu- lation of the idle current when the transformer is unloaded—is solved by the author in general terms, and he gives a simpler solution, which in his opinion agrees with all experimental results, although it assumes that there is no hysteresis in the iron. SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. THE only important paper in the Muove Giornale Botanico Jtaliano for April is an elaborate one by Signor G. Paoletti on the movements of the leaves of orlierta hygrometrica. The structure of the plant is described in detail, and especially the anatomy of the ‘‘ motor nodes” of the leaves and of the leaflets. He distinguishes in them two kinds of tissue, a motor system and a passive system. The cause of the movements appears to 1 Abstract of a paper read at the Royal Society, May 12, -by Prof. Perry, D.Sc., F.R.S. NO. 1178, VOL. 46] | | | reside in the protoplasm and in the osmotic properties of the — cell-sap. The author is unable to find in the leaves any hygro- metric properties, the supposed presence of which was the reason _ for the specific name of the plant. The paper is illustrated by four plates. : a THE greater number of the papers in the 2nd, 3rd, and € numbers of the Budlettino della Societd Botanica Italiana for 1892 are chiefly of local interest to Italian botanists. : those of a wider scope are the following :—Signor L. M iatl describes an appearance presented by Navicula elliptica, which — he considers strongly to confirm Castracane’s view of the © occasional reproduction of diatoms by internal germs.—Signor P, Pichi gives the results of experiments on the power of the vine to absorp sulphate of copper through the roots as a ific against the attacks of Peronospora. Analysis of the ash showed the presence of pe Lap in leaves taken from both the upper and the lower branches.—Signor L. Piccioli gives some details — respecting the destruction of plants by different kinds of land and freshwater snails, with the amount which is devoured of — different plants. This is generally greater in the spring than in the summer. In the Botanical Gazette for April, Mr. G. E. Stone describes and figures a self-registering auxanometer, which can be readily constructed, of much simpler construction than those at present in use in botanical laboratories. —-Mr. Conway Macmillan offers suggestions as to the classification of the Metaphyta, ze. of the higher forms of vegetable life. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LONDON. Royal Society, April 28.—‘‘ On some Phenomena connected — with Cloudy Condensation.” By John Aitken, F-.R.S., F.R.S.E. This paper is divided into two parts. In Part I. are described the different influences which cause the condensation of a jet of steam when mixing with ordinary air to become more dense than it generally is, and in Part II. certain colour pheno- mena are described which have been observed when cloudy condensaticn is made to take place under certain conditions. ParT I, Steam Jets. It had been previously shown that when a jet of steam is electrified the condensation suddenly becomes very dense. In addition to electrification, it is found that this thigigs in the appearance of the jet may be produced by other four causes. There are thus five influences capable of producing the dense form of condensation. Theseare : Ist, electricity ; 2nd, a large number of dust particles in the air ; 3rd, cold or low temperature of the air; 4th, high pressure of the steam ; and, 5th, obstructions in front of the nozzle, and rough or irregular nozzles. st. Electrification. It is shown that the mere presence of an electrified body has no influence on the steam jet. In order to produce the in- creased density the water particles in the jet must be electrified, either by direct discharge, or by an inductive discharge, effected by means either of a point or a flame. The increased density produced by electrification is due to an increase in the number of water particles in the jet, by the electrification preventing the small drops coming into contact by their mutual repulsions, in the same manner as the water drops in Lord Rayleigh’s experiments with water jets, which scatter more when electrified than when not electrified. The coalescence of the drops in water jets takes place only under the disturbance produced by the presence of an electrified body, while such a disturbance produces no effect on steam jets. Other experiments point to the conclusion that the increase in the density is due to an increase in the number, and not to an increase inthe size, of the drops. For instance, if steam is blown into a receiver full of air in which there are many nuclei, the condensation is dense, and, if there are few nuclei, the clouding is thin. The same holds good for the clouding pro- duced by expanding moist air. If many dust particles be present, the clouding is dense ; if few, it is thin. The action of | the electricity does not seem to be positive, as it has no effect on a mixture of hot moist air and cold air. It seems rather to NATURE gl May 26, 1892] Brin. J _ prevent something which takes place in the jet under ordinary conditions. The particles in a jet being in rapid movement, there are frequent collisions, and consequent coalescence of the _ drops, but when the particles are electrified they repel each _ other, and coalescence is prevented. _ The jet on becoming dense emits a peculiar sound, which is _ the same whatever be the cause of the increased density. But, a electrified, along with this sound there is another, due to _ the discharge of the electricity, which causes the electrified jet appear to make a louder noise. The jet, instead of changing ‘in appearance when electrified, may be made to change ly, either by electrifying it by means of a very sharp it, or by aiding the discharge by a flame. Under these con- ns, the jet emits only the sound produced when dense from of the. other causes. 2nd. A Large Number of Dust Particles in the Air. Flame has not been found to have any influence on the steam but on ig ited the products of combustion to the jet, it at ce becomes dense, and remains dense so long as the supply is up, and the jet has exactly the same appearance as if rified. When in this condition electricity does no: increase _ its density any further. The increased density is here due to large number of dust nuclei, causing a great increase in the ber of water drops, and these being very small, they will have less independent movement, and therefore fewer collisions, _ and the reduction in number from this cause will therefore be 3rd. Low Temperature of the Air. ] When a steam jet condenses in air at ordinary temperatures ithas but little density, but, if the open end of a metal tube _ cooled to 45° be held near the origin of the jet, the condensa- _ tion at once becomes dense, and neither electrification nor an _ inereased supply of nuclei makes it any denser. In a room at a tempers of 46° the jet is always dense, and neither elec- _ tricity nor the products of combustion have any effect on it, but when the tem rature rises to 47° the jet begins to get a little less dense, and electricity now increases its density slightly. At jbl Se much thinner, and both electricity and the pro- b combustion have a marked effect on it. The change _ produced by the cold air cannot be entirely due to the lower _ temperature causing more vapour to be condensed, as the fall of _ temperature is slight, while the increase in density is great. _ The increased density is shown to be due to a change which _ takes place in the films of the small drops with the fall of _ temperature. When the temperature is above a certain point, the have no repulsive action, and the drops coalesce on collision ; Diaiteas when cooled below a certain temperature _ the well-known repulsion comes into play and prevents el 3 is was proved by repeating Lord Rayleigh’s experiments with water jets. When the temperature of the _ water was over 160°, the drops had no tendency to scatter, and the = of an electrified body had no influence on the jet. __ It was only when the temperature fell that the scattering began, and the electrical disturbance produced coalescence. The effect _ of the low temperature is the same as that of electrification : _ both of them prevent the water drops coming into contact, one __ by electrical repulsion, and the other by the repulsive action of the water films, and the result is the same—namely, an increase, _ orrather a prevention of the decrease, in the number of the _ particles, and a consequent increase in the density of the _ clouding. 4th. High Pressure of the Steam. Below a temperature of 46° the jet is dense at all pressures, and as the temperature rises the density decreases, but the density may be made to return by increasing the pressure. The _ imereased density of the high-pressure steam jet is due to an _ increase in the number of drops produced, (1) by the jet being more cooled by the greater amount of air taken into it; (2) by a larger supply os dust nuclei ; and (3) owing to the rate at which the condensation is made to take place, a larger number of dust particles are forced to become centres of con- densation. §th. Rough Nozzles and Obstruction in Front of the Nozsle. Rough nozzles and obstruction in front of the nozzle are found to act in the same way as increase of pressure: they aid pres- sure in producing its effects with a less velocity of steam. They act by producing eddies, which mix more air with the steam, so NO. 1178, VOL. 46] lowering the temperature of the jet, increasing the number of dust nuclei, and quickening the rate of condensation. The seat of sensitiveness to all these influences causing the condensation in the jet to become dense is near the nozzle. Both low temperature and obstructions have an effect only when they act very close to the nozzle ; while electricity and increase in number of nuclei have a slight, but rapidly diminishing, influ- ence to a distance of 3 or 4 cm. from the nozzle. Part II. Colour Phenomena connected with Cloudy Condensation. The manner in which cloudy condensation changes after it is formed is apis out, and it is also shown that the number of dust particles which become centres of condensation depends on the rate at which the condensation is made to take place, slow condensation producing few water particles and thin clouding, while quick condensation produces a large number of water particles and dense clouding. It is only when the dust particles are few that all of them become active centres of condensation. Colour Phenomena in Steam ets. Colour has been seen by Principal Forbes and others in the steam escaping from engine boilers, but these colour phenomena have as yet been but little studied. For observing the colour in steam jets, the author has found it to bea great advantage to inclose the jet in a tube, and examine the effect through some length of condensing steam. Steam by itself has no colour in moderate lengths, but when mixed with a certain amount of cold air, and a certain quantity of dust, very beautiful colours are produced. A jet of steam is allowed to blow into the open end of a tube, and the amount of dusty air entering with it is regulated to the necessary amount. When the jet is condens- ing under ordinary conditions, the colour of the transmitted light varies from greens to blues of various depths, according to the conditions. The colour may be made very pale or extremely deep by varying the conditions. If the condensation in the jet be made to change and become dense by any of the influences already mentioned, the colour changes, and generally becomes of a yellowish-brown. This yellow colour, seen through steam when the jet is electri- fied, has been previously observed. It was thought that the colour was due to the electricity, and that the experiment ex- lained the lurid colour of thunder-clouds. There does not, owever, seem to be any connection between the electrification and the colour, as the transmitted light becomes of the same lurid hue when the jet is made dense by any of the other in- fluences. The yellow colours seen through steam are not generally so fine as the greens and blues, but when the density is due to high- pressure steam the yellow is very fine. Colours in Cloudy Condensation produced by Expansion. No colours had been previously seen in the light transmitted directly through the clouded air produced by expanding saturated air in a receiver. It was thought this was due to the slowness with which this process is generally made to take place in the expansion experiments. On arranging an experiment to make the rate of condensation quick, beautiful colours were seen on looking through the clouded air. An air pump was connected with a metal tube provided with glass ends. The capacity of the tube was small compared with the capacity of the receivers usually used in these experiments. When the air in the tube was suddenly expanded, the light passing through it became beautifully coloured, and the colour, and the depth of the colour, varied with the conditions. With few dust particles in the air, a slight expansion made the transmitted light blue ; a greater expansion changed it to green, and then to yellow ; and when the expansion was still further increased the colour changed, and a second blue made its appearance, followed by a second green and yellow. But, if very many particles were pre- sent, the same amount of expansion which produced the second yellow only gave avery deep blue. When it is desired to produce these colour phenomena on a large scale a vacuum receiver is used. This receiver is connected with the experi- mental tube or flask by means of a pipe fitted with a stop-cock. After a partial vacuum has been made in the receiver, the con- nection between it and the flask or tube in which the colours are to be shown is suddenly opened, when the colour-produc- ing condensation is. produced. These colour phenomena fade Q2 NATURE [May 26, 1892 rapidly, owing to the differentiation which takes place in the water drops. The spectroscope shows that when the light is blue there is a general darkening of the whole spectrum, but the absorption is greatest in the red end, and the red end is also much shortened. When the transmitted light was yellow, the blue end was cut out, and the yellow part was much the brightest. The Cause of the Colour. In the steam jet when the condensation is dense some of the yellow colour in the transmitted light is due to some of the particles being so small that they reflect and scatter the blue rays. This blue reflected light is polarized. The colours, however, seem in most cases to be produced in the same manner as the colours in thin plates; only a few of the colours of the first order or spectrum are visible, whilst those of the second and third orders are very distinct. A ** Green” or ** Blue” Sun, It is thought that these phenomena give the explanation of the ‘* blue” sun seen in India and elsewhere in Septem- ber, 1883, and also on other occasions. The eruption of Krakatao had taken place a few days before the green sun was observed in India. ‘The volcano threw into our atmosphere a great quantity of water vapour, and a vast amount of dust, the very materials necessary for producing a green sun by small drops of water. Prof. C. Michie Smith’s observations made in India show that there was a great amount of vapour present in our atmosphere at the time, and most observers frequently refer to a fine form of haze which covered the sky on the days the green sun was seen. Itis therefore in the highest degree probable that, under the conditions existing at the time, this haze was greatly composed of water. A New Instrument for Detecting Dust-polluted Air. The colour phenomena produced when air is suddenly ex- panded has led to the construction of a new instrument for in- dicating roughly the amount of dusty pollutionin the air. This instrument has been called a ‘‘ koniscope,” and it is hoped it will be found useful for studying sanitary questions. The instrument consists simply ofan air pump and a tube provided with glass ends. ‘The air to be tested is drawn into the tube, where it is moistened and expanded. The depth of colour seen on looking through the tube indicates the amount of impurity in the air. With about 80,000 particles of dust per cubic centimetre the colour is very faint; 1,500,000 gives a fine blue; while 4,000,000 gives an extremely dark blue. These colours are for an instrument having a tube halfa metre long. By means of this instrument it is easy to trace the pollution taking place in our rooms by open flames and other causes. We can trace by means of it the pure and impure currents in the room, and note the rate at which the impurity varies. May 5.—‘‘The Potential of an Anchor Ring.” Dyson, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. by Prof. J. J. Thomson, F.R.S. In this paper the author develops a method of dealing with physical questions connected with anchor rings. He applies it (1) To find the potential of a solid anchor ring at all external points. The result is obtained in a very convergent series of integrals, each of which may be reduced to elliptic functions, The equipotential surfaces are drawn, when the ratio of the radius of the generating circle to the mean circle of the ring is $ 3? 3 4, I. (2) The density, at any point, of a ring charged with elec- tricity is found ; and the charge is calculated. (3) The velocity potential of a ring moving in an infinite fluid is found, the kinetic energy calculated, and a few cases of motion discussed. (4) The annular form of rotating fluid is considered, and the form of the cross-section determined. The cross-section even for large rings is, roughly, of an elliptic shape ; the minor axis being parallel to the axis of revolution of the annulus. By F. W. Communicated May 12.—‘‘ On the Embryology of Angiopterts evecta, Hoffm.” By J. Bretland Farmer, M.A., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. Communicated by S. H. Vines, M.A., F.R.S. The ‘germination of the spore and the development of the prothallium have been described by Jonkman,! who also observed the formation of the sexual organs. The antheridium 1‘* De geslachtsgeneratie der Marattiaceeén,” door H. F. Jonkman,. NO. 1178, VOL. 46 | is formed from a superficial cell of the prothallium, which divides by a wall, parallel to the surface, into an outer shallow | } cell and an inner cubical cell. The former, by walls at right angles to the free surface, gives rise to the cover-cells; while _ the inner one, by successive bipartitions, originates the anthero- zoid mother-cells. The antheridia are distrituted both on the upper and lowe surfaces of the prothallium, and apparently without an approach to regularity, though they are somewhat more frequent on the lower surface. I may observe, however, that an antheri- dium may often occur on the upper surface immediately above an archegonium which has been fertilized. : The archegonia occur exclusively on the lower surface. Their development has been described by Jonkman, who also noticed ‘ the division of the neck canal cell, by a transverse wall, into — two cells. The division is not, however, invariable, and in one preparation in which the protoplasm had shrunk slightly from the wall, I observed that the cell plate had not extended so as to completely partition the neck passage into two cells. ' The oospore, after fertilization, speedily forms an ovoid cellular body, and although I was not so fortunate, owing to scarcity of material, as to see the formation of the earliest cell walls, their succession could be determined with tolerable certainty in the youngest embryo that I met with, consisting as it did of about ten cells. . The basal wall is formed, as in Zsoctes, at right angles to the axis of thearchegonium. The next one in order of occurrence I believe to be the median wall, which can easily be distinguished, even in advanced embryos, as a well-defined vertical line. The tranverse wall ts much more indefinite, and early loses its individuality owing to the unequal growth of the various parts of the young embryo. The further cell-division is irregular, and to a far greater extent than is the case with the leptospor- angiate ferns as described by Hofmeister and Leitgeb. _ The anterior epibasal octants together give rise to the cotyledon ; the stem-apex is formed, not as in the leptospor- angiate ferns, from ome octant only, but from doth of the posterior epibasal octants, though one of them contributes the greater portion. The truth of this statement is seen on examining vertical sections through the embryo cut at right angles to the median wall, when a few cells on each side are seen to be clearly marked out, by their dense protoplasmic contents and large nuclei, as meristem cells. There is no single apical cell in Angiopteris from which all the later stem tissue is derived, and this fact is, without doubt, to be connected with the <8 i Lee ea character of the apical meristem just described. The root is formed from one of the octants beneath the cotyledon, z.e. from an anterior hypobasal one, and is at first indicated by a triangular apical cell, which, in one fortunate preparation, showed the first cap cell. The other octant, together with the two posterior hypobasal octants (which together form the rudimentary foot), round off the base of the embryo. The root presents considerable difficulty in tracing the course of its development, as the apical cell, at no time very clear, is early replaced by two cells. Moreover, the root grows in a somewhat sinuous manner in the embryo, and the cells of its apex may easily be confounded with other tri- angular cells which occur irregularly scattered in the lower por- tion of the embryo. It finally emerges, not immediately beneath, nor yet exactly opposite, the cotyledon, but at a distance from it of between one-third and one-half of the circumference of the embryo. The difficulties attending the exact following of its growth, added to the scarcity of the material, have prevented my elucidating completely the details of development, but the important point, that, even before its emergence from the embryo, its apex contains a group of initial cells, occupying the place of the single one characteristic of other orders of ferns, can be regarded as established with certainty. When the embryo has reached a certain size, it bursts through the prothallium ; the root boring through below, whilst the cotyledon and stem grow through the upper surface, This manner of issuing from the prothallium at once serves to dis- tinguish Axgiopteris from those other ferns whose embryogeny is known, and probably the peculiarity of its growth may be reasonably connected with the direction and position of the basal wall which separates the root and short portions of the embryo. Fresh leaves and roots speedily arise on the young plantlet the second leaf appearing just above the place of exit of the first root—that is, not quite opposite the first leaf. The third leaf rises between the first and second ones, and nearer the first than the second. ‘Their roots observe the same rule of divergence as May 26, 1892] NATURE 93 which obtains in the case of the first root. The stipular uctures, so characteristic of the Marattiaceze, are entirely t from the first two leaves, but appear in a well-developed n on the third and all succeeding leaves. On the Shoulder-girdle in Ichthyosauria and Sauropterygia.” W. Hulke, F.k.S. author discusses the structure of the shoulder-girdle and mologies of its several parts in these families. He shows 1e existence of a precoracoid in the Ichthyosauria sts on an insufficient foundation ; offers proofs that in Plesio- wria the anterior ventral ray is not only theoretically but actually prec id ; and also that the dorsal ray in the girdle gous with the shoulder-blade in Testudinata and other ome n the Development of the Stigmata in Ascidians.” By ars M.A hor poles that the transverse rows of stigmata, which n all the fixed Ascidians, may arise in one or the ways: either as independent perforations, distinct t (cozooid of Clavelina, buds of Botryllus); or as formations, due to the subdivision of a series of pri- verse stigmata on each side (oozooid of Botryllus, _ The former method of development is shown to be on of the latter. ary transverse stigmata (or ‘‘ protostigmata”) of nd the Styeline agree precisely with the definitive mata of Pyrosoma in structure, position, and order of for- ion. They are accordingly regarded as homologous tions ; and the — : drawn a Pyrosoma has not 1 derived from the fixed Ascidians, but represents an ~ ancest nad of Caducichordate Tunicata, antecedent to the - whole of the phylum Ascidiacea. Row ica’ Society, May 13.—Dr. E. Atkinson, Treasurer, in . R. Inwards read a paper on an instrument - parabolas. It was designed for drawing curves of ch as are required for reflectors and for diagrams comets and projectiles. Its construction is based damental property that every point on the curve is rom the focus and the directrix. In the diagram 3 is a slot representing the directrix, and FGHI D pee at the corners and pivoted at F, whilst CD a bar capable of sliding through guides at H and I. Us is coupled to G bya bar, GM, such that the lengths ME, and MG are equal. As. and G slide along AB, the ribes a parabola whose latus rectum depends on the f F from AB. In the instrument F is carried by -arm so that its position is adjustable. GE is always cular to AB and equal to EF. Prof. Boys inquired the instrument could be modified to draw any conic “arranging that the ratio of EF to EG instead unity, might be greater or less than unity. Prof. an instrument for drawing curves represented by the y = x” was tly needed for engineering work.—Mr. "Nalder exhibited and described some electrical instru- _ ments. The first shown was a ballistic galvanometer with one ir of coils, the distinguishing features of which were accessi- , small damping, great sensitiveness, and the arrangement ‘the control. The control is effected by a ‘‘tail magnet _earried on a horizontal tube supported by a pillar outside the _ ease, as suggested by Prof. R. M. Walmsley. A small magnet oe ‘the cover serves or zeroadjustment. The suspended system consists of four bell magnets, two being in the middle of the _ coil and one at top and bottom respectively, arranged so as to be _ aStatic. The sensitiveness of the instrument shown was. such that 4 of a microcoulomb gave 300 divisions (fortieths of j an inch) when the periodic time was 10 seconds and scale NO. 1178, VOL. 46] =e z distance about 3 feet. Resistance of galvanometer about 10,coo ohms. To bring the needle to rest quickly, a damping coil mounted on an adjustable stand, and a special reversing key with resistances in its base, are provided. The key has succes- sive contacts arranged so that when pressed lightly, only a weak current passes round the damping coil, whilst when pressed further a much stronger current passes. The strong currents are used to check the large elongations, and the weak ones for finally bringing to zero. A lamp-stand with semi-transparent scale arranged for use with a glow lamp was next shown. Instead of reading by the image of the filament, as is ordinarily done, the lantern is arranged to givea bright disk of light with a black line acrossthe middle. Mr. Blakesiey asked if the galvanometer was astatic. For damping non-astatic ones he had found it useful to wind several turns of wire round the bobbin, and put them in series with a few thermo-electric junctions warmed by the hand and a key. Inreply, Mr. Nalder saii the galvanometer was astatic, but the damping coil could be placed so as to act on one pair of magnets more than on the other, A paper on a portable instrument for measuring magnetic fields, with some observations on the strength of the stray fields of dynamos, by Mr. E. Edgar and Mr. H. Stansfield, was then read. The instrument was described as an inversion of ad’ Arsonval galvano- meter, for the torque necessary to maintain a suspended coil conveying a constant current parallel to the field gives a measure of the strength of the field. The constant current is furnished by a Hellensen’s dry cell which the authors found remarkably constant. The instrument consists of a coil of about fifty ohms, wound on mica and suspended by two German silver strips within a tube. A pointer is fixed to the mica, and a divided head, to which the outer end of one strip is attached, serves to measure the torsion, Within the head chamber is a commutator which automatically reverses the current in the coil when the head is turned in opposite directions from zero. Two readings may thus be taken to eliminate gravity errors due to want of perfect balance in the coil, Means are provided for adjusting and measuring the tension of the suspensions. The constant of the instrument was determined by placing the coil in the field of a Helmholtz galvanometer, and found to be 0'293 per 1°. Any other field is therefore given by 0°293 (# + 1)@, where @ is the le of torsion in degrees, and 7 the multiple of 50 ohms in series with thecoil. Fields from 2 or 3 C.G.S. lines upwards can be measured to about 2 percent. by the instrument, and even the earth’s field is appreciable. The authors have tested the _ fields of dynamos at the Crystal Palace Exhibition and else- where, and the results obtained are given in the paper. It is noted that the stray fields of multipolar machines fall off much more rapidly than those of two-pole dynamos as the distances are increased, and that near edges and corners of the magnets the fields are much stronger than near flat surfaces. The dis- turbing effect of armature reactions on the strength of the stray fields were measured, and the shapes of the fields observedinsome cases. Experiments on magnetized watches are described in the paper. Mr. Whipplesaid the Kew Committee were to someextent responsible for the experiments described, for it was on their account that the investigations were commenced. In connection with the rating of so-called non-magnetic watches, it was neces- sary to know what strength of fields they were likely to be sub- jected to, The instrument devised for making the tests was a very interesting one, and the results obtained by it of great value. Mr. A. P. Trotter hoped the authors would supplement their work by tracing out the directions of the fields of dynamos, and he described a simple method of doing this by a test needle used as an india-rubber stamp. The question of watches, he thought, must be considered soon ; even non-magnetic watches were stopped by being placed in strong fields, owing to Foucault currents generated in the moving parts. Mr. Blakesley inquired whether the instrument could be used in any position. He thought three observations would be necessary to completely determine any field. Mr. Stansfield, in reply, said they used a pilot needle for showing the directions of the fields, and then placed the coil accordingly. The instrument could be used in any position, for the weight of the coil was only about 2 grammes, and did not greatly alter the tension of the suspensions, which was usually about 300 grammes. A watch with a brass balance was not influenced by a field of 10 C.G.S. lines but seriously affected by one of 40.—Mr. Joseph W. Lovibond read a paper on a unit of measurement of light and colour, The paper was illus- trated by many coloured charts, diagrams, and models, and several pieces of apparatus by which colour measurements could 94 NATURE [ May 26, 1892 be made were shown. The principle of the measurements depends on the selective absorption of the constituents of normal white light by coloured glasses (red, yellow, and blue). The depths of tint of the glasses are carefully graduated to give absorptions in numerical proportions. For example, two equal glasses, each called one-unit red, give the same absorption as a two-unit red, and so on. The units of red, yellow, and blue are so chosen that a combination of one of each absorb white light without colouring the transmitted light. Such a combina- tion is called a ‘‘ neutral tint unit.” By the use of successive neutral tint units, white light can be gradually absorbed without showing traces of colour, and the number of such units required to produce complete absorption is taken as a measure of the intensity or luminosity of the white light. Methods of represent- ing colours by circles and charts were fully dealt with, and the in- fluence of time of observation on the penetrability of different colours was illustrated by diagrams. The results of 151 experi- ments on colour mixture were explained, and represented diagrammatically. After the reading of the paper the methods used for colour matching and measurement were shown by Mr. and Miss Lovibond.—Mr. R. W. Paul exhibited his im- proved form of Wheatstone bridge, arranged to occupy the same space, and fulfil the same conditions, as the well-known Post Office pattern. Chemical Society, April 21.—Prof. A. Crum Brown, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—The following paper was read :—Masrite, a new Egyptian mineral, and the possible occurrence of a new element therein, by H. D. Richmond and Hussein Off. Masrite is the name assigned by the authors to a variety of fibrous alum obtained in Egypt by S. E. Johnson Pasha. It contains from 1 to nearly 4 per cent. of cobalt. This being the first occasion on which cobalt has been met with in Egypt, the authors were led to inquire whether the blue colour used in the paintings on Egyptian monuments contained that element. The samples obtained, however, owed their colour to compounds of copper and iron. The mineral is principally interesting on account of the presence in it of a minute quantity of a substance, the properties of which appear to be unlike those of any known element, which the authors provisionally term masrium, from the Arabic name for Egypt. From an analysis of the oxalate, on the assumption that it is a bivalent element, the atomic weight of masrium is calculated to be 228. The authors point out that there is a vacant place in the glucinum- . calcium group of the periodic system for an element having the atomic weight 225. In many of its properties masrium resembles glucinum, and the oxalate is analogous to that of calcium. Masrite has the composition (Al, Fe),O,, (Ms, Mn, Co, Fe)O, 4805, 200H). May 5.—Prof. A. Crum Brown, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—An extract was read from a letter to Sir H. E. Roscoe, written by Prof. Kiihne, of Heidelberg, at the request of Prof. Bunsen, expressing his thanks for the address presented to him by the Chemical Society.—The following papers .were read :— The existence of two acetaldoximes, by W. R. Dunstan and T. S. Dymond. Acetaldoxime, CH, . CH: NOH, has hitherto been regarded as a liquid capable of existing in only one form, attempts to obtain evidence of the existence of an isomeride having failed; the authors, however, find that it can be crystallized by cooling. The crystals so obtained are often several inches in length, and melt at 46°°5. On heating them to 100°-150° no decomposition occurs, and the substance boils con- stantly at 114°°5. If this heated liquid be now cooled, it does not crystallize until nearly 35° below the melting-point of the original substance, and the crystals so obtained become liquid at ordinary temperatures. Many similar observations have been made, and it has been invariably found that on heating the aldoxime the freezing-point is lowered to a greater or less extent. Evidence has in this way been accumulated, showing that a change in the constitution of acetaldoxime occurs when it is heated, the original substance, melting at 46°°5, being gradually converted into a new modification, which melts at 12°. It is noteworthy that the acetaldoxime melting at 12° is slowly recon- verted into that melting at 46°°5 on standing at ordinary tem- peratures. The authors term the substance melting at 46°°5 a-acetaldoxime, that melting at 12° being named 8-acetaldoxime. —Sulphonic acids derived from anisoils (No. i.), by G. T. Moody. The author finds that contrary to the statement of Kekulé, and of Opl and Lippmann, anisoil and phenetoil afford only parasulphonic acids on sulphonation. Carefully purified NO. 1178, VOL. 46] anisoil was dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid, and the — product poured into water, when part of the anisoil was liberated, — oa e is formed before the sulphonic acid. The anisoil thus set free was treated with strong sulphuric acid at 80°, when complete showing that as in the case of phenol an intermediate compound — ; sulphonation occurred. calcium salt ; no indications of the presence of an isomeride were found. The calcium, potassium, and sodium salts of the anisoil parasulphonic acid obtained in this way are described, t larly is shown to yield only the parasulphonic acid. The ucts of sulphonation, either with sulphuric acid or with chlorosulphonic acid, are in both cases the same, only one sulphonic acid resulting. —The formation of trithionate by the action of iodine on a mixture of sulphite and thiosulphate, by W. Spring. In his paper on the investigation of the change proceeding in an acidified solution of sodium thiosulphate, Colefax its the author with having stated that trithionate of sodium is uced when iodine acts on a mixture of sodium sulphite and thiosulphate, and further denies that this is the case. The author used potassium salts, and not sodium salts, but, owing to an error in the abstract of Spring’s original paper, Colefax was led to believe that sodium salts were used. The difference in the behaviour of the potassium and sodium salts is very striking, and arises from the greater instability of the sodium polythionates already pointed out by the author. Another difference between the two sets of experiments is found in the employment by Colefax of a larger proportion of iodine than that used by the author. The equation K,SO, + K,S.03 + I, = K,S,0¢ = wi KI requires less iodine than would be necessary to oxidize the The solution yields a well-defined — i@ hen with the sulphochloride and sulphonamide. Pure phenetoil simi- — sulphite to sulphate, and the hyposulphite to tetrathionate of — sodium. The author does not, however, contend that the formation of trithionate takes place in accordance with the equation Na,S,03 + Na,SO, + I, = Na,S3;0, + 2Nal. He is convinced that sulphites have the property of desulphuris- ing the tetrathionates, so as to convert them into trithionates. It would hence be more consistent to admit that the sodium sulphite which owes its existence to the employment of a reduced quantity of iodine decomposes the small quantity of sodium tetrathionate produced in the first instance, thus, Na,.S40¢ + Na,SOz Nz2.S30, 4 5 Na,S,03. The statement erroneously ascribed by Colefax to the author seems, in consequence, to be really correct. It is, however, indispensable that the experiments should be performed under exactly the same conditions as those employed in the work on the potassium salts.—The determination of the temperature of steam arising from boiling salt solutions, by J. Sakurai. The evidence now on record as to the temperature of the steam arising from boiling salt solutions is exceedingly unsatisfactory and inconsistent. Such being the case, the author has devised a method for accurately measuring this temperature, and finds that the temperature of the steam escaping from a boiling salt solution is the same as that of the solution. The conditions for success are:—(1) The thermometer used must be kept from contact even-with the smallest drops of the solution thrown up by ebullition. (2) The effect of cooling of the thermometer by radiation must be rendered insignificant in proportion to the heat- ing up by thesteam. This condition is readily fulfilled by the. expedient of combining the introduction of steam from without with the ebullition by the lamp. (3) The walls of the chamber surrounding the thermometer must be sufficiently protected from external cooling, and yet, at the same time, must not be heated to the temperature of the steam. This is effected by jacketing the steam chamber with the vapour evolved from dilute acetic acid boiling at about 2° lower than the saltsolution. The agree- ment between the numbers representing the temperature of the steam and that of the boiling salt solution is good.—Note on an observation by Gerlach of the boiling-point of a solution of Glauber’s salt, by J. Sakurai. Some years ago Gerlach stated that the steam escaping from a boiling solution of Glauber’s salt containing a crystalline magma of the anhydrous salt indicates a temperature of 100°, whilst the liquid is boiling at 82° or even 72. wet mass of sodium sulphate crystals that is heated. The steam, consequently, does not arise uniformly from the heated mass, but The author finds that this is hardly true, for it is only a _ May 26, 1892] NATURE | 95 escapes from channels produced in those portions of it which are in contact with the sides of the vessel. The central portion of the magma therefore may be at a low temperature, whilst steam ‘at 100° is issuing from the sides.—Chemistry of the thioureas, ; ii., by E. A. Werner. It is pointed out that the paper published by Bertram on the monophenylthioureas_was atly written in ignorance of the fact that the balk of the k detailed therein has been already published by the author. A number of new derivatives of thiourea are now described. eological Society, May 11.—W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S., nt, in the chair.—The President announced that a bust e late Sir Charles Lyell had been kindly presented to the 0c Mrs. Katherine Lyell, through the intermediary of _ Prof J. W. Judd, F.R.S.—The following communications were read:—On the so-called gneiss of Carboniferous age at ruttannen (Canton Berne, Switzerland), by Prof. T. G. Bonney, -S. It is stated by Dr. Heim (Quzrterly Journal, vol. xlvi. ) that the stems of Calamztes have been found at en in a variety of gneiss, z.¢. in one of a group of rocks v exactly ‘‘resemble true crystalline schists in mode of ‘occurrence. Petrographically they are related to them by passage rocks ; at least the line of separation is not easily distinguished. .. The Palzozoic formations mostly show an intimate tectonic n to the crystalline schists, and have been converted phically into crystalline schists.” The Author describes ult of a visit to the section at Guttannen in company with . Eccles (to whom he is greatly indebted for kind assist- and of his subsequent study of the specimens then ted. The belt of sericitic ‘‘ phyllites and gneisses,” pre- bly of Carboniferous age, represented on the Swiss gical map (Blatt xiii.) as infolded, at and above Guttannen, rue crystalline gneissoid rocks, is found on examination to nt of true gneisses, partly of detrital rocks. The er which the stems in the Berne Museum were obtained ts to the latter. These rocks sometimes present macro- pically, and occasionally even microscopically, considerable mblance to true gneisses, but this proves on careful examina- 1 to be illusory. They are, like the Torridon Sandstone of und, or the Gres feldspathique of Normandy, composed of etritus of granitoid or gneissoid rock, which sometimes aS a mosaic resembling the original rock, and which has n generally more or less affected by subsequent pressure and the usual secondary mineral changes. Thus, if the term be employed in the ordinary sense, they are no more gneisses than the rocks of Carboniferous age at Vernayaz (Canton Valais) are : but in some cases the imitation is unusually good, , so far as the author saw, there are at Guttannen neither : nor slates to betray the imposition, as happens locality. The reading of this paper was followed in which the President, Prof. Judd, Mr. Eccles, General McMahon, Mr. Rutley, Prof. Blake, Prof. Bonney, _and Prof. Seeley took oo. the lithophyses in the obsidian of the Rocche , Lipari, by Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole, and erard W. Butler. The rock described in this paper differs in particu i icular from that at Forgia Vecchia, or from the n on the north flank of Vulcano ; but the specimens show e striking manner the passage through various stages A structure, from indisputable steam-vesicles with lassy walls to typical solid spherulites. A full description is given of the formation of spherulites by a double process—firstly, divergent growth from the margins of vesicles outwards, and _ secondly, convergent growth inwards from the margins towards _ the centres of the hollows, until in the smallest cases the fibres _ from the opposite sides of the vesicle may meet in the centre, “producing a spherulite, which, but for the occurrence of inter- “mediate stages, might be supposed to have originated entirely by _ divergent growth. The authors give details of the appearances a “wong ya by intermediate stages of growth. The prevailing ; iy toeous both in Lipari and Vulcano, shows in section a du: brous central area, which may possess concentric as well as radial structure, surrounded by an irregular brown cloudy zone of various width. The authors’ studies lead them to the conclusion that this type owes its characters to the dual _ mode of growth, and therefore to the original presence of vesicles _ in the rock, Commonly the process of infilling does not go so far as this ; on the ends of the felspar fibres plates of tridymite _ are deposited, and this seems to close the growth. It is clear that thelithophysal structure of the Lipari obsidians was formed d the cooling of the mass, and not by subsequent amyg- infilling of vesicles. The authors discuss the effect of NO. 1178, VOL. 46] confined vapours on such rocks as those forming the subject of the paper, noting that these vapours may be kept at a high temperature for a considerable time, each vesicle thus becoming. . a sphere of hydrothermal action ; so that if the surrounding glass remains at a temperature little below its fusion-point, crystalliza- tion will be promoted in it, and at the same time the action of the vapour in the vesicle will produce reactions on its walls. An appendix, by Prof. Cole, treats of the lithophyses and hollow spherulites of altered rocks. While admitting the presence of , true lithophyses in many of the Welsh lavas, he is not prepared to abandon a former suggestion that the interspaces between successive coats of the Conway lithophyses result from alteration of a formerly solid mass. In the lavas of Esgair-felen and near the Wrekin he has no doubt as to the production of ‘‘ hollow spherulites” by ordinary processes of decay. The typical Continental pyromerides are truly spherulitic, as is much of the Wrekin lava. In the latter case and that of the rocks of Bouley Bay it will be difficult to distinguish between infilled primary and secondary cavities. Inthe discussion which followed the reading of this paper Prof. Bonney, Prof. Judd, General McMahon, Mr. J. W. Gregory, Mr. Rutley, Prof. Cole, and Mr. G. W. Butler took part. Royal Meteorological Society, May 18.—Dr. C. Theodore Williams, President, in the chair.—The following papers were read :—Raindrops, by Mr. E. J. Lowe, F.R.S. The author has made over 300 sketches of raindrops, and has gathered some interesting facts respecting their variation in size, form, and distribution. Sheets of slate in a book form, which could be instantly closed, were employed; these were ruled in inch squares, and after exposure the. drops were copied on sheets of paper ruled like the slates. Some drops produce a wet circular spot, whilst others, falling with greater force, have splashes around the drops. The same sized drop varies considerably in the amount of water it contains. The size of the drop ranges from an almost invisible point to that of at least 2 inches in diameter. Occasionally large drops fall that must be more or less hollow, as they fail to wet the whole surface inclosed within the drop. Besides the ordinary raindrops, the author exhibited diagrams, showing the drops produced by a mist floating along the ground, and also the manner in which snow-flakes, on melting, wet the slates.—Results of a comparison of Richard’s anémo-cinémographe with the standard Beckley anemograph at the Kew Observatory, by Mr. G. M. Whipple. This instrument isa windmill vane anemometer, and is formed by six small wings or vanes of aluminium, 4 inches in diameter, inclined at 45°, rivetted on very light steel arms, the diameter of which is so calculated that the vane should make exactly one turn for a metre of wind. Its running is always verified by means of a whirling frame fitted up in an experimental room, where the air is absclately calm, and, if necessary, a table of corrections is supplied. The recording part of the apparatus differs entirely from any other anemometer, and is called the anémo- cinémographe, and in principle is as follows :—The pen, re- cording on a movable paper, is wound up at a constant rate by means of a conical pendulum acting as a train of wheel links, whilst a second train, driven by the fan, is always tending to force it down to the lower edge of the paper; its position, therefore, is governed by the relative difference in the velocity of the two trains of wheel-work, being at zero when the air is. calm, but at other times it records the rate of the fan in metres per second. The author has made a comparison of this instru- ment with the standard anemometer at the Kew Observatory, and finds that it gives exceedingly good results.—Levels of the River Vaal at Kimberley, South Africa, with remarks on the rain- fall of the watershed, by Mr. W. B. Tripp. Measurements of the height of the River Vaal have for several years past been made at the Kimberley Waterworks. These gaugings having been placed at the disposal of the Society, the author has com- pared them with the rainfall of the watershed. There is a marked period of floods and fluctuations at a comparatively high level from about the end of October to the latter part of April, and a period of quiescence during which the river steadily falls, with very my oe uctuations from about April 19 to October 31. The highest flood (52°5 feet) occurred in 1880, the next highest being 50°3 feet on January 24, 1891. OXFORD. University Junior Scientific Club, May 4.—The meet- ing was held in the University Museum. In private, business regulations about the ‘‘ Robert Boyle Lecture” were passed 96 NATURE [May 26, 1892 by the Club.—Papers were read on the actioa of light on metallic iodides, by Mr. Douglas Berridge; on the colours of birds, by Mr. F. Finn; and on Caliche, by Mr. P. Elford. May 13.—At an open meeting Mr. E. F. im Thurn (Exeter) delivered a lecture on ‘‘ Primitive Games of the Red Men of Guiana.” Prof. Tylor afterwards addressed the Club.—The inaugural ‘‘ Robert Boyle Lecture” will be given at a con- versaztone on May 27. All old members of the Club are cordially invited. PARIS, Academy of Sciences, May 16.—M. d’Abbadie in the chair.—Contribution to the history of silico-carbon compounds, hy M. P. Schutzenberger. The compound, SiC, has been pro- duced by long heating of silicium diluted with silica in carbon crucibles. The friable mass is broken up, heated with potash solution, which dissolves out the silicium, and some silica, and then boiled with moderately concentrated hydrofluoric acid, by which all the silica is taken up and silicium nitride is converted into silicium fluoride and ammonium fluoride. The clear green pulverulent residue of SiC is not attacked by potash or by boiling HF ; it is infusible, and at a white heat forms SiCO.— On the determination of the density of liquefied gases and their saturated vapours ; elements of the critical point of carbonic acid, by M. E H! Amagat. The critical constants for carbonic acid are given as—temp. = 31°°35C., pressure = 72'9 atmos., density = 0°464.—Observation of the partial eclipse of the moon on May 11-12, 1892, by MM. Codde, Guérin, Négre, Zielke, Valette, and Léotard.—On the theory of fonctions Suchsiennes, by M. L. Schlesinger.—On the relations existing between the infinitesimal elements of two reciprocal polar sur- faces, by M. Alphonse Demoulin.—On transformations in mechanics, by M. Paul Painlevé.—The physiological scale of distinct vision, applications to photometry and pholo-esthésio- métrie,, by M. W. Nicatii—On a method of separation of xylenes, by M. J. M. Crafts.—Calculation of boiling-points of compounds with simple terminal substitution, by M. G. Hinrichs.—Method for the proximate analysis of chlorophyll extracts ; nature of chlorophyllane, by M. A. Etard.—Influence of the nature of the soil on vegetation, by M. J. Raulin.— Presence of fumarine in one of the Papaveracez, by M. J. A. Battandier.—On some muscular anomalies in man, by M. Fernand Delisle.—On the apparently teratological origin of two species of 7rzclades, by M. P. Hallez.—On the theory of gills and the parablast, by M. F. Houssay.—The origins of the wing nerve among the Coleoptera, by M. Alfred Binet.—The nervous system of Werita polita, by M. L. Boutan.—On the origin and formation of the chitinous coat of the larvae of Zzbellules, by M. Joannes Chatin.—-On the microscopic structure of ooliths from the dathonien and dajocien of Lorraine, by M. Bleicher.—The odoriferous properties of alcohols of the fatty series, by M. Jacques Passy. The odoriferous power, as measured by the inverse of the millionths of a gram present in one litre of air when the odour can be just distinguished, increases regularly with the molecular weight.—On the lack of movement of the deep oceanic waters, by M. J. Thoulet. BERLIN, Physiological Society, April 27.—Prof. du Bois-Reymond, President, in the chair.—Dr. Boruttau gave an account of experiments made to determine the cause of the difference in latent period observed during the direct and indirect stimulation of muscles, being, as is well-known, greater (with maximal and supra-maximal stimuli) in the latter mode of stimulation. Ac- cording to some observers the difference is due to the resistance offered by the end-plates, whereas some regard it as due rather to a summation of stimuli during direct stimulation. The speaker had satisfied himself by a careful repetition of the experiments under many varying conditions that the difference is due solely to the resistance of the end-plates. In connection with the above, Prof. Gad pointed out the possible important bearing of the results obtained on the processes which go on in other organs. Thus recent anatomical research has shown that in the central nervous system there is no complete continuity between the axis-cylinders and ganglia, hence the existence of some intermediate structure must be assumed, and a portion at least of the slowing which impulses experience in the central nervous system may be due*to the resistance offered by this structure.—Prof. Wolff exhibited a patient in whom the larynx had been completely extirpated some seven months previously, NO. 1178, VOL. 46] and who was now able, by means of an artificial larynx, to spell a quite loud and clearly. Prof. Gad gave an historical account of the construction of artificial larynxes, of the requirements which — these instruments must satisfy, and of recent improvements in — the cannulz employed by patients. f Physical Society, May 6.—Prof. Kundt, President, in the chair.—Dr. Gross spoke on the principle of entropy, and criti- cised several formulz of Clausius and Zeuner. i [In the reports of the Berlin Scientific Societies, NATURE, vol. xlv. p. 599, for Schumbert read Schubert, and for Lammer and Brodhan vead Lummer and Brodhun. } BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. Books. ~Genéets't. and Modern Science; Dr. C. B. Warring (New \ Cee f Hunt and Eaton).—Analyse des Vins: Dr. L. Magnier de la rey oo Gauthier-Villars).—Tiroirs et D,stributeurs de Va “or! A Madame (Gauthier-Villars).—Studies ia S »uth American Native Brint nu (Philadel»hia) —Die Eibe in Westpreussen : H. Cerwedta (Danzig, Bertling).—Wood-Notes Wild Notat ons of Bird Music: S. P. Cheney (Boston, Lee and Snepard).—Lehrbuch der Botanik, Erster : Dr. A. B. Frank (Leipz g, Hagelmann) —The Theory of Sule Ss A its Applications to Algebra: Dr. F. Netto, translated by Dr. F. N. Cole (Ann Arbor, Michigan, Register Publishing Company). = Resulted 7 the ML iaissoro- lugical Observations made at the Government . »bservatory, Madras, during the Years 1851-90, edited by C. M Smith (Madras).—Watts’s Dictionary of Chemistry, vol iii , revised, &c., by H. a Morley and M. M. P, Muir (Longmans).—Practical Enlarg ug: J. A. Hodges (lLliffe).—The Ag Principies of Photography: C. Leaper (Iliffe). ice se Repor U.S, National Museum, 1889 + Webhivaialotita oj B. Lock's El eB: mentary Dynamics : G. H. Lock (Macmillan). “The A Blow-Fly, Part 3: B. T. Lowne (Purter). PamPHLETS.—On the Organization of Science: A Free Lance (Williams and Norgate).—lhe Nitrate Fields of Chile: C. M. Aikman. ducee versus Pnarisee: G. M. McCrie (Bickers). SERIALS.—Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xlviii. Part No. 190 (Longmans).—Engineering Magaziue, May (New York et efeaunel und Erde, May (Berlin, Paetel).—'1 ransactions of the Royal Iris emy, vol. xxix. Part 19 (Willams and Norgate). + \ ethene des Natur- historischen Vercines der Preussischen Kheinlande, &c.—. vierzigster Jahrgang Fiinfte Folge, 8 Jahrg., Zweite Halfte (Bonn, Cohen .—Bulletins dela Société d’Anthropologie de Paris, tome 2 (189r), 3e. Fase. (Paris, Masson).—Journal of the Chemical Soctety, May (Gurney and J: Institute of Jamaica, Bulletin No. 1, A Provisional List of the Fishes of Jamaica: T. D. A. Cockerell (Kingston).—Rapport Annuel sur YVE:at de l’Observatoire de Paris, 1891, le ar Mouchez (Paris, Gauthier- Villars).—Indian Museum Notes, vol. ii. No. 5 (Calcutta),—Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, No. 98, vol. xxi. (Spon).—Mémoires de la Société de Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle de Genéve, Vol. Suni mentaire, Centenaire de la Fondation de la Société (Genéve). \ he Anatomy, &c , of CONTENTS. PAGE Mathematics used in Physics! : 4°.) a 29 6 Seo 93 Phases of Animal Life. By F. E. B.ciijtg gahag we fay Our Book Shelf :— Hurst : ‘‘ Silk Dyeing, Printing, and Finishing” . . 75 Murray: ‘* Phycological Memoirs.” —A. W, B.. . . 75 Wrightson: ‘‘ Live'Stock”’.. 37.) 2 i). ns . Sea gba {¢ Letters to the Editor :— EEN Lord Kelvin’s Test Case on the Maxwell- Boltemann Law.—Edw. B. Culverwell . . 76 nt ool Thermodynamics. —Prof. ‘Poincare ; PB G 6 Land and Freshwater Shells Peculiar to: the British q Isles. —-T. D. A. Cockerell . . . 76 The Former Connection of Southern Contitines sie Mellard Reade. . . 77 The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Albert c. Mott . 77 The God of the Ethiopians. -W.’ Hammond Tooke 78 Aurora Borealis. —Warington Stock .. . 2 ey 42] The New Element, Masrium. By A. E. Tutton . - 79 On a New Method of viewing Newton’s Rings. (Llustrated.)’ By T: C. Porterssoya se Wa a aes 60 Jean Servais Stas. 1 ee es 81 Notes... oa, ROR eC at ae Our Astronomical Column:— Paris Observatory Report’. 2%. 5°." 6. So eae Stars with Remarkable Spectra .......... 86 Comet ‘1892 Swift (March 6) 0. 05000. 2) tne 87 Light Variations of Y Cygni ........6... 87 Nebule. . . $e 87 Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society .. ef) a eB Transformers. "By Prof. Perry, E.R. S. oa gt ae ee Scientific’ Serials acts.) 2 0 Cet Oe Societies and Academies . og el eee Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received . ag ge NATURE 97 THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1892. THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE. Grammar of Science. By Karl Pearson, M.A., Sir mas Gresham’s Professor of Geometry. “The temporary Science Series.” - (London: Walter ott, 1892.) NE chief merit of this book is its exposition of the lth of scientific law. There still exists, un- mat ly, atype of mind which delights in such phrases the : reign of law,” the “immutable laws of Nature,” so on. The truly scientific mind has, however, been familiar with the truth that a so- called aw of Nature mply a convenient formula for the co-ordination of a range of phenomena. It is this which Prof. Pear- Rtesiichiatically, if somewhat redundantly, expounds earlier chapters of the “Grammar.” As he delights ig it, a scientific law is a description in mental 1 of certain sequences of sense-impressions.* h these sense-impressions alone can we gain any sdge of what we are accustomed to call the ex- _world. Thus the Universe as pictured by the fic mind is a purely mental product. We can scientifically, nothing regarding its constitution than what we may validly infer from our percep- 'and the conceptions based on these ; and even then t never forget that the reality to us is conditioned y by our powers of perception. This is the grand of the grammarian of science. y this theme he introduces not a few g questions and analogies. Take, for example, of the brain to a telephone exchange. presiding as clerk, finds by experience ain subscriber always desires to correspond certain other subscriber. As soon as the call- from the former sounds, the clerk mechanically links to the latter. “ This corresponds to an hebitent n following unconsciously on a sense-impression.” 3 e are obvious. Now, just as the clerk Scab doeate ‘a very scrappy knowledge of the outside world if he had to trust simply to the messages which stream past him through the exchange, so (it is sug- gested) the picture our mind forms of the external world ting upon us through our sense-impressions may be very wide of the reality. Of course analogies must not be pressed toofar. Yet it does seem that this logy of the telephone exchange could be worked out consistently by the despised teleologist. To Sir mas Gresham’s Professor of Geometry, however, a exchange evolving its own clerk is as simple a \atter as an uninterrupted stream of sense-impressions _ creating Spencerianly a consciousness. But Prof. Pearson is no mere preacher of familiar doctrines. He is a second Hercules, self-appointed to _ lear the scientific stables of all materialistic and meta- _ physical rubbish. He labours at the task of proving how _ illogical is the mind that passes to “the beyond” of the _ sense-impressions and the conceptions directly based on _ these. Thus he argues that, because the Universe is _ known only as our own mental product, we have no right to infer a mind in or above Nature as an explanation of NO. 1179, VOL. 46] ; lopin ~ the universality of the scientific law. Nevertheless, it behoves him to find a rational substitute for the law of continuity on which the authors of the Unseen Universe build their edifice. Consequently on p. 121 we read :— “It is therefore not surprising that normal human beings perceive the same world of phenomena, and reflect upon it in much the same manner.” Why not surprising ? Because, as we learn from the pre- ceding sentence, human beings “in the normal civilized condition have perceptions and reflective faculties nearly akin.” But why nearly akin ? Well, it has to be so because “the world of phenomena must be practically the same for all normal human beings,” or the universality of scientific law will fail. Putting in the definitions of the terms in the first quoted sentence we read :—It is therefore not surprising that beings, who have perceptive and reflective faculties capable only of producing practically the same world of phenomena, perceive the same world of pheno- mena and reflect upon it in much the same manner. In this exquisite cycle of reasoning what, we ask, is the logical work done? Our grammarian poses as a logician of the straitest sect. Bad logic he cannot abide ; and since apparently he cannot read a book without seeing the cloven hoof he must have rathera sorry time of it. His own logic must, of course, be flawless. So, when we are told with reiterated emphasis that time and space are but modes of percep- tion, and are then asked to imagine our Universe in time and space without a consciousness to perceive it, we feel a sinking at the heart. Things, we find, can exist under certain modes of a non-existent perception: The laws of Nature are a mental product; yet a certain evolution theory logically based upon them quite eliminates the mental. We are reminded of the sagacious carpenter who sat high and lifted up on the end of the bracket beam he was sawing through ; or of the small boy who spent his wealth in buying a purse to hold it in. A large section of Prof. Pearson’s book is destructive criticism. ‘ Cause,” “‘ Force,” and “ Matter” are as red rags tohim. Cursed be he who uses these words without clearly defining, in footnote or otherwise, their significance according to the definitions given in the “ Grammar of Science.” Sir Isaac Newton is severely visited for his sins ; Thomson and Tait get a thorough drubbing ; Maxwell is censured for his bad logic ; and Prof. Tait especially, if we are to judge of him through the medium of this book, must have done more to retard the progress of science than any other single man of the century. Sound criticism is always welcome; but “smart” controversy of the hustings type is rarely sound in print. Asa fair example of our grammarian’s method, take his critique of Max- well’s descriptions (not definitions be it noted) of the intimate relation between matter and energy. Maxwell says, ‘ We are acquainted with matter only as that which may have energy communicated to it from other matter, &c.,” and ‘‘ Energy, on the other hand, we know only as that which . . . is continually passing from one portion of matter to another.” These are represented as meaning that “the only way in which we can understand matter is through the energy which it transfers,” and “ the only way to understand energy is through matter. Matter has been defined in terms of energy, and energy again F 98 NATURE [JUNE 2, 1892 in terms of matter.” By what logic or grammar can understand be substituted for are acguainted with or know ; and by what right is a description twisted into a definition? Words in their usual meanings may, how- ever, be of little consequence to a writer who persists in using the English word veswme in the French sense. It seems to us that Prof. Pearson has altogether missed the significance of the word “objective” as used by Prof. Tait, to whom, as everyone knows or should know, we owe the first clear presentation of the dogma that force has no objective existence. At any rate, we are surprised to find in the “ Grammar of Science” no distinct reference to the two grand principles of all science—to wit, the conservation of matter and the conservation of energy. This omission by an avowed writer on the principles of science is certainly matter of surprise. As regards the views of force expounded in the book, the author is simply a disciple of Prof. Tait. If not, he must regard Tait as “that worst of plagiarists”—the man who made the discovery before he did. Prof. Pearson has, indeed, a certain fatality for having dealings with that most unsatisfactory kind of plagiarism. In Tait’s “ Pro- perties of Matter,” first edition (1885), paragraph 162, are written these words :— “Sir W. Thomson has shown that if space be filled with an incompressible fluid, which comes into exist- ence in fresh quantities at the surface of every particle of matter, at a rate proportional to its mass, and is swallowed up at an infinite distance, or, if each particle of matter constantly swallows up an amount proportional to its mass, a constant supply being kept up from an infinite distance,—in either case gravitation would be accounted for.” If this is not essentially the theory of “ ether-squirts ” which “ the author has ventured to put forward,” what then is the ether-squirt? The quotation just given occurs in Tait’s seventh chapter, which, being empty of “red rags,” probably failed to come within Prof. Pearson’s sphere of perception. Be it noted that we do not criticize our author’s views as to the significance of such words as force and cause ; but we cannot say we fancy his critical tone towards others. He himself uses the phrase “acceleration of A due to B,” but warns the reader in a footnote against taking the phrase in its literal sense ; yet anybody else from Newton down the centuries who has dared to use similar phrases is sneered at as a searcher after the unknowable “ why.” For example, in his criticism of Newton’s first law of motion, what right has he to say that Newton “ was thinking of force in the sense of medizeval meta- physics as a cause of change in motion”? What is the perceptual or conceptual basis of this assumed certitude > Newton was probably thinking of wis zmpressa, the very grammatical form of which shows that there was nothing ultimate implied in the vzs. After discussing the various kinds of vzves that have to be dealt with, and pointing out clearly by definitions and descriptions their precise meanings, Newton concludes one paragraph in these words :— “ Mathematicus duntaxat est hic conceptus; Nam virium causas et sedes physicas jam non expendo,” NO. 1179, VOL. 46] Then a little further on we read :— “ Has vires non physice sed mathematice tantum con- siderando. Unde caveat lector, ne per hujusmodi voces cogitet me spectem vel modum actionis causamve aut rationem physicam alicubi definire vel centris (que sunt puncta mathematica) vires vere et physice tribuere ; st Sorte aut centra trahere, aut vires centrorum esse dixero.y Can it be that Prof. Pearson has never read Newton’s “ Principia,” and has he forgotten that the complete title is “ Philosophiz Naturalis Principia Mathematica”? To insinuate that Newton’s laws of motion (which, it should never be forgot, are intimately associated with the Definttiones) are incomplete because they may not possibly apply to corpuscles other than those of “gross ” matter, to corpuscles of all imaginable types in short, implies a complete misapprehension of the whole purpose and scope of the “ Principia.” Again, our grammarian pounces upon the word “body,” or corpus, as used by Newton, who should at least have used particle or cor- puscle. In Definition I. will be found the meaning intended by Newton to be attached to the word corpus ; but in any case the whole phraseology of the first law is quite intelligible to the candid mind. Newton had a fine faith in his reader. He gave the Definitiones and Axiomata in a form that appealed at once to the common experiences of thoughtful minds ; and what more do we need ? Prof. Pearson characterizes the second law as a “veritable metaphysical somersault. How the imper- ceptible cause of change in motion can be applied ina straight line surpasses comprehension, &c.” This may be smart, but is it relevant? Where does Newton define Vis Motrix as the “imperceptible cause of change in motion ” ? We have not space to enter upon a discussion of the five laws of motion suggested by Sir Thomas Gresham’s Professor of Geometry as a true non- metaphysical basis for all science. They are good enough in their way; but they seem to lack that direct reference to ordinary facts of experience which is a desideratum of all physical axioms. They begin with a dance of molecules and end with a measure of force Their ostensible merits are their logical form and their comprehensiveness—ether corpuscles as well as matter corpuscles being nominally included. Yet we have to confess our inability to see that these laws of motion can effect more than Newton’s. Dynamics, in all its branches, still is Newtonian. In its discussion of the meaning of scientific law, in its presentation of kinematic principles, and in its treatment of certain present-day speculations as to the constitu- tion of matter and of ether, Prof. Pearson’s book is at once interesting and instructive. There is much in it fitted to arrest the materialistic tendency of many who are devotees of science to the exclusion of all other intellectual activities. Yet its own conclusions are as materialistic as they well can be. The automaton theory of the human will, and the spontaneous generation of life, are articles of its creed. In the second last chapter we are treated to a choice collection of charming dogmatisms. author’s “unwavering belief” that the hitherto un- discovered formule which are to make history a science Perhaps the most charming of all is the - ao eS ee JUNE 2, 1892] NATURE 99 ‘can hardly be other than those which so effectually _ describe the relations of organic to organic and of organic _ to inorganic phenomena in the earlier phases of their _ development.” A curious assertion, surely, for one to _ make who objects to Newton’s laws of motion because _ they don’t include imaginable but still unknown types _ ofcorpuscular motion. The particular value, however, _ of this confession of faith is that it enables the confessor _ to convict of scientific heresy Prof. Robertson Smith _ and all others who cannot regard it as other than an as- _ sumption. To believe as Prof. Pearson believes is to __ believe scientifically ; all other belief is rotten. As the _ auld licht ” dame said when telling over the number of the elect, “ Ay, there’s jist me and John; and whiles I’m no that sure o’ John.” Cee | THE TEACHING OF THE PRINCIPLES OF sal CHEMISTRY. | Laboratory Practice: A Series of Experiments on the Fundamental Principles of Chemistry. A Companion : “Volume to “The New Chemistry.” By Josiah Parsons _. Cooke, LL.D., Erving Professor, and Director of the Chemical Laboratory, Harvard University. Pp. 192. i (London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co., THIS little book represents another attempt to teach 4 the theory of chemistry upon the basis of a narrowly ed experience of facts and phenomena. Whether e possible is a question debatable, and still, in fact, _ debated among teachers. That it is possible to make the study of chemistry by young people, as a form of in- = ual exercise, more useful than has usually been the there can be no doubt, and that much instruction d be got out of a course such as this which is in- sated in Prof. Cooke's little work is certain. The yok appears to be intended as a guide for the teacher as much as for the pupil, and much would depend upon the qualifications of the former for the work of demon- stration and exposition. It contains directions for the ce of a system of experiments; and to do justice to the system the teacher ought carefully to study instructions given in the introduction, and to act upon m. And to those who know anything of the manner which chemistry is too often taught in the schools of this country, either by the visiting “science teacher,” who knows little, or by the mathematical master, who y knows nothing at all about the subject, such remarks as the following, taken from the introduction, ‘will seem particularly welcome and appropriate. _ The author says : ____‘* Experiments are only of value as parts of a course of instruction logically followed out from beginning to end. In such a course there must be necessarily a great deal to be filled out by the teacher, and this can vastly better be taught from his lips, with such illustrations as ab _ he can command, than from any books.” And again, “The best apparatus will be of no use unless the teacher stands before it and speaks to his pupils out of the fulness of his own knowledge. This is an essential NO. 1179, VOL. 46] condition of success, and without it the experimental method should never be attempted.” But after these things have all been duly noted and acted upon, a glance at the table of contents is apt to raise a doubt whether after all the erection of so large a superstructure is justifiable or practicable upon founda- tions so slender. The book begins at p. 13, and thence to p. 52, with the exception of three or four pages about water, the whole is devoted to the physical properties of liquids and solids represented by water and air. Then we come to oxygen, hydrogen, sulphur and its oxides, chlorine, carbon and the oxides of carbon, ethylene, nitrogen, nitric acid, ammonia, magnesium, zinc, sodium, copper, and iron, all of which are included in the fifty pages following. Then comes a chapter on general prin- ciples, a third on molecules and atoms, followed by chapters on symbols and nomenclature, molecular struc- ture, and thermal relations. This is not the first book which has appeared with similar objects. In this country there have been Prof. Ramsay’s little book on “ Chemical Theory,” Muir and Carnegie’s ‘‘ Practical Chemistry,” Shenstone’s “ Practical Introduction to Chemistry,” and probably others, which seem to aim at dealing with chemistry in the same kind of way, which is intended to be a way of pleasantness and a short cut to rather exalted territory. The road, however, is bordered by precipices unseen by the young traveller. The advocates of this kind of system, which consists in passing from one or two rough experiments, or obser- vations, direct to great generalizations, anticipate great things from its general adoption. All the rising generation who come under its influence are to possess greatly de- veloped powers of observation and reasoning. Some of those who have been accustomed to old-fashioned ways of getting a good grip of facts, and some stock of ex- perience before proceeding to difficult investigation, are not convinced, and are inclined to doubt whether school boys and girls can be made to reason out for themselves problems which have cost for their elucidation the work of generations of men. And the logic of the process is often more than questionable. Here is an example (p. 110). The law of the conservation of mass is supposed to be established by a single experiment, which consists in burning a bit of phosphorus in a jar, and showing that there is no loss of weight. “Hence it must be that, Zhe sum of the weights of the products of a chemical change ts exactly equal to the sum of the weights of the factors. We may conceive of any chemical process as taking place in an hermetically sealed space—indeed the earth is essentially such a space —and hence this law must be universally true.” Here the process of induction is reduced to collecting a single instance, which is itself imperfect. Surely this is not to stand as an example of the methods of physical science, One would not wish to be hard upon Prof. Cooke’s little book, but with many meritorious features it does not seem to represent a great improvement upon the books referred to above. The naive statement at the end of the introduction, that the directions can in many cases be improved, cannot be held to excuse the rough and IOO slipshod character of some of the forms of experiment recommended. The book will supply suggestions which will be found useful by some teachers, but the reference to apparatus unfamiliar on this side the Atlantic may be a slight bar to its adoption here. W. A. T. OUR BOOK SHELF. Elementary Geography of the British Colonies. By George M. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., and Alexander Sutherland, M.A. With Illustrations. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1892.) THIS volume forms one of the well-known geographical series edited by Sir Archibald Geikie. The part of it for which Dr. Dawson is responsible is that which deals with the British possessions in North America, the West Indies, and the southern part of the South Atlantic Ocean. Mr. Sutherland describes the British colonies, depen- dencies, and protectorates in the northern part of the South Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Africa, Asia (ex- clusive of India and Ceylon, which are described in a separate volume of the series, by Mr. H. F. Blanford), Australasia, and Oceania. Both writers have enlightened ideas as to the needs of those for whom such books are prepared. They have carefully avoided the bringing to- gether of masses of uninteresting detail, their chief object being to convey a good general idea of the physical features and resources of the British colonies, and of the various ways in which these have affected the distribution of the population and the growth of industry and com- merce. The facts are presented simply and clearly, and every page contains statements which an _ intelligent teacher would have no difficulty in using as texts for ple:sant and profitable instruction. Most of the illus- tra ions are from photographs, but there are also several very effective engravings from original drawings by Mr. Pritchett. Farmyard Manure. By C. M. Aikman, M.A., B.Sc. (Edinburgh and London : Blackwood, 1892.) WE are told in the preface that this little work is in sub- stance a chapter from a larger work on “ Soils and Manures,” on which the author is at present engaged. Perhaps we may be excused if we fail to see the necessity of publishing this chapter separately in advance. It cer- tainly contains much information from German works, such as Heiden’s “ Diingerlehre,” but the book is written mainly from the chemist’s point of view and not from the farmer’s. The pamphlet gives one the impression of having been hurriedly prepared, but no doubt its defi- ciencies will be remedied in the larger book. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. (Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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. ] Peripatus from St. Vincent. SoME of the readers of NATURE will doubtless be interested to learn that, while collecting in St. Vincent on behalf of the Committee appointed for the investigation of the fauna and flora of the Lesser Antilles, Mr. H. H. Smith obtained five examples of the genus Peripatus. The importance of the discovery, or rather rediscovery, of this Arthropod in St. Vincent rests upon the fact that the Rev. L. Guilding procured the first recorded examples of the genus in this same island. A description of these, under the name ju/i- JSormis, was published by this naturalist in 1826, in vol. ii. of the’ NO. IT79, VOL. 46] NATURE (JUNE 2, 1892 Zoological Journal, But from that time until now, a period of 66 years, no additional specimens have been brought to light in this locality ; and since Guilding’s types have been lost sight of, and his description of them is wanting in detail, the identity of juliformis has been involved in considerable obscurity. There can, however, be little if any doubt that the examples collected by Mr. H. H. Smith are specifically identical with those that Guilding described. Nevertheless this assumption receives more support from identity of locality than from the agreement that obtains between the description of jz/zformzs and the speci- mens before me. The largest of these measures 43 mm, in Jength and 6'5 in width ; the smallest, on the contrary, is only 13 mm. long. One example has 34 pairs of legs, two of them 33, one 30, and one 29. The colour of the lower surface may de de- scribed as fawn; that of the dorsal side varies from fawn to blackish grey. Those who are familiar with Mr. Smith’s qualifications as a collector need hardly be told that the specimens are on the whole in a satisfactory state of preservation. I consequently hope to be able to prepare a detailed description of the species, to be incorporated in the report upon the Myriopoda of the Lesser Antilles, the identification of the species of this group, together with that of the Scorpions, Pedipalpi, and fresh-water Decapoda, having been kindly intrusted to my care by the members of the Exploration Committee. R. I. Pocock. Natural History Museum, May 27. The Line Spectra of the Elements. I QUITE agree with Prof. Stoney that Fourier’s theorem can be applied to motions which approximate to non-periodic motions in any assigned degree, and for any assigned time. And so the co-ordinates of any arbitrary motion may approxi- mately in any assigned degree and for any assigned time be represented by formulas of this kind :— a+a, sin (7H +a +0, sin (“+e )+ dike +a,sin( + an) > 4 where 72, 7%», ... My are positive integers, and 7 must be chosen sufficiently large to suit the length of the assigned time. This is not the point in Prof. Stoney’s reasoning to which I object. What I want to say is this: Ifthe motion is not periodical, the periods of the circular functions, as well as the amplitudes and phases, are not necessarily definite. That is to say, if we choose a larger value of 7, to get a closer approximation for a longer time, the values of a, ””, a do not necessarily approach definite values, but may become totally different. Take, for instance, the equation— taneaneed (Narr oe « goviat « 3¢ ] #=> 27] sin-.- sin —~+ 38SM——- ... |, [ 7 ' J : J : which holds good for all values of ¢ between —j/ and +7. Prof. Stoney may say that Fourier’s theorem can be applied to the function z. So it can, certainly, if an interval is assigned. But the amplitudes and periods of the single terms are not inde- pendent of the length of the interval, and do not approach definite values when the interval increases indefinitely. The time during which the approximation is to hold good need not be indefinitely long. But the time must be long in comparison with the longest of the periods. Motions of the ether that are represented by such functions wiil be resolved by a diffraction grating into different rays, but others will not. Prof. Stoney has not noticed that a distinct property of the func- tion is wanted in order to get a proper resolution into a sum of circular functions. His reasonings in chapter iv. of his memoir on the cause of double lines, &c. (Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society, 1891), refer to all functions with or without this property, and therefore do not seem to me to be correct. But I admit that my expression in the passage quoted by Prof. Stoney might have been clearer. C. RUNGE. Techn. Hochschule, Hannover, May 19. Maxwell’s Law of Distribution of Energy. IN the current number of the Philosophical Magazine, Lord . Kelvin describes a dynamical system in which when in stationary Bere eee) cena _ June 2, 1892] NATURE Iol ' motion Maxwell's law of distribution of energy would fail, assuming that law to consist in the ultimate equality of the energy of different parts of the system. He has thus shown the __mecessity for more accurate language than is commonly employed in the enunciation of that law, and a consideration of his probs lem may help to determine the limits to which it is subject. _ The following statement, whether co-extensive with Maxwell’s or not, will probably be accepted as true as far as it goes— there exist a very great number of material systems, the state eg being defined by certain co-ordinates and momenta, and _ if at a given instant all combinations of the co-ordinates and smenta are represented among them with frequency propor- nal to e-x+T), then that distribution will be permanent— at is, will not be disturted by the mutual action of the stems, or by any forces in the field of which they are placed, ovided all the forces concerned be conservative. _ The further question as to how far the solution thus found for the permanent state is unique, has been treated by Bolltz- mann. He shows that a certain function, which in stationary motion must be positive and constant, necessarily diminishes with the time, so long as any small deviations exist from the above described state. It is obvious that this proposition of Bolizmann’s cannot be applicable to all cases of stationary motion. riodic motions are exceptions, and so is the system described _ by Lord Kelvin. The question is what assumptions underlie Be inn’s demonstration. It will be of great advantage if one speaking with Lord Kelvin’s authority will assist in defining > limits to which the proposition is subject. laxwell, although he may at times have expressed himself _ incautiously, was aware that the theory was subject to limita- tions. The statistical, as distinguished from the historical, method was from his point of view of the essence of the theory. A distinction may be drawn between systems, such as Lord _ Kelvin’s, to which the statistical method is inapplicable, and _ those in which the stationary motion, when attained, is what is called thermal motion—that is, the relative motions are in all ons indifferently, and of that irregular character in which sed to consist. be that we shall be driven to the conclusion that yell’s law has no application except to this class of systems ; itis, in fact, only the limiting state to which-a material stem approaches as we increase indefinitely the number of degrees of freedom. fails, its failure is due to the introduction of some restrictions on freedom of motion, especially as regards direction. Maxwell pointed out that demons—or, shall we say, beings endowed with ree will—might by directing the courses of individual mole- ena a system to violate, not only the law of distribution _ of energy, but even the second law of thermodynamics. What these beings might be suppo:ed to do, that Lord Kelvin in fact does once for all for his system, by prescribing @ frior¢ the _ directions of motion and other conditions of the problem to suit his purpose H. W. Watson. z . S. H. BurBury. J The Former Connection of Southern Continents. _ WITH reference to the very interesting question treatec in Mr. Mellard Reade’s letter of your issue of May 26 (p. 77), as to the former connection of southern continents, it may be worth while calling attention to the fact that a great circle, which I may call se Kaffraria Great Circle, connects that coast line with the Falkland Island and the South Georgia Island. It may be pre- _ sumed that these two islands are the remaining summits of what "was once a chain of mountains in connection with the continent of South America. Some of the points through which or near which this great circle passes are as follow — the above- mentioned islands, Port de Sta. Cruz, Patagonia; it traverses _the Pacific, runs parallel to the southern branch of the Aleutian Islands, and cuts Kamtchatka somewhat south of Klienchewskaia Volcano, and traversing Asia emerges by the Island of Cutch, so interesting on account of the earthquakes which occurred _ there. It is of interest to note that South Georgia Island is __antipodal to the northern extremity of Saghalian Island. x ‘ . P. O'REILLY. Royal College of Science for Ireland, a Stephen’s Green, Dublin, May 30. NO. 1179, VOL. 46] bes, at all events, appear that in cases where the law. ON THE RELATIVE DENSITIES OF HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN. {a a preliminary notice upon this subject (Roy. Soc. Proc., vol, xlili. p. 356, February 1888), I explained the procedure by which | found as the ratio of den- sities 15°884. The hydrogen was prepared from zinc and sulphuric, or from zinc and hydrochloric, acid, and was liberated upon a platinum plate, the generator being in fact a Smee cell, inclosed in a vessel capable of sustain- ing a vacuum, and set in action by closing the electric circuit at an external contact. The hydrogen thus pre- pared was purified by corrosive sublimate and potash, and desiccated by passage through a long tube packed with phosphoric anhydride. The oxygen was from chlorate of potash, or from mixed chlorates of potash and soda. In a subsequent paper “ On the Composition of Water ” (Roy. Soc. Proc., vol. xlv. p. 425, February 1889), I attacked the problem by a direct synthesis of water from weighed quantities of the two component gases. The ratio of atomic weights thus obtained was 15°89. At the time when these researches were commenced, the latest work bearing upon the subject dated from 1845, and the number then accepted was 15°96. There was, however, nothing to show that the true ratio really deviated from the 16:1 of Prout’s law, and the main object of my work was to ascertain whether or not such deviation existed. About the year 1888, however, a revival of interest in this question manifested itself, especially in the United States, and several results of importance have been published. Thus, Prof. Cooke and Mr. T. W. Richards found a number which, when cor- rected for an error of weighing that had at first been overlooked, became 15°869, ' The substantial agreement of this number with those obtained by myself, seemed at first to settle the question, but almost immediately afterwards there appeared an. account of a research by Mr. Keiser, who used a method presenting some excellent features, and whose result was as high as 15°949. The discrepancy has not been fully explained, but subsequent numbers agree more nearly with the lower value. Thus, Noyes obtains 15°896, and Dittmar and Henderson give 15°866. I had intended further to elaborate and extend my observations on the synthesis of water from weighed quantities of oxygen and hydrogen, but the publication of Prof. Morley’s masterly researches upon the Volumetric Composition of Water” (Amer. Fourn. Sct., March 1891) led me to the conclusion that the best contribution that I could now make to the subject would be by the further determination of the relative densities of the two gases. The combination of this with the number 2’0002,? obtained by Morley as the mean of astonishingly concordant individual experiments, would give a better result for the atomic weights than any I could hope to obtain directly. In the present work two objects have been especially kept in view. The first is simplicity upon the chemical side, and the second the use of materials in such a form that the elimination of impurities goes forward in the normal working of the process. When, as in the former determinations, the hydrogen is made from zinc, any im- purity which that material may contain and communicate to the gas cannot be eliminated from the generator ; for each experiment brings into play a fresh quantity of zinc, ® “©On the Relative Densities of Hydrogen and Oxygen. II.’’ Abstract of a paper Lord Rayleigh, Sec.R.S., read at the Royal Society on February 18, 1892. Pre # It should not be overlo ked that this number is difficult to reconcile with views generally held as to the applicability of Avogadro’s law to very rare gases. From wnat we know of the behaviour of oxygen and hydrogen gases under compression, it seems improbable that volumes which are as 2 0002: rf under atmospheric conditions would remain as 2: 1 upon indefinite expansion. According to the formula of Van der Waals, a greater change than this in the ratio of volumes is to be expected. 102 NATURE [JUNE 2, 1892 with its accompanying contamination. Moreover, the supply of acid that can be included in one charge of the generator is inadequate, and good results are only ob- tained as the charge is becoming exhausted. These diffi- culties are avoided when zinc is discarded. The only material consumed during the experiments is then the water, of which a large quantity can be included from the first. On the other hand, the hydrogen liberated is necessarily contaminated with oxygen, and this must be removed by copper contained in a red-hot tube. In the experiments to be described the generator was charged with potash,! and the gases were liberated at platinum electrodes. In the case of a hydrogen filling, the oxygen blew off on one side from a mercury seal, and on the other the hydrogen was conveyed through hot tubes con- taining copper. The bulk of the aqueous vapour was de- posited in a small flask containing strong solution of potash, and the gas then passed over solid potash toa long tube packed with phosphoric anhydride. © Of this only a very short length showed signs of being affected at the close of all operations. With respect to impurities, other than oxygen and oxides of hydrogen, which may contaminate the gas, we have the following alternative. Either the impurity is evolved much more rapidly than in proportion to the consumption of water in the generator, or it is not. If the rate of evolution of the impurity, reckoned as a frac- tion of the quantity originally present, is not much more rapid than the correspondingly reckoned consumption of water, the presence of the impurity will be of little import- ance. If,on the other hand, as is probable, the rate of evolution is much more rapid than the consumption of water, the impurity is soon eliminated from the residue, and the gas subsequently generated becomes practically pure. A similar argument holds good if the source of the impurity be in the copper, or even in the phosphoric anhydride ; and it applies with increased force when at the close of one set of operations the generator is re- plenished by the mere addition of water. It is, however, here assumed that the apparatus itself is perfectly tight. Except for the reversal of the electric current, the action of the apparatus is almost the same whether oxy- gen or hydrogen is to be collected. In the latter case the copper in the hot tubes is in the reduced, and in the former case in the oxidized, state. For the sake of dis- tinctness we will suppose that the globe is to be filled with hydrogen. ; The generator itself is of the U-form, with unusually long branches, and it is supplied from Grove cells with about 3 amperes of electric current. Since on one side the oxygen blows off into the air, the pressure in the generator is always nearly atmospheric. Some trouble has been caused by leakage between the platinum elec- trodes and the glass. In the later experiments to be here recorded these joints were drowned with mercury. On leaving the generator the hydrogen traverses a red-hot tube of hard glass charged with copper,” then a flask con- taining a strong solution of potash, and afterwards a second similar hot tube. The additional tube was intro- duced with the idea that the action of the hot copper in promoting the union of the hydrogen with its oxygen contamination might be more complete after removal! of the greater part of the oxygen,{whether in the combined or in the uncombined state. From this point onward the gas was nearly dry. In the earlier experiments the junctions of the hard furnace tubes with the soft glass of the remainder of the apparatus were effected by fusion. One of these joints remained in use, but the others were replaced by india-rubber connexions drowned in * At the suggestion of Prof. Morley, the solution was freed from car- bonate or nearly so, by the use of baryta, of which it contained a slight excess. ° The copper must be free from sulphur; otherwise the contamination with sulphuretted hydrogen is hat persistent NO. 1179, VOL. 46] mercury. It is believed that no leakage occurred at these joints; but as an additional security a tap was. provided between the generator and the furnace, and was kept closed whenever there was no forward current of hydrogen. In this way the liquid in the generator would be protected from any possible infiltration of nitrogen. Any that might find its way into the furnace tubes could easily be removed before the commencement of a filling. Almost immediately upon leaving the furnace tubes the gas arrives at a tap which for distinctness may be called the regulator. In the generator and in the furnace tubes the pressure must be nearly atmospheric, but in the globe there is (at the commencement) a vacuum. ‘The transition from the one pressure to the other takes place at the regulator, which must be so adjusted that the flow through it is approximately equal to the production of gas. At first the manipulation of the regulator was a source of trouble, and required almost constant attention, but a very simple addition gave the desired control. This was merely a long wooden arm, attached to the plug,which served both as a lever and as an indicator. Underneath the pointed extremity was a small table to which its motions could be referred. During the first two-thirds of a filling very little readjustment was needed, and the apparatus could be left for half an hour with but little fear of displacing too much the liquid in the generator. Towards the close, as the motive force fell off, the tap required to be opened more widely. Some- times the recovery of level could be more conveniently effected by insertion of resistance into the electric circuit, or by interrupting it altogether for a few minutes. Into details of this kind it is hardly necessary to go further. From the regulator the gas passed to the desiccating tubes. The first of these was charged with fragments of solid potash, and the second with a long length of phosphoric anhydride. Finally, a tube stuffed with glass wool intercepted any suspended matter that might have been carried forward. 4 The connection of the globe with the generator, with the Téppler, and with the blow-off, is shown in the accompanying figure. On the morning of a projected oe TO GENERATOR. <——_— 70 PUMP. BLOow } OFF. filling the vacuous globe would be connected with the free end of the stout-walled india-rubber tube, and secured by winding wire. The generator being cut off, a high vacuum would be made up to the tap of the globe. _ June 2, 1892] NATURE 103 After a couple of hours’ standing the leakage through the Gndia-rubber and at the joints could be measured. The amount of the leakage found in the first two hours was ___ usually negligible, considered as an addition to a globe- ful of hydrogen, and the leakage that would occur in the hours following would (in the absence of accidents) be ‘still smaller. If the test were satisfactory, the filling would proceed as follows :— The electric current through the generator being _ established, and the furnace being heated, any oxygen that might have percolated into the drying tubes had first to be washed out. In order to do this more _ effectively, a moderate vacuum (of pressure equal to about inch of mercury) was maintained in the tubes and up to the regulator by the action of the pump. In this way the current of gas is made very rapid, and the half-hour allowed must have been more than sufficient for the pur- ' The generator was then temporarily cut off, and a high vacuum produced in the globe connection and in the blow-off tube, which, being out of the main current of gas, might be supposed to harbour impurities. After this the imp would be cut off, the connection with the generator re-established, and, finally, the tap of the globe cautiously _ The operation of filling usually occupied from two to three hours. When the gas began to blow off under an excess of pressure represented by about half an inch of _ mercury, the blow-off cistern was lowered so as to leave the extremity of the tube free. For two minutes the '_ current of gas from the generator was allowed to flow a , after which the generator was cut off, and the globe left in simple communication with the atmosphere, __untilit was supposed that equilibrium of pressure had been __ sufficiently established. Doubts have at various times n felt as to the interval required for this purpose. If too 4 time is allowed,there will remain an excess of pressure in the globe, and the calculated weight of the filling will come out too high. On the other hand, an undue pro- __ longation ofthe time might lead to a diffusion of air back into the globe. In a special experiment no abnormal bis: —— detected after half an hour’s communication, so that the danger on this side appeared to be small. When the passages through the taps were free from grease, one or two minutes sufficed for the establishment & equilibrium, but there was always a possibility of a © endegn obstruction. In the results to be presently given, ee minutes were allowed after the separation from the generator. It may be remarked that a part of any _ minute error that may arise from this source will be eliminated in the comparison with oxygen, which was collected under like conditions. The reading of the barometers and thermometers at _ the moment when the tap of the globe was turned off _ took place as described in the former paper. The __ arrangements for the weighings were also the same. ____In the evacuations the process was always continued until, as tested by the gauge of the Toppler after at least a quarter of an hour’s standing, the residue could be 4 neg F ed. Here, again, any minute error would be eliminated in the comparison of the two gases. __In the case of oxygen, the errors due to contamination (even with hydrogen) are very much diminished, and similar errors of weighing tell very much less upon the proportional agreement of the final numbers. A com- ee. n of the actual results with the two kinds of gas s not, however, show so great an advantage on the side of the oxygen as might have been expected. The __ inference appears to be that the individual results are somewhat largely affected by temperature errors. Two thermometers were, indeed, used (on opposite sides) __ within the wooden box by which the globe is surrounded, and they could easily be read to within ay° C. But in other respects, the circumstances were unfavourable, in consequence of the presence ia the same room of the fur- NO. 1179, VOL. 46] nace necessary to heat the copper. An error of + o°'1 C, in the temperature leads to a discrepancy of 1 part in 1500 in the final numbers. Some further elaboration of the screening arrangements actually employed would have been an improvement, but inasmuch as the circum- stances were precisely the same for the two gases, no systematic error can here arise. The thermometers were, of course, the same in the two cases. The experiments are grouped in five sets, two for oxygen and three for hydrogen. In each set the work was usually continued until the tap of the globe required re-greasing, or until, owing to a breakage or to some other accident, operations had to be suspended, The means are as follow :— HYDROGEN. of Weight. lee, F. PN soar 3 pe gram. ° ° gram. PE ediiitee:-s| O'1SS0S | 65 18 0°158056 September ...... O°15797 61 17 0°157950 October ......... o0'15804 | 53 12 0°158040 Mean ...... 60 16 o*158015 OXYGEN. xtor. Weiett leapt e.jmap ec.) we grams. ° °} grams. PEMD cedanpsasens- 2°51785 68 20 2°51735 November ...... 2°51720 55 13 2°51713 Mean ...... | 61h | 16h | 2°51724 The means here exhibited give the weights of the two gases as they would be found with the globe at 12° C., and the barometers at 60° F. and at 30 inches. The close agreement of the mean temperatures for the two gases shows how little room there is for systematic error dependent upon imperfections in the barometers and thermometers. But the results still require modification before they can be compared with the view of deducing the relative densities of the gases. In the first place, there is a systematic, though minute, difference in the pressures hitherto considered as corre- sponding. The terminal of the blow-off tube is 33 inches below the centre of the globe at the time of filling. In the one case this is occupied by hydrogen, and in the other by oxygen. If we treat the latter as the standard, we must regard the hydrogen fillings as taking place under an excess of pressure equal to }¥ of the weight of a column of oxygen 33 inches high; and this must be compared with 30 inches of mercury. Hence, if we take the sp. gr. of oxygen under atmospheric conditions at o'0014, and that of mercury at 13'6, the excess of pressure under which the hydrogen was collected is as a fraction of the whole pressure _ 15 _ O'0014 30 16 136 and 0000106 X 0°158 = 0000017. This, then, is what we must subtract from the weight of the hydrogen on account of the difference of pressures due to the gas in the blow- off tube. Thus H = 0'157998, O = 2°51724. But there is still another and a more important cor- rection to be introduced. In my former paper it was shown that when the weighings are conducted in air the true weight of the gas contained in the globe is not given = 0000106 ; 104 NATURE [JUNE 2, 1892 by merely subtracting the weight of the globe when empty from the weight when full. When the globe is empty, its external volume is less than when full, and thus, in order to obtain the true weight, the apparent weight of the gas must be increased by the weight of air ae volume is equal to the change of volume of the globe. In order to determine the amount of this change of volume, the globe is filled to the neck with recently boiled distilled water, and the effect is observed upon the level in the stem due to a suction of, say, 20 inches of mercury. It is not advisable to carry the exhaustion much further, for fear of approaching too nearly the point at which bubbles of vapour may be formed internally. In the earlier experiments, described in the preliminary note, the upper surface of the liquid was in the stem of the globe itself (below the tap), and the only difficulty lay in the accurate estimation of a change of volume occur- ring in a wide and somewhat irregular tube. The method “employed was to produce, by introduction of a weighed quantity of mercury, a rise of level equal to that caused by the suction. The advantage of this procedure lay in the avoidance of joints and of the tap itself, but, for the reasons given, the readings were not quite so accurate as might be desired. I wished, therefore, to supplement, if possible, the former determination by one in which the change of volume occurred in a tube narrower and of better shape. With this object in view, the stem of the globe was prolonged by a graduated tubular pipette attached with the aid of india-rubber. The tubes themselves were treated with gutta-percha cement, and brought almost into contact. It had hardly been expected that the joint would prove unyielding under the applied suction, but it was considered that the amount of the yielding could be estimated and allowed for by operations conducted with tap closed. The event, however, proved that the yielding at the joint was scarcely, if at all, perceptible. The pipette, of bore such that 16 cm. corresponded to I C.C., was graduated to o’o1, and was read by estimation to O’ooI c.c. In order the better to eliminate the changes due to temperature, readings under atmospheric pressure, |. and under a suction of 20 inches of mercury, were alter- nated. On January 28, 1892, a first set gave 0648 — " 0°300 = 0'348 ; a second gaveo’6645—0'316 = 0°3485 ; and a third gave 0°675 — 0°326 — 0°349, Similar operations with tap closed ! gave no visible movement. The result of the day’s experiments was thus 0°3485 for 20 inches, or 0°523 for 30 inches, suction. Similar experiments on January 28, at a different part of the graduation, gave 0°526. On this day the yielding with tap closed was just visible, and was estimated at o’ooI. As a mean result, we may adopt 0°524.c.c. The gradua- tion of the pipette was subsequently verified by weighing a thread of mercury that occupied a measured length. A part of the above-measured volume is due to the ex- pansion of the water when the pressure is relieved. We may take'this at 0'000047 of the volume per atmosphere. The volume itself may be derived with sufficient accuracy for the present purpose from the weight of its oxygen contents. It is 2°517/0°00137, or 1837 c.c. The expan- sion of the water per atmosphere is thus 0'000047 X 1837, or 0087 c.c. This is to be subtracted from 07524, and leaves 0.437 c.c, This number applies strictly to the volume inclosed within the glass, but the change in the externa! volume of the globe will be almost the same. The correction now under consideration is thus the weight of 0°437 c.c. of air at the average temperature of the balance room. The density of this air may be esti- mated at o’00122; so that the weight of 0°437 c.c. is 0°000533 gram. This is the quantity which must be : added to the apparent weights of the gases. The former * For greater security the tap was turned while the interior was under suction. NO. 1179, VOL. 46] estimate was 0°00056 gram. The finally corrected weights are thus— H = 0'158531, O = 2°51777; and for the ratio of densities we have 15'882, This corresponds to a mean atmospheric condition of pressure and temperature. If we combine the above ratio of densities with Prof. Morley’s ratio of volumes, viz. 2°0002 : 1, we get, as the ratio of atomic weights, 15'880, If we refer tothe table, we see that the agreement of the first and third series of hydrogen weighings is very good, but that the mean from the second series is de- cidedly lighter. This may have been in part fortuitous, but it is scarcely probable that it was so altogether. Under the circumstances we can hardly reckon the accuracy of the final results as closer than 3000° The accompanying table of results, found by various experimenters, may be useful for comparison :— | Name. Date fond Densities. Dumas 1842 15°96 _ Regnault 1845 — 15°96 Rayleigh... i 1888 _ 15884 Cooke and Richards 1888 15 °869 — Keiser ous ise 1888 15°949 — Rayleigh 1889 15°89 _ oyes 1890 15°896 | — Dittmar 1890 15°866 — Morley 1891 15°879 _ Leduc 1891 — 15905 Rayleigh 1892 — 15°882 THE ORIGIN OF THE YEAR: Il. ° Difficulties. rp HERE no doubt was a time when the Egyptian astro- nomer- priests imagined that, by the introduction of the 365-days year, beginning at the solstice or the nearly contemporaneous Nile flood (there is an interval of three days between them in the present Coptic calendar 2), and by marking the commencement, in addition, by the heliacal rising of one of the host of heaven, they had achieved finality. But alas! the dream must soon have vanished. Even with this period of 365 days, the true length of the year had not been reached ; and soon, whether by observations of the beginning of the inundation, or by observations of the solstice in some of the solar temples which, beyond all doubt, were then in existence, it was found that there was a difference of a day every four years between the beginning of the natural and of the newly-established year, arising, of course, from the fact that the true year is 365 days and a guarter of a day (roughly) in length. The true year and this established year of 365 days, then, behaved to each other as follows. Let us take a year when the solstice, representing the beginning of the 2 Thea in patie ep aor both by Brugsch and De Rougé) is, doubtless, a survival from old Egyptian times It is goo! for the neigh- bourhoxd of Cairo, and the relation of the important days of the inundation to the solstice, in that part of the river, is as follows :— Night of the drop ... tr Payni i rats «. Summer solstice. Beginning of the inundation ... 18.4.5, Fs 3 days after. Assembly at the Nilometer nes a ose = oa Proclamation of the inundation ... 6.84, 0 Tee bs Marriage ofthe Nile ... .. ws 18 Mesori .. 63 ay The Nile ceases to rise... 16 Thoth .«. 96 a Opening of the dams w. .. os £7, a eas: ys End of the greater inundation ... 7 Phaophi ... 117 by Mi 3 / _ shortened length of the year. not alter the year. We can surmise why this was. gave great power to the priests ; they alone could tell on JUNE 2, 1892] NATURE 105 true year, occurred on the 1st Thoth of the established year. We should have, in the subsequent years, the state of things described in the diagram. The solstice ee ed ee GS el ee ee ee | Fic. 2.—Showing the relation between the recurrences of the solstices } and the rst of Thoth. ees veer by year occur /a¢er in relation to the 1st of 1. The ist of Thoth would occur ear/ier, in relation to the solstice ; so that in relation to the established year the solstice would sweep forwards among the days; in relation to the true year the 1st of Thoth would sweep backwards. ‘Let us call the true natural year a fired year: it is obvious that, the months of the 365-day year would be 1 y varying their place in relation to those of the xed year. Let us, therefore, call the 365-day year a iM: year. _Now if the fixed year were exactly 365} days long, it is quite clear that, still to consider the above diagram, the Ist of Thoth would again coincide with the solstice in since in 4 years the solstice would fall. on the the time of Hipparchus 365°25 did not really represent be only get a second coincidence of the ist of 10th vague with the solstice in a /onger period than the 1460-years cycle ; and, as a matter of fact, 1506 years are required to fit the months into the years with this slightly In the case of the solstice and the vague year, then, we have a cycle of 1506 years. _The variations between the fixed and vague years were known perhaps for many centuries to the priests alone. They would not allow the established year of 365 days, since called the vagwe year, to be altered ; and so strongly did they feel on this point that, as already stated, every king had to swear when he was crowned that he would It Sop setae day of what particular month the Nile would rise in each year, because they alone knew in what eae of the cycle they were; and in order to get that wledge they had simply to continue going every year into their Holy of Holies one day in the year as the _ priests did afterwards in Jerusalem, and watch the little - patch of bright sunlight coming into the sanctuary. That would tell them exactly the relation of the true solar sol- stice to their year; and the exact date of the inunda- tion of the Nile could be predicted by those who could determine observationally the solstice, but by no others, ~ But now suppose that instead of the solstice we take the heliacal rising of Sirius, and compare the successive risings at the solstice with the 1st of Thoth... But why, it will be asked, should there be any differ- ence in the length of the cycles depending upon successive coincidences of the 1st of Thoth with the solstice and the heliacal rising of Sirius? The reason is that stars change . their places, and the star to which they trusted to warn them of the beginning of a new year was, like all stars, subject to the effects brought about by the precession of the equinoxes. Not for long could it continue to rise heliacally either at the solstice or the Nile flood. Among the most important contributors to the astrono- mical side of this subject are M. Biot and Prof. Oppolzer. It is of the highest importance to bring together the NO. 1179, VOL. 46] fundamental points which have been made out by their calculations. We have determinate references to the heliacal rising of Sirius, to the 1st of Thoth, to the solstice, and to the rising of the Nile in connection with the Egyptian year; but, so far as I have been able to make out, we find nowhere at present any sharp reference to the importance of their correlation with the times of the tropical year at which these various phenomena took place. The question has been complicated by the use by chronologists of the Julian year in such calculations; so the Julian year and the use made of it by chronologists have to be borne in mind. Unfortunately, many side issues have in this way been raised. The heliacal rising of Sirius, of course—if in those days a true ¢ropical year was being dealt with—would have given us a more or less constant variation in the time of the rising over a long period, om account of its preces- sional movement; but M. Biot and others before him have pointed out that the variation in the time of the year at, which the heliacal rising took place, produced by that movement, was almost exactly equal to the error of the Julian year as compared with the true tropical or Gregorian one. Biot showed by his calculations, using the solar tables extant before those of Leverrier, that from 3200 B.C. to 200 B.C. in the Julian year of the chronologists, Sirius had constantly, in each year, risen heliacally on July 20 Julian = June 20 Gregorian. Oppolzer, more recently, using Leverrier’s tables, has made a very slight correction to this, which, however, is practically imma- terial for the purposes of a general statement. He shows that in the latitude of Memphis, in 1600 B.c., the heliacal rising took place on July 18°6, while in the year 0 it took place on July 19°7, both Julian dates. The variation from the true tropical year brought about by the précessional movement of Sirius or any other star, however, can be watched by noting its heliacal rising in relation to any physical phenomenon which marks the true length of the tropical year. Such a phenomenon we have in the rising of the Nile, which, during the whole course of historical time, has been found to rise and fall with ab- solute constancy in each year, the initial rise of the waters, some little way above Memphis, taking place very nearly at the summer solstice. Again, M. Biot has made a series of calculations from which we learn that the heliacal rising of Sirius AT THE SOLSTICE occurred on July 20 (Julian) in the year 3285 B.C., and that in the year 275 B.C. the so/s¢zce occurred on June 27 (Julian), while the heliacal rising of Sirius took place, as before, on July 20 (Julian), so that in Ptolemaic times, at Memphis, there was a difference of time of about 24 days between the heliacal rising of Sirius and the solstice, and therefore the beginning of the Nile flood in that part of the river. This, among other things, is shown in ig. 3. We learn from the work of Biot and Oppolzer then that the precessional movement of the star caused successive heliacal risings of Sirius at the solstice to be separated by almost exactly 365} days—that is, by a greater period than the length of the true year. So that, in relation to this star, two successive heliacal risings at the rst of Thoth vague are represented by a period of (3633 X 4=) 1461 years, while in the case of the solstices we want 1506. Now in books on Egyptology the period of 1461 years is termed the Sothic period, and truly so, as it very nearly correctly measures the period elapsing between two heliacal risings at the solstice (or the beginning of the Nile flood) on the 1st of Thoth in the vagwe year. But it is merely the result of chance that 355; x 4 re- presents it. It has been stated that this period had not any ancient existence, but was calculated back in later times. This seems to me very improbable. I look upon it rather as a true result of observation, the more so as the period was shortened 2” dater times, as Oppolzer has shown. 106 NATURE ‘JUNE 2, 1892 It will be seen that our investigations land us in several astronomical questions of the greatest interest, and that the study is one in which modern computations, with the great accuracy which the work of Leverrier and OPPOLZER}—- -Biot| -LOCKYER ey | ~~! May 16 JUNE 15} a . att 20> . +264 May|-3t}——-30) June—5- ei S; | en Sea Go ES Pea We Fic. 3.—The conditions of the heliacal rising of Sirius fr>»m 4000 B.c. “and Julian dates for the rising at Thebes and at Memphis. tion in each century, at a point of the river near Memphis. beginning of the flood differs by three days rom the Memphis dates. (3 ) The interval in days between the heliacal rising and the inundation at different periods and at different This can be determined for each century by noticing the interval between the proper diagonal line and that indicating the (4) By dots at the top of the diagram the commencement ‘of the Sothic period as determined by Oppolzer, Biot, and the author. of the flood riv er. in the arrival points on the heliacal rising. others give to them, can come to the rescue, and eke out | the scantiness of the ancient records. To consider the subject further, we must pass from the mere question of the year to that of chronology generally, | to 600 A.D. (2) By the full diagonal line the Julian date of the solstice or beginning of the inunda- The fainter lines show the Julian dates for other places where the time of the tremendously involved state of the problem may be gathered from the fact that the authorities are not yet decided whether many of the dates really belong to a fixed or a vague year ! The diagram shows (1) by white horizontal lines, the Gregorian The interval between each line represents a difference of three days Let us, rather, put ourselves in the place of the old Egyptians, and inquire how, out of the materials they had at hand, a calendar could be constructed in the simplest way. Fic. 4.—The distribution of the rst of Thoth (representing the rising of Sirius) among the Egyptian months in the 1460-year Sothic cycle. but in doing so I shall limit myself to the more purely astronomical part. To go over the already vast literature is far from my intention, nor is it necessary to attempt to settle all the differences of opinion which exist, and which are so ably referred to by Krall in his masterly analysis, to which I own myself deeply indebted. The NO. 1179, VOL. 461 | To make what follows clearer, it will be well to con- | struct another diagram somewhat like the former one. Let us map out the 1460 years which elapsed between | two successive coincidences between the Ist of Thoth in | the vague year and the heliacal rising of Sirius at the | solstice, so that we can see at a glance the actual num- a ' JuNE 2, 1892] NATURE 107 _ ber of years from any start point (= 0) at which the rst _ of Thoth in the vague year occurred successively further _and further from the heliacal rising, until at length, after a period of 1460 years, it coincided again. As the Sirius-year is longer than the vague one, the first e year will be completed before the first Sirius-year, the second vague year will commence just before of the fixed year, and that is the reason that I versed the order of months in the diagram (Fig. 4). is clear that, if the Egyptians really worked in ion, any special day in the vague year given as of the heliacal rising of Sirius would enable us to ie the number of years which had elapsed from nning of the cycle. This will help us to deter- hether or not they acted on this principle, or used ely di t. In such an investigation as this, :are terribly hampered by the uncertainty of dates; while, as I have said before, there is gence of opinion among Egyptologists as to rom very early times, there was not a true fixed suppose that the vague year was in use, and ‘of Sirius started the year ; then, if we can pted date to work with, and use the diagram many years had elapsed between that date t-point of the cycle, we shall see if there be relation, and if we find it, it will be evidence, es, of the existence of a vague year. jpens that there are three references, with curiously enough, the month references are e. I begin with the most recent, as in this can be fixed with the greater certainty. It at Philz, described by Brugsch (p. 87), hen it was written, the 1st of Thoth = That is, according to the view we are the heliacal rising of Sirius occurred on the hi in the vague year. He fixes the date of on between 127 and 117 B.c._ Let us take #2. Next, referring to our diagram to find how ars had elapsed since the beginning of the have— Days. 5 Epacts. 30 Mesori. 2 Epiphi. 37 X 4 = 148 years elapsed. _ The cycle, then, began in (148 + 122 =) 270 B.C. _ We next find a much more ancient inscription record- ing the rising of Sirius on the 28th of Epiphi. Obviously, ‘if the Sothic cycle had anything to do with the matter, this must have happened 1458 years earlier, z.e. about ae + 122 =)15808.c. Underwhichking? Thotmes IIL, who reigned, according to Lepsius, 1603-1565 B.C. ; accor to Brugsch, 1625-1577. Now, the inscription in question is stated to have been inscribed by Thotmes __III., and, it may be added, on the temple (now destroyed) at Elephantiné. ___ There is yet another inscription, also known to be of a still earlier period, referring to the rising of Sirius on the 27th of Epiphi. We may neglect the difference of one day ; __and again, if the use of the Sothic cycle were the origin of _ the identity of dates, we have this time, according _ to Oppolzer, a period of 1460 years to add: this gives us (1584-+ 1460=) 3044 B.c. Again under which _ ki Here we are face to face with one of the difficul- _ ties of these inquiries. It may be stated, however, that _ the inscription is ascribed to Pepi, and that, according to various authorities, he reigned some time between 3000 and 3700 B.C. _ Wecome, then, to this: that one of the oldest dated _ inscriptions known seems to belong to a system which NO 1179, VOL. 46] agin , to the rising of Sirius in widely different continued in use at Philz up to about oo B.c., and it was essentially a system of a vague year. Now, assuming that the approximate date of the earliest inscription is 3044 B.C., and that it represented the heliacal rising of Sirius on the 27th of Epiphi ; the year 3044 must have been the [(5 + 30+ 3) X 4 =] 152nd after the beginning of the cycle. The cycle, then, must have commenced (3044 + 152 =) 3196 B.C. According to Biot’s calculation, the first heliacal rising of Sirius at the solstice took place in the year 3285 B.c., If we assume that the real date of Pepi, who, it is stated, reigned 100 years, included the year 3044 B.C., it may be that the inscriptions to which I have directed attention give us three Sothic cycles. beginning— 122 + 148 = 270 B.C. 1I5toO + 148 = 1728 B.C. 3044 + 148 = 3192 B.C. J. NORMAN LOCKYER, (To be continued.) NOTES. THE list of those on whom honorary degrees are to be con- ferred at Cambridge on the occasion of the installation of the Duke of Devonshire as Chancellor shows that culture, and especially scientific culture, goes for very little among the classes of distinction recognized by the University, Eminence in the political world and in society seems to be the claim chiefly recognized. SCIENCE was well represented at the annual dinner of the Incorporated Society of Authors on Tuesday. The chair was occupied by Prof. Michael Foster, and Sir Archibald Geikie was one of those who responded to the toast of ‘‘ Literature.” 7 Dr. A. F. BATALIN has been appointed Director of the Imperial Botanic Garden at St. Petersburg, in succession to the late Dr. E. Regel. THE ninety-seventh meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union will be held on Whit Monday, June 6. Some interesting notes on the physical geography and geology, botany, ento. mology, conchology, and vertebrate zoology of the district have been issued for the benefit of those who intend to be present. We are glad to see that members are expected to ‘do all in their power to discourage the uprooting of ferns and rare plants, or the too free collection of rarities of any kind.” THE Botanical Society of France has held its annual meeting at Algiers, commencing April 16, under the presidency of the Algerian botanist, M. Battandier. In addition to the reading of papers, excursions were made to Biskra, and other spots on the border of the Sahara. WE have received the programme of the ninth International Congress of Orientalists. It is to be held in London from Sep- tember 5 to 12, Prof. Max Miiller acting as President. The Duke of Connaught has accepted the office of Honorary Pre- sident. The following are the Vice-Presidents: the Marquis of Ripon, Lord Northbrook, Lord Reay, Major-Gen, Sir Henry Rawlinson, the Rt. Hon. Sir M. E. Grant Duff, Sir John Lubbock, Sir William Muir, Sir William W. Hunter, Sir George Bitdwood, Sir William Markby, Sir Edwin Arnold, the Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, the Master of Balliol College, Ox- ford, the Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge, H. S. King, and M. M. Bhownuggree. The Treasurer is Mr. E. Delmar Morgan. The Honorary Secretaries are: the Rev. C. D. Ginsburg, D.D., Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids, the Rev. E. W. Bullinger, D.D., Prof. A. A. Macdonell, M. M. Bhownuggree, the Raja Peari Mohan Mukharji (for Bengal), Prof. © Peterson (for Bombay). Many eminent foreign scholars and members of former Congresses have signified their ad- hesion, and several important Societies have undertaken to send delegates. The sections into which the work of the Con- 108 NATURE [JUNE 2, 1892 gress has been provisionally divided, are the following (the name of the President being in each case given first, that of the Secre- tary second) :—I. Aryan, Prof. Cowell, Prof. A. A. Macdonell ; II. Semitic (2) Assyrian and Babylonian, Prof. A. H. Sayce, T. G. Pinches, (4) General, Prof. Robertson Smith, A. A. Bevan ; III. China and the Far East, Sir Thomas Wade, (for China) Prof. Douglas, (for Japan) Prof. B. H. Chamberlain; IV. Egypt and Africa, Prof. Le Page Renouf, E. Budge; V. Australasia and Oceania, Sir Arthur Gordon, Rev. R. H. Codrington, D.D.; VI. Anthropological and Mythological, Dr. &. B, Tylor ; VII. Indian, Lord Reay, Prof. T. W. Rhys Davids ; VIII. Geographical, Sir M. E. Grant Duff, Halford J. Mackinder; IX. Archaic Greece and the East, the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone. THE Committee of the two International Congresses of Pre- historic Archeology and Zoology, which will be held at Moscow this summer in connection with the Geographical and Anthro- pological Exhibition, has announced, in accordance with a de- cision of the Russian Railway Department, that all members of the Congresses and exhibitors at the Exhibition may obtain tickets with a 50 per cent. reduction for travelling to Moscow and back. Exhibits may be sent and will be returned on the same terms. As there are at Moscou two different Societies, the Société des Naturalistes de Moscou and the Society of Friends of Natural Science (Odschesivo Lubitelet Estestvoznaniya), it may be worth while to note that it is the latter which is organizing the Exhibition and the two Congresses, and to which all applications for the Exhibition must be made. IT is stated that the Secretary of State for the Colonies has appointed Miss Doberck, formerly Government Meteorological Observer in Sligo, to be Assistant Meteorologist in Hong Kong. Miss Doberck’s father has for some years past been the head of the Meteorological Observatory in Hong Kong. LIEUTENANT-COLONEL Ho.LpIcH, of the Survey of India, will, itis said, personally superintend the mapping out of Captain Bower’s journey across Tibet. The work will be done in the Survey drawing offices at Simla, where Captain Bower is at pre- sent engaged in preparing the report of his journey. It is bad news for farmers that the diamond-back moth has made its appearance in Yorkshire and Northumberland, Specimens from both counties have been identified by Miss Ormerod. THE weather during the past week has been noteworthy for the occurrence of thunderstorms, copious rainfall at nearly all places, and excessive temperatures at most of the English stations. In London a severe thunderstorm was experienced on ‘Thursday morning, May 26 (succeeding one that occurred the previous evening), with a heavy downpour of rain varying from .0°7 inch to 1’o inch in different parts of the metropolis. At 8h. a.m. on Saturday the thermometer registered 76° in London, being the highest recorded at that hour this year. The type of wind has been cyclonic, with light or moderate south-westerly breezes generally. week ending May 28, shows that the rainfall was equal to the normal value in the south and east of England, and ex- ceeded it in all other districts; while in the northern parts, in Treland and in Scotland, the fall was about three times as much as the mean. On Sunday the temperature was considerably lower, but since then it has again become abnormally high, the - maxima in the shade registering 75° and upwards in places over the southern parts of the kingdom, 83° being registered in London on Tuesday ; and thunder-showers occurred in various places on that day. THE detailed despatches brought to Marseilles from Port Louis by the mail steamer Australien confirm all that was stated NO. 1179, VOL. 46] The Meteorological Office report for the, in the telegrams relating to the hurricane which devastated Mauritius on April 29. A Reuter’s telegram from Marseilles, giving a summary of the despatches, says that the total number of lives lost amounted to 1200, while the list of persons injured exceeded 4000. Strong magnetic disturbances were noticed on April 25, and continued with increasing intensity on the three following days. Several well-defined groups of sun-spots were also noticed at the same time. of the hurricane, there was a vivid display of lightning and a good deal of thunder, while the air grew peculiarly heavy. On the following morning the tempest broke over the island in all its fury, the velocity of the wind at times reach- ing 112 miles anhour. Thesea rose 9 feet above its usual level, a thing unknown since the terrible cyclone of 1818, when the water rose nearly four metres. In Port Louis itself houses fell to the ground in nearly every street. In the Tringlar quarter nota single house was left standing. In fact, thereis scarcely a house in the entire colony which does not show some signs of the fury of the storm. Half the sugar crop has been destroyed. An immense number of persons were over- whelmed and killed by the ruins of the falling houses, or were stricken down in the streets, as they fled, by the falling stones and wreckage. A VERY destructive cyclone passed over various towns in Kansas, on May 27. The storm gave no signs of its approach. Travelling in a north-easterly direction, it struck Wellington (a town containing a population of 10,000) at nine o’clock in the evening, when most people were indoors. Within a few seconds the central parts of the town coming within its track were devastated from end to end. Wellington Avenue, the principal business street, is lined on both sides with ruins, whole blocks of buildings having been shaken and overthrown as violently as if the place had been rocked by an earthquake. Numbers of victims were buried in the ruins, and of those who momentarily survived many were found struggling for their lives in order to escape from the flames which broke out in all directions in con- sequence of the sudden escape of gas. The towns of Harper and Argona were also visited by the cyclone. In the former town seven people were killed in the wreck of the buildings, and five at the latter. It is estimated that between twenty and thirty people lost their lives in the cyclone ; while seventy others have been more or less injured. ON Tuesday, May 3, a fall of hail mixed with foreign par- ticles was observed in Stockholm, and appears to have extended as far as Christiania. The fall of dust lasted from 1 to 8 p.m., and was abundant enough to allow of considerable quantities being collected. At a meeting of the Geologiska Férening in Stockholm, remarks were made by Baron Nordenskidld, and Messrs. N. Holst, E. Svedmark, and Térnebohm, from which it appears that the dust contained glassy, isotropic, and various anisotropic particles, hornblende, magnetite, minute scales of mica, metallic iron, and some diatoms. Tut Tiflis Kuvkaz gives the following description of a meteor of great brilliancy which was observed at Tiflis, on May io. It appeared at 11 p.m. in the west part of the sky, was of a round shape, and very brilliant. Three seconds after its appearance a part of it separated, moving towards the Mta- tsminda Mountain, and disappeared below the horizon, after lighting the slopes of the mountain, the central meteor continu- ing to move, but having lost for a few seconds its great bril- liancy, which, however, soon reappeared. In about 30 seconds after the first appearance of the meteor, a second small part separated from it, increasing in size as it approached the earth. This also disappeared in the west, behind the same mountain, after having brilliantly lighted for two or three seconds its slopes and gorges. After that, the meteor took first a milky colora- On the afternoon of the 28th, the eve - ~ agehie Jone 2, 1892] NATURE 109 " tion, but soon became bright again, and of phosphoric aspect. _ A third part separated from it, but it was much smaller and not %. so brilliant as the two former. Finally the meteor disappeared _ ‘tehind the clouds—a white, lighted blot being seen through _ them—and gradually fated away. The phenomenon lasted alto- _ gether about three minutes. WE learn from the Pioneer Mail that a smart shock of earth- quake was felt at Madras on May 6, about ten minutes to ten o'clock. - “The sound heard was at first like distant thunder, and afterwards like a railway train, running close by. The shock was © distinctly felt. The weather was cloudy and the atmosphere - eat the time. 4 “Tue Annuaire Géologique universel, founded by Dr. Dagin- F ets 1885, and continued under the editorship of Dr. L. _ Carez for geology, and of M. H. Douvillé for palaontology, has _ now reached its seventh volume. Each year the work has in- a creased in value, and it now affords an admirable résumé of ae geological literature. Hitherto each volume has been issued in _ acomplete form, but the latest has appeared in four parts. By — the: arrangement. adopted there is some repetition, but this enables information required to be readily obtained. There is “first a fairly complete list of papers and other publications, then a ‘systematic account of the various main chronological divisions of sy formations ; this is followed by a description of separate districts ; % and finally we have a summary of palzontological work. The 4 ical notes are not always complete in each volume, 4 sometimes two years are grouped in one yearly issue ; for instance, this volume contains no account of the Triassic and Tertiary pel whilst the Cretaceous works of 1890-91 are here included. me contains lists of geologists in France, Belgium, and tish | Isles ; next year we are promised lists for other # European countries. The editors are assisted by a large staff of workers in various countries. MEL Ricavx, of Boulogne-sur-Mer, who has devoted many -years to the study of the geology of the Bas Boulonnais, has published an excellent account of this region in the Mémoires de la Soc. Académ. de Boulogne (vol. xiv., 108 pp.). The _ istrict is of especial interest to English geologists because of the - fine development there of the Devonian and Carboniferous rocks, and of the Jurassic series from the Great Oolite upwards. The © al, formerly supposed to lie within the Carboniferous Limestone series, is now known to be true coal measures, over which the older rocks have been thrust. The paper gives an account of several important deep borings, in some of which Silurian rocks have been reached beneath the Jurassic series. Thirteen new species: of fossils are described. Durinc the past season, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the Govern- _ m_nt Agent of Education in Alaska, introduced into Alaska from Siberia sixteen reindeer. Next year he proposes to establish a her of reindeer in the neighbourhood of Fort Clarence, and he expects to begin with 100 animals. The Scientific American, _ which records these facts, is of opinion that from an economical point of view the experiment is of the highest interest, because _ the reindeer is useful as a draught animal for sledges, as well as for its milk, its meat, and its skin. As it flourishes in Siberia, : there seems to be no reason why it should not also flourish in - Alaska, where the conditions of climate and vegetation are very similar to those of Siberia. _ THE editors of the Entomological Munthly Magazine note that at the sale of the late Mr. Arthur Naish, of Bristol, at Stevens’s Rooms on May 16, some of the extinct (or nearly extinct) species of British Lepidoptera fetched high prices. ‘Seven examples of Zycena dispar (the long extinct British form of LZ. Hippothoé’) realized £16 8s., or an average of nearly 4275s. each. A lot containing four Polyommatus Acis (perhaps NO. 1179, VOL. 46]. extinct) was sold for 18s. Eight Lelia cenosa (apparently recently extinct) were sold for £3 175. 6¢. Two Cleora viduaria (not found very recently) were knocked down for a guinea. Seven Noctua subrosea (long extinct as British, and the conti- nental form of which, sudcerulea, is very different in appear- ance) obtained 46 12s., ome very fine example realizing £2 10s. Mr. C. W. DALE, writing from Glanvilles Wootton, records, in the June number of the Zxtomologist’s Monthly Magazine, that the effect of the weather upon insect life in Dorsetshire during April was remarkable. Butterflies were unusually plentiful, moths unusually scarce. The conclusion he draws is that easterly winds, with frosts at night, are injurious to moth life, but do not affect butterfly life, so long as there is plenty of blue sky and sunshine. These were the general meteorological con- ditions in Dorsetshire during April. Messrs. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND Co. have issued a new and revised elition (the third) of Mr. W. A. Shenstone’s “Practical Introduction to Chemistry.” It contains the - practical introductory course of work in use at Clifton College. In this edition the author has made several changes which have been sug sested by his own experience and that of various friends. THE forty-fourth part of Cassell’s ** New Popular Educator ” has been published. It includes two coloured maps, one of Asia Minor, the other of Palestine. CYANIDE of arsenic, As(CN);, has been prepared by M. Guenez, and is described by him in the current number of the Comptes Rendus. It has been obtained by the action of finely divided elementary arsenic upon iodide of cyanogen, CNI, a substance which is usually obtained crystallized in delicate, transparent needles, frequently attaining the length of several inches. About thirty grams of perfectly dry cyanogen iodide were placed in a strong Wurtz flask, together with seven grams of powdered arsenic and siaty to seventy cubic centimetres of carbon bisulphide previously dried over phosphoric anhydride. The air contained in the flask was then displaced by dry carbon dioxide and the flask sealed. The reaction was found to com- mence in the cold, crystals of tri-iodide of arsenic soon making their appearance. But, in order to complete the conversion of the iodide of cyanogen-into arsenic cyanide, it was found necessary to heat the flask for about twenty-four hours over a water-bath. The heating is best carried out in successive periods of seven or eight hours, allowing the flask to cool after each period and subjecting the contents to brisk agitation. Under these circumstances a quantitative yield of arseuic cyanide was obtained, in accordance with the following equation :— 2As + 3CNI = AslI, + As(CN),. In order to isolate the cyanide, advantage was taken of its insolubility in carbon bisulphide, arsenic iodide being readily soluble. The product of the reaction was therefore placed in a continuous extracting apparatus, in which it was thoroughly exhausted with pure carbon bisulphide. The residual cyanide was subsequently dried in a current of carbon dioxide, and pre- served in sealed tubes previously filled with the same indifferent gas. ; CYANIDE of arsenic obtained in the manner above in- dicated is a slightly yellow substance consisting of small crystals, which under the microscope are observed to be well formed, and to possess a deep yellow colour by transmitted light. The crystals are extremely deliquescent, being instantly decomposed by water with production of arsenious oxide and prussic acid : 2As(CN), + 3H,O = As,O, + 6HCN. When heated, arsenic cyanide evolves about a third of its cyanogen in the form of gaseous di-cyanogen, the residue con- Ilo NATURE [JuNE 2, 1892 sisting of a mixture of free arsenic and paracyanogen. When brought in contact with concentrated sulphuric acid and slightly warmed, mutual decomposition occurs, with liberation of sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide, the nitrogen remaining in the form of ammonium sulphate. Iodine reacts with arsenic cyanide in an energetic manner, even in the cold, forming iodides of arsenic and cyanogen without the volatilization of any iodine, With potassium chlorate, arsenic cyanide forms a mix- ture which detonates with considerable violence when struck. THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include two Black-backed Jackals (Canis mesomelas) from South Africa, presented by Master Logan; two North African Jackals (Canzs anthus), four —— Gerbilles (Gerdillus sp. inc.), an Egyptian Jerboa (Dipus egyptius), six Leith’s Tortoises (Zestudo leithiz), five Common Skinks (Sczncus officinalis), an Egyptian Eryx (Zryx jaculus), a Schneider’s Skink (Zumeces schneideri), two Crowned Snakes (Zamenis diadema), a Hissing Sand-Snake (Psammophis sibilans) from Egypt, presented by Dr. J. Anderson, F.R.S., F.Z.S.; a Cinerous Vulture (Vultur monachus) from Aden, presented by Mr. W. H. Still; a Common Peafowl (Pavo cristatus $)from India, presented by Colonel Bagot-Chester ; two African Love- Birds (Agafornis pullaria) from West Africa, presented by Lady McKenna; a Chinese Goose ( Amser cygnoides $) from China, presented by Miss Hill; two Common Vipers (Vifera berus), four Common Snakes (Zvopidonotus natrix), a Slowworm (Anguis fragilis), British, presented by Mr. C. Browne; a Mocassin Snake (7vopidonotus fasciatus) from North America, presented by Master Denny Stradling ; two Purple-capped Lories (Zorius domicella) from Moluccas, two Scaly-breasted Lorikeets ( 7richoglossus chlorolepidotus) from Timor, deposited ; four Common Sheldrakes ( Zadorna vulpanser,2 8,2 ?), four Ringed Doves (Columba palumbarius,2 8, 2 3), European, purchased ; two Black-eared Marmosets (Hafale penicillata), born in the Gardens, OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. WINNECKE’S PERIODIC COMET, 1892.—The following ephemeris for this comet has been extracted from CH,, owing to Zoological Society, May 17.—Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., exhibited and made remarks on the skin of a Wild Camel obtained by Major C. S. Cumberland in Eastern Turkestan.—In a paper on the geographical distribution of the Land-Mollusca of the Philippine Islands, the Rev. A. H. Cooke showed that the distribution of the different subgenera of Cochdostyla affords an interesting clue to the early relations of the various islands of the Philippine group. Regarded from this point of view, the central islands, Samar, Leyte, Bohol, Cebu, Negros, and Panay, with Luzon, were closely related, while Mindoro and Mindanao were remarkably isolated even from their nearest neighbours. An examination of the intervening seas accounted for these phenomena, the depths between the central islands being inconsiderable, while Mindoro and Mindanao are sur- rounded by very deep water. The Mollusca of the two ridges between the Philippines and Borneo, formed by Busuanga, Palawan, and Balabac, and by the Sulu Archipelago, were partly Philippine, partly Indo-Malay. Two remarkable groups of Helix, peculiar to Mindoro, Busuanga, and Palawan, showed relations with Celebes and possibly with New Guinea. The Mollusca of the Batan, Tular, and Talantse Islands were also discussed. Regarded as a whole, the Land-Mollusca of the Philippines were stated to contain: (1) Indo-Malay, (2) Poly- nesian, (3) indigenous elements, the first decidedly pre- dominating.—A communication was read from Graf Hans von Berlepsch, and M. Jean Stolzmann, containing an account of a collection of birds made by M. Jean Kalinowski in the vicinity of Lima and Ica, in Western Peru. The species of which examples were obtained in the localities were eighty in number. In an appendix an account of previous authorities on the same subject was added.—Mr. G. A. Boulenger gave an account ‘of Lucioperca marina, a rare species of fish, originally described by Pallas from the Black Sea and the Caspian, and little known of late years.—A communication from Mr. Oldfield Thomas | taking for his subject ‘‘Commensalism and Symbiosis.” the motion of Dr. R. C. A. Prior, seconded by Mr. Jenner ° upper magnet. of a JUNE 9, 1892] NATURE 143 contained a revision of the Antelopes of the genus Cephalolophus, of which eighteen species were recognized as valid. A new species was described as Cephalolophus jentincki, from Liberia.— Prof. Bell called attention to the remarkabie amount of variation presented by Pontaster tenuispinis, numerous examples of which he had been able to examine and compare. He came to the conclusion that several North-Atlantic species, which had been described as distinct, should be rezarded as belonging to it.—A communication was read from Mr. H. H. Druce giving an account of the Butterflies of the family Lycznide, of the South - Pacific Islands. Of thirty-one species mentioned, seven were described as new to science. _ Linnean Society, May 24.—Anniversary Meeting. —Prof. wart, President, in the chair.—The Treasurer presented his annual report duly audited, and the Secretary having announced the elections and deaths during the past twelve months, the usual ballot took place for new members of Council, when the ing were elected: Messrs. E. L. Batters, William Herbert Druce, Spencer Moore, and Dr. D. H. Scott. The President and officers were re-elected. The Librarian’s having been read, and certain formal business having transacted, the President delivered his annual address, On ut Weir, a cordial vote of thanks was accorded to the President for his able address, with a request that he would allow it to be ited. —The Society’s Gold Medal was then formally presented | to Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace in recognition of the service | by him to zoological science by numerous valuable ons. After Dr. Wallace had replied, the President announced the gift by Dr. R. C. A. Prior of an oxyhydrogen lantern for use at the evening meetings, and moved a vote of thanks to him for his valuable donation. This having been carried by acclamation, the proceedings terminated. Ea ee CAMBRIDGE, ~ Philosophical Society, May 2.—Prof. G. H. Darwin, Presi- dent, in the chair.—The following communication was made :— Note on the lication of the spherometer to surfaces not spherical, by Mr. J. Larmor. The ordinary form of sphero- poe Paes es triangular frame, gives a definite reading, when applied to a surface of double curvature, which corre- sponds to the arithmetic mean of the principal curvatures at the point ; thus ona cylinder it will indicate half the curvature. It _may be modified in various ways so as to measure both the prin- cipal curvatures by two observations. _ May 16.—Prof. G, H. Darwin, President, in the chair.—The following communications were made :—Recent advances in astronomy with photographic illustrations, by Mr. H. F, Newall. _ A series of photographs was exhibited by the lantern and described, to illustrate recent progress in astronomical photo- phy. series included some interesting specimens taken the Newall telescope, in which the object-glass is not ecially corrected for photographic purposes.—On the pressure at which the electric strength of a gas_is a minimum, by Prof, Le yn. The author showed that when no electrodes are the discharge passes through air at a pressure somewhat less than that due to 1/250 mm. of mercury ; the discharge passes wh ccorteoedgenmg it does at either ahigher or alower pressure. r. Peace has lately shown that when electrodes are used, the critical pressure may be as high as that due to 250 mm. of mer- cury ; so that as the spark length is altered the critical pressure may range from 250 mm. to 1/2500fa mm. It was pointed out that this involved the possession by a gas conveying the discharge of a structure much coarser than any recognized by the kinetic theory of gases. The author suggested a theory of such astruc- ture, and showed that the theory would account for the influence _ ofspark length and pressure on the potential difference required to produce discharge.—On a compound magnetometer for test- ing the ee properties of iron and steel, by Mr. G. F. C. Searle. aluminium wire, 30 inches long, suspended vertically by a fibre, carries at the top a magnet fixed at right eg to the wire. The lower end carries a light fork across ich a fibre is stretched horizontally. A mirror attached to this fibre carries a magnet at right angles to the fibre. The mirror is thus capable of two independent motions. The speci- men of iron is placed in a magnetizing coil near the mirror, and the magnetizing current passes also round a coil placed near the The motion of the mirror is observed by the aid spot of light. On gradually increasing and diminishing the current, the spot traces out the well-known hysteresis curves. NO. 1180, VOL. 46] EDINBURGH. Royal Society, May 16.—Sir Douglas Maclagan, President, in the chair.—The Astronomer-Royal for Scotland exhibited a stellar photograph, by Dr, Gill, of the Cape Observatory.—Dr. W. Peddie read a note on the law of transformation of energy and its applications. A generalization of the second law, applicable to forms of energy other than heat, was shown, by special examples, to lead to results already deduced by other methods.—Dr. C. G. Knott and Mr. A. Shand communicated a short note on the volume-effects of magnetization, which was supplementary to results communicated to the Society last year by the former author. When a particular size of iron tube was magnetized, the internal volume was found to undergo the following remarkable series of changes. In very weak fields there was first a slight increase, which, as the field was made stronger, passed through a maximum, then vanished and finally changed sign. From this point (about field 20) up to a field of 120 there was diminution of volume. This diminution was greatest in a field of 64. In fields higher than 120 there was again increase of volume, which attained a maximum about field 400, and fell off very slowly in higher fields. This curious variation of cubical dilatation with strength of field was shown to imply a transverse linear dilatation of (in general) opposite sign to the well-known longitudinal linear dilatation. The amounts, the positions of the maximum points, and of the vanishing points, of these correlated linear dilatations differed sufficiently in detail to produce this peculiar repeated change of sign in the cubical dilatation. —Dr. Hunter Stewart read a paper on the ventilation of schocls and public buildings. The first part of the paper contained an account of an investigation as to the presence of organic nitrogenous matter in expired air. Several methods were used for absorbing and collecting these products, ¢.g. breathing through strong sulphuric acid, condens- ing the moisture from the breath, &c. The organic matter was determined by the process of Kjeldahl, by which the nitrogen is converted into ammonia. The results showed that each cubic foot of expired air contained on an average 0'01149 milligrams of ammonia as such, and 0‘002 milligrams of ammonia derived from organic matter. The water condensed from 10 cubic feet of expired air contained on an average 0’5 milligrams of solid residue which entirely disappeared on ignition. These results, con- firmatory of the observations of Hermann and Lehmann, proved that the organic matter in badly ventilated rooms did not come from the breath, but from the skin and clothing of the occupants. Since this must be variable, depending on obvious conditions, Dr. Stewart did not determine it, but relied on the estimation of the carbonic acid and moisture as a measure of the efficiency of the ventilation. The following are some of his results taken as averages :— Edinburgh Hospitals, with 2000 cubic feet of space per bed— Da a2 y ve ie 5°5c.c. CO, per 10,000 ere te F Fes 5°85 Pr 3 ighest ... 63°5 PF Re Churches psn 20°0 Ky vs Schools, with, per child, 154. c. ft. space and 9°8 sq. ft. area 9°9 "¢ ¥ 14l ,, eaten dk bee 13°3 atuaiel 116 ,, PC eg, eae 17°2 ” ? All the schools and churches were without mechanical ventila- tion.—Prof. James Geikie read a paper on the glacial succession in Europe. The deposits which first give evidence of glacial action are generally referred to the Pliocene period. These are the oldest ground moraines of Central Europe, the ground moraine underlying the ‘‘ lower diluvium ” of Sweden, and the deposits of the Weybourne Crag with their Arctic marine fauna. Genial climatic conditions followed this period, with a wide land area, Britain being joined to the continent. Then followed the epoch of maximum glaciation, the Scottish and Scandinavian ice-sheets being continuous. Genial climatic conditions followed, Britain being again continental. Then submergence ensued to the 500-feet level, followed by another glacial epoch in which the Scottish and Scandinavian ice-sheets were again continuous. This was succeeded by genial conditions, Britain being once more joined to the continent. Submergence to the 100-feet level in Scotland followed, and then came Arctic conditions with local ice-sheets, succeeded by temperate conditions and the wide land area, and subsequently by submergence to the §o-feet level. Another cold period followed with local glaciers—the last in Britain. 144 NATURE [JUNE 9, 1892 PARIS. Academy of Sciences, May 30.—M. d’Abbadie in the | chair.—Introduction of M. Guyon, the new member elected in the place of M. Richet.—Observations of the small planets, made with the great meridian instrument of the Paris Observa- tory during the second and third quarters of the year 1891, by M. Mouchez.—On the propagation of electrical oscillations, by M. H. Poincaré. The disturbance is supposed to be propagated along a thin straight conductor. The enfeeblement of the disturbance is theoretically shown to vanish when the diameter of the conductor becomes indefinitely small.—Another blow to the ascent theory of cyclones, by M. Faye. A discussion of recent observations, showing that cyclones are not produced by convec- tion from the soil, but by disturbances in the general circulation of air in the higher regions.—On the monkey of Montsaunés discovered by M. Harlé, by M. Albert Gaudry. A portion of the mandible of a monkey, containing three teeth, was exhibited, found by M. Harlé, engineer at Toulouse, in the Quaternary of the Haute-Garonne. It shows the greatest similarity with the magot of Gibraltar and Algiers.— Physiological effects of a liquid extracted from the sexual glands, and especially the testicles, by M. Brown-Séquard.—On the relations of the Devonian and Carboniferous formations of Visé,by M. J. Gosselet. —Study of the physical and chemical phenomena under the influence of very low temperatures, by M. Raoul Pictet. The calorific ether waves corresponding to low temperatures are found to traverse all bodies with hardly any resistance. A test-tube filled with chloroform was placed in a nitrous oxide refrigerator at —120°.. A thermometer in the tube showed a gradual fall to —68°'5, when crystallization commenced. On removing the test-tube to a refrigerator at — 80°, the tempera- ture indicated by the thermometer feZ rapidly from — 68°°5 to — 80°, while the crystals formed on the walls of the test-tube fused and disappeared. On replacing it into the — 120° refrige- rator, the temperature rose to —68°5, and the crystals re- appeared. M. Pictet explains these extraordinary phenomena by supposing his thermometers to have acted more as thermo- dynamometers than as thermoscopes. While the crystals were forming in the first refrigerator, the radiation from the bulb was neutralized by the latent heat given out by the chloroform in crystallizing, whereas in the warmer refrigerator the crystals did not form, and radiation aloneswas active. Alcohol and sulphuric ether thermometers were used, which were checked by ther- mometers containing dry hydrogen at four different pressures. — On rectangular co-ordinates, by M. Hatt.—On the application of the optical properties of minerals to the study of the in- closures in volcanic rocks, by M. A. Lacroix.—On a property common to three groups of two polygons, inscribed, circum- scribed, or conjugate to the same conic, by M. Paul Serret.—On the canonical developments in series the coefficients of which are differential invariants of a continuous group, by M. Arthur Tresse.—On the calculation of the coefficient of resistance of air, supposing the resistance proportional to the fourth power of the velocity, by M. de Sparre.—On a means of bringing two non-miscible liquids into intimate contact in definite propor- tions, by M. Paul Marix. This is done by pouring both liquids into the same vessel at a definite rate, and allowing them to leave it by an orifice in the side. They will escape together in the proportion of their volumes, if the level of the liquid is maintained uniform by a constant supply. The surface of separation is invariably found at the level of the orifice, and if a flattened spout is used, a lamellar arrangement of the liquids is produced, thus giving a large surface of contact.—On a hydro-silicate of cadmium, by MM. G. Rousseau and G, Tite. This is produced by the action of the glass vessel when the solid hydrate of neutral cadmium nitrate is heated to about 300°. On dissolving away the basic nitrate with boiling alcohol, the ' silicate can be detached from the glass in long scales by hot water. Its formula is 2;CdO, SiO.) . 3H,O.—On the decom- position by heat of ammoniacal pentachloride of phosphorus, nitrochloride of phosphorus, and phosphame, by M. A. Besson. —On the phosphates of strontium, by M. L. Barthe.—The calorific power of pit-coal and the formule by means of which its determination is attempted, by M. Scheurer-Kestner.— Mechanical determination of the boiling-points of terminal complex substitution products, by M. G. Hinrichs.—On some reactions of the three amido-benzoic acids, by M. (CEchsner de Coninck. — On the composition of chloro- cruorine, by M. A. B. Griffiths.—On the antiseptic properties of formaldehyde, by M. A. Trillat.—The nervous system of the NO. 1180, VOL. 46] ROOY Neritide, by M. E, L, Bouvier.—On the osteological characters of a male MMesoplodon Sowerbyensis recently stranded on the French coast, by M. P. Fischer.—On a new species of Gammarus of the Lac d’Annecy, and on the fresh-water Amphipoda of France, by MM. E. Chevreux and J. de Guerne. —Action of various toxic substances on Bombyx Mori, by M. J. Raulin.—On the genetic relations of resinous and tannic sub- stances of vegetable origin, by MM. Edouard Heckel and Fr. Schlagdenhauffen.—Researches on the grafting of Crucifers, b: M. Lucien Daniel.—Contribution to the study of the toxic effect of the diphtheria bacillus, by M. Guinochet.—Contribution to the knowledge of the Saharian climate, by M. Georges Rolland. A summary of observations made at a meteorological station in the oasis of Ayata, in Southern Algiers. The sparse vegetation found here and there seems to derive its moisture from subterranean sources, whence it ascends by capi attraction, and from certain deliquescent salts found in the soil which absorb moisture at night.—On a passage in Strabo re- lating to a treatment of the vine, by M. Ant. Aublez. BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. Booxs.—La Distribution de L’Electricité, Usines Centrales: R. V. Picou (Paris, Gauthier-Villars) —Travail des Bois: M. Alheilig (Paris, Gauthier- Villars).—Medical Electricity: Drs. Steavenson and Jones (Lewis).—First, Report of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, 1890-91 ( i Smithsonian Report, 1890 (Washington).—Lehrbuch der Zoologie: Dr. R. Hertwig, 2 vols. (Jena, Fischer).—Ziele und Wege Biologischer Forschung ; Dr, F. Dreyer (Jena, Fischer).—Key to Arithmetic for Beginners: J. Brook- smith and J» Brooksmith (Macmillan).—Transactions of the Sanitary Institute, vol. xii. (Stanford).—Bibliography of the Algonquian I é J. A. Pilling (Washington).—A Monograph of the Myxogastres : G.- Massee (Methuen).—Popular Readings in Science: J. Gall and D. Robertson (Con- stable).—Researches on Micro-Organisms, Dr. A. B. Griffiths ( Baillitre).— Darwin et ses Précurseurs Francais, deux. édtn., A. de Quatrefages os Alcan).—Trattato di Fisico-Chimico secondo la Teoria Dinamica: E. dal Pozzo di Mombello (Milano). PAMPHLETS.—The Orthoceratidz of the Trenton Limestone of the Winni- peg Basin: J.F. Whiteaves (Montreal, Dawson),—Ursachen der Defor- mationen und der Gebirgsbildung: Dr. E. Reyer (Leipzig, mann). SERIALS.—Journal of the Chemical Society, June (Gurney an - ackson).— Meteorological Record, vol. xi., No..42 (Stanford).—Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, April (Stanford). logical 2, June (K. Paul).—Natural History Transactions of !Northumber! - ham, and Newcastle-on-Tyne, vol. xi., Part 1 (Williams and Norgate).—The Yale Review, vol. i., No. 1 (Arnold).—Bulletins de la Société d’Anthro- pologie de Paris, July to December, 1891 (Paris, Masson).—Archives de Sciences Biologiques publiées par I’Institut Impérial de Médecine Ex- périmentale & St. Pétersbourg, tome i., Nos. 1 et 2 (St. Pétersbourg).— Engineering Magazine, June (New York).—Himmel und Erde, June (Berlin, Er saph WE gc of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, June i ngapore). , CONTENTS. PAGE A Professorial University of London ....... I21 Indian Botany. By W. Botting Hemsley, F.R.S. . 122 Mathematical Recreations and Problems ..... 123 Soils and Manures ... . . ...\0: «+ » sca) Se Our Book Shelf :— Sharpe: ‘‘ Catalogue of the Specimens illustrating the Osteology of Vertebrated Animals, contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England’? ov. oases Peer er ee) Letters to the Editor :— The Line Spectra of the Elements.—Dr. G. John- stone Stoney, F.R.8.. J \., is sees Stone Circles, the Sun, and the Stars. (J///ustrated.) —A,. L. Lewis 3. i en pectin | SAE, The Height of the Nacreous Clouds of January 30.— J. Edmund Clark... 2... ¢giguee eee en Ghee A Dust Storm at Sea,—Prof. John Milne, F.R.S.. 128 Submerged Forest.—M. H. M. .... ....-. + 128 Carnivorous Caterpillars.—Juliet N. Williams . . 128 The Hurricane in Mauritius. By Dr. C. Meldrum, ‘ 0 RY 80 sy aa 9 soc de eae ee 0 ed Ieogb, 85.) oie cane Professor James THOMSON (0) v), ois 6):0 6 4 ee 129 Jean Servais Stas.:; By W. ©... ...0..i0 s.-»\«) mae oe NOt@8 oes dco cease ae ie es, IE dk oe 0 ae oe Our Astronomical Column :— Light-Variations of Y'Cygni ...; «. . 0: (es wie Active Lunar Volcanoes Py i's 00°. aa oe yo RA oe Catalogue of Nebulee: 55.2 ¢, «: «. 5) one tepenen ne em Geographical Notes) 30... icu0..0, 9 10: Sener eee Micro-organisms in their Relation to Chemical Changes. By Prof. Percy F, Frankland, F.R.S. . 135 University and Educational Intelligence ..... 140 Societies and Academies . Sa 2 ut eres ketene Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received ..... 144 4 ey ee ns | Fexplication des phénoménes naturels ; sop NATURE 145 THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1892. MECHANICS, A Treatise on Analytical Statics. With numerous Ex- amples. Vol. I. By Edward John Routh, Sc.D., LL.D., F.R.S., Hon. Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge; Fellow of the Senate of the University of London. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1891.) The Elementary Part of a Treatise on the Dynamics of a _ System of Rigid Bodies. Being Part I. of a Treatise on the Whole Subject. With numerous Examples. _ By the Same. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1891.) J 1TH these two volumes the mathematical student ‘is completely equipped for the course of Analytical Mechanics, as required for Part I. of the Cambridge ‘Mathematical Tripos. A second volume is promised of the ‘‘ Analytical ‘Statics,’ to cover the parts in Attraction, Astatics, and the Bending of Beams; and this, in conjunction with Part II. of the “ Dynamics,” will complete his library for the second part of the Mathematical Tripos, according to f at regulations. e great feature of these works is the very complete ‘collections of examples which the author has brought together with great labour, and enriched with many of his own invention, fit to rank among the theorems of the science, rather than as mere problems. The author is of the opinion that in order to learn Mechanics it is essential to the student to work many examples, taken as far as possible from questions that have actually arisen. In this opinion he agrees with Fourier, who says :— _ “ L’étude approfondie de la nature est la source la plus féconde des découvertes mathématiques. Non seulement cette étude, en offrant aux recherches un but déterminé, a Pavantage d’exclure les questions vagues et les calculs sans issue; elle est encore un moyen assuré de former _ PAnalyse elle-méme,” &c. This is an opinion, however, that has always divided mathematicians into rival camps, and we find Jacobi remonstrating with these words of Fourier by retali- ating :— i 7 Ae est vrai que M. Fourier avait l’opinion que le but i des mathématiques était Vutilité publique et mais un philo- e comme lui aurait di savoir que le but unique de la science c’est ’honneur de l’esprit humain ; et que sous ce titre, une question de nombres vaut autant qu’une _ question du systéme du monde.” The developments of mathematics are now so great } that specialization is a necessity, so that these rival theories need not come into collision; and the pure mathematician may allow the writer on Mechanics to treat of what the name of the subject implies without being compelled to regard his own Geometry as mere Land-Surveying, according to the strict meaning of the word. There is a tendency in operation among certain mathe- maticians, as illustrated by Poincaré’s remarks on Max- well’s writings, to degrade mathematical argument to mere Calcul, by reducing the experimental facts on which NO. 1181, VOL. 46] thetheory is based to the barest minimum, and that not always clearly established (we venture to instance the Newtonian Law of Universal Gravitation). A vast array of Analysis is in consequence balanced upon a very small amount of axiomatic experiment, which in many cases the smallest divergence of experimental fact is sufficient to upset. We had hoped at the outset that Duchayla’s proof of the Parallelogram of Forces had disappeared, never to re- appear again, but it unfortunately pops up on p. 16. Considering that Static. leals with the Equilibrium of Bodies would make a great simplification if the word Resultant was abolished, unless when required to mean a single force reversed of a system of equilibrating forces. In this way a much simpler proof of the Parallelogram of Forces can be constructed, as indicated by Prof. Max- well in the Mathematical Tripos ; and one figure will now serve for all the possible cases arising in the equilibrium of three parallel forces (p. 47). Again, when the system is in equilibrium, there is no need to introduce the restriction that the bodies are rigid (p. 12) ; the conditions are precisely the same for elastic bodies ; but the system having come to rest, the parts are of invariable form. Every structure (the Forth Bridge, for instance) is composed of elastic parts, but the theorems of elementary Statics are still applicable in the investi- gation of the principal stresses. Again, by considering balancing couples, the refined theorems concerning the equivalence of couples in the same or parallel planes, and the composition of couples in different planes, are rendered much more convincing. In accordance with its title of “‘ Analytical Statics,” the theorems concerning the composition and equilibrium of forces in space are treated with reference to co-ordinate axes ; but Sir Robert Ball’s purely geometrical concep- tions of the Wrench, Screw, and Cylindroid are introduced, and discussed from a fundamental standpoint. A chapter on the determination of Centre of Gravity appears in all treatises on Analytical Statics, just as works on Rigid Dynamics begin with a long and tedious chapter on Moments of Inertia: these subjects should form part of the ordinary treatises on Integral Calculus, and so relieve treatises on Mechanics from at least the principal elements of such calculations. In the application of the Barycentric Calculus to geometry, the author has made a very interesting collec- tion of problems, well calculated to illustrate the power of this method, The principal theorems of Statics involve profound geo- metrical argument, and consequently prove difficult to the majority of students, whose proclivities are usually analytical ; but in the applications to Catenaries the ana- lytical interest comes again to the front. Considering that the hyperbolic functions can now be obtained tabu- lated numerically—for instance, in a table by Mr. T. H. Blakesley, published by the Physical Society—it is curious that the author does not employ them in the discussion of the ordinary Catenary, where their use introduces great elegance and simplicity into the analysis. The figure ot the Catenary on p. 316 might with advantage be re- drawn, so as to exhibit accurately the principal properties of this curve. Again, in Example 6, p. 352, where the problem of H 146 NATURE [JUNE 16, 1892 the catenary is discussed under a central attraction or repulsion, varying inversely as the square of the distance, when the hyperbolic functions are used in conjunctioa with the circular functions, we are able to write the equation of the catenary in the form— l/r = 1 + seca cos (@sin a), or 1 + sech a cosh (@ sinh a), including all possible ‘cases; and it is a curious geo- metrical result that if these curves are rolled on a straight line, the pole will always describe a circle. The treatment in § 500 of the catenary curve formed by an elastic rope can also be rendered more elegant by the introduction of the hyperbolic functions. The chapter relating to Catenaries is headed “ Strings.” But séring is used only for tying up parcels; we use a rope or chain in full scale mechanics, and ¢hread ina model; the word ¢hread should be used when its own weight is to be neglected, and the words rofe or chain when applied to a true catenary. A short chapter on Graphical Statics is very welcome, and might with advantage be further developed ; and the final chapter, on Machines, is of the usual academic character. The interest of this chapter would be much increased if the diagrams, particularly of the Balance and of the Differential Pulley were taken from objects actually in existence. The author never employs the absolute units of force, the Zoundal or dyne, which he has defined in Chapter I, but works throughout with the gravitation unit. This is in accordance with the universal practice ; and to satisfy lega| and commercial requirements, these absolute units would require to be defined through the intermediate of the gravitation unit, by taking them as one-gth part of the tension of a thread supporting a pound or gramme weight, the value of g being determined from pendulum experi- ments. There is no apparatus in existence by which the theoretical definition of the poundal and dyne, derived from dynamical phenomena, could be tested with any pretence to accuracy. The dyne is the unit of force in the C.G.S. system, but it is a great pity that the commercial units, the metre and the kilogramme, were not adopted; the unit of energy would then be the joz/e, and the unit of power the watt or volt-ampere. Merely, apparently, for the purpose of making W = sV, instead of 1000sV, the Committee of the British Association recommended these niggling C.G.S. units; but considering that for ordinary substances, metals, &c., variations of texture render it unnecessary to tabulate densities beyond four significant figures, the factor 1000 is a positive advantage in numerical calculations, as Iooos may be replaced bya whole number. The “ Analytical Statics” is a completely new work, but Dr. Routh’s “ Dynamics of Rigid Bodies” has been the text-book in universal use for thirty years or more, a better testimony to its merits than anything that could be said here. It is a pity that a sufficient working knowledge of the simple ideas of Moment of Inertia is not given in a course of the Integral Calculus, so that the author might start immediately on some familiar’ problems ‘of the motion ‘of a body which turns aswell as ‘advances, NO. T18I, VOL. 46] and relegate the bulk of Chapter I. to a later chapter, when the motion of bodies in space is considered. This long chapter at the outset chokes off many students, who would be encouraged if the principles were introduced in smaller doses, and only as required. The gentlemanly knowledge of this subject, as Maxwell called it, which does not go beyond motion in a plane, is a very valuable mathemati- cal training, and few students go beyond this stage. D’Alembert’s Principle is historically important, as a first clear statement of the mode of forming the equations of motion; but now, in accordance with the modern principle of considering the Third Law of Motion, “ Action and Reaction are equal and opposite,” as defining a stress composed of two equal opposite balancing forces, D’Alembert’s Principle should now be merely looked upon as a convenient mode of writing down the equations of Dynamics in an analytical statical form, when stated in the words, “ The reversed effective forces and the impressed forces form a system in equilibrium,” while ‘‘the molecular, cohesive, or internal forces form a system in equilibrium among themselves.” The much-abused word “centrifugal force” still sur- vives, and need not cause confusion if used to denote the normal component of the reversed effective force of a body moving in a curve. Early methods of argument in Dynamics were very similar to what we now employ in Thermodynamics, in the statement of the Second Law. ; Sir George Airy’s commentary on D’Alembert’s Prin- ciple, quoted on p. 52, forms a very curious contrast to the corresponding explanation in Maxwell’s “ Matter and Motion.” oo It would be a strange skeleton frame that Sir George Airy would have had to create to propagate the attraction between the Earth and the Moon or Sun; and an interesting subject of speculation arises as to the modi- fication of Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation when the inertia of the skeleton frame became appreciable. The discussion on the Pendulum is very complete ; Kater’s pendulum is fully described, but we miss the account of Repsold’s pendulum. In this pendulum the effect of the drag of the air is eliminated by making it symmetrical in shape, but unsymmetrical in density. A short account of Repsold’s pendulum will be found in the Account of the Great Trigonometrical Survey ; but the pendulum is obviously looked upon with suspicion by our officers, as being employed by their Russian rivals on the other side of the Himalayas. The very perfection of the pendulum as a method of determining g¢ is the cause of its defect as a means of recovering the standard of length, so that equally skilled observers would differ to an appreciable extent if set to work to reconstitute the standard yard from the seconds pendulum ; the clause in’ the Act of Parliament defining the length of the seconds pendulum is in consequence superfluous. There is something mysterious and unconvineing in § 109, on the ‘‘ Oscillation of the ‘Watch Balance” ; con- sidering that the inertia of the spring itself is neglé&ted, it seems that the final equation of oscillation might well be written down immediately, without the introduction of any approximation. The’ Ballistic Pehduhim’ arid’ its’ err. aré fully’ de- JUNE 16, 1892] NATURE 147 scribed; but it should be pointed out that the pen- dulum in which the gun itself is mounted gives very untrustworthy records, as the effect of the blast of the powder and of the air dragged along with it is so very great. The Ballistic Pendulum is still useful for deter- mining the velocity of small-arm bullets, but for artillery purposes the electric chronograph has completely sup- planted it. Chapter IV. discusses Motion in Two Dimensions, and is perhaps the most generally important and interesting chapter in the book. A complete dynamical terminology is still a desideratum, and many new words: must be coined ; for,as De Morgan remarks, “ We cannot wait for words, because Cicero did not know the Differen- tial Calculus (or Dynamics).” At the same time it is ee a that the old word Vs Viva, meaning Mv*, was not allowed to drop, to be replaced by Kinetic Energy, for 4Mv*. Vis mortua is forgotten as the name for Work, and vis viva, as the other manifestation of energy, should ___-‘Thedot notation of Fluxions has been introduced in _ places : this, though easy to write, is difficult to print, and is inconvenient sometimes with tall letters, while others, like z and /, are already in their “ dotage.” Dr. Routh would, in our opinion, make the working of the illustrative examples more clear, if he always followed the fundamental principle of taking moments about the a centre of gravity, as if it was a fixed point: very few students can be trusted to apply the principle to moments about any other moving point, and the equations of relative motion on p. 178 are better kept out of sight of all but a select few. Dr. Besant’s treatment of questions on Initial Motion is in our opinion simpler of application and quite as rigorous as that given in § 199. A very good collection of illustrative examples com- pletes this chapter, but we miss the extension of the of the motion of a cylinder rolling down an incline to the case of a wheeled carriage or of a railway F) train, when the rotary inertia of the wheels is taken into account, including the determination of the proper position of the coupling chains and buffers; also the _ investigation of the stresses in the interior of a swinging body like a ship, not only in causing cargo to shift, but also in its physiological bearing on-sea-sickness. An ordinary swing is useless as an antidote to sea-sick- ness, as the seat is close to the centre of oscillation. To feel the disturbing effect we must mount up above the axis of revolution ; and to the deck and up the mast of a ship. As interesting applications, we may mention the dyna- mics of billiards, §§ 179-98, and of the quintain ia § 178. After Chapter IV. the author launches off into dyna- mics in space, and now the difficulty of the subject is -. more than doubled. “Chapter VII., on Energy (or Vis Viva, as Dr. Routh still prefers to call it), precedes in importance and idea the Chapter VI., on Momentum, and might well change place. The idea of energy as }Wv"/g very soon received aname for its unit in the foot-found, but the correspond- ing name for the momentum, Wv/g, of second-pound is as yet hardly known. In this chapter the Principles of Dynamical Similitude are discussed. In Geometry the Principle of Similitude NO. 1181, VOL. 46] y asserts that a theorem is true whatever the scale on which it is drawn ; but in Dynamics the principle is much more complicated, and great care is required in arguing from the performance of a model or of a machine to one to be constructed to a larger scale. The subject is one of great importance at the present time in the discussion of the design of steamers intended to reduce the time of passage across the Atlantic to something under six days ; and the statement of the laws to be applied as affecting steamers, first clearly laid down by Mr. Froude, might well find explanation and illustration at this point. The impact of two rough elastic ellipsoids is treated in §§ 315, &c., by a mathematical four de force; but the expression ferfectly rough is never met with outside a Cambridge mathematical treatise. What would be the state of things, for instance, between two bodies in con- tact, one perfectly rough and the other perfectly smooth ? When we wish to produce this so-called perfect rough- ness between two bodies, we cut teeth on them, to engage together ; and in railway travelling the perfect smooth- ness of the road due to the employment of wheels must be capable of being turned into roughness by the appli- cation of the breaks: the continuous breaks now fitted to express trains have enabled a higher average speed to be maintained. The General Equations of Motion of Lagrange and Hamilton, discussed in Chapter VIII., are not to be employed by any but very advanced students: the for- mation of these equations and the conversion of one form into the other constituting difficult and refined applications of the Change of the Variables. In the case where some of the co-ordinates are absent, this part of the subject has received valuable develop- ment from Dr. Routh, by means of a principle now called the Ignoration of Co-ordinates. The volume concludes with an investigation of the Small Oscillations of a System, important as a Stability Test ; in such problems the author expresses the result very concisely by means of the length of the simple equivalent pendulum which synchronizes with the oscil- lations. An interesting problem to discuss is the theory of Mr. Yarrow’s Vibrometer, employed for measuring the vertical vibrations of his torpedo-boats: a platform suspended by springs is found to preserve a constant level, if the free period of the vertical oscillations of the platform is incommensurable with the period of the vibrations of the boat. It is difficult to know where to stop in writing of treatises such as these two of Dr. Routh, so full of detail and interest ; and the two treatises together would provide nearly a year’s work for an industrious student, who would thereby derive a thoroughly sound and com- plete knowledge of the subjects. A. G. GREENHILL. COLLECTIONS FROM THE ANDES. Supplementary Appendix to Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator. By Edward Whymper. (London: John Murray, 1891.) HOUGH many travellers in new or little-known re- gions, who are not naturalists, have been in the habit of collecting to some extent the more remarkable 148 NATURE [JuNE 16, 1892 specimens which they have noticed, in various branches of the animal kingdom, vet, as a rule, both such collections and the reports upon them are more or less unsatis- factory to professed naturalists; partly because they usually represent mere fragments of the fauna of the regions explored, and partly because inexperienced col- lectors often pass over the most interesting species, and bring back common and wide-ranging forms of compara- tively little interest. Alpine climbers in particular, as a class, have done so little for zoology in Europe or the Caucasus, that we hardly expected that Mr. Whymper, whose reputation for daring, determination, and endurance, puts him among the most distinguished of Alpine climbers, would now turn his attention to zoology. He has, however, shown the best possible example to his con/réres by his Great Andean expedition ; and has proved that it is possible without in any way neglecting the special objects of his journey, to do most valuable zoological work ; and as the higher regions of the Andes have been neglected by pro- fessional collectors, who depend more or less on their success for payment of expenses, the proportion of new Coleoptera brought home by him is very great. Owing, no doubt, to the late Mr. Bates’s good advice, Mr. Whym- per has secured the assistance of many specialists of - eminence in describing his collections, and the work is profusely illustrated with wood-cuts of the highest class, better by far than many of the coloured illustrations which often appear in scientific periodicals. The total number of species collected amounts, accord- ing to Mr. Bates, to about one thousand, but the Diptera, Lepidoptera-Heterocera, Hymenoptera (except the ants), and Arachnida have not been described, on account of the difficulty of finding anyone to work them up ; and as the birds do not seem to have attracted much of Mr. Whymper’s attention, and fishes are almost wanting in the higher mountain streams, the greater part of the book is taken up by descriptions of the Coleoptera by Messrs.’ Bates, Sharp, Gorham, Olliff, and others. Messrs. God- man and Salvin have written a chapter on the butterflies, but of these very few occur at elevations of 10,000 feet and upwards; and only two Satyride, two species of Lyczena, two Pieris, and two Colias, were taken at or above 12,000 feet. This is a strong proof of the poverty of the high Andes in endemic forms, as compared with the high Alps of Europe and Asia, where, notwithstanding the severity of the climate, a large number of species are found at elevations which, when allowance has been made for the latitude, are much higher than these. This may be accounted for to some extent by the weather, which appears to be, in the high Andes of Ecuador, very wet and windy during the whole year. It is farther explained by the late Mr. Bates in the following remarks, taken from the introduction which he has contributed to the volume :— “Tt seems to me a fair deduction from the facts here set forth that no distinct traces of a migration during the lifetime of existing species, from north to south or vice versa, along the Andes have as yet been discovered, or are now likely to. be discovered. . It does not follow, how- ever, that the Darwinian explanation of the peculiar dis- tribution of species and genera on mountains in the tropi- cal and temperate zones, and in high latitudes of the Old World, is an erroneous one. The different state of NO. 1181, VOL. 46] things in the New World is probably due to the existence of some obstacle to free migration, as far as regards in- sects, between north and south, both during and since the Glacial epoch. The problem, like most others relat- ing to geographical distribution, is a complicated one; but there are one or two considerations, likely to be overlooked, which may tend to its solution. One is the great altitude at which the vigorous denizens of the teeming tropical lowlands flourish on the slopes of the Andes. Mr. Whymper found, for example, species of many of the genera of Longicorn Coleoptera characteris- tic of the lowland forests at altitudes of 9000 and 10,000 ~ feet, and Kirsch has recorded numerous species of Lam- pyride, Lycide,and other families belonging equally to tropical American forest genera, as met with by Reiss and Stiibel in Colombia and Ecuador at 12,000 feet. In Ecuador all the warm moisture brought by the eastern trade-winds is not intercepted even now by the wall of the Andes, and wherever that falls, in the depressions, conditions of climate and vegetation will be created suit- able to these encroaching tropical forms. If we add to this the barrenness and generally unfavourable conditions of the zone above those altitudes, there can be little won- der that temperate forms have not freely passed along the Andes. Another consideration is that there may have been a breach of continuity of the land in Glacial times, at the Isthmus of Panama, sufficient to prevent free mi- gration. It may, further, be legitimate to speculate on the possibility of the Andes being lower in the tropical zone during the Glacial epoch. A few hundred feet lower than the present altitude, combined with the copious warm rains which must have accompanied the age of ice, would present conditions undoubtedly favourable to the spread of tropical forms over the whole area which would successfully resist the invasion of high northern or southern species. The main principle in distribution, however, is that forms sooner or later, and in proportion to their intrinsic and extrinsic facilities of dissemination, will find their way all over the world to wherever the conditions inorganic and organic are favourable to their acquiring a footing. That these facilities are possessed in a higher degree by plants than insects and some other | groups of animals may be a sufficient explanation of the fact that so many species of plants have surmounted the © obstacles to their passage from north to south during the last Glacial epoch, while few or no insects have done so. The more distant, or generic, relationship between the insects of Chili and those of the north temperate zone © can only be explained on the assumption of a migration at some epoch far more remote than the last Glacial epoch.” Mr. Whymper’s book as a whole is a remarkable ex- ample of his talent as an explorer, a mountain climber, and an accurate observer both of physical, geographical, and natural history phenomena, and though we have waited eleven years for its appearance, nothing has been lost and much has been gained by this delay, and his book will take rank among the very best works of scien- tific travel which have ever been written. . ' H. J. ELWEs, THE HISTORY OF EPIDEMICS. A History of Epidemics in Great Britain from A.D. 664 to the Extinction of Plague. By Charles Creighton, M.A., M.D. (Cambridge: University Press, 1891.) HE task undertaken by Dr. Charles Creighton in writing a history of epidemics in Britain from 664 (the year of the first pestilence recorded by an authority that can be regarded as contemporary) to the JuNE 16, 1892] NATURE 149 extinction of plague is one of enormous difficulty. | The materials for such a history must be sought for high and low; chance allusions in private letters or municipal records will supply links in the chain of evidence for which the writings of the medical authorities of the time may be searched in vain, if indeed there be any medical authorities ; and Dr. Creighton found that for his purposes “ medical books proper are hardly available .. . until the end of the Elizabethan period, . . . and do not begin to be really important... until shortly before the date at which” his present labours end. When such evidence as can be found has been found and sifted, there still remains the most intricate problem of all—that of tracing the epidemics recorded to their origin, accounting for their spread, and in some cases explaining why a country should in modern times be spared diseases which _ scourged it in the Middle Ages. No better illustration of these difficulties could be found than is supplied by chapter ii., ‘‘ Leprosy in Medizval Britain.” The first point that Dr. Creighton has to make clear is that all the so-called lepers were not really lepers. In extreme cases the word “leprosus” may have been used simply as meaning “ beggar or common tramp” ; elsewhere it may have been applied to victims of syphilis, lupus, and so forth. For the sufferers special provision was no doubt made, on a scale due in part to a morbid or mistaken religious sentiment; but examination of the charters and other documents relating to these charities suggests that, of the supposed foundations for lepers, some were merely refuges for sick and infirm poor, in others provision was made for three or four times as many non- leprous as leprous inmates, while from others, towards the end of the thirteenth century, the lepers were disappear- ing or getting displaced. Finally, the author concludes that the prevalence of true leprosy at any time in England was probably not so great as in the worst provinces of India at the present day ; but, however justifiable scepti- cism as to its supposed ravages may be, that the disease really did prevail can hardly be doubted, and the reasons for doubt are lessened, if a vera causa for its presence can be found. Such a vera causa, compatible with its subsequent disappearance, may be discovered, not in “importation,” eg. by Crusaders—a suggestion Dr. Creighton does not consider worth thinking about—but in the staple diet of the times, a semi-putrid or toxic character of animal food combining with other depressing influences _ to give rise to leprosy, just as a similar character of bread or porridge gives rise to pellagra. We have given the arguments of this chapter some- what in detail, because the criticism which obviously applies to them, applies elsewhere. Considering the un- certainty which surrounds the facts, it is clear that the traditions of the leprosy of the past cannot very materially assist, though they may be explained by, the study of modern leprosy. Similarly, in the case of the plague, to which naturally Dr. Creighton devotes much of his book, to say nothing of that old question, the value of the evidence of the Bills of Mortality, the inquirer is met at once by the great difficulty of knowing when “the plague” which is spoken of as invading out-of-the-way places really was the genuine plague—a point of vital importance, as soon as any etiological questions are raised, and we may here observe that Dr. Creighton writes :— NO. 1181, VoL. 46] “Tn concluding the career of the sweat in England, we may pass from it with the remark that it did not cease until other forms of pestilential fever were ready to takeits place. The same explanation remains to be given of the total disappearance of the plague from England after 1666: it was superseded by pestilential contagious fever, a disease which was its congener, and had been establishing itself more and more steadily from year to year as the con- ditions of living in the towns were passing more and more from the medizval type to the modern.” It would be impossible here to enter into the merits or the reverse of all Dr. Creighton’s explanations of the facts he records. In the chapter on small-pox, which is likely to be the one first consulted, we find a passage which disarms criticism: “ It has been the fate of small-pox as an epidemiological subject to be invested with bigotry and intolerance.” Yellow fever has as yet hardly sunk to that deplorable level ; and as Dr. Creighton’s theory appears to be that “ the dysenteric matters of the negroes”’ carried on the slave ships “ had themselves in turn bred an infec- tion of yellow fever for the whites,” it may be asked whether the alleged protection of Africans of pure blood from the infection of yellow fever “in all circumstances ashore or afloat,... not by acclimatization but by some strange privilege of their race,” is either supported by all recent authorities, or not capable of the explanation that in infancy they may pass through some disease too slight to be recognized as yellow fever, but which serves to confer immunity. The general impression left upon the mind by this history is that it would have been a wise policy to make two books instead of one out of the materials collected —in one simply to bring together such facts as Dr. Creighton’s industry has gleaned from the authorities, and in the other to enter upon the questions of etiology, which are bound to give rise to interminable discussion. Besides those we have mentioned, gaol fevers, in- fluenzas, “ the French pox,” and scurvy in early voyages, are the principal diseases treated of in this volume. In dealing with influenza Dr. Creighton draws attention to the relation in point of time between the outbreaks in the latter half of the sixteenth century and great epidemics of plague, and a somewhat similar relation between fever and influenza and exceptional climatic conditions in the years 1657-59. OUR BOOK SHELF. Mineralogy. By Frederick H. Hatch, Ph.D., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of England and Wales. (London: Whittaker and Co., 1892.) Dr. Hatcu has followed up the publication of his excellent “ Introduction to the Study of Petrology,” re- cently noticed in these pages, by a little book on mineralogy, which will, we think, be of equal service to students. He has recognized the fact that for one person who desires to enter upon a systematic study of mineralogy, regarded as a natural-history science, there are twenty who need only such an amount of mineralogi- cal information as will enable them to profitably commence the study of geology. We think, therefore, that the pro- minent place given to the felspars, the pyroxenes, the amphiboles, the micas, and similar common rock-forming species in this work, is fully justified ; and not less so the unsystematic but convenient grouping of other minerals as “ores and veinstones,” “salts and other useful minerals,” and “gems or precious stones.” De Lap- 150 NATURE [June 16, 1892 parent has indeed shown how a classification of minerals according to their mode of occurrence may be employed even in a systematic treatise; but Dr. Hatch’s more humble attempt is not open to the criticism to which an ambitious work on the same lines would obviously be liable. It is clear that in a book of this kind there is not much scope for originality of treatment, but Dr. Hatch has admirably united brevity and clearness in his treat- ment of the crystallographical and physical characters of minerals. His method of giving the names and commonly employed reference letters to the crystal-combinations which he figures is well adapted to prepare the student for consulting larger treatises on the subject. So, too, the reference to the use of symbols, though it must evi- dently be very slight in a work of the dimensions of that before us, is eminently judicious. A short table of symbols of the chief forms belonging to each system, according to Miller and Naumann,will enable the beginner to recognize the meaning of all the very commonly occur- ring combinations ; and it is clearly inexpedient to attempt more than this in such a very elementary work. We can confidently recommend the book as an excellent sum- mary of mineralogical science, adapted to the wants of the geological student ; and we believe the perusal of this small work may even be of advantage to those who desire to enter upon the more systematic study of the science of mineralogy. . W. To the Snows of Tibet through China. Pratt, FR Gio: Co., 1892.) THE author of this book says in the preface that he has done his best “to withstand the temptation to generalize from limited experience, to which travellers in China seem peculiarly liable.” Yet in his last sentence he expressesthe opinion that several incidents he has mentioned “ will show what a credulous and cowardly race the Chinese are.” It ought surely to have occurred to him, when he set down this harsh and rather foolish judgment, that it was a striking example of the kind of generalization which he had wished to avoid. Fortu- nately the statement, although it seems to convey Mr. Pratt’s final impression of thé Chinese people, does not represent the general character of his work, in which scientific readers will find a good deal to interest them. He went to China in 1887 for the purpose of studying the natural history of the country, and remained until 1890, fixing his head-quarters at Ichang, a town on the left bank of the Yang-tze-Kiang, 1110 miles from its mouth. He crossed the frontier of Tibet, and at Ta- tsien-lu met Mr. Rockhill, whose excellent account of travels in Tibet we lately reviewed. Mr. Pratt worked hard in the various regions he visited, and collected many valuable specimens in several departments of natural history. He has nota very bright or attractive style, but many of his facts are themselves so interesting, and his enthusiasm as a collector is so keen and per- sistent, that there are few passages which his readers will desire to skip. In an appendix, Dr. Albert Giinther gives a list of the species of reptiles and fishes brought by Mr. Pratt from the Upper Yang-tze-Kiang and the province Sze-chuen, with a description of the new species. There are also lists of birds and of Lepidoptera. By A. E. (London: Longmans, Green, and LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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. | Absolute Electrometer for Lecture Purposes. I THOUGHT it might be welcome to some of your readers to be made acquainted with the following simple and cheap instru- NO. 1181, VOL. 46] ‘lectures, and also for many scientific purposes. ments which I have now used for some years with advantage in They are electrometers, which are divided directly into volts. The needle, which is made of aluminium, moves about a horizontal axis of hard steel, and is repelled from the vertical brass piece connected with the knob above. The instruments have the advantage that they are much easier of manipulation than the gold-leaf electroscope, while the sensibility is neatly the same, and fully suffices for all lecture purposes. Potentials are read’ off directly in volts, so that the measurements in the experi- ments on electrostatics and electrodynamics can all be referred to the same unit, whereby the conception of the student gains in distinctness, and the lecture in simplicity. In consequence of the specially careful workmanship, the needle adjusts itself quickly and with certainty, so that readings may be made to about 10 volts. The back and front consist of glass disks I mm. thick, each of which covers a plate of zine of the same’ size, out of which are cut two equal and opposite slits, through which the position of the needle on the brass scale is read off. The readings of the instrument are only correct when these plates are in position. ‘oe When the instrument is used in the lecture, the two plates are taken away, and the back glass plate covered with tissue paper, the instrument being illuminated from behind. The deflections are then easily visible in a room for more than a hundred students. The method of graduation of these instruments I have described in full in Wiedemann’s Annalen, vol. xliv., 1891, p. 771. They can be procured from the University mechanician here, Herr Albrecht, in three different sizes, 0-1500, 0-4000, and o-10,000 volts. ‘The first of these is the substitute for a gold-leaf electroscope. Herr Albrecht also makes the instru- ments for technical purposes. F. BRAUN. Physical Laboratory, Tiibingen, May 28. Saturn’s Rings. THE writer of the ‘‘ Astronomical Column,” in your number of June 2, directs attention to some observations of M. Bigourdan on certain peculiarities in the appearance of the following arm of Saturn’s Rings observed by him on May 2t. He mentions in particular a protuberance situated near Cassini’s division. This, I think, is easily accounted for in a. quite different manner. At 9h, 6m. p.m., according to Marth’s ephemeris, two satellites, Enceladus and Tethys, were in con- junction with the east end of the ring. They were going in apparently opposite directions, Tethys away from Saturn. Their conjunctions with the middle of the Cassini division would, I find, take place at 8h. 36m, p.m. for Tethys, and at gh. 36m. p.m. for Enceladus. Both satellites would be so close to the ring as to appear inseparable from it. Tethys, moving in an orbit inclined as much as 65’ to the plane of the rings, might easily be half superposed in appearance upon the northern boundary of the rings. The following remarks are from my observation-book of date May 21 :— ? JUNE 16, 1892] NATURE 15, ‘ob. 135m. G.M.T. The wordaning of the east ansa near its end is probably due to Tethys and ladus being on te sides of it near its east end. 9h. 22m. The east ansa seemed a little longer than the west, perhaps due to Tethys ow ollowing it. Dione was seen close to the east end.” With the other observations and remarks of M. Bigourdan | quite geree. The straightening of the northern edge of both anse ha: ead been noticed by me both before and after May 20. So lately as June 3 both ansze seemed broadest at a distance of three-fifths of their length from the ball, and the following ansa was almost detached from the ball, partly by the ‘shadow thrown by the ball on it, and partly by the more evated part of the middle ring concealing all within it in e neighbourhood of the ball. A. FREEMAN. furston Rectory, Sittingbourne, June 6. Aurora, THE aurora of May 18 was seen here. _I first noticed it at ‘11 p.m. (Dublin time), and watched it until 1 a.m., though I ot see either the beginning or the ending. It extended began to show themselves like electric search-lights, and con- for some time, their appearance being accompanied by a ening upwards of the radial streamers. The air was ‘hazy, and there was much stratus about, with detached ‘ of cumulo-stratus coming up from the west. Wind-force _ 3.0f Beaufort’s scale ; barometer 30°05, stationary. sca JAMES PoRTER. Crawford Observatory, Queen’s College, Cork, May 31. The Atomic Weight of Oxygen. _I notice that Lord Rayleigh gives the following summary of resu Its on the atomic weight of oxygen :— ‘Dumas 1842 15°96 Regnault 1845 15°96 1589 Rayleigh 1889 gee Sega, 25882 owing the remapma ble fact that the amie weight has been steadily decreasing for the last fifty years. would suggest, as e explanation this, that the ecied population of the rid, together with the great consumption of coal, have caused great wear and tear of these atoms, so that they are now 108 cient in weight. It would seem, in fact, desirable that a Congress of chemists should be called to consider the question of providing for the renovation of the oxygen supply, and issuing trustworthy atoms of the standard weight, 16, as sealed patterns. - Firth College, Sheffield, June 3. Rost. LEHFELDT. The Nitric Organisms. I AM most reluctant to occupy any of your space with a claim to priority. A statement made on p. 137 of your last issue can hardly, however, be allowed to pass without notice. Dr. P. F. Frankland states in his lecture at the Royal Institution that the ciated ah the existence of a nitric organism was foreshadowed y himself, and that this hypothesis has recently been confirmed by Win ky. He then describes the method adopted by ‘pees deg separating the nitric from the nitrous organ- ism, and the chemical properties of the former. The fact that the existence of a nitric organism was proved in the first in- stance by myself, its separation from the nitrous organism effected, and its chemical behaviour studied, before any publication on the subject by Winogradsky, is entirely omitted! Frankland’s statement of the case is the more remarkable as Winogradsky frankly admits in his paper that our results were nearly the same, and that his were published subsequently to my own. s R. WARINGTON, Harpenden, June Io. NO. 1181, VOL. 46] Carnivorous Caterpillars, EVERY experienced breeder of Lepidoptera knows to his, or her, cost that many caterpillars are either habitually, or casually, carnivorous and cannibalistic, Useful hints on this subject are given in Dr. Knaggs’ dopterist’s Guide” (Gurney and Jackson). ewisham, June 13. ** Lepi- R. McLAcH ian, The Cuckoo in the East. IN May 1887 I wrote to you that I had heard the cuckoo at Mussoorie. This year, on coming up here, I heard it at Doneira (about 2000 feet) and at Mamul (4000 feet). I have been here five days and have not heard it at all. There has been a deficiency of rain here, and it has been unusually hot. Both notes were very clear and distinct, Dalhousie, May 22. F, C, CONSTABLE. THE NEW LONDON UNIVERSITY. WE have received for publication from the Associa- tion for Promoting a Professorial University for London the following proposals, adopted by the Associa- tion at a meeting held on Tuesday last :— (1) It is desirable that there should, if possible, be one University in London. (2) The objects of the University should be to organize and improve higher education and also to promote the advancement of science and learning. It is desirable that the University be constituted on the following lines :— (3) Subject to Clauses (9) and (12) the University to be governed by a Senate which shall ultimately consist of the Professors and a certain number of Crown nominees. (4) The Professors to be nominated in the first instance by some independent authority, such as the Crown or the Commission contemplated in Clause (14), afterwards in such manner as the Senate may determine. (5) The University to have power to absorb institutions of academic rank in London, which may be willing to be absorbed, due provision being made for protecting the interests of the teachers in such institutions, and for pre- serving the character of special trust-funds. (6) The University to have the power of appointing Readers and Lecturers, either to supplement the teaching of the Professors, or to deliver graduation or other courses of lectures within the metropolitan area at such places as may be determined by the Senate. (7) The University to have power to grant degrees and to institute degree examinations. These examinations may, if found necessary, be different for those who have followed prescribed courses and for those who have not. Each Professor of the University to. be ex officto an Examiner in the subject of his chair, but not necessarily’ to take part inevery examination in that subject, Examin- ers, who shall not be Professors in the University, to be appointed by the Senate to take part in all degree examina- tions. (8) The Professors, Readers, Lecturers, and other Teachers of the University to be grouped into Faculties, which shall have such consultative and administrative powers as shall be determined by the Senate. t This side of the University work would probably include teaching of the following kinds : — (a) Teaching, conducted in the University Buildings, supplementary to that of the Professors. f (4) Courses of instruction of a special or advanced character recognized by the University, ¢.g. of the type given by the German Privat-Docenten. (c) Teaching of a more or less academic character cond d by lecturers appointed by the University at Institutions and Colleges, the objects or the standing of which render complete absorption into the University undesir- ang) Lectures at various local centres of the type known as ‘‘ University Extension ” lectures. aby (e) Courses of lectures or occasional Jectures by members of the University staff, or by other persons recognized by the University, for which_a con- venient centre might, with the co-operation of the Corporation of London and ofthe Mercers’ Company, be found at Gresham College. 152 NATURE [JuNE 16, 1892. (9) The Body of Graduates in Convocation assembled to have the power of appealing to the Privy Council, but to have no veto upon the action of the Senate. The Chair- man of Convocation to be ex officio a member of the Senate. - The Medical Schools will probably require special treatment. Though they might advantageously hand over the teaching of pure science to the University, each school might retain control over its own teaching of medicine and surgery and over the funds devoted thereto. (10) The Medical Faculty to consist of representatives elected by the Teachers in recognized London Medical Schools. (11) The recognized Medical Schools to be determined in the first instance by the Commission referred to in Clause (14), but afterwards from time to time by the Senate, subject to appeal to the Privy Council. (12) A certain number of the members of the Medical Faculty to be nominated University Professors in accord- ance with the provisions of Clause (4), The number of Medical Professors on the Senate not to exceed one- fourth of the total number of University Professors on the Senate. (13) A teacher of pure science in a recognized Medical School to become a Member of the Faculty of Science, whenever the appointment to his post is entrusted permanently or pro hac vice to the Senate of the University. (14) To facilitate in the first instance the organization of the University, it is suggested that a small and inde- pendent Commission of legal and educational authorities be appointed by Act of Parliament with full powers— (2) To investigate and determine upon the claims of institutions wishing to be absorbed under Clause 5. (6) To arrange for the proper disposal of the trust- funds of those institutions which may be absorbed, and to determine the conditions under which their property shall be vested in the Governing Body of the University. (c) To arbitrate on all matters concerning the interests of existing teachers as affected by the action of Clause (5), and (d) Generally to make such arrangements as may be necessary for the establishment of the University on the foregoing lines. We are requested to add that the names of those de- sirous of supporting the Association will be received by any member of the Executive Committee,’ or may be sent directly to the Secretary (Prof. Karl Pearson, Christ- church Cottage, Hampstead, N.W.). The Association already numbers some seventy members, includ- ing Profs. H. E. Armstrong, F.R.S., W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., F., O. Bower, .F.R.S., O. Henrici, F.R.S., E. Frankland, F.R.S., E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., F. Max Miiller, O. J. Lodge, F.R.S., Norman Lockyer, F-.R.S., W. J. Russell, F.R.S., W. A. Tilden, F.R.S., H. Marshall Ward, F.R.S., Principals H. R. Reichel, W. M. Hicks, F.R.S., and C. Lloyd Morgan, besides many other names equally well known in literature, science, and art. A complete list will shortly be issued. SUBDIVISIONS IN ARCHAAN HISTORY? 1. Subdivisions based on Kinds of Rocks. ERNER’S idea that kinds of rocks and grade of crystallization afford a basis for the chronological subdivision of crystalline rocks is more or less apparent in nearly all attempts that have since been made to lay t This Committee at present consists of the following :—F. V. Dickins, G: Carey Foster, R. S. Heath, E. Ray Lankester, Karl Pearson, H. E. Roscoe, A. W. Riicker, T. E. Thorpe, W. C. Unwin, W. F. R. Weldon. ? Reprinted from the June number of the American Journal of Science, rom advance sheets forwarded by the author, The paper is to be con- tinued in the American Journal of Science. NO. 1181, VOL. 46] ‘down the general subdivisions of Archzean terranes. The “fundamental gneiss” has gone to the bottom and the thinner schists to the top. There is a degree of truth in the idea. But the assumptions are so great that at the present time little reason exists for the earnestness sometimes shown by advocates of such systems. The idea has little to sustain it in the known facts of geology. The following are sufficient to decide the question. According to the thorough petrological and geological study of the rocks of the Bernardston region by Prof, B. K. Emerson '—a region in the Connecticut valley, in the towns chiefly of Bernardston, Massachusetts, and Vernon, Vermont—there are the following rocks : granite, largely feldspathic ; dioryte, so like intrusive dioryte that it had been pronounced trap ; quartz-dioryte ; granitoid gneiss. faintly foliated with biotite and passing into the granite ; hornblende schist ; quartzyte ; quartzyte prophyritic with feldspar crystals; staurolitic and garnetiferous mica schist ; hydromica schist ; argillyte ; massive magnetite, making a bed of magnetite rock ; along with coarsely crystalline limestone and quartzytic limestone containing Crinoids, Corals, and Brachiopods : all together making one series of rocks of later Devonian age. My own ob- servations in the region confirm the conclusions of Prof. Emerson. Such facts prove, moreover, that “ massive ” as applied to crystalline rocks does not signify zgneous. The granite is not eruptive granite, but part of a stratum which is elsewhere quartzyte, the quartzyte graduating into granite ; the latter was never in fusion. Again: on the borders of New England and New York there are schists of all gradations from massive Cambrian gneiss to-Cambrian and Hudson River hydro- mica schist and argillyte, the age fixed by fossils. Becker reports similar facts from the Cretaceous of California. Such observations, and others on record, make it hazar- dous to pronounce any gneiss in an Archean area ‘‘fundamental gneiss,” or any associated slaty schist the younger of the two. It may be true ; but it may not be. It is probable that the thin-bedded schists are absent from the older Archzean, but not that the thick-bedded and massive are absent from the later Archzean. The little chronological value of kinds of crystalline rocks in the later Archean comes out to view still more strongly if we consider with some detail the length and conditions of Archzean time. i The earth must have counted many millions of years from the first existence of a solid exterior, when the temperature was above 2500° F., to the time, when, at a temperature below 1000° F.—probably near 500° F., supposing the atmospheric pressure to have then been that of 50 atmospheres—the condensation of the waters of the dense aérial envelope had made such progress that an ocean, moving in tides and currents, had taken its place on the surface.2 There were other millions afterward along the decline in temperature to the 180° F. mark—180° F. the mean temperature of the ocean— when, according to observations on living species, the existence of plants in the waters became, as regards temperature, a possibility ;* and still other millions from the 180° F. mark to that of 120° F., or nearly, when marine animal life may possibly have begun its existence. And since cooling went on at a decreasing rate toward the end, time was also long from the 120° F. mark to that of a mean oceanic temperature of go° F., or below it, when Paleozoic life found congenial conditions in the water. The mean temperature now is about 60° F. 1 A description of the ‘‘Bernardston Series’? of Metamorphic Upper Tiesogian Raahts by Ben K. Emerson, American Journal of Science, 111., “a R. Mallet estimated, in view of the density of the atmosphere—over 200 atmospheres to the square inch—that the first drops of water may have. been condensed on the earth’s surface when the temperature was that of molten iron.—P/il. Mag., January 1880. They live now in waters having a temperature of 200° F., Brewer, at Pluton Creek, California; 185°, W. H. Weed, Yellowstone Park. More- over germs of Bacilli have germinated after having been boiled for an hour. _ June 16, 1892] NATURE 153 - The ocean, sooner or later after its inaugural, began the work of making permanent sediments, that is sediments that were not speedily recrystallized ; and these sediments, through the millions of years that followed, must have been of all kinds and of great thickness. The conditions became still more like the present after the introduction of life with the further decline of tem- perature. Even before its introduction, iron oxides, iron carbonate, calcium carbonate, calcium-magnesium car- bonate, and calcium phosphate had probably commenced to form, for the atmosphere, although it had lost the larger portion of its water-vapour, still contained, as writers on the “primeval earth” have stated, the chief part of its carbonic acid, amounting to all that could be made from the carbon of the limestones, coal and carbonaceous products now in the world. It had also a great excess of oxy- gen—all that has since been shut up in the rocks by oxida- tions. And these most effectual of rock-destroying agents worked under a warm and dripping climate. The amount of carbonic acid, according to published estimates, has been made equivalent in pressure to 200 atmospheres, or 3000 pounds to the square inch. 200 is probably too high, but 50 atmospheres, which is also large, is oe no exaggeration. Hence, the destruction of rocks by chemical methods must have been, as Dr. Hunt and other writers have urged, a great feature of the time ; and long before the introduction of living species, the temperature had so far declined that the making of sili- cates must have given way in part to the making of _ deposits of carbonates and oxides. But with the existence of life in the warm waters, through the still later millions of years, there should _ have been, as Weed’s study of the Yellowstone Park has rendered probable, abundant calcareous secretions from the earliest plants, and, additions later, through the earliest of animal life. Great limestone formations should have resulted, and large deposits of iron carbonate, and perhaps iron oxides, over the bottom-sediments of shal- low inland or sea-border flats, besides carbonaceous shales that would afford graphite by metamorphism. In fact, long before the Archzan closed, the conditions as to rock-making were much like those that followed in the Paleozoic. Surely, then, all attempts to mark off the passing time by successions in &zds of rocks must be futile. Some varze/zes of the various kinds of rocks are probably Archzan only; but not all those of its later ‘millions of years. Even crystalline and uncrystalline may not be a criterion of chronological value. The beds of the Upper Archzean, under the conditions existing, may well, over some regions, be uncrystalline still, and may include carbonaceous shales that hold to this time their carbonaceous products. Such uncrystalline beds may now exist over the Continental Interior ; for the great Interior has generally escaped when metamorphic work was in progress on the Continental borders. The amount of carbonic acid is most readily estimated by first obtaining the probable amount for all post- Archzan sources, and then adding to this that which is indicated by Archean terranes. The calculation is here _ given in detail that others may use it for deductions from other estimates. For the estimation there are the following data. A cubic foot of pure limestone which is half calcite and _ half dolomite and has the normal specific gravity 2°75, weighs 171°4 pounds ; and this, allowing for ;',th impurity, becomes 157 pounds and corresponds to 72 pounds of carbonic acid. A cubic foot is equal to an inch-square column 144 feet in height. Since 72 is half of 144, each foot of the column of such limestone contains half a pound of carbonic acid. Hence a layer of the limestone one foot thick would give to the atmosphere, on decomposition half a pound of carbonic acid for each square inch of surface. A foot layer of good bituminous coal containing 80 NO. 1181, VOL. 46] per cent. of carbon, G=1°s, will give to the atmosphere: by oxidation 1°9 pounds of carbonic acid per square inch of surface. If the mean thickness of the limestone over the whole earth’s surface, that of the oceans included, reckoned on a basis of ;1,th impurity, is 1000 feet, the contained carbonic acid amounts according to the above to 500 pounds per square inch, or 34 atmospheres (of 143 pounds), and if the mean thickness of the coal is one foot, the carbonic acid it could contribute would be 1°9 pounds per square inch. Adding these amounts to the carbonic acid corresponding to the carbon in the mineral oil and gas and other carbonaceous products of the rocks and organic life, supposing it to be six times that of the coal, the total is 513°5 pounds, or 35 atmospheres. The mean thickness of Archzan calcium, magnesium, and iron car- bonates is not a fourth of that of post-Archzan. Estimat- ing the carbonic acid they contain and that corresponding to the graphite of the rocks at ten atmospheres, the whole amount becomes 45 atmospheres. To bring the amount upto the estimate for early Archzean time of 200 atmospheres of carbonic acid, the mean thickness of the limestone for Archzan and post-Archzan time should be taken at nearly 6000 feet. Part of the limestone of post-Archzan terranes was derived from the wear and solution of Archzan lime- stones, iron carbonate, &c., and hence all the 35 atmo- spheres to the square inch were not in the atmosphere at the commencement of the Paleozoic. But if. we reduce the 35 atmospheres, on this account, to 25 atmospheres, it is still an enormous:‘amount beyond what ordinary life, even aquatic life, will endure. Reducing the estimated mean thickness for the limestone layer over the globe from 1000 to 500 feet would make the amount nearly one half less.! The making of carbonates early began the work of storing carbonic acid and purifying the atmosphere ; and the introduction of life increased the amount thus stored, and added to it through the carbonaceous materials from living tissues contributed to the earthy deposits. But with all the reductions that can be explained, the excess is still very large. It has been proved by experiment that an excess also of oxygen diminishes the deleterious influence of carbonic acid on plants; and that if the amount of this gas is made equal to that of the oxygen in the present atmosphere, plants will still thrive. How far this principle worked in early time cannot be known. 2. Subdivisions based on Stratification. The stratification in an Archean region affords the only safe and right basis for subdivisions. This method has been used in the separation of the Huronian from the older Archzan; and recently, with good success, by Irving and Van Hise in the study of the Penokee-Mar- quette region, or the Huronian belt of Wisconsin and Michigan. The intimate relation of the beds in the series has been worked out and their unconformability with the lower rocks thus ascertained, besides the stratification and constitution of the iron-ore series within the belt. This is the first step toward that complete study which should be carried on throughout all Archzan areas, how- ever “complex.” The distribution of the rocks and their apparent or real stratigraphic succession, whether massive or schistose, the positions of the planes of folia- tion or bedding, the unconformities in superposition, and those of mere faulting, and all structural conditions, should be thoroughly investigated. Correlation by likeness of rocks has its value within limited areas, but only after tA right estimate is very desirable. If made for North America, it could not be far out of the way to assume it to be a mean for like areas of the other continents as regards the limestone. But with the best possible result for the continents, the oceanic area, three times that of the continents, and out of the reach of investigation as to depths of bottom deposits, remains a large source of doubt. 154 NATURE [June 16, 1892 much, questioning.! The work is easy in its methods, yet perplexing because in North America the uplifts and flexures of different periods have in general taken place in parallel directions, so that unconformabilities are dis- guised, especially when the two formations are nearly alike in grade of metamorphism. Follow along the over- lying to places where its metamorphism is of low grade, and there may be success, There is a first point of special importance to be accom- plished by Archzean investigation. The Huronian of the Penokee-Marquette region is partially metamorphic. To the east, the iron ore, according to the describers, is mainly metamorphic magnetite and hematite; to the west, especially in the Penokee region, it is largely iron carbonate, or the ore in its original state. Other facts show a diminishing grade of metamorphism to the west- ward. In the Penokee district, the ore is underlain by a bed of “cherty limestone,” the chert of which, like the interlaminated jasper of the iron ore bed, is regarded by Van Hise as probably of organic origin, like later chert. It has among the overlying beds carbonaceous shales containing, according to Chamberlin, 40 per cent. of carbon, bearing thus evidence of very large organic car- bonaceous contributions when in process of formation. The great beds of iron ore, the upward gradation east- ward in metamorphism, the relations in position to the admitted Archean adjoining it on the south, seem to prove the Huronian series to be Upper Archean, as it has been generally regarded, but in a non-metamorphic and partially metamorphic condition. The question thence arises: Are the ore-bearing rocks of the Archaean of Eastern Canada, New York, New Jersey, and other parts of the Appalachian chain, Huronian in a. state of high-grade metamorphism? Are the chondroditic lime- stones, which, in some localities, occur in and with the ore, part of the Huronian formation? Does the eastern iron-bearing series rest unconformably on_ inferior Archean ? The Algonkian (or Agnotozoic) beds belong either to the Archzan or to the Paleozoic. The Archzan division of geological time is of the same category with the Paleozoic, Mesozoic,and Cenozoic ; all are grand divisions based on the progress of life, and they include together its complete range. There is no room for another grand division between Archean and Paleozoic any more than for one between Paleozoic and Mesozoic. In contrast, the Algonkian division is not above the Cambrian in grade, it being based on series of rocks. Its true biological relations are in doubt, because fossils representing the supposed life of the period are unknown, or imperfectly so. The discovery in any rock so-called of Trilobites, Crustaceans, Mollusks, Brachio- pods, or Crinoids, whatever the species, would entitle such rocks to a place in the Paleozoic, and either within the Cambrian group or below it. Walcott has already reported such fossils from the beds at the bottom of the Coloradocaiion referred by him to the Algonkian—namely, « As a preliminary in the study of any such region, thousands of dips and strikes of planes of foliation or bedding should be taken (in imitati n of Percival’s work before 1842, mentioned in the note on p. 440 of the last volume of the American Journal of Sctence), and all should be plotted on maps of large scale by means of symbols with affixed numbers recording the dips and strikes, for full comparison in the final elaboration. Even the Penokee-Marquette region nezds further investigation with a clinometer- compass in hand Before commencing the study of any crystalline rocks, models of flexures should have been studied until the fact is fully appreciated that a flexure having an inclined axis—the commonest kind—ranges through 180°, or nearly, in its dips and strikes, and until the characters of the bedding in different transverse sections of flexures are well apprehended. A good model for studying flexures may be made from a cylindrical stick of coarse- grained wood having the bark on (if of a smooth kind); it may be about four vnches in diameter and twelve to fifteen long. Drawa straight line through the centre of one end ; and from this line saw across obliquely to the edge at the opposite end. After planing smooth the sawed surface, the layers of the wood may then be coloured by groups; and three colours, or two besides that of the wood, are better than more. The model of a flexure having an inclined axis is then complete. Cross-sections of the model may be cut and the colours added to the new surfaces. For models of overthrust flexures, this method is not practicable, as wood of elliptical section would be re- quired. They may be made of paper-pulp of three colours. ° NO. 1181, VOL. 46] besides a Stromatoporid, a small Patella-like or Discina- like shell, a fragment of a Trilobite and a small Hyolithes - —forms which make the beds Paleozoic beyond question. 3. Subdivisions based on Physical and Biological Conditions. Although the physical and biological conditions of the early globe are within the range of observation, there are generally admitted facts which afford a basis for a philo- sophical division of the time ; and from it geology may derive instruction. The subdivisions to which we are led are the following :— I. The ASTRAL zon, as it has been called, or that of liquidity. II. The AZoIc zon, or that without life. (1) The Lzthic era, commencing with completed consolidation : the time when lateral pressure for crust- disturbance and mountain-making was initiated, and when metamorphic work began. _ (2) The Oceanic era, commencing with the ocean in its place : oceanic waves and currents and embryo rivers beginning their work about emerged and emerging lands, and the tides, the retarding of the earth’s rotation. — III. The ARCH#OZOIC zon, or that of the first life. (1) The eva of the first Plants : the Algze and later the aquatic Fungi (Bacteria) ; commencing possibly with the mean surface temperature of the ocean about 180° F. (2) The era of the first Animal life: the Protozoans, and forms related to the embryos of higher invertebrate species; commencing possibly with the mean surface temperature of the waters about 120° F., and ending with go° F. or below. The subdivisions, as is evident, mark off great steps in the progress of the developing earth, although the rocks bear no marks of them that can be distinguished. ~ The Huronian period covered, probably, much of Archeozoic time ; and this is all in the way of correlation that can be said. It is well to note here that if the Eozoon is really animal in origin, the “ Laurentian” rocks of Canada in which it occurs must be Huronian, or the later of Archzean terranes. Respecting the Oceanic period it is observed above, “commencing with the ocean in tts place.” It appears to bé almost a physical necessity that the oceanic depres- sion should have been made in the first forming of the solid crust, if the globe cooled to the surface from the centre outward ; that is, unless a liquid layer remained long afterward beneath the crust. The depression was certainly made long before the close of Archean time. For the enormous amount of rock-making of the Archzean over the continent implies the existence of emerged rocks with reach of the decom- posing, eroding, and denuding agencies of the atmosphere | and atmospheric and oceanic waters. A submergence in the ocean of 50 feet is almost a complete protection against mechanical and chemical wear. Moreover North America has its Archean lands not only in the great nucleal mass, 2,000,000 square miles in area, but also in the series of Archzean ranges parallel to the outlines of the nucleus, which extend eastward to the eastern limit of Newfoundland, and westward to the Pacific. And it has correspondingly shallow-water Cambrian deposits lying between these ranges from Eastern Newfoundland and the coast-region of New Burnswick and Massa- chusetts, westward across the continent about most of the Archzean outcrops, to within 300 to 400 miles of the Pacific Ocean,.as shown by Walcott. : There is hence reason for the conclusion that, at the close of Archzan time, the continent of North America was present not merely in outline, but also in general features, and at shallow depths where not emerged. This fact with reference to North America means much. It means that by the end of Archean time, the continents generally were essentially in a like condition—outlined JUNE 16, 1892] NATURE 155 and at shallow depths where not emerged ; that, there- fore, the oceanic depression was then large and deep enough to hold the ocean. Further, this last fact indi- ' cates, if the mean level of the continents was coincident - with the water’s surface, that the oceanic depression had already a depth of 12,000 feet, or that of the present mean depth of the waters; and that the lowering, through later time, of the bed 1500 feet on an average (or _ 2000 feet according to other estimates) would give the ~ continents their present mean height. And it is a fact of deep geogenic significance, that nearly 1000 feet of this mean height was received after the beginning of the Tertiary. JAMES D. DANA. ' OPENING OF THE LIVERPOOL MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. ; (THE Liverpool Marine Biology Committee, which ' # commenced the investigation of the fauna and flora - of Liverpool Bay and the neighbouring seas seven years “ago, and has kept up a small biological station on Puffin “Island, Anglesey, for the last five years, passed on Satur- day (June 4) into a new phase of its existence, and, it 'may be hoped, a more extended sphere of labour, when ‘His Excellency Spencer Walpole, Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Man, declared the new marine laboratory -at Port Erin to be open for work. The Puffin Island ‘establishment has been very useful to the Committee, and ‘well worth the small annual expenditure required for its “modest outfit. It has been used by a few students who wished to gain a general knowledge of the common “marine animals and plants in a living state, and by a ‘limited number of specialists who went there to make ‘observations, or who had the material for their investi- gations collected there and sent to them. But the Com- “mittee has felt for the last year, at least, that a station ‘which was more readily accessible from Liverpool, and ‘with hotel or lodging accommodation obtainable on the spot, would enable their members to do more work, and ‘be of more use both to students and to investigators. Also, it was evident that after five years’ work on the shores of the small island the greater number of the plants and animals had been collected and examined, and that a change to a new locality with a rich fauna and a more extended line of coast would yield increased material for faunistic work. On looking round the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee’s district, Port Erin, at the southern end of the Isle of Man, at once presented itself as the best available place. From its position, and the shape of the land, Port Erin has within a distance of a couple of miles in three directions—to Fleshwick Bay, to the Calf, and to Port ~St. Mary—a long and varied coast-line, with a number of small bays, furnishing good collecting-ground and ‘shallow-water dredging. Two of these bays, Port Erin -and Port St. Mary, have harbours with sailing-boats, and ‘face in nearly opposite directions, so that in most winds ‘one or other is sheltered and has a quiet sea. The rich ‘fauna around the Calf and off Spanish Head is within ‘easy reach : at a distance of three to four miles from the ‘laboratory are depths of 20 to 30 fathoms, and at fourteen ‘miles 60 to 70 fathoms. Although it is a considerable “distance from Liverpool, still it is reached by a regular 'sé@rvice of swift steamers and convenient trains, so that “there is no uncertainty or delay in the journey. - The ee of Port Erin shows the position and surroundings of the Biological Station. It is on ‘the ‘beach at one corner of the bay, near where the sand and “rocks join, and at the foot of the cliff upon which the ‘Bellevue Hotel stands. It is connected with the road ‘by means of a winding gravel path and steps, and is ‘about a third’of a mile from the railway station. It is just at the bottom of the hotel grounds, and arrangements NO. 1181, VOL. 46] have been made with the proprietor by which those working at the Biological Station can live comfortably and economically at the hotel. The sea comes to within a few yards of the windows, and the bay immediately in front is sheltered pure sea-water with a varied bottom, suitable for small boat dredging and tow-netting ; while the rocky coast, extending out towards Bradda Head, has many creeks and good shore pools. The station is a substantially built, three-roomed house, measuring a little over 30 feet by 20 feet, and standing on a solid stone and concrete platform, which raises it about 10 feet above high tide. It has windows looking out in three directions, north, south, and west. The front door leads into a passage, from which open to right and left two small rooms, which can be used as the Director’s room and the Secretary’s office, and will also be available for the use of members of the Committee, or any special students who require a separate room for their work. Opposite the entrance is the door into the main laboratory, which measures about 22 feet by 20 feet, and has windows on beth sides. In front of the windows run strong fixed work-tables, which will accommodate five students with ease. At the ends of the room are fire-place, sink, tables, bookcase, and abundance 0 m cr uo a c ra 11 o o Zz un an < 10 | : 8 To SEA INDOW Window Plan of the Liverpool Marine Biological Laboratory at Port Erin. 1, Main laboratory (22 X 20), with work places for five students; 2, strong table for aquaria; 3 to 9, tables; 10, small laboratory for Director or members of Committee ; 11, passage ; 12, small laboratory or Secretary's office ; 13, small yard. of shelving, while along the centre runs a strong table for small aquaria and vessels containing animals. A door in one corner opens into a useful small yard between the house and the cliff, in which the concrete fresh water cistern is placed, and where dredges and other implements can be stored. The Liverpool Salvage Association had kindly pro- mised to lend their useful steamer, the Hyena, to the Committee for four or five days at the time of opening ; but as she was called off on duty at the last moment, they sent the steamer J/a//ard instead, on Friday afternoon, across to Port Erin, where she remained until . Monday. Dredging trips in the neighbourhood took place on three of the days, and on Saturday evening tow-netting with sub- marine electric lights was carried on after dark in the bay. At one o’clock on Saturday the Lieutenant-Governor, the Bishop, the Manx Attorney-General, and a number of members of the House of Keys, and others, arrived at Port Erin, where they were met by Prof. Herdman, Mr. I. C. Thompson, Mr. A. O. Walker, Mr. J. Vicars, Sir James Poole, and others of the L.M.B.C., along with some biologists from elsewhere, the Liverpool party number- ing over thirty. The Governor was conveyed to the front of the Biological Station, where, after being pre- sented by Prof. Herdman with the reports upon the 156 NATURE [JUNE 16, 1892 fauna of Liverpool Bay published by the L.M.B.C., he declared the building open for work, and then the party entered and proceeded to examine the results of the forenoon’s dredging, laid out in dishes and under microscopes. At two o’clock the Governor and the Bishop were entertained to luncheon at the Bellevue Hotel by the L.M.BC., Prof. Herdman being in the chair, with the Governor on the right and the Bishop on the left. Mr. I. C. Thompson, Hon. Sec. L.M.B.C., occupied the other end of the table, and about seventy in all sat down to luncheon, including the Presi- dent and Secretary and some other members of the Isle of Man Natural History Society. The Governor proposed the toast of “ The Liverpool Marine Biology Committee,” to which Prof. Herdman replied. The whole of the following day was spent in dredging and tow-netting from the Zad/ard to the west and south of Port Erin at the following localities :— (1) 3 miles west of Fleshwick : 20 fathoms, 6 hauls of dredge: good varied ground, old shells, &c. (2) 14 miles west of Dalby: 60 fathoms, 2 hauls ; sticky clay mud, with few animals. (3) 8 miles west of Fleshwick: 33 fathoms, 3 hauls. (4) 6 miles west of Port Erin: 24 fathoms, 2 hauls. (5) 1 mile west of Calf: 20 fathoms, 2 hauls. (6) Off Kitterland, Calf Sound: 17 fathoms, 1 haul. At each of these localities, besides the ordinary large dredge, tow-nets were used, and also Mr. Walker’s small dredge with a canvas bag for bringing up samples of the bottom to be washed for small Crustacea, &c. On the following day (June 6), on the way back to Liverpool, dredging from the Ma//ard was conducted at the following places :— (1) 20 miles south-east from Port St. Mary: 26 fathoms. (2) 25 miles south-east from Port St. Mary : 23 fathoms. Both of these localities were good productive ground, and large hauls were obtained. (3) 20 miles north-west from the Bar: 18 fathoms. (4) 15 miles north-west from the Bar: 16 fathoms. On all these occasions, besides the surface tow-nets, a bottom tow-net was attached a little way in front of the dredge, and appeared to work well; its contents were usually a good deal different from those of the surface nets. Amongst the forms dredged in these two days were :— Clathria seriata, Spongelia fragilis, Sarcodictyon cate- nata, Palmipes membranaceus, Stichaster roseus, Porania pulvillus, Antedon rosaceus, Adamsia pailiata, Crania anomala, Pandora tneguivalvis, Cynthia echinata, and the rare little Ascidian Fordesella tessellata, and a large number of other species, representing most of the inver- tebrate groups, which have not yet been sorted out and identified. A list of the species previously found in the neighbourhood of Port Erin will be found in “ Fauna of Liverpool Bay,” vol. i. pp. 318-41. The Liverpool Marine Biology Committee’s Station at Port Erin is now open, and is provided with a few micro- scopes, microtome, ordinary reagents, dishes, &c. Any biologists wishing to go there for collecting or other work are requested to apply for particulars to Prof. Herdman, orto Mr. I. C. Thompson, 4 Lord Street, Liverpool. THE .ANNUAL VISITATION OF THE GREENWICH OBSERVATORY. Tee report of the Astronomer-Royal to the Board of Visitors this year commences with a reference to the loss sustained by the Observatory by the death of Sir G. B. Airy, who for sixty years was closely connected with the working of this institution. As regards the buildings, that of the south wing of the sproposed Physical Observatory has been authorized by NO. 1181, VOL. 46] the Admiralty, considerably more space being required for the storing of chronometers and deck watches. The buildings of the three other wings and the two upper stories of the central tower have, for the present, been laid aside, sufficient provision not being made for them in the present financial year. The new 36-foot dome, which is being provided for the efficient working of the 28-inch refractor, is still in course of erection, while the pair of semi-domes for the Transit Pavilion in the Front Court has been found to be quite satisfactory. The electric light installation, which has in a former report been suggested by the Astronomer-Royal for the photo- graphic equatorial and for other instruments, has been sanctioned by the Admiralty, and will, during the course of the present year, be provided. The advantages of such a means of lighting will at once make themselves apparent, for by the old method the storage cells had to be charged from primary batteries. The Observatory, by the will of the late Sir George Airy, has had several valuable works bequeathed to it. Mr. Wilfred Airy has as yet transferred 94 volumes and 134 unbound tracts, which will form a valuable addition to the library, together with the manu- script containing the calculations of Sir George re ae numerical lunar theory. His bust, by Foley, has also been received and is now placed in the Octagon Room. With regard to the work done with the transit-circle, the number of observations was not so great as in former years, as the object-glass was removed for repolishing on August Io to October 5. The definition and colour- correction of this glass has been greatly improved by Mr. Simms. New steel screws to the R.A. and Z.D. micro- meters were added at the same time, and the wire system also received a slight modification. The wires are ten in number, distant from each other by exact multiples of a screw-revolution, and so arranged that the mean of the ten nearly coincides with one of them. A little compu- tation is thus saved in taking the mean of a transit, and the only thing lost is symmetry in the arrangement. During the rest of the year the sun, moon, and planets have been regularly observed on the meridian as efore :— Transits, the separate limbs being counted as separate observations ... fe sae .-. 4801 Determinations of collimation error s. 249 Determinations of level error 335 Circle observations oat ot ats --- 4463 Determinations of nadir point (included in the number of circle observations) att ge Reflexion observations of stars (similarly in- cluded) ... isk ig ae As re eee The annual catalogue of stars observed in 1891 con- tains 1813 stars. The results from the observations for the determination of variation of personal equation with stellar magnitude, indicated that there was a general tendency with all the observers to observe stars later when the light was diminished by placing a gauze screen before the object- glass; but it was stated that “it is not clear that we are here measuring a real change of personal equation in observations of fainter stars; as the introduction of the screen modifies the image of the star, and this modifica- tion of the image may give rise to a change of personal equation unconnected with the diminution of. bright- ness.” It is noted that as the external thermometer rises there is a nearly uniform decrease of the readings of :‘the internal thermometers over that. of the standard exterior thermometer, the excess vanishing at something over 70°. This is accounted for by the variation of the temperature of the walis of the room, the permanent temperature of which is always slowly changing. the deficiencies mentioned above. JuNE 16, 1892] NATURE 157 The total number of observations made with the alt- azimuth in the year ending 1892 May to is as follows :— Azimuths of the moon and stars 345 Azimuths of Mark I. ... oe 162 Azimuths of Mark II. ... * 182 Zenith distances of the moon ... 166 Zenith distances of Mark I... as oe 164 Zenith distances of Mark II. ... mt = 176 These numbers are slightly greater than in recent years, owing to the fact that during August and September, __ when the transit-circle was under repair, the observations _ ofthe moon with the altazimuth were made throughout __ the lunation instead of being confined to the first and last With regard to clocks and chronographs, we may mention that the daily rate of the sidereal standard clock _ underwent a very considerable disturbance, changing _ from a daily gain of I’os. to that of 2°0s. The cause of _ this difference was due to some workmen who were fixing _ anew shelf, the necessary hammering setting up vibra- tions in the building. With the reflex zenith tube, eighteen double observa- _ tions of y Draconis have been made, but owing to the _ pressure of work the reductions are not yet complete. Ten occultations of stars by the uneclipsed moon (8 _ disappearances and 2 reappearances) and 48 phenomena of Jupiter’s satellites have been observed with the equa- 4 pal sy or with the altazimuth. These observations are _ completely reduced to 1891 December 31. On the occa- sion of the partial eclipse of the moon on 1892 May 11, _ 7 disappearances and 3 reappearances were observed of the faint stars in a list prepared by Mr. Crommelin ; and the times of transit of the shadow over some principal craters were also noted. But it is to be regretted that, although favoured by fine weather on this occasion, the Observatory was seriously crippled in their instrumental €quipment,the 13-inch refractor of the south-east equatorial and the Lassell 2-feet reflector being both dismounted. With the photographic equatorial, 301 plates with a total of 1190 exposures have been taken on 112 nights, many of these being taken for special investigations. Of these, 62 plates were taken to determine the relations _ between diameter of image, length of exposure, and brightness of the star, the results of which have already _ appeared in the Monthly Notices for January of this _ year. The discussion indicated that, through a range of _ €xposures corresponding to 8 magnitudes, “the square _ root of the diameter increases as the logarithm of the ex- _ posure ; and further, that for equal photographic effects _ duration of exposure should vary inversely as the bright- ness of the star.” These results were based on as many as 2200 measures of I50 starimages. The réseaux seem _ to have given much trouble, the silver film developing _ pin-holes, the images of which resemble on the photo- _ graphic plates those of stars. M. Gautier is now supply- ing the Observatory with two more, coated this time with a film of collodion, in the hopes that it may be freed from The catalogue which ___ has been undertaken at Greenwich of the guiding stars __ for the zones + 60° to the pole, + 25° to + 29°, and — 3° to — 5°, is very near completion. The catalogues of _ places (epoch 1900) are complete for the Greenwich zones + 65° to + 80° (the reductions for the circumpolar _ region being deferred), also for the zones + 60° to + 64° to be photographed at Rome, and for the Oxford zones _ + 25°to+29°. The stars for the San Fernando zone _ {— 3°to — 5°) have all been selected, and their places __ have been computed for those between R.A. 12h. and 18h. Spectroscopic. and Photographic Observations.—The observations of the displacement of the lines in stellar spectra for the determination of their motion in the line of sight have not this year been regularly continued ; a preliminary discussion of the former observations sug- gesting that they were affected to some extent by the NO. 1181, VOL. 46] position of the spectroscope, Vega and Altair were ob- served during the summer and autumn at as wide a range of hour-angle as possible, and with the spectroscope set to each of the four positions 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°; the slit being parallel to the declination circle at o°. The numbers of observations obtained of the F line in the spectrum of Vega are: at 0°, 39; at 90°, 42; at 180°, 36; and at 270°, 39; and of the F line in the spectrum of Altair: at O°, 30; at 90°, 32; at 180°, 26; and at 270°,29. The measures are now under discussion, and give clear indi- cations of the existence of the systematic error referred to. The observations were interrupted by the dismounting of the 12-inch telescope on 1891 November 19. | At the appearance of the new star in Auriga the south- east equatorial was unfortunately dismounted, but the object-glass presented to the Observatory by Sir Henry Thompson was mounted as quickly as possible on the Thompson telescope ; but alterations of the telescope tube were found necessary to bring the spectrum to focus on the photographic plate, and before these could be completed, the Nova had become nearly too faint for observation. For the year 1891, 360 out of 365 photographs of the sun’s surface have been selected for measurement; 136 of these were sent to the Solar Physics Committee from India and Mauritius. The solar activity has increased in a remarkable man- ner during the past year. While there were 175 days without spots in the year 1890, there were only 21 such days in 1891, and since 1891 March 28, the sun has not been free from spots on a single day on which it has been observed. The number of groups visible on the disk at the same time, and their average size and complexity, have all greatly increased during the past twelve months, the group of February 5-18 being the largest ever photo- graphed at Greenwich. This group has had an unusually long life, appearing first on 1891 November 15, and persisting till 1892 March 17. Magnetic Observations.—The continuous register by photography of the magnetic elements has been satisfac- torily maintained. It has been found that serious dis- turbances of the earth-current registers is due to the trains of the City and South London Electric Railway, situated at a distance of 24 miles from the nearest earth plate, and about 44 miles from the Observatory. The change of potential takes place every two or three minutes, varying in amount from “a small fraction of a volt to one-third of a volt or more.” The following are the principal results for the magnetic elements for 1891 :— Mean declination (approximate) ey aes a 23° West. P : in British units). Mean horizontal force _... oa fa Metric — 67° 19’ 49” (by 9-inch needles). Sl eae are 67° 21’ 0” (by 6-inch needles). | 67° 23' 22” (by 3-inch needles). In the year 1891 there were five days of great magnetic disturbance, but there were also about twenty other days of lesser disturbance, for which tracings of the photographic curves will be published ; these days having been selected in concert with M. Mascart according to the arrangement mentioned in the last report. The calculation of diurnal inequalities from five typical quiet days in each month, commenced in 1889 at Prof. Riicker’s suggestion, has been continued. From February 13 to 14a very large disturbance was recorded, commencing a day after the large sun-spot was on the central meridian. Considerable magnetic disturb- ances also occurred on March 6, 11, and12. Other dis- turbances occurred on 1891 September 9, 1892 April 25-26 and May 1, and may perhaps “ be connected with spots then on the sun’s disk.” Meteorological Obsérvations.—The mean temperature of the year 1891 was 48°'4, being 1°*1 below the average 158 NATURE [June 16, 1892 of the fifty years, 1841-1890. The highest air temperature in the shade was 85°'1 on July 17, and the lowest 12°'0 on January 10. The mean monthly temperature in 1891 was below the average in all months excepting June, September, October, December. In January it was below the average by 4°°4, in April and August by 3°0, and in May by 2°°8. The mean daily motion of the air in 1891 was 278 miles, being 4 miles below the average of the preceding twenty-four years. The greatest daily motion was 960 miles on December Io, and the least 34 miles on February 23 and 24. The greatest pressure registered was 31°5 Ibs. on the square foot on November 11. On December Io the pressure plate was not in action. The number of hours of bright sunshine recorded during 1891 by the Campbell-Stokes sunshine instrument was 1222, which is about 66 hours below the average of the preceding fourteen years, after making allowance for difference of the indications with the Campbell and Campbell-Stokes instruments respectively. The aggre- gate number of hours during which the sun was above the horizon was 4454, so that the mean proportion of sun- shine for the year was 0°274, constant sunshine being represented by I. The rainfall in 1891 was 25’0 inches, being 0°5 inches above the average of the preceding fifty years. Chronometers, Time Signals, and Longitude Opera- tiéons.—The number of chronometers and deck watches now being tested at the Observatory is 157 (91 box chronometers, 19 pocket chronometers, and 47 deck watches). The annual competitive trial of chronometers commences on July 2, and the trial of deck watches on October 22. In the year ending 1891 May Io, the average daily number of chronometers and deck watches being regularly rated was 243, the total number received was 765, the total issued 750, and the number set to repair 442. At the annual trial of chronometers the performance was good, the average trial number of the first six was 21°4, which compares favourably with those of previous years. The dropping of the time-balls is next referred to. The Greenwich one was not raised on October 14, Dec- ember 10 and 13, 1891, owing to the violence of the wind ; on April 1, 1892, the springs of the mean solar clock failed to act, and on October 19 and November 22 failure in the connections was the cause. The return signal from Deal was interrupted last November several times, owing to an accumulation of grease which had been applied to the piston. Signals from Devonport clock failed on 51 days, and those from the Westminster clock on 14 days. The publication of the observations for the Paris- Greenwich longitude in 1888, and of those for the Dun- kerque-Greenwich longitude in 1889, has been delayed pending a redetermination of the former longitude which was commenced on June 6 of the present year; and it is hoped to settle several questions of importance raised by the discussion of the results obtained in 1888. The first stage of the operations for the longitudes Montreal-Canso-Waterville-Greenwich was completed on May 23. The time of transmission along the cable Waterville-Canso was about a quarter of a second—a result confirmed by a rough comparison of signals on 1892 May 11. Prof. McLeod, of Montreal, paid a similar preliminary visit to Canso in 1891 June, and found an accordant value for the time of transmission. Four portable transits were used for the time determinations. These latter were made in all on 14 nights at Greenwich, 12 at Waterville, and about the same number at Canso and Montreal. The preliminary reduction gives every promise of satisfactory accuracy at Greenwich and Waterville. Captain Grant, R.E., has been at work at the Observa-. NO. 1181, VOL. 46] tory practising the requisite transit observations for determining the boundary of Mashonaland. In the Astronomer-Royal’s general remarks at the con- clusion of his report, he refers toa plan he has devised for making observations out of the meridian with a transit- circle. He proposes to have it so constructed that by means of a turn-table it can be placed and firmly fixed in certain definite azimuthal, the instrument “ being used essentially as a transit-circle for a complete series of ob- servations in the selected azimuths plane.” This instru- ment, as he says, would advantageously replace the existing altazimuth, and could be used “not only for the important object of making extra-meridian observations of the moon but also for observations of the sun, planets, and stars (in the meridian as well as out of the meridian), for the elimination, as far as practicable, of systematic errors, and for the more accurate determination of as- tronomical constants.’ The aperture of the instrument he suggests should be 8 inches, with circles of 3 feet diameter, read by four microscopes, and he thinks thata suitable position for it could be found about go feet north of the declination magnet, where “an unobstructed view could be secured by mounting it with its axis at a height of about 20 feet above the ground.” NOTES. THE Ladies’ Socré of the Royal Society is being held this evening as NATURE goes to press. bg THE annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will be held at Rochester, N.Y., from August 18 to 24. THE late Dr. W. J. Walker placed at the disposal of th Boston Society of Natural History a grand honorary prize “ for such investigation or discovery as may seem to deserve it, pro- vided such investigation or discovery shall have been made known or published in the United States at least one year pre- vious to the time of award.”’ This prize has been unanimously awarded to Prof. James D. Dana. In recognition of the value of Prof. Dana’s scientific work, and in testimony of the Society’s high appreciation of his services to science, the maximum sum of one thousand dollars has been awarded. ' In the new number of the Journal of the Marine Biological] Association Mr. Ernest W. L. Holt gives an interesting account of the work he has lately done in connection with his North Sea investigations, The objects of these investigations, as ex- plained in the report of Mr. Calderwood, the Director of the Plymouth Laboratory, are:—(1) to prepare a history of the North Sea trawling grounds, comparing the present condition with the condition say twenty or thirty years ago, when com- paratively few boats were at work; (2) to continue, verify, and extend operations as to the average sizes at which the various food-fishes become sexually mature; (3) to collect statistics as to the sizes of all the fish captured in the vicinity of the Dogger Banks and the region lying to the eastward, so that the number of immature fish annually captured may be esti- mated; (4) to make experiments with beam trawl nets of various meshes, with a view to determine the relation, if any, between size of mesh and size of fish taken. It is obvious that a considerable time must elapse before trustworthy data can be collected on all these points by one inquirer. Mr. Calderwood therefore notes that in Mr. Holt’s early reports it has been thought advisable not to treat each heading in detail, since one season of the year may be more suitable for collecting informa- tion on one point than on another, but rather simply to state the results of work accomplished. During the spawning season most attention must necessarily be given to heading No. 2, so that in Mr. Holt’s present report the relation of. size to imma- turity is principally mentioned. Work of a similar nature done by Mr. Holt himself in Ireland, by Dr. Fulton in Scotland, JUNE 16, 1892] NATURE 159 ron and by observers at Plymouth, shows that a very considerable variation takes place in the sizes at which fishes become sexually mature in different localities, and Mr. Calderwood __ thinks it is probably not too much to say that as surely as legis- lation will have to be resorted to for the preservation of fish until they have spawned, so surely will the matter have to be & studied for each coast separately. Mr. CALDERWOOD records in his report that the demand on r: the Plymouth Laboratory for specimens to be used in labora- tories ‘and museums throughout the country increases, and __ requires constant attention. The Laboratory can supply speci- mens which, in very many cases, could not otherwise be _ obtained. The proper preservation of certain classes of soft animals is in itself an art developed during the last fifteen years, almost entirely by the persevering efforts of Signor Lo Bianco, 4 of Naples. Within the past year these methods have been _ published, and itishoped that with practice the specimens sent out _ from the Plymouth Laboratory may gradually gain the character Cae long possessed by the Naples specimens alone. __ AT the general monthly meeting of the Royal Institution on : ‘Monday, June 13, the special thanks of the members were returned for the following donations :—Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, e £80, Sir David Salomons, Bart., £50, Mr. Charles Hawksley, Bos fe 50, for carrying on investigations on liquid oxygen. __ A COMMITTEE appointed by the Botanical Club of Washing- ton to consider the questions of a botanical congress and -botani lature has lately presented its report, which the Club has unanimously adopted. While favouring the final settlement of disputed questions by means of an international congress, the committee do not regard the present as an oppor- tune time. They recommend the reference of the question of plant nomenclature first to a representative body of American botanists, and suggest the consideration, by such a body, of various questions. Among these questions are the following : the law of priority, an initial date for genera, an initial date for “species, the principle ‘‘once a synonym always a synonym,” __ what constitutes publication ?, the form of ordinal and tribal ‘names, and the method of citing authorities. __ THE anticyclone, which at the time of our last issue had lain over these islands for some days, then began gradually to give way, and in the night of the gth northerly winds and cloudy 3 seal set in over Scotland, while depressions formed over = land, causing thunderstorms in this country and in Ireland, _ with heavy rainfall in places, as much as 1‘I inch being “measured at Mullaghmore during the twenty-four hours ending is Sh. a.m. on Saturday, the 11th. These changes in the distribu- ee tion of pressure caused great fluctuations of temperature ; the Ws maxima observed over Scotland on the roth were in some cases 3 much as 30° lower than those of the previous day, while in ! land, on the 11th and 12th, a still larger decrease of 7 temperature was experienced. A small depression which lay z Over | the south-east of England on Sunday, caused a steady rain _ for some hours in that part of the country ; the maximum _ temperature registered in London was 51°, being about 18° Bue below the average maximum for June. In fact, so low a maxi- _ mum temperature has not occurred in London, in June, for at _ least a quarter of a century. On the night of the 19th the _ temperature on the grass fell to 29° at Oxford. During the __ early part of the present week an anticyclone, lying to the west- z ward, extended over the western and northern parts of the _ country, and a large depression appeared to the southward of _ these islands, causing moderate northerly and north-easterly ie breezes, while temperatures continued low in all parts of the country. _ THE Meteorological Council have just issued, as the complet- ing portion of the Weekly Weather Report for 1891, tables giving improved monthly and annual means of temperature, rainfall, NO. 1181, VOL. 46] and bright sunshine for all the stations (65 in number) used in the preparation of that publication. The large amount of labour expended on the calculations, and the trustworthiness of the values may be judged of from the fact that the temperature means extend over 20 years, the rainfall over 25 years, and the sunshine over 10 years. A glance at the figures at any station is sufficient to show the chief characteristics of its climate, as compared with any other locality. They show that London has the highest mean maximum temperature in July, 72°'4; Cambridge, the lowest mean minimum, 31°°6 in December, although several other stations have a mean minimum of 31°°7 in that month, and Cambridge and Hillington have 31°°7 and 31°°8 respectively in January. ‘The wettest station is Laudale, N.B., with an annual rainfall of 79°°57 inches, and the driest, Ses Head, 20°92 inches. The stations with most and least sunshine are Jersey and Glasgow respectively, the deficiency of the latter being due to smoke. Dr. J. HANN laid before the Academy of Sciences at Vienna, on May 5, another of those elaborate investigations for which he is so wellsknown, entitled ‘‘ Further Researches into the Daily Oscillations of the Barometer.” The first section of the work deals with a thorough analysis of the barometric oscillations on mountain summits and in valleys, for different seasons, for which he has calculated the daily harmonic constituents, and given a full description of the phenomena, showing how the amplitude of the single daily oscillation first decreases with increasing altitude, and then increases again with a higher elevation. The epochs of the phases are reversed at about 6000 feet above sea-level as compared with those on the plains. The minimum on the summits occurs about 6h. a.m., and in the valleys be- tween 3h. and 4h. p.m. The double daily oscillation shows, in relation to its amplitude on the summits, nearly the normal decrease, in proportion to thedecreasing pressure, but the epochs of the phases exhibit a retardation on the summits, of as much as one ortwo hours. In the tropics, however, this retardation is very small, He then endeavours to show that these modifica- tions of the daily barometric range on mountain summits are generally explained by the differences of temperature in the lower strata of air. In connection with this part of the subject, he considers that even the differences in the daily oscillations at Greenwich and Kew are mostly explained by the different altitude of the two stations, and by the fact that Greenwich is on an open hill. In the second section he has computed the har- monic constants for a large number of stations not contained in his former treatise ofa similar nature, including some valuable observations supplied by the Brazilian Telegraph Administra- tion, and others at various remote parts of the globe. A SECOND attempt is to be made to build an Observatory at the top of Mont Blanc. As the workmen who tunnelled last year through the snow just below the summit did not come upon rock, M. Janssen has decided that the building shall be erected on the frozen snow. A wooden cabin was put up, as an experi- ment, at the end of last summer, and in January and early in the spring it was found that no movement had occurred. According to the Lucerne correspondent of the Zimes, the Observatory is to be a wooden building 8 metres long and 4 metres wide, and consisting of two floors, each with two rooms. The lower floor, which is to be embedded in the snow, will be placed a the disposition of climbers and guides, and the upper floor re- served for the purposes of the Observatory. The roof, which is to be almost flat, will be furnished with a balustrade, running round it, together with a cupola for observations. The whole building will rest upon six powerful screw-jacks, so that the equilibrium may be restored if there be any displacement of the snow foundations. The building is now being made in Paris, and will shortly be brought in sections to Chamounix. The transport of the building from Chamounix to the summit of 160 Mont Blanc and its erection there have been intrusted to the charge of two capable guides—Frederick Payot and Jules Bossonay. LECTURES on subjects of great practical interest are being de- livered daily in connection with the International Horticultural Exhibition. Mr. H. Cheshire will lecture to-day on ‘‘ Guano : its origin and composition, use and abuse.” Among the sub- jects of other lectures for which arrangements have been made are ‘* The relation of insects to flowers,” ‘‘ Strawberry culture,” and ‘* The tomato: its diseases,” by Prof. F. L. Cheshire ; ‘* Hatching: the management of the brooding hen,” by Mr. W. Cook ; and ‘‘ Plant food and the formation of composts,” by Mr. H, Cheshire. . Dr. W. L. AssBor has prepared for the Smithsonian Institution an excellent descriptive catalogue of the collection of ethnographical objects from Kilima-Njaro, presented by him to the National Museum. Dr. Abbot expresses his belief that Kilima-Njaro, with its cool, healthy, and bracing climate, will some day be a great sanatorium for Europeans from the hot and fever-stricken coast regions. He would be sorry, however, to see civilization invade this region, and hopes the day may be far distant when a railway shall open the way into the interior, and drive off ‘‘ the herds of game that still pasture within sight of Africa’s great snow mountains.” Messrs. JOSEPH BAER AND Co., booksellers, Frankfort, are selling the botanical library of the late Prof. L. Just, director of the botanical garden connected with the Polytechnicum at Carlsruhe. The list includes many important works in various departments of botanical science. Mr. L. Rysot writes to us from Southampton that he caught a very perfect specimen of the rare crimson speckled Dezopera pulchella, on the afternoon of Friday last (June 10), in a field on the right bank of the Itchen, not far from Southampton. In 1874 the British Association published a volume of ‘‘Notes and Queries on Anthropology,” the object being to promote accurate anthropological observation on the part of travellers, and to enable those who were not anthropologists themselves to supply information wanted for the scientific study of anthropology at home. A second edition has long been wanted, and a Committee was appointed by the British Association to consider and report on the best means for bringing the volume up to the requirements of the present time. The Committee recommended that the work should be transferred to the Anthropological Institute, and this proposal was accepted, the Association making grants amounting to £70 to aid in defraying the cost of publication. The new edition has now been issued, the editors being Dr. J. G. Garsonand Mr. C, H. Read; and every one who may have occasion to use it will find it thorough and most suggestive. The first part—Anthropography—has been entirely recast; the second part—Ethnography—has been revised, and additional chapters have been written. Among the contributors to the volume are Mr. F. Galton, Mr. A. W. Franks, Dr. E. B. Tylor, General Pitt-Rivers, and many other well-known authorities. Mr. Cyrus THOMAS announces in Sczence, of May 27, that he has discovered the key which will unlock the mystery of the Maya codices, and, probably, the Central American inscriptions. The progress of decipherment will be slow, but he is confident that it will be ultimately accomplished. He has already determined the signification of some dozens of characters, and in several instances ascertained the general sense of a group forming a sentence, although there are a number of conventional symbols. Mr. Thomas holds that the great majority of the characters are truly phonetic, and that the writing is of a higher grade than has hitherto been supposed. NO. 1181, VOL. 46] NATURE [JuNE 16, 1892 Tue members of the Johns Hopkins Marine Station accumu- lated during the summer of 1891, in addition to the results of their special researches, many general observations upon the fauna of Jamaica. These notes are printed in the April number of the Jobns Hopkins University Circulars, and will be of considerable service to any one who may desire to obtain what is called in the Circular ‘‘a preliminary view of the material.” THE new number of the /nternationales Archiv fiir EBthno- graphie, contains interesting notes (in English) by A. Ernst, Caracas, on some stone-yokes from Mexico. R. Parkinson con- tributes (in German) a paper on tattooing among the natives . of the district Siarr, on the east coast of New Mecklenburg, New _ Ireland. A paper on the development and geographical dis- tribution of the various types of building in use among Finnish peoples is contributed by Axel O. Heikel, of Helsingfors. The illustrations, as usual, have been carefully prepared. Tue Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has issued a fresh series of coloured representations of plants. ‘They have been printed in Germany, and ought to be of good service to students and teachers of botany. THE first volume of ‘* A Treatise on Hygiene,” edited by Dr. Thomas Stevenson and Mr. Shirley F. Murphy, will shortly be issued by Messrs, J. and A. Churchill. It consists of articles, by eminent writers, on many different phases of hygienic science. The second volume is in the press. jah Mr. C. F. MABERY gives in Science, of May 13, a full account of the new chemical laboratory of the Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio. In devising plans for the labora- tory, Mr. Mabery felt that while’ it was not good economy to construct a building several times larger than present needs demanded, it was important to provide for the possibility of unlimited extension. A plain, rectangular form was therefore designed, and it was found that extension of the main hall into a wing of any size would not interfere with a convenient arrangement of the rooms for present use. ICEBERGS seem to be unusually plentiful in the Atlantic this year. According to a writer in the 7zmes, the log of the Inman liner City of Beriin, which arrived on the 3rd inst., shows how dangerously close to the Transatlantic path the icebergs are hovering. On the afternoon of May 31, about 5.45 o'clock, the City of Berlin was in latitudé 50° 20’, longitude 42°15’. It. was a clear and pleasant evening, and almost all the passengers were on deck. About 5 o’clock the air became very chilly, and the temperature of the water was very low. Captain Land at once suspected icebergs, and steered a more southerly course in the hope of avoiding them. About 6 o’clock, only a few miles to the north, a towering double-pinnacled berg was sighted. The herg was fully 200 feet high and about 600 feet long. Twenty minutes later another berg was sighted on a direct line with the first; between 6 and 8.30 o'clock four bergs were sighted. None of them was less than 100 feet high and 300 feet long ; all were in a good state of preservation, and looked as though they would be able to drift about forsome time. Icebergs have also been sighted by other vessels. THE Todas, inhabiting the Nilgiri plateau, are not dying out gradually, as has long been supposed. The last census figures show that they have increased by no less than ro per cent. during the last ten years, there being now nearly eight hundred of them altogether. ; In the new number of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society there is an interesting note on the little insectivore, Zapata javanensis. It is very common in Singapore, and especially in the Botanic Gardens, where it may be often seen running about among the trees. It is easily mis- JUNE 16, 1892] NATURE 161 taken for the common ‘little squirrel (Sciurus hippurus), of _ which it has much the appearance. When alarmed it quickly _ darts up the trunk of the nearest tree, but it is a poor climber, __ and never seems to go high up like the squirrel. Besides these _ points of resemblance, it appears to be largely frugivorous. It _ was found that the seeds sown in boxes were constantly being _ dug up and devoured by some animal, and traps baited with __ pieces of coco-nut or banana were set, and a number of tupaias i were caught. These being put into a cage appear to live very _ comfortably upon bananas, pine-apple, rice, and other such _ things ; refusing meat. The Rev. T. G. Wood, in his “ Natural _ History,” states that 7. ferruginea is said to feed on beetles, _ but to vary its diet with certain fruits, The common species at _ Singapore seems to be almost entirely frugivorous, though its _ teeth are those of a typical insectivore. THe thirtieth Bulletin of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, _ contains a careful paper, which ought be be very useful, on the _ sugar-cane borer, by which much damage is being done in sugar pl The author is Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell, Curator of _ the Institute of Jamaica. Another contributor to the Bulletin, 3 writing of gardening in Jamaica, mentions that about a year ago _ Messrs. Cannel and Sons, Swanly, Kent, sent her some small plants of chrysanthemums by post. They were all new and valuable ; and the English season being so short, Messrs. Cannel _ and Sons begged her to try whether she could succeed in getting seed from these for them, offering to send her a collection of _ choice chrysanthemums in repayment of her trouble should she £ be successful. Out of the six plants one died, killed by a grub ; _ the rest turned out magnificent, blowing with a profusion such as she had seldom seen before—they were perfect umbrellas of bloom ; but the flowers died off without seeding. The plants then threw out a perfect little forest of offsets, and she finds that any cuttings broken off from the old plants will root easily. A METHOD of rabbit-destruction which has been tried with _ considerable success in the Hay district, is recommended by the _ Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales as worthy of the con- _ sideration of pastoralists throughout the colony, more especially where the rainfall is light. The destroying agent is poisoned __ water, which is prepared as follows :—Cover 1 ounce of strychnine _ with concentrated hydrochloric acid, or what is commonly known as strong muriatic acid or spirits of salts, and leave to soak all night. The mixture easily dissolves in half a gallon of boiling water. After making the solution, bottle off and use as required. A pint of the mixture will poison 60 gallons of cold water ; _ possibly a weaker mixture might be efficacious. This system _ has been adopted at Benerembah Station, sixteen shallow 8- to 1o-gallon troughs being used to each tank, and the number of _ rabbits poisoned at each tank nightly is stated to be 10,000, In the Mossgiel district no less than 27,000 rabbits were destroyed in two weeks by the use of poisoned water. - THE idea of flower-farming for perfumes seems to be exciting a good deal of interest in New South Wales, as many inquiries on the subject have lately been submitted to the Agricultural _ Department. There are at present in the colony no means of illustrating the practical operations of this industry, but the | Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales hopes that this de- ficiency will soon be supplied by the institution of experimental _ plotson one or more of the experimental farms. The Gaze¢te _ points out that in scent farms large quantities of waste material _ from nurseries, gardens, orchards, and ordinary farms might be _ profitably utilized, while occupation would be found for some who are unfit for hard manual labour. A Government perfume _ farm was lately established at Dunolly, in Victoria, and this promises to be remarkably successful. ___ AT the meeting of the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria on _ March 14, Prof. Baldwin Spencer, the President, gave ‘an NO. 1181, VOL. 46] RAs interesting account of a trip he had made to Queensland in search of Ceratodus. Special interest attaches to this form, since it is the Australian representative of a small group of animals (the Dipnoi) which is intermediate between the fishes and the amphibia. Ceratodus has its home in the Mary and Burnett Rivers in Queensland, whilst its ally, Lepidosiren, is found in the Amazon, and another relative, Protopterus, flourishes in the waters of tropical Africa. Although unsuccessful in obtaining the eggs of Ceratodus, owing to the early season, Prof. Spencer was able, from a careful study of the surroundings under which the animal lives, to infer that its lung is of as great aservice to it during the wet as during the dry season—a theory in direct opposition to the generally accepted one that the lung functions principally during the dry season, when the animal is inhabiting a mud-cocoon within the dry bed of the river. THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include a Macaque Monkey (Aacacus cynomolgus ) from India, presented by Mr. Oswald Norman ; a Common Fox (Canis vulpes), British, presented by Mrs. Onslow Wake- ford; two Four-horned Antelopes (Zetraceros quadricornis @@) from India, presented by Mr. W. F. Sinclair ; a Magellanic Goose (Bernicla magellanica) from the Falkland Islands, presented by the Rev. J. Chaloner; six Common Lizards (Lacerta vivipara), a Slowworm (Anguis fragilis), British, presented by Mr. Percy W. Farmborough ; three Little Green-winged Doves (Chalcophaps chrysochlora) from North Queensland, deposited ; two Diamond Snakes (Morelia spilotes), a Panctulated Tree Snake (Dendrophis punctulatus), a Bearded Lizard (Amphibolurus barbatus), a Burton’s Lizard (Lialis burtoni) from Australia, received in exchange ; a Great Kan garoo (Aacropus giganteus), born in the Gardens. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Tue Late New Star IN AuRIGA.—A very interesting table, showing a summary of all the observations made with regard to the magnitude of the late new star in Auriga, will’ be found in ZL’ Astronomie for June. Commencing with the photographs taken by Prof. Pickering, when the Nova was very nearly of the 12th magnitude, the table shows a tremendous increase of brilliancy up to December 18, when it had reached a maximum, its magnitude then being about 4°5. From that date to March 2, the diminution in intensity was only very slight, being reduced only by about one magnitude, but, subsequent to this, the fading was nearly as rapid as the brightening, the star diminishing, on an average, a magnitude in a period of about 3°2 days. PHOTOGRAPHIC MEASURES OF THE PLEIADES.—The third number of the ‘‘ Contributions from the Observatory of Columbia College, New York,” consists of the Rutherfurd photographic measures of the group of the Pleiades reduced by Mr. Harold Jacoby. These photographs were among the complete set of original negatives that were presented to this Observatory by Mr. Rutherfurd, and were taken in the years 1872 and 1874. This special group was chosen for reduction in order to investi- gate the accuracy obtainable by the methods employed, and the results show that the reduced places can be thoroughly relied upon. The table containing a catalogue of the stars in question gives the places for the epoch 1873°0, together with the pre- cessional and secular variation. In the discussion of the results, the Yale and Kénisberg heliometer measures have been used for the sake of comparison, and Mr. Jacoby clearly demonstrates that the photographic results are of very considerable accuracy. Taking the case of the right ascensions, the difference of the residuals, obtained from the Yale and New York results, and those from Yale and Kénisberg, amounts in only two cases to as much as 0”*50, while the mean may be roughly estimated as less than 0’'25. That part of the table relating to the declinations furnishes equally satisfactory values, showing us that, for any future study regarding the determination of proper motions In this region, these photographic observations ought to be taken into account. The average probable errors in right ascension 162 NATUKE [JUNE 16, 1892 and declination amount to -+t o”‘05 and + 0”'05 respectively ; the actual probable errors somewhat exceeding these values, as er involve the scale inaccuracies and other possible sources of error. THE PLANET Mars,—In the early morning Mars is now visible on our eastern horizon. This period of 1892 will be the most favourable for observation that we have had since the year 1877, The opposition takes place on August 4 next, when the planet is near perihelion, so that its proximity to us will not be quite so great as was the case in 1877. The longi- tude of the planet at the time of its perihelion passage will be 333° 49’, but our earth will not reach this until August 27. The apparent diameter on the 18th of this month will amount to 17”°66, while on August 5 it will be 24°78; the phases for these two dates will be respectively 1:34 and 0” 05. -Fpe positions for the 17th, 21st, and 25th of this month are as ollows :— June R. A. Decl 17 Ss eas 21D. Om a .. —20° 4’ 21 eit jae? “OES Bie Hee Tee 25 si) ++ 2th, 22m; 20° 13° L’ Astronomie for June contains a very interesting article by M. Camille Flammarion, in which some quite recent observations of this planet are inserted. There are also several illustrations of the physical features, including the new map by M. Lohse and the drawings made by M. Nieston during the year 1888. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. THE French Ministry of Public Instruction has authorized M. Ch. Almand, of the Natural History Museum of Limoges, to study the Seychelles Islands in detail with special reference to their fauna. THE Geographical Society of Lima has just issued the last number of the first volume of its Bo/etiéz, a most creditable pub- lication containing many articles bearing on the geography of Peru and the Andes. Amongst the more important papers in the current issue are a monograph on Lake Titicaca, a dis- cussion of the climatology of Peru, by Dr. Luis Carranza, and the report of a recent Commission sent out by the Peruvian Government to inspect the new road across the Andes leading to the highest navigable point on the eastern rivers. The road starting from Chicla, the temporary terminus of the Oroya rail- way, crosses the watershed at Casapalca at 17,500 feet of eleva- tion, passes Tarma, Palca, 1a Merced, and thence runs north- ward through a little-known region inhabited by native tribes to Puerto Tucker, at the junction of the Pichis with the navigable tributaries of the Ucayali. In referring to this road at a recent meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, the Peruvian Consul pointed out that it would be easy, ifa railway were con- structed following the line of this road, and connecting steamers run on the Amazon and Ucayali, to reach Lima from London in twenty days instead of a month as is now necessary. Other papers in the Aoletén deal with the archzeology of the Andes region ; all branches of geography being well represented. A NEw Russian Expedition to Eastern Tibet and Sze-chuan in China has been decided on, and will set out next year, under the leadership of M. Potanin. It is intended to spend three years in the exploration, a sum of 30,000 rubles (about 43000) being granted by the Russian Government towards the expenses. Capt. Roboroffski accompanies the expedition, on the staff of which various scientific specialists will also be placed. AT the May meeting of the Paris Société de Géographie the great gold medal was presented to M. Elisée Reclus for his **Nouvelle Géographie Universelle,” a work which, though unfinished, is of unique value, and is respected and consulted in all countries. This award is significant of the feeling that care- ful and conscientious collation and generalization of the work of explorers and travellers occupies a much higher place in the science of geography than has been hitherto accorded it. Amongst those to whom other gold medals werea warded are the Prince of Monaco, for oceanographical research ; M. A. Paine, for explora- tions in Indo-China ; M de Morgan, for travels in Persia and Kurdistan; M. H. Coudreau, for ten years of exploration in the interior of French Guiana ; and M. Alfred Fourneau, for exploration in French Congo. NO. 1181, VOL. 46] NAPLES ACADEMY OF SCIENCES} THs volume has been much delayed on account ofamemoir — by Prof. Trinchese on Khodopfe veranit. That paper should have constituted the first of the present volume, but a notice leaf after the title-page informs us that it will be sent later on asa separate pamphlet. Inc nsequence the volume starts with an elaborate paper in French, of 72 pages and three plates, by M. S. Kantor, ‘‘ Sur Ja solution canonique du probléme des trans- formations birationnelles périodiques,” iv. partie. This memoir treats of ‘‘ Méthodes et problémes ; les caractéristiques internes et les caractéristiques permutables ; les caractéristiques 4 6, 7, 8 points ; théorie arithmétique des caractéristiques de transforma- tions birationnelles ; les complex anallagmatiques de igh 9 et de la réductibilité des caractéristiques par équivalence birationnelles ; les groupes impropres ; les matrices birationnelles de M. de Jonquiére ; et sur plusieurs groupes de caractéristiques et de transformations.” Bot Prof. F, Bassani contributes a paper on the Miocene Ichthyo- lites of Sardinia, from specimens collected and placed in his hands by Prof. L ovisato. The tables, cross references, and index are admirable, and of great use to specialists in this branch. Many of our English workers, and above all, Societies, should take a lesson from this. It is occasionally the author of a paper, but far more frequently the responsible authorities of some scientific body, that are the cause of such valuable details not appearing in a paper. How often does it occur that for a pots economy, a valuable memoir is cast upon the world a dismembere¢ trunk, little comprehensible to the reader, and often a curse to the writer, who is exposed to all sorts of absurd criticisms because his original statements have been pruned to deformed stumps and his tables entirely suppressed. ag? Several old species are more fully illustrated by descriptions and neat plates drawn by Mrs. Bassani, as well as a new species of Thyrsites, Thynnus, Lamna, Myliobatis, &c. Prof. Eugenio Scacchi has a memoir on the crystallogsanhy of certain new salts obtained by Prof. F. Mauro. The fluoxi- molybdate of copper is found to be monoclinic. Hypofluoxi- molybdate of copper is also monoclinic, whilst the hypofluoxi- molybdate of zinc is rhombohedral. Observations were difficult on account of the great deliquescence of these salts. (The memoir is accompanied by one plate of crystal drawings. _ Dr. Otto Schmiedeknecht, on his return from an entomological excursion to the Ionian Islands, placed in the hands of Prof. A. Costa all the Tenthredinide and Cephina that he had collected there. Prof. Costa describes these under 68 species, 9 of which are new. This is followed by a new genus of Italian Tenthre- dinide, named Laurentia, represented by the species Laureniza Craverti, The third section of this ‘‘ Miscellanea Entomologica” is constituted by the description of four species of Armenian Hymenoptera: Aylotoma cyanura, Allantus violaceipennis,. Lissonota ducalis, and Lissonota decorata. The ‘‘ Miscellanea Entomologica” terminates with a new African Blattid, the Derocalynma Brunneriana, and is illustrated by one plate of figures in black. ae Prof. G. Nicolucci, ina ‘‘ Glimpse at the Ethnology of Egypt discusses the different theories concerning the origin of the ancient Egyptians. By comparing the results obtained from historical records, monuments, anatomical observations, and descriptions of the people by ancient writers, he concludes (1) that the Egyptians belong to a white family related in prehistoric times to a Semitic branch ; (2) that their physical characters form a type apart, which is clearly revealed in the monuments and the skulls obtained from the tombs of all periods ; (3) that this type is the purer the more remote is the period of the monuments ; (4) that it is true the immigration of other people into Egypt modified in part the primitive type of the population, but that the principal part of the Egyptians have always retained their primitive characters ; (5) at the present, although the type has been crossed by intermarriage with different people in the cities, and other points frequented by strangers, it retains its original character in the Fellah, who are the true and _ legitimate modern descendants of the constructors of the Pyramids. Prof. Nicolucci considers the Copts to be descended from ancient Egyptians, but with some infiltration of negro blood. The paper 1s accompanied by two plates, one of several modern Egyptian types, and one of the portrait of Rameses II. side by side with that of a Fellah. ae t Atti della Reale Accademia delle Scienze. Fisiche e Matematiche di Napoli, Serie Seconda, vol. iv., Napoli, 1891. : ” bd pry s Fs B | i . ey ‘regrets not _ JuNE;16, 1892] NATURE 163 Signor G. F. Mazzarelli contributes some researches on the morphology and physiology of the glands of Bohadsch in the _ Aplysiide: (the opaline gland of Vayssiére). He also gives the * d 2 of a new species of Aplysia. The author gives an te histological description of the organ illustrated by two ired plates, and amongst other conclusions shows that three nids are secreted—a white odoriferous, a violet, and a mucous— ich he declares to have an important biological value, and to concur with the secretions of the mantle for the defence of the _ Dr. N. Terracciano in a note on some plants of the flora of Terra de Lavoro describes several species so far not met with in that district, others not included in the Italian flora, and some new speciesand varieties. Figures are given of Aradis surculosa, crispus, and Keleria collina. . _ Next follows a monograph of the fossil Pristis, with a descrip- tion of anew species (Pristi's lyceenis) from the Miocene limestone of Lecce, and of course figured. _ Dr. L. Manfredi has an interesting paper on the contamina- % tion of the street surface of large cities, from a hygienic and sanitary engineer’s point of view, with special reference to Naples. Sweepings of the streets were made at 9 a.m.—that is, after the regular cleansing had been performed, so that the materials collected represented what remains all the day to con- taminate the air and whatever objects it comes in contact with. The materials, collected with all due precautions, were submitted to bacteriological and chemical analysis. One gramme of fresh Sweepings contains from 910°000 to 668,000,000 vital or living bacteria, or double the amount found in fresh foeces, or about ‘times richer than drain water. Compared with the streets as of Munich we find that the author there found 8000 to 12,840,000, demonstrates that, so far as Naples goes, the more cleanly kept are the streets the lower is the number of bacteria in their Sweepings, whilst they or their spores have great resisting powers to heat, sunlight, and desiccation. They are most abundant in the temperate seasons of spring and autumn ; small rains increase them, torrents markedly diminish them. The Schizomycetes are the predominant type, but ferments and moulds are common. The chemical examination is equally interesting, and, as the author shows, the material is a most favourable culture medium for micro-organisms ; which research leads up to a series of experiments to show how the number of these increase up to a certain date and then diminish in a given sample of sweepings ; the effects of rain in facilitating this growth are demonstrated, and also the gases given off as the result of such changes. _ The inoculation experiments are also not without interest. An examination of the sub-soil on the same lines is of great yortance, and several practical and important conclusions are drawn from these researches, which the limits of space forbid our more fully reviewing. The memoir is one that should be con- sulted by every municipal officer. G. F. Mazzarelli has another long paper on the and physiology of his favourite Aplysiz of the Gulf ier this volume does credit to the Academy, but one to see papers by some more of its members. _ of Naples, and illustrated by four plates. |: Aitogetiter UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL = INTELLIGENCE. _ OXFORD.—In a Convocation held on June 7, the thanks of the University were ordered to be conveyed to Mr.C. D. E. Fort- num, Hon. D.C.L., for his munificent gift to the Ashmolean Museum, and an indenture was sealed, the provisions of which place the Ashmolean Museum on anentirely new footing. __ In the year 1888 Dr. Fortnum gave to the University a large ion of his collection of antiquities and works of art, which been exhibited on loan in the upper room of the Ashmolean Museum. Dr. Fortnum has now notified his intention of _ bequeathing to the University the remainder of his collection together with his library, and he has undertaken to transfer to the University asum of £10,000 on certain conditions, the main object of which is to provide for the care and maintenance of the Museum in the future. Under the indenture, which was signed on Tuesday last, the University is bound— (1) To provide a sum, not exceeding £11,000, for the erection : of a new Ashmolean Museum, on grotind adjoining the Uni- eg ea 2) To provide a sum, not exceeding £4000, up and furnishing the Museum. NO. 1181, VOL. 46] for the fitting (3) To augment to £600 a year, at least, the income arising from Dr. Fortnum’s benefaction of £10,000. Dr. Fortnum’s kindly intentions to the new Ashmolean ‘Museum include a further bequest to the University of £5000 contingent upon the University voting the £15,000 for buildings, fitting, and furniture. With regard to this amount the Uni- versity authorities make the following remark:—‘‘ Of the £11,000 required for the building, it appears that the Curators of the University Chest will have funds in hand in the course of this year and next, out of which this expenditure may be defrayed. It is right, however, to state that this will leave the University Chest for the present without further resources, in the form either of stock or of cash, for meeting any other new expendi- ture upon a large scale.” It is proposed that the old Ashmolean Museum, when no longer required for its present purpose, shall be available as an extension for the Bodleian Library, for which additional accom- modation must have soon been provided. The University Observatory.—The annual meeting of the Board of Visitors took place on Wednesday, June 8, when the Savilian Professor (Rev. C. Pritchard, D.D., F.R.S.) read his annual report. After remarking on the present condition of the buildings and instruments, the Professor said :— *‘As anticipated in the last report, the work connected with stellar parallax is now complete, and I have placed upon the table a manuscript containing the result of that research. I need hardly say that it has been a work of unremitting labour, and one which has occupied the strenuous efforts of myself and the Observatory staff during the last four years. The manuscript thus completed con- sists of (1) the concise but complete history of all effective researches in stellar parallax up to the present date; (2) the results of the parallax work completed in this Observatory, ex- tending on the whole to some thirty stars ; (3) a catalogue of all parallactic determinations effected by other astronomers. ‘* The provision of photometric catalogues of stars of the ninth and eleventh magnitudes, within small specified areas for the use of the eighteen Observatories engaged on the international chart of the heavens, has been effected, and the results distributed through the agency of the Paris Observatory. The cause of this proceeding originated in the unsuccessful attempts to secure the required uniformity of stellar magnitude on the photographic plates by the employment of metallic gauze screens of one definite mesh. Much time was consumed on the experimental research into the action of such screens on the photographic image, and in the course of the inquiry certain unexpected and interesting results came to light, the substance of which I communicated to the Paris Academy, and which were subsequently published in the Transactions of that body. It is satisfactory to find that these photometric determinations have been appreciated and found to be of practical service, and have been acknowledged as such by both the Directors of the Greenwich and Paris Observatories. “* Notwithstanding these very serious interruptions, consider- able progress has been made in securing the photographic plates for the international chart and catalogue. In number these plates amount to about 150, and it is hoped in future they will ac- cumulate more rapidly, since the work on the preparation of these aforementioned photometric catalogues is now complete.” The report concludes with the usual acknowledgments to the assistants, and with this very satisfactory expression, on which we beg to congratulate the Savilian Professor—‘‘ The state of my health and other circumstances prevented my being present at the last meeting of the Board, but I am glad to say that the anticipation of the speedy and complete recovery, mentioned in the last report, has been fully realized.” Radcliffe Travelling Fellowshif.—The Examiners for this Fellowship give notice that a Fellowship is thrown open this year to all persons who have been placed in the First Class in the School of Natural Science, without further restriction. The examination will be as far as possible in the subjects specified by the candidates who offer themselves for examination, and will take place in the first week in November. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LONDON. Royal Society, May 19.—‘‘On the Measurement of the Magnetic Properties of Iron.”” By Thomas Gray, B.Sc., F.R.S.E. Communicated by Lord Kelvin, P.R.S. This paper gives the method of experiment and results 164 NATURE [June 16, 1892 obtained in some investigations on the time-rate of rise of current in a circuit having large electromagnetic inertia. The experiments were made on a circuit containing the coils of a large electromagnet having laminated cores and pole pieces. The mean length of the iron circuit was about 250 cm., and its cross section 320 sq..cm. The magnetizing coil had 3840 turns, when all joined in series, and a resistance of 10°4 ohms. The coils were so arranged that they could be joined in a variety of ways so as to vary the resistance, inductive co- efficient, &c., and also to allow the magnet to be used either as an open or a closed circuit transformer. The electromotive force used in the experiments was ob- tained from a storage battery, and the method of experiment was to trace the curve, giving the relation of current to time, on a cronograph sheet. One set of experiments shows the effect of varying the im- pressed E.M.F. on the time required for the current to attain any given percentage of its maximum strength. The results show that for any particular percentage there is always a particular E.M.F. which takes maximum time. Thus for the circuit under consideration, and with successive repetitions of the current inthe same direction, it takes longer time for the current produced by an impressed E.M.F. of 4 volts to reach 95 per cent. of its maximum than it takes for the current pro- duced by either 3 or 5 volts to reach 95 per cent. of their maximum. ‘The results show also that, within considerable limits, the time required for the current to become uniform is on the whole nearly inversely proportional to the impressed E.M.F., and that for moderate values of the E.M.F. the time may be very great; when the E.M.F. was 2 volts, and the current sen: in such a direction as to reverse the mag- netism left in the magnet by a previous current of the same strength, the time required for the current to establish itself was over three minutes. ‘The difference of time required for repetition and for reversal of previous magnetization was also very marked when the iron circuit was closed. The results show that great errors may arise by the use of ballistic methods of experiment, especially when weak currents are used, and that for testing resistances of circuits containing electromagnets, a saving of time may be obtained by using a battery of consider- able E.M.F. Another set of experiments gives the effect of successive reversals of the impressed E.M.F. at sufficient intervals apart to allow the magnetization to be established in each direction before reversal began. In this set also the effect of cutting out the battery and leaving the magnet circuit closed is illustrated, showing that several minutes may be required for the magnet to lose its magnetism by dissipation of energy in the magnetizing coil. The effect on these cycles of leaving an air space in the iron circuit isalso illustrated. It is shown that a comparatively small air space nearly eliminates the residual magnetism, and diminishes considerably the rate of variation of the coefficient of induction and the dissipation of energy in the magnet. Several cycles are shown for the magnet used as a transformer with different loads on the secondary. The results give evi- dence that there is less energy dissipated in the iron the greater the load on the secondary of the transformer. Some experiments are also quoted which go to show that the dissipation of energy due to magnetic retentiveness_ (magnetic hysteresis) is simply proportional to the total induction produced when the measurements are made by kinetic methods. Refer- ence is made to the recent experiments of Alexander Siemens and others which seem to confirm this view. : Physical Society, May 27.—Mr. Walter Baily, Vice- President, in the chair.—The following communication was read :—On the present state of our knowledge of the con- nection between ether and matter: an historical summary, by Prof. O. J. Lodge, F.R.S. Referring to difficulties connected with the aberration of light, if the medium were supposed to be carried along by the earth in its orbit, Dr. Lodge described Boscovich’s suggested experiment with a telescope filled with water, carried out by Klinkerfues, who was led to conclude that the aberration constant depended on the medium within the telescope. Klinkerfues’s experiments were repeated by Sir G. B. Airy, but not confirmed. Astronomical observations were not necessary to determine the point at.issue, fora fixed source near a collimator might be used with advantage. Hoek had examined the subject in this way with similar negative results, It might therefore be concluded that surveying operations are unaffected by terrestrial motion. This result, however, did not prove the NO. 1181, VOL. 46 | existence or non-existence of an ether drift relative to the earth, for, since the source and receiver move together, any effect pro- duced by such a drift would be compensated by aberration due to motion of the receiver. Speaking of refraction, he pointed out that, if the ether were stationary in space, glass and other terrestrial bodies would have ether streaming through them, and that the refraction of, say, glass might difler as the direction of the ether drift through it varied. To test this, Arago placed an achromatic prism over the object-glass of a telescope on a mural circle, and observed the altitude of stars. To vary the direction of the ether drift through the prisms, stars in different azimuths were observed ; but the results showed no appreciable change in the deviation produced by the prism due to direction of the earth’s motion, Maxwell used a spectroscope to test the same point. Light from illuminated cross wires passed through the telescope, prisms and collimator, and was reflected back along the same path by a mirror and viewed through the telescope. Observations made with different aspects of instrument showed no change in the relative positions of the wires and their images. Mascart. had also tried the experiment with simpler apparatus, but was unable to detect any change. These observations naturally suggest that the ether is at rest relative to the earth, but the apparently simple nature of aberration makes this view difficult to hold. Both phenomena are consistent with Fresnel’s hypothesis that only the excess of ether, which the substance possesses over that of surrounding space, moves with the body, for on this supposition the effects of altered refraction and ether drift. compensate each other. Fresnel’s view is practically established by Fizeau’s well-known experiment on the effect of moving water on the velocity of light, and by the more accurate numerical results obtained by Michelson. The only other theory which accounts for the experimental results is one by Prof, J. J. Thomson, which requires that the velocity of light in Fizeau’s experiment should be altered by half the velocity of the medium. For media whose refractive indices are ,/2, the two theories lead to the same result, and as the indices of substances such as water do not differ much from this value, it is difficult to discriminate between them. Looked at in another way, Fizeau’s experiment raises a difficulty, for, as Dr. Lodge pointed out, all water is moving with the earth, hence light should be hurried or hindered according to the direction in which it passes through the water. This effect doubtless exists, but the results of it have never been detected by experiment. It is therefore necessary to inquire why the effect could not be observed directly, for the experiment had been tried with interference apparatus by Babinet, Hoek, Jamin, and Mascart, and in no case was any effect observed. It would therefore seem as if the ether must be stagnant, 2.¢. stationary relative to the earth. Mascart had also tested whether Newton’s rings, or the rotary power of — were affected by ether drift, but with negative results. hese observations are, however, likewise compatible with Fresnel’s hypothesis of an -ether fixed relative to matter, and a free ether of space permeat- ing all substances, for, according to this view, there is no more motion of the ether in water or glass than in air; hence the time of journey round a closed contour is independent of the direction in which the light traverses that contour. The time of journey between two points is also unaffected by terrestrial motion, as was proved by the experiments of Babinet, Hoek, and Mascart on interference ; hence he (Dr. Lodge) inferred that ether was either stagnant or had a velocity potential. In moving ether it was necessary to define a ray, and Lorentz’s method is the best. Suppose CP represents the velocity of light (V) in still ether, and SC the velocity of the ether (v), then a disturbance originating at S will travel along SP, which is the JUNE 16, 1892] NATURE 46 165 direction of the ray, whilst CP is the wave normal. In the above figure. ? = a, the constant of aberration. _ The velocity along the path of the ray is SP. Calling this velocity V’, we have V’ = Voose + vcos@, __ The path of a ray is determined by the time of journey being a and the formula B T=/ a aV : is the equation to a ray, where A and Bare the extremities, and ds an element of the path. E aabattated ‘ This integral can be written exactly— points and not on the path. the contour is closed, it becomes zero, and reconciles all the ex- If the ether be moving, V’ must be for V, and we get— - ds sis T= =a minimum, a VY cos € + vcos@ Per T= [oe - vcos@ iy, 0? ee Vi-a@ J V1 - a) past : — T cos 0 Dv cos @ [a e2S.« ‘k= a q “The last term is the only one involving the first power of ether _ drift, and it vanishes in case there is a velocity potential ; for, g since v cos @= written ree 3 and so its value depends only on the end ds’ where ¢ is the velocity potential, it may be a) If these points are the same, i.e. ts hitherto made. It must be admitted, however, that ais not a constant, the question is again opened, but there is No reason to suppose it can vary in the same horizontal plane. Ifthe medium be changed, V becomes Y, and, in order to re- : tain the same velocity potential in the changed medium, v must become - which is Fresnel’s law. Hence Prof. Lodge pointed out that the velocity potential condition includes Fresnel’s law case. It can, in general, be inferred that wo first _ asa special ‘ 4 se emg effect due to terrestrial motion can exist in a detect- soho tigee ile It is always compensated by something else. _ Quantities of the second order of magnitude must, therefore, be attended to. ie " eng a ¢ From the first equation above, it follows that cos ¢ = VI — a? sin?9, and the time of journey in moving ether is given by papNt — a? sin? g i-@ ' F: where T isthe time if everything were stationary. This is, in brief, q the theory of Michelson’s recent experiment. If the light travels _ along the ether drift, @ =o and T, = - ; whilst if @ = go°, j pes rg ; ; Lan mary Therefore the velocity along the ether drift should differ from that across the drift in the ratio of Vt — a2: 1. This point has been very carefully tested by Michelson, but _ nothing approaching to a quarter of the theoretical effect was His negative result would seem to preclude any is relative motion, even irrotational, and shows that the ether is at _ rest relative to the earth’s surface. On the other hand, the - author (Dr. ) had recently made experiments on the in- _ fluence of rapidly-rotating steel disks on the ether, which prove that the ether is not affected by the motion of contiguous matter _ to the extent of 1/200 part of the velocity of the matter. Thus, two experiments are at present in conflict. Prof. Fitz- _ gerald has suggested a way out of the difficulty by supposing the _ Size of bodies to be a function of their velocity through the ether. _ Returning to the statements which have been made of Fresnel’s _ law, Glazebrook has shown that actual extra-density of ether is not necessary, for, if the virtual mass be altered, the same results follow ; all that is required is a term depending on the relative NO. 1181, VOL. 46] acceleration of ether and matter. To modern ideas the loading of the ether by the presence of matter is most likely to be correct, and the observed effects of relative motion are regarded as the results of secondary reactions of matter on ether. On this view, the ether of space may be wholly unaffected by the motion of matter. On the vortex ring theory of matter, it is not unnatural to suppose that the ether in its neighbourhood should be only affected irrotationally by its motion. And if the velocity potential be granted, nothing of the nature of viscosity being admissible, the results of all the interference, refraction, and aberration experiments could be predicted, and the whole theory is as simple as it can possibly be. The only trustworthy experiment ever made which tends against this view is that of Michelson. The author surmised that this must somehow be ex- plainedaway. In replytoa question from Prof, Ayrton, Dr. Lodge said that when air was substituted for water in Fizeau’s experi- ment no effect was observed. This might have been expected, for the difference in the times of journey by the two paths depended on 5 i rh and as uw is nearly unity for air, the air effect is too small to see. [In Hoek’s interference experiment it might be said that the effect of ether moving in stationary water is balanced by that of the ether moving in stationary air; but while motion of water itself would disturb the balance, motion of air would do nothing appreciable. The only kind of motion that could display an optical effect is rotational motion, or motion of layers at different speeds, not a simple uniform drift. Prof. J. V. Jones asked how the Fizeau experiment could be expressed on the loaded ether theory; for, since the speed of matter affects the velocity of light, it seemed to involve a directional loading. A mere extra-density term, or acceleration coefficient, will not explain this; it seems to require a co- efficient of a velocity term. This question has been hinted at by Lord Rayleigh, who points out (under the heading ‘* Aberration,” NATURE, xlv.jp. 499) that the rate of propaga- tion of waves on a loaded string will be affected by a travelling of its load. The question is not perfectly simple, and the analogy not complete. A good deal depends on the nature of the connection symbolized as ‘‘ loading.” *] Royal Microscopical Society, May 18 —Dr. R. Braith- waite, President, in the chair.—Mr. R. T. Lewis, in his paper on the process of oviposition as observed in a species of cattle tick, said that the tick was observed under a low power ; after some time the head with the extended rostrum and palpi was retracted, producing a deep depression, the softer adjacent portions of the ventral surface between the basal joints of the first pair of legs being drawn over the margin. Parts surrounding the depression changed colour, and a white vesicle appeared upon the lower internal wall. The palpi separated, so that they rested on each side of the vesicle. A membranous body, glistening with mucus, was protruded from the cavity, from the lateral extremities of which two papillze were thrown out, extending across the depression. The vesicle was then elongated and embraced by the papillz ; through its walls an ©gg was seen in motion, which, being delivered into the grasp of the papillz:, the ovipositor at once retracted. The papillz closed round the egg, covering it with an albuminous secretion, and withdrew, leaving it suspended from the under surface of the dorsal plate. The palpi closed together until in contact with the rostrum, the head elevating, clearing the egg out of the depression, leaving it adhering to the outer margin: the entire process of laying each egg occupying a period of 2 min. 42 sec. Mr. A. D. Michael remarked that the word ‘‘ head ” was somewhat misleading, because these animals had no heads in the sense in which the term applied to insects, but the whole movable organ was really the rostrum.—Mr. E. M. Nelson read a note on penetration in the microscope, showing that for his own sight the penetrating power was only one-seventh of. that given by Prof. Abbe, whose myopic sight accounted for the difference in the estimate.—Mr. Nelson also read a note on rings and brushes of crystals, for the observing of which a petrological microscope was generally thought to be necessary. This was not essential, as it was really a telescopic object. All that had to be done was to convert the microscope into a telescope by placing an objective inside the tube of the instrument. Geological Society, May 25.—W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—The following communications were * Note by O. J. L. 166 NATURE [JUNE 16, 1892 read:—On Delphinognathus conocephalus (Seeley) from the Middle Karoo Beds, Cape Colony, preserved in the South African Museum, Cape Town, by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. The skull described in this paper is believed by Mr. T. Bain to have been collected by himself near Beaufort West. The pre- servation of the specimen leaves something to be desired, but notwithstanding defects the skull belongs to a most interesting Anomodont, indicating a new family of fossil Reptilia. The skull is fully described in the paper, and its relationships are discussed. The author has already given reasons for regarding Elurosaurus felinus, Lycosaurus curvimola, and their allies, as referable to a suborder Gennetotheria, which is nearly related apparently to the /elycosauria, and lies midway between the typical Zheriodontia and the Dicynodontia. It is to this sub- order that De/phinognathus may be referred, though it forms a family-type distinct from the /urosauride, distinguished by the conical parietal with a large foramen, the anterior supra- condylar notch in the squamosal. bone, and other modifications of the skull and teeth.—On further evidence of Exdothiodon bathystoma (Owen) from Oude Kloof, in the Nieuwveldt Moun- tains, Cape Colony, by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. Two bones found by Mr. T. Bain at Oude Kloof consist of the left ramus of the mandible and what the author regards as the left squamosal bone of £. dathystoma. The small cranial fragment preserved shows that the cerebral region probably conformed to the type of skull seen in some of the Dicynodonts. A descrip- tion of the remains is given, and the author notices that the form of the articular condyle indicates a difference from Dicynodontia and all other Axomodontia hitherto described ; it implies an oblique forward inclination of the quadrate bone—a character important in defining the suborder Zndothiodontia. All the characters of the dentition of the animal suggest near affinity with the 7heriodontia, especially the long lanceolate teeth strongly serrated.—On the discovery of Mammoth and other re- mains in Endsleigh Street, and on sections exposed in Endsleigh Gardens, Gordon Street, Gordon Square, and Tavistock Square, N.W., by Dr. Henry Hicks, F.R.S. Inthis paper the author gives a description of the deposits overlying the loam in which the remains of the Mammoth and other animals were found in Endsleigh Street, N.W. Under about six feet of made ground there was about ten feet of a yellowish-brown clay containing flints and much ‘‘race.” Below the clay there was about five feet of sand and gravel, and under this about one foot of clayey loam,‘in which most of the bones were embedded, This loam contained many seeds, recognized by Mr. Clement Reid as being those of plants usually found in marshy places or ponds, and having a range at present from the Arctic Circle to the South of Europe. A list of the bones found is given by Mr. E. T. Newton, of the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, who describes them as being those of one full-grown Mammoth, of another about half-grown, of the Red Deer, the fossil Horse, and of a small rodent. The author gives sections through Endsleigh Street and along the southern side of Endsleigh Gardens, and shows that where the bones were found there was a distinct valley in the London Clay, running ina direction nearly due north and south, the inclination of the valley being towards the north. The London Clay reached nearest to the surface towards St. Pancras Church and in Upper Woburn Place, the total thickness of the overlying deposits and the made ground there being only about 12 feet. Other sections, given along the southern sides of Tavistock and Gordon Squares, and through Gordon Street and the western side of Gordon Square, show varying thicknesses of the deposits, overlying the uneven floor of London Clay, of from 16 to 21 feet; the greatest thickness here is found at the north-western corner of Gordon Square. Seeds were also discovered in a loam near the bottom of Gordon Street, at the same horizon as that con- taining the mammalian remains, and some shells were found in a band of sandy clay, under a calcareous deposit, about half-way down the western side of Gordon Square. The author says that the deposits above the mammaliferous loam overlying the London Clay in this area cannot be classed as post-Glacial river-deposits, but must be considered as of Glacial origin. The animals, there- fore, which evidently died on the old land-surface where their remains were found, lived there early in the Glacial period. The reading of this paper was followed bya discussion, in which the President, Mr. Monckton, Sir Henry Howorth, and the author took part.—The morphology of Stephanoceras zigzag, by S. S.. Buckman. NO. 1181, VOL. 46] Entomological Society, June 1.—R. McLachlan, F.R.S.,_ Treasurer, in the chair.—The Hon. Walter Rothschild sent for exhibition Meptis mimetica, n.s., from Timor, mimick- ing Andasena orofe, one of the Eupleeide, and Cynthia — eguicolor, n.s., a species remarkable for the similarity of the two sexes, from the same locality; also a hybrid between Saturnia carpint and S. pyri, and specimens of Cadlimorpha dominula, var. romanovit, var. ttalica, and var. donna, bred by a collector at Ziirich ; he further exhibited a very large and in- teresting collection of Rhopalocera made by Mr. W. Doherty in Timor, Pura, Sumba, ant other islands, during October and November 1891. Colonel Swinhoe remarked that the various species of Metis were usually protected and imitated by other insects, and did not themselves mimic anything, and that the pattern of the JVefézs in question was very common among the butterflies in the Timor group. Mr. Jenner Weir, Prof. Meldola, Mr. Trimen, and others continued the discussion.—M. A. Wailly exhibited fertile ova of Zyilocha varians, which are arranged in small square cells, fastened together in large numbers, and present an appearance quite different from the usual type of Lepidopterous ova.—Mr. F. Merrifield exhibited a series of Drcpana falcataria, half of which had been exposed. for a week or two, in March or April, to a temperature of about 77°, and the other half had been allowed to emerge at the natural out-door temperature. The latter insects were in all cases darker than the former, all being equally healthy. Mr. McLachlan, Mr. Barrett, Mr. Jenner Weir, and others took part in the discussion which followed.—Mr, McLachlan called attention to the reappearance in large numbers of the Diamond- back Moth, Plutella cruciferarum, which was very abundant in gardens near London, and expressed his opinion that the moths had been bred in the country and had not immigrated.—Mr. Jenner Weir, Mr. Bower, an! Prof. Meldola stated that they had recently seen specimens of Co/ias edusa in different localities near London.—The Hon. Walter Rothschild communicated a paper on two new species of Pseudacrea. ; CAMBRIDGE, Philosophical Society, May 30.—Prof. G. H. Darwin, President, in the chair.—The following communications were made :—The hypothesis of a liquid condition of the earth’s interior considered in connection with Prof. Darwin’s theory of the genesis of the moon, by Mr. Osmond Fisher. It was con- tended that a liquid condition of the earth’s interior is not nega- tived by the existence of a semi-diurnal ocean tide, because it appears by calculation that a tide in an equatorial canal would in that case be diminished by only one-fifth of what its height would be upon a rigid earth. It was then recalled that all Prof. Darwin’s numerical results in Table IV. of his paper on the pre- cession of a viscous spheroid, as for instance that the moon was shed from the earth about 57 millions of years ago, depend upon the assumption of a certain high value for the internal viscosity,. and will not hold good for a liquid interior. The total amount of heat, however, which must have been generated since that event, does not depend upon the viscosity, and will have been the same in the case of a liquid interior. This, if applied all at once, Prof. Darwin says, would raise the whole earth through 3000° F, if it had the specific heat of iron. Lord Kelvin holds that the earth is solid, and that it solidified in a short space of time, and that the matter of the interior at every depth is at the temperature of solidification for the pressure there. But if heat is being continually communicated to the interior, and chiefly to the more central regions, it seems impossible that the state of solidity supposed could be maintained. The author has shown in his ** Physics of the Earth’s Crust” that, if the crust is as thin as many geologists suppose, then there must exist convec- tion currents in the interior, which prevent the crust from grow- ing thick by melting off the bottom of it nearly as fast as it thickens. The central heat imparted to the interior by tidal action explains the maintenance of such currents. But the diffi- culty arises that the heat generated has been so great that there seems no obvious adequate mode of getting rid of it. The heat conducted away through the crust would not have been sufficient to reduce the mean temperature of the globe by more than about 209° F. in 100 million years from the first formation of a crust. Volcanic action on an extravagant estimate would help only to the extent of 4° or 5° F.; and the work of deformation of the crust would account for still less. It appears from the above that, if Prof. Darwin’s theory is true, the solidification of the / herm ~ occur __ one or more imperfect stamens; the corollas of these flowers _end-plates to insure accuracy of position. NATURE 167 JUNE 16, 1892] | crust cannot have commenced until long after the birth of the moon ; so that the still molten surface would be able for ages to radiate its heat directly into space. Otherwise we are thrown back on the nebular hypothesis, according to which the moon was left behind in the process of evolution of the system.—On Gynodicecism in the Labiatz, by Mr. J. C. Willis. Among the aaphrodite flowers of Origanum and other Labiatz, there on the same plant) female flowers, and also flowers with are usually smaller than those ofnormal hermaphrodites. Their number varies from ‘1 to 7°5 per cent. of the total flowers. iments conducted in 1891, to determine if these abnor- ‘varied in number with the season, gave no result; no DUBLIN. Royal Dublin Society, May 18.—Dr. G. J. Stoney, F.R.S., ce-President, in the chair.—Mr. G. H. Carpenter presented a report upor the Pycnogonida collected in Torres States by Prof. A. C. Haddon. The collection comprises only three species : Pallene australiensis, Hoek, for which (together with a new “spe ~a new genus (/arapallene) is suggested ; and a new Ascorhynchus.—Mr. H. H. Dixon gave a preliminary note on the mode of walking of some of the Arthropoda, illustrated by means of instantaneous photographs. He found that the limbs move together in ‘‘diagonals”’ ; in insects the first and third legs on one side move with the second on the other; in spiders the first and third on one side with the second and fourth on the other ; while the antenna of an insect is moved with the first leg on the same side.—Sir Howard Grubb, F.R.S., eager his new chronograph for the Cape Town Observatory. is chronograph is built on the wabdel of that at Dunsink Observatory, Dublin, with such improvements as have been suggested by recent developments in the clock-work of equa- torial opes. The barrels, two in number, either or both Aw e which can be brought into action, are 28 inches long and 9 is ‘in’ diameter. - The screws which carry the wagons are one-tenth pitch, revolving once per minute. The circumference _of the barrel being about 27 inches, the seconds are four-tenths _of an inch long, and each barrel is available for about four and a half hours’ work. The principal modifications upon the Dun- instrument consist in the application of the electrical con- trol of the clock, as described in the Proceedings of the Insti- tution of Mechanical Engineers for the year 1888. The _ governor shaft of the clock gears directly into the driving spindle without any intermediate wheels, and as there is maintaining power to the clock barrel, it is possible to wind during the operation without at all affecting the rate of the clock. The axes of the barrels are supported upon sets of bicycle balls, in hardened steel boxes. The wagons carrying the electro-magnets for the registration of the signals are carried on one plain roller and two grooved rollers, the latter having hardened steel With the main instrument, which is inclosed in a glass case, is supplied a distributor for the purpose of working the electrical con- trol, for the explanation of the action of which the may be referred to.—On a_ new electro- _ above _ paper Y _ lytic galvanometer, by J. Joly. In the ordinary methods o determining the strength of a current by means of -chemical action, the element of time enters into the measurements, which further require considerable care in carrying out. In this instrument the observer is not concerned with time observations, and its indications follow fairly rapid variations of current. It consists of a glass bulb containing dilute sulphuric acid, in which are immersed platinum electrodes placed.close together. to diminish resistance. This vessel.com- : .— municates below with a tube bent twice at right angles and NO, 1181, VoL. 46] carried up to a height of about 50 cm. above the level of the bulb. A little mercury contained in the bulb rises normally into this tube to a level which is the zero of the instrument. The tube is open at the top. The bulb is furnished with two tubulures on its upper surface. One is kept closed by a stopper, and merely serves to admit the electrolyte into the bulb when filling it. The other is furnished with a brass attachment upon which is cemented a small piece ‘of platinum foil pierced by a hole of very small bore. The puncture is protected above and below from obstruction by receptacles containing cotton wool. When a current is passed between the electrodes the gas evolved can only escape through the fine puncture. At normal pressures this will only let the gas pass out slowly. Hence there is an accumulation of gas in the bulb, and the increased pressure causes the mercury to rise in the vertical index tube ; but as the pressure rises, the rate of eflux of the gas increases till it equals the rate of evolution, when the mercury column comes to rest. The reading of a scale alongside the tube then gives the currentinamperes. The instrument constructed for trial is very satisfactory. It reads on a very open scale up to 2°5 amperes. The electrodes are not large enough to carry heavier currents ; if they were so, of course by enlarging the orifice the range could be increased. At the higher readings there is some delay before the mercury column becomes stationary, due probably to a rise of tempera- ture in the bulb. There is probably some small variation of the readings with atmospheric temperature change. The calibration is effected by placing it in circuit with a trustworthy galvanometer. The inventor has had but little leisure to de- velop the instrument, and brings it before the Society in hopes that someone may think it worth while to further investigate its capabilities. . PARIS. Academy of Sciences, June 7.—M. d’Abbadie in the chair.—On the application of M. Linstedt’s method to the problem of three bodies, by M. H. Poincaré.—On a class of analytical functions of one variable, dependent on two real arbitrary constants, by M, Emile Picard.—On the products of the residual life of the tissues, especiaily of the muscular tissue separated from the living being, by MM. Gautier and Landi (continued). The authors found that meat when kept at a temperature not exceeding that of the living animal, acquired an acidity of about 0°5 per cent. after several weeks, during which it was protected from air.and bacteria. They attribute this acidity to the formation of acid phosphate of potassium under the influence of fatty acids, and especially to the partial peptonization of the albuminoids. Two substances, found in milk, but not in fresh meat, are also abundantly produced, viz. casein and nucleo-albumin. The albuminoids steadily decrease, whereas there is a proportional increase of alkaloids, these being identical with those produced during the life of the organ- ism.—Effects produced upon numerous morbid states by sub- cutaneous injections of a liquid extract from the testicles, by M. Brown-Séquard.—On the densities of liquefied gases and their saturated vapours, and on the constants of the critical point of carbonic acid, by M. E. H. Amagat.—On new methods of forming certain substitution imides, by M. A. Haller.— Reports of the Committee charged with the examination of the calculator Inaudi, by MM. Charcot and Darboux. Jacques Inaudi, a peasant born in Piedmont in 1867, learned to reckon before he acquired the art of reading and writing, which he did not master till twenty. He therefore owes his extraordinary calculating powers to an abnormally developed memory for figures, aided by a mental representation of numbers which the Committee proved by a series of careful experiments to be purely acoustical, and quite independent of visualization. The rules of Inaudi’s operations are original. In addition and subtrac- tion he begins on the left side, and deals with each whole number in its turn. The extraction of roots and the solution of equations are performed by tentative approxi- mations, executed with remarkable rapidity. At the end of a long sitting Inaudi was able to recount the whole series of num- bers dealt with, amounting to some 400 figures. —On the stability of motion in a particular case of the problem of three bodies, by by M. Coculesco.—Solar observations during the first quarter of the year 1892, by M. Tacchini. At the Roman College, during this period, the frequency of metallic eruptions, spots, and faculze was greater in the southern hemisphere of the sun, whereas the protuberances were more frequent in the northern, and nearer the pole. The auroral maximum is probably more dependent 168 NATURE [JUNE 16, 1892 on that of the protuberances than that of the sun-spots.—On a property common to three groups of two polygons, inscribed, circumscribed, or conjugate to one conic, by M. Paul Serret.— On discontinuous groups of non-linear substitutions with one variable, by M. Paul Painlevé.—On the acceleration of mortality in France, by M. Delauney. From a calculation based upon certain tables published by the Bureau des Longitudes, it appears that the death-rate is accelerated during the ages ranging from 16 to 32 and £4 to 82, while it is retarded between 1 and 16, 32 and 54, and after 82. This givesthenumbers 16, 32, 54, and 82, which may be regarded as natural epochs of human life. They may be derived from the equation 3x7 — 5x + 4, by sub- stituting for x the values 3, 4, 5, and 6. The equation represents a parabola.—Optical method of determining the conductivity of metallic bars, by M. Alphonse Berget. This is based upon an application of interference fringes or Newton’s rings produced at the ends of two bars to be compared, by means of which the ratio of their elongations is found. Applicable to bars of rare metals. —On the propagation of heat within crystallized sub- stances, by M. Ed. Jannettaz.—On a new determination of the ratio v between the electro-magnetic and the electrostatic C.G.S. units, by M. H. Abraham. Obtained by measuring the same capacity—of a plane condenser with guard ring—in both systems. The value obtained for wv was 299'2 x 108,— On the basic nitrates of zinc, by M. J. Riban.—On the permolybdates, by M. EE. Péchard.—On a reproduction of leucite, by M. A. Duboin.—Contributions to the study of mineral waters: preservation of these waters, by M. P. Par- mentier.—On the fixation of iodine by starch, by M. Gaston Rouvier.—Mechanical determination of the boiling-points of alcohols and acids, by M. G. Hinrichs.—Preparation and heat of formation of monosodic resorcin and hydroquinone, by M. de Forcrand.—Thermal study of the dibasic organic acids : methyl-malonic and methyl-succinic acids; influence of isomerism, by M, G. Massol.—On an oxidation product of starch, by M. P. Petit.—Organo-metallic combinations of the aromatic acetones, by MM. E. Louise and Perrier.—On the chlorine derivatives of the isobutylamines, by M. A. Berg.— Researches on the ptomaines in some infectious diseases, by M. A. B. Griffiths. —On the dioptase of the French Congo, by M. E. Lacroix.—Researches on the filtration of water by the Mollusca, and applications to ostreiculture and oceanography, by M. H. Viallanes.—On a parasite of the locusts, by M. L. Trabut.—Tuberculous vaccination of dogs, by MM. Heéricourt and Ch. Richet. The effect was tried of vaccinating some dogs with aviary tuberculosis, which proved a perfect prophy- lactic to human tuberculosis, the injection of which proved fatal to those not so vaccinated, the rest being unaffected. BERLIN. Physiological Society, May 13.—Prof. Munk, President, in the chair.—Prof. Loewy gave an account of experiments on respiration under reduced atmospheric pressure, carried out ina confined space which admitted of very rapid reductions of pressure (to half an atmosphere) with constant composition of the inclosed air. The amount of reduction which was borne without ill effects differed in the case of the three persons on whom the experiments were made, in accordance with the magnitude of their respiratory activities: the greater the latter, the greater was the reduced pressure which could be withstood. For any one person it appeared that a greater reduction could be borne while fasting or during work than after a meal or during repose. Both oxygen and carbon dioxide were found to do away with the discomfort resulting from over rarefaction of the air. Slightly reduced pressure had no effect on respiratory inter- change, while if the reduction was considerable, more carbon dioxide was expired, notwithstanding the diminished supply of oxygen. The reduced pressure of the latter gas was found to act on the respiratory mechanism in such a way as to lead to deeper, and hence compensatory, respiratory movements.—Dr. Wertheim spoke on the blood-vessels of the avian eye in both the embryonic and fully developed state, illustrating his remarks by injected specimens of embryonic eyes. Physical Society, May 20.—Prof. Lampe, President, in the chair.—Prof. Neesen gave an account of his researches on the motion of loose disks centred on an axis rotating at high speeds. The disks were of varying mass and moment of inertia, and had at one side an excentrically-placed pin, in order that the least weight might be determined which, when applied NO. 1181, VOL. 46] Philadelphia, 1892, Part i. (Philadelphia).—Transactions of the Lei tothis pin, stopped the rotation of the disk. The necessary weight, as thus measured, was found to vary with the rotational velocity of the axis and with the mass and moment of inertia of the disk. smeared with old or new oil, and also with the material of which the disk was made, &c.—Dr. Wien spoke on Maxwell’s electro-magnetic theory, and the additions made to it by Poynting, and gave, in conclusion, a hypothetical conception of the nature of magnetism which corresponded to the existing formulze. BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED, Booxs.—Notes and Queries on Anthropology, second edition: edited by J. G. Garson and C. H. Read (Anthropological Institute).—The Birds of the Sandwich Islands, Part 3: S. B. Wilson and A. H. Evans, (Porter).— Irrigation and Water Storage in the Arid Regions ; Letter from the Secretar of War (Washington).—Die Grundziige der Theorie der Statistik ; Prof. i. Westergaard (Jena, Fischer).—Die Bewegung der lebendigen Substanz: M. Verworn (Jena, Fischer).—Ostwald’s Klassiker der Exakten Wis: en, Nos. 1 to 30 (Leipzig. Engelmann).—The Threshold of Science, second edition: Dr. C. R. A. Wright (Griffin),—Untersuchungen iiber mikrosko- pische Schaiume und das Protoplasma: O. Biitschli (Leipzig, Engelmann). —Die Epiglottis : C. Gegenbaur (Leipzig, Engelmann).—Jethou, or Crusoe Life in the Channel Islands: E. R. Suffling (Jarrold).—Six Botanical Dia- grams (S.P.C.K.).—Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Subjects : Dr. A. Weismann; edited by E. B. Poulton and A. E. Shipley ; vol. ii. (Oxford, Clarendon Press). PAMPHLETS.—Present Problems in Evolution and Heredity : Prof. H. F. Osborn.—Church and State in Early Maryland: Dr. G, Petrie (Baltimore). SERIALS.—Journal of the Marine Biological Association, vol. ii., No. 3 (Dulau.) —Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. xxx., No. 137 (Philadelphia).—Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, ter Literary and Philosophical Society, April (Leicester).—Rendiconto dell’ Accademia delle Scienze Fisiche e Matematiche, January to March (Napoli). —Proceedings of the Royal Society of. Victoria, vol. iv. (new series), Part i. (Williams and Norgate). ; CONTENTS. PAGE Mechanics. By Prof. A. G. Greenhill, F.R.S... . 145 Collections from the Andes. By H. J. Elwes ... 147 The History of Epidemics .... Our Book Shelf ;— Hatch: ‘‘ Mineralogy.”—J. W. J. . . Pratt: ‘* To the Snows of Tibet through China” . . Letters to the Editor :— i sets : Absolute Electrometer for Lecture Purposes. (Z//us- trated.)—Prof, F, Braun... . « + 4 Saturn’s Rings.—Rev. A. Freeman ....... Aurora.—James Porter. .... The Atomic Weight of Oxygen.—Robt. Lehfeldt . The Nitric Organisms.—R. Warington, F.R.S. ._ Carnivorous Caterpillars. —R. McLachlan, F.R.S. The Cuckoo in the East.—F. C, Constable... . The New London University... ..+.-+4%% ! Subdivisions in Archean History. By Prof. James | D.. Dana ois iene) epee eee Opening of the Liverpool Marine Biological Station at Port Erin. (Ji/ustrated.) .... The Annual Visitation of the Greenwich Observa- tOLY. go ates ee ee Notes. 45 <5 cee ee Our Astronomical Column :— The Late New Starin Auriga: .°. .°. 2, .) s0) a Photographic Measures of the Pleiades. ...... The Planet: Mars 00k ee! 6 ea Geographical Notes Naples Academy of Sciences .. University and Educational Intelligence ..... Societies and Academies ...... Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received ..... 149 5 a ne 150 CM Reet Me re Se fy ta © eS eh er, se en ng, 0) ee ee Oe 0) Ge) a ea 6.0 «(6 8 © ee 0) eo hee See 148 | 150 150 It varied also according as the axis was dry or NATURE 169 THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 1892. THE NEW LONDON UNIVERSITY. N our last issue we laid before our readers a statement of the proposals adopted by the Association for Pro- moting a Professorial University for London at a meeting held at Burlington House on the 14th inst. It may tend to clear the issue if we now briefly compare these pro- posals with the provisions of the Gresham Charter. _ The Gresham Charter seeks to federate two Colleges and ten medical schools, primarily for examination pur- poses. Such a University, if created, would have had two competing staffs in the Faculties of Arts and Science _ and twelve in the Faculty of Medicine. Provision is also made, under certain conditions, for the federation of other institutions, if it can be shown to the satisfaction of the Council—that is, of the Chancellor, the Lord Mayor of London, and the representative members of the Councils _ of the twoconstituent Colleges and the ten medical schools —that such institutions are ona basis justifying the expecta- tion of permanent existence; that they are under the independent control of their own governing bodies ; and that they are reasonably well equipped in some one _ Faculty. Such a federation, created not primarily for the true business and proper functions of a University, but solely in the interests of a degree-granting body, could only have one result. The examination schedules must perforce be within reach of the lower grades of instruc- tion, the various constituent elements would be actively . competing bodies, and no attempt to create a single competent staff and a single set of fully-equipped University laboratories would be feasible. Is it at all probable that the true work of a University would flourish under such a system as that? Is it in the least degree likely that we could hope to see _ created in London, a teaching organization worthy of the _ greatest and richest capital in the world, or even such as many of the smaller European capitals now possess? The fame of a University, if it is to be anything more than a social function, must depend on the character of its teach- ing. Would the best men be attracted and retained by such a system? There can be only one answer to these questions. The Gresham scheme is not only a wholly in- _ adequate solution of the University question, but in so far as it tends to accentuate and perpetuate the existing state of things its provisions are positively mischievous. No solution of the question can be either just or final which ignores the existence of the present University of London. _If London is to have two degree-granting bodies existing, practically, side by side, we shall have confusion worse confounded. Burlington Gardens would inevitably be driven to establish a teaching organization of its own, unless it was supremely indifferent to its fate or supinely content with the teaching of the Correspondence Colleges and the crammers. Why should we neglect, and not only neglect but positively so arrange as to destroy, the prestige of the existing University of London? This University is not effete—it has still within it a great poten- tiality for good. Surely, in common gratitude, the Uni- versity which has hitherto consistently upheld a high _ Standard of attainment for its degrees, and which has NO. 1182, VOL. 46] done so much for the spread of natural science in this country, is worthy of better treatment at the hands of those who profess to minister to the true interests of learning. The Gresham scheme is really an attempt on the part of certain of the medical schools and some of the arts and science teachers to cheapen degrees and so attract students. It is true that the new University medical degrees would carry no license to practise. But is it likely that the University would permanently put up with this unique position, or that its students would continue tosubmit themselves without a murmur to a double examin- ation system? As the document issued by the Victoria University indicates, the result, in all probability, would be to reduce the two examinations to a single standard by compromise with the licensing body. The scheme, more- over, gives an overwhelming preponderance to the most purely professional of all the faculties, and far too large a share of control to persons of small academic expe- rience who devote occasional spare hours to academic affairs. It makes no attempt to satisfy the demand for the recognition in some form of University work among the people. No wonder, then, that it was strenuously opposed by a powerful section of the governing body, and by a majority of the teachers in the Faculties of Science and Arts, of the most influential College that it proposed to incorporate. The Council of University College, indeed, has never openly ventured to place the scheme before the governing body. The Gresham University Commissioners are authorized by the terms of their reference “to consider and, if they think fit, to alter and to amend and extend the proposed charter, soas toform . . . a scheme for the establishment, under charter, of an efficient teaching University for London.” It is impossible to conceive how the charter submitted to them can be amended so as to form such a scheme if its salient features are preserved. That fact is becoming more and more patent every day. The Association which put forward the proposals we have already referred to now numbers among its members— medicine excepted—a majority of the leading London teachers. If these teachers say that they do not wish the Gresham Charter at any price, it is difficult to see how it can be imposed upon them. Any attempt to resuscitate that charter, even with amendments, will meet, as before, with the opposition of the provincial Colleges, the minor London teaching bodies, and, what is perhaps more important, the organized opposition of a large section of the London teachers, and of some of the most powerful and influential friends of higher education in this country. The fact is that it is at last clearly recognized that the foundation of a Metropolitan University, which will bear comparison with those of the great Continental cities, is a matter of national importance. The action of the House of Commons with regard to the Gresham Charter offers an opportunity, such as may not soon occur again, for attempting the formation of a University in London on the same ample lines as those to be found in other European capitals. Watchful observers of what has been going on during the past three or four years have de. liberately come to the conclusion that it is quite impossible to improve the condition of higher education in London by means of any federation of Colleges. The creation of a homogeneous academic body with power to adsoréd, not I 170 NATURE [JUNE 23, 1892 to federate, existing institutions of academic rank, is the only real solution of the problem. An academic body of this character might well be organized, so far as teaching is concerned, on the broad lines of a Scottish University. Such a corporation may be conveniently spoken of asa professorial University, to distinguish it from a federal University. A federal University may be all that is possible when the constituent Colleges are situated in different towns, as is the case in the Victoria University ; but it cannot be efficient in London, where these Colleges would appeal to the same public for support. The scheme put forward by the Association for Pro- moting a Professorial University for London is not open to the objections urged against the Gresham scheme. It would found a University on the same broad lines as those of France, Germany, and Switzerland. It would bring to the new University all the power and prestige of the existing University. It will meet with no opposition from the provincial Colleges; on the contrary, it has the active support of many of the leading provincial teachers. It satisfies the demands of the Victoria University that the medical degree shall carry the license to practise, and that the medical representation shal] not preponderate. It has, for the first time in the history of the movement, brought the most influential teachers from a variety of London teaching bodies into close and active sympathy, and animated them with a desire for a University of definite type. It is significant that the Council and staff of Bedford College are at one in favour of a University on the general lines laid down in the Association scheme. The Senate of University College has carried a motion urging their Council to adopt a similar resolution in favour of the scheme of ab- sorption. The Association scheme makes full provision for the recognition of work of the University Extension character, and for the appointment of University lecturers at minor and non-absorbed teaching institutions. Whilst proposing central control and central University labora- tories of the highest type, it provides for local teaching such as is required for pass degrees or for the lower stages of honours graduation. Lastly, it provides for post-graduation courses and specialized instruction, such as that of the Collége de France and of the greater German Universities. As regards medicine, it recognizes that it is impossible to “absorb” the medical schools owing to their close relation to great public charities; but at the same time it endeavours to grant much of what the Medical Faculty gained by the Gresham Charter. The Medical Faculty will be elected by the medical teachers themselves. There will be, as in every University of standing, medical pro- fessors appointed by the Senate from the Medical Faculty on the recommendation of the faculty. The existence of such a medical professoriate will enhance the dignity of the University and of the medical schools, whilst at the same time it holds out a strong inducement to those schools to select members for the Medical Faculty on the ground of their scientific as well as their administrative reputation, The limitation of the number of medical professors on the Senate will safeguard the character of the medical degree. The scheme, whilst giving very ex- tended powers to the medical schools, meets the objec- tions of the provincial opponents of the Gresham Charter. NO. 1182, VOL. 46] Lastly, it provides for the due University recognition of the pure science teaching of the medical schools. We have thus indicated as shortly as possible the main © features of the two schemes which are at present before us. The one is essentially parochial in its conception, and vestry-like in its character. The other has in it the elements of a great teaching organization which shall be both metropolitan and imperial in its aims and influence —a University which shall be worthy of London, the capital alike of Great Britain and of the Greater Britain beyond the seas. THE ANALYSIS OF WINES. Analyse des Vins. Par le Dr. L. Magnier de la Source. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Fils, 1892.) Aen wine is gradually becoming more and 4 more important as an item in the national drink- bill—last year we imported 16,782,038 gallons, valued at 45,995,133—its analysis and the methods for the detec- tion of its sophistication have received comparatively little attention from the chemists of this country. On the other hand, in France and Germany the subject has been very thoroughly investigated in practically all its many details, and carefully worked-out methods have been prescribed for the guidance of the public analysts of those countries. Indeed, there is probably no article of food or drink, with the possible exception of milk, of which the chemistry has been so well thrashed out. Wine is in reality a highly complex fluid, and on account of the character of certain of its proximate constituents it is frequently liable to change. It contains various alcohols, glycerin, acids, salts, “extractive matter,” ” together with those principles which give to it its particular colour, special flavour, smell, or “ bouquet.” Whilst some of these constituents can be accurately isolated and described, others can only be detected by the sense of smell. The principal alcohol is, of course, ethyl alcohol, but butyl and amyl alcohols, together with ethylene glycol and isobutyl glycol are not unfrequently present in greater or less quantity. The quantity of alcohol in natural wines may be said to vary from 6 to I2 per cent., and the quantity of glycerin from 7 to Io per cent. of the alcohol present. Tartaric, malic, suc- cinic, glycollic, and oxalic, together with tannic and acetic, are the chief acids in wine. These are said to aid in its preservation, by preventing the formation of fungi. Traces of other fatty acids, such as propionic, butyric, and cenantkic acids are also present, as well as acetaldehyde, and possibly its homologues. Tartaric acid occurs mainly as the dextro variety : levo-tartaric acid is only of comparatively infrequent occurrence. If tartaric acid is not found, as, for example, in certain samples of sherry, its absence is almost certainly due to its removal by “ plastering.”. The amount of free acid in sound wine, reckoned as tartaric acid, varies between o°3 and o’7 per cent.; a greater amount than this im- parts sourness to the wine. Old wines have an acid reaction in consequence of the presence of a certain amount of free acid and potassium bitartrate. A wine not exhibiting this acid reaction tastes flat ; the acidity is its most important flavour. For a long time it has been believed that the free acid of June 23, 1892] | NATURE 171 wine is tartaric acid alone. Nessler’s researches have, however, shown that this is seldom the case; tartaric and malic acids often exist together, and frequently the free acid consists of malic acid entirely. Wines con- taining tartaric acid taste more tart than those with only malic acid, or a mixture of malic and tartaric acids. The characteristic smell of wine is said to be due to cenanthic ether ; the compound ethers probably confer the bouquets which distinguish one vintage from another: among these are aceto-propylic, butylic, amylic, caprylic, butyro-ethylic, caprylo-ethylic, capro-ethylic, and pelargo- ethylic, and the tartaric ethers. According to Jacquemin, these bouquets are primarily due to the special characters of the yeast used in the several districts. One and the same “must” fermented with the yeast obtained from several different districts gave wines having the bouquet characteristic of the district from which the particular yeast had come. inferior grape and of hot-house grapes respectively with yeast cultures obtained from the Champagne, Céte d’Or, and Buxy districts, and found that in each case the wines had the bouquet of those from which the yeast had been derived. The sugars occurring in wine are dextrose and Izvulose. Cane-sugar is never naturally present, even in “must”; it is sometimes added, as in the case of champagne, but it is then rapidly transformed into invert sugar. In some wines, as, ¢.g., Sauternes and sweet Rhine wines, sugar occurs in the form of inosite. The colouring-matter of normal wine is derived partly from the oxidation of the so-called extractives contained in the juice, and in the case of red wines from matter (cenolin or cenotannin) contained in the husks, stalks, and seeds, which is soluble only by the joint action of acid and the alcohol formed during fermentation. The albuminous substances in the “must” are removed when the fermen- tation is properly carried out, but in imperfectly fermented wines a certain amount remains, and in the case of white wines may again render them liable to fresh fermenta- tion. In red wines this danger is obviated by the pre- sence of the tannin of the husks. The inorganic substances contained in wine are potash, soda, lime, and magnesia, in combination mainly with tartaric, phosphoric, and hydrochloric acids. Sherries contain potassium sulphate in excess, owing to the practice of adding gypsum to the “must.” This practice, which prevails not only in Spain, but also in Portugal, the south of France, and to some extent _in Italy, probably has for its object the precipitation of certain albuminous matters which injuriously affect the wine. It is alleged that the fermentation is in conse- quence much more rapid and complete, that the wine keeps longer, and that its colour is richer and more last- ing. Its real advantage to the wine-maker is that it clarifies the wine rapidly, and allows it to be quickly brought to market. It is chiefly employed with the coarser qualities of red wine, and the gypsum is either added to the grapes and trodden with them, or, in fewer cases, added to the expressed juice; the quantity used is generally 1 to 2 kilos to every 100 kilos of fruit, but it is some times as much as 1o kilos. The action of the calcium sulphate on the bitartrate of potash present in the juice produces an acid sulphate of potash, which gradually forms the normal salt by decom- NO. 1182, VOL. 46] Rommer fermented the juice of an position of the phosphate present forming free phosphoric acid. Hence a “plastered” wine is relatively rich in potash and sulphuric acid. Although much has been said as to the baneful effects of plastered wine, very few trustworthy cases of injurious action have been recorded. The Academy of Medicine of Limoges instituted a lengthened inquiry on the sub- ject in 1888, and reported unfavourably on the effects of plastered wine upon health. The French War Depart- ment also appointed a Commission, and its conclusions, which, on the whole, were unfavourable to the practice, have been recently confirmed by Nencki, who was re- quested by the Government of the Canton Berne to report on the advisability of modifying a law, which operates in many parts of the Continent, forbidding the sale of wines containing more than 2 grams of potassium sulphate to the litre. Asto the question whether a plastered wine should be called adulterated, it has been contended that a product which, by treatment, is deprived of one of its most characteristic constituents, viz. tartaric acid, whilst another substance, calcium sulphate, not normally present, is introduced, cannot be called anything but adulterated. As may be supposed, the art of the falsifier is very largely directed to the improvement of the colour of wine ; and unfortunately it is upon the product which popular prejudice associates with the name of an eminent states- man, and which has no other attribute of claret than its colour, that his skill is mainly expended. It has been estimated that the whole yield of the “classed growths ” of the Médoc does not, even in the best years, now ex- ceed 5,000,000 bottles. Much ofthis, it is true, comes to England, but enormous quantities of Jaysan, artisan, and dourgeois wines from the Gironde and Languedoc, mixed with the produce of North Spain and Italy, are worked up andsold as “claret” in this country. This product is not exactly poisonous, nor even, as a rule, positively hurtful, but, it need hardly be said, it has no special merit or individuality. Formerly, the pharma- copeeia of the wine-doctor, like that of the physician of old, was restricted to products of the vegetable king- dom ; but, in addition to the colouring-matter of Phy/o- lacca berries, Althea rosea, bilberries, mallow, elder- berries, privet-berries, logwood, alkanna red, lichen reds, all of which are still used to a greater or less extent, he has not been unmindful of the wealth of colouring-matter which is latent in coal-tar; and to-day the banks of the Rhine have their part in the manufacture of other wines than hock. Biebrich scarlet, fuchsine (magenta), the various Ponceaus, Bordeaux reds, crocein scarlet, and similar colouring-matters, find their way to the south of Europe for the purpose of wine sophistication. A sub- stance known as “ntura per los vinos is largely used in the district of Huesca for colouring Spanish wines. It con- tains two coal-tar derivatives, one of which is that form of Biebrich red which is turned blue by sulphuri¢ acid, whilst the other, which exists in smaller proportion, closely resembles the colouring matter known as cer?se. According to an analysis by Jay, the composition of #intura is: organic matter, mainly Biebrich red, 66°4; sodium sulphate, 26°10; arsenious oxide, 1°62; iron oxide, lime, &c., 5°88. In view of the peculiar nature of this substance, it is reassuring to know that there is a ten- . — 17 NATURE _ [June 23, 1892. dency to return to vegetable colouring-matters, and that large quantities of maqui berries are being imported into Europe from Chili for the purpose of colouring wines. In the three years ending 1887 the exports of this sub- stance were respectively 26,592, 136,026, and 431,392 kilos, by far the largest proportion finding its way to France. The little book before us has no pretensions to be regarded as a complete treatise on the analysis of wines. Its aim is to furnish the analyst with a number of carefully tested methods for the detection of sophistications and adulterations, and for the rapid determination of those constituents on which the character of wine mainly depends. Dr. Magnier de la Source is well known in France as an authority on the subject, and the Budletin of the French Chemical Society contains papers by him relating to the analysis of wine. His methods are, for the most part, similar to those adopted by the Association of German and Austrian analysts, although they are not described with that minute attention to detail which has been found desirable by the German-speaking chemists. As may be seen on turning over the pages of Fresenius’s Zeitschrift fiir analytische Chemie, the “ musts.” and wines of Germany are periodically examined and reported upon with all the method and regularity adopted in the case of the London water-supply ; and it has happened in the past that the modes of determining such constituents as the vegetable acids, glycerin, and “ extractive matters” have been discussed and wrangled over in a manner which recalls the famous fights over “ organic carbon,” “ albumi- noid ammonia,” and “ previous sewage contamination ” of yearsago. The only fault that we have to find with this book is that its author hardly does justice to his German brethren ; although, it is but fair to add, some reference to their work is to be found in the excellent bibliography at the end of the volume. A Us MODERN THERAPEUTICS. An Introduction to Modern Therapeutics. By T. Lauder Brunton, M.D., &c. (London: Macmillan and Co.,1892.) HIS work is a reprint of the Croonian Lectures de- livered before the Royal College of Physicians, London, in 1889. Whatever Dr. Brunton writes is sure to be interesting, and the present lectures have lost none of their lucidity or freshness though three years have elapsed since they were before the medical profession. It is hardly necessary to say that the subject is one with which Dr. Lauder Brunton is eminently fitted to deal, and the non-medical reader will be convinced when he has read the volume that medicine and therapeutics are far from being the inexact sciences they were not many years ago. The elementary nature of some of the early pages will be understood when it is remembered that the audience before which the lectures were originally given consisted in a large measure of men who had learnt chemistry before the days of Crookes, Lockyer, and Men- deleeff. It was necessary that the author should lead them through a brief survey of the chief facts and theories re- lating to atoms and molecules until the more difficult subject of the composition, constitution, and methods of union of organic radicles is reached. This is done in an NO. 1182, VOL. 46] admirably clear summary, assisted by those apt illus- trations drawn from every-day life for which Dr. Brunton is so well-known. Our new drngs are now made by the chemist ; so great has been the advance of organic chemistry, that the pharmacologist has hard work to keep pace with all the new combinations that issue from the laboratory. But the two classes of investigators, the chemists and the experimental therapeutists, have at least gone hand in hand so far, that it is now possible to judge the action of adrug by its composition. This, how- ever, as Dr. Brunton points out, is not a rule without exception. There are many drugs which behave in un- expected ways; they no doubt, in the future, will be brought into harmony with laws of nature yet to: be discovered. At present it is not possible to prophesy the physiological action of a chemical compound with {that mathematical accuracy which enables astronomers to foretell eclipses ; pharmacology is yet, and perhaps always will be, an experimental science. The lectures stand practically in the same condition as that in which they were delivered. A volume of equal size to that under consideration would have been neces- sary to include all the new work that has appeared in the last few years. The tuberculin of Koch ; the importance of poisonous proteids, and the diminishing popularity of the ptomaines; the action of the intestinal epithelium (vice the liver) as the gatekeeper protecting the body from the entrance of albumose ; the application of phagocytosis to the problems of disease, together with the views of the antiphagocytists—these are a few of the big questions that have come to the fore in the last three years, and it is only active pathologists who would be able to realize how much longer these lectures would have been if full reference had been made to all of them. The main facts, and the principal conclusions adduced by Dr. Brunton, will, however, still remain ; and all those who read the lectures in the medical journals before will welcome their appearance in a more permanent form now, and to those who missed them in 1889 we can confidently re- commend the book as one which will not only be interest- ing but also useful. W. D. Hz. OUR BOOK SHELF. By W. H. Besant, Sc.D., Elementary Hydrostatics. F. (Cam- R.S. “Cambridge Mathematical Series.” bridge: Deighton, Bell, and Co., 1892.) THE success this work has achieved will be gathered from the fact that this is the fifteenth edition, so that any further criticism on our part would be quite unnecessary. The brief snatches of historical matter, together with the lucid and simple explanations, all tend to stir up in the student an amount of interest which in the reading of many other works on this subject lies dormant. By a careful study of the illustrations, especially those relating to pumps, presses, &c., the beginner may gather much knowledge about the principles on which they are based. In this edition the text has undergone a careful revision, several alterations and additions having been made. A uniform system of units has been maintained throughout, and the chapters on the motions of fluids and on sound, which in previous editions were inserted among those on the equilibrium of fluids, have here been separated. The examples and problems at the termination of each chapter are as numerous as ever, a new edition of JUNE 23, 1892] NATURE 173 their solutions being near completion. Both at the Universities and elsewhere, the work will still continue to occupy the high position which it has held among treatises of its kind. W. The Threshold of Science. By C. R. Alder Wright, F.R.S. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. (London: Charles Griffin and Co., 1892.) THE primary aim of this book is to interest young readers in various s.mv’e and amusing experiments, illustrating some of the chief physical and chemical properties of surrounding objects, and the effects upon them of light and heat. In the present edition the author has made no change which is likely to interfere with this object, but he has added various scientific appendices, and an excellent chapter on the systematic order in which class experi- ' ments should be carried out for educational purposes. These additions will be of great service to all who may wish to use the volume not merely as a “ play-book,” but as an instrument for the training of the mental faculties. Any one who may still have doubts regarding the value of elementary science as an organ of education, will speedily have his doubts dispelled if he takes the trouble to understand the methods recommended by Dr, Alder Wright. The majority of the experiments he has selected must not, of course, be studied merely in his exposition. It is intended that each reader shall make them himself. If that is done, they cannot fail to quicken the intelligence | even of “ the average boy.” ko J. B. Lock’'s Elementary Dynamics. By G. H. ' Lock, M.A. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1892.) THis key will be found most useful both to beginners and teachers alike. The examples are all carefully worked out, many of the more difficult problems being treated at greater length with the view of helping those who are studying without the aid of a teacher. By an intelligent use of this book, a student should acquire a good know- ledge of the method of working out problems as well as the important factor of attacking them in the right wer LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. {Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake _ ¢o 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. | ‘Ice in the South Atlantic. _ THE following account of ice met with in the South Atlantic at the commencement of last April, which has been. supplied to the Meteorological Office by Captain Froud, of the Shipmasters’ Society, may be of interest to your readers. Re. RoBERT H. Scort, Secretary, Meteorological Office. Ship Cromdale, London. Sir, —I now send you a short account of my unusual encounter with ice in the above ship on our homeward passage from June 17. Sydney. : _ We left Sydney on March 1, and having run our easting down on.the parallel of 49° to 50° S., rounded the Horn on March 30 without having seen ice, the average temperature of the water being 43° during the whole run across. At midnight on April 1, lat. 56° S., long. 58° 32’ W., the temperature fell to 37°’5, this being the lowest for the voyage, but no ice was seen, although there was a suspicious glare to the southward. _ At 4 a.m., April 6, lat. 46° S., long. 36° W., a large berg was reported right ahead, just giving us time to clear it. At 4.30, with the first sign of daybreak, several could be dis- tinctly seen to the windward, the wind being north-west, and the ship steering north-east about nine knots. At daylight {5.20) the whole horizon to the windward was a complete mass NO. 1182, VOL. 46] of bergs of enormous size, with an unbroken wall at the back ; there were also many to the leeward, 1 now called all hands, and after reducing speed to seven knots, sent the hands to their stations and stood on. At 7 a.m, there was a wall extending from a point on the lee bow to about four points on the quarter, and at 7.30 both walls joined ahead. I sent the chief mate aloft with a pair of glasses to find a passage out, but he reported from the topgallant yard that the ice was unbroken ahead. Find- ing myself embayed, and closely beset with innumerable bergs of all shapes and sizes, I decided to tack and try to get out the way Ihad come into the bay, The cliffs were now truly grand, rising up 300 feet on either side of us, and as square and true at the edge as if just out of a joiners’ shop, with the sea breaking right over the southern cliff and whirling away in a cloud of spray. Tacked ship at 7.30, finding the utmost difficulty in keeping clear of the huge pieces strewn so thickly in the water, and having in several cases to scrape her along one to get clear of the next. We stood on in this way till 11 a.m., when to my horror the wind started to veer with every squall, till I drew quite close to the southern barrier, having the extreme point a little on my lee bow. I felt sure we must go ashore without a chance of saving ourselves. Just about 11.30 the wind shifted to the south-west with a strong squall, so we squared away to the north-west, and came past the same bergs we had seen at daybreak, the largest being about 1000 feet high, anvil-shaped, and at 2 p.m. got on the north-west side of the northern arm of the horse-shoe shaped mass. It then reached from four points on my lee bow to as far as could be seen astern, in one unbroken line. A fact worthy of note was that at least fifty of the bergs in the bay were perfectly black, which was to be accounted for by the temperature of the water being 51°, which had turned many over, I also think that had there been even a small outlet at the eastern side of this mass the water between the barriers would not have been so thickly strewn with bergs, as the prevailing 5 gad gales would have driven them through and separated em. . I have frequently seen ice down south, but never anything like even the smaller bergs in this group. I also had precisely the same experience with regard to the temperature of the water in our homeward passage in the ship Derwent three years ago, as we dipped up a bucket of water within halfa mile ofa huge berg and found no change in the temperature. I trust you will warn, as far as possible, those about to sail for the Cape, as these bergs must soon reach that part. I remain, yours truly, (Signed) EDGAR H. ANDREW, Master. June 12. Land and Freshwater Shells peculiar to the British Isles, MR, COCKERELL, in his article in NATURE of May 26 (p. 76), draws attention toa list of land and fieshwater shells peculiar to the British Islands in Dr. Wallace’s new edition of ** Island Life.” This work is of such very great importance to every one engaged in the study of the geographical distribution of animals, that it is regrettable the author should have repeated an error made.in the first edition. Geomalacus maculosus, as is men- tioned in Mr. Cockerell’s article, is not peculiar to the British Islands. A specimen was discovered in Northern Spain as far back as 1868 by Mr. von Heyden, and recorded in the Wach- richtsblatt d. deutschen Malakozool. Gesellschaft by Heyne- mann in 1869. ‘lhe allied species, supposed to have been found in France, has been proved to be an Arioa ; but several species of the interesting genus Geomalacus have been recently described by Simroth from Portugal. Mr. Cockerell also states that several varieties in the list of peculiar British forms may have to be eventually struck out ; and this is certainly the case, as the variety a/dolateralis of Arion ater, mentioned as ‘‘ very distinct,” was found near Bre- men, in Germany, and is described in Simroth’s ‘‘ Natur- geschichte der deutschen Nacktschnecken” (Zed¢tschr. f. wiss. Zoologte, vol. 42, 1885). R. F. SCHARFF, 22 Leeson Park, Dublin, June 13. THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE. AP BE Imperial Institute is no longer a castle in the air, an abstraction the meaning of which is to be u essed at through a veil of mist, but a solid and hand- 174 NATURE [JUNE 23, 1892 some structure, affording a pleasant contrast to those in its immediate vicinity. The objects and purposes which this institution should fulfil have been fully ventilated and discussed in these columns ever since the idea of such a national memorial, commemorative of the fiftieth year of the reign of Her Majesty, was suggested. This being so, it will. be interesting to many of our readers if we make one or two comparisons of the scheme as it exists at present with the past suggestions. In an article on “ Science and the Jubilee” in 1887 (NATURE, vol. xxxv. p. 217), we wrote :— “.... There is room for an Imperial Institute which might without difficulty be made one of the glories of thé land, and which would do more for the federation of England and her colonies than almost any other machinery that it is possible to imagine. But it must be almost exclusively a scientific institution. Its watchwords should be ‘Knowledge and Welcome.’ England, through such an institution, should help her colonies in the arts of peace, as she does at present exclusively in the arts of war. In an Imperial Institute we can imagine the topography, the geology, the botany, and the various applications of science, and the industries of Greater Britain going hand in hand.” Again, referring to the proposed inclusion of an Emigration Office in the scheme, it was remarked :— ‘With this we cordially agree. But the return current must be provided for. Those who have lived in Eng- land’s colonies and dependencies know best the intense home feeling, and in many cases the stern necessity there is of close contact with the mother country. Let the Imperial Institute be England’s official home of her re- turning children—the hall in which she officially welcomes them back. Let them here find all they need, and let in- formation and welcome be afforded with no stinted hand.” An inspection of the parts already ready for occupation in the new building took place on Saturday last, and we confess frankly that the idea of ‘‘ Welcome” referred to in the preceding paragraph has been fully carried out. The building is admirable architecturally, and in the various halls set apart for the purpose the children of the Greater Britain beyond the seas will find no unworthy home when they visit the mother country. Their intercourse will not be confined to meeting each other ; the proposal to create home Fellows of the Institute will, no doubt, be taken ad- vantage of by all interested in all the larger questions on which the progress of the Empire must depend. By this means an Imperial Club of a very real kind has been created. So far, then, as one of the watchwords, ‘‘ Welcome,” is concerned, there is cause for sincere congratulation. It is too soon to discuss the many proposals regarding the other watchword, “‘ Knowledge,” with the future activity of the Institute in the second direction. The lines of activity already actually taken up and provided for in the building as now arranged may be gathered from a glance through the pages of the pamphlet and papers distributed on Saturday. The contents of the galleries will constitute “a living representation of the resources of the Empire and of the condition of its industries and commerce.” The perma- nent collections will illustrate “the natural and industrial products of the United Kingdom, of the several Colonies, and of India,” while, from time to time, occasional exhi- bitions will be held which will, ‘it is hoped, stimulate and enlist the sympathies of Colonial, Indian, and British producers, and promote active co-operation with the industrial section of the Empire.” The collections will be arranged and described in such a manner as to afford full “ scientific, practical, and commercial information relating to the sources, nature, facilities of supply, and applications of well-known natural products, and of those whose industrial or commercial NO. 1182, VOL. 46] value still needs development.” The libraries, offices of reference, reading-rooms, &c., in conjunction with the above exhibits, should form therefore a mine of wealth. We note also an arrangement by which samples of pro- ducts will be given to anyone who may be desirous of obtaining specific information respecting any particular product included in the collection. Ample opportunities are to be offered for conference on matters of common interest, and for the interchange of information relative to both Great and Greater Britain. — Such, then, are some of the points included in the pre- liminary arrangement of the building. No one, we suppose, considers them as final. Natural selection will come in, and it rests with the representatives of the scientific bodies among the governing body to determine which parts of “ Knowledge ” of the higher kind shall be fostered. This isa problem for the future. We need not stop to consider it now. One word about the building itself and the allocation of space. ; Passing through the principal entrance, which is con- structed altogether of Portland stone, the large reception hall is reached, which, when finished, will constitute one of the finest we have, various marbles and Indian teak panelling being profusely used. The principal floor contains in its western corridor the British-American and British-Australasian conference rooms, the council chamber, and the secretarial and clerical offices ; and in the eastern corridor the British- Indian and British-African conference rooms, the writing, reading, and news rooms, and the temporary library. The principal stairway, leading to the second floor, will, when finished, be a handsome piece of work ; the steps will be of Hopton Wood ‘stone, with marble balusters and rails, while the walls will be lined with specimens of British and Colonial marbles, and the ceiling profusely decorated with arabesque plaster. 6 thr On the first floor the Fellows’ dining and reading rooms are situated. The rooms in the east corridor, occupied at present by a very interesting exhibition of Indian art metal work, will subsequently be used for the commercial department and commercial conferences. In the west corridor various rooms will be put at the disposal of various Societies “‘ whose objects are kindred to those of the Imperial Institute.” On the second floor will be situated the public dining and refreshment room. Here also the rooms in the west corridor and on the south side will be used as sample examination rooms: there will also be a map room and a Fellows’ smoking room. The east corridor will, we are somewhat ambiguously informed, be occupied probably by “certain Societies who are seeking the splendid accommodation which the Institute affords for carrying on their work.” When these Societies are named, the policy of the governing body in this direction will become more obvious. TIME STANDARDS OF EUROPE. THE era of world time is yet far off, and it is certain that the desirable scheme for a uniform horary standard put forward by the Astronomer-Royal (NATURE, vol. xxxiii. p. 521) will not be realized this century. But though this be so, signs of better times in the reckoning of the hours of the day have recently appeared, and the practical outcome of the Prime Meridian Conference at Washington (NATURE, vol. xxxiii. p. 259) is already of importance. Time is a problem to us all—a problem which has baffled the philosopher, driven the astronomer to devices which closely resemble subterfuges, and harassed the watchmaker beyond all other craftsmen. Much light on the difficult but all-important question is focussed in Mr. Lupton’s article in NATURE, vol. xxxix. p. 374; but education will do more than it has yet done JUNE 23, 1892 | ¢ NATURE 175 when the average man succeeds in understanding what he cannot but believe, that forenoon events in Australia are printed in British newspaper offices before daylight on the day they occur, while morning doings in Hawaii cannot fly fast enough by cable to catch the latest edition of the evening papers. In strict justice the time of no two meridians should be the same; and as a matter of fact, in pre-railway days every town, and every garden large enough to boast a sun-dial, set itself by its own local time. Railways have made the uniformity of time within narrow belts of longitude a necessity, and so ly does the railway affect modern civilized life that railway time soon comes to regulate all affairs. The vexation of frequent changes of time standards is familiar to all who have travelled on the Continent, and for many practical purposes the change which has been quietly progressing for the last few years is a benefit of great value. This change was brought home to the dwellers in Belgium and the Netherlands on May 1, 1892, by the retardation of all the railway clocks by from ten to twenty minutes from local to Greenwich time, an altera- tion of the time-gauge of two countries far more significant than the conversion to standard gauge of the railways of land. _. At the Poles, where all meridians converge, there can be no natural standard time, for it is every hour of the day at once ; but the regulation of time at these singular points has not yet become a burning question. Were 1e system of time-reckoning recommended by the Prime Meridian Conference carried out in its entirety, the minutes indicated on all well-regulated clock-dials throughout the world would be the same at a given in- stant, but the hours would differ at each 15° of longitude + « Sk Aig one, twenty-four standards encircling the globe. , for example, at 25 minutes past noon of the prime (or rather the zero) meridian, clocks 90° E. would show 25 minutes past 6 p.m. (18h. 25m.) ; those 90° W., 25 minutes past 6 a.m. (6h. 25m.) ; and those at 180°, 25 minutes past midnight. The zero meridian adopted by the Prime Meri- dian Conference is that of Greenwich ; and definite time standards based on hourly intervals from this starting- line have been used since 1883 on the railways of North America. That continent is divided into strips 15° in width, in each of which a separate time standard pre- vails, from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay. Atlantic time in the eastern provinces of Canada, and in New- foundland, shows 8 a.m. at Greenwich noon; Eastern time in the Atlantic States of the Union marks 7 a.m. at the same moment ; while Central, Mountain, and Pacific time indicate respectively 6,5, and 4a.m. The meridians which set the clocks across America are those of 60°, 75°, go®, 105°, and 120° W. - The conditions in Europe are more complicated than in America. Each small closely-peopled country, with its “national Observatory, naturally tends to adopt throughout its particular national time, although even this is still a desideratum in some. In the difficult subdivisions of Imperial Germany especially, the number of independent and unrelated standards was a grievous obstacle to the interpretation of through railway time-tables. The British Islands, lying at the extreme west of Europe, should logically keep time of the zero meridian, which intersects Greenwich Observatory; while the Russian Empire (in Europe at least) was by its system of central government and State control of railways equally com- mitted to the time of St. Petersburg. But Pulkova Observatory lies two hours east of Greenwich plus one minute and a quarter, and the alteration required is so small that it may be said already to constitute East European time, two hours in advance of Greenwich, or the standard time of West Europe. The meridian of 15° E., running through Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria, and Italy, corresponds to Central European time, one hour in advance of that of Greenwich, and if national NO. 1182, VOL. 46] prejudices and local inertia were overcome, the time of Europe would be placed on a very simple footing by its adoption. The railways of Austria-Hungary have used Central European time on this system since October 1, 1891. More than fifty towns in the monarchy have since then regulated their clocks to correspond, Vienna being the only conspicuous exception, where local time is used for local purposes. Servian time-tables have been assimilated to those of Central Europe, and Bulgarian to Eastern Europe; while Turkey, pulled two ways, yields on both sides, following Central European time on the Salonika railway and Eastern European time on the Constantinople line. In Sweden railway time has been that of Central Europe (15° E.) since 1879, and in South Germany the change to the same standard took place on April 1, 1892, a fact of much greater importance, because a feat very difficult to accomplish. The four standards of Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Baden, and Alsace-Lorraine were previously in use concurrently, and the change involved retarding the nominal hours of all trains from 14 minutes in the case of Bavaria to 34 minutes in that of the Reichsland. Luxemburg came into harmony with the rest of Central Europe at the same date, with the loss of 36 minutes. By a decision of the Federal Council in May last, mean solar time of the 15th meridian will become standard time for the whole German Empire on April 1, 1893, when it exclusively will be employed for railway, telegraph, and all State purposes. Already several places in North Germany have adopted the new time, and it can only be a matter of a few years for the simpler uniform system to acquire a footing for all the purposes of private life. The number of European time standards is stated by Dr. Busschere ! to have been 24 on January I, 1891, and by the end of 1892 it will only be 13. Of these, three are meridional standards, while ten are the times of capitals, viz: Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome, Berne, Bucharest, Athens, Copenhagen, Berlin, and St. Peters- burg, but the last, as already mentioned, practically belongs to the former category. It now remains only for France, Spain, and Portugal to adopt Western European time, for Denmark, Switzerland, and Italy to accept Central time, and for Greece and Rumania to join the other Balkan States in using Central or Eastern time, and the change will be complete. Strangely enough, although foreign writers tacitly assume that the British Islands are at one in their time standard, there exists in the United Kingdom a diversity as illogical as that which formerly reigned in the States of Southern Germany. While Great Britain and the small island groups associated with it keep the time of the initial meridian, now extended to Belgium and Holland on the east, Ireland is regulated by Dublin time. Thus it happens that when the post-office clock in Stornoway (6° 15’ W.) shows noon, that in Donaghadee (5° 30’ W.) only marks 11h. 35m. As long ago as 1888, Japan adopted for its standard time that of the ninth hour interval from Greenwich (135° E.), so that the clocks which regulate the movements of the Japanese are set nine hours in advance of ours. India, Australia, and Cape Colony remain independent in their time relations, although so simple a readjustment as is required might form a graceful concession to the spirit of federation without sacrifice of local dignity or utility. There is no authentic publication known to us which sets forth the time standards actually employed in the chief towns of the world, but fallacious information on the subject is to be found in many atlases and clock- face diagrams. Even so eminently practical a work as “Bradshaw’s Railway Guide” contains month after month a map graduated on the margin to show the difference of time between Greenwich and the rest of * Bulletin of the Royal Belgian Geographical Society, 1892, No. 2, p. 196+ From this paper many of the statements given above have been derived. 176 NATURE [JUNE 23, 1892 England, leaving it to be implied that the local time thus shown is that actually employed, and Kelly’s famous directories are disfigured with similar tables. It is much to be regretted that the system of number- ing the hours of the day from o to 24 has failed to hold the popular fancy. Despite the big clock-face on Green- wich Observatory, people still know their hours by the old ambiguous titles. Usually there is no room for mis- understanding, but mistakes are sometimes possible. A foreign potentate visiting this country recently was much féted during his short stay, breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners being given in his honour, when a certain judge issued acard of invitation to a “ Reception at 10 o’clock,” which some of the guests interpreted as a.m., and others asp.m. Missing a foreign Prince through such ambiguity is a trifle compared with missing a train or miscalculat- ing the length of a journey, and yet we know of no English time-table (we have heard of American) in which the simple plan of naming the afternoon hours from 12 to 23 is adopted. The method is occasionally used in the record of scientific observations, and always with advantage. The present time-standards on the railways of Europe may be summarized as follows :— eA Time of the initial meridian (Western Europe) 0° (12.0) :—Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands. (2) Time of the first hour interval (Central Europe), 15° E. (13.0): Sweden, Luxemburg, Germany (Prussia excepted temporarily), Austria-Hungary, Servia, Bulgaria, Western Turkey. (3) Time of the second hour interval (Eastern Europe), 30° E. (14.0): Eastern Turkey, Russia (practically). Countries conforming to national standards or to no system, with the hour adopted in their capitals at Green- wich noon: Ireland (11.35), France (12.9), Spain (11.46), Portugal (11.23), Switzerland (12.30), Italy (12.50), Rumania (13.44), Greece (13.35). HUGH ROBERT MILL. NOTES. Mr. H. T. STAINTON, F.R.S., the well-known entomologist, has been appointed one of the Curators of the Hope Professor- ship at Oxford, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Prof. Moseley. S1GNoR GIUSEPPE FIORELLI is retiring from the general direc- tion of the antiquities of Italy, and his friends and admirers have resolved to mark the occasion by giving expression to their high appreciation of his work as an archeologist, A committee has been appointed by the Accademia dei Lincei to make the necessary preparations. It is proposed that a medal shall be struck in his honour, and that any sum which may re- main after this has been done shall be set apart for the en- couragement of archzeological studies in accordance with Signor Fiorelli’s suggestions. THE second International Congress of Physiology is to be held at Liége on August 28 to 31. ON Tuesday a conference was held at Lord Brassey’s house for the consideration of the best means of establishing a labora- tory of marine biology in Jamaica in commemoration of the fourth centenary of the discovery of America. Lord Rosse moved the first resolution, ‘‘ That an observatory of marine biology in tropical seas is. necessary for the development of science.” Prof. Ray Lankester seconded the resolution, and in doing so said that nothing could do more to advance our knowledge of biology at the present moment than the work of such a laboratory as that which it was proposed to establish. They wanted a place where the naturalist could work, and above all they wanted an organization, with a permanent official in charge who would gradually accumulate knowledge of the animals and plants which were to be found in the surround- ing waters. They wanted in such a laboratory the means of NO. 1182, VOL. 46] dredging. He hoped they would have a steam vessel, and that the vessel would be large, and the actual building of the labora» tory small. He trusted that there would be an adequate — private subscription to enable them to build the laboratory, but the carrying on of the work would require an annual income, which he hoped the home Government and the island Govern- ment would be prepared to find. The resolution was carried unanimously. Mr. Villiers-Stuart moved, and Mr. Wellesley Bourke (M.L.C., Jamaica) seconded, ‘‘That no tropical sea promises so rich a harvest of biological specimens as the great gulf of the West Indies ; that Jamaica is the most central and most suitable station for such an observatory, and that its. establishment would be a suitable memorial of the fourth centenary of the discovery of the Western Hemisphere.” © This also was unanimously agreed to. THE Crystal Palace on Saturday last was specially visited by Lord Kelvin to view the National Electrical Exhibition at present being held in its buildings. This Exhibition, as everyone who has seen it must be aware, is a thoroughly repre- sentative one, and besides illustrating the present condition of the application of electricity for practical purposes, carries one back especially in the Post Office exhibit, to the time of its infancy: the historical collection is of considerable importance, and has been well selected. Instruments are there shown, which have five needles on their dials, the presence of which was once necessary to carry on a conversation, the number of words spoken per minute amounting only to single figures. Very interesting old specimens of cables are also shown, together with the part of a telegraph post connected with the pathetic case of a poor woodpecker which, in the endeavour to find the insect that was producing (so he thought) the humming noise in the post, had pecked a large hole in it. In the demonstration room of Messrs. Siemens Brothers, some truly wonderful sights were displayed. The flame produced by exciting an induction+ coil by means of an alternating current was produced on a very large scale, and as it issued from the secondary poles, was made to pass through pieces of wood, lumps of salt and slate, the | most striking case being its passage through a large piece of plate glass, for which a very strong current was required. Among the many other exhibits, we may mention the demon- strations in cooking by electricity. The bottom of the kettle or saucepan is coated with a specially prepared enamel, into which a fine wire resistance is embedded ; by this means, as the wire - becomes: heated, the temperature of the kettle, and therefore of the water init, is raised. We may note that the Exhibition closes on Saturday, July 2, so that those who have not already visited it should do so without delay. A REUTER’s telegram from Vizagapatam, Madras, announces the death of Mr. Narasinga Row, the well-known native astronomer. He died on Saturday last. THE death of Hermann Burmeister, the well-known German zoologist, at Buenos Aires, is announced. He died on May 1 in his eighty-sixth year. In his early days he was a Professor of Zoology at Halle. During the revolutionary period of 1848 and the following years he associated himself prominently with the Liberals, the result being that in 1850 he had to quit Germany. He travelled for some time in Brazil, and then returned to his native country. He went back to South America in 1856, and not only visited most parts of the Argentine Republic, but crossed the Andes by a way which had never before been taken by a European. After another brief visit to Germany, he finally settled in Buenos Aires in 1861, where he formed the well- known National Museum of Natural Science. Only an accident made it necessary for him to resign his position as Director, and the community, by which his services were highly appreciated, took care that he was properly pensioned. He was buried at the cost of the State, and the President was present at the funeral, » JUNE 23, 1892] NATURE 177 DuRinG the latter part of last week an area of high pressure lay over the Bay of Biscay and the west of France, and an area of low pressure over Scandinavia and the North Sea, causing moderate north-westerly and westerly winds over these islands. The temperature had continued low, the maxima only exceed- ing 60° at a few places, chiefly in the southern parts of the kingdom, while the nights were very cold for the time of the year, with ground frosts over the inland parts of England. Thunderstorms occurred in many parts, with heavy showers of rain, and hail in the south-east of England. At the beginning of the present week the low barometer extended gradually over the kingdom, and shallow depressions were travelling from west toeast. With this distribution of barometric pressure, the winds were from north and east over Scotland, and chiefly from between north-west and south-west over England and the Chan- nel ; subsequently the barometer readings became more uniform, ‘and the winds light and variable. The weather continued very unsettled, although there was some increase of temperature. The report issued by the Meteorological Council for the week ended the 18th instant shows that the mean temperature was below the average for the week in all districts, the deficit ranging from 3° in the Channel Islands to 8° in the Midland and Eastern Counties of England. Rainfall was only slightly above the mean in the east of Scotland. Tae Washington Weather Bureau has just distributed two important meteorological papers prepared by General A. W. Greely, Chief Signal Officer. (1) A series of thirty-seven charts showing the absolute maximum and minimum temperatures in the United States for decades, and for all years combined, com- piled from observations taken from 1872 to June 1891. . The values, together with the date of occurrence, are printed over the names of the stations on ordinary maps, and show very clearly for each locality the limits within which the temperature may be expected to range. (2) Diurnal fluctuations of atmo- spheric pressure at twenty-nine selected stations in the United States. The tables give the corrections necessary to reduce the mean pressure at any hour of the day to the true daily mean. The values have been obtained by freehand curves from all the available observations from January 1877 to June 1888. It is found that the fluctuations of the secondary maxima and minima diminish from south to north, especially during the summer months. The daily variation in pressure decreases with increas- ing latitude, especially in the winter months; in summer the same conditions exist, except that the daily range increases inland from the coast. The principal maximum occurs over the whole of the United States in January, about gh. 45m. a.m. (local time), except along the New England coast, where it is earlier ; as the year advances the hour gradually shifts towards the earlier morning until June, after which a reversal gradually occurs. The delay in the hour of the principal minimum is _ more marked: it gradually becomes later with increasing longitude ; ; the most decided lagging in the summer minimum is in the neighbourhood of the Great Lakes.’ Pror. R. Koperr gives, in the Chemthker Zeitung (1892; 16, No. 39), an account of Williams’s frog heart apparatus. The apparatus, as modified by Maki, Perles, and Kobert, con- sists of an arrangement of glass vessels and india-rubber tubes, whereby a heart taken from a newly-killed frog can be made to maintain an artificial circulation of blood, fresh or injected with any poison the effect of which it is sought to determine. The tubes and vessels are mounted on a stand about 1 foot high. The heart is suspended by.a cannula leading into a three-way tube communicating with two vertical glass cylinders fitted with glass valves. Through one of these the heart is supplied with _ blood, either fresh from a rabbit, calf, or dog, and diluted with 0°75 per cent. salt solution, or poisoned. The other vertical NO. 1182, VOL. 46] which are more peculiarly her own. cylinder leads back from the heart to the vessel from which the fresh blood is supplied. To start the action, fresh blood is allowed to enter the heart, which is thereby excited to a contrac- tion, and pumps itback into the reservoir. The height through which it is raised, and the quantity that is raised in a given time, gives the work done, and ‘the number of pulsations, and the volume raised in a given time determines the pulse-volume. The force exerted is measured by a small mercurial manometer, which may be rendered self-registering. To study the action of poisons on the power and vitality of the heart it is only necessary to admit the poisoned blood from the second reservoir. When the pulsation has ceased or diminished, fresh blood may be re- admitted, which in many cases restores the pulsation. We have received a letter on this subject from. Count F. Berg, of Livonia, who says Prof. Kobert is of opinion that the apparatus, if it were more generally known, would be of great service for the advancement of science, and would render unnecessary many an otherwise indispensable experiment in vivisection. WE have received a new planisphere, which is being sold by the Register Publishing Company, Ann Arbor, Mich. The rotary disk, on which the constellations are clearly marked, is made of good stiff cardboard, and the days of the year round the edge are neatly printed in white figures on a blue back- ground. The planisphere is arranged for latitudes 38° to 48°, and shows on its disk all the principal stars in each constellation, with their lettering, and in some cases their names; thus, a Bootis = Arcturus, a Lyre = Vega, &c. By simply turning the disk round until the day of the month comes opposite the time of day, the stars above the horizon at that time can at once be seen. On the back is a table for finding the times of visibility and positions of the:planets, while there is also a key to enable one to determine the name of a planet which cannot be re- cognized. When once used, the handiness of such a planisphere as this will soon make itself apparent ; and not only will it be adopted by possessors of telescopes, but it should be in the hands of all those who wish to be able to find and correctly name the various constellations. INQUIRIES have recently been made by the British Consuls in Japan as to the various native industries that have sprung up for the production of articlés which have hitherto been imported into that country from abroad. A summary of the information thus obtained has been prepared by Mr. Gubbins, Secretary of Legation at Tokio, and has been printed in the Foreign Office Miscellaneous Series. Mr. Gubbins says that in the case of some of the industries introduced into Japan, the country is now self-supporting, foreign competition being no longer possible ; in others so much has been accomplished as to render it certain that the time is not far off when importation will altogether cease. The future of other industries again—such as that of cotton-spinning—though not so assured, is still hopeful ; while even in those branches in which the least results have been ob- tained she possesses a constant advantage in the great cheapness of labour. Mr. Gubbins thinks that this progress has not been made at the sacrifice of any of the various artistic industries While admitting that there is truth in the criticism that would disparage her progress for the reason that it is imitative and not constructive, he holds that the fact that Japan, an Oriental country, has been able to dissociate herself from her sister countries of the East and to profit by Western inventions to the extent that is in evidence augurs well for the years to come. IN the new number of the Records of the Australian Museum (vol. ii., No. 1), Prof, Alfred Newton, F.R.S., has a note which may be of interest to ornithologists in Australia. Having lately occasion to investigate the range of the sanderling (Calidris arenaria), he came across a memorandum made in the year 178 NATURE [June 23, 1892 1860 of his having then seen, in the Derby Museum at Liver- pool, two specimens of the larger race of this species, one in winter dress and the other in incipient spring plumage, both being marked as females, and as having been obtained at Sandy Cove in New South Wales, April 20, 1844, by the late John Macgillivray. This wandering species does not seem to have been hitherto recorded from Australia. Prof. Newton finds little verification of Temminck’s assertion in 1840 (‘* Man. d’Ornithologie,” iv. p. 349), often repeated in one form or another, that the sanderling occurs in the Sunda Islands and New Guinea ; or even of a statement made by a recent writer in general terms, that it is a winter visitor to the islands of the Malay Archipelago (‘‘Geographical Distribution of the Charadriidz, &c.,” p. 432). Java seems to be the only one of these islands in which its presence has been determined, and though it was included with a mark of doubt in the lists of the birds of Borneo by Prof. W. Blasius (1882) and Dr. Vorderman 1886) respectively, it has been omitted, and apparently with reason, from that of Mr. Everitt (1889). It is well known to pass along the whole of the west coast of America, and it has been obtained in the Galapagos and the Sandwich Islands, but Prof. Newton knows of no instance of its having been observed in any Polynesian group or within the tropics to the eastward of Java. In the same number of the Records of the Australian Museum is a valuable paper (with plate), by Mr. Charles Chilton, on a Tubicolous Amphipod from Port Jackson. Among some Australian Crustacea sent to Mr. Chilton as ex- changes by the trustees of the Australian Museum was a tube- dwelling Amphipod collected in Port Jackson. There was a plentiful supply both of specimens and of the tubes formed by them, and after a full examination and comparison of them with Mr, Stebbing’s description and figures, Mr. Chilton has no doubt that they belong to Cerapus flindersi, Stebbing, a species described from a single female specimen taken in Flinder’s Passage during the voyage of the Challenger. Mr. Stebbing says nothing of the tube in his description, and Mr. Chilton presumes, therefore, that he has not seen it. Mr. Chilton is able to supplement Mr. Stebbing’s description in this respect, and to describe the male of the species, and to give the points in which it differs from the female, and also some interesting facts on the changes in form that occur during the growth of the male. SoME time ago the Ceylon Observer gave an account of the killing of a wild boar by a cheetah near Galle. In its issue of May 25 it prints a letter from Mr. Clive Meares, who says that the fortune of war has now gone the other way, a cheetah having been killed by a wild boar. The coolies of Ginniedominie estate, Udagama, on going to work on the morning of May 23, discovered in a tea-field near the jungle signs of a severe struggle having taken place between a cheetah and a wild boar —judging by the marks. On further search the dead body of a cheetah was discovered in the tea, death having evidently been caused by the severe handling it had received from the boar. The brain being very much congested with blood and several teeth marks deeply buried in the neck, there could be no doubt as to the cause of death. On the animal being skinned the wounds were found to be very deep. She weighed 42 pounds, and she was 71 inches long from nose to tip of tail, and 24 inches in height at the shoulders. Mr. A. REA, the Superintendent of the Archzological Survey, Madras, has reported an important discovery he has made of another casket, some relics, and inscriptions in the Buddhist stupa at Bhatuprolu in the Kistna District. In Sewell’s List of Antiquities, vol.i. p. 7, mention is made of a casket found in the dome of the stupa some years ago. It No. 1182, VOL. 46] struck Mr. Rea that as the chief deposit was usually placed near the centre of the foundations, it was probable that another — casket might be found. Copies of his report, with inscriptions, — have been ordered to be sent to Dr. Hultzsch, the Government Epigraphist ; to archeological experts in India, and to various learned Societies. MINING seems likely to be splendidly represented at the Chicago Exhibition. It is announced that ‘‘ all of the precious minerals, all of the economic minerals, all of the precious stones, all of the coals, all of the building stones and marbles, all of the clays and sands, all of the salts and pigments, as well as the machinery, implements, and appliances employed in their con- version to the uses of man, will be fully represented.” Especial attention will be devoted to the iron industry. The Exhibition will provide ample data as to the location and extent of the greater iron deposits, the analyses of the ores, with all the machinery and devices empioyed in mining, hoisting, conveying, storing, &c. : ProF. DANIEL G. BRINTON contributes to the new number of the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. xxx., No, 137, valuable papers on the Chintantec language of Mexico, the Mazatec language of Mexico and its affinities, and South American native languages. Of the latter languages he says that they are the least known of any in the world. ~ A VOCABULARY of the Eskimo language has been compiled by M. Ryberg, a Danish official in Greenland. It represents work carried on during fifteen years. THE publication of the quarterly journal for cryptogamic science, Grevé/lea, will still be continued under the proprietor- ship of Mr, E, A. L. Batters, and the editorship of Mr. George Massee. | Mr. E. D. MARQUAND has published a list of the flowering plants and vascular cryptogams of Guernsey. It includes the remarkable number of 636 flowering plants, 18 ferns, and 9 fern allies. Of these about 130 are not recorded for Guernsey in Prof. Babington’s ‘‘-Primitize Florze Sarnicez.” f THE latest researches of the Finnish expedition to the Kola Peninsula will modify the position of the line which now repre- sents on our maps the northern limits of tree-vegetation in that — part of Northern Europe. Thenorthern limit of coniferous forests follows a. sinuous line which crosses the peninsula from the north-west to the south-east. But it now appears that birch penetrates much farther north than the coniferous trees, and that birch forests or groves may be considered as constituting a separate outer zone which fringes the former. The northern limits of birch groves are represented by a very broken line, as they penetrate most of the valleys, almost down to the sea- shore ; so that the tundras not only occupy but a narrow space along the sea-coast, but they are also broken by the extensions of birch forests down the valleys. As to the tundras which have been shown of late in the interior of the peninsula, and have been marked on Drude’s map in Berghaus’s atlas, the Finnish explorers remark that the treeless spaces on the Ponoi are not tundras but extensive marshes, the vegetation of which belongs to the forest region. The Arctic or tundra vegetation is thus limited to a narrow and irregular zone along the coast, and to a few elevated points in the interior of the peninsula, like the Khibin tundras, or the Luyavrurt (1120 metres high). The conifer forests, whose northern limit offers much fewer sinuosities than the northern limit of birch-growths, consist of fir and Scotch fir; sometimes the former and sometimes the latter extending up to the northern border of the coniferous zone, JUNE 23, 1892] NATURE 179 THE British Consul in Hainan, in his last report, says that during the past year he has made two journeys in that island, one to certain prominent hills near Hoihow, known as the ** Hummocks,” which lie fifteen miles to the west, on the road to Ch’eng-mai, the other a gunboat cruise to Hansui Bay. The people at both these places, and presumably all along the north- west coast, though believing themselves Chinese, speak a language which is not only not Chinese, but has a large per- centage of the words exactly similar to Siamese, Shan, Laos, or Muong. The type of the people, too, is decidedly Shan, with- out the typical Chinese almond eye. At one time (1000 years ago) the Ai-lau or Nan-chau Empire of the Thai race extended from Yun-nan to the sea, and the modern Muongs of Tonquin, _ like the Shans of the Kwangsi province, the ancestors of both of _ which tribes belonged to that empire, probably sent colonies over to Hainan; or the Chinese generals may have sent prisoners of war over. It is certain that some at least of the g f unlettered, but by no means uncivilized, tribes in the central parts of Hainan speak a type of language which is totally _ different from that spoken by the Shan-speaking tribes of ‘the north-west coast. Yet the Chinese indiscriminately call Bee all the non-Chinese Hainan dialects the Li language. The $A. Are ° . _ subject, Mr. Parker says, is one of great interest, well worth _ the attention of travellers. It was his intention to pursue the q _ inquiry when making a commercial tour of inspection round the ___ island, but his transfer to another post compels him to abandon _ Tue additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include a Brown Capuchin (Cebus fatuetlus) from Guiana, presented by Mr. Edward Solomon ; two Black Swans (Cygnus atratus) from Australia, presented by Lady William Osborne Elphinstone ; a Greater Spotted Woodpecker (Dendro- copus major), two Common Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo), British, presented by Sir H. B. Lumsden, K.C.S.I.; a Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) from Australia, presented by Mr. F. R. Brown ; two Common Rheas (Rhea americana) from the Argentine Republic, deposited ; an _ Erxleben’s Monkey (Cercopithecus erxlebeni 8 ) from West Africa, a Victoria Crowned Pigeon (Goura victorie 2) from the Island of Jobie, two Wonga-Wonga Pigeons (Zeucosarcia picata) from New South Wales, a Rosy-billed Duck (AZetopiana peposaca ) from South America, twenty Common Teal (Quergquedula een), European, purchased ; a Thar (Capra jemlaica), two 4 Burrhel Wild Sheep (Ovis burrhel 8 2), an Axis Deer (Cervus a xi +3), four Temminck’s Tragopans (Ceriornis temmincki), a Himala Monaul (Lophophorus impeyanus), bred in the _———s« OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ___CoLours ON THE SuRFACE oF Mars,—During the last op- i Lomceeatig Mars a series of observations was made by Prof. ‘S ering with the object of determining the general colour of this ii disk, and that of the various markings : distribut over its surface. . In a preliminary account of this work which he has contributed to the June num- 3 ber of Astronomy and Astro-Physics, we are made acquainted with some of the observed facts, which will be read with keen interest, as we are nearing a time when like observations can be repeated. The instruments used were the 12-inch and 15-inch at Cambridge, and the 13-inch at Arequipa, Peru. With the two former sixty paintings were made, together with sixty-six uncoloured drawings, and with the latter some of the more recent observations were undertaken. The general light from the planet, although usually termed ruddy, was found to lie _ about midway between that of a candle and electric light of equal brilliancy, being somewhat bluer than the former and redder than the latter. Great difficulty seems to have been found in matching _ Mars’s colour in the day and night time, the presence or NO. 1182, VOL. 46] absence of the bluish white light reflected from the atmo sphere bringing about a great difference in the colour of the pig- ments used, The colour finally settled upon may be represented by equal parts of dragon’s blood and sienna. The ruddiness, as the limb was approached, gave way to a distinct yellow tint, due perhaps to atmospheric absorption, an effect, as Prof. Pickering remarks, which is quite at variance with the action of our own atmosphere. In addition to these colours grays and greens have been noticed, indeed at times the greens have been more intense than the red. The grey objects were found, when the seeing was very good, to have a slightly yellowish tinge about them, but when viewed by daylight a browner tint more accurately represented their colour. Numerous observations were made also with the intention of determining the colour of those parts more darkly tinted, and the colour of the canals ; but Prof. Pickering only mentions that there were indications of slight colour alterations, reserving his opinion on these points in order not to bias those of other ob- servers, who will be able in the coming opposition to examine this planet’s surface from this point of view. During the months of July and August the planet, excepting for its low altitude, will be most favourably situated for obser- vation, the opposition occurring on August 4, when its distance from the earth will be about 35,000,000 miles. OBSERVATIONS OF THE Moon.—The Monthly Notices (vol. lii., No. 7) contains, besides the observations of the right ascensions and north polar distances of the moon made during the year 1891 at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford, a com- parison of these results, with the tabular places taken from Hansen’s lunar tables. The two suppositions on which these results are compared are, as Mr. Stone says: (1) that the mean times found in the usual way from the sidereal times at mean noon given in the Nautical Almanac, were not altered in scale, or affected with any different systematic errors of determination, by the adoption in 1864 of a different ratio of the Julian year of 365% ‘‘mean solar days” to the mean tropical year; (2) that the ‘‘mean times” which accurately correspond to a given ‘*sidereal time of a meridian ” were necessarily changed in 1864 «by the use of a different ratio of the ‘‘ Julian year,” and there- fore of the ‘‘ mean solar day” to the mean tropical year, to fix the tabular right ascensions of the clock stars at the meridian transits. It is from these tabular right ascensions of the clock stars that the observed right ascensions are deduced by the aid of clocks; and the right ascensions thus found are finally rendered definite by the direct reference to the positions of the sun deduced from the north polar distances and obliquities of the ecliptic. During the period included in the years 1847 to 1863 the mean annual error in longitude of Hansen’s tables amounted to —1’85, no regular law of increase being indicated. Taking the case of those observations made up to the end of last year, the mean annual error, as shown in the third table, has steadily increased from the year 1863 at an average rate of o”°75 per annum, the error now amounting to as much as 19’*30. If the corrected argument be used for taking out the mean annual error of Hansen’s tables during the same period, this value becomes -1"'49, which differs from -1''°35 (the value for the preceding period) by a quantity which in such a case is very small. A PLANET BEYOND NepruNE?—For some time it has been thought that in all probability our sun is accompanied by one or two other planets which lie outside the orbit of Neptune. The idea gained a considerable footing in many minds after Prof. Forbes’s paper, which he read in 1880 before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his prediction being based on cometary aphelia positions. In order to investigate this question more fully, Mr. Isaac Roberts, having obtained the necessary approxi- mate positions of these hypothetical bodies, undertook to make a search for them, employing the method of long exposure eee: The result of this search he communicates to the ay number of the AZonthly Notices. The probable position indicated by Prof. Forbes lay be- tween R.A.’s 11h, 24m. and 12h. 12m., with declinations 0° 0’ to 6° o’ north ; and over this region Mr. Roberts took two sets of eighteen plates, each plate covering more than four square degrees, the exposure being of 90 minutes’ duration. A close examination of the plates showed that, in Mr. Roberts’s words, **no_ planet of greater brightness than a star of the fifteenth magnitude exists on the sky area herein indicated.” 180 NATURE [JUNE 23, 1892 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. THE Royal Geographical Society’s soirée took place on the «7th inst. at the South Kensington Museum, when the guests were received by the President and Council. The attendance was very great. The attractions of the evening included selec- tions by the Coldstream Guards band, solo and part singing in the lecture theatre, and an exhibition by the dioptric lantern of maps and views, with explanation by Mr. H. J. Mackinder. SOME interesting particulars as to the present state of the Marshall Islands are published in the Deutsches Kolonialblatt, Thepopulation is estimated at 15,009 aborigines, and about 100 whites. Cocoa-nuts and copra are the staple exports ; pandanus, breadfruit, and arrowroot being cultivated on a small scale. The natural grass is not suitable for pasture, but with the intro- duction of foreign grass seed, cattle and sheep breeding may become profitable. Taking into consideration the character of the soil and the density of population, the future of the German protectorate in the Marshall Islands is acknowledged not to be very bright, although the authorities hope that it may become of enhanced importance for trade with Germany. THE National Geographic Magazine has just published an account by Dr. Charles Willard Hayes of the expedition through the Yukon district in 1891, conducted by Mr. Schwatka on be- half of a syndicate of American newspapers. Entering by the Yaku inlet, the expedition made its way by canoe, as soon as the ice disappeared, up the Yaku River ; thence it crossed the watershed, and continued on Lake Ahklen and the Teslin River to Lewes River, a tributary of the Yukon. A traverse sur- ‘vey was made all the way, and the route laid down in a service- able manner, though of course without the precision of an actual survey. This district has been several times visited by prospec- tors, and parts of it mapped by previous explorers ; but the ex- pedition opened up, probably for the first time, the unknown region extending from the Yukon to the St. Elias Mountains. Across this blank, usually filled in hypothetically on maps, the expedition surveyed a line of 330 miles, from Selkirk, on the Yukon, to the junction of the Chittenah and Nizzenah rivers. The report gives a clear summary of the topography, drainage, orographic system, and geology of the region traversed. PRINCE HENRY OF ORLEANS has returned to France after a difficult journey from the Upper Mekong, through the Shan States and Siam, where he reached the coast at Bangkok. CAPTAIN W. G. STarrs, whose quiet heroism in Stanley’s Emin Relief Expedition was brought prominently before the world two years ago, has fallen a victim to African travel. He was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1863, and educated at Merchiston Castle School, in Edinburgh, subsequently study- ing at the Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario. After his training in Canada he spent some time in New Zealand as a civil engineer; but obtaining a commission in the Royal Engineers, he came to Chatham, and completed his military training. When the Emin Relief Expedition was fitting out in 1887, he volunteered to accompany it; and from the first he impressed Mr. Stanley as a man of exceptional qualities —an opinion strengthened by the strict obedience and abso- lute loyalty which distinguished him throughout the trying years that followed. As the only member of the advance party (Dr. Parke excepted) who had much interest in scientific matters, Captain Stairs would undoubtedly have made large additions to knowledge had it not been for the imperative exclusiveness of his work as an officer. He was selected for the best piece of geographical exploration attempted during the ex- pedition—the ascent of- Mount Ruwenzori. Last year Lieutenant Stairs was promoted to a captaincy, but the fatal attraction of Africa led to his resignation in order to accept command of the Katanga Company’s expedition. This Company was formed in Belgium to administer and exploit the south-eastern corner of the Congo Free State, in what is known as Msidi’s country. Stairs left Zanzibar last summer, crossed to Lake Tanganyika by the familiar trade route vz@ Tabora, and reached Mpala on October 31, after a remarkably rapid and easy journey. ‘Thence he traversed Msidi’s country in the rainy season, where he suffered much from fever, but succeeded in reaching the Ruo on May 13, and arrived at Vicenti, near the mouth of the Zambesi, on June 3. But at Chinde, just as the expedition had overcome all the difficulties of the way, and only waited for a passage to Zanzibar, Captain Stairs died. This sad event has removed from the list of African travellers one of the bravest, most prudent and modest of young explorers. NO. 1182, VOL. 46] THE MICROSCOPE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE EARTH’S PHYSICAL HISTORY. MEN will have forgotten much when the second half of this nineteenth century is no longer remembered, Whatever may have been its faults, it has no rival in the past history of the world as an epoch of scientific progress. This progress has been largely due to the felicitous co-operation of the mind of the stu- dent with the skill of the craftsman in the more perfect construc- tion of instruments of research. By them darkness has been made visible ; the opaque, translucent ; the unseen, conspicuous ; the inert, sensitive ; silence, vocal. A thousand methods of experi- ment, tests of the most delicate nature, have been devised, so that vague conjecture has been replaced by exact knowledge, and hypothesis by demonstration, In such an epoch it may seem a little fanciful to select any one term of years as exception- ally fruitful; but it is remarkable that in the first decade of this half-century, science was enriched by three contribu- tions, each of which has led to consequences of far-reaching import. In 1858 Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace announced simultaneously the conclusions as to the origin of species at which they had independently arrived, and the well-known book by the former author appeared in the follow- ing year. They thus formulated the results of protracted investigations and patient experiments with the simpler appli- ances of earlier days. They subjected, more strictly than ever before, the facts of nature to an inductive treatment, and thus lent a new impulse to biological science. Their hypothesis gave a definite aim to the researches of students, and kindled an unquenchable flame of intellectual activity. In 1860, Bunsen and Kirchoff announced the results of applying the spectroscope to problems in chemical analysis. By means of this instrument not only have investigations attained a precision hitherto im- possible, but also the student, no longer cribbed, cabined, and confined, to the limits of the earth, can question the stars in their courses, and bid nebulz and comets reveal the secrets of their history. Lastly—though the problem be in a humbler sphere, dealing with neither the immensities of stellar physics nor the mystery of life—Henry Clifton Sorby, in 1856, described the results of microscopic investigations into the structures of minerals and rocks. Strictly speaking, indeed, the method was not wholly novel. So long since as 1827, William Nicol, of Edinburgh, had contrived to make sections of fossil wood sufficiently thin for examination under the microscope ; but the device, so faras I know, had not been generally applied, or its wide possibilities apprehended. You have heard in this place on former occasions of the triumphs of the spectroscope in extra-terrestrial space; of the revelations of the microscope in regard to the least and lowest forms of life; I have ventured to ask your attention to-day to the work of that instrument in a humbler and more limited field - —the constitution and history of the earth’s crust. My task is beset with difficulties. Did I address myself to experts, these would be but a small portion of my audience ; if I speak to the majority, it will be hard to make intelligible a subject bristling with technicalities. Moreover, as this building is so ill-suited for the usual methods of illustration, I have decided to dispense with diagrams or lantern slides, and will try to tell, in the plainest language at my command, the conclusions as to the genesis of rocks and the earlier history of the earth to which the researches of the last few years seem to be tending. I have excluded from my story investigations which bear upon the biology of the past, though the work of the microscope in this field has not been less fruitful or interesting, because these are more widely known. Moreover, they have not specially engaged my attention, and there is, I believe, an expectation amounting to an unwritten law, that whoever has the honour to occupy my present position should be so far egotistical as to talk of the particular plot, however small it may be, on which he has laboured in the garden of science. So I will crave the indulgence of the few experts present, and the patience of the majority of my audience, while I try to tell the story of microscopical research into the history of the earth’s crust. Twenty years ago, I: believe, not half that number of geo- logists in the British Isles made any real use of the microscope, Now they may be counted by scores, not only in the United Kingdom, but also in every civilized land. Obviously in a science so new, in a research which is extending so rapidly, 1 The Rede Lecture for 1892, delivered before the University of Cam- bridge, by T. G. Bonney, Sc.D., F.R.S. one into the other. _ June 23, 1892) NATURE 181 _ much diversity of opinion must exist on some theoretical ques- tions. Into the details of controversies it is not my purpose to enter; but I shall content myself with indicating the con- clusions to which I have been led in the time which the many inevitable duties of life permitted me to devote to this branch of doing this it may be well to indicate very briefly the mode in which the microscope is applied to the examination of rocks. Commonly it is as follows: slices, cut by the lapidary’s _ wheel from minerals or rocks, are ground down smoothly till they _ are about one one-thousandth part of an inch thick, and are then - mountedon glass. By this means most minerals, including the _ great majority of the ordinary constituents of rocks, become translucent, if not transparent. They are then examined under _ aspecially-constructed microscope, fitted with Nicol’s prisms and _ ther contrivances for optical tests. Occasionally also certain chemical tests can be applied. To what extent an object is magnified depends on the nature of the investigation. A very minute crystal can sometimes be studied, under favourable circumstances, when enlarged to at least 800 diameters ; but in cases, where the chief constituents of a rock and their _ mutual relations are the object of research, a magnification of _ from 50 to 100 diameters is commonly the most advantageous. _ Sands, clays, and incoherent materials can be readily studied by ing them temporarily or permanently on glass ; some- _ times, also, good work can be done, and time saved, by crush- _ ing up fragments of minerals and of rocks, and by treating the _ powder thus obtained in the same way. Investigations, which _ promise to throw light on the problem of the development of minerals, have been recently made by examining the insoluble wesidues of those rocks which are chiefly composed of carbon- _ ates. Solutions of different specific gravities have proved very _ aseful in the determination of the mineral constituents of a _ rock, which are sorted out by them, as by a strainer, from a sand, mud, or a powdered mass, so that each kind can be studied separately either by microscopical or by chemical e subject evidently, in process of time, tends to divide itself into two branches: the one concerned mainly with the characters of the individual constituents of a rock, the other with the wide problem of their mutual relations, or, in other words, with the history of the rock-mass: branches properly denoted by the words fetrography and petrology, though these terms are often confused he former is more strictly a depart- ment of mineralogy; the latter a department of geology. _ This it is of which I chiefly speak to-day ; this it is in which the most marked advances have been recently made. i ‘How great these have been may be more readily appreciated _ if I mention a few matters, concerning which, even a quarter of . acentury since, great uncertainty prevailed. Though it was _ then generally admitted that one great group of rocks, such as clays, caedatones, limestones, &c., were sediments, and that another t group, the rocks called igneous, had solidified in _ cooling from a fused condition ; the origin of a third, and by no _ means unimportant group, the crystalline schists and gneisses— ie metamorphic rocks, as they were commonly called—was _ considered very doubtful. Many geologists also believed that mot a few igneous rocks had been once sediments, like those in _ the first group, which had been subsequently fused or ‘‘ digested ” by the combined action of heat, water, and pressure. ‘Thus it that clays and felspathic sandstones could be S. t¥s h various stages till they became granite, and rocks of the most diverse chemical composition could be transmuted ; The province of metamorphism was the _ fairy-land of science ; it needed but a touch of the magic wand, and, like Bottom the weaver, a rock was at once ‘‘ translated.” _ It would be easy, were it worth while, to enumerate instance _ after instance of these alleged transmutations, every one of which has been proved to be groundless. No doubt, even at the time named, these assertions were questioned by some geologists, but that they could be made so confidently, that they could be inculeated by the official representatives of geology in this country, shows the hopeless confusion into which petrology had _By means of the microscope also much light has been thrown upon the nistory even of the better known rocks. The classification of the igneous group has been simplified, and the relations of its several members have been determined. The microscope has dispelled many an illusion, and reduced a chaos to order. In regard to the sedimentary group, it often has NO. 1182, VOL. 46] . or an answer, determined the true nature of their constituents, and has sug- gested the sources from which they have been derived or the agents by which they have been transported. Thus, through its tube, we have been enabled, not only to gaze at the most inti- mate structure and composition of rock-masses, but also to catch glimpses of the earth’s physiography in ages long before the coming of mankind. But in speaking of the services rendered by the microscope, I must not forget a needful caution. If the instrument be employed for petrological rather than petrographical purposes, it must never be divorced from work in the field. No training in the laboratory, however complete, no research ina library, however laborious, can of themselves makea petrologist. No question can be completely mastered, unless it be also studied in the field ; nay, even the specimens for examination under the microscope, as a rule, should be collected by the student himself, and the characters and relationships of the rock- masses from which they are detached, should be carefully noted. It was said, on no mean authority, some fifty years since, that, in the education of a geologist, travel was the first, the second, and the third requisite. Perhaps the state- ment, like most epigrams, was somewhat one-sided, but the truth in it has not been diminished by the increased perfection of our instrumental methods. In petrology, the chimeras of the home-keeping student of the laboratory have been, and still are, as hurtful to progress, as the dreams of the peripatetic geologist, whose chief appliances are a stout pair of legs and a hammer. This, then, was the problem which, some thirty years since, presented itself to geologists who were interested in petrology. Here are two groups of rocks, the sedimentary and the igneous, The origin of these we may be said to know, but as to that third group, which, though not as large, is far from unimportant—what is its history? what are its relations to the other two? The records of its rocks at present are illegible. Is there any hope that success will reward the attempt to decipher them? Time and perseverance have given an answer, and though much is still uncertain, though much remains to be done, some real progress, in my opinion, has been made. As the stones sculptured of old by the hand of man are yielding up their secrets, as the hiero- glyphs of Egypt and the cuneiform characters of Assyria are telling the tale of the conquerors whose bones are dust, as the tongues of the children of Heth, and of the black-headed race of Accad, are being learnt anew, so the records of the rocks, wherein no trace of life is found, are being slowly, painfully, but ever more surely deciphered, and knowledge grows from year to year. To obtain success the problem must be attacked in the follow- ing way. As the first step, the two great groups already men- tioned, the origin of which is known, must be thoroughly studied. The examples selected must be nearly or quite unaffected by any agent of change, such as heat, water, and pressure. Among the specimens representative of the sediments, the materials must range from fine to coarse—for the grains in the latter serve also as samples of the rocks from which they have been broken, and suggest their own inferences. Among the igneous rocks, types ranging from the most glassy to the most crystalline forms must be examined, in order to ascertain not only the constituent minerals, but also their associations and mutual relations. Suppose this done—suppose a fairly good idea obtained of the characteristic structures and possible variations in either class —we have then to ascertain how far and in what way each representative can be modified by naturalagencies. At the out- set, probably, it will be found convenient to trace the processes of mineral and even of structural change without any immediate reference to the efficient cause. It soon appears that in the case of minerals, which differ in physical properties, but not in chemi- cal composition, the one species replaces the other ; the less stable gradually altering into the morestable form, Thus calcite takes the place of aragonite, hornblende of augite ; one mineral may be broken up into a group, as a colloid into crystalloids, or felspar into quartz and white mica ; new species may be produced by addition or subtraction of constituents from without, or by exchange from within ; the replacement ofsilicates by carbonates, the conversion of granite into tourmaline-rock, the formation of epidote, chlorites, and serpentine, are a few among the many instances of this kind of change. By tracing the process from one part of a rock to another, numerous facts are collected and relationships ascertained. But during these investigations ) epecape are raised in a student’s mind which begin to clamour Why does such and such a rock change, now in 182 NATURE [JUNE 23, 1892 this way, now in that? So it becomes necessary to correlate our observations, to frame hypotheses, and open out new lines of inquiry. So far as we know, water, pressure, heat, are the main agents in producing change in rocks, after the latter have been once deposited or solidified. In most cases it is not easy to insulate perfectly the effect of each agent, for probably every rock, which has undergone important changes, has been to some extent affected by all of them. Still many examples can be found, in which the influence of one has predominated greatly over that of the other two, For instance, it is now agreed that the struc- ture of a slate is the result of pressure, though this probably pro- duced a slight rise of temperature, and the rock is not likely to have been perfectly dry. Again, when a clay has been con- verted into an assemblage of crystalline silicates in the vicinity of an intrusive mass of granite, this is mainly the effect of heat, though the pressure cannot have been inconsiderable, and the presence of water is almost certainly essential. Thus, in one series of examples, properly selected to illustrate the slaty rocks, we can watch the development of new minerals. We can observe which of these are readily produced and quickly attain to a considerable size, which are more slowly formed, or seem incapable, even if common, of much enlargement. We are thus led by inductive processes to conclusions as to the effects of pressure in the development of minerals in a mass of materials of a particular composition. In another series of rocks which has been affected by the heat of intrusive masses, we can watch the gradual growth of new constituents, as we proceed inward towards the originally heated mass, till we have passed from clay or slate to a crystalline aggregate of minerals, such as quartz, micas, andalusite, staurolite, and garnet. Similar effects may be noted in other kinds of sedimentary rock. Changes also are produced mainly by the action of water, but on this I need not enlarge. Again, as another line of inquiry, the effects produced on igneous rocks by the same agents must be studied. Here the results which are more or less directly due to the action of water are often highly interesting, but as these are only indirectly con- nected withthe main subject of this lecture, I content myself with a passing reference. With igneous rocks the effects of heat seem generally less important than with sedimentary ; probably - because the mineral constituents of the former are usually in a more stable condition than those of the latter, so that these also need only be mentioned ; but the effects of pressure in some cases, especially with the more coarsely crystalline igneous rocks, are highly interesting and significant. In a region such as the Scotch Highlands or the European Alps the rocks, in the process of mountain-making, have been obviously subjected, perhaps at more than one epoch, to tre- mendous pressures. The effect of these appears to have been sometimes a direct, sometimes a shearing fracture ; that is to say, a mineral or rock, in the one case, has been crushed, as in a press, in the other, during the process of powdering it has been’ dragged or trailed out, with a movement somewhat similar to that of a viscous substance. As an example, let us take the effects produced in a granite by crushing. ‘The grains of quartz are broken up ; the crystals of felspar are first cracked and then reduced to powder ; the mica flakes are bent, riven, and tattered. By pressure also the solvent power of water, already present in the rock, is increased ; by the crushing its access to every frag- ment and its subsequent percolation are facilitated. Thus the black mica is often altered in various ways ; the felspar dust is changed into white mica and chalcedonic quartz ; the constituents are reduced in size and tend to assume a roughly parallel order ; the mineral character and structure have been alike changed ; a massive rock has been replaced by a foliated one; a coarse granite by a fine-grained quartzose or micaceous schist. This change can be demonstrated at every stage; it suggests that many foliated rocks—many gneisses and crystalline schists—may be igneous rocks of which both the mineral character and the structure have been modified by pressure. We may presently see how far this inference can be justifiably extended, but, as a first step, the effect of pressure on one of the more basic igneous rocks must be considered. Let us take as an example a coarse-grained variety of the rock, which is familiar to us as basalt. It consists of a felspar, different from that of granite, of augite, of some iron oxide; and perhaps of olivine. In studying this rock we are confronted by greater difficulties, for, of the two dominant minerals, the felspar is rather less stable than that which occurs in granite, and the augite passes readily NO. 1182, VOL. 46] into hornblende. Thus, when the latter change occurs we are at first unable to determine whether it is due to pressure or to — some other agent. Some petrologists, I believe, would not hesitate to appeal to the presence of hornblende in a rock such as we are considering as a proof that it had been modified by pressure. With this opinion I cannot agree. On examination of the numerous instances in which we are convinced that the hornblende is not an original constituent but has replaced augite, we notice that the former mineral is not constant in its characters. It may be granular in form ; it may assume its usual crystalline shape ; it may be more or less bladed or needle-like. Have these differences, we ask, any significance? In to: answer the question, specimens of hornblendic rocks must be sought in regions which obviously have been subjected to tremendous pressure, as is testified by the fact that every other rock has been more or less crushed or rolled out; others must be obtained from regions where the associated masses exhibit no signs of extraordinary disturbance, even though they may be more brittle than the subject ofour study. Inthe former case the change may be reasonably attributed to pressure, in the latter it must be due to some other cause. Are hornblendic rocks from the one region similar in structure to those from the other > By no means. Where no evidence can be offered in favour of pressure, there the hornblende either retains wholly or almost wholly the outline of the mineral which it has replaced, or else. assumes its normal prismatic form ; but where an appeal to pres- sure seems justifiable, we find that the hornblende appears as un- usually elongated prisms, blades, or even needles, and the struc- tures of the rock as a whole can be readily recognized by a practised eye. The evidence for the latter statement is yet un- published, but it will, I hope, appear before long. So our investigations have led us thus far: that, in sediment- ary rocks, inthe presence of water, certain changes are mainly produced by heat, and certain by pressure. In the latter case, however, the new minerals, though very numerous individually, are generally minute ; the longest diameter being seldom so much as one-hundredth of an inch. Even where this rule is broken, it is only by minerals which are proved by other experiments to be so readily developed that their presence on a large scale has no real significance. The rule holds also to some extent in the case of crystalline schists produced by the crushing of crystalline rocks, markedly in the case of those derived from granites and rocks of similar composition, but less conspicuously in those which were originally augitic or hornblendic. Though even here, where the decreased size of the minerals is less uniformly marked, new and distinctive structures are assumed. AM. I have spoken only of two or three common types of rocks, but it would be easy, did time permit, to support the principles enumerated, by quoting from a great variety of examples. There: are, I believe, few, if any, important kinds of rock which have not been examined, and it appears to me demonstrated that, © while pressure is a most important agent of change, while many schists may be regarded as resulting from it, a considerable group- remains, which are separated from the others by a very wide chasm, and this can only be jumped by deserting reason and trusting hypothesis. In this last group of rocks (supposing no disturbances pro- duced by subsequent pressure, for which, however, we can generally make allowance) the constituent minerals are com- monly fairly large—say from about one-fiftieth of an inch up- wards in diameter. Very many of these rocks, when studied in the field, exhibit every indication of a sedimentary origin. Though as a rule no original constituent grain can be cer- tainly determined, though they are now crystalline, yet their general structure and association are inexplicable on any other supposition, They bear some resemblance to the sedi- ments which have been altered by contact metamorphism, though they present different characters. These, moreover, remain in- variable through considerable thicknesses of rock and over wide areas. Thealteration is regional, not local, so that such rocks can- not be regarded as cases of simple contact metamorphism, even though heat may be suspected of having been an important agent in producing the change. But to another large series, including many of the rocks commonly called gneisses, the sedimentary origin is less easily attributed. Nota few of these in mineral com- 1 It is probable that some changes of importance are produced in rocks by long-continued and repeated pressures, which are insufficient to give rise to crushing ; but these I have passed by, because, as it seems to me, further evidence 1s needed before we can diagnose, with any certainty, the results of a this particular disturbing cause. , _ JUNE 23, 1892] NATURE 183 position correspond with granites, and sedimentary rock thus constituted, though not unknown, is rare. The minerals com- monly exhibit a parallel or foliated and not seldom even a banded arrangement ; in the latter case the layers of different mineral Yucatan, and pointed out their distribution and mode of growth. He also exhibited and described the preparation of a gut silk from Formosa and Kiungchow.—Mr. Scott Elliott gave a brief account of a journey he had recently made to the west coast of Africa, and described the character of the vegetation of the particular region explored, and the plants collected by him.— Mr. Jenner Weir exhibited and made remarks on a species of Psyche.—On behalf of Mr. Ernest Floyer, a paper was read by the Secretary on the disappearance of certain desert plants in Egypt through the agency of the camel.—Mr, F. Perry Coste gave an abstract of a paper on the chemistry of the colours in insects, chiefly Lepidoptera, The paper was criticized by Prof. Meldola, who was unable to accept the views expressed, the results of the experiments made being, in his opinion, incon- clusive.—The meeting was brought to a close by the exhibition of an excellent oxyhydrogen lantern, recently presented to the Society by Dr. R. C. A. Prior, when Dr. R. B. S exhi- bited a number of coloured slides of birds designed to illustrate the interesting subject of mimicry and protective coloration. Geological Society, June 8.—W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—The following communications were read :—The Tertiary microzoic formations of Trinidad, West Indies, by R. J. Lechmere Guppy. (Communicated by Dr. H. Woodward, F.R.S.) After giving an account of the general geology of the island, and noticing previous memoirs devoted to that geology, the author describes in detail the characters of the Naparima Beds, to which he assigns an Eocene and Miocene age. He considers that the Nariva Marls are not inferior to but above the. Naparima Eocene Marls, and are actually of Miocene date. Details are given of the composition and characters of the ‘‘argiline,” the foraminiferal marls occa- sionally containing gypsum, and the diatomaceous and radio- larian deposits of Naparima. ‘The Pointapier section is then described, and its Cretaceous beds considered, reasons being given for inferring that there was no break between the Creta- ceous and Eocene rocks of the Parian area. Detailed lists of the foraminiferal faunas of the marls are given, with notes. The author observes that the Eocene molluscan fauna of Trinidad shows no near alliances with other known faunas, thus differing from the well-known Miocene fauna of Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba, Trinidad, and other localities. Only one mollusk is common to the Eocene and Miocene of the West Indies. The shallow-water Foraminifera are found in both Eocene and Miocene, whilst the deep-water Foraminifera are nearly all of existing species. It would appear that during the Cretaceous and Eocene periods a sea of variable depth (up to 1000 fathoms) occupied the region now containing the microzoic rocks of Trinidad, whilst a mountain-range (which may be termed: the Parian range) extended continuously from the north of Trinidad to the littoral Cordillera of Venezuela, forming the southern boundary of the Caribbean continent, and possessing no large streams to transport mechanical sediment into the Cretaceo-Eocene sea which opened eastward into the Atlantie. An appendix by Mr. J. W. Gregory deals with the microscopic structure of the recks. The reading of this paper was followed by a discussion, in which the President, Dr. H. Woodward, Mr. J. W. Gregory, Mr. Vaughan Jennings, and Dr. Hinde took part.—The Bagshot Beds of Bagshot Heath (a rejoinder), by the Rev. A. Irving. — Notes on the geology of the Nile Valley, by E. A. Johnson Pasha and H. Droop Richmord, (Communicated by Norman Tate.) The rocks on either side of the Nile are chiefly Eocene (and Cre- taceous ?) from Cairo to Esneh; south of this is sandstone, ~ which the authors believe to be Carboniferous, and to yield pos- — sible indications of coal, reaching to near Assouan, where it _ JUNE 23, 1892] NATURE 191 f ‘meets the granite and basalt of that region ; a few miles south the sandstone begins again and continues to Wady Halfa, broken only by granite dykes. The granite is intrusive into and alters the sandstone, whilst the latter reposes upon the basalt and in some cases was deposited against upstanding basaltic masses. Unmistakable lavas occur near the Nile east of Minieh and west of Assiout. A description of some remarkable faults is given, and various minerals are noticed as occurring in the sedimentary rocks and the bed of an ancient river. Mathematical Society, June 9.—Prof. Greenhill, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—Prof. Henrici exhibited a model of movable hyperboloids of one sheet. In 1873 he gave a student at University College the problem to construct a model of a hyperboloid of one sheet by fixing three sticks anyhow, placing others so as to cut these, and tying them together wherever they met. He told the _ Student that the system would soon become rigid, but was sur- : d to find that this was not the case, It was easy to see the ason of this fact, and thus he established the theorem: Tf the two sets of generators of a hyperbolvuid be connected by articu- _ lated joints wherever they meet, then the system remains movable, the hyperboloid changing its shape. It was alsosoon found that each point moves during this deformation along the normal to the momentary position of the surface, and that therefore the different ome the surface constitute a system of confocal hyper- boloids. He then made a model such that the generators represented by sticks meet at points which lie on lines of cur- _ vature of the hyperboloids, These describe, therefore, confocal ellipsoids and hyperboloids of two sheets. In January 1874, _ Prof, Henrici exhibited this model at a meeting of the Society. ‘Shortly afterwards a student made two copies of this model, and these were fastened together in such a manner that both could move together, remaining always confocal. It was this last model that was now shown. The properties of the movable _ hyperboloid became more widely known through a question which Prof. Greenhill set in 1878 at the Mathematical Tripos Examination, and this led Prof. Cayley to give a solution of it in the Messenger of Mathematics. Since that time several French mathematicians have made further investigation of the y in question. MM. Darboux and Mannheim, in par- ticular, have made beautiful application of the deformable hyper- boloid to the motion of a gyrating rigid body.—The following sr communications were made :—The second discriminant _ of the ternary quantic, x’ + y'v+2'w, by Mr. J. E. Campbell. __ If the ordinary discriminant of this quantic in x, y, 2, be formed, the result will be a quantic in x’, y’, 2’. The discriminant of this the writer believes vanishes identically with certain ions. Prof. the author to a Be by himself in vol. ii. of the Society’s Proceedings. ; vito 9 the reflection and refraction of light from a magnetized insparent medium, by A. B. Basset, F.R.S. The object of this paper is to apply the theory of gyrostatically loaded media, _ to investigate the reflection and refraction of light at the surface of a magnetized transparent medium. This subject’ has been partially discussed by Mr. Larmor in a paper communicated to the Society last December, in which he has obtained the equa- tions of motion of the medium ; but the paper in question contains (Mr. Basset thinks) a certain amount of vague and obscure argument, founded upon general reasoning, which is calculated to ep ipe subject in a cloud of mystery, rather than to en- i the understanding. He, therefore, finds it necessary to write out the theory de ovo, and to enter into a careful dis- cussion respecting the boundary conditions. The principal results are as follows: When the magnetic force is parallel to ref r, and also to the plane of incidence, the expressions for the amplitudes of the reflected light are the same as those which he obtained by means of an extension of the electro- magnetic theory (see Phz/. Zrans., 1891, p. 371) ; but when the rs ged force is perpendicular to the reflector, the above-men- tioned expressions are of the same form as those furnished by the electromagnetic theory, with the exception that the signs of ‘Magnetic terms are reversed. An experimental test of the relative merits of the two theories might probably be obtained Py, means of certain experiments performed by Prof. Kundt f erlin. Sitzungsberichte, July 10, 1884 ; translated Phil. Mag., er 1884), but the mathematical work, although presenting no difficulty, would be somewhat laborious. Having worked out these results, he endeavours to obtain a theoretical explana- tion of Kerr’s experiments, on reflection from a magnet, by combining the theory of gyrostatically loaded media with the NO. 1182, VOL. 46] Henrici referred theory of metallic reflection, explained in his book on ** Physical Optics,” chapter xviii, sections 386-87; but the results are not entirely satisfactory. This, however, is not surprising, inasmuch as the theory of gyrostatically loaded media takes no account of the statical effects of magnetization.—Note on approximate evolution, by Prof. Lloyd Tanner. This note supplies a defi- ciency in a paper (Math. Soc. Proc., vol. xviii.) in which Prof. Hill pointed out the incorrectness of the rule for contracting the processes of finding the square and cube roots of a number— namely, it gives a practical test for determining the cases when the rule can, and when it cannot, be safely applied.—A proof of the exactness of Cayley’s number of seminvariants of a given type, by Mr. E. B. Elliott, F.R.S.—Further note on auto- morphic functions, by Prof. W. Burnside. Royal Meteorological Society, June 15.—Dr. C. Theodore Williams, President, in the chair.—The following papers were read :—English climatology, 1881-1890, by Mr. F. C. Bayard. This is a discussion of the results of the climato- logical observations made at the Society’s stations, and printed in the AZeteorological Record for the ten years 1881-1890. .: The instruments at these stations have all been verified, and are ex- posed under similar conditions, the thermometers being mounted in a Steverison screen, with their bulbs 4 feet above the ground. The stations are regularly inspected, and the instruments tested by the Assistant Secretary, The stations now number about eighty, but there were only fifty-two which had complete results for the ten years in question. The author has discussed the results from these stations, and given the monthly and yearly means of temperature, humidity, cloud, and rainfall. His general conclusions are :—(1) With respect to mean temperature, the sea coast stations are warm in winter and cool insummer, whilst the inland stations are cold in winter and hot in summer, (2) At all stations the maximum temperature occursin July or August, and the minimum in December or January. (3) Relative humidity is lowest at the sea coast stations, and highest at the inland ones. (4) The south-western district seems the most cloudy in winter, spring, and autumn, and the southern district the least cloudy in the summer months, and the sea coast stations are, as a rule, less cloudy thanthe inland ones, (5) Rainfall is smallest in April, and, as a rule, greatest in November, and it increases from east to west.—The mean tem- perature of the air on each day of the year at the Royal Obser- vatory, Greenwich, on the average of the fifty years 1841 to 1890, by Mr. W. Ellis. The values given in this paper are derived from eye observations from 1841 to 1848, and from the photographic records from 1849 to 1890. The mean annual temperature is 49°°5. The lowest winter temperature, 37°°2, occurs on January 12, and the highest summer temperature, 63°°8, on July 15. The average temperature of the year is reached in spring, on May 2, and in autumn on October 18. The interval during which the temperature is above the average is 169 days, the interval during which it is below the average being 196 days. SYDNEY, Royal Society of New South Wales, May 4.—Annual Meeting.—H. C. Russell, F.R.S,, President, in the chair.— The report stated that 61 new members had been elected during the year, and the total number on the roll on April 30 was 478. During the year the Society held eight meetings, at which the following papers were read :—Presidential addiess, by Dr. A. Leibius.— Notes on the large death-rate among Australian sheep in country infected with Cumberland disease or splenic fever, and Notes on a spontaneous disease among Australian rabbits, by Adrien Loir.—Compressed-air flying machines, Nos. 13 and 14, and on a wave-propelled vessel, by L. Hargrave. — A cyclonic storm or tornado in the Gwydir district ; Preparations now being made in Sydney Observatory for the photographic chart of the heavens; Notes on some celestial photographs recently taken at Sydney Observatory ; and Notes on the rate of growth of some Australian trees, by H. C. Russell, F.R.S.—Some folk-songs and myths from Samoa, translated by the Rev. G. Pratt, with introductions and notes, by Dr. John Fraser.—Notes on the use, construction, and cost of service reservoirs, by C. W. Darley.—On the constitution of the sugar series, by W. M. Hamlet.—On kaolinite from the Hawkesbury Sandstone, by H. G. Smith.—A contribution to the microscopic structure of some Australian rocks, by the Rev. J. Milne Curran.—On some New South Wales and other minerals (note No. 6), by Prof. Liversidge, F.R.S.—Artesian 192 NATURE [JuNE 23, 1892 water in New South Wales (preliminary notes), by Prof. T. W. E. David. ——The Medical Section held four meetings. The following papers were read :—A brief account of the histology and development of tubercle, by Prof. Anderson Stuart.—Remarks upon the nature and treatment of diphtheria, by Dr. W. Camac Wilkinson.—Glimpses of the past: a series of sketches with pen and pencil of the medical history of Sydney, by Dr. Honison. The Microscopical Section held five meetings. The following paper was read :—Notes onslicing rocks for microscopical study, by the Rev. J. Milne Curran. The Civil and Mechanical Engineering Section held eight meetings. The following papers were read :—Recent researches on the strength, elasticity, and endurance of materials of construction with especial reference to iron and steel, by Prof. Warren.—The bridge over Lane Cove River at the head of navigation, by H. H. Dare.—On the calcula- tion of stresses by means of graphic analysis, by J. I. Haycroft. —On the tacheometer and its application to engineering surveys, by W. Poole, Jun.—On the sewerage of country towns: the separate system, by Dr. Ashburton Thompson, The Clarke Medal for 1892 had been awarded to Prof. W. T. Thiselton Dyer, F.R.S. The Council had issued. the following list of subjects with the offer of the Society’s bronze medal, and a prize of £25 for each of the best researches if of sufficient merit :— (To be sent in not later than May 1, 1893) Upon the weapons, utensils, and manufactures of the aborigines of Australia and Tasmania; on the effect of the Australian climate upon the physical development of the Australian-born population ; on the injuries. occasioned by insect pests upon introduced trees. (To be. sent in not later than May 1, 1894) On the timbers of New South Wales, with special reference to their fitness for use in construction, manufactures, and other similar purposes ; on the raised sea-beaches and kitchen middens on the coast of New South Wales; on the aboriginal rock-carvings and paintings in New South Wales.—The Chairman read the Presidential address, and the Officers and Council were elected for the ensuing year, Prof. Warren being President. Paris, Academy of Sciences, June 13.—M. d’Abbadie in the chair.—A new contribution to the history of the truffle, 7irmania Cambonit, ‘* Terfas” of Southern Algeria, by M. A. Chatin.— On subcutaneous or intra-venous injections of liquid extracts from several organs as a therapeutic method, by MM. Brown- Séquard and d’Arsonval.—In the place of the late Dom Pedro d’Alcantara, M. von Helmholtz was elected Foreign Associate. —Researches on the solar atmosphere, by Mr. George E. Hale, of the Kenwood Astrophysical Observatory, Chicago. A photo- graph of a metallic protuberance, obtained with an aperture of 12 inches and a large grating spectroscope, shows all the lines previously announced in the ultra-violet, and the following additional ones: 3961°7 (manganese?), 3900°7 (calcium), 3886°4 (hydrogen), and 3860°4 (iron?). The writer has suc- ceeded in photographing faculz in the centre of the disk. —On the eee problem of the deformation of sur- faces, by M. Raffy.— On the theory of the fuchsian functions, by M. Ludwig Schlesinger. — On transforma- tions in mechanics, by M. P. Painlevé. —On considerations of homogeneity in physics, by M. A. Vaschy.—On the non- realization of the spheroidal state in steam boilers : reclamation of priority, by M. de Swarte.—On the co-existence of dielectric power and electrolytic conductivity, by M. E. Bouty. A rigid condenser is formed of iron disks separated by small wedges of mica, and joined by iron screws isolated by mica and placed opposite the wedges. This condenser is plunged into a fused mixture of equal parts of the nitrates of sodium and potassium. Air bubbles are carefully removed with plates of mica, and the condenser is withdrawn at the moment when the salt com- mences to solidify. The liquid, retained by capillarity, forms between the disks an adherent regular solid layer. The appa- ratus while yet hot is plunged into melted paraffin, which sur- rounds it with an isolating layer devoid of hygroscopic power. The experiments give a value for £ approaching 4, and nearly constant within the limits of temperature in which the specific resistance in ohms may vary from 3°6 x 10! to 2°6 x 10%, z.e. in the ratio of about 138 to 1. Here the conductivity and the dielectric capacity -belong to molecules of the same kind. It is probable that,if the experiments could be extended to ordinary electrolytes, they would give results of the same kind—that is, finite values of the dielectric constant &. The distinction between dielectrics and electrolytes would thus solely NO. 1182, VOL. 46] reside in the amount of their conductivity. Dielectric polariza- tion, established in a very short time in comparison with the ten-thousandth of a second, would correspond, in Grotthuss’s scheme, to the initial orientation of the compound molecules, their conductivity to their progressive rupture.—On the retarda- tion in the perception of the different rays of the spectrum, by M. Aug. Charpentier. On suddenly illuminating the slit of a spectroscope by white light, the red portion of the spectrum is seen first, and the light seems to shoot across from the red to the violet. This was confirmed by rotating an inverted sector of a circle, 1 cm. broad at the base, and 8 to 10 cm. long once in two or three seconds. The extreme point seemed drawn out into a kind of spectrum extending from the red to the green. The maximum duration of excitation compatible with the isolation of the colours does not exceed about four or five thousandths of a second.—On the anhydrous crystallized fluorides of nickel and cobalt, by M. C, Poulenc.—Action of nitric oxide upon the metals, and upon the metallic oxides, by MM. Paul Sabatier and J. B. Senderens.—Thermochemical study of guanidine, of its salts and of nitroguanidine, by M. C. Matignon.—Researches on the disodic derivatives of the three isomeric diphenols, by M. de Forcrand.—On normal pyrotartaric or glutaric acid, by M. G. Massol.—Study of the decomposition of the diazo com- pounds, by MM. J. Hausser and P. Th. Muller.—The folds in the Secondary formations in the neighbourhood of Poitiers, by M. Jules Welsch.—On the genesis of the ophiolitic rocks, by M. L. Mazzuoli.—Three cases of increase in the velocity of transmission of sense-impressions, under the influence of injec- tions of the testiculary liquid, by M. Grigorescu. BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. Booxs.—Country Thoughts for Town Readers: K. B. B, de la Bere (Simpkin).—The Etiology and Pathology of Grouse Disease: Dr, E. Klein (Macmillan).—Marine Shells of South Africa: G. B. Sowerby eh Atlas of Clinical Medicine, vol i. : Dr. B. Bramwell (Edinburgh, Constable). —The Standard Course of Elementary Chemistry, Parts 1-5: E. J. Cox eters —English Botany, Supplement to the Third Mg tte Part 2: N. . Brown (Bell).—Volcanoes, Past and Present: Dr. E. Hull (Sc Scott). —Den Norske Nordhaus-Expedition, 1876-78, xxi. logi, Crinoida: D. C. Danielssen (Christiania, Grondahl).—Coal Gas as a Fuel, fourth edition: T. Fletcher (Liverpool, Tinling). PAMPHLETS.—Twenty-second Annual Report of the Wellington College Natural Science Society, 1891 (Wellington College).—Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore Register for 1891-92 (Baltimore).—British Univer- sities (Manchester, Cornish). SErIALs.—Astronomy and Astro-Physics, June (Northfield, Minnesota). —L’Anthropologie, tome iii. No. 2 (Paris, Masson). —Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, June (Williams and Norgate). —Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium, vol. ii., No.2 (Washington .— Bulletin of the New York Mathematical Society, vol. i. No. 9 (New York). CONTENTS. The New London University ... 5 wap ase en LOO The Analysis of Wines. By T. E.T....... 170 Modern Therapeutics. ByW.D.H....... 172 Our Book Shelf :— Besant : “*‘ Elementary Hydrostatics.,—W. ... . 172 Wright: ‘‘ The Threshold of Science” . 173 Lock: ‘‘ Key to J. B. Lock’s Elementary Dynamics ” 173 Letters to the Editor :— Ice in the South Atlantic.—Robert H. Scott, F.R.S. ; Captain Edgar H. Andrew. . . 173 Land and Freshwater Shells peculiar to the British Isles. —R, F. Schartl ~.). =o uigeeeenseets a 173 The Imperial Institute oon Fag pau rae Gialamas a 173 Time Standards of Europe. “By Dr. Hugh Robert MI - os ceace ye ee ee 174 Notes ee iaieclal A a aed oO Our Astronomical Column :— Colours on the Surface of Mars. .......... 179 Observations of the Moon .......+.+.2..-s 179 A Planet beyond Neptune?; . . .. » 2 21+ s.muhees 179 . Geographical Notes ey tc ECs idip: ye: ae ape 180 The Microscope’s Contributions to the Earth’s Physical History. By Brot. Dae Boner Es FR Be aie eae gh lun iol, otal 180 The Ladies’ Conversazione of the Royal Society . 184. The Fourth Centenary of Columbus ....... 185 University and Educational Intelligence ..... 186 Societies and Academics... & <).-/e eens . 187 192 Books, Pamphlets, and Serials PECeNe DS PRPS Syst Bi} , NATURE Monbays, THURSDA Y, JUNE 39, 1892. Day | Hour 193 THE LON. Subject ND - ON UNIVERSITY 8 Hassle Professor A ONG the many poi OF THE FUTURE -30| Astronomy: Pr ee a et dimnes id points discussed in ; : 8 Licentiate’s Fe. eae for the versity which h or providing Lond relation to .30| Lectures on iectces $e Wolf the last few ave been under pony with a Uni- 8.30 boone” ral Sciences : ; made to the higher te pa? any eeu be during 9 lasken on Mineralogy y phew LL omeeragd the citi aching which ough as heen Identifi dices: in zens of the ught to be at th 10 |M cation of Rock ces: the world. Attenti most important and 1 e dis- echanics and Experim s, &c. ... |Vélain. _ rected to the cla on has been alm argent ry sics: Properties ental Phy: _ nations isch a teaching necessary to ps exclusively di- | g | |t° H pire &e of Elastic s ) It is not a area : eet skal catchderadn a akan ees Character of Boussinesq. Lote re) n a feats the ene upon this mend : eae Tintee’ "aa i oO : oes: is noel Us be desirable, role not far to seek, | Tho 30 _ Zoology jeal Point of View : _ vide what is so i a and that fete to show that such 2 aeons Chemistry ag Re poe HRB give ek in cocina by its cee ge freely pro- 2 “peat Electricity Joly. ns ‘ Ss in the ato a the quantity and ‘qualit Longe ance on Mathematical Sci- Lippmana. 1 1 Pee see to be hao our own. Mag 8 grasp Calculus .. et cer ea K re) AT ustive, w 3.30 do. di ° affy. by givin URE, we. must perf ould occupy several 3 Zoology, Anatom do. Kafiy _ Sorbo g the courses open to et orce content oursel 3.30} C Zoophites, &c. elec siology : 2 i = the Collége de oe mie pe of Paris at ie mata.on, Spectroosouy and Die . |Delage. o- “not, Bebe liane not concern scienc hemistry .. |Salet and it will be “ew ourselves to the aes We have “i _ and graduate rstood that, beside ntific subjects ; 8.30, Mechanic cour: s th sD with ses, ther e undergrad 8.45| L ynamics the man , there are special graduate ectures on G of System with ogee y other institutions a: itr connected 9 Lectures on ‘teat Geology . ye cal ous professions direct] aris allied either 10. lations for the pie: Manipu- elain. vi at tly, or with the national .15| Higher Algebra : "The sag Rib mong the former el ler’s Integral eory of Eu- ” with referring to th he may content oursel ails a Variable als and Functions of niqu e Ecole N ves at pre < -30) Organ é€; among th ormal and the E present | 9 ganic Chemistry Hermi History, of Ph e latter are the Muse cole Polytech- g 2 ye the ees. Compounds mite. Archeology ysical Science, of A eums of Natural | 4 |) 9 Goiae. Mathematical S .. |Friedel @hick ’ each of these w ’ ntiquities, Art a ology : Principal C ag Sciences Blutel : are illustrated by th ith lectures on the and | = Geological Period haracters of é "We sal if posi ake a ee sbjens ||| 3. | Lewes on +5 Geologie lvi1n: ake ures on : Sonics 2 vo special reat sequent opportunity of 3-45, A we Mechanics and Astro- Munier-Chalma an oO > ut the z n t * week. Comment llege alone exhaust our lectures at the at jal Chemistry pe mS Puiseux, _ the men to a. the breadth of the t space for this 4 | Lectures Pigg of Metals... |Rib: absence of anythi it is confided i eaching and of Questions ysical Sciences : ic F nything approaching it fb aris, and on the Prof. pl Subjects of Te, 1s ours 5 goat Facutty oF Sc Lites eg ae Pe = 1892—Second Scholastic OH gt jeer 8.30 Lect t our a ° i ectures oO ; | : Subject 8:30 Sinair an aa Sciences. .30| Differentia Professor .30 Differential and P landI & Integral ellat Ordinary Di ntegral Calculus : c. gral Calculus, : and Fou aspen oe Equations ’ Lectures on Na . {Picard 8 Pictiale ions with Derived gia acage i sg Science : de es pratt on Geolog Picard F e Principal Ch ocks and cture gy: General . ~~ ossils ... aracteristic ee eres Ment vee 9 | epctares. on Ch Velai a codares ead “ae pa Rib 10 Nowe sonal for the path Manipu- — 0.30 Calculus of wh at re Rg Fo ; ectures on N npr ; : Probabilities : € .-. |Chati vi | 10,30 Cal atural S .. |Riban. matical Theory of Hvar mathe ae < Mathe of P Srantiaa . |Chatin. Vortices and i" ydrodynamic Ae of rg Physics : Ss and Ir Electrodynamics pene si 5 A ortices, Hydrod nee Bigs on Chemi : a = I Nos i oun) to Electro 5) eat pl retical and Pract stry : " Theo- re. H an istry Lectures an » ing Patt Poincaré ? Analysis ical oe 3 ations for Profess Mani- : -30| Lectures on Ph Rib 1.30 bean anes nas oo ome Sciasicet : an. “ral on Physical Scien Riban. Principal Mir Crystallography : Pellat. I. 30 p bight cette a samen: 3 Lectures ineral Species We ectures on Mather F ; vances an Mathematical sei Hautefeuille. 2.30 ry hole ematical fence oussereau. tures on Chemistry... -- |Puiseux. ik Mineralogy and do. do. oieeaie NO. 1183, VOL. 46] shes es nd Crystallography, tine . : ectur i 5 Ractaes on Physical Science -. |Hautefeuille. s on Chemical Scien ete eee ces ... \Joly. K NATURE Day | Hour Subject Professor 8.30} Lectures on Physics is Pellat. 8.30]. Mechanics : Dynamics of Systems Appell. 8.30} Lectures on Botany ve Vesque, 9 Lectures on Chemistry and. Mani- pulations for the Licentiate . |Riban, 9 Lectures on Geology: Identifica- tion of Rocks and the Principal Characteristic Fossils ... Velain. ee Mechanical and Experimental bo Physics, &c. Boussinesq. & ( |10.30} Organic Chemistry : Compounds = of the Aromatic Series .. Friedel. om I Lectures on Chemistry and Mani- pulations... Riban, 3 Lectures on Mathematical Sciences: Differential Calculus Kaffy. 3 Geology: Geological Periods ; $ Secondary Formations .. Munier-Chalma, 4 Lectures on Physical Sciences : Subjects of Prof, Lippmann’s Course ... Foussereau, 5.30] Lectures in Mathematical Sciences Kaffy. 8.30} Astronomy: Programme for the Licentiate et ... | Wolf. 8.30| Lectures on Mineralogy , Jannettaz. vi | |10.15| Higher Algebra: Euler's Integrals, % &e. * ui Hermite. 8 2 |10.30| Lectures on Chemistry Joly. 5 2 Physics: Electricity aie Lippmann. te Lectures on Mathematical Sciences: n Mechanics and Astronomy Puiseux. 3.30; Zoology, Anatomy, a hy ie Physiology Delage. 3.30| Lectures on Organic Chemistry .. Salet. FACULTY OF LETTERS, Gi hte Term. g.30| Lectures on French Literature ... \Gazier. II Complementary Course in English Language and Literature Beljame. 1,15| Pedagogy Lectures (Historical Sciences), General as ert aneous History .. Seignobos. 1.30} History of Ancient Philosophy: Moral and Political Doctrines of Aristotle .. 3 ... |Waddington. 1.30} Lectures on French ‘Literature ... |Gazier. 1.30| Lectures on German Language and Literature : History of the Ger- man Language ... Lange. 1.30) Lectures on Latin Language and Literature Lafaye. 2 History Lectures : General History of the Seventeenth and Eigh- teenth Centuries Zeller. . | | 2.30} French Literature of the Middle x Ages: History of the French A Language : History of Literature az in France in the Fourteenth Cen- = tury. Froissart.. ... |Julleville. 13 Latin Language and Literature ... Lafaye. 3 Greek Eloquence: Greek Moralist Writers . Croiset. 3 Foreign Literature : Aisthetic and Moral Literature of Goethe; General Character of Faust Lichtenberger, 3 Modern History: History of Legislation from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries ... |Lemonnier, 3.30| Literature of Southern Europe : Cervantes’s Works ‘ Gebhart. 4 History of Philosophy : Modern Mexts, >... Boutroux. 4 | Modern History: Practical Exercises |Lemonnier. 4.15; Modern and Contemporaneous ’ History: History of Russia in the Sixteenth Century Rambaud. 5 History of Modern Philosophy : Texts Boutroux. No. 1183, VOL. 46] [JUNE 30, 1892 Day Hour | Subject Professor | 9 | French Literature ; Practical Ex- ercises... .-. |Larroumet. 8.45} Ancient History : Commentary on a Text sai aly ... {Bouché Leclercq. 9 Sanskrit, and Comparative Gram- mar of the Me IDRREN Ry Lan- guages, &c. “2 te ..» |Henry. 9.45| Ancient History ; ; Greek and ; Roman Institutions... ..- |Bouché Leclercq. 10 History of Ancient Philosophy ... Pewee 10-11} Latin Poetry: Practical Exercises |Cartault, 10.15} French Poetry; Explanation of one of the Authors from the ul Licentiate and Fellowship Pro- -" gramme ... .. |Lenient, Q } |t0.30) History : Practical Exercises . |Zeller. fa 1.30} Discourses on Contemporaneous fad Philosophy d Janet. 1.45) Ancient History : History of the Roman Empire from the Time a of Nero ... oi ~ ... |Guiraud. 2 Letters of Southern pa : Dante... Gebhart. 2 Greek Language and Literature. Hauvette. | 3 Geography: History of the Ex- ploration of America since Columbus, &c. ... Himly. 3 French Literature : Practical Ex- cises e .., |Larroumet. 3-15| Latin Language and Literature : History of Latin Literature Lafaye. 4.15| Greek Language and Literature... |Hauvette. 4-45! History of Philosophy: Systems of Spinoza and Malebranche ... |Brochard. 9 | French Eloquence... . |Crouslé, 9.15) Pedagogy (Historical Sciences) .. Seignobos. g.30| Sanskrit: Relations of India with the West... is Levi. fo) Archeology : History of Vase- : painting in Greece... .. |Collignon, 10.30} Philosophy .. Janet. II Archeology: "Practical Exercises in ; Archeology * ... Collignon, I Latin Eloquence: on Roman Elo- quence under the Republic Martha. 1.30, Ancient History Guiraud. 1.30| French Literature ; French Litera- ture in the Seventeenth Century |Gazier, 1.30| Mental Philosophy a Seailles, - || 2.15) History of French Colonization Se and Beginning of the French bs Restoration .. |Pigeonneau. a 2.30) Ancient penis ‘Practical Exer- 4 cises ; eee as .. |Guiraud, & || 2.30) Philosophy ... Seailles, = || 2.45 Philology and Metre : Written and Oral Exercises on Metre ... |Havet. 3.30| History of the French Revolution : History of the National Con- stitution ... Aulard, 3.30| Sanskrit, and Comparative Gram- mar of the Indo- European Lan- guages... -» |Henry. 4 History : Practical Exercises... Pigeonneau 4 Greek Poetry: Lyric Element of Greek Tragedy .. Decharme 4.45, History of Modern Philosophy : Idea of Natural Law, &c. ... |Boutroux, 5 Sanskrit, and Comparative Gram- mar of the Indo-European Lan- guages . Henry. 5 English Language ‘and Literature |Baret, ‘Day JUNE 30, 1892] NATURE NO. 1183, VOL. 46] 195 Hour Subject Professor Day Hour Subject Professor | ,| 8.30| History of the French Revolution : | 9 | Greek Eloquence: Explanation of Exercises... Aulard. Greek Texts and Letters, &c. ... |Croiset. 9 | Greek Literature and Institutions : 9 | Complementary Course : Auxiliary Correction of Greek Themes, &c. |Girard. Sciences—on the cau of 9.30} History of the French Revolution : Palzeography Langlois, Explanation of Titles Aulard. fe) Complementary Course in Litera. 9.30| Lectures on the History’of Philo- ture: on the Aneneology of the sophy : Practical Exercises... Brochard. Middle Ages... Langlois, 10 Latin “ Poetry: Passages from 10,15) French Eloquence: French Writers Lucretius... Cartault. of Prose in the Nineteenth 10 | Lectures on English Language and Century .. Croiset. Literature: Practical Exercises |Baret. 10.15} Lectures on Greek. ‘Literature and }10.15) Lectures on Greek Literature and History: History of Greek ‘fi History : Explanation of the 8 Poetry since the Fifth Century Girard. Authors in the Programme _... |Girard. % | | 1.30) Greek Eloquence: Practical Exer- 10.30} Lectures on the pian, of Philo- a cises : Crouslé. sophy... Brochard. Ss 1.30, Lectures on German Language a and gy | |t0-45| History Lectures : " Bassoinpierre’ s ig Literature - }Lange. oh Se Memoirs .. Zeller. Ig 1,30) Lectures on Philosophy Seailles. a English Language and Literature : 2 Lectures on Geography : Various e6 hakespeare—French Literature |Beljame. Questions in General Geo- 4 | 1.30} Lectures on German Language graphy .:. Dubois. a and Literature: Correction of 3. | Latin Poetry: Lucretius and Latin es aT Themes and Dissertations Lange. Poetry Horne the Ciceronian 2 | French Poetry: Patriotic Poetry Epoch .. |Cartault. in France since the 16th Century |Lenient. 3 Archeology : "Sculpture in Greece | 2. | English eee and Literature : to the Fifth Century... Collignon. % Othello ... Beljame. 3 Lectures on Geography : Practical {2 Roman Philology : ‘First Chapters Exercises Dubois. ek of Dante’s Inferno pe Thomas. 4 History : History of the’ Doctrine of ‘ks Foreign Literature : Preparation Economics during the first part Bhs for the Examination in German __| Lichtenberger. of the Nineteenth Century .. |Pigeonneau. 3 |Modern History: Relation of | French Art to Institutions, &c. |Lemonnier. 3.30| French -Literature of the Middle CoLutcE:..DE..FRAKCE WVeErIAges he «a ... |Julleville. : 4 Foreign Literature: Preparation. 1892— Second Term. an for the Examination in German |Lichtenberger. | 4-15} Geography: History of the Ex- Day | Hour Subject Professor ploration of America since \ Columbus" ! . Himly. (| 9 Course of Koman Piitdlog? : Ex: 9 Modern al : concerning planation of Texts with French, &c. | Thomas. the Soul .. Nourrisson. Complementary Course: Auxi- 9 | Natural History ‘of Inorganic liary Sciences—on the History Bodies . Fouqué. of Latin Literature ‘ |Langlois. 10 Language and Literature of the 9.15} Latin Eloquence: Explanation of Arabs : Moallakat and Divans Latin Authors .. aoe .. |Martha. of Six Poets ..... B. de Meynard. 9.30| Complementary Course in San- 10.15| Aésthetics and History of Art: es skrit: Explanation of Ele-| History of Italian Art under mentary Texts ... S. Levi. Pius II. Lafenestre. |1o =| Complementary Course in Philo- 10.15} Celtic Languages and Literature : logy and Metre: on Metre . |Havet. Ancient and Middle Irish Texts |H. d’Arbois de Io Complementary Course of Roman Jubainville. Philology: History of the 10.30} Organic Chemistry: on Organie Literature Thomas, Synthesis and Hydrocarbons ,,, |Berthelot. 10.15} Lectures on Pedagogy : Theory of 11.15| Comparative Grammar: Theory History Teaching 5 Seignobos, gi of the Verb in Indo-European I | Lectures on Greek Language and < Languages Bréal, Literature: History of Greek 8 < |12.30| Egyptian Philology. and Archzo- Literature AS. fei ... |Hauvette. i) logy: Pyramid Texts Maspero, 2.30| Greek Poetry: Explanation of a 1.30} History of Latin Literature: His- Texts, and Practical Exercises |Decharme, tory of the Latin Theatre Boissier. 2.30| History of the Middle Ages: on 2.30} Greek Epigraphy and Antiquities : French Ecclesiastical Institutions | Luchaire. Athenian Constitution of Aris- 3-30| Practical Exercises in History ... |Luchaire. totle Foucart, 3 30| Ancient History : History of Rome 3 History of ‘Religion : History of ae from Scylla to Cesar ... Bouché Leclercq Judaism during the last Four 3-30} Greek Poetry: Explanation of ' Centuries of the Christian Era |Réville. Texts, and Practical Exercises |Decharme. 3.15} Experimental and Comparative 4 Modern and Contemporaneous Psychology: Will, Heredity, History: History of the Hin- Perception Ribot. dus under Queen Victoria _... |Rambaud. 3.30| Semitic Epigraphy and Antiquities 4-15| French Literature(Complementary with Epigraphic Texts . Clermont-Gan- Course): History of French neau. Literature in the 18th Century |Larroumet, 4.45] Latin Philology: on the Prosody 4-45| Lectures on wie Text of , of Vowels in the Latin Lan- the Programme ... ad ... |Dubois. guage a, fr .. Havet, 196 NATURE [JUNE 30, 1892 Day | Hour Subject | Professor Day Hour | Subject - | Professor 9 History of Latin Literature Boissier, _. (| 2.15) Russian History from Catherine ite) Assyrian Philology and Archzo- x II. to Alexander I, .., Leger. logy : Deciphering of the As- iS 3 Chinese Language and Literature : syrian Characters Oppert. = Tartar and Manchu Language ! [Denis. 10. 30} General and Experimental Physics : m and Literature ... D’ Hervey de St, on the ye sg of the Atmo- a)|3 History of Religion; History of sphere Mascart. a Judaism during the last Four ae I Greek and Latin. Philosophy : ne Ss Centuries Reville. Epicurean Doctrine... Lévéque. Ee 3.15] Experimental and Comparative : I Languages and Literatures of Physiology te .._|Ribot. H Slavonic Origin ,. ... |Leger. Bie) Arabic Language and Paes Barbier de Mey- m1]. Analytical and Celestial Me- : nard a chanics: Applications, &c. .., |Koenigs. 10.15} Celtic Language and Literature ... |H. d’ Arbois de a 1.30} General History of Science: Ad- Jubainville, =) vent of Grecian pei Ab- 10.30} Organic Chemistry : eden nes oe stract Science .., P. Lafitte, in particular. Berthelot. 2 History of Comparative Legisla- 11.15} Comparative Grammar : “Theory tion: Political Writings of J. of the Verb in oe de Maistre yas J. Flach. Languages Bréal, 2 Geography; Economic Statistics 12.30] Greek Language and Literature : and ITistory ; on French Coloni- Sophocles... .. |Rossignol. gation _,., .. |Levasseur. 12.30] Works of Robert Browning s+» |Guizot. 3 Robert Browning’s Poems — ... |Guizot, I Greek and Latin Philosophy : 3-15} Political Economy: John Stuart Doctrines of Epicurus .. Lévéque, Mill : st of Political I Analytical and Celestial Mecha- . Economy... ie . |Leroy-Beaulieu, nics, Geometrical and Mecha- : 10 | French Language pe aioe Pe ao rina Fg yar Keenigs. of the Middle Big Life of St, , - “45 tea elena’ red d Foreign qui 11,15 ig and Literature of ee 3 scriptions Cagnat, i Pda ly pple Meyer. fa 1.45) Greek Epigraphy and Antiquities ; wv eT" Mysteries of Eleusis Foucart. 12.30 pie Pp and Literature ; ee 2 History of Comparative Legisla- ophocles * ossignol, 12.30 =e Philology and Archzo- “ear tate ee ine Finch gts of Egyptian eer Eighteenth Century Flach. I General Physics and Mathematics ; . gp paling esi Literature Mechanical Properties of Elec- and: Bewdaes Derieatouae 1:40 BD canna gfe niet rs oe i 2 Geography : Economic History oy 3 ‘cal Anais ys ry: C ae and Statistics (Algeria, Colonies) Levasseur, vi the Metals Schiitzenberger. 3.15| Political Economy: on Public mae 5 7, tay i ie ‘Revenues and Imports Leroy- Beaulieu, a 112 Hebrew Language and Literature : ol Natural: Histo ot eeu eR Chaldean and Syrian ane 3-3 Bodies 7 . Franck, A Bh 9: beige ter j P meena. 4-30| Medicine : Animal Muscle and a omperstive Embry ology: Phy- Thermodynamics D’Arsonval, z siological ré/e of the Cellular an 5 General Anatomy ; ‘on Sita “Was Tr a welts inch te sige. "this a Balbiani. cular System ... |Ranvier. Literature : French. tage and 9 Modern Philosophy ; Gilenea . |Nourrisson. School... Deschanel, fo) French Language and Literature 3. | Sanscrit Language iad Literature : of the Middle Ages: Life of Pee Extracts from Mahabharata Foucaux. St. Alexis aed, » Fans, Fe eee tobe tion. 10.39) Rapes e eee e ee oe / oe rane ‘ dass Clermont-Gan- 12.45| Mathematics: Principles of the i ee : neau. Infinitesimal Calculus . .-» |Jordan, 3-30| Natural History of Organic Bodies |F. Franck. I Mathematics and General P ysis Marcel D : 4.30| Medicine: on the Muscle, and ‘- Elst Currents + {a arcel Deprez. Animal Thermodynamics .. |D’Arsonval. I "Principal Writers wee Re 5 bis inte fog raed en Ranvier. vi || 1.30} Mineralogical Chemistry : Ana- lytical Chemistry and datas 9 | History and Morals Longnon. 8 of the Metals... Schiitzenberger, 9 Natural History of Inorganic P ||.2 Persian Language and Literature : $ Bodies : Work of Richthofen on ; S Relation between the reunt the Geology of China ... Fouqué. n and Persian g . |Darmesteter. . | {Lo ae Philology and Archzeo- 2 Comparative Embryology _ ... |Balbiani. x ogy | : Oppert. 2 General History of the Sciences... |P. Lafitte, A ) \10.15| Aesthetics and History ‘of Art: 3. | Chinese Language and Literature : 2 History of Italian Art under Tartar and Manchu Language . [Denis, > Peter IT... ran ... |Lafenestre. and Literature ... D’ Hervey de St. fa 11.30; Language and Literature of 2.30| Hebrew, Chaldean, and. " Syrian Southern Europe: Roman de Languages and Literatures . |E. Renan, Jaufre ... a ee ... |Meyer. 3 Sanskrit Language and Literature: 12.45; Mathematics: Principles of the Lalila Vistara (Life of Buddha) /Foucaux. Infinitesimal Calculus ... Jordan. 4.45| Latin Philology : Ralmegraphy. of I Roman Epigraphy and Antiquities Cagnat. the Latin Classics ¥ .. |Havet. NO. 1183, VOL. 46] JUNE 30, 1892] NATURE 197 ENGLISH BOTANY. Lnglish Botany, Supplement to the Third Edition. Part I. (Orders I.-XXII.). Compiled and Illustrated by N. E. Brown, of the Royal Herbarium, Kew. Pp. 56, viii., 6 Plates. (London: Bell and Sons, 1891 [1892].) THE third edition of “ English Botany” was begun just thirty years since by Dr. Boswell (then Syme), and continued at somewhat uncertain intervals, the flowering plants being completed in 1872, The ferns followed at a later period, and the volume containing them was completed by Mr. N. E. Brown, owing to the failure of Dr. Boswell’s health. Although styled a third edition, Dr. Boswell’s work was, as everyone knows, a thoroughly new book. It was the pro- duction of one who knew plants in the field as well as in the herbarium, and who had a firm hold of his subject. Mr. J. G. Baker, who speaks with authority in matters of this kind, says :— “It is not alone the fulness and accuracy of the descriptions that make the book so valuable, but the power he shows in grasping the relationship of the types, and the acute sense of proportion shown in their - arrangement. .. . I never cease, when I use the book, to admire the skill which is shown in dividing out the types into species, sub-species, and varieties—a task that was done so thoroughly well that when Sir J. D. Hooker, with all his wide experience, went over the same ground shortly after, in his‘ Student’s Flora,’ he found extremely little to change.”? The book, indeed, had defects, among which may be mentioned the “popular portion” and the bad colouring of the plates, but for these Dr. Boswell was not responsible: and although the history of our British flora may seem to some to have received less attention than it merited, the author’s work well deserves the high praise which Mr. Baker bestowed upon it. The first part of the “Supplement,” now before us, is the workof Mr. N. E. Brown. Mr. Brown has long been recognized as an authority upon certain difficult groups of plants. He has probably a greater knowledge of the Stapeliee, for instance, than any man living ; he has done much good work among the Avozdee ; and his many years’ employment in the Kew Herbarium has been productive of other valuable contributions to systematic botany. Heis careful and painstaking, and a fair draughtsman. Yet with all these qualifications he is not the man to whom the “ Supplement to English Botany” should have been entrusted. Such a task could only be carried out satis- factorily by one whose knowledge of British plants was based upon an acquaintance with them in the field as well as in the herbarium, and Mr. Brown’s name does not occur to us in this connection. There was, as it seems to us, one way, and only one, in which a “Supplement to English Botany” could have been done satisfactorily. During the last thirty years our flora has received many additions of bond fide types ; these should, of course, have been figured and described. Having regard to the execution of the third edition, the novelties in certain critical genera—such as Rudus and Hieracium—might have found a place; although the correlation of English with continental forms which is still proceeding in the former genus, and the (too slow) : 1 Journal of Botany, 1888, p. 83. NO. 1183, VOL. 46] publication of Mr. F, J. Hanbury’s monograph in the latter, would have justified their partial if not entire exclusion. But the attempt to put into the old bottles the new wine of recent research could only result, as it has resulted, in failure. The Batrachian Ranunculi, for instance, may not have been treated satisfactorily by Dr. Boswell; and Mr. Brown perhaps dees well to repro- duce a subsequent note by that author modifying his views. But the treatment as it stood was a consistent piece of work—the expression of the opinion of one man. Mr. Brown endeavours to fit Mr. Hiern’s well- known paper on these plants into Dr. Boswell’s original descriptions—a Procrustean undertaking, and one which, in our judgment, is entirely valueless, representing as it does neither Dr. Boswell’s, Mr. Hiern’s, nor any other consistent view about these troublesome plants. Mr. Brown’s style is so terribly involved that it is often very difficult to ascertain what he means; and he would have been far wiser had he left the Batrachian butter- cups alone. For his rearrangement of Thalictrum he made “a careful examination of all the material at [his] disposal.” It will hardly be believed that neither in this nor in any other instance has he taken the trouble to consult Dr. Boswell’s own herbarium, although this, as Mr. Brown must know, is readily accessible to all London botanists. The craze—we can use no milder term—for burdening our lists with varietal names on the most trivial pretexts receives Mr. Brown’s support: he resus- citates Pritzel’s names for the bluish and reddish-flowered forms of Anemone nemorosa (identifying the former with the A. Robinsoniana of gardens), although he adds that they are “mere colour forms,” with “numerous inter- mediate shades.” Mr. Melvill’s name is attached to a “var. rosea” of Szlene gallica, although he did not rank it as such, but referred to it as a “form merging by every gradation into” guinguevulnera; and Mr. Brown enriches our nomenclature with a new name—“ Silene anglicavar. maculata, N.E. Br.” Speaking of Mr. Pryor’s var. oleracea of Silene Cucu- balus, Mr. Brown says :— “If the plant intended is the same as S. zn/flata var. oleracea, Ficinus, ‘ Flora der Gegend um Dresden,’ ed. 2, vol. i. p. 313 (1821), which is figured in Reichenbach, Icones Fl. Germ. et Helvet., vol. vi. pl. 300, f. 5120 y, it is,” &c. Now, Mr. Pryor appends to his varietal name a refer- ence to “Bor. FI. Centr., ed. iii., ii, 95,” and Boreau cites Reichenbach’s t. 300 for his plant. How, then, can there be any question as to the plant “intended”? If Mr. Brown means to say that he is doubtful as to the accuracy of Mr. Pryor’s identification, that is, of course, another matter. Prof. L. H. Bailey lately spoke with deserved severity of certain “ authors of local floras” as obtaining “a cheap notoriety by making new combinations ” in nomenclature ; and no one can glance through this “ Supplement,” or refer to the pages wasted in discussing the nomenclature of Corydalis and Spergularia, without applying his remarks, to the compiler thereof. Much space is also taken up, and in our opinion wasted by the relegation of species to other genera than those in which they were placed by Dr. Boswell. The following 198 NATURE [JUNE 30, 1892 note on “ Lychnis alba, Mill.,” is an illustration of this, and will serve at the same time as an example of Mr. Brown’s style :— “This is the Szlene pratensis of vol. ii. p. 67, but, to- gether with S. diurna of p. 69, should be referred to the genus Lychnis, where they properly belong; S. déurna being Lychnis dioica, Linn. ; this name has been objected to on the ground that Linnzus included Z. alba as a variety of Z. dioica, which objection is untenable as it appears to me; still, if Linnzeus’s name is rejected, then ZL. diwcia, Miller (‘ Gardener’s Dictionary,’ ed. 8, No. 3, errata, 1768), must take precedence over L. diurna, Sibthorp (‘ Flora Oxoniensis,’ p. 145, 1794).” Here is another example :— “ Geranium striatum, Linn. This plant was first pub- lished by Linnzeus as Geranium versicolor in his ‘Cen- turia I. Plantarum,’ p, 21 (1755) ; but in 1759, when this same Centuria was republished in his ‘ Amcenitates Academicz,’ vol. iv., he altered the name to G. striatum, p. 282, which name was retained by Linnzus in all his later works, so that in all probability Linnzeus regarded the name G. versicolor as a clerical error, which appears to me a consistent view to take of the case, the more so as it is also probable that the original Centurias were only printed for a restricted, or possibly private, distri- bution.” It is evident, in spite of all its defects, that Mr, Brown has lavished—we do not like to use a stronger expression —a great deal of time and trouble over this “ Supplement.” A less careful worker, indeed, might easily have produced a better book ; for the trivial corrections and emendations, the questions of synonymy, the minute criticisms, and the unnecessary additions, would not have been put forward by any save the most conscientious of writers. There is an appendix of “additions and corrections,” occupying an eighth of the whole, but, at any rate so far as “corrections” are concerned, far from exhaustive. And yet, with all this elaboration, the book is not as complete as it should be. The remarkable Sagina described in 1887 by Dr, F. Buchanan White as 5S. Boydit is not figured, and Mr. Brown has not even seen a specimen of the plant. Mr. Boyd has had it in culti- vation for several years, and would, we doubt not, have supplied examples ; and it is not easy to understand why Mr. Brown omitted to make himself acquainted with this very striking form. The plates are mostly poor: to one there is no reference in the letterpress ; another is wrongly numbered. Since the foregoing was written, the second part of the “Supplement” has appeared. It is mainly occupied with the Rose and Brambles, concerning which Mr. Brown says, “I express no opinion, as I have never made any attempt whatever to study them.” This is commendably candid, but adds materially to the difficulty of understand- ing why Mr. Brown was selected for the work, while it deprives the compilation of value. JAMES BRITTEN. A BACTERIOLOGICAL HAND-BOOK. Bacteriologisches Practicum zur Einfiihrung in die bractischwichtigen bacteriologischen Untersuchungs- methoden fiir Aerzte, Apotheker, Studirende. By Dr. W. Migula. (Karlsruhe: Otto Nemnich, 1892.) LTHOUGH a knowledge of bacteriological methods is essential not only to those who seriously take up the study of bacteria, but also to many who, like the NO. 1183, VOL. 46] bacilli. candidates for the diploma of public health, take but a compulsory glance at bacteriology, yet the supply of manuals describing the details of bacteriological practice is remarkably meagre. Dr. Migula’s little book should, therefore, prove very welcome to the bacteriological student, for it does not aspire to be an exhaustive work on bacteria in general, the list of which is receiving constant additions, but aims at describing simply and carefully in a handy form the principal methods of working with micro-organisms. A number of varieties are more or less elaborately given, but the main idea has been to seek out characteristic forms which are intended to serve as types to illus- trate the various points dealt with in the treatment of bacteria. All the stages in the laboratory life-history of a micro- organism are elaborately entered into, and special chapters are devoted to the formation and staining of spores, and also to the nature of the flagella and most improved methods of exhibiting them in microscopic preparations. The latter are beautifully displayed in a photograph, showing the numerous flagella attached to the typhoid The preparation of the various culture-media is described very minutely, and there are. many useful laboratory hints and it is the more surprising, therefore, to find the method of sterilizing milk without altering its chemical composition omitted. This mode of preparing milk is naturally of importance in any inquiry as to the vitality of pathogenic micro-organisms in this medium. Again, the plan of cultivating bacteria on potatoes in tubes is not given, although it presents many decided advantages over the “ dish method.” Dr. Migula repeatedly insists upon the necessity of un- remitting care in carrying out all bacteriological opera- tions to prevent the access of contamination either from the air or by contact with unsterilized or imperfectly sterilized objects. Such precautions are naturally of the utmost importance, but possibly it is unnecessary to warn students against contaminating their platinum needle through testing its temperature after heating by placing it to their lips. Such a proceeding, if ever attempted, . would certainly not be quickly repeated ! But there is one piece of advice upon which the author lays great stress, and which in our opinion is not only. unnecessary, but a constant menace to success. On almost , every page, in one capacity or another, we find the use of corrosive sublimate most strongly recommended as a means of assisting sterilization and of affording ad- ditional protection from external contamination. It cannot be impressed strongly enough upon the student that he must depend for the success of his cultivations, not on the use of am/ézsepizcs,but by working on strictly aseptic. principles, through the most conscientious devotion to every detail and precaution with which he is acquainted. The fear of contamination must ever appear to him as threatening as the “sword of Damocles,” which will de- scend with unerring certainty as soon as the least evidence of relaxation is visible. Not only is the use of corrosive sublimate demoralizing, then, but on account of its very germicidal properties, unless handled with the utmost care, will prove a positive danger, destroying where it is least expected or wanted. This opinion is unfortunately the result of experience and not of mere imagination, JUNE 30, 1892] NATURE 199 The examination of water is given zz ext/enso, but there is no mention, when discussing the presence of typhoid bacilli in water, of the latest methods for their detection amongst other micro-organisms contained in natural waters. _ The investigation of air for micro-organisms is entirely left out, an omission which renders the book less com- plete than it would otherwise appear to be. But there is a great deal of instruction, together with many valuable hints, contained in the comparatively short space of 200 pages; and whilst, interspersed in the text, wood-cuts serve to supplement some of the descrip- tions of apparatus, it also boasts some very good photo- ‘graphs from original preparations of the Staphylococcus pyogenes citreus, the Streptococcus erysipelatis, the Bacil- lus anthracis with spores, the tuberculosis Bacillus, Koch’s comma Spirillum, and others. There is also appended a useful list of all the requisite appliances for bacteriological work. GRACE C. FRANKLAND. OUR BOOK SHELF. Neue Rechnungsmethoden der Hiheren Mathematik. Von Dr. Julius Bergbohm. (Stuttgart: Selbstverlag des Ver- -fassers, 1892.) Neue Integrationsmethoden auf Grund der Potensial-, _ Logarithmal-, und Numeralrechnung. (The same.) THE first of these pamphlets contains an account of what ‘the author calls the /mmensalrechnung, the Potenzial- rechnung, the Radikalrechnung,the Logarithmalrechnung, and the Vumeralrechnung. In the Jmmensalrechnung an attempt is made to provide a calculus of the infinitely eat (das /mmensa/), which shall form a complement to e di tial calculus, or calculus of the infinitely small. The Potenzialrechnung contains an account of exponen- tial functions in which the base is an infinitely small or an infinitely great quantity, and the exponent is infinitely small ; and the Radikalrechnung an account of the inverse functions that are obtained from these by changing the exponent into its reciprocal. So, too, in the Logarith- malrechnung, \ogarithmic functions are considered in which the base and the argument are either infinitely small or infinitely great; and in the Vumeralrechnung ‘the inverse functions (antilogarithms or exponential functions) are discussed. The pamphlet is occupied, for the most part, with an exposition of the author’s notation, a discussion of certain indeterminate forms, and a calculation of some algebraic functions contain- ing an infinitely small argument, to a first, second, or -third approximation. It is hardly possible to compliment the author on his accuracy, seeing that the statement occurs that Lt. log x is finite when riszero or infinity, the reason given being that Lt. (x log x) and Lt. (log x/x) are zero, for these values of x. The second pamphlet begins with a résumé of some of _the results of the first one ; and then proceeds to discuss the application of these results to the evaluation of certain elementary integrals. The author’s avowed object is to provide a method for the direct calculation of integrals, comparable with that now employed in differentiation, so that it may no longer be necessary to resort to the indirect methods of integration at present employed. It is impos- sible to. deny that the object is a laudable one; but, to judge from the examples given in this pamphlet, it does not seem likely that the method will be of much use in the case of integrals of any degree of complexity, Dr. Bergbohm promises to supply us in the future with further examples of the application of his methods ; but, until NO. 1183, VOL. 46] -making nonsense of it. these have appeared, it is hardly possible to say that stu- dents of mathematics will find these pamphiets repay them for the trouble of reading them and of mastering the author’s notation. R. E. A. By Cs (New York: John Wiley and An Elementary Course in Theory of Equations. H. Chapman, Ph.D. Sons, 1892.) THIS is really an excellent little book, but. is rather mis- named in being called anelementary treatise. The study of the theory of equations, although generally expanded far too considerably, is here dealt with in rather the re- verse way, the treatment being somewhat too curt. For anyone beginning this subject the book would be found slightly difficult, but for a student who has already had a little experience in this direction, it should prove avery useful vade mecum, for the author has brought together in a few pages just those portions of the subject that are required in actual practice. The three sections treat respectively of determinants, algebraical equations, and the methods by which the real roots of numerical equations are computed, and they are each accompanied by numerous examples. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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 Grammar of Science.” It is very idle as a rule to criticize a critic, especially when he happens, like C, G. K., to be the disciple of a school which the author of the criticized work is gently laughing at through- out his pages. But some of C. G, K.’s remarks might lead your readers to believe that the ‘‘Grammar of Science” is nonsense, even when looked at without the spectacles of the Edinburgh physical school, and his review may therefore justly call for a few words of reply. Because C. G. K. found himself entirely unable to follow my argument as to the universality of scientific law, he was hardly justified in putting an antecedent before a consequent, and The universality of scientific law depends on the similarity of the perceptions and of the reflective faculties in normal civilized man. Why does this similarity exist? asks C. G. K.}; and then turns for an answer to an antecedent in the argument—namely, that a condition of this universality is the similarity in those perceptions and reflective faculties, As a matter of fact in the ‘Grammar’? itself, it is pointed out that a society of beings with different perceptions and reflective faculties could hardly survive in the struggle for existence with societies where there was an approach to similarity ; that as soon as the divergence reaches a certain magnitude we lock up the individual as a madman or an idiot, or, in milder cases, bring great social pressure to bear upon him, and mould him to the ordinary standard. ‘*The laws of Nature are a mental product, yet a certain evolution theory logically based upon them quite eliminates the mental,” writes C. G. K. of the ‘‘Grammar.” Where he found this statement I know not, but what the ‘‘Grammar” itself states is: that the laws of evolution are themselves a mental product, a description in shorthand of the sense-impressions and stored sense-impresses of the mind at a given instant. They are a mental mode of briefly classifying sense-impressions, and not inherent in something behind sense-impressions themselves. C. G. K, then ue my statements as to Maxwell’s descrip- tions of energy and matter. Now what the ‘‘Grammar” says is that Maxwell’s statements are ‘‘ extremely valuable as express- tg, comcnly the nature of certain conceptual processes by aid of which we describe certain phases of our perceptual experience, but as defining matter they carry us no further than the state- ment that matter is that which moves,” or indeed than Prof. Tait’s statement that ‘‘matter is that which occupies space.” The whole object of the investigation is to show that mass, but 200 NATURE [JUNE 30, 1892 not matter, is capable of definition. As Clerk Maxwell tells us’ that his statements contain all we kzow of matter and energy, | it is clear that these are the only statements by way of definition which he conceives it advisable to give of them,and ¢hey are all he) does give. ‘students whose first notions of matter and force were obtained from the ‘‘ Treatise on the Dynamics.of.a Particle,” and it was therefore a relief to me when met with Kirchhoff’s ** Mechanik ” in 1876, and found the subjectivity of force clearly insisted on. That view of force was in the air of Berlin when I was a student there in 1879. Kirchhoff’s services in this matter are referred to with special emphasis on p. 139 of the **Grammar.” A perfectly consistent view of force and matter had been published by Mach in 1883. Why the fact that Prof. Tait put forward the ‘‘subjectivity of force” in a work of 1885 makes me_ therefore ‘‘a disciple of Prof, Tait,’ I fail to understand. This statement is the more astonishing, as Prof. Tait directly postulates the ‘‘ objectivity of matter,” but in the same work tells us that ‘‘ matteris, as it were, the plaything of force.” How subjective force can have an ob- jective plaything, perhaps C. G. K. will inform us; but the statement clearly marks off the standpoint of the ‘* Grammar” from that of Prof, Tait. Mass, according to the ‘‘Gram- mar,” can only be defined as the ratio of mutual accelerations, and any attempt to connect it with the ‘‘ quantity of matter” in a body is asserted to be unphilosophical, C. G. K. asks if a pas- sage he quotes from Tait’s ‘‘ Properties of Matter” is not essentially the theory of ‘‘ether-squirts”? I reply Mo, the words ‘‘ constantly swallows up an amount proportional to its mass,” or ‘at a rate proportional to its mass,” exclude the mutually enforced flows of ether on which the ‘* Grammarian ” bases his applications of ether-squirts to I happened to be one of the unfortunate Cambridge | sufficing to | chemical and cohesive actions (American Fournal of Mathema- tics, vol. xiii., pp. 309-62). Had I ever read, or if read, re- collected, Sir William Thomson’s suggestion, it would have been referred to, and a reference to him will be introduced into later editions of the ‘* Grammar.” ee C. G, K. very skilfully tries to‘turn off the ‘‘Grammarian’s ” criticism of the Edinburgh school byrepresenting it as an attack * on Newton, The words in the ‘‘Grammar” are: ‘‘Remem- bering these points we will now turn ¢o the version of the New- zonian laws given by Thomson and Tait” (p. 381). Force, say our writers, is any cause that tends to alter a body’s natural state of rest, or of uniform motion ina straight line ; but force, says Prof. Tait, is subject?ve, and corresponds to nothing which exists outside ourselves. Surely it is a ‘* veritable metaphysical somersault ” to then assert that ‘it can be ‘applied in a straight line”? I fail completely to see how the view that force is subjective is consonant with the definitions and laws put forward by Thom- son and Tait, and asserted by them to be Newtonian. With regard to Newton’s own statements, I openly declare that, with all admiration for his genius, I doubt ‘the logical sequence and accuracy of many of his statements with regard to the philo- sophical basis of dynamics. Those who would bind down all time to his views on matter, force, and motion, are much like the geometricians who think it impious to cast out Euclid from school-teaching. Both Euclid and Newton have handed:down to us in their pages discoveries which will always form a portion of man’s intellectual heritage, but the method in which those discoveries are presented will vary from age to age with in- creasing clearness in man’s conceptions of mental and physical processes, Finally, C. G. K. remarks that my conclusions are ‘‘ mate- rialistic,” by which term I suppose he means that he disagrees with them. As one of the chief objects of the “Grammar” is to cast the term matter forth from scientific language, it would have been more correct to say that my conclusions are ‘‘ideal- istic.” I fear C. G. K. has a more supreme contempt than the majority of the countrymen of Reid and Hume for an accurate use of philosophical language. KARL PEARSON. Immunity of the African Negro from Yellow Fever. THIs point, interesting to anthropologists, is raised anew by a writer on the history of epidemics (NATURE, June 16), who asks whether the alleged protection is supported by all recent authorities. Recent authorities are not so well placed for judging of this matter as the earlier; for the reason that immunity is not alleged except for the African negro of pure blood or un- changed racial characters, and that these conditions of the NO. 1183, VOL. 46] ‘mean—‘‘but which seems to. confer immunity.” climatic fevers with yellow fever. problem have been much less frequently satisfied in the yellow- fever harbours of the western hemisphere since the African slave trade ceased, However, there was a good opportunity in 1866, during the disastrous yellow fever among the French troops of the Mexican expedition when they lay at Vera Cruz. Among them was a regiment of Nubians, who had been enlisted for the expedition by permission of the Khedive: that regiment had not a single case of yellow fever all through the epidemic. The African negro regiment brought over from the French colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe had two or three cases, with, I think, one death. The rest of the troops, including Frenchmen, Arabs from Algeria, native Mexicans and Creoles, had no immunity whatever, but, on the other hand, a most disastrous fatality. The medical officers of the French service have recorded the facts principally inthe Archives de Médecine Navale, their conclusion as to racial immunity being the same that has passed current among the earlier authorities as a truth of high general value (admitting, of course, of exceptions in special circumstances), and a truth that has never, so far as I know, been formally controverted by anyone, although other points concerning yellow fever have been the subject of as obstinate controversy as those touching small-pox itself. The experiences of the French at Gorée, a town with ten times as many negroes as whites, exactly confirmed those of Vera Cruz in the same year (Arch. de Méd. nav., ix. 343). The immunity of the African negro from yellow fever has become a paragraph in some anthropological text-books:—It-is. from the anthropologists, and not from medical authorities, that Darwin cites the fact in his ‘* Descent of Man,” adding an ‘original theory of the immunity, which he was unable to establish after much inquiry. His theory, I need hardly say, was not that ‘* negroes in infancy may have passed through some disease too slight to be recognized as yellow fever,” —whatever that may The theory, however, is another story, or ‘‘ another voiume,” as the writer jast cited is pleased to suggest ; and as for the historical fact of immunity, no one denies it, unless it be Dr. Pye Smith in his recent Lumleian lectures (Lancet, April 23, 1892, p. 901), who ‘gives no reasons. It is unfortunate that the anthropologists (Darwin among them) should have introduced one element of dubiety in placing ‘mulattoes on ‘the same footing, in respect of immunity, as negroes of pure descent, and another in mixing up malarial or C. CREIGHTON, June 20, The Line Spectra of the Elements. I sEE by Prof. Stoney’s letter that I have not yet succeeded -in making myself understood, as he does not enter on the subject of my objection. A function of the time may well, with any assigned degree of accuracy and for any length of time, be ap- proximately represented by a sum of circular functions, and nevertheless the periods, amplitudes, and phases may not approach definite values when the length of time for which the ‘approximation is to hold good is increased indefinitely. I think this is quite clear from the example I have given in my last letter (p. 100), and it is not necessary to write out other examples. Now, Prof. Stoney shows how one may find by Fourier’s theorem the. amplitudes, periods, and phases of a sum of circular functions if one only knows the values of the sum. This deduc- tion is not new to me. I worked out the same equations in a slightly different form, when Prof. Stoney’s first letter made me further think about the subject. The deduction does also apply to functions that are approximately represented by a sum of circular functions, but oly under the restriction that the time for which the approximation holds good is long in comparison to the longest period of the circular functions. In chapter iv. of his paper ‘‘ On the Cause of Double Lines, &c.” (Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society, 1891), Prof. Stoney should have added this restriction, Then the question would naturally have arisen how the restriction follows from Prof. Stoney’s hypothesis on the origin of the line spectra. Ido not venture to say that it does not, but the author would have to prove it. ’ C. RUNGE. Technische Hochschule, Hannover. The Nitric Organisms, I MUCH regret to learn from your last issue that Mr, Waring- on considers that I failed to do justice to his work on this i eertngegiontnt~)—- JUNE 30, 1892] NATURE 201 subject in my recent lecture at the Royal Institution, and which was reprinted in your columns of the 9th inst. Mr. Warington complains that I have attributed to Winogradsky, and not to himself, the separation of the nitric ferment ; I think, however, that Mr. Warington does not correctly understand the sense in which I employ the word ‘‘separate,’ or rather ‘‘ isolate” (that is the exact word which I did use), for it does not appear to me that Mr. Warington has ever claimed to have iso/ated this ferment ; thus, on referring again to his most recent publication on this subject, I read, ‘‘An attempt to isolate the nitric organism by the dilution method failed, but apparently only one other organism—a stout bacillus, growing on gelatin—was present in some of the cultures” (Chem. Soc. Journ., July 1891), In an exhaustive memoir, due reference to the above attempt of Mr, Warington’s would, of course, have been made ; but in the impressionist sketch, which is alone possible in a Friday evening discourse at the Royal Institution, I take it that a lecturer must be allowed to use his own discretion as to what does and what does not fit into the small frame of sixty minutes without laying himself open to the imputation of having unjustly neglected or emphasized the work of individual investigators. 7-60 | SOUTH AIMERIICA | | pee | } \. } \ | before, though I do not recollect to have seen any account of it. have been noticing the great contrast between the aspect of a large elder-tree in full blossom, visible from my study window, presented yesterday and to-day. To-day, which is warm and sunny, every inflorescence is in its normal position, with the flat surface nearly horizontal, so as to get as much sun as possible. Yesterday was cold and very wet, and in every one of the inflorescences the upper part of the stalk was so curved as to bring, as far as the foliage would permit, the sur- face of the inflorescence to an angle of very nearly 90° with the horizon, so that the rain ran off, and scarcely any of it reached the interior of the flowers, June 24. ALFRED W, BENNETT, THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE, APRIL 15-16, 1893. cp He total eclipse of the sun, which will take place during the month of April next year, will most prob- ably be very widely observed, not only because the Fic, r.—Showing the general trend-of_ the line of totality, Mr. Warington’s name is so indissolubly connected with the subject of nitrification that it is the more surprising to me that he should have taken exception to the passage in question of my lecture. Percy F, FRANKLAND, University College, Dundee, June 21. Protection against Rain in the Elder, It is quite possible that the mode in which the flowers of the elder protect themselves against the rain has been described NO. 1183, VOL. 46] shadow of the moon passes over such a great stretch of land, but because the phenomenon occurs at the period when a sun-spot maximum is approaching, at which time, of course, the disturbed state of the atmosphere of the sun is on the increase. The maximum time of totality is also in this case considerable, amounting to as much as 4m. 46s. Path of Shadow.—The general trend of the path of the shadow will be gathered from the accompanying diagram (Fig. 1). This track cuts through Chili, passes to“ the NATURE [JUNE 30, 1592 Bolivia and Paraguay, and runs through the heart of | the region of Ceara, and the Senegambian coast. These Brazil. The centre of the shadow leaves South America | localities are so situated on the line of central and total north of the Argentine Republic, skirts the provinces of the region about Chili, the north-east corner of Brazil, z.e. near the town of Ceara or Fortaleza, and travels across | eclipse that photographs of the corona taken at Chili will CAPE 4 sae i ALMAD; CAPE i aie SE NA Ee Ge AS Me B 72 \ PORTUDAL Bur \ ware ANG {TOWN & LPT SERIN ™ \ ( \AYE Y GAN \ —Y @ FANAKO _AKORE |} POINT / , an’ e DS (PALMERIN > its 3 | et te \ NAL. \ jf "ES ee fates KAOLAKH \ t \PALMERIN | ie — C7 WS feansunc.i) 7 7 Qn y Nat ANG eat et < Ne RIVER 0) \ 7 JUMBAS / PUNSHAVEL PT 08 bse FRENCH TERRITORY 7 Ve BAR RA UL BUNIADA PF \ } < ) $7 Mags 4 ws abate PS Th yy, N [\~ wm) BATHURST >, . BRITISH KOMBO)” i APS F \ XN { sr i / SUKUTTA / I « BAKINDING BALD CAPE / PHIERE LINK Nero *YAMBUR Fic. 2.—Showing the region on the West Coast of Africa over which the line of totality passes. the Atlantic Ocean, striking the African coast between | precede those taken in Africa by about 34 hours; while Cape Verde and Bathurst. | those obtained in the north-east of Brazil will be inter- Probable Points for Observations.—The special points | mediate between the two. for observations may be said roughly to be three, viz. | Let us deal first with the Chilian district; this, we NO. 1183, VOL. 46] JUNE 30, 1892] NATURE 203 learn, will be occupied by the American astronomers. So far as we know at present, the Lick Observatory will send a party to Chili under the direction of M. Schaeberle, while Prof. Pickering will also direct other observers somewhere about the same spot. To the north of the Argentine Republic, and on the railway which runs up from Buenos Ayres, there seems to be another spot which would be available. This place, Rosario de la Frontera, lies to the north of Tucaman, and to the south of Jujuy, its approximate position being longitude 65° 7’, latitude 25° 48’ S. The duration of totality here amounts to 3m. 8s., the local time of its commencement being April 15, 20h. 40m. This place should, if possible, be made use of, for, besides being easily accessible, the probabilities from all accounts seem to be in favour of fine weather. From observations gathered from the nearest meteorological station, Salta, the mean annual temperature is found to be 63°"6 F., and the rainfall 22°8 inches ; the chances for re weather at this season being estimated at two- thirds. Jast five years fifteen days on an average in this have been rainy, the number in one year nty-one. . and it: int position on the line of totality, it seems a at any rate there should be some observers theseyisitiiiivs, tai t= ; . ‘ Aono pepeemeage over the Atlantic Ocean, we arrive at the shores of West Africa, on which prob- ably both French and English expeditions will take up leir respective positions. The accompanying map . ? uthern limits. The places which seem at present e the most favourable are Joal and Palmerin, on the five or six days, being accompanied by heavy rain, lasting erally from one to two hours, leaving the atmosphere s bright and clear. The wind called the the Sahara Desert, and brings with it consequently minute particles of sand, tending to give the atmosphere a yellowish tint, In April the prevailing wind is westerly to north-westerly, and not usually very strong. The route which the English expedition will take has up the present not been definitely settled. Several lines of steamers run to Teneriffe and Grand Canary, and if one of Her Majesty’s ships picked the expedition up at Teneriffe and carried them either to Bathurst or directly to the Salum River, the matter would be simplified ; but t The information for the most, part concerning the American stations is gathered from Mr. H. S. Pritchett’s article, “‘The Total Solar Eclipse April 15-16, 1-93,’ in the June number of Astronomy and Astro-Physics. NO. 1183, VOL. 46] king into account the easy accessibility of the place, their © (Fig. 2) shows the coast-line of this region ; AB, CD, and’ 5, reed line of central eclipse and the ‘northern, | mattan” during the first three months of the year yenerally from the north-east and dry, It comes from failing this the only available route seems to be that by the British and African Steam Navigation Company. These steamers, touching at Madeira, Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Goree, and Dakar, naturally require much time to get to Bathurst. Of the return conditions it seems impossible to get any information at present. Taking into account the accessibility and proximity to the line of totality, perhaps Palmerin and other places on the same river (River Salum) offer the greatest advant- ages. The bar at the mouth of the river would prevent a man-of-war of deep draft from proceeding up the river. As the region here is all under French protec- tion, the necessary official letters will of course have to- be obtained. There are one or two other points relating to this region if it should by any chance be ultimately settled upon. Luxuries in the way of tea, sugar, milk (condensed), cocoa and milk, condiments, wine or spirits, flour, biscuits, soups, and preserved meats, should all be brought from England; rice, fowls, sheep, goats, and bullocks being always procurable from the native villages. Cement and lime should also be taken out, and it seems. probable that the huts for the instruments should be constructed at home and carried out there in pieces. The necessary housing of the observers (and escort, if any) would not prove very difficult, for either room could be found in the villages, or bamboo and grass huts could be quickly run up by the natives ; it might be advisable to take one or two small tents, as they might prove very serviceable just after landing. With regard to the packing of the necessary instru- ments, it may be said that the carriers’ loads vary from 40 to 65 pounds; a case capable of being slung ona bamboo can weigh as much as 250 pounds, while to carry a weight of one hundredweight the services of twomen would be required.. Their wages would, of course, depend on whether they were obtained from Bathurst or the trading wharf on the river at the point of disembarkation, as in the latter case they could be discharged as soon as the selected spot had been reached. UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN: TERCENTENARY CELEBRATION. “HE celebration of the tercentenary of the Univer- sity of Dublin will begin on Tuesday next, and all the necessary arrangements have now been made. ‘| Neither the Great College Hall nor the Chapel have been found large enough to hold the number of guests who have accepted the invitation of the Chancellor of the University (Earl of Rosse) and the Provost of Trinity College (Rev. Dr. Salmon), and it has been deemed. | necessary to hold the Commemoration Service in the | Collegiate and Cathedral Church of St. Patrick, and the ceremony of the presentation of addresses in the Leinster Hall, the largest covered area in Dublin. In this hall the College banquet will be given, and the students have also engaged it for a University ball, which is to bring the festivities to a close. It is expected and hoped that most of the invited guests and delegates will arrive in Dublin in the course of Monday evening, July 4, as the reception by the Provost of Trinity College will be held at 10 o’clock on the Tuesday morning, and immediately after this cere- mony the members of the three classes of University officers with the members of the Senate, the other graduates and the undergraduates, will accompany the guests and delegates from the Examination Hall of Trinity College to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, a distance of about a mile. Should the weather be fine and the pro- cession properly marshalled, the general effect promises to be as fine as it will in the streets of Dublin be novel. 204 NATURE [JUNE 30, 1892 In the afternoon of the same day there will be a garden party in the College Park, to which upwards of three thousand persons have been invited, and the day will close with the performance by the members of the Uni- versity Choral Society of an ode written by G. F. Savage- Armstrong, and set to music by Prof. Sir Robert Stewart, and by the civic ball. On the Wednesday morning there will be a special Commencements for the conferring’ of honorary degrees. . The Grace has already passed the Senate for eighty-three degrees, being a number equal to one-third of the total number of the expected guests and delegates. Among those on whom the degree of Doctor of Letters is to be conferred is Prof. Max Miiller. The following will receive the degree of Master of Engineering: Lord Armstrong, Sir Benjamin Baker, Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, Sir Charles William Wilson. The degree of Doctor of Sciences will be conferred on Prof. J. Burdon-Sander- son, Prof. Michael Foster, Prof. Ludimar Hermann, Sir George Murray Humphry, Prof. Julius Kollmann, Prof. Alexander Macalister, Prof. Richet, Prof. Sir William Turner, Wilhelm Waldeyer, Rev. Prof. Thomas George Bonney, Rev. William Henry Dallinger, Sir Archibald Geikie, Othniel Caleb Marsh, Baron Adolf Eric Norden- skidld, Abbé Alphonse Francois Renard, John Hall Glad- stone, George Downing Liveing, Lord Rayleigh, Prof. Joseph John Thomson, Prof. Thomas Edward Thorpe, Prof. William Augustus Tilden, Francesco Brioschi, Prof. Luigi Cremona, James Whitbread Lee Giaisher, Paul A. Gordan, Edward John Routh, George H. Darwin, Simon Newcomb, Isaac Roberts, F. Tisserand. The following are those who have been selected for the degreeof Doctor of Medicine: H.R.H. Duke Charles of Bavaria, John Shaw Billings, Thomas Bryant, Sir Andrew Clark, Adolf Gusserow, Jonathan Hutchinson, Prof. Thomas Grainger Stewart. On the same day there will be a garden party at the Viceregal Lodge in Phoenix Park, given by His Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant and Lady Zetland, and in the evening the College banquet will be held in the Leinster Hall. Five hundred, including all the guests and delegates, have been invited. Thursday, July 7, there will, in the morning, be a pro- cession, from the Examination Hall of Trinity College to the Leinster Hall, of the College authorities and the delegates and others, to witness the presentation of addresses to the University by the delegates. A delegate from each country will make a short address, and the following have been invited to take their share in this interesting ceremony :— Great Britain, her Colonies and Dependencies.—Sir James Paget, Bart., F.R.S. A merica.—Prof. O..C. Marsh, of Yale University. Austria-Hungary.—Prof. A. Vambéry, of Buda-Pesth. Belgium.—Prof. V. D’Hondt, of Ghent. Denmark.—Prof. M. H. Saxtorph, of Copenhagen. frrance.—Prof. Lannelongue, of Paris. Germany.—Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen, of Berlin. Holland.—Prof, Tiele, of Leyden. Ltaly.—Prof. Gaudenzi, of Bologna. Norway.—Prof. Hagerup, of Christiania. Russia.—Prof; Wedenski, of St. Petersburg. Swetzerland.—Prof. Kollmann, of Basle. Cambridge: —Dr. Peile, Vice-Chancellor. Oxford.—Rev. Dr. Boyd, Vice-Chancellor. On the evening of this day there will be a dramatic performance by the students of the College, the piece selected being Brinsley Sheridan’s comedy, ‘‘ The Rivals.” In the afternoon there will be a garden party at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, given by the Right Hon. the Commander of the Forces in Ireland and Lady ‘Wolseley. Z The ceremonies will be brought to a close on Friday, NO. 1183, VOL. 46] on which day the following have been asked to address the College students: Profs. W. Waldeyer, Berlin; F. Blass, Kiel; A. Vambéry, Buda-Pesth; F. Max Miiller, Oxford ; L. Cremona, Rome: B. J. Stockvis, Amster- dam; Léon Say, Paris; and General F. A. Walker, Massachusetts. The Athletic Union will hold their annual sports in the College Park and the University ball will be given in the afternoon and evening of this d ay. On Saturday, July 9, the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland have organized an excursion to Kells, the many objects of great antiquarian interest of which can easily be inspected within the limits of a short day from Dublin ; the excursionists will leave the Great Northern Railway Station at 9 o’clock a.m., and return by the train reaching Dublin by 5.30, Every information can be obtained on writing to the Hon. Secretaries of the Tercentenary Committee, Trinity College, Dublin. . EXHIBITION AT NURNBERG BY THE GERMAN MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION. ‘THE following prospectus will show the scope and object of this Exhibition :-— Deutsche Mathematiker- Vereinigung. Miinchen, Mai 1892. From September 12 to 18, 1892, the meetings of the “Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung” and of the ‘‘ Gesell- schaft deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte” will be held at Niirnberg. At the proposition of the ‘‘ Mathematiker-Vereinigung” the arrangement for an exhibition of models, drawings, apparatus, and instruments used in pure and applied mathematics is pro- posed. The project. has secured the support of the Royal Bavarian Government. The undertaking already enjoys the co-operation of a number of competent men of science, uf several mathematical institutes | of our colleges, besides that of various prominent publishers and well-known technical establishments, and thus we that the exhibition will answer the expectations of its founders, Vit 3 ‘fo open to wider spheres the various auxiliaries used in the instruction and investigation of both pure and applied mathe- matics in the shape of models, apparatus, and instruments and to forward the interests of this kind of scientific work. ‘ At the request of the committee of the Mathematiker- Vereinigung 1 have the honour to invite you to participate in the exaibition, and to recommend to your special attention the following directions :— I. Die mathematische Ausstellung gelegentlich der Ver- sammlungen der ‘‘ Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung ” und der ‘‘ Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte” in Niirnberg will last from September 10 to 18, 1892. It com- prises mathematical models, drawings, apparatus, and instru- ments serving both for teaching and research in pure and applied mathematics, ! II. The local committee of the Gesellschaft deutscher Natur- forscher und Aerzte resp. the direction of the Bayerische Gewerbemuseum attends to the gratuitous granting of space required by the exhibitors. 11I. The Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung takes charge of all furniture, tables, screens, &c., attends to the opening and packing, also for supervision and care during the exhibition and 1In what belongs to the applications, we include only those having principally a mathematical terest. Concerning the experimental part of physics and those instruments, &c., which are of more practical use, it should be mentioned that all those more practical than theoretical relations will be displayed in a second exhibition, separate from ours, which com- prises likewise the other branches of natural philosophy and the medicine. That exhibition, entitled ‘‘Fachtechnische Ausstellung,” under the authority of the ‘‘ Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte” is arranged by the ‘* Bayerischen Gewerbemuseum in Niirnberg,” under the direction of Mr. Th. von Kramer, who has issued special programmes for that exhibition, and from whom further information may be obtained. JUNE 30, 1892] NATURE 205 for the insurance against fire. But assumes no responsibility either for damage or for loss of articles, 1V. Those who desire to exhibit under closed cases must do so at their own expense. V. The charge of transport (to Niirnberg) and, if desired, the insurance of transport is at the expense of the exhibitor. In what refers to the return transport, by the courtesy of the directors of the Bavarian and the other main lines of German pie ie free transport is guaranteed for all unsold objects of the on. All expense of home-transport beyond this border is at the expense of the exhibitor. : VI. An explanatory detailed catalogue of the mathematical exhibition is to be issued. | The first part will consist of essays, having reference to prob- lems, results, and methods of geometrical representation. The second part of an enumeration of all articles exhibited in connection with detailed theoretical descriptions. Here, if desired, the prices res be added. This part of the catalogue will be fully illustrated to give a vivid impression of the exhibited les, e respectfully request all institutes, publishers, &c., to forward woodcuts, clichés, &c., which may be inserted in the text. An appendix to the catalogue will be published, including all ertise oa which may hereafter serve as a directory for all VIL As far as possible all technical explanations of the articles will be undertaken by the committee. ‘VIII. The committee will attend to all sales and buyings {which are in view by various mathematical institutes of our Hochschulen) and give all desired information. ring the exhibition the sold articles must not be removed from the exhibition rooms, except with special permission of the X. The intention to participate in the exhibition may be iven by the use of the ‘‘ Exhibition Announcement” until x. Address: Herrn Prof. Dr. Walther Dyck, Miinchen, I At same time all papers and scientific notices for the catalogue respecting woodcuts and ¢/ictés for illustration must be sent to the same address.” The editors reserve the right of all abbreviation and change in the notes of Part 2 of the catalogue that the uniformity may julre. ‘a All articles proposed for exhibition must be forwarded from September 1 to 7, under the address: Mathematische : As Niirnberg (Bayern), zu Handen der Herren ae . ‘he return of all articles will be effected within two weeks after the close of the exhibition under the conditions fixed above (No. V.) XI. For nearer information in respect to the intentions and the extent of the exhibition we annex a preliminary classification of the articles. er 1. Geometry. Theory of Functions. _ Models employed in soe Spe teaching g geometry (solid geometry, trigonometry, descriptive geometry). Polyhedra. Division of surfaces and spaces in polygons empoainn polyhedra, _ Plane curves. _ Curves in space. Developable surfaces. of the second order. , Higher algebraic surfaces, Transcendental surfaces. Models illustrating geometry of complexes. is curvature of surfaces. ” theory of functions. hag. x analysis situs. ” 2) 39 2. Arithmetic, Algebra, Integral Calculus. Calculating machines. Slide rules. Instruments for solving equations and for construction of functional relations, _ I The fees for insertion in the appendix are 30 Reichsmark for the whole page (great 8°), 18 R.-M. for 4 page, 10 R.-M. for } page, 5 R.-M. for § FA advertisements for the Appendix and payments for same must not be deferred later than August 1, to the same address, Prof. Dyck. NO. 1183, VOL. 46] Curvometers, planimeters, integrating machines, instruments for solving differential equations. 3. Mechanics. Mathematical Physics. Models employed in elementary teaching. Kinematics. Machines for deseription and transformation of curves and surfaces. Pantographs, perspectographs. Apparatus for demonstration of mechanical principles, Equilibrium and motion of a point. Poinsot motion of a rigid body; dynamical tops, gyroscopes. Models and articles showing the effect of stress flexion and torsion of solids. Elastic properties of solids (especially of crystals). Hydrodynamics. Geometrical representations and mechanical apparatus illus- trating physical phenomena (for ex. vibrations, wave-motion, propagation of sound and light. Thermodynamic and electro- dynamic phenomena). II. It is understood that the exhibitors declare their willingness to submit to the present rules and further dispositions ordered by the committee for the interest of the exhibition. For all further information please address the undersigned delegate of the committee. 4 precession, nutation ; Prof, Dr. WALTHER Dyck, Miinchen, Hildegardestrasse 14. For the purpose of collecting and forwarding objects of interest, a Committee has been formed consisting of Lord Kelvin (Chairman), Lord Rayleigh, Profs. Sylvester, O. J. Lodge, G. F. Fitzgerald, W. G. Adams, Sir R. Ball, A. A. Common. Secretaries: A. G. Greenhill, O. Henrici. The Secretaries will forward prospectuses and forms of application to intending exhibitors, and will take charge of objects at the Central Institution, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, S.W., and forward the objects at the proper time to Niirnberg, unless forwarded direct by the exhibitors. THE KEKULE FESTIVAL AT BONN. ON June 1 aremarkable demonstration took place at the University of Bonn. The occasion was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the call of August Kekulé to the Professorship of Chemistry at that University. The details, which we have taken chiefly from the Kd/nische Zeitung, will be of interest to the student of chemistry, and probably of value to the future historian of the science. The ceremony began in the morning with an enthusi- astic ovation on the part of the students. The chemical theatre was decorated with plants; on the blackboard figured the benzene hexagon, made up with garlands of flowers, in the midst of which appeared the letters A. K. as a monogram of roses. At the usual lecture hour Prof. Kekulé entered, and was greeted with great enthusiasm. One of the chemical students, Alfred Helle, delivered a graceful address, in which he congratulated his fellows on being privileged to sit at the feet of the greatest of living chemists, ending by calling for three cheers for the Professor, in which the audience heartily joined. Prof. Kekulé then addressed the students, detailing with characteristic humour some passages in his life. He was, he said, a pupil at the Darmstadt Gymnasium, where he chiefly devoted himself to mathematics. He was destined by his father for the profession of architect, and some houses still existed in Darmstadt, the plans of which he had drawn when a youth atthe Gymnasium. At Giessen, where he went to study architecture, he attended Liebig’s lectures, whereby he was enticed to chemistry. But his relations would not at first hear of his changing his pro- fession, and he was given half a year’s grace to think over it. He spent this time at the Polytechnicum at Darm- 206 NATURE [JUNE 30, 1892 stadt ; from which circumstance arose the myth, affirmed by Kolbe, that he was a “ Realschiiler,” and not, as was really the case, a “ Gymnasiast.” His first teacher in chemistry at Darmstadt was Moldenhauer, the inventor of lucifer matches. His leisure time was spent in model- ling in plaster and at the lathe. He was then permitted to return to Giessen. ‘I attended,” he said, “the lectures, first of Will and then of Liebig. Liebig was at work ona new edition of his ‘ Letters on Chemistry,’ for which many experiments had to be carried on. I had to make estimations of ash of albumen, to investigate gluten in plants, &c. The names of the young chemists who helped Liebig were mentioned in the book, among them mine. The proposal was then made to me, just at the time when Liebig intended to make me his assistant, that I should go for a year abroad, either to Berlin, which at that time was to Giessen a foreign land, or to Paris. ‘Go,’ said Liebig, ‘to Paris: there your views will be widened ; you will learn a new language; you will get acquainted with the life of a great city ; but you will not learn chemistry there. In that, however, Liebig was wrong. I attended lectures by Fremy, Wurtz, Pouillet, Regnault ; by Marchandis on physiology, and by Payen on technology. One day, as I was sauntering along the streets, my eyes encountered a large poster with the words ‘Lecons de philosophie chimique, par Charles Gerhardt, ex-Professeur de Montpellier... Gerhardt had resigned his Professorship at Montpellier, and was teach- ing philosophy and chemistry as privatdocent in Paris. That attracted me, and I entered my name on the list. Some days later I received a card from Gerhardt ; he had seen my name in Liebig’s ‘Letters on Chemistry.” On my calling upon him he received me with great kindness, and made me the offer, which I could not accept, that I should become his assistant. My visit took place at noon, and I did not leave his house till midnight, after a long talk on chemistry. These discussions continued between us at least twice a week, for over a year. Then I received an offer of the post of assistant to Von Plantu, at the Castle of Reichenau, near Chur, which I accepted, contrary to Liebig’s wish, who recommended me as assistant to Fehling at Stuttgart. So I went to Switzer- land, where I had leisure to digest what I had learnt in Paris during my intercourse with Gerhardt. Then I re- ceived an invitation from Stenhouse, in London, to become his assistant, an invitation I was loth to accept, since I re- garded him, if I may be allowed the ‘expression, as a- *Schmierchemiker.” By chance, however, Bunsen came to Chur on a visit to his brother-in-law, at whose house I first met him. I consulted Bunsen as to Stenhouse’s offer, and he advised me by all means to accept it. I should learn a new language, but I should not learn’chemistry. So I came to London, where as Stenhouse’s assistant I did not profit much. By means of a friend, however, I be- came acquainted with Williamson. The latter had just published his ether theory, and was at work on the poly- basic acids (in particular on the action of PC]; on H,SQ,). Chemistry was at one of its turning-points. The theory of polybasic radicals was being evolved: with Williamson was also associated Odling. Williamson insisted on plain simple formule without commas, without the buckles of Kolbe, or the brackets of Gerhardt. It was a capital school to encourage independent thought. The wish was expressed that I should stay in England and become technologist, but.I was too much attached to home. I wished to teach in a German University. But where? In order to get acquainted with the circumstances at the several Universities, | became a travelling student. In this capacity I came, among other Universities, to Bonn. Here there was no chemist of eminence, and hence there were no prospects. Nowhere did there seem so much promise and so great a future as at Heidelberg. I could ask no help of Bunsen. ‘I can do nothing for you,’ he said, ‘at least not openly. I will not stand in your way, NO. 1183, VOL. 46] ‘came Baeyer. but more I cannot promise.’ I fitted up a small private laboratory in the principal street in Heidelberg at the house of a corn merchant, Gross by name—a single room with an adjoining kitchen. I took a few pupils, among whom was Baeyer. In our little kitchen I finished my work on fulminate of silver, while Baeyer carried out his researches, which subsequently became famous, on cacodyl. That the walls were coated thick with arsenious — acid, and that silver fulminate is explosive, we took no thought about. After two years and a half I received a call to Ghent as ordinary professor. There I stayed nine years, and had to lecture in French. With me to Ghent Through the kindness of the then Prime Minister of Belgium, Rogier, I obtained the means to establish a small laboratory. I had there with me a number chiefly of more advanced students, among whom I may name Baeyer, Hiibner, Ladenburg, Wichelhaus, Linne- mann, Radzizewski, and Meyer. There was not so much ~ a systematic course of instruction as a free and pleasant academic intercourse. After nine years’ work, I received the call. to Bonn.” With some account of his work in Bonn, and with a reference to the great attention he had always received from his pupils, Prof. Kekulé concluded his address. The enthusiasm it occasioned, says the Kélnische Zeitung, baffled description. | Hive eatoiirn The Professor then received the congratulations of his personal staff, as well as those of the University officials, among whom were the Rector Prof, Strasburger, the Curator Dr. Gandtner, and the Dean of the Philo- sophical Faculty Prof, Schliiter. In the evening the Bonn students honoured him with a torchlight procession, © it being the third time the Professor had received this, the most conspicuous honour which is bestowed by. German students. The first occasion was in 1875, when he declined the Professorship at Munich. . The second was in 1878, when he was Rector of the University, held to commemorate the restoration of unity among the students after a long period of disunion. Among the torch-bearers on that occasion was the present Emperor of Germany. , HSE gira hp In addressing the students, Prof. Kekulé reminded them of the previous occasions on which they had | honoured him in like manner, and impressed on them the necessity of guarding and fostering the unity they had attained. Thus ended an impressive and memorable incident in the history of chemical science. 4 J. E,MaRsH, THE TRUE BASIS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. Hie Nestor of American philologists, and at the same time the indefatigable Ulysses of compara- tive philology in that country, Mr. Horatio Hale, has just published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, an important essay on “ Language as a Test of Mental Capacity,” being an attempt to demonstrate the true basis of anthropology. ‘His first important contri- bution to the science of language dates back as far as 1838-42, when he acted as ethnographer to the United States Exploring Expedition, and published the results of his observations in a valuable and now very scarce volume, “Ethnography and Philology.” He has since left the United States and settled in Canada. All his contributions to American ethnology and philology have been distinguished by their originality, accuracy, and trustworthiness. Every one of them marks a substantial addition to our knowledge, and, in spite of the hackneyed disapproval with which reviewers receive reprints of essays published in periodicals, it is much to be regretted that his essays have never been published in a collected form. x “ Language as a Test of Mental Capacity.” By Horatio Hale. From the Transactions of the Royal Society ot Canada, 189r. ; JUNE 30, 1892] NATURE 207 -. Mr. Horatio Hale’s object in the essay before us is to show that language separates man from all other animals by a line as distinct as that which separates a tree from a stone, or a stone from a star. A treatise,” he writes, “which should undertake to ‘show how inanimate matter became a plant or an animal, would, of course, possess great interest for biologists, but it would not be accepted by them as a treatise on biology. In like manner a work displaying the anatomy of man in comparison with that of other animals cannot but be of -great value, and a treatise showing how the human frame “was probably developed from that of a lower animal must be of extreme interest ; but these would be works, not of anthropology, but of physiology or biology. Anthropo- Jogy begins where mere brute life gives way to something * widely different and indefinitely higher. It begins with ‘that endowment which characterizes man, and distin- -guishes him from all other creatures. The real basis of the science of anthropology is found in articulate speech, with all that it indicates and embodies.” He does not hesitate to maintain that solely by their languages can the tribes of men be scientifically classified, their affilia- tions discovered, and their mental qualities discerned. _ These premises, he says, compel us to the logical con- clusion that linguistic anthropology is the only ‘‘ Science of Man.” __ These words explain at once the whole character of this important essay. Mr. Horatio Hale is a great ad- mirer of Darwin, but not of the Darwinians. He con- Darwin’s discernment of the value of language with the blindness of his followers, who are physiologists. and nothing else. Why anthropology has of late: been swamped by physiology, Mr. Horatio Hale explains by the fact that the pursuit of the latter science is so infi- nitely the easier. “ To measure human bodies and human ‘bones, to compute the comparative number of blue eyes and black eyes in any community, to determine whether the section of a human hair is circular, or oval, or oblong, to study and compare the habits of various tribes of man, as we would study and compare the habits of beavers and bees, these are tasks which are compara- tively simple. But the patient toil and protracted mental exertion required to penetrate into the mysteries of a. strange language, and to acquire a knowledge profound enough to afford the means of determining the intel- lectual endowments of the people who speak it, are such as very few men of science have been willing to undergo.” “Mr. Horatio Hale has a right to speak with authority on this point, for, besides having studied the several lan- guages of North America, of Australia and Polynesia, no one has more carefully measured skulls, registered eyes, measured hair, and collected antiquities and curio- sities of all kinds than he has done during his long and busy life. His knowledge of the customs of uncivilized races is very considerable. No one knows the Indian - tribes and likewise the Australians better than he does,and he is in consequence very severe on mere theorizers who e they have proved how the primitive hordes of human beings, after herding together like cattle, emerged slowly through wife-capture, mother-right, father-right, _endogamy, exogamy, totemism, fetichism, and clan ‘systems, to what may be called a social status. He ‘holds with Darwin that man was from the beginning a pairing animal, and that the peculiar usages of barbarous | tribes are simply the efforts of men, pressed down by hard conditions, below the natural stage, to keep them- selves from sinking lower. He gives a most graphic description of changes of civilization produced by change | of surroundings in the case of the savage Athapascans, | and their descendants, the quick-witted and inventive” Navajos. He holds that the inhabitants of Australia. were originally Dravidians, and that their social and linguistic deterioration is due.to the miserable character » offensive expression from the Aryans, when pressing upon the aboriginal in- habitants of the Dekhan. He points out a few gram- matical terminations in the Dravidian languages which show some similarity to the terminations of Australian dialects. The dative, for instance, is formed in the Dravidian Tulu by &w, and in the Lake Macquarie and Wiradhurei dialects of Australia by 40. In both families the & of £u and Xo is liable to be changed into g. The plural suffix in Tamil is ga/, in Wiradhurei ga/an. Thus in Tamil maram, tree, forms the nom. plur. maranga/, the dat. plur. marangaluk-ku ; while in Wiradhurei, dagaz, shell, appears in the nom. plur. as éagaiga/an, in the dat. plur. as dagaigalan-gu. On this point, however, Mr. Horatio Hale ought to produce fuller evidence, particu- larly from numerals, and the common household words of uncivilized tribes. The pronouns show many coinci- dences with Dravidian and Australian languages. No one is better qualified for that task than he is, for we really owe to him the first trustworthy information about the Australian dialects. He considers all the dialects spoken in Australia as varieties of one original speech, and he has proved their wonderful structure by several specimens contained in his first book, published nearly fifty years ago, and again in this last essay of his. There is no doubt that this essay will provoke much opposition, but no one can read it without deriving most valuable information from it, and without being im- pressed with the singularly clear and unbiassed judg- ment of the author. It is to be hoped that if there is ‘any controversy it may be carried on in the same scientific and thoroughly gentlemanlike tone in which Mr. Horatio Hale deals with those whom he has to reprove. Thus, when Prof. Whitney, a fertile writer on linguistic science in America, commits himself to the statement that the Dravidian languages have “a general agglutinative structure with prefixes only,” Mr. Horatio Hale good- naturedly remarks, “ this is doubtless.a misprint for wth suffixes only.” And when Prof. Gerland, in his con- tinuation of Waitz’s invaluable work “‘ Die Anthropologie der Naturviélker,” refers to Mr. Horatio Hale as describing the hair of the Australians as /ong, jine, and woolly, he points out that he, on the contrary, described their hair as neither woolly, like that of the Africans and Melanesians ; nor frizzled, like that of the Feejeeans ; nor coarse, stiff, and curling, as with the Malays ; but as long, fine, and wavy, like that of Europeans. He naturally protests against Prof. Friedrich Miiller charging him with having committed such a blunder, which, as he re- marks, would be as bad as if he had described the Eskimos as having black skins. But there isnot a single in the whole of his essay, though the opportunities would have been many for adopting the style of hitting indiscriminately above and below the belt. Though he differs from Prof. Whitney, he evidently ranks him very high, and as second only to “that eminent Sanskrit scholar, Sir Monier Monier- Williams.” of the island in which they had taken refuge, possibly NO. 1183, VOL. 46] LEWIS MORRIS RUTHERFURD. €)* May 30 last there passed away from us one whose name was familiar to many, and who was respected and beloved by all who were fortunate enough to have made his acquaintance. By the death of Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, who died at the age of seventy-six, at his estate in Tranquillity, New Jersey,astronomical science especially suffers, for he was one of the pioneers of astronomical photography and spectroscopy, and the introducer of many of the practical methods which have opened to us such a vast field of research. Born at Morrisania, New Jersey, on November 25, 1816, he first devoted himself to the study of law, but finding his mind bent more on astronomical pursuits, 208 NATURE [June 30, 1892 he soon thought ‘fit to leave this’ profession, and being well equipped with the necessary private resources, he commenced in the year 1848 to erect an observatory in the city of New York at ‘his own residence. On its com- pletion, it was furnished with an 11-inch refractor, which he had made under his own personal direction by Fitz, and a transit instrument. The first work he set himself to do related to the spectra of the stars. As soon as Kirchhoff’s discovery was an- nounced, Donati, at Florence, in 1860, made the first efforts in this direction ; this was followed by other ob- servers, among whom was Rutherfurd. In 1863 he pub- lished his first paper on the spectra of the celestial bodies, and indicated that the various stellar spectra which he had then observed were susceptible of being arranged in different groups. His paper, which was published in Stlliman’s Fournal, vol. xxxv. p. 71, contained the fol- lowing extract with reference to this classification :— “ The star spectra present such varieties that it is difficult to point out any mode of classification. For the present, I divide them into three groups: First, those having many lines and bands, and mostly resembling the sun, viz. Capella, 8 Geminorum, a Orionis, &c. These are all reddish or golden stars. The second group, of which Sirius is the type, presents spectra wholly unlike that of the sun, and are white stars. The third group, comprising a Virginis, Rigel, &c., are also white stars, but ‘show no lines; perhaps they contain no mineral sub- stance, or are incandescent without flame.” Turning his attention to object-glasses for visual and -photographic purposes, he described in 1865 a new form which he had specially designed for the latter. This, needless to say, brought about a great revolution in the processes employed. The history of his early attempts to produce photographically corrected object-glasses, and the wonderfully sharp and beautiful photographs of the moon which he finally obtained, will always be marked as an important era in the application of the camera to the equatorial telescope. The photographs taken at the pre- -sent day, even although they. are produced with larger lenses and with a more perfect knowledge of photographic processes, and with the advantages afforded by dry plates, excel only in a trifling degree those taken with the small Rutherfurd equatorial. Another important piece of work, which occupied him — some considerable time, was the mapping, by means of the photographic process, of star clusters and star groups. His ingenuity in devising and constructing accurate micrometers for measuring the impressions of the star clusters opened out a new method by which the proper motion of the stars could be photographically determined, and even their parallaxes, eliminating entirely the errors of observers. It was absolutely essential, as he knew, in order to obtain a perfect method of measurement of the photographs, to attain the utmost perfection in the cutting of the threads of the micrometer screw, and some idea of the care which he bestowed on them may be gathered from the fact that he took three years to makea single screw, In order to test its quality, it struck him that it would be a happy thought to see if it would enable him to rule a grating. He accordingly set the apparatus up in his bedroom, and:by means of an automatic arrange- ment kept it going all night, as at that time the local vibrations were fewest. The result was that he was able to make the most perfect gratings known, which are only now surpassed by those of Rowland; who followed in his wake. The photographic corrector, which consisted of an additional lens to be applied to visual object-glasses, to render them fit for photographic use, was also due to his exceptional mechanical ability, and was brought out in the year 1868, Owing to failing health he was at last obliged to give NO. 1183, VOL. 46] up all idea of making observations, so he resigned him- self to a thorough supervision of the great number of measurements of the photographs of the star clusters that by this time had very considerably accumulated. In the year 1884, Columbia College, New York, was the recipient of all his astronomical instruments, apparatus, and completed measures. It is only a fort- might ago when a notice of the measures of the Pleiades, which were prosecuted by Mr. Jacoby, under the direction of Prof. Rees, was made in these columns, and it will not be long before several other clusters will be published. In this brief notice we have only referred to some of the more salient points with which he enriched the domain of astronomical science; and his was no mean spirit striving to confine to his own use the various methods of work and improvements he introduced: he- scattered his gratings with a lavish hand among all who were likely to make any use of them, and his greatest delight was to help others occupied in researches kindred to his own, ; ; Di NOTES, PCS | ras BD | Sir ARCHIBALD GEIKIE has been appointed by the Council of the Royal Society to be one of the Governors of Harrow School. tf a3 Iv was with deep regret that we saw the announcement in Monday’s Zzmes of the death of Admiral Mouchez, the. Director of the Paris Observatory. In him France has lost one of her most active men of science, whose place it will be no easy task to fill. } yf Se AT St. John’s College, Cambridge, on July 9, at 2.30 p.m., there will be held a meeting of the General Committee that was. formed for placing a suitable memorial of the late Prof. Adams in Westminster Abbey, This meeting is specially called to consider a modification in the form of the memorial, The resolution, as passed in February, was to the effect that the memorial should ‘‘ consist of a bust with tablet and inscription,” but as the Dean has been unable to sanction any site in that part of the Abbey in which it was first proposed .to be placed, but has offered an excellent position tor a medallion, near the monument of Newton and the grave of Sir John Herschel, and close to the memorials of Darwin and Joule, the Executive Com- mittee recommend that this ofier be accepted, and that the terms of the former resolution be altered to ‘‘ That the memorial consist _ of a medallion and inscription.” THE Botanische Zeitung publishes a programme of the International Botanical Congress to be held in Genoa. On Sunday evening, September 4, there will be a reception of the foreign botanists present. On Tuesday the Botanical Institute and Garden, presented to the Municipality of Genoa by Mr, Thos, Hanbury, will be formally opened. On Saturday, Sep- tember 10, the Acclimatisation Garden of Mr, Hanbury at. Mortola will be visited, The rest of the week will be occupied by scientific sittings, receptions, and excursions, Dr. BENECKE, the Director'of the Experimental Station at Klaten, Java, has offered a prize of 1000 marks for the best essay, founded on original observations and experiments in cultivation, on the causes of the red colour in the fibrovascular bundles of Sorghum, which accompanies the disease known as ‘*sereh.”” A very similar disease has recently become very destructive to the sugar-cane crop in Java. IN our account last week of the Ladies’ Conversazione of the. Royal Society we stated that the Telephone Company’s installa- tion was the means by which the music from the Paris opera. was rendered audible, This, as we have reason now to know, was incorrect. The Post Office undertook the whole affair, no company having anything at all to do with it. JUNE 30, 1892] NATURE abi _ Pror, Burt G. WiLpER, M.D., of Cornell University, sends us the following correction :—In a circular, ‘¢ American Reports upon Anatomical Nomenclature,” issued last winter by Prof. Wilder, as Secretary of the Committee of the Associa- tion of American Anatomists, in the third paragraph of the third page, the Chairman of the Committee of the Anatomische Gesellschaft should be Prof. A. von Kdlliker, and the Chairman of the American division (appointed in 1891 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science) of the International Committee on Biological Nomenclature should be Prof. G. L, Goodale. Prof. Wilder desires to express his regret for the errors, due in the one case to his own misapprehension, and in the other to a clerical mistake, , UNDER the title of ‘‘The Cambridge Natural History,” Messrs. Macmillan and Co. have in active preparation an im- portant series of volumes on the Natural History of Vertebrate and Invertebrate Animals, edited, and for the most part written, by Cambridge men. While intended in the first instance for those who have not had any special scientific training, the volumes will, as far as possible, present the most modern results _ Of scientific research, Thus the anatomical structure of each group, its development, palzontology, and geographical dis- tribution, will be considered in conjunction with its external character. Care will, however, be taken to avoid technical language as far as possible, and to exclude abstruse details which _ would lead to confusion rather than to instruction. The series _ will be under the general editorship ‘of Mr, J. W. Clark, the University Registrar, and Mr. S. F. Harmer, Superintendent of the Museum of Zoology. The following writers are engaged upon the groups which precede their names :—Mammails, Mr. J. J. Lister ; Birds, Mr. A. H. Evans ; Reptilesand Amphibia, Dr. Gadow, F.R.S.; Fisk, Mr. W. Bateson ; Mollusca, Mr. A. H, Cooke ; Polyzoa, Mr..S. F. Harmer ; Brachiopoda, Mr. A. E. Shipley ; Zzsects, Mr. David Sharp, F.R.S. ; Myriapoda, Mr. F. G, Sinclair ; Avachnoida, Mr. C. Warburton ; Crustacea, Prof. W. F, R. Weldon; Celenterata, Mr. S. J. Hickson; and Sfonges, Dr., W, J. Sollas, It is hoped that some of the volumes which are already far advanced may appear in the course of next year, The series will be fully illustrated. THE weather during the past week has been unsettled, but considerably warmer generally. Towards the close of last week solar halos were visible in the south, and a depression moved along our west coasts in a north-north-easterly direction, accom- panied by showers, while the daily temperatures reached upwards of 70° in the inland parts of England. At the beginning of the _ present week, a still further increase of temperature occurred, the maxima: exceeding 80° in the midland and eastern parts of England, and fog became prevalent over the Channel and the southern parts of England. The atmospheric conditions, which during the greater part of the period were cyclonic, with moderate or strong south-westerly winds, amounting to a strong gale from the westward in Caithness on Monday, subsequently became anticyclonic with light north-easterly and easterly winds over England ; ‘but on Tuesday evening a depression lay over the mouth of the Channel, the conditions rapidly became more unsettled, and a very severe thunderstorm occurred on that night in London and the greater part of England, accompanied by heavy rain. The Weekly Weather Report for the period ending the 25th instant shows that the rainfall exceeded the mean in nearly all districts; in the eastern and southern parts of England the excess was rather large. But reckoning from ‘the beginning of the year there was still a deficit in all districts, although the amount was trifling in the north-east and north- west of England. _ A NEW meteorological journal, entitled Z’ Atmosphere, has recently appeared in Paris. It contains several short original articles and miscellaneous notes collected by the director of a NO. 1183, VOL. 46] ‘American anthropologists. private observatory, named Tour Saint-Jacques. At present there is no such journal published in France, excepting the Annuaire of the Meteorological Suciety, containing the papers read by its members. The current number (No. 5) contains an article on the optical phenomena of the atmosphere, by A. Cornu, member of the Institute, and one on solar phenomena and terrestrial magnetism, by E. Marchand, of the Lyons Observatory. It also gives a list of the principal meteorological papers published in recent serials. A SERIES of severe earthquake shocks is reported from Guodolajara, Mexico. The first shock was felt last Friday night, and lasted eighteen seconds, Windows were broken and plastering cracked in numerous houses, and hundreds of panic- stricken people took refuge in the streets until daylight. On Saturday a second shock occurred, wrecking a number of build- ings. Several persons were seriously hurt, but in no case are their injuries expected to prove fatal. Several other shocks have been felt since. The volcano Colima is said to be ina state of much activity. Great volumes of sulphur, smoke, and lava are issuing from the crater. A PAPER setting forth a proposal for a national photographic record and survey, by Mr, W. J. Harrison, was lately read before the Photographic Society of Great Britain, and has now been issued separately, Mr. Harrison’s idea is that a pic: torial record of the present condition of the country should be secured by photography, the work being accomplished by professionals, individuals (amateurs), photographic societies, and agencies under the control of the Government. In the course of the paper he gives an interesting account of the way in which the local photo-survey of Warwickshire is being carried out. ANTHROPOLOGISTS will read with interest some folk-songs and myths from Samoa, printed in the new number of the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales (vol, xxv.). They are translated by the Rey. .G, Pratt, and introductions and notes are provided by Dr, John Fraser. ProFr. F. STARR will contribute to the July number of the Popular Science Monthly an article on ‘* Anthropological Work in America,” It will be accompanied by portraits of seventeen According to Sczence, the article shows that ‘‘ both in quality and amount, the work of Americans in this field compares favourably with that of Europeans,” A Society which may have opportunities of doing much valuable work has been formed in Wellington, New Zealand. It is called the Polynesian Society, ‘‘ Polynesia” being intended to include Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia; Micronesia, and Malaysia, as well as Polynesia proper. The President is Mr. H. G. Seth-Smith, chief judge of the native land court, while the Queen of Hawaii is patron, We have just received the first number of the Society’s Journal, in which there are papers on the races of the Philippines, by Elsdon Best ; Maori deities, by W. I. Gudgeon ; the Tahitian ‘“‘ Hymn of Creation,” by S. P. Smith; Futuna, or Horne Island, and its people, by S. P. Smith; Polynesian causatives, by E, T. ; and the Polynesian bow, by E. Tregear. There is also a paper giving the genealogy of one of the chieftainesses of Rarotonga, by a native of Rarotonga, The original was written in 1857, and is printed in the Journal, with a translation by Mr. Henry Nicholas, and notes by the editors, The editors are of opinion that the paper ‘‘apparently supports by direct traditional testimony the theory propounded by Hale, and subsequently advocated by Fornander, of the occupation of the Fiji Group by the Polynesian race, and of their later migration eastward to Samoa and the Society Group.” 210 NATURE [JUNE 30, 1892 THE facility with which enlargements can now be produced, and the introduction of good commercial bromide paper, to say nothing of the artistic effects of the results, have all tended to | increase the popularity of the practice of enlarging. When an amateur was formerly in need of moderate-sized pictures, he was compelled more or less to use a large camera, but now the inclination is to employ small cameras and therefore small plates, and to subsequently adopt the enlarging process to give him the required size picture. A very useful and handy little book treating of this process, written by Mr, John A. Hodges, has lately been issued by Messrs. Iliffe and Son, and contains much practical information for working either by artificial light or daylight. Methods of constructing cameras suitable for this work, lanterns, and various accessories, are all very well described and illustrated, andif carefully followed out will render many an amateur independent of the instrument-maker. In the section relating to the chemical manipulations there are also some use- ful hints which will save a beginner much annoyance and help. him to produce satisfactory results. OBERLIN COLLEGE, Ohio, is issuing a series of Bulletins giving the results of special work done in its museum and laboratories. Two have now been published, the first being a pre- liminary list of the flowering and fern plants of Lorain County. The second, which we have just received, contains a descrip- tive list of the fishes of Lorain County, and has been prepared by Mr. L. M. McCormick. ACCORDING to the Pioneer Mail of June 8, the residents of Howrah have been finding lately that jackals are animals of anything but an attractive temper. In some cases they have come right up to the bungalows in search of prey. A little girl, aged about five years, was playing in a verandah, when a jackal suddenly rushed on her, and was dragging her away, when she was rescued. She was severely bitten. Three natives, while walking along Kooroot Road, were attacked by a jackal, which was only driven off after a stubborn fight; and a tale is told of two women, while standing near a tank, being at- tacked and bitten. So serious has the state of matters become, that the public propose to submit a memorial to the district magistrate praying for the adoption of measures for the destruc- tion of these pests. REFERRING to Malta’s spring visitors, the J/editerranean Naturalist for June says that during the preceding month the valleys and gorges were alive with orioles, warblers, rollers, and bee-eaters. In the rich crimson clover enormous numbers of quails found shelter during their sojourn ex route for the Continent, while the branches and foliage of the carob, the prickly pear, and the orange trees were thronged with harriers and larks. Mr. F. TuRNER contributes to the April number of the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales a paper on the carob bean tree as one of the commercial plants suitable for cultivation in New South Wales. The Agricultural Department distributed a quantity of seed last year, and some healthy young plants raised from this seed are now growing in several parts of the colony. Mr. Turner expects that when the tree becomes better known to cultivators it will be extensively grown to provide food for stock, more especially during adverse seasons. The carob can not only be trained into a very ornamental shade tree, but may be planted as a wind-break to more tender vegetation. He advises all who cultivate it to keep bees, if only a single hive. It is astonishing, he says, how many flowers these industrious insects will visit in the course of a day, and be the agency whereby they are fertilized. SoME time ago a sugar school was established in connection with the State University, Lincoln, Nebraska, and if we may NO. 1183, VOL. 46] judge from the first formal report, lately ‘submitted by Profs Lloyd, it is likely to do much excellent work. The school opened on January 5 with twenty-five students. These students were mostly members of other classes in the chemical department — of the University ; the only preparation required for entrance being a clear conception of the principles of elementary chemistry, such as may be obtained in some of the high schools of Neb- raska. The course consisted of two lectures a week, given by Mr. Lyon, with five hours of laboratory work. The lectures em- braced the following subjects : (1) chemistry of the sugars ; (2) technology of beet-sugar manufacture ; (3) culture of the sugar beet. During the latter part of the winter term, Prof. DeWitt B. Brace gave the class four lectures on the theory of light, deal- ing with (1) the wave theory of light ; (2) polarization of light ; (3) rotation of the plane of polarization ; (4) application of these principles to the polariscope and to the different forms of saccharimeters, It is hoped that in the coming year the work may be greatly extended. A ‘Dictionnaire de Chimie industrielle” is aie issued in parts, under the direction of A. M. Villon, by the ‘* Librairie Tignol.” It gives an account of the applications of chemistry to metallurgy, agriculture, pharmacy, pyrotechnics, and the various arts and handicrafts. Messrs. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND Co. have issued a third edition, revised and enlarged, of Prof. E. A. Schifer’s ‘« Essentials-of Histology.” The intention of the author is to supply students with directions for the microscopical examination of the tissues. A work on the ‘ Migration of Birds,” by Charles Dixon, will shortly be published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. A PAPER upon the oxidation of nitrogen by means of electric sparks is contributed, by Dr. V. Lepel, to the current number of the Aunalen der Physik und Chemie. It is well known that small quantities of nitric and nitrous acids and their ammonium salts are produced during the passage of high tension electrical discharges through moist air. Dr. V. Lepel’s experiments have been conducted with the view of obtaining more precise infor- mation concerning the nature of the chemical reactions which occur, and the experimental conditions most favourable for in- creasing the amount of combination. The first action of the spark discharge appears to be the production of nitric oxide, which is immediately converted by the oxygen present into nitrogen peroxide. The latter then reacts with the aqueous vapour present, forming nitric acid and liberating nitric oxide in accordance with the well-known equation 3NO, + H,O = 2HNO; + NO. It has been found, however, that the con- tinued passage of sparks through the same quantity of moist air does not result, as might at first sight be expected, in the con- version of more and more of the atmospheric gases into oxidized products. For the passage of sparks through the gaseous oxides of nitrogen first formed results in their decomposition again into their elementary constituents. If, for instance, spark discharges are passing at the rate of one per second, the whole of the nitrogen peroxide molecules have not time to react with the water mole- cules to form nitric acid, before the passage of the next spark, and hence some of them suffer decomposition ; indeed, it is probable that a number of the nitric oxide molecules first formed have not even time to combine with oxygen to form the peroxide before the passage of the next discharge, which brings about — their dissociation, Hence it is that, ina closed space, a limit is soon reached beyond which there is no further increase in the amount of nitric acid. For this reason the yield of nitric acid has hitherto been very small. Dr. V, Lepel has made experi- ments, therefore, with a slowly moving atmosphere, and under _ different conditions of pressure, and with various types of spark JUNE 30, 13892] NATURE 211 discharge, with the result that he has already increased the amount of combination to 10 per cent. of the total amount of air employed. The air is exposed under increased pressure to a series of parallel spark discharges in the same tube. The change of atmosphere is not made continuously, but intermittently, and the gases are expelled from the discharge tube into a large absorption vessel in which the products are absorbed ina solution of water, or ofa caustic alkali. Detailed accounts are given in the memoir of the efficacy of the various forms of high tension _ discharge, and Dr. V. Lepel is now experimenting with the dis- _ charge from a Tépler influence machine with sixty-six rotating plates. Of particular interest are his remarks concerning the _ probable effect of the high voltage discharges of which we have _ lately heard so much. He considers it not improbable that by _ their aid a new mode of producing nitric acid from the atmo- _ spheric gases on the large scale may be introduced, rendering _ us altogether independent of the natural nitrates as a source of _ nitric acid. _ THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include two Macaque Monkeys (Macacus cynomolgus) _ from North Borneo, presented by the Rev. Augustus D, _ Beaufort; two Small Hill Mynahs (Gracula religiosa) from _ India, presented by Lieut.-Col. W. S. Hore; a Chough _ (Pyrrhocorax gracilus) from the Aran Islands, Galway, pre- sented by Miss Balfour; four Scemmerring’s Pheasants _ (Phasianus semmerringi § 82) from Japan, presented by _ Mr. Frank Walkinshaw; an Aisculapian Snake (Coluder _ e@sculapit), a Vivacious Snake ( Zachymenis vivax) from Central _ Europe, presented by Mr. Alfred Scrivener; a Cayenne _ Lapwing (Vanellus cayennensis) from South America, two _ Axolotls (Siredon mexicanus) from Mexico, purchased; a Ruddy-headed Goose (Bernicla rubidiceps 2 ) from the Falkland Islands, received in exchange; a Burchell’s Zebra (Zguus | burchellii); a Thar (Capra jemlaica), a Japanese Deer (Cervus sika), born in the Gardens, — OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ARIABLE NEBUL&.—Mr., Barnard, in Astronomische Nach- , No. 3097, mentions the cases of two nebulz which he must be of a variable type. ‘The first has a diameter 1’, and appears rather like a comet, the brightness increasing towards the centre, there being no nucleus. for 1889°0 was R.A. 3h. 56m, 17s., Declination » 30’ 38". The other nebula was discovered by him in and was estimated to lie between magnitudes 9 and 10, _ the stellar nucleus being of the thirteenth magnitude. Subsequent _ observations made in 1891 showed that this nebula had become ly fainter (134 mag.), there being still a faint nucleus 3 its diam as 3’, while its position for €; its eter was estimated *o was R.A. oh. 37m. 55°7s., Decl. — 8° 48’ 6’°5. RIATION OF LATITUDE.—Mr. Chandler, toward the latter d of last year; contributed to the Astronomical Fournal several les on the variation of terrestrial latitudes, in which the fol- points were brought out :—(1) This variation is truly terre: (2) The period of revolution, from 1863 to 1885, of he pole of the earth’s figure round that of rotation amounted to days in a west to east direction. (3) About the year 1730, _ the length of this period was a little over a year. (4) The _ velocity of rotation is slowly diminishing. In the present _ number (267) of the same journal he brings together evidence to _ establish some further conclusions at which he has arrived, _ -basing them on a very considerable number of series of observa- _ tions. The results may be briefly summarized as follows :—(a) _ About 1774 the rate ofangular motion of the pole was a maxi- _ mum with a daily rate of 1°°034, and since that period the de- _ crease has taken place at an accelerating rate. (4) If @ be the _ daily angular motion and T the interval in days from September ; Hd 1875, the angular velocity of the polar motion may be put in % orm § a @ = 0°°852 — 0°000009 8 T = 0°'000 000 000 132 T?, NO. 1183, VOL. 46] (c) The law of the periodic variation may be expressed as follows :— = $9 — 0"'22 cos [A + (¢ — T)6], where T is the time when the north pole of the earth’s figure passes the Greenwich meridian, E the number of completed revolutions between a date, ¢, and the adopted epoch, @ the daily angular motion, the instantaneous value of the latitude of a place, $, the mean latitude, and A the longitude of the same place, the values of T and @ being obtained from the equations— T = 1875 Sept. 18°5 + 422956 E + 14'034 E? + 04-009 E3 : + 04 000067 E4, 360 > - when P = 4231-62 + 24-0953 E + 01'0274 E? + 04000268 E3, (d) A sensibly constant angular distance between the poles of figure and rotation during the last fifty years has been main- tained, (e) By a comparison of absolute and differential determina- tions the variation is entirely due to zenithal alterations, and not to a Simultaneous variation of the zenith and the astronomical given é= pole. COMPARATIVE SPECTRA OF HIGH AND Low Sun.—Mr. Edward Stanford has just published five plates, 163 x 193 inches, in portfolio form, of Mr, McClean’s beautiful comparative photo- graphic spectra of the high and low sun from H to A. The collotype prints have been reproduced from the mounted photo- graphs by the Direct Photo-Engraving Company, and are enlarged about 84 times from the original negatives. Published simultaneously also are his comparative spectral photographs of the sun and metals, extending from above H to near D, The two series include the platinum and iron-copper groups. THE CORONOIDAL DISCHARGES,—The discovery of the pre- sence and power of electricity is, comparatively speaking, very modern, and it is only now we are finding out the diversity of results it is capable of producing. The sun being our great source of heat and light, it is only natural that we should suspect him of having a greater quantity of this form of energy in some way or the other, on a scale, of course, very much greater than ours. In a paper read before the National'Academy of Sciences, Washington, and published in the June number of the American Fournal of Science, Mr. M. I, Pupin describes a series of experiments that he has been carrying out with regard to electrical discharges through poor media. The apparatus which he used is fully described, so we will only refer to the plates which illustrate the points he wished to emphasize. The illustrations are from photographs of discharges taken under conditions under which the solar coronais observed, and suggest in a very striking manner the phenomena that are usually observed at these times. In one case, when the vacuum was very poor, the discharge started in the form of four large streamers, to- gether with large jets, their distribution over the whole surface of the sphere being more or less uniform. The appearance of the sphere ‘reminded me very much of the granular structure of the sun’s disk, . . and the very luminous points which appeared from time totime . . . reminded me . . . of the sun’s facule.” Further experiments regarding the rotational motion of the streamers lead him to conclude that two discharge streamers tended to blow each other out, ‘‘ owing to the motion of the cooler gas between them, this motion being produced by the enormous heating effect of the discharge.” The figures shown are very striking indeed, and represent the general appearances of the corona during eclipses with a remarkahle degree of accuracy. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. M. JOsEPpH MARTIN, well-known on account of his explora- tions in North-eastern Siberia, has died at Marghilan while on a journey in Central Asia. Tue Kalahari Desert has been crossed successfully by a **trek” of 150 waggons from the Rustenburg district of the Transvaal, bound for Mossamedes, where an active Boer colony has been established, a large party having embarked at Cape Town to join the overland division. Later reports affirm that 212 NATURE [JUNE 30, 1892 a Boer republic has been declared in the plateau region of Angola, one of the healthiest parts of tropical Africa. THE survey of the district surrounding Aden has been com- pleted by the officers of the Survey of India Department after a very arduous campaign. Work was on_ several occasions almost stopped by sickness, and by the open hostility of the natives. STIMULATED by the recent discovery of two complete mammoth carcases in the Government of Irkutsk, the St. Peters- burg Academy of Sciences has commissioned Prof. Tcherski, of Irkutsk, to proceed to Yakutsk, on the Lena, and thence, accompanied by Cossacks and pack-horses, eastward to the Kolyma Valley, pushing on if possible this summer to Nizhne Kolymsk in 69° N., returning before winter to Sachiversk on the Indigirka, a town situated on the Arctic Circle. The main object of the expedition is to study the drift geology, but collections will be made in all departments of science, including barometric observations, in order to determine the orography of this rarely visited part of Siberia. Globus announces the formation of a new islet-in the Caspian, near Baku, by upheaval. It lies three and a half miles from shore, and measures 175 feet by 100 feet, rising about 20 feet above the water. Its surface is irregular, and composed of blackish-grey and yellow hardened mud. WITH reference to the note on p. 65 as to the discovery of a new range of mountains in Benin, it is only fair to former travellers in that region to say that the map by the Intelligence Department, although bearing no mountain shading, has marked upon it ‘* Mt. Ara,” very near the position where the range seen by Governor Carter is situated. _THE mountaineering expedition, led by Mr. Conway, to attempt the ascent of the loftiest Himalayan summits, has been making excursions from Gilgit and mapping the Bagrot Valley, but bad weather has prevented any very important climbing from being done. = =: > % b= - 2 o a = ian = as — . AL | a —_—s Z be Tom > Y LILLY AY PL eZ AA ex x t : A. The complete leyden stands upon three vulcanite feet at- tached to the lowerside of the sole plate ofsystem A, In order that the instrament may not be injured in carriage, an arrangement, described as follows, is provided, by which sys- _ tem B can be lifted from off the three glass columns and firmly clamped to the top and bottom plates of system A. The bolts fixing the corners of the plates of system B are made long enough to pass through wide conical holes cut in the top and bottom plates of system A, and the nuts at the top end ot the bolts are also conical in form, while conical nuts are also . 1 Thomsonand Tait’s ‘* Natutal Philosophy,’’ § 198 example 3. Sc aaa eRe CREPES AO a _ wire, W, dipping in the water in which and with | JUNE 30, 1892] NATURE 255 fixed to their lower ends below the base plate of system A. ’ Thumbscrew nuts, f# are placed upon the upper ends of the bolts after they pass through the holes in the top plate of system A. When the instrument is set up ready for use, these thumb- screws are turned up against fixed stops, g, so as to be well clear of the top plate of system A ; but when the instrument is packed for carriage they are screwed down against the plate until the conical nuts mentioned above are drawn up into the conical holes in the top and bottom plates of system A ; system B is thus raised off the glass pillars, and the two systems are securely locked together so as to prevent damage to the instrument. A dust-tight cylindrical metal case, 4, which can be easily taken off for inspection, covers the two systems, and fits on to a flange on system A. The whole instrument rests on three vulcanite legs attached to the brass plate on system A ; and two terminals are provided, one, 7, on the base of system A, and the other, 7, on the end of one of the corner bolts of system B. The air leyden which has been thus described is used as a standard of electrostatic capacity. In the instrument actually exhibited to the Society there are twenty-two plates of the system B, twenty-three of the system A, and therefore forty- four octagonal air spaces between the two sets of plates, thickness of each of these air spaces is approximately o°301 of a centimetre. The side of each square is 10°13 cm., and therefore the area of each octagonal air space is 851 sq.cm. The capacity of the whole leyden is therefore approximately x 85°1/ (4m x *287), or 1038 cm. in electrostatic measure. This only an approximate estimate, founded on a not minutely accurate measurement of dimensions, and not corrected for the addition of capacity, due to the edges and projecting angles of the es and the metal cover, I hope to have the capacity determined with great accuracy by comparison with Mr. brook’s standards in Cambridge. To explain its use in connection with an idiostatic electro- meter for the direct measurement of the capacity of any insulated conductor, I shall suppose, for example, this insulated con- ductor to be the insulated wire‘of a short length of submarine | cable core, or of telephone, or telegraph, or electric light cable, sunk under water, except a projecting portion to allow external connection to be made with the insulated wire. electrometer which I find most convenient is my ‘‘ multi- cellular voltmeter,” rendered practically dead-beat by a vane under oil hung on the lower end of the long stem carrying the electric «needles (or movable plates). In the multicellular voltmeter used in the experimental illustration before the Royal Society, the index shows its readings on a vertical cylindric surface, which for electric light stations is more convenient than the he tal scale of the multicellular voltmeters hitherto in use ; but for , il scale instrument is as convenient as the new form, _ To give a convenient primary electrification for the measure- meet f yoltaic battery, vv’, of about 150 or 200 elements, of eac of which the ewe is a drop of water held up by the capillary attraction between a zinc and copper plate about* Ag oni asunder. An ordinary electric machine, or even a stick ed sealing-wax, may, however, be used, but not with the ‘same facility for giving the amount of electrification desired as the voltaic battery. . end of the voltaic battery is kept joined metallically to a the cable is submerged, a the case C of the multicellular, and with the case and _ plates A of the Leyden, and with a fixed stud, S, forming part of the ting key to be described later. The other end of the voltaic battery is connected to a flexible insulated wire, FFF, used for giving the primary electrification to the insulated wire of the cable, and the insulated cells, II, of the multicellular ept metallically connected with it. The insulated plates B of the leyden are connected to a spring, KL, of the operating key referred to above, which, when left to itself, presses down on the metal stud S, and which is very perfectly insulated when lifted from contact with S by a finger applied to the insulating handle H. Asecond well insulated stud, S’, is kept in metallic connection with J and I (the insulated wire of the cable and the insulated cells of the multicellular). To make a measurement, the flexible wire F is brought by hand to touch momentarily on a wire connected with the stud _ §', and immediately after that a reading of the electrometer is taken and watched for a minute or two to test either that there is no sensible loss by imperfect insulation of the cable and the NO. 1183, VoL. 46] The |- laze- the measurement of electrostatic capacity the older insulated cells of the multicellular, or that the loss is not suffi- ciently rapid to vitiate the measurement. When the operator is satisfied with this, he records his reading of the electrometer, presses up the handle H of the key, and so disconnects the plates B of the leyden from S and A, and connects them with S’, J, I. Fifteen or twenty seconds of time suffices to take the thus diminished reading of the multicellular, and the measure- ment is complete. The capacity of the cable is then found by the analogy :—As the second reading of the electrometer is to the excess of the first above the second, so is the capacity of the leyden to the capacity of the cable. A small correction is readily made with sufficient accuracy for the varying capacity of the electrometer, according to the different positions of the movable plates, corresponding to the different readings, by aid of a table of corrections determined by special measurements for capacity for the purpose on the multicellular, UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, CAMBRIDGE.—Prof. Liveing announces a course of lectures in general chemistry, to be given during the Long Vacation by Mr. Fenton, beginning on July 7. Mr. Fenton will also give a series of demonstrations on the chemistry of photography. At the Congregation on June 16, seven graduates in arts were admitted to the degree of Doctor in Medicine, and thirty-one to the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. These are the largest numbers hitherto admitted at one time. Sir R. S. Ball, Lowndean Professor of Geometry and Astro- nomy, has been elected to a Professorial Fellowship at King’s College. At Christ’s College the following awards have been made to students of natural science :—Scholarships: E. K. Jones (£50), G. A. Anden (£30), J. M. Woolley (£30), C. F. G. Master- man (£50), H. Pentecost (£50), A. M. Hale (£30). Exhibi- tion: A, M. Barraclough (£30), At Emmanuel College :— Scholarship: A. Eichholz (£80). Exhibition: J. C. Muir 30). At the annual election of scholars in St. John’s College, the following awards in Natural Science have been made :—Founda- tion Scholarships: W. L. Brown, T. L. Jackson, W, McDougall, S. S. F. Blackman. Exhibitions in Augmentation of Scholarships: Villy, Whipple (First Class Nat. Sci. Tripos, Part IT.). ughes Prize (highest in third year): Villy. Her- schel Prize in Astronomy : Pocklington. utchinson Student- ship for Research in Zoology: E. W. MacBride. 214 NATURE [JUNE 30, 1892 SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. THE numbers of the ¥ournal of Botany for May and June appeal almost entirely to students of systematic and descriptive botany :—Mr, F, J. Hanbury continues his notes on Aieracia new to Britain, in the course of which he describes three species altogether new.—Mr. Geo. Massee contributes diagnoses of a number of new species of Fungi from St, Vincent, illus- trated by three coloured platess—Mr. E. G. Baker continues his Synopsis of genera and species of JMalvee; Rev. Moyle Rogers his essay at a key to British Rudi; and Mr. W. A. Clarke his first records of British flowering plants. IN the Botanical Gazette for May are two original papers of interest :—On the archegone and apical growth of the stem in Tsuga canadensis and Pinus sylvestris, by D. M. Mottier. On the first point the author agrees very nearly with the account by Strasburger ; on the second point he is unable to say that there is a single cell at the apex of the stem, unless in the young plant, and even then not with absolute certainty.—Ger- mination of the teleutospores of Ravenalia cassiecola, by B. M. Duggar. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. é LONDON. Physical Society, June 10,—Mr. Walter Baily, Vice- President, in the chair.—Dr. Gladstone read a paper on some points connected with the electromotive force of secondary batteries, by himself and Mr. W. Hibbert. The communi- cation includes replies to certain questions raised by M. Darrieus in a paper read before the Société Internationale des Electriciens on May 4, 1892; and to the views expressed by Prof. Arm- strong and Mr. Robertson in the discussion on a paper by the present authors read before the Institution of Electrical: Engineers, on May 12 and 19. It also contains an account of their recent experiments on the subject. M. Darrieus agrees with Prof, Armstrong and Mr. Robertson that the large E.M.F. immediately after charge is due to persulphuric acid, and opposes the ordinary theory that the ultimate product of dis- charge is lead sulphate at both plates, so far as the positive plate is concerned. The authors attribute the finding of large quantities of lead oxide by M. Darrieus to difficulties in analysis, for it is not easy to imagine that oxide of lead could remain as such in presence of sulphuric acid. They have also shown that the changes of E.M.F. during charge and discharge coincide fairly well with those obtained by putting Pb and PbO, plates in different strengths of acid, and conclude ‘‘ that the changes of E.M.F. . . . depend on the strength of the acid that is against the working surfaces of the plates.” Prof. Armstrong and Mr. Robertson disagree with the authors’ views, and suppose that the sulphuric acid used was contaminated with soluble peroxides ; and they also believe that H,SO, itself takes part in the reactions. reason why the traces of soluble peroxide (if any) on the plates should always vary in amount with the strength of the fresh acid in which the plates were dipped. The second point they leave an open question. In reply to the criticism on the summation of the two curves obtained respectively with two lead plates and two lead peroxide plates in acids of different strengths, they point out that the resulting curve coincides both in shape and magnitude with that determined when a Pb and a PbO, plate were placed in different strengths of acid. Whilst admitting the possibility of the lead supports having some influence on the result, they cannot conceive that such large and uniform differences as those given in their paper can be due to accidental operations of local action. To show that the increase of E.M.F. does not depend on the presence or absence of persulphuric acid, the authors have tested the E.M.F. of a Pb and a PbO, plate, free from soluble oxides, in sulphuric acid of 15 per cent. strength, a porous diaphragm being between the plates, The E.M.F. was 1°945 volts. After adding I per cent. ‘of per- sulphate of potassium to the liquid surrounding the PbO, plate, the E.M.F. was unaltered ; whilst putting the Pb plate in the same liquid only reduced the E.M.F. to 1'934. Experiments had also been made on cells with phosphoric acid of different strengths, instead of sulphuric acid. Changing the density from 1°05 to 1°5, raised the E.M.F. 0°176 volt, whilst calculations from Lord Kelvin’s law gave 0°171 volt. In this case they con- sider that no acid analogous to persulphuric acid could be NO. 1183, VOL. 46] As regards the first objection, the authors see no. present. They also find that the effects of charging and repose on the E.M.F. of phosphoric acid cells are quite analogous to those obtained with sulphuric acid. The researches are bein extended chiefly on the thermochemical side. .Prof. Ayrton — thought there was no question that the strength of acid had much to do with the changes of E.M.F, The point at issue, he considered, was whether the changes were direct effects of the strength of acid, or due to secondary actions brought about by alterations in strength. Mr. E. W. Smith said Mr. Robertson and himself were repeating the author’s experiments with two PbO, plates without any grid. They had obtained results analogous to those mentioned in the paper, but the true explanation of the effects was still to aff Mr. W. Hibbert contended that the soluble oxides referred to by Prof, Arm- strong and Mr, Robertson were not present in their experiments. They had also proved that changes in acid strength altered the E.M.F., whilst presence of persulphuric acid did not. Dr. Gladstone, in reply, said they also were making experiments without grids, but had not made sufficient progress to discuss them at present. Mr. Hibbert and himself believed the effects of local action inconsiderable, whilst Messrs. Armstrong and Robertson thought them very important. He hoped that ere long the points would be settled conclusively.—A paper on workshop ballistic and other shielded galvanometers, by Prof. W. E. Ayrton, F.R.S., and Mr. T. Mather, was read by Prof. Ayrton. The galvanometers described were of the type having movable coils and fixed magnets, the advantages of which are well known, In designing the ballistic instruments, their aim had been to obtain sensibility and portability, com- bined with being screened from external influences, for it was often desirable to measure the magnetic fluxes and fields in dynamos by apparatus near the machines. One of the improve- ments adopted was the narrow coil described in a paper * On the Shape of Movable Coils, &c.,” read before the Society in 1890. Such coils are particularly advantageous for ballistic instruments, for not only can greater swings be obtained by the discharge of a given quantity of electricity through such a coil than with ordinary shaped coils when the periodic times are the same, but even when the same control is used, the same length of wire in the coil, and suspended in the same field, the narrow coil is more sensitive to discharges than coils of any other shape. Another improvement was the use of phosphor bronze strip for the suspensions instead of round wire, For a given tensile strength, both the control and the subpermanent set could be diminished by using strip. In February 1888 the authorsmade a d’Arsonval of the ordinary type as a ballistic instrument, and found that although it was suitable for comparing condensers, yet for induction measurements the damping was excessive unless the resistance in the circuit was very large, This greatly reduced thesensitiveness. In 1890 they tried one of Carpentier’s milliamperemeters as a ballistic instrument, but found it in- sensitive. A narrow coil instrument made in the same year was found to be sensitive for currents ; but as the coil was wound on copper to get damping, it was not suitable for ballistic work. In January 1892 a somewhat similar instrument was constructed for ballistic purposes, and was found very sensitive and con- venient. Although the coil had only a resistance of 13 ohms, one microcoulomb gave a swing of 170 divisions on a scale 2000 divisions distant, the periodic time being 2*7 seconds. The instrument could be used near electromagnets or dynamos, and was so sensitive that for ordinary induction measurements very large resistances can be put in series with it, thus reducing the damping to a very small amount. On the other hand, the coil could be brought to rest immediately by a short circuit key. It had the further advantage that it was not necessary to redetermine its constant every time it was used. The chief disadvantage of such instruments was the variable damping on closed circuits of different resistances. This could, however, be overcome by arranging shunts and resistances so that the external resistance between the galvanometer terminals was the. same for all sensibilities. A portable ballistic instrument, intended for workshop use, was next described. This had a narrow coil and a pointer moving over a dial whose whole’ circumference was divided into 200 parts. The instrument had been designed to give a complete revolution for a reversal of a flux of two million C.G.S. lines, but the pointer could turn through two or more revolutions, To test strong fields a test coil with a total area of 10,000 square centimetres is used, and has a trigger arrangement for suddenly twisting it through two right angles. The instrument then reads off directly the strength of JUNE 30, 1892] NATURE 215 field in C.G.S. lines, To vary the sensitiveness in known proportions, resistances are employed. Referring to the improve- _ ments made in movable coil instruments since January 1890, _ when a paper on ‘‘ Galvanometers”’ was read before the Society by Dr. Sumpner and the present authors, Prof. Ayrton said Mr, Crompton had greatly increased the sensitiveness of Carpentier’s instruments by suspending the coils with phosphor-bronze strip. Mr, Paul had brought out a narrow-coil instrament which com- bined the advantages of portability, dead-beatness, quickness, _ and sensibility. Specimens of these instruments were exhibited. _ The narrow coils are inclosed in silver tubes, which serve to _ damp the oscillations. Such a coil is suspended within a brass _ tube which also forms the mirror chamber, and slides down BY en the poles of a circular magnet fixed to the base. To the coil, a plug mounted on a slotted spring passes _ through a hole in the brass tube. A tube can be taken out and replaced » Se yar containing a coil of different resistance in a — fews . An instrument of this kind, with a coil of 300 ohms, _ gave 95 divisions per microampere, and the damping on open _ Circuit was such that any swing was ;/, of the previous one. On _ comparing recent instruments with those mentioned in the paper _ on galvanometers above referred to, a distinct improvement is apparent, for their sensitiveness is, for the same resistance and periodic time, as great as that of Thomson instruments. Prof. Perry remarked that the forces dealt with were extremely small. Mr. Swinburne thought that ballistic galvanometers might be __ regarded as instruments indicating the time integral of E.M.F. rather than quantity. Illustrating his meaning by reference to _ dynamos, he said that if two machines arranged as dynamo and _ motor were joined by wires, then, if the armature of the dynamo _ were turned through any angle, that of the motor would move A h the same angle, supposing friction, &c., eliminated. Spea of figures of merit, he pointed out that the power con- _ sumed was the important factor, Prof. S. P. Thompson inquired _ what was the longest period yet obtained with narrow-coil instru- - ments. e decay of magnetism in large dynamos was so slow uat very long periods were required. He himself had used a in, ed coil for such measurements. He also wished to know _ why the figures of merit were expressed in terms of scale divisions _ onascale at 2000 divisions distance, instead- of in angular _ measure orin tangents. Mr. E. W. Smith asked what was the — Teng Strip required to prevent permanent set when the _ deflection exceeded a revolution. Mr. A. P. Trotter thought that, in testing magnetic fluxes by the workshop ballistic instru- _ ment, the test coil might be left in circuit instead of putting in _ another coil. He wished to know what error was introduced _ by the change of damping caused by the resistance of the circuit _ hot being quite constant. In his reply, Prof, Ayrton said Mr. Boys pointed out that the scientific way to lengthen period _ was not by weighting the coils or needles, but to weaken the _ control. Periods of 5 seconds had been obtained. At present _ it was not easy to obtain longer periods owing to difficulties _ in obtaining sufficiently thin strip, and to the magnetism of “materials, _ Zoological Society,. June 14.—Prof. W. H. Flower, C.B., _F-R.S., President, in the chair.—The Secretary read a report on the additions that had been made to the Society’s a, ag during the month of May 1892, calling special atten to a pair of the rare and beautiful Passerine bird the Grey Coly-Shrike (Hyfocolius ampelinus) from Fao, Persian «Gulf, ape cn by Mr. W. D. Cumming. He also made some ‘remarks on the most interesting objects observed during a recent visit to the Zoological Gardens of Rotterdam, the Hague, _ Amsterdam, and Antwerp,—A communication from Mr. T. D. _ A. Cockerell contained particulars of the occurrence of a species NO. 1183, voL. 46] of Jacana (Facana spinosa) in Jamaica.—Dr. John Anderson, -K.S., exhibited and made remarks on some specimens of the Mole-Rat (Spalax typhlus) from Egypt.—Prof. Romanes gave an account of some results recently obtained from the cross- breeding of Rats and of Rabbits, and showed that it did not follow that a blending of the characters of the parents was the result of crossing two different varieties. Prof, Howes exhibited and made remarks on some photographs received from Prof. Parker, of Otago, New Zealand, illustrative of Sea- Lions, Penguins, and Albatrosses in their native haunts.—Dr. Dawson made remarks on the Fur-Seal of Alaska, and exhibited a series of photographs illustrating the attitudes and mode of life _of these animals.—Mr. Sclater called attention to the habits of a South African Snake (Dasyfeltis scabra) as exhibited by an example now in the Society’s Gardens.—Mr. Sclater also read some extracts from a letter addressed to him by Mr. H. H. Johnston, C.B., announcing the despatch of a consignment of natural history specimens illustrative of the fauna and flora of the Shiré Highlands. —Mr. W. Saville Kent exhibited and made remarks on some photographs of a species of the genus Podargus, showing the strange attitudes of these birds in a living state. — Mr. F. E. Beddard read a paper on the brain and muscular anatomy of Awlacodus.—Mr. Gerard W. Butler read a paper on the subdivision of the body-cavity in Snakes, being a con- tinuation of the subject treated of in a memoir on the subdivision of the body-cavity in Lizards, Crocodiles, and Birds, previously read before the Society.— Mr. J]. W. Gregory gave an account of his researches on the British Paleogene Bryozoa, of which he recognized thirty species, represented in the National Collec- tion by about 750 specimens.— Mr. Sclater gave an account of a small collection of Birds from Anguilla, West Indies, made by Mr. W. R. Elliott, one of the collectors employed by the Com- mittee for the exploration of the Lesser Antilles.—Prof. G. J. Romanes, F.R.S., read a paper on a seemingly new diagnostic character of the Primates, which was that the terminal joints of both hands and feet in all species of this Order are destitute of hairs. This rule did not apply to the Lemurs.—Mr. O. Thomas read a paper on the genus Zchinops, of the order Insectivora, and gave notes on the dentition of the allied genera Zriculus and Centetes.—Mr. G. A. Boulenger gave an account of the Reptiles and Batrachians collected by Mr. C. Hose on Mount Dulit, North Borneo. Amongst these was a fine new Lizard of the genus Varanus, proposed to be called V. heteropholis. Two new Batrachians were also described as Rhacophorus dulitensis and Nectophryne hosit.—A paper was read by Lieut. - Colonel H. H. Godwin-Austen, F.R.'S., on new species and varieties of the Land-Molluscan genus Diflommatina, collected by himself, and more recently by Mr. W. Doherty, in the Naga and Munipur Hill ranges. The author described twenty-seven supposed new species, the most remarkable being D. unicrenata, with a peculiarly formed peristome.—A communication was read from Mr. B. B. Woodward on the mode of growth and the structure of the shell in Velates conotdeus, Lamk., and in other Neritide. The mode of growth and the structure of this shell were described as follows: Up to a certain point the growth is normal ; a change in the direction of growth afterwards takes place, and the test is enlarged by the addition of fresh shelly matter on the exterior of the under side, and by the removal of previously-formed layers on the inner surface, The internal septum that serves the purpose of a myophore was shown to have originated in the paries, which, in the course of growth, had been replaced by the septum. In this respect Ve/ates conoideus epitomized in its life-history conditions which are found in distinct recent species of the closely-allied genus Neritina. The relations of the paries and septum in this last genus were also described in this paper.—This meeting closes the present session. The next session (1892-93) will com- mence in November 1892. PARIs, Academy of Sciences, June 20.—M. d’Abbadie in the chair, —Phenomena of the residual life of muscle taken from the living being: physiological action of the muscular bases, by MM. Arm. Gautier and L. Landi.—On the influence of mineral filters on liquids containing substances produced by microbes, by M. Arloing.—On the sanitary system adopted by the Venice Conference to prevent cholera from penetrating into Europe through the Isthmus of Suez, by M_ P. Brouardel. Four previous conferences for the reform of the quarantine sys- tem having failed, that convened at Venice in January 1892 has at last adopted a system chiefly advocated by the French dele- 216 NATURE [JUNE 30, 1892 gates, and practically tested on the Pyrenees frontier during the cholera in Spain two years ago. On that occasion the passen- gers’ linen was disinfected in heating ovens by steam under pressure, and the cholera patients, real or suspected, were iso- lated. It having been shown that it is practically impossible for a vessel to pass the Suez Canal in quarantine, without contact with the shores, it was resolved that no vessel should be allowed to pass into the Mediterranean unless it was free from infection or had been completely disinfected. Vessels from the Orient which have had no case of cholera since their departure will be allowed a perfectly free passage. Those which have had cases of cholera during the voyage, but none for seven days before ar- rival, will be allowed to pass the Canal in quarantine if they have a medical officer and a disinfecting stove on board. If not, they will be retained at the entrance of the Canal, where a sanitary station will be erected, and where the disinfection will take place. Infected vessels will be detained at the entrance, the patients will be disembarked and isolated, and the vessels will be disin- fected. It is calculated that, out of 16,000 vessels that have passed through the Canal in five years, under the regulations now adopted 28 would have had to undergo a delay of a few hours for disinfection, and. 2 would have been detained fora few days.—On the law of correspondence of tangent planes in the transformation of surfaces by curved symmetry, by M. S. Mangeot.—On the distribution of pressures in a rectangular solid charged transversally, by M. Flamant.—On the law of resist- ance of the cylinders utilized in the crusher manometers, by M. P. Vieille.-—On the Doppler-Fizeau method, by M. Moessard. If the relative motions of the source and the observer be alone considered, without reference to the distortion of the wave-front due to motion through the connecting medium, the ratio of the real to the apparent wave-length will be where V V-v+v" is the velocity of wave propagation, v that of the source, v’ The true formula for this ratio is we are p -v which, in the case of V = v, will differ from the former by in- finity.—An examination of the possibility of a reciprocal action between an electrified body and a magnet, by M. Vaschy. Showing that such an action cannot exist unless it be due toa physical quality of the ether different from that implied by the co- efficients £ and #’ in the electric and magnetic laws of attrac- that of the observer. / Ul tion, viz. f= 42, and f = pee .—Action of nitric oxide on “ = the metallic oxides, by MM. Paul Sabatier and J. B. Senderens, — Ona bromo-nitride of phosphorus, by M. A. Besson.—On _ permolybdic acid, by M. E. Péchard.—On the alteration of preserved ferruginous mineral waters, by M. J. Riban.—On the transformation of gallic acid into pyrogallol: fusion point of pyrogallol, by M. P. Cazeneuve.—On the intestinal calculi of the cachalot (amébre gris), by M. Georges Pouchet.—The helio- tropism of the Vauplius, by M. C. Viguier.—Researches on the proximate composition of vegetable tissues, by M. G. Bertrand. —On the action of some mineral salts on lactic fermentation, by M. Ch. Richet.—On the respiratory exchange, by MM. Chr. Bohr and V. Henriquez. An account of experiments showing that the lungs are not only the seat of the process of gaseous exchange, but also of the oxidation of tissue elements. —Origins and trophic centres of the vaso-dilatatory nerves, by M. J Morat.—Researches on the requirements of the vine, by M. A. Muntz.—On the topography of some lakes of the Jura, the Bugey, and the Isére, by M. A. Delebecque. AMSTERDAM. Royal Academy of Sciences, May 28.—Prof. van de Sande Bakhuyzen in the chair.—Mr. Behrens dealt with specimens of brass made by compression of the constituents at ordinary tem- perature by Prof. W. Spring, Liége, Belgium. One of the specimens, kindly forwarded by Prof. Spring, was of a reddish colour, and had been produced by compressing a mixture of 9 parts of copper and I part of zinc; another, pale yellow, by compressing a mixture of 7 parts Cu and 3 parts Zn, Both specimens had been filed up twice, and again consolidated by pressure. The reddish metal was a little softer than common cast brass ; it could be somewhat flattened under the hammer. The yellow metal was harder than common brass, and brittle. Both varieties contain a great quantity of yellow alloy, which seems to be in an amorphous state, showing a uniform, finely granular appearance, without any vestige of the beautiful crys- tallites, so characteristic for copper-zine alloys, obtained by NO. 1183, VOL. 46] fusion. Further, a good deal of angular fragments of red copper, some of them cracked and doubled up, with yellow threads between the red lumps and strands, and finally some zinc, angular fragments and threads, trending outwards and uniting near the curved surface of the cylindrical specimens. The meta is nearly, but not wholly compact. There is much that gives evidence of a flow in the yellow alloy and in the zinc, but nothing pointing to a truly liquid state of the alloy or one of its com- ponents. Regelation seems to be put aside, while there does not remain any doubt that zinc and copper have been intimately mixed and actually united by repeated filing and compression. One may venture to say, that a more complete union of metallic powders by compression will lead to alloys of most remarkable properties, and may give some alloys that cannot be produced by fusion. BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. Booxs.—Our Earth—Night to Twilight, vol. i.: G. Ferguson (Unwin)-— The Alternate Current Transformer, vol. 1i. The Utilization of Induced Cur- rents: Prof. J. A. Fleming (Zlectrician Company).—Essai sur la Vie et la Mort: A. Sabatier (Paris, Babé).—Chambers’s Encyclopedia, vol. ix. (Chambers).—Iconographia Flore Japonice,-vol. i. Part2: Dr. R. Yatabe (Toky5).—Thermodynamique & l’Usage des Ingénieurs; A. Witz (Paris, Gauthier-Villars).—U.S. Relief Map (Washington).—Bees for Pleasure and Profit: G. G. Samson (Lockwood).—Waterdale Researches; or, Fresh Light on the Dynamic Action and Ponderosity of Matter: ‘Waterdale’ (Chapman and Hall).—Helen Keller: Souvenir of the First Summer Meeting of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf; second edition (Washington, Volta Bureau). PAMPHLETs.—Descriptive List of the Fishes of Lorain County, Ohio: L. M. McCormick (Oberlin). —Land Improvement in India: Colonel A. T. Fraser (Bombay, Thacker).—Proposal for a National Photographic Record and Survey: W. J. Harrison (Harrison). SERIALs.—Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University, Japan, vol. v., Part 1 (Toky5),—Journal of the Insti:ution of Electrical Engineers, June (Spon).—Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. i. No. i (Wellington, N.Z.).—Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, June (Kegan Paul).—Deutsche Ueb i Meteorologische Beobachtungen, Heft 4 — (Hamburg).—Journal and Proceedings ofthe Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. xxv., 1891 (Kegan Paul).—Beitrage zur Biologie der Pflanzen, v. Band, 3 Heft (Williams and Norgate).—Bulletin from the Laboratories of Natural History of the State University of Iowa, vol. ii. No. 2 (lowa).— Botanische Jahrbiicher fiir Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzen- geographie, Sechzehnter Band, 1 Heft, Fiinfzehnter Band, 3 Heft (Williams and Norgate).—Encyklopzdia der Naturwissenschaften, Erste Abthg., 67 Liefg., Zweite Abthg , 69-70 Lief. (Williams and Norgate). CONTENTS. PAGE The London University of the Future. ...... 193 English Botany. By James Britten... .... 197 A Bacteriological Hand-book. By Mrs. Grace C. Frankia ore ee PP ies. Simp Our Book Shelf :— Bergbohm : ‘‘ Neue Rechnungsmethoden der Hoheren Mathematik.”—-R: BE. Al. "i ae Chapman: ‘‘An Elementary Course in Theory of Equations”. fw. 6 ee er Letters to the Editor :— ‘¢ The Grammar of Science.”—Prof. Karl Pearson. 19) Immunity of the African Negro from Yellow Fever.— Dr, C, Creighton). a The Line Spectra of the Elements.—Prof, C, Runge 200 The Nitric Organisms.—Prof. Percy F. Frankland, FURS) er ee ee Protection against Rain in the Elder.—Alfred W. Bennett 9 200 859 foe a ee ee ee ee The Total Solar Eclipse, April 15-16, 1893. (///us- trated.) O° A a ee University of Dublin: Tercentenary Celebration. . 203 Exhibition at Nurnberg by the German Mathe- matical Association: :. 3° .)..° 5 3-5 sie «3s 7 ee 204 The Kekulé Festival at Bonn. ByJ. E. Marsh . . 205 The True Basis of Anthropology ......... 206 Lewis Morris Rutherfurd . . ES Sk ee eee eee. Notes 20) Se ae 208 Our Astronomical Column :— Variable Nebule . 2.6. 6 se ee ee ss ® 211 Variation of Latitudé- 2 25 2 ee woe ts 211 Comparative Spectra of High and Low Sun Fe 211 The Coronoidal Discharges. . + « . - + + 6 + + 211 Geographicai Notes. .. . 2. +6 + + + + + + + oe QI A New Form of Air Leyden. (Ji/ustrated.) By Lord Kelvin, PRS.) fo ai ee hs is 2 ee University and Educational Intelligence .... . 213 Scientific Serial87:.9. ks eo. | ee Societies and Academies . .. .... +. 2 6 6s « 214 Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received ..... 216 NATURE 217 THURSDAY, JULY 7, 1892. ie Wee A SYSTEM OF MINERALOGY. The System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana, 1837- 68: Descriptive Mineralogy. Sixth Edition. By Edward Salisbury Dana, Professor of Physics, and Curator of the Mineral Collection, Yale University. Entirely re- written and much enlarged. Pp. Ixiii. and 1134. Illus- trated with over 1400 Figures. (New York and London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, and Co., 1892.) 17 the whole history of scientific literature it would be difficult to find a parallel to Dana’s ‘System of Mineralogy,” for there is probably no work which, like it, has maintained for more than half a century its position as the best and most complete work of reference on a branch of natural history. In spite of the enormous additions to our knowledge of the chemical and physical properties of well-known minerals, and of the discovery of innumerable new species and varieties, during that long period, the work has been carefully kept up to date; and so thorough and judicious have been the re- visions to which successive editions have been subjected, that the book may at the present time fearlessly challenge comparison with the latest and most successful attempts to supply a comprehensive survey of mineralogical science. _ When the work first appeared, in 1837, its author made a determined attempt to grapple with the difficult prob- lem of mineralogical nomenclature and classification ; like many of his contemporaries, he was sanguine of being able to make the taxonomy of mineralogy corre- spond with that of the other natural-history sciences, and a so-called zatural system of classification, based on that of Mohs, was adopted by him. But on the appear- ance of the third edition in 1850 the futility of all such attempts was admitted, and a scheme of classification founded upon chemical composition was substituted ; it is this system of classification which, with some modifica- tions rendered necessary by the progress of discovery, is employed in the present edition. _ On reaching its fourth edition in 1854, the work had grown to such an extent that it became necessary to divide it into two volumes: the first devoted to a general introduction to crystallography, with mineral physics and chemistry, and the second to descriptive mineralogy. The necessity for the re-issue of the first of these volumes has been obviated, however, by the publication in 1875 of the “ Determinative Mineralogy” by the author’s friend ___ and fellow-worker, Prof. Brush, and by the appearance, two years later, of the “Text-book of Mineralogy,” in the preparation of which the author had the able co- operation of his son, Prof. Edward Salisbury Dana. In this way the “System of Mineralogy” has now been limited to the descriptive portion of the original work, and only a few pages of introductory matter are given to explain the terminology, symbols, and abbreviations which it has ___ been found necessary to employ. A noteworthy change __ in the fifth edition, and one which has tended to greatly increase the value of the work for reference purposes, was the fuller recognition and description of varieties, NO, 1184, VOL. 46] and of the localities from which they have been ob- tained; the very thorough revision of the historical synonymy, which was undertaken for this fifth edition, also greatly enhanced the usefulness of the book. These historical details and references, which have entailed a vast amount of bibliographical research, have been re- tained with but few modifications in the present edition. In the preface to}this fifth edition, Prof. Dana wrote in 1868 as follows :— “In these and other ways the volume has unavoidably become enlarged. Not a page, and scarcely a paragraph, of the preceding edition remains unaltered, and fully five- sixths ofthe volume have been printed from manuscript copy. I may here add that, notwithstanding the im- paired state of my health, this manuscript—the paragraphs on the pyrognostic characters excepted—was almost solely in the handwriting of the author, or in that of a copyist from it. Neither the consultation of authorities, the drawing of conclusions, nor the putting of the results on paper, has been delegated to another. And being now but half-way between the fifties and sixties, it is my hope met the future will afford another opportunity for similar work. In writing these lines, Prof. Dana could scarcely have foreseen that the issue of the sixth edition of the work would be delayed for 24 years. During that period three appendices have been prepared by the author, and he has shown, in numerous books and original memoirs on various branches of geology and natural history, an un- abated interest and zeal in scientific work. But the very heavy task of incorporating the matter of the appendices into a new edition, and of revising and re-arranging the whole work, has had to be delegated by the author to his son, and certainly it could not have been placed in more competent hands. Every mineralogist will rejoice that the familiar and excellent features of the original work have been carefully preserved. The book, indeed, is so well known to all working geologists and mineralogists, that we cannot do better than to indicate the chief changes which have been found necessary in the present edition, in order to bring it up to date and maintain its high character. The work now contains more than one-half more matter than the fifth edition, and, to keep it down even to this limit, a very rigid system of abbreviation and condensation has had to be adopted, while the size of the page has been increased by one-fifth. The historical account of the species remains substantially the same as in the last edition, but names commonly employed in important lan- guages, in addition to English, French, and German, have been given. In the chemical portion of the work very considerable changes have been introduced. The difficult question of the classification of the silicates has received the fullest consideration, and the views of Rammelsberg, Tschermak, and other chemists on each species are clearly indicated. It has no longer been found possible, however, to give a statement of all the analyses that have been made of a species. The microscopic work of Lacroix and others has shown that many of these analyses are worthless, as the material operated upon has been a mixture and not a homogeneous substance. In the present edition all trustworthy analyses of rare minerals have been given, and L 218 NATURE [JuLy 7, 1892 in the case of common minerals, where the number of published analyses is very great, a judicious selection of the best and most recent analyses has been made. The statement of the optical constants and the physical characters of minerals has been treated in much the same fashion as the chemical data. The best and most trustworthy determinations have been selected, while measurements of doubtful value have been omitted. It is on the crystallographic portion of the work, how- ever, that Prof. E. S. Dana has expended the greatest amount of labour. We are informed in the preface that “an attempt has been made to trace back to the origina) observer the fundamental angles for each species, then the axes have been recalculated from them, and finally the important angles of all common forms have been calculated from these axes.” The author is able to state that in every case this recalcula- tion of the angles of all the forms of a mineral has been undertaken, and that no pains has been spared in the verification and correction of the results. The crystal forms are indicated by letters, and the symbols em- ployed are in the first instance those of Miller, and in the second instance the modified form of Naumann’s symbols familiar to all who have used the earlier editions of the work. The author givesit as his opinion that the former should eventually supplant the latter altogether. In the hexagonal and rhombohedral system, however, the Bravais-Miller system is adopted in preference to that of Miller. With few exceptions, the figures of crystals (1400 in number) are new. Many have been drawn from original data, and those taken from other works have been re- drawn so as to secure uniformity of projection ; the habits of each species and the types of twinning in crystals have been very fully illustrated. While the general account of the mode of occurrence and association of mineral species has been very carefully attended to, there has been no attempt to make this part of the work exhaustive, for to have done so would have greatly increased the bulk of the volume. The account of American localities—which has always been an important feature of Dana’s work, and has made it for North America what the treatises of Kokscharovy and Zepharovitch are for the Russian and Austrian Empires respectively—has been greatly added to. The works of Roth and Hintze, with the numerous books and memoirs devoted to the geology of particular regions, now supply all the information that is needed in respect to mineralogical distribution in other areas. We have tested the volume in many ways as to the’ completeness and recent nature of the information given with respect to particular species, and always with satisfactory results. To pass such a voluminous mass of information through the press has required eighteen months of labour, and notices of important con- tributions to our knowledge that have appeared since the earlier. pages of the book were printed off have been relegated to a supplement. This supplement, which extends to 28 pages, also contains brief accounts of minerals of unknown composition, and of doubtful species having little or no claim to recognition. In conclusion, we must congratulate both the original author of the “System,” and the writer of the volume: NO. 1184, VOL. 46] in its present form, on the completion of their useful labours. It is not too much to say that the publication of each successive edition of this work has constituted an epoch in the history of mineralogical science ; and the present edition, coming from the hands of a new author, completely maintains the prestige of former ones. ]. Wak MODERN INFINITESIMAL CALCULUS. An Introduction to the Study of the Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus. From the German of the late Axel Harnack, Professor of Mathematics at the Polytechnicum, Dresden. (London and Edin- burgh: Williams and Norgate, 1891.) R. G. L. CATHCART?’S translation forms a hand- some volume, and will prove acceptable to those engaged in mathematical teaching, as a storehouse of suggestive methods and ideas for analytical exegesis. But let us examine the work from the standpoint of the student approaching the subject of the Calculus for the first time, supposing this book to be put into his hands to acquire his first acquaintance with the method and reasoning. a Until very recently the Classics, Greek and Latin, as taught at school, were looked upon chiefly as collections of grammatical examples, and the subject-matter was lost sight of in the careful parsing and analysis of the sentences. Boys were taught on a system which implied that they were all, in their turn, to become schoolmasters and instructors ; and the interests of the majority, who would profit intellectually from the literary study of the ancient masterpieces, were completely neglected. So, too, in Mathematics: the ordinary text-books give an excellent schoolmaster’s training in the subject ; but the large and increasing class of students, brought into existence recently by the commercial developments of scientific application, who are required to put into imme- diate practice the theory which they find indispensable, cannot afford the time to be dragged the whole length of the quagmire of the Convergency of Series, of Inequali- - ties, of Discontinuity, and of the so-called Failure of Taylor’s Theorem. These are the quagmires in which the mere mathematician delights to lose himself, and also to lure in others after him. To one who is already very familiar with the notation and operations of the Calculus the present treatise will prove, not repellent, but even fascinating to minds who pursue the subject for its purely analytical interest. Having been over the road before, they will be prepared to appreciate the strictly logical order in which the theorems are developed, starting in Chapter I. with the fundamental conceptions of Rational Numbers, of their Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division—the subject of Arithmetic in short ; and passing on in Chap- ter II. to Radicals and Irrational Numbers in general. The next three chapters treat of the Conceptions of Variable Quantities, of Functions of a Variable, their Geometric Representation and Continuity ; and it is not till the sixth chapter that the Differential Coefficient is introduced and determined for the simplest functions. But the beginner, who has had the courage to read thus far, will wonder what on earth the subject is all JuLy 7, 1892] NATURE 219 ‘about, even when he has reached the end of Book L., which covers the ground of the subject usually called the Differential Calculus: there are no illustrations, except for one or two meagre geometrical applications, for the mind to hold on by; no diagrams, and no examples to test the soundness of the student’s knowledge. It is true that these collections of examples are ‘decried in certain lofty quarters of the mathematical hierarchy ; but the humbler priests of the science, who are in touch with the noviciate mind of human nature, ‘know their practical value ; and these collections of prob- tems, formerly a feature of our text-books unknown abroad, are now being extensively copied and adopted in other countries. “In scientiis ediscendis prosunt exempla magis quam precepta ” (Newton). ‘The Second Book considers Functions of Complex ‘Numbers : we make another fresh start with the opera- tions of Arithmetic, as it is called here; not that any ‘resemblance can be traced to what generally goes by that” name. In this book the questions of Convergency, of Single- and Multiple-valued Functions, as illustrated by a ‘Riemann surface, and of their Zeros and Infinities, are gone into at great length; but at the same time the reader will have an impression that the information is given in a very condensed form, and that an attempt has been made to give a brief résumé of a subject which requires a large volume to itself. This Morbid Pathology of the Mathematical Function, as we may call it, requires a very clear, concise, and cosmopolitan tereminology, which, as Mr. Cathcart points out on p. 148, it does not yet possess; it is unfortunate that the nomenclature has mostly been formed originally in the agglutinate German language, and in many cases is only very imperfectly translatable. ‘This part of the subject, although principally known to us from the researches of later writers, such as Cauchy, Riemann, Dirichlet, and Weierstrass, owes very much to Gauss ; but Gauss deserves to lose the credit of priority, from his baneful habit of bottling up his discoveries, after announcing that he had obtained the solution, so as to warn off all other investigators fron’ his preserves of research. The Integral Calculus is developed in Book III. ; here also the treatment,though complete, is very condensed; and but few simple problems and applications are provided to show the use of the subject when the analysis is established. ' The author never employs the hyperbolic functions, although their use can be traced back to Newton (‘* Principia,” Lib. I1., Prop. ix.); but in the reductions of the integral of F(x, ,/R) where R is the quadratic a+ 26x + cx*, the use of ,/R as the argument in conjunc- tion with the circular and hyperbolic functions enables us to present the different results which arise in a more systematic manner than that employed in the present work, A very short sketch is also given of the method of reduction of the integrals when R is of the third or fourth degree ; the elliptic integrals are now introduced, but no mention is made of the elliptic /wmctions, introduced by Abel by the inversion of the elliptic z¢egra/s. The Fourth Book, which treats of the integrals of complex functions and of the general properties of analytic functions, is probably the sole presentation of this modern and difficult subject in our language. To a mathematician NO. 1184, VOL. 46] of Mr. Cathcart’s development the treatment will appear very concise and elegant, but for our part we miss the footholds afforded by the physical applications of the general theorems of functions ; say to Hydrodynamics, such as those recently published by Prof. W. Burnside in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, on Riemann’s Theory and on Automorphic Functions, determined from their discontinuities. The book will recommend itself, as we said at the out- set, to the advanced student, who pursues mathematical study as an end to itself, by reason of the strict logical order in which the subjects are presented; but is this strict logical order the most suitable arrangement for a beginner ? Herbert Spencer says that “in each branch of instruc- tion we should proceed from the empirical to the rational.” In the operatic version of “ Manon” the events are pre- sented in chronological order; but in the original ‘‘Histoire de Manon Lescaut” the story begins in the middle, so as to excite the reader’s curiosity as to the preceding events which led up to the point at which the characters appear on the scene. According to Prof. Harnack’s preface, the present work may be considered the operatic version of his lectures, while the simple story would appear in the lectures de- livered in the Dresden Polytechnicum to his technical students, who required a knowledge of Analysis chiefly as an instrument for the solution of mechanical problems. Mr. Cathcart explainsin his Translator’s Note the desire he had to make these lectures accessible to the English reader, and records the regret he felt at the news of the death of Prof. Harnack, while engaged on a revision of his notes for a new edition. The thanks of the mathe- matical world are dueto Mr. Cathcart for the care and trouble he has taken in this valuable piece of work. A. G. GREENHILL. ALTERATIONS OF PERSONALITY. Les Altérations de la Personnalité. Par Alfred Binet. Bibliothéque Scientifique Internationale. (Paris: An- cienne Librairie Germer Bailliére et Cie., 1892.) N what is in ordinary parlance called somnambulism, or sleep-walking, the patient rises in the night, per- forms a number of seemingly intelligent actions directed to some special end, answers questions with regard to such actions with a variable amount of coherence, returns to bed, and generally, but not in all cases, wakes in the morning with no remembrance of that which he has done during the night. Such is somnambulism in its narrower sense. It exhibits the individual in an abnor- mal psychological condition, the actions performed in this abnormal condition being generally unconnected in memory with the normal sequence of events in waking life. The word somnambulism is, however, now used in a wider and at the same time more technical sense, being applied to all cases where the individual, either spon- taneously or through hypnotic suggestion, falls into an abnormal condition distinguishable from the normal con- dition of his or her waking life. It is with the alterations of personality exhibited during the state of somnambulism in this wider sense that M. Binet’s volume chiefly deals. 220 NATURE [JuLy 7, 1892 The subject is one that is beset with peculiar difficulties , and one in which extreme caution is necessary in drawing anything like definite conclusions. But itis one thit is throwing, and is likely to throw, important side light on normal psychology, and one that may prove helpful in elucidating the difficult problem of the nature of the association of brain and consciousness. It will only be possible in the space at our disposal to indicate the nature of some of the evidence M. Binet adduces, and the in- terpretation suggested by this learned and lucid writer. The phenomenaof so-called spontaneous somnambulism are somewhat as follows. The patient is, we will say, a dull and melancholy young woman. She falls into a deep and prolonged sleep, or suffers from an hysterical or con- vulsive crisis. On waking from the sleep, or emerging from the crisis, she is in an altered condition, with little or no memory of her previous life, and no apparent know- ledge of her friends and relations. Her character is changed: no longer dull and melancholy, she is bright and merry. In this state she remains for a time, learning anew the ways of the world, and daily profiting by her fresh experiences. Then she falls again into deep slumber, or other crisis, from which she emerges her old self once more, taking up her normal dull and melancholy life just where she left it. She remembers nothing that happened in her abnormal or second state. There is no continuity between the two, Such alterations of personality may continue at varying intervals for many years. Somewhat similar are the phenomena observed in the somnambulism induced through hypnotic suggestion. M. Janet’s subject, Léonie, is a serious and rather sad person, calm and slow, very mild with everyone, and extremely timid. Hypnotized, she becomes a different being. She keeps her eyes closed, but her other senses are abnormally acute. She is gay, noisy, and restless; good-natured, but with a tendency to irony and sharp jesting. In this condition she repudiates her former self. ‘“ That good woman is not myself,” she says, “she is too stupid !” __M. Binet, summarizing the principal modifications of memory in hypnotic somnambulism, says that the subject, during the normal condition, remembers nothing of the events which have taken place during somnambulism, but that, when hypnotized, he may remember not only the occurrences in former somnambulisms, but also those which belong to the normal state. There is thus some continuity of the normal into the hypnotic personality, but none from the hypnotic to the normal. “Le livre de la vie somnambulique se ferme au réveil, et la personne normale ne peut pas le lire.” But though there is no conscious memory in the waking state of what has occurred during somnambulism, it is said to be possible to unseal the register thereof through automatic writing. A fact is told to the subject in the state of somnambulism under hypnosis, and the subject is then restored to the normal state. He has no recollection of the fact, and knows nothing aboutit. But slip a pencil between his fingers, hiding the hand from his eyes by means of a screen, and he will write down the fact auto- matically (Gurney). In cases of so-called “negative hallucination” ,or “systematic anesthesia,” the subject under hypnotic sug- gestion neglects and is apparently blind to certain objects. For example, two out of a number of blank cards are NO. 1184, VOL. 46] | cessive personalities. marked with a cross, and the subject is made blind to these. If she be given a dozen cards, and among them these two, and if she be asked to count the cards, she will neglect these two and reply that there are ten. But if a pencil be slipped between her fingers, and she be asked in a low voice how many cards there are, she will reply, in automatic writing, ¢wo. And if she be asked, in the same tone, why she said. ten and neglected these two, she will write in reply that “ she could not see them.” On the basis of such observations as are here briefly summarized, and others for a description of which we must refer our readers to the book itself, M. Binet contends that, associated with the same physical individual, there may be two (or more) personalities, both of which are conscious. They may be co-existent or successive. Anesthesia is the barrier which separates co-existent personalities: amnesia the barrier which separates suc- “En un mot, il peut y avoir chez un méme individu, pluralité de mémoires, pluralité de consciences, pluralité de personnalités ; et chacune de ces mémoires, de ces consciences, de ces personnalités ne connait que ce qui se passe sur son territoire.” We do not propose to discuss this position. Suffice it to say, that for ourselves we see no satisfactory evidence of the co-existence of two personalities doth of which are simultaneously conscious. Strange alterations and modi- fications of personality may occur under peculiar circumstances; but this is something very different from the supposed co-existence of two or more distinct consciousnesses. C. Lu. M. + OUR BOOK SHELF. Volcanoes: Past and Present. By Edward Hull, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. With Forty-one Illustrations and Four Plates of Rock-sections. (London: Walter Scott, 1892.) IN this new volume of the “Contemporary Science Series,” Prof. Hull has given a very readable account of the phenomena of volcanoes and earthquakes. A short introduction tothe subject of vulcanology is followed by a sketch of the active and extinct volcanoes of Europe, and this by an account of some of the “‘ dormant or mori- bund volcanoes of other parts of the world.” From this description of recent volcanoes, the author proceeds to the consideration of the Tertiary volcanic districts of the British Islands, and the pre-Tertiary volcanic rocks of our own and other countries. The two concluding chap- ters of the book are devoted to a consideration of the remarkable eruption of Krakatdo in 1883, and the great earthquakes which during the last few years have attracted so much attention, with a discussion of some of the volcanic and seismic problems suggested to the author by his review of the phenomena. These problems are classed by the author under the following heads :— “The Ultimate Cause of Volcanic Action,” “ Lunar Vol- canoes,” and the question: “Are we living in an Epoch of special Volcanic Activity?” An appendix gives “A Brief Account of the Principal Varieties of Volcanic Rocks.” In a little book of 270 pages it has of course been im- possible for the author to do full justice to such a wide circle of topics, and it is sometimes difficult to detect the principle on which certain subjects have been included, and others réjected by him. But the author may be fairly credited with having accomplished his main object, which he has defined as follows : “‘ To illustrate the most 4 Juty 7, 1892] NATURE 221 recent conclusions regarding the phenomena and origin of volcanic action by the selection of examples drawn from districts where these phenomena have been most carefully observed and recorded under the light of modern geological science.” An admirable feature of the work is the recognition of the principle that vulcanological problems may often be better attacked by the study of ancient and greatly denuded volcanoes, rather than by the examination of those in actual activity, or of such as have recently become extinct. “ Encyclopédie scientifique des Aide-mémotre” :— yon Sapo des matériaux. Par M. Duquesnay. tude expérimentale calorimétrigue de la machine a Ui Par V. Dwelshauvers- Dery. Air comprimé ou raréfé. Par Al. Gouilly. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, Georges Masson.) THESE three little hand-books on their respective subjects are made by the separate publication of the respective articles of the “ Encyclopédie scienti- fique” ; it is intended that each subject is to appear in a separate volume at a rate of publication of thirty to forty a year. There is no indication by numbering:as to the order of appearance, so that probably these are the pioneer volumes. The first volume, “La résistance des matériaux,” gives a very clear and concise account of the practical side of Elasticity, so far as required by the engineer in the design of beams, columns, bridges, and retaining walls. Prof. Dwelshauvers-Dery is well known for his theo- retical and experimental researches on the Steam Engine, and his treatise may be considered as the application of the empirical laws of saturated vapours to the theoretical determination of the useful effect obtainable in the different forms of steam engine, simple or compound, with an attempt at the evaluation of the loss due to con- duction. The results arrived at are checked by com- parison with long-continued steam-engine trials carried out by Hirn, Donkin, Longridge, and the author himself. The third volume, on “ Air comprimé,” may be supposed to carry out the same development of abstract Thermo- dynamics when the medium is supposed to behave as a a. gas. In this case the mathematical laws, deve- oped at the outset, are capable of more ready and imme- diate application ; and the second half of the book gives a detailed account of the employment of air as the medium for the transmission of energy in its various industrial applications—for instance, as laid on in Paris compressed in mains, or as employed when rarefied in the Westing- house brake. _ A useful feature in these books is a page at the outset, in which the notation to be subsequently employed is carefully explained. - The Mechanical Equivalent of Heat is taken as 425 kilogrammetres, presumably at Paris; the mean of Prof. Rowland’s experiments gives about 427 Baltimore kilo- grammetres, or in absolute measure about 42 million ergs, or 4°2 joules. The “ Encyclopédie” is to be divided in interest be- tween the section de l’Ingénieur and the section du Bio- Jogiste; the volumes promised in the first section, as in course of preparation, will constitute a valuable technical working library. G. Chamberss Encyclopedia. New Edition. Vol. IX. (London and Edinburgh: W. and R. Chambers, 1892.) THE new edition of this admirable Encyclopedia is now approaching completion, and in the present volume there is certainly no falling-off in the ability with which the work has hitherto been written and edited. On ali im- portant subjects represented by words between “ Round ’ and “ Swansea” there are articles summing up the latest NO. 1184, VOL. 46] results of research. An excellent article on round towers, by Dr. Joseph Anderson, is given on the first and second pages. This is a model of what such a paper ought to be. The author knows his subject thoroughly, and con- sequently understands where to draw the line between ascertained facts and the theories based upon them. Another well-arranged archzological contribution by Dr. Anderson.is the paper on sculptured stones. Dr. John Murray writes with his usual lucidity on the sea and on sounding. The task of expounding the facts and laws relating to sound and to the spectrum has been intrusted to Prof. Knott, and the Rev. E. B. Kirk contributes the articles on the sun and the stars. Dr. Buchan is the author of a clear and interesting paper on storms. Other scientific articles which may be specially noted are those on the Silurian system, by Prof. James Geikie ; on the skull, by Dr. D. Hepburn; on the snail and the slug, by Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell ; on snakes and spiders, by Mr. J. A. Thomson ; on the steam-engine, by Prof. A. B. W. Kennedy ; and on the steam-hammer, by Prof. T. H. Beare. Among the geographical contributions are articles on Russia, by Prince Kropotkin ; on Siam, by Mr. J. S. Black ; on South Australia, by Mr. J. Bonwick ; and on Spain, by the Rev. Wentworth Webster. A Guide to Electric Lighting. By S. R. Bottone. (Whittaker and Co., London, 1892). IN this work the author gives a general idea of the various methods of electric lighting, without entering into any of those technicalities which tend to confuse rather than enlighten the ordinary reader. Commencing with descriptions of the various batteries that are now em- ployed, he discusses their particular advantages and dis- advantages, adding also a table of their E.M.F., currents, and resistances. The second chapter, which is devoted to the pro- duction of currents by means of the dynamo, will enable the reader to form some idea as to the selec- tion of one of these machines for a given purpose, and to understand its general principles. Perhaps the chap- ter on electric lamps and accumulators will be found the most serviceable, for one is brought far more into contact with them than with dynamos themselves. The information here will enable anyone to set up a small installation for himself, while a very useful table shows the dimensions, capacities, weights, &c., of accumulators suitable for such work. The remaining chapters deal with the descriptions of some of the smaller appliances necessary in connecting up the supplier of electricity, whether it be dynamo or accumulator, with motors or transformers, and last but not least with an excellent 7éswmé of the cost of main- tenance, showing the relative prices of gas and electricity as now regulated. The book contains numerous illustrations, and as a thoroughly practical and handy work should be widely read. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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 Grammar of Science.” To the vast majority of readers, chapter ix. of the ‘‘ Grammar of Science ” will probably seem to be simply a plea in favour of the doctrine of evolution in its purest form. We were not called upon to express any 0 inion as to the merits of this doctrine, nor did we. What struck us (and still strikes us) as fundamentally illogical, was the formulation of a theory, which, itself avowedly a mental product, proceeded to picture a universe devoid of sentient beings, or, in the phraseology of the ‘‘ Grammar,” a 222 NATURE [JuLy 7, 1892 conceptual world evolving the perceptive faculty which creates it. An evolution theory which postulates spontaneous genera- tion and human automatonism is natural to the materialist ; and hence our contention that, in spite of the general character of the argument in the earlier chapters of the book, certain con- clusions are distinctly materialistic. Again, we are not of those who would bind down all time to Newton’s views on matter, force, and motion. That never has been the position of those whom Prof. Pearson delights in nicknaming the Edinburgh school. Only we think a writer should be careful as to what he imputes to Newton. Thomson and Tait say, ‘‘ We cannot do better, at all events in commenc- ing, than follow Newton somewhat closely”; and unless they have misrepresented the teaching of the ‘‘ Principia,” an attack on their version surely amounts to an attack on Newton. Indeed, Prof. Pearson fully realizes this himself, when, on p. 382, he accuses Newton of thinking of ‘‘ force in the sense of medizval metaphysics as a cause of change in motion.” It was this state- ment we took exception to. Similarly, we cannot but look upon Prof. Pearson’s obvious jeer at Maxwell’s language as of the same gratuitous character. ‘* Matter is, as it were, the plaything of force ”—this evidently Prof. Pearson regards as his trump card. Now these words— and note the ‘‘as it were ’’—occur in the discussion of Newton’s laws of motion, and are obviously suggested by Newton’s own anthropomorphic language. But they can give rise to no mis- apprehension in the mind of one who is reading Prof. Tait’s ‘* Properties of Matter” for profit. In the light of the intro- ductory chapter there is really no room for other than wilful misrepresentation of Prof. Tait’s position. Moreover, it is positively astonishing to find an author, who has no slender claims to the title of historian, confessing his ignorance of Prof. Tait’s lecture on ‘‘ Force,” delivered before the British Association in 1876, and published in NATURE, vol. xiv. (see also ‘*‘ Recent Advances,” third edition, and Maxwell’s ‘‘ Life,” p- 646). That lecture was, we think, the first popular exposition of the subjectivity of force. The recognition of this truth was, of course, a natural consequence of the remarkable series of discoveries which brought home to the mind that energy was physically as objectively real as matter. We certainly did not need to go all the way to Berlin to learn it. Cc. G. K, On the Line Spectra of the Elements. I OBSERVE from Prof. Runge’s last letter that on one point I was led into misinterpreting his meaning by his having used the letter 7 in his second formula on p. 100 (NATURE of June 2) in a sense different from the only definition that had been given of that symbol, viz. the jot of time—the time that light takes to advance one-tenth of a millimetre in the open ether. The period of time represented by 7 is as determinate as aday or hour. With it, Prof. Runge’s equation represents one definite discontinuous motion along the sloping sides of the teeth of a particular saw, and this is what I understood by it. I perceive now that he intended 7 to be interpreted in a new sense, and meant the equation to represent uniform motion in a straight line to an zudefinzte distance. If all that Prof. Runge wishes to point out is that motion along an orbit that extends to infinity must be either wholly incapable of being represented by a Fourier’s series, or at least must contain a component of that kind, this is both true and obvious ; and the instance he gives (whichis, in fact, uniform motion to an unlimited distance along a straight line) is a case in point. But it should be added, no such component of the motion of an electric charge which does not yield to Fourier’s theorem can produce any periodic.disturbance in the ether: in other words, 24 would not contribute anything to the spectrum. Accordingly, any such part of the motion—for instance, the advance, in common with the rest of the solar system, of the electrons within the molecules of a gas on the earth, at the rate of eight miles a second, towards the constellation Hercules, which is the precise kind of motion that Prof. Runge adduces as an instance—has nothing whatever to do with the subject of my memoir, which is an investigation into the cause of double lines zz spectra. It should further be added that unlimited motions of any kind have nothing to do with motions going on within molecules, to the investigation of which chapter iv. of my memoir is devoted, and that any discussion of them there would have been out of place. Hence, to represent as a defect which vitiates my reasoning, NO. 1184, VOL. 46] as Prof. Runge does, that I have omitted in that chapter to refer to the motions which are not resolvable by Fourier’s theorem, is, I submit, not legitimate criticism, especially as the matter, beside being irrelevant, is obvious ; and I also submit that to say *‘ A plausible suggestion about the movement of the molecules ought to explain more than one of the observed phenomena” (NATURE, April 28, p. 607) is not criticism at all. We must use the data furnished by our observation of nature to carry us as far as they will go in the interpretation of nature, and not refuse to employ them to that extent because they do not enable us to get further. G. JOHNSTONE STONEY. 9 Palmerston Park, Dublin, July 2. Range of the Sanderling in Winter, As my little contribution to the Records of the Australiaw Museum has been honoured by a notice in NATURE (supra, pp. 177-78), I must ask leave to qualify two statements therein made, Since I wrote it I have become aware that Dr. Finsch had a specimen of the Sanderling (Ca/idris arenaria) brought to him at Bonham Island, one of the Marshall Group, which lies within the tropics (/ézs, 1880, p. 331); and, after the publication of Mr. Everett’s list of the birds of Borneo in 1889, that gentleman announced the occurrence of this species at Baram, on the north-east coast of that island (/éis, 1890, . 465). ALFRED NEWTON. Magdalene College, Cambridge, June 25. Immunity of the African Negro from Yellow Fever. Dr. CREIGHTON will find that on p. 51 of a report dated 1890, ‘* On the Etiology and Prevention of Yellow Fever,” Dr. George M. Sternberg (Lieut.-Colonel and Surgeon U.S. Army) makes the following statement :— ‘¢Tt has been asserted that the negro race has a congenital immunity from yellow fever, but this is a mistake. The susceptibility of the negro is, however, much less than that of the white race. Amongst those attacked the mortality, as a rule, is small,” He will also find the subject discussed on pp. 166-67 of ‘**A Contribution to the Natural History of Scarlatina,” by Dr. D. Astley Gresswell (Clarendon Press, 1890). Dr. Gresswelh writes thus :— : ‘The African negro of pure descent was supposed to be insusceptible to the virus of yellow fever and of malaria. It is said, however, that when these affections are prevailing in a virulent form the negro does become infected and mani- fest such infection. This would suggest that the almost complete immunity in the case of the negro has been acquired. Moreover, the fact that negroes of pure descent are more likely to manifest the symptoms of yellow fever on exposure to the poison after they have passed some years or some generations in more temperate latitudes, in which the disease is not indigenous, suggests that in order to maintain this degree of immunity it is necessary that the negro should continue to live in localities in which the virus exists ; in other words, that the individual or the race should be repeatedly subjected to the virus. It may, in fact, be questioned how far, in regard to these diseases in man, susceptibility differs independently of protection acquired by previous subjection to the action of the virus or its products ; though natural selection may (as certain facts indicate) have acted more directly. Indeed, it is quite possible that protection acquired by previous infection is much more frequently a cause for benignity or only partial susceptibility in the case of these and other infection-diseases than is generally allowed for.” I do not think I can with advantage add anything to these quotations. YouR REVIEWER, A Solar Halo. IN connection with the heavy thunderstorms further south, possibly, there was here the most brilliant solar halo on the 29th which I have seen. The wind was easterly all the time, causing sea-fog-like clouds in the morning, which dissipated by degrees about 10, but I did not notice the halo before 10.45, nor after 3.30 or 4.0’clock. It was certainly gone at 5. Though a complete halo at 11, it was far intenser above and below, the north-west and south-east octant especially. By 1 o’clock this had shifted to the north-east and south-west octants. JuLy 7, 1892] NATURE 223 Between I1.45 and 12 the south-east octant of the outer halo {red inside) was also visible. Until 1 o’clock the figure was practically circular, the inner space being remarkably free of colour, the blue of the sky assum- ing an ashy grey tint. By 2 the figure was elliptical, the long axis horizontal, and the halo ot complete. The ellipticity in- creased asthesun sank. Hence the visible part was evidently formed of the tangent arcs. No doubt the intense brilliancy near noon was due to these arcs practically coinciding with the ordinary halo, because of the sun’s great altitude. J. EDMUND CLARK. 4 Lorne Terrace, Edinburgh, June 3o. The Electric Current. Durtnc the thunderstorm last evening, in the middle of the brilliant flashes which illuminated the south-eastern sky, noticed the electric current assume the following remarkable form :— ! 1 ul 1 i , i ‘: ee he / t ¢ sy 1 t : ‘ ‘ 1 2 1 i ‘ 1 i AY i / " 1 H / . \ H / 4, 1 i a x Ly i a %, % 4 ‘ ‘ 7 / / %. %. ? \ Mi ye . * Se 7 Bite pe nel Burlington Fine Arts Club, 17 Savile Row, W., June 29. EDWARD HAMILTON, Are the Solpugidz Poisonous? AT a recent meeting of the Linnean Society (June 2), I had the honour of exhibiting the jaws, claws, and hairs of a species of Galeodes from Tashkend, in order to show certain peculiari- ties, which perhaps throw light on the question as to whether snl are poisonous or not. Murray, in ‘“‘ Economic Entomology,” says: ‘‘ Their bite is said to be venomous, and even dangerous, but proof of this is wanting.” It is, further, always the natives in both the Old and New Worlds where this ‘‘ spider” occurs who give it its bad reputa- tion, and always the European immigrant or settler who either doubts or even positively denies it. _ In spite of the well-known fact of the persistence of ground- less terrors in the minds of uncivilized peoples, I should still be inclined to think that, in a case of this kind, which is one of raw experience, the natives would probably be in the right. Dufour, in his monograph of the Algerian species (A/em. f. & TInstitut de France, xvii.), after describing a serious case arising from a Galeodes bite, having failed to find any poison- glands or apparatus, leaves the mystery to be solved by others. Croneberg (Zool. Anzeiger, 1879) claimed to have discovered the poison gland in a long coiled gland, which he says opens at the tip of a lancet-shaped process at the junction of the palp with its basal or maxillar portion. As far as I can make out, this gland is the homologue of the coxal gland of the other Arachnids. This would not preclude the possibility of its being a poison gland. On the face of it, however, I should not expect to find the opening of the poison gland in this comparatively awkward place. In a creature so armed for attack as Galeodes, one would expect the venom to take a more prominent place in the offensive armoury. Examination, on immersion in clearing media, shows— (1) That the tips of the jaws are not only traversed by a canal opening to the exterior, but are covered with multitudes of fine pores, which can be traced with a low power through the thick chitin. (2) The claws are also open at the tip, while the shaft of the claw seems filled with a glandular mass of tissue provided with tracheze. These claws are terrible weapons of offence ; the articulating joint at the end enables them to anchor themselves in the body of the prey. - (3) Around these claws are sharp hairs, which appear, like the claws, to be open at their tips. It is obvious that the tighter the NO. 1184, VOL. 46] claws draw themselves into the flesh, the deeper would the pointed hairs at their base penetrate, and, if poisonous, increase the deadly nature of the attack. (4) Leaving the spines on the limbs, and the long, thin appa- rently tactile hairs out of account, the hairs on the legs and back are, as a rule, forked at the tip, as has been already described by Dufour. Up to the fork they are hollow, like those round the claws. My suggestion is that these are like buttoned rapiers, They are harmless until the animal is seized. The fork prevents the hair from penetrating until the pressure is great enough to snap off the tip. Small mammals and birds would soon learn not to try to chew up or swallow a Galeodes. If this suggestion is correct, the action of the forked hairs may be compared with that of the stinging hairs of the common nettle. (5) Here and there are long hollow hairs, with the tips swollen out into athin bubble-like expansion of the chitin. These hairs may be abnormal. I found five or six in all, and chiefly on the palp. They seem to indicate a tendency of fluid to flow down the hairs. . The openings at the tips of the claws are quite in keeping, mor- phologically, with those at the tips of the hairs. Claws are but highly developed hairs. The jaws, however, are modified joints of limbs. We have, therefore, to interpret the central canal (?) and the pores which open at and around their tips, as the canals which run through the cuticle into the hairs. We find that, as we recede from the tips of the jaws, the open pores cease, and the hairs commence, each with its central canal continued through the cuticle. As to the nature of the poison which I suggest flows through these apertures, I am inclined to consider it, in the presumed absence of specialized glands, as a product of the hypodermal cells, perhaps even of those which secrete the hairs themselves. At the tips of the jaws, where the hairs have disappeared and only their pores remain, these cells could be specialized for this purpose alone. Inthe claws there seems to be a mass of cellular tissue, which would also be a derivative of the hypodermis, and may be solely taken up with the secretion of poison. One other point remains to be mentioned, viz. the mechanism for the movement of the end joint of the claw. Articulated hairs are common among the Polychete Annelids, but the exact mechanism is not visible. This large claw of Galeodes may ex- plain these cases. We should naturally not expect a muscle fibre inahair. Theactual mechanism is verysimple. Along one side of the claw thechitin splits, for, say, three-fourths of its proximal length, toform aninnerand an outer layer. fat NOTES. At the meeting of Section A of the British Association on Monday, August 8, there will be a discussion on the subject of a National Physical Laboratory. The discussion will be opened by Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S. THE Academy of Sciences at Berlin has conferred upon Lord Kelvin one of the first four Helmholtz gold medals, THE French Association for the Advancement of Science will hold its twenty-first meeting at Pau from September 15 to 22. THE Council of University College have accepted a tender for the erection ofnew technical laboraturies for the practical teaching of mechanical and electrical engineering. Care has been taken that the buildings shall accord with all the conditions of modern teaching, but of course it is necessary that provision shall also be made for an adequate supply of apparatus and plant. The part of the proposed laboratory which is to be set apart for electrical engineering cannot be properly fitted up for a sum of less than £2010, and Prof. Fleming has issued an appeal to all who may be eble and willing to help him in obtaining this amount. In the course of his appeal he says: ‘* The Council do not at present see their way to incur this additional expendi- ture over and above the cost of the buildings, and yet it is absolutely essential to the completion of the project. The Council have, therefore, by a minute of their proceedings of May 7, 1892, recommended this very essential part of the pro- posed work to the notice and liberality of those who may be disposed to help. Thus*sanctioned and authorized by the Council, the Professor of Electrical Engineering begs per- mission to bring under your notice the necessity for a special Electrical Apparatus Fund, and desires to invite your aid in the formation of such a fund of £2010, to be entitled ‘ The NO. 1184, VOL. 46] University College Electrical Engineering Apparatus Fund.’ ?” Prof. Fleming is anxious that the sum should, if possible, be obtained within the next six months. Donations should be’ sent to the Secretary of University College, marked ‘‘ Electrical Apparatus Fund.” THE services rendered by the late Sir William Macleay to the Linnean Society of New South Wales and to science in general are to be commemorated by the publication of a me- morial volume. This was decided recently at.a general ‘meeting of the New South Wales Linnean Society. It is proposed that, in addition to a portrait and memoir of Sir William Macleay, the volume shall consist of original papers on those branches of science in the advancement of which he was especially interested —zoology, ethnology, botany, and geology. Promises of papers have already been received from Sir F. von Mueller, Prof. Hutton, Prof. J. Parker, Prof. Baldwin Spencer, and other leading Australian biologists. It is intended that, as regards **style of get up and illustration,” the volume shall be fully worthy ofthe occasion. The expense is to be met by means of a public subscription. Every ordinary member of the Society subscribing one guinea or upwards, and any non-member sub- scribing two guineas or upwards, to the memorial will receive a copy of the volume. At the meeting of the Society on May 25, the President announced that a number of subscriptions had been received in answer to a circular issued a few weeks previously. It was necessary, however, he said, that a con- siderably larger sum should be collected before the Council would be in a position to proceed with the work. THE Governors of the Merchant Venturers’ School, Bristol, have elected to the vacant Lectureship in Biology Mr. G. P. Darnell-Smith, B.Sc., assistant to Dr. W. Marcet at University College, London. Mr. Smith is a student of University College, and graduated with honours in botany and zoology in 1891. THE thunderstorms which we referred to in our last issue gave a very decided, but temporary, check to the temperature, the highest day readings falling about 20° after the storm; and the heavy rains which accompanied the disturbed weather have materially lessened the deficiency of rainfall, which has been so characteristic a feature for some months past. By the end of last week the temperature had recovered, and the weather be- came very fine in the southern parts of the kingdom, the maxima reaching from 80° to 85° at some inland stations on Sunday ; while conditions remained unsettled, with heavy rain, in the north and west, owing to a cyclonic area which passed along the Irish coast, and caused a thunderstorm on the east coast. During the last day or two, depressions have passed to the northward of our islands, again causing unsettled weather, with rain in most parts ; while the westerly winds have increased considerably in strength, reaching the force of a gale on our north-west coasts. 228 NATURE [JuLy 7, 1892 The Weekly Weather Report issued on the 2nd instant shows that the rainfall differed very considerably in various parts ; in most of England, the north and west of Scotland, and in Ireland, the amount exceeded the mean. The greatest deficiency on the amount due from the beginning of the year is over the midland, south, and south-west of England, and the west of Scotland, the amounts. varying from about 3 to 7 inches. Bright sunshine exceeded the average amount for the week, except in the north- western and south-western districts. THE Washington Weather Bureau has recently issued a report on its work for the last six months of the year 1891, dealing more with the scientific and practical work of the Department than with the administrative duties, which were referred to in a special report issued in October last (NATURE, vol. xlv. p. 86). Prof. Harrington states that an endeavour has been made to improve the weather forecasts in every possible way; the time covered by the forecasts has been extended to thirty-six hours, and longer in some cases, Every effort is made to distribute the information as widely as possible, and for this purpose the telephone is becoming more popular, and will possibly eventually supersede the telegraph. Increased interest has of late been manifested in regard to meteorological education in the United States, and a list is given of the institutions which announce definite courses of instruction. A very large accumulation of data is now in the possession of the Weather Bureau ; a summary of these, under each element, is given in the report, and it is proposed to utilize the materials by special studies to be undertaken by the officers of the Bureau. The study of terrestrial magnetism in connection with meteorology, with the object of discovering some physical relations connecting them, has from time to time been made by various persons, but, on the whole, it has not led to definite results. Prof. Harrington states, however, that the sub- ject is now being specially investigated by Prof. F. H. Bigelow, one of the meteorologists of the Bureau, and that such progress has been made as to render it quite certain that they are in- timately associated. By the method of analysis now being used by Prof. Bigelow, which differs from that hitherto employed, it is stated that he has been able to disentangle several of the magnetic fields surrounding the earth, which are observed in the magnetic curves as an integrated effect. © ACCORDING to the Pioneer Mazi, the Port Officer of Manga- lore reports that a native craft was overtaken by heavy weather and made for Mangalore, where there is a bad bar with about eight feet of water init. A tremendous sea was breaking over the bar, so, before crossing it, and while running in, the native skipper opened one oil cask, forming a part of the cargo, and scattered it all round in the sea plentifully, with the result that he took his craft across the bar safely, and so saved the vessel and the cargo. The vessel’s name was Mahadeprasad, and she was of 95 tons, bound from Cochin to Bombay. .This is said to be the first case on record of a native tindal who has successfully used the oil in troubled waters. Mr. H. ROWLAND-BRowWN, writing in the current number of the Zntomologist, says that when sitting in the Temple Gardens on June 22 he sawa fine male Colias edusa fly across the lawn. The excitement among the sparrows was ‘‘simply immense,” but the butterfly ‘‘proved a match for his innumerable pur- suers, and sailed calmly over the railings towards the City.” The editor of the Ztomologist adds a note to the effect that this species was seen in London in 1877, which is remembered as the great ‘‘ edusa year.” A FACT noted in the current number of the Zoologist gives a very vivid idea of the depth of snow and drift in the north of Scotland last winter. In the parish of Lairg, a month or two after the first thaw set in, two full-grown stags were found dead NO. 1184, VOL. 46] in a hollow in a “burn.” The first thing one of the keepers: saw was a stag’s antlers above the snow. These he took forthe — branch of a tree, but on going near he found that a stag had — been smothered by the drifting snow while standing on its feet. A week or so afterwards, when more of the snow was melted, another stag was discovered. This one had been smothered while lying down. THE Peabody Museum has issued, in its series of archeolail and ethnological papers, an interesting report on pile-structures in Naaman’s Creek, near Claymont, Delaware, by Dr. H. T. Cresson. These pile-structures are believed to be remains of prehistoric fish-weirs. THE Chicago Exhibition will include what promises to bea very important department for the exhibition of objects relating to ethnology, archzology, history, and cartography. A special bureau connected with the department will represent the history of the Latin-American Republics, and include all relies of the time of Columbus. There will also be a group of ‘isolated and collective exhibits.” A full account of the plan of the de- partment, and of the classification of the exhibits, has been pre- pared by Mr. F. W. Putnam, chief of the department. By means of special research in different parts of America, under Mr. Putnam’s direction, important scientific collections in the ethnological and archzeological sections will be brought to- gether. It is hoped that every State Board and many historical and scientific Societies, as well as owners of private collections, will do what they can to contribute to the success of the de- partment, so that it may present a full and effective illustration of the present status of American archzology and ethnology. Messrs. MITCHELL AND HuGHES have issued the Trans- actions of the County of Middlesex Natural History and Science Society for the sessions 1889-90 and 1890-91. The volume contains papers on rabies—its natural history and the means of extinguishing it, by Arthur Nicols ; the best means of examining Rotifers under the microscope,-by C. Rousselet ; the tubercle bacillus, by A. W. Williams ; and ‘‘A Night among the Infinities,”’ more Observatory, by Sydney T. Klein. THE July number of Natural Science opens with some ** Notes and Comments,” and contains articles on ‘‘The Story of Olenellus,”” by Prof. G. A. J. Cole; the physical features of the Norfolk Broads, by J. W. Gregory ; the evolution of flat-. fish, by Prof. A. Giard ; is Stigmaria a root or a rhizome? by T. Hick (with ‘‘ A Reply,” by Prof. W. C. Williamson, F,R.S., and ‘*A Rejoinder,” by T. Hick); agricultural museums, by J. H. Crawford; and amber and fossil plants, by A. C. Seward. ; A PAPER on three deep wells in Manitoba, by Mr. J. B. Tyrrell, was lately submitted to the Royal Society of Canada, and has now been printed in the Transactions. It contains a good deal of interesting and well arranged geological informa- tion. Mr. D. J. MAcGOwWAN, writing in the Shanghai Mercury, gives an account of some remarkable statements made by a group of Chinese traders who lately undertook a mercantile exploration of .the interior of Southern Formosa. They started from Lamalan, which Mr. Macgowan takes to be Chockeday of the charts, and in seven days reached their objective point, Hualin Stream. They lodged in stone caverns, and the chatter- ing of monkeys and the sounds of insects seemed to them ‘*appalling and indescribable.”” The region was so ‘‘ weird” that it reminded them of ‘legends of the kingdom of hob- goblins.” Among the trees were some of ‘‘ prodigious girth, forming a vast forest.” These trees are said to measure more than ten outstretched arms. He was close to his comrade. Ne with a description of the instruments at Stan- . A tree said to flourish in the same chemical element which they contain—namely, fluorine. 3 Juty 7, 1892] NATURE 229 forest is described as bearing ‘‘ flowers, red and white, which are larger than a sieve, and of extraordinary fragrance.” Mr. _ Macgowan adds :—‘‘ Mr. Taylor, while searching for orchids, heard of these majestic trees and huge flowers, which he in- ferred, from what natives said, were epiphyte orchids. I am moved to make known this sylvan discovery in the hope that, . pending the exploration of this ¢erra incognita by our botanists, Dr. Henry or Mr. Ford, residents in Formosa, will take measures to provide those naturalists with specimens of flowers, seeds, leaves, and bark of the trees concerning which the Chinese have excited our curiosity.” IN a capital address on ‘tooth culture,” delivered at the annual meeting of the Eastern Counties Branch of the British Dental Association, and printed in the current number of the Lancet, Sir James Crichton-Browne referred to a change which has taken place in bread, as one of the causes of the increase of dental caries. So far as our own country is concerned, this is essentially an age of white bread and fine flour, and it is an age therefore in which we are no longer partaking, to anything like the Same amount that our ancestors did, of the bran or husky parts of wheat, and so are deprived to a large degree of a The late Dr. George Wilson showed that fluorine is more widely dis- tributed in nature than was before his time supposed, but still, as he pointed out, it is but sparingly present where it does 3 occur, and the only channels by which it can apparently find its way into the animal economy are through the siliceous stems of grasses and the outer husks of grain, in which it exists in com- parative abundance. Analysis has proved that the enamel of the teeth contains more fluorine, in the form of fluoride of calcium, than any other part of the body, and fluorine might, indeed, be regarded as the characteristic chemical constituent of this struc- ture, the hardest of all animal tissue, and containing 95°5 per per cent. of salts, against 72 per cent. in the dentine. As this is so, it is clear that a supply of fluorine, while the development of the teeth is proceeding, is essential to the proper formation of _ the enamel, and that any deficiency in this respect must result in thin and inferior enamel. Sir James Crichton-Browne thinks it well worthy of consideration whether the reintroduction into | _ our diet of a supply of fluorine in some suitable natural form— and what form, he asks, can be more suitable than that in which it exists in the pellicles of our grain stuffs ?—might not do s some- a thing to fortify the teeth of the next generation. _ THE recent publication is announced of the first number of a new monthly journal under the title Rivista ai patologia vegetale. ; ; It is edited by Sigg. A. N. and A. Berlese, and published at Avellino, i in Italy ; and is to be devoted to the study of animal and vegetable parasites infesting cultivated plants, to the diseases 3 which they cause, and the remedies employed to. combat them. _ Dr. H. C. CHAPMAN contributes to the latest instalment of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila- delphia, a paper describing observations on the brain of the gorilla. He says that while the fissures and convolutions are _ disposed in the brain of the gorilla in the same manner, gene- _ fally speaking, as in that of man or of the chimpanzee or orang, it is nevertheless a low type of brain, being much less convo- luted than the brain of man or of either of the two other anthro- poids. If it were permissible, in the absence of living links or F ‘sufficient fossil remains, to speculate upon the development of _ man and the anthropoids from lower forms of simian life, Dr. - Chapman thinks it might be inferred from the character of the brain that the gorilla had descended from some extinct Cyno- cephalus ; the chimpanzee and orang from extinct macaque q -and gibbon-like forms ; and man from some generalized simian _ form combining in itself the characteristics of existing anthro- "oid NO. 1184, VOL. 46] AT the annual meeting of the Department of Electricity of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on June 1, Prof. E. J. Houston delivered a lecture on recent advances in the applications of electricity, Turning for a moment from the past to the future, Prof. Houston said it was related of Faraday that when asked his opinion of the future of the electric motor, he put up his cane and stopped it. That was Faraday’s opinion. Prof. Houston’s view was more favourable. The true efficiency of a triple expansion steam engine, he said, did not exceed 17 per cent. as a maximum. With the electric motor we could already get an efficiency of from 90 to 95 per cent., but it was to-day dependent on the steam-engine. A cheaper method would be devised for generating currents, and he believed there were now those living who would see the steam-engine rele- gated tothescrap heap. Possibly the motor of the future would be operated by thermo-electricity. Possibly a means would be devised of converting the latent energy of coal directly into poten- tial electrical energy. He believed in the successfui solution of the problem of aérial navigation in the near future. He was con- fident that ere long our present methods of electric illumination, in which 97 to 98 per cent. of the energy was expended in useless heat rays, would be supplanted by one in which the order was reversed—in which 97 to 98 per cent. would be con- verted into light, and but 2 to 3 into heat. And finally, he believed the time was near at hand when electro-therapeutists, instead of regarding the human body as a vehicle for electricity, would regard it as a source of electricity. They would then make their diagnoses with the voltmeter, the ammeter, and the condenser, and the result would then be definite, instead of, as at present, ‘‘ hit or miss.” THE Mediterranean Naturalist quotes a statement made by the late Rev. H. Seddall, who was many years a resident of Malta, as to acurious form of industry formerly practised by the Maltese. “Five species of Pizna,” wrote Mr. Seddall, ‘* are found in Malta, some of them common in the harbours within reach of a boat or a pole hook. They project from the mud amongst the Zostera roots, to which they are attached by their silken cable. Of this silk, which is of fine texture, but heavy, I have seen gloves made.” THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include a Palm Squirrel (Scirus palmarum) from India, presented by Miss Daisy Fox ; a Common Roe (Cafreo- sus caprea 6), European, presented by Mr. E. J. H. Towers ; a Tawny Owl (Syrnium aluco), European, presented by Mr. Leigh Robinson; a Bronze Fruit Pigeon (Carpophaga enea) from India, presented by Mr. J. L. Shand; a Tuberculated Tortoise (Homopus femoralis), a Tent Tortoise (Zestudo ten- toria), two Fisk’s Tortoises (Zestudo fiskt), a Robben Island Snake (Coronelia phocarum) from South Africa, presented by the Rev. G. H. R. Fisk, C.M.Z.S. ; two Green Lizards (Lacerta viridis), European, three Viperine Snakes (Zropidonotus viper- inus) from North Africa, presented by the Rev. F. M. Haines ; a Common Chamelon (Chameleon vulgaris) from North Africa, presented by Mr. Samuel L. Bensusan ; a Water Viper (Cenchris piscivora) from North America, presented by Mr. Ernest Brewerton ; a Zorilla (Zorilla typica), a Grey Monitor ( Varanus griseus) from Egypt, a Stanley Parrakeet (Platycercus icterotis) from Australia, deposited; two Asiatic Wild Asses (Equus onager $ @) from South-west Asia, received in ex- change ; four Wapiti Deer (Cervus canadensis $ 2 2 2?) born in the Gardens. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. THE RED SPOT ON JUPITER.—M. J. J. Landerer, in Budletin Astronomique (tome ix., June), gives the results of his measure- ments of the dimensions and Jovicentric latitude of the red spot on Jupiter. The method he adopted was to make use of the transit 230 NATURE [JuLy 7, 1892 of the satellite’s shadows as they’ were projected on the extreme points of the two axes of the spot, the mean giving the position of the spot’s centre. Inthe case of the third satellite, when its lati- tude was —1° 45’ 14”, that of its shadow—reckoning from the bottom side of the spot—was — 30° 34’ 36”. The latitude of the shadow of the second satellite came out to be. — 17° 48’ 10”, and after allowing for the fact that it was projected tangentially on the side of the spot and for the diffraction of the instrument, this value for the latitude of the north side of the spot became ~ 20° 56’ 37”. Taking the mean of the values obtained from both satellites, the latitude of the centre was — 25° 45’ 36”, and, with the polar semi-diameter as unity, the magnitude of the spot was 0°20297. The mean value of the latitude obtained from eleven obser- vations by Denning, Green, Ricco, Williams, Keeler, and Terby was 21°°5 + 2°'05, the major and minor axes of the spot being 0°555 and o7188 respectively. Using the micrometer, the lati- tude, according to Young, amounted to 40°; while Denning estimated that the major axis embraced an arc varying between 29°°3 and 37°°8. : A Mgan TIME SUN-DIAL.—A very ingenious sun-dial, capable of indicating mean time, has been recently invented by Major-General Oliver, the construction of the instrument being undertaken by Messrs. Negretti and Zambra. In an ordinary sun-dial, the time is read off generally by the position of the centre of a shadow, cast by a straight-edged style, on a flat sur- face on which the hours are graduated. The peculiarity of the present instrument is that the time is indicated by the position of the edge of a shadow cast by a ‘‘ nine-pin” shaped style, with regard to an equatorial circular line. The style is fixed along the diameter of a semicircular arc, which is clamped by means of a screw to a firm stand to suit any latitude ; at right angles to this arc, and also capable of adjustment, is another semicircle, graduated in five-minute divisions. Owing to the change of declination of the sun throughout the year, different parts of the shadow of the style are brought on to the hour circle in such a way that the difference between the time indicated (by the dial) and mean time, or the equation of time, is counterbalanced by the change in position of the shadow, due to the peculiar form of the style. If we start, for instance, on December 24, the readings have to be taken from the shadow of the eastern edge of the lower part of the style in an upward direction, the bulging out of the style counteracting the increase and decrease of the equation of time (which is here positive) until June 14 is reached. Owing to the thickness of the style’s axis, a slight adjustment is here necessary when we pass to the other side of the style ; this adjustment is facilitated by placing the twelve o’clock graduation to the western of two marks shown on the vertical circle. This being done, the readings from the shadow, cast now by the western side of the upper protuberance, are taken until the other nodal point on June 14 is reached. At this time also—in fact, four times a year—this slight alteration has to be made. From this latter date until December 24 is reached the same process is repeated, only the respective opposite sides of the style are used in the inverse order. To obviate the necessity of having two styles, which, of course, would have to be the case if the greatest accuracy were desired, owing to the differences in the maximum values of the equation of time, one with a mean contour is given: the error produced by this is practically very slight, amounting in time to about one-sixteenth of greatest value of the equation of time—a quantity scarcely appreciable, on account of the lack of sharpness of the edge of the shadow. CoMET SwIFT (1892 MARCH 6).—Zdinburgh Circular No, 28 contains a continuation of the ephemeris of Comet Swift (March 6, 1892) for the month of July and part of August, from which we make the following extract :— Berlin Midnight. 1892. : R.A Decl. log A. log ». Br <3; a July 7 05236 +48 o'5 53 33 126 0'2391 0°2552 O'17 9 54 28 24°5 10 55 20 36'2 II 56 10 47°7 12 56 58 59'0 0°2427 0'2665 o'16 13 57 43 49 10°0 The brightness at the time of discovery being taken as the unit of brightness, it will be seen that the comet is at present NO. 1184, VOL. 46] more than five times dimmer than it wasin March. In fact, it is. rapidly becoming invisible, and will only be able to be observed with large instruments for another two. months or so, tion on July 7 will lie to the very southern extremity of the constellation of Cassiopeia, forming nearly an equilateral triangle with é and z. ; STars’ PRopER Motions.—Mr. J. G. Porter contributes to _the Astronomical Fournal, No, 268, a catalogue of the proper motions of 301 stars, which amount to half a second or more in a year. This list, as he informs us, is from a still more exten- sive catalogue which he hopes soon to publish ; and the proper motions contained in it are rendered more trustworthy 7“ the enlightenment of new observations. The positions of the stars. are all brought up to the epoch 1900’0. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. M. CHARLES ALLNAND describes his researches on the Island of Mahé, the largest of the Seychelles Group (see NATURE, p. 162), in a letter to the Paris Geographical Society. He has studied the fauna with some care, and remarks on the singular poverty of animal life compared with the great luxuriance of vegetation, In Port Victoria, the chief settlement in Mahé, the only form of butcher-meat obtainable is the flesh of the great turtle (Chelone midas) whose shell is valueless, the tortoise-shell fisheries of the island depending on the Chelone imbricata. M. Allnand hopes to bring back with him living specimens of the elephantine turtles of the Aldabra Islands, specimens of which have been transported to the Seychelles. THE expectation of an Antarctic expedition, on which valu- able scientific observations might have been made, has proved illusory. Captain Gray, of Peterhead, had organized a whaling voyage to the far south, and appealed to the public for funds to carry it out with some prospect of commercial success, but the response was so unsatisfactory that the enterprise has been abandoned. From a scientific point of view, the advantages of Antarctic exploration is so great, and the probability of valu- able practical results so apparent, that the apathy alike of the British and Australian Governments as well as of the general geographical public is incomprehensible. The fact that no steamer has ever been despatched to the south of the Antarctic Circle with the object of attaining high latitudes says much for the prudence and little for the energy of present-day explorers. A Cuwair of Colonial Geography is about to be established at the Sorbonne for the special study of the French colonies, _ THE discovery of America by Columbus is to be celebrated in Hamburg on October 11 and 12 by gatherings of delegates from the German Universities and Geographical Societies, by whom papers bearing on German enterprise in the sixteenth century will be read. An exhibition of articles illustrating the early connection of Hamburg and America will also be held. THE Manchester Geographical Society has just published its Fournal for July-September 1891, containing several interest- ing papers on India and a variety of short notices. It is unfor- tunate that the small local encouragement given to this Society makes the earlier publication of its memoirs possible. Surely Manchester could afford and should endeavour to maintain a Geographical Society as prosperous financially as it is enterpris- ing and persevering. ‘The contrast between the many provin- cial Geographical Societies in Germany and France with the three already established in England corresponds to the relative interest in geography as an aid to commerce on the Continent and in Great Britain. METALLIC CARBONYLS} B Resse te LIEBIG, perhaps the most prophetic mind among modern men of science, wrote in the year 1834 in the Annalen der Pharmacie. ‘‘1 have previously announced that carbonic oxide may be considered as a radical, of which carbonic acid and oxalic acid are the oxides, and phosgene gas is the chloride. The further pursuit of this idea has led me to the most singular and the most remarkable results.” Liebig has not told us what these results were, and it has taken many years before the progress of chemical research has revealed to us what may at that early. date have been before Liebig’s vision. I will to-night bring before you some important t Friday Evening Discourse delivered at the Royal Instituticn by Ludwig Mond, F.R.S., on June 3. . ‘ Its posi- Jury 7, 1892] NATURE 231 discoveries made only within the last few years by following up Liehig’s idea. Carbonic oxide, composed of one atom of carbon and one atom of oxygen, is a colourless gas, without taste or smell, which I have here in this jar. It burns with a blue flame. When it acts as a radical combining with other bodies, we term it car- bonyl, and its compounds with other elements or radicals are | termed carbonyls. Liebig defined a radical as a compound having the charac- teristics of a simple body, which would combine with, replace, and be replaced by simple bodies. In more modern times a radical has been defined as an unsatiated body. I am of course speaking of chemical radicals. If we look at it from the modern point of view, carbonyl should be the very model of a radical, because only half of the four. valencies of the carbon atom are satiated, the other two remaining free. Car- bonic oxide should even be a most violent radical, because, iongst all organic radicals, it is the only one we know to exist in the atomic or free state. All the other organic radicals, even such typical ones as cyanogen and acetylene, are known to us as lecules composed of two atoms of the radical, so that the frnogen gas and acetylene gas we know should more properly be called di-cyanogen and di-acetylene ; they consist of two atoms of the radical cyanogen or of the radical acetylene, the free valencies or combining powers of which satiate or neutralize eachother, On the other hand, carbonic oxide gas, as I stated before, makes the sole exception. Its molecule contains only one atom of carbonyl moving about with its free valencies un- -fettered by a second atom. For all that, carbonic oxide is by no means a violent body, but the very reverse, and instead of being ready to attack with its two free valencies anything coming in its way, until very recently we only knew it to interact and to combine with substances possessing themselves extreme attacking powers, such as chlorine and potassium. Although Liebi nr gh long ago proclaimed it as a radical, the chemical world was startled when, two years ago, [ announced in a paper mu to the Chemical Society in conjunction with is. Langer and Quincke, that carbonic oxide combines at ordi- nary temperature with so inactive an element as nickel, and forms a well-defined compound of yery peculiar properties. _ The fact that carbonic oxide does not possess the chemical activity one would suppose in a radical composed of single atoms may, I believe, be explained by assuming that the two valencies of carbon which are not combined with oxygen do satiate or neutralize each other. Everybody admits that the _ walencies of two different carbon atoms, which are all considered of equal value, can neutralize each other. I see, therefore, no reason to question the possibility of two valencies of the same carbon atom neutralizing each other. On this assumption car- bonic oxide may be looked upon asa self-satisfied body—one which keeps in check its free affinities within itself. You have here the typical carbon radicals containing one atom ofthat element, acetylene, methylene, methyl, cyanogen, and carbonyl. In the second column you have these substances as they are known to us in the free state. You see the carbonyl is the only one which exists in the free state as a single atom, while all the others only exist as molecules, composed of two atoms the free valencies of which neutralize each other. The carbonyl I have represented in the last formula, with the two valencies not combined with oxygen neutralizing each other, so that in this way it also becomes a satiated body. I willtry to make this still plainer to you by means of the models I have efore me. The paper published by Liebig in 1834, from which I have already quoted, was entitled ‘‘ On the Action of Carbonic Oxide on Potassium.” In it Liebig fully described the preparation and properties of the first metallic carbonyl known—a compound of potassium and carbonic oxide. Liebig obtained this com- pound by the direct action of carbonic oxide upon potassium at a temperature of 80° C., and proved it to be identical with a sub- stance which had been previously obtained as a very disagreeable ps? oben of the manufacture of potassium from potash and carbon by Brunner’s method. It forms a grey powder which is not volaiile, and which on treatment with water yields a red solution, gradually turning yellow in contact with air, and from which on evaporation a yellow salt is obtained, called potassium croconate, on account of its colour. Liebig showed this salt to consist of two atoms of potassium, five of carbon, and five of oxygen, and not to contain any hydrogen, as had previously been supposed. NO. 1184, VOL. 46] Since the publication of Liebig’s paper, potassium carbonyl has been studied by numerous investigators, amongst whom Sir Benjamin Brodie deserves particular mention ; but it has been reserved to Nietzki and Benkiser to determine finally in the year 1885, by a series of brilliant investigations, its exact constitu- tion, and its place in the edifice of chemistry. They have proved that it has the formula K,C,O,; that the six carbons in this compound are linked together in the form of a benzole ring; that, in fact, the compound is hexhydroxylbenzole, in which all the hydrogen is replaced by potassium. By simple treatment with an acid it can be converted into the hexhydroxylbenzole, and from this substance it is possible to produce, by a series of reactions well known to organic chemists, the whole wide range of the benzole compounds. The body which Liebig obtained by the direct action of carbonic oxide on potassium has thus enabled us to prepare synthetically in a very simple way from purely inorganic substances—to wit, from potash and carbon, or if we like even from potash and iron—the whole series of those most important and interesting compounds called aromatic compounds, including all the coal-tar colours, which have fur- nished us with an undreamt-of variety of innumerable hues and shades of colour, as well as many new substances of great value to suffering humanity as medicines. Surely a’ startling result, which alone would have fully justified Liebig’s prediction of 1834 ! Speaking of coal-tar colours, everybody will be reminded of the great loss the scientific world has recently sustained by the leash of August Wilhelm’ Hofmann, their first discoverer, Liebig’s greatest pupil. Hofmann will ever be remembered in this Institution, where he so often delighted the audience by his lucid lectures, and in whose welfare he took the greatest in- terest, of which he gave us a fresh proof only last year, in the charming letter he wrote on the occasion of his election as an honorary member. Looking back upon the wonderful outcome of Liebig’s idea I have referred to, it seems surprising indeed that others should not have followed up his work by attempting to obtain other metallic carbonyls. A very few experiments were made with other alkaline metals ; sodium, otherwise resembling potassium so closely, has been shown not to combine with carbonic oxide ; lithium and cesium are stated to behave similarly to potassium, But metals of other groups received little or no attention. The very important ré/e Which carbonic oxide plays in the manufacture of iron did lead a number of metallurgists (among whom Sir Lowthian Bell and Dr. Alder Wright are the most prominent) to study its action upon metallic iron and other heavy metals, including nickel and cobalt at high temperatures. They proved that these metals have the property to split up carbonic oxide into carbon and carbonic acid at a low red heat, a result of great importance, which threw a new light upon the chemistry of the blast furnace. None of these investigators, however, turned their attention to obtaining compounds of these metals with carbonic oxide, and, owing to the high temperature and the other conditions under which they worked, the existence of such compounds could not come under their observation. In order to obtain these com- ounds, very special conditions must be observed, which are fully described in the papers I have published during the last two years in conjunction with Dr. Langer and Dr. Quincke. The metals must be prepared with great care, so as to obtain them in an extremely fine state of division, and must be treated with carbonic oxide at a ow temperature, The best results are obtained when the oxalate of the metal is heated in a current of hydrogen at the lowest temperature at which its reduction to the metallic state is possible. 1 have in the tube before me metallic nickel prepared in this way, and over which a slow current of carbonic oxide is now passing ; the carbonic oxide before enter- ing the tube burns, as you see, with a blue non-luminous flame. After passing over the nickel it burns with a highly luminous flame, which is due to the separation of metallic nickel from the nickel carbonyl formed in the tube, which is heated to incandes- cence in the flame. (In passing the gas issuing from our tube through a glass tube heated to about 200°, we obtain a metallic mirror of pure nickel, because at this temperature the nickel carbonyl is again completely resolved into its components, nickel and carbonic oxide. If we pass the gas through a freezing mix- ture, you will observe that a colourless liquid is condensed, of which I have a larger quantity standing in this tube. This ae formed is pure nickel carbonyl, and has the formula Ni(CO),. If cooled to — 25° C., it solidifies, forming needle-shaped 232 NATURE [JuLy 7, 1892 crystals. The vapour of nickel carbonyl possesses a character- istic odour and is poisonous, but not more so than carbonic oxide gas. Prof. McKendrick has studied the physiological action of this liquid, and has found that, when injected sub- cutaneously in extremely small doses in rabbits, it produces an extraordinary reduction in temperature, in some cases as much as 12°. The liquid can becompletely distilled without decomposition, but from its solution in liquids of a higher boiling-point it cannot be obtained by rectification. On heating such a solution the com- pound is decomposed, nickel being separated in the liquid, while carbonic oxide gas escapes. I will try to demonstrate this by an experiment. We have here a solution of the substance in heavy petroleum oil, which you will, in a few minutes, see turns completely black on heating by the separation of nickel, while a gas escapes which is carbonic oxide. ; In a similar way, when the nickel carbonyl is attacked b oxidizing agents, such as nitric acid, chlorine, or bromine, it is readily broken up, nickel salts being formed, and carbonic oxide being liberated. Sulphur acts in a similar way. Metals, even potassium, alkalies, and acids, which have no oxidizing power, will not act upon the liquid at all, nor do the salts of other metals react upon it. The substance behaves therefore, chemically, in an entirely different manner from potassium car- bonyl, and does not lead, as the other does, by easy methods to complicated organic compounds. It does not show any one of the reactions which are so characteristic for organic bodies con- taining carbonyl, such as the ketones and quinones; and we have not been able, in spite of very numerous experiments, either to substitute the carbonic oxide in this compound by other bivalent groups, or to introduce the carbonic oxide by means of this compound into organic substances. By exposing the liquid to atmospheric air, a precipitate of carbonate of nickel is slowly formed of varying composi- tion, which is yellowish-white if perfectly dry air is used, and varies from a light green to a brownish colour if more or less moisture is present. We have found all these precipitates to dissolve easily and completely in dilute acid, with evolution of carbonic acid, leaving ordinary nickel salts behind, and can therefore not agree with the view propounded by Prof. Berthelot, in a communication to the French Academy of Sciences, that these precipitates contain a compound of nickel with carbon and oxygen, comparable to the so-called oxides of organo-metallic compounds. In the same paper Prof. Berthelot has described a beautiful reaction of nickel carbonyl with nitric oxide, which we will now show you. You will notice the intense blue coloration which the liquid solution of nickel carbonyl in alcohol assumes by passing the nitric oxide through it. Prof. Berthelot has reserved to himself the study of this interesting body, but has so far not published anything further about it. The chemical properties of the compound I have just de- scribed to you are without parallel ; we do not know a single substance of similar properties. It became, therefore, of special interest to study the physical properties of the compound. Prof. Quincke, of Heidelberg, has kindly determined its magnetic properties, and found that it possesses in a high degree the property discovered by Faraday, and called by him diamagnetism, which is the more remarkable, as all the other nickel compounds are paramagnetic. He also found that it is an almost perfect non-conductor of electricity, in this respect differing from all other nickel compounds, The absorption spectrum, and also the flame spectrum, of our compound are at present under investigation by those inde- fatigable spectroscopists, Profs. Dewar and Liveing, by whose kindness I am enabled to bring before you, in advance of a paper they are sending to the Royal Society, some of the interesting results they have obtained. We have here a photo- graph of the absorption spectrum, obtained by means of a hollow prism through quartz plates filled with nickel carbonyl, through which the spark spectrum of iron is passed, which is photo- graphed onthesame plate. Yousee that the whole of the ultra- violet rays of the iron spectrum have disappeared, being com- pletely absorbed by the nickel carbonyl, which is thus quite opaque for all the rays beyond the wave-length 3820. The spectrum of the highly luminous flame of nickel carbonyl, which I have shown you before, is quite continuous ; but if the nickel carbonyl is diluted with hydrogen, and the mixture burnt by means of oxygen, the gases burn with a bright yellowish- green flame without visible smoke; and the spectrum of this NO. 1184, VOL. 46] flame shows in its visible part, on a background of a continuous spectrum, a large number of bands, brightest in the green, but extending on the red side beyond the red line of lithium, and on the violet side well into the blue, seen on the photograph which I will now show you, the visible part of the spectrum appearing continuous; but beyond the visible part the photograph shows a large number—over fifty— of well-defined lines in the ultra-violet. I will show you these lines in another photograph taken with greater dispersion, and on which has also been photographed the spark spectrum of nickel. You will see that all these lines correspond absolutely to lines appertaining to the spark spectrum ; in fact, the greater part of the lines in the spark spectrum are also shown in this flame spectrum. We have here another and very striking example of the fact discovered on the same day by Profs. Dewar and Liveing, and by Dr. Huggins, that the spectrum of luminous flames is not always continuous throughout its whole range, a fact which was at one time much debated and dis- cussed. One of the most remarkable discoveries made within the precincts of this Institution by that illustrious man whose centenary we celebrated last year was that of the connection between magnetism and light, which manifests itself when a beam of polarized light is sent through a substance while it is subjected to a strong magnetic field, under whose influence the beam of light is rotated through a certain angle. Dr. W. H. Perkin has prosecuted this discovery of Faraday’s by a long series of most elaborate researches, and has established the fact’ that this. power of magnetic rotation of various bodies has a definite relation to their chemical constitution, and enables us to gain a better insight into the structure of chemical compounds. Dr. Perkin has been good enough to investigate the power of magnetic rotation of the nickel carbonyl, and has found it quite as unusual as its chemical properties, and to be, with the sole exception of ‘phosphorus, greater than that of any other sub- stance he has yet examined. The power of different bodies of refracting and dispersing a ray of light has been shown by the beautiful and elaborate re- searches undertaken many years ago by Dr. Gladstone—who has given an account of them in this theatre in 1875, and who has since continued them with indefatigable zeal—to throw a con- siderable light upon the constitution of chemical compounds. — I have investigated the refractive and dispersive powers of nickel carbonyl in Rome, in conjunction with Prof. Nasini. We found that the atomic refraction of nickel in the substance is nearly two and a half times as large as it is in any other nickel compound—a difference very much greater than had ever before been observed in the atomic refraction of any element. To give you some idea how these figures are obtained, Mr. Lennox will now throw on to the screen a beam of light through two super- posed prisms, one filled with nickel carbonyl and the other with - alcohol. You will notice that the lines of the spectrum on the top are turned much further to the left, showing the nickel carbonyl to possess a much greater power of refraction than alcohol, and you will also notice that it is much wider than the bottom spectrum, which shows the greater dispersive power of the nickel carbonyl. It is now generally supposed that, if one element shows different atomic refractive powers in different compounds, it enters with a larger number of valencies into the compound which shows a higher refractive power. In accordance with this view, the very much greater refractive power of the nickel in the carbony}! would find an explanation in assuming that :this element, which in allits other known combinations is distinctly bivalent, exer- cises in the carbonyl the limit of its valency, viz. 8, assigned to it by Mendeleeff, who placed it in the eighth group in his Table of Elements. This would mean that the one atom of nickel contained in the nickel carbonyl is combined directly with each of the four bivalent atoms of carbonyl, each of which would saturate two of the eight valencies of nickel, as is shown by this formula— These bands cannot be Ms oe. Seca ncn ointment iil aie _ Sey Jury 7, 1892] NATURE 7277 “JO This view seems plausible, and in accordance with the chemical properties of the substance, and I should have no hesitation in accepting it if we had not, in the further eos of our work on metallic carbonyls, met with another substance—a liquid com- pound of iron with carbonic oxide—which in its properties bears so much resemblance to the nickel compound that one cannot assign to it a different constitution, whilst its composition makes the adoption of a similar structural formula next to impossible. It contains, for one equivalent of iron, five equivalents of car- bonyl. To assign to it a similar constitution, one would, there- fore, have to assume that iron did exercise ten valencies, or two more than any other known element, a view which very few chemists would be prepared to countenance. The atomic re- m of iron in this compound, which Dr. Gladstone has had the kindness to determine, is as unusual as that of the nickel in the nickel compound, and bears about the same ratio to the atomic refraction of iron in other compounds. We have, there- fore, to find another explanation for the extraordinarily high atomic refraction of these metals in their compounds with carbon monoxide, which may possibly modify our present view on this subject. As to the structure of these compounds themselves, we are almost bound to assume that they contain the carbonyl atoms in the form of a chain. ‘The ferro-carbonyl is prepared in a similar manner to the nickel compound. The iron used is obtained by heating iron oxalate at the very lowest temperature possible. This car- bonyl forms, however, with such very great difficulty, that we overlooked its existence for a long time, and great precautions have to be taken to obtain even a small quantity of it. It forms _ an amber-coloured liquid, of which I have a small quantity before me. It solidifies below — 21°C. to a mass of needle-shaped On heating the vapour to 180° C., it is completely de- mposed into iron and carbonic oxide. The iron mirrors before me have been obtained in this way. Its chemical composition is Fe(CO),. - It is interesting that, within a short time after we had made known the existence of this body, Sir Henry Roscoe found it in carbonic oxide gas which had stood compressed in an iron inder for a considerable time, and expressed the opinion that ue red deposit which sometimes forms in ordinary steatite gas- burners is due to the presence of this substance in ordinary oem Its presence in compressed gas used for lime- lights has noticed by Dr. Thorne, whose attention was called to the facc that this gas sometimes will not give a proper pe ibaa the incandescent lime becomes covered with oxide iron. M. Garnier, in a paper communicated to the French Academy of Scie: supposes even that this gas is sometimes formed in large quantities in blast-furnaces when they are working too cold, and refers to some in-tances in which he found large deposits of oxide of iron in the tubes leading away the gas from these furnaces. I find it difficult to believe that the temperature of a blast-furnace could ever be sufficiently reduced as to give rise to the formation of this compound. On the other hand, it is highly probable that the formation of this compound of iron and carbonic oxide may play an important ré/e in that mysterious process by which we are still making, and have been ro for ages, the finest qualities of steel, called the cementa-. ‘tion? process. ‘ ‘The chemical behaviour of the substance towards acids ahd oxidizins agents is exactly the same as that of the nickel com- pound, but to alkalies it behaves differently. The liquid dissolves without evolution of gas. After a while a greenish precipitate is formed, which contains chiefly hydrated-ferrous oxide, and the solution es brown. On exposure to the air, it takes up bee oR ; the colour changes to a dark red, whilst hydrated ferric xide out. We have so far not been able to obtain from this solution any , d fit for analysis, and are still engaged upon unravelling, the nature of the reaction that takes place, and of the compounds that are formed. Although the solution resembles in appearance to some extent the solutions obtained by treating potassium carbonyl with water, it does not give any of the characteristic reactions of the latter. When speaking of potassium carbonyl, I mentioned that, by its treatment with water, croconate of potassium was obtained, which has the formula K,C;O,. We have transformed this by double decomposition into ferrous croconate (FeC;O;), a salt ing dark crystals of metallic lustre resembling iodine, which is not volatile, and dissolves readily in water, the NO. 1184, VOL. 46] solution giving all the well-known reactions of iron and of croconic acid. You will note how entirely different the properties of this substance are from those of iron carbonyl, which I have described to you; yet, on reference to its composition, you will find that it contains exactly the same number of atoms of iron, carbon, and oxygen as the latter. This is a very interesting case of isomerism, considering that both compounds contain only iron, carbon, and oxygen. The difference in the properties of these two bodies becomes explainable by comparing the structural formula of the two substances, I would now call your attention to the great difference in the constitution of the potassium carbonyl and that of the nickel and ferro carbonyl. Inthe former the metal potassium is com- bined with the oxygen in the carbonyl ; in the latter the metals nickel and iron are combined with the carbon of carbonyl. In the first case we have a benzole ring with its three single and three double bonds ; in the second a closed chain with only single bonds. It is evident that the chemical properties of these substances must be widely different. The ferro-penta-carbonyl remains perfectly unchanged in the dark, but if it is exposed to sunlight it is transformed into a solid body of remarkably fine appearance, of gold colour and lustre, as shown by the sample in this tube. This solid body is not volatile, but on heating it in the absence of air, iron separates out and liquid ferro-carbonyl distils over. If, however, it is heated carefully in a current of carbonic oxide it is reconverted into the ferro-penta-carbonyl, and completely volatilized. We have so far found no sulvent for this substance, so that we have no means as yet of obtaining it in a perfectly pure state. Several determinations of the iron in different samples of the substance have led to fairly concordant figures, which agree with the formula Fe,(CO),, or di ferro-hepta- carbonyl. The interesting properties of the substances described have naturally led us ‘‘to try,” as Lord Kelvin once put it to me so prettily, ‘‘to give wings to other heavy metals.” We have tried all the well-known and a very large number of the rarer metals ; but with the exception of nickel and iron we have so fir been entirely unsuccessful. Even cobalt, which is so very like nickel, has not yielded the smallest trace of acarbonyl. This led me to study the question whether, by means of the action of carbonic oxide, the separation on a large scale of nickel from cobalt could not be effected, which has so far been a most complicated metallurgical operation ; and subsequently I was led to investigate whether it would not be possible to use carbonic oxide to extract nickel industrially direct from its ores. It had been established that pure nickel prepared with very great precautions in a glass tube, could be partly volatilized by carbonic oxide, and that from the gas thus obtained the nickel could be separated again by heating. The questions to be studied were, therefore, whether it would be possible to reduce the ores, on an industrial scale, under such conditions as to obtain the nickel in a sufficiently finely divided and active a state that the carbonic oxide would volatilize it; whether such action would be sufficiently rapid to allow of its industrial application ; whether it would be sufficiently complete to remove all the nickel from the ore; and whether none of the other constituents of the ore would pass with the nickel and render it unfitfor use ; and further, whether the nickel could be completely separated out of the gas within practical limits ; and whether the recovered car- bonic oxide could be made use of over and over again. For solving these problems within the limits of the resources of a laboratory, I have devised apparatus which consists of a cylinder divided into many compartments, through which the properly prepared ore is passed very slowly by means of stirrers attached to a shaft. On leaving the bottom of this cylinder, the ore passes through a transporting screw, and from this to an elevator, which returns it to the top of the cylinder, so that it passes many times through the cylinder, until all the nickel is volatilized. Into the bottom of this cylinder we pass carbonic oxide, which leaves it at the top charged with nickel carbonyl vapour, and passes through the conduits shown here into tubes set in a furnace and heated to 200°. Herethe nickel separates out from the nickel carbonyl. The carbonic oxide is regenerated and taken back to the cylinder by means of a fan, so that the same gas is made to carry fresh quantities of nickel out of the ore in the cylinder, and to deposit it in these tubes an infinite number of times. 234 NATURE [JuLY 7, 1892 Upon these principles Dr. Langer has constructed a complete plant on a Liliputian scale, which has been at work in my labora- tory for a considerable time, and a photograph of which we will now throw on to the screen. You see here the volatilizing cylinder divided into numerous compartments, through which the ore is passing, and subjected to the action of carbonic oxide. At the bottom the ore is delivered into the transport- ing screw, passing through a furnace, and from this screw into an elevator, which returns the ore to the top of the cylinder, so that the ore constantly passes at a slow rate through the cylinder again and again, until the nickel it contains has been taken out. The carbonic oxide gas, pre- pared in any convenient manner, enters the bottom of the cylinder and comes out again at the top. It then passes through a filter to retain any dust it may carry away, and thence into a series of iron tubes built into a furnace, where they are heated to about 200°C. In these tubes the nickel car- bonyl carried off by the carbonic oxide is completely decomposed, and the nickel deposited against the sides of the tubes is from time to time withdrawn, and is thus obtained in the pieces of tubing and the plates which you see on the table. The carbonic oxide regenerated in these tubes is passed through another filter, thence through a lime purifier, to absorb any carbonic acid which may have been formed through the action of the finely-divided nickel upon the carbonic oxide, and is then returned through a small fan into the bottom of the cylinder. The whole of this plant is automatically kept in motion by means of an electric motor, and the gearing which you see here. By means of this apparatus we have succeeded in extracting the nickel from a great variety of ores, in a time varying, ac- cording to the nature of the ore, between a few hours and several days. Before the end of this year this process is going to be estab- lished in Birmingham on a scale that will enable me to place its industrial capacity beyond a doubt, so that I feel justified in the expectation that in a few months nickel carbonyl, a substance quite unknown two years ago, and to-day still a great rarity, which has not yet passed out of the chemical laboratory, will be produced in very large quantities, and will play an important vole in metallurgy. The process possesses, besides its great simplicity, the addi- tional advantage that it is possible to immediately obtain the nickel in any definite form. If we deposit it in tubes we obtain nickel tubes ; if we deposit it in,a globe we obtain a globe of nickel ; if we deposit it in any heated mould we obtain copies of these moulds in pure, firmly coherent, metallic nickel. A deposit of nickel reproduces the most minute details of the sur- face of the moulds to fully the same extent as galvanic repro- ductions. All the very numerous objects now produced by galvanic deposition, of which Mr. Swan exhibited here such a large and beautiful variety a fortnight ago, can thus be produced by this process with the same perfection in pure metallic nickel. It is equally easy to nickel-plate any surface which will with- stand the temperature of 180° C. by heating it to that tempera- ture and exposing it to the vapour, or even to a solution of nickel carbonyl, a process which may in many cases have advantages over electroplating. I have on the table before me specimens of nickel ores we have thus treated, of nickel tubes and plates we have obtained from these ores, and a few speci- mens of articles of pure nickel and articles plated with nickel which have been prepared in my laboratory. These will give you some idea of the prospects which the process I have de- scribed opens out to the metallurgist, upon whom, from day to day, greater demands are made to supply pure nickel in quanti- ties. The most valuable properties of the alloy of nickel and iron called nickel-steel, which promises to supply us with impenetrable ironclads, have made an abundant and cheap supply of this metal a question of national importance. The inspection of the few specimens of articles of pure nickel and of nickel-plated articles will, I hope, suffice to show you the great facilities the process offers for producing very fine copies, and _for making articles of such forms as cannot be produced by hydraulic pressure, the only method hitherto available for manufacturing articles of pure nickel. The first practical use of the process has been made by Prof. Ramsay, who, for the purposes of a chemical investigation, made this beautiful little apparatus of pure nickel all in one piece, which he has kindly lent for exhibition to-night. I began my lecture by bringing under your notice an idea of No. 1184, VOL. 46] Liebig’s which he published fifty-eight years ago. you how he himself elaborated this idea, and how it developed, until within recent years it has led to results of the highest scientific importance and probably of great practical utility. Had Liebig all these results before his ‘‘ mind’s eye” when question impossible to answer. Who will attempt to measure the range of vision of our great men, who from their lofty pin- nacle see with eagle eye far into the Land of Science, and reveal to us wonderful sights which we can only realize after toiling slowly along the road they have indicated? Whether Liebig saw all these results or not, it is due to him and to men like him that science continues its marvellous advance, dispersing the darkness around us, and ever adding to the scope and exactness of our knowledge, that mighty power for promoting the progress and enhancing the happiness of humanity. : NORTH-WESTERN DISTRICT OF BRITISH GUIANA. Ae the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Monday evening, Mr. Everard im Thurn described the general characteristics of the new district in the north-west of British Guiana in the settlement and administration of which he - has been employed for the last ten years. The colony of British Guiana he described as formed of a low swampy coast strip, often below the level of the sea, densely covered with mangroves, and intersected by rivers bound together by interlacing channels. Farther inland the mangroves pass into forests of tropical trees, which, as the land rises more steeply, are reduced to strips along the rivers, and finally merge into dry grassy uplands known as savannahs, The north-western district of the colony is officially defined as the territory bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean and the mouth of the River Orinoco ; on the south by the ridge of land between the sources of the Amakuru, Barima, and Waini Rivers, and their tributaries, and the sources of the tribu- taries of the Cuyuni River ; on the east by a line extending from the Atlantic Ocean in a southerly direction to the said ridge of land ; on the south and on the west, by the Amakuru River and the line known as Schomburgh’s line. Mr. im Thurn’s first task was to explore his territory, and this he did mainly by boat along the rivers and their connecting channels, traversing country never before visited by white men. The nature of this mode of travelling was very vividly described. On ascending the Moruka, the country on each side of the river — was seen to become gradually more and more open—the river at last often winding through open savannahs, and broadening out here and there into pools so thickly set with water-lilies that the boat was forced through with difficulty. The waterway after some time leaves the river and passes along a narrow itabbo, or artificial water-path, which connects the Moruka with the Waini River. This connecting passage is about thirty miles long, and about ten miles is semi-artificial itabbo, made by the constant passage of the canoes of the Redmen through the swampy savannah, and very difficult to get through. Generally, it was hardly wider than the boat, and had many abrupt windings ; the trees hung down so low over the water, that it was hard work either to force the boat under the low-lying branches, or to cut these away, and so make a passage. On either side of the channel the ground is so swampy as rarely to allow foothold of even a few inches in extent. The light hardly penetrates through the dense roof of leaves ; and in the gloom under the roof only a few aroids, ferns, lilies, and orchids, and great masses of a palm previously undescribed. The itabbo passed, the boat turned suddenly into the Bara- bara River itself, at first narrow, but soon widening and winding on its course through dense and unbroken bush, chiefly com- posed of the graceful, swaying manicole palms (Zuterfe edults). *Very abundant, perched high up and low down among this dense bush, were great quantities of an orchid with stems eight and nine feet long, loaded with its countless butterfly-like yellow flowers (Onctdium altissinum). After afew miles the Barabara River led into the Biara, a river of much the same character, ~ which, though naturally larger than the Barabara, was still so small as hardly to deserve more than the local name of creek. And, again, in a few miles the Biara carried the boat into the Baramanni River, which is about I00 or 150 yards wide, and very deep. This is, in fact, not a river at all, but a very elongated | lake or lagoon, of perhaps twenty miles in length, the lower end Ihave shown © . he penned those prophetic words I have quoted? This is a 2 Juty 7, 1892} NATURE 235 opening into the Waini, while the upper end discharges part of its surplus water into the sea. Anything more maze-like than the _ itabbo between the Waini and Barima Rivers it is impossible to imagine. On the Aruka, a large tributary of the Barima, the curious Arawack game of the Macquari whip is played, the essential feature of which is a testing of endurance by means of alternately s ving and receiving severe cuts with a somewhat severe whip. is extraordinary performance, accompanied with much drink- ing and with invariable good humour, is carried on for some days in accordance with a fixed ritual, the blows, which are received __ by the players on the calves of their legs, beingso severe as to draw much blood. The river, too, must at one time have been the site of a Redskin civilization far superior to, and very different from, any known previously of the early inhabitants of Guiana ; a there are on it considerable deposits of pottery ornamented with incised patterns, and even very abundantly with grotesque figures of men and animals in very high relief. To estimate the s ¢ of this latter fact, it must be remembered that none the known early inhabitants of Guiana have advanced in the important primitive art of pottery beyond the stage of making vessels of two or three definite and very simple shapes, which are almost invariably entirely without ornament, or are at best, in ay Wei cases, ornamented with a simple pattern painted on the flat surface. _ The Warrau Redmen inhabiting a neighbouring region have recourse to a picturesque game in order to decide disputes amic- ably. For this purpose, on an appointed day both parties come _ together on some open space, such as this sand-bank, each man or boy provided with a large shield made of the leaf-stalks of _ the aeta palm (Mauritia flexuosa). After much shouting and cing in two opposed lines, the shields of the one party are shed those of the other, and by this means the mem- bers of each party endeavoured by sheer strength to overthro v, _ or at least to force back from their position, the members of the _ other party ; and the right inthe matterin dispute is considered to lie with whichever party proves itself the stronger in this contest. The game is peculiar to the swamp Warraus, who live in the swamps of the mouths of the Orinoco, and live here chiefly on the aeta palm, not cultivating any food-stuff, but eating the fruit of this palm and the pith of its stem, not mak- ig any fermented drink, as other Redmen do, but drinking water and the sap of this same palm, building their houses, _ notas Humboldt thought, actually zz these palms, but yet en- _ tirely, floor, posts, and roof, of the various parts of this palm. - The physical features of the north-western district are like, yet agen ae different from, those of the rest of the colony. The from which the main rivers, the. Waini, Barama, - _ Barima, and the Amakuru, run down to the sea, is here nearer _ to the coast-line than it is further south. Two more important consequences arise from this. The bare dry savannah of the interior of other parts of the colony is here unrepresented, the whole district being practically within the forest belt. And __ the rivers are both shorter and deeper, though their mouths are _ very wide. Moreover, these rivers are curiously connected both = by « _rema kably elaborate network, probably hardly paralleled a Fa t of the world, of natural and semi-natural F bo eg channels—such as those described—and by an almost _ equally elaborate network of Redmen’s paths through the ___ The inhabitants of this district were, ten years ago, Redmen, and Redmen only. Their distribution is interesting when taken _ in connection with the distribution of their kind throughout the _ colony. The Redmen of Guiana consist of many small tribes, _ the best known of which are the Arawacks and the so-called _ Caribs—true Caribs they are preferably called. These two sda je cats tribes owe the fact that they are the best known to : a circumstance that they shared between them the West Indian _ Islands south of Jamaica at the time of their discovery by _ Columbus ; and they are the last remnants of those people who _ were the victims of that brutal policy of extermination by cruelty _ followed by the Spanish conquerors of the New World. The _ morth-western district is some 9500 square miles in extent, and _ rises gradually from the sea to the range of somewhat higher _ land, which is represented, with some exaggeration, on most _ existing maps as the Sierra Iwmataca range of mountains, but _ which, within the limits of British Guiana, never attains a _ general level of more than 300 or 409 feet. The lower or _ alluvial part of this country consists of some of the richest soil _ inthe world. Parts which have since been taken in and drained NO. 1184, VOL. 46] now yield crops of tropical produce of simply amazing abundance. As an illustration, a garden which hardly two and a half years ago was cleared and drained already has in it avenues of trees (Casuarina) of over 40 feet high, which were then planted. On the other hand, the higher part of the new district is being fast overrun by very successful gold-diggers, For geographical reasons the most convenient centre from which to administer the district was at the point at which the Morawhanna leaves the Barima. This is near the centre of the waterway which traverses the northern part of the colony from the sugar fields about the mouth of the Essequibo to its northern limits on the Orinoco, by which, in the absence of roads, all traffic from the Orinoco to the older established parts of the colony must necessarily pass. Here, therefore, the central station, with the Government Agency, the police barracks, the hospital, and the other buildings, public and private, which go to make up the chief township, have been placed, and are fast being added to. A large station, with the other necessary accom- modation, was also placed at the northern end of the waterway, on the mouth of the Amakuru ; and other stations have been placed at intervals along the whole line. SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. THE American Meteorological Fournal for May contains a paper read by Prof. W. M. Davis, before the New England Meteorological Society, entitled ‘‘ Meteorology in the Schools.” It points out the best plan to be adopted by a teacher to give his pupils a sound knowledge of the subject, and it will be found full of interest for many who may have made considerable progress in the study of meteorology. The complete solution of weather changes is far beyond the meteoro- logy of the day, but the paper will teach the student to recognize the great difficulties attendant upon successful weather-predictions, and to discriminate between these and the predictions of those who pretend to outline the course of meteorological events for months ahead.—Thunderstorms in New England during the year 1886, by RK. De C. Ward. The observation of thunderstorms was taken as a special subject of investigation by the New England Meteorological Society in the years 1885-87, and this paper is a preliminary report on the investigation, to be eventually published by the Harvard College. ‘The storms were most frequent between May and August, and between 5h. and 7h. p.m. The average rate of movement throughout the year was 35 miles an hour. The in- fluence of the tides on the direction of the storms is said to be brought out in several reports. —The storm of March 1-4, 1892, by J. Warren Smith. ‘lhis storm was so severe in the New England States, and the snowfall and drift so heavy, as to cause in many places the cessation of all outside business ; trains were blocked, and much damage done to shipping from the violence of the wind. THE American Meteorological Fournal for June contains the following original articles :—Flood-stage river predictions, by Prof. T. Russell. The paper gives some account of the methods by which the rules for river-stage predictions are de- rived. A river-stage is the vertical height of the water surface above the plane ot low water, observed with a gauge. There are about 150 gauge stations maintained at varius points in the United States. The predictions are mainly based upon observa- tion of the stages and rises, at certain points of a stream, and upon a consideration of what has occurred in previous cases, from which data factors are calculated, Asa rule, rainfall obser- vations are of little use in such predictiors.—The first scientific balloon voyage, translated by R. De C. Ward, from an article by Dr. Hellmann, (See NaTuRE, vol. xlv. p. 471.)—Snow- storms at Chicago, by A. B. Crane. ‘The writer has tabulated the records relating to the subject from 1879-90, and has dis- cussed them with reference to the meteorological conditions prior to the storm. The heaviest storms occurred in January, the average temperature being 21°°4. He found that before the storms the temperature nearly always rises, and that it rarely falls for twenty-four hours previously. —The eye of the storm, by S.M. Ballou. This name is given to the calm area in the centre of a cyclone, where clear sky is generally visible. The author quotes accounts by various observers, and a review of the differ- ent explanations of the phenomenon.—Shall we erect light- ning-rods?, by A. McAdie. ‘The question being whether it is 236 NATURE [JuLy 7, 1892 cheaper to insure buildings than to incur the expense of erecting lightning-rods, the author quotes a number of authorities in support of the advisability of putting up rods, and gives rules to be observed in doing so. Bulletin of the New York Mathematical Society, vol. i., Nos. 8 and 9 (New York, 1892).—The illustrious German mathematician, Leopold Kronecker, died recently at Berlin (December 29, 1891). No. 8 (pp. 173-84) opens with a most interesting article, by H. B. Fine, entitled ‘‘ Kronecker and his Arithmetical Theory of the Algebraic Equation.” This is biographical and analytical. A short note, by Prof. Cajori, follows, on the ‘‘ Multiplication of Series.” The concluding note is by Dr. Macfarlane, ‘‘ On Exact Analysis as the Basis of Language.” This is a brief abstract of a paper read before the Society (March 5, 1892).—No. 9 gives an account of a recent paper in the A/athematische Annailen (vol. xxxviii.), by M. Hil- bert, under the head ‘‘ Topology of Algebraic Curves.” The writer, L. S. Hulburt, recasts the theory, with the view of making the theory more intelligible, and corrects some slight inaccuracies. Dr. Merriman abstracts a paper (read before the Society) on ‘‘ Final Formulas for the Algebraic Solution of Quartic Equations.” This number closes with a full account of Poincaré’s ‘‘ Mécanique Céleste,” by E. W. Brown. The usual short notes and list of new. publications are given at the end of each number. Memoirs of the Mathematical Section of the Odessa University, vol. xiiii—On the theory of linear differential equations, by M. Rudzky.—The mechanics of a system subject to similar changes, by D. Seiliger, part iii. The paper is followed by a description of an apparatus, the ‘‘homoyograph,” three spots of which always take such positions as to make similar triangles. Experimental researches into the compressibility of glass and mercury, by G. De-Metz. The absolute compressibility of mercury has been determined on the two methods of Regnault and Jamin, as also on a third method which results from the equations of Lamé in his ‘*‘ Lecons sur 1] Elasticité,” and the seventh memoir of Regnault. Theresults arrived atin these very elaborate researches are very near to those arrived at by Amagat.—Volume xii. of the same periodical consists of a work by J. Timtchenko, on the foundations of the theory of analytical functions. The aim of the author is to contribute towards the elaboration of a general theory of functions which would include Weierstrass’s theory as well. The first part, now published, contains the historical review of the development of the theory. Bulletin de la Société des Naturalistes de Moscou, 1891, Nos. 2 and 3.—The Speeton clays and their equivalents, by A. Pavloff and G. W. Lamplugh.—Contributions to the study of molecular forces in chemically simple bodies, on the ground of thermodynamics, by J. Weinberg.—Studies on the develop- ment of Amphipodes, part v., by Madame Catherine Wagner (in French, with two plates). The development of the embryo of the Melita palmata is apparently quite similar to that of Gammarus and Caprella in its earlier stages, but the microscopic observation of cuttings through the embryo dis- closes several interesting peculiarities, which are described and illustrated. —What is the Hipparion?, by Marie Pavloff (in French), being an answer to critical remarks, by M. Trouessart, in Annuaire Géologique Unizersel, tome vi., relative to Marie Pavloff’s work on the evolution of Ungulates.—On a new apparatus for determining the moment of inertia of a body, by N. Joukovsky (in French).—On Pteromonas alata, Cohn, by M, Golenkin (in German).—The present state of our knowledge of the contents of the cells of the Phycochromacez, by Valerian Deinega (in German). The author has come to no definite ‘ results as to the nucleus in the Phycochromacez, especially in the thread-like species; new colouring methods ought to be discovered. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LONDON. Royal Society, June 2. — ‘‘ Supplementary Report on Explorations of Erect ‘lrees containing Animal Remains in the Coal-formation of Nova Scotia.” By Sir J. William Dawson, BRS. To the memoir which I had the honour to present to the NO. 1184, VOL. 46] preliminary account of the remains of Arthropods in my collec. — tions which | had submitted to him. Royal Society on this subject in 18821 I appended a note from q Dr. Scudder, of Cambridge, U.S., so well known for his — researches in fossil Insects and Arachnidans, in which he gavea — He has only in the pre- — sent year completed his examination of these remains, most of which are very fragmentary, and much damaged by unequal pressure. The result has been embodied in a Report on Canadian Fossil Insects, now in course of publication by the © Geological Survey of Canada. x In this Report he will describe from the contents of the Sigil- larian stumps extracted by me, with the aid of the grant of this Society, three new species of Myriapoda, making, with the five previously known from these remarkable repositories, eight in all, belonging to two families, Archiulide and Euphoberidz, and to three genera, Archiulus, Xylobius, and Amynilyspes. The three new species are Archiulus euphoberioides, Sc., A. Lyelli, Sc., and Amynilyspes (sp.). The remains of Scorpions he refers to three species, A/azonta acadica, Sc., Mazontia (sp.), and a third represented only by small fragments. The charac- ters of the species referred to Zazonia he considers as tending to establish the generic distinctness of A/azonia from Zoscorpius. Dr. Scudder also notices the fragment of an insect’s head con- taining part of a facetted eye, mentioned in my memoir, and considers it probably a portion of a Cockroach. Much credit is due to Dr. Scudder for the care and skill with which he has worked up the mostly small and obscure fragments which I was able to submit to him, and which are probably little more than a@ébris of the food of the Amphibians living for a time in these hollow stumps, and devouring such smaller animals as were so unfortunate as to be imprisoned with them. In this connection the suggestion of Dr. Scudder is worthy of — attention, that the scaly armour of the smaller Microsaurians may have been intended to defend them against the active and venomous Scorpions which were their contemporaries, and some of which were sufficiently large to be formidable antagonists to the smaller land Vertebrates of the period. , The report of Dr. Scudder will complete the account of the land animals of the erect Sigillarize of the South Joggins, unless by new fails of the cliff fresh trees should be exposed. F, 1851, when the first remains were obtained from these si repositories by the late Sir Charles Lyell and the writer, up to . the present time, they have afforded the remains of twelve species of Amphibians, three land Snails, eight Millipedes, three Scorpions, and an Insect. The type specimens of these animals have been placed in the Peter Redpath Museum of McGill University, and such dupli- ' . rom cates as are available will be sent tothe British Museum and ~ that of the Geological Survey of Canada. my June 16.—‘‘ Onthe Estimation of Uric Acid in Urine? F. Gowland Hopkins. ‘ The process described depends upon the complete insolubility of ammonium urate in saturated solutions of ammonium chloride. The pure chloride is powdered, and added to the sample to complete saturation. After two hours’ standing, the whole of the uric acid separates as biurate of ammonium. The urate is then decomposed with hydrochloric acid, and the liberated uric acid determined by any approved method. In contrast to the well-known Fokker-Salkowski process the separation is rapid and complete. : The author has experimented with permanganate solutions for the titration of the separated uric acid, and finds that accurate results may be obtained by their employment. For this purpose the uric acid is dissolved in 100 ce. of water, with a minimum of Na,COs, 20 cc. of strong H.SO, being then added, and the solution immediately titrated with one-twentieth By normal permanganate of potassium. The addition of 20 per — cent. H,SO, to the previously cooled solution of sodium urate — yields just such a temperature (about 60°C.) as is requisite for a determinate reaction. 1 cc. of the permanganate solution is equal | to 0°00375 grm. uric acid. Physical Society, June 24.—Prof. A. W. Riicker, F.R.S., in the chair.—The following communications were made :—On breath figures, by Mr. W. B. Croft. After mentioning the observations of early experimenters on the subject, the author described a method which he found to give the best results. A coin is placed on a glass plate for insulation ; another glass plate, . which is to receive the impression, is well polished and laid on 1 Phil. Trans., 1882, p. 621. JuLy 7, 1892] NATURE 237 the coin, whilst a second coin is placed above the first. The coins are put in connection with the poles of an electrical machine, giving one-inch sparks for two minutes. When the coins are removed and the glass breathed on, clear frosted _pic- tures of the coins are seen on the glass. The microscope shows that moisture is deposited on the whole surface, the size of the minute water granulation increasing as the part of the picture is darker in shade. The thickness of the glass seemed to make no difference to the result, and several plates and coins might be piled up alternately. If carefully protected, time appears to have little effect on the figures, but they can be removed by rubbing whilst the glass is moist. Failures and their causes were dis- cussed, and the more complex phenomena produced by strong i described. It was also pointed out that breath figures could be produced by laying a coin on a freshly split surface of mica, and that a coin laid on glass for some time leaves its traces. Perfect reproductions of printed matter have been obtained by placing a paper printed on one side only between two sheets of glass for ten hours. Some substances, such as silk in contact with glass, give white figures ; whilst wool, cotton, &c., give black ones. Various analogous effects are noticed in the paper, and the several views put forward in explanation of _ the phenomena examined.—A communication on the same sub- ject, from the Rev. F. J. Smith, was read by Prof. Perry. e had investigated some of the effects, and succeeded in nistre ypeing the impressions, prints from which were shown. fe had also examined the influence of various gases on the results, and found that oxygen gave the best figures. In a vacuum no figures could be obtained. The effect of temperature had also been tested. Prof. S. P. Thompson said details of early researches were given in Poggendurff’s Annalen for 1842. _ It was there pointed out that better results were obtained by Since repeated some of the experiments. Figures could on almost any polished surface ; he gut the best results by using a small ‘induction coil giving 3 mm. spark, for about five seconds. In 1881 he accidentally noticed that photo- could be got on ebonite. Hot coins put on uncleaned $s gave good breath figures. A member said that instead of thing on the plates, he and Mr. Garrett had sifted finely red lead on them, to get the figures. They had also the figures by etching with hydrofluoric acid. Mr. Croft _ exhibited some figures he obtained two years ago, which were still quite distinct.—On the measurement of the internal resist- ance of cells, by Mr. E. Wythe Smith. After referring to the methods hitherto used, the author described a modification of Mance’s test which he had recently devised. One pole of the battery to be tested is connected to the similar poles of two _ other batteries; each battery has a separate circuit, through _ which currents are allowed to pass. Selecting a point A at the opposite ~~ of the battery to be tested, points B and C in the circuits of the auxiliary batteries are found, whose potentials are ual to that of A. The resistances between each pair of points AB, AC, BC, are then measured by a Wheatstone’s bridge. Calling these resistances R,, R., and R; respectively, it is shown and recently be produced _ that the internal resistance required is given by the formula bare E4U &c., where x = Rit Reo Bs and ¢ is the external resistance of the circuit containing the battery tested. ‘or an accumulator discharging, =. to within about 2 per cent. 'rof. Perry inquired how far the results obtained agreed with _ those got by the older methods, and whether they depended on the time the keys were kept down. In the old methods it was _ assumed that an instantaneous rise in P.D. occurred on break- _ ing the circuit. This might-or might not be true. He was inclined to regard the P.D. and current as functions, both _ of resistance and time. The behaviour of cells seemed to in- dicate the existence of something like capacity, or rather, capacities and resistances in series. Prof. Ayrton said the age was of great interest, for it made possible what could not be done before, viz. to find the resistance of a cell without appreciably altering the current through it, Although the new method required more cells, this was not prohibitive, for the result sought was of considerable scientific importance. The _sime method was applicable for finding the resistance of NO. 1184, VOL. 46] dynamo-armatures when working, a quantity which had hitherto been unattainable by direct measurement. Mr. Lane Fox said the perplexing changes in the P.D. of secondary cells were to be accounted for by changes in the electrolyte, which occurred in the pores of the plates. He could detect no flaw in the reasoning given inthe paper. Dr. Sumpner remarked that the method was a valuable one, for it depended on bridge tests which could be made with considerable accuracy. On the other hand, it was a false zero method, and therefore liable to errors arising from changes of this zero. Prof. Ayrton pointed out that these errors could be eliminated by reversing the bridge battery. Mr. Rimington siid atnhough the testing currents were small they might affect the E.M.F., and thus introduce an errorin 4, This might be tested by using alternate currents and atelephone. In reply to Prof. Perry, Mr. Smith said the re- sults agreed with those obtained by the older methods to within the limits of accuracy obtainable by the latter methods ; this might amount to something like 15 per cent.—On the relation of the dimensions of physical quantities to directions in space, by Mr. W. Williams. In February 1889, Prof. Riicker recalled attention to the fact that, in the ordinary dimensional formulz for electrical quantities, the dimensions of » (permeability) and & (specific inductive capacity) are suppressed. In the discussion on that paper Prof. S. P. Thompson pointed out that lengths should be considered as having direction as well as magnitude, for, if so regarded, difficulties arising from different units, such as couple and work, having the same dimensions, would be avoided. Developing this idea, the author takes three mutually perpendicular lines, along which lengths are measured. Calling unit lengths along these lines X, Y, and Z respectively, the yarious dynamical units, such as velocity, acceleration, force, work, &c., are expressed in terms of M, T, X, Y, and Z. The formulz then denote the directional as well as the numerical relations between the units, and the dimensional formule are therefore regarded as the symbolical expressions of the physical nature of the quantities, so far as they depend on lengths, mass, and time. In this system areas and volumes are represented by products of different vector lengths instead of by powers of a single length, and angles and angular displacements by quotients of rectangular vectors, instead of being pure numbers. For physical purposes pure numbers may be defined as ratios of concretes of the same kind similarly directed (if directed at all). A plane angle has dimensions X-'Y, X being in the direction of the radius, and Y that of the arc, whilst -solid angles have dimensions YZX~?, and radii of curvature Y?X~!. It is also shown that 7 is a concrete quantity of the dimensions either of plane or of solid angle. This is of considerable importance in connection with the radial and circuital fluxes in the electro- magnetic field. In deducing the dimensional formule for electrical and magnetic units, the rational and simplified rela- tions given by Mr. Oliver Heaviside in the Zvectrician of October 16 and 30, 1891, are used. Instantaneous axes are taken at any point of an isotropic medium (the ether) such that X coincides with the electrical displacements, Y with that of the magnetic displacement, and Z with the intersection of the two equipotential surfaces at that point. Starting with the relation ~«H = energy per unit volume, the formule for the various quantities in terms of « are obtained. These simplify down to those of the ordinary electro-magnetic system by putting ~« =1 and suppressing the distinction between X, Y, and Z. Similarly, commencing with ZE* = energy per unit volume, formule in terms of & are obtained, which, when simplified as above, give those of the ordinary electrostatic system. Examples of the consistent way in which the results work out are given in the paper, and the whole subject is dis- cussed in detail, both by Cartesian and vectorial methods. The formule in terms of u and £& are used to trace out and examine the various analogies between electro-magnetism and dynamics, thereby obtaining a connected dynamical theory of electro- magnetism. Inquiry is then made as to what dimensions of « and & in terms of M, T, X, Y, Z, render the interpretation of electrical and magnetic units simple, natural, and intelligible as a whole. The conditions imposed (for reasons stated in the paper) are, first, that the dimensions of wu and & satisfy the relation [uk] = Z°T~*; second, that the powers of the fundamental units in the dimensional formule shall not be higher or lower than those found in the formule of the ordinary dynamical quantities ; and, third, that quantities which are scalar or directed must also be scalar or directed when their dimensions are expressed abso- 238 NATURE [JuLy 7, 1829 lutely. Subject to these conditions, it is shown that the possible dimensional values of w and & are eight in number. Of these only two lead to intelligible results. These are— ; (1) «= M(XYZ)-! and & = M7) XYZ"1T?, an (2) «= M7!XYZ7"!T? and & = M(XYZ)-1. According to (1), « is the density of the medium, electrical energy is potential, and magnetic energy kinetic. By (2), & is the density of the medium, electrical energy is kinetic, and magnetic energy potential. Full interpretations of the dimensional formulz of all the electro-magnetic quantities, as obtained in accordance with the above conditions, are given in the paper. Prof. S. P. Thompson said the paper was a very important one, and thought the idea of finding dimensions for « and & which would rationalize the ordinary dimensional formulz a great step. The use of vectors was a valuable feature, whilst the employment of X, Y, and Z instead of L removed many difficulties connected with dimensional formule. Other difficulties might be cleared up by paying attention to the signs of the vector products and quotients, and to the order in which the symbols were written. Another important matter was the use of Mr. Heaviside’s ‘‘ rational \nits,” a system which merited serious attention. In conclusion, Prof. Thompson expressed a hope that, in accordance with the resolution of the Electrical Congress at Frankfort, both perme- ability and specific inductive capacity should be designated by Greek symbols. Prof. O. Henrici expressed his admiration of the way in which the subject had been treated in the paper. He had long held that clear ideas of physical quantities were best got by vectorial methods. He also congratulated the author on his treatment of plane and solid angles as concrete quantities. In a communication addressed to the Secretaries, Prof. O. J. Lodge remarked that physicists in England were more or less familiar with the advantages of retaining « and / in dimensional expressions before Prof. Riicker’s paper of February 1889 brought the matter closely home to students. The system of mechanical dimensions suggested for electrical quantities in an Appendix to ‘‘ Modern Views of Electricity ” was not put forth as the only one possible, but as one having certain probabilities of truth in its favour. Prof. Riicker said that, although Mr. Williams and himself had talked over certain minor points in the paper, the main ideas brought forward were quite original, having been fully developed by Mr. Williams before he men- tioned the subject to him (Prof. Riicker).—A paper on molecular forces, by Mr. W. Sutherland, communicated by Prof. Carey Foster, was taken as read. The Chairman announced that both this paper and that of Mr. Williams would be printed in the Philosophical Magazine during the long vacation, so that they could be fully discussed early next session. Linnean Society, June 16.—Prof. Stewart, President, in the chair.—Mr. F. Enock exhibited some specimens of the Mustard Beetle, and gave an account of its recent depredations as observed by himself. So numerous was it that in walking down a single row of mustard, a distance of sixty-five yards, he had captured with a butterfly net upwards of 15,000, as he sub- sequently ascertained by counting a portion and weighing the remainder. The crop of mustard thus affected he regarded as destroyed.—Mr. R. I. Pocock exhibited and made some re- marks upon a species of Peripatus (P. juliformis) from St. Vincent, of which five specimens had been collected by Mr. H. H. Smith for the Committee investigating the fauna and flora of the Lesser Antilles. The species was originally described so long ago as 1826, by the Rev. L. Guilding (Zoological Fournal, vol. ii.), but from that time until the present no additional specimens had been procured there. As Guilding’s types had been lost, and his descriptions are wanting in detail, this re- discovery was of considerable interest.—Mr. George Murray exhibited and described the type of a new order ot Algz, to which the name Splachnidium rugosum was given.—A paper was read by Prof. J. R. Henderson, entitled ‘‘ Contributions to Indian Carcinology,” and embodied an account of several little- known Crustaceans, and descriptions of some new species.— Mr. H. B. Guppy read a paper on ‘‘ The Thames as an Agent in Plant Dispersal,” in which several interesting facts were brought out, the observations being illustrated by specimens collected by the author, and a useful record given of the effects of exposure to sea-water, and of freezing, upon the germinating power of seeds.—Prof. F. Oliver gave an abstract of observations made by Miss M. F. Ewart, on some abnormal developments of the flowers of Cypripedium, illustrated by effective diagrams in NO. 1184, VOL. 46] coloured chalk.—Mr. R. I. Pocock contributed some *‘ Suppl mentary Notes on the Fauna of the Mergui Archipelago,” th result of his examination of some fresh material which had lately come to hand.—The evening was brought toa close byan exhibition by Mr. Carruthers, with the aid of the oxy-hydrogen lantern, of some beautiful slides of sections of fossil plants. second series, zoological, exhibited by the President, included several minute organisms of extreme interest.—This meeti brought the session of 1891-92 to a close. : Anthropological Institute, June 21.—Edward B. Tylor, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—Dr. R. Wallaschek read a paper entitled ‘‘ An Ethnological Inquiry into the Basis of our Musical System.” In the course of the paper he pointed out that harmony is not a modern European invention, but known to many savage tribes, and even to the Hottentots and Bushmen. A regular bass accompaniment (to distinguish it from songs in harmonious intervals) is far more seldom to be met with, as the extreme simplicity of primitive songs does not admit of much variety in accompaniment. On the other hand, some savage tribes (Hotten- tots, Malays, Negroes) show an astonishingly great talent in accompanying European tunes by ear. Both keys, the major as wellas the minor, occur in the songs of primitive races. Minor chords also occur occasionally. There is no internal connection between a peculiar key and a peculiar mood or disposition of mind. The diatonic scale does not seem to be a more recent invention than the pentatonic. The most ancient diatonic division is to be met with in instruments (pipes, flutes) of the Stone period. This early occurrence seems to be due to the fact that the diatonic scale is the most natural for the player's fingers, while it is at the same time the most effective. The diatonic system is neither an ‘‘artistic invention,” nor a ‘‘ scientific discovery,” 7 e- the — A E "J f nor is it *‘ natural” for the voice or the ear, nor based upon the . laws and conditions of sounds, but it is the most natural for the hand, and the most practical for playing instruments.—Prof. Basil Hall Chamberlain then read a paper on some minor Japanese religious practices. After mentioning various mis- cellaneous usages and superstitions, the author treated chiefly of Japanese pilgrims and their ways, illustrating his remarks by an exhibition of a large collection of charms, sacred pictures, pil- grims’ dresses, &c., brought together partly by himself, partly by Mr. Lafcadio Hearn. The collection included articles from the Shinto shrines of Ise and Izumo, from the ‘‘ Thirty-three ‘Holy Places” of Central Japan, from the “ Eighty-eight Holy Places” of the island of Shikoku, from the temple of Asakusa in Tokyo, &c. The most curious was a sacred fire-drill from the great Shinto shrine of Izumo. This, together with a few of the other articles, has been presented by Prof. Chamberlain to the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford. Another feature of the paper was the translation given of a Buddhist legend explaining the origin of the pilgrimage to the ‘‘ Thirty-three Holy Places,” of some of the hymns intoned by the pilgrims. Geological Society, June 22.—W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—The following communications were read :—Contribution to a knowledge of the Saurischia of Europe and Africa, .by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. The and Saurischia are defined as terrestial unguiculate Ornithomorpha, ~ with pubic bones directed downward, inward, and forward to meet ina ventral union. The forms of the pelvic bones vary with the length of the limbs, the acetabulum becoming perforate, the ilium more extended, the pubis and ischium more slender, and the sacrum narrower as the limb-bones elongate. The order is regarded as including the Cetiosauria, Megalosauria, and Aristosuchia or Compsognatha. The Cetiosaurian pelvis has been figured in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. ; and a restora- tion is now given of the pelvis in Wegalosaurus, Streptospondylus, and Compsognathus. The characters of the skull are evidenced by description of the hinder part of the skull in. agg tact found at Kirklington, and preserved in the Oxford University Museum, saurus, and the corresponding region of the head in Jurassic Ornithosauria. The brain-cavity and cranial nerves are de- scribed, and contrasted with those of Ceratosaurus. in Cetiosauria, known from the American type Diflodocus, is identified in the European genus Zelodon, which is regarded as a primitive Cetiosaurian. Part 2 discusses the pelvis of Belodon, restored from specimens in the British Museum, and regarded as Cetiosaurian. A restoration of the shoulder-girdle is made, _ The skull | and found to resemble that in Ichthyosaurs, Anomodonts, and | Dinosauria. The vertebree in form and articulation of the ribs . In form and proportions it closely resembles Cerato- | JuLy 7, 1892] NATURE 239 aré Saurischian, the capitular and tubercular facets being vertical in the dorsal region, and not horizontal as in Crocodiles. The humerus shows some characters in common with that of, Stereo- rachis dominans, in the epicondylar groove. In general character the limb-bones are more crocodilian than the axial skeleton, The interc'avicle is described and regarded as a family character- istic of the Belodontidz. In the third part an account is given of Staganolepis, which is regarded as showing a similar relation with the Megalosauria, to that of Be/odon with the Cetiosauria. This interpretation is based chiefly upon the identification of the pubic bone in Staganolepfis, which has the proximal end not as in Zanclodon and Streptospondylus ; and the inner . ridge at the proximal end is developed into an internal plate. _ A note follows on the pelvis of Aétosaurus, which is also referred to the Saurischia on evidence of its pelvic characters, approxi- mating to the Cetiosaurian sub-order. Part 4 treats of Zanclodon, which is regarded as closely allied to Massospondylus, EBuskelesaurus, and Streptospondylus. It is founded chiefly on specimens in the Royal Museum at Stuttgart, and in the University Museum at Tiibingen. The latter are re- garded as possibly referable to TZeratosaurus, but are mentioned as Zanclodon Quenstedtt. The pelvis is de- ‘scribed and restored. Zanclodon has the cervical ver- tebree relatively long, as compared with Megalosaurus, and small as compared with the dorsal vertebrze, which have the same Teleosauroid mode of union with the neural arch as is seen in Streptosponuylus and Massospondylus. The sternum, of Pleininger, is the right and left pubic bones ; but there is much the same difference in the proximal articular ends of those bones in the fossils at Stuttgart and Tiibingen, as distinguishes corresponding parts of the pubes in MJegalo- saurus and Streptospondylus.. The ilium is more like that of Paleosaurus and Dimedosaurus, The limb-bones and digits are most like those of Dimodosaurus, but the teeth resemble Paléosaurus, Euskelesaurus, Megalosaurus, and Streptospondy- Zus, Part § discusses Zhecodontosaurus and Pal@osaurus upon _ evidence from the Dolomitic Conglomerate in the Bristol Museum. An attempt is made to separate the remains into those referable to Zhecodontosaurus and those belonging to vus. The latter is represented by dorsal and caudal vertebree, a scapular arch, humerus, ulna (?), metacarpals, ilium, femur, tibia, fibula, metatarsals, and phalanges. These portions of the skeleton are described. There is throughout a strong resemblance to Zanclodon and other Triassic types. A new type of ilium, and the humerus originally figured, are re- ferred to Thecodontosaurus. Part 6 gives an account of the South African genus Massospondylus. It is based partly upon the collection from Beaucherf, in the Museum of the Royal Col- lege of Surgeons, referred to 1/7. carinatus ; and partly upon a collection from the Telle River, obtained by Mr. Alfred Brown of Aliwal North, referred to 14. Browni. The former is repre- ‘sented by ‘cervical, dorsal, sacral, and caudal vertebre ; ilium, ischium, and pubis; femur, tibia ; humerus, metatarsals, a es. The latter is known from cervical, dorsal, and vertebree, femur, metatarsals, and bones of the digits. The affinities with Zanc/odon are, in some parts of the skeleton, stronger than with Zuskelesaurus. Part 7 gives an account of Zuskelesaurus Brownz, partly based upon materials obtained by Mr. Alfred Brown from Barnard’s Spruit, Aliwal North, and partly on specimens collected by the author, with Dr. W. G. Atherstone, Mr. T. Bain, and Mr. Alfred Brown, at _the Kraai River. The former series comprises the maxillary bone and teeth, vertebrz, pubis, femur, tibia and fibula, pha- langes, chevron bone and rib. The latter includes a cervical vertebra and rib, and lower jaw. The teeth are stronger than those of Zeratosaurus, or any known Megalosaurian. The anterior part of the head was compressed from side to side, and the head in size and form like M/egalosaurus, so far as preserved. _ The pubis is twisted as in Staganolepis and Massospondylus, _ with a notch instead of a foramen at the proximal end, as in _ those genera; and it expands distally after the pattern of Zan- _ tlodon, The chevron bones are exceptionally long, and the tail _ appears to have been greatly elongated. The femur is inter- mediate between Mega/osaurus and Palgzosaurus, but most re- sembles Zanclodon and Massospondylus. The tibia in its proxi- mal end resembles many Triassic genera ; and in its distal end : is well distinguished from Massospondylus by its mode of union _ with the astragalus. The claw-phalanges are convexly rounded, being wider than is usual in Megalosauroids. The lower jaw NO. 1184, VOL. 46] ‘ from the Kraai River gives the characters of the articular bone, and the articulation, as well as of the dentary region and teeth. The cervical vertebra is imperfect, but is remarkable for the shortness of the centrum, being shorter than in A/egalosaurus. In Part 8 an account is given of Hortalotarsus skirtopodus from Barkly East, preserved in the Albany Museum. It is a Euskelesaurian, and exhibits the tibia and fibula, and tarsus. There is a separate ossification for the intermedium, which does not form an ascending process; and the astragalus is distinct from the calcaneum. The metatarsals are elongated, and the phalanges somewhat similar to those of Dimodosaurus, Part 9, in conclusion, briefly examines the relations of the Saurischian types with each other, and indicates ways in which they ap- proximate towards the Ornithosauria. It is urged that the Ornithosauria are as closely related to the Saurischia as are the Aves to the Ornithischia ; and that both divisions of the Saur- ischia approximate in Staganolepis and Belodon. Finally, a tabular statement is given of the distribution in space and time of the 25 Old World genera which are regarded as probably well established. Eight of these are referred to the Cetiosauria, thirteen to the Megalosauria, and four to the Aristosuchia or Compsognatha.—Mesosauria from South Africa, by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S.—On a new Reptile from Welte Vreden, Eunotosaurus africanus (Seeley), by Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S. The President observed that there could be no question as to the great value of these papers, the first of which especially was the outcome of years of experience and study on the part of the author. It was only right to remark that the paper on Saurischia was received by the officers of the Society early in Afrz/. Since that date Prof. Marsh, in his notes on Triassic Dinosauria (which did not appear till J/ay 24), had published, as regards Zanclodon, conclusions similar to those at which the author (Prof. Seeley) had already arrived. My. E. T. Newton also spoke. Prof. Seeley drew attention to a photograph of Hortalo- tarsus, a reproduction of a sketch made at Barkly East, before the original specimen had been destroyed in the process of blasting the rock.—The dioritic picrite of White Hause and Great Cockup, by J. Postlethwaite.—On the structure of the American Pteraspidian, Pa/easpis (Claypole), with remarks on the family, by Prof. E. W. Claypole.—Contributions to the geology of the Wengen and St. Cassian strata in Southern Tyrol, by Maria M. Ogilvie, B.Sc. (Communicated by Prof. C. Lapworth, F.R.S.)—Notes on some new and little-known species of Carboniferous M/urchisonia, by Miss Jane Donald. (Communicated by J. G. Goodchild.)—Notes from a geologi- cal survey in Nicaragua, by J. Crawford, State Geologist © to the Nicaraguan Government. (Communicated by Prof. J. Prestwich, F.R.S.)—Microzoa from the phosphatic chalk of Taplow, by F. Chapman. (Communicated by Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S.)—On the basalts and andesites of Devonshire, known as felspathic traps, by Bernard Hobson.—Notes on recent borings for salt and coal in the Tees salt-district, by Thomas Tate. MELBOURNE, Royal Society of Victoria, March 12.—Annual Meeting: — The following officers were elected for the year :—President : Prof. Kernot. Vice-Presidents: Messrs. E. J. White, H. K. Rusden. Hon. Treasurer: Mr. C. R. Blackett. Hon. Librarian: Dr. Dendy. Hon. Secretaries: Prof. Spencer, Mr. A. Sutherland.—The following paper was read :—Pre- liminary notice of Victorian earthworms : Part 2, the genus Perichzeta, by Prof. Spencer. The author described 18 species collected in Victoria, of which 16 are new. May 13.—The following papers were read :—On confocal quadrics of moments of inertia pertaining to all planes in space, and loci and envelopes of straight lines whose moments of inertia are of constant magnitude, by Martin Gardiner.—Further notes on the oviparity of the larger Victorian Peripatus, generally known as P, /euckartii, by Dr. Dendy. In this paper the author replied to some remarkable strictures recently passed upon his work by Mr. J. J. Fletcher in the Proceedings of the Sydney Linnean Society. He showed that at the time of writing his first paper on this subject nothing was known as to the method of reproduction of P. euckartii, Mr, Fletcher’s brief footnote to the effect that one specimen dissected was found to be pregnant not of necessity implying the presence of developed embryos within the egg-case. The Victorian specimens, contain- ing in their uterus large eggs, might with equal truth be de- { 240 NATURE '[Juty 7, 1892 scribed as pregnant. Dr. Dendy brought forward evidence proving conclusively thatin the eggs investigated by him development had gone on normally outside of the body for a period exceeding eight months, one of them at the close of this time containing a perfect young form with even the pigment developed. Since the publication of his first paper, but not prior to this, Mr. Fletcher had shown that the New South Wales Peripatus /euckartit was undoubtedly viviparous ; and Dr. Dendy suggested that if, as seems most probable, the Victorian species is oviparous, then his original idea of its being a distinct species from the New South Wales form may probably be correct. PARIS. Academy of Sciences, June 27.—On the local disturb- ances produced underneath a heavy load uniformly distributed along a straight line perpendicular to the two edges, on the upper surface of a rectangular beam of indefinite length laid down on a horizontal surface, or on two transverse supports equidistant from the load, by M. J. Boussinesq.—Contribution to the study of the function of camphoric acid, by M. A. Haller. —On the presence and the nature of the phylacogenic substance in the ordinary liquid cultivations of Bact//us anthracis, by M. Ar- loing. The liquid was carefully siphoned off from a large culti- vation of the bacillus which had been allowed to stand for a considerable time. The usual porcelain filters were not em- ployed, as they are apt to intercept most of the prophylactic substances. A liquid perfectly free from the anthrax bacillus having thus been obtained, two solutions in glycerine were prepared, the one containing the substances soluble in alcohol, the other those precipitated by alcohol. Of six lambs, two received subcutaneous injections of the former, two of the latter solution, and the rest of neither. Eight days afterwards all six were inoculated with a very virulent dose of the bacillus. The only survivors were those inoculated with the matter soluble in alcohol, thus proving that the prophylactic substance belongs to this group.—On the determination of the angle of polarization of Venus, by M. J. J. Landerer. By almost daily observations, extending from April 29 to June 8, the angle of polarization of Venus was found to vary between 45°°17 and 27°51, using an instrument of 135 mm. aperture, to which a Cornu photo-polari- meter was adapted. The author concludes that the light from the crescent of Venus is not polarized, and hence that almost the entire visible surface of the planet is constituted by a thick layer of clouds. At the poles, however, permanent spots are observable, which are due to part of the solid surface protruding beyond the cloudy mass.—On the variations in temperature of water suddenly compressed to 500 atmospheres between 0° and 10°, by M. Paul Galopin. An account of the first of a series of experiments to be made in M. Raoul Pictet’s laboratory to determine the heat produced by the adiabatic com- pression of a large number of liquids between — 200° and + 200°, under sudden variations of pressure amounting to 1000 atmospheres, ‘The apparatus consists of a steel cylinder pro- vided with a thermometer I m. long, capable of measuring o°'ol. Pressure is applied by means of a Cailletet pump, and the whole apparatus is immersed in a large calorimeter with quadruple envelopes. The results obtained, which vary from 0°'20 at 0°*4 to 0°'59 at 10°, show that the increase of pressure lowers the temperature of maximum density of water for that particular pressure, and that under high pressures it corresponds nearly to the freezing-point.—Measurement of the dielectric con- stant by electro-magnetic oscillations, by M. A. Perot. This measurement is based on the law formulated by Blondlot, according to which the period of the resonators is proportional to the square root of their capacities. The value obtained for essence of terebenthine was 2°25, that for ice between 60 and 71, in confirmation of previous results. —On the conductivity of a gas inclosed between a cold metal and an incandescent body, by M. Edouard Branly.—On the physiological effects of alternating currents with sinusoidal variations: process of administering them in electro-therapeutics, by M. A. d’Arsonval. The law indicated by the results of the experiments is that the intensity of the motor or the sensory reaction is proportional to the variation of potential at the point excited. Although oscil- lations of great frequency seem to have but faint physiological effects, a careful analysis shows that the absorption of oxygen and the elimination of carbonic acid in the lungs is greatly augmented.—On aluminium, by M. Balland. NO. 1184, VOL. 46] A series of experiments to prove that aluminium is well-suited for domestic utensils, being not more attacked by air, water, wine, coffee, milk, butter, &c., than other metals used for such purposes.—Action of chlorine on the alcohols of the fatty series, by M. A. Brochet.—On asboline (pyrocatechine and homo- pyrocatechine), by MM. Béhal and Desvignes.—On the vege- table cholesterines, by M. Gérard.—Researches on the adultera- tion of the essence of sandalwood, by M. E, Mesnard.—On two specimens of the waters of the Arctic seas, by M. J. Thoulet. —New remarks on ‘ peecilogony,” by M. Alfred Giard.—On — a sporozoarian parasite of the muscles of the Decapod Crustaceans, by MM. F. Henneguy and P. Thélohan.—The first phases in the development of certain nematoid worms, by M. Léon. Jammes.—A contribution to the history of ambergris, by M. S. Jourdain.—On the drunissure, a disease} of the vine caused by the Plasmodiophora Vitis, by MM. P. Viala and C. Sauvageau. —On the secretion of oxygen in the natatory vessel of the fishes, by M. Chr. Bohr.—Physiological action of mountain climates, by M. Viault. The effects of a high elevation, though power- fully beneficent for dyspeptics, neurasthenics, and tuberculous patients, must be long continued to be permanent. The effects are due to an increase in the number of blood corpuscles and in the respiratory power of the blood.—Permanent abolition of the chromogenic function of the Baczllus pyocyaneus, by MM. Charrin and Phisalix. CONTENTS. A System of Mineralogy. ByJ.W.J. ..... Modern Infinitesimal Calculus. By Prof. A. G, PAGE 217 Greenhill, F.R.8. 20.0. 05. 6 WS Alterations of Personality. By C.Ll.M. ..... 219 Our Book Shelf :— . Hull: ‘‘ Volcanoes: Past and Present” .... . + 220 ‘* Encyclopédie scientifique des Aide-mémoire.”—G,. 221 ** Chambers’s Encyclopeedia”’ ss. eile ws Sek eee Bottone: ‘‘ A Guide to Electric Lighting”... . . 221 Letters to the Editor :— ‘“¢ The Grammar of Science.”—C. G. K.. . . . . . 221 On the Line Spectra of the Elements.—Dr. G, John- stone Stoney, F.R.S. 6i06:n) se ee eee Range of the Sanderling in Winter.—Prof. Alfred Newton, F.R:8.. ++ s:5: we oy: cine cuiiateas RA Immunity of the African Negro from Yellow Fever.— Your Reviewer . 00. 0s 0 eee 222 A Solar Halo.—J. Edmund Clark. ....... 222 The Electric Current. (With Diagram.)—Edward Hamilton .... +++. 50a a ie ages sce, 223 Are the Solpugide Poisonous ?—Henry Bernard 223 Death from Paraffin, and Members of Parliament.— Humanity. 2.....<0 3.) 0) .'(s ite ee greta 223 On the Causes of the Deformation of the Earth’s Crust. (Jilustrated.) By Prof. E. Reyer .... - 224 Notes 2 foo. aw ness ow a EN Ne ee ene wre eae Our Astronomical Column :— The Red Spoton Jupiter ..... a a mits ct ae 229 A Mean Time Sun-dial ...... eee ee 230 Comet Swift (1892 March 6)... . +++. -s- 230 | Stars’ Proper Motions. .....- ° ° Ae ee, Geographical Notes. . . . - + + s+ © + «© «© + «+ «© 230 Metallic Carbonyls. By Ludwig Mond, F.R.S. . . 230 North-Western District of British Guiana .... 234 Scientific Serials 2030 se ee ie ce 8 & + + 235 Societies and Academies ......+.0¢+48¢s 230. Ce Op ee 5 NATURE 241 THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1892. ‘A TREATISE ON ZOOLOGY. Outlines of Zoology. By J. Arthur Thomson, M.A,, Lecturer on Zoology in the School of Medicine, Edin- (Edinburgh and London: Young J. Pentland, 4 (GENERAL— he above-named volume of 604 pages — small octavo, the latest of Pentland’s “ Students’ Manuals,” is divided into twenty-five chapters, with an introduction and a well-constructed index. By way of : illustration, there are interleaved two-and-thirty sheets of matic sketches. It is difficult to find upon est e any dozen figures which adequately represent mil in nature, and the majority of the “ diagrams ” are the rudest of rude sketch maps. Archetypes are well to the fore with their misrepresentations and evil influences, and such illustrations as those of the “ unsegmented worm,” the “spinal canal” figure of Plate 22, and others akin to them, are meaningless atrocities, conveying abso- lutely no idea to the mind. The Peripatus series are very suggestive ; they are three in number—namely, one (bad) depicting the whole animal, another (worse) of a : nephridium, and a third Ganfannded) representing a con- ventional branched tube, spiral lining and all (sic). To : be brief, the illustrations are mostly bad, and might well be dispensed with. Of those copied from weil: known figures, many are spoilt in the copying, while the remainder are such as might have been produced in the greatest haste by a person accustomed to reading about, but not to handling, objects of the class delineated. The book itself is written in a clear and intelligible style, and its author has been at immense pains in pro- ducing it. He deals with many difficult topics, especially when_ they do not involve minute structural detail, with conspicuous success. He is in some parts racy, in other ‘flippant, pace the remark (p. 264) that “even a wooden Jeg may crumble before” the jaws of the termite ; and he occasionally shows himself to be alive to difficulties of the passing moment—for example, that of the histo- genesis of the nerve fibre. Some sections of the work are deplorably meagre, e.g. those devoted to the Ganoids, Tunicata, Rotifera, and Sponges, and especially to the Brachiopods and Polyzoa, which (following Lang) the - author ranks with the Sipunculids and Phoronis as the ““Prosopygii.” Classifications such as that given of ‘the Chelonia, and the adoption of the absolutely ground- less term “ Ornithosauria” as the ordinal name for the Pterodactyles, are bad examples of their kind. Akin to the occasional flippancy already alluded to are the de- scriptions of the embryonic membranes as “ birth-robes,” of the crystalline lens and the liver as “ moored” to ad- jacent structures, and of the viscera as “ swathed” in the mesentery. All science worthy the name must be now technical, whether set forth in the pages of a monograph or of a text-book ; and when recognized terms are in daily use they should be employed. Personal names are oc- casionally mentioned; and it is a curious detail that, with one or two exceptions, those of workers in the Edinburgh School are alone qualified. We strongly de- precate the mention of individuals in an elementary text- NO. 1185, VOL. 46] book, as unnecessary and liable to abuse ; but, in having adopted the course alluded to, the author displays a be- coming respect for his seniors, such as we could wish were more general nowadays. - His book is written for Edinburgh students; but we nevertheless note the absence of all reference to certain organisms in vogue among them—to wit, Zrochosphera, a knowledge of the development of which was demanded in a recent syllabus issued by authority. The book, however, while lacking in much that is of primary importance, contains a bulk of excellent material. It is wonderfully free of really gross errors, and we there- fore willingly recommend it on its general merits as a useful work of reference, believing that the author will strengthen its weaknesses as opportunity occurs. The assertion that Limmnocodium was “found in a tank at Kew” will probably whet the appetite of that establishment, and statements like that of the brain being ‘but an anterior expansion of the medullary canal,” while self-explanatory, afford at least a relief to the reviewer. Analytical—The author tells us in his preface that his book is “ intended to serve as a manual which students of zoology may use in the lecture-room, museum, and laboratory ” ; and, in accordance with this, he subdivides most of the chapters each into three sections, dealing respectively with what we presume he would considera lecture equivalent, with the more didactic consideration of type-structure, and with facts usually embodying the principles of classification. A very ambitious scheme this; and it will be convenient to deal with each of the three departments separately. First, as to the use of the book in the laboratory. The author here deals with familiar types, and supple- ments these here and there by the addition of wisely chosen species. His descriptions are, however, at most points insufficient and far too general, the one detailed account being made to do duty in the case of the Simple Ascidian (p. 358) for three distinct genera. This is not as itshould be. The method of laboratory instruction in zoology employed in this country, with its rigid adherence to the type-system, is, in the long run, but that of teach- ing the alphabet whereby the student shall read ; and, even were this not so, the laboratory training is one in discipline and observation, wherefore it is of the highest importance that any notes which shall be given the beginner for his guidance in it, shall be rigidly confined to actual state- ments of observed fact. The author partially disarms criticism under this head by remarking that his book is intended (preface) “as an accompaniment to several well- known works,” which he cites (p. 88), and among which he enumerates leading laboratory treatises. Unfortunately, however, the plan of construction of those works does away with the necessity for his own as an adjunct to their utility. And we have therefore but to deplore the in- corporation of generalities and ambiguities, in a portion of the author’s treatise where they are calculated to en- courage a general looseness, and to nullify much of the good intended by the founders of the system which he has adopted. On passing to the two remaining departments of the book, we express ourselves at a loss to appreciate the utility of a text-book in the lecture-room. Much that M 242 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1892 passes current for scientific lecturing nowalays is mere parrot-work ; and lecturing which is confined to mere text-book recapitulation (such as could alone justify the author’s intention that his book should be used in the lecture-room) is no lecturing at all, but rather a poor form of dictation work. We deem it the highest aim of a scientific lecturer to teach his hearers, by example, how best to extend, systematize, and apply their knowledge of crude facts previously acquired in the laboratory. He should in all cases work out from these and lead up to generalizations ; and, to the end in view, he should be up to date in his reading, and, above all, cautious in his selection of approved topics. Given this line of action, the competent teacher could not failto present his facts ina manner in which they could not be found in any text- book. The author of the work before us has clearly realized this position, and much of his book which we presume he would regard as the equivalent of lecture material, fulfils our ideal. We note, however, a too frequent want of judgment, and a too general desire to present theories before facts. By way of example, the inter-relationships of the Echinodermata are summarily dismissed in some ten or a dozen lines, in a manner as ‘‘cocksure ” as it is certainly erroneous ; and the beginner is told (p. 377) that the ribs of Vertebrates “ perhaps bear the same relation to the vertebre that the visceral arches do to the skull,” before he either knows sufficiently what constitutes a rib, or at all appreciates the difficulties in the way of homo- logizing the ribs of the leading classes of Vertebrata. And here and there the author goes out of his way to raise difficulties at the outset (e.g. the opening sentence in the book, and the second sentence of p. 121), when deal- ing with terms having a definitely accepted meaning ; while, in ushering in the Mollusca with a reference (p. 299) to “a diagrammatic summary of the chief anatomical characters” anda ‘‘schematic Archi-mollusk—a recon- struction of a possible ancestor,” he proceeds along a line subversive of all good discipline established either on precedent or sound sense. There is here evidence of a topsyturveydom in method, which could only be pro- ductive of disastrous results. Concerning the more strictly text-book portion of the volume, we confess to a similar attitude of mixed judgment. There is in it much that is admirable and beneficial, and not a little that is crooked and injurious. The gastrea theory is swallowed outright, mention of equally plausible alternative ones being confined (p. 62) to five none too fortunate lines. The description of the scapula (p. 472) as ‘a membrane bone,” of the cranial nerves of vertebrates (p. 381) as ten in number ; like the assertions (p. 444) that “it is very difficult to distinguish Amphibians from Fishes,” that (p. 33) Volvox “is a hollow sphere of epithelium,” that the skate’s egg-purse is (p. 425) “ composed of a horny substance allied to that of hair and hoof”; like definitions such as that of Balanoglossus and Cephalodiscus (p. 348) as “surviving incipient Vertebrates ” (of course with a “ notochord ”), of Lepidosiren (p. 428) as “ only a species of Protopterus,” simply will not do ; while arrangements such as those of the Mammalia (p. 7) and Vermes (p. 149) are hardly in keeping with modern conceptions. Retrospective.—On retrospective examination of the book before us, we seek in vain for evidence of that im- NO. 1185, VOL. 46| press of the author’s individuality as an actual worker which has so often “ made” the zoological text-book of the past. his way. Obsolete classifications are placed side by side with others as audacious as they are premature, and rival theories are alike abstracted for what they may be worth. When, however, the author’s method leads to the citing (p. 86) of Kropotkin as an authority on evolu- tion ; to the placing side by side, as alternative interpre- tations of the phenomena of Nature, those generalized statements of facts which constitute the “laws” of Darwin, and the flighty fantasies shot at a venture by certain younger “ law-makers” (some of whom are sufficiently candid to admit that they are generaliz- ing without facts), willing to risk all if, perchance, a frivolous public will but proclaim them philosophers, the experienced naturalist, in whose hand the judgment lies, steps in and demands a reconsideration. In a word, the author has insufficiently exercised his judgment in selection of material. To the teacher of science the duty of showing his scholars, by inference, what to neglect is, perhaps, of paramount importance to that of indicating upon what they are to rely. The author of the volume under review would, however, leave the discretion in the hands of the student; he writes rather as the amateur, to whom everything is equally important, and in thus acting he fails to recognize one of the highest functions of his office, to the utter confusion, if not the ruin, of his followers. In our opinion, his book, although in many respects admirable, falls short in each of its great depart- ments which we have signalized. It will be largely used, and we wish it an ultimate success. It nevertheless con- tains the framework of a really serviceable text-book ; and if the author will elaborate this, using a fitting exercise of judgment, and either eliminating the illustrations alto- gether or replacing them in others better and more numerous, he ought to produce a work of more than passing value, and he would sufficiently justify the great pains at which he has placed himself. In its present form the book is calculated to encourage a love of premature generalization,and anyone adopting its methods . would teach fantasies before facts. The mental attitude which it typifies is one apt to create a bias, under which the student would suffer in his after work, as is indeed exemplified by the author himself in his treatment (pp. 178-79) of the reproductive organs of the worm. To encourage this is but to foster a growing evil. The didactic method of instruction in zoology now in vogue will unmistakably prevail in the future ; but, unless its dryness be salted with work akin to the good old-fashioned field work, to the discouragement of the more modern and pedantic phylum-mongering and striving after im- possibilities, better, by far, the ~égzme of the past. G Be WATTS’ “ DICTIONARY OF CHEMISTRY.” Watts’ Dictionary of Chemistry. Vol. III. By Forster Morley and M. M. Pattison Muir. (London : Long- mans, 1892.) HE third of the four volumes of this excellent work has just appeared, and in value and interest this one does not stand behind the two previous volumes. The author has been too content to abstract allin JuLy 14, 1892] NATURE 243 Amongst the articles written by eminent specialists, one, the most important, is that contributed by Prof. J. J. Thomson, of Cambridge, on the theories of the molecular Structure of bodies. It is from the interpretation of chemical phenomena, by the help of exact physical re- search, that we may most hopefully look for insight into the true explanation of these phenomena. And although the theory of the molecular constitution of matter now universally held has been adopted as regards chemical change ever since the publication of Dalton’s new system _ of chemistry in 1808, the crucial proof of its necessity has only recently been given. Prof. Thomson briefly but clearly explains the historical development of this proof. The first attempt was made by Cauchy, founded on the dispersion which light experiences when it passes through transparent bodies. But this attempt was an incomplete one, and a less ambiguous proof was given by Osborne Reynolds in 1879, based upon the thermal effusion of gases. Lord Kelvin, Loschmidt, and others have gone still further, not only proving that matter possesses struc- ture, but giving limits below which the “ coarse-grained- ness” of matter cannot lie, These conclusions are founded upon considerations of several distinct sets of phenomena, viz. surface-tension, the difference of potential which occurs when two metals are placed in metallic con- nection, the amount of polarization at the surface of an electrode and of an electrolyte, and the viscosity, the diffusion, and the conductivity for heat, of gases. discussion of the methods by which the limit is reached in the case of surface tension is next clearly given, and the result arrived at that a thickness of 10-* cm. must be comparable with the range of molecular action of the water molecules. The results of the well-known researches of Quincke on silver films and on capillary elevation, as summarized in a lecture delivered before the Chemical Society of London by Prof. Riicker in 1888, are then explained, and the limits of molecular action deduced from these experiments. Having given an idea of the coarse-grainedness of matter, Thomson proceeds to con- sider the various theories of that structure, and gives an account of the most important of these by Lord Kelvin and Lindemann. The evidence of molecular structure afforded _ by the spectra of bodies, that concerning the arrange- ment of the atoms in the molecule on the supposition that the atoms are vortex-rings, and the electrical theory of molecular structure, first brought forward by Helm- holtz in his Faraday Lecture, are all clearly discussed ; -and the author’s own researches on the conduction of electricity by gases, which bear out the results of this latter theory, are adverted to. The whole article, which only extends over seven pages, forms an admirable ex- position of a most important, if a somewhat difficult, subject, and shows what chemistry gains from the work of mathematical physicists. Another short but excellent article is that by Mr. Shen- stone, on ozone, including, as it does, the most recent work on the subject, as well as a résumé of the older and better known results. The question as to the relation existing between the quantity of ozone produced and the potential difference between the discharging surfaces, does. not appear to have as yet been settled, though Berthelot ore that an increase of potential eta an increased “wo. 1185, vor. 46} °° The yield of ozone. Nor has the exact influence of tempera- ture and pressure been properly made out, though it appears that at a pressure of about 50 mm. ozone is alternately produced and destroyed. These facts point to the conclusion that, although much labour has already been spent upon the investigation of ozone, much yet remains to be accomplished before our knowledge of “modified oxygen” is anything like complete. Of the recent progress made in our general chemical conceptions, none are of greater, if any are of as great, importance as the foundation of the periodic law by - Mendeleeff in 1869. A Dictionary which failed to give an account, not only of the nature of this law, but also of its rise and development, would indeed be incomplete. Mr. Douglas Carnegie’s article, however, does justice to his subject, and I am glad to see he has not ignored the extensions made by my lamented pupil and friend, Carnelly, which are truly said to be as much in advance of the earlier views of Dumas and Gladstone as the periodic law is in advance of the earlier disconnected schemes of classification. And I agree with the writer in his remarks that if these extensions must be regarded as bold speculations, they indicate the direction in which investigations on the rationale of the periodic law, and of the nature of the elements, will probably have to be prosecuted before we can hope to arrive at any explana- tion of the law, or of the nature of the chemical elements themselves. The article on “ Metals (rare) ” is, of course, contributed by Mr. Crookes. It contains an account of the contri- butor’s own researches on the splitting up of the rare earth metals. Many of the metals described in our trea- tises, and in the Dictionary itself, are probably mixtures. Some years ago I proved that an element termed philip- pium was in reality a mixture of two others, viz. terbium and yttrium, and Mr. Crookes’s researches have since confirmed my results. It is, however, quite true, as Crookes observes, that until we know what terbium and yttrium themselves are, we have not got to the bottom of the question. And from his own work it does not appear very likely that the chemists of this generation will bottom this subject, for the more Mr. Crookes works on the separation of these bodies the more complex does the question of identification appear to become. Those who wish to form an idea of the character of work of this kind will do well to study the article. A notable characteristic of this Dictionary is the summa- tion of the properties of the different allied groups of chemical elements. ‘Thus in this volume we find an ex- cellent article by one of the editors, Mr. Pattison Muir, on the nitrogen group of elements. The relationships be- tween the corresponding compounds of two different members are clearly set forth in tabular form, and thus the reader is able at a glance to compare the analogies and differences which these compounds exhibit both in composition and properties. Prof. Armstrong’s article on isomerism bears out ‘the author’s reputation for clear statement and com: plete knowledge of his subject. He fully discusses its historical development, strengthening his statements by valuable quotations from the writings of chemists of eminence, and brings the matter up to the latest views 244 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1892 of chemists such as Van’t Hoff, Victor Meyer, Wislicenus, and others, who have recently contributed to our know- ledge of isomeric bodies. For the rest, which indeed forms the bulk of the volume, I must content myself with saying that the numerous articles descriptive of organic compounds, ranging from indin on p. 1 to phenyl-tetrazole carboxylic acid on p. 858 (not to mention the inorganic compounds) are mainly contributed by Dr. H. Forster Morley, one of the editors. How far these hundreds of compounds are adequately described, or what mistakes of omission or commission the descriptions may contain, or how many printers’ errors exist, must be left to be determined, if determined at all, by someone with more leisure, and, may I add, with more taste for that’ sort of wor« than I possess. But I may conclude by saying that, knowing the accuracy and care which uniformly characterize Dr. Morley’s work, I do not think that any adverse critic, if such there should be, of this great addition to our chemical literature, will find it a very happy hunting-ground, for, as far as I am able to judge, the work has been carefully and accurately done. H. E. ROSCOE. THE ENGLISH SLOJD. Manual Instruction; Wood-work; the English Sloyd. By S. Barter. With 302 Illustrations. Preface by George Ricks, B,Sc.Lond. (London: Whittaker and Co., 1892.) i is to be regretted that the author of this very excel- lent and practical work should not haye stated on the title-page what it really is, z.e. a book simply teaching carpentry, including directions for a limited amount of technical or mechanical drawing, and not have termed it ‘‘ Wood-work,” since by this term much is understood which is not given in his pages. Neither is there any occasion for the word which he gives in one place as Sloyd and in others as S/é/d, it being sufficiently mis- used already in Swedish by being confined to common incised carving and small carpenter’s work, when it is properly applicable to all kinds of technical art. Since Mr. Barter has had the intelligence and boldness to declare that whatever can be done with the barbarous “‘ .S/é7d” knife can be better done with the chisel, it is to be re- gretted that, as he is with his English common-sense altogether out of and beyond S/éjd, he did not let the Swedish system alone altogether. There was no occasion for him to mention it or its palpable defects, to which he might have added the preposterous arro- gance of its claims to be the incarnation of all that is needed to train the hand and eye to industrial art. However, since he who is fitter to be the leader humbly assumes the name, and follows the lead as an English Slojder, we, of course, cannot complain, since it is to his own disadvantage that he assumes a title which detracts seriously from the merits of the treatise. He gives a very good introduction on drawing, which has, however, the serious defect of being beyond the capacity of mere boys, who, while at carpenters’ work, certainly cannot be expected to devote hours to learning the meaning and application of ‘‘ orthographic projection,” ‘ the assump- tion of the existence of parallel horizontal rays of light NO. 1185, VOL. 46] which project the elevation on a vertical surface,” “iso- metric axes,” and “therefore as AC is toCH:: 4/3: ,/2; but CH = A’K, which is,” e¢ cetera—all of which, with the diagrams, contrasts strangely with the pictures — of the ten-year-old chubby. youngsters who are repre- sented as merrily sawing and planing in the frontispiece, It is true that there are little boys who can master Euclid, or its equivalents ; but an experience of years in teaching qualifies us to state that a much more simply written chapter than this, or one within the ready comprehension of “ boys,” would have been better adapted to the book. The forty-two pages devoted to timber are thoroughly scientific, practical, and admirable. Yet as boys seldom have any great choice of wood, and have little to do with teak, ebony, and lignum vita, much of the space might have been better devoted to some kind of wood-work not touched on in this book. Materials and tools are well described. We observe that in his illustrations of nails Mr. Barter makes no mention of the very best of all—the triangular, which goes home as straight as a screw, and holds like one. , . “ Bench-work” is the best portion of the book, being thorough, comprehensive, and manifestly written by a master of the subject. It is not beyond the com- prehension of an intelligent boy who will devote to it serious attention ; therefore, for such as are some- what advanced, it may be warmly commended, for the simple reason that intelligent minds pay most serious ‘attention to, and remember best, what costs them some trouble. The author is evidently a very practical, serious, and earnest mechanic, who, understanding his business perfectly, describes everything as he would teach it to a class of young men who had been a while in workshops. But with his ‘‘ orthographic projections ” as with his whole style, he is—-not invariably, nor even generally, but very often—too hard for urchins ; and, in fact, the juvenile who is depicted on p. 175 as boring a hole has appropriately the pensive air of one who is very much bored himself—probably by some diffi- culty in the text. Yet all of this does not detract from the fact that the work is an admirable one, that it is the best of its kind, and perfectly adapted to the use of teachers establishing classes, who are, after all, the only persons who really need or read such works, as pupils seldom look at anything of the kind unless required to. But though it is very seldom done, it would have good results if pupils in technical schools should be made to read more, and secondly, if the teacher should carefully explain to them the text. An excellent feature in the bench work is that the author, giving the names of a majority of such objects as an amateur may expect to make, describes in detail, with ex- cellent and abundant illustrations, how to make them. He might in some cases have gone a little further in his work. Thus it never appears to have occurred to him that parquetry, or inlaid work, can be made save by saw- ing out pieces of wood in their natural colours. Buta large portion of French and Italian work is made by using wood which is artificially coloured, and we should not have expected this to be passed over by a writer who had the intelligence to remark that ‘ Colour, which plays sO prominent a part in design, is entirely overlooked in he Sléjd system,” which it certainly is, and with it much eT ee ee ee Juty 14, 1892) NATURE 245 more that is indispensable to teaching the minor arts as a system even to the youngest children. Nor does Mr. Barter mention the so-called Venetian i#¢arsiatura, in which the pattern, drawn on one'piece of wood, is cut half through the panel, the line being then filled with coloured mastic, and the pattern dyed. But such sins of omission are trifling, though in a book which proclaims on its title that it is devoted to wood-work we should have expected something more than carpentry, and at least a full des- cription of Sléjd carving. And having pointed out, as in conscience bound, every defect, we feel it to be a duty to congratulate the publishers of this remarkably handsome, well-bound, and useful work on having done their best, and on having issued a manual which deserves a place in every industrial school. But there is a word to be said as regards the preface and a portion of the introduction. It is perfectly true that manual instruction for children develops their intellects, and fits them for life far more than ordinary school studies usually do. But it is not true that this training should consist, as Messrs. Ricks and Barter virtually declare, of nothing but Sléjd, be it Swedish or English, or of carpenters’ work. Such training should be for girls as well as boys, and it should be based on design and drawing, taught simultaneously in the simplest and easiest freehand ; after which the pupils may take up not merely carpentry, or even Sléjd—which is nothing effectively but a minor branch of wood-carving—but also wood-carving itself, and many other arts, all of which come as one and promptly to the pupil who can design, and, when occasion favours, also can modela little. But to expect that carpentry alone, without a trace of art, is all that is needed to inspire the creative faculty is a great mistake ; and what is worse is that, despite thousands of living examples of the superiority of the more artistic method for children, the British—like the American— public persists in believing that all that is needed is to _ teach “our boys” how to make benches and boxes. OUR BOOK SHELF. Thermodynamische Studien. Von J. Willard Gibbs, tibersetzt von W. Ostwald. (Leipzig: Engelmann,1892.) THIs is a German translation of three of Prof. Gibbs’s Thermodynamic Papers. These were published during the years 1873-8, in the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy (vols. ii. and iii.); and one reason which prompted Prof. Ostwald to undertake the translation of them was their inaccessibility to the general scientific ublic. Their importance is sufficiently attested by the t that part of the ground covered by Prof. Gibbs has been gone over again by later writers who deemed they were themselvés pioneers. “Graphical Methods in the Thermodynamics of Fluids” is the title of the first paper. It gives for the first time a general account of the comparative advantages of using various pairs of the five fundamental thermody- Namic quantities for graphical representation. The entropy-temperature and entropy-volume diagrams are discussed in considerable detail. The second paper con- tains the description of the volume-energy-entropy sur- face, which generally goes by the name of Gibbs’s thermodynamic surface. Its contents are familiar to all who have studied Maxwell’s “ Theory of Heat.” NO. 1185, VOL. 46 | The third paper, “On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances,” fills five-sixths (344 pages) of the whole book, and is, out of question, by far the weightiest con- tribution which Prof. Gibbs has made to the development of thermodynamic methods. To him must be given the credit of first formulating the energy-entropy criterion of equilibrium and stability, and developing it in a form applicable to the complicated problems of dissociation. To give anything like a complete idea of the contents of this paper, with its discussion of critical points, capil- larity, growth of crystals, electromotive force, &c., would mean the reproduction of Prof. Gibbs’s own very full synopsis, which in the German translation forms the greater part of the table of contents of the book. It will suffice to notice the general theory of the voltaic cell, with which the paper ends. Here distinctly for the first time is it pointed out that the electromotive force of the cell depends on other factors than the variations of its energy. Von Helmholtz’s theory, which differs from that given by Prof. Gibbs only in the greater fulness of detail, was not published till 1882. Prof. Ostwald tells us that he had the benefit of the author’s revision. With the exception of a few obvious corrections the original papers are most faithfully repro- . duced, even to certain footnotes which in these days have no particular value. In the circumstances a little license might well have been taken, and a slavish adherence to the original text departed from. For example, it is surely most desirable to use the word zsenergic for lines of equal energy, and not the inappropriate term zsodynamic which Prof. Gibbs made use of in his paper of 1873. Again, we question the right of any writer on thermodynamics to use the word veverszb/e in other than Carnot’s sense. Such double meanings tend to produce confusion, in spite of elaborate footnotes. These blemishes apart, however, there is no doubt that Prof. Ostwald deserves great credit for his labour of love in preparing this translation. He has made it possible for the many, who know of Prof. Gibbs’s work only at second hand, to acquaint themselves with the original papers, and we feel confident that the book will find its place on the shelves of all who desire a really complete library of thermodynamic literature. Elements of Physic. By C. E. Fessenden. Macmillan and Co., 1892.) THE subject matter of this book is arranged in four chapters— Matter and its Properties, Kinematics, Dyna- mics (including statics, hydrostatics, and pneumatics), and Heat. It thus forms an excellent introduction to a more extended study of physical science. The treatment of the subject is based largely on simple experiments to be performed by the student himself, whose reasoning powers the author seeks to draw out as far as possible by sugges- tive questions interspersed through the text. The following example will give a good idea of the style of treatment :— “... All experience teaches that xo two portions of matter can occupy the same space at the same time. This property which matter possesses of excluding other matter from its own space, is called zmpenetradility. It is peculiar to matter, nothing else possesses it. These facts being known, let us proceed to put certain interroga- tions to nature. Is air matter? Isa vessel full of aira vessel full of nothing? Is it‘empty’? Can matter exist in an invisible state ? “ Experiment 1.—Float a cork on a surface of water, cover it with a tumbler, or tall glass jar, and thrust the glass vessel, mouth downward, into the water. . . . State how the experiment answers each of the above questions and what evidence it furnishes that air is matter, or, at least, that air is like matter. “ Experiment 2.—Hold a test tube for a minute over the (London : 246 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1892 mouth of a bottle containing ammonia water. Hold another tube over a bottle containing hydrochloric acid. The tubes become filled with gases that rise from the bottles, yet nothing can be seen in either tube. Place the mouth of the first tube over the mouth of the second, and invert. Do you see any evidence of the presence of matter? Was this matter in the tubes before they were brought together? If not, from what was it formed? Which of the proposed questions does this experiment answer? How does the experiment answer it ?” In many cases the questions asked are beyond the powers of the average beginner to answer, but this is not a serious objection if the book is used, as seems to be intended, for class instruction in schools. For such use it is admirably well adapted. Numerous questions and examples are scattered throughout the text ; in the sections of kinematics and dynamics geometrical treatment alone is adopted, the student being supposed to be acquainted with Euclid but not with trigonometry. The style is concise, but clear and accurate, and as the book has not been written with the view of preparing the student for any special examination it is refreshingly free from any tendency towards cram. 6 ie Si I Recette, Conservation, et Travail des Bots. Par M. Alheilig. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars et Fils, 1892.) THIS little book belongs to the useful series entitled “Encyclopédie Scientifique des Aide-Mémoire.” The author presents a remarkably clear summary of the principal facts relating to wood, regarded from an industrial point of view. Although iron and steel have to so large an extent taken the place of wood in various great constructions, wood is still, of course, needed in vast quantities, and instruction in the proper way of dealing with it for industrial purposes must always form an important department of technical education. M. Alheilig has supplied a good text-book, the most valuable characteristic of which is that its practical details rest on a sound basis of scientific principle. He is especially successful in the chapters on the tools and machinery -used in the working of wood. . Country Thoughts for Town Readers. By K. B. Baghot * de la Bere. (London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1892.) - THE greater part of this book consists of imaginary con- versations between a Canon and “a city lawyer,” who ‘spends two days with him in the country. The Canon lectures his friend with an air of authority and patronage which would not be particularly agreeable to ordinary mortals. The city lawyer, however, is never -tired of thanking the great man for the knowledge he ‘communicates. The Canon’s information is made up chiefly of scraps of scientific commonplace, which, if they can be of no particular service to any class of readers, are at least harmless. “A Synoptical Geography of the World. (London: Blackie - and Son.) ‘ ; -No effort has been made by the compiler of this hand- ‘book to present geography in an attractive form. The ‘volume consists of anumber of bald statements which, as here given, could neither excite interest nor form any real addition to knowledge. _ It is not intended, however, - that the book shall be used apart from other means of in- struction. It is meant to be taken “in conjunction with -a fuller text-book or the teacher’s lectures.” Used in this - way it may be of some service to students in the revision of their work before examination. A good many maps -have been specially engraved:to accompany the text. NO. 1185, VOL. 46] LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- x Neither can he undertake to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected pressed by his correspondents. manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE, No notice is taken of anonymous communications. | An Acoustic Method whereby the Depth of Water in a River may be measured at a Distance. ABOUT two years ago, I wished to know from time to time the rate at which a river was rising after a fall of rain. The river was at a considerable distance from the spot where its height was to be known. By means of the combination of two organ pipes, and a telephonic circuit, described in the fol- lowing lines, I have been able to make the required measure- ment within rather close limits. At the river station, an organ pipe was fixed vertically in an inverted position, so that the water in the river acted as a stopper to the pipe, and the rise or fall of the water determined the note it gave, when blown by a small bellows driven by a very small water-wheel. A micro- phone was attached to the upper end of the organ pipe; this was in circuit with a wire leading to a town station at some distance ; at the town station there was an exactly similar nD pipe, which could be lowered into a vessel full of water while it was sounding. By means of the telephone the note given by the pipe at the river was clearly heard at the town station ; then the organ pipe at this station was lowered or raised by hand until it gave the same note. The lengths of the organ pipes. under water at the two stations were then equal, so that the height of the water in the distant river was known. The determination can be made in less than a minute by any one who can recognize the agreement of two similar notes, The arrangement when first tested was so placed that the height of water at two places near together might be easily compared. I found that a lad with an average ear for musical sounds was- able to get the two heights to agree within one-eighth of an inch of each other, while a person with an educated ear adjusted the instrument immediately to almost exact agreement, The total height to be measured was 17 inches. A difference of tem- perature at the two stations would make a small difference in the observed heights. For example, taking a note caused by 250 vibrations per second, a difference of 10° C, between the temperatures of the two stations (one not likely to occur) would make a difference of about 0’02 feet in the height, a quantity of no moment in such a class of measurements, The organ pipes were of square section, and made of metal to resist the action of the water. , = q FREDERICK J. SMITH. Trinity College, Oxford, June 28. jee ee Waterspouts in East Yorkshire. ON June 9, 1888, a waterspout was seen trayersing the York- shire wolds in the neighbourhood of Langtoft, which finally spent its fury on the north-eastern side of a large basin-like range of valleys, where a steep declivity barred its further pro- ress. A single cutting or trench was made in a slight hollow of the hill, and in this three large holes were scooped out of the ‘chalk, which was here composed of much rubble, about seven feet in diameter and depth. On July 3 of the present year, another waterspout has been developed, and has again expended its energy on the same hill as the previous one in 1888, a few yards only further south of the former site, and, taking a trifle more easterly course, has cut three parallel ditches or elongated pits in the solid chalk, two of them twenty to thirty yards in length, and seven to ten feet deep: in the deepest portions, scattering the whole of the expelled rock, amounting to many tons, to the foot of the hill. eae Serious floods were consequent, and the village of Langtoft, which is situated lower down the valley, was terribly inundated with-a volume of water seven to ten feet in height, an immense amount of damage being done, including the total demolition of two cottages and a workshop. Fortunately no lives were lost. beyond several pigs, sheep, and a few hundred fowls. 2 ae Driffield, July 9. 2 LovEL. Juty 14, 1892] NATURE 247 Sol On the Line Spectra of the Elements. Pror. STONEY seems to agree with me that I have given an obvious example of a motion for which the theorems in chapter iv. of his memoir do not hold good. Theorem B, page 591, runs thus: ** Any motion of a point in space may be regarded as the ‘co-existence and superposition of one definite set of partials which are the pendulous elliptic motions determined as above, &c.” It is indeed obvious that a uniform motion in a straight line cannot be regarded in this manner, not even approximately for any length of time, if the set of partials are required to be definite. 1 right have given an example of a limited motion, 2g. x = sin 7, which equally contradicts the theorem, but I yught a more obvious example would convince Prof, Stoney more easily. I think, indeed, that the reasoning in chapter iv. of his memoir is erroneous. But I do not say that therefore Prof. Stoney’s views on the cause of the line-spectra are wrong, were be right, although the argument in chapter iv. is not. ly this criticism is not legitimate I do not see. For no slight alterations or additions would set those theorems right, as there is a palpable mathematical error at the bottom of it. _ Technische Hochschule, Hanover, July 9. C. RUNGE. ; : The Grammar of Science. _ THE exposition of the Newtonian laws as given by Thomson and Tait has unfortunately been taken as the basis for the treat- ‘ment of the laws of motion by all elementary text-book writers in the English tongue since the publication of the great ‘‘ Treatise on Natural Philosophy.” When that exposition is attacked we are told that Newton introduced a qualifying context which has been omitted from the exposition. In other words the current 3 statement of elementary dynamical principles is thrown over- board in favour of Newton pure and simple. On the other hand when Prof. Tait uses an expression which is totally opposed to ‘that principle of the ‘subjectivity of force” which C.G.K. claims that Prof. Tait was the first, or among the first, to pro- und, we are told that this expression was obviously suggested “* Newton’s own anthropomorphic language.” C.G.K., I take it, admits that the Newtonian Laws of Motion are illogical nd unphilosophical when stated by Thomson and Tait without Newton’s modifying context. I propose therefore to shortly ublish a criticism of the laws of motion as accompanied by that _ context of Newton’s which does not appear in Prof. Tait’s text- _ books. I trust C. G. K. will not then turn round on me and _ ay, ** Oh, yes, but this has nothing to do with Prof. Tait; it is _Newton’s own anthropomorphic language.” Lastly, as to the origin of the doctrine of the ‘‘ subjectivity of force,” which to my mind is just as much or as little valid as the ** subjectivity of matter,” I would remind C. G. K. that the first two parts of Kirchhoff’s ‘‘ Mechanik”’ were published in 1874, and were then only the publication of lectures of an earlier date. Philosophers before Kirchhoff taught the doctrine of subjectivity, but he, and not the author of the ‘‘ Dynamics of a Particle,” was the physicist who first helped many of us out of the mental obscurity as to dynamical principles produced by our study of the expositions of the laws of motion due to the Edinburgh school. ; KARL PEARSON, ‘*Are the Solpugidz Poisonous ?” ___IN reference to this question, propounded by Mr. Bernard in your last issue, I should be inclined to answer in the negative. I captured several specimens of Solpuga chelicornis in the ‘Transvaal, and on one occasion witnessed a persistent attack _ made on this ‘‘spider” by a bird which appeared to be the _ Cape wagtail (Motacilla capensis). Had the Solpuga possessed 4 ebonpes qualities the attack would probably not have been The specimens taken by myself exhibited no signs of pug- - macity, but always sought refuge in headlong flight to the nearest over. W. L. DISTANT. ___ Russell Hill, Purley, Surrey, July 8. , A 7 Hairlessness of Terminal Phalanges in Primates. ___I OBSERVE that, in your report of the proceedings of the _ Zoological Society, you allude to my paper on ‘‘a seemingly new diagnostic feature of the order Primates,” viz. that the terminal ges are destitute of hair. NO. 1185, VOL. 46] Since the paper was read I have found that this feature is not of ordinal value. But it is of sufficiently general occurrence to merit inquiry touching its distribution in different species, Therefore I have withdrawn publication of the paper for the present. GEORGE J. ROMANEs. Oxford, July 1. Mental Arithmetic. REFERRING to the articles on ‘* Mental Arithmetic” in NATURE, vol. xlv. p. 78 and 198, I beg to state that there also exists a very clearly written little text-book on arithmetic founded entirely on the principles mentioned by Mr. Clive Cuthbertstone. The title is ‘Neuer Unterricht in der Schnell- rechen-Kunst,” by C. Jul. Giesing, Editor, Carl Schmidt, in Doebeln (Saxony). Price 1 mark 8o pf. G. DAEHNE, Dresden-Blasewitz, ‘‘ Isis,” July 9. ———— Jackals. THE incident of the jackals entering Howrah brings to my memory that this winter jackals entered the suburban town of Bournabal, in the Smyrna district of Western Asia Minor. This last winter being severe, it was noticed in the papers that rabies had extended to wolves and jackals, and to this circum- stance was attributed their entering the villages and attacking people, and also their attacking the domestic animals. HYDE CLARKE. WEIGHT. ES catee following remarks are presented with the object of reducing the increasing gap which is growing between the treatment of the fundamental ideas of Dyna- mics, as taught in our academical text-books from the standpoint of verbal abstraction, and the ideas and language of those who have to deal with the actual phenomena of Nature as a reality. 1. According to the precise legal definitions of all our successive Acts of Parliament on “ Weights and Measures,” the wetght of a body is the quantity of matter in the body, as measured out by the operation of weighing it in the scales of a correct balance. The body to be weighed is placed in one of the scales, and is equilibrated by standard lumps of metal, stamped as pound weights, or kilogramme weights, or hundred weights, or ton weights, and the sum of these weights is called the weight of the body. Inthe words of the Act of Parliament, 18 and 19 Vic- toria, c. 72, July 30, 1855, the British pound weight is de- fined as a weight of platinum, marked P.S., 1844, 1 Ib., deposited in the Office of the Exchequer; and the Act goes on to say that this lump of metal “ shall be the legal and genuine standard measure of weight, and shall be and be denominated the Imperial Standard Avoirdupois Pound, and shall be deemed to be the only standard of weight from which all other weights and all other measures having reference to weight shall be derived, computed, and ascertained, and one equal seven thousandth part of such pound avoirdupois shall be a grain, and five thousand seven hundred and sixty such grains shall be and be deemed a pound troy.” In defining the unit of length, the standard yard, the temperature must be defined, 62° F.in the Act of Par- liament ; but in defining the pound weight, there is in the Act no mention of temperature, height of barometer, height above sea-level, latitude, longitude, date and time of day, establishment of the port, &c., or of any other cause tending to alter the local value of g. Details of the temperature and density of the air are only required when defining the volume of the gallon of 10 lbs. of water, or when making accurate copies of the standard platinum pound weight in some other metal— brass or iron, for: instance—when a correction for the buoyancy of the air must be made; and it is to cover 248 NATURE | JULY 14, 1892 this detail that the words zz vacuo have been added in the most recent Acts of Parliament on “ Weights and Measures” (41 and 42 Victoria, 1878). 2. We now pass on to the investigation of the motion set up in a body of given weight due to the action of specified forces ; we use the word wefght advisedly, so as to agree with the terminology of the Acts of Parliament. As the field of force in which we live is that due to the attraction of the Earth, it was natural to begin by taking the attraction of the Earth on our standard weight as the unit of force; and we find that in all Statical problems of architecture and engineering the unit of force employed is the force with which a pound weight, or a kilogramme weight, or a ton weight, is attracted by the Earth. The engineer calls these forces the force of a pound, of a kilogramme, or of a ton; he does not add the word weight, reserving the word weéght to denote the quantity of matter in the body which is acted upon, in accordance with the language of the Act of Parliament on “ Weights and Measures.” In the Dynamics of bodies on the surface of the Earth, the same gravitational unit of force is universally em- ployed in practice ; and now, to take a familiar problem, we may investigate the motion of a train, weighing W tons, on a straight level railway, pulled by an engine exerting a tractive force of P tons, by the bite of the driving wheels on the rails. Neglecting passive resistances, and the rotary inertia of the wheels, the train will acquire from rest a velocity v feet per second in s feet, given by Wv? Psi ry (foot-tons). The velocity, growing uniformly, the average velocity will be half the final velocity v; so that if the train takes ¢ seconds to go the first s feet, s/f = $v Ae /t = 3u, W Pi = en (second-tons). The word second-tons has been formed by analogy with the word /oot-tons, to express the product of a force of P tons and ¢ seconds, the time it acts; just as foot-tons expresses the product of a force of P tons and s feet, the distance through which it acts. While Ps, the work in foot-tons done by the force P fone, acting through s feet, has a mechanical equivalent, ‘ot og? called the £imetic energy of the train in foot-tons ; so P¢, which we may call the zmfulse in second-tons of the force P tons acting for ¢ seconds, has a mechanical } v ‘ equivalent -? the momentum’ communicated to the train in second-tons. We merely state these theorems, with the addition of the proposed new name of second-tons, as these theorems are found in all dynamical treatises, being direct corollaries of Newton’s Second Law of Motion. _ We have measured Wand P in tons, as would be natural in any railway-train problem, but the same equations of course hold when W and P are given ih cwt., pounds, kilogrammes, or gtammes; and then impulse or mo- mentum will be given in second-cwt., second-pounds, second-kilogrammes or second-grammes ; while work or kinetic energy will be given in foot-cwt., foot-pounds, or metre-kilogrammes, or centimetre-grammes, on changing to the metre or centimetre as metric unit of length, et changing at the same time the numerical measure of 2. 3. The presence of g in the denominator of W in the NO. 1185, VOL. 46] dynamical equations will be remarked, and this constitutes a difficulty to the student, which our teachers of Dynamics have done their best to obscure. The quantity g makes its appearance, not because W/g is an invariable quantity, as is generally taught, but because the unit of force in which P is measured is variable, being proportional to the local value of g. With a foot and second as units of length and time, we — may take the value of g at the equator as 32, increasing gradually to about one-289th part more, or about 4 per cent. greater at the poles, in consequenc: of the Earth’s. rotation. The force of a pound, meaning thereby the force with which the Earth appears to attract a pound weight, is. thence about 4 per cent. greater at the poles than at the equator; and this does not allow for the increase in rf due to the ellipticity, which by Clairaut’s theorem woul make the total increase about 4 per cent. But to say that a body has gained in weight one-289th part, or 4 per cent., in going from the equator to the pole is absurd and misleading ; for if we carry our standard weights and scales with us, we shall find that the body weighs exactly the same. . When the theorist tells us that a body gains or loses one-289th part of its weight in being taken from the equator to the pole, or back again, he means that the indications on a spring balance, graduated in latitude 45° by attaching standard weights, will be about ¢ per cent. in error at the equator and at the poles. But such a spring balance would be illegal if used according to its graduations in any other latitude than the one in which it was constructed ; and the user would lose in all cases ; he would lose at the equator by selling 4 per cent. too much by weight ; and he would lose at the poles the fines incurred from the Inspector of Weights and Measures, who would test his spring balance ae attaching standard weights, composed of lumps of me The spring balance graduated in latitude 45°, and em- ployed alternately at the equator and the pole, is equiva- lent to a beam balance, of which the beam stretches over a quadrant of the meridian of the Earth from the equator to the pole, with a fulcrum in latitude 45°, but such an abnormal balance is not contemplated in the Act. 4. If we could transport ourselves to the surface of the Moon, Sun, or any planet, with our weights and scales, Newton’s Law of Universa! Gravitation teaches us that we should still find the body of exactly the same weight in the balance, the attraction of the Moon, Sun, or planets on the body and on the weights being still equal. 7 The magnitudes of these equal attractions would, how- ever, have changed, since the attraction is proportional to the local value of g; on the surface of the Moon it is calculated that gis about 5°4 ; on the surface of the Sun it is about 30 times the value on the surface of the earth, while on Jupiter it is calculated that g is about 71. These values of ¢ are inferred from observation of the diameter of the celestial body, and from its weight, measured in terms of the weight of the Earth, or using the Earth as the standard weight; and calculated by Kepler’s Third Law from the period and distance of a satellite, compared with the period and distance of our satellite, the Moon. The weight of the Earth itself is inferred from the Cavendish Experiment, in which the attraction of gravita- tion between two given weights is measured. According to Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, the attraction between two spherical bodies, arranged in © spherical strata, the Sun and Earth for instance, weighing S and E g (grammes) when their centres are 2 cm apart, will be proportional to SEa~*?; with C.G.S. units, this attraction may be expressed as CSEa~? dynes, and then C is called the constant of gravitation ; and the Cavendish experiment is devised for the purpose of measuring C. Denoting by g the acceleration of gravity (in C.G.S. Pia eee ee ee JuLy 14, 1892] NATURE 249 Spouds), then on the surface of the Earth we may take, in round numbers, : g = CE/R’, or CE = gR’, R denoting the radius of the Earth in cm, taken as 10° -- 47, the quadrant being 10° cm. With mean density p, the weight of the Earth, E, in g, is given by so that or as $mpR', $mRCp = g, 4 Cp = 3g x 10°; _ so that p is known from C, and vice versé. For instance, with p = 5°5, and g = 981, 1 a C = 1078 x 6688. We are awaiting with great interest the quantitative results of Mr. C. V. Boys, with his improved form of appa- _ Yatus ; but meanwhile we may take a mean density of 5°5, ___ the mean of Cornu’s and Poynting’s results, which is about half the density of lead. ‘It is very extraordinary that _ this should agree so exactly with Newton’s conjecture, _ Principia, lib. iii., prop. x. :—‘ Unde cum terra communis ; as See quasi duplo gravior sit quam aqua, et paulo q rius in fodinis quasi triplo vel quadruplo aut etiam Px saintnplo gravior reperiatur : verisimile est quod copia ¥ teriz totius in Terra quasi quintuplo vel sextuplo 7 ajor sit quam si tota ex aqua constaret ; presertim cum _ Terram quasi quintuplo densiorem esse quam Jovem _ jam ante ostensum sit.” ___§. Ashort numerical calculation will now give us the % ee of the Earth (Hamilton, “Lectures on Quater- fer as ”) ; also of the Moon, Sun, &c. : e assume that the Earth is a sphere, whose girth © kilometres, so that R, the radius of the Earth, ba 95 Ibs.), where p = 5°5. _ Four-figure logarithms will suffice for our calculations ; 7 log 107 = 7'000 if log3r = ‘1961 ie log R = 6°8039, R = 10° x 6°366 m, = - log R® = 20°4117 “ log $m = ‘6221 ! log V = 21°'0338, V = 107% x 1'081 m3, Pa hop p = °7404 log E = 21°7742, E = 107! x 5946, Bh), _ or 6 X 10” metric tonnes in round numbers. _ The weight of the Moon, M, generally taken as one- 80th of the Earth, will be 10! x 7-432 t. __. To determine S, the weight of the Sun, we employ Kepler’s Third Law, which gives _ where z, 2’ denote the mean motions of the Sun and Sey and a, a’ their mean distances from the Earth. ___ Since M is insignificant compared with E, and E com- _ pared with S, we may write this Bote eaves S$ *a* Ena?’ e 2'/m = 13, the number of lunations in a year, and la’ = 390, the ratio of the mean distances of the Sun and ae Moon, this being the ratio of 57’ to 88, the inverse ratio of the parallaxes. _ Now ‘log aja’ = 2°5911 log apa = 7°7733 log (#'/2)? = 2°2279 2, log S/E be 5°5454, S/E = 351,100; a so that the weight of the Sun is about 350,000 times the _ weight of the Earth, or about 2 x 10” t, or 2 X 10%, ____ To determine the value of G the acceleration of gravity NO. 1185, VOL. 46] on the surface of the Sun, compared with g, the value on the surface of the Earth, we have Go. 5S Ge ofearth\? _ S /8°8\* g E\ diameter of sun E x3) : since the apparent semi-diameter of the Sun as seen from the Earth is about 960”, while the apparent semi-diameter of the Earth as seen from the Sun, in other words the solar parallax, is taken as 8”°8, Now log 960 = 2'9823 log 8°38 = "9445 log (960 + 8°8) = 2:0378 log (960 + 8°8)? = 4°0756 log S/E = 5°5454 log G/g = 1°4698, G/g = 29°49. 6. According to Newton’s Law of Universal Gravita- tion, the operation of weighing out the quantity W in the balance gives the same result wherever the operation is carried out in the universe, assuming that the balance and the body to be weighed are of ordinary moderate dimensions. It is otherwise with the quantity denoted by P, because the magnitude of the gravitation unit of force varies, being proportional to the local value of g. Suppose we write the first two equations Pes = 4Wo", Pst = W2, and now put Pg = Q;; this is equivalent to taking a new unit of force, I/gth part of the former unit; this is an invariable unit. Now our dynamical equations become Qs = 4We*, Qt = Wz, from which g has disappeared. The first suggestion of the change to this new absolute unit of force is due to Gauss, who found the necessity of it when comparing records of the Earth’s magnetic force, made at different parts of the Earth’s surface, and all expressed in the local gravitation unit. It is curious that this suggestion of an absolute unit of force, the same for all the universe, did not originate with the astronomers; but Astronomy remains mere Kine- matics until an accurate determination of the Gravitation Constant has been made. On the F.P.S. (British foot-pound-second) system, this absolute unit of force is called the Joundal, a name due to Prof. James Thomson ; so that Qs = 4We? (foot-poundals}, Q¢ = Wz (second-poundals). On the C.G.S. (Metric. centimetre-gramme-second) system, this absolute unit of force is called the dyme, the centimetre-dyne of work being called the evg, and the second-dyne of impulse being called the do/e ; and now Qs = 4We" (ergs), Qt = Wz (boles). These absolute units are always employed in the state- ment of dynamical results in Electricity and Astronomy, where cosmopolitan interests are considered. 7. The disappearance of g from the dynamical equations is such a comfort to the algebraist, that he now makes a new start @é zuzdzo in dynamics, and gives a new definition of the absolute unit of force. He defines the Joundal as the force which, acting on a pound weight, makes the velocity grow one foot per second every second; and he defines the dye as the force which, acting on a gramme weight, makes the velocity grow one centimetre per second every second ; and now if W lbs. or g is acted upon by a force of Q poundals or dynes, the acceleration @ is given by a = Q/W (celoes or spouds), . and Q = Wa, leading to the original equations Qs = 4 We? (foot-poundals or ergs), Qt = Wo (second-poundals or boles). 250 NATURE [JuLY 14, 1892 These definitions of the absolute unit of force are very elegant and useful so long as we confine our- selves to calculations on paper, but they will not satisfy legal requirements: There is no apparatus in existence which will measure a foundal or dyne from these academic definitions within, say, Io percent. For accurate definition we must return to the old gravitation measure, and define the joundal or dyne as one-gth part of the force with which the Earth attracts a pound weight or a gramme weight, the value of ¢ (in celoes or spouds) being determined by pendulum observations ; and now the standard weight and the value of g are capable of measurement to within, say, one-1ooth per cent., an accuracy sufficient to prevent litigation. In the recent report of the Committee on Electrical Standards we find the oim defined as the equivalent of a velocity of ten million metres (one quadrant of the Earth) per second, to satisfy theoretical requirements ; but as this definition would be useless for commercial purposes, Dr. Hopkinson insisted that it was essential that an alternate definition should be given, legalizing certain bars of metal as standard ohms. In converting absolute and gravitation measure, we must notice that there are, strictly speaking, three different g’s in existence : (1) the g of pure gravity of a body falling freely ; (2) the g determined by a plumb-line, or by a Foucault pendulum of which the plane of oscilla- tion is free to rotate ; (3) the g determined by a pendulum oscillating in a fixed vertical plane, about a fixed axis ; this is the legal g, so to speak, although practically undistinguishable from the g given in (2). Sir W. Thomson’s Standard Electrical Balance Instru- ments are graduated in gravitation measure, so that, if calibrated. at Glasgow, they are one-25th per cent. in error in London, and about one-7th per cent. in error at the equator, and a corresponding correction imust be made. An absolute Spring Balance instrument would possess -a spurious absoluteness, in consequence of the deteriora- tion of temper of the spring, and of its variation of ‘strength with the temperature, as experienced in the Indicator. 8. There is no advantage or gain of simplicity by the use of absolute units in dynamical questions concerning motion which is due to the gravitational field of force ; the only change being the removal of ¢ from the denominator on the right hand side of our dynamical equations to the numerator on the left-hand side. For this reason engineers and practical men invariably employ the gravitation unit of force in the dynamical ‘questions which concern them ; measuring, for instance, their forcés in pounds, pressures in pounds per square foot or square inch, while at the same time measuring the ‘quantity of matter in the moving parts by pound weights. The absolute unit of force has only recently made its ‘way into dynamical treatment, principally in consequence of the development of Electricity. Previously the gravi- tation unit was universally employed, with the con- ‘sequence that W in the equations of motion always Fo Arai qualified by a denominator g, in the form id f 9g. Noticing that W never appeared alone, but always as wis (for instance, that if a celoes is the acceleration ‘which a force of P pounds causes in a weight of W lbs.,. then a We, ora@= ==\, . hl & early writers on Dynamics were unfortunately tempted to make. an abbreviation in writing and printing, by replacing NO. 1185, VOL. 46] = by a single letter M ; so that the dynamical equations could be printed _P = Ma (pounds), — Ps = 4Mv’* (foot-pounds), Pt = Mz (second-pounds), each occupying one line of print, This quantity M was variously called the mass of the body—a quantity suc generis—the massiveness of the body, the zzertca, or the zavariable quantity of matter in the body. : sg 9 sea But if M denotes the invariable quantity of matter, we have this awkwardness, that M, the invariable quantity, is measured in terms of a variable unit, ¢ pounds ; while the force P, which varies with #, is always measured by means of a definite lump of metal, the pound weight. — This awawardness is rectified if we change the unit of force, and measure P in absolute units, poundals, and M in lbs., but now M becomes the same as W, formerly; and its introduction only causes confusion, because M is still taken by most writers on Dynamics as defined by M= WwW 3 s thus making W = Mg, the source of all the confusion in our dynamical equations. If weight W is measured in pounds, as the Actof Par- liament directs, and if the unit of mass is one pound, so that M is also measured in pounds, then, if W and M- refer to the same body, W = M, and not Mg. If W = Mg, and W is measured in lbs., then M is measured in units of ¢ lbs., a variable unit, unsuitable for a cosmopolitan question. But if W = Mg,and M is measured in pounds, then weight W is measured in units of one-gth part of a pound, or foundals, which is illegal according to the Act on Weights and Measures, c. 19, 41 and 42 Victoria: “Any person who sells by any denomination of weight or measure other than one of the imperial weights or measures, or some multiple or part thereof, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding forty shillings for each such sale.” 10. The theoretical writer overrides these difficulties by giving a new definition of Weight, not contemplated or mentioned in the Act of Parliament: “The weight of a body is the force with which it is attracted by the Earth.” Let us examine this, definition closely. me In the first place, it does not appear to contemplate the’ use of the word weight, except in reference to bodies on or near the surface of the Earth. ele According to this definition, what is the weight of the Moon, or of a body on the Moon? Must the Moon be brought up to the surface of the Earth in fragments, or must the weight be estimated at the present distance of the Moon? agg What, again, is the weight of the Sun, or of a body on the Sun? and what is the weight of the Earth itself? And what does Sir Robert Ball mean when he writes that “the weight of Algol is about double the weight of the Sun”? Considering, however, merely bodies of moderate size on the surface of the Earth, the attraction of pure gravity of » the Earth is only to be found in a body falling freely ; the tension of a thread by which a body is supported is influenced by the rotation of the Earth. BR Again, the local value of g is, theoretically speaking, influenced by the position of the Moon and Sun; itis true that the influence is insensible on the plumb-line, although manifest on such a gigantic scale in its tide-producing effects. Suppose, then, we employ the gravitation unit of force ‘in the theorist’s definition of the weight of a body. The P. : q 7 4 «(Of the number of pounds of force with which the Earth ap-° a4, “of 130 Ibs. a ai r JuLy 14, 1892] NATURE 251 definition now becomes an inexact truism asserting that the Earth attracts W Ibs. with a force of W pounds, and inexact, because it neglects the discount in ¢ due to the | rotation of the Earth; and to say that “the weight of a body is the force with which it is attracted by the Earth” conveys no additional information. Having introduced the word mass, primarily as a mere abbreviation in printing, and having subsequently changed the unit of mass so as to make the mass the same as the weight, the theorist is now trying to dislodge the word wezg/? from its primary meaning, which it has possessed for thousands of years, as meaning the quantity of matter in a body, and is trying to degrade it into a sub- ‘sidiary position, to express a mere secondary idea, the attraction of gravity ; and that only on the surface of the earth, and even then not clearly defined. _ We might as well define the pound sterling by its lasing power in any locality, instead of by its proper definition as a certain quantity of gold. _ It. So long as the gravitation unit of force alone was employed, the same number, which expressed the number weights which equilibrate the body, also expressed peared to attract the body ; and it is only in this sense that the weight of a body is “the force with which it is attracted by the Earth”; it is essential that the unit of force should be the gravitation unit, when this definition is employed. . _ We say, for instance, in Hydrostatics, that a ship is peg ap up by the water with a force equal to the weight of the displaced water, which is also equal to the weight of the ship, when in equilibrium. _ Again, the head of water which will produce a pressure on the sq. inch, is always _ 150 X 144 + 62°5 = 345°6 feet, _ whatever the local value of ¢; the numerical measure is always the same, although the amount may differ in con- equence of the variation of g and the unit of force. A boiler tested to 150lbs. on the square inch is tried one-25th per cent. more severely in Glasgow than in London. This variation, at most 4 per cent., is not likely to lead to litigation—De minimis non curat lex. - There is no particular harm in the use of the word mass, provided it is always measured in the standard units = ptt ; there is this drawback, that there is no > & verb to ‘‘mass” ; we can say that the body weighs W lbs., but we cannot say it “masses” M lbs. _ Again, the Acts of Parliament do not regulate “‘ Masses and Measures,” but “ Weights and Measures,” “ Poids et Mesures,” “ Maasse und Gewichte,” “ De Ponderibus et Mensuris.” _ The French language possesses the two words Pods and Pesanteur, both of which we translate by Weight. _ Poids may be translated mass, or quantity of matter, ia materia ; but that does not justify the degradation f weight down to the meaning of fesanteur, and that merely the Jesanzeur on the surface of the Earth ; having ty invented mass, the theorist must invent a new word to translate fesanteur ; the word heft has been ested, but the word wezght must be left alone, to do ouble duty occasionally. _ A libellous story of the Hudson Bay Company says that in their former dealings with the Red Indians, the weight of the factor’s fist was always one pound; a good illustration of weight as meaning both fozds and pesanteur to ignorant minds. An amusing instance of the confusion of using weight in the double sense of Joids and fesanteur, when not restricted to the provincial gravitation unit of the surface of the, Earth, on which the. human race. is imprisoned, occurred in a lecture last year on Popular Astronomy. To illustrate the fact that g on the surface of the Sun is about 30 times greater than it is here (§ 5), the lecturer said, NO. 1185, VOL. 46| “An ordinary middle-aged man of this audience, if trans- ported to the surface of the Sun, would wezgh about two- tons ; but his reflections on this difficulty would be cut short by the immediate prospect of being converted into two tons of fuel.” 12. Maxwell unfortunately lent his powerful aid to the attempt to degrade the word wezgit to mean merely pesanteur. In a review of Whewell’s “ Writings and Correspond- ence,” edited by Todhunter, Maxwell writes that— “Finding the word weight employed in ordinary lan- guage to denote the quantity of matter in a body, though in scientific language it denotes the tendency of that body to move downwards, and at the same time supposing that the word mass in its scientific sense was not sufficiently established to be used without danger in ordinary lan- guage, Dr. Whewell endeavoured to make the word weight carry the meaning of the word mass. Thus he tells us that—the weight of the whole compound must be equal to the weight of the separate elements.” **It is evident that what Dr. Whewell should have said was—the mass of the whole compound must be equal to the sum of the masses of the separate elements.” But Whewell was quite right, because, at the time he wrote, mass was merely the printer's abbreviation for W Ss “We are reminded by Mr. Todhunter that the method of comparing quantities by weighing them is not strictly correct,” (Compare this statement of Todhunter with that of Dr. Harkness in his article on “ The Art of Weighing and Measuring,” NATURE, August 15, 1889, p. 381, where it is pointed out that weighings can be carried out to within one 10-millionth part.) Again, in Maxwell’s “ Theory of Heat ” (p. 85), we read “In a rude age, before the invention of means for over- coming friction, the weight of bodies formed the chief obstacle to setting them in motion. It was only after some progress had been made in the art of throwing missiles, and in the use of wheel-carriages and floating vessels, that men’s minds became practically impressed with the idea of mass as distinguished from weight. Accordingly, while almost all the metaphysicians who discussed the qualities of matter, assigned a prominent place to weight among the primary qualities, few or none of them perceived that the sole unalterable property of matter is its mass.” The question in dispute resolves itself, then, merely into a difference of terminology ; and the metaphysicians are using the language universally employed up to the middle of this century, and are justified on all sides in their usuage : Maxwell might as well have criticized the traditional names which astronomers employ for the heavenly bodies. Maxwell would even have edited the authorized and revised version of the New Testament; in cei Xirpas éxarov—translated “about an hundred pound weight ”— (John xix. 39), he proposed the omission of weight, probably inserted in the version to make a distinction from pounds sterding. -This.addition of the word weight is common elsewhere, thus, “ His Majesty’s Warrant, August 19, 1683, to cause 3 barrels of fine pistol powder, 3 cwt. weight of pistol bullets, and 3 cwt. weight of match to be delivered to John Leake, Master Gunner, for the use of the 3 troops of Granadiers, &c.” (“Notes onthe Early History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery,” by Colonel Cleaveland). Dr. Lodge says that the term hundredweight bears. marks of confusion on its surface, and had better be avoided ; what does he say to this use of hundredweight weights, not intended to mean pull of gravity ? This Warrant is dated four years before the first edition of the “ Principia,” in which the downward tendency of a 252 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1892 weight was first clearly demonstrated as due to the attrac- tion of the Earth, although mere surmises had been propounded by early astronomers, and in.“ Troilus and Cressida” we have—‘ As the very centre of the earth, drawing all things to it.” But Acts of Parliament on “ Weights and Measures” were extant hundreds of years before the first appearance of the “ Principia” ; and when the standard pound weight was defined in these Acts, it was the lump of metal preserved at the Exchequer that was described, and not the pressure on the bottom of the box in which it was kept. 13. Formerly, the words vis zwertia, or inertia, were used instead of the modern word mass (often used in ordinary language as the equivalent of du/k). But it is useful to notice that inertia is not always the same thing as weight or mass, or even proportional to them. Thus the inertia of a body is increased by the presence of the surrounding medium; the inertia of a sphere moving in a frictionless incompressible liquid is in- creased by half the weight of the liquid displaced, and of a cylinder moving perpendicular to the axis by the weight displaced ; while an elongated projectile requires rotation about an axis for stability of flight, in conse- quence of its inertia being different for different directions of motion. The inertia of a pendulum, or of the train in § 2, is in- creased to an appreciable extent by the presence of the surrounding air. Again, the inertia of a rolling hoop is twice its weight, of a cylinder is half again as great, of a billiard ball is 40 per cent. greater ; and the inertia of a bicycle, or of the train we have considered in § 2, when the rotary cnertia of the wheels is taken into account, must be increased by a fraction of the weight of the wheels and axles equal to #°/a®, where a is the radius of a pair of wheels, and & the radius of gyration of the wheels and axle about the axis of rotation. For the same reason the centre of inertia does not always coincide with the centre of gravity, or centre of mass. The buffers of a railway carriage should be at the height of the centre of inertia ; and this is easily seen to beat a height w k 4] (3+ Seas) above the axles, w denoting the weight of the wheels, W of the body of the carriage, and 4% the height of its centre of gravity above the axles. The recommendations of the A.I.G.T., in their Syllabus of Elementary Dynamics,” will only serve to widen the increasing gulf between theoretical treatises and the Applied Mechanics which engineers use, unless the Committee of the A.I.G.T. will set to work to invent a totally new word, such as eft, to express the pull of gravity on a given weight, as an equivalent of the French word fesanteur ; it is hopeless to attempt todegrade the, old word wezght into the subsidiary secondary meaning so long as in commerce, and in the Acts of Parliament, weight invariably means quantity of matter, cofia materia. A. G. GREENHILL. APHANAPTERYX AND OTHER REMAINS IN THE CHATHAM ISLANDS. » Ss a former letter I sent you some account of the find- ing of the Aphanapieryx in the Chatham Islands. I have now gone more carefully over the bones I collected there, and some additional notes may not be without in- terest. I findthat, oftheheads I have obtained, anumber are much largerthan that of Aphanapteryx broecket (Schlegel), and are therefore rightly assigned, I think, to a distinct species. The tarso-metatarsus, as figured by M. Milne- Edwards, however, may, I think, prove to belong not to NO. 1185, VOL. 46] A phanapteryx,or at any rate not to a species with sorobust _ : atibia. I found several tarso-metatarsi in near relation to the tibiz and femora, and heads of A. hawkinsi, and they are all without exception much shorter and stouter bonesin _ proportion to the tibiz and femora. Out of the same strata which contained Aphanapteryx, I obtained a num- ber of the bones of the skeleton of a Fudica very nearly related to /. mewtond. Like the Aphanapteryx bones, they vary very much in size, some being equal, others much larger than those of F. xewtonz. So much so thatI am inclined to recognize them as different species, or at least different races. The larger species I have named F’, chathamensis. The portions I have had before me are the pelvis, the femur, the tibia, and metatarsus. I have portions of a large ralline skull, which may be that of this Fulica, but it is rather too imperfect to enable me to more confidently at present. The tarso-metatarsi of this bird agree much more closely with the tarso-metatarsus assigned in M. Milne-Edwards’s plate to Aphanapteryx. Of the Aphanapteryx 1 possess thé complete cranium, femur, tibia, metatarsus, humerus, and pelvis. Among the other interesting specimens so far identified, are the humeri and pelvis of a species of Crow half as large again as C. cornix. They agree closely with those of a true Corvus. I have designated it as Corvus moriorum, as I found some of these bones among the remains scattered round a very ancient Moriori cooking-place, which had become uncovered by the wind in the strata in which Aphanapteryx occurs. Indeed, in this kitchen-midden I gathered portions of the Aphanapieryx, of a large swan, of several species of ducks, and of a Carbiphiien indis- tinguishable from the species now living on the islands —aspecies(Carpophaga chathamica mihi") new to science. may say that it is easily distinguished from C. nove-zealandi@é by the breast-shield in both sexes being altogether duller than, and not extending so far ventrally as, in the latter. The head, neck, and breast are of the same colour—a dull green, with purple and green metallic reflections when viewed with the bird between the light and the eye. It is, however, most markedly distinguished by the pale lavender colour of the external border of the wings, the much paler colour of the lower back and rump, and by the black on the under surface of the tail feathers being prominent on all the rectrices except on the anterior portions of the outer tail feather on each side, and passing under the tail coverts in a broad wedge. Mr. Travers relates that he was informed by one of the early settlers on Pitt Island that he remembered the first appearance of the pigeon in the islands. This statement cannot well be accepted in face of the presence of the bird’s bones in a midden so ancient as that I have referred to above. In the Aphanapteryx beds, I obtained also the portions of a skull of a species of Columbide, apparently of a Columba, of which I can say little till I am in possession of more material. I have obtained also bones of the small hawk (Harfa), showing that it existed on the islands, whereas it is now unknown there, although Czrcus gould? is not uncommon. , At about 3 feet below the floor of a small cave, which the weathering limestone has deposited, I obtained por- tions of a pigmy Weka (Ocydromus pygmaeus), and also the limb bones of a rat. If they have been gradually covered to this depth by the fall of particles from the roof, as there seems no reason to doubt, their age must be very great ; but whether that would take us back to a date antecedent to the arrival of the Morioris in the Chatham Islands is a more difficult question to answer with our present data. So far, the birds of whose presence in the Chatham Islands till now we have had no knowlege, are: Harpfa ? ferox, Nestor meridionalts and ? N. notabilis, Corvus c ? ie arpophaga chathamensis of Rothschild, P.Z.S. 1891, p. 312, pl. xxviii. —Ep. Juty 14, 1892] NATURE “9 ‘moriorum, Ocydromus pygmaeus, Fulica newtont, F. chat- hamensis, Aphanapteryx hawkinsi, Ap.? spp., Chenopis sumnerensis, Carpophaga chathamica, Columba sp. in HENRY O. FORBES. Canterbury Museum, April 2. ADMIRAL MOUCHEZ, WE have already referred to the loss which French science has recently sustained in the sudden death of the director of the Paris Observatory, at the age of 71. It falls to the lot of few sailors in any country to take so large a share in scientific progress as did Admiral Mou- chez, or to combine great administrative capacity with th h knowledge and power of initiation. His love for astronomy and geodesy first made itself felt when he was at the Collége Louis le Grand. Appointed to the navy in 1843, he was captain of-a frigate in 1861, but three years before this he had communicated to the Academy of Sciences observations of the partial eclipse of the sun seen by him at Buenos Ayres on September 7, 1858. He was then in that locality constructing the hhydrographical map of the eastern coast of South ‘America, A year or two later he presented to the Academy a map of Paraguay, and he was presented as a «candidate for filling the seat vacated by the untimely death of Bravais in 1863. But he was outvoted, and he continued his hydrographical work. He published a 3 description of the coast of Brazil, and he observed an annular eclipse of the sun (on October 30, 1864) at San Catharina, Brazil. ' When in 1872 expeditions were being organized by all countries to observe the transit of Venus in 1874, Mouchez was placed in command of the party which was destined for the island of Saint Paul. The climatic con- ditions of this island—either the winds are very violent, or the heaven is nearly always overcast—did not seem to favour the observers. The head of the expedition had the greatest difficulty in reaching his post, and it was in the middle of a violent storm that he had to approach the large volcano which was to be his station. The evening of the day before the transit the rain fell in torrents ; but the next day, at the moment wished for, by quite a fortunate chance, the storm cleared in con- sequence of a change of wind, and the veil of mist which covered the sky suddenly vanished ; the observation was is made under most favourable conditions. Mouchez: was able to recognize the atmosphere of Venus very dis- tinct from that of the Sun at the moment of contact. The astronomical expedition which he commanded was composed of naturalists as well as astronomers ; it has furnished science with interesting accounts of the geology, zoology, and botany of the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam its neighbour. _ On Mouchez’s return to France he was promoted Com- mander of the Legion of Honour at the same time that he was nominated a member of the Academy of Sciences in the place of the astronomer Mathieu. In October 1875, at the annual public séance of the five academies, he gave an account of his expedition to the island St. Paul. _ In 1878 he obtained from the French Admiralty the funds required for establishing at Montsouris, with the Same instruments used by him at St. Paul, a school of astronomy for the use of marine officers and masters. 3 This school is in full prosperity, and every year about a dozen men are trained in conducting astronomical and magnene tical observations. , en Le Verrier died, on September 13, 1877, Mou- chez, then commander, was appointed to the directorship of the National Observatory, and nearly simultaneously with this Commander Mouchez received the rank of Rear Admiral. He was put on the Reserve List in 1880. NO. 1185, VOL. 46] Admiral Mouchez showed himself, at the Observatory, an active administrator. He brought about many marked improvements in the different branches of the establish- ment. He suggested the establishment of a practical school of astronomy, which has been worked for eight years consecutively, and has furnished all the French observatories with a remarkable supply of young astro- nomers. Thirty have passed through the two years’ course. Admiral Mouchez always encouraged useful researches, and the magnificent work undertaken with so much suc- cess by the brothers Henry in celestial photography, and the development of the eguatorial coudé, under the foster- ing care of M. Loewy, must be specially mentioned here. But by far the most important result of this kind which we owe to the Admiral’s clear foresight and power of dealing with men is to be found in the Chart of the Heavens, which will remain as one of the memorable works of the science of the nineteenth century. It was on the proposal of the director of the observatory that the Academy of Sciences convoked foreign astronomers to take part in the Congress which, on three different occa- sions, assembled with so much success at the Paris Obser- vatory. This vast undertaking would have been impossible without the genius of the French nation and without such a man as Mouchez. It is essentially an international work which England should have started, but alas! in such matters our science is scarcely national ; it is paro- chial, and so it must remain until the relations between science and the Government are changed. Admiral Mouchez was a very zealous promoter of colonial observatories. He travelled to Algiers in order to presidé over the inauguration of the large establish- ment erected by M. Trépied. This very year, having travelled to Tunis to recruit his failing health, he had taken steps for creating an astronomical station in the town of Zaghouan, and he was advocating the building of observatories at Tahiti and Tananarivo at the time of his death. There are few astronomers who will not feel the death of Admiral Mouchez as the loss of a dear friend, and one in whom loyalty, honesty, and simplicity of character were so blended that the great services rendered by the savant were almost forgotten in the esteem felt for the man. NOTES. M. HEcKEL, the President of the Botanical Section of the French Association for the Advancement of Science, proposes, as special subjects for discussion at the approaching meeting of the Association, to be held at Pau, the flora of the Alps and of the Pyrenees, and a comparison between them ; and the best means of arranging and preserving botanical collections. Pror. T. H. Huxtty has been elected President, and Sir Henry Roscoe and the Master of University College, Oxford, two of the Vice-Presidents, of the Association for Promoting a Teaching University for London. Motions on the whole favourable to the plans of the Association have been carried by the Senate of the University of London and the Council of University College. Pror. RAmsAyY, in his report as Dean of the Faculty of Science in University College, London, has to record many changes during the past session. Reference is, of course, made to the retirement of Prof, Croom Robertson from the Chair of Philosophy, and to the appointment of Dr. James Sully as his successor. Prof. Ramsay’s predecessor as Dean, Prof. Lankester, expressed to him his regret that he had not taken steps to ascertain the number of original investigations carried 254 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1892 out during the time of his Deanship ; and it: occurred to Prof. Ramsay that no more fitting task could devolve on the Dean than to chronicle how far the progress of science is due to those, students and teachers, who work in University College. His colleagues have responded to his inquiries, and he has thus been able to lay before the Council a list of publications amounting in all to 84.séparate memoirs or books. They contain accounts of researches in which professors, assistants, students, former students who are still at work in the College have taken part ; and Prof. Ramsay maintains that in this, as well as in the routine of teaching, the College fulfils the duties of a true University. The record, he contends, equals, if it does not surpass, that of any University in the kingdom. SINCE Saturday last Mount Etna has been in. a state of eruption, and many severe shocks of earthquake have been felt in the surrounding country. From midnight till six o’clock on Saturday evening there were eleven distinct shocks. About noon on Saturday a great fissure opened on the summit of the mountain, from which lava began to issue with great rapidity. During the following night the eruption assumed alarming propor- tions, and huge quantities of lava streamed down the sides of the mountain. This rapidly flowed in two streams—one going in the direction of Nicolosi and the other towards Belpasso. There was a severe earthquake shock in the immediate vicinity of the volcano on Saturday night. On Sunday the people of Nicolosi assembled for mass outside the cathedral, and remained kneeling in the open air, being afraid to enter owing to the continued shocks ‘of earthquake. At five o’clock in the evening the shocks continued, and very loud subterranean rumblings were heard, giving the impression of a terrible storm, Twelve houses and a portion of a church were destroyed. The eruption continued very active. On Monday it was stated that the rumblings had grown less frequent, and there were indications that the eruptions from the newly-formed fissure were about to cease. The principal crater, however, showed signs of renewed activity. On Tuesday the following telegram was despatched from Catania through Reuter’s agency :—‘‘'The eruption of Mount Etna is again rapidly increasing in volume and intensity. Five craters at different points on the mountain are showing great activity. Loud explosions occur continually, and this morning there was a strong shock of earthquake. Giarre, on the ,coast to the north of Catania, has been reduced to ruins, and the whole country round has suffered severely, A number of engineers who have been sent to the points immediately threatened express fears that the wells will blow up on contact with the lava. There is no panic, and in the circumstances the people maintain a fairly calm demeanour.” A TERRIBLE disaster has happened in the neighbourhood of the sulphur springs of St. Gervais, a little way off the road from Geneva to Chamonix. According to a Reuter’s telegram, despatched from Bonneville, Haute Savoie, on July 12, the calamity was due to the fact that the lower end of the glacier of Bionnay became detached from Mont Blanc and fell into the torrent beneath. It carried away with it the little village of the same name. The masses of ice and the wreck of the village formed a dam which held up the waters for some time, until they suddenly broke through the obstruction and burst like a cataract into the mountain stream, known as the Bon Nant, which flows by St. Gervais les Bains, These thermal springs, the medi- cinal virtues of which attract many visitors to the hotel during the year, rise in the wooded ravine of Montjoie, through which the Bon Nant or ‘‘Good Stream” passes on its way down to meet the river Arve. The gorge in which the Etablissement des Bains, erected at an altitude of 2066 feet above the level of the sea, stands, or rather stood, is narrow, and the hotel consisted of five separate buildings joined NO. 1185, VOL. 46j frequent rain, more particularly in the north and west ; together by walls of stone roughly hewn from the mountain side. At a quarter past two on Tuesday morning or thereabouts, the a people in the hotel were awakened by a terrific noise of rushing Thenna — Thenextmoment water, and the crashing of rocks one against the other. furious gust of wind drove through the gorge. a torrent of water, carrying with it fragments of rock, trees, and débris of all descriptions, hurled itself upon the hotel. Of the five buildings, three were utterly destroyed, another was nearly so, while the fifth remained almost unhurt, owing its safety to its position, which was high above the course of the Bon Nant. Passing down the valley, the torrent struck the village of Le Fayet, which was almost entirely demolished. The wreckage of the houses was swept down the stream for miles into the river Arve, on the surface of which corpses and débris of all kinds were seen floating all dayon Tuesday. According to the latest calculations on Tuesday evening, there were no fewer than 200 victims, more than half of whom were staying at the ica establishment of St. Gervais. THE following are among the Civil List pensions oe during the year ended June 20:—to Mrs. Caroline Emma Carpenter, £100, in consideration of the services rendered by her late husband, Dr. Philip Herbert Carpenter, F.R.S., to science, and of the sad circumstances in which she was left by his death ; to Mr. Thomas Woodhouse Levin, £50, in con- sideration of the services he has rendered to education and philosophy and mental science, of his blindness, and of his inadequate means of support ; to Dr. George Gore, F.R.S.> 4150, in consideration of his services to chemical and physicab science ; to Mr. Henry Dunning Macleod, M.A., £100, in con- sideration of his labours as a writer upon economical subjects ; to Mr. Henry Bradley, 4150, in consideration of his labours in connection with the ‘‘New English Dictionary”; to Miss Letitia Marian Cole, £30, Miss Henrietta Lindsay Cole, 430, and Miss Rose Owen Cole, £30, in recognition of the services rendered by the late Sir Henry Cole to the cause of artistic and scientific education ; and to Mrs. Jeanie Gwynne Bettany, £50, in consideration of the services rendered to the spread of scientific knowledge by the numerous writings of her husband, the late Mr. G. T. Bettany, M.A. Mr. THoMas HANBURY has presented to the Botanical Institute at Genoa the very rich collection of vascular plants made by the late Prof. Willkomm, of Prague. It comprises as many as 14,472 species, the greater number being European or from the adjacent districts of Asia and Africa, It is especially rich in plants of the Spanish Peninsula, and includes most of Willkomm’s original type-specimens. a THE Society of Natural History of St. Petersburg has despatched Dr, K. N. Denkenbach on a mission to a gs the flora of the Black Sea. THE death is announced of Prof. Giovanni Flechia, Vice- President of the Reale Accademia delle Scienze of Turin. THE series of fifteen water-colour paintings of the volcanic district in New Zealand, which were lent by Miss Constance F.. Gordon Cumming to the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, are now lent to ‘* The Castle” at Nottingham, where they will be shown for some little time. They were in the Indian and Colonial Exhibition at the time of the great eruption of Mount | Tarawera, which destroyed the beautiful Terraces. THE weather during the past week has been changeable, with 7 inch was measured on the west coast of Ireland on the morning of the 12th instant. At the time of our last issue a deep. depres- ‘sion lay over the north of Scotland, the barometér being below 29 inches, while a moderate westerly gale was blowing in the \ JuLy 14, 1892] NATURE 255 Channel, with a high sea; and other depressions have subse- _ quently travelled to the northward of ourislands. The weather, however, remained fair, but cloudy, in the southern parts of the kingdom, and fog: prevailed on the north-east coast on Monday. The distribution of barometrical pressure has, for the most part, _ been favourable to westerly winds, the high barometer being situated over the north of France. A change, however, set in on Monday, accompanied by strong easterly winds and a falling barometer, the highest readings having shifted northward, with their centre situated to the eastward of our islands, These con- ditions were followed by fresh disturbances, accompanied by rainy and unsettled weather. Temperature has been lower than of late, although but little below the average ; the highest day readings I have seldom reached 70°. The Weekly Weather Report issued on the 9th showed that, for that week, bright sunshine continued fairly prevalent over the eastern and southern districts, and that there was a considerable excess of rainfall in Ireland and the northern and western parts of Scotland. THE United States Weather Bureau has just published Bulletin No. 1, containing some interesting notes on the climate and meteorology of Death Valley, California. This valley lies between lats. 35° 40’ and 36° 35’ N. and longs. 116° 15’ and 117° 5’ W., and owes its name to the fate of a party of i immi- grants, who, about 1850, perished from thirst. The principal feature of interest about the place is that, although situated - about 200 miles from the sea, it is said to lie 100 feet or more below the sea level, as determined from barometrical observa- tions. The observations now published were commenced by the Geological Survey and the Signal Service, and were continued by the Weather Bureau during five months from May to Sep- tember, 1891, and we believe these are the only regular obser- vations, with trustworthy instruments, that have been made there. The principal meteorological features are the excessive heat and dryness ; the temperature rises occasionally to 122° in the shade, and rarely falls during the hot season below 70. It is said that :: the thermometer has sometimes reached 130°, and once even a * The diurnal range of the barometer is characteristic of > form found i in continental valleys, being of the purest single maximum type, and has the largest amplitude known. The rainfall was extremely light, and was always either a slight sprinkle « orathunderstorm. The total fall for the five months ] = only 1‘4 inches. It showed a distinct diurnal frequency ; nearly all the hours of rain being during the night. Sand storms were also observed on several occasions. _ THE Deutsche Seewarte has just issued Part IV. of their meteorological observations made at distant stations. The observations are made three times daily, and monthly means are added in the form agreed upon for international meteoro- _ logical publications. These observations are especially valuable _ both on account of the remoteness of the places and of the details which are given about the stations and the instruments used. This volume contains observations made (I) at six stations in Labrador for 1887 ; (2) at Walfisch Bay for 1889 ; _ (3) in the Cameroon estuary, from April 1889 to June 1890; q (4) at Bismarckburg, Togoland, West Africa, from June 1889 to May 1890; (5) at Chemulpo, Korea, from July 1888 to December 1889 ; (6) at Mohammera, mouth of the Euphrates, from June to August 1885 ; and (7) at Bushire, from September 1885 to March 1886. In some cases the introductory text con- tains general remarks relating to the tides and prominent Sersares of the climate. IN February 1888, Dr. E. Etienne was sent to Banana by the Congo Free State to direct the sanitary service, and he made regular meteorological observations there, six times daily from December 1, 1889, to May 16, 1891, which have now been No. 1185, VOL. 46] published by the State. The range of temperature during the year 1890 presented great regularity, the absolute maximum, 93°°6, occurred in March, and the minimum, 61°'9, in July ; the lowest maximum was 73°°9 in July, and the highest minimum, 79°'2, in April. The greatest monthly variability (the difference of the monthly mean from one month to another) was 5°‘O between May andJune. The winds are very uniform : a land breeze from south-east to south at sunrise, then calm till about 1th. a.m. ; a sea-breeze from south-west till about 7h. p-m., and asecond calm about toh. p.m. The rainy season of 1889-90 numbered fifty days, with a mean daily fall of 0°49 inch. The most remarkable fall was 1°‘2 inch in 45 minutes. The rainy season of 1890-91 differed considerably from the former; the number of wet days was only 29, with a mean daily fall of 0°52 inch, the total amount being about five-eighths of that in the previous year. In addition to the above thefe is a very small amount of rain in the dry season. THAT iron is always present in small quantities in chlorophyll has been asserted over and over again in botanical text-books. Dr. H. Molisch, who has recently investigated the subject of the presence of iron in plants, disputes this, and asserts that he has never found a trace of iron in the ash of chlorophyll. He states that iron occurs in plants in two forms—in that of ordinary iron-salts, and in the ‘‘ masked” condition, in which it is so closely combined with organic substances that the ordinary re- agents fail to detect it. In this form iron occurs both in the cell-wall and in the cell-contents, but it does not enter into living protoplasm. In one of the alcoves of the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, there are various fossil bones of extinct animals belonging to the Pleistocene period, and along with them a human bone. These “finds” were pre- sented to the Academy in 1846 by Dr. Dickeson, who dis- covered them in a single deposit at the foot of the bluff in the vicinity of Natchez, Mississippi. Specimens—one from the human bone, the other from one of the bones of a Mylodon—have been submitted for analysis to Prof. F. W. Clarke, chemist of the U.S. Geological Survey; and the result is reported by Dr. Thomas Wilson, of the Smithsonian Institution, in the current number of the American Naturalist. The human bone is in a higher state of fossilization than the Mylodon. It has less lime and more silica, In their other chemical constituents they are without any great difference. Of lime the bone of the Mylodon has 30°48 per cent., while that of man has but 25°88 per cent. Of silica the Mylodon has 3°71 per cent., while man has 22°59 per cent. Dr. Wilson refers to the ordinary uncertainty of this test when applied to specimens from different localities and subjected to different conditions, but points out that in the present case no such differences exist. The bones were all encased in the same stratum of blue clay, and were subjected practically to the same conditions and surroundings. Mr. A. J. Cook, of the Agricultural College, Michigan, has been making experiments to determine how much honey is needed to enable bees to secrete one pound of wax, and he has found that the amount is eleven pounds of honey. This is less than the amount given by Huber, and more than that stated by Viallon and Hasty. An account of the experiments and of many other interesting facts relating to apiculture will be found in a report included in Bulletin 26 of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. AN interesting memoir_.of John Hancock, with portrait, opens the latest instalment (vol. xi. Part 1) of the Natural History Transactions ‘of Northumberland, Durham, and _Newcastle- 256 NATURE [Juty 14, 1892 upon-Tyne.’ The writer, Dr. Embleton, gives an excellent account of Hancock’s masterly power of mounting animals. ‘He notes also Hancock’s remarkably intimate knowledge of the characters and habits of birds. ‘‘ He could describe and imitate their motions and sounds so vividly, by feature, voice, and posture, as to be most instructive and at the same time amusing, whilst he convinced his auditors of the naturalness of his pantomime.” A PAPER on the Tertiary Rhynchophora of North America, by Mr. Samuel H. Scudder, has been reprinted from the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History (Vol. 25). ‘The assortment of the mass of Tertiary insects from American western deposits, upon which Mr. Scudder has been engaged for many years, has brought to light an unexpectedly large number of Rhynchophora, about eight hundred and fifty speci- mens having passed through Mr. Scudder’s hands ; of these, however, fully a hundred have proved too imperfect for present use or until other specimens in better condition may show what they are. Seven hundred and fifty-three speci- mens have served as the basis of a Monograph now being printed. More than half (431) of these specimens come from the single locality of Florissant, Colo., and excepting a single specimen from Fossil, Wyo., and another from Scarboro’, Ontario, the others are divided between three localities not _widely removed : the crest of the Roan Mountains in western Colorado, the buttes on either side of the lower White River near the Colorado-Utah boundary, and the immediate vicinity of Green River City, Wyoming. One hundred and ninety-three species are determined, divided among ninety-five genera, thirty- six tribes or sub-families, and six families, by which it will be seen at once that the fauna is a very varied one. It is richer than that of Europe, where there have been described (or merely indicated) only one hundred and fifty species, of which nine come from the Pleistocene. The older Tertiary rocks of America, therefore, are found to have already yielded nearly twenty-eight percent. more forms than the corresponding European rocks. Although it is evident to any student of fossil insects that even in Tertiary deposits we possess but a mere fragment of the vast host which must have been entombed in the rocks, Mr. Scudder contends that we have already discovered such a variety and abundance of forms as to make it clear that there has been but little important change in the insect fauna of the world since the beginning of the Tertiary epoch. IN a paper on artesian water in New South Wales, printed in the current number of the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of that colony, Prof. Edgeworth David says that water rises to the surface in many parts of the east-central por- tions of Australia from mud or mound springs. These occur chiefly in strata of Cretaceous age. The most remarkable groups are perhaps those on the Lower Flinders, which have been de- scribed by Mr. E. Palmer in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland. The springs erupt’ thin mud and hot water intermittently, and thus gradually build up around their orifices mounds of mud of a rudely crateriform shape. At Mount Browne, on the Lower Flinders, several feet above the general level of the plain, is a mud spring mound covered with gigantic tea-trees (AZelaleuca leucodendron), among the matted roots of which the hot water steams in clear shining crystal pools. At the top of the mound is a large basin of hot water, stated to be fathomless. The roots and branches of the tea-trees lying in this water become coated with a soft green vegetable substance, with air bubbles clinging to them. Innumerable small bubbles of carbon-dioxide are continually rising to the sur- face of the basin. The water is too hot for the hand to bear for any length of time, but when cooled it is good for use and always bright and clear, and free from any taste, while that in NO. 1185, VOL. 46] the adjoining cold springs is extremely disagreeable. The tem- perature of the water in two of these hot springs at Mount Browne is 120° F. No change has been observed in the hot springs as regards level or temperature since 1865, when a cattle station was settled there. ae AMONG the curiosities in the mines and mining building at the Chicago Exhibition will be a solid gold brick, weighing 500- pounds, and worth 150,000 dollars. It will be sxhibited t by a mine owner at Helena, Mon. Dr. C, F. MACDONALD, who has been present at the seven executions by electricity in New York State, has submitted to the State authorities a report, in which he contends that experi- ence has thoroughly justified the abolition of hanging. When the new method is used, death, he maintains, occurs before any sensation of pain or shock can be conveyed to the brain of the condemned. Dr. MacDonald’s conclusions are endorsed by a hundred physicians who have acted as witnesses at 423) da executions, THE raisin industry is being gradually developed in Victoria, and promises shortly to be sufficient to supply the requirements of the colony. So says Mr. J. Knight, who writes on the sub- ject in the new Bulletin of the Victoria Department of Agricul- ture. Extensive planting, he says, is going on in various parts of the colony, from the extreme west at Mildura along to the east as far as Wangaratta, the largest plantation being in the well-known Goulburn Valley. In this locality not only has the manufacture of raisins received attention during the last six years, but the products of the currant vine also are now ne placed on the market. THE second volume of the Photographic Annual is been issued. It includes a vast number of advertisements, but con- tains also some able articles, among which we may especially note Mr, Albert Taylor’s general view of the progress of astro- nomical photography during 1891. In 1891 wide-spread alarm was caused in America be the . presence of several species of destructive locusts in different parts of the country, particularly in the Western States. A general summary of these incursions was given in Mr, C. V. Riley’s annual report for 1891, and now a Bulletin has been issued by the U S. Department of Agriculture giving the de- tailed reports of the agents who carefully cramioms the invaded districts. A CATALOGUE ofthe marine shells of Australia and Tasmania, compiled by John Brazier, F.L.S., is being printed by order of the trustees of the Australian Museum, Sydney. The first part, dealing with Cephalopoda, has been issued. The task cannot be accomplished very quickly, as it entails the examination of many thousands of specimens, both dry and in spirits. The catalogue will include not only the species represented in the general Museum collection, but also those in the Hargreave’s collection presented to the trustees by the late Mr. Thomas Walker, and those recently purchased from Mr, Brazier. Mr. R. ETHERIDGE, JUN., gives, in the latest instalment of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria, an interesting account of a fine specimen of an unusually large species of the genus Belonostomus, obtained in 1889 by Mr. George Sweet, of Brunswick, Melbourne, in the Rolling Downs formation (Cre- taceous) of Central Queensland. The fossil exhibits a long, slender fish, with deep, narrow ganoid scales and feeble fins, bent upon itself at about the middle point, and wanting the greater part of the head. Species that are apparently allied have been recorded from the Upper Cretaceous of Western Europe, India, and Brazil, and Mr. Etheridge notes that the . and polishing both faces to a knife-edge, JuLy 14, 1892] NATURE 257 present discovery is of great interest as extending still further the ascertained geographical range of the genus during Cretaceous times. & : f t _ “THE very extensive alterations in botanical nomenclature in Kuntze’s ‘‘Revisio Generum” has prompted a q proposal, emanating from the four eminent German botanists, Ascherson, Engler, Schumann, and Urban, with the assent of - anumber of their colleagues, for a revision of De Candolle’s _ Lois de Nomenclature Botanique.” The essential points of the propositions are that the starting-point for the priority. of genera, as well as of species, shall be the year 1753, the date of the publication of Linnzus’s ‘Species Plantarum” ; that **nomina nuda” and “ semi-nuda,” z,¢. names without a diagnosis, or with only a very imperfect diagnosis, shall be rejected, as well as figures without a diagnosis ; that no generic name shall be re- ected because of its similarity to another generic name, even if it ‘differ only in the last syllable, but that, if the difference be in spelling only, the later name must be rejected ; that the names of certain large and universally known genera he retained, even _ though they would have to be rejected by the strict rules of sees priority. English botanists are invited to signify their assent or otherwise to these propositions. _AT the meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, on May 25, Mr. Pedley exhibited a very fine and perfect saw, about 5 feet long, of the saw-fish Pristés zysron, Bleeker. The fish, without the saw, was about 19 feet long, and was captured in a net at Evans River, N.S.W. The number of pairs of a rostral teeth for this species is usually given as from 26-32; the specimen exhibited had only 25 pairs, all in place. At the same meeting, Mr. Hedley exhibited, on behalf of Mr. ~ Rainbow, a spider of the family Zpéiride. This rare and re- - markable insect furnishes an addition to the fauna of Australia, and it is supposed that a new genus may be required for its Mr. W. A. RoGeRs, writing to Science from Colby Univer- sity, Waterville, Me., confirms testimony given by Mr. Kunz ‘as to the fact that the hardness of diamonds is not perceptibly reduced by cutting and polishing. In the earlier years of Mr. Rogers’s experience in ruling upon glass he was accustomed to select a gem with a smoothly-glazed surface, and, the stone being split in a cleavage plane inclined at a rather sharp angle to the natural face selected, this split face was ground and polished. In this way he was able to obtain at several points short knife-edges, which gave superb results in ruling. It was soon found, however, that after ruling several thousand rather heavy lines the diamond was liable to lose its sharp cutting- edge, and this experience became so frequent that he was com- pelled to resort to the method now employed, that of grinding He has one ruling prepared in this way, which has been in constant use four years, and its capacity for good work has not yet been reduced in the slightest degree. A diamond prepared by Mr. Max Levy, of Philadelphia, has given even better results, and so far it shows no evidence of wear, Tue Bulletin de la Société des Naturalistes de Moscou (1891, Nos. 2 and 3) contains a very interesting paper, in French, by Prof. A. Pavloff and Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, on the Speeton clays and their equivalents. These clays, which have long occupied the attention of geologists, have ac- quired of late a new interest owing to close resemblance between their fauna and that of similar deposits in other countries, even as far distant as Russia. The work consists of parts: the first part, devoted to the description of the on clays and their Lincolnshire equivalents, has been written by Mr. Lamplugh, and will, no doubt, be published in NO. 1185, VOL. 46] English as weli, The second part, by Prof. Pavloff, is devoted to the description of the Cephalopods found in these clays, the Speeton forms being compared with those of other countries, and especially those of Russia. A table giving the succession of the subdivisions of the Jurassic and Cretaceous deposits, with their leading fossils, in the two Russian localities where they are best represented (Moscow and the lower Volga), is given by the author, and it differs from a previous table by the intro- duction of a new series, named Petchorian, which, although it has the thickness of but a few inches, has nevertheless a very peculiar fauna, of a well-determined character. However, for the present it is not possible to classify it either under the Jurassic or the Cretaceous formation. The table is followed by a detailed description of twenty-five species of Belemnites, of which eight are new, the chief interest of this description being in the attempt to give in each case the genealogical rela- tions of closely allied species, and in a special chapter devoted to the geological history of Belemnites generally and the de- scent of various species supposed to have originated from the Belemnites tripartitus of the middle Jurassic and Liasepoch. In a subsequent paper, which will contain the third part of the work—namely, a comparison of the Speeton clays with those of other localities—the author proposes to describe in the same way the Speeton Ammonites, which are even more interesting than the Belemnites ; and he hopes to be able then to give a more positive answer as to where the separation must be taken between the Jurassic and the Cretaceous deposits of the Speeton clays and analogous deposits. Mr. MATTHIAS DUNN writes to us from Mevagissey, Corn- wall, that the fishing-boat A/¢spah landed a large shark there lately which had got entangled in her mackerel nets. Its length was II feet 2 inches, and in its stomach were two considerable- sized congers. The creature proved to be Couch’s Ponbeagle Shark, or Zamna cornubica of Cuvier. THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the past week include a Tiger (Fedis figris g jr.) from Amoy, China, presented by Mr. Robert Bruce ; two Mountain Ka-kas (Nestor notabilis) from New Zealand, presented by the Earl of Onslow, K.C.M.G, ; a Chilian Sea Eagle (Geranoaetus melano- Zeucus) from Chili, presented by Mr. Edward Jewell ; a Broad- fronted Crocodile (Crocodilus frontatus) from West Africa, presented by Mr. G, T. Carter ; a Common Boa (Soa constrictor) from South America, presented by Mr. A. E. Oakes ; a Macaque Monkey (Macacus cynomolgus ?) from India; a Kinkajou (Cercoleptes candivolvulus) from Demerara, deposited ; a Hippo- potamus (Hippopotamus amphibius 8) bred in Antwerp ; sixteen Common Boas (Boa constrictor) from South America, purchased ; , an Indian Muntjac (Cervulus muntjac $) born in the Gardens. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. Lunar PHotrocrapHy.—Dr. L. Weinek, of the Pragur Observatory, has been the recipient of several photographs o' the moon from ‘Prof. Holden for the purpose of making enlarge ments from them. The photographs were obtained with th: large equatorial of the Observatory at Mount Hamilton, and an illustration of one of the enlargements is given in ZL’ Astronomi for July. The photograph is of the large crater Petavius, 153 kilometres in length. With M. Weinek’s apparatus the photo graph was enlarged twenty times, giving a lunar image of nearly three metres in diameter. At first sight the photograph look~ as if the enlargement had been carried a little too far, but when held at arm’s length the effect is very fine. The most striking features noticeable are the narrow river-like lines, which are numerous and very alike in appearance. Whether these are really photographic or not of course we cannot say, as we have not seen the original negatives, but they seem to be rather too 258 NATURE [Juty 14, 1892 . distinct and natural to be taken for any impression other than photographic. What these rivers, if we may use such a term, are composed of is at present a subject of mere conjecture, but the day is not far off when a very careful systematic study will have to be undertaken to settle some of the questions that have been recently raised in respect to our satellite’s surface. CoMET Swirt (1892 MArcH 6).—The ephemeris of this comet for the ensuing week, taken from the Edinburgh Circular, No. 28, is as follows :— Berlin Midnight. 1892. : R.A Decl. log A. log ». Br. » m. é 4 July 14 058 26 +49 20°8 15 59 49 31°4 16 0 59 44 49 41°38 02459 «0°2776 = O'15 1 dae, al et 49 51°9 18 © 52 50 18 19 I 22 50 I1’5 20 I 49 50 21°0 §©=.:-02488_)Ss«0'2884Ss O14. Brightness at time of discovery taken as unity, The comet ies in the southern extremity of the constellation of Cassiopeia. OPPOSITION OF MARs.—-All observatories which have the necessary equipment are especially invited by the United States Naval Observatory to join with them in making observations of the coming opposition of Mars. Observations should commence on June 20 to September 23, this period being divided into three parts, the comparison stars for the first section being O.A.S. 20970, » Capricorni, 27 Capricorni, @ Capricorni, Lacaille 8851, 41 Capricorni, D.M. — 20°, 6923, Lalande 42700. It may be mentioned that observations made in accordance with the special circular which the U.S. Observatory has issued will be reduced by them. Sun-Spots.—Aimmel und Erde for July contains two very good photographs of the sun at the time of the great spot in the month of February. They were photographed by Dr. Lohse, at the Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam. One was taken on February 13 at 1oh., and shows the large group near central transit with a smaller group on the limb ; while in the other, the large group is nearer the western limb, A small disc represents the relative size of the earth for comparison. REMARKABLE PROMINENCES.—The sun’s atmosphere this year has been subject to many violent disturbances, indicated to us by the presence of spots, prominences, &c. The spots, with special reference to the February group, have already re- ceived much attention, but not so with the prominences, From a set of forty observations of the latter made between March I and May 31, 1892, by M. Trouvelot, 23 of these, as he says, be- longed to the most interesting type, z.¢., eruptive. On April 6, 1892, there appeared an arched like prominence on the sun’s limb, extending through 12°, the length of its base being 144,932 and its height 92,664 kilometres ; to give an idea of the size of this arch, it may be stated that as many as 22 globes the size of our earth might have simultaneously passed under it. At 1oh, 54m., on the 8th of the same month, a huge column of light, in shape rather like a candle flame, rose to a height of 115,830, extending, in a little over half-an-hour, to 169,884 kilometres. A prominence of far greater length, occupying 34° of the solar limb, but-of much less height than those mentioned above, was visible on April 15. Its base covered 410,632 kilo- metres, thus exceeding ten times the circumference of our earth. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. AT the last meeting of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society for the present session, it was unanimously agreed to admit women as Fellows on the same terms as men. There is nothing in the society’s charter to limit the membership to men, and the proposal of admitting ladies has been made several times, and on the last occasion—two years ago—was nearly carried. As there will not be another meeting of the society until the opening of next session, the election of the first lady F.R.G.S. cannot take:place until November, THE Annual Congress of the French Geographical Societies meets this year at Lille in the first week of August, for the con- sideration of questions relating mainly to France and its colonies. The French Association for the Advancement of Science will NO. 1185, VOL. 46] © hold its meeting at Pau, as we have already announced, in the third week of September. Its Geographical Section will be presided over by M. E. Anthoine, head of the French M Department and of Graphjc Statistics under the Minister of the Interior, In all departments of geography there is a remarkable & revival of interest among Frenchmen at the present time, although the narrow or national aspect of the subject :pre- dominates over the wider or cosmopolitan. na A curious account of the piratical Tugere tribe of New Guinea has been published in most of the continental g phi- cal journals on the authority of ‘‘ an English medical missionary, Dr. Montague,” who was picked up by a Dutch war-vessel near the boundary of Dutch and British New Guinea. This gentleman told a remarkable narrative of his capture and imprisonment by the Tugere, but as no English missionary of his name is known to be in New Guinea, nor has any mission station been recently raided by the Tugere, there is no doubt that some mistake has been made. It is impossible that so serious an incident as the im- prisonment of an English missionary could be unknown in this country, and unless strong evidence were forthcoming, it is diffi- cult to believe that such a thoroughly piratical people as the Tugere could show the diligence in agriculture and the relatively high civilization with which the story credits them, M. E. A. MARTEL continues his researches into the subter- ranean geography of France. In March last he descended the ‘‘unfathomable’”’ Creux-Percé on the plateau of Langres, proving it to be only 180 feet deep. It is a hollow in Jurassic limestone, and, although open to daylight, forms a natural ice- house, having a temperature of 28°F. when the external air was at 58°. In June he examined the still more remarkable Creux de Souci in the department of the Puy de Déme. It proved to be a rounded cavity in recent basalt, 115 feet deep, having the appearance of being formed by a great gas bubble. A stagnant pool occupied the bottom of the pit, and above it the air was so much impregnated with carbonic acid that a candle would not burn. In this instance also the temperature fell as the distance from the surface increased, that of the external air being Sr, of the air at the bottom of the shaft 34°, and the water itself 34°°3. The Paris Society of Commercial Geography recently awarded a medal to M. Martel on account of the practical value of his researches in leading to the regulation of the underground drainage of Greece, . EASTER ISLAND. THE prehistoric remains of Easter Island make it for archzeo- logists one of the most interesting islands in the Pacific. They will therefore read with interest an elaborate paper in the Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1888-89, which has just been issued. The paper is entitled ‘‘ Te Pito Te Henua, or Easter Island,” and is by William J. Thomson, Paymaster, U.S. Navy. It records the results of researches made by Mr, Thomson during a visit paid to Easter Island by the American vessel, the M/ohican, towards the end of 1886. The Mohican anchored in the Bay of Hanga Roa on the morning of December 18, 1886, and remained till the evening of the last day of the year, when she sailed for Valparaiso. Mr. Thomson and some of his comrades, interested in the relics of a past phase of life in the island, made the most of the short time at their disposal, and his essay will certainly rank among the most important con- tributions which have been made to our knowledge of the subject with which it deals, He begins with a general account of Easter Island, and in this part of his work has succeeded in presenting compactly and clearly much valuable information, Of the geological features of the island he says that they are ‘‘ replete with interest.” The formation is purely volcanic, and embraces every variety per- taining to that structure. The tufaceous lavas form the most prominent element in the physiognomy of the island. To them, with the action of the trade-winds and heavy rains, is due the fact that Easter Island is surrounded by precipitous cliffs, rising in some cases to a thousand feet in height. The formation is extremely friable, and by the action of the elements enormous masses are continually disappearing beneath the waves that beat on the unprotected shore. Both on the coast-line and in the interior there are many natural caves. Some of these are of undoubted antiquity, and bear evidence of having been used by early inhabitants as dwellings and burial-places. It is reported JuLy 14, 1892] NATURE 259 that small images, inscribed tablets, and other objects of interest have been hidden away in such caves and lost through _ land-slides. _ ___ The climate is not unlike that of Madeira, with one wet and one dry season. Yams, potatoes, and taro are cultivated, the a Plants being protected from the fierce heat of the sun by a faulting of dried grass gathered from the uncultivated ground. are grown, and so is sugar-cane, but the natives do not extract the juice for the purpose of making sugar. A wild gourd is common, and constituted the only water-jar and domestic utensil known to the islanders. Mr. Thomson saw no flowering plants indigenous to the soil, but ferns of many varieties are common, and grow in profusion in the craters of the volcanoes. Except in a few exposed places, the slopes of the hills and the valleys are covered with a perennial grass resembling the Jamaica grass (Paspalum), This natural growth supplies ample oe for cattle and sheep. ~~ The eA ee peculiar to the island are several _-varieties ents. Fish abounds in the surrounding sea, and has always been the principal means of support for the islanders. Turtles are also plentiful, and are highly esteemed. The turtle _ The Pee were shockingly treated by some of the early Bein ers, and in Peru. Just before the arrival of the M/ohican a complete census ‘of the population had been taken by Mr. Salmon, who found ‘to the old Pagan ideas. Tattooing is no longer practised, but a ne the island must have been densely populated, and the _ Surviving monuments show that the inhabitants had attained to a ___ higher civilization than that of other Polynesians. The ancient Stone houses at Orongo were thoroughly explored byMr. Thomson _ and his party. These curious dwellings seem to have been built for the accommodation of the natives while the festival of the _ **sea-birds’ eggs” was being celebrated. During the winter months the island is visited by great numbers of sea-birds, most of which build their nests among the ledges and cliffs of the in- accessible rocks. Some, however, choose two islets lying a few hundred yards from the south-west point of Easter Island, and __ the natives are believed to have selected Orongo as a convenient __ Spot for watching for the coming of the birds. The fortunate person who obtained possession of the first egg, and returned with it unbroken to the expectant crowd, became entitled to certain privileges and rights during the following year. Near __ Orongo are the most important sculptured rocks in the island. They are covered with carvings intended to ‘represent human faces, birds, fishes; and mythical animals, all very much defaced by the time and the elements. The most common figure is a mythical animal, half human in form, with bowed back and long claw-like legs and arms. According to the natives, this symbol represented ‘* Meke-Meke,” the great Spirit of the sea. _. On the high bluff west of Kotatake Mountain the party dis- . covered the ruins of a settlement extending more than a mile __ along the coast-line and inland to the base of the hill. These _ remains bear unmistakable evidences of being the oldest habita- tions on the island. The houses are elliptical in shape, with doorways facing the sea, and were built of uncut stone. Some _. of the walls are standing, but the majority are scattered aboutin ' confusion. Each dwelling was provided with a small cave ot niche at the rear end, built of loose lava stones, which was in a NO. 1185, VOL. 46] . 4 number of instances covered by an arch supported by a fairly shaped key-stone. The recesses were ‘‘ undoubtedly designed to contain the household gods.” Mr. Thomson has, of course, much to say about the stone images with the. idea of which Easter Island is intimately associated in the minds of all who have devoted any attention to its antiquities. Every image in the island was counted, and the list shows a total of 555 images. Mr. Thomson says :— ** Of this number forty are standing inside of the crater, and nearly as many more on the outside of Rana Roraka, at the foot of the slope where they were placed as finished and ready for removal to the different platforms for which they were designed ; some finished statues lie scattered over the plains as though they were being dragged toward a particular locality but were suddenly abandoned. The large majority of the images, however, are lying near platforms all around the coast, all more or less mutilated, and some reduced to a mere shapeless fragment. Not one stands in its original position upon a platform. ‘The largest image is in one of the workshops in an unfinished state, and measures 70 feet in length ; the smallest was found in one of the caves, and is a little short of three feet in length. One of the largest images that has been in position lies near the platform which it ornamented, near Ovahe ; it is 32 feet long, and weighs 50 tons. **Tmages representing females were found. One at Anakena is called ‘ Viri-viri Moai-a-Taka,’ and is apparently as perfect as the day it was finished; another, on the plain west of Rana Roraka is called ‘ Moai Putu,’ and is in a fair state of preser- vation. The natives have names for every one of the images, The designation of images and platforms as obtained from the guides during the exploration was afterwards checked off in company with other individuals without confusion in the record. The course gray trachytic lava of which the images were made is found only in the vicinity of Rana Roraka, and was selected because the conglomerate character of the material made it easily worked with the rude stone implements that constituted the only tools possessed by the natives. The disintegration of the material when exposed to the action of the elements is about equivalent to that of sandstone under similar conditions, and ad- mits of an estimate in regard to the probable age. The traditions in regard to the images are numerous, but relate principally to impossible occurrences, such as being endowed with power to walk about in the darkness, assisting certain clans by subtle means in contests, and delivering oracular judgments. The legends state that a son of King Mahuta Ariiki, named Tro Kaiho, designed the first image, but it is difficult to arrive at an estimation of the period. The journals of the early navigators throw but little light upon the subject. The workshops must have been in operation at the time of Captain Cook’s visit, but unfortunately his exploration of the island was not directed towards the crater of Rana Roraka. ** Although the images range in size from the colossus of 70 feet down to the pigmy of 3 feet, they are clearly all of the same type and general characteristics, The head is long, the eyes close under the heavy brows, the nose long, low-bridged, and ex- panded at the nostrils, the upper lip short and the lips pouting. The aspect is slightly upwards, and the expression is firm and profoundly solemn. Careful investigation failed to detect the slightest evidence that the sockets had ever been fitted with artificial eyes, made of bone and obsidian, such as are placed in the wooden images. **The head was in all cases cut flat on top, to accommodate the red tufa crowns with which they were ornamented, but the images standing outside of the crater had flatter heads and bodies than those found around the coast. The images represent the human body only from the head to the hips, where it is cut squarely off to afford a good polygon of support when standing. The artists seem to have exhausted their talents in executing the features, very little work being done below the shoulders, and the arms being merely cut in low relief. The ears are only rectangular projections, but the lobes are represented longer in the older statues than in those of more recent date. ; ** The images were designed as effigies of distinguished per- sons, and intended as monuments to perpetuate their memory. They were never regarded as idols, and were not venerated or worshipped in any manner. The natives had their tutelary genii, gods, and goddesses, but they were represented by small wooden or stone idols, which bore no relation to the images that ornamented the burial platforms. The image-makers were a privileged class, and the profession descended from father to son. 260 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1892 Some of the natives still claim a descent from theimage-makers, and refer to their ancestors with as much pride as to the royal family. ; ** The work of carving the image into shape, and detaching it from the rock of which it was a part, did not consume a great deal of time, but the chief difficulty was, in the absence of mechanical contrivances, to launch it safely down the slope of the mountain and transport it to a distant point. It was lowered to the plain by a system of chocks and wedges, and the rest was a dead drag accomplished by main strength. A roadway was constructed, over which the images were dragged by means of ropes made of indigenous hemp, and sea-weed and grass made excellent lubricants. The platforms were all built with sloping terraces in the rear, and up this incline a temporary road-way was constructed of a suitable height, upon which the statue could be rolled until the base was over its proper resting-place. The earth was then dug away to allow the image to settle down into position, the ropes being used to steady it in the meantime.” Interesting as these monuments are, they are less remarkable than the incised tablets which show that the Easter Islanders had worked out for themseives a kind of writing. The following account of the tablets is given by Mr. Thomson. Their existence ‘‘was not known until the missionaries settled upon the island, Numerous specimens were found in the possession of the natives. but no especial attention appears to have been directed towards them. Several persons, belonging to vessels that were wrecked at Easter Island, report having seen such tablets, but the natives could not be induced to part with them. The three hundred islanders who emigrated to Tahiti had in their possession a num- ber of tablets ; they created some attention on account of the re- markable skill with which the figures were executed, but they were highly prized by the owners, and no effort was made to secure them because their real value was not discovered. The Chilian corvette O’Higetus visited Easter Island in January 1870, and Captain Gana secured three tablets, two of which are on deposit in the National Museum at Santiago de Chili, and the third was sent to France, but does not appear to have reached its destination. Paper impressions and casts were taken from the Chilian tablets for the various Museums of Europe. Those sent to the English Ethnological Society created some interest after a time, but others sent to Berlin were regarded as stamps for marking native cloth (A/ztthet/ungen, July 1871). Seven of these tablets are now in the possession of Tepano Jansser, Bishop of Axieri, all in excellent state of preservation. ** While the Mohican wasat Tahiti, the Bishop kindly permitted us to examine these tablets and take photographs of them. These tablets were obtained from the missionaries who had been stationed on Easter Island, and they ranged in size from 54 inches in length by 4 inches broad, to 54 feet in length and 7 inches wide. Diligent search was made for specimens of these tablets during our visit to Easter Island. At first the natives denied having any, but Mr. Salmon knew of the existence of two, and these were finally purchased after a great deal of trouble and at considerable expense. The tablets obtained are in a fair state of preservation. . The large oneis a piece of drift- wood that from its peculiar shape is supposed to have been used as a portion of a canoe. The other is made of the toromiro wood indigenous to the island. In explanation of the disap- pearance of these tablets, the natives stated that the missionaries had ordered all that could be found to be burned, with a view to destroying the ancient records, and getting rid of everything that would have a tendency to attach them to their heathenism, and prevent their thorough conversion to Christianity. The loss to the science of philology by this destruction of valuable relics is too great to be estimated. ‘The native traditions in regard to the incised tablets simply assert that Hotu-Matua, the first king, possessed the knowledge of this written language, and brought with him to the island sixty-seven tablets containing allegories, traditions, genealogical tables, and proverbs relating to the land from which he had migrated. A knowledge of the written characters was confined to the royal family, the chiefs of the six districts into which the island was divided, sons of those chiefs, and certain priests or teachers, but the people were assembled at Anekena Bay once each year to hear all of the tablets read. The feast of the tablets was regarded as their most important Jéte day, and not even war was allowed to interfere with it. ‘The combination of circumstances that caused the sudden arrest of image-making, and resulted in the abandonment of all such work on the island, never to be again revived, may have had its effect upon the art of writing. The tablets that have no. 1185, VOL. 46] been found in the best stage of preservation would correspond © very nearly with the age of the unfinished images in the work- shops. The ability to read the characters may have continued — until 1864, when the Peruvian slavers captured a large number of the inhabitants, and among those kidnapped were all of the officials and persons in authority. After this outrage, the tradi- tions, &c., embraced by the tablets, seem to have been repeated on particular occasions, but the value of the characters was not — understood, and was lost to the natives. ** A casual glance at the Easter Island tablets is sufficient to note the fact that they differ materially from other kyriologic writings. The pictorial. symbols are engraved in regular lines on depressed channels, separated by slight ridges intended to pro- tect the hieroglyphics from injury by ‘rubbing. In some cases the characters are smaller, and the tablets contain a greater number of lines, but in all cases the hieroglyphics are incised, and cover both sides as well as the bevelled edges and hollows of the board upon which they are engraved. The symbols on each line are alternately reversed ; those on the first stand upright, and those on the next line are upside down, and so on by regular alternation. ' ‘« This unique plan makes it necessary for thereaderto turn the © tablet and change its position at the end of every line; by this means the characters will be found to follow in regular proces- sion. The reading should commence at the lower left-hand corner, on the particular side that will bring the figures erect, and followed as the characters face in the procession, turning the tablet at the end of each line, as indicated. Arriving at the top of the first face, the reading is continued over the edge to the nearest line, at the top of the other side, and the descent con- tinues in the same manner until the end is reached.’ The Bou- | strophedon method is supposed to have been adopted in order | to avoid the possibility of missing a line of hieroglyphics.” : A man called Ure Vaeiko, one of the patriarchs of the island, professed to have been under instructions in the art of hiero- glyphic reading at the time of the Peruvian visit, and claimed to understand most of the characters. The photographs of the tablets owned by the Bishop were submitted to this old man, who related with fluency and without hesitation the legend which he declared to be appropriate to each. ‘‘ The story of all the tablets of which we had knowledge,” says Mr. Thomson, ‘‘ was finally obtained, the words of the native being written down by Mr. Salmon as they were uttered, and afterwards translated into English.” ; : Ure Vaeiko’s tales, with the translations, are printed in Mr. Thomson's paper ; and, as they are manifestly not the reciter’s own invention, they have a certain interest for students of an- © thropology. But whether they represent the meani scriptions on the mysterious tablets is another question. noteworthy that, although Ure Vaeiko’s fluent interpretation of the tablets was not interrupted, ‘‘it became evident that he was not actually reading the characters.” ‘‘It was noticed that the shifting of the position did not accord with the number of the symbols on the lines, and afterwards, when the photograph of another tablet was substituted, the same story was continued without the change being discovered,” These facts raise a doubt as to the trustworthiness of his pretensions to knowledge. How- ever, Mr. Thomson does not seem to have yet presented a full account of the work accomplished in connection with this curious problem. ‘Results of an extremely interesting nature,” he says, ‘‘are barely outlined at present, and not in shape to be presented herewith. It is not considered expedient to attempt an explanation of the symbols until the subject can be treated exhaustively.” It remains for us only to say that the paper is richly illustrated, and accompanied by a map of Easter Island. EMBRYOGENY OF GNETUM. THE remarkable observations of Treub on the mode of fer- tilization in the Casuarinacee,' have been followed by some almost equally interesting, by Herr Karsten, on the formation of the embryo in Gnetum. The following is a summary of the more important points, as described in the Botanische Zeitung. The inner integument of the ovule develops into a long tube of the in- | It is j leading to the apex of the nucellus, and projecting far beyond ~ 1See Nature, vol, xlv. p.°548. Juty 14, 1892] NATURE 261 _ the other two integuments; it forms, at its apex, a drop of _ Sweet fluid whieh captures the pollen-grains carried by the _ wind or possibly by insects. The outermost very thick integu- ' ment becomes fleshy and bright-coloured, and is attractive to _ herbivorous animals, In the division of the cells of the nucellus _atan early stage there is no evident predestination of one, as _ there is in most Angiosperms, as the mother-cell of the embryo- sac. In Gnetum Gnemon and neglectum there are usually _ two, three, or even more embryo-sacs which appear equally capable of further development ; while in G. edu/e, and allied forms, the author found only one. In the division of the con- tents of the embryo-sac no differentiation of a female apparatus takes place in any of the species examined ; no corpuscles or ial feed are formed, and no antipodals ; but the proto- _ plasm of the embryo-sac divides into a parietal layer of prim- ordial cells, which appear to be altogether equivalent, and which each of the two generative nuclei surrounds itself with a ne of protoplasm, and the nucleus of each of these gene- lis divides into four or eight. The actual coalescence nale and female nuclei was not observed ; but a number ll nuclei were detected in the male generative cells, in n to its four (or eight) comparatively large male nuclei, nh the author regards as the nuclei of the primordial ovum- which have wandered into the male generative cells ; and he coalescence must take place within the male generative cell. er the entrance of the pollen-tube, the parietal layer of proto- asm of the embryo-sac, in which the female primordial cells imbedded, b up into an endosperm tissue. The author reg netum as representing a higher type of the order Gnetacee than the other genera, Welwitschia and Ephedra ; the fact that no endosperm is formed before fertiliza- ‘ion indicating an advance on other Gymnosperms. The pre- n a large number of embryo-sacs, and the absence in them of antipodals, may indicate some analogy with Casuarina. The processes described above finally negative, in the opinion of = author, the theory that the antipodals are a survival of ather, to prothallium of Vascular Cryptogams ; they appear, be a degenerate and functionless female sexual appa- c to this view, there are, in the embryo-sac of . sperms, two female sexual apparatuses of similar origin, he vegetative nuclei of which coalesce in each ; but one of the wo apparatuses is altogether abortive. Both the antipodals ind the egg-apparatus or embryonic vesicles consist of an arche- ne reduced to a single cell. A. W. B. INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EXPERI- pas MENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. THE second session of the above Congress will be held in » London on Monday, August 1, 1892, and the three follow- days, under the presidency of Prof. H. Sidgwick. The ongress will assemble in the rooms of University College, ower Street (kindly lent for the purpose), from 10 to 1 and ym 2 to 4.30. The following papers have been arranged for :— tr. ALEXANDER BAIN ew) Or D . ** The Respective Spheres and the Mutual Aids of Introspection and Experiment in Psychology.” M. BALDWIN . ** Suggestion and Will. rof, BEAUNIS. . ‘* Psychological Questioning ” (Des wy questionnaires psychologiques). r. BERILLON ... ... ‘The Applications of Hypnotic z Suggestion to Education.” of. BERNHEIM ... . “The Psychical Character of Hys- terical Amblyopia.” BINET ... . * The Psychology of Insects,” NO. 1185, VoL. 46] | Dr. WALLER aes Prof. DELB@UF . ‘The Appreciation of Time by Somnambulists.” . ‘Laura Bridgman.” . ** Principles of Psycho - Therapeu- tics.” Dr. DONALDSON ... Dr. VAN EEDEN... Prof. EBRINGHAUS Dr. GOLDSCHEIDER ... ** Theory of Colour-perception.” . ‘Investigations into the Muscular Sense of the Blind.” - **Recent Researches in the Psy- chology of the Skin.” . **The Visual Centre in the Cortex of the Calcarine Fissure.” . **Inhibition of Presentations.” . ‘©The Degree of Localization of Movements and _ Correlative Sensations.” ... ‘Loss of Volitional Power (l’abou- lie).” . “A Law of Perception.” . “The Female Poisoner of Ain- Fezza.” . ‘* Experimental Inquiry into the re- lation of Respiration to Atten- Prof. STANLEY- HALL Prof. HENSCHEN... Prof. HEYMANS ... Prof. V. HoRSLEY Prof. PIERRE JANET Prof. N. LANGE ... Prof. LIEGEOIS ... Prof. LEHMANN ... “The Direct and Associative Factors in Judgments’ of /Esthetic Proportion.” . ‘The Sensibility of Women, Nor- mal, Insane, and Criminal.” . ‘Investigations into the Parallel Law of Fechner.” . **The Limits of Animal Intelli- Dr. LIGHTNER-WITMER Prof. LOMBROSO ... Dr. MENDELSSOHN Prof. LLoyp MorGAN gence,” Prof. G. E. MULLER . **The Experimental Investigation of Memory.” Prof. MUNSTERBERG . ‘*The Psycho-Physical Basis of the Feelings.” . ‘*The Experimental Induction of Hallucinations.” ‘*The Characteristics and Con- ditions of the Simplest Forms of Belief.” ... * The Origin of Numbers.” ... ‘* General Ideas.” ... **The Future of Psychology.” .. ** The Anatomical and Physiological Relations ofthe Frontal Lobes.” . ** Experiments in Thought-Trans- ference.” . ** Binocular After-images.” ‘* Relation of Reaction-time to the Breadth of Perception.” . ‘*The Physiological Basis of Rhythmic Speech.” . **On the Functional Attributes of the Cerebral Cortex.” Mr. F. W. H. MYErs Dr. W. R. NEWBOLD ... Prof, PREYER Prof. RrBoT Prof. RICHET Prof. SCHAFER Mrs, SIDGWICK Dr. E. B. TITCHENER Prof, TscHISCH Dr. VERRIEST The Meetings of the Congress will be General and Sectional. It is provisionally arranged that the General Meetings will be . held on Monday or Thursday, and on the afternoons of Tuesday and Wednesday ; and that the Sectional Meetings will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday Mornings, and if necessary on Thursday Morning. There will be two Sections at least: Section A, Neurology and Psychophysics; and Section B, Hypnotism and Cognate Questions. Under Section A will fall, for example, the papers of M. Binet, Profs. Henschen, Horsley, Schafer, Waller, &c. ; under Section B will fall the papers of Dr. Beérillon, Profs. Bernheim, Delbceuf, Liégecis, Dr. Van Eeden, Mr. F. W. H. Myers, and Mrs. Sidgwick. Reports will be given in by Profs. Sidgwick and James and M. Marillier of the results of the census of hallucinations which it was decided to carry out at the first Session of the Congress (Paris, 1889). A Committee of Reception has been formed, which includes, among others, the following names:—Dr. A. Bain, Dr. Ferrier, Mr. F. Galton, Dr. Shadworth Hodgson, Prof. V. Horsley, Dr. Hughlings Jackson, Dr, Charles Mercier, Prof. Croom Robertson, Dr. G. J. Romanes, Mr. Herbert Spencer, Mr. G. F. Stout, Dr. J. Ward, and Dr. de Watteville. The fee for attendance at the Congress is ten shillings, which 262 NATURE [JuLy 14, 1892 will entitle to a printed report of the proceedings. Any intend- ing members who have not yet paid the fee are requested to send it to Prof. Sully. During the Congress letters may be addressed to Members at the Council Room, University College, Gower Street, London, W.C., where each Member is requested to inscribe his name, on his first attendance at the Congress. F. W. H. Myers, Leckhampton House, Cambridge. JAMES SULLY, East Heath Road, Hampstead, London, N.W. SCIENTIFIC SERIALS, THE current number of the Royal Agricultural Society's Fournal is, perhaps, of more than usual interest. The first article is on Vermin of the Farm, by J. E. Harting, and is followed by an editorial note on the same subject. The plague of ‘‘ mice ” on the hill pastures of Scotland this spring gives a special interest to these articles. It appears that the Scotch plague is caused not by mice, but by fieldvoles (Arvicola agrestis), and the destruction they have wrought in the hill pastures of Scotland arises from the fondness of these voles for the delicate white stems of the hillside herbage. Judging from the reports of similar plagues in previous years it would appear that the natural enemies of the vole—the short-eared owl and the kestrel hawk—are far more efficacious remedies than any artificial means yet devised for the destruction of the voles ; hence a paper on Wild Birds in relation to Agriculture, by Earl Cathcart, is very opportune, protesting as it does against the careless de- struction of such birds as the owl, the hawk, and the rook. The Journal also contains a second paper by Mr. Dan Pidgeon on the Evolution of Agricultural Implements. A suggestive paper by Mr. William E. Bear on Desirable Agricultural Experiments advocates extensive experiments to test the economy of nitro- genous manuring by means of leguminous crops. Other papers in this number are Contagious Footrot in Sheep, by Prof. G. T. Brown; Variations of the Four-course System, by Gilbert . Murray ; and the Trial of Ploughs at Warwick, by F. S. Courtenay. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Oxford University Junior Scientific Club, May 27.— The biennial conversazione of the Club was held in the Univer- sity Museum, when an address inaugural to the recently founded ** Robert Boyle lectures of the O.U.J.S.C.” was delivered by Prof. Sir Henry W. Acland, Bart., Robert Boyle, his life, work, and influence on science. A very interesting series of exhibits was shown by the various depart- ments of the Museum and by the University Observatory, illus- trating recent progress in their particular branches of science. Of special interest were the exhibits by the Rev. F. J. Smith on ‘shadow and objective spark photography, illustrated by pictures of objects in rapid motion; by Mr. Cecil Carus-Wilson, of natural and artificial musical sands ; by the University Observers, of a series of splendid photographs illustrating recent improve- ments in astronomical and spectral photography; by the National Telephone Company, of telephonic apparatus ; by Dr. Hunt, of preparations and cultivations illustrating the methods of isolation and identification of bacteria; by Mr. B. V. Dar- bishire, of a series of lantern views in the Caucasus and in the British East Africa Company’s territory, the slides for which were kindly lent by the Royal Geographical Society. The Club is much indebted to the Royal Society, the Pharmaceutical Society, the Right Hon. the Earl of Cork and Orrery, Prof. Wyndham R. Dunstan, Prof. Odling, and other genilemen for the loan of oil paintings, engravings, and relics of Robert Boyle atid his contemporary men of science in Oxford. June 3.—The President, Mr. W. Ramsden, in the chair.— The following papers were read :—The sub-salts of the alkali metals, by Mr. W. Pullinger.—The action ofsilicon-tetrachloride on, benzene, by Mr: C. H. H. Walker.—Marriages. of. con- sahguinity, by Mr. H. Anglin. Whitelocke.—A new and improved NO. 1185, VOL. 46] KG, Bigrapen. 9:,.On4 form of rotatory hypsometer, by Mr. S. A. Sworn (Balliol), Mr. C. J. Romanes was elected an honorary member of — the Club. Bee June 14.—The President, Mr. W. Ramsden, in the chair,— The following papers were read :—The action of iodine on a mixture of sulphites and thiosulphates, by Mr. H. A. Colefax. — —On marine nests, by Mr. W. B. Benham. CS EDINBURGH. Royal Society, June 20.—Dr. Traquair exhibited some re- mains of animals occurring in volcanic tuff at Teneriffe.—Dr. Hunter Stewart read a paper on the variations in the amount of carbonic acid gas in the ground air.—Dr. Buchan discussed the diurnal variations of barometric readings in the polar regions during summer. From observations made in the summer of 1876 and the two succeeding summers, in the central part of the North Atlantic, between 62° and 80° north latitude, he showed that only one maximum and one minimum occur during the day. Observations made by the Challenger staff in high antarctic latitudes during summer give the same result. A single maximum and a single minimum are also found in the interior parts of the polar continents, but these occur at different times of the day from the ocean maximum and minimum. Superposi- tion of the two sets of variations gives a variation like that ordinarily observed. July 4.—The Hon. Lord Maclaren, Vice-President, in the chair.—Dr. A. W. Hughes read a paper on the rotatory move- ments of the human vertebral column. Among other results he points out that while the lumbar vertebre cannot rotate much about a vertical axis, the dorsal vertebrze are capable of con- siderable rotation—the total rotation of this part of the vertebral column being 45° or more—and the cervical vertebrz are still more free—the total amount being at least 90°.—Mr. R. Kidston discussed the genus Lepédophloios, Sternb.—Prof. C, G. Knott and Mr. A, Shand communicated some further notes on the volume effects of magnetization. Five iron tubes, with bores varying from 16°0 to 3°5 mm, diameter, but otherwise identical in form and substance, were subjected to a series of magnetizing forces. In low fields the thinner-walled tubes ex- perienced the greater dilatations of internal volume; but in high fields the narrower bored tubes showed much the greater dilatations. For example, in field 1400 the dilatations of the tubes in order, beginning with the one of widest bore and thinnest wall, were +4, -—3, —20, —53, and —129—each being multiplied by 10-7, With the two tubes of widest bore, the change of volume had reached its limit at this high field, the substance being practically saturated ; but with the tubes of narrowest bore there was no evidence of a limit being reached, the innermost layers ofiron being evidently far from practical saturation. Some interesting illustrations of magnetic after-effect were also described.—Dr. A. B. Griffiths submitted a paper on the blood of the invertebrata.—Prof, Tait communicated the second part of a paper on the laws of motion. If we assume the principles of inertia of matter and conservation of energy (the energy of a self-contained system consisting of the kinetic energy of all its parts supposed to be moving with the speed of its centre of inertia, the kinetic energy of relative motion of its parts, and the potential energy of its parts), the fact that we cannot attach any definite meaning to the principle of conservation, except when the motion of the system is Galilei-wise, leads at once to the first and third laws of motion, since the centre of inertia moves uniformly in a straight line ; and the second law becomes merely a definition of the word ‘‘ force ” as used in the first law, and as used instead of ‘‘ action ” and ‘‘ reaction” in one interpretation of the third, ParIs, Academy of Sciences, July 4.—M. d’Abbadie in the chair. —- On local disturbances produced underneath a heavy load uni+ formly distributed along a straight line normal to the two edges, onthe upper surface of a rectangular beam : experimental verifi- cations, by M. J. Boussinesq.—Resemblances in the march of evolution on the old continent and the new, by M. Albert Gaudry.—Experimental researches on falling bodies and the resistance of air to their motion : experiments performed at the . Eiffel Tower, by MM. L. Cailletet and E. Colardeau. Metallic — spheres were-let fall from the second platform of the Eiffel 4 JuLy 14, 1892] NATURE 263 Tower, and their exact time of describing certain distances was _ measured to a hundredth of a second by means of an electric _ chronograph. The body was fixed to a very light thread wound _ round a set of inverted cones, each of which held 2om. of thread. _ The latter passed from one cone to another through two fine _ Springs in contact, which contact was broken by the string q oe through, thus producing a mark on the chronograph. _ The retardation produced by the string was independently de- _ termined and found to be less than o’oo1 percent. The follow- ing laws were verified: that the resistance of the air is proportional to the area of the resisting surface ; and that it is _ ind ent of the form of the surface. That it is also pro- portional to the square of the velocity was not found to be strictly true, since the resistance increased rather more rapidly. The amount of fall after which the velocity of the weights em- _ ployed became uniform ranged from 60m. to room. Contribu- __ tion to the study of the function of camphoric acid, by M. A. _ Haller.—A new contribution to the history of morbid associa- tions; anthrax and paludism, by M. Verneuil.—Fixation of ni nitrogen on straw, by M. de Vogii¢é.—On the nature of the rotation of the knife-edge of a pendulum on its _ plane of suspension, by M. G. Defforges. This rotation is not a simple rolling, as was assumed by Euler and Laplace, but is compounded with a sliding motion, whose existence can be q haat means of interference fringes. The sliding is pro- porti: to the amplitude and up to six or seven kgr, to the _ weight.—On the influence of the place of the external ther- _ mometer in observations of zenith distances, by M. Périgaud. In caleulating the error due to refraction by Arago’s method, the density of the layer of air in the neighbourhood of the obj is measured by a thermometer placed outside the room, near the north side of the observatory. It was sought to fulfil the conditions of the problem more rigidly by suspending a thermometer quite close to the objective. The zenith-distances, calculated on the basis of its indications, showed a difference of 0°2 to 0’8 from those obtained by Arago’s method, which made the zenith distances too large. The writer’s method has been Na ie at the great transit-instrument of the Paris Observatory. - the primary forms of linear differential equations of the second order, by M. Ludwig Schlesinger.—On the precise determination of the critical density, by M. E. Mathias. This determination is aided by the law of the rectilineal diameter, ding to which in the curve of temperatures and densities the locus of the midpoints of the chords parallel to the axis of the ordinates is a straight line. This law, recently confirmed by _Young’s experiments, implies that the critical density is equal to ordinate of the diameter which corresponds to the critical temperature. Calculated according to this law, the critical densities of methyl, ethyl, and propyl alcohol are found to be the same.—Influence of the mass of the liquid in the phenomena of heating, by W. A. Witz.—Measurement of the dielectric constant by electromagnetic oscillations, by M. A. Pérot. By the method described, the constant K was deter- ‘mined for glass, and found to range from 2°71 if charged for 72°6 x 107)°sec. to 5°727 if charged for 453°7 x 107!°sec.—On the composition of water and Gay-Lussac’s law of volumes, by . A. Leduc. The writer’s researches on the densities of gases have led him to adopt the value 23°24 for the percentage of ° in the air. e density of oxygen was determined by a ‘modification of Dumas’s process, in which the hydrogen was absorbed by finely-laminated electrolytic copper. The atomic weight deduced was 15°88, while the mean of the best values for the density is 15°90. This shows that Gay-Lussac’s law of volumes is only approximate.—On the nitrogen salts of platinum, by M. M. Vézes.—Researches on the sodic pyrogallols, by M. d -—On acetono-resorcine, by M. H, Causse.— tilization of roasted iron pyrites for the manufacture of iron salts, by MM, A. and P. Buisine.—On the alterations of ferru- waters, by M. F. Parmentier.—Reproduction of pure botassic nepheline, by M. André Duboin.—On the passage of lissolved substances through mineral filters and capillary tubes, y M. C. Chabrie.—On hemocyanine, by M. Léon Frédéricq. —On the physiological determinism in the metamorphosis of he silk-w by M. E. Bataillon.—On a new Zemnocephala, te of Astacoides madagascariensis, by M. A. Vayssiére. —Earthworms and tuberculosis, by MM. Lortet and Despeignes. that worms can bring the bacillus to the surface, pre- erving all its virulent properties.—On the Californian disease, disease of the vine caused by Plasmodiophora californica, by NO. 1185, VOL. 46] : Pinou MM. P. Viala and C. Sauvageau.—An essay on vegetable Statics, by M. Augustin Letellier.—On the cavern called the Creux de Souci (Puy-de-Dome), by MM. E. Martel, A. Dele- becque, and G. Gaupillat.—On the lakes of the central plateau of France, by MM. A. Delebecque and E. Ritter. BERLIN, Physical Society, June 3.—Prof. Schwalbe, President, in the chair.—Dr. Gross continued his remarks on the subject of entropy.—Dr. Wien gave an account of experiments on the measurement of high temperatures, made in conjunction with Dr. Holborn, with a view to testing Le Chatelier’s platinum and rhodium thermo-elements. They were first compared with an air-thermometer. The latter consisted of a glazed porcelain tube containing slightly rarefied air, the temperature being recorded by a manometer. The thermo-element was introduced into the cavity of the air-thermometer, and the readings of the respective instruments were compared between —80° and + 1500°. Below 500° the thermo-element was not very sensitive, and is hence of use only for high temperatures. Alloys of platinum with 9, 10, 11, 20 and 40 per cent. of rhodium were tried. It was found that the E.M.F, increased with the in- creased percentage of rhodium, but that the most suitable alloy was that containing 10 per cent. of rhodium as recommended by Le Chatelier, The above experiments necessitated the determi- nation of the co-efficient of linear expansion of Berlin porcelain, This was found to be *ooc004. In some final experiments the melting-point of gold was determined to be 1073° and 1067°, of silver 972° and 968°, and of copper 1082”. June 17.—Prof. Kundt, President, in the chair.—Prof. Vogel exhibited a remarkably fine series of coloured prints of oil paintings, &c., prepared in accordance with his method by Messrs. Vogel and Ulrich, The method consists in first taking a red, a yellow, and a blue negative of the object on plates specially sensitized for colours. The three negatives are then printed on to one and the same paper by means of comple- mentarily coloured rollers or stones. In order to obtain the colours exactly complementary to those of the negatives, the colours used for printing were either the coloured sensitizers themselves or some substance whose equivalence to these had been determined spectroscopically. The application of the physical principles involved in the above yielded an approxi- mate reproduction of the natural colours which was surprisingly complete, and will become more so as more and more coloured substances. are discovered suitable as sensitizers. —Prof. Koenig described his new spectrophotometer. Its chief improvement consists in the introduction of Lummer and Brodhun’s glass- cube, which is, however, so modified as to admit of the measure- ment of the relative intensities of the parallel rays falling into it. Physiological Society, June 24.—Prof. du Bois Raymond, President, in the chair.—Prof. Kossel communicated the results of some experiments made by Dr, Monti on the absorption of oxygen by the tissues after death, using for this purpose their reducing action on photographic plates. The suprarenals, spleen, and thymus reduced most actively, while brain- substances produced but little effect. Dr. Lilienfeld had in- vestigated the distribution of phosphorus in various tissues by means of micro-chemical reactions with ammonium molybdate and ee. The presence of phosphorus was usually strongly marked in the nuclei as compared with the cell- substance, except in the case of the cerebral ganglia, in which the reverse was frequently observed. Prof. Gad drew attention to a phenomenon, brought to his notice by Prof. Litten, which may be observed during normal human respiration, and consists in the downward passage of an obvious wave over the wall of the thorax at each inspiration aud the upward passage of a similar wave at each expiration. AMSTERDAM, Royal Academy of Sciences, June 25.—Prof. van der Waals in the chair.—Prof. T, Forster spoke (1) On the action of heat upon tuberculous matter. According to former investi- gations by ‘‘ pasteurizing” (7.¢., warming liquids to a temperature of 60 to 80° C. for a short time and cooling them immediately), bacteria of Asiatic cholera and typhoid-fever are killed at about _ 264 NATURE [Jury 14, 1892, 60°. From a hygienic point of view it is of still more importance to discover what is the lowest temperature at which the bacilli of tuberculosis are destroyed. It is established that tuberculosis is produced by the consumption of milk secreted by tuberculous cows. Meat also, coming from tuberculous cattle, sometimes contains infectious matter. By boiling heat, indeed, the bacilli of tuberculosis are killed. But if meat is prepared i in the usual manner, even small pieces of it are not warmed thoroughly at 100° C, ; milk, on the other hand changes in taste if boiled, so that most people do not like boiled milk. By a series of experi- ments, recently made, Prof. Forster has settled that the bacilli of tuberculosis are destroyed by a temperature of 60° C. acting during one hour, and by the action during six hours of a tem- perature of 55° C. Higher temperatures than 60°, for instance, 80, 90 or 95° C., destroy the infectious matter in milk from tuberculous cows, if they act during ¢ez minutes; ‘‘pas- teurizing,” however, at 80° during ove minute does not hurt the bacilli of tuberculosis. (2) On the development of bacteria at a temperature of melting ice. He had formerly demonstrated cultivations of bacteria, which produce light of phospho- rescence. The same kind of bacteria are also able to develop and to multiply at a temperature of o° C. He found that bacteria which have this peculiar quality, so interesting from a biological point of view, not only live in the sea, but are met with in brackish and fresh water, upon victuals, manures, etc., etc. This agrees with the fact that victuals, kept for some days -in an ice-chamber, gradually assume a disagreeable smell and “taste; and that meat can be preserved from putrefaction for ‘ necessary —dryness. days but not for weeks. If foods are to be preserved at a low temperature for a long. time, beside cold a second agent is In the cooling rooms of the most modern | establishments (slaughterhouses, stores, etc., etc.) no use is _made of ice, which after melting moistens the atmosphere and _ the objects in the ice-chambers, but arrangements are made by : which the atmosphere is cooled to a low temperature and at -the same time kept perfectly dry.—M. Beyerinck spoke of the . culture of organisms of nitrification on agar-agar and on gelatine. . Kirst it was stated, in accordance with the discovery of War- ington and Winogradsky, that nitrification consists in two . processess—the formation of nitrous acid from the ammonsalt . under adequate conditions. by a specific bacterium and the oxidation of the nitrite into nitrate by another and independent species of bacterium. Secondly, that both these processes occur only when soluble organic matter is reduced to a minimum such as has been proved by the classic researches of Winogradsky and the Franklands. Even o'r per cent. of calcium-acetate retards nitrification strongly. Thirdly, it was found that organic matter in the solid state does not in the least interrupt or retard nitrification. Therefore an attempt was made—and successfully—to cultivate the nitrous and nitric bacteria on agar-agar, fully extracted with distilled water and afterwards boiled with the inorganic salts needed for nitrification. cipitated carbonate of lime was added to the agar it was possible to obtain a ‘‘chalk-agar-plate,” whereon the nitrous bacteria of. the soil, after their growth into colonies, could directly be numbered. For this purpose the chalk-agar is poured into a’ glass-box, and some soil suspended in sterilised water brought on the surface of the solidified plate. After three to four weeks the colonies become visible as-the centres of clear, transparent, perfectly circular diffusion figures, formed by the solution of the carbonate of lime in the nitrous acid, the very soluble calcium-nitrite diffusing in all directions in the agar-plate. In this way it was found, for example, that out of ca. 10 millogrammes soil taken from under a sod of white clover in a garden at Delft, thirty colonies of the nitrous bacterium could, be cultivated. The species is the same as that described as the European form by Winogradsky, growing, as well as zoogloea, quite free, and possessing the form of a small, moveable mikrokok with one cilium. Gelatine, prepared with the same precautions as the agar, can also be used, but therein the production of nitrous acid soon ceases. The nitrous bacterium does not liquefy the gelatine. Though it does not grow or oxidize when organic matter is present, it does not lose these powers by this contact, as shown when brought anew The nitric bacterium was also isolated on fully extracted agar, to which 0’! per cent. potassium- nitrite and some phosphate was added. The colonies are very small and coloured light yellow. They consist of very small non-moving mikrokoks or short ellipsoids. They lose their power of oxidizing nitrites by the contact of soluble No. 1185, VOL. 46] .and_ Physiology, July (Williams: and If with these salts some pure pre-. organic matter, without thereby losing their power of growin The nitric bacterium does not oxidize ammonsalts, without action on potassium rhodanate and hydrochloric-_ hydroxylamine, It therefore does not seem to produce free — acid such as the nitrous bacterium. A simple methdd for the formation of sterile plates of silica, with and without carbo : was also described. Many preparations were demonstrated, BOOKS AND SERIALS RECEIVED. oKs.—Grasses: C. H. Jones (S.P.C K.).—A Synoptical G of ty ‘World (Blackie).—London Matriculation Directory No. sai une 1892 (Clive). —The Me: against Bimetallism: R. Giffen (Belt the Bi of Devon: . D’Urban and Rev. M. A. Mathew (P —Uni- versal Atlas, pe 16 (Cassell).—Photography , Annual, 1892 “ie 2).— Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle des Pays Bas; tome xi., Cat. til ope des Mammiféres: F. A. Jentink (Leide, Brill).—The Ace Elliptic Functions: A. G. Greenhill Mertens 9 ax and Co.).— unshine Johnson (Macmillan and Co.).—Theory of Numbers, Part (ews a Mathews (Bell).—Alcohol and Public Health: Dr. J. J. Ridge urray’s Hand-book ; Norway, 8th edition (Murray SERIALS.—Transactions of the County of Middlesex Natural H atti and Scientific Society, Sessions 1889-90, 1890, and 1891 (Landon) <-Bataral Science, No. 5 (Macmillan and Co.).—L’ Anthropologie, 1892, is tag No. 3 (Paris, Masson).—Bulletin de l’ Académie Royale des Sciences de No. 5 (Bruxelles).—Journal of the Royal Agricultural Sony of Bogan 3rd series, vol. 3, Part 2, No. x. (Murray).—Department ture Victoria, Bulletin No 14 (Melbourne).—The Asclepiad, No. RE Side vol. ix. (Longmans).—Mind, July (Williams and Norgate). —Journal of Anatomy Norgate).—Archives des Sciences Biologiques publiées par I’Institut Impérial de Médecine E posta St. Pétersbourg, tome 1, No. 3 (St. Petersburg). Ra a July (K. Paul).—Annals of Scottish Natural History, No. Douglas).—Medical Magazine, vol. 1, No. 1 (Souineody acl of t the Royal Statistical Societ a June (Stanford).—Journal of the Society, July (Gurney an ‘eal son).—Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, No. 132 (Churchill CONTENTS. PAGE A Treatise on Zoology. By G. B. H. 241 Watts’s eran of Chemistry.” By Sir H. 5 Roscoe, F.R 3 Mae pera eee) the hactien Sig 2 2 Our Book Shelf :— ‘ J. Willard Gibbs : ‘‘ Thermodynamische Studien” 245 C. E. Fessenden: ‘‘ Elements of Physic” ee 245 M. Alheilig : “* Recette, Consens et Travail des Bois” KB: Baghot de la Bere: Town Readers” P ‘* A Synoptical Geography ofthe World” 1.2... Letters to the Editor :— An Acoustic Method whereby the Depth of Water in a River ig bemeasured at a Distance. —F rederick . - 246 “e Country Thoughts for 246 Oh) >) le} J. Smith .. ~ s+ « 246 Waterspouts in East Yorkshire. ma Lovel .oiigse:, 246 On the Line Spectra of the Elements. —C, Runge . 247 The Grammar of Science.—Karl Pearson. . . 247 ‘‘ Are the Solpugidz Poisonous ?”—W. L. Distant 247 Hairlessness of Terminal 5 Wee in Primates.—Dr. George J. Romanes, F.R.S. éSaieh enene 247 Mental Arithmetic.—G. Daehne . BRT NR Gy Jackals. -Hyde Clarke... efits 247 Weight. By Prof. A. G. Greenhill, F.R. ainlie 247 Aphanapteryx and other Remains in the Chatham Islands. By HenryO. Forbes. .....+ 4... 252 Admiral Mouchez...) . sitsiire ca specu Oe eee ee Notes .. o.\eiiealleze. ph Seat SEE dem tae SOD Our Astronomical ‘Column :— Lunar Photography «Tal al Cea a eae Comet Swift (1892. March 6) . +, ae hoger Opposition Of Mart: o's: 07.0: why sassileulegeel 258 Sun-Spots ..... oc tacht 6a’ s cee ae Remarkable Prominences. 5 gin, & Adis) a peaeeenn nS ky nas ele Geographical Notes... . 2+ ss +e ee eee oe 258 Easter Island. . . Maer apige TF Embryogeny of Gnetum. ‘By A. ‘WwW. B. 200° International Congress of Experimental Psychology. By F. W. H. Myers nidepi sis: ice tanec oOR Scientific Serials ...... bi dia Oe Societies and Academies ee Books and Serials Received .. wwe NATURE 265 THURSDAY, JULY 21, 1892. ‘a DR. MIVART’S ESSAYS. - Essays and Criticisms. By St. George Mivart, F.R.S. (London : Osgood, M’Ilvaine, and Co., 1892.) R. MIVART has collected in two portly volumes a number of essays and critical reviews which he has from time to time contributed tocurrent monthly or quarterly literature. The ground covered is tolerably extensive ; from “ Jacobinism” and “The French Revolution” to “Weismann’s Theories” and “Eimer on Growth and Inheritance ;” from “Austrian Monasteries” and “The reyfriars” to “ Herbert Spencer” and “ Hermann Lotze.” We have read the whole, or almost the whole, with interest, and not without admiration of the author’s wide know- ledge, his earnest purpose, and his power of clear exposi- tion. Here, however, we are chiefly concerned with those essays which deal with scientific problems. They are well worthy of reperusal in their present collected form, and that chiefly because Dr. Mivart holds definite and in some respects peculiar views on evolution, because he has the advantage of some training in philosophy, because he is a learned and acute critic, and because he has pre-eminently the courage of his convictions. It is scarcely necessary to remind the readers of NATURE ‘that Dr. Mivart is one of those who hold that natural ‘selection has played a quite subordinate part in the evolu- tion of organisms. He believes that the concurrence of certain external exciting causes acts in such a manner on internal predisposing tendencies as to determine by direct “modification the evolution of new specific forms. Further- more he affirms that, beyond the domains of merely physical science (which, though much, is not everything), reason demands a non-mechanical conception—namely, the conception of an immanent active principle or soul in everything which lives. And he contends that be- tween the self-conscious reason of man and the mere sensuous feeling of the higher brutes, there is a great and impassable gulf fixed. These are among the more important positions which the author of these “ Essays and Criticisms ” assumes in the field of biological specula- tion. And to these may, perhaps, be added his condemna- tion of the doctrine of the relativity of knowledge, and his belief in common-sense realism, apparently on the. assumption that the external reality of the objective world (as opposed to its Phenomenal existence) is directly ap- prehended by the intellect, though it cannot be reached through sensuous feeling. _ On all these matters Dr. Mivart has much that is inter- esting to say, and says it in an interesting manner. It would manifestly be impossible here to discuss so wide a range of problems. We therefore propose to select one matter—that of the relation of human reason to brute in- telligence—on which to offer a few remarks. In the essay entitled “ A Limit to Evolution,” the author seeks to establish the impossibility of mental evolution as applied to man. He insists, and rightly insists, that the great difference between man and the lower animals lies not in his bodily but in his mental constitution ; and he contends, again in our opinion with perfect justice, that in order to examine this question we must begin by NO. 1186, VOL. 46] looking a little carefully into our own minds, and by examining our own acts and mental nature. As the result of this examination he finds that our psychical operations fall into two classes ; on the one hand, there are feeling (sensitivity), imagination and sensuous memory, sensuous emotion, sense-perception, and sensuous inference ; on the other hand, there are intellectual perception, ideation and conception, abstract ideas, and moral and esthetic concepts. “The contrast, the difference of £znd,” he says, “ which exists between this zwtellectual conception and the various forms of /ee/img is very great.” We thus possess a dual psychical nature, on the one side sensuous, on the other side intellectual. The sense-perceptions of the one and the abstract ideas of the other “‘ belong to utterly different categories, and a nature which has this power of abstraction is separated from any nature which has wot that power, by a gulf which is an impassable limit to evolution, because feeling and intellect are both thus different in nature, and progress and develop along different and more or less diverging roads.” But the psychical powers of brutes are limited to sense-perception, and give no evidence of the possession of the higher faculty of ideation and conception. Therefore the passage from the so-called mind of the brute to the conceptual mind of man is not only impossible but inconceivable. Such in brief is Dr. Mivart’s line of argument. Now, we hold that the distinction between the higher self- conscious, reflective, and conceptual powers of man, and his lower sensuous, non-reflective, and perceptual mental activities is a valid and valuable one, and one which is too often lost sight of. And we hold, further, that our author is right, in the main if not entirely, in denying to brutes the higher powers of conceptual thought. Again, we agree with Dr. Mivart in regarding the progress and development of sense-perception and abstract thought as more or less divergent. Where we part company with him is in the assumption, for such it appears to us, that these divergent lines of development cannot have a common origin. In all that he has written on the subject we fail to find any adequate justi- fication for this dogmatic assertion so often and so con- fidently reiterated. The distinction between mere sense- perception and reflective thought is frequently drawn with admirable lucidity and clearness ; but the impossi- bility of their having a common psychical root is merely asserted with a few rhetorical flourishes. We venture to question the assertion. Dr. Mivart is not, be it noted, content to assume the modest but perfectly legitimate scientific position that no one has yet succeeded in showing the early stages of the divergence, the tentative beginnings of the reflective process, the gradual focussing of the mental eye upon the processes of consciousness. He does not take his stand on a “not proven,” but on a somewhat dogmatic “ impossible ”—not merely an “im- possible” to this or that or the other factor in evolution from the nature of the factor, but broadly and generally an Impossible that is as worthy of a big initial letter as the Unknowable itself! We cannot take leave of Dr. Mivart’s volumes without again calling attention to the fact that they are full of matter interesting to the student of evolution. His scientific conclusions are not altogether those to which N 266 NATURE [JuLy 21, 1892 we have ourselves been led, though there are not a few matters on which we have the pleasure of agreeing with him ; his psychological and philosophical views are not in all respects those which we have reached, though here again we are on many not unimportant questions on his side; but we believe him to be an honest and fearless inquirer after that Truth which stands on the title-page of a work to which, perhaps, for some of our readers, these volumes of essays may form a suitable introduction. C, Lu. M. PHYSICAL OPTICS. A Treatise on Physical Optics. By A. B. Basset, M.A., F.R.S. (Cambridge: Deighton, Bell, and Co., 1892.) A NEW treatise on the higher branches of physical 4 optics must be welcome to all who are interested in the subject. Mr. Basset explains in the preface the scope and aim of his book, and it is needless to say that he performs the task he has set himself with ability and success. If, nevertheless, we close the book with a feeling of disappointment, it is because we could have wished that the author had been more ambitious, and attempted to give us a little more than a compilation of the standard papers on the subject. There is one sentence in the preface which, though it evidently does not express what the author meant to say, yet may serve as a peg whereon to hang the only criticism which can fairly be raised against Mr. Basset’s treatment of his subject. “I have a profound distrust,” says the author, “of vague and obscure arguments based upon general reasoning instead of upon rigorous mathematical analysis.” Now, if we are to have vague and obscure arguments, it does not seem to matter much whether they are founded upon general reasoning or upon mathematical analysis, however rigorous that may be. In a subject which is in a state of growth, it may be possible to hide, but it is impossible to avoid, all obscurity and vagueness ; and original work ever consists in the attempt to overcome such obscurities. By purposely excluding everything that is vague from a physical treatise, we destroy all possibility of making the work useful in stimulating further research. There are two ways of dealing with difficulties: we may try to overcome them, or we may run away fromthem. Mr. Basset chooses the latter course, and though some of us might have wished him to be a little more venturesome, we gratefully accept what he has given us, and the above remarks only apply to certain parts of the book. After an introductory chapter, Mr. Basset treats of the interference oflight. He follows the time-honoured custom of taking Fresnel’s mirrors and the biprism as the simplest case of interference. The effects which are observed are seriously modified, however, by so-called diffraction effects, and we might perhaps have expected a book of this kind to have entered a little more fully into the subject. That the author avoids all reference to experimental details is a distinct advantage, and renders his book more lucid and valuable for reference. It is much to be wished ‘the author’s plan could be more generally followed, and that all lengthy discussions No. 1186, VOL. 46] of instrumental details could be kept out of theoretical treatises, and relegated to separate books. , The diffraction of light is fully discussed in chapters iv.,v.,and xiii. Mr. Basset has followed safe guides in the treatment of his subject, and it is perhaps this part of the book which will be specially valuable to the teacher and student. It is well that the phenomena of double refraction should be first approached without more allusion to the difficult subject of the constitution of the ether than is absolutely necessary, and this is perhaps most easily done by following, as Mr. Basset does, the historical method, and starting from Fresnel’s deductions. The colours of crystalline plates are, of course, treated in an important chapter, and it is worthy of note that Mr. Basset does not introduce the somewhat misleading distinction between the effects produced by parallel and by convergent or divergent beams. In the usual polariscopes a number of parallel beams pass through the crystalline plate in different directions. If the optical arrangement between the plate and the eye is such that these various beams enter the eye, we get the phenomena which are often called interference effects in divergent light, while if those beams only which make a small angle with each other are allowed to pass the pupil, we get the uniform tint described as the effect of parallel light. Both kinds of effects might also be pro- duced if instead of parallel beams we had a number of pencils diverging from points in a plane close to the crystalline plate. In either case the eye is supposed to focus for an infinite distance, and the different appear- ance is only one of degree, depending on the extent of the angle between the different rays passing through the — crystal and into the eye. Mr. Basset enters fully into the consequences of the various hypotheses which have been made as regards the differences of density or elasticity of the ether in different media. The investigations referred to by him are, of course, of the utmost importance, but it should have been pointed out that as regards application to optics they are wanting in reality. We know enough now to be able to say that the medium does not behave like an elastic body, and in some form or other the electro-mag- netic theory must be considered asestablished. It seems idle, therefore, to discuss whether the hypothesis of Green or of Neumann is most contradicted by experiment. It would have been perhaps worth while to bring out more clearly the fact that o elastic theory of the ether has yet been found satisfactory, and that if the electro-magnetic theory had not come to help us we should be in a very serious difficulty. It is true, of course, that we are at present unable, and probably always shall remain unable, to discard the elastic theories, because the study of transverse vibrations can only be satisfactorily carried out with the help of examples in which we understand to some extent the mechanism by which the vibrations are propagated. But unless a writer chooses to follow a purely historical treatment, it would seem to be more satisfactory to separate completely the mathematical study of vibrations from the subject of optics. Treated purely as elastic vibrations we may - usefully discuss what would happen at the boundary be- tween two media having different elasticities or densities; _ Juty 21, 1892] NATURE 267 and such a discussion, though independent of optics, would be certain to have important applications in it, be- cause its results would often still apply when translated into language of the electro-magnetic theory. The mathe- matical investigation of vibrations might be made more clear and definite when it is freed from the necessity of adapting itself to experimental verification. Chapter xviii. is a useful one, dealing with ‘theories based on the mutual reaction between ether and matter,” but we might have wished for a more satisfactory intro- duction to the electro-magnetic theory that is given in the lasttwo chapters. The way in which the subject is approached may illustrate some of the remarks made in the beginning of this review. There is no doubt a very serious difficulty in explaining the fundamental notions underlying the theory, and Mr. Basset, instead of making an attempt to help the student over the difficulty, sud- denly plunges into a series of equations, referring us to Maxwell’s book for an explanation even of his symbols. We have perhaps given an inadequate idea of the contents of Mr. Basset’s book, which no doubt lends itself to criticism from the physicist’s point of view, but which nevertheless fills a gap and possesses merits which will render it of great value to the student of optics. ARTHUR SCHUSTER. THE APODIDE. The Apodide: a Morphological Study. By H. M. Bernard, M.A. Cantab. (London: Macmillan, 1892.) “HE title of this little book is misleading. It is not a treatise on the Apodidz, but a statement of the author’s speculations on the relations of the Phyllopodous Crustacea and Branchiate Arachnida to the Chetopod Worms. The new observations recorded are few, and the most important, that as to the presumed herm- aphroditism of Afus cancriformis, quite insufficiently set forth, and, so far as can be judged from the author’s meagre statement, erroneous. Mr. Bernard appears to be completely misinformed as to current views on the relationships of Apus to other Crustacea, and of that group, through it, to the parapodi- ate worms. Apparently he addresses himself to a lay audience, and poses, to start with, as the discoverer of a new and unsuspected agreement between the lower Crustacea and the Chztopoda. This may serve to excite the interest of uninstructed readers, but the zoologist knows that such pretensions are due either to defective acquaintance with the subject or to a want of candour on Mr. Bernard’s part. The arguments by which Mr. Bernard endeavours to support his thesis are, many of them, those which have been effectively used by his pre- decessors in the same cause; others are new and re- markable only for their arbitrary character and the evidence which they give of the author’s boldness in writing a book on a morphological problem. Mr. Bernard draws attention to the absence of developed articulations in the limbs of Apus as giving them a re- semblance to the parapodia of Chztopoda. He states that this absence “has already been pointed out by Lankester and others, but its true significance does not seem to have been noticed.” This is an incorrect allu- NO. 1186, VOL. 46] sion to my essays on the appendages and nervous system of Apus (Q. /. Micr. Scé., 1881), and on Limulus an Arachnid (¢é¢d.), which is the more to be regretted since they appear to have furnished Mr. Bernard with such of his theories as well as his facts as will bear examination. At p. 368, Zoc. cét., my statement runs— “T have long been of the opinion which Prof. Claus appears to hold, that the appendages of the Arthropoda are homologous (or, to use a more distinctive term, ‘homogenous’) with the appendages of the Chztopoda, and on this account I consider it a proper step in classifi- cation to associate the Chztopoda with the Arthropoda and Rotifera in one large phylum—the Appendiculata.” Yet Mr. Bernard comes forward to tell us that he now for the first time draws attention to the true significance of the absence of articulations in the limbs of Apus, although (as he admits) this condition was especially noted and very carefully described eleven years ago by me in the same essay in which the above paragraph as to the relationship of Arthropoda and Chetopoda occurs. This is a sample of Mr. Bernard's method of claiming novelty for what he has to say when dealing with old materials. Frequently he asserts in strong language novel propositions which are purely speculative and of the truth of which no evidence is adduced. There is in no part of this little book any evidence that the author has made use of living’ or of well-preserved material, or has had any special opportunities of studying the genera and species of Apodidz ; nor does it appear that he has any experience as a zoologist which might give some weight to his fanciful conceptions. On the contrary, these crude speculations and dogmatic assertions are his first original contributions to zoological literature. I regret to be obliged to say that in my opinion (which I am called upon to express candidly in these pages) “The Apodide” is not a book which can be recommended either as a repository of fact or as a model of the method in which a morphological problem should be attacked. E. Ray LANKESTER. OUR BOOK SHELF. Anatomy, Physiology, Morphology, and Development of the Blow-fly (Calliphora erythrocephala). Part III. By B. Thompson Lowne, F.R.C.S., F.L.S. (London: R. H. Porter, 1892.) WE have before us another section of Mr. Lowne’s work, which has grown upon the author’s hands, and will form two volumes instead of the one originally intended. Part iii. is occupied with the internal anatomy of the imago, embryonic development, histology, and the de- velopment of the imago. On each of these heads a great amount of information is supplied, and the author’s statements are illustrated by many figures. As to the puzzling question of the way in which the alimentary canal of the blow-fly is developed, Mr. Lowne holds an opinion which is probably shared with no second person. What Voeltzkow and Graber take to be the proctodzeum, and what Korschelt and Heider believe to be the amniotic cavity, Mr. Lowne calls archenteron. He is content, as he tells us in his preface, to await the verdict of posterity on such conclusions as this. We are content to wait too. The subject is too difficult for full consideration in this place, and it would be unfair to express a strong opinion without ample discussion of the evidence. It is not un- fair, we think, to characterize many of Mr. Lowne’s 268 morphological speculations as simple mistakes. Tocom- pare an insect-embryo and its membranes with a Lamelli- branch or an Ascidian in the extempore manner assumed so lightly by Mr. Lowne (p. 244) is not creditable. He tells us that he has no facts to guide him except the similarity of the form and disposition of the parts. Any reader who is not able to judge for himself should be very much on his guard when our author mentions Vertebrates or Ascidians, or indeed any other animals outside the class of Insects. It is painful to speak with any disrespect of an author so laborious and so independent as Mr. Lowne. But these good qualities do not suffice to make a really good book. Advice will probably be thrown away, but we will offer one hint in the most friendly way. If Mr. Lowne before going to press would get his sheets revised by any cautious and well-informed zoologist, he would be saved from making statements which seriously impair his Sia a os A Mendip Valley: tts Inhabitants and Surroundings. By Theodore Compton. With Original Illustrations by Edward Theodore Compton. (London: Edward Stanford, 1891.) THIS is an enlarged and revised edition of the well- known ‘ Winscombe Sketches,” and will be cordially welcomed by readers who can appreciate the presenta- tion of natural facts in a poetic spirit. The author has spent the greater part of ‘ thirty-three years of rural life” in the valley about which he writes, and every aspect of it he knows and loves. He tells much that is interesting, not only about the valley itself, but about the people who inhabit it, and about its archeological remains, its wild beasts, past and present, its birds, fish, reptiles, butterflies, and flowers. Thestyle is simple and clear, and a certain charm is added to the writer’s de- scriptions by the quaint reflections with which many of them are associated. An excellent chapter on the geo- logical history .of the Mendips is contributed by Prof. Lloyd Morgan. The illustrations are daintily conceived and executed, and harmonize well with the general tone of the text. Key to Elementary Dynamics. By S. L. Loney, M.A. (Cambridge University Press, 1892.) THOSE who are using the author’s Elementary Treatise, whether they be teachers or students, will find this key very useful. The solutions to the examples are here worked out in full, so that even one who is going through the subject by himself will learn much in the nature of attacking problems by direct methods. The author’s treatise is now so widely used that this key will come as a great boon to many. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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 Lightning Spectrum. DurRING the brilliant display of lightning on the evening of June 28, I took the opportunity of making some observations of the spectrum. The way in which the spectrum varied was very remarkable, some of the flashes giving apparently perfectly con- tinuous spectra, while others gave a spectrum of bright lines, as already recorded by Kundt and others. The continuous spec- trum appeared to be associated with the flashes of longest duration, which were accompanied by very little thunder, and the bright line spectrum with the more instantaneous flashes. Using a Liveing direct-vision spectroscope with a very accurate scale, I succeeded in measuring the positions of six lines in the NO. 1186, VOL. 46] NATURE [JuLy 21, 1892 green, all of which no doubt have been observed before, but in two cases at least the fositions have not been previously measured. The wave-lengths of the lines phased. follows—those determined by Vogel, Schuster, and Colonel John Herschel, being added for comparison :— Schuster. Vogel. Herschel R 1 (1) 5002 — 5002 5009 | Brightest line (2) 5168 5160 — — Rather dim — 5182 5184 — —- (3) 5350 | 5334 5341 — | Fairly bright (4) 5430 — —_ — Rather dim (5) 5515 - — — Fairly bright aay 5592 rei ont ~t (6) 5675 — — _— Fairly bright Other lines were seen both in the red and blue, but time did not permit any accurate determinations of their positions. The lines (1) and (6) are undoubtedly the two brightest double lines of the air spectrum which occur in this region, but in the case of the other lines the coincidences are not so definite. The proximity of the line 5168 to the brightest carbon fluti (A 5165) would suggest that it has its origin in the carbonic aci gas, which is always present inthe atmosphere. The remaining lines do not appear to coincide with air lines, and their origins for the present are undetermined. A, FOWLER, Royal College of Science, South Kensington. On the Line Spectra of the Elements. ProF, RUNGE has not improved the position hehas taken up by the new instance of a motion which he brings forward in last week’s NATURE. The instance he gave in his preceding letter is a motion which, as I pointed out, could not take place within molecules. The motion he now gives is one which cannot even exist anywhere in nature. .It would require a supply of power (energy per unit of time) increasing ad infinitum, first instance he gave belongs to inapplicable kinematics, his new one to impossible dynamics. Neither has anything to do with the subject of my memoir. : He quotes the enunciation of a theorem from chapter iv. of my paper, but does not quote the sentence introducing that theorem, which would have made it plain that the motions spoken of in it are motions which can take place within molecules and which can produce an undulation in the ether, not the motions of a mere mathematical exercise irrespective of whether they are real or imaginary. The introductory sentence (p. 588) is in the following words :—‘‘ The motions of the electrons, the electric _ charges in the moleculés, which are what excite the ethereal undulation, may be motions that are not confined to one plane. Accordingly zo study them we must investigate what theorem corresponds to Fourier’s theorem when the motion takes place along a line of double curvature.” And then follows the demonstration and the enunciation quoted by Prof. Runge. In the foregoing words, in the introductory paragraphs of chapter iv. of my memoir, and in other passages scattered up and down through that chapter, I made it abundantly clear, as I thought, that I was dealing throughout wth a real physical problem of nature, not engaging in mere mathematical exercises that travel into the infinite and impossible. I now see that I ought to have made more explicit statements upon this point for readers who would judge of each sentence apart from its context. In order that a motion, «=/(¢), may be susceptible of treat- ment by Fourier’s theorem, the following are conditions that must be fulfilled :— 1°. The motion must be recurrent, or capable of being ap- proximated to by recurrent motions. 6 2°. The quantity represented by « must not become infinite, 3°. The quantity represented by ¢ must not retreat. I have been familiar with these limitations since I was a student, more than forty years ago. They are known to all stu- dents. I therefore thought it superfluous, and still think it ought to have been superfluous, to state them in my memoir. I thought it also irrelevant, sémce none of the limitations could occur inthe motions J was investigating ; and I wished to shorten my memoir by excluding all irrelevant matter. Prof. Runge, however, objects that I have not treated of violations of the first were as) _ Jury 21, 1892] NATURE 269 two of these conditions. He has not yet said that I ought also to have discussed the impossible dynamics in which the third condition would be violated. This, however, was not his original position. He began (see his original article, NATURE, April 28, p. 607) by supposing that a motion from which light emanated cannot, if non-periodic, be investigated by Fourier’s theorem ; and he stated that in con- Sequence of this he could not understand the decomposition of the motion of an electron within a molecule into a series of superposed elliptic motions. In NATURE for May 12, p. 29, and for June 9, p. 126, I demonstrated in two different ways his supposition was a mistake. The other objection made in his original article, viz. that ‘‘a plausible suggestion about the movement of the molecules ought to explain more,” is also a mistake. These are the two condemnations passed on my paper in his original article. Both these have been met. And the issues he has since raised are, I again submit, not /egitimate criticism of a physical inquiry. To make them legitimate he pit om need to produce an instance of a motion of the kind with which my paper deals (i.e. a motion that can produce a spectrum) and which at the same time is not amenable to the method of i Moy in chapter iv. of my memoir. This he cannot do, here are no such motions. In fact, the analysis effected } Bae is zdentical with a part of that made by ourier’s theorem when applied in the way that I there point out. The spectroscope gives the periodic times in the different partials, the sum of the squares of thett principal axes, and in some cases their forms ; but it does not give the phases of the motions in them or the planes in which they lie. Prof. Runge _ almost admits that his criticisms do not succeed in impugning the value of my memoir as a contribution towards our know- ledge of nature, for in his last letter he says, ‘‘I do not say, therefore, that Prof. Stoney’s views on the cause of the line- Spectra are wrong.” This is very different from what he said in April. G. JOHNSTONE STONEY. 9, Palmerston Park, Dublin, July 17. “The Grammar of Science.” May I, through your columns, point out to Prof. Pearson what seems to me a serious ‘‘ antinomy,” to use his own phrase, in his *‘Grammar of Science.” The foundation of the whole book is the proposition that since we cannot directly apprehend anything but sense-impressions, therefore the things we com- monly speak of as objective, or external to ourselves, and their variations, are nothing but groups of sense-impressions and sequences of such groups. But Prof. Pearson admits the exist- ence of other consciousnesses than his own, not only by im- plication in addressing his book to them, but explicitly in many | ea He says (p. 59): ‘‘ Another man’s consciousness, jowever, can never, it is said, be directly perceived by sense- impression ; I can only zzfer its existence from the apparent milarity of our nervous systems, from observing the same hesitation in his case as in my own between sense-impression and exertion, and from the similarity between his activities and my own.” With respect to the argument from the “similarity of our -mervous systems,” I may point out, e# passant, that however many other people’s nervous systems Prof. Pearson may have dissected, he has certainly never dissected his own, and that therefore this argument, which is several times repeated in the book, is worthless; all Prof. Pearson has to go upon is the ex- _ ternal similarity of other people’s bodies and activities to his own. But he maintains that our bodies and their activities are _ nothing but groups and sequences of sense-impressions. Con- eee: if other consciousnesses are similar to his own, some of his groups of sense-impressions possess private conscious- nesses, which themselves. receive sense-impressions, among which, for example, are to be found Prof. Pearson himself! Thus Prof. Pearson’s consciousness contains a number of parts, each of which contains, amongst other things, Prof. Pearson and his consciousness! Of course it would be impossible thus to refute a consistent idealist, who maintained that not only ex- ternal things but all other consciousnesses were unreal and existed only in his imagination ; but to recognize the reality of other consciousnesses is to recognize the reality of the means by which we become aware of them, which, as Prof. Pearson ex- ' plicitly states, is the external aspect of men’s bodies. NO. 1186, VOL. 46] It is not difficult to find the way out of this difficulty. It is that, though we do not kvow, i.e. directly apprehend, anything about the external world but sense-impressions, yet in order to explain those impressions we frame the hypotheses of external, objective reality, and of the ‘‘ejective” reality of other con- sciousnesses, and since these hypotheses are successful in ex- plaining most of our sense-impressions, we have come to believe that they are true. Indeed, I cannot seriously doubt that Prof. Pearson himself believes in them as much as anyone else. Only, if he were to acknowledge it explicitly, he would bave to rewrite almost every page of ‘* The Grammar of Science.” Epwarp T. Dixon, 12 Barkston Mansions, South Kensington, July 14. PROF. KARL PEARSON’s “‘ Grammar” merits more justice than it has received from ‘‘C. G. K.” It is a remarkable book which I have read with much interest. He tells us (p. 15) that ** the unity of science consists alone in its method, not in its material,” and therefore the method employed in this work on science acquires a special interest. There are two points in respect to which his method seems to me to call for a few remarks—remarks which cannot be un- welcome, since his motto is ‘‘ La critique est la vie de la science.” The first point concerns his own position and that of certain persons he freely criticizes. The Professor has scant patience with metaphysics, and says not a few hard things of those tire- some people the metaphysicians ; and yet his own book is really a metaphysical treatise and he turns out himself to be an un- conscious metaphysician malgré lui. This fact can hardly sur- prise anyone who has mastered what is really the scientific ABC; but in the present instance it is peculiarly amusing. For he, with great maiveté, ridicules Prof. Tait for being in the very same case. He is styled (p. 296) ‘‘the unconscious meta- physician, who groups sense-impressions and supposes them to flow as properties from something beyond the sphere of percep- tion” ; and we are further told that ‘‘the unconscious meta- physics of Prof. Tait occur on nearly every page of his treat- ment of the fundamental concepts of physical science.” The second point which seems to require notice is the way in which his method plays ‘‘ fast and loose”’ both with the system he upholds and the system he most opposes. He is an idealist of a kind. Again and again we are told that scientific laws are but descriptions of our feelings in con- ceptual shorthand. He speaks (p. 129) of ‘‘the whole of ordered nature” being ‘‘seen as the product of one mind—the only mind with which we are acquainted,” and he tells us plainly (p. 130) that ‘‘the mind is absolutely confined within its nerve- exchange ; beyond the walls of sense-impression it can logically infer nothing.” It would be easy to multiply such quotations. Now, of course the idealist can logically make use of ordinary language in describing co-existences and successions between his feelings. The Professor’s distinctions (p. 114) between ‘* physical and metaphysical supersensuousness”’ have been duly noted, as also his disclaimer (p. 57) of giving any real explanation of the physical side of thought. Nevertheless, none of these considera- tions appear to me to justify his dogmatic mode of speaking of things of which the senses can take no cognizance. If he knows nothing but his own feelings, he cannot reason- ably speak of their mode of formation, or of the manner in which one group of feelings acts upon another. Yet, referring to a sensory nerve, he writes (p. 51): ‘* The manner [the italics are mine] in which this nerve conveys its message is, without doubt, physical,” and (p. 81) ‘‘ Beyond the brain terminals of the sensory nerves we cannot get.” Stars are for him but ** sroups of feelings,” and yet he writes about them as follows : ‘© Among the myriad planetary systems we see on a clear night, there surely mzwst¢ de myriad planets which have reached our own stage of development, and teem, or have teemed, with human life” (p. 179). Speaking of waves (p. 305) he tells us, ‘‘ The wave forms for us a group of sense-impressions.” But the wave is, for him, itself a group of self-impressions and so is a particle of proto- plasm. Nevertheless he speaks (p. 413) of the probability that long stages of development preceded its existence, and ‘‘ of the millions of years, with complex and varying conditions of te:n- perature,” needed in order ‘‘to pass from the chemical sadstance of life to that complex structure which may have been the first 270 NATURE [JULY 21, 1892 stage of organic being.” He also declares (p. 425) the belief that ‘* the evolution of organic nature is at the basis of human history is the unswerving belief of the present writer.” My present object is not to object to any of these statements, but simply to call attention to the complete accord which exists between the Professor’s language and that of realism, or any of the materialists whose sayings he sometimes deprecates, and to note the practical outcome of such teaching as that of his meta- physical ‘* Grammar.” Its Idealism is an Idealism of parade, to be brought out occasionally, above all to confound some rash or inexperienced advocate of Intellectualism and Common-sense, But ordinarily and habitually it most certainly is, as ‘‘C. G. K.” affirms (NATURE, July 7, p. 222), ‘‘distinctly materialistic.” This teaching is an excellent example of that ‘ intellectual thimble- rigging ’”’—I use the illustration as an apt one, but in no in- vidious sense—to which I have elsewhere (see Ox Truth, p. 135) called attention in greater detail. In conclusion I would ask how Prof. Pearson’s metaphysical system can be necessary or even useful for the progress of science ? What does it matter for science, provided we are all agreed about those things whereof the senses can take cognizance, whether or not we are convinced that something extended exists objectively ? The Professor affirms (p. 215) that the man of science ‘* refuses to project his conceptions, atom and ether, into the real world of perceptions until he has perceived them there.” We are then so far agreed. We both welcome ether units, prime atoms, chemical atoms, molecules, molecular motion, ether rings, ether squirts, &c., as admirably useful working hypotheses, but not as things to be yet regarded as objective realities. If I am right, the utility for science of much of the Grammar is not easily to be recognized. But it hasa very distinct metaphysical utility for the opponents of the system Prof. Pearson favours, and will no doubt meet with grateful recognition at the ,hands of some of them. St. GEORGE MIVART. Hurstcote, July 16, A ** Viper” Bite. As cases of poisoning from the bite of venomous reptiles are happily rare in this country, it may prove interesting to some of your readers if I relate my experience on this matter. About a month ago I caught two snakes at Bickleigh, near Plymouth, and whilst examining one it ‘‘ bit” or rather struck me on the lower part of the right thumb. Limme iiately sucked the puncture (it could not be called a wound) which bled a little, and tried to make light of the matter. A livid patch soon formed round the point, and the hand and arm commenced to swell. In a quarter of an hour I was unable to hold anything, and almost in a fainting condition. The first symptom (apart from the swelling) was a peculiar taste and a sensation of swelling in the teeth, then the tongue commenced to swell and became so large that I could hardly move it, my eyes seemed ready to start from their sockets. Tn half an hour a terrible vomiting commenced, preceded by excruciating pains in the stomach and heart, and continued with the pains altogether for nine hours, every drop of liquid being ejected almost as soon as swallowed; there was also violent purging and complete suppression of urine. There was practically no pain in the arm; altogether the pain- ful symptoms lasted for about nine hours. I did not lose consciousness at anytime. The arm continued to swell for two days, and then it was nearly as largeas my leg. After this the swelling subsided, but the arm did not return to its normal size until twelve days after the accident. After the swelling had gone I suffered very much from rheumatical pains, and in fact do so now, and the digestion was also very much im- paired. The viper is a male, a little more than two feet long, and about one inch in diameter at the largest part. Colour, a dull yellowish brown on the upper side, with a zigzag black line running down the whole length. On the under side it is nearly black except at head, where it is pale yellow. I have kept the reptile now for nearly five weeks, and although well supplied with small frogs, &c., it has not eaten anything, and seems as lively as ever. Cases of this kind, where the sufferer is ableto record the symptoms, being rather unusual, is my excuse for occupying the space of NATURE. Plymouth. NO. 1186, VOL. 46] W. A. RUDGE. THE EDINBURGH MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. HE Association has already met three times in Edin- — burgh, in 1834, in 1850, and in 1871. Withthe success of the 1871 meeting fresh in the memories of many citizens, the Town Council and other public bodies have entered cordially into the local arrangements for the meeting. The local committee formed some twelve months ago and its sub-committees have been actively at work, and everything is now practically ready for the reception of the Association. i The number of members of the Association who have indicated their intention of being present, and of new mem- bers who have already joined, are such as to show that the meeting will be an exceptionally large one. More than fifty distinguished foreigners have accepted the invitation of the local committee to attend the meeting. Reception and Section Rooms.—The reception rooms are in Parliament-square, adjacent to St. Giles’ Cathedral andthe City Chambers. The Parliament Hall, the various court rooms, the rooms of the Society of Advocates, and the new library and hall of the Solicitors before the Supreme Courts have been placed at the disposal of the committee, and have been so appropriated as to constitute an ideal suite of reception rooms, including secretaries’and treasurer’s offices, post,telegraph,and telephone office, ticket office, enquiry office, reading room, writing room, ladies’ boudoir, smoke room, and refreshment buffet. Many of the rooms lend themselves to decoration, andthe arrangements are as excellent in taste as inconvenience. The Section Rooms are all in the University buildings ; Sections A, E, F and G in the old buildings, and B, C, D and H in the new buildings. These buildings are about two minutes’ walk from one another, and about four from the reception rooms. The section rooms are all well adapted for the purposes of the meetings, and in con- nection with each there is ample accommodation for committee meetings, while provision has been made for the occasional subdivision of some of the sections. In the new University buildings a room has been set apart for a temporary museum, in which objects of interest, which are brought under the notice of any of the sections, may be afterwards placed so as to be more easily inspected than is possible during the meeting of the section. It is expected that this will prove a valued addition to the con- venience of the meeting. While light refreshments may be had at the buffet in. the reception rooms, the principal luncheon room will be found in the Students’ Union Club, situated between the new and old University buildings. In the club there will also be a ladies’ room, smoking-room, billiard-room, &c. Lectures and E-ntertainments.—The programme for the evenings will follow the usual lines:—On Wednesday Sir Archibald Geikie will assume the presidency and deliver an address; on Thursday, the Lord Provost, Magistrates and Town Council invite members and Associates to a conversazione in the Museum of Science and Art; the Lord Provost will receive and welcome guests to the City. On Friday, Prof. Milnes Marshall will Jecture on “ Pedigrees”; on Saturday, Prof. Vernon Boys will lecture to artizans on “The Photography of Flying Bullets”; on Monday, Prof. Ewing will lecture on “ Magnetic Induction,” and on Tuesday there will be a conversazione in the Music Hall on the invitation of the © local committee. Military bands will play in the Princes Street Gardens every afternoon during the meeting, and there will be organ recitals in the “Reid” music class-room. After- noon entertainments will be given by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, the Rector and Masters of the Edinburgh Academy, and by others. Arrangements have also been made to form parties to visit Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, and Arthur’s. Seat ; these visits will be in the afternoon. : Juty 21, 1892] NATURE 271 _ Excursions.—The committee have prepared a long list of excursions. Among those for Saturday afternoon are geological excursions to North Berwick and Tantallon, and to the Pentland Hills; a botanical excursion to Gullane ; a dredging excursion on the Firth of Forth ; and excursions to such places of interest as the Land of Scott, the Fairfield Shipbuilding Works and Glasgow, the Pumpherston Oil Works, Dundee and the Firth of Tay, Stirling, Rosslyn, Dalmeny and the Forth Bridge, Newbattle Abbey, and Dalkeith Palace. On Thursday, occasion is taken to visit places of in- terest further afield. St. Andrews, Dunkeld, Scone and Murthly (arboricultural), Croy (archzological), Dobbs Linn Moffat (geological), Moorfoot Waterworks, Hamil- ton Palace, Drumlanrig, Yarrow, Crieff, the Trossachs, Loch Lomond, the Firth of Clyde, are all brought within the limit of a one-day excursion. Many of the more important manufacturing and other works in the city and neighbourhood are to be open to members, who will thus have ample opportunity of becoming acquainted with the trade of the district. Visits to the paper works at Penicuik or Currie, to the printing- ink works at Granton, and to the gunpowder mills at Roslin, will form pleasant short afternoon excursions. The printing offices of Edinburgh are of great interest, and o— of them have made arrangements for the reception of visitors. Breweries, distilleries, biscuit factories, and hydraulic engineering works have all their special develop- ments here, and are well worthy of visits. Hospitality and Lodgings.—-Perhaps the greatest difficulty that the local committee has had to face has For many only in Au gratulation tothe committee dealing with this part of the work to find that many people intend to remain in town during the meeting of the Association and that they have been informed of a large number of offers of hospitality having been sent to visitors. The hotel accommodation in Edinburgh is consider- able, but the strain upon it in August is great. The local committee have secured for members of the Association a considerable number of rooms in_ hotels, and these are being rapidly allotted on application. Visitors who intend to live in hotels during the meeting will do well to make their arrangements early. _ With regard to lodgings, probably no town is so well off as Edinburgh, and fortunately during August many of the best rooms are vacant. A register of lodgings has been opened at the local offices, and the secretaries are prepared to give assistance to visitors desiring to secure apartments. A provisional list of hotels and lodgings has been prepared and may be had on application. The principal clubs have offered to admit visiting members of the Association as honorary members during the meeting, subject to such conditions as are required by the constitu- tion of the club. Publications.—The programme of local arrangements will contain a hotel map of Edinburgh, a large scale map of central Edinburgh, including all the buildings used in connection with the meeting of the Association, and a general map of Edinburgh and Leith, on which all the works open to visitors are specially marked. The “ Excursions Handbook,” published by the com- mittee, gives details of the various transit arrangements and general sketches of the routes to be taken. It also indicates the nature of the interest attached to each excursion. The handbook will be illustrated by a special map of the South of Scotland and by section maps on a larger scale showing details of excursions. F. GRANT OGILVIE. No. 1186, voL. 46] THE ORIGIN OF LAND ANIMALS: A BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH. Peis remarkable and very unequal work, many-sided and heterogeneous, is worthy of careful consider- ation. It is not wanting in imagination, more or less disciplined, and it is loaded with information from the works of contemporary naturalists, now for the first time brought together in a single volume. One great merit it has of regarding plants and animals, not merely as forms of life, but as living forms : the machinery is exhibited to us in motion. The title of the work scarcely conveys an adequate idea of its comprehensiveness ; it might just as well have been styled “ The Evolution of the Living World [for plants are not excluded from its universal purview], and the way it has been brought about.” The leading idea appears to be that a change from marine to terrestrial habitat has taken place much earlier in the history of the higher forms of life than is generally supposed, that the land from the early beginnings of geologic time has been peopled both with animals and plants, and has, more than the sea, been the great arena of progressive change. At the outset, the shore, where sea and land and air all meet and commingle, was the birthplace of life, and from it living forms have continually wandered in all directions—to the open ocean and the abyssal depths, to rivers, marshes, and dry land. From the Algze, which are almost the only marine plants, the vegetable kingdom was derived. That this is character- istically terrestrial is due to the fact that vegetable protoplasm is less adaptive than animal. “Plants as land proprietors are the true conservatives ;” hence, once on land always on land. The terrestrial character of plants offers a suggestive hint as to the place of develop- ment of the greater part of the animal kingdom: it also has been on land, but with more numerous offshoots to the sea. In terrestrial plants such as Myxomycetes— “the true Bathybius”—are the roots of the animal world ; or if this claim be not admitted, and to Bacteria be as- signed this place, a terrestrial origin remains unimpugned, since these organisms are predominantly inhabitants of the land. The migration of marine animals may be direct, but more usually it is by successive stages, first through fresh water—‘ the great highway to land-life”—then to damp places, and finally to the dry land itself, which, however, at the time of migration may have been subjected to a damper and warmer climate than at present prevails. With change of medium progressive modification has been associated, for existence in the air makes three great demands on the organism, it must protect itself against being dried up, acquire new modes of respiration, and more substantial organs of support. Many animals, ennobled by their response to these demands, have returned to the sea, and exercise dominion over it, undergoing, of course, fresh modifications, par- ticularly of the respiratory organs; while others have retained possession of the terrestrial domain, adapting themselves to minor changes of habitat and climate. Thus far more groups of land-animals are derived from a terrestrial ancestry than we imagine, and the next-of- kin of orders now characteristically marine are less frequently than we suppose to be found in the sea, but must be sought for on the land. The whale and sea-turtle, land crabs and climbing fish, so far from being rare and exceptional cases, are instructive examples of great migratory move- ments and associated anatomical change. The hypothesis not only supplies a needed stimulus, powerful enough to account for the evolution of the organic world, but at the same time it explains the futility of our search in marine strata for connecting links between lead- 1 “Die Entstehung der Landtiere : ein Biologischer Versuch.” Von Dr. Heinrich Simroth, Privat-docent an der Universitit, Leipzig. Pp. 492, with 254 Illustrations in the ‘Text. (x89r.) 272 NATURE [JuLy 21, 1892 ing types of life, since the most critical steps in evolution have been taken on the land, and terrestrial fossils are of the rarest occurrence. In illustration we may select the author’s treatment of the Arthropoda, which have their origin in some ancient Annelid, probably a marine’ Polychete, and not an Oligochzete, since no Arthropod possesses the red blood which the Oligochzta have acquired as an adaptation to land life. The absence of cilia and a thoroughgoing chitinization, which are the most striking peculiarity of the Arthropoda, are a direct adaptation to land life ; the chitinous envelope furnishing on the one hand protection against desiccation, and on the other organs of support, whilst its extensive development necessarily involves the disappearance of cilia, and the development of fresh contrivances for respiration. Another important character common to the Arthropoda is the transverse striation of the muscle fibre; but trans- verse striation is generally admitted to be correlated with excessive functional activity, from which, according to the author, it results. EEncase an animal in chitin, and its movements will, from the mechanical conditions of the case, be “ acrobatic,”—to move at all it must move strenuously, by this excessive exercise transverse striation will develope in all the voluntary muscles, and “by cor- relation” in those of the alimentary canal as well. So much is the author impressed by the cogency of this reasoning that he regards the striation of the musculature as a direct indication of the terrestrial origin of the animal possessing it, and ventures to apply this formula to Sagitta, the direct development of which he gives as an additional argument for its descent from some terrestrial species. The parapodia of the Annelida naturally gave rise to the appendages of the Arthropods, and it was while these were still short, scarcely-jointed stumps that the Trilobites branched off in one direction, converting all their parapodia into legs, and the Scorpions and Merostomes, which discarded their abdominal append- ages, in another. The Crustacea, retaining like the Trilobites all their appendages, branched off at about the same level, and their connection with the Arachnida is confirmed by Jaworowski’s recent observation of the exopodital and endopodital splitting of the appendages in Tarentula. A confirmation of the terrestrial habitat Fic. 1.—Pedipalp of an embryo of Zvochosa singoriensis ; en, endopodite ; ex, exopodite ; 2, hairs (after Jaworowski). of the primitive Crustacea is suggested by the fact that the most archaic existing forms are the Branchiopoda, which still live in fresh-water and salt marshes, can sur- vive drying up, and indeed seem to require it for the pro- duction of sexual eggs. The remarkable diversity of the respiratory organs in the Crustacea is another important piece of evidence, sinceit points to their having been acquired as secondary adaptations. Of Arachnoid forms, some entered the sea, probably the majority of the Merostomata and the Xiphosura, but Limulus still gives evidence of its original home, since it NO, 1186, VOL. 46] comes to the shore for begetting, and lays its eggs at the highest tide-mark. No doubt the notion that the immediate ancestors of Limulus were land animals will excite scorn in prejudiced minds ; but it is one that Balfour long ago suggested (the author "does not seem to be aware of this), led to it prob- ably by his recognition of the close relationship between Limulus and the Arachnoids on the one hand, and the Arachnoids and Insects on the other—the latter connec- tion lately so much strengthened by Jaworowski’s remark- able discovery of rudimentary antennz in Tarentula. In thya thea Fic. 2. Sot S34 thya that tha tha thsa aya Aft Fic. 3 this direction may be looked for a reconciliation of the views of Lankester and Lang. The mild surprise with which we learn that Trilobites and Crustacea were originally denizens of the land has scarcely given place to conviction before we encounter the chapter on fishes. We shall be prepared to find that these can claim terrestrial ancestry too. The earliest fossil vertebrates of which we know anything are the Placoderms ; these were dwellers in the Old Red Sand- stone lakes, and, as our author remarks, ‘‘ from fresh water to the land is only a step.””’ That the Placoderms were JuLy 21, 1892] NATURE 273 well able to take this step is proved by the character of their pectoral limbs, which, unlike the fins of fish, are provided with a transverse joint in the middie—“ an elbow joint ”; and this, while clearly helpful in walking, would not be well fitted for swimming. No doubt the animal was also a swimmer ; the dorsal fin shows so much, but it was also a walker, travelling over hard, uneven ground; in- deed, to this habit is attributable the turning up of the tail-fin (!), which formed the third point of support. A Ab aa Fic. 4. Fics. 2 to 4.—Embryos of 7'vochosa singoriensis. Fig. 2 on the 13th day. ‘Figs. 3 and 4 on the 15th day; Fig 4, the anterior end seen en face. st, s ; Rl, frontal lobes ; o/, upper and w/, lower lip; a¢, antennae}; w, ¢ thickening of marginal groove ; a, chelicerae ; goa, pedipalp: fe rst pair of limbs ; ¢#ja-t/3a, thoracic appendages (2nd to 4th pairs of imbs) ; @a-aya, abdominal appendages ; x, a deep constriction; ex, rudi- ment of endopodite (after Jaworowski). drawing, subscribed “ original,” representing Pterichthys “as it might have moved,” is so full of unconscious humour that we are tempted to reproduce it. From such amphibious primitive vertebrates the fish branched off in one direction and descended to the sea—the swimming- bladder represents the original lung ; in another direction proceeded the Stegocephala, the ancestors of reptiles, birds, and mammals. Primarily the Vertebrata are derived from Annelids, but the claim put forward for the Placo- re a —_ Fic. 5.—Pterichthys, as it might have moved. (Original.) derms is more in harmony with Patten’s view, connecting them with the Arachnoids ; for the grave difficulties which beset this view, however, let Smith Woodward’s trenchant criticisms be considered. The main line of argument is followed into a number of collateral branches, all elaborately discussed. There is a powerful chapter on the strand fauna, in which are arrayed the great host of marine animals, including fishes, which temporarily leave the sea to breathe the air. This NO. 1186, VoL. 46] is regarded as a fact of profound significance, indicating a general tendency of the strand fauna to come on shore. Recent investigations by Zacharias, Nusbaum, Chun, and others are made good use of in discussing the distri- bution of fresh-water fauna. Aérial transport, particularly by birds, is accepted as accounting for most of the facts. The survival of the transported forms is insured by the chitinous investment either of the animals themselves or more usually of their eggs. It is pointed out that most pelagic fresh-water species are provided with means of attachment: such are the spines of pelagic species of Daphnia, the abdominal processes of Bythotrephus, and the singular antennz of Bosmina. Copepods which lay eggs which sink to the bottom are restricted in distribu- tion; those which carry them about in egg-sacs are world-wide. An attempt is made to prove that fresh water opposes some obstacle to the secretion of carbonate of lime ; and though a comparison of the thickness of marine and fresh-water shells is far from bearing this out, yet some interesting results are elicited ; as, for instance, the suggestion that the chitinous bristles of the young of Paludina vivipara are probably the last traces of ori- ginally calcareous spines. In illustration of the various stages of land life, the Testacillidz are cited as an interesting example of adap- tation to a terricolous existence. Daudebardia, one of the- family, begins life as a form precisely like a Hyadlina, but with growth passes through the successive stages shewn in the figure (fig. 6) till it becomes the worm-like adult. A good deal of space is naturally devoted to the sub- ject of encystment, which is regarded as a protection against desiccation. In the course of this discussion an. earlier origin is attributed to the Heliozoa than to the- Fic. 6.—Daxudebardia in different stages of growth ; on the right, youngest, - 1.) on the left, oldest stages. The buccal mass is shaded. (Original. Radiolaria, since they do not possess the central capsule of the latter, which are consistently regarded as the marine descendants of an ancient fresh-water group related to Heliozoa. The suggestion is added that the withdrawal of plasma in the Radiolaria into the central’ capsule as a preliminary to spore formation is not really with a view to this event, but a reminiscence of encyst- ment, which occurred in ancestral fresh-water forms. Bald suggestions such as this, and another which occurs in the work, to the effect that chlorophyll first acquired its fluorescence as the primzval sky cleared of clouds and permitted an extension of the solar light towards the violet end of the spectrum, should, from motives of prudence, have been omitted. A total douleversement of accepted views on main lines of descent is sufficient for a great work without the added irritation of superfluous conjectures. Summer and winter eggs belong more or less to the question of encystment, and the author regards winter eggs as “an adaptation to small pools, and threatened destruction by drying up.” This, like the statement that the chitinous shells of the eggs of pelagic Crustaceans were acquired as a protection against de- siccation during their aérial flight, might have been ex- pected from an ultra-Darwinian, but in an author who- wishes to explain evolution by physical causes, and not by chance, it is less pardonable. ‘‘An adaptation to threatened drying up” is an expression which would please the metaphysicians, who have lately been con- tending that an effect may precede its cause. The bibliography at the end of the work will be found most useful, especially to Englishmen, who will find in it a guide to a great deal of interesting German literature ; but it is without form, and this to a great extent is true of. 274 NATURE [JuLy 21, 1892 the work itself. There are citations to the number of 423, and more, not numbered, yet, although we have a long discussion on the relationship of Limulus to Scorpion, Lankester’s work is not mentioned; with chapters on fresh-water faunas, no allusion to “ The Origin of Fresh- water Faunas,” by Sollas; W. Marshall, a German author, is set forward in the text as an authority on pelagic and coast faunas, and Moseley overlooked ; titles are sometimes given without place or date of publication, a defect which becomes serious when periodical literature is referred to without mention of volume. The illustra- tions are numerous and excellent. The author has produced a fresh and promising thought, but one cannot help regretting that he did not wait—like, say, Darwin—till it was full time for bringing forth. W. J. SOLLAS. THE PHOTOGRAPHIC MAP OF THE HEAVENS. “PRE first number of the second volume of papers published under the auspices of the Permanent Committee charged with the execution of the photo- graphic map of the sky has made its appearance at a sad moment in the history of the undertaking. For simul- taneously with its appearance is announced the death of him who, more than any other man, has contributed to its success, and brought it within the range of practical science. Admirai Mouchez has known how to secure not only the active co-operation of many astronomers, but also how to make them zealous in the great work, the arrangement of the details of which has occupied the last years of his life. He has awakened enthusiasm for the success of his scheme, and smoothed many difficulties which might have hindered its progress, and probably few undertakings of equal magnitude and equal im- portance, breaking new ground in many directions, have been got under way with less friction and fewer dis- appointments. We may well hope that the same sauvity and diplomacy which has characterized the conduct of the late Director of the Paris Observatory will be found in the counsels of his successor, and that a work begun in so much hope will be carried to a successful issue. The papers in the volume before us can be brought roughly under two heads, both, notwithstanding the lapse of time from the inception of the scheme, betokening an initial stage in the preparation. One of the topics under discussion has for its aim the selection of a method which shall secure on the photographic plates, destined ulti- mately to furnish a catalogue, the impression of stars of the eleventh magnitude with certainty and uniformity ; the other, a means of deriving the co-ordinates of the star images so impressed with the greatest facility and sufficient accuracy. To deal with the second of these proposals first, we may remind our readers that whatever method of measuring the positions of stars on a plate may be adopted, the resulting co-ordinates must be purely differential, and probably referred to the axes of the réseau impressed upon the plate as a latent image, and developed under the same conditions as the stars them- selves. To pass to the determination of R.A. and declina- tion, a great deal of information, entirely independent of photography, will have to be made available. The readiest means of effecting this last step in the reduction, as it appeared to a committee of experts appointed to consider this question, was to determine by meridian instruments the absolute co-ordinates of six stars on each plate. It is needless to comment upon the magnitude of the labour thus undertaken, or at least contemplated. This pre- liminary work would demand a catalogue of some sixty or seventy thousand stars, most of them below the ninth t “ Bulletin du Comité International Permanent,” tome ii.,‘ premier fascicule. NO. 1186, VOL. 46] magnitude and not found in existing catalogues. In order to give to each determination the necessary accuracy, it is desirable that each star should be observed twice in both elements and at two observatories. When we remember the length of time that the re-observation of Argelander’s zones has consumed, and is still incomplete, we can form some estimate of the time that must inevit- ably elapse before the results of the photographic catalogue can be made available for astronomical purposes. In presence of these difficulties, and many more which occur to the practical astronomer, we must be very grate- .ful to M. Loewy for elaborating a scheme which, if it be found practicable, will materially shorten the time neces- sary for the production of the catalogue. M. Loewy proposes to avail himself of the fact that the plates are taken in two series, in such a manner that each corner of a plate in one series will form the centre of four other plates in the second series. When, therefore, the astronomer has determined the rectilinear co-ordinates of the stars on ove plate relatively to the central lines of the réseau, each of these stars will belong in common to the plate considered, and to one of the four plates of the second series, partially covering the first. M. Loewy’s scheme consists in making the stars on the four plates thus connected available for the reduction of the first. And, on paper at least, it is not difficult to extend the scheme still further, and to make the plates contiguous to these four contribute to the reduction of the original plate by means of an extended triangulation. In this way a plate would not be considered as an isolated fact, but a considerable area, of 36, 64, 100 or more square degrees could be woven into a harmonious scheme of reduction. And such a plan possesses this very obvious advantage, that on even a lesser area; as of 36 square degrees, we may well expect to meet a sufficient number of bright stars whose places are already so well determined that the reduction of the plates could go on immediately with- - out waiting for the observations of the stars on the meridian. And independently of this evident advantage, it seems highly probable that two of the elements of reduction, viz. the orientation of the plate, and the value of the scale, will be determined more accurately, if the stars which are used for the derivation of these corrections _ are separated by a considerable distance, that is greater than a single negative would permit. M. Loewy considers the various sources of errors and their necessary correction with all the detail required to ~ submit the plan to practical application, and this is pre- cisely the test that is needed. This appears to be also the opinion of Dr. Gill, expressed in a very cautious approval of M. Loewy’s scheme, and he further quotes a remark of Prof. Auwers, which contains a very salutary caution. That astronomer points out that the reduction of the catalogue plates will be most accurately effected from the position of fazn¢ stars, rather than from bright ones. In that case since our present most accurate cata- logues do not give the positions of the fainter stars, those catalogues will still need to be supplemented by many meridian observations. Dr. Sande Bakhuyzen, however, expresses the opinion that the zones of the Astronomische Gesellschaft will, when completed, furnish the necessary data for all reductions, or, at most, require additional observations in some portions of the sky, which he is able to point out from a careful examination of the number of the stars contained in these zones. ’ The second topic which has received much considera- tion in this volume is, as before mentioned, the adoption of a method to secure the registration of stars of the eleventh magnitude. It will be remembered that the International Congress of 1891 proposed to place in front of the object glass of the telescope, screens of fine metallic gauze, identical in manufacture, and of such construction that the amount of light impeded should be equivalent to two magnitudes: the coefficient 2°512 being employed as JuLy 21, 1892] NATURE 275 the ratio to express the relative brilliancy between two consecutive magnitudes. A committee was appointed to carry this plan into execution, but the report which this Committee has issued is unfavourable to the adoption of the method. The signatures of the Astronomer Royal, Prof. Pritchard, and the brothers Henry, are attached to this report ; but M. Vogel, the remaining member of the Committee, has not found the reasons assigned by his colleagues sufficient to warrant the rejection of the scheme, and consequently his name does not appear. The President of the Permanent Committee thus sums up the case against the proposal. metallic screen of bright threads and very narrow mesh, seems to experience, besides the ordinary effects of diffraction, certain modifications, whose cause is not yet explained, and which the Congress could not foresee when they framed the recommendation. This peculiar be- haviour of the light demands further study, and renders the application of this means very difficult, if not useless, for the purpose for which it was proposed, since the cies of the results obtained are greater than the error that an experienced astronomer would make in estimating stars of the eleventh magnitude. The experiments on which this conclusion is founded are set out in considerable detail, and a careful study of _ these experiments ought to convince an unprejudiced critic that the committee was justified in advising the re- jection of the screens as an adequate and efficient means _ of deciding upon stars of the eleventh magnitude. It should be stated that the gauze screens, identical in char- acter, were furnished by Prof. Vogel, and though there is _ no mention of the experiments or processes which induced _ the Potsdam astronomers to select a screen of this par- ticular obstructive power, it is to be presumed that in his photographic telescope they stopped the amount of light yposed by the Congress. It is not the least curious eature in the discussion (controversy would be far too strong a word to describe the courteous paragraphs in which the various astronomers set forth their reasons _ for dissent from the able physicist), that Prof. Vogel takes no part in it nor vouchsafes any information as to the ‘principles by which he was guided in the selection, but aves the onus of rejection entirely to his colleagues, who are thus placed at a disadvantage. Prof. Pritchard, whose photometric researches permit him to speak with authority, has stated concisely the result of his experience. He found that on the ordinary astronomical telescope, achromatised presumably for D, the amount of light obstructed was equivalent to 2°4 mag., and on the photographic telescope, with a minimum focal length for ‘a the amount of light lost was not less than 28 mag. The Astronomer-Royal reports that the action of the screen on the Greenwich telescope is to stop 2°5 ah This result was deduced by comparing the seventh ninth magnitude stars of Argelander. Some further comparisons of the obstructed and unobstructed light of ‘stars of the ninth and eleventh magnitude photometrically _ examined by Prof. Pritchard with the wedge photometer confirmed this result, and further proved that the scale of Pritchard and Argelander was in very satisfactory and close agreement. It will be necessary to return to this point. M. Henry at Paris offers results in close accord- ance with those of the two English astronomers just quoted. He finds that the screen proposed by M. Vogel as effective in his instrument stops between 2°5 and 2°7 mag. on the Paris telescope, and this effect is still further confirmed by some observations by M. Trépied, while M. Rayet at Bordeaux finds 2°7 mag. represents the effective action of the screen. Very different is the experience of M. Donner, of Helsingfors. His method of estimating the loss of light is different from that employed in the other cases, and is perhaps not without objection, but the result which he derives from his observations is that NO. 1186, VOL. 46] Light in traversing a‘ the light of a star in passing through the screen loses only 1°6 mag. It is now necessary to describe very briefly the methods employed in the various observatories which have led to these discordant results, the more so as one eminent authority, Dr. Dunér, of Lund, who apparently holds a brief for Prof. Vogel, has taken exception to the results deduced. Leaving on one side the experiments con- ducted by MM. Henry and Trépied on artificial stars, and against which Dr. Dunér urges no objection further than that they are founded on artificial stars, we find that one principle pervades the examination conducted at Greenwich, Paris, Bordeaux, and Algiers. The several astronomers have determined what length of time is necessary to produce a blackened star disc of the same diameter from the same star with and without the screen. In this way it has been found necessary to expose for ten or eleven times as long with the screen before the object glass as without, and from this fact it has been inferred that the loss of light occasioned by the screen amounts to 2°5 or 26 mag. It is urged that if only two magnitudes were lost by obstruction, the necessary exposure would have been (2°512)? = 6°3, that required by the unobstructed object glass. Dr. Dunér remarks on this that those who have condemned the employment of the screens on these grounds have argued in a vicious circle, and to be logically correct it would be necessary to show that the intensity varies as the time of exposure or 7¢=const. Against the accuracy of this law Dr. Dunér urges that reports of the observers themselves show three distinct proofs. In the first place (1) Dr. Donner states that only 0°58 mag. is gained by successively multiplying the length of exposure by 2°5 ; (2) that the Astronomer Royal proves that a gain of 1°7 or 1°85 mag. is secured by multiplying the length of exposure by 6°25 ; and (3) that MM. Henry have found that to obtain similar discs from stars of the 9°3 and I1°3 mag. the exposure has to be increased from 28sec. to 240sec. (1: 86). These three experiments give instead of 2°512 respectively, 3°28, 2°69, 2°93. results apparently incompatible with the formula z¢=const. MM. Trépied and Henry reply at length and effectively to these strictures. They do not regard 2°69 and 2°93 as differing so greatly from 2°512 but that the discrepancy may be fully explained by inaccuracy and paucity of observations. The Helsingfors result (328) they refuse to accept as unequivocal evidence in the face of estab- lished facts. The method of Dr. Donner consisted in comparing photographs of the Pleiades, taken with and without the screen, with the map of M. Wolf, and mark- ing the number and magnitude of the stars which have black or grey images. This method, as already hinted, does not seem to be entirely free from objection. Ad- mitting that the comparison of the images was made, as we are sure it was, with all the care possible, there is still room for the varying exercise of individual judgment as to what constitutes a black and what a grey image, and the final result is likely to be less exact than a process based upon rigorous measurement. The method employed by Prof. Pritchard is, perhaps, as free as any from objection or misinterpretation. He exposed the plate for egual ¢iémes with and without the screen, and then measured the diameters of the resulting star discs. If two discs, produced, one with, and one without the screen, were found equal in diameter, then the effect of the screen is equivalent in photographic action to the original difference of magnitude between the two stars. This difference of magnitude was deter- mined by the wedge photometer, and the only exception 276 NATURE [JuLy 21, 1892 that can be taken to this determination is that the scale of the wedge photometer may not be accurately applicable. But here we have the distinct assertion of the Astronomer Royal, reiterated again by M. Trépied, that the Pritchard Argelander scales are in very satisfactory accord. This circumstance is the more gratifying for two reasons. First, because it is distinctly stipulated in resolution 19 (1889), “ Chaque observateur devra s’attacher 4 obtenir sur ses clichés destinés au catalogue la grandeur I1‘o déterminée aussi exactement que possible az moyen de Véchelle ad’ Argelander.”. The maintenance, therefore, of the scale of Argelander becomes of paramount import- ance, and this one could scarcely hope to effect by means -of the gauze screens. The second satisfactory point is, that Prof. Pritchard is endeavouring to secure uniformity in the photographed stars by distributing among the participating observatories small charts ‘of particular regions of the sky on which are marked stars of the 9th -and 11th magnitudes approximately. Naturally in the determination of the magnitudes of the stars on these charts, the scale of Argelander will be perpetuated, and inasmuch as the testimony of several astronomers is distinctly in favour of making use of these typical areas, it seems very probable that Argelander magnitudes will be prolonged in the catalogue work down to the faintest ‘stars impressed. _ NOTES. THE summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will be held in Portsmouth, and will begin on Tues- -day, July 26. The following papers have been offered for reading and discussion, not necessarily in the order here given :— ‘On shipbuilding in Portsmouth dockyard, by Mr. William H. White, F.R.S. ; on the applications of electricity in the Royal dockyards and navy, by Mr. Henry E. Deadman ; description of the lifting and hauling appliances in Portsmouth dockyard, by Mr. John T. Corner, R.N. ; description of the new Royal pier -at Southampton, by Mr. James Lemon; description of the Portsmouth sewage outfall works, by Sir Frederick Bramwell, F.R.S., Past-President ; description of the new floating bridge bewween Portsmouth tie Gosport, by Mr. H. Graham Harris ; description of the Southampton sewage precipitation works and refuse destructor, by Mr. William B. G. Bennett ; description -of the experimental apparatus and shaping machine for ship models at the Admiralty experiment works, Haslar, by Mr. R. Edmund Froude ;. description of the pumping engines and water softening machinery at the Southampton water works, by Mr. William Matthews, THE half-yearly general meeting of the Scottish Meteoro- logical Society was held at Edinburgh on Monday, July-18. The -council of the society submitted its report; and Dr. Buchan ‘read a paper on variation in the annual rainfall in Scotland since 1800, THE Museums Association held its annual meeting in Manchester, at the Owens College, on July 5, 6, and 7, ‘under the presidency of Prof. Boyd Dawkins, whose address we print elsewhere. Among those present at the meeting were Dr. Ward, Principal of Owens College, Prof. Flower, Prof. Miall, the Rev. Canon Hicks, Prof. Milnes Marshall, the Rev. H. H. Higgins, and Prof. Weiss. Mr. J. Willis Clark, the retiring president, was unfortunately prevented from’ attending. The following papers were read and discussed: —On the arrangement of botanical museums, by Prof. F. E. Weiss.—On the cultivation of special features in museums, by ‘the Rev. H. H. Higgins.—Local museums of art and history, by the Rev. Canon Hicks.—On the Manchester Art Museum, ‘by Mr. T. C. Horsfall. —On the preparation of picture catalogues, ‘by Mr. Butler Wood.—On the colouring of the background of No. 1186, VOL. 46] museum cases, by Mr. Edgar R. Waite.—On the best means of the life-histories of the British Lepidoptera, by Mr. J. W. Carr. —On the exclusion of dust, by Mr. T. Pridgin Teale; and library and museum legislation, by Mr. E. Howarth. Mr. Pacy and Mr. Ogle, who had been deputed by the Libraries’ Associa- tion to attend the meeting, took part in the discussion of the last paper. A Committee of the Museums’ Association was appointed to confer with the Libraries’ Association on the possibility of taking steps to improve library and museum legis- lation. Most of the members of the Museums’ Association who took part in the discussion were of opinion that the restrictions at present placed upon the action of Town Councils with regard to libraries and museums were unnecessary and obsolete. The meeting was a very successful one, thanks to the energy and good management of Mr. W. E. Hoyle and Prof. Milnes Marshall. The reception accorded to the Association by the authorities of the Owens College was of the most cordial nature, and the Association is indebted to Dr. Ward and several of his colleagues for much kindness. It was agreed to hold the next annual meeting in London under the presidency of Prof. Flower. Mr, WILLIAM E. PLUMMER has been appointed by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, director of the Liverpool Observatory, in the room of Mr. J. Hartnup, deceased. Hitherto this Observatory has done little more than regulate chronometers required for the port of Liverpool, but we understand that the Observatory will now be reorganized and made to play a more active part in observational astronomy, and one worthier of the equipment of the Observatory and the generous support the board accord to it. Dr. W. H. Ince, Ph.D. (Wiirzburg), Demonstrator of Chemistry in University College, Liverpool, has been appointed Demonstrator of Physics and Chemistry in the Medical School of St. Thomas’s Hospital. MR. Cambridge, has been elected to the Professorship of Mathe- rmatics at Firth College, Sheffield. Mr. Leahy is a Mathe- matical Lecturer and Junior Bursar of his College, and is the author of several important papers on mathematical physics. ford Grammar School, has been appointed by the Technical Instruction Committee of the Corporation of Plymouth to the Head Mastership of the Science Department of their new technical schools, Plymouth, THE Master and Wardens of the Drapers’ Company of the City of London recently gave £3000 towards the erection of the new technical schools attached to the Nottingham University College, and have now given a further sum of £1000 towards their equipment. **Cook’s Tours” are well known all over the civilized world, and vast numbers of Englishmen have been indebted to them for some of the brightest and pleasantest experiences of their lives. Everyone, therefore, was sorry to hear of the death of Mr. Thomas Cook, the founder of the system. He died at Leicester on Monday in his eighty-fourth year. Mr. Cook was a man of immense energy, and may almost be said to have had a touch of genius, At all events he had a very remarkable faculty for organization, and did much to foster among the British public a just appreciation of the advantages to be derived from foreign travel. Last year the jubilee of his firm was celebrated. | of violent activity. On the afternoon of July 14 it was stated, preserving vegetable structures, and ona collection illustrating A. H. Leany, M.A., Fellow of Pembroke College, Mr. R. ELLIoT STEEL, Senior Science Master of the Brad- © THE volcanic forces of Mount Etna have continued in a state. Jury 21, 1892] NATURE 277 in a Reuter’s telegram from Catania, that there were then eighteen openings in the mountain, of which nine were active. _ The lava,” said the writer, ‘‘is flowing in the direction of _ Nicolosi at the rate of 50 yards an hour. It has already passed _ the deposit of lava formed by the eruption of 1886. The flow ™ towards Pedara is less rapid. Every hour the devastation a increases, and the alarm of the inhabitants grows in proportion. Their terror is not lessened by the explosions and rumblings proceeding from the volcano.” On July 15 a Reuter’s telegram from Catania stated that the eruption was that day more formidable than ever. ‘‘The main crater is extending in size, and | the showers of stones and masses of molten matter are con- increasing in volume, some of the projectiles being 5 carried to a height of 1000 feet. Meanwhile, two fresh cones, 800 feet in height, have been formed, and from these streams ‘of lava are constantly flowing in the direction of Nicolosi, from which they are now only about two miles distant. No imme- diate danger threatens the inhabitants of the village, but the _ destruction caused to the surrounding country goes on increas- _ ing.” On July 16 and 17 telegrams to a like effect were de- patched. the latter date, indeed, it was stated that the eruption had been less active on the previous night, and the _ reports of the internal explosions less frequent and not so loud ; but the volcano continued to throw up enormous blocks of ‘incandescent rock together with clouds of steam. The lava ‘stream had reached the village of Venatura, where it had _ destroyed several houses, besides doing enormous damage to the adjacent chestnut woods. On the 18th it was announced from Catania that during the previous night loud rumblings had con- tinued, and that the discharge from the craters of Mount Etna had increased in violence, stones and ashes being projected to a height of over 1200 feet. In the morning the subterranean moises were less frequent and not so loud. At Patagonia, besides the voleanic explosions proceeding from Mount Etna, he had been heard, while in the neighbour- ing naphtha lake, and the fountains of Vachella, gaseous erup- ‘tions had occurred. Onthe 19th, although the smoke proceeding from the craters was less dense, the eruption continued with re- _ newed violence. The subterranean rumblings were more fre- quent and of longer duration, but not so loud as during the “previous days. baits: July 15 it was announced from Naples that Mount Vesuvius had become active, and that lava in large quantities “was pouring down the part of the mountain called the Atrio del Cavallo. DvRING the latter part of last week the Aicektied over these islands was much disturbed by the influence of a deep depres- sion which lay over the Baltic. The temperature was below 60° ; in the northern and below 70° in the southern parts of the & and the rainfall exceeded an inch in the south of Ireland. At the close of the week another depression appeared over the Bay of Biscay, and spread over our southern districts, _ accompanied by rain, while owing to the northerly winds the temperature continued very low, the maxima scarcely exceeding 60° in any part. In London on Sunday it did not exceed 55°, which, with about one exception, is the lowest daily maximum in July during the last half-century. During Monday night a deep depression advanced over Scotland from the northward, and travelled south-eastwards, accompanied by heavy rain, while on Tuesday increasing winds or gales were experienced on all our coasts, the wind direction varying from N.E. to N.W. _ and W. According to the Weekly Weather Report the rainfall _ for the week ending the 16th instant was considerably less than the mean in all the northern districts, while over the eastern, central, and southern parts of the kingdom there was a consider- able excess, the amount being in many cases more than double the mean for the week. Temperature was below the mean NO. 1186, VOL. 46] in all districts excepting the Channel Islands ; in the eastern and central parts of England the deficiency for the week amounted to from four to six degrees. LasT week two despatches were received at the Colonial Office from Mr. Jerningham, Acting Governor of Mavritius, relative to the recent hurricane there. Mr. Jerningham states that the lives lost through the disaster were 1230, and the num- ber of wounded still living 3167. Over sixty-two churches and _chapels had been damaged or wrecked, and there had been a partial and enforced cessation of the celebration of Divine ser- vice throughout the island. The number of public buildings injured was 123, and the damage done to Government property was estimated at 286,807 rupees. The injury to the railways would cost about 55,435 rupees to make good. All the tele- graph wires throughout the island were destroyed. About 16,976 houses and huts had been destroyed or damaged, ex- clusive of those in Port Louis, and about 170 sugar factories had been wrecked or injured. The task of repairing these disasters was one of great magnitude, and wholly beyond the unaided power of the colony. A later despatch states that in Port Louis 1453 houses, churches, and public buildings, representing a value of nearly five million rupees, had been wholly or partially destroyed. THe Kew Builetin for May and June contains several contri- butions which will be of great interest to botanists and to various classes connected with the industrial applications of botany. One of these contributions is a valuable report (with a plate) by Mr. George Massee on a disease that has attacked vanilla plants in Seychelles. In the same number are printed the second of the Decades Kewenses Plantarum Novarum in Herbario Horti Regii conservatarum, and the second decade of new orchids. An excellent illustration of the way in which the authorities at Kew seek to promote industry is afforded by a correspondence on Sansevieria fibre from Somali-land. The increased attention devoted to the production of white rope fibres in the Western tropics appears to have had a stimulating effect in the East Indies, and now the production of fibre from Agave vivipfara in Bombay and Manila is followed by a fibre obtained from Somali- land from a singular species of Sansevieria. This fibre was first received in this country as an ‘‘ Aloe” fibre. It was soon noticed, however, that it possessed characteristics differing from all ordinary ‘‘ Aloe” fibre, and a request was made to the Foreign Office that Colonel Stace should be invited to obtain for the Royal Gardens a small sample of the fibre, a large leaf from the plant yielding it, and, if possible, a few small plants for growing in the Kew collection. In due time the specimens arrived in excellent order, and it was found that the fibre is one of the many so-called Bow-string Hemps, and probably yielded by Sansevieria Ehrenbergii, a plant first collected by Dr. Schweinfiirth. Little or nothing was known of it until it was described by Mr. J. J. Baker, F.R.S., in the Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. xiv., p. 549. Its locality is there stated as **between Athara and the Red Sea.” The plant is described in a letter to the Foreign Office, written by Mr. D. Morris, as a very interesting one, and he adds that its existence as a source of a valuable supply of fibre will be sure to awaken attention among commercial men in Great Britain. Messrs, Ide and Christie, writing to Mr. Morris, speak of the fibre as an excel- lent one of fair length and with plenty of ‘“‘life.” ‘‘ In charac- ter,” they say, ‘‘it strongly resembles the best Sisal hemp, with which we should have classed it but for your statement that it is derived from Sansevieria. With the exception of its colour, its preparation is perfect, and even as it is, we value it to-day at £25 per ton, We are of opinion that if care were taken to improve the colour a considerably higher price w ould be readily attainable, perhaps as much as £50 per ton, ifa pure white fibre could be attained without loss of strength and lustre.” 278 NATURE [JULY 21, 1892 AMONG the other contents of this number of the Kew Bulletin is an account of the fibre industry in the Bahamas, communi- cated to Kew by Sir Ambrose Shea, Governor of the Bahamas. Extracts froma report by Mr. A. White, a naturalist attached to the staff of Mr. H. H. Johnston, H.M.’s Commissioner and Consul-General for the territories under British influence to the north of the Zambesi, throw welcome light on the botany of Milanji in Nyassaland. Mr. N. E. Brown contributes notes on the botany of plants yielding Paraguay tea. There are also sections on the Nonnen pest in Bavaria, the pricy pear in Mexico, and the Palmyra bass fibre. THE collection of hardy bamboos and allied plants having outgrown the space allotted them in the beds near the Temperate House of the Royal Gardens, Kew, a new garden has been made for them in a wood near the Rhododendron Dell. Of this garden the Kew Bulletin gives the following account :—It is in the form of a shallow depression with sloping banks 12 feet wide and a central pear-shaped bed 125 feet by 75 feet. To make it, the surface soil had to be removed and the gravel taken out toa depth of about 3 feet. A large quantity of new soil and manure was added so that the bamboos have now a good depth of rich soil. Two new paths leading to the Bamboo Garden have been made, one from the Syon vista and the other from the Stafford walk. The bamboos planted in the garden are -— Arundinaria Fortunet (Bambusa Fortunei), 4. japonica (Bam- busa Metake), Bambusa albo-striata, B. gracilis, B. nana (Hort), B. palmata, B. plicata, B. pumila, B. tessellata, B. Veitchit, Phyllostachys bambusoides, P. nigra, P. Quilloi (Bambusa Quilloi), P. violescens (Bambusa violescens), P. viridi- glaucescens (Bambusa viridi-glaucescens), Zhamnocalamus Fal- conert (Bambusa Falconeri), and several others unnamed. Besides bamboos it contains such plants as Arundo, Eulalia, Crinum, Funkia, Yucca, &c. It is also intended to bring together in this garden a number of the coarser growing monocotyledonous plants which can be grown in the open air at Kew. ACCORDING to an official ‘‘ Notification of the Trustees of the Schwestern Frohlich Stiftung” at Vienna, certain donations and pensions will be granted from the funds of this charity this year in accordance with the will of the testatrix, Miss Anna Frohlich, to deserving persons of talent who have distinguished themselves in any branch of science, art, or literature who may be in want of pecuniary support, either through accident, ill- ness, or infirmity consequent upon old age. The grant of such temporary or permanent assistance in the form of donations or pensions is, according to the terms of the foundation deed, primarily intended for Austrian’ artists, literary men, and men of science, but foreigners of every nationality, English and other, may likewise participate, provided they are resident in Austria. Particulars may be obtained at the Austrian Embassy, London. Mr. T. S. SHEARMEN, of Brantford, Canada, has recently issued a pamphlet, in which he claims priority in the discovery of the fact that the influence of sun-spots on terrestrial magnetic conditions depends upon the positions of the spots on the sun’s disc as seen from the earth. He states that he has succeeded in convincing Prof. Young that this claim is justified. His observations have led him to believe that, in the great majority of cases, magnetic disturbances are most numerous when spots are at or near the eastern limb. In many cases, however, especially when the spots were very large, the disturbances have been greatest when the spots were near the central meridian ; but even then it is stated that on nearly every occasion in which this has happened, another spot was making its appearance on the eastern limb. M. Veeder (NATURE, vol. xlvi. p. 29) also concludes that in order for a solar disturbance to have its full NO. 1186, VOL. 46] magnetic effect upon the earth, it is necessary that it should bs at the sun’s eastern limb, and as nearly as possible in the plane : of the earth’s orbit. IN the tenth annual report of the Fishery Board for Scotland a striking instance is given of the advantage which persons en- gaged in the fishery industry derive from the electric telegraph. The Orkney officer reports that on Saturday morning, August 22, a large shoal of herrings was discovered about three to seven miles off the island of Stronsay by a few boats which happened to be at sea. Having ascertained the position of this shoal the officer wired the particulars, for the fishermen’s information, to all the stations in Orkney. On the Monday following every boat employed in the herring fishery in Orkney was on the fish- ing ground indicated, with the result that the heaviest fishing ever obtained in one day in Orkney (for the number of boats employed) was landed on Tuesday, the average catch for the whole fleet being fifty crans. The number of boats fishing was 108, and their total catch was 5400 crans, valued at £3240, a large proportion of which would have been lost but for the telegraph. Wick fishermen having also been apprised of the circumstance, a number of the Caithness boats had good takes on the same ground and landed them at Wick. Consequent upon such a heavy and unexpected fishing, additional coopers, gutters, packers, barrels, and salt had to be immediately sent — for from Wick so that the herrings might be cured while they were in a fresh state, and this was accomplished by means of the ~ telegraph. AN interesting exhibit of tobacco will be sent from Kentucky to the Chicago Exhibition. There will be exhibits of different varieties of plants in various stages of growth, and illustrations of the manner of shipping and handling ‘‘the weed” from the time the seed is put in the ground until the final product is ready for use. The various ways in which tobacco is used in manu- facture will also be illustrated. DuRING the last few years much has been said about the supposed European origin of the so-called Aryan race. The honour of having first suggested this theory is usually attributed to Dr. Latham, but, according to Dr. D. G. Brinton, it really belongs to Omalius d’Halloy. In Science (June 24), Dr. | Brinton refers to a paper in the Azudletins de? Académie Royale de Belgique, tome xv., No. 5, May, 1848, entitled ‘‘ Observa- tions sur la distribution ancienne des peuples de la race blanche,” in which Omalius begins by speaking of a series of notes pre- sented by him to the Academy from 1839 to 1844. In these notes. he had sought to prove that the Asiatic origin of the white race had never been demonstrated. Having recorded this fact, he proceeds ‘*‘ to discuss the evidence, physiological, historical, and linguistic, which had been thought to show that the Indo- European peoples originated in Asia ; and combats it at every point, marshalling his arguments to prove that the true white type is distinctly European ; and that the ancient Sanscrit and Zend are in no wise maternal languages of the Indo-European. stock, but merely sisters of the Greek, Latin, and ancient Ger- man.” The earliest date at which Dr. Latham expressed similar views was 1851. SOME suggestive notes on Fuegian languages, by Dr. D. G. Brinton, were read lately before the American Philosophical Society. He refers to a very early Fuegian vocabulary, collected ~ by the French navigator, Jouan de la Guilbaudiére, during a sojourn of eleven months in the Straits of Magellan during the year 1695. It includes about three hundred words and short phrases, and no part of it has been published. The MS. copy of it in Dr. Brinton’s possession he owes to the courtesy of M. ~ Gabriel Marcel, the Librarian of the Geographical Section of the National Library of France. As M. Marcel intends to give it Jury 21, 1892] NATURE 279 & publicity i in the Compte-rendu of the Congress of Americanists, _ Dr. Brinton contents himself with illustrating its character by a _ limited selection of words. These show that the basis of the tongue is Alikuluf, and it differs, he says, scarcely more from . the Alikuluf of the present generation than do between them- selves the vocabularies of that tongue by Fitzroy and Dr. _ Hyades in the present century. A few words belonging to the Tsoneca and the Yahgan may be detected, probably introduced by trading natives. __ THE new number of the Journal of the College of Science, _ Imperial University, Japan (vol. v., Part 1), contains studies on r uctive elements, by C. Tuhiicawa.; further studies on ion of the germinal layers in Chelonia, by K. "Mia papers on the development of Limulus longispina, and on the lateral eyes of the spider, by Kamakichi Kishi- E _ nouye ; a paper on the formation of the germinal layers in Petromyzon, by S. Hatta; and notes on a collection of birds eo by I. Tima. The papers are most carefully be We have also received the second part of the first volume of q phia Flore Japonice,” by Rydkichi Yatabe (Tokyo : 2B. Maruya and Co.). The work consists of descriptions, in — of plants indigenous to Japan, with figures. — Mr. 48 E. BuckLey contributes to the current number of the ; I earner Scottish Natural History some interesting notes on the vertebrate fauna of Sutherland and Caithness, The object of ‘the notes is to bring the fauna of these two countries up to ~ date. One bird, the ruff, is new to the Sutherland list, and Mr. _ Buckley is able to show the spread of certain other species such as the stock dove, tree pipit, &c. Eagles still hold their ground fairly ell, but other birds of prey show a decrease. This, the _ author th is only what might be expected, but it is sad, he ‘says, to see how the hen harrier is rapidly approaching extermina- tion. Plantations are growing up, and increase the number and _ breeding areas of certain species. When staying at Badenoch, he has been repeatedly struck in the autumn with the attraction which a a few (say three or four hundred) small firs, a garden, and an acre or two of cultivated ground, have for migrating birds. _ Constantly in the early October mornings he has seen flocks of ‘small birds, such as greenfinches, chaffinches, &c., descend into ; these | trees, rest for a short time, then, with an unanimous twitter, 3 rise up and pursue their onward course, As arule everything was _ quiet for the day by nine o’clock. AT the meeting of the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria on Mans 9, Mr. T. S. Hall read an interesting note on musical . While ona trip to Phillip Island at Christmas time, : Me al was struck by the musical note given out by the sea 5 when walked over. He had never noticed this phenomenon 4 before, though it occurs not uncommonly in other parts of the ¥ world. His first idea was that the sound was caused by the _india-rubber soles of his shoes, but he found he could get the _ musical note by striking the sand with his hand, or by drawing _a stick rapidly over the surface. The sound was produced only where the sand was dry, and resembled almost exactly that caused by drawing the finger rapidly over a piece of corded silk. _ On making the sound by skating over the surface, he found that _ the note could be detected at a distance of forty paces, The _ sands were musical wherever he tried them about Cowes, and _ the only person to whom he spoke who had noticed the pheno- _ menon said he had also noticed it at San Remo. Mr. Hall has _ since tried the sand at Geelong, Barwon Heads and Warrnam- _ bool without any result. He referred to the theories of Mr. Carus- Wilson on the one hand, and Dr. A. A. Julien and Prof. _ H. C. Bolton on the other, and expressed a hope that some q attention would be given to the subject in Australia. NO. 1186, VOL. 46] IN the latest quarterly statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund it is said that considerable progress is being made with the Akka-Damascus Railway, the route of which, after various expensive surveys, has been definitely decided upon. The line chosen is practically that first suggested by Major Conder, R.E., several years ago. Beginning at the great fortress of Acre, the railway will run down the plain of Acre parallel with the sea, throwing out a branch to Haifa, at the northern foot of Mount Carmel, and thence to and across the plain of Esdraelon, passing near Nazareth to Shunem and Jezreel, and through the valley of Jezreel, skirting the slope of the hills, to the River Jordan, which will be crossed within sight of Bethshean. The Jordan here offers exceptional facilities for the erection of the railway bridge, consisting ‘of two spans. Not only are the two opposite banks of the river formed of solid rock, but the centre of the river contains a large block of similar rock, from which each span of the bridge will be thrown to the east and west bank respectively, From the Jordan the railway will ascend the slope of the Jaulan Plateau, along the crests that close the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee, this ascent constituting the only difficult portion of the line, but which the surveys now made show to be much easier of accomplishment than was originally anticipated. The plateau near El’Al being reached, an easy gradient will carry the line by Seil Nawa and Kesweh to Damascus. Passing through the finest plains of Western and Eastern Palestine, the railway will be one of great importance. The authorities of the Palestine Exploration Fund are of opinion that its construction can hardly fail to lead to important archeological discoveries, and the com- mittee hope to make arrangements for obtaining full information respecting these. THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens Sian’ the past week include a Pig-tailed Monkey (A/acacus nemestrinus) from Java, presented by Major Day ; two Red-handed Tamarins (Midas rufimanus) from Surinan, presented by Mr. J. J. Quelch, C.M.Z.S. ; two Scemmerring’s Gazelles (Gazella semmerringt $ 2), three Egyptian Gazelles (Gazella dorcas 6? 2) from Suakim, presented by Colonel Holled Smith, C.B. ; a Red Deer (Cervus elaphus), European, presented by Mr. J. Newton Hayley; a Slender-billed Cockatoo (Licmetis tenuirostris) from South Australia, presented by Mrs. Duppa; a Rough- eyed Cayman (Alligator sclerops) from South America, presented by Dr. Rudyard ; two Dwarf Chameleons (Chameleon pumilus) from South Africa, presented by Mr. E. Windgate; a Common Chameleon (Chameleon vulgaris) from North Africa, presented by Mr. J. Cornwall ; two Green Lizards (Lacerta viridis), two Green Tree Frogs (Hy/a arborea), European, presented by Count Pavoleri, F.Z.S.; a Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) from Texas, presented by Mr. Conrad Kelsal ; a West African Python (Python sebz) from West Africa, received in exchange ; six Mandarin Ducks (2x galericulata), five Summer Ducks (42x sponsa), seven Chilian Pintails (Dajfila spinicauda), six Australian Wild Ducks (Anas superciliosa), a Variegated Shel- drake (Zadorna variegata), four Upland Geese (Bernicla magellanica), a Cheer Pheasant (Phasianus waillichii), a Himalayan Monaul pe ai impeyamus), bred in the Gardens. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. A New NesuLous Srar.—Mr. Barnard, in Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3101, gives a brief account ‘of a new nebulous star that he found when photographing, on May 31 last, a region situated i in the Milky Way, 18h. 1om., - 20°. This star (B.D. — 19°4953), when examined (visually) with his 12-inch, was quite devoid of nebulosity owing to the brightness of the star in question, but the photograph showed a faint nebulosity of about 15’ in diameter symmetrically surrounding it. A 280 NATURE [JuLy 21, 1892 former photograph taken in 1889, July 28, indicated also the same nebulosity. The exposure in the former case was of 3h. 29m. duration, a Willard lens of 6-inch aperture being used. The position of the star for 1860 was R.A. 18h. 9m. 23'2s., Decl. — 19° 42'°7. ATMOSPHERIC DEPRESSIONS AND THEIR ANALOGY WITH THE MOVEMENTS OF SUN-Spors.—The solar photosphere, although so different in chemical composition from our own atmosphere, yet affords us many points of resemblance with regard to its general circulation. One special analogy, and that a comparison of the motions of storms here with those of spots on the solar surface, is treated of in the July number of L’ Astronomie by M. Camille Flammarion. In this article he has brought together sufficient observations to trace out the paths of many of the most violent storms that have from time to time visited Europe generally. The first storms which he gives are those which occur in the Atlantic; their general direction of motion seems to be from south-west to north-east, pursuing generally the path of the Gulf Stream. Their centres, when traced on a map, seem to just graze the shores of the British Isles, France very rarely being reached by them. From ob- servations made on land, and more especially from those at Paris, M. Flammarion remarks that certain curves with regard to these storms seem to offer many analogies to solar spots ; this isso not only for the regular displacements, but even for those which at first sight seem to be totally void of all regularity. The diagrams which he gives, showing both the paths of the storms and those of sun-spots, afford most interesting compari- sons and seem to confirm the view suggested by M. Faye that the constitution of spots resembles somewhat that of the cyclones with which we are familiar. YALE COLLEGE OBSERVATORY ReEporT.—In this report, submitted by the Board of Managers to the President and Fel- lows of the Yale Observatory, Mr. Brown makes us acquainted with the present condition of the Observatory generally, while Dr. Elkin gives an account of the work done by the heliometer during the past year. The satellites of Jupiter formed the prin- cipal object of work from July ,1891 to January 1892, 570 complete measures of their relative positions having been obtained on 114 nights. Dr. Chase, with the same instrument, has been measuring the cluster in Coma Berenices, securing from 18 to 20 measures for each of the 32 stars, besides deter- mining the required data for the reduction-constants. In the work on the parallaxes of the first-magnitude stars in the northern hemisphere, the 100 sets of measures of each of the ten stars have not yet been fully completed, but the following table shows the results obtained up to the present, Dr. Elkin thinking that it will require two more years before the final results can be published :— Star. Parallax. Prob. Error. No.of No. of We i comp. stars. Sets. a Tauri ... + O°IOL +0022 ... Bea. SOB a Aurigee + 07095 GO 5. 5 51 a Orionis + 0°022 Boge... 6 48 a Canis Minoris + 0°341 M0205: 4.5: 6 48 8 Geminorum + 0°057 Oo2F 3.6 48 a Leonis ... + 0°089 Of8207%.5.:°-10 43 a Bootis . + 0°O16 oo18 ... 10 89 a Lyre + 0'092 O'O1O...... 6 67 a Aquilz + O'°214 O'O2g 4... 10 46 a Cygni + O’OI2 POLO... 7 49 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. THE condition of affairs in Uganda, of which much has recently been made in home and foreign newspapers, is a question rather of politics than of geography ; yet problems of a geographical kind are involved in it. So far the progress of civilization amongst the Waganda has served only to introduce new elements of dissension, and the attempts to carry out the policy of preventing the sale of spirits, firearms, and ammuni- tion have only been partially successful. Scientific exploration in a country so unsettled must necessarily be suspended. If the British occupation is to be productive of benefit either to British trade on the oneside or to native interests on the other, the firm and impartial rule of Captain Lugard and Captain Williams must be maintained and reinforced. The urgent request which these officers have made for additional white assistance demands all NO. 1186, VOL. 46] the more attention since the garrison under their control has been swelled by the survivors of Emin’s force in Equatoria, ALTHOUGH, as announced in NATURE (p. 230), Captain David Gray’s Antarctic expedition has fallen through, it is satisfactory to know that three Dundee whalers, which are shortly expecte back from the Arctic ‘‘ fishing,” will be refitted immediately and despatched about the beginning of September to the Falkland Islands, and as far to the south as may be necessary in order to get acargo. The proposed cruise is to be purely commercial, and it is not likely that any exploring work will be done. It is probable that berths will be available on board for two or more scientific men, who should have good opportunities of collecting natural history specimens. The experience of the whale-ships will be valuable in supplying hints for the equipment and route of the great Antarctic expedition which under some European flag cannot be long delayed. Dr. OscAR BAUMANN, charged with the survey of a road to the Victoria Nyanza, reached the shores of that lake in April, after an unprecedentedly rapid journey from the coast. From the 7imes report of a letter written by Dr. Baumann from Kadoto, we learn that the route, after passing around Lake Manyara, struck across an unknown stretch of country in which a new th of large dimensions was discovered. Even in Africa few lakes of suc magnitude can now remain unknown, at least from native reports. Lake Eiassi lies on the plateau south-east of Victoria Nyanza, and from the report of the neighbouring Masai, it seems to be about ninety miles long, while the breadth of the northern portion, along which Dr. Baumann marched, varied from eigh- teen to thirty miles. This lake is presumably filled with fresh water, but no outlet is mentioned. It is interesting, however, to find native reports of a great river flowing in on the western side, which may be confidently identified with the Wemberi, a river shown on recent maps as flowing north-eastward from the border heights of Unyamwesi, and losing itself on the plateau. It is possible that the new lake may discharge into the Victoria Nyanza by the Simiu river, the head waters of which have not previously been explored, THE recently founded New Zealand Alpine Club has pub- lished the first number of its fowrnal, devoted to the exploration of the glaciers and peaks of the Southern Alps. The magnitude and difficulty of these snow mountains of the south has hitherto been very inadequately realized. ‘al THE MUSEUM QUESTION.' (GENTLEMEN of the Museums Association,—In taking the chair which was so ably filled by my predecessor at Cam- bridge, I must first of all give you a hearty welcome on the part of the Committee of the Manchester Museum. There is to my mind a singular fitness in the selection of Manchester as a place of meeting after Cambridge. At Cambridge you had the oppor- tunity of studying the various museums which have in the course of time naturally grown out of the development of that ancient seat of learning. In Manchester you will see the collections which have been gathered round Owens College, which repre- sents the newest University development in this country. The genius of the place has left its mark in both. In Cambridge the collections are, as they should be in a region of academic calm, free from trade-winds, arranged mainly, if not entirely, with an eye to University students, and not for the general purposes of a miscellaneous public. In this busy centre of movement and commerce, you will find that the principle of arrangement is twofold. It first aims at meeting the needs of the University students, and of the Mechanics’ Institutes, and schools, and other educational bodies, which are daily being drawn closer to Owens College, and next at the instruction and enjoyment of the general public. Our collections are for the most part older than the college and have been absorbed from without into our . educational centre. The problem which we have attempted to solve is this: How to arrange and organize collections which are in part as old as the second quarter of this century, so that they may become valuable in the new learning and at the same time put an out- line of the history of nature within reach of the people. This t Address to the Museums Association, Manchester meeting 1892, by the President, Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S. : | JULY 21, 1892]: NATURE 281 _ problem, as we all know, is not an easy one. It has, however, _ to be faced in most of the museums of this country, Whether it has been solved or not in Manchester, it is not for me to say. _ Prof. Huxley, in addressing us some years ago on the question _ of technical education, said that he did not know exactly what 4g a it should take, but that Manchester was a good place in _ which to make an experiment for the good of the Commonweal. Fiat experimenium in corpore Mancunensi. The result of our experiment in museum organization is here and speaks for itself. — Before, however, I deal with this special attempt to meet the needs of Manchester I must touch on the general question of museums, i The Museum Idea and its Place in Culture. A museum was to the Greeks a place haunted by the Muses, and in a secondary sense a building in which liberal studies were carried on such as that at Alexandria, which was a great University endowed by the State, divided into colleges, and _ frequented by men of science and letters, This museum included picture galleries and statuary, and it is not at all im- able that it contained also collections of Natural History. Aristotle, it must be noted, made vast collections, which he used in his history of animals, by the aid of his friend Alexander the Great, and it is hard to believe that the impulse which he gave to the study of natural history should not have been felt in Alexandria, where his memory was venerated. With the de- struction of this museum in the days of Aurelian in the last quarter of the third century after Christ, the name as applied to a public institution gradually dropped out of use, and was only revived with the revival of learning in the West in the times of _ the Renascence. We owe the first idea of a great national museum ofscience and art to the ‘‘ New Atlantis” of Lord Bacon, the first scientific museum in this country to Elias Ashmole, _ who founded the museum which bears his name in 1667 at - Oxford. It consisted mainly of the natural history collections - made the Tradescants, and miscellaneous objects of antiquarian interest, which in the course of time swamped the natural history. Now, under the care of Mr. Arthur Evans, i and rearranged, it is taking its place among the _ educational institutions of the University. It was not until 82 years the foundation of the Ashmolean that museums were a. Government of this country in the establish- _ ment of the British Museum in 1749 by Act of Parliament. The modern museum is the outcome of the Renascence, and pace with those great accessions to our knowledge of the history of Nature and of Man which distinguish the _ new from the old learning of to-day. Ifit cease to grow it is _ dead, and should be removed. There is no finality in museum q vo any more than there is finality in the acquisition of The Muses should not be forgotten in museum arrangements, and form, beauty, and symmetry should be studied as well as the outlines of a rigid classification. As an illustration of this I would refer to the groups of birds in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, or to some of those in the museum at Newcastle. ‘‘ A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.” _ There isno reason why things beautiful in themselves Should be _ treated so as to repel rather than attract. The element of fit association, too, is one of the important principles. In the case _ ofthe temporary exhibition of pictures in the Academy, the fit association of subjects cannot be studied, but there is no reason _ why in an art gallery the Muses should be scared by a Venus ng placed close to local worthies, or a Madonna close toa yarty of Bacchanals. In museums as in armies the results are ly mal on the leaders, who leave the impress of their racter on theircommands. The impulse tothe new earning given by Ashmole, Hunter, Flower, and by Franks and Newton in this country, by Leidy, Dana, Marsh, and a in the United States, will last as long as the museums which they founded and organized. In Paris the name of _ Cuvier is inseparably bound up with the Museum of Natural _ History in the Jardin des Plantes. In Berlin the Ethnological _ Museum, and the anatomical collection at the Charité, will keep _ fresh the memory of Bastian and Virchow in a far distant future _ when the names of the great political leaders of these times are _ fading away. Itis, therefore, of primary importance to choose : leaders for museum work, and to offer those inducements _ which will command the services of the best men. NO. 1186, VOL. 46] The Old Local Museums-in Britain. When I first began to study the question, some thirty years ago, most of the local collections in this country were in a deplorable state. They consisted largely of miscellaneous objects huddled together with more or less care, and more or less—generally less—named. In one you saw a large plaster cast of a heathen divinity, surrounded by stuffed crocodiles, fossils, and models of Chinese junks, which looked like tho offerings of devout worshippers. In another I remember a small glass case containing a fragment of human skull, labelled ‘*human skull,” and a piece of oatcake, labelled ‘‘ oatcake,” while underneath was a general label with the inscription, ‘“‘ A piece of human skull very much like a piece of oatcake.” In a third wax models were exhibited of a pound weight of veal, pork, and mutton chops, codfish, turnips, parsnips, carrots, and potatoes, which must have cost the values of their originals fifty times over. They had labels explaining how much flesh and fat they would make—theoretically—for we who are either lean or fat know that the personal equation has to do with the actual results. They were as carefully modelled as the most delicate preparations of human anatomy. I quote them merely as illustrations of the misapplication of time, money, and museum space. In many collections art was not separated from natural history,. nor from ethnology, and the eye took in at a glance the picture of a local worthy, a big fossil, a few cups and saucers, a piece of cloth from the South Seas, a model of a machine, and pro- bably alsoa mummy. These objects would be all very well in their places, but being matter in the wrong place, they were covered by the Palmerstonian definition of rubbish. Such col- lections as these neither please nor instruct. They have no more right to the name of a museum than a mob has to be called an army. Most of us, I think, are acquainted with this type of collection, which is rapidly becoming extinct with the spread of knowledge. I merely quote them as examples of a state of things from which we have fortunately escaped.. The Place of Museums in the New Learning. The rapid increase of knowledge makes it more and more necessary for museums to be organized, so as to be in harmony with the swiftly changing conditions. The study of things as well as books is daily growing in importance. The historian, for example, formerly content with written records, now counts the results of archeological discovery among the most valuable and trustworthy of his materials in dealing with the history of the past. The story of Ancient Greece is incomplete if the explorations at Mykenz and Ilios, in Athens, in the Greek islands, and in the Egyptian cities and tombs be left out of account. Tothe historian the collections of Schliemann, ‘Flinders. Petrie, and others are most precious. Nor are they less precious to him who studies art, or to the ethnologist who studies. civilization, or to the naturalist who is interested in the distribu- tion of the various types of mankind, or to the technologist who looks to the evolution of handicrafts. The public mind is be- ginning to realize the value of well-organized museums for purposes of special research as well as of general culture, and thus they appeal to the interest of the many, while books and a taste for books interest a narrower circle. To contemplate in the British Museum the frieze of the Pantheon is of itself an education in Greek art and in Greek ideas of beauty, and the most unlettered visitor to the Natural History Galleries cannot fail to carry away new ideas about the realm of nature. It is obvious, therefore, that in museums we have an instrument of great educational value, if they be organized to meet the in- creasing demands of modern investigation. The Classification of the Museums of To-day. The museums of to-day fall naturally into four groups. (1) The Art Museum, which includes also antiquities arranged from the art point of view. (2) The Natural History, which illus- trates the history of nature in its widest sense, and of man in his physical aspects. (3) The Archeological and Ethnological, which deals with the works of man and his progress in civiliza- tion. (4) The Technical, in which objects are arranged in relation to industry. ‘The leading idea of the first is art, of the second nature, of the third civilization, and of the last the con- quest of mind over matter. 282 NATURE [JULY 21, 1892 The Principles of Museum Organization. These four groups are sharply defined from each other. In practice however it is often necessary to use for the illustration of one what, strictly speaking, belongs to the others. In all such cases, however, the reason of the presence of the alien object must be made obvious, if the general effect of the arrangement is to be preserved. Forexample, in the Manchester Museum, I found it necessary to complete the history of the Tertiary Period to illustrate the first appearance of man, and to carry on the narrative through the prehistoric and historic divisions down to modern times by a small selected series of specimens, showing the progress of mankind. Were it not for this they would be wholly out of place in a collection of natural history. In like manner our Egyptian mummy has its due place in the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, its J/ocus standi consisting in the fact that it illustrates the art of portrait painting among the Alexandrine Greeks of the first century after Christ. Next in the point of importance to the leading ideas in museum work comes the question of labelling and illustration. The labels should be clear and distinct, and if possible in English as well as in Latin. The specimens should illustrate the labels quite as much as the labels the specimens. All possible means of illustration should be employed, maps, diagrams, restorations, and the like, so that the main points and relations are clearly brought home to the visitor. In addition to the systematic catalogue of each specimen there should also be apopular guide similar to those of the British Museum. It goes without saying that a collection of books is also necessary. Tbe kind of museum most desirable in any place depends entirely on the local conditions, and there is no hard and fast scheme applicable to all cases. Nor is the question of great or small to be looked at otherwise than as one of detail. A small well-arranged collection in a school or in a village will do the work which it is intended to do as well as large museums in the metropolis, or in a university, or in a centre of commerce. The principles of success are the same in all: they must be orderly, they must be intelligible, they must as far as possible appeal to the sense of beauty. Under no circumstances must unnamed and unknown specimens be allowed to appear. A ragged recruit may be drilled into a good soldier, but he spoils the parade if he appears out of uniform in the ranks. Nearly all of us who have had to do with museums have sinned in this matter, and it is not for me to cast a stone at my fellow sinners. 4 The work, however, is only partially done when a museum is properly arranged, labelled, and catalogued on the above lines. ‘Yo make it intelligible in the best possible way, it is necessary that there should be lectures and demonstrations given in the museum itself, in which some special points should be taken up which interest either the general public or the special worker. In my experience oral instruction with the things before the eyes in the museum, and not away from it in the lecture-room, is the best manner of doing this. As an example of this, I would refer to the demonstrations organized in the British Museum by Prof, Stewart Poole, in which ancient art and civilization were dealt with, and to those which have from time to time been given in the national collection of natural history, under the auspices of Dr. Flower. In this relation the British Museum will be found to be one of the most valuable instruments for spreading knowledge in the University which London will have in the future. In this relation, too, the Geological Museum in Jermyn Streét, around which are centred some of the ablest men of the time — De-la-Beche, Murchison, Ramsey, Edward Forbes, Tyndal, Huxley, and many others—has done most valuable service. It isin this direction that museums will influence the general education in this- country, and take their nztural place in the new learning. Application of these Principles to the Manchester Museum. I pass now to the application of the above principles to the Manchester Museum, Owens College.. Our experience gained in bringing the old collection into harmony with modern re- quirements cannot fail to interest those who are now engaged in like work, because it may show not only what -is to be copied, but what is to be avoided. When the task of organization was entrusted to me in 1869, there was a large general collection of natural history, and a large geological collection.. The former had been a first-class collection in the second quarter of this century, but had ceased to grow, and therefore had become dead. The second was in NO. 1186, VOL. 46] good order, and, under the care of its founders, Binny, Ormerod, and others, was properly named. Both, however, were in a most deplorable state so far as relates to fittings, and were © simply ignored by the general public, and scarcely used by students. The first step was to sweep out of the way the mis- — cellaneous objects which had no place in a Natural History Museum. The next was to organise what remained into a systematic collection in rooms and cases which were unfit for the purpose. Then followed evening lectures and demonstrations in the old Museum building in Peter Street. Later the teaching © collections in Owens College were added, and the Museum began to revive and grow, slowly but steadily, as the connection with the College grew closer, till, in 1874, it was transferred to temporary quarters in the attics and basement of the Owens College. It continued to grow in spite of the removal and of the inadequate cases, and the interest of the public was maintained very largely by the system of Saturday afternoon demonstra- tions in the only part open to the public—the Geological Museum. The systematic rearrangement in view of the new build- ings was taken in hand. The minerals were arranged, - labelled, and catalogued, Dana’s ‘‘ Hand-book of Mineralogy” offering a ready-made catalogue. To meet the mining interests of Manchester special groups of the minerals found in associa- tion were organized to illustrate the minerals of Derbyshire, the Lake District, Cheshire, the diamond mines, the apatite mines, and the like. For the special ends of the geological teaching, the rock” specimens were also arranged, and special groups were formed to illustrate their association—such as the products of Vesuvius, and of the volcanoes of Auvergne—and to illustrate the destruction of rocks by natural causes. Then naturally followed the classifica- tion of the fossils to show the sequence of events in the geological record. In this the Carboniferous flora and fauna naturally took a prominent place, because of the vast importance of the coal-fields to this district. The arrival, too, of the existing higher Mammalia, including man, on the earth, took a pro- minent place in the Tertiary collections, and formed the leading idea in the Tertiary chapter of a history of the earth, while the story of the earth was fitly closed by a series of groups illus- trating the evolution of human culture and the prehistoric and historic periods. The general principle of classification throughout the whole geological series, or, in other words, the historical method, was that of ¢zme. Next the zoological col- lections were arranged, as far as the changing classification would allow, zoologically, with a special group for the zoology of Great Britain, The botanical collections, which offered exceptional difficulty, are now in hand. In this manner the whole of the collections were arranged for the time when they should find their place in the new buildings, and pass under the care of the professor in each department. A scheme of uniformity was ~ carried out with regard to fittings and mounts also; a definite unit of size, 4” x 14”, was decided upon, and all tablets and glass boxes were made either on that or on multiples of that. ‘This unit also ruled the size both of the drawers and of the cases in the new fittings. The system of printed labels in which black ink represents the specific name and the red the name of the group wasalsodevised. Inthe plans of the new Museum the maxi- mum amount of light, consistent with stability and architectural beauty, was the leading idea, while the laboratories and lecture- room of the whole of the Natural History Department of the College were brought as close as they could be to the Museum. The building itself was designed to suit the organization of the collections. Thus step by step the present Museum was gradu- ally built up, and when the buildings were completed in 1884 the collections were transferred to the quarters which they now occupy, and where they form a centre towards which other collections gravitate. While the museum has been rapidly growing during the last eight years, the system of museum lectures and addresses to various organizations, mechanics’ institutes, schools, and the like has been largely developed. In its present state it is used largely by students of Owens College, and is growing in favour — with the general public. In other words it is taking the place it ought to have in the education of this densely populated district. These results, it must be observed, have only been possible — through the liberality with which the Museum has been treated both by the public and by Owens College. I look forward with confidence to the time when both will be amply repaid by the impulse it is giving, and will give, to the new learning. museum of this kind is suitable for all places. must be, in all places, the genius of the museum. The principles _ however of success are the same in all, and success can only be _ achieved ina limited degree if there be no signs of the worship _ of some of the Muses in the arrangements. - chemical combinations of carbon and iron are formed. must be preci ‘matter in the _ seems reasonable to assume that these elements must enter into chemical combination. NATURE 283 Juty 21, 1892} I do not for one moment suppose that a natural history The genzus loci The Work of the Museums Association. In ending this address, all too long, I fear, for my audience, all too short for my subject, I must add a few words as to our work as a Museum Association. It is twofold. First, we must arouse ourselves to the present situation and note the directions which the intellectual movement of the day is taking. Next, it is our duty to arouse the public to the importance of museum develop- ment, and to take care that the claims of museums as instru- ments of education shall not be ignored in the grants made by public bodies for the good of the commonweal. 4 _ ON THE CARBURIZATION OF IRON, # _ “THE conditions under which carbon combines with iron have + been closely studied, and the observed phenomena fully Even now, however, it is doubtful whether true che It ‘has been alternatively assumed that carbon is with difficulty soluble in iron, and that at low temperatures solution may pro- _ ceed very slowly. In other words, carbon is not easily dissolved at high temperatures ; and it follows that if highly heated with carbon be cooled, a portion of the carbon ipitated in this state, existing simply as foreign metal, but that, on reheating, it may again enter into solution. Low carbon steels may be regarded as dilute y is of carbon in iron ; pig or cast iron as saturated ; and rmediate grades may be termed moderately concentrated : {Bi Against this, however, there is a mass of evidence which de- attention and cannot be ignored. Percy states that for carburization of iron a high temperature is necessary, , considering the absolute infusibility of carbon, it : It is, however, admitted that this com- pound may have the power of dissolving additional carbon ; this } Bo oa ac ap ag deposition of carbon in the graphitic form ron is cooled. Dr. Percy finally concludes that there must be at least one definite compound of carbon and iron, but adds that there seems to be no reason why solution should not occur, as in the case of mercury, which liquefies gold, silver, or copper. _ Prof. Roberts Austen also (‘‘ On Certain Properties common to Fluids and Metals,” Royal Institution, March 26, 1886) speaks of the power which certain solid metals have of even rapidly taking up fluids—ciearly cases of solution. Abel claims to have proved the existence of a definite compound of carbon and i nd iron. Prof. Roberts Austen also finds that heated iron combines with pure carbon in the form of diamond dust. The author also has succeeded in directly combining iron by repeated heatings 7 vacuo. Yet it is obvious these nste may all be explained on the theory of solution at ‘elevated temperatures, with the exception of Prof. Abel’s, who claims to have isolated a definite carbide of iron from the metal. | fused in vacuo with pure sugar charcoal presumably freed from ee _ Matthieson, as the result of an elaborate research, states that ; Mh vith few exceptions” most of the known two-metal alloys are sol 1d solutions of one metal in another. Carbon-iron alloys may be looked upon as solidified solutions of carbon in iron, and the analogy of cast iron with other alloys indicates the non-existence of chemical combination between carbon and iron, _ Again, viewing alloys as definite chemical combinations, the facily with which heated iron absorbs certain gases does not admit of easy explanation. Deville, however, imagines a kind of porosity in the metals, terming it an intermolecular porosity, sufficient to admit of the of gas at a low temperature ; and supposes it developed hy the expansive agency of heat. Graham assumes that the ity of the gases for iron and platinum is as the attraction admitted to exist between a soluble body and its solvent. Other metallurgists are of opinion that carbon does not ‘directly combine with iron, attributing their union to the in- NO. 1186, VOL. 46] direct action of carbon monoxide gas always present in iron ; by the agency of this gas carbon is indirectly transferred to iron ; but it would appear that this cannot be maintained, for it has been proved that carbon combines directly with iron one way or the other, z.¢, by solution or chemical combination. Whatever may be said of irons containing an excess of carbon, 7.¢. cast iron and very hard steel—which, if one grants that carbon is not very soluble in iron at a low temperature a thd termed supersaturated solutions—in the case of low carbon steels there seems some ground for assuming that carbon is merely dissolved in the metal. Sir L, Bell tells us that, on heating thin sheets of carburized metal or steel piled closely together, the excess of carbon con- tained in one or more of the sheets is transferred to the others. Wrought iron is carburized in much the same manner by the cementation process, and it is equally possible that heterogeneous iron, z.é. iron containing intermixed carbon or graphite, and as a rule not equally diffused, may by continued sufficient heat- ing become practically homogeneous, Tt is a well-known fact that the carbon in low carbon steel —for instance, Bessemer steel—exists in at least two different forms ; Prof. Ledebur says four. Akerman (Iron and Steel Institute) classifies these as (1) hardening carbon, or the carbon which determines the quality of steel, (2) cement carbon, and also graphite may be present. The united researches of many workers in this field of research indicate generally that a portion of the total carbon is in inti- mate union with the metal, and that the more intimately com- bined or hardening carbon determines the quality of the steel. The carbon incompletely combined (or intermixed carbon) is termed cement carbon, because it occurs in the largest propor- tion in blister or cement steel. Does not the above point to a case of solution of carbon, in which the quantity in solution is determined by temperature, just as with other solutions ? Metallurgists, however,’can hardly accept the theory of solution without qualification. Mr. Spencer states that ‘‘ unhardened steel containing 1°18 per cent. total carbon—of which the colour test indicated *89 per cent. as combined carbon, and residual carbon or graphite *29 per cent.—after being hardened, gave only ‘58 by colour test, and only traces of graphitic carbon, showing a loss of ‘51 per cent. of carbon. A softer steel, containing "50 total carbon—equalling *45 per cent. by colour test, ‘04 per cent. graphitic carbon— after hardening, only ‘21 colour test carbon; graphitic carbon 00, showing a loss of ‘29 per cent. Other*analyses were made confirming the above, and establishing the fact that after harden- ing there is always a proportion of carbon which can neither be determined as graphite or by the colour test, and this propor- tion is found to increase according to the larger amount of carbon in the metal, and the rapidity with which it was cooled”’ (Mr. Spencer, Iron and Steel Institute). The facts above quoted are not apparently in accord with the theory of solution; but there are undoubted allotropic modifications of carbon, and this peculiar form may be one ofthese, ‘‘ uncombined,” and may be classified with the graphite, orreally as merely intermixed foreign matter. There is the alternative assumption that the missing carbon may exist in some form or combination with the iron, possibly not capable of being registered by the colour test; but as the steel is treated with dilute nitric acid, in which it is completely soluble, with the exception of the graphite, this assumption can hardly be maintained. Referring to Akerman’s assertion that only combined ‘‘ harden- ing” carbon determines the physical properties of steel—an assertion with which Mr.Spencer agrees—‘‘ The apparent loss of carbon shown by the latter, and which we have determined as intermixed carbon or a form of graphite”—it may well be that the missing carbon is so intimately mixed as to be in a state closely bordering on solution, for it is well known that it is difficult to draw the line between absolute solution and matter finely suspended in a liquid. The latter practically often presents the appearance of a solution scarcely to be distinguished from it. Messrs. Harold Picton and L. E. Linder (Chem. Soc., January 1891) are of opinion that there is a con- tinuous series of grades of solution passing without break from suspension to a crystallizable solution. This seems very probable, and in accordance with our chemical experience. Graphite, if the author has adequately grasped Prof. Aker- man’s views, has little or nothing to do with the quality of 284 NATURE [JuLy 21, 1892 iron. ‘*Graphite carbon exerts an influence only on iron in so far as it diminishes the continuity of the iron molecules. We often meet with the incorrect statement that the influence of carbon on pig-iron is quite different from its action on steel and malleable iron. ‘*It is easy to prove to the contrary if we distinguish properly in pig-iron between the combined carbon and that which is only mechanically incorporated as graphite, which ought not to be included in the calcuiation if we wish to form a judgment on the properties of pig-iron as dependent on its contents of carbon.” As one understands this, the same applies to steel. So far there can be no difficulty in assuming at least the probability of the solution of carbon in iron, and that the physical qualities of the metal are determined by the quantity of carben in solution, z.e. Akerman’s hardening carbon. The facts, per contra, appear mainly to indicate that carbon is merely sparingly soluble in iron at temperatures below its fusion- oint. A more serious objection (previously referred to) is that carbon is practically infusible, more especially in the graphitic form. How this intractable body so readily interpenetrates iron is a problem not easily solved, The ordinary chemical theory of solution as usually under- stood does not, however, seem applicable on the whole ; but some of the results accruing from the recent development of the gaseous, or rather physical theory of solution, may be made available for this purpose. The Physical or Gaseous Theory of Solution. In cases of simple solution the dissolved substance may be regarded as being evenly distributed throughout the solvent. The substance is dissolved by virtue of osmotic pressure, and Van ’t Hoff has shown that osmotic pressure in solutions corre- sponds to gaseous pressure in space. Further, it appears that both Boyle’s and Charles’s law holds good, at least for dilute solutions, osmotic being the equivalent for gaseous pressure, which pressure increases for constant volume proportionally to the absolute temperature. It has been, however, objected that Boyle’s law is not strictly applic- able to ‘more especially concentrated solutions,” but Prof. Orme Masson (NATURE, February 1891), states that these are comparable with the case of gases at high pressures. Again, ex- ceptions are claimed under the law of Avogadro, z.¢. equal volumes of gases contain equal numbers of molecules under like conditions of temperature and pressure, but as regards compound gases exceptions occur, as also with dilute solutions. Exceptions can be explained by the theory of dissociation. The analogy between gases and the physical theory of solutions thus seems complete, and Ostwald describes an experiment in- dicating the existence of free ions in a dilute solution of potassium chloride ; other instances might also be quoted. The author’s object, however, is not to discuss the absolute correctness or otherwise of the theory of gaseous solution, which seems pretty well established ; but to show that it may be ap- plicable to the solution of carbon in molten, semi-fluid, or even merely heated iron, apart from possible cases of dissociation and chemical combinations. Solution is simply the even distribution of one body in another, or such distribution as that of per- manent gaseous matter through space. It may be urged that the theory is not applicable to semi-fluid or merely heated iron. No definite line can, however, be drawn ; it is obvious that the different grades of temperature are simply approximations, more or less, to the ideal fluid condition. The law of solution, as above defined, may suffer modifications, but need not in con- sequence be rejected. ‘* Definition of Osmotic Pressure. + ‘* Osmotic pressure is really a definite force. With suitable apparatus this force can be measured, in centimetres of a mercury column, and Pfeffer! has shown that this, the osmotic pressure, is intimately connected with the nature of the dissolved substance, ‘* The pressure was found to be dependent on, and in propor- tion to, the concentration of the solution; the pressure at a specified concentration is dependent on the temperature—a rise in temperature corresponds to an increase in pressure, ‘* This discovery remained unnoticed. In the first instance the t Ostwald, ‘‘On Solution.” NO. 1186, VOL. 46] facts were only required for the elucidation of certain physio- — logical questions. ‘And it was not until 1886 that Van ’t Hoff developed a theory of solution based on these phenomena. ‘* Osmotic pressure is a specific property of the substance in : solution, and in this respect resembles gaseous pressure. The — analogy between the state of solution and the gaseous state is — clearly shown (pp. 115-17). Dissolved substances exert the © same pressure in the form of osmotic pressure as they would — exert if they were gasified at the same temperature without — change of volume. ‘* All that we know of gases holds good for solutions, substi- tuting osmotic for gaseous pressure. ; ‘* Osmotic pressure is, in some instances, very great.” And it seems clear that osmotic pressure is not a mythical, but a real or actual force of considerable power, ‘and one which may be rationally applied to the elucidation of the cause of the car- bonization of iron; further, it may even afford a clue to the phenomena observed in the production of other alloys. As regards the carburization of iron, the physical theory of solution, “‘ founded on the identity of osmotic with gaseous - pressure,” seems the only one capable of affording a satisfactory explanation of the facility with which carbon combines with iron. The chemical, or old, theory of solution apparently fails to do this. The same may be said of the assumption that chemical combinations of iron and carbon are formed. Although it must be granted such combinations may exist, yet, in the author’s opinion, complete proof is still wanting. It is really difficult to realize, when dealing with stable bodies like iron and carbon, how their union can be thus accomplished. : On the contrary, the application of the law of osmose renders — the conception of the transfer of carbon to iron very easy.” This force, exerting probably almost illimitable power in nature, seems the only one capable of overcoming the iwertia of bodies ; such, for instance, as that of iron and carbon. The physical theory of solution has hitherto only presumptively herein been applied to the solution of solids in liquids; and it may be asked, Is it applicable to the case of the solution of solids in solids, such as carbon and iron, when heated ? To this one can reply with confidence that the absolute solid has no existence. Unless we reject the atomic theory, it is evident that no tangible mass of matter can be termed a solid : it is an agglomeration of atoms. Further, accepting the defini- tion of what is termed the atomic volume—z.e. the spaceoccupied or kept free from the access of other matter, by the material atom itself, together with its investing sphere of heat—it follows that the atoms must be apart from each other in the so-called solid mass, and the distances between the atoms are probably considerable as compared with the actual volume or size of the atoms themselves. ‘Therefore, there can be no difficulty in con- ceiving that osmotic pressure plays a part in the case of a mass of matter, ‘‘conventionally termed a solid.” It is only aques- tion of degree ; the quantity of matter dissolved in a given time is simply a function of the temperature applied, and at a low temperature, the effective osmotic pressure in the case — of solidsseems comparable to that of a liquid evaporating under pressure of its own vapour. Evaporation is retarded, and the analogy may hold good in the case of the conventional solid. JOHN PARRY. PHOTOMETRIC OBSERVATIONS OF THE SUN AND SKY} ATTEM PTS have been made by Clausius and various other - mathematicians to calculate the light at different points of the perfectly clear sky, and to compare the light of the whole (or | a portion) of the sky with that of the sun. The difficulties of photometric measurement have prevented any of the theories being thoroughly established by experimental verifications. i In the first period of photography, it became a matter of practical importance to have some way of testing roughly the ‘actinic activity of diffused daylight,” in order to obtain a guide for the time of exposure. Very many photographers, in those days when the evils of over-exposure could not be corrected in the printing, must have exposed a scrap of sensitive paper, and thence concluded how many seconds’ exposure they would allow. * «¢ Photometric Observations of the Sun and Sky,” by Wm. Brennande - Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. 49, n. 288, April 18, 1891, pp. 255- 280. ; : : . . JuLy 21, 1892] NATURE 285 a See _ From this point it would be a very easy step to test the _ **actinometric effect on sensitized. paper” (‘‘ chemical action ” - of Roscoe) of different skies, or of the sun at different altitudes. _ It is not probable that the chemical action is simply proportional to the light ; but it would be soon found that the ‘‘ chemical ; ight could be much more accurately measured than the __ Sir Henry Roscoe (partly in junction with Bunsen and with _ Thorpe) made many investigations and various publications between 1859-70 on the chemical action of the sun and sky as measured by its effect in darkening photographically sensi- tized paper. eal delivered the Bakerian Lecture in 1865, **On a Method of Meteorological Registration of the Chemical Action of Total Daylight.” ___ Throughout his investigations Roscoe pursued a direct method experiment: he elaborately investigated a method for ob- aining always paper of standard sensibility ; he devised a plan obtaining a light of standard intensity ; he then exposed a e of the paper to the action of the sky, or of sun and sky, a portion of the sky, and compared the effect produced in n number of seconds with that produced in the same in the same number of seconds by his standard light. e also, by a laborious method, verified his fundamental on that light of intensity 50 acting for 1 second has the ect as light of intensity 1 acting for 50 seconds. coe took half-hourly readings at Manchester, and thence the (comparative) actinic effects of the sky at different of the year. Also he compared the chemical intensity daylight at Kew and Para, and investigated the relation the sun’s altitude and the chemical intensity of total in a cloudless sky. By total daylight Roscoe meant nical action produced by the sun and whole sky together se of paper exposed horizontally. oscoe found that his readings were enormously affected by cloud-haze or invisible vapour in the air in England; he his results, as to comparison of the chemical intensity at seasons of the year, and at different altitudes of the y assuming that in the average of a large number of the effects of cloud, &¢., would be self-destructive. found that the ‘‘ chemical effect ” of the sun depended altitude (in a cloudless sky), being the same at Para _ He got very anomalous results as to the effects in utumn in England, probably because the effects of ere not self-destructive in his series of observations, , by *‘averaging” the cloud irregularities, at the law relation between the sun’s altitude and the chemical of total daylight is graphically represented by a right result only a rough first approximation to the truth). ained small result in comparing the chemical action different points of the same sky, partly because he could make experiments in person on a tropical clear sky, partly because to note these differences requires superior instruments to the direc! oo. method alone tried by Roscoe. _ Mr. W. Brennand was engaged at Dacca in observations, arallel to those of Roscoe, and nearly contemporaneous, 1861- 96. Brennand was quite unaware of Roscoe’s experiments. Be an amateur photographer, and his own photographic mist, he was first led to devise an instrument for testing the 1 ope action of sun and sky, in order to obtain guidance for ‘number of seconds to expose a photographic plate. He was soon led on to investigate the effect of the sun at different altitudes, the effect of the sky for different altitudes of the sun, and finally the law of distribution of the ‘‘ chemical action” in a perfectly cloudless sky. r ’s procedure in experiment differed fundamentally rom | ’s in two points :— _ (1) Brennand only attempted observation in the cold weather t Dacca when he had a complete horizon of clear sky. He was thus enabled to carry his investigations into the laws of chemical action in a cloudless sky much farther than Roscoe, 90 per cent. (at least) of whose observations were obscured by cloud egularities that could not be allowed for. (2) Instead of Roscoe’s B nd was early led to devise an instrument (the water- motion actinometer (see NATURE, January‘8, 1891, p. 237), by the d of which he was independent both of the standard light and tandard paper attained by Roscoe with so great labour. The un himself was, in fact, Brennand’s standard light, and the darkening of each paper was read as a ratio; for instance, if an psure Of 10 seconds to sun and sky produced the same tint in the paper that was produced by the sun alone in 17 NO. 1186, VOL. 46] i direct method of observation, PA VOSU! seconds, then the effect of the sun alone was reckoned }$ of the sun and sky together. It is clear that amy uniform paper should give such ratios the same, though the actual shades pro- duced would be different in different papers. All the papers made by Brennand himself were found “uniform,” zc. to within the limits of variation (say, 2 per cent.) within which the darkened paper can be read, 7.e. the shades can be matched. Any good photographic paper is found uniform enough for the urpose ; but some of the ordinary photographic papers tried ately in England have been found not good enough; the nature of the irregularities introduced by imperfect paper is such as to suggest very soon their cause. It is to be noticed that all that can be observed is a ratio: the observations in Roscoe’s direct process are not absolute. In that process there is a standard unit, viz. the blackness pro- duced in the standard paper by the standard light action at the unit of distance for 2 seconds. Any other light that produces this blackness has the numerical value = in Roscoe’s unit. There is little doubt but that Roscoe got his standard light and standard paper, each time he recovered them, correctly ‘within the percentage of error involved in the reading. He would be certain to have prepared his salts of exactly the proper strength ; but there is an element of uncertainty in the degree in which papers apparently of similar texture and in a similar state of dryness, &c., take up salts. This element of uncertainty is avoided by Brennand’s method, which is far more absolute than Roscoe's. The water-motion actinometer gave Brennand, for each observation, a shaded strip darkened gradually from o to 8 (or to 16) seconds. He could note on this the point at which a particular unit of darkening was produced, and the inverse of this time gave him a measure of the ratio of the observed *‘chemical action” to that which had produced the unit darkening. This, of course, involved the assumption that light of in- tensity 50 acting for 1 second has the same effect as light of intensity 1 acting for50 seconds. This Brennand thought might be assumed ; but he proved it in the following very simple manner. A slip of sensitized paper is formed into a ring (a short cliaan} and placed round a light (the wick of a candle was used, but any light would do, irregular or not) excentrically, After a certain time the slip is examined and found to be shaded gradually from the farthest to the nearest point, the effect at each point varying inversely as the square of the distance. Thus if A be the source of light, O the centre of the ring, and if we have OB = a, OA = 4, POB = @, we shall have the chemical effect at any point P of the slip vary as : I R2 AP? a? +2& — 2abcos0. In a particular experiment Brennand took a = 1°4 inch, = °4 inch. ae LARS cos?” = 3°24 — R® 2 2°24 Taking the unit of intensity that at the distance 1 inch from the wick, and calculating the values of @ for values of the in- tensity I, °75, °5, and °3, we have @ = 0, 20° 10’, 78° 34’, and 141° 48’ respectively. The lengths of arc corresponding to these are found to be ‘49 inch, 1°92 inch, and 3°45 inches respect- ively. These lengths can be marked off on the slip. Another slip can then be darkened in the water-motion actinometer, by any light ; a unit can be marked on this slip at the point where the shade corresponds with that at the unit in the ring slip ; it then can be seen whether the intensity of shade at the distance ‘49 on the ring slip agrees with that at three-fourths the time for unit on the actinometer slip ; and similarly for the other cal- culated values. This experiment verifies the law assumed, and moreover affords a check on the paper employed, and on the closeness with which tints can be matched. Another important means of verification was employed by Brennand, which Roscoe does not appear to have availed him- self of. Calling the effect of the sky alone in darkening paper B, and the effect of the sun and sky together A, Roscoe observed A and observed B, and then calculated the effect of the sun alone as A+B. Brennand did this ; but also observed the sun alone by the simple device of a vertical slit in a shutter, and was thus able to check the accuracy of his method and of his work. Having thus established the trustworthiness of his modus 286 NATURE [JULY 21, 1892 operandi, Brennand, with his water-motion actinometer, drew up, by-an ample series of observations extended over several yéars, the Table B given in NATURE (January 8, 1891, p. 237). The numbers in this table are ratios, and they may be all multi- plied by any number without any real alteration in the table. The unit of chemical action originally started with was the blackness produced by 100 grains of a candle burnt at the unit of distance; and this is the unit which underlies Table B. Brennand early found, as Roscoe found, that the sun has always the same effect at the same altitude in a perfectly clear sky. peton in all the later observations the unit was recovered from the sun. Thus, to take a series of observations, with the water-motion actinometer, with strips of an unknown (but uniform) paper: first, a strip is placed in the instrument, the sun alone being admitted by the vertical slit, and the sliding shutter is run up ; we thus get a gradually tinted slip beside the gauge marked in seconds. The altitude of the sun is noted; suppose it 30°; the number in Table B for this altitude is 0°1070, z.¢. the number of seconds which produces unit darkening by sun alone at this altitude is seconds = 9§ seconds. Then on the sun strip a mark is made opposite the 94 seconds graduation on the gauge; this is the unit blackness for the paper, and any subsequent strip exposed is ‘‘ read” by marking the point on it which has the same blackness. This method of recovering the unit is not sufficient to deter- mine, for instance, whether the sky in England on a certain morning was really clear, ze, as truly clear as the Dacca cold- weather sky. To determine this particular point, Brennand lately in England burnt 100 grains of a candle (as near as he could get) similar in composition to his Dacca candle, and the result shows'conclusively, by the exact accord of several observa- tions lately made near Taunton with corresponding old observa- tions at Dacca, that in this case the two candles must have produced equal effects. But it is obvious that the candle could only be trusted by these results. The experiments made with the candle were not made to recover the Dacca unit, but to test the candle, The exact agreement in the several results raises the very strongest presumption that the Taunton candle was equal to the Dacca candle. It is, however, possible that the Taunton sky varied for the several observations in exact ratio with a variation in the Taunton candle ; and it can only be-said that Brennand’s observations on this particular point, so far as they go, support Roscoe’s result that the chemical action of the sun is the same at the same altitude in a perfectly clear sky, always and everywhere. When the chemical action of the sky (or of some portion of it) on a piece of flat paper is observed, what is measured is the integral of the resolved effects ofeach sky element. Thus if, as ‘in Roscoe’s experiments, the piece of sensitized paper is exposed horizontally, and the effect of the whole sky (the sun being ‘stopped off) is taken, we have the total effect of a ring of the sky distant @ from the zenith to be multiplied by cos @, and then the effect of all such rings from the zenith to the horizon to be summed. This view of the resultant action suggested to Bren- nand the more original branch of his investigations. He was early led to suspect that the chemical action of the sky varied in different parts of it. He devised an instrument, which he calls the mitrailleuse actinometer, by which he was enabled to prove that the chemical action of the sky is a minimum in the great circle distant 90° from the sun ; for an altitude a of the sun this minimum he calls z,. Brennand then further proves that the chemical action (at the same time) at any other point of the sky distant 6 from the sun is then z, cosec @. Having established these important laws, Brennand is able, by mathematical process, having 7, given him, to calculate the total effect of any defined portion of the sky on a plane of sensi- tized paper exposed at any given angle. He was thus enabled to compare Roscoe’s readings of total diffused daylight on paper exposed horizontally with his own Dacca readings on paper exposed perpendicularly to the direction of the sun. These investigations led Brennand to a theoretic value for the duration of twilight, and to the devising a new instrument, the ‘* octant actinometer,” by which the fundamental constant’z, can be observed directly. This ‘‘octant ” actinometer observes one-eighth of the heavens, cut out by three planes at right angles to each other, placed so that the line OS, the intersection of two of the planes, passes through the sun. Owing to the cloudy skies of Taunton, Bren- NO. 1186, VOL. 46] nand (who experiments only with a clear sky) had been able very imperfectly to test this instrument at the time his pa was read to the Royal Society. He has since found that this ‘**octant ” may be turned in any way round OS (above the horizon, of course) without altering the reading on either of the three planes of the octant. This ‘‘ octant,’’ therefore, only re- quires one-fourth of the visible hemisphere round the zenith to be clear, for a good observation. What is more important, it enables — the observer, when the sky is clear, and the sun’s altitude from 30° to 60°, to take an observation of a part of the sky entirely 30° from the horizon ; so that the uncertainty arising from haze near the horizon (which could not before be allowed for) may by this capital instrument be avoided, and z, obtained without any integrations or calculations beyond division by a number. In the whole of these later developments, Brennand’s work is entirely original. Sir Henry Roscoe, following a somewhat different course of inquiry, has made experiments on the chemical action of the sun and sky at different levels above the sea; and on the total effect during different months or seasons of the English sky with all its cloud, fog, and smoke; which last is an important practical measure of the climate in its — influence on vegetation, and perhaps on human health. The researches of Roscoe and Brennand have thus, though overlapping at particular points, extended mainly in different directions. Brennand, in the ground covered by both, puts forward far the more accurate determinations; his table (B) given in NATURE, January 8, 1891, p. 237, professes to be of the same character and value as a table of the constants of refraction, —Brennand has had half a century’s experience with the chemistry of photographic paper, and is an excellent mathematician of the old school. Moreover, the three leading actinometric instruments he has devised, the water-motion, the mitrailleuse, and the octant, show him to be possessed of much resource in devising instruments of research. INORGANIC SYNTHESIS OF AZOIMIDE, N,f7. A METHOD of synthesizing this interesting compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, by means of a simple reaction in- volving only purely inorganic substances, has been discovered by Prof. Wislicenus, and is described by him in a communication to the current number (No. 12) of the Berichte of the German Chemical Society. The reactions by which azoimide has hitherto been obtained have all been of an organic nature, and more or less complicated. The mode of preparation described by its original discoverer, Prof. Curtius, in reality depends upon a very simple reaction, that of nitrous acid upon hydrazine, NoHy, the other hydride of nitrogen whose preparation we also owe to Prof. Curtius, H, | +HNO, = N,H + 2H,0. Hydrazine, however, has only yet been prepared from its ueewnic derivatives, and moreover it has not been found cticab e to actually convert free hydrazine itself by means of nitrous acid into azoimide, only certain organic derivatives being acted upon by nitrous acid with production of azoimide. The perfected mode of preparation described by Prof. Curtius at the close of last year is very briefly as follows. Benzoyl hydrazine, C,H,;. CO. NH. NH,, is first formed by reacting with ethyl benzoate upon hydrazine hydrate : C,H;. COOC,H; + N,H,.H,O = C,H;. i . NH . NH, + C,H;,OH + H,0. The benzoyl hydrazine is then converted by means of nitrous acid, obtained from a mixture of glacial acetic acid and sodium nitrite, into the benzoyl deriyative of azoimide : N C,H;. CO. NH. NH, + HNO, = C,H;. CO. NC i+ 2H,0. From benzoyl azoimide the sodium salt of azoimide is next formed by treatment with sodium ethylate :— oN C,H; . EQ: dpe + C,H;ONa N = C,H,. COOC,H; + Na - NCI. 7 Jury 21, 1892} NATURE 287 Free azoimide is finally obtained by distilling the crystals of the sodium salt with dilute sulphuric acid, and repeatedly re-distilling over fused calcium chloride the hydrated liquid which first passes over. _ As an alternative method which has some advantages as facility of manipulation, Prof. Curtius employs the hippuryl derivative of hydrazine instead of the benzoyl com- he product of the action of nitrous acid upon this compound is a substance which can be readily isolated in s, and if these crystals are dissolved in dilute caustic 1, the solution at once yields azoimide upon distillation with dilute sulphuric acid. Before describing the inorganic synthesis of Prof. Wislicenus, it may be m that a still simpler organic synthesis of azoimide from the long known diazobenzene imide, C,H;Ns, has been achieved by Drs. Noelting and Grandmougin. Al- 4 diazobenzene imide itself is too stable a substance to yield azoimide directly by simple saponification with soda, these ‘chemists found that its dinitro derivative yielded directly to the attack of an alcoholic solution of potash, the potassium salt of azoimide being formed, which of course gave free azoimide upon distillation with dilute sulphuric acid. _ The inorganic synthesis of azoimide now achieved by Prof. Wislicenus depends upon the interaction of ammonia gas and nitrous oxide in the presence of heated metallic sodium. Am- monia and nitrous oxide do not act directly upon each other, not even when a mixture of the two gases is passed over caustic bases—soda-lime for instance. But they react readily in presence of metallic sodium. The explanation of this lies in the fact that the sodium amide discovered by Gay Lussac and Thenard is first formed, and this compound reacts with the nitrous oxide with production of the sodium salt of azoimide :— Soe NaN , — N,O = NaN, + H,0O. _ The water produced at the same time reacts with one-half of the sodamide, forming caustic soda and liberating ammonia gas :— NaNH, + H,O = NaOH + NH;. Hence the complete reaction may be expressed by the equation— 2NaNH, + N,O = NaN, + NaOH + NH. As the sodium salt is less explosive than most of the other salts of azoimide, requiring a higher temperature and not being sensitive to ssion, the experiment is not dangerous if proper care is , and even if local explosions do occur they have not yet been observed to shatter the glass tube. Unfortunatel glass is somewhat strongly attacked during the reaction, but if iron tubes are employed the reaction is not so completely under control, In actually conducting the experiment, metallic sodium, in pieces not exceeding half a gram in weight, is placed in a series of in boats, which are then laid in a glass combus- tion tube, from which the air is subsequently displaced by means of acurrent of ammonia gas. The tube is heated carefully in a combustion furnace, when the sodium fuses and gradually passes into sodamide. When all the metal has been thus changed, the stream of ammonia is replaced by one of dry nitrous oxide. The temperature should now be lowered to between 150° and 250°, and for this purpose Prof. Wislicenus surrounds it by an iron explosion chamber, which forms a capital air-bath, the tempera- ture of which can be regulated by observing a thermometer or thermometers inserted in it. The sodamide now slowly in- creases in bulk and becomes converted into the sodium salt of azoimide. As soon as ammonia ceases to be carried away in the stream of issuing nitrous oxide the reaction is completed. Upon cooling the sodium salt is found as a porous pumice-like much distended by the escaping ammonia. The sodium salt of azoimide is also formed when ammonia and oxide gases are simultaneously passed over melted sodium ; the yield, however, is not so large, and there is danger of the sodium inflaming in the nitrous oxide. The fact that the sodium compound obtained is the sodium salt of azoimide has been proved both by direct analysis (a determination of nitrogen yielding close upon the theoretical amount) and by its properties. The product of the reaction on ing removed from the combustion tube was thrown into water, and the filtered solution distilled with dilute sulphuric acid. The distillate d the intolerable odour characteristic of azoimide, and behaved exactly like a solution of that substance in water. It gave precipitates with nitrates of silver, mercurous and lead, which when separated and dried were found to possess all the properties of the silver, mercury, and lead salts NO. 1186, VOL. 46] i a of azoimide respectively. The fact that these salts were those of azoimide was indeed sufficiently apparent from their violently explosive nature, and the characteristic flames which were pro- duced during their explosion. Moreover, gold dust was rapidly dissolved with production of the red solution described by Prof. Curtius. A quantity of the silver salt was subjected to analysis, and was found to contain 71°7 per cent. of silver, the amount calcu- lated for AgNy, being 71°8. Instead of sodium, either potassium or zinc may be em- pg Potassium answers almost as well as sodium, forming rst an amide when heated in a current of ammonia, which is subsequently converted by nitrous oxide into the potassium salt of azoimide. Zinc likewise behaves in a similar manner, but the yield of the zinc salt of azoimide, ZnN,, is not so good as in the cases of sodium and potassium. To a greater or less extent, therefore, it would appear that metallic amides when heated in a current of nitrous oxide are generally converted into salts of azoimide. The alkali metals, however, appear to be best suited for practical use. A. TUTTON. THE REPORTED VOLCANIC ERUPTION AT GREAT SANGIR. ACCORDING to a Reuter’s telegram from Sydney,? de- spatched on July 17, the vessel Catterthun, belonging to the Eastern and Australasian Steamship Company, which had arrived at Sydney from China, brought a report of a terrible disaster in the vicinity of the Philippine Islands. She called on her voyage at one of the chief ports of the island of Timor, where rumours had been received according to which the island of Sangir, situated between Celebes and Mindanao, had been destroyed by a volcanic eruption. The whole population, num- bering 12,000, was reported to have perished. The captain of the Catterthun stated that on the voyage his vessel passed through some miles of volcanic débrés. We may not for some time receive further details as to the -real extent of the disaster reported by the captain of the Catter- thun, but in the meantime the following account, by Mr. Sydney J. Hickson, author of ‘‘ A Naturalist in North Celebes,” of the island and of the history of its voleanic energy—which appeared in the 7imes of Tuesday—will be read with interest :— Sangir, or ‘‘ Great Sangir,” as it is more frequently called by the natives of the Archipelago, is the largest of a chain of volcanic islands that connects the northern peninsula of Celebes with the southern point of the island of Mindanao. The islands, rising abruptly from the floor of the very deep Celebes sea—a depth of over 2,000 fathoms was found by Her Majesty’s ship Challenger quite close to Great Sangir—are very mountain- ous and covered by dense tropical forests. The islands Ruang and Siauw are both little more than vol- canoes standing in the sea, but Sangir is a large island 25 miles long by about 15 miles broad, with undulating hills and valleys occupying its southern half, and the great Awu volcano and its. slopes the greater part of its northern half. hen I visited the islands in November, 1885, the Ruang and the Awu were quiet, but the Siauw was sending out dense: volumes of smoke that varied little in intensity from day to day. From the accounts I received from the natives and from the records of the islands in the Dutch books of travel, it seems that the Siauw volcano has never been very violently active, but both the Ruang and the Awu have a history full of most terrible and heart-rending episodes. Of the Ruang I need not say much. The last serious eruption occurred in 1871, when at least 400 persons lost their lives either by the sudden rise of the sea water that accompanied the eruption, or by the showers of stones and ash. Of the Awu volcano we find recorded in Valentijn’s ‘‘Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien” that a most terrible eruption occurred which lasted from the roth to the 16th of December, 1711. Sjamsialam and his son, the Princess Lorolabo and her daughter Sarabanong, and over 2000 people of the king- dom of Kandahar were killed. On March 2, 1856, there was another fearful eruption, which lasted until March 17, and de- stroyed nearly 3000 human lives, The streams of boiling water and of steam which poured down the mountain slopes rather than the flow of lava caused the enormous mortality of this second eruption. After the eruption of 1711 it seems that a large lake of water was formed in the crater, and a certain privi- leged class of Sangirese were allowed by the gods to visit this lake every three or four months to test the water with their rice. If 288 NATURE [JuLy 21, 1892 the water was hot enough to cook their rice they took it for a sign that an eruption would shortly follow. The great eruption came in 1856. The waters of the lake began to boil, burst their banks, and flowed down the sides of the mountain towards Tabukan and Taruna, causing immense destruction of human lives and property. Concerning the present eruption we learn very little at present, but it seems to me very improbable that the whole island has been destroyed, and, from the sparseness of the popu- lation on the slopes of the Awu, it is also very improbable that sO many as 12,000 persons have lost their lives. The population consists of one Dutch Controlleur, who may possibly be married, some three or four German mis- ‘sionaries with their wives and children, one or two European traders, a few Chinamen, and the remainder Sangirese Malays. The island is governed by five native Rajahs, who are advised by the resident Dutch Controlleur, For many years there has been no war or other disturbance, but the island, notwithstand- ing the richness of its soil, is not in a very prosperous condition. The only produce of any importance is copra, but some good ebony and other timber is found in the forests that cover the islands. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris, Academy of Sciences, July 11.—M. d’Abbadie in the chair. —On a slight additive correction which may have to be applied to the heights of water indicated by sea-gauges when the swelling or choppy agitation of the sea attains a great intensity ; case of a swell, by M. J. Boussinesq. From theoretical :considera- tions and practical experiments it appears that a tide-gauge exposed in a lateral basin will not give correct indications of level for a choppy sea, but that it will register a lower level than it would if the water were at rest. For a wave 1 metre high the difference may amount to 1 cm.—On the determination of the density of gases, by MM. Henri Moissan and Henri Gautier. This is achieved by a new method, which makes it possible to determine the density within one or even one-half per cent. from a volume of 100 cc. of the gas. The principle is analogous to that adopted by Dumas in his researches on vapour-densities, and consists in measuring the difference between the weight of a known volume of the gas and an equal volume of air at the ‘same temperature and pressure. If this difference in grammes be denoted by Z, and if w denote the volume of the gas or air at temperature ¢° and pressure H, the density is given by the equation H . I 760 1+0°003672. ‘The apparatus consists of a glass cylinder of about 90 cc. capacity connected at its lower end with a glass tube leading through an india-rubber tube to a movable flask filled with mer- cury, by means of which the pressure inside the measuring -cylinder can be regulated. The latter is surmounted at its upper end by a weighing bulb separated by a three-way cock, by which communication can be established with a fine bent tube. In the experiment, the bulb is first exhausted, then filled with dry air and again exhausted, this being repeated about ten times. It is then shut off, and the fine tube and the measuring cylinder are filled with mercury by lifting the reservoir. The capillary tube can now be used as a pipette, and the gas is drawn into the cylinder and allowed to assume a constant temperature during the night at the pressure of the atmosphere. The bulb is then exhausted and placed in communication with the cylinder, and all the gas is driven into the bulb by raising the mercury flask. ‘The bulb is then carefully removed, and dry air is allowed to enter so as to bring the pressure nearly up to that of the atmo- sphere. Lastly, the bulb is placed on the balance ; the weight which has to be added or removed to obtain equilibrium repre- sents ~, which, substituted in the above equation, gives the density. The specimen of gas operated upon can be subse- quently used for other experiments.—On the order of appearance of the first vessels in the flowers of some Lactuce, by M. A. ‘Trécul.—On the effects of cold and drought on this year’s harvests, and the means by which it has been attempted to combat the evil, by M. Chambrelent.— On the alcoylcyanocam- phors and the benzine-azocamphocarbonic ethers, by M. A. Haller.—On the Zibytherium maurusium, a great Ruminant -of the plaisancian pliocene formation of Algiers, by M. A. Pomel.—Measurement of the absolute intensity of gravity at NO. 1186, VOL. 46] p =U X 0'001293 (x-1) x Breteuil (International Office of Weights and Measures), by M. G. Defforges. This ‘was carried out by means of two reversible pendulums constructed by the brothers Brunner, one being Im., the other o’5m. long between the knife-edges. The oscillations — took place in air and in a vacuum, the latter being continued for 12 to 24, and once for 50 hours. The results were :— For the length of the seconds pendulum...... 0'993952 9*80991 Photographs of the chromosphere, the prominences, and the solar faculz, taken at the Kenwood Astro-physical Observa- tory, Chicago, by M. E. Hale.—On the practical calcula- tion of the dimensions of the outflow orifices of saturated vapour into the atmosphere, under constant or varying condi- tions ; application to safety valves, by M. H. Parenty.—On a chloro-nitrogen salt of palladium, by M. M. Vézes.—Double chlorides formed by lithium chloride and the chlorides of the magnesium series, by M. A. Chassevant.—Researches on nickel and cobalt, by MM. Ch. Lepierre and M. Lachaud.— On the iodomethylates of quinine, by M. E. Grimaux.—On the camphocarbonic methyl ethers, methyl camphor, and some nitrogen derivatives of cyanocamphor, by M. J. Minguin,— Action of the metalloid nitrides and hydronitrides on the oxy- hydrocarbon compounds, by M. R. Vidal.—On some ferru- ginous medicines, by M. H. Le Chatelier.—Contributions to the history of mineral waters; on the alumina contained in these waters, by M. F. Parmentier.—The respiratory value of heemocyanine, by M. L. Cuénot.—Physiological action of spermine ; interpretation of its effects on the organism, by M. Alexandre Poeh]l.—On the embryonic circulation in the head of the axolotl, by M. F. Houssay.—On the Belisarius Viguieri, a new fresh-water copepod, by M. Maupas.—On the evolution of the embryo of a fowl submitted during incubation to a con- tinuous rotation, by M. Dareste.—The boghead of Autun, by MM. C. Eg. Bertrand and B. Renault.—On the constitution of the fructifying ears of Sphenophyllum cuneifolium, by M. R. Zeiller.—A review of the geological constitution of the regions situated between Bembé and Crampel Peak (Congo), after specimens collected by M, Jean Dybowski. CONTENTS. PAGE Dr. Mivart’s Essays. By C. Ll M. 5. . 3) 265 Physical Optics. By Arthur Schuster. ..... “4 OY The Apodidz, By Prof, E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S. 257 Our Book Shelf :— cephala)."—LiC. Mee os. s V 267 Compton: ‘fA Mendip Valley: its Inhabitants and Surroundings? 0306.5 = 2)8, 00 eee Coit gorge, 2268 Loney: ‘‘ Key to Elementary Dynamics” ..... 268 Letters to the Editor :— The Lightning Spectrum.—A. Fowler ..... . 268 On the Line Spectra of the Elements. —G, Johnstone Stoney (eck ee ee PAS SU e6S ‘‘The Grammar of Science.”—-Edward T. Dixon ; Dr. St. George Mivart, F.R:8. 3. Jing 4 66 A “Viper”. Bite.—W. A. Rudge... So eas 270 The Edinburgh Meeting of the British Association. By. F. Grant Ogilvie 5 3.6 n eee 270 The Origin of Land Animals: a Biological Research, (Lilustrated.) By W.J. Sollas ..... Bt as 271 The Photographic Map of the Heavens. ..... 274 Notes VLE RIO AERA S Ee Agee aa eg ae ws ae 276 Our Astronomical Column :— A New Nebulous Star...) 4es)42 4540 Ge 279 Atmospheric Depressions and their Analogy with the Movements of Sun-Spots ....... e OP a F280 Yale College Observatory Report. ........ 280 Geographical Notes.) 3.) Stee Se ee «+ 280 The Museum Question, By Prof. Bodyd Dawkins, FOR.S) fs ass a 280 On the Carburization of Iron. I. By John Parry . 283 Photometric Observations of the Sun and Sky. By William Brentiand) 3260.05 2. ee eae 284. Societies and Academies . _ was produced on pigeons and fowls. NATURE 289 THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1892. GROUSE DISEASE AND FOWL ENTERITIS. The Etiology and Pathology of Grouse Disease and Fowl Enteritis. By E. Klein, M.D., F.R.S. (London: Maemillan and Co. 1892.) N this book Dr. Klein has given the results of an im- ‘portant series of researches made by him upon certain diseases in birds. The malady which has specially occupied his attention is that commonly known as the and appreciative circle of non-professional readers. To all interested in the preservation of game it may be com- mended as furnishing for the first time an adequate and satisfactory explanation of the origin and mode of propa- gation of the grouse disease. The book is over and above that a valuable contribution to bacteriology. The very excellent illustrations appended enable one to follow the text with great ease. The birds affected are the red grouse (Lagopus scoticus) of our moors. The disease, __ when it breaks out in the spring or summer, is usually of a very virulent type. A fatal epidemic then arises which carries off large numbers of the birds, to the despair of the owners and keepers, who find themselves powerless to cope with the malady. It is to this quickly fatal epidemic that the name of the grouse disease is applied. _ Though ‘much written about and much discussed, the origin of this disease has hitherto remained undiscovered. During the last five years numbers of birds, dead or dying from the disease, were sent to Dr. Klein from moors in England and Scotland. The large amount of material furnished has enabled him to make an exhaus- ; The result i is the most noteworthy account yet pub- - lished of the etiology and pathology of the disease. Dr. Klein has proved that it is an acute infectious malady primarily affecting the lungs and liver of the birds. The symptoms and appearances are those of an acute in- fectious pneumonia. Dr. Klein has further discovered the causa causans of the disease in the shape of a minute unicellular organism, belonging to the class of the bacteria. This microbe has its special seat in the lungs and liver. It is a bacillus, and is found filling and blocking up the _ capillary blood vessels in the diseased areas of the lungs _ and liver. The organism can be isolated trom the diseased tissues and grown on suitable media outside the body. _ In this way a series of culture of the bacilli were made on _ various soils—gelatine, Agar, beef broth, &c. The man- _ ner of growth of the microbe in these culture media is very fully described. The growths obtained were always _ of the same bacterial species. The pure culture of the _ bacillus subcutaneously inoculated into healthy animals _ reproduced the symptoms and appearances of the disease. _ They proved fatal to mice and guinea pigs, and caused - in them a congestion of the lungs and liver. No effect The most virulent cultures of the microbe were those grown in meat broth _ to which a piece of coagulated white of egg had been _ added. The most positive results were obtained with the _ common bunting and yellow-ammer. These birds were NO. 1187, VOL. 46] grouse disease. The book will therefore find a large inoculated with a minute drop of a meat-broth culture of the microbe. They succumbed within twenty-four hours. The post-mortem appearances were similar to those found in the grouse, viz., a marked congestion of the lungs and liver. The bacilli were found in large numbers in the lungs. From these experiments Dr. Klein was able to conclude that the grouse disease is due to the microbe isolated by him from the diseased organs of the birds. Unfortunately he has not been able to reproduce the disease in large birds, or to utilize healthy grouse for his experiments. In the latter case the difficulty in obtaining | living birds and keeping them in captivity prevented this last and most important proof being furnished. The larger birds experimented with (fowls and pigeons) proved unsusceptible. The infection of the birds seems to take place through the respiratory organs. Dr. Klein furnishes a very strik- ing experiment in support of this view. A _ yellow- ammer, after being inoculated with the grouse bacillus, was placed in a cage adjoining to one containing six healthy ammers. These six healthy birds acquired the disease and died. The autumnal disease of the grouse is similar to the spring and summer disease, and both are caused by the same microbe. The bacilli found in the autumnal disease are, however less virulent than those found in cases during the spring and summer. The buntings and ammers inoculated with the autumn microbe died at a much later period. Mice that had survived inoculation with the autumn microbe did not succumb when inoculated with the more virulent spring microbe. Dr. Klein suggests that cultures of the autumnal microbe might be used as a protective vaccine for the young birds on the moors. It is to be feared that those on whose shoulders this task would fall might prefer the disease to the cure. The bacillus is easily killed. A temperature of 60° C, completely destroys its life in five minutes. On the other hand, virulent meat broth cultures heated for twenty minutes to 55° C., retained their virulence and yielded normal growths when grown in a fresh soil. This more prolonged heating so near the critical temperature for the bacilli (60° C.) did not, as one would have supposed, pro- duce any retardation in their subsequent growth or any attenuation of the organisms. Meat broth cultures, in which the bacilli had been destroyed by heat, produced in mice all the symptoms of the disease. This points to the presence in the meat broth of some poisonous chemical product. The matter is referred to very briefly, but we hope Dr. Klein will soon be in a position to tell us more about this interesting and important discovery. To prevent the spread of the grouse disease the import- ance of weeding out suspicious birds from the moors is emphasized. The birds killed should be removed and burned. : Dr. Klein describes in the next place a bacillus which he isolated from garden earth. Guineapigs, rabbits, and mice, when inoculated with this organism, developed an cedema of the subcutaneous and muscular tissues. The organism is aerobic, and grows well in the presence of free oxygen, and on the surface of culture media. It is therefore not identical with Koch’s bacillus of malignant O 290 NATURE [JuLy 28, 1892 cedema, which is an anaerobic organism. Though it resembles the bacillus of grouse disease in certain respects, they are not to be regarded as one and the same microbe. The second part of the book contains an account of a fatal epidemic amongst fowls which broke out at Orpington in Kent. The symptoms and post-mortem appearances led Dr. Klein to designate the disease fowl enteritis, in order to distinguish it from fowl cholera. The bacillus which is the cause of fowl enteritis is not identical with the bacillus of fowl cholera, and Dr. Klein clearly proves this. Dr. Klein’s bacillus is evidently a less virulent organ- ism. In only onecase was the disease produced by feed- ing fowls with the intestinal contents of a diseased fowl. Experiments on other animals gave practically negative results, except in the case of one rabbit. The virulence of the bacilli was lessened by heat. Fowls inoculated with this attenuated virus could not be infected with the disease. Some practical suggestions are given with a view to combating such epidemics. The concluding chapter of the book ‘contains an inter- esting account of a disease in young pheasants known as “ Cramps.” We have given but a very brief account of Dr. Klein’s important investigations. The book will, however, be read by every one interested in the subjects of which it treats, and with great profit. Toother workers in the same field it will prove an indispensable work of reference. We have only detected one misprint, on page 53, where ‘* 50° Fahr.” should no doubt have read 50°C. We cannot close this notice without a word of praise for the excellent photograms of Mr. Pringle and Mr. Bousfield. A. M.. ELECTRIC LIGHT CABLES. Electric Light Cables. (London: Whittaker and Co., 1892.) DOZEN years ago, when dynamos and lamps, both + arc and incandescent, had been pretty well developed, the general public arrived at the conclusion that it was time to commence the work of central station lighting by electricity. It was not until the plans of these proposed works were taken in hand by the consulting engineers that the difficulties in the way of distribution became fully apparent. It was not well known what strength of current could be safely carried through the conductors ; and engineers were rather appalled at the cost of the copper required for maintaining uniform pressure over a district, and at the waste of energy in the condugtors. Besides these theoretical troubles in the way, engineers were met by the practical difficulty of devising a secure and efficient means of laying conductors under the streets, and ensuring their proper insulation- Until recently, the rules which must be attended to by engineers to enable them to handle these questions were only to be found in scattered pamphlets and Proceedings of societies. Several scientific men dealt independently with the heating of the conductors, and finally Mr. Kennelly published his splendid experimental work on the subject. Other writers went fully into the economical NO. 1187, VOL. 46] principles which must be followed in order to secure the most uniform distribution at the least cost. When the alternating-current rendered the employment of high pressures both safe and convenient, many of these pre- __ cautions became less necessary, but new problems arose ~ which are also generally dealt with only in isolated papers. Inventors sprang up, each advocating his own system of laying mains, and an outsider can gain a know- ledge of these only by reading the patent specifications, or by inspecting the progress of works. The mechanical details of making joints, insulating, and so forth, are not much dealt with in the literature of the subject. The book before us is one of the first attempts to collect all the above principles within one binding. The first few chapters deal principally with the heating of conductors and the economical laws of distribution. Well-known writings on the subject are here condensed into convenient compass, and Kennelly’s experimental results are given in sufficient detail. Series and parallel systems and their combinations, including the three-wire and five-wire systems, which serve so much to economise copper, are explained, and also the principles involved in the use of transformers with alternating currents. Having thus described the systems available, we Have, in Chapter v., a useful account of the cost of cables and conduits, with tables showing the relative cost of different systems when the distribution extends to different distances, showing the advantages of using high pressure for long distances. Chapter vi. gives a number of practi- cal data about different kinds of conductors and the manner of making joints, which, though not exhaustive, will be of use to many. The next chapters deal with the characters of the insulation, including air insulation, lead- covered cables, the various bituminous compounds known as bitite, &c., oil insulation, and, of course, vulcanized india-rubber, about which the author is particularly capable of giving information. The effects of capacity, which has given so much trouble at some central stations, are also alluded to. These chapters are very fairly written, and give as good an account of the various systems of insulation as is likely to be found anywhere, or as we might expect in a volume of this size, which is more a hand-book of the subject than an exhaustive treatise. Some of the principles of testing are then shortly, but very clearly, described-; and the principles of house wiring are clearly shown, and safety devices described. Several good chapters come near the end of the book on the practical construction of lines, whether overhead or underground, the latter dealing chiefly with the actual work which has been done in London of late years. This book is one of the best which could be taken up by the student to give him a general knowledge of what is involved in the comprehensive title—“ The Distribution of © Electricity.” It does not pretend to be a complete manual for the office, containing all the information required by the consulting engineer in dealing with these problems, but the descriptions are clear and generally accurate, and the only criticism which we feel compelled to make is that” sometimes, apparently with the desire of preventing the book from being too technical, or requiring too much mental effort to read it, the author has been, perhaps, a little too sketchy, and might with advantage have given NATURE 291 JuLy 28, 1892] _ some more detailed information on a variety of points. __ Nevertheless, we consider that this book is a useful ad- dition to electrical literature, and must be of the utmost use to students in showing the difficulties which have to be encountered in designing a plan of central station working. The general reader will also be much interested in learning something more of the meaning of the work which he sees being carried out at present in the streets of many of our towns. Should the book chance to fall into the hands of any members of electric lighting com- mittees of Municipal Corporations, it will do a vast amount of good, by opening their eyes as to the number of problems that have to be considered in their dealings _ with different contractors, each generally wedded to a _ special system. It is to be hoped that this book will teach them that, in trying to act as consulting engineers without the special training necessary, they are not serving the best interests of the towns they represent. Altogether, “ Electric Light Cables” is a useful addition to the litera- ture of electrical engineering, and the absence of too many technicalities will make it popular with a large class of readers. OUR BOOK SHELF. Distribution de ?Electricité. 1. “Installations isolées.” Il. “ Usines centrales.” Par R. V. Picou, Ingénieur _ des Arts et Manufactures. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, THESE two small volumes are portion of a series belong- = to “L’Encyclopédie scientifique des Aide-Mémoire,” publi: under the direction of M. Léauté, Member of _ the Institute. The second volume is the only one which | calls for remark. It deals with the methods, well known in England, of distribution of continuous and alternating ur. and systems of high and low pressure. The in- formation given concerning the multiphase and rotary Geese Syren is very scanty and quite out of propor- tion to other matters treated of. The reader will naturally look for an account of the method employed for the transmission of power from Lauffen to Frankfort, but he will find no information of any practical service. The author, however, gives a short discussion of the difficulties that must be surmounted if arc and incandescent lamps are to be installed on a circuit fed by a triphaser and Information is given concerning the working of some of the principal existing central stations, and there is a useful bibliography. | Fopiler Readings in Science. By John Gall, M.A. _ LL.B., and David Robertson, M.A., LisBt B.Sc. (Westminster : Constable and Co., 1892.) THIS forms the second volume of Constable’s Oriental Misc ny of original and selected publications, and is intended to form the basis of a general course of instruc- Payne science, suited to the requirements of the pupils in . aeaan schools who are preparing for matriculation at the University. The authors lay no claim to originality, but have exercised a judicious choice in the selection of subject matter. The first chapter deals with meteorology, special prominence being given to Mr. Blandford’s re- searches on the climate of India. Then follow chapters on the vegetable kingdom, evolution, both in its bio- logical and chemical aspects, mimicry, the nebular hypo- thesis, tidal evolution, energy, the spectroscope, molecular forces, and Bacteria. A reference to the meteoritic hypo- NO. 1187, VOL. 46] thesis would make the chapter on the nebular theory more complete. The authors have wisely contented them- selves with descriptions of theories and plain matter-of- fact statements. The book is very readable, but at times somewhat technical. It would, however, be improved by the addition of more diagrams, though it may be that more can safely be left to the imagination of the Oriental than the Western mind. The narrative style which has been adopted by the authors will make the book acceptable to general readers who are anxious to make acquaintance with modern science. Geometrical Deductions, Book II. By James Blaikie and W. Thomson. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892.) THIS treatise is intended to afford a systematic course of training in the art of solving geometrical problems. The basis of the system which the authors have employed is to be thoroughly recommended, being both logical and simple. The book is divided into sections, each of which consists of three parts. In the first a model de- duction is fully worked out to illustrate the method of solution; then follow similar deductions with their figures, and occasional hints ; while, lastly, the student is left to himself to solve the problems without any such aid. This principle is maintained throughout the entire book, so that a student should be able to obtain a good working knowledge and should also to a great extent be quite rid of a teacher. The Appendices will also be found very useful, as they contain the enunciations of the propositions in Euclid’s second book and of standard theorems and loci, together with a set of miscellaneous deductions covering the range of Euclid’s first two books. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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. } B.A. Procedure. THE coming meeting of our ancient and venerable institution, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, will doubt- less be a large one, as the beauties of Edinburgh are sure to tempt many to attend, and may therefore give opportunity for discussion on a subject of fundamental importance—the future well-being of the Association and the means of retaining it as an object of veneration on account of the services which it zs rendering and not merely on account of those which it fas rendered. It is beyond question that there are many who have long been dissatisfied, and who are of opinion that B.A. procedure is not in harmony with the times. Moreover, to speak plainly, many of us feel that the ‘‘ tripper” element has become too predomin- ant, and that the credit of science will suffer if a large number of persons be permitted, year after year, to make pleasant holi- day, ‘‘ supported by voluntary contributions,” under the pretence of advancing science, while the number of true workers whose reputation alone upholds the claim of the Association to public recognition is but small. In the great majority of instances the reading of papers on technical questions in the sections has become little less than a solemn and dreary farce played to almost bare benches ; and it is only in exceptional cases—such as Section A affords—that a small and devoted body of true believers worship at an inner shrine without regard to the general public, and are thus able among themselves to do work of high value to science. The B.A. should exercise an influence in two directions—it should advance scientific knowledge among scientific workers ; and it should aid the general public in understanding and appre- ciating scientific work, its methods and results. It may effect the 292 former by bringing scientific workers together and giving them due opportunity for the interchange of knowledge and opinions. To secure this end, it is important that sectzonal and éntersectional dis- cusstons should, in future, become ¢he feature of the meetings, but to be successful these must be conducted with fargreater forethought than heretofore—they must be true discussions and must not consist of a number of short papers written without reference to each other or to any central idea, and there must be no limitation of discussion so long as it is to the point. Probably the best plan will be that sectional committees, specially appointed for the purpose, select subjects, and that on each of these some one open a discussion by means of a carefully-prepared paper, printed and circulated at least a month beforehand, among those likely to take part in the debate. Such discussions should be carefully reported, and the edited report should be subsequently published, those who had taken part in the discussion having full liberty allowed them to give expression to their carefully-considered opinions instead of being required merely to punctuate their sentences in proof. The resolution not to report discussions arrived at last year by the Council is most unfortunate. If it were understood that discussions would be reported, speakers would be far more in- terested, and would take far more pains in preparing to take part in them than has hitherto been the case. It is, I think, unnecessary to dwell on the value of true discussion among workers in different, but cognate, branches of science. As regards the public functions of the Association, it is un- questionable that much more might—and should—be done on behalf of those who are interested spectators rather than active workers in science. The evening lectures now delivered are often very brilliant expositions, but, as a rule, they have been ‘€above the heads” of a very large proportion even of the members of the Association who have listened to them. I know many who think with me that a more direct effort should now be made to advance the knowledge of science among the general public at these meetings. One great reform which must be carried out is the general curtailment of the expenses of the meetings, which make it impossible for any but the largest and richest towns to receive the Association. The lavish expenditure on the Reception Room which has been so frequently witnessed of late years should be unnecessary. So long as we can come together and can accomplish our object—the advancement of science—we should be satisfied with the most modest accommodation and should even be prepared to submit to some privation. At the German Naturforscher Versammlungen the vast majority cater for them- selves, and private hospitality is almost unknown, the social demon, which is so ruthless a destroyer of much of the effective- ness of the B.A. meetings, being kept entirely in the back- ground ; and yet, in my opinion, these meetings are at least as enjoyable and fruitful of result as our own B.A. meetings. Then we want younger presidents, on the average—men who are in their prime as scientific workers. Of late years our Council has been far too cautious and con- servative a body, and a large infusion of a liberal and progressive element is necessary if we are to set our house in order, so that it may suit the times. Many of us think that the Council is not in touch with us as a body—somehow we know of its existence, but its functions are mystic and akin rather to those of the Archives of the Royal Society than to those of an energizing and propulsive organ. In these democratic days, it would be well if each section were to return a member to Council. HENRY E. ARMSTRONG. The Position of 47 in Electromagnetic Units. THERE is, I believe, a growing body of opinion that the present system of electric and magnetic units is inconvenient in practice, by reason of the occurrence of 4m asa factor in the specification of quantities which have no obvious relation with circles or spheres. It is felt that the number of lines from a pole should be m rather than the present 47, that ‘‘ampereturns” is better than 4mnC, that the electromotive intensity outside a charged body might be o instead of 47a, and similar changes of that sort ; see, for instance, Mr. Williams’s recent paper to the Physical Society: Mr. Heaviside, in his articles in the Z/ectvictan and elsewhere, has strongly emphasized the importance of the change and the simplification that can thereby be made. NO. 1187, VOL. 46] [JuLy 28, 1892 In theoretical investigations there seems some probability that the simplified formule may come to be adopted— p being written instead of 4, and % instead of = : but the question is whether it is or is not too late to incorporate | the practical outcome of such a change into the units employed by electrical engineers. For myself I am impressed with the extreme difficulty of now making any change in the ohm, the volt, &c., even though it be only a numerical change ; but in order to find out what practical proposal the supporters of the redistribution of 4m had in their mind, I wrote to Mr. Heaviside to inquire. His reply I enclose ; and would merely say further that in all probability the general question of units will come up at Edinburgh for discussion. OLIVER J. LopcE. Paignton, Devon, Fuly 18, 1892. My DEAR LopDGE,—I am glad to hear that the question of rational electrical units will be noticed at Edinburgh—if not thoroughly discussed. It is, in my opinion, a very important question, which must, sooner or later, come to a head and lead to a thoroughgoing reform. Electricity is becoming not only a master science, but also a very practical science. Its units should therefore be settled upon a sound and philo- sophical basis. I do not refer to practical details, which may be varied from time to time (Acts of Parliament notwithstand- ing), but to the fundamental principles concerned. If we were to define the unit area to be the area of a circle of unit diameter, or the unit volume to be the volume of a sphere of unit diameter, we could, on such a basis, construct a consistent system of units. But the area of a rectangle or the volume of a parallelepiped would involve the quantity 7, and various derived formulze would possess the same peculiarity. No one would deny that such a system was an absurdly irrational one. I maintain that the system of electrical units in present use is founded upon a similar irrationality, which pervades it from to to bottom. How this has happened, and how to cure the evil, I have considered in my papers—first in 1882-83, when, how- ever, I thought it was hopeless to expect a thorough reform ; and again in 1891, when I have, in my ‘“‘ Electro netic Theory,” adopted rational units from the beginning, pointing out their connection with the common irrational units sepa- rately, after giving a general outline of electrical theory in terms of the rational. Now, presuming provisionally that the first and second stages to Salvation (the Awakening and Repentance) have been safely passed through, which is, however, not at all certain at the present time, the question arises, How proceed to the third stage, Reformation? Theoretically this is quite easy, as it merely means working with rational formule instead of. irra- tional ; and theoretical papers and treatises may, with great advantage, be done in rational formule at once, and irrespective of the reform of the practical units. But taking a far-sighted view of the matter, it is, I think, very desirable that the practi- cal units themselves should be rationalized as speedily as may be. This must involve some temporary inconvenience, the prospect of which, unfortunately, is an encouragement to shirk a duty ; as is, likewise, the common feeling of respect for the labours of our predecessors. But the duty we owe to our followers, to lighten their labours permanently, should be para- mount. This is the main reason why I attach so much im- portance to the matter ; it is not merely one of abstract scientific interest, but of practical and enduring significance; for the evils of the present system will, if it continue, go on multiplying with every advance in the science and its applications. Apart from the size of the units of length, mass, and time, and of the dimensions of the electrical quantities, we have the following relations between the rational and irrational units of voltage V, electric current C, resistance R, inductance L, per- mittance S, electric charge Q, electric force E, magnetic force H, induction B, Let «* stand for 47, and let the suffixes , and ; mean rational and irrational (or ordinary). Also let the pre- ¥ x sence of square brackets signify that the ‘‘absolute” unit is referred to. Then we have— _ [E] _ [Vr] — [He] — [Br] _ [Cd — (Qa. (Ee) (Vi) (Hed (Bi [Cr] (Qe? yo — Re) _ Ue] _ (Sd. [Ri] [Li] [Sy] . r. ne ig take to m Jury 28, 1892] NATURE 293 ‘The next ge uestion is, what multiples of these units we should ake the practical units. In accordance with your Tk I give my ideas on the subject, premixing, however, that ik there is no finality in things of this sort. First, if we let the rational practical units be the same mul- of the “absolute” rational units as the present practical units are of ¢heir absolute progenitors, then we would have (if we the centimetre, gramme, and second, and the convention that: “= 1 in ether) [R-] x 109 = newohm = .~? times old. ans 10°. = new mac =x", |; iaep & 10° = new farad = x7? ;, 5, are 10-'= new amp = x" ,,. 5, [Vy] x 108 =newvolt =x Z 107 ergs = new joule = old joule. _ 10’ ergs per sec = new watt = old watt. I ao ans however, think it at all desirable that the new units w on the same rules as the old, and consider that the system is preferable :— [Ry] x 168 ‘= : id [L] ee 2 new ohm = = x old ohm, oO < 2 new mac = — x old mac. [S+] x 1o~§ = new farad = — x old farad. {C-) x1 ==newamp = — x old amp. a = Se TF | 0 x oeeeneer io = new volt = «x x old volt. alto 108 ergs = newjoule = 10 x old joule. pieige oi per sec. = new watt = 10 x old watt. It will be observed that this set of practical units makes the ohm, mac, vat volt, and the unit of elastance, or reciprocal of nittance, all larger than the old ones, but not greatly larger, ultiplier varying roughly from 1} to 34. What, , Lattach particular importance to is the use of one power of 10 only, viz. 10°, in passing from the absolute to the units; instead of, as in the common system, no ; 1 four powers, 10}, 107, 1o8, and 10%, I regard this pooner Me of the common system as a needless and (in my ex- | ged very vexatious complication. In the 10° system I have described, this is done away with, and still the practical electrical units keep pace fairly with the old ones. The of the old joule and watt by Io is, of course, a accompaniment. I do not see any objection to the Meaiadh not important, it seems rather an improve- 3 (But transformations of units are so treacherous, that I : should wish the whole of the above to be narrowly scrutinized.) i is suggested to make 10° the multiplier throughout, and the senate ~~ [Ry] x 10? = new ohm = 2 x old ohm. {L,] x 10° = new mac = x°* x old mac. 7 [S-) x 107" = new farad = x=" x old farad. Sate 4: [C,] x I = newamp = < x old amp. ii {V*] x 10° = new volt = 10x x old volt. etl ms 10° ergs = new joule = 10° x old joule. fe nts ue ‘10° ergs p. sec. = new watt = 10° x old watt. - But I think this system makes the ohm inconveniently big, and has some other objections. But I do not want to dogmatize in these matters of detail. Two things I would emphasize :— ‘First, rationalize ~ units. Next, employ a single multiplier, as, for example, 10° OLIVER HEAVISIDE. q ‘ 1 tas a preserve us from dynamics based on the Act of — — Neutral Point in the Pendulum. In the theory of the pendulum the position of the neutral point of support is a matter of practical importance, which is, nevertheless, quite disregarded Taking a rigid uniform bar as the simplest case, there are NO. 1187, VOL. 46] ‘in the main pendulum researches, four. points of support from which its vibrations are equal, the two ends and the two respective centres of oscillation. But there are two symmetric points, situated between either end and the centre of oscillation nearest to that end, from which points of suspension the rate of vibration is most rapid. Hence, when suspended from these points, a change in the position of the point of support produces a minimum difference in the rate of vibration. Or, in practical terms, there is a great advantage in having a small amount of overhead weight above the support, as then, if the support approach the bob (owing to changes in elasticity of the spring, or of the knife edges), and so increase the number of vibrations, it recedes from the top weight, and so diminishes the vibrations to a corresponding amount, and vice versa. This neutral point of support seems to have been overlooked as it was what had to be avoided rather than sought in the determination of the length, which was then the main interest. Probably some one has already noticed such an elementary property ; but it is of so much value in minimizing sources of error that it is worth some attention. Bromley, Kent. W. M, FLINDERS PETRIE. Induction and Deduction, CAN we determine the precise relation between Induction and Deduction? Both are said to be a species of Inference. De- duction is, no doubt, Mediate Inference. Is /uduction Mediate or Immediate Inference? If Immediate it must be of the form: This X is Y (or these X’s are Y’s) . ... . (1) POPE OLE VS iy. se hove, ehmei cs jie GRD But such ‘‘inference” as this is not illative; (1) can furnish only a suggestion, not by any means a justification, of (2). Still it is true that if, ¢.2. I have proved that the angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal to each other, I hence- forth believe and assert unhesitatingly, that a// isosceles triangles have the angles at the base equal. Yow do I justify such a conclusion of an universal from a particular? In this way, I think :—Every nameable or cogitable object is an identity in diversity—that is, it is itself, it is something, and it has a plurality of characteristics. This principle is involved in the assertion of any statement of the form 4 7s B, and it seems moreover to be, in itself, evident on reflection. Further (as Bacon surmised), every property (or group of properties) has a ‘‘ form,”’ some invariable and inevitable coexistent. In other words, there is uniformity of coexistence as well as of causation in nature. In the case of any one isosceles triangle, I have seew the connection of interde- pendence that there is between the characteristics of ‘having equal sides,” and ‘‘having the angles at the base equal ;” I have perceived it to be self-evident that the one property involves the other. Hence, my whole argument might run thus :— Every characteristic is invariably accompanied by some other characteristic ; Equality of sides in a triangle is a characteristic ; . Equality of sides in a triangle is invariably accompanied by some other characteristic. Again :— Equality of angles at the base is a characteristic which is (self- evidently) inseparable from equality of sides in one [this particular] case ; What is ‘inseparable from equality of sides in one case is in- separable i in all cases ; Equality of angles at the base is inseparable from equality of sides in all cases— That is, a// isosceles triangles have the angles at the base equal. What we rely on here is Interdependence of characteristics and Uniformity of that interdependence; z.e. we rely on a principle of coexistence or coinherence, parallel to Mill’s ‘‘ Law of Causation” ; and this is a principle which we find to be a necessary condition of what we accept as strictly self-evident propositions. The assertion with which we conclude in the above generalization, is an assertion of uniformity of inter- dependence between certain specified characteristics. Again, if I administer a certain amount of arsenic to a healthy animal, and it dies, and I hence conclude that arsenic is a cause 294 NATURE [JuLy 28, 1892 of death, I argue thus :—Since every event (= change of attri- butes in subjects) has a cause, the death in question had a cause ; the only precedent event that was relevant, was the administra- tion of arsenic, therefore the arsenic was in this case the cause of death (this last result is obtained by the Method of Difference — by it we prove cause—z.e, interdependence of successive events). But (by the principle of uniformity) if arsenic is on one occasion cause of death, it is always cause of death; therefore arsenic is always a cause of death. It will be observed that in this second induction, though not in the first, we make use of one of Mill’s ‘* Inductive Methods.” The function of these Methods is to prove interdependence be- tween phenomena—whether it be an interdependence of con- comitance or of causation. In the case of the Method of Differ- ence we proceed on the assumption that if the introduction of A is followed by the appearance of C, or the removal of A by the disappearance of C, then A and C are causally interdependent. In the Method of Agreement we proceed on the assumption that if A is never found without C, A has a connection of inter- dependence with C. We do not use, and do not need, these Methods in mathe- matical generalizations, because there we see the interdependence upon which generalization to unknown cases is based ; it is this actual apprehension of interdependence that both makes the methods unnecessary and gives mathematical generalizations the peculiar certainty which is generally attributed to them. In the case above cited, for instance, we see that equality of angles at the base is self-evidently and necessarily bound up with equality of sides in a triangle. We do of see that there is aself-evident interdependence hetween the obvious properties of arsenic and poisonousness. A further interesting point is that our power of predicting that one event, A, will be -fo//owed by another event, C, seems to depend wholly upon coexistence of attributes in the subjects concerned. If we have seen one animal dosed with arsenic and subsequently die, and hence conclude that another animal called by the same name, and dosed with an equal amount of arsenic, will die, is not our inference based upon the assumption of a certain constant coinherence of attributes, both in the animal and in the poison—a coinherence of such a kind that when the two subjects are so collocated as to act upon each other, a result similar to that produced in the first case will be produced in the second also? If the properties of this arsenic are different from the other, or if the second animal, though looking like the first, has a different internal constitution, there is no reason why death should result. Hence, laws of succession in events seem to depend upon laws of coexistence of attributes in subjects. Even those generally unquestioned axioms of logic, the Law of Contradiction and the Law of Excluded Middle, might be appealed to (if it were necessary) in support of the Principle of Interdependence—for the Law of Excluded Middle intimates a thoroughgoing connection (positive or negative) between all nameable things ; and the Law of Contradiction asserts a certain definite amount of necessary interdependence of properties in every imaginable case—interdependence, namely, between ¢he presence of any characteristic and the absence of its negative. Looking at the whole process of inductive reasoning, it appears to be in the application of the ‘‘ Methods” that the principles used approach nearest to the character of mere assumptions ; and this is so only because of the difficulty of applying the Methods precisely—of being sure, ¢.g. in the case of the arsenic, that the administration of arsenic was the only new antecedent relevant to death. It may just be noticed that in an argument by analogy we rely upon an interdependence which is inferred from the complexity or amount of interdependence already known or supposed. If the above account of inductive reasoning is accepted, it appears that the connection between Induction and Deduction is very close—in fact, that the one distinctive feature of logical induction is the element of hypothesis or discovery—the suppo- sition of a given connection—from which every Induction must set out. Cambridge. E. E. CONSTANCE JONES. The Scale for Measurement of Gas Pressures. I VENTURE to ask you to print the following suggestion. It is one likely enough to have been made before, but I do not re- member having met with it. NO. 1187, VOL. 46] We generally measure gaseous pressures in millimetres of mercury, and 760 mm. is adopted as the standard pressure. It ee would certainly be more convenient if we expressed the measure-- _ ment in degrees, the degree being of such magnitude that the standard pressure were 273°. of P, T, and V ito or from the standard conditions would simplified in an obvious way. The equation PV=RT would become V=R at standard pressure and temperature. R the same constant for all gases under all conditions, if V st for the molecular volume, it would be convenient to remember it as identical with the well-known number expressing the stan- dard volume of a gramme-molecule. 1°P would correspond to about 2°78 mm. or 4 inch of mercury. ORME MASSON. The University of Melbourne, June 21, Luminous Clouds. BRIGHT luminous clouds were seen here on the night of Sunday the 24th inst., in the north and north-north-east, from 9.35 to 10.35 p.m. As‘usual they distinctly resembled cév7i, having some definite upward curls. The actual cirri, which had after sunset been moving rapidly from east-south-east, now appeared dusky against the twilight glow. The filature of the upper or luminous. cirri was, as appears to be usual, west and east, while that of the ordinary cirri was east-south-east and west-north-west. These luminous clouds, although no doubt simply reflecting solar light, generally appear to the casual observer as incan- descent or self-luminous. ; They were seen from the summit of Ben Nevis all through the- night of the 24th-25th, according to the report in the 7imes. Lutterworth. W. CLEMENT LEy. Whirlwinds in the South Indian Ocean, THE following account of whirlwinds met with in the South Indian Ocean at the end of last May, which has been supplied to the Meteorological Office by Messrs. Sandbach, Tinne & Co.,. of Liverpool, may be of interest to your readers. “ RoBErT H. Scort, July 22. Secretary, Meteorological Office. Extract from a Letter received from Capt. Ship ‘* Genista.” ‘*At noon on May 26, lat. 42° o’ S., long. 99° o’ E., wind fresh from N.W.—weather very squally with rain, barometer’ steady at 29°82 in., thermometer 49° since midnight. A very heavy black squall with rain began to rise in the W. Barometer suddenly fell o'r in. As the squall neared the ship it arched up in the centre, showing a very bright blue sky at the back of it ; the ends-of the squall on either side were quite black and thick with rain. On its nearer approach to the ship I saw two immense whirlwinds, just a little on either side of the centre of the arch and coming direct for the ship, the sea under and near the whirls being carried around and up in great volumes. I thought at first they were two waterspouts forming, but I saw no descending column or clouds from above, as is seen when a waterspout is forming ; when these whirls came to within two miles of the ship, the squall seemed to part in the centre of the: arch—one half passing to the N.E., the other half to the S.E., one whirl following in rear of each part of the squall, and not where the clouds were heaviest. During the time of the separation of the arch we had the wind very unsteady from N.W. to S.W. There was only a fresh breeze with thick rain in that part of the squall that neared the ship; yet the squall was travelling along at a great rate, the whirls keeping | in the rear till out of sight. I shortened sail to topsails as soon as I saw the squall rising. After it passed, the weather looked very fine, bright, and clear, but the sky was a windy one, being: avery bright blue. By 3 p.m. the wind shifted to W., and barometer had fallen to 29°67 in., thermometer 48°. At 4 p.m. saw another whirl passing along to windward in the rear of a_ squall, the clouds above it being twined and twisted every way. During the whole night we had very heavy squalls, sometimes — following one another very quick, with little wind between— direction W.S.W. At daylight the weather was much finer. After that, to lat. 40° 22’ S., long. 125° E., I had very peculiar: S. P. Hearn, All calculations involving change —_ JuLy 28, 1892] NATURE 295 weather. Wind from N.W. to S, and back again, from a light breeze to a moderate gale, barometer never rising higher than 29°90 in., or falling below 29°66 in. The Cause of the Great Fire at St. John’s. A FEW days ago you inserted a letter calling attention tothe large number of fatal accidents occurring every year caused by the upsetting of paraffin lamps, the great majority of which could sasily be prevented if the use of automatic extinguishers were made compulsory. : Now we are startled by the report of the huge conflagration at St. John’s, which, in addition to having caused terrible and widespread suffering, has resulted in the loss of a large amount of property, valued at many millions of dollars. ik Taste the principal sufferers by this great fire are some of _ the leading English insurance companies, and various estimates have been published of the amounts which they will lose by this great fire. Zhe Policy Holder, an insurance journal, in its last issue, mentions the following figures :— : 4 4 Phoenix ie 120,000 to 140,000 Royal Be =e .-. 80,000 to 100,000 Liverpool,London,and Globe 50,000 to 70,000 London and Lancashire ... 50,000 to 60,000 Commercial Union ... .-. 40,000 to 50,000 North British and Mercantile 50,000 to 60,000 Northern... os ss 40,000 to 50,000 Manchester ... 8,000 to 11,000 Lancashire ... 5,000 to 7,000 Norwich Union 7,000 to 10,000 __ Also the ‘*General,” said to be £30,000, and the ‘‘ Lion” fora comparatively large sum, making in the aggregate a loss for __ English insurance companies alone of over £500,000 sterling. __ The same journal explains how this great fire was brought “Tt is worthy of note that, like the Chicago fire, this con- flagration was caused by the upsetting of an oil lamp in a stable. _ Fire business was already this year going badly enough, and there now seems little reason to doubt that to the companies as a whole 1892 will prove a disastrous year and a dead loss.” The Mayor of Manchester (Alderman Bosdin Leech), in pre- siding yesterday at a meeting of citizens called for the purpose of raising a fund in aid of the sufferers by this great catastrophe, ** Since the fire of forty or fifty years ago many substantial ic and private buildings had been erected, all of which have en destroyed. On one side, at any rate, a thriving town had been reduced to a heap of ashes, and about 10,000 people had been rendered homeless, and damage had been done to the extent ie Sun 2,500,000 dollars. With such an event coming sud- _denly n them, they could imagine how the people were prostrated. The heart of the people was completely crushed. A great many of the sufferers were ofthe poorest class, and they were almost powerless to help themselves. They were without food, except such as had been supplied to them through the kind- ness of their neighbours ; they were without clothes, for all their -clothes had been destroyed ; and, unfortunately, the working oe of the community had been almost entirely bereft of the tools and implements with which they were in the habit of earn- pt their daily bread.” __ It is indeed very sad to think that this terrible calamity might ; > been avoided had the oil lamp which was the cause of all is mischief been fitted with a simple application of science in the shape ofa simple automatic extinguisher. _ July 20. HUMANITY. THE WASHINGTON COLLECTION OF FOSSIL VERTEBRATES. WE are pleased to learn from a transatlantic contem- porary that the enormous collections of vertebrate remains, obtained under the superintendence of Prof. O. C. Marsh from the Tertiary and Secondary strata of the north-western United States, are about to be NO. 1187, VOL. 46] transferred to the National Museum at Washington, where they will eventually be properly arranged, and exhibited to the public. For the last nine years, as we are informed, the United States Government has voted funds for the collection and preservation of these wonderful remains, descriptions of which have been from time to time presented to the scientific world with a wealth of illustration which cannot but render European paleontologists somewhat envious. Hitherto the whole of this collection (together with Prof. Marsh’s private collection) has been stored in the palzontological department of the unfinished Peabody Museum, at Yale College, New Haven, Conn.; where want of space has totally prohibited its proper exhibition. Indeed, those who have had the opportunity of inspecting this unrivalled series inform us that the specimens are so crowded together—the smaller ones in tier upon tier of trays, and the larger ones on the floors and in every available corner—that it has hitherto been quite im- possible to form any adequate judgment as to the extent and importance of the collection. It is, however, satis- factory to learn that the whole series has been carefully labelled and registered, so that the locality and date of acquisition of every individual bone are fully recorded. To prepare such an enormous collection for transit by rail is a work demanding both extreme care and a con- siderable amount of time ; while the Museum space re- quired for the exhibition of entire skeletons of the bulk of those of the Jurassic and Cretaceous Dinosaurs must be proportionately extensive. We are informed, indeed, that if the whole collection were transferred to Washington at the present time it would occupy fully one-half of the buildings of the National Museum. Accordingly, only a portion of it is to be immediately transported ; while the remainder is to wait until Congress has provided suitable quarters for its reception. It is to be hoped that the moiety now to be transferred will include a representa- tive selection from the entire series, so that palzonto- logists will have an. opportunity of seeing more or less nearly entire skeletons, not only of the Dinosaurs and other huge Saurians of the Mesozoic, but likewise those of the equally wonderful Tertiary mammals. We may also venture to express the hope that the United States Government will before long see its way to enriching European Museums with some of their duplicate speci- mens, of which there must be a large number for disposal. With a wise liberality, the Government of the United States appears to have made a regular business of the collection of these fossils, under the able direction of Prof. Marsh ; this business being conducted much after the manner of any other mining enterprise. One of the favourite hunting-grounds is the region lying between the “ Rockies” and the Wasatch Mountains ; and the accounts of the richness of some of these deposits in vertebrate remains is absolutely marvellous. Thus Prof. Marsh is reported to know of one small valley where bones of Mosasaurians are in such profusion that in pass- ing through it he observed at one time no less than six entire skeletons of these monstrous reptiles, each ave- raging some 8o feet in length. At such a rate of dis- covery it is no wonder that Museum accommodation cannot be procured fast enough. The care taken to prevent other fossil-hunters from discovering the more productive localities affords rather amusing reading ; but, under the circumstances, it is, perhaps, natural. Whenever a likely-looking bone or skeleton is seen projecting from a rocky cliff, skilled workmen are at once set to work on its extraction ; a single specimen some- times leading to the discovery of a regular golgotha of remains. The wonderfully perfect condition of some of these fossils, and the rapidity with which the carcasses of their former owners must have been entombed in sand 296 NATURE [JuLy 28, 1892 or mud, are brought prominently under notice by a recent reported discovery in Wyoming. This is said to be nothing less than the disentombment of an entire skeleton of that stupendous Dinosaur known as the Brontosaur, in which not only is every bone in place, but an actual mould of the surface of the eye, formed in the sand upon which the creature lay, has been preserved in the solid rock. Prof. Marsh’s restoration of the Brontosaur—a creature 60 feet in length, walking on all fours, with an enormously long neck and tail, a disproportionately small head, and the bony substance of its backbone reduced to a mere shell and a honeycombed interior—has been long before the world. Less known, however, is his later reconstruc- tion of the skeleton of one of the gizantic horned Dinosaurs from the Laramie Cretaceous, which he calls Triceratops ; the skull and pelvis of which were referred to in an earlier number of NATURE. In this restoration the Professor has certainly succeeded in producing a most marvellous animal, although, so far as we see, the figure appears to be true to nature, It will be remembered that one of the most remarkable features in the skull of 7riceratops (which in some specimens was upwards of 12 feet in length) is the production of the hinder regi on into a huge fan-like shield, the use and purpose of which it was at first a little difficult to understand. ‘This is, however, explained by the restored skeleton, where we see this shield overlapping and protecting the first six vertebree of the neck; to which additional strength was imparted by the bony union of several of them. In the shortness of its neck and the enormous size of its skull, Triceratops presents a striking contrast to Brontosaurus. Like the latter, however, it habitually walked on all fours ; while in correlation with its massive skull its fore- limbs were relatively stouter than in any other Dinosaur. In this respect it differs widely from its near ally, Stegosaurus, which, at least occasionally, walked in a bird-like manner; and since Zyiceratopfs is evidently a more specialized creature than Stegosaurus, the sugges- tion arises that the former has undergone a retrograde development from a bipedal to a quadrupedal mode of progression. Noattempt has yet been made to represent the position on the skeleton of the dermal bony armour with which many parts of the body of Z7zceratops were protected during life ; the precise position of the various spines, knobs, and plates, which have been found in association with the bones, being largely a matter of conjecture. The size in life of the restored example would be approximately some 25 feet in length by to in height ; but these dimensions must have been exceeded by other specimens. By the completion (so far as anything connected with fossils can be said to be complete) of our knowledge of the skeleton of Zrzceratops, we are acquainted with the bony framework of all the chief types of Dinosaurian reptiles at present known. These may be classed as the Sauropodous type, as represented by Srontosaurus ; the Theropodous type, as represented by M/egalosaurus and its allies; and the Ornithopodous modification, repre- sented on the one hand by /guanodon, and on the other by Stegosaurus, Triceratops, &c. In the contemporary publication to which we have referred some interesting suggestions as to the probable habits of these Dinosaurs are put forth, although how far they will meet with acceptation remains to be seen. Thus it is suggested that the honeycombed vertebrz of the Brontosaurs and their allies were filled with warm air from the lungs (which assumes that these reptiles were warm-blooded), by which means their bodies were partly floated when they wandered out of their depth in the sea shallows, from whence they stretched their long necks to crop the seaweed near the shore. Again, the long hind legs of the Hadrosaur (an ally of our Iguanodon) are considered to have enabled their owner to wade far out to sea in search of seaweeds growing on the ocean- NO. 1187, VOL. 46] floor; while the armoured kinds, like Stegosaurus and Triceratops, are considered to have been essentially — terrestrial. ; As we have indicated, the great bulk of the collection is composed of Secondary reptiles and Tertiary mammals ; and from their large size it is these which form its most striking feature. We most not omit to state, however, that it also contains the Toothed Birds from the Cretaceous of Kansas (of which our English collections do not at present possess a single bone), as well as hosts of teeth of Mesozoic mammals, although we have no definite information as to what proportion of these are the property of the State, and what belong to Prof. Marsh. Then, again, scattered among the trays and drawers more especially devoted to the remains of mammals and reptiles is an extensive collection of fish- remains from Cretaceous and Tertiary strata, and especially from the Green River Eocene shales of Wyoming, most of which we believe to be at present totally undescribed. Space prevents us from saying more as to the extent of this marvellous collection—a collection which, with others from the same regions, has done more in ten years to revolutionize our classifications, and to give us a definite knowledge of many groups of animals previously known by battered fragments, than would have resulted from half a century’s work upon European materials. We may, however, conclude by offering our hearty con- gratulations to the Governments of the United States and to Prof. Marsh, who have succeeded, by the liberality of the one and the untiring energy of the other, in amass- ing this magnificent collection, which is now, for the first time, in a fair way to be exhibited in a manner befitting its value and importance. Prof. Marsh’s magnificently illustrated monographs on the Toothed Birds and the Dinocerata are splendid examples of how a collection like this ought to be made known to the scientific world at large ; and we trust ere long to be able to welcome his long-promised volumes on the Dinosaurs and the Bronto- theres, which will render its riches yet better known. R. LYDEKKER. DYNAMO-ELECTRIC MACHINERY}! ih base is the first part of a treatise dealing with dynamo-electric machinery and its applications,. and comprises the theory and practical construction of dynamos and motors, and an account of instruments and methods of electrica! measurement. Such subjects as the fusion and welding of metals by electricity and the transmission of power are reserved for a second part, to be issued in the autumn of the present year. ; The author begins with a chapter entitled “ Generali- ties regarding Dynamos,” in which he discusses the early rudimentary magneto-machines of Pixii and Clarke, and the multipolar machines of the same class invented by Stéhrer and Niaudet, gives a general explanation of the self-excitation and action of series of shunt and com- pound dynamos, and describes the various typical forms of armature used in constant and alternating-current machines. In this part there is room for little novelty of treatment ; the author could only endeavour to be im- partially historical and clearly descriptive, and give as complete and useful an account of the more important examples of dynamo machinery as his space would admit of. In this Signor Ferrini seems to have succeeded very well. He does not weary his readers with descriptions of mere antiquities, but supplies only such a brief account of earlier forms as is sufficient to enable the reader to trace the evolution of the modern constant-current dynamo, with its beautiful balance and inter-relation of t Recenti Progressi nelle Applicazioni deii’ Elettricita di Rinaldo Ferrini.” Parte Prima: Delle Dinamo. (Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1892.) JuLy 28, 1892] NATURE 297 parts, from the rudimentary, uneconomical, and violently _ periodic machine of twenty gran ago, or to compare the powerful alternator of the present day with the ineffective and wasteful toy instrument, which used to at in cabinets of apparatus and the older books on electricity. Chapter ii. deals with magnetic induction, and chapter iii. with the induction of currents: by the motion of con- ductors in a magnetic field. These extend over almost 100 pages, or about one-fourth of the whole volume, a space none too large for the subject, but perhaps a little out of proportion to that devoted to dynamo machinery, which is still further restricted by the allocation of fifty in chapter iv. to methods of measurement. BY lana: Ferrini’s treatment of the theoretical part of his _ subject seems on the whole marked by completeness and accuracy. He has evidently given careful attention to the late developments of magnetic research, and in his chapter on measurements has included most of the im- - ‘provements recently made, such, for example, as the _ methods of measuring power, &e., in the circuits of a bye ayron and transformers which have been invented rton and others. No méntion is made, however, y’s ingenious “ split dynamometer ” method for unsformers, and determining the difference of phase of two alternating currents. Nor is the method (p. 171) of finding the true mean activity in an alternating current from the apparent activity attributed to its inventor, Prof, Ayrton. _ Wenotice here a few points which have occurred to us in d eever it part of the book as perhaps calling for re- ma irst of all with respect to the definition of a uniform magnetic field given at p. 58, it may be noticed that if the numerical value of the intensity of the magnetic force be the same at all points of a finite space, its direction must be the same at all points of the same space, and _ that theintensity cannot vary in magnitude from point to ; i ata varying also in direction, and vice versa. does not seem to be generally ‘understood, at any rate it is common to define a uniform field as one for which the magnitude avd the direction of the magnetic force are the same at every point. That the former implies the latter, and the latter the former, . may be seen by considering a closed surface formed by a portion of a tube of force, in the field, intercepted between two eguipotential surfaces. The cross-sections at the two ' ends must have the same area, since the magnetic force at each end is the same. Further, the lines must be straight, for if they be supposed curved, the portion of the tube may be taken so that it is concave on one side and convex on the other. The line-integral of magnetic force cave sides and across the ends, vanishes. But nothing is contributed to it by the ends of the tube. Hence the _ magnetic force along the convex side must be on the whole less than that along the shorter concave side, which contradicts the supposed uniformity of magnitude of the field-intensity. _ At p. 66 difference of potential, V,-Vo, between two __ points is defined as the work which must be done against ‘magnetic forces in carrying a wnt magnetic pole from the point of lower to that of higher potential ; and at p. 74, where the field of a solenoid is considered, - @V/dx ap- pears as the force on a pole of strength. At p. 81 mention might have been made of the influence of mechanical stress and disturbance on the magnet- ization of iron observed by Lord Kelvin and others, and of the fact that very much higher permeabilities than the 2000 quoted from Rowland’s experiments have been obtained by Ewing for soft iron subjected to molecular vibration produced by tapping. : The subject of hysteresis is dealt with at p. 91, and again at p. 235 in the chapter on the construction of a con- tinuous-current dynamo. -In the latter place a proof is No. 1187, VOL. 46] round a closed circuit, taken along the convex and con- furnished of the well-known formula given by Warburg in 1881 or 1882, and a little later by Ewing, for the energy dissipated in a closed cycle of magnetization. In the course of that proof, to which in itself we take no exception, one or two statements are made which, if we have under- stood the author aright, are erroneous. It is stated that when the integral induction ® through each turn of a magnetizing helix of 7 windings, each carrying a current ¢, is increased by an amount d®, a quantity of energy = — ncdd (= — vHdB/47r), where v is the volume of the medium magnetized, H the field intensity and B the in- duction, both supposed uniform) is given out by the spiral and converted into heat. Now (the sign being left out of account) this is certainly the energy sent into the field from the battery or generator, but it is not the case that it is all converted into heat. The amount of energy spent in unit volume of the magnetized medium is HdB/4z, but of this (H¢B + BdB)/8a goes to increase the electrokinetic energy, the amount of which per unit volume of the medium is BH/8z. The total amount of energy spent per unit volume in the cycle of magnetization, otherwise than in increasing the electrokinetic energy, is therefore I Gk iB ) 2 | {Hes ‘(HeB ~ BdH) |, the integrals being taken round the cycle. (It is to be noticed that this balance of energy may be negative, and in that case energy is taken from the field to make up the increase of electrokinetic energy.') But for a closed cycle [eB + B&H) =o, and hence the energy spent is _. | HeB. 4m J This must have been dissipated, since the medium at the end of the cycle has returned to the same state as at first. No affirmation can be made as to what becomes of the balance of energy, except with reference to a closed cycle. Ate! Again, at p. 237 it is stated that if H,, — Hh, be limits of BP aiseiding to limits B,, — B, of B, . HUB = B/E. -H, “ -B) This is certainly not correct, as may be easily seen by representing the integrals graphically, or by considering that taken round a closed cycle | BeH =- [Hes since ; : | HeB + B¢H) = / d(BH) =o for the cycle. This error, a mere oversight no doubt, has appeared more than once in connection with this subject, and an erroneous demonstration founded on it and a mistaken identification of the energy dissipated with the electro- kinetic energy, has been used by more than one writer. The chapters on the “ Continuous Current Dynamo,” the “ Dynamo in Action,” and “Alternating Dynamos, are excellent in many respects. The subject is well and fairly comprehensively treated, and the very useful notion of the magnetic circuit has been employed throughout with good effect. Some well-known machines do not seem to be described, for example, the Victoria among t See a paper by the writer in the P27. Mag., December 13899. 298 NATURE [JuLy 28, 1892 ‘continuous-current machines, and the latest form of Mordey’s alternator. The inclusion of a larger number of thoroughly prac- tical examples of dynamo specification and construction ‘would also be an improvement. On the whole, Signor Ferrini’s book seems the out- come of an earnest endeavour to give an accurate and full account in moderate compass of an important and difficult subject. It will be more easy to judge of the full measure of the author’s success when the work is com- pleted. In any case the book seems likely to be a credit to Italian technical literature. A. GRAY. MR. A. NORMAN TATE. BY the death of Mr. A. Norman Tate, F.I.C., Liverpool has lost one of her most prominent citizens and men of science. It is not only as an able analytical chemist that Mr. Tate will be missed by a large section of the public to whom his genial presence was familiar, but as a scientific teacher and pioneer of the technical education movement in Lancashire, his place is one that will not ‘easily be filled. For some time past Mr. Tate has had indifferent health, and has had to give up much of his active work in connection with the Society of Chemical Industry, of whose Publication Committee he was a member, and the numerous local and other learned societies to which he gave great aid. Latterly, symptoms of an ulcerous tumour’ in the stomach presented them- selves, from which he died on the 22nd instant. Mr. Norman Tate was a native of Wells, Somerset, and came to Liverpool about thirty-five years ago, when he entered the laboratory of the late Dr. Sheridan Mus- pratt. He published several papers bearing on his early researches in the journals of the Chemical Society of ‘London and the Royal Dublin Society. After acting for some years as chemist to the firm of John Hutchinson and Co., of Widnes, he commenced practice as an analyst in Liverpool, and became consulting chemist to several important local bodies and chemical manufactories. At that time the importation of petroleum from America ‘was beginning, and on this subject Mr. Tate became an authority ; one of his works, “Petroleum and its Pro- ducts,” being translated and re-published in France and Germany. Fora time Mr. Tate superintended the work- ing of oil refineries in the Isle of Man and in Flintshire, where he erected a manufactory for the production of coal and shale oils. In 1870, Mr. Tate, in conjunction with Mr. James Samuelson, undertook the initiation of the Liverpool Science and Art Classes, which grew to be a great educational power in the city. As honorary principal, Mr. Tate had charge of these classes, besides giving lectures himself and teaching several of the classes in chemistry, botany, and general biology. He also instituted the Liverpool Science Students’ Association, and the Liverpool District Science and Art Teachers’ Association, of both of which bodies he was the first president, a post he also filled in the local Geological Association, Microscopical Society, Liverpool Section of the Society of Chemical Industry, and other institutions, contributing largely to their “ Transactions.’’ The “ Pro- ceedings” of the Liverpool Geological Society also con- tain many of his papers and memoirs. He discovered the presence of iserine in the decomposed greenstones of the Boulder Clay in the Valley of the Mersey, and showed that the black colour of certain sandstones in the trias in the neighbourhood of Liverpool is due to the grains being ‘coated with peroxide of manganese. Mr. Tate was an ardent supporter of every educational movement, especially in connection with science teaching, and his death, at the early age of fifty-six, will be much deplored by a circle of friends extending far beyond the limits of the city which he had made the chief scene of his labours. 0. W: J. NO. 1187, VOL. 46] THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. EVERYTHING is now practically ready for the meet- — ing of the British Association, which begins next week, and promises to be in every way most successful. — Many distinguished foreign men of science—among them Helmholtz, Cremona, and Sachs—are expected to be present. The arrangements made by the local com- mittee we described last week. In compliment to the President there will bea specially strong muster of geologists. We hear that a number of professors and others connected with the Geological Survey of France are coming. Baron von Richthofen and Prof. Credner will represent the geologists of Ger- many; Prof. Renard those of Belgium. There will be many other representatives from different countries in Europe and from America. The geological excursions will likewise form a prominent feature in the proceedings, and one of these is to be conducted by the President. of the Association in person. The Prince of Monaco, well known for his scientific researches, intends to bring his deep-sea dredging vessel to Granton, and to read a paper on the results of his marine surveys; while two members of his scientific staff will communicate papers on some of the natural history objects obtained by them. Already a large amount of hospitality has been organized, and the meeting bids fair to be as successful in a social as in a scientific way. . We have already announced that at the meeting of Section A. on Monday, August 8, a discussion on the subject of a national physical laboratory will be opened by Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S. ; ; A meeting of the Electrical Standards Committee will be held on Thursday, August 4. It is expected that Dr. von Helmholtz, Dr. Lindeck of the Berlin Reichsanstalt, and others interested in electrical measurements, will be pre- sent. A discussion will take place with a view to securing an absolute uniformity in the standards adopted in Eng- land and elsewhere. The following points will be con- sidered:—(1) The value of the B.A. unit in ohms ; (2) the specific resistance of mercury in ohms ; (3) standardizing by the electrolysis of silver; (4) the electromotive force of a Clark cell; (5) Report of the Committee for 1892. It is proposed to take the report of the Committee in Section A. on Tuesday, August 9. The draft prepared by the secretary is formal; but it is hoped that the discussion in the Committee may lead to. some resolutions, which will be included in the report. The proceedings of Section D. promise to be excep- tionally interesting. The President’s address will relate to some qualities of sensation, with special reference to colour sense. On Friday there will be a joint discussion with B. on chemical aspects of the action of Bacteria, which will probably be opened by Prof. Marshall Ward. On Monday there will be a discussion on some matters connected with sea-fishes and fisheries, in which the fol- lowing will read short papers or take part :—-Sir J. Gibson Maitland, Prof. M‘Intosh, Prof. Ewart, Dr. Fulton, Prof. Herdman, Mr. E. Holt, Mr. R. Smith, Mr. G. Brook, &c. NOTES. THE summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanica Engineers, to which we referred last week, began at Portsmouth on Tuesday, under the presidency of Dr. William Anderson, F.R.S. The president, council, and members were received by the Mayor, who cordially welcomed them to Portsmouth. THE British Medical Association’s sixtieth annual meeting was ~ opened at Nottingham on Tuesday, the chair being occupied by ~ Dr. W. Withers Moore. In his presidential address Dr. Moore dealt with the progress which has been made in surgery and medicine since 1857, when the Association held its last meeting at Nottingham. Beha ° fore it went to the shambles. m the motion of the chairman an ambulance committee was formed janet to report « on the ambulance system in London. that y the damage may be repaired in the course of six months. Juty 28, 1892] NATURE 299 A GENERAL meeting of the Sanitary Inspectors’ Association was held at Carpenters’ Hall, London Wall, on Saturday even- ing last, the president, Dr. B. W. Richardson, presiding. The council presented a report upon the question of examination for sanitary inspectors, recommending that they should be em- _ powered to confer with the court of the Carpenters’ Company in order to arrange for lectures and examinations. The report was adopted. A report upon the association’s recent visit to Paris was also presented, setting forth the principal features and inci- dents of the journey. The adoption of this report was moved by Mr. Alexander, and seconded by Mr. Tidman. The chairman, __ in supporting the motion, said the association had learned many _ important to the French capital. After comparing the French and English ‘systems of sanitation, he expressed the opinion that in the _ matter of disinfection the English might learn much from their French neighbours. He believed that in London there might with advantage be established one or more grand centres for i ‘disinfection such as existed in Paris. lessons upon the question of sanitation by their visit He deprecated the system in use at the Paris Morgue of freezing dead bodies for the pur- pose of identification as being, in his belief, utterly. useless for On the question of the inspection of animal food, he thought that England could not do better than follow the system adopted in France of testing every doubtful animal be- A discussion followed, and on The report was AN official telegram received at the Hague from Batavia . ‘confirms to some extent the statement made at Sydney as to a _ terrible volcanic eruption in the island of Great Sangir. _ voleano which caused the disaster is named Gunona Awu. The telegram adds that the whole of the north-western portion of The the island was entirely destroyed, 2,000 persons being killed. The victims included no Europeans. The rest of the island has also suffered seriously by the eruption, but it is hoped that The erent been destroyed. a ays For some days the eruption of Mount Etna seemed to be decreasing, but on Tuesday it was again very _ violent, and there were loud subterranean noises. On. Monday evening there was a shock of earthquake at Mineo, thirty- seven miles to the south of the volcano. A correspondent of the Zimes, writing from Catania on July 18, says that the exact seat of the eruption cannot be discovered from that city on account of the dense masses of smoke with which that side of the mountain is enveloped, but from Augusta, a town situated _ about 15 miles away, the summit and western outline are to be _ Seen standing out in bold prominence against the deep, gentian- _ blue of the Mediterranean sky, and, with its endless volumes of rf steam and smoke rolling away to the eastward, Etna presents an indescribably imposing, not to say majestic, appearance. From this little town the scene is sublime. _ THE cause of the terrible disaster at St. Gervais is now being investigated by several inen of science. There can be no doubt that it originated in the small glacier called the TéteRousse, which is nearly 10,000 feet above sea-level. According to a correspon- dent of the Zimes, who writes from Lucerne, Prof. Duparc is of opinion that the habitual drainage of this glacier had for some reason or other become either totally blocked or obstructed ; the water gradually accumulated in its natural concavity or bed ; and the ever-increasing volume had exercised such an enormous pres- sure as to force a passage and carry away a portion of the face of the glacier with it. The mass of ice and water rushed down the rocks which dominate the glacier of Bionnassay, not in a single NO. 1187, VOL. 46] ' different heights. Stream but in several, and then reunited into one enormous torrent at the foot of the Bionnassay glacier. A different theory is held by Prof. Forel, of which the correspondent of the 7imes gives the following account :—Professor Forel does not see how a quantity of water sufficient to force away so large a portion of the glacier could possibly accumulate in so small a body as the Téte Rousse, which has a total super ficies of less than one hundred acres. It slopes freely on three sides ; it is, in fact, one of the most abrupt of the whole chain of Mont Blanc ; and, in a glacier of this description, with an altitude of nearly 10,090 ft., there are none of the conditions of a great accumulation of water. In his opinion, therefore, we must look for the main cause of the disaster in the natural movement and breaking up of the glacier. He estimates the volume of ice which fell at between one and two million cubic metres. The mass, first in falling and then rushing down the rapid slope, became transformed, for the most part, into what he calls a lava of ice and water. The ravine, he says, through which this avalanche rushed shows no traces of any great evacuation of water ; in the upper portions of its transit there is no mud and no accumulation of sand, but, on the other hand, there are great blocks of glacier ice strewn everywhere, and at several points he found portions of powdered ice mixed with earth. Then, again, if this had been simply a torrent of water falling, it would have found its way down the more violent inclines, instead of, as in this case, passing straight over the frontal moraine at the foot of the glacier. In this higher region, there- fore, all the evidence points to an avalanche of ice, which, starting at an altitude of nearly 10,000 ft., and descending at an incline of 70 per cent. for 5,000 ft., was pulverized by its fall, a large portion of it being melted by the heat generated in its rapid passage and contact with matters relatively warm. It rushed into the ravine by the side of the glacier of Bionnassay and joined the waters of the torrent which issues therefrom, and, further aided by the stream of Bon Nant, it became sufficiently liquid to travel down the lower portions of the valley at the slighter incline of 10 per cent., and yet retained sufficient con- sistency to destroy everything in its passage. That this torrent was not composed merely of mud and water is proved, he says, by the fact that it did not always maintain the same height when confined to the narrower ravine, and that the remains on the sides of the rock show it to have been a viscous substance rather than fluid. AN entire change of weather set in over these islands during the past week. The severe storm referred to in our last issue passed quickly to the south-eastward across the Channel, and subsequently traversed Switzerland and Italy. This was suc- ceeded by an area of high barometer readings, which reached this country from off the Atlantic, and extended eastwards over a great part of Europe. Anticyclonic conditions have since been. very persistent, with an unusual amount of cloud, especially in the north and south, and, occasionally, mist or fog, but the weather was otherwise fine and very dry. Temperature remained low, under the influence of northerly and easterly winds, the maxima seldom exceeding 70°, while the night minima have also. been low, especially over the inland districts of England, where, in places, readings have fallen to within 10° of the freezing point. THE Vatican Observatory, recently established by Pope Leo XIIL., has issued volume ii. of its ‘‘ Pubblicazioni,” containing the results of the most important researches undertaken at the observatory, together with a summary of the proceedings of the meetings held in the year 1891, which comprise a collection of notices relating to astronomy and terrestrial physics. Prof. J. Buti contributes papers (1) on the variations of temperature at The maxima were generally highest at the NATURE [JuLy 28, 1892 lower station, especially in spring and summer, while in winter the conditions were reversed. The mimima were higher through- out the year at the higher station than those near the ground, These results are in accordance with those obtained by the director, Padre Denza, in the case of observations taken at Turin. (2) On rainfall at different heights. The results show that the amount of rainfall is greater at the higher station at times of heavy rain, and conversely at times of slight rain. (3) Com- parisons of relative humidity, tension of vapour, and temperature, accompanied by curves. The work also contains hourly observa- tions from January to June, photograms of lunar regions, photo- types of some constellations and nebule. As anillustration of the specialization of scientific teaching on the Continent, we may mention that Dr. H. Schinz has been appointed Professor of Systematic Botany at the University of Ziirich, in order that Prof. A.. Dodel may devote his course of lectures entirely to Anatomical and Physiological Botany. GENERAL PARIS, of Dinard (Ille-et-Vilaine, France), is engaged in the preparation of a Vomenclator Bryologicus, on the plan of Steudel’s ‘‘ Nomenclator Botanicus.” He will be greatly obliged if bryologists of all countries will send him copies of recent memoirs, or an exact reference to the description of all new species, accompanied, where possible, by a specimen. A NEw botanical publication has made its appearance under the title 4rdezten aus dem K, Botanischen Gartenzu Breslau. It is edited by Prof. Prantl and will be devoted to the record of work done in the Botanic Garden at Breslau. The first number ‘contains a paper by Prof. Prantl, on the Classification of Ferns, one by Herr Pomrencke on the structure of the wood of certain gamopetalous families, and one by Herr Mez on the Lauracez. IN addition to the Vascular Cryptogams collected under the auspices of the West India Exploration Committee by Mr. R. V. Sherring, F.L.S., in the island, and described in the Axnals of Botany, Vol. vi., No. 21, April, 1892, by Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., his collections at Kew have yielded about thirty species of Orchids from Grenada, some of which are of considerable interest. They have now been determined by Mr. R. A. Rolfe, A.L.S. The orchids of Grenada appear not to have been systematically collected before. There are no records of species from that island in Grisebach’s Flora of the British West India Islands, 1864, and only about three or four were represented in the Kew Herbarium. Mr. Sherring’s collections, therefore, enable us to arrive at a tolerably good idea of the distribution of orchids in the island. A species of Brachionidium, a genus not hitherto represented in the West Indian flora, is probably new, as also species of Scaphyglottis and Cranichis. Hexisia veflexa, Fleurothallis pruinosa, Oncidium luridum and Ornithocephalus gladiatus have not hitherto been found in the smaller islands, the recorded specimens being chiefly from Jamaica and Trinidad. Dichea hystricina has not been found before except in Cuba by Wright and Eggers. Xylodium (Maxillaria pallidiflora) was recorded before only from ‘St. Vincent, and Lileanthus lepidus is new to the West Indian flora. The remaining species are found in many islands, such as Jamaica and Dominica, but their occurrence still further south is a point of some interest. THE City and Guilds of London Institute has issued a list of the candidates’ who have passed its examination for the teacher’s certificate in manual training. The examination is limited to teachers in public elementary schools. It was held this year for the first time, and related to woodwork. As a large number of teachers had been receiving manual instruction before the in- stitution of the examination, a limited number of candidates were allowed to present themselves for the final examination 0. 1187, VOL. 46] without having passed the first year’s examination. There were 275 candidates for the first year’s examination, and of these forty- — seven passed in the first class, 108 in the second, and 120 failed, For the final examination there. were 340 candidates, of whom forty-nine passed in the first class, 146 passed in the seco} class, while 145 failed. The examiners report, as regards the first year’s examination, that the practical wood-working w uniformly well done, but that the drawing was badly done large number of candidates. ‘‘ It is obvious,” they add, ** the instruction in practical drawing is not good. Many c¢ dates failed even to understand the examination paper.” advanced examination the drawing was much better. THE Yorkshire College, Leeds, has issued the first re its department of Agriculture. We are glad to note th: County Lectures to farmers have, as a whole, been succ beyond the most sanguine anticipations of the committee. unsympathetic attitude which the farmers at some of the assumed at first with respect to these lectures was often s| changed to warm appreciation, which rose, in certain enthusiasm. The attendance, which was sometimes si the beginning, grew larger and larger as the course pro and although it afterwards fluctuated for various reasons, chief of which was the unfavourable state of the weather, w in sparsely populated districts made a journey to the lecture a matter of considerable time and difficulty, the average attendance was extraordinarily good. To the classes and practical demon- strations, which followed many of the lectures, a considerable portion of the audience remained, and their eager participati in the discussions and tests, which formed a conspicuous part of the work of these classes, was extremely bites ‘to the: lecturers. aren dee ATa meeting of the London Chamber of Commerce on ae day, Mr. J. Ferguson read a paper on “‘ The Production 2 d * Consumption of Tea, Coffee, Cacao (cocoa), Cinchona, | Cocoa nuts and Oil, and Cinnamon, with reference to Tropical - Agri culture in Ceylon.” He referred to the position of Ceylon, its — forcing climate, its command of free cheap labour, and its im- a munity from the hurricanes which periodically devastated Mauri-- tius, from the cyclones of the Bay of Bengal, and from the vol- canic disturbances affecting Java and the Eastern Archipelago. The plantations of Ceylon afforded, he said, the best training — in the world for young men in the cultivation and preparation of — tropical products, and in the management of free coloured labour. — The cultivation of cane sugar, although tried at considerable outlay on several plantations forty and fifty years ago; proved a ; failure. More recently experiments by European planters with © tobacco had not been a success, nothwithstanding that the na-— tives grew a good deal of a coarse quality for their own use. Al- though cotton growing had not been successful, the island had proved a most congenial home for many useful palms, more par- ticularly the coconut (spelt without the *‘ a” to distinguish it and — its products from cocoa—the beans of the shrub Theobroma cacao) and palmyra, as also the areca and kitulor jaggery palms, Within the past few years Ceylon had come to the front as one of the three great tea-producing countries in the world, India and China being the other two, with Java at a respectable dis- tance. Mr. Ferguson said one of the chief objects of his pape was to demonstrate which of the products of the island it was safe to recommend for extended cultivation in new lands and which were already in danger of being over-produced, and he had arrived at the conclusion that coffee, cacao, and rubber- yielding trees were the products to plant, while tea, cinnamon, cardamoms, cinchona bark, pepper, and even palms (for their oil) did not offer encouragement to extended cultivation. Statis- tics relating to the total production and consumption were sired? in an appendix, NATURE 301 Jury 28, 1892] _ AN interesting paper on Indian types of beauty was read some time ago by Mr. R. W. Shufeldt, before the Philosophical Society of Washington, and has now been issued as a pamphlet. It is admirably illustrated. Mr. A. G. Howes, British Consul at Tahiti, in his latest annual report to the Foreign Office, has the following note re- specting pearl-shell diving in Tahiti :—Since the introduction of the diver’s dress and apparatus at the pearl fisheries in 1890 a _ considerable increase in the export of shell has been maintained over the previous years. A strong feeling has, however, been _ exhibited by the natives, who adhere to their own system of diving, against this means of taking the shell, and has resulted _ im acommunication being made by the Director of the Interior a of the colony tothe Chamber of Commerce at this place, recom- omen ling the gradual abolition of the diving dress and appara- _ tus and the stoppage of further issue of patents for the same, ‘s from January 1, 1893. The Chamber of Commerce have ex- _ pressed their approval of the suggestion, but consider that an entire and not gradual abolition of the diving dress and appa- ratus should take place, and they have decided to lay this pro- - posal before the Conseil-Général when it assembles next _ August. The reasons set forth by the Chamber of Commerce _ for adopting this course are that the regulations for the use of _ the diving dress and apparatus have been abused. They state ‘ that French citizens, contrary to rule, have under their name _ employed diving dress and apparatus owned by foreigners ; _ that the law prohibiting pearl fishing by this means in a depth of less than ten fathoms had not been adhered to, and they also _ give as their opinion that the shells found in a greater depth th: n ten fathoms are those mostly important for reproduction, and to destroy them will ruin the fisheries and bring distress upon the natives who depend upon the pearl-shell diving for ions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the include a Common Marmoset (Haale jacchus) from South-east Brazil, presented by Mr. Gerald F. Youll; an African Civet Cat (Viverra civetta), a white-tailed Ichneumon (Herpestes albicauda), two Ostriches (Struthio camelus 2? 2) _ from East Africa, presented by Mr. F. Pardage ; a Pine Marten _ (Mustela martes), British; presented by Mr. Harold Hanauer, F.Z.S. ; three North American Turkeys (Meleagris gallo-pavo) from North America, presented by Col. H. W. Feilden, ~€.M.Z.S.; two Rufous-necked Wood Doves (Haflopelia _ farvata) from South Africa, presented by Mr. W. H. Wormald ; a Grand Eclectus (Zelectus roratus) from Moluccas, presented by Messrs. Chas. and Walter Seton; two Red-crested Cardinals (Paroaria cucullata) from South America, presented by Miss _ Edith M. Fox; a Common Chameleon (Chameleon vulgaris) _ from North Africa, presented by Mast. S. E. Thorns; a Large _ Brown Flying Squirrel (Pteromys oral) from the Shevaroy _ Hills, South India, three American Bisons (Bison americanus - & 2 2) from North America, a Barraband’s Parrakeet (Polytelis w wrabandi) from New South Wales, deposited ; a Mongoose _ Lemur (Zemur mongoz) from Madagascar, purchased; an American Bison (Bison americanus 2?) from North America, _ OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. ___ Mapras Opservatory.—This year being the centenary of the founding of the Madras Observatory, the officiating astro- _nomer, Mr. C. Michie Smith, prefaces his report with a brief historical sketch. It seems that the East India Company were _ the first to propose the establishment of such an Observatory, but Sir Charles Oakeley, taking time by the forelock, and, as _ we are informed, anticipating the orders from the India Office, _ set about constructing it on his own authority. With the aid of Mr. William Petrie, who placed his own observatory at their disposal, the scheme was soon brought to a practical head, and _ by the time the orders arrived in 1792 the Observatory, besides : NO. 1187, VOL. 46] being actually built, contained many instruments. The first astro- nomer was Mr. J. Goldingham. Mr. Thomas Glanville Taylor, F.R.S., was Director of the Observatory from 1830 to 1848, After erecting new instruments, he began his catalogue of 11,000 stars, publishing it in the year 1844. Hourly meteorological and magnetic observations were also carried'on by him. He diedin England in May 1848, having never completely recovered froma serious injury caused by a fall. In 1849 Captain W. S. Jacob was appointed astronomer ; he made a new departure in the form of extra-meridional observations. Owing to ill-health Captain Jacob resigned his appointment in 1859, and during the next two years the office was held partly by Major W. K. Worster, k.A., and Major (now General) J. F. Tennant, R.E. About this time the work of the observatory was delayed, as more modern instruments were being erected, and it was not till May 1862 that the new transit circle of 5 inches aperture and 42-inch circle was ready for use. The late Mr. N. R. Pogson, who had then arrived in Madras as Government Astronomer, com- menced his catalogue of 5,000 stars, observing each at least 5 times. He also used very considerably the 8-inch equatorial. The present astronomer, Mr. C. Michie Smith, in his report, suggests a further increase of the observatory equipment. OXFORD UNIVERSITY OBSERVATORY.—During last month the seventeenth annual report of the Savilian Professor of Astronomy was presented to the Board of Visitors of the Uni- versity Observatory. This report showed that the work of the Observatory during the past year has been very considerable. The Grubb equatorial, the transit circle, and the De la Rue equatorial have been severally occupied, while the new micro- meter for the Grubb instrument has worked efficiently, and forms a valuable addition to the resources of the Observatory. The work upon the international chart has formed one of the im- portant features throughout the year, and for the measurement of the photographic plates a new and costly form of micrometer had to be devised; the réseaux have not proved to be very enduring, so that in consequence a new one had to be obtained from Messrs. Gautier of Paris. The work connected with stellar parallax has now been completed after a period of four years’ hard work, and this fact deserves the highest consideration in face of the magnitude of the staff and the amount of work done. The manuscript consists of (1) the concise but complete history of all effective researches in stellar parallax up to the present date ; (2) the results of the parallax work completed in this Observatory, extending on the whole to some thirty stars ; (3) a catalogue of all parallactic determinations effected by other astronomers. Among some of the other work commenced or completed during the present year we may mention the photo- metric catalogues of stars of the ninth and eleventh magnitudes within small specified areas for the eighteen Observatories engaged in the international chart, observations of Nova Aurigz, and the investigation of the amount of light ‘‘ lost by the moon at the commencement and termination of the lunar total eclipse on November 15, 1891.” The finances of the Observatory at present, owing to previous economy, seem to cover the ex- penditure, but Prof. Pritchard seems to refer to the fact that the quinquennial grant expires at the end of the present year, as if next year the University will be called upon to make a slight additional increase to counterbalance the cost of the instrumental equipment that has been required for the chart work. We are glad to note that at this meeting of the Board Prof. Pritchard pi able to attend, having completely recovered from his illness. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. M. DyBowsk1 has returned to France in bad health. His last work in the French Congo territory was an expedition up the Ubangi to avenge the murder of M. Crampel. THE Royal Belgian Society of Geography has of late been devoting special attention to home affairs, and in particular to the publication of more or less exhaustive monographs of the local geography of the communes. The last number of their ulletin contains an able summary of the geography of the commune of Familleureux, under the main heads of physical, economic, administrative geography and history, with carefully lanned subdivisions. By multiplying such studies, the material or a really exhaustive geography of the country will be obtained. Some such scheme might well be applied to the United Kingdom, where a series of county geographies ona definite system and rigorously edited would be peculiarly 302 NATURE [JULY 28, 1892 advantageous. ‘The idea was present in Sir John Sinclair’s famous *‘ Statistical Account,” but has had no recent or adequate embodiment. THE Scottish Geographical Magazine for July contains a translation by Mr. C. E. D. Black of M. Dauvergne’s recent jour- ney in the Pamirs, the original paper appearing simultaneously in the Bulletin of the Paris Geographical Society. ‘The journey carried out in 1889-90 was a inost successful one and opened up some new ground. ‘The geographical results are summed up in four sentences :—(1) That there is another great chain running parallel to the Kuen Lun and facing Kashgaria. (2) That the river in the Tung valley is an affluent of the Zarafshan, not of the Taghdumbash. (3) That the Oxus rises in the great glaciers of the Hindu Kush at 37° 10’ N. and 75° E. (4) That the Karambar valley, although difficult, is practicable for ponies. Dr. THEODOR MENKE, one of the best known of German historical geographers, died in Gotha in May last. His work in the compilation of atlases of historical geography was exception- ally thorough. His first work in ‘this direction was a popular school atlas of classical geography, entitled ‘‘ Orbis Antiqui Descriptio” ; but his most important contribution to cartography was his edition of Spruner’s great historical atlas, begun in 1858 and completed in 1879. Dr. STUHLMANN, according to a telegraphic report in the Times, has furnished additional particulars of Emin Pasha’s expedition, although no more recent news. The real and only aim of Emin’s journey to the Equatorial province, was to rescue those of his former subordinates, whose vacillation and delays kept them from joining Stanley’s march to the coast. It was then his purpose to make his way across Africa to Adamawa and the Cameroons, a purpose which, as we already know, he had to abandon. It is satisfactory to learn that Dr. Stuhlmann had with him at Bukoba all the valuable scientific records and collec- tions of the expedition. THE current number of Petermann’s Mitteilungen calls atten- tion toa curious literary fraud to which in the two previous numbers it fell a victim, and from which many geographical journals in the habit of faithfully reproducing the articles of Petermann also suffer. A Dr. Ceyp professed to have made a journey recently in south-eastern Persia, and communicated to Petermann a detailed account of it, which now appears to have been copied verbatim from a little-known work, *‘ Gasteiger- Khans,” reprinted from the ‘‘ Boten fiir Tirol und Vorarlberg,” 1881. General Houtum Schindler, of Teheran, who knew that Ceyp’s Persian travels had not led him beyond that city, gave the information which led to this discovery. The episode fur- nishes a fresh proof of the necessity for the great caution in accepting the records of unknown travellers which has always been exercised by the leading English authorities. THE BEARING OF PATHOLOGY UPON THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRANSMISSION OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS. FoR more than two years the English public has been in pos- session of an excellent translation of sundry of Weismann’s more important essays.! The object of this paper is not. to expound Weissmann’s views generally. That office has already been undertaken by the persons best qualified to perform it.? We propose merely to discuss one of his topics under a single aspect—the ‘‘ Transmission of Acquired Characters” in its relations to pathology. We cannot, however, avoid reviewing some of the leading points in Weismann’s system which bear upon our immediate topic. At the root of the matter lies the all-important distinction between reproductive and somatic cells. Saving among the lowest forms of animal life, an organism may be regarded as made up of two parts. There are the reproductive cells. With these the future of the species lies. They are the visible basis of its perpetuity. The remaining tissues of the body are styled ‘*somatic.” It is natural to us to think of the ‘‘ somatic” 1 Translation edited by E. B. Poulton, Schénland, and Shipley. 2 Prof. Moseley’s two articles in NaTurg, vols. xxxiii. and xxxiv. Dis- cussion introduced by Prof. Lankester at the meeting ofthe British Associa- tion, 1887. NO. 1187, VOL. 46] tissues as something higher and nobler than the reproductive cells—to contrast the simplicity of the latter in structureand en- dowment with the intricacy of the former. But there is another point of view, which inverts matters ; which regards the somatic — tissues—the body and its manifold endowments—simply asa sort of living case or appendage of the reproductive cells. The re- productive cells look after the perpetuity of the species, the somatic cells look after the reproductive cells. Ya Now, if we travel back to the simplest forms of animal life, we lose sight of this distinction. The principle of differentiation of labour is not yet recognized. Among the Protozoa the dis- tinction between reproductive and somatic cells has no place. Every part of the organism has it in its power to reproduce the entire organism. No special material is reserved to serve the purposes of reproduction. As we ascend in the scale of animal life, differentiation of labour begins. There is from the outset a reservation of reproductive cells, which serve as the demon- strable links between successive generations of organisms. But in sundry of the highest forms of animal life a third condition obtains. There is at the outset no reservation of cells: differ- entiation overtakes the entire organism—there is no exemption. Not till the close of embryonic life do the reproductive cells appear, and when they do so it is as the offspring of somatic cells. This third condition was felt by Weismann asa difficulty, and led to an important modification in his terminology. The problem he had to explain was this, How can cells which have apparently lost their reproductive characters afterwards regain them? The solution he found was that the differentiation under- gone by certain cells was never in reality thoroughgoing enough to deprive them of their original characters. Sooner-or later, a moment arrives at which the original ‘‘ germ-plasm ” becomes again predominant. Instead, then, of in ‘‘germ-cells,” the basis of perpetuity of the species is laid in ‘‘ germ-plasm.” * We have now to consider the bearing of these views upon the doctrine of the transmission of acquired characters. It is of the utmost importance to understand precisely what Weismann means by the term. ‘‘ acquired character.” Acquired characters are opposed to original characters. To grasp the distinction we are sent back to a time before the distinction between reproductive and somatic cells existed. The cha-. racters already present at this early period are original characters. Later on, the reproductive and somatic cells part company, to follow separate careers of their own. It is the somatic cells— the body—which comes chiefly into collision with the environ- ment, and in doing so undergoes various modifications. Now | these modifications are the ‘‘acquired characters” the trans- missibility of which Weismann denies. " They may be something purely local, asascar or a mutilation. They may be something which involves the modification of com- plex musculo-nervous mechanisms, as in delicate manipulations and tricks of skill, such as violin-playing. Now, how is it con- ceivable, he argues, that such specific changes in the somatic. tissues should influence the reproductive cells in the same direc- tion? Whether they influence them at all is not the matter in ) dispute. That they do this is not only conceivable, but highly probable. But how can the somatic cells stamp their own special characters upon the reproductive cells? leet: f We now turn to the main topic of this paper. Has pathology anything to say, either for or against, the transmissibility of acquired characters ? Now, as to the transmissibility of sundry forms of disease there is no question. That pathological characters are trans- mitted is universally allowed. The difficulty, however, is to decide whether.such characters were really acquired, in the strict sense in which Weismann uses the term. We shall find that it will require considerable care to adduce instances which are really appropriate. With this preliminary caution we may pro- ceed to attempt some sort of preliminary classification of our pathological data. We shall find that they fall, roughly, into three main groups :-— (1) Morbid characters which are obviously acquired by the organism, and as obviously transmitted. But since they are in: no sense the acquisition of the somatic cells as such, but of the entire organism—somatic and reproductive cells alike—they cannot be allowed to ‘‘rank.” . (2) Morbid characters in which an element of transmissiom is obvious, but where a closer investigation reveals the fact that,, supposing them to have been acquired, in Weismann’s sense of: ™ See Weismann’s essay on ‘Foundation of a ‘Theory of Heredity,’* sie say y ip assim. . i | fe asa fact, she does anything of the kind. Jury 28, 1892] NATURE 393 _ the word, it is not precisely what was acquired that is trans- mitted, but something broader and more general. (3) The cases which are really in point: morbid characters which were really acquired by the somatic tissues alone. We shall see, later, whether or no these are transmitted. (1) This group embraces all those cases in which a morbid er is acquired by the entire organism, somatic and repro- ductive cells alike. Behind the distinction between somatic and reproductive cells lies the fact of a common relation to the cir- : and nervous systems. Any change, therefore, in the fis epg for example, will affect both. A pregnant woman takes a fever, and transmits it there and then to her offspring. There is no more mystery in this than in the fact that certain oye ok ange abortion—indeed, the mazeries morbi is a poison either case. But this explanation has, in all probability, a much wider e than the zymotic diseases. Consider, for example, gout. Ina sense it is no doubt true to say that gout was an acquired disease, We can point to periods in the world’s history in which gout was conspicuous by its absence. We can trace with some degree of accuracy its rise and progress at dif- _ ferent epochs, and point to the conditions under which it rose, as, for example, in the early days of the Roman Empire.! _ But even if we allow that gout was, in a general sense, an tisition of civilized society, we have only to reflect on its pathology to see that it could never have been acquired in Weis- mann’s sense. For what is gout? People usually think of gout by one of its manifestations—inflammation. This, however, is reality no more than a symptom —perhaps than an incident—of hares liti The gouty attack is due to the existence of certain es in the system conveniently cool and dry for the deposition what are Po pularly known as chalk stones, if, indeed, it be tot of the morbid process as a deposition. The 1 morbid condition lies deeper, and still eludes us. But ‘we are in the dark as to the precise nature of the pathology j it would be affectation to say that we are unable to rescribe its general outlines. Is it a degeneration, in which in metabolism generally? The same will be the case. e to a failure in some particular gland to elaborate the t to it, or to doits share of excretion? If so, . mischief will immediately make itself felt in the circulation, id the conditions of the sufferer will become practically those y self-poisoning. So that on no hypothesis can we re- sent gout as an acquisition of the somatic cells exclusively. is the element of progressive heredity which makes the SCO) ne progressive heredity. duties. _ But there is another more important consideration. Strange as it may sound, there may be good reasons for supposing that Nature, so far from rejecting, might even select, the guutiest. For gout, like other diseases, is only one corner of a much wider question. Diseases have coincidents and relations which stretch beyond the bounds of pathology, and trespass upon biology. This, indeed, is a side of clinical study which has only comparatively recently received its proper recognition. __.* Pliny, “ Hist. Nat.,”’ lib. xxvi. cap. Ixiv., ed. Franzius. Seneca: Opera, FE. Haase (Lips., 1886), Epistul. Mor., lib. xv., Ep. 3 (95). Galen, ‘‘ Com- ment. in Hipp. Aphorism,”’ cap. xxviii.,ed. Kiihn, xviii. A. 42. NO. 1187, VOL. 46] In former days men contented themselves with observing the morbid symptoms of a gouty patient ; they paid no regard to his other ‘‘ points””—his nails, his teeth, his intellectual endow- ments. But it may often happen that morbid characters have their good affinities. This is probably the case in gout. We have heard it said, for example, by one of wide experience in this disease, ‘‘ No gouty person is a fool ”—a statement which de- rives some support from the number of eminent men who have been the subjects of this disease. It is often implied that in what is termed an ‘‘artificial’’ civilization natural selection ceases. Might we not, perhaps, say that it still proceeds, only upon a modified plan. The conditions of the competition for existence have altered. The fittest in one generation need not be the fittest of another. Thus, in a rude state of society, in which sustained physical strength is the one thing needful, the gouty man would have no chance. His enemies, however inferior they might be, would have nothing to do but to lay by for the next attack of gout, when they would easily kill him. In a more advanced state of society all this is changed. If the gouty man has talents, he probably has friends and money. ‘There is no demand for sustained physical strength. If he has the gout he can be nursed. His gout may be even of advantage to him— he gets into the papers. So that, paradoxical as it may seem, Nature may even select the gouty, not for their gout, but for their biological equivalents. We have shown then that Nature, so far from interfering to exterminate the gouty, might even select them. But a more plain and obvious reason exists for the progressiveness which we sometimes observe in gout. If gout be a modification of the system generally, if its progressive increase in the tissues of a gouty patient with increasing years is in some cases a matter of observation, it would only be reasonable to infer that the same is true of the reproductive cells. For, if they share in the de- generacy, why should they not share in the progressive tendency ? In the light of this consideration we can explain a fact widely received among medical men—that the incidence of a gouty inheritance falls mainly upon the younger children. Since the reproductive cells as well as the somatic grow goutier and goutier as age advances, the later their separation occurs the more likely will they be to manifest gout. (2) The second group includes cases in which there is an un- doubted transmission of morbid characters, but where it is by no means certain that they were ‘‘acquired” in the sense under discussion. But even if they were, it does not seem that what was acquired is transmitted, but something broader, and more general. We shall take as examples two important diseases— phthisis and ‘‘new growths”—alluding briefly to the pheno- mena of “short sight.” Phthisis may be said to be in one sense, like gout, a disease acquired by civilized humanity. ‘‘The naked savage,” writes Dr. Andrew in 1884,” ‘‘ whatever ills he may have to bear, rarely reckons phihisis among them; with every addition to his clothing and the comfort of his tree or cave, proclivity to it increases,”— a statement which is fully borne out by what we know of the spread of phthisis in the Rocky Mountains and the islands of the Pacific. If we know less of the history of the rise and spread of phthisis than we do of gout, we have more definite conceptions regarding its pathology. At the present day that pathology may be said to have two sides. There is the side originated and elaborated by Koch—the demonstration of the constant presence of a vegetable parasite in the tissues in this disease. There is the chemico-physiological side. Before Pasteur’s time, such terms as ‘‘ medium,” ‘‘soil,” as applied to the human organism, were little more than metaphors, while such words as ‘‘constitution,” ‘‘ predisposition,” had little more than a metaphysical value. At present, scores of workers are busily engaged in translating these terms from the language of metaphysics into their chemical and biological equivalents. If, then, phthisis was originally acquired, what was it that was acquired? It would seem that we can take our choice between saying that the microbe was acquired, or a habit of body favour- ing its growth. Supposing, then, the acquisition to have been no more than the lodgment of a parasite in the tissues, can we suppose that it is the parasite which is transmitted? Our facts will hardly warrant such an assumption. How, for example, could we interpret such familiar incidents as the following? A mother, after giving birth to several children, who successively fall victims to phthisis in young adult life, is ultimately attacked herself by the same disease, at a date removed by an interval of t Brit. Med. Journ., 1884, 707 304 NATURE [JuLy 28, 1892 several years from the birth of the last phthisical child. Here we should be driven to assume, not in the case of the mother alone, but in each of the several children, a long latent period, during which the parasites, though present in the tissues, made no sign. Such an assumption presents great difficulties. Again, the direct transmission of tuberculosis from a mother to her foetus is admittedly rare, whereas on the supposed hypothesis we should expect to find it common.! But if it is not the parasite that is transmitted, what zs transmitted? We are driven back on the ‘‘ other side” of the pathology of phthisis. But if we suppose that the transmission is not one of a parasite, but of a ‘‘diathesis,” or ‘‘ predisposi- tion,”’ then we desert the only standpoint from which there is any chance of proving that the disease was acquired in the sense under discussion. For what reasonable ground could we have for restricting this “predisposition” to the somatic cells alone, to the exclusion of the reproductive cells ? On the hypothesis that the thing transmitted is a ‘‘ predis- position,” we can, as in gout, explain the element of progressive heredity in phthisis. For, the admission of a morbid change ence made, the difficulty is not so much to explain its progres- sion as its arrest. In certain consumptive families we have in the limits of a single generation this morbid progress going on under our very eyes. It is the rule to find in such families, where several brothers and sisters are attacked, the younger fall victims at an earlier age than the elder, showing in this way their increasing liability. The explanation is probably identical with the one suggested in gout. The entire organism of the parent becomes more and more phthisically disposed— somatic and reproductive cells alike. The later the separation of the latter occurs, the more likely will they be to manifest phthisis. The same line of argument is applicable to the facts of “short sight.”? Short-sightedness is certainly hereditary—it runs in families—but that does not prove that we have in it an example of the transmission of acquired characters. For in the first place it would be very difficult to prove that the short sight was in the first instance acquired in the sense under discussion. While the’ progressiveness of the morbid character—which seems to support the theory—can be as well explained without it. For if there is no proof that the morbid character—the faulty build of the eye—is itself progressive, there is good reason to suppose that the habits of close attention which minister to the defect are so. In one generation we find a man simply tasking his eyes ; his son works with a simple microscope ; his grandson with an improved -microscope. I pass on to consider another group of pathological facts, of the highest importance and interest—new growths. The element of heredity doubtless obtains here as in the case of gout and phthisis. Thus the statistics of Sir J. Paget in this island, and those of Velpeau on the Continent, agree in showing that heredity can be traced in about one-third of the entire cases of cancer.* And amorg the benign tumours, as they are called, warts and exostoses are hereditary. Further, tbere is in some cases evidence of progressive heredity, the irregularity appearing in the children at an earlier age than it appeared previously in the parent. And we have here what might look at first sight more like a real transmission of acquired characters than any- thing we have yet dealt with. Noone questions that something is transmitted. The theory of the local origin of the new growths is gaining ground everywhere, and might appear to carry the inference that they are acquired, and that no constitutional element is involved in them. Here, however, we must be on our guard against the fallaciousness of words. If by consti- tutional we mean something pervading the entire organism—a taint in the blood, and so forth—then there is little or no evidence to warrant our calling new growths constitutional. But if we mean, on the other hand, something which was represented in the original germ-—an error in the original plan, not a supervening flaw—then there is nothing to encourage us in denying, and a good deal to warrant our asserting, their con- stitutional origin. However, such an admission is not necessary to our present purpose. Let us assume that they are acquired in the sense in which a scar is acquired. Is it a fact that what is acquired is transmitted? If so, we should look for identity in position and histological character in the thing transmitted. But on the whole neither of these conditions is fulfilled. Cer- 1 See Fortschritte der Medicin, Bd. iii., 1885, p. 198; bacilli found in lungs of foetal calf, zet. 8 months, whose mother was tuberculous. 2 Ziegler and Nauwerck, ‘‘ Path.,” vol. i. pp. 393794- 3 Erichsen, ‘‘ Surgery,”’ seventh edition, p. 787. NO. 1187, VOL. 46] tainly they are not, in the case of cancer, as the analysis by Mr, — Morrant Baker?! of 103 of Sir J. Paget’s cases clearly shows. The distribution of the cancers proper shows a variation within certain limits. There is a strong predilection for certain sites, but these sites are sufficiently numerous. Now, it often happens that, where several children inherit cancer from a parent, the growth appears in each case in a different site. Nor are the precise histological characters of the growth at all faithfully preserved in the course of transmission ; while it has been often observed that on the hodies of cancerous people innocent growths exist as well.” So that the inheritance does not appear to be a liability to a peculiar modification in a certain part, but a tendency to one or more of a group of modifications in one of many possible sites. ‘al Once more we find ourselves driven to a choice between two alternatives, either of which excludes the transmission of acquire characters. For if new growths are really acquired characters, then it is not exactly what is acquired that is transmitted, but something broader than it. If, on the other hand, they are only acquired in a more general sense, they fall outside the limits of Weismann’s sense of the term “‘ acquired character.” = (3) There remain for our consideration the third, and, in one sense, the most important, group of pathological data—those which answer to the qualifications of acquired characters in Weismann’s stricter usage of the term. ere, if anywhere, would be the ground in pathology to select for proving the theory of the transmission of acquired characters ; but it must be confessed that this is just the region in which that theory receives the least support. This group of pathologial fete embraces a number of accidental lesions, such as’ scars and mutilations, which are certainly acquired in the strictest sense of the word. But the evidence for the theory seems strong only in the dubious cases, weak in the unexceptionable ones. We have examples of mutilations practised for many centuries by entire races, without being transmitted in a single instance. Nor is it the experience of surgeons that scars and mutilations which are the results of operations are ever transmitted. On the other hand, we have histories of tailless cats and hornless cows. But | here everything turns upon the comparative certainty with which we can prove that the initial lesion was really in the first in- stance acquired. Have we here to do with an accidental lesion or a deformity? A clcser investigation has, in many instances, rendered the latter the more probable explanation of the two. For example, in the case of the tailless cats, closer urch made it appear that the irregularity involved an abnormality affecting many of the lower vertebra. In other cases, the abnormality in the child was so little like that in the parent, as to suggest that it was a merely accidental coincidence of two different lesions in one site.® If we turn tothe results of experimental research, we are con- fronted by more than one remarkable series of experiments, upon the bearing of which it is impossible as yet to pronounce decisively. The most notable work done in this direction is, perhaps, a series of experiments upon guinea-pigs, undertaken by Brown-Séquard, and repeated by Westphal.4 hey produced epilepsy in a number of these animals by various methods be My 4 to —section of the cord, section of different nerves; &c.—and ob- - served subsequently that certain of the offspring were epileptic too. But there are several reasons which prevent our accepting these results as decisive. The records of the experiments are said not to be very perfect. Then it is not contended that epilepsy was uniformly transmitted. What happened was that each member of the ofispring presented some morbid symptom— usually some nervous trait, such as epilepsy or paralysis. So that the result of Brown-Séquard’s experiments would rather seem to be this. By producing one morbid trait in the parents, he set up a liability to one of several in the offspring. By pro- ducing a single character, he set up a tendency. All this is of : extreme importance, and it may well be that the future has much that is interesting to reveal in this direction. But, meanwhile, t See ‘* St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Reports,” 1866. ri. 2 Observation of Mr. J. Hutchinson, quoted in Fagge’s “‘ Medicine,” vol. i. p. 106. ; os 3 For a number of other instances, see Weismann’s essay on ‘The Sup- Pape posed Transmission of Mutilations,” Zassim. 4 See Brown-Séquard, *‘R on Epilepsy,”’ Boston, 1857 ; Papers in Journal de Physiologie de l Homme, tom. i. and ili., 1858, 1860 3; Archives de physiologic normale et pathologigue, tom. i.-iv., 1868-1872. Ziegler and Nauwerck, vol. i. p. 390. See also Weismann on Brown-Séquard, pp. 81, 310, 3133 translation, edited by Poulton. Jury 28, 1892) NATURE 305 it cannot be said to lend very much direct support to the theory _ now under discussion. Again, the choice of lesion in these experiments was a some- _ what unhappy one. Epilepsy is a symptom which can be pro- _ duced ina number of ways—its proximate cause, if there be a _ Single one, we are not as yet in a position to formulate. At- _ tempts in this direction usually go no further than a vigorous _ and often highly poetical description, in which metaphors _ drawn from the phenomena of electricity are liberally employed. ‘It might have been more advantageous to have aimed at the yduction of less equivocal symptoms, whose pathology is less isputed—such, for example, as facial palsy. _ Lastly, we cannot exclude from these experiments the possi- bility of the introduction into the system of chemical poisons or even parasites, as incidental results of the operations. __ But this does not by any means exhaust our stock of in- _ stances. The pages of pathology furnish us with more than Bel ne he important facts which satisfy all the conditions of cers, - _ Chief among these stand those numerous modifications of _ Various organs which we regard, and rightly regard, from a _ clinical point of view, as part of a given disease, but which _ might perhaps be more correctly described as secondary ad- _ justments made by the organism to meet certain primary morbid changes induced in different organs by the disease itself. Such, for example, is hypertrophy of the heart consequent upon valvular disease. Such hypertrophy is or is not a morbid pg elated to the point of view we happen to take. ‘From the clinical standpoint it may be conveniently treated as part of the disease. From the biological standpoint it is an effort on the of the organism to adjust itself to altered con- _ ditions brought about by the disease. It is certainly an acquired _ character, in the strict sense of the term. _ _ An illustration will make this plain. Rheumatic fever is an hereditary disease.* Inflammation of the valves of the heart is common in rheumatic fever, and hypertrophy of that organ oiten follows as a consequent of this. But who would reckon ay of the heart as forming part of a rheumatic in- It is true, no doubt, that whoso is heir to a heir by implication to all the biological incidents of hat disease. But he is not heir to them for the same reason, _ The one belongs to him as the inheritor of a morbid tendency, _ the other as the possessor of an organism. Diabetes, again, __ is in some cases markedly hereditary. Secondary characters are acquired in the course of this disease also; such as hypertrophy _ of the bladder or stomach. But, however doomed from his cradle to diabetes a peason may be, he is not born with an _ hyper ied bladder and stomach. We should think it absurd _ that such accommodations as these should be made before they were wanted, If, then, we are right in regarding these as really _ acquired characters—and it is difficult to see how we can avoid _ so doing—it seems that pathology has here afforded us a sort of crucial experiment. OF the morbid characters of which sundry ‘ ses are constituted, some are inherited, some are acquired— the one are constantly transmitted, the others, so far as we know, never are. _ But no one pretends that every disease is inherited. Con- sider, for example, such a disease as lead-poisoning. Here, _ there is not, obviously, any element of heredity. That two pe are not equally liable may be true enough ; that pre- _ dispo Causes exist is doubtless the case ; but that does not _ prove an element of heredity. Predispositions may be themselves ac » as is the case in alcoholism. In such diseases as lead- g eee rightly stress the importance of the environment, and ize inherited tendencies, But such diseases will be of Te little use to us here, unless two conditions are complied with. ‘The first is that they leave durable and definite lesions behind them ; the second is that such lesions are not inconsistent with the procreation of children. Of such lesions the familiar ** wrist _ drop ” of lead-poisoning may be cited as a good example. It , is durable ; in not a few cases it is not cured ; it is not in- __ consistent with the procreation of children. But there is no evidence to show that this or kindred lesions are ever trans- _ mitted. Facial palsy would be another instance, this malady being often of considerable duration. This group of cases constitutes another piece of negative evidence, not so import- ® For other instances of supposed transmission of morbid characters arti- ficially produced, see Ziegler and Nauwerck, ‘‘ Pathology,” vol. i. pp. 391- 923 Brown-Séquard’s operations on eyes, Mason’s on the spleen. ae ae aco. on Medicine,” by Fagge and Pye-Smith, Third edition, . li. p 694. NO. 1187, VOL. 46] ant as the last, because these cases are rarer, but still not unimportant. It can hardly be disputed that these characters are acquired in the sense under discussion. There must have been frequent opportunities of transmission, but we have no evidence of any- thing of the kind. The general conclusion we have arrived at in this paper is that pathology, so far from offering any support to the hypo- thesis of the transmission of acquired characters, pronounces ainst it. We have seen that it is possible to bring up a mass of evidence, which seems at first sight to favour that hypothesis. On further consideration, however, it becomes clear that only a small portion of that evidence can be allowed to ‘‘ rank.” A considerable number of facts must be rejected, because though there can be no doubt that the morbid characters here present are both acquired and transmitted, they are not acquired in the sense under discussion—that is, by the somatic cells exclu- sively— but by the entire organism. A considerable number of facts, again, meet with alike rejec- tion, because there is no question that here certain morbid cha- racters are transmitted, yet even supposing them to have been acquired, it does not appear that precisely what was acquired is transmitted, but something broader and more general. A considerable number of facts remain, which may be allowed to ‘‘rank” as genuine instances of acquired characters. These, if the hypothesis be correct, should be transmitted, But of such transmission we find little or no trace. If we begin with scars and mutilations, even if the facts are not all on one side, the balance of evidence is decidedly against the hypothesis. If we appeal to the results of experimental research, the question is more open ; but if the hypothesis does not encounter quite so decided an opposition in this quarter, it can scarcely be said to derive much support there. f we pass into the main region of pathology, we have to use some circumspection in looking about for instances which shall be genuine examples of acquired characters. That such in- stances really exist it has been our endeavour to show, notably in those secondary characters which organisms acquire by way of accommodating themselves to the effects produced by disease. So far from being rare or recondite, these constitute a group of familiar and well-ascertained facts. If transmission has not occurred, it cannot be for want of opportunity—there must have been scores of such opportunities. That it has not occurred, constitutes a piece of very important evidence against the hypothesis under discussion. Henry J. TYLDEN. A TRIP TO QUEENSLAND IN SEARCH OF CERATODUS-} MY main object in going to Queensland was to procure, if possible, the eggs of Ceratodus and the creature itself ; secondly, I wanted to collect earthworms ; and, thirdly, to see the country. In my main object I was quite unsuccessful, for the simple reason that this year Ceratodus did not lay its eggs till late on in November—two full months later than the time recorded by the only observer who had up till then procured them. University work forced me to return, not by any means empty-handed, but without the one thing which had tempted me to go north. To save time, and avoid unpleasantness also, I went by train. It is a long weary ride across New South Wales, especially in warm weather. Unfortunately I left Sydney by the northern mail on Friday evening. There were very few carriages, and some of what there were were ‘‘engaged”’ for legislators who travelled home free and in ease whilst we who paid for our journey were huddled and crowded together. This discreditable state of affairs seems to be couimon at the close of each week during the sitting of Parliament in Sydney. The journey north leads by the side of the Hawkesbury River, and after passing across the well-known bridge the train skirts the shores of what appears to be a succession of lakes. © In reality, the winding river, shut in by wooded hills, expands every now and then into sheets of water, each of which in the gather- ing darkness seemed to be a little lake. About eleven o’clock you find yourself apparently running along through the streets of Newcastle, and stretching out eastwards see the long quays and X Paper read by Prof. W. Baldwin Spencer, before the Field Naturalists" Club at Victoria, on March 1g. Reprinted"from the Victorian Naturalist for June and July. ‘ 306 NATURE [JuLy 28, 1892 “open water leading out to the sea. The whole is brilliant with numberless electric lights, though you have an idea that in day- light coal dust would be a little too prominent. As it is, how- -ever, Newcastle is associated in one’s mind with a series of flashing and twinkling lights prettily reflected in the water and with a very second-rate refreshment-room. Afer Newcastle ‘you settle yourself down as comfortably as possible for a run northwards of 400 miles, through the night and greater part of the next day, to the Queensland border, You seem to get -gradually more and more out of the world until at five o’clock next afternoon the train pulls up at the border station. By that time our number of passengers has been reduced to four. After looking about, a minute train, which at first sight you take for a toy, is descried at the end of the platform. Further searching shows a very narrow gauge line streaking away through the limestone hills northwards into Queensland. The original name of this border station was Wallangarra, but un- fortunately this is now being changed to Jennings. It is a pity to lose the old native names and to substitute for them such ugly ones. One would have thought that a more effective plan of perpetuating the memory of legislators might have been devised. Small though the railway is, it is very comfortable and well managed, and all officials uniformly courteous. The carriages are like the insides of omnibuses, with a broad seat all round the windows. On express trains the last car is always for smokers, and has a little balcony on which you can sit out in the open air right at the end of the train, and hence shielded from wind and dust. This isa most excellent arrangement. From Wal- langarra the train runs to Warwick, and then, across the uplands forming the Darling Downs with their wonderfully rich dark-red soil, on to Toowoomba. Here the line turns nearly due east and begins to climb gradually to the top of the Dividing Range close to the eastern escarpment of which Toowoomba lies. Suddenly you turn a corner, the upland country ends abruptly, and the train zig-zags rapidly down the face of the lofty escarpment which rises directly from the flat coastal district. The sun was setting just as we reached the crest, and in the brief twilight we had magnificent glimpses of the distant plains with the abrupt hill sides and deep gorges in the foreground. Close upon midnight Brisbane is reached. A slight difficulty arose in Brisbane with regard to my small amount of collecting material, but on learning that it was simply intended for scientific purposes, the Customs officials at once courteously saved me all trouble by allowing it to enter free of duty. In fact my experience in Queensland was that I met with the greatest courtesy from all officials, and the greatest kindness from such friends and strangers as it was my good fortune to be brought into contact with—an experience common, I believe, to all visitors to the Northern colony. From Brisbane the line is now continued through Mary- borough on to Bundaberg at the mouth of the Burnett River. About seventy-five miles north of Brisbane the vegetation changes almost suddenly, and the line runs across a belt of country, perhaps twenty miles wide, of a semi-tropical descrip- tion. To this we will return presently ; suffice it to say at present that the traveller finds himself suddenly surrounded by palms and pines and fig trees, and sees all the tree trunks covered with epiphytic ferns—with great masses especially of staghorn and bird-nest ferns, and with orchids from which hang down long clusters of yellow blossom. This belt of vegetation stops as suddenly asit began some few miles south of Gympie—-a well-known gold-mining town, which lies by the side of the Mary River, and where I had been told that Ceratodus was to be had in abundance. Here I determined to stay, and began at once to make inquiries. To my disappoint- ment I found that no one at the hotel knew anything about the animal, but I wandered forth in quest of information. The river itself was dirty with the washings from the mines, and looked anything but promising ; however, I made for some miserable huts on the outskirts occupied by Chinese, and after a little trouble found a fisherman amongst them. This individual was decidedly apathetic, but aftersome time said that he might or might not be able to catch me a few. Wandering along by the river I began to feel rather as if I were searching for a needle in a haystack. However, I learnt that the fish certainly were to be caught, though some few miles away, but that there was no chance whatever of getting assistance from any blacks, simply because there were not any in the neighbourhood, and at that time I thought their assistancé indispensable. It was late in the NO. 1187, VOL. 46] afternoon and I wandered on by the river searching for Lp arians and earthworms. Amongst the former I secured two specimens of a beautiful new species, to which Dr. Dendy has — given the name of Geoglana regina, and also specimens of the — almost cosmopolitan form, Aipalium kewense, and of Geoplana — cavulea, a form common in New South Wales, rare in Victoria, and very abundant indeed in Queensland, This was, I believe, the first time on which land planarians had been collected in Queensland—not that there was any difficulty in finding them, but that no one had taken the trouble to look before. Amongst earthworms, I collected for the first time for myself a true peri- cheete—that is, one in which the little setze, or bristles, form a complete circle round each segment of the body. In all our Victorian forms, without exception, there is a break in the mid- dorsal and ventral lines where the setze are absent. True peri- chzetes do not appear to come further south than the north of New South Wales. Under the logs also were specimens of a common Queensland worm, Cryptodrilus purpureus ; of a new species of perichete worm, P. gympiana; together with three species of frogs—Pseudophryne bibronii, P. australis, and Limnodynastes tasmaniensts. During the evening I had the opportunity of talking to one or two who were well acquainted with the country, and was strongly advised to go on without delay to the Burnett River. I deter- mined that this would be the wisest course to adopt, and accordingly packed up next morning, and after an hour or two’s stroll round Gympie, during which I did a large amount of log- rolling with but scanty success, owing to the extreme dryness of the country, once more took train northwards towards Mary- borough. I spent the night at a little wayside inn,. where con- siderable surprise was evinced at my putting in an appearance ; however, a wandering lascar turned up, so that I was more or less kept in countenance, and together we had tea in what was presumably a combination kitchen and scullery. During two or three hours’ collecting I met with nothing but gum trees, endless ants and scorpions, a few stray specimens of Geoplana caerulea, and one or two lizards and frogs. I somehow had the idea that north of Brisbane everything would be at least semi-tropical, and could not at first help feeling disappointed to find myself, except in the small district mentioned before, surrounded by little else but gum trees, without a trace of a palm or of anything which _ looked at all tropical. Eastern Gippsland was really richer in — vegetation and more varied in form of animal life than the part of Queensland in which I spent most of my time. In fact, so far as my experience yet goes, Gippsland, as a general collecting ground, would be very hard to beat. Early in the morning I started in a mixed train along a branch line leading inland for some fifty miles, tillit stopped apparently nowhere in special, and not far from a fine mountainous bluff. The station is called Biggenden, and here we found coaches waiting for us. A Queensland coachdriver is a most marvellous - man, both in the way in which he accepts with almost pleasure any amount of luggage, and in the way in which he stows it all on board. From Biggenden came a hot ride of about forty miles across uninteresting country. The only township we was a small place known as ‘‘ The Shamrock,” not far from the gold- field of Paradise. After changing horses we started off again, seeing nothing but gum trees and a few emus and kangaroos. Among the gums were what are locally known as blood gums, whose light-coloured trunks are covered with reddish blotches, due to the exhalation of kino ; woollybutts, which for perhaps ten feet above the ground have the trunk somewhat like that of a stringybark, and above this are quite smooth and whitish ; and a form of gum called brigalow. This grows in clumps, and differs from all the others in having its foliage comparatively dense, so that it affords a good deal of shade. The cattle congregate in the shade, and these dark patches give a curious and characteristic appearance to the landscape. Every now and then we came across a few birds, known as squat pigeons. These have the habit of squatting on the ground when approached, and, being of a brownish colour, are hard to see. Sometimes they can be knocked over by the whip of an experi- enced driver. Late in the afternoon we mounted a slight ridge and came down through a gap into the wide Burnett Valley. On either side of this rise low hills, and through the middle flows the river with a broad channel, occupied chiefly—except during the flood season—by long, broad stretches of sand. A short ride brought us to Gayndah, a long, straggling township on the river banks, and here I took up my quarters in the comfortable Juty 28, 1892] / NATURE sie o % Club Hotel. At one time Gayndah was the centre of a wool- a seg district, and bears evident signs of having seen a ___ Intent on meeting with Ceratodus, I made my way to Mr. _ Thomas Illidge, the postmaster of Gayndah, to whom I had been recommended, and I gladly take this opportunity of ex- > esse a thanks to him, not only for the valuable help and ormation which he gave me, but for many acts of kin iness added greatly to the pleasure of my stay in Gayndah. I here also express my thanks to my friends, Dr. Cole and lessrs. Frank and Virgil Connelly, from whom—though a complete stranger—I received most valuable help. If a tt wishes to meet with genuine kindness and every e assistance, I can warmly recommend Gayndah to ‘One of the first things I learnt was that Dr. Siemen, of the niversi pce, recently come to the Burnett district for pose of securing the eggs of Ceratodus, and the various pment stages of Platypus and Echidna; and not only t, , but that he had secured the services of the available blacks. _ I must confess to a feeling of something like chagrin at having come so far to meet with, apparently, no chance of success in _ what was my main object. After sleeping over my preliminary disappointment, I deter- mined on carrying out the only plan possible, which was to ' obtain one or two boys accustomed to the river, and, with their help, to at any rate get Ceratodus, and, if possible, the eggs. _ It was now well on in September—the time at which Mr. Caldwell had found that the animal had laid eggs—so there was still hope that I might secure them. Perhaps it may be well ___ here to state briefly the special interest which attaches to this particular form Ceratodus. As you all know, there are two ie sg the animals—the fishes and the amphibia—of which the _ first live in water, and breathe by means of gills, whilst the second either spend, as the newts do, their whole life in _ water, breathing by means of gills, or else, like the frogs, _ spend the early part of their life in water, breathing by gills, and then come out of the water and breathe by lungs just as ; les and mammals do. ow there is a very small group of animals known as the Dipnoi, which are, we may say, intermediate between the fishes andthe amphibia. They are neither so lowly developed as the _ fishes, nor so highly developed as the amphibia—in fact, they iF Se Soewigatige described as ‘‘ missing links” which still exist, é ind w el -us the way in which air-breathing were evolved from B r- ing animals. If we simply went by their external ee we should class them amongst fishes, which they closely resemble in many respects. Now, fishes have what is _ known as a swim-bladder, which is merely a long hollow process de from the cesophagus. This serves, probably, mainly asa float, and not at all for respiratory purposes ; but in the small group, Dipnoi, of which Ceratodus is one, this same swim- adder becomes modified to act asa lung. Not only this, but, whereas in fishes the impure blood which’ is carried from the body to the heart passes to the gills, is purified there and then es straight to the body, in the Dipnoi part of the blood goes the heart to the lung, and then is carried back again to a _ chamber in the heart specially developed for its reception. In ‘at aoa in the Dipnoi we can see some of the earliest stages in the __ evolution of important organs of the body as we now find them in all animals above fishes. __ Atthe present time only three examples of the Dipnoi are __ known to exist in the world—one form, Lepidosiren, lives only _ in the Amazon ; another, Protopterus, is only found in tropical By _ Mary Kivers, in Queensland. In past times, however, Ceratodus . lived |in other parts, such as Europe, as its fossil remains testify ; and in Australia Prof. Tate has recorded the presence of its teeth in the strata of the Lake Eyre basin. In fact, Ceratodus _ is one of those rare forms of which fossil remains were found and named before the living form was discovered. _ The habits of Protopterus have been studied, and it is stated ing seasons of drought it makes a cocoon of mud for itself, and breathes by means of its lung. On account of this _ habit, these forms have often been called mud and lung fishes. ___ My main aim, then, was tu find the eggs of the Ceratodus. From Mr, Caldwell’s published notes, which are only too brief, __ I knew that it deposited them much like some amphibians, such as the Axolotl, do, on weeds, and that he had found them in September. No. 1187, vou. 46] __ Africa ; and the third, Ceratodus, occurs only in the Burnett and To return now to Gayndah. I purchased a tent and provi- sions, and having hired two boys accustomed to the river, started away to camp out some few miles up the Burnett. The country was very dry and sandy, with all the creeks empty of water. The outcropping rocks are granitic, with basalt capping the hills around, and the disintegration of the granite appears to give rise toa vast amount of sand. Along the river itself there is an alternation of large sandbanks, where the stream is shallow, and of long deep pools with great granite masses. The banks are bordered by bottle-brush trees (Callistemon), which at that time were crimson with flowers, and alive withthickheads. Leaving my stores to find their way to an appointed spot, I kept by the river bank on the look-out for weeds, for without these it was hopeless to set to work. After a short halt at a station close to Mt. Debatable, where the sociable wasp (Polistes ferrugineus) was busy making its nest in the verandah, I walked on until we were some six or seven miles out of Gayndah but there was not a trace of weed in thériver. Close in to Gayndah, there was a small quantity, but where we expected to find a good supply there was none at all, owing apparently to heavy floods which in the last wet season had swept down the river. Accordingly we turned back and pitched our camp not far from Gayndah. It was evening by the time we were settled down, and too dark to see the eggs, so we lita fire and fished. It was a lovely moonlight night and the coolness was delightful after the heat of the day. The river is full of fish, and we caught sand eels and mud eels, jew-fish, perch, and bream, but not a single Ceratodus—or, as they call it locally, salmon. Turtles kept rising to the surface and showing their black heads above the water, and every now and then when we sat still we could recognize a Platypus. In the morning I set to work tosearch over the weed. One of my boys stripped and went into the river for it, whilst I sat half in and half out of the water looking carefully over each piece. In the hot blazing sun this was not enjoyable, and after some hours’ work, and not the slightest sign of an egg, and when the small patch of weed was pretty well exhausted, I sat down to think, and questioned my boys closely as to where there was more weed. A little way on the other side of Gayndah they told me there was a backwater usually full of weed. Why they had not told me of this before [could not imagine, and the remarks made probably conveyed this idea to them. However, we were close to the end of this weed, and as we had to get to some more, I sent one boy into Gayndah to procure help in removing our camp, for which, fortunately, I had made previous arrangements In the afternoon I finally exhausted the weed and myself with no result, and fora change set to work to turn over a few logs. Amongst planarians, Geoplana cerulea and variegata ; amongst earthworms, Cryfto- drilus purpureus ; amongst frogs, Limnodynastes tasmaniensis and Ayfperolia marmorata; and amongst lizards, species of Pygopus, Hinulia, and Egernia, and a small mammal, a species of Antechinus, rewarded my efforts, but everything was too dry, though the season was early, for anything very much in the nature of worms. Along the river banks endiess numbers of the beautiful butterfly Danazs erippus attracted my attention. It was feeding on the plant (Lanthana) along with which it has been introduced. Inthe river itself was to be seen the curious water lizard Physignathus lesueurii, of which we caught a small speci- men, and also the frog Ay/a /esweuriz, whilst the Callistemon trees contained plenty of a little green species of Hyla which the boys used as bait for fishing, and which appears to be new to science. Ialso caught this saine frog on window panes at night in Gayndah, where, like a moth, it goes to the light. As the evening came onthe mullet began to jump. They feed especially on a fila- mentous alga which grows in the water, and contains numerous crustaceans, especially a prawn-like form, for the sake of which they eat the alga. The latter is used as bait forthem. At night we caught a large mud eel, five feet long, which we eagerly drew into land, thinking it to be a salmon. Itried sugaring the trees, but it was of no use, not even a single ant put in its appearance, and thus ended another day of hard work and disappointment. f In the morning I had my boys up by 4a.m., and before six we were out of camp, and by nine o'clock had our tent pitched by the side of a backwater on the other side of Gayndah. This con- tained plenty of weed, and here I spent some days. We pro- cured a long pole, with three prongs at the end, to pull the weed up with. We used to get a large bucketful at a time, and then go over it piece by piece. This process had to be conducted under a hot sun, and the result was that my arms became swollen to about double their natural size—so mych, indeed, that I could 308 NATURE [JuLy 28, 1892 not sleep with anything like comfort, since the slightest pressure woke me up. The final result was that I did not see the slightest trace of any Ceratodus eggs, though, had they been there, there is no doubt but that we should have found them. I then sent one of my boys down the river for some miles to see if there were any more weeds, but there were none to be seen. Just at this juncture I heard of some blacks, but on trying to secure them found that they were anticipating a ‘‘ muster” on one of the neighbouring stations, and were not to be procured. Seeing no prospect of getting what I wanted, and being none the better for my exposure to the sun, I went into Gayndah. Here I may, perhaps, say something as to some conclusions I had come to with regard to the habits of Ceratodus. With the exception of the brief account given by Mr. Caldwell as to the laying of its eggs on weed, and the curious amphibian-like embryos, we know little about the natural history of the animal. As before said, it is confined to two Queensland rivers—the Mary and the Burnett, and my experience is limited to the latter. Firstly, with regard to the animal’s name. The Dipnoi have two popular names—‘‘ lung fishes” and ‘‘ mud fishes ”’—the latter given to them because, in the case of Protopterus, the animal may live for a part of the year in mud. The Ceratodus is not known locally by either of these names ; it is, however, sometimes called the ‘‘ barramundi” and sometimes the ‘‘salmon.’ The first of these is, however, really that of a true osseous fish (Osteoglossum leichardtit), which lives chiefly in the Dawson and Fitzroy Rivers, further north than the Burnett. The second is a fanciful name, given on account of the very pink-coloured flesh of the animal. Beyond this there is no resemblance whatever between the real and the so-called Burnett ‘‘salmon.” Mr. Saville Kent, in his report on fishes ro the Queen-land Government, states that Ceratodus is a valuable food fish. This is a curious mistake. Its flesh is very oily, coarse, and disagreeable, and it is but rarely eaten, and then only by Chinese and those who can afford nothing better. There is thus, I am thankful to feel, not much fear that so interesting an animal will become rapidly exterminated, Now, as to its method of life. Ceratodus is a big fish, and may reach the length of six feet, and even more. I believe the largest ever caught weighed eighty-seven pounds, It is always to be met with in the deep pools, and not in the shallow waters, and it is important to notice that these pools are many of them of con- siderable extent, some more than a milelong. In the hottest summer they contain a good supply of water, and thus, though occasionally a Ceratodus may, of course, find its way into a shallow pool which gets dried up, normally no such thing hap- pens, and the animal passes its whole life in water. The usual idea is that the lung is of service to the animal, as in the case of Protopterus, when the waters practically dry up. I very much doubt if Ceratodus ever makes for itself a mud cocoon, as Protopterus does. It may possibly, but very rarely, bury itself in mud, but the fishermen with whom I spoke, and who were perfectly well acquainted with the animal, knew nothing of its ever doing this. On the contrary, I fancy that the lung is of at least as great service to the beast during the wet weather as during the dry season—and probably even of greater. ‘ Normally, then, we may say that Ceratodus never leaves the water. If by any chance it gets out of the water it is perfectly helpless. You may put one close to the edge and there it lies passively. Its weak limbs are quite incapable of sustaining the weight of the body. Nor can it live out of the water, unless kept constantly damp, for more than a very few hours—not, in- deed, so long as the jew-fish from the same river. In the water, however, ‘it constantly uses its lung. Sitting by the stream when all is quiet in the evening, you can hear a diminutive kind of spouting going on, the animal at intervals rising to the surface and expiring and inspiring air much as a minute whale might do. Out of the water, too, it does not open and shut its gill flaps like an ordinary fish, but they remain tightly shut, and the animal opens and closes its mouth, to all appearances breathing like one of the higher forms. If we consider the environment of the Ceratodus we shall see that there are two special and constantly recurring conditions under which a lung would be useful to it. In the wet season the tributary creeks, dry in summer, become transformed into roaring torrents, and when once you have seen the great sandbanks along the river bed and the dry sandy country through which the creeks pass, you can easily recognize NO. 1187, VOL. 46] what a vast quantity of sand must be brought down during the course often of a very few days, and how thick the water become with fine particles. On the other hand, during the season there suddenly grow with enormous rapidity gi quantities of water weeds, The river is then at its lowest the decaying vegetable matter will often render the water foul, — Under either of these conditions you can see that the possession of an organ enabling the animal to remain in its natural element _ and yet breathe air directly will be of great advantage to it. Itis the shallower pools especially which become chocked with ; weeds, and since normally the Ceratodus lives in the de pools, in which is the purer water, it is, I think, very probable z that the flood season, when the water is disagreeably full of sand and mud, is the time when the lung is of greatest service. __ In Gayndah I learned that Dr. Siemen was camped out some forty miles up country, where the Auburn and Bowen Rivers join the Burnett, close to one another. weed. The difficulty was how to get there. However, I met with a friend in the person of Mr. Bailey, proprietor of the Queensland Hotel, who, at considerable inconvenience to himself, promised to see me through the difficulty ; and, taking one of my boys with me, we left Gayndah early one morning, before 4 a.m. ap The country was extremely dry and sandy, with poor gum trees, and every now and then a patch of brigalow. By 10.30 we reached a wayside accommodation house, and then in the heat of the day we started off along a most miserable track across country as utterly uninteresting and monotonous as can well be imagined. We had two good dogs with us, and the onl: break in the monotony was when they put up a big ‘* iguana.’ Most were much too quick for them, but one they got hold of, and it was wonderful to see how they stuck to him without getting within reach of his mouth. When all was over I slung him over a dead trunk, to get his head on the way back. However, when we came back he was not perfectly fresh, and was left behind. By 40’clock we had crossed the Bowen River and pitched our ? camp about a mile beyond. Then I walked on to Dr. Siemen’s camp. My advent was announced by the yelping of sundry mongrels, the property of a small camp of blacks. On these animals I kept a sharp look-out. Dr. Siemen I found living in comparative luxury, and from him I received a most cordial welcome. We spent the evening most pleasantly talking over matters of common scientific interest. in with a few Echidnas. more successful than myself in procuring Ceratodus eggs—that, in fact, they had not begun to spawn yet. Unlike myself, how- ever, he was able to stay there until they did spawn, and most generously offered to procure certain material for me. egg. On cutting open the body of a “salmon” I found the spawn inside, looking very similar, indeed, to that of a frog, each separate egg being black in colour at one pole. It was evidently not yet quite ripe for laying. The season when Mr. Caldwell got his eggs in September seems to have been an exceptional one as regards the temperature and amount of weed in thSriver. There had been no big flood for some time pre- viously to his visit, so that the river was full of weed and every- thing was favourable for the depositing of spawn, This season, as luck would have it, the warm weather started rather late and the weeds had been largely washed away by heavy floods, the river at the end of September being comparatively high. I think it safe to say that, granted the presence of eggs, they could be got by ‘* whites” just as well as by “blacks.” Any collector going at theright time and not frightened of tiring and tedious work could get them for himself now that the manner of spawning has once been ascertained. Each egg, surrounded by a little gelatinous capsule, is laid on weed, but I think, from what I heard with regard to Mr. Caldwell’s metheds, that he found it necessary to spend a very considerable time in the neighbourhood of the river whilst the embryos were slowly developing, as they were not easily and safely carried about. The next day Dr. Siemen and I spent together with, I trust, mutual enjoyment—at all events, to my- self it was one of the pleasantest days I spent in Queensland. I did a small amount of collecting, but it was far too dry and sandy to get anything in the way of worms. Down by the river I came across a black woman and pickaninny fishing, but they were frightened when I spoke to them, and fled. There were large numbers of Danazs erippus, and of a beautiful species of Acrzea with transparent wings. Late in the afternoon I at- Accordingly I made up my mind to go up the river, both to see him and to search for There. was a small amount of weed in the river but not a trace of an. Three of his blacks came © I learnt from him that he had been no Po hy eS —Eoooeeeee Juty 28, 1892] NATURE 309 _ tempted, but with not very great success, to photograph some blacks. One especially, named Frank, had his back scored with cicatrices in regular pattern. I spent the evening till 11 o’clock with Dr. Siemen, and said good-bye to him, wishing sincerely __ that he might be successful in his endeavours to secure what we _ were both in search of, and what it was perfectly evident that I myself could not obtain. ___I may here say that Dr. Siemen had with him the best of the blacks who were with Mr. Caldwell, and who secured for the latter the eggs of Ceratodus. These blacks were fine and _ powerfully-built fellows ; but here, as everywhere else, rum and _ disease are rapidly lessening their numbers. On the way back our dogs started many big lizards, and it was amusing to see one of them hanging on to the tail of a large bs roared gigas, whose head and body were hidden in the hollow _ ofalog. Jew lizards we met, as well as species of Hinulia and Li We camped by the Burnett, some twenty miles out of Ga , and spent the evening fishing in a little back- - water. T are two kinds of turtle in the river, the long- necked (Chelodina longicollis) and the short-necked (Chelymis piearcen. and sometimes one is surprised at pulling out a = instead of a fish. Next day we made our way back into Gay ing by large patches of grass trees in full flower, oad agers I little black native bees hovering around them. _ Just as we were passing through a mob of travelling cattle our Started two kangaroo rats (ettongia, sp.). There was a general scattering as the little animals, with the dogs in full chase, ran thre themob. After a short run one was caught, Fone < oon its pouch a single small young one not more than ; aie “em days in Gayndah, hoping to make a collection _ of earthworms, which up till then there had been very little _ chance of collecting. The name of the township will be well known to Australian etymologists, since it was here that Mr. Masters made a very fine collection ; he was fortunate enough to _ have almost a year in the district, and thus secured forms at all _ seasons. About a mile behind the township is a large stretch of _ scrub, where I spent a considerable time, often accompanied by _ one or other of my friends—Messrs. Illidge, Cole, and Connelly _ —to whom I am indebted for help in the laborious task of _ digging out worms from dry ground. My favourite place was a _ large patch centering in a big bottle tree, Sterculia guadrifida (?). _ Here was an open space, lightly timbered with small trees of _ Melia azedarach, the light green foliage of which formed a strong _ contrast to the sombre foliage of the dense scrub all around. Besides and bottle trees, the scrub was made up of such trees and shrubs as Geijera muelleri and salicifolia, which were covered with small yellowish flowers, Leptospermum Jani- gerum, Bursaria spinosa, Nephelium (sp.), Hovea longifes, _ Solanum stelligerum, &c. I am indebted to the Baron von _ Mueller for his kindness in giving me the names of plants, to Mr. C. French for names of Coleoptera, to Mr, A. H. S. _ Lucas for names of amphibia and lizards. From the open 4 — alleys lead away into the recesses of the scrub, and along “numbers of the beautiful Danazs erippus, Papilio erec- theus, and Acrasea (sp.) kept flying to and fro. Of birds, prob- ably because I was not specially on the look-out for them, I saw very few. The two most numerous forms of life were ants and millipedes. The moment you put anything which could serve as food for them on the ground, the former appeared as if by magic. Several times they spoilt butterflies just while I put them down _ on the ground and made a paper bag for them. They always bit _ off first the little knob at the end of the antenna. White ants _ of course abounded, and in the tree trunks were swarms of native bees. There were not as many logs to turn over as could _ have been wished for, and the ground also was rather too dry - and sandy. © __ We began by digging around the base of the big bottle tree, and, after digging some time, came across some large worms, _ about two feet in length. These differ in habit from any others I have collected. The burrow runs down for perhaps two feet, _ and then opens into a small chamber. The head end of the _ worm lies usually a short distance up the burrow, whilst the greater of its length is twisted into a knotted coil, and lies _ in the chamber which may also contain one or two smaller, im- _ mature forms, evidently the young of the larger ones. Under _ and in rotten logs you often meet with a shortish, stout worm, perhaps six or eight inches in length, which, at first sight, differs very much from the long one. Its body is stiff, and the surface NO. 1187, VOL. 46] comparatively dry, whilst the other is four or five times its length, the body soft and the surface always very slimy. The short one I met with all along the Burnett River, at Gympie and in the palm district between this and Brisbane, whilst Mr. D. Le Souéf collected it at Toowoomba. It is the Cryptodrilus purpureus of Michaelsen, and, much though the two differ in habits and appearance, the long one is at most a variety of the short, typical form. I only got it in this one spot. In the scrub were some four new species of the same genus, and three new species of a genus (Didymogaster) of which previously only one species had been described from New South Wales, by Mr. Fletcher. Of the typical Victorian genus, Megascolides, to which our large Gippsland earthworm belongs, I did not find any example in Gayndah, but the Perichztes were fairly well represented. Most of the earthworms were secured under fallen logs and in rotten trunks of the bottle tree. In times of drought the latter are cut down, and, containing a great amount of moisture, are eaten readily by cattle. The season was too early for beetles, but amongst others I secured specimens in the family Carabidz of Carenum deauratum and donelli, Eutoma (sp.), Philoscaphus mastersii, and Homa- losoma hercules ; and, in the Pausside, of Arthropterus (sp.). One species of the genus Zeféofs, in the Curculionide, simply swarmed on the bark of the bottle trees and some of the upturned logs in the more open parts were alive with the little red form, Lemodes coccinea. A short time before leaving for Queensland I had been struck with the presence of curious laterally-placed segmental openings in a very large millipede from Fiji, which Mr. French had kindly forwarded to me. Inthe Gayndah scrub—where smaller, but still large, millipedes abounded—I was interested to find the meaning of these openings. Each one is connected with a gland, and, when irritated, the animal passes out a few drops of a most obnoxious fluid, of a red-brown colour, the function of which must be protective. Whilst on this subject, I may mention that one morning, when Mr. Frank Connelly and myself were digging for worms, we accidentally cut in two a cockroach. From between the segments in its back it poured forth a milky white fluid, possessing an odour so execrable and pungent that it drove us from the spot. Under logs we found, also, of land planarians, Geoplana cerulea and variegata, and amongst Vertebrata, the frogs Limnodynastes tasmaniensis, which was common everywhere, and Ayperolia marmorata. Of lizards, we secured species of Phyllodactylus, Pygopus, Grammatophora, Hinulia, Liolepisma, and Egernia. Snakes were rare, only the genera Morelia, Furina, and Hoplocephalus being represented. Whilst in the scrub I did not see a single marsupial. On the road from Biggenden to Gayndah I had been struck with the appearance of two small hillocks capped with basalt. The country all round was. thinly wooded with nothing but gum trees, but just the tops of these two hillocks were rich with vegetation, though each was at most fifty yards in width. Dr. Cole, Mr. Illidge, and myself drove out to see if there were anything worth collecting. Unfor- tunately, since I had passed along the country had been and everything was as dry and parched as it well could be. However, just the very cap of the hills still formed a strong contrast to the surrounding country, and here we found growing—though nowhere else, apparently, except in these two very limited areas—Damara robusta, the Queensland Kauri, Cupania xylocarpa, Micromelum pubescens, Carissa brownii, Citriobatus (sp.), and amongst ferns a rich growth of Polypodium (sp.), and Adriantum (sp.). Animal life was al- most absent. We disturbed three wallabies, but except these and a few millipedes and scorpions and endless ants, there was nothing to be seen. My time was passing by rapidly, and though I would much have liked a few more days in the Gayndah scrub, it was a choice between this and two or three days in the palm district between Gympie and Brisbane. Regretfully I left Gayndah, and taking the coach back to Biggenden, found myself in the evening in Maryborough. In the morning I had about two hours to wander about. Close to the town were camped some blacks. It was curious to note how they had adapted themselves to their environment. They had made their ‘‘humpies” out of old sheets of corrugated iron. A semi-clothed native lying down in the shelter of a mia-mia made of English corrugated iron formed as incongruous a mixture as could well be imagined. Early in. 310 NATURE [JuLy 28, 1892 the afternoon I left the train at Cooran and took up my quarters in a delightful little wayside inn surrounded by ferns. On going up to the house I detected at once the genuine Lanca- shire dialect, and knew that the owner hailed from within ten miles of Manchester. I was accordingly made welcome, and wandered out to do a little collecting before evening came on. I found myself just on the northern border of the palm scrub which ran in a broad belt of about twenty miles width across the country from east to west, inland from the sea coast. The country was fairly hilly with a few isolated peaks standing out clearly. I was just at the base of one of these—Cooran—and to the south lay two more—Cooroora and Pimparan. South from these again the ridges increased in height, and then the country fell away into the slightly undulating plains which stretched eastwards towards Bribie Island and southwards to Brisbane. Some remarkable peaks, called the Glass Mountains, mark the southern end of the hilly district. So far as animals are concerned, I was much disappointed with this palm scrub, but equally delighted with the richness of the vegetation. Commencing first near to Cooran, I followed back the line and ‘‘log-rolled,” finding a few worms and four land planarians (XAynuchodemus obscurus), a small, dark-coloured form, and Geoflana cerulea and variegata, together with specimens of a very small new white species, to which Dr. Dendy has given the name of G. minor. After long searching I came across feripfatus leuckartii, very dark purple in colour and evidently similar to the typical form and without the curious diamond-shaped markings charac- teristic of the Victorian form. Though searching hard, I only found nine specimens altogether, and all these close to Cooran. Most of my time was spent in this scrub at different parts, and usually in company with George Martin, the son of my Lancashire friends, who helped me very considerably in collecting. The scrub was very thick with vines and prickly lawyers and barristers and supplejack, making progress tedious, and there were compara- tively few logs onthe ground. What delighted me most were the ferns. Thetrunks of the pines and gums were often covered over with them and with orchids. High up were enormous clumps of the bird-nest fern(Asplentum nidus), and larger ones of the stag- horn (Acrostichum alcicorne). Some of the latter measured fully twelve feet through, and from them hung down lovely pendant fronds of smaller ferns, especially of Polypodium tenellum, whichis locally known as the feather fern. On the ground grew various species of Davallia, Adiantum, Pteris, Doodia, Aspidium, Poly- podium, &c. Perhaps the most beautiful of all were the large and delicate fronds of Adiantum formosum. ‘There were appar- ently three forms of palms—species of Ptychosperma, Livistona, and Kentia. The latter is very common, and usually known as the walking-stick palm, In the scrub were great pine trees, and under the bark stripped off from these, and lying about in large slabs, I expected to find any number of worms and insects, but was much disappointed. Millipedes and scorpions were there, and two large forms of land shells ; but scarcely an insect to be seen, and not a planarian or peripatus. I got a few new species of earthworms, of which, again, the commonest form was Cryf- todrilus purpureus ; and in rotten logs, which, unfortunately, were few in number, were large forms of cockroaches. The earthworms formed the best part of my collection here, and comprised representatives of five genera—Perichzta, Megasco- lides (one species, the only one found), Cryptodrilus, Perissogas- ter, and Acanthodrilus. The latter is only recorded, as yet, from Northern Australia, where there are two species, and is characteristic of New Zealand. Perissogaster is peculiarly Australian and has only three species yet known. My specimens were obtained by digging on the banks of a creek at Cooran and were whitish in colour and about 1 to 14 feet in length. The boys use them for fishing, quite unaware of their scientific value. In Queensland, as in Victoria, I could very rarely, indeed, find traces of casts made by worms or of leaves dragged down into the burrows, and it would appear that here, as in Africa, the ants areof more use than the worms as agents in turning over the soil. Under the bark and logs were a few frogs— Pseudophyrne bibronii and coriacea, Crinia signifera, and a female specimen of Crydtotis brevis. In certain spots there were great numbers of trap-door spiders. Some of the tubes, which led for about 2-4 inches down into the ground, were an inch in diameter. The top of the tube, with its semi-circular ‘trap-door, projects slightly above the surface. NO. 1187, VOL. 46 | One of the most striking features of the scrub were the epi- phytic orchids, of which, owing to its size and large pendant masses of yellow-brown flowers, was the most noticeable. In parts the ground was crimson with — the fallen berries of a species of Eugenia: we cut one down about sixty feet high, laden with fruit, which has a tart taste, Aa from its colour and size has caused the tree to be known asthe Cymbidium canaliculatum native cherry. Another Eugenia has a large purple fruit, and : is hence known as the native plum, 4 above ground, we saw hanging down clusters of light brown fruit. Luckily there was a hanging vine close at hand, and up this George Martin went like a monkey. The fruit belonged to the tree Dysoxylon rufum, and each was covered over with in- numerable minute stiff hairs, which pierced the skin in hun- dreds, Other plants we noticed were the wistaria, which here grows wild, Dracena angustifolia, and one which Baron von Mueller has marked as rare—hip~ogonum elseyanum. Two dangerous ones are common, one with large bright green leaves and succulent sheathing stalks, which is locally known as the ‘*Congey Boy ’—this is eaten greedily by the native turkeys, but has the effect of making a man’s tongue swell to an enormous extent ; the other is the stinging tree, Urtica gigas—the sti of this is extremely painful, and seems to prove fatal to horses, driving them rapidly frantic. oe als. Close by the base of Mount Cooroora, a beautiful specimen of Macrozamia denisoni in fruit was growing, and on Mount Cooran the rock on the western side was completely overgrown. with staghorn and bird-nest ferns and with an orchid, Den- drobium (sp.), with beautiful clusters of delicate white flowers, amongst which trailed Kennedya rubicunda, its bright red blos- soms contrasting strongly with the pure white of the orchids. My last day I spent at the Glass Mountains—curious cone- like basaltic structures rising abruptly from almost flat country. The day was oppressively hot, making it no small exertion to even turn over a log, and as the sun. went down a heavy storm came up, and from the train I caught my last glimpses of this delightful district lit up by almost incessant flashes of brilliant lightning. SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. The American F ournal of Science, July.—The change of heat conductivity on passing isothermally from solid to liquid, by C. Barus. The method employed was a modification of Weber's, who placed a thin, wide, plane-parallel plate or layer of the sub- stance to be examined between and in close contact with two thick plates of copper. The system was first heated so as to be at a given temperature throughout. It was then suddenly and permanently cooled at the lower surface, and the time-rate at which heat travelled from the top plate to the bottom plate, through the intervening layer, was measured by a thermo-couple. From these data the absolute thermal conductivity of the layer may be-computed, the constants of the system being known. In the experiments discussed, the liquid was thymol, which can be kept either solid or liquid between 0° and 50° C. This was heated above its melting point, and introduced through a central hole in the upper plate ; it was then allowed to cool down until undercooled. The temperature was regulated by enclosing the whole apparatus in a sheet-iron jacket, through which water was kept circulating. The lower plate could be cooled by flushing it with water from below. The difference of temperature of the plates was measured by means of a copper german-silver couple. The liquid was solidified by introducing a crystal through the central hole. The results obtained gave for the absolute conduc- tivity of thymol in g/cs: Solid thymol at 12°, 4 = 359 x 10 -° Liquid thymol at 13°, 4 = 313 x 10 -* The thermometric conductivity was found to be— For solid thymol at 12°, = 1077 x 10 —® For liquid thymol at 13°, = 691 x 10 —® —On polybasite and tennantite from the Mollie Gibson mine in Aspen, Colorado: by S. L. Penfield and Stanley H. Pearce. Large quantities of polybasite or ‘‘brittle silver” have been” mined nearly free from gangue, assaying from 10,000 to 16,000 ounces of silver to the ton. Tennantite, arsenical tetrahedrite, or ‘‘ grey copper,” was found in smaller quantities, containing about fourteen ounces of silver. The rich ore occurs between a { High up, some fifty feet Pe | oF earlstte sat volcanic outbursts over a large area. q time _ the - triclinic, the salt is orthorhombic.—Fossils in the ‘‘archzan” rocks of - Central Piedmont, Virginia, by N. H. Darton. a account of some experiments performed in the Sloane Physical JuLy 28, 1892] NATURE 311 o hanging wall of black carbonaceous shale and a foot wall of grey _ magnesian limestone, which is probably of lower carboniferous age. The ore is richest and most abundant immediately under the blac _ argentite, galena, gece siderite, barite, and calcite.—Post- pu - lowest eocene and the marine cretaceous deposits, which have shales. Other minerals observed are native silver, ie deposits of Colorado, by Whitman Cross. This paper, shed by permission of the director of the United States gical Survey, deals with some beds occurring between the hitherto been classed with the Laramie formation of the Rocky ntains. The age of the firm grey sandstones and coal- _ measures of the latter has long been doubtful, and they have been S riol desc cri ) ly described as secondary and tertiary. In the Denver n, two beds are found overlying the Laramie unconformably, 1e consisting of a pebbly conglomerate, the other of débris lavas; they have been termed the Denver and formations respectively. Their equivalents have been yund in various other parts of Colorado. When, after the con- ntal elevation which caused the retreat of the Laramie seas, imenta began again, it was in comparatively small seas or lakes. Succeeding the first period of lake-beds came a time of The length of geo- ore Oy not have been very great, but the extent cement A which eruptions occurred at this time, and the great é lavas found in the Denver and Middle Park regions, rue for the decided importance of the event as a dynamic nifestation. The writer wishes to advocate the restriction of Laramie, in accordance with its original definition, to of conformable beds succeeding the marine Montana as, and the grouping of the post-Laramie lake beds in ‘series, to which a comprehensive name shall eventually n.—On the alkali-metal pentahalides, by H. L. Wells ‘H. L. Wheeler. With their crystallography, by S. L. Penfield. An account of the preparation and properties of com- oes the formule CsI,, CsBr;, CsCl.Cl,I, RbCI.CI,I, CII, C NaCl.Cl,I.2H,O, LiCl.Cl,I.4H,O. The first is : third, fourth, and fifth are monoclinic, and the Na : Remains of crinoids belonging to the upper Ordovician fauna were found in the roofing slate of Arvon, Buckingham County, Virginia, which has hitherto been classified as Huronian.—Notes on the Cambrian ; ald Virginia and the southern Appalachians, by Chas, D. t. It is shown that towards the close of middle Cambrian - time, and during upper Cambrian time, there was a decided con- tinental movement, resulting in the depression of the interior continental plateau, and that this was accompanied by the for- mation of conglomerates of the older Cambrian rocks in the valley of the St. Lawrence, and by a great deposition of sediments of later Cambrian time in the southern Appalachian region.— n esis of the minerals crocoite and phcenicochroite, by C. de Ph.D. This was accomplished by exposing for : several months to the air a solution of lead chromate in caustic otash in a flat dish. A mixture of the two kinds of crystals resulted, which could be easily sorted by means of a pincette.— A hint with respect to the origin of terraces in glaciated regions, by Ralph S. Tarr. Tracing a resemblance between the flood terraces of the Colorado in Texas, and the glacial terraces of the _ Connecticut.—Occurrence of a quartz boulder in the Sharon coal ‘north-eastern Ohio, by E. Orton.—A method of increasing he range of the capillary electrometer, by John Whitmore. An ory of Yale College, with a view towards improving the mercury and sulphuric acid electrometer as constructed by Lipp- mann and Pratt. Instead of having alternate bubbles of the two liquids, the surface of the mercury exposed to oxygen polarization was increased by blowing the tube into bulbs at the junction. A series of bulbs was blown, spaced at equal intervals along a i tube, the diameter of the bulbs being two centimetres, that of the tube 0°6 mm. ; then the tube was so bent, that the whole contained as many U-shaped parts as there were cells. One arm of each U was provided witha bulb, which was situated at a distance of two-thirds the height of the U from the base. The apparatus was filled by connecting it with an aspirator, and drawing in sufficient mercury to half fill each bulb, after which dilute sulphuric acid was added by the same means. Platinum electrodes were used, and the variations in the height of the mercury columns produced by the E.M.F. examined, were read by means of a cathetometer. The deflection produced by a standard Clark cell was 3°20 mm.. The range of the instrument NO. 1187, VOL. 46] is limited by the E.M.F. required to produce continuous electro- lysis, but it was found that it could be considerably increased by using a larger number of cells in series. It is possible to deter- mine with this electrometer the E.M.F. of a cell correctly to 0‘00! of a volt. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LONDON. Chemical Society, June 16.—Prof. A. Crum Brown, F.R.S., President, in the chair.—The following papers were read :—Contributions to an international system of nomen- clature. The nomenclature of cycloids, by H. E. Armstrong. An account was given of the proceedings at the recent Con- ference on Chemical Nomenclature at Geneva, and attention was directed to the significance of the chief resolutions. A report of the conclusions arrived at by the Conference has already. appeared in Nature (this vol., p. 56).—The production of pyridine derivatives from the lactone of triacetic acid, by N. Collie and W. S. Myers. The product of the interaction of ammonia and triacetic lactone is most probably an ay-dihydroxy-a-picoline. By the action of phosphorus. oxychloride on this substance a compound possessing all the properties of a dichloropicoline is obtained, and on passing this, together with hydrogen, over heated zinc-dust, a-picoline boiling” at 128-129° is produced. The melting points of the platini- and auri-chlorides, obtained from the synthetical alkaloid, agree with those given by thé corresponding compounds prepared from: pure a-picoline which was made by heating pyridine methio- dide.—The fermentation of arabinose by Bacillus ethaceticus, by P. F. Frankland and J. MacGregor. The products are qualitatively the same as were obtained in the fermentations of glycerol by the same organism, consisting of ethyl alcohol,. acetic acid, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and traces of succinic acid, together with another acid which was not identified. When the fermentation is conducted in a closed space a notable proportion of formic acid also occurs among the products. In. this case the products are formed approximately in the pro- portions—3C,H,O, 3C,H,O., 4CH,O., the formic acid as- well as the carbon dioxide and hydrogen found being all’ collected together as formic acid in this statement. In the fermentations conducted in flasks plugged only with cotton. wool, on the other hand, the alcohol and acetic acid were formed in the proportion 2C,H,O, 3C,H,O,. It appears, therefore, that in the fermentation of arabinose by Bacillus: ethaceticus, the proportion of acetic acid to alcohol is greater: than in that of dextrose, and still greater than in the cases of mannitol and glycerol, but less than in that of glyceric acid.— Resolution of lactic acid into its optically active components, by T. Purdie and J. W. Walker. The authors have resolves. ordinary inactive lactic acid into levo- and dextro-lactic acid: by taking advantage of the different solubilities of the strych- nine salts of these components. Strychnine levolactate is con- siderably less soluble in water than the dextrolactate, although: both salts may be crystallised. By fractional crystallization of the mixed salts and subsequent removal of the strychnine from: the crystals and mother liquor, by means of:ammonia or barium hydrate, solutions were obtained which were respectively dextro- and levo-gyrate. The dextrolactate yielded a zinc dextrolactate having the same composition and solubility as zinc sarcolactate. A well-defined dextro zinc ammonium salt of the composition Zn.NH,4 (C3H;Os3)z, 2H,O having the: specific rotatory power [a])>=+6°49 (approx.) was prepared. The dextrogyrate salts yield a levogyrate acid, which, like: sarcolactic acid, gives an oppositely active anhydride. The quantities of oppositely active acids separated from each other by means of the strychnine salts possessed equal amounts of optical activity. Fermentation lactic acid is thus shown by analysis to consist of two oppositely active isomeric acids, one of which is identical with dextrogyrate sarcolactic acid, and the other with the levogyrate acid prepared by Schardinger by the bacterial decomposition of cane sugar.—A new method for determining the number of NH, groups in certain organic bases, by R. Meldola and E. M. Hawkins, In order to ascertain the number of NH, groups present in certain organic bases the authors propose to form the azoimides ; on analysis of these substances, the number of amidogen groups which have been diazotized, can be determined. For example, paradiami- doazobenzene (NH... C,H4).N, was diazotized and converted into- 312 tetrazoperbromide in the usual way. This latter substance, by the action of ammonia, yields lustrous silvery scales of the azoimide. N N NZ ON ee ee PNK DN NC ODBC The analysis of this substance proves without doubt that two amidogen groups were present in the original base.—The existence of two acetaldoximes. Second notice, by W. R. Dunstan and T. S. Dymond. The authors have more fully in- vestigated the change undergone by acetaldoxime on heating (see NATURE, this vol., p. 94). The pure crystals melt at 46°5°; after heating at 100° for a few minutes the liquid does not begin to crystallize until 13°. On separating the crystals now formed, and cooling the liquid still more a further crop of crystals is obtained. Each of these separations is found to melt at 46°5°. Acetaldoxime therefore exists in two modifica- tions, one, the crystalline form melting at 46°5°, and the other, a liquid form which the authors find cannot be obtained in a pure state, as when it approaches purity it partially reverts to the modification melting at 46°5°.—The dissociation constants of organic acids, by J. Walker. The author has measured the dissociation constants of a number of organic acids and ethereal salts. —-Note on the preparation of alkyl iodides, by J. Walker. The author has devised a method for conveniently and rapidly preparing considerable quantities of methyl and ethyl iodides. The apparatus employed consists of a modified fat extraction apparatus, by means of which the iodine is dissolved by the condensed alcohol, and runs into a vessel containing the phosphorus and alcohol. The method gives a good yield, and may be applied to the preparation of higher iodides.—An ex- amination of the products obtained by the dry distillation of bran with lime. Preliminary communication, by W. F. Laycock a-d F, Klingemann. On distilling a mixture of bran and quick-lime, a black oil, floating on an aqueous solution is obtained. The aqueous solution smells of herring brine, con- tains much ammonia, and on boiling evolves inflammable gases. The oil is evidently a complex mixture, and has not yet been separated into its constituents.—The atomic weight of palladium, by G. H. Bailey and T. Lamb.—The action of sul- phuryl chloride on acetorthotoluidide and acetparatoluidide, by W. P. Wynne. Paris. Academy of Sciences, July 18.—M. d’Abbadie in the chair.—On a slight additive correction which may have to be applied to the heights of water indicated by sea-gauges, when the swelling or chopping agitation of the sea reaches a great intensity : case of a choppy sea, by M. J. Boussinesq. In this second case the correction is much smaller than in the former, amounting to not more than o’r mm. in an extreme case.— Preparation and properties of proto-iodide of carhon, by M. Henri Moissan._ If an exhausted sealed tube containing crystals of the tetra-iodide of carbon be heated in an oil bath to 120°, iodine is liberated and condenses in the cooler portion of the tube, while less volatile crystals of the proto-iodide of carbon are produced, corresponding to the formula C,I, To obtain greater quantities, the tetra-iodide is reduced by silver powder. The substance obtained presents itself in beautiful pale yellow crystals of density 4°38, fusing at 185°, and volatile without decomposition below their point of fusion. By slow volatiliza- tion in a vacuum at a temperature between 100° and 120°, transparent crystals are produced, some of which form highly refracting hexagonal tablets. The proto-iodide is very soluble in carbon bisulphide, tetrachloride, and ordinary ether, which, by cooling, gives good crystals. The new compound is very stable, being not oxidized by potassium permanganate, and boiling chromic and nitric acids.—On one of the reactions of spermine, by M. Duclaux.—On a fossil baboon of the quaternary phosphorites of Algeria, Macacus trarensis, by M. A. Pomel.— Project of meteorological observatories on the Atlantic Ocean by Albert I., Prince of Monaco. A proposal to establish a station on the Azores as svon as the projected cable is laid, and also on Madeira, the Canaries, Bermuda, and the Peak of Teneriffe. It is expected that the prediction of cyclones will be much facilitated, and Monaco is suggested as a centre for the collection and distribution of the information obtained.—On the specific heat and the latent heat of fusion of aluminium, by M. J. Pionchon. The total quantity of heat required to raise I gr. of aluminium from 0° to its fusing point, 625°, is 239°4. The NO. 1187, VOL. 46] NATURE [JuLy 28, 1892 latent heat of fusion is very large, being equal to that of water, viz, 80 cal.—On the measurement of the dielectric constant, by ‘The values obtained by these two methods, being unaffected by — residual charges, are more reliable than those derived from the static, the attraction, and the ballistic galvanometer methods.— On the principle of maximum work, by M. H. Le Chatelier, — An examination of the bearing of certain thermodynamic laws on Berthelot’s principle, showing that the contradiction between them is only apparent.—On a basic nitrate of calcium, by M. A’ Werner.—On the efflorescence of sulphate of copper and some other metallic sulphates, by MM. H. Baubigny and E. Pechard. —On the decomposition of the basic nitrates by water, by MM. G. Rousseau and G. Tite. —On phosphopalladic combinations, by M. E. Fink.—On the mechanical contrast between the radical cyanogen and the chloroid elements, by M. G. Hinrichs. —The influence of the substitution of the methyl group for one benzene hydrogen on the properties of orthotoluidine, a M. A. Rosenstieh|.—On the instability of the carboxyl in the phenol acids, by M. P. Cazeneuve.—On preserved ferruginous mineral waters, by M. J. Riban.—On a new leucomaine, by M. A. B. Griffiths. —Effects of sudden release on animals placed in com- pressed air, by M. G. Philippon. It was found that although rabbits subjected to a pressure of six or eight atmospheres were unaffected if the pressure was gradually released, a sudden ex- pansion was followed by almost instantaneous death. The cause of death appears to be the mechanical expansion of the gas contained in the vessels, which, in the case of gradual release, is eliminated by the lungs in a few minutes.—On the immediate reparation of losses of intra-osseous substances, with the aid of aseptic bodies, by MM. S. Duplay and M. Cazin.— The coxal gland of the scorpion and its morphological relations to the excretory glands of the Crustacea, by M. Paul Marchal. —The avalanche of the Tétes-Rousses. Catastrophe of St. Gervais-les-Bains (Haute-Savoie), by M. F. A. Forel.—On certain forms of filling-up observed in some lakes of the Pyrenees, by M. Emile Belloc. CONTENTS. PAGE Grouse Disease and Fowl Enteritis. By A. M. 289. Electric Light Cables. . i a ar 290 Our Book Shelf :— Picou : ‘‘ Distribution de I’ Electricité” ; gon) Gall: ‘‘ Popular Readings in Science” .. .. . 291 Blaikie and Thomson: ‘* Geometrical Deductions” . 291 Letters to the Editor :— he B.A. Procedure.—Henry E, Armstrong. . . 291 The Position of 4m in Electromagnetic Units. —Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S. ; Oliver Heaviside, F.R UR.G.0 cd.) Gee eee ga’ Neutral Point in the Pendulum.—Wm. Flinders Petries:) see eee wits SO is OR Induction and Deduction. —E. E. Constance Jones 293 The Scale for Measurement of Gas Pressures. —Orm Masson ... fg Oe, OT a er Luminous Clouds. —W. Clement Ley ..... . 204 Whirlwinds in the South Indian Ocean.—Robert H. Scotts: ois a ue oe Gee aro rae <°7| The Cause of the Great Fire at St. John’s.— Humanity .... z ; Soh DRE oP aS The Washington Collection of Fossil Vertebrates, By:R. Lydekkers is 2h eee RS Ren gS Dynamo-electric Maczinery. By Prof. A. Gray, FERS. 2 2siSe be i Re Mr. A. Norman Tate. By O02: WiJiis aa 208 The British Association. .... ... . . 298 Notes Be eet e Nee p 298 — Our Astronomical Column :— Madras Observatory. ...... 301 Oxford University Observatory ......-... 301 Geographical Notes . wee al ON The Bearing of Pathology upon the Doctrine of the Transmission of Acquired Characters. By Henry Ji Tylden i oR eee ee eae or ae A Trip to Queensland in Search of Ceratodus. By Prof. W. Baldwin Spencer: 2.05. Col cee 305 Scientific Seriale ioe ie eee te PP ent, 310 Societies and Academies 00.800) 00 0. ae 311 NATURE 315 THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1892. COAL-TAR COLOURING-MATTERS. Tabellarische Uebersicht der kiinstlichen organischen Farbstoffz. Von Gustav Schultz und Paul Julius. R. _ Gaertner’s Verlagsbuchhandlung, Hermann Heyfelder. _ (Berlin, 1891.) ss [) R. SCHULTZ is well known to “tar chemists” as _ jV the author of “ Die Chemie des Steinkohlentheers,” _ the most exhaustive work on coal-tar products which has hitherto been written, and of which the first edition appeared in 1882, and the second, enlarged to two thick volumes, in 1887-1890. His colleague Dr. Julius is the author of a useful little work on the same subject “published i in 1887. The volume before us is a remarkable _ production from every point of view, and well worthy of the reputation of the two authors who have collaborated ‘in its production. Although nothing more than a tabu- lated catalogue of coal-tar colouring-matters, as it pro- fesses to be, the work is in reality a complete index to the _ literature of this rapidly growing branch of indnstry ; 4 complete, that is to say, to the date of its publication ; but ' development i is taking place even now at such a pace that __ asingle year has sufficed to render asupplement necessary, _ and many of the most recently added colouring-matters are not included in the lists. The first edition of the _ “ Tabellarische Uebersicht ” was published in 1888 and _ contained 278 colouring-matters ; the present edition con- tains 392 colouring-matters—a fact which speaks for _ itself with respect to the progress of chemical discovery in this direction. The volume is dedicated to the late _ Prof. von Hofmann, whose labours in this field in the early _ days of the industry will render his name inseparable from that band of pioneers who were the first to penetrate _ into the new regions opened up by the discovery of mauve 3 by Dr. W. H. Perkin in 1856. The volume of tables under consideration has become ‘indispensable to every chemist engaged in the manufacture _ of, or in any way interested in, the coal-tar colouring- _ matters. To the general chemist it will be a matter of wonder that from three to four hundred distinct com- pounds, for the most part of known constitution, definite in character, often beautiful in crystalline form and ap- - pearance, and, in short,-all well-characterised “chemical individuals,” should be turned out of factories by hundredweights and tons for consumption in the tinctorial _ The authors group the colouring-matters under sixteen 4 Sein: :—Nitro-derivatives, Azoxy-compounds, Hydra- _ zones, Azo-compounds, Nitroso-compounds (quinone- oximes), Oxyketones, Diphenyl-methane derivatives, Tri- _ phenyl methane derivatives, Indophenols, Oxazines and _ Thiazines, Azines, Artificial Indigo, Quinoline colouring- _ matters, Acridine colouring-matters, Thiobenzenyl deriva- _ tives, and colouring-matters of unknown constitution. _ The tables are arranged in eight columns, the first con- _ taining the commercial name of the colouring-matter, the _ second its scientific name, the third its empirical formula, _ the fourth its constitutional formula, the fifth its mode of _ preparation, the sixth its date of discovery, the seventh _ the name of the discoverer and literary references, and No. 1188, VOL. 46] the eighth its general properties and mode of application. From this analysis it will be seen that the work is, as we have stated, a complete epitome of the coal-tar colour industry. Its value as a work of reference for tech- nologists will be appreciated by all who may have occasion to consult it ; our own experience has been that the many thousand references to chemical literature, patents, and periodicals, are given with an accuracy that leaves nothing to be desired. One special feature to which attention must be directed is that the compounds tabulated are or have been actual articles of commerce. If the colouring-matter has been superseded, as must inevitably be the case with the progress of discovery, the authors announce the fact by stating micht mehr im Handel. Thus the reader is made acquainted with the actual state of the industry, and the student with these tables at hand will be prevented from becoming a prey to the snares of the compilers of examinational text-books, who are only too frequently quite out of touch with the technology of their subject. Writers of this class are apt to set forth lists of compounds which are worthless to the manufacturer, and which are of value only to the examiner in technology by enabling him at once to separate the sheep from the goats among his candidates—to distinguish the students whose knowledge has been derived solely from books from those who are actually engaged in the factory. One very forcible truth which is brought home on running the eye down the seventh column of the tables before us is the great preponderance of references to patents, chiefly German. It is evident that the chemist who wishes to keep abreast of modern discovery can no longer afford to neglect the literature of the Patent Office. Many discoveries of the greatest scientific importance are buried in these specifications, and it is long before they find their way into the text-books. This, so far as we are concerned, is much to be regretted, for, in the first place, the working chemist is already painfully over- burdened with literature, and in the next place the state- ments in specifications require very judicious sifting before they can be admitted as part of scientific know- ledge. The student who is not familiar with the coal-tar colour industry would be hopelessly entangled among the mazes of patent literature were it not for such practical guides as Drs. Schultz and Julius, who have evidently used the greatest judgment in giving their references. In other words, the patents quoted have reference to the production of compounds which are, or were, manufac- tured, and the reader who consults their work may feel assured that the “bogus” or “ fishing” patent, which may be so innocently swallowed by the unwary, will not be obtruded on his notice. So far as English technologists are concerned, it is to be regretted that such an overwhelming majority of German patents have to be referred to. This, of course, is only to be expected, when we consider the extraordinary activity which the Germans have displayed in the develop- ment of the industry of which the foundations were laid in this country about thirty or forty years ago. But the technological student is thereby placed at a disadvantage because German patents are not very readily obtainable. It is true that all capital discoveries are also patented in | this country, but, on the other hand, there are many P 314 NATURE [AuGusT 4, 1892 important chemical processes discovered and patented on the Continent which are not filed in our Patent Office, and which are so long in finding their way into the current literature that they are apt to be overlooked. Chemists who have occasion to consult the admirable series of tables by Schultz and Julius cannot but look with admiration—even if tinged with envy—at the brilliant series of discoveries which have emanated from the laboratories of German universities, technical schools, and factories. This is the fruit of technical education in the true sense ; no system of cramming for an examina- tion, no method of orthodox “ test-tubing,” not even the “recreative institute” line of technical training, which is so much in vogue at the present time, will enable us to recover our lost position in this or in any other branch of chemical technology. R. MELDOLA. RAM BRAMHA SANYAL ON THE MANAGE- MENT OF ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY. A Handbook on the Management of Animals in Cap- tivity in Lower Bengal. By Ram Bramha Sdnyd4l, Superintendent of the Zoological Garden, Calcutta, (Calcutta, 1892.) bi, ONSIDERING the number of zoological gardens in 4 Europe, and their long establishment, it is singular that it should have been left to the superintendent of a zoological garden at Calcutta, and to a native of India withal, to produce the first practical handbook on the management of animals in captivity. The author, who, we believe, is a member of the “ Brahma Somaj,” and one of the very few natives of British India that have exhibited any taste for natural history, has been for some years superintendent of the Zoological Garden at Calcutta, an excellent institution mainly kept up by the Government of Bengal, but under the control of a committee of the subscribers. This committee, at the suggestion of Sir Steuart Bayley, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, came to the conclusion that, after thirteen years’ experience of the management of animals, it might be possible to pro- duce a handbook on the subject which “ would be of interest to the scientific world,” and at the same time “ of great use to nobles and other persons who, on a smaller scale, keep a collection of animals in captivity.” Such was the origin of the present volume, which has been prepared by Babu Ram Bramha SAnydl, on a plan drawn up by a sub-committee appointed for the purpose, and has been supervised by Mr. C. E. Buckland, C.S., who was at one time honorary secretary to the Calcutta Garden, and is now a member of the Council of the Zoological Society of London. It is certainly a work of considerable interest. In the first place it has the merit of giving us a complete classified list of all the mammals and birds that have been kept alive in the Calcutta Garden. These are, of course, mostly species of British India—241 of the class of mammals, and 402 birds—but there are a good many exotic forms among the birds. In the second place large numbers of notes on the treatment of the animals in health and in sickness, on their length of life in captivity, and generally on their habits as observed in confinement are introduced, which, although in some cases of an apparently trifling nature, NO. 1188, VOL. 46] are well worthy of study by those who are engaged in the — custody of living animals. periences very minutely. Itis evident that the author — has kept a regular journal, and has recorded his ex- — In a case of a fight between a — lioness and a tiger, which were by some accident allowed — wee to pass into the same compartment of the Carnivora — house, the tiger was completely victorious and killed the — lioness. The longest period during which a tiger has lived inthe Calcutta Gardens is fourteen years. curious that the Lesser Fruit-bat of Bengal (Cynopierus marginatus) ‘‘ does not appear to bear captivity well.” A nearly allied African species (C. collaris) has completely established itself in our Regent’s Park Garden, and has bred abundantly for the last twenty years. On January 30, 1889, a young rhinoceros was born in the Calcutta Gardens, “the second recorded instance ” of this mammal having bred in captivity. Interesting details are given of this event. The parents were a male Sumatran rhinoceros and a female of the northern form of the same species, which has been separated as Rhinoceros lasiotis. highest bliss of these animals, as the Babu points out, is to “lie undisturbed in a muddy hollow,” besmeared with liquid dirt. In 1886 the Calcutta Garden obtained from Dar-es- Salam, in Eastern Africa, a young hippopotamus, but it did not live for more than eighteen months. Probably its voyage from Zanzibar to Calcutta “in an ordinary box without water” materially affected its health, as the hippopotamus, if properly treated, does exceedingly well in captivity. The authorities of the Calcutta Garden have not yet succeeded in keeping the pangolin alive for any lengthened Fe: is: The — period. The same has been the case in our Zoological | Gardens, where, although several examples of this Eden- tate have been received, not one has survived many weeks. This is (Myzmecophaga) and the African ant-bear (Orycteropus) maintain excellent health in captivity. food —the ¢evmites—is the cause of this failure. At the same time, when supplies of this insect have been placed within reach the Pangolin has been “known to take no notice of them.” We cannot therefore suppose that the true solution of this difficulty has yet been hit upon. It may be stated that in a similar manner ant-eaters kept in this country will not eat ants, but thoroughly enjoy raw meat when minced up small in a sausage machine. The second part of the handbook contains a list of the birds exhibited in the Calcutta Garden, and correspond- ing observations upon them, but naturally there is not so much to be said on this branch of the subject. Among the more interesting species of this order we notice the fine large Laughing-thrush of the Himalayas (Garruldax leucolophus), the gold-fronted chloropsis (Chloropsis aurtfrons), several sorts of drongo (Dicruride), Gould’s ouzel (Merula gouldt), and the pheasant-tailed jacana — (Hydrophasianus chirurgus), all birds which are rarely, if ever, seen in European aviaries. On the whole we must allow that this volume is a remarkable production, con- sidering the circumstances under which it has been pre- pared, and that its author deserves great credit for the - pains bestowed on its composition, and for much valuable information contained in it. : It is suggested | that the difficulty of obtaining a supply of their proper. curious, as both the American ant-eater AucustT 4, 1892] NATURE 315 o OUR BOOK SHELF. In Starry Realms. By Sir Robert S. Ball, D.Sc. LL.D., F.R.S. (London: Isbister and Co., 1892.) THIS is another striking example of Sir Robert Ball’s _ skill in popularizing the most fascinating of the sciences. h the same story has been to a large extent told by him before, there are several new features which prevent the least suspicion of staleness. The author is perhaps _ most interesting in his homely illustrations of astrono- _ mical dimensions. Among these are the disc of the | moon projected on the map of Europe, and three lunar craters similarly compared with the map of England. The history of a falling star, as told by a particularly t meteorite, is also worth special notice. The two final chapters consist of “ An Astronomer’s _ Thoughts about Krakatoa,” and “ Darwinism in its Re- lation to other Branches of Science.” The former is a Le a account of the Report of the Krakatoa Com- of the Royal Society. The moral of the last _ chapter is that the scientific method of Darwin is closely _ related to that employed in astronomy. “ Astronomers _ were the first evolutionists: they had sketched out a Fe scheme of evolution for the whole solar system, now they are rejoiced to find that the great doctrine of ‘Evolution has received an extension to the whole 4 domain of organic life by the splendid genius of Darwin” 7 - 349). We can confidently recommend the book to all of readers. Those who are already familiar with q the — will find much to delight them. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. . (The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex : i by his correspondents. either 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. ] Basset’s Physical Optics. d I DESIRE to make a few remarks on Prof. Schuster’s review f treatise on physical optics. ° sentence in the preface to which he refers is ‘not perhaps ed, and might be amended as follows :-— bie Thee a profound distrust of arguments based upon vague a obscure general reasoning instead of upon rigorous mathe- 4 matical analysis.” This, however, is a small matter ; what I _ wished to protest against was, the practice which has crept into more one recent work, of slurring over an investigation by _ means of a page or two of general talk, instead of writing out a _ eareful mathematical demonstration; or at any rate making a serious attempt to gra ath with mathematical difficulties, and bt arrive at a definite result. fally admit, that when a subject is in a state of growth it is often impossible to dispense with hypothesis. But whenever _ thisis necessary, the hypothesis should be expressed in clear and definite language ; the evidence and arguments for and against the hesis should be properly marshalled and discussed ; _ the reader should be plainly informed that the proposition _ which forms the basis of the investigation is a hypothesis and _ not an established fact, and that consequently further research may show that the hypothesis must either be abandoned or 3 When an investigation is conducted on these lines, - all obscurity and vagueness will be avoided ; for the reader will E be thereby coatles to clearly understand the exact nature of the _ assumptions which are made, and will be able to discriminate _ between those portions of the investigation which consist of hypothesis, and those which constitute results deduced from __ hypothesis by the aid of mathematical analysis. _ The dangerous character of arguments based upon general 4 is well illustrated by the theory of the deformation of _ thin elastic plates and shells. “When a thin shell is deformed by _ means of bodily forces, and stresses applied to its edges, the _ effect produced is extension, change of curvature, and torsion ; and it might be argued from this, that the’ potential energy due NO. 1188, voL. 46] to deformation is a homogeneous quadratic function of the quantities by which extension, change of curvature, and torsion are specified. But if the expressions for the potential energy of a cylindrical or of a spherical shell be examined (Phil. Trans. 1890, pp. 443, 467), it will be found that they contain certain terms which involve the differential coefficients of quantities by which extension is specified. With regard to the concluding portion of the review, I must point out that one of the difficulties with which the author of an advanced treatise is confronted is where to draw the line. Upon this subject there is necessarily room for a wide difference of opinion, As my object was to write a book on physical optics, I considered that the reader might properly be expected to obtain his information respecting the various theories of the electromagnetic field, from the treatises and original memoirs on that subject; and for that reason I abstained from discussing purely electromagnetic theories, further than was necessary for the oe oni of optical phenomena. A. B. Basser. July 25. Causes of the Deformation of the Earth’s Crust. THE communication from E. Reyer in NATURE of July (p. 224) ‘*On the Causes of the Deformation of the farth’s Crust” is interesting from several points of view. It is an indication that the theory which looks upon mountain ranges as the effects of the earth’s contraction does not satisfy the condi- tions of the geologist. It is welcome to me individually as inthe main accepting the principles of which I happen to be the exponent, and have sys- tematized in the ‘‘ Origin of Mountain Ranges,’’ published in 1886. It is, however, the addition to this theory explaining the folding of strata by what Mr. Reyer aptly calls ‘‘ gliding ” that calls for examination. It is shown very clearly by experi- ment and otherwise that under certain conditions strata, when they reach a certain degree of inclination on the flanks of a mountain chain during elevation, must glide downwards by gravitation and produce folds and disturbances towards the low- lands. We have only to consider the effects of land-slides such as occur in the chalk districts in the south of England, and their effects on the shore deposits, to admit the truth of this. This aspect of the problem, though always present, has grown on me since my work was published, and I have little doubt that the “‘foot-hills” usually formed of the newer strata which flank most great mountain ranges are to a considerable extent due to gravitation and “‘gliding.” I may point to the foot-hills of the Canadian Rockies and of the HimAlayas as illustrations, The cases of folded lying upon undisturbed strata mentioned by Reyer are, as he clearly shows, explanatory on this view, but not by general contraction, There are no doubt other effects traceable to the gravitation of masses of the earth’s crust during elevation such as the lateral spreading of the plastic cores of mountain ranges in fan-like form, and the consequent shouldering of the strata on either side intensifying the effects of the folding of the strata by thermal expansion, as explained in the ‘‘ Origin of Mountain Ranges.” cannot, however, follow Mr. Reyer if he considers “‘ gliding ” an explanation of all folding. I am not sure that this is his meaning, though the last paragraph would seem to bear such an interpretation. It seems obvious to me, to mention only one of numerous examples, viz., the folds of Jurassic strata caught up in the gneiss of the Central Alps, as shown in Heim’s section, reproduced in ‘‘ Prestwich’s Geology,” and in plate xiv., ** Origin of Mountain Ranges.” While looking upon “‘ gliding” as only a partial explanation of folding, I welcome Mr. Reyer’s fresh and vigorous treatment of the important problem of the causes of the deformation of the earth’s crust. It is evidence that geologists and physicists are now allowing their minds to play freely round the subject of the orogenic changes of the earth’s crust, and of the growth of philosophical conceptions on the geological evolution of our planet. Park Corner, Blundellsands, T. MELLARD READE. July 11. An Obvious Demonstration of the 47th Proposition of Euclid. SOME years ago in trying for a simpler demonstration of this theorem I worked out the following. Its extreme sim- plicity suggested that it could scarcely be original ; but as some years have elapsed, and as none of my friends have seen it else- 316 NATURE [AUGUST 4, 1892 where, I send it to you as possibly of interest to some and per- haps of use where practical geometry is being taught. It is evident that the two larger squares are equal, the side of each being equal to the sum of the sides AB, AC of the triangle ABC. It is also clear that the four triangles marked ‘‘a” are equal to Again, the four triangles marked ‘‘4” are equal one another. to one another, and to the four triangles marked ‘a.’ Hence taking four times the triangle ‘‘a” from one of the large squares and four times triangle ‘‘ 4” from the other, there remain in the one case the square on BC, and in the other case the squares on AB and AC, and these remainders are equal. Therefore the square on the hypothenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. A. J. BICKERTON. Canterbury College, New Zealand University, June I5. [The principle of the above solution is not new. A proof, by dissection, depending on it is given in several text-books. The novelty of it consists in the position of the squares by means of which the truth of the property is seen in one figure. ] Musical Sand. Lava in the Bournemouth Drift. In reference to the note in NATURE (July 21) respecting musical sand in Australia, permit me to say that the subject has long since received attention there. I am away from references at present, but I should think it must be over two years since Mr. Sidney Olliff kindly sent me samples from Botany Bay. The samples sent were enclosed in small canvas bags, and, though there was probably not more than half-an-ounce of each, they were very musical on reaching me. For purity and musical effect, the Botany Bay samples were more like the Eigg sand than any other kinds I had previously examined. During the last five years I have been collecting the various kinds of rock found in the Bournemouth high-level gravels (Cod- rington). A section has lately been exposed at the head of Alum Chine. Here a bed of angular and sub-angular flint gravel 5 ft. (varying) in thickness rests on the Bagshots, and is covered by sand, humus, and peat. At the base of the gravel bed I disinterred (on the 17th inst.) a small piece of vesicular lava, much decomposed in places, but retaining more than suffi- cient of its original structure for purposes of identification. The specimen will be sliced for the microscope; in the meantime I draw attention to it because it is, to my knowledge, the first specimen of vesicular lava that has been found in these gravels, CECIL CARUS-WILSON. Oxford, July 27. The Flora and Fauna of Bromley. TuE Bromley Naturalists’ Society have recently appointed a Special Committee to draw up lists of the flora and fauna of NO. 1188, VOL. 46] the Bromley Union District. This district comprises the parishes of Beckenham, Bromley, Chelsfield, Chislehurst, Cud- Paul’s Cray, and West Wickham. ; I am desired to ask you to allow me to state that the Special Committee will be glad to receive from your readers any infor- mation which in their opinion might be of service to the Com: — mittee. J. FRENCH. Hon. Sec. Special Committee. 99, Widmore-road, Bromley, Kent, July 27. bh THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. EDINBURGH. AN Edinburgh meeting of the British Association seems almost a home meeting. At every turn we are reminded of some of those who bore their part in found- ing and building up the Parliament of Science. Sir — David Brewster meets us in the University quadrangle. The chair now set apart forthe President of Section A was occupied for many years by James David Forbes, while for one brief year Natural History in Edinburgh was identified with Edward Forbes, to whom the Asso- ciation owes, among many greater things, the evolution of the Red Lion. Viewed through the vista of years, the in- tellectual life of Edinburgh seems to have been marked by the combination of the love of science and letters with the full enjoyment of social intercourse, and we have before us such evidence of the persistence of this trait as bodes well for the success of the meeting. The reception rooms are in keeping with the dignity of the Association, and afford every facility for the trans- action of business. The programme of local arrange- ments which has been put in the hands of members indicates ample variety of occupation for hours of leisure. This pamphlet is of convenient size and easy of refer- ence. In one point of detail it is worthy of remark; its maps do not require to be unfolded ; these are two, one showing clearly, although on a small scale, Edinburgh and its suburbs, and the other giving, on a large scale, the part of the city which will be most frequently traversed by visitors. The Excursion Handbook has evidently been compiled with much care, and it will prove an interesting and artistic souvenir of the meeting. Seo hy Sir Archibald Geikie, the President of the Association, was President of the Geological section at the 1871 Edin- burgh meeting. His address, suggested by the centenary of Hutton’s “ Theory of the Earth,” deals with a subject in which Scottish geologists have ever been well to the front. The last decade of geological work in Scotland has done much to unlock the secrets of rock structure, and there could be no more fit exponent of the results than the president. be In the section programmes we hear promise of many welcome papers and several important discussions ; in Section A, on Monday, the question of a National Physical Laboratory will be dealt with ; while Tuesday will be devoted to a discussion on electrical units, in this Prof. von Helmholtz is expected to take part ; Section B and D will consider bacteriology, with special reference — to Brewing ; Section D, “Fisheries”; Section F, “ Old Age Pensions.” ‘ is likely to be the review of recent work in the geology of Scotland, and the presence of a considerable number of — foreign geologists is sure to lead to interesting dis- cussions. The Prince of Monaco will give in Section E the results of his observations on ocean currents. Sec- tion G will this year devote some attention to the subject: on which there is much difference of opinion, the educa- tion of engineers. ham, Down, Farnborough, Foots Cray, Hayes, Keston, Knock- — holt, Mottingham, North Cray, Orpington, St. Mary Cray, St. In Section C, the feature of the meeting Avcust 4, 1892] NATURE 317 UNAUGURAL ADDRESS BY SIR ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, LL.D., D.Sc., For.Sec.R.S., F.R.S.E., F.G.S., DirecrTor- GENERAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, PRESIDENT. ‘In its beneficent progress through these islands the British F ciation for the Advancement of Science now for the fourth time receives a welcome in this ancient capital. Once again, under the shadow of these antique towers, crowded memories of a romantic past fill our thoughts. The stormy annals of Scotland seem to move in procession before our eyes as we walk these streets, whose names and traditions have been made familiar to the civilized world by the genius of literature. At _ €very turn, too, we are reminded, by the monuments which a ‘grat sity has erected, that for many generations the pursuits which we are now assembled to foster have had here their con- genial home. Literature, philosophy, science, have each in turn been guided by Sag influence of the great masters who have lived here, and whose renown is the brightest gem in the chaplet around the brow of this ‘‘ Queen of the North.” . Linge for es moment over “pees tbions yore, we sh id a iar appropriateness in the time of this renewed Beng of th Muioelation to Edinburgh. A hundred years ago a _ remarkable group of men was discussing here the great problem of the history of ‘the earth. James Hutton, after many years of travel and reflection, had communicated to the Royal Society of this city, in the year 1785, the first outlines of his famous ory of the h.” Among those with whom he took counsel in the elaboration of his doctrines were Black, the Iustrious « “its r of me air” and ‘‘ latent heat ” ; Clerk, _ the sagacious inventor of the system of breaking the enemy’s _ line in naval tactics ; Hall, whose fertile ingenuity devised the st system of experiments in illustration of the structure and rocks; and Playfair, through whose sympathetic enthusiasm and literary skill Hutton’s views came ultimately to be understood and appreciated by the world at large. With these friends, so well able to comprehend and criticize his efforts erce the veil that shrouded the history of this globe, he paced the streets amid which we are now gathered together ; with them he sought the crags and ravines around us, wherein _ Nature has laid open so many impressive records of her past ; _ with them he sallied forth on those memorable expeditions to q tal it parts of Scotland, whence he returned laden with trea- q cig hagyh ca of observation which, though now so familiar, was th a prc untrodden, The ee ma “a Hutton’s “Theory of the Earth” is an event in the annals of science hict Seems most fittingly celebrated by a meeting of the a Li oy Association in Edinburgh. ag from among the many subjects which might rly ngage your attention on the present occasion, I have _ thought that it would not be inappropriate nor uninteresting to consider the more salient features of that ‘‘ Theory,” and to mark how much in certain departments of inquiry has It See tbe fruitful teaching of its author and_ his was a fundamental doctrine of Hutton and his school that _ this globe has not always worn the aspect which it bears at spre: ; that, on the contrary, proofs may everywhere be culled _ that the land which we now see has been formed out of the wreck of an older land. Among these proofs the most obvious are supplied by some of the more familiar kinds of rock, which _ teach us that, though they are now portions of the dry land, irs they were originally sheets of gravel, sand, and mud, which had been worn from the face of long-vanished continents, and after being spread out over the floor of the sea, were consolidated _ mito compact stone, and were finally broken up and raised once _ more to form part of the dry land. This cycle of change in- 4 volved two great systems of natural processes. On the one hand, _ men were taught that by the action of running water the materials of the solid land are in a state of continual decay and _tramsport to the ocean. On the other hand, the ocean-floor is _ liable from time to time to be upheaved by some stupendous in- _ ternal force akin to that which gives rise to the volcano and the |nike Hutton further perceived that, not only had the a ed materials been disrupted and elevated, but that _ masses of molten rock had been thrust upward among them, and had cooled and crystallized in large bodies of granite and other os ay rocks which form so prominent a feature on the earth’s It was a special characteristic of this philosophical system that NO. 1188, VOL. 46] it sought in the changes now in progress on the earth’s surface an explanation of those which occurred in older times. Its founder refused to invent causes or modes of operation, for those with which he was familiar seemed to him adequate to solve the problems with which he attempted to deal. Nowhere was the profoundness of his insight more astonishing than in the clear, definite way in which he proclaimed and reiterated his doctrine, that every part of the surface of the continents, from mountain-top to sea-shore, is continually undergoing decay, and is thus slowly travelling to the sea. He saw that no sooner will the sea-floor be elevated into new land than it must necessarily become a prey to this universal and unceasing degradation. He perceived that, as the transport of disintegrated material is car- ried on chiefly by running water, rivers must slowly dig out for themselves the channels in which they flow, and thus that a system of valleys, radiating from the water-parting of a country, must necessarily result from the descent of the streams from the mountain crests to the sea. He discerned that this ceaseless and widespread decay would eventually lead to the entire demo- lition of the dry land; but he contended that from time to time this catastrophe is prevented by the operation of the underground forces, whereby new continents are upheaved from the bed of the ocean, And thus in his system a due proportion is main- tained between land and water, and the condition of the earth as a habitable globe is preserved. A theory of the earth so simple in outline, so bold in concep- tion, so full of suggestion, and resting on so broad a base of observation and reflection, ought, we might think, to have commanded at once the attention of men of science, even if it did not immediately awaken the interest of the outside world ; but, as Playfair sorrowfully admitted, it attracted notice only very slowly, and several years elapsed before any one showed himself publicly concerned about it, either as an enemy or a friend. Some of its earliest critics assailed it for what they as- serted to beits irreligious tendency—an accusation which Hutton sepacintes with much warmth. The sneer levelled by Cowper a few years earlier at all inquiries into the history of the universe was perfectly natural and intelligible from that poet’s point of view. There was then a widespread belief that this world came into existence some six thousand years ago, and that any attempt greatly to increase that antiquity was meant as a blow to the authority of Holy Writ. So far, howevér, from aiming at the overthrow of orthodox beliefs, Hutton evidently regarded his “Theory ” as an important contribution in aid of natural reli- gion. He dwelt with unfeigned pleasure on the multitude of proofs which he was able to accumulate of an orderly design in the operations of nature, decay and renovation being so nicely balanced as to maintain the habitable condition of the planet ; but as he refused to admit the predominance of violent action in terrestrial changes, and on the contrary contended for the efficacy of the quiet, continuous processes which we can even now see at work around us, he was constrained to require an unlimited duration of past time for the production of those revolutions of which he perceived such clear and abundant proofs in the crust of the earth. The general public, however, failed to comprehend that the doctrine of the high antiquity of the globe was not inconsistent with the comparatively recent appearance of man—a distinction which seems so obvious now. utton died in 1797, beloved and regretted by the circle of friends who had learnt to appreciate his estimable character and to admire his genius, but with little recognition from the world at large. Men knew not then that a great master had passed away from their midst, who had laid broad and deep the founda- tions of a new science; that his name would become a house- hold word in after generations, and that pilgrims would come from distant lands to visit the scenes from which he drew his inspiration. Many years might have elapsed before Hutton’s teaching met with wide acceptance, had its recognition depended solely on the writings of the philosopher himself. For, despite his firm grasp of general principles and his mastery of the minutest details, he had acquired a literary style which, it must be ad- mitted, was singularly unattractive. Fortunately for his fame, as well as for the cause of science, his devoted friend and disciple, Playfair, at once set himself to draw up an exposition of Hutton’s views. After five years of labour on this task there appeared the classic ‘‘ Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory,” a work which for luminous treatment and graceful diction stands still without a rival in English geological literature. Though pro- fessing merely to set forth his friend’s doctrines, Playfair’s 318 NATURE | [| AucusT 4, 1892 treatise was in many respects an original contribution to science of the highest value. It placed for the first time in the clearest light the whole philosophy of Hutton regarding the his- tory of the earth, and enforced it with a wealth of reasoning and copiousness of illustration which obtained for it a wide apprecia- tion. From long converse with Hutton, and from profound reflection himself, Playfair gained such a comprehension of the whole subject that, discarding the non-essential parts of his master’s teaching, he was able to give so lucid and accurate an exposition of the general scheme of Nature’s operations on the surface of the globe, that with only slight corrections and expan- sions his treatise may serve as a text-book to-day. In some respects, indeed, his volume was long in advance of its time. Only, for example, within the present generation has the truth of his teaching in regard to the origin of valleys been generally admitted. : Various causes contributed to retard the progress of the Hut- tonian doctrines. Especially potent was the influence of the teaching of Werner, who, though he perceived that a definite order ot sequence could be recognized among the materials of the earth’s crust, had formed singularly narrow conceptions of the great processes whereby that crust has been built up. His enthusiasm, however, fired his disciples with the zeal of proselytes, and they spread themselves over Europe to preach everywhere the artificial system which they had learnt in Saxony. By a curious fate Edinburgh became one of the great head- quarters of Wernerism. The friends and followers of Hutton found themselves attacked in their own city by zealots who, proud of superior mineralogical acquirements, turned their most cherished ideas upside down and assailed them in the uncouth jargon of Freiberg. Inasmuch as subterranean heat had been invoked by Hutton as a force largely instrumental in consoli- dating and upheaving the ancient sediments that now form so great a part of the dry land, his followers were nicknamed Plutonists. On the other hand, as the agency of water was almost alone admitted by Werner, who believed the rocks of the earth’s crust to have been chiefly chemical precipitates from a primeval universal ocean, those who adopted his views received the equally descriptive name of Neptunists. The battle of these two contending schools raged fiercely here for some years, and though mainly from the youth, zeal, and energy of Jameson, and the influence which his position as Professor in the Univer- sity gave him, the Wernerian doctrines continued to hold their place, they were eventually abandoned even by Jameson him- self, and the debt due to the memory of Hutton and Playfair was tardily acknowledged. The pursuits and the quarrels of philosophers have from early times been a favourite subject of merriment to the outside world. Such a feud as that between the Plutonists and Neptunists would be sure to furnish abun- dant matter for the gratification of this propensity. Turn- ing over the pages of Kay’s ‘‘ Portraits,” where so much that was distinctive of Edinburgh’s society a hundred years ago is embalmed, we find Hutton’s personal peculiarities and pur- suits touched off in good-humoured caricature. In one plate he stands with arms folded and hammer in hand, meditating on the face of a cliff, from which rocky prominences in shape of human faces, perhaps grotesque likenesses of his scientific opponents, grin at him. In another engraving he sits in conclave with his friend Black, possibly arranging for that famous banquet of garden-snails which the two worthies had persuaded themselves to look upon as a strangely neglected form of human food. More than a generation later, when the Huttonists and Werner- ists were at the height of their antagonism, the humorous side of the controversy did not escape the notice of the author of ‘* Waverley,” who, you will remember, when he makes Meg Dods recount the various kinds of wise folk brought by Lady Penelope Pennfeather from Edinburgh to St. Ronan’s Well, does not forget to include those who ‘“‘rin uphill and down dale, knapping the chucky-stanes to pieces wi’ hammers, like sae mony road-makers run daft, to see how the warld was made.” Among the names of the friends and followers of Hutton there is one which on this occasion deserves to be held in especial honour, that of Sir James Hall, of Dunglass. Having accom- panied Hutton in some of his excursions, and having discussed with him the problems presented by the rocks of Scotland, Hall was familiar with the views of his master, and was able to sup- ply him with fresh illustrations of them from different parts of the country. Gifted with remarkable originality and ingenuity, he soon perceived that some of the questions involved in the NO. 1188, VOL. 46] theory of the earth could probably be solved by direct physical experiment. Hutton, however, mistrusted any attempt ‘‘to © judge of the great operations of Nature by merely kindling a fire — and looking into the bottom of a little crucible.” Out of defer- ence to this prejudice Hall delayed to carry out his intention — during Hutton’s lifetime, But afterwards he instituted a remark- able series of researches which are memorable in the history of science as the first methodical endeavour to test the value of — geological speculation by an appeal to actual experiment. The Neptunists, in ridiculing the Huttonian doctrine that basalt and simular rocks had once been molten, asserted that, had such been their origin, these masses would now be found in the condition of glass or slag. Hall, however, triumphantly vindi- cated his friend’s view by proving that basalt could be fused, and thereafter by slow cooling could be made to resume a stony texture. Again, Hutton had asserted that under the vast pres- sures which must be effective deep within the earth’s crust, chemical reactions must be powerfully influenced, and that under such conditions even limestone may conceivably be melted with- out losing its carbonic acid. Various specious arguments have been adduced against this proposition, but by an ingest vised series of experiments, Hall succeeded in converting li stone under great pressure into a kind of marble, and even fused it, and found that it then acted vigorously on other rocks, These admirable researches. which laid the foundations of experimental geology, constitute not the least memorable of the services rendered by the Huttonian school to the progress of science. Clear as was the insight and sagacious the inferences of these great masters in regard to the history of the globe, their vision was necessarily limited by the comparatively narrow range of ascertained fact which up to their time had been established. They taught men to recognize that the present world is built of the ruins of an earlier one, and they explained with admirable perspicacity the operation of the processes whereby the de- gradation and renovation of land are brought about. But they never dreamed that a long and orderly series of such successive destructions and renewals had taken place, and had left their records in the crust of the earth. They never ieee that from these records it would be possible to establish a deter- minate chronology that could be read everywhere, and to the elucidation of the remotest quarter of the globe. by the memorable observations and generalizations of William Smith that this vast extension of our knowledge of the past history of the earth become possible. While the Scottish philosophers were building up their theory here, Smith was quietly ascertaining by extended journeys that the stratified _ rocks of the West of England occur in a definite sequence, and that each well-marked group of them can be discriminated from the others and identified across the country by means of its en- | closed organic remains. It is nearly a hundred years since he made known his views, so that by a curious coincidence we may fitly celebrate on this occasion the centenary of William Smith as well as that of James Hutton. No single discovery has ever had a more momentous and far-reaching influence on the pro- gress of a science than that law of organic succession which Smith established. At first it served merely to determine the order of the stratified rocks of England. But it soon proved to possess a world-wide value, for it was found to furnish the key to the structure of the whole stratified crust of the earth. It showed that within that crust lie the chronicles of a long history of plant and animal life upon this planet, it supplied the means of arranging the materials for this history in true chronological - sequence, and it thus opened out a magnificent vista through a vast series of ages, each marked by its own distinctive types of organic life, which, in proportion to their antiquity, departed more and more from the aspect of the living world. Thus a hundred years ago, by the brilliant theory of Hutton and the fruitful generalization of Smith, the study of the earth received in our country the impetus which has given birth to the modern science of geology. “pe To review the marvellous progress which this science has made during the first century of its existence would require not one but many hours for adequate treatment. The march of dis- covery has advanced along a multitude of different paths, and the domains of Nature which have been ineluded within the — growing territories of human knowledge have been many and ample. Nevertheless, there are certain departments of investi- gation to which we may profitably restrict our attention on the present occasion, and wherein we may see how the leading ae | ¢ AucusT 4, 1892] NATURE 319 inciples that were proclaimed in this city a hundred years ago ve germinated and borne fruit all over the world. From the earliest times the natural features of the earth’s surface have arrested the attention of mankind. The rugged mountain, the cleft ravine, the scarped cliff, the solitary boulder, have stimulated curiosity and prompted many a specu- lation as to their origin. ‘The shells embedded by millions in the solid rocks of hills far removed from the sea have still further pressed home these ‘‘ obstinate questionings.” But for many long centuries the advance of inquiry into such matters was arrested by the paramount influence of orthodox theology. It was not merely that the Church opposed itself to the simple and obvious interpretation of these natural phenomena. Soim- plicit had faith become in the accepted views of the earth’s age and of the history of creation, that even laymen of intelligence nd learning set themselves unbidden and in perfect good faith to explain away the difficulties which Nature so persistently raised up, and to reconcile her teachings with those of the 1eologi:z In the various theories thus originating, the amount of knowledge of natural law usually stood in inverse ratio to the share played in them by an uncontrolled imagination. The speculations, for example, of Burnet, Whiston, Whitehurst, and others in this country, cannot be read now without a smile. In ‘Ro sense were they scientific researches ; they can only be looked as exercitations of learned ed Db With the intuition _ of true genius early perceived that the only solid basis from which to explore what has taken place in byegone time is a nowledge of what is taking place to-day. He thus founded is system upon a careful study of the processes whereby geolo- changes are now brought about. He felt assured that ture must be consistent and uniform in her working, and that only in proportion as her operations at the present time are watched and understood will the ancient history of the earth become intelligible. Thus, in his hands, the investigation of the Present became the key to the interpretation of the Past. The establishment of this great truth was the first step towards the inauguration of a true science of the earth. The doctrine of uniformity of causation in Nature became the fruitful prin- on which the structure of modern geology could be built up. ___ Fresh life was now breathed into the study of the earth. A ew spirit seemed to animate the advance along every pathway of inquiry. Facts that had long been familiar came to possess a wider and deeper meaning when their connection with each other was recognized as parts of one great harmonious system of continuous change. In no department of Nature, for example, was this broader vision more remarkably displayed than in that wherein the circulation of water between land and sea plays the ‘most conspicuous part. From the earliest times men had _ watched the coming of clouds, the fall of rain, the flow of rivers, ’ and had recognized that on this nicely adjusted machinery the _ beauty and fertility of the land depend. But they now learnt that this beauty and fertility involve a continual decay of the terrestrial surface ; that the soil is a measure of this decay, and ould cease to afford us maintenance were it not continually 1 d and renewed ; that through the ceaseless transport of soil by rivers to the sea the face of the land is slowly lowered in level and carved into mountain and valley, and that the mate- rials thus borne outwards to the floor of the ocean are not lost, but accumulate there to form rocks, which in the end will be upraised into new lands. Decay and renovation, in well- E proportions, were thus shown to be the system on which the existence of the earth as a habitable globe had been established. It was impossible to conceive that the economy of the planet could be maintained on any other basis. Without the circulation of water the life of plants and animals would be impossible, and with that circulation the decay of the surface of _ the land and the renovation of its disintegrated materials are necessarily involved. As itis now so must it have been in past time. Hutton and Playfair pointed to the stratified rocks of the earth’s crust as NO, 1188, voL. 46] demonstrations that the same processes which are at work to-day have been in operation from a remote antiquity. By thus placing their theory on a basis of actual observation, and provi- ding in the study of existing operations a guide to the interpre- tation of those in past times, they rescued the investigation of the history of the earth from the speculations of theologians and cosmologists, and established a place for it among the recog- nized inductive sciences. To the guiding influence of their philosophical system the prodigious strides made by modern geology are in large measure to be attributed. And here in their own city, after the lapse of a hundred years, let us offer to their memory the grateful homage of all who have profited by their labours. But while we recognize with admiration the far-reaching in- fluence of the doctrine of uniformity of causation in the investi- gation of the history of the earth, we must upon reflection admit that the doctrine has been pushed to an extreme perhaps not contemplated by its original founders. To take the existing conditions of Nature as a platform of actual knowledge from which to start in an inquiry into former conditions was logical and prudent. Obviously, however, human experience, in the few centuries during which attention has been turned to such subjects, has been too brief to warrant any dogmatic assumption that the various natural processes must have been carried on in the past with the same energy and at the same rate as they are carried on now. Variations in energy might have been legi- timately conceded as possible, though not to be allowed without reasonable proof in their favour. It was right to refuse to admit the operation of speculative causes of change when the pheno- mena were capable of natural and adequate explanation by reference to causes that can be watched and investigated. But it was an error to take for granted that no other kind of process or influence, nor any variation in the ra‘e of activity save those of which man has had actual cognizance, has played a part in the terrestrial economy. The uniformitarian writers laid them- selves open to the charge of maintaining a kind of perpetual motion in the machinery of Nature. ‘They could find in the records of the earth’s history no evidence of a beginning, no prospect of an end. Theysaw that many successive renovations and destructions had been effected on the earth’s surface, and that this long line of vicissitudes formed a series of which the earliest were lost in antiquity, while the latest were still in pro- gress towards an apparently illimitable future. The discoveries of William Smith, had they been adequately understood, would have been seen to offer a corrective to this rigidly uniformitarian conception, for they revealed that the crust of the earth contains the long record of an unmistakable order of progression in organic types. They proved that plants and animals have varied widely in successive periods of the earth’s history, the present condition of organic life being only the latest phase of a long preceding series, each stage of which recedes further from the existing aspect of things as we trace it backward into the past. And though no relic had yet been found, or indeed was ever likely to be found, of the first living things that appeared upon the earth’s surface, the manifest simplification of types in the older formations pointed irresistibly to some beginning from which the long procession had taken its start. If then it could thus be demonstrated that there had been upon the globe an orderly march of living forms from the lowliest grades in early times to man himself to day, and thus that in one department of her domain, extending through the greater portion of the records of the earth’s history, Nature had not been uniform but had followed a vast and noble plan of evolution, surely it might have been expected that those who discovered and made known this plan would seek to ascertain whether some analogous physical progression from a definite beginning might not be dis- cernible in the framework of the globe itself. But the early masters of the science laboured under two great disadvantages. In the first place, they found the oldest records of the earth’s history so broken up and effaced as to be no longer legible. And in the second place, they lived under the spell of that strong reaction against speculation which followed the bitter controversy between the Neptunists and Plutonists in the earlier decades of the century. They considered themselves bound to search for facts, not to build up theories ; and as in the crust of the earth they could find no facts which threw any light upon the primeval constitution and subsequent develop- ment of our planet, they shut their ears to any theoretical inter- pretations that might be offered from other departments of science. It was enough for them to maintain, as Hutton had 320 NATURE [AuGusT 4, 1892 done, that in the visible structure of the earth itselfno trace can be found of the beginning of things, and that the oldest terrestrial records reveal no physical conditions essentially different from those in which we still live. They doubtless listened with interest to the speculations of Kant, Laplace, and Herschel, on the probable evolution of nebulz, suns, and planets, but it was with the languid interest attaching to ideas that lay outside of their own domain of research. They recognized no practical connection between such speculations and the data furnished by the earth itself as to its own history and progress. This curious lethargy with respect to theory on the part of men who were popularly regarded as among the most speculative followers of science would probably not have been speedily dis- pelled by any discovery made within their own field of observa- tion. Even now, after many years of the most diligent research, the first chapters of our planet’s history remain undiscovered or undecipherable. On the great terrestrial palimpsest the earliest inscriptions seem to have been hopelessly effaced by those of later ages. But the question of the primeval condition and subsequent history of the planet might be considered from the side of astronomy and physics. And it was by investigations of this nature that the geological torpor was eventually dissipated. To our illustrious former President, Lord Kelvin, who occupied this chair when the Association last met in Edinburgh, is mainly due the rousing of attention to this subject. By the most convincing arguments he showed how impossible it was to believe in the extreme doctrine of uniformitarianism. And though, owing to uncertainty in regard to some of the data, wide limits of time were postulated by him, he insisted that within these limits the whole evolution of the earth and its inhabitants must have been comprised. While, therefore, the geological doctrine that the present order of Nature must be our guide to the inter- pretation of the past remained as true and fruitful as ever, it had now to be widened by the reception of evidence furnished by a study of the earth as a planetary body. The secular loss of heat, which demonstrably takes place both from the earth and the sun, made it quite certain that the present could not have been the original condition of the system. This diminution of temperature with all its consequences is not a mere matter of speculation, but a physical fact of the present time as much as any of the familiar physical agencies that affect the surface of the globe. It points with unmistakable directness to that beginning of things of which Hutton and his followers could find no sign. Another modification or enlargement of the uniformitarian doctrine was brought about by continued investigation of the terrestrial crust and consequent increase of knowledge respecting the history of the earth. Though Hutton and Playfair believed in periodical catastrophes, and indeed required these to recur in order to renew and preserve the habitable condition of our planet, their successors gradually came to view with repugnance any appeal to abnormal, and especially to violent manifestations of terrestrial vigour, and even persuaded themselves that such slow and comparatively feeble action as had been witnessed by man could alone be recognized in the evidence from which geological history must be compiled. Well do I remember in my own boyhood what a cardinal article of faith this preposses- sion had become. We were taught by our great and honoured master, Lyell, to believe implicitly in gentle and uniform opera- tions, extended over indefinite periods of time, though possibly some, with the zeal of partisans, carried this belief to an ex- treme which Lyell himself did not approve. The most stupen- dous marks of terrestrial disturbance, such as the structure of great mountain chains, were deemed to be more satisfactorily accounted for by slow movements prolonged through indefinite ages than by any sudden convulsion. What the more extreme members of the uniformitarian school failed to perceive was the absence of all evidence that terrestrial catastrophes even on a colossal scale might not be a part of the present economy of this globe. Such occurrences might never seriously affect the whole earth at one time, and might return at such wide intervals that no example of them has yet been chronicled by man. But that they have occurred again and again, and even within comparatively recent geological times, hardly admits of serious doubt. How far at different epochs and in various degrees they may have included the operation of cosmical influences lying wholly outside the planet, and how far they have resulted from movements within the body of the planet itself, must remain for further inquiry. Yet the admis- No. 1188, VOL. 46] again. sion that they have played a part in geological history may be freely made without impairing the real value of the Huttonian doctrine, that in the interpretation of this history our main must bea knowledge of the existing processes of terrestrial change, As the most recent and best known of these great transforma~ tions, the Ice Age stands out conspicuously before us. If any one sixty years ago had ventured to affirm that at no very distant date the snows and glaciers of the Arctic regions stretched southwards into France, he would have been treated as a mere visionary theorist. Many of the facts to which he would have appealed in support of his statement were already well known, but they had received various other interpretations. By some observers, notably by Hutton’s friend, Sir James Hall, they were believed to be due to violent debacles of water that swept over the face of the land. By others they were attributed to the strong tides and currents of the sea when the land stood at a lower level. The uniformitarian school of Lyell had no difficulty in elevating or depressing land to any required extent. Indeed, when we consider how averse these philosophers were to admit any kind or degree of natural operation other than those of which there was some human experience, we may well wonder at the boldness with which, on sometimes the slen evidence, they made land and sea change places, on the one hand submerging mountain-ranges, and on the other placi great barriers of land where a. deep ocean rolls. They too! such liberties with geography because only well-established processes of change were invoked in the operations. Knowing that during the passage of an earthquake a territory bordering the sea may be upraised or sunk a few feet, they drew the sweeping inference that any amount of upheaval or depression of any part of the earth’s surface might be claimed in explana- tion of geological problems. The progress of inquiry, while it has somewhat curtailed this geographical license, has now made known in great detail the strange story of the Ice Age. There cannot be any doubt that after man had become a denizen of the earth, a great physical change came over the northern hemisphere. ‘The climate, which had previously been so mild that evergreen trees flourished within ten or twelve degrees of the north pole, now became so severe that vast sheets of snow and ice covered the north of Europe and crept southward beyond the south coast of Ireland, almost as far as” the southern shores of England, and across the Baltic into France and Germany. This Arctic transformation was not an episode that lasted merely a few seasons, and left the land to resume thereafter its ancient aspect. With various successive fluctuations it must have endured for many thousands of years. When it began to disappear it probably faded away as slowly and imperceptibly as it had advanced, and when it finally vanished it left Europe and North America profoundly changed in the character alike of their scenery and of their inhabitants. The rugged rocky contours of earlier times. were ground smooth” and polished by the march of the ice across them, while the lower grounds were buried under wide and thick sheets of clay, gravel, and sand, left behind by the melting ice. The varied and abundant flora which had spread so far within the Arctic circle was driven away into more southern and less ungenial climes. But most memorable of all was the extirpation of the prominent large animals which, before the advent of the ice, had roamed over Europe. The lions, hyzenas, wild horses, hippopotami, and other creatures either became entirely extinct or were driven into the Mediterranean basin and into Africa. In their place came northern forms—the reindeer, glutton, musk ox, woolly rhinoceros, and mammoth. Such a marvellous transformation in climate, in scenery, in vegetation and in inhabitants, within what was after all but a brief portion of geological time, though it may have involved no _ sudden or violent convulsion, is surely entitled to rank as a catastrophe in the history of the globe. It was probably | brought about mainly if not entirely by the operation of forces external to the earth. No similar calamity having befallen the continents within the time during which man has been recording his experience, the Ice Age might be cited as a contradiction to the doctrine of uniformity, and yet it manifestly arrived as part — of the established order of Nature. Whether or not we grant _ that other ice ages preceded the last great one, we must admit — that the conditions under which it arose, so far as we know — them, might conceivably have occurred before and may occur The various agencies called into play by the extensive refrigeration of the northern hemisphere were not different. from those with which we are familiar. :Snow fell and glaciers - be t still does among the Alps and in Norway. AucustT 4, 1892] NATURE 321 Ice scored and polished rocks exactly There was Sitar abnormal in the phenomena save the scale on which they were manifested. And thus, taking a broad view of the whole subject, we recognize the catastrophe, while at the same time we see in its progress the operation Pf those same natural which we know to be integral parts of the machinery ees the surface of the earth is continually transformed. as they do to-day. Among the debts which science owes to the Huttonian school, not the least memorable is the promulgation of the first well- fs = 9 hoe paelaag of the high antiquity of the globe. Some ocr ge real had previously been believed to comprise the pets life of the planet, and indeed of the entire universe. When the curtain was then first raised that had veiled the y of the earth, and men, looking beyond the brief span in which they had supposed that history to have been tra behold the records of a long vista of ages stretching faraway into a dim illimitable past, the prospect vividly im- their imagination. Astronomy had made known the rable fields of space; the new science of geology eed now to reveal boundless distances of time. The more boas terrestrial chronicles were studied the farther could the eye into an antiquity so vast as to defy all attempts to measure or it. The progress of research continually furnished additional evidence of the enormous duration of the ages that preceded the coming of man, while, as knowledge increased, - periods that were thought to have followed each other con- Secutively were found to have been separated by prolonged inte of time. Thus the idea arose and gained universal acceptance that, just as no boundary could be set to the nomer in his free range through space, so the whole of 1e eternity lay open to the requirements of the geologist. fair, re-echoing and expanding Hutton’s language, had sd that neither among the records of the earth nor in the ‘ motions can any trace be discovered of the beginning or of the end of the present order of things ; that no symptom ney or of old age has been allowed to appear on the face el os re, nor any sign by which either the past or the future n of the universe can be estimated ; and that although ree ator may put an end, as He no doubt gave a beginning, ae ores sa tem, such a catastrophe will not be brought y the laws now existing, and is not indicated by hing ‘we perceive. This doctrine was naturally poused with warmth by the extreme uniformitarian school, which required an unlimited duration of time for the accomplish- ‘ment of such slow and quiet cycles of change as they conceived to be alone recognizable in the record of the earth’s past Tt was Lord Kelvin who, in the writings to which I have already referred, first called attention to the fundamentally erroneous nature of these conceptions. He pointed out that from the high internal temperature of our globe, increasing in- wards as it does, and from the rate of loss of its heat, a limit band be fixed to the planet’s antiquity. He showed that so far there being no sign of a beginning, and no prospect of an aa to the present economy, every lineament of the solar stem bears witness to a gradual dissipation of energy from some definite starting-point. No very precise data were then, - or indeed are now, available for computing the interval which has elapsed since that remote commencement, but he estimated that the surface of the globe could not have consolidated less onde twenty millions of years ago, for the rate of increase of temperature inwards would in that case have been higher than Hat actually is; nor more than 400 millions of years ago, for “there would have been no sensible increase at all. He Eek inclined, when first dealing with the subject, to believe that froma review of all the evidence then available, some such e1 as 100 millions of years would embrace the whole Eee history of the globe. not a pleasant experience to discover that a fortune Phaig ha one has unconcernedly believed to be ample has some- anes rid to itself wings and disappeared. When thegeologist enly awakened by the energetic warning of the physicist, wae assured him that he had enormously overdrawn his account with past time, it was but natural under the circumstances that he should think the accountant to be mistaken, who thus re- turned to him dishonoured the large drafts he had made on eternity. He saw how wide were the limits of time deducible from physical considerations, how vague the data from which NO. 1188, VoL. 46] they had been calculated. And though he could not help admitting that a limit must be fixed beyond which his chronology could not be extended, he consoled himself with the reflection that after all a hundred millions of years was a tolerably ample period of time, and might possibly have been quite sufficient for the transaction of all the prolonged sequence of events recorded in the crust of the earth. He was therefore disposed to ac- quiesce in the limitation thus imposed upon geological history. But physical inquiry continued to be pushed forward with re- gard to the early history and the antiquity of the earth. Further consideration of the influence of tidal friction in retarding the earth’s rotation, and of the sun’s rate of cooling, led to sweep- ing reductions of the time allowable for the evolution of the planet. The geologist found himself in the plight of Lear when his bodyguard of one hundred knights was cut down, ‘‘ What need you five-and-twenty, ten or five?”’ demands the inexorable physicist, as he remorselessly strikes slice after slice from his allowance of geological time. Lord Kelvin is willing, I believe, to grant us some twenty millions of years, but Prof. Tait would have us content with less than ten millions. In scientific as in other mundane questions there may often be two sides, and the truth may ultimately be found not to lie wholly with either. I frankly confess that the demands of the early geologists for an unlimited series of ages were extravagant, and, even for their own purposes, unnecessary, and that the physicist did good service in reducing them. It may also be freely admitted that the latest conclusions from physical con- siderations of the extent of geological time require that the in- terpretation given to the record of the rocks should be rigorously revised, with the view of ascertaining how far that interpretation may be capable of modification or amendment. But we must also remember that the geological record constitutes a voluminous body of evidence regarding the earth’s history which cannot be ignored, and must be explained in accordance with ascertained natural laws. Ifthe conclusions derived from the most careful study of this record cannot be reconciled with those drawn from physical considerations, it is surely not too much to ask that the © latter should be also revised. It has been well said that the mathematical mill is an admirable piece of machinery, but that the value of what it yields depends upon the quality of what is put into it. That there must be some flaw in the physical argument I can, for my own part, hardly doubt, though I do not pretend to be able to say where it is to be found. Some assump- tion, it seems to me, has been made, or some consideration has been left out of sight, which will eventually be seen to vitiate the conclusions, and which when duly taken into account will allow time enough for any reasonable interpretation of the geological record. In problems of this nature, where geological data capable of numerical statement are so needful, it is hardly possible to obtain trustworthy computations of time. We can only measure the rate of changes in progress now, and infer from these changes the length of time required for the completion of results achieved by the same processes in the past. There is fortunately one great cycle of movement which admits of careful investigation, and which has been made to furnish valuable materials for estimates of this kind. The universal degradation of the land, so notable a cha- racteristic of the earth’s surface, has been regarded as an ex- tremely slow process. Though it goes on without ceasing, yet from century to century it seems to leave hardly any perceptible trace on the landscapes of a country. Mountains and plains, hills and valleys, appear to wear the same familiar aspect which is indicated in the oldest pages of history. This obvious slow- ness in one of the most important departments of geological activity, doubtless contributed in large measure to form and foster a vague belief in the vastness of the antiquity required for the evolution of the earth. But, as geologists eventually came to perceive, the rate of degradation of the land is capable of actual measurement. The amount of material worn away from the surface of any drainage- ‘basin and carried in the form of mud, sand, or gravel, by the main river into the sea, represents the extent to which that surface has been lowered by waste in any given period of time. But denudation and deposition must be equivalent to each other, As much material must be laid down in sedimentary accumula- tions as has been mechanically removed, so that in measuring the annual bulk of sediment borne into the sea by a river, we obtain a clue not only to the rate of denudation of the land, but also to the rate at which the deposition of new sedimentary formations takes place, 322 NATURE [AuGusT 4, 1892 As might be expected, the activities involved in the lowering of the surface of the land are not everywhere equally energetic. They are naturally more vigorous where the rainfall is heavy, where the daily range of temperature is large, and where frosts are severe. Hence they are obviously much more effective in mountainous regions than on plains; and their results must constantly vary, not only in different basins of drainage, but even, and sometimes widely, within the same basin. Actual measurement of the proportion of sediment in river water shows that while in some cases the lowering of the surface of the land may be as much as 745 of a foot in a year, in others it falls as low as ys'5y- In other words, the rate of deposition of new sedi- mentary formations, over an area of sea-floor equivalent to that which has yielded the sediment, may vary from one foot in 730 years to one foot in 6,800 years. If now we take these results and apply them as measures of the length of time required for the deposition of the various sedi- mentary masses that form the outer part of the earth’s crust, we obtain some indication of the duration of geological history. On a reasonable computation these stratified masses, where most fully developed, attain a united thickness of not less than 100,000 feet. If they were all laid down at the most rapid recorded rate of denudation, they would require a period of seventy-three millions of years for their completion. If they were laid down at the slowest rate they would demand a period of not less than 680 millions. But it may be argued that all kinds of terrestrial energy are growing feeble, that the most active denudation now in progress is much less vigorous than that of bygone ages, and hence that the stratified part of the earth’s crust may have been put together in a much. briefer space of time than modern events might lead us to suppose. Such arguments are easily adduced and look sufficiently specious, but no confirmation of them can be gathered from the rocks. On the contrary, no one can thought- fully study the various systems of stratified formations without being impressed by the fulness of their evidence that, on the whole, the accumulation of sediment has been extremely slow. Again and again we encounter groups of strata composed of thin paper-like laminee of the finest silt, which evidently settled down quietly and at intervals on the sea bottom. We find successive layers covered with ripple-marks and sun-cracks, and we recog- nize in them memorials of ancient shores where sand and mud tranquilly gathered as they do in sheltered estuaries at the present day. Wecan see no proof whatever, nor even any evidence which suggests, that on the whole the rate of waste and sedi- mentation was more rapid during Mesozoic and Palzeozoic time than it is to-day. Had there been any marked difference in this rate from ancient to modern times, it would be incredible that no clear proof of it should have been recorded in the crust -of the earth. But in actual fact the testimony in favour of the slow accumu- lation and high antiquity of the geological record is much stronger than might be inferred from the mere thickness of the stratified formations. These sedimentary deposits have not been laid down in one unbroken sequence, but have had their continuity interrupted again and again by upheaval and depression. So fragmentary are they in some regions, that we can easily demon- strate the length of time represented there by still existing sedi- mentary strata to be vastly less than the time indicated by the gaps in the series. There is yet a further and impressive body of evidence fur- nished by the successive races of plants and animals which have lived upon the earth and have left their remains sealed up within its rocky crust. No one now believes in the exploded doctrine that successive creations and universal destructions of organic life are chronicled in the stratified rocks. It is everywhere ad- mitted that, from the remotest times up to the present day, there has been an onward march of development, type succeeding type in one long continuous progression. As to the rate of this evolution precise data are wanting. There is, however, the im- portant negative argument furnished by the absence of evidence of recognizable specific variations of organic forms since man began to observe and record. We know that within human experience a few species have become extinct, but there is no conclusive proof that a single new species has come into exist- ence, nor are appreciable variations readily apparent in forms that live in a wild state. ‘The seeds and plants found with Egyptian mummies, and the flowers and fruits depicted on Egyptian tombs, are easily identified with the vegetation of modern Egypt. The embalmed bodies of animals found in that No. 1188, vou. 46] country show no sensible divergence from the structure or pro- portions of the same animals at the present day. The humam races of Northern Africa and Western Asia were already as dis- tinct when portrayed by the ancient Egyptian artists as they are now, and they do not seem to have undergone any perceptible change since then. Thus a lapse of four or five thousand years. has not been accompanied by any recognizable variation in such forms of plant and animal life as can be tendered in evidence. Absence of sensible change in these instances is, of course, no proof that considerable alteration may not have been accom- plished in other forms more exposed to vicissitudes of climate and other external influences. But it furnishes at least a pre- sumption in favour of the extremely tardy progress of organic variation. If, however, we extend our vision beyond the narrow e of human history, and look at the remains of the plants and animals preserved in those younger formations which, though recent when regarded as parts of the whole geological record, must be many thousands of years older than the very oldest of human monuments, we encounter the most impressive proofs of the persistence of specific forms. Shells which lived in our seas before the coming of the Ice Age present the very same peculiarities of form, structure, and ornament which their descendants still possess. The lapse of so enormous an interval of time has not sufficed seriously to modify them. So too with the plants and the higher animals which still survive. Some forms have become extinct, but few or none which remain dis- play any transitional gradations into new species. We must admit that such transitions have occurred, that indeed they have been in progress ever since organized existence began upon our planet, and are doubtless taking place now. But we cannot detect them on the way, and we feel constrained to believe that their march must be excessively slow. There is no reason to think that the rate of organic evolution has ever seriously varied ; at least no proof has been adduced of such variation. Taken in connection with the testimony of the sedimentary rocks, the inferences deducible from fossils entirely bear out the opinion that the building up of the stratified crust of the earth has been extremely gradual. Ifthe many thousands of years which have elapsed since the Ice Age have produced no appreciable modification of surviving plants and animals, how vast a period must have been required for that marvellous scheme of organic development which is chronicled in the rocks f After careful reflection on the subject, I affirm that the geo- logical record furnishes a mass of evidence which no arguments. drawn from other departments of Nature can explain away, and which, it seems to me, cannot be satisfactorily interpreted save with an allowance of time much beyond the narrow limits which recent physical speculation would concede. : I have reserved for final consideration a branch of the history of the earth which, while it has become, within the lifetime of the present generation, one of the most interesting and fasci- nating departments of geological inquiry, owed its first impulse to the far-seeing intellects of Hutton and Playfair. With the penetration of genius these illustrious teachers perceived that if the broad masses of land and the great chains of mountains owe their origin to stupendous movements which from time to time have convulsedithe earth, their details of contour must be mainly due to the eroding power of running water. They recognized that as the surface of the land is continually worn down, it is essentially by a process of sculpture that the physiognomy of every country has been developed, valleys being hollowed out and hills left standing, and that these inequalities in topographi- cal detail are only varying and local accidents in the progress of the one great process of the degradation of the land. From the broad and guiding outlines of theory thus sketched we have now advanced amid ever-widening multiplicity of de- tail into a fuller and nobler conception of the origin of scenery. The law of evolution is written as legibly on the landscapes of the earth as on any other page of the Book of Nature. Not only do we recognize that the existing topography of the con- tinents, instead of. being primeval in origin, has gradually been developed after many precedent mutations, but we are enabled to trace these earlier revolutions in the structure of every hill andglen. Each mountain-chain is thus found to be a memorial of many successive stages in geographical evolution. Within certain limits, land and sea have changed places again and again. Volcanoes have broken out and have become extinct in many countries long before the advent of man. Whole tribes Aucust 4, 1892] NATURE 323 of plants and animals have meanwhile come and gone, and in leaving their remains behind them as monuments at once of the slow development of organic types, and of the prolonged vicissitudes of the terrestrial surface, have furnished materials for a chronological arrangement of the earth’s topographical features. Nor is it only from the organisms of former epochs that broad generalizations may be drawn regarding revolutions ingeography. The living plants and animals o to-day. have been discovered to be eloquent of ancient geographical features that have long since vanished. In their distribution they tell us that climates have changed, that islands have been disjoined from continents, that oceans once united have been divided progression. _ In this marvellous increase of knowledge regarding the trans- formations of the earth’s surface, one of the most impressive features, to my mind, is the power now given to us of perceiv- the many striking contrasts between er present e seem the bodily eye—mountain, valley, or plain—serves but as a veil, which, as we raise it, visions of long-lost lands and seas before us in a far-retreating vista. Pictures of the most erse and opposite character are beheld, as it were, through er, their lineaments subtly interwoven and even their vivid contrasts subdued idto one blended harmony. Like ‘* we see, but not by sight alone ;” and the “ray of cy” which, as a sunbeam, lightened up his landscape, is for ened and brightened by that play of the imagination _ which science can so vividly excite and prolong. _ Admirable illustrations of this modern interpretation of _ scenery are supplied by the district wherein we are now as- . On every side of us rise the most convincing proofs of the reality and potency of that ceaseless sculpture by which elements of landscape have been carved into their present shapes. Turn where we may, our eyes rest on hills that project above the lowland, not because they have been upheaved into these ona but because their stubborn materials have them better to withstand the degradation aie ue i ne i 3 Hi : a i around, and far to the north-west the distant gleam of glaciers and snow-fields marks the line of the Highland mountains. As we muse on this strange contrast to the living world of to-day ons. Broad lagoons and open seas are dotted with little voleanic cones which throw out their streams of lava and showers of ashes. Beyond these, in dimmer outline and older in date, we descry a wide lake or inland sea, covering the whole midland valley and marked with long lines of active NO. 1188, voL. 46] volcanoes, some of them several thousand feet in height. And still further and fainter over the same region, we may catch a glimpse of that still earlier expanse of sea which in Silurian times overspread most of Britain. But beyond this scene our vision fails. We have reached the limit across which no geolo- gical evidence exists to lead the imagination into the primeval darkness beyond, Such in briefest outline is the succession of mental pictures which modern science enables us to frame out of the landscapes around Edinburgh. They may be taken as illustrations of what may be drawn, and sometimes with even greater fulness and vividness, from any district in these islands. But I cite them especially because of their local interest in connection with the present meeting of the Association, and because the rocks that yield them gave inspiration to those great masters whose claims on our recollection, not least for their explanation of the origin of scenery, I have tried to recount this evening. But I am further impelled to dwell on these scenes from an overmastering personal feeling to which I trust I may be permitted to give ex- pression. It was these green hills and grey crags that gave me in boyhood the impulse that has furnished the work and joy of my life. To them, amid changes of scene and surroundings, my heart ever fondly turns, and here I desire gratefully to acknowledge that it is to their influence that I am indebted for any claim I may possess to stand in the proud position in which your choice has placed me. —— SECTION A. MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. OPENING ADDRESS BY PRoF. ARTHUR SCHUSTER, PH.D., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. IN opening the proceedings of our Annual Meeting the temp- tation is great to look back on the year which has passed and to select for special consideration such work published during its course as may seem to be of the greatest importance. I fear, however, that a year is too short a time to allow us to forma fair estimate of the value of a scientific investigation. The mushroom, which shoots up quickly, only to disappear again, impresses us more than the slow-growing seedling which will live to be a tree, and it is difficult to recognize the scientific fungus in its early stage. But, although I do not feel competent to give you a review of the progress made in our subject during the last twelve months, there is one event to which some allusion should be made. It has been the sad duty of many of my predecessors to announce the death of successful workers in the field of science, but I believe I am unique in having the pleasure of recording the birth of a scientific man. At the beginning of this year there came into the world a being so brilliant that he could, without preparation, take up the work of the most eminent man amongst us. Believers in the transmigration of souls have speculated on the fact that Galileo’s death and Newton's birth fell within a year of each other ; but no event has ever happened so striking as that which took place on the Ist of January, when the maatle of Sir William Thomson fell on the infant Lord Kelvin. Those who have attended these meetings will feel with me that the honour done to our foremost representative, an honour which has been a source of pride and satisfaction to every student of science, could not altogether remain unnoticed in the section which owes him so much. We are chiefly concerned here with the increase of scientific knowledge, and we derive pleasure in contrasting the minor state of ignorance of our own time with that which prevailed a hundred years ago. But when we contrast at the sare time the refined opportunities of a modern research laboratory with the crude conditions under which the experimentalist had to work at the beginning of the century, we may fairly ask ourselves whether it is possible by means of any systematic course of study or by means of any organisation to accelerate our progress into the dark continent of science. A number of serious considera- tions arise in connection with this subject, and though I am not going to weary you by attempting an exhaustive discussion, [ should like to draw your attention to a few matters which seem to me to be well worthy of the consideration of this Association. Changes are constantly made and proposed in our existing insti- tutions, or new ones are suggested which are to serve the purpose of a more rapid accumulation of knowledge. I need only allude to the alterations in the curriculum of the science schools 324 NATURE [AuGusT 4, 1892 in our old Universities, made partly for the purpose of fitting their graduates for the conduct of original research, er to the national laboratory proposed by my _pre- decessor in this chair for carrying out a certain kind of scien- tific investigation, which at present is left undone, or is done by private enterprise. .Even our own Association has not escaped the evil eye of the reformer, and, like other institutions, it may be capable of improvement. But in choosing the direction in which a change may best be made, I think we may learn some- thing from the way in which Nature improves its organisms. We are taught by biologists that natural selection acts by de- veloping those qualities which enable each species best to survive the struggle for existence ; useless organs die off or become rudi- mentary. Nature teaches us, therefore, how a beautiful com- plex of beings, mutually dependent on each other, is formed by improving those parts which are best and most useful, and letting the rest take care of itself. But in many of the changes which have been made or are proposed the process of reform is very different. The weakest points are selected, our attention is drawn to some failure or something in which we are excelled by other nations, and attempts are made to cure what perhaps had better be left to become rudimentary. The proceeding is not objectionable as long as the nourishment which is applied to develop the weaker organs is not taken from those parts which we should specially take care to preserve. To apply these reflections to the questions with which we are specially con- cerned, I should like to see it more generally recognized that although there is no struggle for existence between different nations, yet each nation, owing to a number of circumstances, possesses its own peculiarities, which render it better fitted than its neighbours to do some particular part of the work on which the progress of science depends. No country, for instance, has rivalled France in the domain of accurate measurement, with which the names of Regnault and Amagat are associated, and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures has its fitting home in Paris.1 The best work of the German Universities seems to me to consist in the following up of some theory to its logical conclusions andsubmitting it to the test of experiment. I doubt whether. the efforts to transplant the research work of German Universities into this cowntry will prove successful. Does it not seem well to let each country take that share of work for which the natural growth of its character and its educational establishment best adapt it? Is it wise to remedy some weak point, to fill up undoubted gaps, if the soil that fills the gaps has to be taken from the hills and elevations which rise above the surrounding level ? As far as the work of this section is concerned the strongest domain of this country has been that of mathematical physics. But it is not to this that I wish specially to refer. Look at the work done in Great Britain during the last two. centuries ;_ the work not only in physics, but in astronomy, chemistry, biology. Is it not true that the one distinctive feature which separates this from all other countries in the world is the prominent part played by the scientific amateur, and is it not also true that our modern system of education tends to destroy the amateur ? By amateur I do not necessarily mean a man who has other occupations and only takes up science in his leisure hours, but rather one who has had no academical training, at any rate in that branch of knowledge which he finally selects for study. He has probably been brought up for some profession unconnected with science, and only begins his study when his mind is sufficiently developed to form an entirely unbiassed opinion. We may, perhaps, best define an amateur as one who learns his science as he wants it and when he wants it. I should call Faraday an amateur. He would have been impossible in another country ; perhaps he would be impossible in the days of the Science and Art Department. Other names will occur to you, the most typical and eminent being that of Joule. It is not my purpose to discuss why distinguished amateurs have been so numerous in this country, but I am anxious to point out that we are in danger of losing one great and necessary factor in the origination of scientific ideas. One of the distinctive features of an amateur is this, that he carries the weight of theories, often not the weight of know- * Much of the good work done by this Bureau remains unknown, owing to the miserly way in which their publications are circulated. No copies are sup- plied even to the University libraries. The explanation, of course, is ‘‘ want of funds.’’ In other words, England, France, and Germany, together with other nations, unite to do a certain kind of work, but cannot afford to dis- tribute a few copies of the publication to the public for whose benefit the work is undertaken. NO. 1188, VOL. 46] ledge, and, if I am right, there is a distinct advantage in having one section of scientific men beginning their work untram- melled by preconceived notions, which a systematic training in — science is bound to instil. Whatever is taught in early age must necessarily be taught in a more or less dogmatic manner, and, in whatever way it is taught, experience shows that it is nearly always received in a dogmatic spirit. It seems important, therefore, to confine the early training to those subjects in which preconceived notions are considered an advantage. It is to me an uncongenial task to sound a note of warning to our old Universities, for the chief difficulties in which they are placed at present are due to the fact that they have given way too much to outside advice ; but I cannot help expressing a strong conviction that their highly specialised entrance examinations are a curse to all sound school education, and will prove a still more fatal curse to what concerns us most nearly, the progress of scientific knowledge. Ifschool examinations could be more general, if scientific theories could only be taught at an age when a man is able to form an independent judgment, there might be some hope of retaining that originality of ideas which has been a dis- tinctive feature of this country, and enabled our amateurs to hold a prominent position in the history of science. At present a knowledge of scientific theories seems to me to kill all know- ledge of scientific facts. oe It is by no means true that a complete knowledge of everything that has a bearing on a particular subject is always necessary to success in an original investigation. In many cases such know- ledge is essential, in others it isa hindrance. Different types of men incline to different types of research, and it is well to pre- serve the dual struggle. The engine which works out ea problems of nature may be likened to a thermodynamic e The amateur supplies the steam and the Universities supply th cold water ; the former, boiling over often with ill-considered and fanciful ideas, does not like the icy douche, and the professional scientist does not like the latent heat of the condensing steam, but nevertheless the hotter the steam and the colder the water the better works the machine. Sometimes it happens that the boiler and cooler are both con- tained in the same brain, and each country can boast of a few such in a century, but most of us have to remain satisfied with forming only an incomplete part of the engine of But while it is necessary to recognize the great work done by the unprofessional scientists, it seems not untimely to draw their attention to the damage done to themselves if they overstep their legitimate boundaries, and especially if they seek popular support for their theories, which have not received the approval of those who are competent to judge. Alexander sober to Alexander drunk will not prove successful in the end. est The gradual disappearance of the amateur may be a neces- sary consequence of our increased educational facilities, and we _ must inquire whether any marked advantages are to us in exchange. There is one direction in which it would seem at first sight, at any rate, that a proper course of study could do much to facilitate the progress of research. pg AGI On another occasion [ pointed out that two parties are necessary for every advance in science, the one that makes it and the one that believes in it. Ifthe discoverer is born, and cannot be made, would it not be possible at any rate to train the judgment of our students so that they may form a sound opinion on the new theories and ideas which are presented to them? It is too early as yet to judge in how far our generation is better in this respect than the one that has gone before them, but on closer examination it does not seem to me to be obvious that any marked improvement is possible. Every new idez revolutionizing our opinions on some important question must necessarily take time before it takes a proper hold on the scien- tific world. Is it not true that anyone who can at once see the full importance of a new theory, and accept it in place of the one in which he has been brought up, must stand at a height almost equal to that of the originator? The more startling and fresh the new conception the fewer must be those who are ready to adopt it. But looking back at the history of science during the present century, is there much evi- dence that great discoveries have ‘been seriously delayed by want of proper appreciation? We may hear of cases where ig important papers have been rejected by scientific societies, and occasionally a man of novel ideas may have been too much neglected by his contemporaries. I doubt whether such cases An appealfrom | of apparent injustice can ever be avoided, and, simply looking _ Aucust 4, 1892] NATURE 325 back on the great changes involved in matters of primary im- portance, such as the undulatory theory of light, the conserva- tion of energy, and the second law of thermodynamics, I cannot admit that there is much reason to be dissatisfied with the rate at which new theories have been received. Those who experi- ence a temporary check, owing to the fact tht public opinion is not or their ideas, are often amply rewarded after the rae of a few years. The disappointment which Joule may have felt during the time his views met with adverse criticisms from the official world of science was no doubt amply compensated by the pleasure with which he watched the subsequent progress of re- search in the new domain which his discoveries have opened out. The point is not one of academic interest only, for the fear of epressing some important new discovery has a detrimental in- fluence in another direction. The judgment of the scientific world seems to me to be tending too much towards leniency to i seetoomd absurd theories, because there is a remote chance iat they may contain some germ of real value. A new truth will not be found to suffer ultimately by adverse and even un- _ reasonable criticism, while bad theories and bad reasoning, sup- ported by the benevolent neutrality of those to whose judgment the scientific world looks for guidance, are harmful in many ways. They block the way to an independent advance and eT hasty and ill-considered generalizations, The con- clusions I should draw from the considerations I have placed before you are these: I believe that a reasonable censorship exercised by our scientific societies is good and necessary ; that those whose fate it is to be called on to express an opinion on some work or theory should do so fearlessly according to their best ju nt. Their opinion may be warped by prejudice, but I think it is better that they should incur the risk of being sdihmately found to be wrong than that they should help in ay et _ the propagation of bad reasoning. There is one matter, ___ however, on which all opinions must agree. Worse than bad ___ theory or logic is bad experimental work. Should we then not isly preserve any influence or incentive which encourages the beginner to avoid carelessness and to consider neither time nor trouble to secure accuracy? There is no doubt to my mind at the prospect of admission to the Royal Society has been st beneficial in this respect, and that the honourable ambi- A to see his paper published in the ‘‘ Transactions” of that 6M aha many a student from the premature ion of unfinished work. _ One of the principal obstacles to the rapid diffusion of a new ‘idea lies in the difficulty of finding suitable expression to convey its essential point to other minds. Words may have to be ‘strained into a new sense, and scientific controversies con- stantly resolve themselves into differences about the meaning of words, On the other hand, a happy nomenclature has _ Sometimes | more powerful than rigorous logic in allowing a ‘new train of thought to be quickly and generally accepted. A good example is furnished by the history of the science of energy. The principle of the conservation of energy has un- doubtedly gained a more rapid and general acceptance than it would otherwise have had by the introduction of the word potential energy. A great theorem, which in itself seems to me to be an intricate one, has been simplified by calling something energy which, in the first place, is only a deficiency of kinetic presen The only record I can find on the history of the ex- pre: jis given in Tait’s ‘‘ Thermodynamics,” wherein the term statical energy is ascribed to Lord Kelvin, and that of otential e to Rankine. It would be of interest to havea ‘more detailed account on the origin of an expression which has undoubtedly hada marked influence not only on the physics, but also on the metaphysics of our time. But while fully recog- nizing the very great advantage we have derived from this term “Potential we ought not, at the same time, AiG: the fact that it implies some- thing said to be proved. It is easy to overstep the legitimate use of the word. Thus, when Professor Lodge! attempts to prove that action at a distance is not consistent with the doctrine of energy, he can- not, in my opinion, justify his position except by assuming that all energy is ultimately kinetic. That is a plausible but by no means anecessary theory. Efforts have been made to look on energy as on something which can be labelled and identified irough its various transformations. Thus we may feel a certain bit of energy radiating from a coal-fire, and if our knowledge was complete, we ought to be able to fix the time at which that * Phil. Mag. vol. xi. p. 36 (188r). NO. 1188, VOL. 46] into R,, or is divided between them. identical bit of energy left the sun and arrived on the surface of the earth, setting up a chemical action in the leaves of the plant from which the coal has been derived. If we push this view to a logical conclusion, it seems to me that we must finally arrive at an atomic conception of energy which some may consider an absurdity. Let, for instance, a number of particles P,, P,, &c., in suc- cession, strike another particle Q. How can we in the trans- latory energy of the latter identify the parts which P,, P., &c., have contributed? According to Professor’s Lodge’s view, we should be able to do so, for if the particle Q in its turn gives up its energy to others, say R,, Ry, Rs, &c., we ought to be able to say whether the energy of P, has ultimately gone into R, or It is only by imagining that all energy is made up of a finite number of bits, which pass from one body to another, that we can defend the idea of con- sidering energy as capable of being ‘‘ labelled.” In the expressions we adopt to prescribe physical phenomena we necessarily hover between two extremes. We either have to choose a word which implies more than we can prove, or we have to use vague and general terms which hide the essential point, instead of bringing it out. The history of electrical theories furnishes a good example. The terms positive and negative electricity committed us to something definite ; we could reckon about quantities of electricity, and form some defi- nite notion of electrical currents as a motion of the two kinds of electricity in opposite directions. Now we have changed all that ; we speak of electric displacements, but safeguard ourselves by saying that a displacement only means a vector quantity, and not necessarily an actual displacement. We speak of lines and tubes of force not only asa help to realize more clearly certain analytical results, but as implying a physical theory to which, at the same time, we do not wish to commit ourselves. I do not find any fault with this, for it is a perfectly legitimate and neces- sary process to state the known connection between physical phenomena in some form which introduces the smallest number of assumptions. But the great question ‘‘ What is electricity ?” is not touched by these general considerations. The brilliant success with which Maxwell’s investigations have been crowned is apt to make us overrate the progress made in the solution of that question. Maxwell and his followers have proved the im- portant fact that optical and electrical actions are transmitted through the same medium. We may be said to have arrived in the subject of electricity at the stage in which optics was placed before Young and Fresnel hit on the idea of transverse vibra- tions, but there is no theory of electricity in the sense in which there is an elastic solid theory of light. If the term electrical displacement was taken in its literal sense, it would mean that the electric current consists of the motion of the ether through the conductor. This is a plausible hypothesis, and one respecting which we may obtain experi- mental evidence. The experiments of Rayleigh and others have shown that the velocity of light in an electrolyte, through which an electric current is passing, is, within experimental limits, the same with and against the current. This result shows that if an electrical current means a motion of the ether the velocity of the medium cannot exceed ten metres a second for a current density of one ampére per square centimetre. This, then, is the upper limit for a possible velocity of the medium ; can we find a lower limit? The answer to that question de- pends on the interpretation of a well-known experiment of Fizeau’s, who found that the speed of light is increased if it travels through water which moves in the same direction as the light. If this experiment implies that the water carries the ether with it, and if a motion of the ether means an electric current, we should be led to the conclusion that a current of water should deflect a magnet in its neighbourhood. An ex- periment made to that effect would almost certainly give a nega- tive result, and would give us a lower limit for the velocity of the medium corresponding to a given current. Such an experi- ment, together with that of Rayleigh, would probably dispose of the theory that an electric current is due to a translatory velocity of the medium. This would be an important step, and it would be worth while to arrive at a final settlement of the question.t The whole question of the relation between the t Fizeau’s results must either be due to the motion of matter gee ee medium or to the fact that moving matter carries the ether with it. If it is due to the former cause, and matter does o¢ carry the ether with it, may we not consider that matter moving through the ether, that is a relative motion of matter and ether, must produce effects equal and opposite to those of ether moving through matter? In that case the reasoning in the text would, mutatis mutandis, hold good. 326 NATURE [Aucust 4, 1892 motion of matter and motion of the medium is a vital one, and we shall probably not make any serious advances until experi- ment has found a new opening. But we must expect many negative results before some clue is discovered. Nor can we attach much importance to negative results unless they are made by some one in whose care and judgment we place full reliance. We should all the more, therefore, recognize the courage and perseverance of those who spend their valuable time in such in- vestigations as Prof. Lodge has recently undertaken, That ultimately some relation will be found between moving matter and electrical action there is no reasonable doubt. One of the most hopeful openings for new investigations has always been found in the pursuing of a theory to its logical con- clusions, and there is one result of the electromagnetic theory of light which has not, in my opinion, received the share of attention which it deserves. When sound passes through air it is propagated more quickly with the wind than against it, and we may easily find the velocity relative to the earth by combining the ordinary sound velocity with the velocity of the wind, Similarly, when any waves pass through a medium moving with uniform velocity, the waves being due to internal stresses in the medium, we may treat of the velocity of the waves independently of that of the medium, and say that the wave-velocity in the direction of motion of the medium, and relative to a fixed body, is the sum of the wave-velocity, calculated on the supposition that the medium is at rest and the velocity of the medium. Prof. J. J. Thomson,! applying Maxwell’s equations, has arrived at a different result for electromagnetic waves, and has come to the conclusion that in order to get the velocity of light along a stream of flowing water we have to add to the velocity of light only half the velocity of water. The following considerations suggest themselves to me with respect to this result. Maxwell’s theory is founded on certain observed effects, which all depend on the relative motion of matter. A result such as the one referred to implies actions depending on absolute motion, and appears there- fore to point to something which has been introduced into the equations for which there is no experimental evidence. The only assumption clearly put down by Maxwell is that electro- magnetic actions are transmitted through the medium, and it is possible that that assumption necessarily carries Prof. J. J. Thomson’s result with it. If a careful examination of the subject should show that this is the case, we are brought face to face with a serious difficulty. It is said, with justice, to be one of the great advantages of Maxwell’s theory that it does away with action at a distance; but what do we gain if we replace action at a distance by something infinitely more difficult to conceive, namely, internal stresses of a medium depending on the velocity of the medium through space? I can only see one loophole through which to escape, namely, that Maxwell’s medium is not homogeneous, but consists of two parts, and that if we speak of the medium as moving, we mean the motion of one of these parts relative to the other. While we may hope to obtain important results. from an in- vestigation of the relation between what we call electricity and the medium, we must not lose sight of another avenue, namely, the relation between electricity and chemical effects. The pas- sage of electricity through gases presents us with a complicated problem to which a number of physicists have given their at- tention of late years. There seems no reasonable doubt that electricity in a gas is conveyed by the diffusion of particles con- veying high charges, probably identical with those carried by the electrolytic ion. The fact that this convection is a process of diffusion with comparatively small velocity is shown by the experimental result that the path of the discharge is affected by any bodily motion of the gas which conveys the current. Even the convection currents due to the heat produced by the dis- charge itself are sufficient to deflect the luminous column which marks the passage of the current. The most puzzling fact, however, connected with the discharge of electricity through gases consists in the absence of symmetry at the positive and negative poles. There must be some differ- ence between a positively and negatively charged atom which seems Of fundamental importance in the relation between matter and what we call electricity. A discussion of the various phenomena attending the discharge of electricity through gases seems to me to point to a conclusion which may possibly prove a step in the right direction. A surface of separation between bodies having different con- 1 Phil. Mag., vol. ix. p. 284 (1880). No. 1188, vou. 46] ductivities becomes electrified by the passage of a current, while at the surface between two chemically distinct bodies we have, according to Helmholtz, a sheet covered at the two sides with opposite electricities. | These surface electrifications are not merely imaginary layers invented to satisfy mathematical surface conditions. They can be proved to be realities. Thus, when one electrolyte floats on another, the specific resistances being different, we often observe secondary chemical effects due to the action of the ions which carry the surface electrification. If the passage of electricity from the solid to the gas involves some work done, we must expect a double sheet of electricity at the boundary, the gas in contact with the kathode becoming positively, and that in coutact with the anode negatively, elec- trified. A priori we can form no idea how a layer of gas, the atoms of which carry charges, will behave. The ordinary proof that all electrification must be confined to the surface implies that all forces act according to the law of the inverse square, but where we have also to consider molecular forces, I see no reason why the electrification at a surface may not stretch across a layer having a thickness comparable with the mean free path of the molecule. It is here that there seems to be the funda- mental difference between positive and negative electricity. A negative electrification of the gas, like that of a solid or a liquid, seems always confined to the surface, and no one has ever observed a volume electrification of negative electricity. The case is different for the positively electrified part of the gas. Wherever from other considerations we should expect a posi- tively electrified surface sheet, we always get a layer of finite thickness. The result implies a different law of impact between positively and negatively electrified ions, but I see no inherent. improbability in this. That the kathode let into a gas is sur- rounded by a positively electrified layer of finite thickness ex- tending outwards must be considered as an established fact, and several of the charac.eristic features of the discharge are explained by it. The large fall of potential at the kathode can also be explained on the view which I have put forward, for in order to keep up the discharge there must be a sufficient normal force at the surface, and if this force is not confined to the sur- face, but necessarily stretches across a finite layer, the fall of potential must be multiplied a great number of times. Similarly Goldstein has shown that some of the phenomena of the kath- ode are observed at every place at which the positive current flows from a wide toa narrow part of acolumnofgas, At such places we should expect a positive surface electrification, and here, again, the whole appearance tends to show that we are dealing with a positive volume electrification. No corre- sponding phenomena are observed when the current passes from the narrow to the wide part. The fact that in all cases experimented upon positive volume electrifications are observed but never similar negative electri- fications is surely of significance. Some of the results recently brought to light by investigations on the discharge of electricity have interesting cosmical appli- cations. Thus it is found that such a discharge through any part of a vessel containing a gas converts the whole gas into a conductor.! The dissociation which we imagine to take place in a liquid before electrolytic conduction takes place must be artificially produced in a gas by the discharge itself. We may imitate in gases which have thus been rendered conductive many of the phenomena hitherto restricted to liquids: thus I hope to bring to the notice of this meeting cases of primary and secondary cells in which the electrolyte is a gas. There are other ways in which a gas can be put into that sensitive state in which we may treat it as a conductor, and we have every reason to suppose that the upper regions of our atmosphere are in this state.. The principal part of the daily variation of the magnetic needle is due to causes lying outside the surface of the earth, and is in all probability only an electro-magnetic effect due to that bodily motion in our atmosphere which shows itself in the diurnal changes of the barometer. A favourite idea of the late Prof. Balfour Stewart will thus probably be confirmed. The difference in the diurnal range between times of maximum and times of minimum sun-spots is accounted for by the fact that the atmosphere is a better conductor at times of maximum sun- spots. é The mention of sun-spots raises a point not altogether new to this section. Careful observation of celestial phenomena may t An experiment by Hittorf (Wied. Ann. vii., p. 614) suggested the adn Soa of this fact, which was proved independently by Arrhenius and myself. _Avucust 4, 1892] NATURE 327 suggest to us the solution of many mysteries which are now puzzling us. Consider, for instance, how long it would have taken to prove the universal property of gravitational attraction if the record of planetary motion had not come to the philoso- pher’s help. Andsurely the most casual observation of cosmical _ effects teaches us how much we have yet to learn. The statement of a problem occasionally helps to clear it up, and I may be allowed, therefore, to put before you some ques- tions, the solution of which seems not beyond the reach of our wers. 1. Is every large rotating mass a magnet? If it is, the sun pails powerial magnet. The comets’ tails, which eclipse ons show stretching out from our sun in all directions, probably consist of electric discharges. The effect of a magnet on the discharge is known, and careful investigations of the streamers of the solar corona ought to give an answer to the question which I have put.’ 2. Is there sufficient matter in interplanetary space to make it a conductor of electricity? I believe the evidence to be in favour of that view. But the conductivity can only be small, _ for otherwise the earth would gradually set itself to revolve about its magnetic pole. Suppose the electric resistance of to be so great that no appreciable change in the earth’s axis of rotation could have taken place within rical times, is it not possible that the currents induced in space by the earth’s revolution may, by their electro- — action, cause the secular variation of terrestrial mag- ? There seems to me to be here a definite question 4 pable of a definite answer, and as far as I can judge without a strict mathematical investigation the answer is in the affirma- 3. What is a sunspot? It is, I believe, generally assumed that it is analogous to one of our cyclones. The general appear- ance ofa does not show any marked cyclonic motion, _ though what we see is really determined by the distribution of Dees Seceion + by oe 7 of flow. But a number of clones clustering together like the sunspots in a group should move round each other in a definite way, and it eit to me that the close study of the relative positions of a group of spots should give decisive evidence for or against the cyclone theory. _ 4. If the spot is not due to cyclonic motion, is it not possible that electric discharges setting out from the sun, and accelerat- ing ially evaporation at the sun’s surface, might cool those rts from which the discharge starts, and thus produce a sun- ot? The effects of electric discharges on matters of solar yhysics have already been discussed by Dr. Huggins. 5. May not the periodicity of sunspots, and the connection ‘between two such dissimilar phenomena as spots on the sun and disturbances on the earth, be due to a periodically ‘ing increase in the electric conductivity of the parts of space the sun? Such an increase of conductivity might be prodt by meteoric matter circulating round the sun. _ 6, What causes the anomalous law of rotation of the solar photo: ? It has long been known that groups of spots at the solar equator perform their revolution in a shorter time than those in a higher latitude ; but spots are disturbances which may have their own proper motions. Duner® has shown, however, from the di ment of the Fraunhofer lines, that the whole of _ the layer which produces these lines follows the same anomalous law, the angular velocity at a latitude of 75° being 30 per cent. less than near the equator.* As all causes acting within the sun ‘might cause the angular velocity of the sun to be smaller at the equator than at other latitudes, but could not make it greater, _ the only explanation open to us is an outside effect either by an influx of meteoric matter, as suggested by Lord Kelvin, or in some other way. If we are to trust Dr. Welsing’s result that faculz which have their seat below the photosphere revolve in all latitudes with the same velocity, which is that of the spot velocity in the equatorial region, we should have to find a cause for a retardation in higher latitudes rather than for an accelera- tion at the equator. The exceptional behaviour of the solar surface seems to me to deserve very careful attention from solar * The efforts of Mr. Bigelow have a bearing on this point, also some remarks whi ve made in a lecture before the Royal Institution (Proc. Roy, Inst. Pa"), bat nothing decisive can be asserted at present. 2 Oefvers. af Kongl. Veterrk. Ak. Forhandl., 47, 1890. 3 Although the importance of M. Duner’s results would make an inde- _ pendent investigation desirable, the measurements of Mr. Crew, who by a much inferior method arrived at other results, cannot have much weight as compared with those of Duner. No. 1188, vot. 46] | physicists. Its explanation will probably carry with it that of many other phenomena, In conclusion, I should like to return for an instant to the question whether it is possible by any means to render the pro- ess of science more smocth and swift. If there is any truth in the idea that two types of mind are necessary, the one cor- responding to the boiler and the other to the cooler of a steam- engine, it must also be true that some place must be found where the two may bring their influence to bear on each other. I ven- ture to think that no better ground can be chosen than that supplied by our meetings. We hear it said that the British Association has fulfil'ed its object; we are told that it was originally founded to create a general interest in scientific prob- lems in the towns in which it meets; and now that popular lectures and popular literature are supposed to perform that work more satisfactorily, we are politely asked to commit the happy despatch. There is no need to go back to the original intention of those who have founded this institution, which has at any rate adapted itself sufficiently well to the altered circum- stances to maintain a beneficial influence in scientific research. The free discussion which takes place in our sections, the inter- change of ideas between men who during the rest of the year have occupied’their minds, perhaps too much, with some special problem, the personal intercourse between those who are begin- ning their work with sanguine expectations, and those who have lost the first freshness of their enthusiasm, should surely one and all ensure a long prosperity to our meetings. If we cannot claim any longer to sow the seeds of scientific interest in the towns we visit, because the interest is established, we can at any rate assure those who so kindly offer us hospitality that they are helping powerfully in the promotion of the great object which we all have at heart. SECTION B. CHEMISTRY. OpENING AppREss BY Pror. HerpertT MCLEop, F.R.S., F.C.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. In endeavouring to prepare myself to properly fulfil the duties of President of this Section, to which I have been elected, and for which honour I am much indebted to the council and members of the Association (although I am only too well aware that the position might have been more efficiently filled by many others), I naturally looked at the reports of the previous meetinzs held in Edinburgh in 1834, 1850, and 1871, and it appears that on the first two occasions an address was not given by the president, a custom the discontinuance of which I have, at the present moment, much reason to regret. At the meeting in 1834 a committee was appointed consisting of Dr. Dalton, Dr. Hope, Dr. T. Thomson, Mr. Whewell, Dr. Turner, Prof. Miller, Dr. Gregory, Dr. Christison, Mr. R. Phillips, Mr. Graham, Prof. Johnston, Dr. Faraday, Prof. Daniell, Dr. Clark, Prof. Cumming, and Dr. Prout, to report at the next meeting their opinion on the adoption of an uniform set of chemical symbols. Dr. Turner to be secretary. In the following year the report contains: ‘‘ Report of the Committee on Chemical Notation. Dr. Turner, the chairman of the committee appointed totake into consideration the adop- tion of an uniform system of chemical notation, made a report to the following effect :— ‘*, That the majority of the Committee concur in approv- ing ofthe employment ofthat system ofnotation which is already in general use on the Continent, though there exists among them some difference of opinion on points of detail. ‘2. That they think it desirable not to deviate in the manner of notation from algebraic usage except so far as convenience requires. ‘<3. That they are of opinion that it would save much con- fusion if every chemist would always state explicitly the exact quantities which he intends to represent by his symbols. ‘¢Dr, Dalton stated to the Chemical Section his reasons for pre- ferring the symbols which he had himself used from the com- mencement of the atomic theory in 1803, to the Berzelian sys- tem of notation subsequently introduced. In his opinion regard must be had to the arrangement and equilibrium of the atoms (especially elastic atoms) in every compound atom, as well as to 328 their number and weights. A system either of arrangements without weights, or of weights without arrangements, he con- sidered only half of what it should be.” We can all sympathize with the members of the section of 1834 in their desire to obtain an uniform system of chemical notation, for at that time several very different systems seem to have been in use. Although the report is a short one, it proba- bly directed the attention of chemists to the desirability of avoid- ing confusion by the use of various systems, and since that period many advances have been made. There is now little necessity for every chemist to ‘‘state explicitly the exact gwantities which he intends to represent by his symbols” for the accurate determinations of atomic weights by many chemists—and we must not omit to mention the work of Stas (whose death we have had to deplore since the last meet- ing of the British Association)—have given us a series of numbers which are in the hands of all chemists, so that, except in the cases where great refinement is requisite (or when the atomic weight has not been universally accepted) there is no need to state the values of the symbols. That great advances have been made in chemical notation is well known to all ; even in my own short experience I have had to learn several different methods. When I began to work at chemistry I was told that sulphate of lead was to be expressed by the formula PbO,SO3. Hofmann taught me that it should be PbSO, ; then Gerhardt doubled the atomic weights of oxygen and sulphur and the formula became Pb,SO, ; Cannizzaro showed that the atomic weight of lead should also be doubled, and the formula again became PbSQOg, but representing twice as much as formerly ; then Frankland taught me to write SO,Pbo” as the expression of the graphic formula— NAN Fe aie O which not only states that the compound contains 207 of lead, 32 of sulphur, and 64 of oxygen, but that the sulphur is hexad, and'is combined with two atoms of dyad oxygen, and witha dyad compound radical containing one atom of lead and two of oxygen ; and ofall the formulze just given this is the only one which satisfies the requirements which Dalton thought necessary in 1835, namely, to indicate not only the weights of the elements present, but also their arrangement. It may be objected that we do not know that this formula really represents the arrange- ments of the atoms in plumbic sulphate, but there can be very little doubt that the four atoms of oxygen in the compound are not all in the same condition, for if we examine the properties of sulphuric acid (from which the sulphate of lead is derived by the replacement of the hydrogen by lead), we find that two of the atoms of oxygen are more closely associated with the hydro- gen than are the other two, and, as there is some evidence, although perhaps not very conclusive, that sulphur may be capable of combining with six monad atoms, although no such compound is yet known, it does not seem unreasonable to sup- pose that sulphuric acid is really :— o% \o—H What'the nature of the attraction that holds the atoms to- gether may be is not known, but it is more probably of a charac- ter similar to that of gravity which holds together sun and planets, than of the nature of cohesion which would hold the atoms rigidly together ; the atoms in each molecule are there- fore most probably in a state of rotation around, or of vibration to and from, the central atom which holds them together. The pictorial representation in a plane does not therefore truly express the position of the atoms, but merely the relations existing be- tween them. In organic chemistry the use of formulz express- ing such a relation has become indispensable, and in inorganic chemistry I believe such a system is very useful. Recently this system has been found insufficient for the re- quirements of organic chemistry, and recourse has been had to the figure of a tetrahedron to represent the atom of carbon, other atoms being attached to the solid angles ; in this way the position of the atoms in space is more or less expressed. No. 1188, VOL. 46| NATURE [AuGustT 4, 1892 There are many cases, however, in which the atomicity theory fails us. At first it seemed probable that the atomicity of am element varied in pairs of attractions, that is, an element might be monad, triad, or pentad, but not dyad or tetrad ; or it might “4 be dyad, tetrad, or hexad, but not triad or pentad ; but some great difficulties have been encountered. Thus nitrogen, which is pentad in ammonic chloride and:triad in ammonia, forms the compound nitric oxide, NO, in which it would appear to be dyad ; it has been suggested, however, that in this body the nitrogen is really triad, and that it possesses a ‘‘ free bond.” Now the idea of a ‘‘ free bond” seems contrary to the principles of atomicity, since it is on the belief that such a free bond is impossible that the explanation of the existence of elementary molecules is formed, for it is said that when hydrogen is liberated two atoms unite to form a molecule, so that their mutual attractions may be satisfied. Nevertheless nitric oxide is a very active body, uniting readily with other substances, so the free bond seems to be on the look out for other kinds of matter, but to have no attraction for the free bond of another molecule of nitric oxide. As the molecule of nitric peroxide is variable by alterations of temperature, being N,O, at low and NO, at high temperatures, it seemed not impossible that at the ordinary atmospheric temperature nitric oxide was a simplified or disso- ciated molecule, and that if the temperature were sufficiently reduced it would be found that its molecule would be N,O,, and thus it would contain triad nitrogen without a free bond. The density of the gas has, however, been determined at a temperature as low as —73° and the molecule is still NO. Another important exception to the variation of the atomicity of an element in pairs was furnished by the investigations of Sir Henry Roscoe on the chlorides of vanadium ; this element which, from analogy, should be a triad or a pentad, appears to form a chloride of the composition VCly. Again, the mole- cule of peroxide of chlorine is ClO,, which would make chlorine a tetrad or the compound must have a free bond. Another set of phenomena which the atomicity theory will not explain is the existence of well-defined crystalline salts. containing what is called water of crystallization. This water is in many cases held with considerable pertinacity, the body appearing to be a veritable chemical compound. But water appears to be a saturated body, the attractions of the oxygen being satisfied by those of the hydrogen, It is true that water acts vigorously on other compounds, as on metallic oxides to form hydrates, and on some anhydrides to form acids, but these appear to be phenomena of double decomposition; thus the combination of water with sodic oxide and nitric anhydride respectively may be expressed by the equations” OH, + ONa, = OHNa + ONaH and OH, + O(NO,). = OH(NO,) + O(NO,)H_ In the combination of water with an anhydrous salt, a pheno- menon often accompanied by great rise of temperature, there does not appear to be a double decomposition. That there is a chemical combination of some sort is shown by the changes of properties produced, crystalline form and colour being both sometimes altered. Compounds so produced have been called ‘* molecular compounds” to imply that saturated molecules are in some way or another combined, the combination being dif- ferent from ‘‘atomic combination,” in which the atoms are directly united according to their valencies, Another explana- tion has been suggested by assuming that there is some ‘‘ residual affinity ” not saturated by the constituents of the body, and that this residual affinity enables bodies to unite in a less stable manner than in most compounds, But are not these terms— ‘‘molecular combination” and ‘residual affinity ’—analogous to the term ‘‘ catalysis,” merely words to express —not to explain | ~-what we do not understand? If ‘‘residual affinity” really exists, it must reside in the oxygen of the water, or in the hydrogen, or both ; if so, what will happen to some of the com- plex constitutional formulze of the organic chemist in which the carbon is tetrad, the oxygen dyad, and the hydrogen monad? If any of these elements have a residual affinity should we not expect to find additional unions between some of the atoms of the same molecule over and above those represented by the formula ? Oxygen may be tetrad, for which there is evidence in OAgs. if Under these circumstances water is by no means a saturated compound, and there would be no difficulty in explaining the combination of water with oxygen salts. Thus crystallized ie Avcust 4, 1892] NATURE 329 magnesic sulphate, MgSO;, 70H, or SOHoMgo”, 60H, would ge H H sulphate, Na,SO,, 100H, :— Be ic H Na _ alum, with its 24 molecules of water of crystallization, by an appalling formula :— € TERE: ae 4 ) a H—O—O—H H—O,y é JZ a0) aaa 3 = x SZ H H pad A although Graham found that crystallized alum at a temperature of 61° lost 18 molecules of water; if he had used a tempera- ture a few degrees lower he might have found that only 16 off ! By a little stretching of the imagination and altering the atomicities of the elements to suit each particular case, no doubt graphic formule might be made for all crystalline salts, but they would be perfectly artificial, and not much good is likely to come from the attempt. I fear we are driven to the conclusion, that, notwithstanding all the progress that has been made in chemical science during the last fifty-eight years, we have not yet reached a method of notation that would have satisfied Dr. Dalton in 1834. But since that time we have learnt that our formule ought to show even more than the number and position of the atoms of a compound; we should like them to indicate the amount of potential energy residing in a body, and our equations ought to indicate the amount of heat generated by a chemical change. Let us hope that before the next meeting of the British Associa- tion in Edinburgh these desirable developments will have been accomplished. A short time ago I mentioned the word catalysis as being employed to express certain chemical actions which cannot be explained. It is applied to those phenomena which take place in the presence of a body which appears to be entirely un- changed by the action. Happily these catalytic actions are being explained one after another, so that soon the name itself may become obsolete. An example of this action of presence may be given. When a mixture of sulphuric acid and alcohol is heated to a temperature of about 140° to 150°, ether passes over. Now alcohol contains C,H,O, and if from two molecules of alcohol one molecule of water is subtracted a molecule of ether results :—2C,H,O=OH, + C,H,,O. As sulphuric acid is known to have a great attraction for water, it is easy to imagine that the acid combines with the water and ether passes off. But it is found that a small quantity of sulphuric acid at the temperature of 140°- 150° will transform a very large amount of alcohol into ether and water, much more than can be ex- lained by assuming that the acid has combined with the water. f a mixture of sulphuric acid and alcohol is heated to a tem- perature of 140°-150°, and alcoho! allowed to flow into the liquid, a mixture of ether and water vapours passes over, and after a large quantity of alcohol has been transformed, the H H | eae H—O—O—H H—O—O—H H H 04% Pach 2) wn f° H H H S O Lee H = There is certainly a symmetry about the formu.a, and it will be found that 16 of the molecules of water are in a different _ position from the remaining 8 ; this probably has no significance, -—s- NO. 1188, VOL. 46] 4 ) . ox 4 O fe) H+6-0-H (BOC, 70H H-O-—O-H H H H O / Pg: ae / RY H—O—O—H H—O—O—H psig H H amount of sulphuric acid is found to be unaltered. At first glance this seems very difficult to explain, but on further investigation it is found that alcohol and sulphuric 330 NATURE {[AucusT 4, 1892 acid act one on another to form ethyl-sulphuric or sulphovinic acid :— SO,Ho, + EtHo = SO,HoEto + OH, but when ethyl-sulphuric acid is heated with alcohol, ether is formed with the reproduction of sulphuric acid— SO,HoEto + EtHo = OEt, + SO,Ho, the sulphuric aci is then able to produce ethyl-sulphuric acid by acting on more alcohol, soa continuous production of ether and water takes place without loss of sulphuric acid. Another well- known action is the combination of oxygen and hydrogen under the influence of spongy platinum. In this case the platinum remains apparently unaltered, and is capable of causing the com- bination of any quantity of mixed gases. As spongy platinum possesses the power of absorbing large quantities of gases, it is usually said that the molecules of oxygen and hydrogen are so much condensed in the platinum that they are brought within the sphere of one another’s attractions, and consequently combine. Another instance of an action of this kind is afforded by the oxidation of ammonia in the presence of chromic oxide. When ammonic dichromate is heated an evolution of gas occurs, and a residue of chromic oxide is left which bears a striking ‘resemblance to a mixture of black and green tea; when some of this substance. is placed on a _ piece of wire gauze, heated and then supported over a_ vessel containing a strong solution of ammonia, the oxide glows in a manner similar to the glowing of spongy platinum under the influence of a mixture of hydrogen and air. Under these con- ditions the chromic oxide facilitates the oxidation of the am- monia, but it becomes changed during the process ; instead of having the appearance above described, it acquires a bright green colour. Now, we know that chromium is capable of forming several combinations with oxygen. Is it therefore too much to suppose that the chromium is alternately oxidized by the oxygen of the air, and reduced by the hydrogen of the am- monia, so that, although in the end it has the same composition as at the beginning, nevertheless it has been continuously de- composed and reproduced? Now, may not a similar change take place during the action of spongy platinum on a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen? The alteration of the platinum is very slight, but I believe I have observed a slight modification of the appearance of a fragment of spongy platinum that was kept glowing by a small jet of purified hydrogen for some hours ; the gas not being allowed to burn so as to heat the platinum toa very high temperature, the metal appears to be compacted and to be covered by minute spherules of glistening metal. Now, may not the platinum have entered into combination with one or other of the gases and been subsequently reduced ? If this is the true explanation, then we have in this case a continuous series of chemical changes and the ‘‘ catalysis” is explained. We all know the ease with which oxygen is obtained from potassic chlorate when heated with a small quantity of oxide of manganese ; the quantity of peroxide is the same at the end of the process as at the beginning, and it may be used over and over again to assist in the decomposition of fresh potassic chlorate. The oxide of manganese undergoes a molecular alteration ; if a crystalline variety is employed, it is found, at the end of the process, to have been transformed into fine powder. I hope I have proved to the satisfaction of my brother chemists that potassic permanganate is first formed and subse- quently decomposed with the reproduction of manganese per- oxide, Oxide of cobalt possesses the remarkable property of decom- posing solutions of hypochlorites at moderate temperatures with evolution of oxygen. For some time I have been endeavouring to find the explanation of the change, but hitherto without com- plete success. At first it seemed probable that an unstable cobaltate, analogous to a ferrate, was formed and decomposed at the temperature of the experiment. In fact oxygen is evolved when chlorine is passed through a boiling solution of sodic hydrate containing ferric hydrate in suspension. But no evi- dence of the existence of a cobaltate could be found. When a cobaltous salt is added to an alkaline solution of a hypochlorite, a black precipitate is formed which is usually stated to be cobal- tic hydrate, Co,Hog, but Vortmann has shown that, when a cobaltous salt is mixed with a solution of iodine in potassic iodide, and the liquid rendered alkaline by sodic hydrate, the precipitate formed at a temperature between 50° and 60° ap- NO. 1188, VOL. 46] proaches in composition the dioxide of cobalt, CoO, He also found that the precipitate lost oxygen at the temperature of boil- ing water. taining quite as much oxygen as his richest oxide. The oxides I prepared rapidly effected the decomposition of a solution of sodic hypochlorite, and that without undergoing any loss of oxygen themselves ; in fact, in the two experiments made, the cobalt compound contained a little more oxygen after boiling with the hypochlorite. We have now many instances of the influence which small quantities of substances have upon chemical reactions, These influences may be more common than is generally supposed. The presence of a third body is frequently helpful in the combi- nation of elements with one another: thus dry chlorine will not attack melted sodium or finely divided copper; an electric spark will not cause a dry mixture of carbonic oxide and oxygen to explode; carbon, phosphorus, and sulphur will not unite with dry oxygen, and as chemical science progresses we may find that many well-known actions are conditioned by the presence of minute traces of other matter which haye hither- to escaped detection. We all know the profound alterations of the properties of substances by minute traces of impurities ; less. than one-tenth per cent. of phosphorus will render steel unfit for certain purposes. The sapphire and ve only differ from colourless alumina by the presence of traces of impurities hardly recognisable by chemical analysis. During this meeting we hope to have a contribution to the section on the influence of minute traces of what may be called impurities on the pro- perties of different substances and their influence on chemical changes. In this city, where the first public chemical laboratory was. started in 1823, by Dr. Anderson, the assistant of Prof, Hope, it is hardly necessary to insist on the extreme importance of teaching chemistry by practical work, but unfortunately, even at the present time, endeavours are made to teach the subject by means of lectures (sometimes without experiments) or by read- ing. Those who are acquainted with chemistry well know the impossibility (this is hardly too strong a word) of learning the science, especially in the first stages, without actual experiment, by which a practical acquaintance with chemical phenomena is. obtained. The attempt to learn chemistry without pracien experience reminds one of the well-known story (for the truth of which I will not vouch) of a mathematician who lectured on natural philosophy ; he was visiting a foreign laboratory, and stopped before a piece of apparatus and asked what it was: on being told it was an air-pump, he exclaimed, ‘* Dear me! I have lectured on the air-pump for twenty-five years, and this is the first time I have seen one.” It is problematical if his students can have derived much advantage from his lectures. Teaching of the kind to which reference has just been made is generally given to candidates for examinations who do not intend to take up chemistry as their chief subject. At the present time: chemistry is required for entrance and preliminary examinations from many classes of students, There is no doubt that it is an excellent means of education, teaching a boy to observe and draw conclusions from his observations ; but if he makes no observations it is little more than useless cram, the memory might as well be exercised by learning a novel by heart. This imperfect mode of teaching chemistry arises principally from the difficulty of obtaining properly appointed laboratories. in schools, in addition to which the very strong fumes are some- times disagreeable, making it inconvenient to have them in or near a house, to say nothing of the possible dangers to the clothes and their contents ; but there is no help forit, the teach- ing must be accompanied by experimental demonstration, as was indicated in the Reports on the teaching of chemistry which ~ have been presented to this Association in former years. It must be admitted that examinations do not always discover the best student ; many are capable of preparing for examinations: with a small knowledge of their subject, others, with a good knowledge, fail from nervousness or other causes, but at the present time examination, though far from perfect, is almost the only means we have of judging the fitness of the candidate. By properly selecting questions the examiner may, to a considerable extent, discourage cram; he should endeavour to find out what the pupils have actually seen, and to make them draw conclu- sions from facts which they have either themselves observed, or which have been described to them ; it is only in this manner that chemistry can be used as a n.eans of mental training. I have repeated some of his experiments and can quite confirm them, although I have not obtained an oxide con-. _ Avecust 4, 1892] NATURE 33! These remarks do not apply to the education of students in- _ tending to make chemistry their profession, who have many op- R ogee in the large laboratories of Great Britain and the Con- t, of obtaining all the necessary instruction. The Institute Repeat which was founded to improve the status and also _ the education of professional chemists, requires that its mem- _ bers should have a thoroughly scientific training. Before a eandidate for the associateship is admitted to examination, he _ must bring evidence that he has passed satisfactorily through a j matic course of at least three years’ study in the subjects of % + eso and practical chemistry, physics, and elementary PP matics, in some recognized college or school ; and before ‘admission to the fellowship he must have passed through three _ additional years of work in chemistry. It is to be hoped that _ an example of this kind will ultimately have a good effect in impr the modes of teaching the science in its elementary Rhee is another class of workers in chemistry who must not __ be forgotten at the present time, as they have much influence on _ the life of the world and have been working for ages, but have only recently been recognized. I mean those organisms which _ are included under the name of microbes, These organisms are _ capabl oko ores chemical changes which entirely surpass all the ts hitherto obtained by the chemist in his laboratory. _ That the transformation of sugar into alcohol and carbonic ide in the ordinary process of fermentation is due to a - organism, gal known for some years; the transformation of ammonia into nitrous and nitric _ acids in the soil has been shown to be due to organisms _ which have recently been investigated by many chemists; it __ is possible to transform ammonia into these acids in the labora- Conk —eme OUSIY all who worked with him must have been deeply impressed _by his capacity for work and his power of inducing work in others. Although perhaps some of us did not appreciate this at his name in the Royal Society Catalogue up the year 1883 is 299, written by himselfalone, besides twenty-two joint papers. One of his characteristics which impressed me was ‘his investi- _ gation for the purpose of furthering chemical knowledge without any view to practical applications, and I well remember his ‘ois at the Royal Institution, in 1862, on Mauve and Magenta . owed so much of their success to his work), in which he _ produced the original specimen of benzene which had been opened by Faraday from oil-gas in 1825. He pointed out that _ Faraday had prepared this substance and investigated its pro- _ perties without ever supposing that it could have any practical appli The following is the concluding paragraph of the __ “Need I say any more? The moral of Mauve and Magenta __ is transparent enough ; I read it in your eyes. We understand _ each other. Whenever in future one of ‘your chemical friends, _ full of enthusiasm, exhibits and explains to you his newly-dis- _ covered compounds, you will not cool his noble ardour by ask- ed that most terrible of all questions, ‘ What is its use ? _ Will your compound bleach or dye ? Willit shave? May it be _ used as a substitute for leather?’ Let him quietly go on with _ his work. The dye, the lather, the leather will make their _ appearance in due time. Let him, I repeat, perform his task. _ Let him indulge in the pursuit of trath—of truth pure and simple -—of truth not for the sake of Mauve, not for the sake of an let him pursue truth for the sake of truth.” _ This seems to me the true spirit of the scientific investigator NO. 1188, VoL. 46] and in many cases the reward consists solely in the consciousness that the investigator has done his duty ; in some cases the reward may take a more substantial form, and since the above paragraphs were written I have been informed that Prof. von Hofmann has left a large fortune, the result of the applications of his discoveries in technical chemistry. NOTES. WE hope to publish shortly, in the series of ‘‘ Scientific Worthies,” a portrait of Sir Archibald Geikie, whose address as president of the British Association we print to-day. The por- trait will be accompanied by a sketch of Sir Archibald’s career as a man of science. THE International Congress of Experimental Psychology began work at University College, Gower Street, on Monday, when an address was delivered by Prof. H. Sidgwick. We propose to give on a future occasion some account of the pro- ceedings. THE Helvetic Society of the Natural Sciences will hold its seventy-fifth annual meeting at Basel from September 5 to 7. The Basel Society of the Natural Sciences will celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary at the same time. Mr, J. BRETLAND FARMER, M.A., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Demonstrator of Botany in the University, has been appointed Assistant-Professor in Botany at the Royal College of Science, London, as successor to Dr. D. H. Scott, who becomes Honorary Keeper of the Jodrell Laboratory, at the Royal Gardens, Kew. Mr. H. M. BERNARD, M.A., has been elected to the Mar- shall Scholarship, Royal College of Science, South Kensington, for the ensuing year, in place of Mr. G. Biebner, whose term of office has expired. Mr. J. P. HIL1, of the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, and the University of Edinburgh, has been appointed to the Demonstratorship of Biology in the University of Sydney. : Mr. SILvA WHITE has, for reasons of health, resigned his office as secretary and editor to the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, a post he has filled since the institution of the society. WE regret very much to hear of the death of Dr. H. J. Tylden, whose article on ‘‘ The bearing of pathology upon the doctrine of the transmission of acquired characters” was printed in NATURE last week. At the beginning of last week he died of typhoid fever. Dr. Tylden had been engaged in investigating the etiology of typhoid fever, and there is no doubt that he thus contracted the disease. Two eminent men who had been intimately connected with India died last week—-Dr. Forbes Watson and Dr. H. W. Bellew. Dr. Bellew was well known as an Oriental linguist and as the author of various works in which he made important con- tributions to ethnology. Dr. Forbes Watson acted for many years as Reporter on the Products of India and Director of the India Museum. He did much to give the English people a wider and more accurate knowledge both of the races and the material resources of India. THE death of Dr. Felice Giordano, of Rome, is announced. He was the head of the Geological Survey of Italy and Chief Inspector of Mines. THE Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College has issued its calendar for the year 1892-93. On July 27 the eruption of Mount Etna, which on the pre- vious day had increased considerably in activity, was again as 332 NATURE [AuGusT 4, 1892 violent as during the first few days of the outbreak. Rocks and masses of volcanic débris were ejected from the crater to a great height, as well as a quantity of fine ash, which fell in showers over the country. The cloud of smoke over the summit increased, and the subterranean rumblings were so loud and fre- quent as to make the windows in the houses rattle. The lava streams were also extending. Similar reports were issued on the three following days; but on July 31 a general decrease in the volume of the lava was noted. On August 1 it was stated that the eruption seemed to be subsiding, No underground rumblings were heard, the smoke issuing from the crater was white, and the lava streams moved very slowly, and, in fact, almost stopped. On August 2 the volcano showed some signs of renewed activity, and the lava streams began to flow afresh. The underground rumblings were not, however, so loud as before. SoME information as to the volcanic eruption in Great Sangir is given in letters sent from Menado, the chief Dutch settle- ment in the north of the Celebes, from which Sangir is about 300 miles distant. The letters are dated June 12, and were printed i in the Handelshlad, of Amsterdam, on July 27. Accord- ing to a summary in a Reuter’s telegram, the disaster came with appalling suddenness. At ten minutes past six on the evening of June 7, unannounced by the slightest shock of earthquake, subterranean rumblings, or other seismic warning, a terrific eruption began from the great voleano Gunona Awa, which is not far from Tarvena, the capital of the island. Ashes in im- mense masses and stones of considerable size soon fell all over the island. Hundreds were killed by this shower, and even those who reached the shelter of their homes were not safe, for nearly everywhere in the country districts the light wooden houses collapsed under the weight of the stones and ashes which quickly settled on the roofs. In the immediate vicinity of the mountain, on the slopes of which are numerous farms and vil- lages with extensive plantations, immense destruction was caused by the great streams of lava, which flowed with astonish- ing rapidity down into the surrounding valleys. Houses were carried away with all their contents, and many of the occupants met a terrible death in these rivers of molten rock. Besides the hundreds who are known to have lost their lives on the low- lands, between five hundred and a thousand more who were engaged in the rice-fields on the mountain slopes have not been heard from. The crops have been destroyed, the cocoa-nut trees have suffered severely, and in many parts of the island the wells have become dry. AT the time of our last issue the weather was very settled, and the air very dry, scarcely any rain having fallen for some days. On Friday, however, July 29, the anticyclone began to give way, and the low pressure over the Bay of Biscay extended northwards and over the eastern parts of England, causing thunderstorms in the southern counties. By Sunday, the dis- turbed weather had extended over the whole country, and rain had fallen at most places, but the area of low barometer was passing away to the eastward, and during the early part of this week the type of weather again became anticyclonic generally, but the sky became cloudy, and rain fell in places; while on Wednesday a depression lay over the North of Scotland, which appeared likely to spread southwards. Temperatures have ranged from 70° to 75° and upwards in the southern districts, but have been considerably lower in the north; the daily maxima frequently not reaching 60°. The Weekly Weather Report showed that for the week ending July 30 the temperature only slightly exceeded the average in the North of Scotland. Rainfall was much below the mean, amounting to six to nine- tenths of an inch in most districts, while reckoning from the beginning of the year there is a deficit in every district, amount- ing to as much as 7°4 inches in the south-west of England. No. 1188, voL. 46] THE Austrian Meteorological Society has issued an appeal for contributions towards the support of the meteorological obser- vatory on the summit of the Sonnblick. ‘The observatory was established by M. Rojacher in 1886, and completed at the ex- pense of the Austrian Society and the German and Austrian Alpine Club; it has since been maintained at the expense of these two institutions, together with a subvention from the Ministry of Instruction, and aided by a small reserve from the original building fund. The recent death of M Rojacher, and the removal of the Alpine Club from a house on the summit, has thrown such additional expense on the Austrian Society as to endanger the efficient maintenance of the Observatory. The station has already rendered good service to science and has somewhat modified the theory of the nature and origin of storms ; several physicists have also conducted experiments there on radiation, atmospheric electricity, and other subjects of considerable importance. We. hope, therefore, that the appeal of the Society for funds for the efficient maintenance of the station will meet with entire success. THE trustees of the South African Museum, in cheiecepiee'or the year 1891, record a serious loss in the mineralogical series of the Museum’s collection. On the night of September 7 and 8 the Museum was robbed of the Stonestreet collection of rough diamonds, a separate diamond in singularly hard rock, and several very interesting nuggets of South African gold. The exhibition hall was broken into through one of the small upper. windows opening on the higher of the two galleries, and the specially protected table-case, containing the diamonds and gold, forced by shattering the lock. Two men—whose names, A. McEwen and E. Cohen respectively, were already too well known in the criminal records—were convicted of the robbery at the Supreme Court session on the 13th November, and sentenced to four years’ hard labour. The police succeeded in recovering 49 of the 173 diamonds belonging to the Stonestreet collection, including most of the larger stones, but among the missing majority are many unusual and abnormal crystalline forms of much interest, collected with great pains by the late Mr. Stonestreet, during the earlier years of mining in Griqua- land West. The Du Toit’s Pan diamond in indurated rock ae the gold nuggets have not been recovered. ) IN the course of an interesting address delivered lately at the opening of the new chemical laboratory of the Case School of Applied Science, Prof. C. F. Mabery called attention to the fact that notwithstanding America’s abundant supply of crude materials, with cheap fuel in unlimited quantities, and a ready market with an increasing demand, she continues to pay enor- mous sums for imported products which should be produced at home. Prof. Mabery thinks, however, that the outlook for the immediate future is encouraging. In several directions the manufacture of chemical products has begun, and others, he be- lieves, will follow. There are certain lines along which rapid development may evidently soon be expected, and one of the most promising is sal-soda. Until quite recently the Le Blanc process, which was invented in France to manufacture soda-ash when the supply from natural sources was largely cut off during the French Revolution, has supplied the world since early in the | present century. In utilizing all bye-products the great Le Blanc works of Europe have been able to produce soda-ash at a trifling cost. A Le Blanc plant has never been established in America, © and probably one never will be. Such a plant requires immense capital, and, besides, a combination of coal, salt, and limestone, that can be found close at hand in but few localities. Within a few years another method, known as the ammonia-soda process, has been put into operation in Europe. The first cost ofa plant» for this process is not large, and since it furnishes a purer product than the Le Blanc method, it will probably supply a— recent times was 1881. chants rejected the proposal. _ AucusT 4, 1892] NATURE 333 considerable portion of the sal-soda of the future, especially in the United States. The newer method has the especial advantage _ that it forms bicarbonate of soda direct and very pure. plants for this process have been erected in America, one of which __ has beenin operation at Syracuse, N.Y., for several years, and the _ other has recently been erected in Cleveland; As additional illustrations of the possibilities in store for the United _ States, Prof. Mabery mentioned the manufacture of porcelain, and the production of artificial dyes and colours from ¢oal-tar. AN interesting report on the pearl fishery of the Gulf of Cali- Bs fornia is contributed by Mr. C. H. Townsend to the new 4 Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission. The season for _ pearl fishing begins about the first part of May near Cape St. Lucas, whence operations are gradually carried into the Gulf of _ California, which is usually entered by May 15. During the i summer the entire eastern coast of the peninsula is worked, and in October the base of operations is removed from La Paz, the ie headquarters of the Pearl Shell Company of Lower California, to B oe where the fishery is continued for two or three months Whatever of romance may hitherto have enshrouded for pearls in the sea, he is now, as described by Mr. Tomieend, practically a submarine labourer, who uses all the modern diving paraphernalia available. No longer plunging for ty seconds into the sun-lit green water that covers a coral Bs , he puts on a rubber suit with glass-fronted helmet, and, | saitably weighted with lead, descends for hours to gather pearl- oysters, which are hoisted in a wire basket by his companions in - > boat above, who supply him through a rubber tube with the & air he breathes. The best year at the fisheries in comparatively During that year many pearls of extra- ordinary size and great value were obtained ; among them was a Q black one weighing twenty-eight carats, which sold in Paris for 19,000 000 dollars. A VALUABLE report on the petroleum trade of the Caucasus has been sent to the Turkish Government by Aassib, the Ee ‘Torkish Consul-General at Tiflis, and some interesting extracts a from it are quoted in the Board of Trade Fournal. The _ petroleum springs of the peninsula of Apcheron, not far from pied Suen present occupied by the town of Baku, were known _ according to the writer, several centuries before the Christian _ era, and the phenomena produced by them, totally inexplicable _ in those barbaric ages, gave rise, he says, to the worship of the Guebres, followers of Zoroaster, which lasted into the nineteenth Eg ‘century, for the temple of the worshippers of eternal fire is seen en to the present day. The springs of Balakhani are situated 20 kilometres from Baku on a bare and arid plateau, swept by the winds, at an elevation of about 60 metres above the level of the Caspian Sea. The petroleum lands occupy an area of about 8 kilometres. At the present time Balakhani and Sabountchi possess more than 1000 wells, some of them newly bored, producing i in twenty-four hours as much as 400,000 pouds. An era was marked in the history of the naphtha industry by the 5 house of M. Nobel, which started at Baku in 1874, and in the ——— follo year purchased a small business and undertook the "production of petroleum on a small scale. At that time the con- ar of petroleum to Baku was effected by means of carts and leather bottles. M. Nobel endeavoured to show the ab- surdity of this primitive method of transport, and recommended that pipes should be constructed, but the majority of the mer- He then constructed the first pipe at his own cost, and demonstrated the utility of it to his col- leagues, several of whom very soon imitated his example, and Baku has to-day a dozen lines of pipes, each of which costs more than 100,000 roubles. The same house, dissatisfied with the system of shipping petroleum in barrels, proposed to the Kavkaz and Mercury Navigation Company of the Caspian and the Volga that they should build tank boats for the exclusive NO. 1188, voL. 46] Two | conveyance of petroleum. This proposal having been rejected, the firm constructed several of these vessels at their own expense. This innovation, of which eventhe Americans had not yet thought, was accepted by the two petroleum-producing countries, and tank boats, the number of which is constantly increasing, are to be found on all the waters of the civilized world. It is also to M. Nobel that those gigantic reservoirs of iron which contain hundreds of thousands of naphtha products are due. They are to be seen in large numbers at Baku, Batoum, and everywhere else where petroleum is carried in bulk. The series of innova- tions by M. Nobel do not stop there. Witha desire to improve land carriage he proposed to the Griazi-Tsaritsine Railway Com- pany the construction of special tank waggons for the transport of the petroleum, guaranteeing a load for them for several years. The railway authorities scoffed at the idea, and it was by the ex- penditure of very large sums that the Swedish merchant con- structed for his own use the first tank waggons. Scorn was im- mediately changed to enthusiasm, and to-day thousands of these waggons -circulate on the railways of Caucasia and Griazi Tsaritsine. In Part xxi. of the Zoological Reports of the Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, Christiania, 1892, Dr. D. C. Danielssen gives an account of the Crinoids and Echinoids of the North Atlantic. Chief among the former is the beautiful Bathycrimus carpenteri, first described as J/ycrinus carpenteri by Koren and Danielssen in 1877 from specimens collected by the expedition, and thought to be a new genus, but a careful study and comparison with Herbert Carpenter’s description in the report of the Challenger Crinoids proved it to belong to Bathy- crinus. The morphology of this species is very fully described and figured ; very interesting are the statements about the ap- parent formation of ‘‘new crown” on specimens which had apparently lost their first crowns ; in one of these ‘‘the stalk was I10 mm. in height, the crown was 2°5 mm. high, and the root was 20 mm. in length. The radials of the crown were attached to the basals by a pretty broad seam, the basals being concreted and forming a firm ring as upon old individuals ; which distinctly showed that while the radials were a new for- mation, the basals pertained to the old detached crown and formed the true calyx from which the new crown issued.” In this specimen the tentacles could not be seen, and it was very difficult to observe the disc, as it was covered by the closed arms which could not without damage be separated from each other, but that a new crown was in course of formation seemed indu- bitable. In addition to this species of Bathycrinus, Rhzzocrinus lofotensis, and the following species of Antedon were found :— A. tenella, Retzius; A. petasus, D. and K.; A. prolixa, Dun. and Sladen; 4. guadrata, Carp.; and A. eschrichti, Muller. Fourteen species of Echinida are mentioned, of which Zchinus alexandri, Dan. and Kor., is redescribed and figured. THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include a Hainan Gibbon (Hy/odates hainanus) from Southern China, presented by Mr. Julius Newman ; a Hum- boldt’s Lagothrix (Zagothrix humboldti) from the Upper Amazons, presented by Mr. Chas. Clifton Decconson, F.Z.S. ; a Red Howler (Mycetes seniculus) from New Granada, presented by Mr. John F. Chittenden, C.M.Z.S.; a Garnett’s Galago (Galago garnetti) from East Africa, presented by Commander H. J. Keene, R.N.; a Bennett’s Wallaby (Ha/maturus ben- nettit 8) from Tasmania, presented by Lieutenant E. A. Find- lay, R.N.R. ; a Raccoon (Procyon lotor) from North America, presented by Mr. A. C. Cooke; a Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus) from Southern Europe, presented by Mr. B. Vincent ; a Leadbeater’s Cockatoo (Cacatua leadbeateri), a Slender-billed Cockatoo (Zicmetis tenuirostris) from Australia, presented by Mrs. Phillips ; a Rock Thrush (Monticola saxatilis), two Soli- tary Thrushes (A/onticola cyanus), European ; a Common Jay 334 NATURE [AuGusT 4, 1892 (Garrulus glandarius), an -Ortolan Bunting (Zméberiza hortu- lana), a Blackbird (Zurdus merula), a Nightingale (Daulias luscinia), British, presented by Mr. E. Cossavella; a Common Jay (Garrulus glandarius), a Natterjack Toad (Bufo calamita), six Crested Newts (Aolge cristata), three Palmated Newts (Molge palmata), British ; three Sand Lizards (Lacerta agilis), five Yellow-bellied Toads (Bombinator bombinus), an Edible Frog (Rana esculenta), European, presented by Mr. G. B. Coleman ; four Common Snakes (77opidonotus natrix), British, presented by Count Pavoleri, F.Z.S. ; a Malbrouck Monkey (Cercopithecus cynosurus) from West Africa, a Barbary Wild Sheep (Ovis tragelaphus §) from North Africa, two Common Squirrels (Scizrus vulgaris), British, deposited; two black Apes (Cynopithecus niger) from Celebes, purchased. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. SOLAR OBSERVATIONS AT THE R. OSSERVATORIO DEL COLLEGIO RoMANO.—Prof. Tacchini, in the Aemorie della Sociela degli Spettroscopisti Staliani, gives a tabular statement of the prominences, faculze, and spots visible on the sun’s surface during the first three months of the present year. Taking the case of the number of prominences, no less than 300 were observed during this period, 161 appearng in northern and 139 in southern latitudes, During the first two months promi- nences were more numerable in the south hemisphere, amount- ing to an excess of 7 and 5 respectively, but in March as many as 78 were recorded for the northern as against 44 for the southern. The latitudes for the regions of greatest frequency were + 40° + 30° and —20°- 30°. For the faculae 28, 24, and 18 (total 70) were recorded for the northern latitudes, while very nearly the same number (76=20 + 18 + 38) was observed on the southern hemisphere. In both cases the record for latitudes + 50° + 40° was one, the greatest number appearing in latitudes £ 10° + 30°. The total number of groups of spots recorded was 80, of which 38 were observed north of the equator. Curiously enough the month of February only contributed 21 out of this number, 34 being recorded for January ; the region of greatest frequency occupied the zones + 10° + 30°, Allowing for the very unfavourable season for observations, a considerable increase over the preceding quarter will be at once noticed. The relative amount of spotted area shows an enor- mous increase for February, the numbers for the months com- mencing with January being 79.79, 153.61, and 61-57. A REMARKABLE PROMINENCE.—Mr. J. Féoyi, in the Memorie della Societa degli Spettroscopisti Italiani, gives an ac- count of an unusually large prominence that was visible at Kalocsa, on May 5 last. At 10h. 25m., Kalocsa mean time, the prominence was very small, but later it developed very consider- ably, forming itself into a set of small bands, clearly inclined towards the equator. At 1th. 55m. the observed height was 139’, there being no indication of arapid ascent. At 12b, 11m. a very rapid upward motion had already begun to make itself visible, and by 12h. 17m. 34s. the height reached was 287”, extending to 317” Im. 11s. later, when the velocity of ascent was 306 km. per second. After a few minutes the lower parts to the height of 360” became invisible, but the smooth portions ascended at 12h. 21m. 4s., with a velocity of 368 km. per second toa height of 531”. This latter measurement was made at 12h. 29m. 25s., and soon after the object was no more seen. The actual height attained, then, may be reckoned about 381,800 km., or 237,126 miles. At the terminaton of this eruption, it was noticed that the prominences at 127° and 79°, and even the one at 106°, which very nearly coincided with the position of the eruption itself, still retained the same forms, having apparently suffered no change by this enormous disturbance ; no faculz or spots either were recorded which could in any way be connected with this outbreak. THE TRAPEZIUM IN THE ORION NEBULA.—During the first three months of the present and preceding year Dr. L. Ambronn, of the Gottingen Observatory, has undertaken a measurement of the distances and position angles between the four bright stars forming the trapezium in the great nebula of Orion. The results which he has obtained are recorded in the 3103 number of Astronomische Nachrichten. Commencing with the star 6’ Orionis, which is here designated No. 1188, VOL. 46] a, and taking the others in cyclic order following the direction opposite to that of the motion of the hands of a watch, we find these designated by 4, d, and ¢ respectively. The accompanying table, for the sake of comparison, shows the position angles Br. ui distances for the equinox 1870 from the measurements of W. Struve, Dembowski, O. Struve, Hall, and Ambronn. W. Struve. | Dembowski. | O. Struve. Hall. Ambronn. 1836'r5 | 1867'04. 1870". 1877°7. 1891 6. ab| 311 45 3li 22 311 32 3Il 4 BIL 16 ac 60 29 61 38 60 22 61 8 Go 58 ad| 340 20 | 342 23 | 342 5 | 34215 | 342 31 be | 95 35 96 2 95 36 95 34 | 95 26 bd\ 31 48 32 II 31 43 32 55 33 1 cd| 299 34 | 299 33 | 299 34 | 299 18 | 299 15 “ “ “ “a ¢ “ ab 13'002 12‘907 13049 13116 13250 ac| 13°344 | 13°385 13°276 13°45 13°698 ad|} 16°854 16°681 16°876 16°76 16'997 bc 21'414 21°582 21°410 21°758 22'038 bd 8-706 8°706 8°705 8°772 891 cd@| 19°227 19°340 19°237 19 °363 19°57 NEw VARIABLE STARS.—A short note communicated by Prof. Pickering to Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3104, informs us that six new variable stars in the southern sky have been discovered on examination of the photographs of stellar spectra taken at Arequipa in Peru. The following are the constellations, positions, and the dates on which the photographs were taken :— Constell. -% 1900 3 1900 Date. - m, s ‘ y Horologium 2 49°5 ... — 50 10... Sept. to, 1891 Octans ... ty PEO . — 86 30... Sept. 11, 1891 Bootes .. 14 22°11 ... + 5 2... April 26, 1892 Octans . 17 30... — 86 45 ... Aug. 31, 1891 Sagittarius . 19 498 ... — 29 27 ... Oct. 3, 1891 Tucana ... .- 23 53'2 ... — 65 56.. Aug. 25, 1891 All these stars when at a maximum are as bright or brighter than the 8th magnitude, but only one, that in Sagittarius, is a catalogue star (Cord. G.C. 27271, Mag. 84). ii, THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE . ON ELECTRICAL STANDARDS. N view of the hoped-for presence of Prof. von Helmholtz and other distinguished foreigners at this year’s meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh, it will probably be re- cognized as suitable to'take up and continue the discussion on new electromagnetic units for practical purposes, which was begun last year at Cardiff. I therefore beg to contribute the following notes and to con- clude by moving some resolutions. One great fact brought into prominence by the practical de- velopment of electricity is the analogy or reciprocity between the electric and the magnetic circuit, and this is the fact which it behoves us to emphasize in the naming of fresh units. The magnetic circuit has as yet no authorized names applied to it. The electric circuit is well provided, but perhaps one or two improvements can be made. (1) THE ELeEcrric CIRCUIT. The first point on which I consider that practical men would do well to insist is that names shall be given to the complete things dealt with, rather than to mere coefficients. Thus of all units with which they are concerned there can be no doubt but that volt and ampere are the most prominent. These are the — active things with which Electrical Engineers have to deal, and these are the things for which meters exist on every wall in an electric lighting station. The ohm, or unit coefficient of resist- ance, is comparatively academic in character ; it is a constant of a coil of wire or of an underground lead, it is nothing vivid - AuecusT 4, 1892] NATURE 4 4.2 III / and active. The enzineering use of the term ohm is mainly in connection with insulation and othee high resistances ; for large conductors the equivalent ‘volt per ampere” is perhaps more often used. It is the drop of potential which a given conductor entails for a given current that is of real interest to an engineer, and it is this of which in large leads he consciously thinks, _ A6ohm conductor means one that drops 6 volts for every ‘ampere that is sent along it. If you send 3 amperes along such a line, the potential at the far end is 18 volts below that atthe nearend. The clear realization of this fact would be al- most aided by the complete title, 6 volts per ampere, instead of the abbreviation, 6 ohms. Nevertheless, the name ohm is in common use and hence may be assumed useful. -Astill more useful name, however, for good conductors would really be the reciprocal of an ohm—the ampere per volt. Su s- pose this called a mo, as Sir W. Thomson once suggested, then a cable of 20 mos would be one that conveyed 20 amperes with a drop of 1 volt. A thousand-mo cable would convey 500 amperes with a drop of half a volt, and so on. It is more directly practical to think of the amperes conveyed per drop of voltage, than of the drop of voltage per ampere. I believe that some authorized name for unit conductance would be welcomed. Onits of Inconvenient Size. _ The authorized name ‘coulomb ” for unit quantity is barely used by engineers, who are content with ampere-hour; thus proving that what is needed in practical units is not so much a consistent decimal system, as a set of units each of practicable magnitude. ss an Farad. ia ie effort after consistency has resulted in the useless ‘‘ Fa- ad”; and this should be a lesson not to try and fix units of unreasonable size. The c.g.s, units already exist as a consistent system 5 amponly objection to them is that they are of unpracti- cal size. The whole object of devising a practical system of ts was to have things of every-day size to deal with. The t, the ampere, and the ohm satisfy this condition. The the farad, and the watt do not. Already they have y given place to the ampere-hour, the micro-farad, and t. m4 rably more progress would have been made in know- ordinary capacities if the microfarad had been called arad, so that easy submultiples of it would have been to express the capacity of Leyden jars, and such ings. The capacity of an ordinary jar would then have been a few millifarads, and a microfarad would have been the capacity of a short bit of connecting wire. I ask whether this _ change would introduce serious confusion even now. | think not. Nobody cares the least about ‘‘coulombs per volt,” and so there is no sense or use in the present farad. _Telegraphists d surely soon consent to drop the useless prefix micro ; and the factor of a million is too great.to render doubt possible as to what was intended, even in the transition stage. It ought to be regarded as essential to have the practical unit somewhere not ho 29% away from the middle of the range of probable mul- submultiples. Coulomé. - Acoulomb again is almost useless as a synonym for the ampere- second ; it is so easy to speak of ampere-minutes or ampere-hours. If the name coulomb could be set free from its present superfluous meaning it could usefully be applied to the electrostatic unit of quantity, which wants a name. Teachers would find it con- venient at once, and in the apparently imminent line of develop- ‘ment engineers might find it useful before long. It is the charge on a two-centimetre sphere at a potential 300 volts (or ona one-foot sphere at 20 volts). The capacity of the two-centi- metre sphere would be ,°; of a (new) microfarad. Watt. Lastly with regard to the watt. The name volt-ampere is almost as good as the name watt, especially since the watt is also one joule per second. ‘hk names, watt and joule, are not really wanted by elec- tricians, to whom their coexistence is rather confusing. I believe it would be more convenient to use the term watt in the sense it so frequently used now, viz., energy, say a volt-ampere- our; in which case a kilowatt would be synonymous with the present Board of Trade unit. NO. 1188, voL. 46] The rate of working, or power, could then be expressed in a rational and unforced way as so many watts per hour or so many volt-amperes. It is much more natural to give a name to a definite thing like a quantity of energy, than it is to give it to a mere rate of working. The latter is instinctively felt to need a reference to time ; just as a velocity unit has not been practically found to need a name, being quite simply expressible in feet per second or miles per hour; and even when a name has been given, like ‘‘ knot,” instinct constrains people to practically get rid of it again by speaking of knots per hour, just as we find ‘* kilowatts per hour” already ofien used in electrical work- shops. I suggest, therefore, that the present watt is too small, that it is sufficiently expressed by a joule per second, and that it would be more useful if magnified 3,600 times, and turned into a unit of energy. That we should thus have several energy units—the erg, the joule, and the watt, all of quite different sizes, is no objection, but an advantage, seeing the extreme importance of energy. Such things as length, maxs, time, and energy demand a fair range of units. It would be tedious to express centuries in seconds. (2) MAGNETIC Circuit. In speaking of the magnetic circuit I wish to refer back to my opening remarks concerning the electric circuit, and the class of things for which names should be found. In the magnetic circuit the only thing at present seriously attempted to be named is, in accordance with the historic parallel of the ohm, a coefficient or characteristic of a coil of wire—its coefficient of self-induction ; the unit of which has been called variously a secohm, a quadrant, and a henry. Total Induction. But the real active thing with which engineers are concerned is total magnetic induction, total number of lines of force across an airgap: as between the polepieces or through the armature of a dynamy, or in the circuit of a transformer. It may be called the electromagnetic momentum per turn of wire ; or the surface integral of B. This total induction is in some respects analogous to electric current, and has occasionally been called magnetic current (a bad name), or ‘‘ magnetic flux.” It is, however, more strictly analogous to the coulomb, and its time rate of variation is the more proper representative of electric current. Its common practical name at present is “total lines,” or **total induction,” or ‘‘ number of lines,” ’ Now ‘‘one line” is awkward as a unit, besides being (if a c.g.s. line) inconveniently small. The earth, for instance, sends 4,4c0 such lines through every horizontal square metre about England; through a square inch it only sends a frac- tion of a line. A practically sized unit of induction badly wants a name, and ‘‘ henry” would have done for it very well, and have been both more suitable and more useful for the actual quantity than for a coefficient. But ‘‘henry” has already been half appropriated to the secohm, so, for illustrative purposes at any rate, I propose to use the name ‘‘ weber” for the unit magnetic flux. Concerning the most convenient size for the weber, there is much to be said for making it 10° c.g.s. lines, though that is bigger than ordinarily occurs in practice ; because then a wire which cuts one weber per second will have a volt difference of potential between its ends. Or a coil of twenty turns through which the magnetic induction changes at the rate of one weber per second will have an E.M.F. of twenty volts induced in it. The average E.M.F. in such a coil, spinning thirty turns a second, and enclosing a maximum total-induction of one weber, is 600 volts, This is the dynamo use of the unit; the following is the motor use. A wire carrying an ampere and cutting a weber per second, does work at unit rate, viz., one joule per second. Probably the simplicity of all this compensates for the rather unwieldy size of the unit. A strongly magnetized piece of iron may have 20,000 lines to the square centimetre ; so a weber could occur across a narrow airgap half a square metre in area. The earth gives an induction of about one weber through every 23,000 square metres of England, or 100 webers per square mile. ‘The earth induction through a horizontal square metre is 44 micro-webers, so with micro- and milli-webers the range would 336 NATURE [AuGuST 4, 1892 be fairly covered ; though a smaller weber would have been better if it had been equally convenient as regards the volt. The pull between two parallel surfaces joined by a weber + ads dynes, or four hundred thousand tons. A milli-weber 7 gives less than half a ton pull ; and a micro-weber less than half a gramme. Because of the property that the voltage excitéd in a circuit is equal to the webers cut by it per second, a weber might be called asec-volt. It is equal to a secohm-ampere-turn ; that is to say, if a single turn of wire can have a self-induction coefficient of one secohm, it will excite a weber of induction for every ampere passing through it. [Such a circuit in the form of an anchor ring would be enormous, something like a mile across ; but it could be made in the form of a solid cylinder of best iron (u = 2500), with an axial per- foration for the wire, and 80 metres long. If a secohm coil has # turns, then an ampere passing through it excites only th of a weber; for, since every turn encloses the nu induction, the latter is effective 2 times over, and so the in- duction coefficient is 2 times the induction per ampere, or ? times the induction per ampere turn. ] No name is needed for intensity (or density) of induction (B), for that can always be expressed in webers per unit area. [For instance, strongly magnetized iron, with say 10,000 lines to the square centimetre, has one-tenth of a weber per square foot, or 0°7 milli-webers per square inch. ] And there is a practical gain in thus leaving the specification of area open, for it enables British units of length to be employed in measuring air-gaps, yokes, cores, and polepieces. So long as dynamo dimensions are commonly expressed in inches, there is no serious objection to specifying induction in fractions of a weber per square inch or per square foot. Magnetomotive Force. Now consider the magnetic analogue of the volt ; the unit of magnetic potential or magnetomotive force. By this is under- stood the line integral of the magnetizing force H, the quantity 4mnC, the step of potential once through and all round the circuit of a coil. It is a quantity most important in practice, and requires a name.. Mr. Heaviside has suggested the name ‘‘gaussage,”’ as analogous to voltage ; and, if this were adopted, the unit of magnetomotive force would be the gauss. ‘The intensity of magnetizing force would be the gauss-gradient, or drop of gaussage per centimetre ; no special name is needed for the unit of this quantity H. The common practical unit of gaussage at present is the ampere-turn, and this has several advantages. It may, how- ever, be found better to make some convenient number of ampere-turns into a gauss; for instance, the c.g.s. unit of gaussage would be oor 1°'2566 ampere-turns. If that were adopted as the gauss, the horizontal component of the earth’s magnetic intensity about here would be, say "18 gauss per linear centimetre. But this unit, whether the c.g.s. unit or the ampere-turn, is very small. The step of potential all round a single ampere- turn is only equivalent to a vertical step of about 2 centimetres in the earth’s field. Nevertheless, in spite of its smallness, the ampere-turn as practical unit of gaussage will probably commend itself by reason of its simplicity. Let us see how it works out. Reluctance. The ratio of gaussage to the induction excited by it, is a quantity characteristic of the magnetic circuit, and called its reluctance or magnetic resistance. This is the quantity fe for Me simple circuits, or = Pe for complex ones ; it is unfortunately not constant for any but air circuits. This constitutes one difficulty of naming its unit satisfactorily, else it might be expressed as so many ‘‘ gilberts” or ‘‘ sturgeons”’ (analogous to ohms). It is, however, fairly constant under many common conditions of practice, and it can always be expressed as gausses per weber ; and perhaps this way is sufficient. A magnetic circuit with unit reluctance is one that requires one gauss to induce in it one weber. NO. 1188, VOL. 46] Permeability. Permeability (u), analogous to electric conductivity, would be measured by the webers induced through unit cube of the material between whose faces there is unit fall of gaussage. It has been suggested (by Prof. Perry) that the permeability of air had better be called 47 x 10%. But the whole electromagnetic system of units is based on the uw for air being called 1; so it would be rather confusing to change that. Moreover, it would be a retrograde step to affix another incorrect value to the con- stant mw, instead of waiting and trying to find out what its value really is. It is better to adhere for the present to the existing table of permeabilities, and to use whatever constant factor may be needed in order to turn x into practical units of reluctance. BM Permeance. But the reciprocal of reluctance, or the webers induced per gauss, may be the more instructive thing to attend to and name ; just as conductivity is often more directly interesting than resist- ance. This reciprocal ratio, a has been called ‘‘ permeance,” and that is not a bad name for it; it is proportional to the inductance of a single-looped circuit. Permeability is the per- meance of unit cube of the material. Permeance is the dakar induced per unit drop of gaussage. Permeability is the webers per unit area induced by unit gauss gradient. The permeance of the magnetic circuit enclosed bya solenoid of wire is the same as its appropriate self-induction-coefficient divided by 47 times the square of its number of turns. The c.g.s. unit of permeance (or of reluctance) is that of a centimetre cube of air, and is not a bad-sized unit. But it is inconsistent with the weber as 108 and the gauss as a singl ampere turn. ‘ One of the three must give way. On the whole I have no hesitation in suggesting that the derived unit (that of permeance) must give way, and be taken as 4m X 10’ c.g.s. units, in order to harmonize with the other two as already defined. me The fact is that the great size of the weber renders a small gauss desirable, in order that their product may not represent too large a quantity of energy. For instance, if 1 c.g.s. unit were taken as‘the unit of permeance, the weber being fixed at 108, then the gauss would also be 10%, and the gauss-weber would be 10? joules, or nearly 300 Board of Trade units; which is far too much, Whereas if the unit of permeance is fixed high, and the gauss kept small, then the energy corresponding to a gauss-weber may be moderate. Thus with 10% c.g.s. as weber, ait an ampere-turn 9 as gauss, their product is only i ergs, or TOO or about 8 7. 7 joules ; which will be useful in energy considerations connected with the heating of transformers. I therefore propose, in order to retain the ampere-turn as unit of gaussage, that the permeance of a cylinder of material of length / and area A be reckoned as HA multiplied by 4 x 107, if dimensions of the cylinder are measured in centimetres ; « being its ordinarily tabulated value with air = 1. If dimensions are measured in inches, then the permeance of a cylinder will be multiplied by tim x 107, that is by about 4 10°. The unit of permeance thus suggested is immensely big, and it requires a name of which easy sub-multiples could be formed. A slab of iron 1 centimetre thick, and with its ~ = 2500, would need an area of 5 square metres in order to have unit permeance ; but a micro-unit would be possessed by an air-gap a millimetre thick and less than a decimetre square. PROPOSED RESOLUTIONS. (1) That the unnecessary prefix ‘‘micro” be dropped before the word farad, and that the farad be defined afresh as 107! c.g.s. electromagnetic units of capacity. (2) That the name ‘“‘ mo” for the unit of conductance or the ampere per volt, be recognized and adopted. (Every mo in a cable enables it to carry an ampere with a drop of I volt.) (3) That the ampere-hour be recognized as a convenient practical unit of electrical quantity. : f (4) That the volt-ampere-hour be recognized as a convenient Auvcust 4, 1892] NATURE 337 practical unit of electrical energy, and be called the watt. uals 2640 foot-pounds, or a trifle over a foot-ton. ) (5) That the present Board of Trade unit be called a kilowatt. ) That the ordinary unit of power be a kilowatt per hour [It equals about 4/3rds of a horse-power, more accurately B (eee) ae (7) That it is convenient to retain the name joule in its present sense of a volt-coulomb, or ten million ergs, for use in the science of heat ; since heat-capacities are conveniently expressed _ in joules per degree ; and it will be handy to remember that a enerates one joule of heat per second. ( ) That t € name coulomb be affixed to the electrostatic init of quantity [for academic purposes]. BR aye. "That a name be given to unit magnetic flux or total in- action, and that the name weber is suitable. (To) That the most convenient size for the weber is 108 c.g.s. nits or “lines” (since the rate of change of this through a circuit is equal to the induced voltage). (11) That a name be given to unit magnetic potential or ugnetomotive force, and that the name gauss is suitable. (12) That the handiest size for the gauss is one ampere-turn. 13) That a name be given to the ratio of the weber to the ‘gauss, or unit of permeance, or self-induction per turn of wire. tr the above resolutions were adopted, this unit would be 4m X 10’ c.g.s. units, or i secohm per turn.] _ (14) That intensities of field be expressed in gausses per unit and densities of induction in webers per unit area (leaving gth or area unit open for practical convenience to arrange), (It ais £6 No doubt many of these recommendations have been made yefore. Mr. Preece has often urged the change of farad, so eae Shere will be no difficulty about that. find that my magnetic suggestions are very similar to those ested by Prof. Perry in his modified letter to the Committee as published in the LZvectrician, vol. xxvii. p. 355 [July 31, (S91], and received there with approving editorial comments. The accord between our suggestions is satisfactory, and ukes it likely that they are such as engineers may be satisfied ith and be willing to adopt. I need hardly say that I lay no ress upon the particular zames here proposed. In choosing n I have been influenced by such trivial considerations as the sction of a monosyllable to correspond with volt, and a dis- ible to correspond with ampere or coulomb. ‘ith regard to Prof. Perry’s footnote concerning college in- ction and use of c.g.s. units, I suppose systems of teaching er, but a senior student oxgh¢ to be taught to deal with con- _¢rete quantities in so familiar a manner that no possible ad- “mixture of units can be any puzzle to him, nor involve anything _ worse than a little tiresome arithmetic. ] SURG Guns MECHANICAL UNITs. __ There are several quantities in dynamics beside the joule and the watt for which brief names would be advantageous. I do Tot propose to discuss these fully now, but the present oppor- tunity might be utilized by agreeing to at least one unit, that of pressure, viz., the ‘‘atmosphere”’; which might be defined as __to® c.g.s., or dynes per square centimetre, and stated to be _ equal to the pressure of a column of mercury 75 centimetres “e high at a specified temperature. The inconvenient pressure, 76 __ centims., might be spoken of as a Regnault atmosphere. I be- lieve that a smaller unit of pressure, for instance, the micro- atmosphere or ‘‘ barad,” might also be usefully named. These pressure units will be useful for expressing energies per unit volume also, and the ‘‘ barad,” or whatever other name is decided on for the erg per cubic centimetre, is of reasonable magnitude for many purposes. ie OLIVER J. Lope. THE INSTITUTION OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS. — THE annual summer meeting of the Institution of Mechanical _ Engineers, held last week at Portsmouth, was a successful gathering in regard to numbers present and the attendance at the excursions ; but the business part of the meeting, which consists of the sittings at which papers are read, was of a rather tame No. 1188, VoL. 46] character. The following is a list of the papers on the agenda :— On Shipbuilding in Portsmouth Dockyard, by Mr. William H. White, C.B., F.R.S., Director of Naval Construction and Assistant Controller of the Navy. On the Applications of Electricity in the Royal Dockyards and Navy, by Mr. Henry E. Deadman, Chief Constructor, Portsmouth. Description of the Lifting and Hauling Appliances in Ports- mouth Dockyard, by Mr. John T. Corner, R.N., Chief En- gineer, Portsmouth. Description of the New Royal Pier at Southampton, by James Lemon, J.P., Mayor of Southampton. Description of the Portsmouth Sewage Outfall Works, by Sir Frederick Bramwell, Bart., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., Past- President. Description of the New Floating Bridge between Portsmouth and Gosport, by Mr. H. Graham Harris, of London. Description of the Southampton Sewage Precipitation Works and Refuse Destructor, by Mr. William B. G. Bennett, Borough Engineer and Surveyor. Description of the Experimental Apparatus and Shaping Machine for Ship Models at the Admiralty Experiment Works, Haslar, by Mr. R. Edmund Froude, of Haslar. Description of the Pumping Engines and Water Softening Machinery at the Southampton Water Works, by Mr. William Matthews, Waterworks Engineer. Mr. Matthews’ paper was adjourned, and that by Mr. Froude was not read, as time ran short. This was much to be re- gretted, as the Haslar experimental works are one of the most interesting of all our establishments set apart for scientific investi- gation. Itis to be hoped, now Mr. Froude has broken the ice, that he will contribute a fairly complete descriptive paper to the Institution of Naval Architects, where he would naturally find a more appreciative audience than amongst the members of a society devoted more exclusively to mechanical engineering. Although there was not time for the reading of the paper, Mr. Froude very good-naturedly stopped and explained to some of those present the working of the apparatus which he had brought for the purpose of exhibition, together with the large wall diagrams that had been prepared expressly for illustrating the aper. 4 On the members assembling in the Town Hall on July 26, Dr. Anderson, the President, occupied the chair, and the usual formal business having been disposed of, Mr. White’s paper was read. This was chiefly of a historical character, the author going back to the year 1212, when the sheriff of the county of Southampton was ordered to enclose the King’s Dock by a strong wall, and to provide suitable storehouses. A dockyard, properly so called, was not, however, founded until the reign of Henry VIII., so it was second in point of antiquity to Woolwich Dockyard. The latter was closed in 1869, ‘‘ so that Portsmouth Yard is now,” Mr. White says, ‘‘the oldest as well as the most important in existence.” We do not know whether Mr. White means by this that it is the oldest in existence in Great Britain, or inthe whole world. In 1540 the total area was 8 acres. Until nearly the end of last century there was no basin in which ships could lie while completing or repairing, and the dock accommo- dation was poor, but about that time a basin of 24 acres and six dry docks were constructed. At that time the yard aréa was 90 acres. In 1843-50 a steam factory was added, and another basin of 7 acres, besides four docks ; the total area of the dock- ard being 115 acres. The effect of steam on the navy is well illustrated by the extensions that took place about 1864, when the area of the Dockyard was more than doubled. A fitting- out basin of 14 acres, a rigging basin of the same size, anda repairing basin of 22 acres, were made. There is also a tidal basin of to acres. The extent of Portsmouth Dockyard is now nearly 300 acres. Mr, Deadman’s paper was also largely of an historical nature, giving many interesting details of the introduction of electricity into the navy. Among the most notable features in the appli- cation of electricity to naval purposes are the temporary instal- lations used for interior lighting during the building and finishing of the vessel. The estimated cost of electric lighting during the period of building the Royal Arthur was £1200. This would be about the same sum as would be required were candles used, but naturally electricity affords a far superior light, and it is to its use that is due much of the quickness with which the 338 NATURE [Aucust 4, 1892 Royal Sovereign was finished. There was nothing very startling in Mr. Deadman’s paper, which was none the less a useful record of facts. During the discussion, however, Mr. Crompton sounded a very stirring note. He roundly told the whole body of important dockyard officials and Admiralty officers present, including even the Director of Naval Construction, that they were altogether behind the age in the matter of electricity, that the French and German navies were far ahead of them, to say nothing of other powers, and that generally the English Government was the most benighted and non-progressive Government in all the world, so far as the matter of electricity was concerned ; for they paid twice as much as they ought to do for an article that was not half as good asit should be. That was the purport of Mr. Crompton’s speech, if not the exact words he used, and one cannot but acknowledge that he did not speak altogether without a text. It is hard to fully account for the want of enterprise in the Royal Navy, but there is one point to which we might draw attention. The paper read at the meeting was by a naval constructor, and electricity is, we understand, within the Constructor’s department. Now electri- cal engineering is essentially an engineering question, and its consideration requires engineering knowledge and ability of a very high order. In the early days nothing kept electric light- ing back more than the bad engineering that was associated with it; and thus it will always be so long as engineers are nct employed in carrying out the plans which are founded on the researches of those more highly scientific investigators, upon whose experiments and deductions the practical applications are founded. The next paper read was Mr. Corner’s contribution, in which He described the lighting and hauling apparatus used at Ports- mouth. These may be divided into the hydraulic installation, the compressed-air appliances, and the ordinary steam cranes. There are in the dockyard ninety-six boilers, which burn about 10,000 tons of coal per annum, but what proportion of this is used for lifting and hauling we do not know. In the hydraulic department there are nearly two miles of pressure pipes varying from 14” to 4” in diameter. There are also some independent installations, as well as the coaling arrangements for the fleet at coaling point. There are here ten 30 cwt. cranes, and three 10 ton tips, with necessary capstan weigh-bridges. The more modern lifting and hauling appliances are by compressed air, the air being compressed to 60 Ibs. With this pressure there is little or no trouble with frost, only a little forming at the exhaust in very damp weather, and altogether the pneumatic system seems to be preferred to the hydraulic. It must be remembered that the power required is variable, and this of course brings the advantage of the pneumatic system, in the matter of working expansively, to the fore. We understood Mr. Corner to say, during the discussion, that when the hydraulic motors and the air-engines were both worked at their full power the water system was the most economical, but working linked up, under the prevailing conditions, the air system was the best. The condensation of steam in the pipes is the objection to the steam motor when situated at some dis- tance from the boiler, otherwise steam would be the best vehicle. The other papers read do not call for any special notice at our hands, their titles giving a sufficient indication of their scope, and there being no features of especial novelty in the matters they described. A number of excursions had been arranged, and were carried out in a very satisfactory manner. On the first day, Tuesday, the 26th ult., the members visited the Dockyard, and were wel- comed by the Admiral Superintendent in person. On Wed- nesday the Portsmouth Sewage Works were visited, and a trip was made to the Clarence Victualling Yard at Gosport. On Thursday a trip was made to Southampton, where the Docks were inspected, anda visit was paid to the Union Steam- ship Company’s new engineering shops. There was an alterna- tive visit to the Ordnance Survey Office. In the afternoon a visit was paid to the London and South Western Railway Company’s new carriage and wagon shops at Eastleigh. Friday was devoted wholly to frivolity, the only item on the programme being a steamer trip round the Isle of Wight. On Saturday a good many of the members went to Brighton to visit the loco- motive works of the London, Brighton and South Coast Rail- way. Largely owing to the exceptionally fine weather the meeting was a great success, and, for pleasantness, may rank with the Dublin meeting of three or four years back. NO. 1188, VOL. 46] UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. OxForD.—The fifth summer meeting of Oxford University students commenced on July 29, and will continue till August 27. The general outline of the programme has already been noticed in these columns, but we may notice here that the popularity which has attended these gatherings shows no signs of diminish- ing. It was announced by the Provost of Queen’s College, who presided at the inaugural lecture given by Mr. John Addington — Symonds, that upwards of 1250 students had come to attend the lectures it was proposed to deliver, In welcoming the students tothe meeting, Dr. Magrath remarked that last winter 60,000 students (including 10,000 artisans) regularly attended the extension lectures of the various universities engaged in the work, There had been 312 courses of Oxford lectures. Healso _ commended the co-operative societies of the North, and par- ticularly the Co-operative Union, and mentioned the individual liberality of Mr. Dixon Galpin, who had founded scholarships for students from Dorset to attend this summer meeting. The munificence of Mr. Galpin had been supplemented by the Dorset County Council. A University Extension College had heen recently established at Reading, under the presidency of Mr. MacKinder, an example which he hoped would be followed at other centres, “a On Monday a conference was held in the Union Debating- room, under the presidency of Mr. J. G. Talbot, M.P., to con- sider the relations between the County Councils and the University extension movement. The president invited the lecturers under various County Councils to express their opinion as to the advantages, prospects, and difficulties which they had met or encountered in the course of their peripatetic teaching. His own opinion was that one very successful result of these lectures would be the amalgamation of the classes and the masses, and he noticed that one of the candidates to whom a County Council had awarded a scholarship was in the position of an agricultural labourer. Mr. Hall, who had been a University Lecturer under the Surrey County Council, cautioned the meeting against enter- taining any exaggerated views of the actual information that he had been able to convey to the agricultural labourers. He him- self was satisfied if he could awaken a desire for knowledge in the rural mind and convince the extremely conservative agri- culturist that he had something to learn. Mr. Sells, of the Yorkshire College, Leeds, described the activity of that portion of the Victoria University, and believed that in the North they were in advance of the Oxford move- ment in meeting the actual and practical wants of the labouring section of the community. Coal-mining was taken up by them with eagerness, and the agricultural lecturers carried about with them the actual implements of husbandry in order to bring the matter practically before their audience. The discussion was’ continued by Mr. Sadler, secretary to the Delegacy, who said that alliances had been entered into with twelve large counties in the past year, and they should be proud of the achievement. In his opinion they ought to give a stimulus to learning to the masses, and for this reason they ought also to combine with the elementary teachers. Help should also be given to individuals, and it was necessary to secure the services of good men, by enabling the scheme to compete with other professions in the matter of the remuneration offered. Mr. MacKinder (University Extension Lecturer) and Dr. Magrath agreed in deprecating any fixed cut and dried plan for the whole country, but thought that the scheme should be varied to meet the different circumstances of the various County Councils. At the same time, each County Council should have a definite policy. SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. THE Quarterly Fournal of Microscopical Science for March 1892, contains :—On a new branchiate Oligochzte (Branchiura sowerbyt), by Frank E. Beddard, M.A. (plate xix.). This annelid, found in mud from the ‘‘ Victoria regia tank”’ in the Royal Botanical Gardens, Regent’s Park, London, is remark- able for the unusual contractility of its body, which suggested a Jeech or flat worm rather than a Chetopod. It consists of about 120 segments. When magnified the orange-coloured digestive tract traversed by the bright blood vessels is seen, and + by Frank E. Beddard, M.A. Avcust 4, 1892] NATURE 339 at the posterior end of the body there is a series of delicate dorsal and ventral processes; these latter are segmentally ar- ranged, developed in pairs upon the last sixty segments or so of the body. There is no connection between the setz and these as in Bourne’s Cheetobranchus, also found in the same tank. This worm is referred to the Tubificide, without having any certain affinities to any of the known genera,—On the for- ee of the germ-layers in Crangon vulgaris, by W. F. R. eldon, M.A. (plates xx. to xxii.). The author’s conception of the early development differs widely from that of Kingsley. —On the pigment cells of the retina, by L. Boden _F. C. Sprawson. The retinal pigment cells are not, as usually represented, invariably hexagonal; in speci- mens taken from the eyes of sheep, ox, rabbit, kitten, pig, a ant frog, while hexagonal cells were the most’ numerous, a Is were frequently found and scatt@red at inter- Ils with tour, five, eight, nine, ten, and eleven sides were | —Observations upon the development of the seg- mentation cavity, the archenteron, the germinal layers, and the ‘amnion in mammals, by Dr. Arthur Robinson (Plates xxiii. to There is a general description of the development of ¥ xxvii.) Bic tant the rat and mouse up to the period of the comple- tion of the blastodermic vesicle, and a comparison with the results obtained by Fraser, Duval, and Selenka: there is a description of the formation of the mesoblast and of the chorda dorsalis, foll a comparison of the ova of the rat and mouse with the ova of other mammals and the lower vertebrates and by a description of the formation of the amnion and a discussion of the relation of amnion formation to ‘‘inversion,” and by a de- scription of the formation of the ccelom. Faia oatains :—On the primitive segmentation of the vertebrate brain, by Bertram H. Waters, B.A. (Plate xxviii.) ; concludes that the fore-brain is composed of at least two well- of two neuromeres, from which there is every reason to think pcalary neuromeres, possibly of three ; that the mid-brain con- ‘that the third and fourth nerves take their origin, and hence these deserve to be recognized as segmental structures ; and that the hind brain consists of six neuromeres. On the oscula and anatomy of Leucosolenia clathrus, O.S., by E. A. Minchin, B.A. (Plate xxix.). In this sponge, in the fresh and healthy condi- tion, not only are there oscula, ‘‘ but in the full-sized specimens larger oscula than in any other Leucosolenia known to me, whether from pictures or in the flesh.” These oscula are pro- vided with a sphincter, and can be so tightly closed as to escape notice. Hceckel’s four varieties of the sponge ae only different states of contraction.—Researches into embryology of the Oligocheta, No. 1: on certain i in the development of Acanthodrilus multiporus, (Plates xxx. and xxxi.),— On the Innervation of the Cerata of some Nudibranchiata, by _ Dr. W. A. Herdman and J, A. Clutt (Plates xxxii, toxxxiv.). If ‘the cerata of Nudibranchs cannot all be said to be true epipodia innervated by the pedals, it would seem equally impossible to regard them in all cases as pallial outgrowths supplied by the eural ganglia. Itis possible that they may have been epipodial in origin, although there be now, in some, a connection with pleural nerves.—Notes on Elasmobranch development, by Adam Sedgwick, M.A. (Plate xxxv.). On the paired nephridia of Prosobranchs, the homologies of the only remaining nephri- dium of most Prosobranchs, and the relations of the nephridia to the gonad and the genital duct, by Dr. R. v. Erlanger - «Plates xxxvi. and xxxvii.), SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. LONDON. Royal Society, June 16.—‘‘ The Physiological Action of the Nitrites of the Paraffin Series considered in connection with their Chemical Constitution. Part II. Action of the Nitrites on Muscular Tissue and Discussion of Results.” By J. Theo- dore Cash, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Aberdeen, and Wyndham R. Dunstan, M.A., Professor of Chemistry to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Continuing the examination of the physiological action of various pure organic nitrites of the paraffin series (Part I. ; Roy. Soc. Proc., 1891), the authors have studied their effect on Striated muscular tissue. When the vapours of these nitrites ome into contact with the muscle a paralysant effect is observed. All the experiments were made with the triceps and gastrocne- NO. 1188, VoL. 46] mius of Rana temporaria. The muscle was contained in a specially constructed air-tight chamber. A very extensive series of experiments was necessary in order to obtain reliable con- trasts. The amounts of the nitrites employed varied between gy and x}; c.c. Several series of concordant results have thus been obtained which lead to two different orders of activity, viz. (1) with refer- ence to the extent to which equal quantities of nitrites shorten the resting muscle, and (2) with reference to the rapidity with which the shortening is produced. The order of activity of the nitrites as regards the extent of the shortening they induce is as follows :—(i.) Iso-butyl, (ii.) tertiary amyl, (iii.) secondary butyl, (iv.) secondary propyl, (v.) propyl, (vi.) tertiary butyl, (vii.) butyl, (viii.) a-amyl, (ix.) 8-amyl, (x.) ethyl, (xi.) methyl. The order representing the speed with which shortening occurs is (i.) methyl, (ii.) ethyl, (iil.) secondary propyl, (iv.) tertiary amyl, (v.) primary propyl, (vi.) tertiary butyl, (vii.) secondary reali (viii.) a-amyl, (ix.) 8-amyl, (x.) primary butyl, (xi.) iso- ut yl. The effect of these nutrites in interfering with the active con- traction of a stimulated muscle has also been studied, and it has been ascertained that very minute doses, insufficient to cause passive contraction, interfere in a marked degree with the active contraction, and cause the muscle to fail in responding to stimu- lation, whilst the companion muscle, contained in a closed chamber free from nitrite vapour, st:ll responded to stimulation. The remainder of the paper is devoted to a discussion of the connection between the various phases of physiologlcal action and the chemical constitution of the nitrites which gave rise to them. The principal conclusions which have been arrived at are briefly as follows :—The physiological action of these nitrites is not solely, and in some cases not even mainly, dependent on the amount of nitroxyl (NO,) they contain. In respect ofall phases of physiological activity, the secondary and tertiary nitrites are more powerful than the corresponding primary compounds. This is to be chiefly attributed not to the direct physiological action of the secondary and tertiary groups, but to the great facility with which these compounds suffer de- composition mainly into the alcohol and nitrous acid. In respect of the acceleration of the pulse, the power of the nitrites is directly as their molecular weight, and inversely as the quantity of nitroxyl they contain. They, therefore, fall into an order of physiological activity which is identical with that in which they stand in the homologous series. This same relationship holds, though less uniformly, in their power of reducing blood-pressure, and of inducing muscular contraction. This order appears to be the result not so much of the direct physiological influence of the substituted methyl groups as of the increased chemical instability which their presence confers on the higher members of the series. In respect of the duration of sub- normal pressure, as well as of the rapidity with which muscular contraction ensues, the activity of the nitrites is expressed by an order which is for the most part the reverse of that representing their power in accelerating the pulse, reducing blood-pres-ure, and contracting muscular fibre, this order being in general con- trary to that of the homologous series. In these respects the more volatile nitrites of low molecular weight which contain relatively more nitroxyl are the most active. It appears probable that these simpler nitrites more readily attach themselves to certain constituents of blood and muscle, and thus act’ more guickly than the higher compounds, whilst their greater stability causes their effects, z.¢., reduction of blood-pressure, &c., to endure for a greater length of time than that of the higher and more easily decomposed bodies. A large proportion of an organic nitrite is changed into nitrate in its passage through the organism, and is excreted as an alkali nitrate in the urine. : The results which have been gained by this research have an important bearing on the therapeutic employment of the nitrites. It is proposed elsewhere to consider what the outcome of this investigation is for practical medicine, PARIS, Academy of Sciences, July 25.—M. d’Abbadie in the chair. —Some new observations on the employment of the calori- metric shell, by M. Berthelot. Different bodies must be treated differently, according as they are fixed, volatile, or gaseous. For fixed compounds, solid or liquid, the ratio between the weight of the combustible and the weight of oxygen ought to be such that the gas which remains after combustion contains at least 60 340 NATURE [Aucust 4, 1892 per cent. of free oxygen ; otherwise some half-burnt gases will remain in the vessel, notably carbonic oxide. Excess of oxygen, especially if under a pressure of 25 atmospheres, ensures that the temperature of the centre of combustion should remain as high as possible. In the case of gases the oxygen should only be in very slight excess, and should be introduced by tenths of an atmosphere, until the most favourable pressure is reached. Volatile bodies should, if possible, be burnt in the liquid state.— Study of boron trisulphide, by M. Henri Moissan. Five new methods of obtaining this body are described: by the action of fused sulphur on boron iodide ; by burning boron in sulphur vapour at 610°; by the action of hydrogen sulphide on pure boron ; by the action of carbon bisulphide on boron; and by the action of the sulphides of arsenic, antimony, and 'tin upon boron. The substance thus obtained shows several remarkable properties.—Researches on the chemical constitution of the peptones, by M. P. Schutzenberger.—On two ruminants of the Neolithic epoch of Algeria, by M. A. Pomel.—The two candidates selected for the Directorship of the Paris Observatory were M. Tisserand and M. Loewy.—ésumé of solar observations made at the Royal Observatory of the Roman College during the second quarter of 1892. A letter from M. P. Tacchini to the President. The spots, facule, and prominences observed show a considerable increase since last quarter.—Sun observations made at the Lyons Observatory (Brunner equatorial) during the first half of 1892, by M. Em. Marchand. 125 groups of sun- spots have been counted, as against 101 in the previous half- year. The southern hemisphere, which used to contain less spots, has lately shown nearly as many as the northern. The latitude of the groups continues to diminish.—New results with regard to hydrogen, obtained by the spectroscopic study of the sun. Similarity with the new star in the Charioteer, by M. Deslandres. In addition to the nine ultra-violet lines of hydrogen already known, five more have been photographed in ‘the spectrum of a very brilliant prominence, extending up tothe oscillation frequency 271,700. They correspond very closely with the frequencies calculated from Balmer’s harmonic series. The interest of the discovery is augmented by the circumstance that the spectrum obtained shows a great similarity with that of the new star in the Charioteer.—On the velocity of propagation of the electromagnetic undulations in insulating media, and on Maxwell’s relation, by M. R. Blondlot. Given an oscillator, the wave-length which it is susceptible of emitting remains the same, whatever may be the insulating medium in which the experiment is made.—On the heat of formation of per- molybdic acid and the permolybdates, by M. E. Péchard. —On crystallized phosphide of mercury, by M. Granger. —On the mineralizing action of ammonium sulphate, by M. T. Klobb.—Micrographic analysis of the alloys, by M. Georges Guillemin.—On homopyrocatechine, and two derived nitrides of homopyrocatechine, by M. H. Cousin.—On a new class of combinations, the metallic nitrides, and on the properties of nitrogen peroxide, by MM. Paul Sabatier and J. B. Senderens. —The specific heat of the atomsand their mechanical constitution, by M. G. Hinrichs. On monopropyl urea and dissymmetrical dipropyl urea, by M. F. Chancel.—On the composition of fossil bones, and the variation in their percentage of fluorine during the various geological periods, by M. Adolphe Carnot.—Dis- tribution and state of the iron in barley, by M. P. Petit.—On the comparative number of nerve fibres of cerebral origin serving as motor nerves for the upper and lower limbs of man respec- tively, by MM. Paul Blocq and M. J. Onanoff.—On the com- parative toxic effects of the metals of the alkalies and of the alkaline earths, by M. Paul Binet.—Experimental regeneration of the sporogenic property of the Bacillus anthracis, previously deprived of it by heat, by M. C. Phisalix.—Excretion in the pulmonate gasteropods, by M. L. Cuénot.—On a colourless globuline which possesses a respiratory property, by M. A. B. Griffiths.—On the constitution of the cystoliths and of mem- branes encrusted with carbonate of lime, by M. Louis Mangin.— On a fresh-water perforating alga, by MM. J. Huber and F. Jadin.—On the causes of the catastrophe of St. Gervais (Haute- Savoie) on July 12, 1892, by MM. J. Vallot and A. Dele- becque.—Contribution to the improvement of cultivated plants, by M. Schribaux.—The solar period and the last volcanic eruptions, by M. Ch. V. Zenger, BERLIN. Physiological Society, July 8.—Prof. Munck, President, in the chair.—Dr. Dessoir spoke on the sense of temperature re- garded from the janatomical, psychological, and physiological, No. 1188, VoL. 46] point of view. He did not believe in the existence of separate senses for heat and cold since he had failed to obtain sensations of heat and cold by either mechanical or electrical stimulation of — certain points of the skin. The temperature sense is localized, — since portions of the body-surface can be found which are quite : insensitive. The above communication was followed by a3 lengthy discussion. July 22.—Prof. Munck, President, in the chair.—Prof. Zuntz had long ago observed that strong muscular exertion has a different effect on the alkalinity of the blood of carnivora as compared with herbivora; thus in dogs the power of their blood to absorb carbon dioxide was practically unaltered by exercise, where- as in rabbits it was considerably lessened. This point had recently been reinvestigated in the speaker’s laboratory by Dr. Cohnstein, who found that the blood of a dog at hard work on a treadmill showed no alteration of alkalinity. The result was unaffected by diet, since it was the same when the dog was fed with meat alone, or with rice and fat. During very prolonged exertion the blood was finally found to possess an increased alkalinity. Dr. Lilienfeld had recently discovered Prof. Kossel’s ** histon” in the leucocytes of blood, united to neuclein as ‘‘ nucleo- histon.” Histon prevents the clotting of blood, whereas nuclein promotes the formation of fibrin. These two ‘facts were ‘regarded as explaining the various phenomena connected with blood clotting. Thus the blood is fluid in the blood vessels because nucleo-histon is retained by the leucocytes. On the ‘other hand, when the blood is shed some of the leucocytes or platelets: die, whereupon the nucleo-histon escapes into the ‘plasma, is decomposed by the calcium salts there present into nuclein and histon, and the former (nuclein) then causes clotting. These facts also explain the action of calcium salts in promoting clotting. Prof. Zuntz stated that, according to his researches, a taste-sensation, as of something sweet, is very markedly increased when some other stimulus is simultaneously applied to the organ of taste, even when the stimulus is too weak to alone produce any sensation. Thus, for example, a solution of sugar tastes more sweet if it is mixed with some solution of common salt so weak that it excites no saline taste. ie same result was obtained by the addition of a solution of quinine, also too weak to itself give rise to any sensation of taste. CONTENTS. Coal-Tar Colouring Matters. By R. Meldola... Ram Bramha Sinyal on the Management of Animals in Captivity! 702° ieee i ae da a i Our Book Shelf :— Ball: ‘‘In Starry Realms” Letters to the Editor :— Basset’s ‘‘ Physical Optics.”—A. B, Basset. . . Causes of the Deformation of the Earth’s Crust.—T. Mellard Reade... 9) S aa An Obvious Demonstration of the 47th Proposition of Euclid. (With Diagram.)—A. J. Bickerton Musical Sand. Lava in the Bournemouth Drift.— ~ Cecil Carus-Wilson*?. 05 202" > See The Flora and Fauna of Bromley.—J. French . . . The British Association’) 2". 2). "gees Inaugural Address by Sir Archibald Geikie, LL. D., D.Sc., For.Sec.R.S., F.R.S.E., F.G.S:, Di. rector-General of the "Geological ‘Survey . the United Kingdom, President a Section A—Mathematics and Physics.—Openi x Ad- dress by Prof. Arthur Schuster, Ph.D., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., President of the Section Pak Pat ei soo Sie Section B—Chemistry.—Opening Address by Prof. Herbert McLeod, F.R.S., F.C.S., President of the Section 0: Nicscu.. sates See : Notes . Our Astronomical Column :— Solan Cheaergnnes at the R. Osservatorio del Collegio 0 8) eter re er me! epee Ss Fee ae The Trapezium in the Orion Nebula . New Variable Stars The British Association Committee on Electrical | Standards. By Prof. Oliver J. Lodge, F.R.S. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers .... University and Educational Intelligence .... Scientific Serials ... oan: ve Te catia Societies and Academies . 4k (0 ie «6 chee ae - . . . ° iat) oo (ove) NATURE 341 THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 1892. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. : EDINBURGH, THE Edinburgh meeting has not been remarkable for * a large turn-out of members. Probably the greatest number of members are present on the Friday, when practically all have come and none have left. At this high-water mark the number of members, asso- ciates, and holders of transferable ladies’ tickets, was 2009, and although the tickets sold were increased to _ 2068 by Wednesday, the total attendance probably never quite reached 2000, which, although greater than last year’s meeting at Cardiff, is much less than that twenty- one years ago at Edinburgh. Year by year the number _ of ladies taking part in the proceedings mounts steadily, and on several occasions the “popular” sections of anthropology and geography, which were frequently crowded, showed a great preponderance. Everything has not gone quite smoothly in spite of the efforts of the - Jocal secretaries. Edinburgh society is inelastic in its _ traditions, and Edinburgh institutions are ruled by rigid laws, which even a meeting of the British Association _ finds difficulty in relaxing. For the first day or two the 4 reading and writing rooms and other apartments were closed at 5 p.m., as they occupy part of the Advocates’ _ Library, while the reception-room being in Parliament _ House remained open for the usual time. Unqualified praise can be given to the commissariat arrangements. _ The main luncheon-room in the Students’ Union was deservedly busy from 1 to 3. The handsome building containing these commodious rooms was greatly admired, and the enterprise of the students to whose efforts alone its construction is due, and by whom alone it is managed, was the subject of frequent comment. Passing between __ the section rooms and the Union members availed them- _ selves of frequent opportunities to inspect the great - MacEwen Hall of the University, now approaching com- pletion, the prospective use of which, by the way, was one of the considerations that led the deputation from Edinburgh to defer to that from Cardiff in arranging the order of the Association’s visits to the respective towns. Rarely is it the privilege of the mixed multitude who throng the hall on the opening night of the meeting to listen to so comprehensible and attractive an address as the President delivered on this occasion. Sir Archibald Geikie’s lucid exposition was crowned by a characteristic- ally happy speech by Lord Kelvin in moving the vote of thanks. Altogether the first gathering dealt a blow at the belief, still amusingly common, that the true scientific man is a being of terms and formule, and that true science is colourless and unsympathetic. The other evening discourses were highly appreciated, and main- tained the high character which the Association lec- tures have made for themselves. Prof. Milnes Marshall played upon his vague title of ‘‘ Pedigrees” until the _ scintillations lit up a great part of the theory of evo- lution; while Prof. Ewing on Magnetic Induction threw a flood of light on what has hitherto been to ordinary minds one of the obscurest recesses of physics. NO. 1189, VOL. 46] The lecture to the working classes, from which members of the Association are excluded—unless they attend on false pretences—turned out a great success, Mr. Vernon Boys showed and explained his wonderful experiments on photographing bullets and the waves they produce in traversing the air with point and brilliancy. The work in some of the Sections has been of a high order of excel- lence ; in Section A especially very few British physicists were absent, and some of the discussions alone justified the existence of the Association as a means of bringing men together from different working centres. The reading of the various reports in the different Sections in some cases gave rise to suggestions of high value for future work. Unfortunately, in consequence of the illness of the President, the address in the Geological Section was not read till Monday. It was not then quite complete, so its publication is postponed for the present. Edinburgh, if possible, exceeded its old reputation for hospitality, and meetings of a purely social character were unusually numerous, and the two conversaziones proved thoroughly enjoyable. Excursions practically took up the whole of Saturday, and an unusually large number took advantage of the opportunity for visiting the many scenes of historical, archeological, geological, and engineering interest which lie around Edinburgh. The range was by no means restricted to the immediate vicinity, the excellent railway arrangements permitting of visits to Glasgow, Dundee, and the land of Scott, with no greater expenditure of time than the carriage parties demanded for visiting the Forth Bridge and Roslin, or the pedestrians for geolo- gizing in the Pentlands and on Arthur’s Seat. The weather for the first few days was favourable, being dry and free from excessive heat. But Monday was a most unfortu- nate sample of Edinburgh’s weather at its worst, strong east wind and cold continual showers ; even this state of matters failed to empty the section-rooms where papers of popular interest were being read. Afternoon receptions both public and private, were particularly well managed, perhaps the most enjoyable being that given by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in the spacious halls of the National Portrait Gallery, where the Antiquarian Museum is now worthily housed. A special reception of foreign members was also given by the University in the Library Hall. The number of distinguished foreigners present marked out this meeting from most others of recent years. The Prince of Monaco, who, with the princess, lived on board his new yacht the Princesse Alice, was perhaps the greatest attraction, and he succeeded in bringing together one of the largest audiences to listen to his papers in Section E. He also showed his yacht to a select party of members specially interested in marine studies, and took endless trouble in explaining the ingenious original devices for deep-sea research with which she is fitted. Profs. von Helmholz, Wiedemann, von Richthofen, Ostwald, and Goebel worthily represented the science of German Universities, and many of their somewhat less distinguished colleagues were also present. Baron de Guerner, MM. de Margine, Demolins, Bertrand, Manouvrier, Guillaume, and Richard came from France, the Abbé Renard and Profs. Errera and Hulin from Belgium, Drs. Arrhenius and Pet- tersson from Sweden, Prof. Fritsch and others well known in the scientific world from Austria, while the United States, Holland, Russia, and Switzerland were also represented. The brilliant young physicist, Nikola Tesla, appears in the list asa visitor from America. A small meeting unfortunately means a small sum available for grants to scientific workers, and on account of the large sums asked for by the various Sections, the work of the Committee of Recommendations was no sinecure. oO ~~ 342 Next year’s meeting will be held at Nottingham, and that for 1894 at Oxford. The list of awards finally arrived at wasas follows :— Investigation of the Eruptive Deposits of Pentland Hills £10 Isomeric Naphthalene Derivatives ... x et eae 1 O Index of Plants, &c. ... 20 Climatology, &c., of Africa ... cae vo : 50 Place Names in Scotland... va Se aT erie ABO Electrical Measurements _.. bts cs ey epee 14 Observations on Ben Nevis ... 150 Falmouth Observatory ; 25 Photography of Meteorological Phenomena aes ne Solar Radiation ie ais ip aes ; Spectra of Elements ... Ses iss be 10 Analyses of Iron and Steel ... te Pe 20 Action of Light on Dyed Colours ... ie a cae 5 Erratic Blocks of England, Wales, and Ireland ... Wi ao Fossil Phyllopoda sed it os bbe a 5 Geological Intervals ... su rat kK ee Sst) AAO Underground Waters... ine ary 5 High-level Shell-bearing Deposits . 20 Zoological Station at Naples oe 100 Plymouth Biological Station 30 Sandwich Islands_... iat 100 West Indies see ; 50 Irish Sea Exploration : 30 Oxygen in Asphyxia ... os so sl 20 Exploration of the Karakorum Mountains ‘i oo Methods of Economic Training... ae A S. 5 Anthropometric Tabulations ase ae ee axe 5 Exploration of Assam aes ‘ai se a fu: 15 North-West Tribes of Canad Sk eh fey 800 Natives of India vey oe va ae ye ode) REO Corresponding Societies Committee 30 Total 4970 SECTION D. BIOLOGY. OPENING ADDRESS BY PRoF, WILLIAM RUTHERFORD, M.D., F.R.S., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION, AT the meeting of this Association held at Birmingham in 1886 I had the honour of delivering a lecture on the Sense of Hearing, in which I criticized the current theory of tone-sensa- tion, and I propose on this occasion to discuss the current theories regarding our sense of colour. I may premise that our conceptions of the outer world are entirely founded on the experience gathered from our sensory impressions. Through our organs of sensation, mechanical, chemical, and radiant energies impress our consciousness. The manner in which the physical agents stimulate the peripheral sense-organs, the nature of the movement transmitted through our nerves to the centres for sensation in the brain, the manner in which different qualities of sensation are there produced—all these are problems of endless interest to the physiologist and psychologist. Every psychologist has acknowledged the profound signifi- cance of Johannes Miiller’s law of the specific energies—or, as we should rather say, the specific activities of the sense-organs. To those unfamiliar with it, I may explain it by saying, that if a motor nerve be stimulated, the obvious result is muscular move- ment ; it matters not by what form of energy the nerve is stimu- lated—it may be by electricity or heat, by a mechanical pinch or a chemical stimulus, the specific result is muscular contrac- tion. In like manner, when the nerve of sight is stimulated— it may be by light falling on the retina, or by electricity, or mechanical pressure, or by cutting the nerve—the invariable result is a luminous sensation, because the impression is trans- mitted to cells in the centre for vision in the brain, whose specific function is to produce a sense of light. The same principle applies to the other sensory centres ; when thrown into activity, they each produce a special kind of sensation. The sun’s rays falling on the skin induce a sense of heat, but falling on the eye, they induce a sense of sight. In both cases the physical agent is the same; the difference of result arises from specific differences of function in the brain centres concerned in thermal and visual sense. NO. 1189, VOL. 46] chem NATURE We have no ' {AUGUST II, 1892 conception how it is that different kinds of sensation arise from molecular movements in the different groups of sensory cells ; we are as ignorant of that as we are of the nature of conscious- ness itself. The subject I propose to discuss on this occasion is not the — cause of the different £2zds of sensation proper to the different sense-organs, but the causes of some gwa/ities of sensation pro- ducible through one and the same sense-organ. The theory of tone-sensation proposed by Helmholz is, that the ear contains an elaborate series of nerve terminals capable of responding to tones varying in pitch from 16 vibrations to upwards of 40,000 vibrations per second, and that at least one different fibre in the auditory nerve, and at least one different cell in the centre for hearing, is affected by every tone of per- ceptibly different pitch. Although the physical difference between high and low tones is simply a difference in frequency of the sound waves, that is not supposed by Helmholz to be the cause of the different sensations of pitch. According to his theory, the function of frequency of vibration is simply to excite by sympathy different nerve terminals in the ear. The mole- cular movement in all the nerve fibres is supposed to be iden- — tical, and the different sensations of pitch are ascribed to a highly specialized condition of cells in the hearing centre, whereby each cell, so to speak, produces the sensation of a tone of definite pitch, which in no way depends on the frequency of incoming nerve impulses, but simply on the specific activity of the cell concerned. age In my lecture on the Sense of Hearing I pointed out in detail the great anatomical difficulties attending the theory in question. I endeavoured to show the physical defect of a theory which does not suppose that our sensations of harmony and discord must immediately depend upon the numerical ratios of nerve vibrations transmitted from the ear to the central organ, and I offered a new theory of hearing based upon the analogy of the telephone. According to that theory, there is pi y no analysis of sound in the ear ; the air-cells at the peripheral ends of the auditory nerve are probably affected by every audible sound of whatever pitch. When stimulated by sound they pro- bably produce nerve vibration, simple or compound, whose frequency, amplitude, and wave-form correspond tg those of the sound received. The nerve vibrations arriving in the cells of the auditory centre probably induce simple sensations of tones | of different pitch, or compound sensations of harmonies or dis- cords strictly dependent on the relative frequencies of the nerve vibrations coming in through the nerve. Fal I cannot now recapitulate the evidence derived from anatomi- cal, experimental, and pathological observations that give — support to my theory of hearing, but I may briefly say that it is opposed to the theory of specific activities, in so far as it has — been applied to explain the different qualities of sound sensa- tion. It is, however, in strict accord with the fundamental proposition stated by Fechner! in his great work on Psycho- physics in these words : ‘‘ The first, the fundamental hypothesis is, that the activities in our nervous system on which the sensations of light and sound functionally depend are, not less than the light and sound themselves, to be regarded as depen- dent on vibratory movements.” It is evident that, if we could only comprehend the nature of the molecular movement in the nerve that links the vibration of the physical agent to that in the sensory cell, we could advance towards a true theory of the physiological basis of different qualities of sensation in the different sense-organs. As yet no definite answer can be given to the question, what sort of molecular movement constitutes a nerve impulse, but in recent years our knowledge of the subject has been extended in a direction that opens up a vista of new possibilities, A nerve impulse travels at a rate not much more than 100 feet per second-—an extremely slow speed compared with that of electricity in a wire. It has been thought to be of the nature of a chemical change sweeping along the nerve, but that hypothesis is opposed by the fact that the most delicate thermo- pile shows no production of heat, even when an impulse is caused to sweep repeatedly along the same nerve. Again, it isfar easier to fatigue a muscle than a nerve. A living frog’s nerve removed from the animal, and therefore deprived of all nutrition, can retain its excitability for nearly an hour, although subjected all the while to thirty or forty stimulations per second. An excised muscle, when similarly stimulated, is exhausted far sooner, because the mechanical energy entirely 1 “Elemente der Psychophysik,” 1860 rd edition, 1889, part ii. p. 282. AueustT 11, 1892] NATURE 343 f . en chemical change in the muscular substance, and at all events, we know now that a nerve can transmit hundreds, even thousands of impulses, or let us simply say vibrati per second. The fact is so important and significant in relation to the physiology of the sense organs, that I show you an experiment to render it more intelligible. A frog’s muscle has been hooked to a light lever to record its move- ment on a smoked cylinder. The nerve of the muscle has been laid on two electrodes connected with the secondary coil of an duction machine. In the primary circuit a vibrating reed has been introduced to serve as a key for making and breaking the and so stimulating the nerve with periodic induction If we make the reed long enough to vibrate ten mes per second, ten impulses are sent through the nerve to the scle and ten distinct contractions produced, as shown by the ine upon the cylinder. If we shorten the reed so that it ribrate, say, fifty times per second, the muscle is thrown a continuous contraction and traces a smooth line on the er; but if we listen to the muscle we can hear a tone a pitch of fifty vibrations per second, from which we that fifty nerve impulses are entering the muscle and in- ducing shocks of chemical discharge in the muscular sub- al lf we take a reed that vibrates, say, 500 times per second, we hear, on listening to the muscle, a tone having the un : : : i u may be so perfect that the complex electri- cal waves produced in the telephone by the vowel sounds can be rep ed in the sound of a muscle after having been trans- _ lated into nerve vibrations and transmitted alonga nerve. Such periments go far in helping us towards a comprehension of the capa s of nerves in transmitting nerve vibrations of great frequency and complicated wave form ; but although they enable us reasonably to suppose that all the fibres of the auditory nerve can transmit: nerve vibrations, simple or complex, and with a fre similar to that of all audible tones, we en- counter superlative difficulty in applying such a theory to the sense of sight. In objective sound we have to deal with a com- paratively simple wave motion, whose frequency of vibration is not difficult to grasp even at the highest limit of audible sound —about 40,000 vibrations per second. But in objective light the frequency of vibration is so enormous—amounting to hundreds _ of billions per second—that every one feels the difficulty of form- pe Ped conception of the manner in which different frequencies of ether waves induce differences in colour sensation. But before passing to colour sense, I wish to allude fora moment to the sense of smell. The terminals of the olfactory nerve in the nose are epithelial cells. It has been recently shown by Von Brunn ? that in man and other mammals the cells have at their free ends very delicate short hairs, resembling those long known in lower vertebrates. These hairs must be the terminal structures affected by substances that induce smell, and are therefore analogous to the hairs on the terminal cells in _ our organ of hearing. No one ever suggested that the hairs of the auditory cells can analyze sounds by responding to par- ticular vibrations, and I think it quite as improbable that the hairs on any particular olfactory cell respond to the molecular vibrations of any particular substance. If we follow those who ave had recourse to the doctrine of specific activities to explain the production of different smells, we must suppose that at least one special epithelial cell and nerve fibre are affected by each different smelling substance. Considering how great is the variety of smells, and that their number increases with the pro- duction of new substances, it would be a somewhat serious stretch of imagination to suppose that for each new smell of a substance yet to emerge from the retort of the chemist there is in waiting a special nerve terminal in the nose. It seems tome far simpler to suppose that all the hairs of the olfactory cells are affect ed by every smelling substance, and that the different } comaybery of smell result from difference in the frequency and orm of the vibrations initiated by the action of the chemical t Von Brunn, Archiv fiir mikroskopische Anatomie, 1892, Band 39. NO. 1189, VOL. 46] molecules on the olfactory cells and transmitted to the brain. That hypothesis was, I believe, first suggested by Prof. Ramsay,! of Bristol, in 1882, and it seems to me the only intelligible theory of smell yet offered. But it must be admitted that a theory of smell, such as that advanced by Ramsay, involves a more subtle conception of the molecular vibrations in nerve fibrils than is required in the case of hearing. It involves the conception that musk, camphor, and similar substances pro- duce their characteristic qualities of smell by setting up nerve vibrations of different frequencies and probably of different com- plexities. We shall see what bearing this may have on the theory of colour sense, to which I now pass. No impressions derived from external Nature yield so much calm joy to the mind as our sensation of colour. Pure tones and perfect harmonies produce delightful sensations, but they are outrivalled by the colour effects of a glorious sunset. With- out our sense of colour all Nature would appear dressed in bold black and white, or indifferent grey. We would recognize, as now, the beauty of shapely forms, but they would be as the cold engraving contrasted with the brilliant canvas of Titian. The beautiful tints we so readily associate with natural objects are all of them sensations produced in our brain. Paradox though it appear, all Nature is really in darkness. The radiant energy that streams from a sun is but a subtle wave-motion, which pro- duces the common effects of heat on all bodies, dead or living. It does not dispel the darkness of Nature until it falls on a living eye, and produces the sense of light. Objective light is only a wave motion in an ethereal medium; subjective light is a sensation produced by molecular vibration in our nerve appa- ratus, The sensory mechanism concerned in sight consists of the retina, the optic nerve, and the centre for visual sensation in the occipital lobe of the brain. In the vertebrate eye the fibres of the optic nerve spread out in the inner part of the retina, and are connected with several layers of ganglionic cells placed ex- ternal to them.- The light has to stream through the fibres and ganglionic layers to reach the visual cells—that is, the nerve terminals placed in the outer part of the retina. They may be regarded as epithelial cells, whose peripheral ends are developed into peculiar rod- and cone-shaped bodies, while their central ends are in physiological continuity with nerve fibrils. Each rod and cone consists of an inner and an outer segment. The outer segment is a pile of exceedingly thin, transparent, doubly refractive discs, colourless in the cone, but coloured pink or purple in the rod. Inman, the inner segment of both rod and cone is colourless and transparent. Its outer part appears to be a compact mass of fine fibrils that pass imperceptibly into the homogeneous-looking protoplasm in the shaft of the cell. Owing to the position of the rods and cones, the light first traverses their inner, then their outer segments, and its unabsorbed portion passes on to the adjacent layer of dark-brown pigment cells by which it is absorbed. It is not necessary for me to discuss the possible difference of function between the rods and cones, I may simply say that in the central part of the yellow spot of the retina, where vision is most acute, and from which we derive most of our impressions of form and colour, the only sensory terminals are the cones. A single cone can enable us to obtain a distinct visual impression. If two small pencils of light fall on the same cone the resulting sensory impression issingle. To produce a double impression the luminous pencils must fall on at least two cones. That shows how distinct must be the path pursued by the nerve impulse from a visual cell in the yellow spot of the retina to a sensory cell inthe brain. The impulses from adjacent terminals must pursue their own discrete paths through the apparent labyrinth of nerve fibrils and ganglion cells in the retina to the fibres of the optic nerve. How these facts bear on the theory of colour sense will presently be ap- parent. Meantime I pass to the physical agent that stimulates the retina. When a beam of white light is dispersed by a prism or dif- fraction grating, the ether-waves are spread out in the order of their frequency of undulation. The undulations of radiant energy extend through a range of many octaves, but those able to stimulate the retina are comprised within a range of rather less than one octave, extending from a frequency of about 395 billions per second at the extreme red to about 757 billions at the extreme violet end of the visible spectrum. The ultra-violet waves in thespectrum of sunlight extend through rather more than half an octave. Although mainly revealed by their chemical t Ramsay, NATURE, 1882, vol. xxvi. p. 189. 344 NATURE [AuGusT 11, 1892 effects, they are not altogether invisible: their colour is bluish- grey. The only oftica/—that is, strictly physical—difference between the several ether-waves in the visible or invisible spectrum is frequency of undulation, or, otherwise expressed, a difference in wave-length. The chromatic—that is the colour- producing—effects of the ether-waves depend on their power of exciting sensations of colour, which vary with their frequency of undulation. Although the retina is extremely sensitive to differences in the frequency of ether-waves, it is not equally so for all parts of the spectrum. In the red and blue portions, the frequency varies considerably without producing marked difference of colour effect, but in the region of yellow and green, compara- tively slight variations in frequency produce appreciable differ- ences of colour sensation. One striking difference between the effect of ether-waves on the eye and sound waves on the ear is the absence of anything corresponding to the octave of tone sensation. The ether-waves in the ultra-violet, which have twice the frequency of those of the red end of the spectrum, give rise to no sense of redness, but merely that of a bluish- grey. Even within the octave there are no harmonies or dis- cords of colour sense corresponding to those of tone sensation. Colours are commonly defined by three qualities or constants, —hue, purity, and brightness, Their hue depends upon the chromatic effect of frequency of undulation or wave length. Their purity or saturation depends on freedom from admixture with sensations produced by other colours or by white light. Their brightness or luminosity depends on the degree to which the sensory mechanism is stimulated. The loudness of sound depends on the amount of excitement produced in the auditory mechanism by the amplitude of sound waves ; but a sound with small amplitude of undulation may seem loud when the nerve apparatus is unduly sensitive. The brightest colour of the spectrum is orange-yellow, but it does not follow that the amplitude or energy of the ether-waves is greater than in the region of dull red. There is no physical evidence of greater amplitude in the orange-yellow, and its greater luminosity is no doubt purely subjective, and arises from the greater commo- tion induced in the sensory mechanism. The theory of colour sense long ago proposed by Sir Isaac Newton! is now commonly treated with what seems to me very undeserved neglect. Newton supposed that the rays of light induce vibrations in the retina which are transmitted by its nerve to the sensorium, and there induce different colour sensa- tions according to the length of the incoming vibrations—the longest producing sensations of red and yellow, the shortest blue and violet, those of medium length a sense of green, and a mixture of them all giving a sense of whiteness. At the be- ginning of this century Thomas Young proposed a theory which seems to have been intended as a modification of that.suggested by Newton rather than as a substitute for it. Young supposed that the ether-waves induce vibrations in the retina ‘‘who-e frequency must depend on the constitution of its substance ; but as it is almost impossible to conceive that each sensitive point of the retina contains an infinite number of particles, each capable of vibrating in unison with every possible undulation, it becomes necessary to suppose the number limited to three primary colours, red, yellow, and blue, and that each sensitive filament of the nerve may consist of three portions, one for each principal colour.”* Soon afterwards he substituted green for yellow, and violet for blue, so that he came to regard red, green, and violet as the three fundamental colour sensations, by mixture of which in varying proportions, all other colours, in- cluding white, are produced. Young believed that his sug- gestion ‘‘simplified the theory of colours, and might therefore be adopted with advantage until found inconsistent with any of the phenomena.” Young’s trichromic theory of colour sense was adopted by Clerk-Maxwell and Von Helmholz, and underwent important amplification. _ Helmholz suggested that the three sets of fibres supposed by Young to exist in-the optic nerve are con- nected with three sets of terminals in the retina; that each ter- minal contains a different visual substance capable of being decomposed by light ; that when the substance in the red nerve terminal undergoes chemical change its nerve fibre is stimulated, and the excitement travels to a cell in the brain by whose specific activity the sensation of red arises. In like manner, t See quotations from Newton made by Young in Reference: 2. 2 Thomas Young, ‘‘On the Theory of Light and Colours,”’ PxiZ. Trans. Lond., 1802, p. 12. NO. 1180, VOL. 46] when the visual substances in the green and violet terminals are decomposed, nerve impulses travel through different fibres to different cells in the vision centre, by whose specific activities the sensations of green and violet arise. With Helmholz there was no question as to difference in quality of sensation depend- ing on difference in frequency of nerve vibration arriving in the sensorium ; no such hypothesis was entertained by him either for tone or for colour sensation, With sight, as with hearing, he supposed that the function of frequency of undulation vir- tually stops at the nerve terminals in the eye and ear, and that the frequency of undulation of the physical agent has no correla- tive in the quality of motion passing from the receiving terminal to the sensory cell. He believes that the different frequencies of ether-waves simply excite chemical changes in different nerve terminals, He expressly states! that the molecular commotion — in the nerve fibres for red, green, and violet is identical in kind, and that its different effects depend on the specific activities of the different cells to which it passes in the sensorium. It is evident that Helmholz entirely dismissed the Newtonian theory of the production of different qualities of colour sense, and sub- stituted for it the doctrine of his own great teacher, Johannes Miiller, The theory of Young and Helmholz offers an explanation of so many facts, and has at the same time provoked so much criticism, that I must enter more fully into some of its details. On this theory, the sense of white or grey is supposed to result from a simultaneous and duly balanced stimulation of the red, green, and violet terminals, The red terminals are supposed to be excited chiefly by the longer waves in the region of the red, orange, and yellow, but also by the shorter undulations extending as far as Fraunhofer’s line F at the beginning of the blue. In like manner, the green terminals are excited chiefly by the waves of medium length, and to a less extent by the waves extending to C in the red, and by the shorter waves extending to G in the violet, The violet terminals are stimu- lated most powerfully by the shorter undulations between F and G, but also by the longer ones reaching as far as D in the yellow ; therefore, optically homogeneous light from any part of the spectrum, except its extreme ends, does not usually give rise to a pure colour sensation ; all three primary sensations are present, and consequently the colour inclines towards white— the more, the stronger the light. The experimental facts in support of Young’s theory are familiar to all who have studied physics. Compound colour sensations may be produced by causing light of different wave lengths to fall simultaneously or in rapid succession on the same part of the retina, The commonest experimental’ device is to rapidly whirl discs with sectors of different colours, and observe the results of the mixed sensations; or to cause the images of coloured wafers or papers to fall simultaneously on the retina by Lambert’s method ; or to transmit light through glass of different colours, and cause the different rays to fall on the same surface ; or to mix pure homogeneous light from different parts of the spectrum. For obvious reasons, the last method yields the most trustworthy results. We cannot, by any mixture of homogeneous light from different parts of the spectrum, obtain a pure red or green sensation, and according to Helm- holz, the same holds true of violet. On the other hand, a mixture of homogeneous rays from the red and green parts produces orange or yellow, according to the proportions em- ployed. A mixture of rays from the green and violet gives rise to intermediate tints of blue, and a mixture of red and violet light produces purple. Therefore, Young regarded red, green, and violet as primary sensations, and orange, yellow, and blue—just as much as purple—he regarded as secondary or compound sensations. Helmholz discovered that to obtain a sense of white or grey it is not necessary to mingle rays from the red, green, and violet portions of the spectrum. He found that he could obtain a white sensation by mixing only ¢wo optically homogeneous rays from several parts of the right and left halves of the spectrum. The pairs of spectral colours which he found complementary to each other are, red and greenish-blue, orange and cyan-blue, yellow and ultramarine-blue, greenish-yellow and violet ; the complement for pure green being found not in any homogeneous light, but in purple—a mixture of red and violet. The complementary colours may be arranged in a circle, with the complementaries in each pair placed opposite one another. Of course, the circle cannot be completed by the colours of the t Von Helmholz, Handbuch der physiologischen Optik, 2nd edition, 1 1892, p. 35¢. AvcustT II, 1892] NATURE 345 7 spectrum ; purple must be added to fill in the gap between the red and violet. NHelmholz found no constant ratios between the wave lengths of homogeneous complementaries ; and it is a striking fact that, while a mixture of the green and red, or of the green and violet undulations gives rise to a sensation such as could be produced by rays of intermediate wave length, no such effect follows the mingling of rays from opposite halves of the spectrum. Pure green, with a wave length of 527 millionths of a millimetre, marks the division between the right and left halves. The mixture of blue from the right and yellow from the left side does not produce the intermediaté green, but a sensation of white. A mixture of blue or violet and red pro- duces not green, but its complementary—purple. On the tri- chromic theory, the sense of white produced by the mingling of any of these two colours is simply regarded as the result of a balanced stimulation of the red, green, and violet terminals. But Young’s theory is beset with serious difficulties. It im- plies the existence of three sets of terminals in the retina, and these must all be found in the central part of the yellow spot where cones aloneare present. ‘Three sets of cones there would be necessary to respond to the red, green, and violet light, and a colourless pencil of light could not be seen uncoloured, unless it falls on three cones, which we know from astronomical obser- vations is not the case. Therefore, if there are three different terminals, it seems necessary, in the human retina at all events, that they should be found in every single cone in the yellow ut I cannot believe it possible that within a single cone ere can be three sets of fibrils capable of simultaneous stimu- lation in different degrees, and of ultimately transmitting im- pulses through three different fibres to three different cells in the brain. That would imply a greater number of fibres in the optic nerve, than of terminals in the retina, and we know that precisely the reverse is the case. The anatomical difficulty is therefore great, and I am unable to see how it can be sur- mounted. The phenomena of colour-blindness also offer great difficulty. In several cases of apoplectic seizure it has happened that the centre for vision on both sides of the brain has been completely or partially paralyzed by the extravasated blood. In such cases the sense of colour may be entirely lost either for a time or per- manently, while the sense of light and form remain—although impaire e loss of colour sense in some cases has been found complete in both eyes ; in most of the recorded cases the loss of colour sense was limited to the right or left halves of both | ; that is, if the lesion affected the vision centre on the right side of the brain, the right halves of both eyes were blind to all colours. That illustrates the fact that a sense of light does not necessarily imply a sense of colour. The colour sense probably involves a more highly refined action of the sensory cell than the mere sense of light and form, and is on that account more liable to be lost when the nutrition of the sensory cell is interfered with. In the normal eye the peripheral zone of the retina is totally blind to colour. If you turn the right eye outwards, close the left, and then move a strip of apace paper from the left to the right in front of the nose, the image of the paper will first fall on the peripheral zone of the retina, and its form will be seen, though indistinctly, but not its colour. It is difficult to say in that case whether the colour- indness is due to the state of the retina or to that portion of the vision centre in the brain associated with it. The absence of cones from the peripheral part of the retina has been assigned as the cause, but it is much more probable that the portion of the vision centre associated with the periphery of the retina, being comparatively little used, is less highly developed for form sensation, and not at all for colour sense. It is evident _ that the production of a sense of white or grey in the absence . of all colour sense is not to be explained on the theory that it results from a balanced stimulation of red, green, and violet nerve a I need scarcely say that colour-blindness has attracted a large share of attention, not only because of its scientific interest, but still more on account of its practical importance in relation to the correct observation of coloured signals. In 1855 the late Prof. George Wilson, of this city, called attention to the grow- ing importance of the subject. Some years ago Prof. Holmgren made an elaborate statistical inquiry regarding it at the instance of the Swedish Government, and lately it has been investigated * Wilson, ‘‘ Researches on Coiser Blindness; Edinburgh, 1855. NO. 1189, VOL. 46] by a committee of the Royal Society of London, who have quite recently published their report.? Although colour-blindness occasionally results from disease of the brain, retina, or optic nerve, it is usually congenital. Total colour-blindness is extremely rare, but partial colour-blindness is not uncommon. It occurs in about 4 per cent. of males, but in less than 1 per 1000 of females. Its most common form is termed red-green blindness, in which red and green sensations appear to be absent. So far as I can find, the first full and re- liable account of the state of vision in red-green blindness is that given in 1859 by Mr. Pole,? of London, from an examin- ation of his own case, which appears to be a typical one. The state of his vision is dichromic ; his two-colour sensations are yellow and blue. The red, orange, and yellowish-green parts of the spectrum appear to him yellow of different shades. -Greenish-blue and violet appear blue, and between the yellow and blue portions of the spectrum, as it appears to him, there is a colourless grey band in the position of the full green of the ordinary spectrum. This neutral band is seen in the spectrum in all cases of dichromic vision. It may appear white or grey according to the intensity of the light, and it apparently results from an equilibrium of the two sensations ; no such band is seen in the spectrum by a normal eye. Mr. Pole, in the account of his case given now three and thirty years ago, considered it im- possible to explain his dichromatic vision on the commonly re- ceived theory that his sense of red is alone defective, and that his sense of yellow is a compound of blue and green. He be- lieved his green quite as defective as his red sensation, and that yellow and blue are quite as much entitled to be considered fundamental sensations as red and green. He suggested that in normal colour vision there are at least four primary sensations— red and green, yellow and blue. Prof. Hering is commonly accredited with the four-colour theory, but it was previously suggested by Pole.* A year after Pole’s paper appeared, Clerk-Maxwell * published his celebrated paper on the theory of compound colours, to which he appended an account of his observations on a case of what he believed to be red-blindness, but which we now know must have been red-green blindness. The spectrum appeared dichro- mic, its only colours being yellow and blue. His description of the case does not materially differ from that given by Pole ; but Clerk-Maxwell believed in the trichromic theory of nor- mal vision, and that red-green and blue are the three primary sensations ; consequently he supposed that the yellow sensation of a red blind person is not pure yellow, but green. It is evident that much depends on the question, ‘‘ Is the yel- low sensation of a red-green blind person the saine as that of normal vision?’ For many years it was impossible tc give a definite answer to that question, but the answer can now be given, as we shall immediately see. Colour-blindness is frequently hereditary, and two or three cases are known in which the de- fective colour sense was limited to one eye, while in the other eye colour vision was normal. In such a case observed by Prof. Hippel, of Giessen, there was red-green blindness in one eye. Holmgren, who examined Hippel’s case, has pub- lished an account of it.° With one eye all the colours of the spectrum were seen, but to the other eye the spectrum had only two colours with a narrow grey band between them at the junction of the blue and yellow. The yellow seen by the eye with the red-green defect had a greenish tinge like that of a lemon, but in other respects the observations confirmed Pole’s account of his own case. Hippel’s case seems to me important for another reason. By some it is believed that congenital colour defect is due to the brain. If there had been defective colour sense on one side of the brain, it would not have implicated the whole of one eye, but the half of each eye. Its limitation to one eye, therefore, seems to me to suggest that the fault was in the eye rather than in the brain. Another interesting fact in this relation is that in every normal eye, just behind the peripheral zone of total colour-blindness, to * “Report of the Committee on Colour Vision,” Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., July 1892. : 2 W. Pole, ‘On Colour-Blindness,’’ Phil. Trans., 1859, vol. cxlix. p- 32 3 [bid., pi 331. i 4 Clerk-Maxwell, ‘‘ On the Theory of Compound Colours,” &c., Phil. Trans., 1860, vol. cl., p. 57. : 7 : 5 F. Hol n, ** How do the Colour-Blind see the Different Colours?’ mgre Proc. Rov. Soc. Lond., 1881, vol. xxxi. p. 302. 346 NATURE [AuGustT 11, 1892 which I have already referred, there is a narrow zone in which red and green sensations are entirely wanting, while blue and yellow sensations are normal. Possibly the red-green defect is due to an imperfectly developed colour sense in the portion of the vision centre connected with that zone of the retina, but Hippel’s case seems to me to show that such defect might be on the retina. It has probably already struck you that red-green blindness is really blindness to red, green, and violet, that Young’s three primary sensations appear to be absent, and the two remaining colours are those which he regarded as secondary compounds of his primaries. That, however, is not all that is revealed by colour-blindness. There is at least another well-known though rare form in which a sense of yellow, blue, and violet is absent, and the only colour sensations present are red and green. The defect is sometimes termed violet blindness, but the term is somewhat misleading. It is much more in accordance with the fact to term it yellow- blue blindness ; indeed, we would define it precisely by terming it yellow-blue-violet blindness. . Holmgren? has recorded a uni- lateral case of that defect analogous to Hippel’s case of uni- lateral red-green defect ; we therefore know definitely how the spectrum appears to such a person, In the case referred to all the colours of the spectrum were seen with the normal eye, but to the other eye the spectrum had only two colours, red and green. The red colour extended over the whole left side of the spectrum to a neutral band in the yellow-green, a little to the right of Fraunhofer’s line D. All the right side of the spectrum was green as far as the beginning of the violet, where it ‘‘ ended with a sharp limit (about the line G).” If you turn to the Report of the Royal Society’s Committee * on Colour Vision, you will find the spectrum as it appears to yellow-blue-violet blind persons. The plate agrees with the description of Holmgren’s case already given ; but you will not find a representation of the spectrum as it appears to those who are red-green blind, and as described by Pole and others. In place of it you will find two dichromic spectra, one with a red and blue half said to be seen by a green blind, the other with a green and a blue half said to be seen by a red blind person. We have copied the spectra for your inspection, and you will observe that yellow does not appear in either of them. I do not for a moment pretend to criticize these spectra from any observations of my own; I am aware Holmgren maintains that red-and-green blindness may occur separately ; but, on the other hand, Dr. George Berry, an eminent ophthal- mologist, has assured me that he has always found them associ- ated. That statement was originally made by Hering. Of the various methods of testing colour vision, that suggested by Seebeck is most commonly employed. The individual is mainly tested with regard to his sense of green and red. He is shown skeins of wool, one pale green, another pink or purple, and a third bright red, and he is asked to select from a heap of coloured wools, laid on a white cloth, the colours that appear to him to match those of the several tests. We have arranged such test skeins for your inspection, and have placed beneath each of them the colours which a red-green blind person usually selects as having hues similar to those of the test. It is startling enough to find brown, orange, green, and grey confused with bright red; pale red, orange, yellow, and grey confused with green ; blue, violet, and green confused with pink ; but these confusions have all their explanation in the fact that the red- green blind have only two colour-sensations—yellow and blue, with a grey band in what should have been the green part of his spectrum. We have now to show you another and far more beautiful method of ascertaining what fundamental colour sensations are absent in the colour-blind. It is the method of testing them by what Chevreul long ago termed simultaneous contrast. If ina semi-darkened room we throw a beam of coloured light ona white screen and interpose an opaque object in its path, the shadow shows the complementary colour. If the light be red, the shadow appears green-blue; if it be green, the shadow appears purple or red according to the nature of the green light employed. If the light is yellow, the shadow is blue ; if it is blue, the shadow is yellow. We must remember that the part of the screen on which the shadow falls is not entirely dark ; a little diffuse light falls on the retina from the shadowed * F. Holmgren, ‘“‘ How do the Colour-Blind see the Different Colours ?” Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., 1881, vol. xxxi. p. 306. ? See Reference 8, Plate I., No.4. NO. 1189, VOL. 46] part, so that the retina and vision centre are slightly stimulated, whereby the image of the shadow. The experiment can be rendered still more striking, though at the same time a little more complicated, by using two oxy- — hydrogen lamps and throwing their light on the same portion of the screen. If a plate of coloured—say ruby—glass is held before one of the lamps, and an opaque object such as the head of a T-square is placed in the path of both lights, the shadow cast by the white light falls on a surface illuminated by a red light, and shows a deep red far more saturated than the sur- rounding surface of the screen where the red and white lights fall. The shadow cast by the red light shows the comple- mentary bluish green ; and the contrast of the two is exceedingly striking. These experiments we have shown you point to some subtle physiological relations between complementary colours. A colour sensation produced in one part of the vision apparatus forces, so to speak, the neighbouring part, which is relatively quiescent, to produce the complementary colour subjectively. I say wision-centre rather than retina, because, if one eye is. illuminated with coloured light while the other eye is feebly illuminated with white light, the complementary colour appears in the centre belonging to that eye. The sense of white appears to be a mysterious unity ; if you odjectively call up one part of the sensation, you call up its counterpart sadjectively. If a colour and its complementary counterpart be both displayed objectively at the same time, the action and reaction of effect afford a sensa- tion far more agreeable than is producible by the objective dis- play of only one of them. The agreeableness of the contrast of complementary colours, no doubt, springs from the harmony of effect. There is no harmony of colour effect analogous to- that of music, but there is harmony of a different kind, and that harmony is formed by the contrast of complementary colours. Now I imagine many of you have already anticipated the question, What information can simultaneous contrast give regarding the fundamental sensations of the colour-blind ?- From an extended series of observations Dr. Stilling,’ of Cassel, has entertained that if a person cannot distinguish — between red and green, no complementary colour appears in the shadow when the inducing light is red or green, but if the inducing light is yellow or blue the proper complemen- tary appears in the shadow. If a person was blind to red he never found the ‘complementary green appear; if he was blind to green, he never found the comple- mentary red appear. When the inducing light ap colourless, the shadow was also colourless. Stilling therefore — concluded that either the sensations of red and green or of blue — and yellow were wanting at the same time or all colour sense was absent. It is difficult to see how these results are to be harmonized with the conclusions arrived at by the Committee of the Royal Society. Facts such as these are regarded by some as lending support _ to the theory of colour sense proposed by Prof. Hering, of Prague.” He supposes that the diversity of our visual percep-. tions arises from six fundamental sensations constituting three pairs—white and black, red and green, yellow and blue. The three pairs of sensations are supposed to arise from chemical changes in three visual substances not confined to the retina, but contained also in the optic nerve and in the vision centre.* He imagines that a sense of white results from decomposition induced in a special visual substance by all visible rays, and that the restitution of the same substance produces a sense of black. The sensations of the red and green pair are supposed to arise, the one from decomposition, the other from restitution of a. second substance ; while yellow and blue are supposed to result from decomposition and restitution of a third su ce. From: our knowledge of photo-chemical processes we can readily sup- pose that light induces chemical change in the visual apparatus ; but that the wave-lengths in the red and yellow parts of the spectrum induce decomposition, while the wave-lengths in the green and blue induce restitution of substances, it is difficult to believe. How such a visual mechanism could work it would be difficult to comprehend ; for example, if we look at a bright red light for a few moments and then close our eyes, the sensation remains for a time, but changes from red to green and then slowly fades away. According to Hering’s theory, the green * J. Stilling, ‘‘The Present Aspect of the Colour Question,” Archives o7- Ophthalmology, 1879, viii. p. 164. 2E. Hering, Zur Lehre vom Lichtsinne, 2nd ed. Vienna, 1878. 3 Hering, zbid., p. 75. AvuGusT II, 1892] NATURE 347 after-sensation results from the restitution of a substance decom- = by the red light. But if we reverse the experiment by ooking at a bright green light and then closing our eyes, the after-sensation changes to ved. The theory in pate would require us to suppose that the green light builds up a visual substance which spontaneously decomposes when the eyes are closed, and so produces the red after-image. I confess that such a hypothesis seems to me incredible. Another remarkable feature of Hering’s theory is that colours termed complementary ought to be termed anfagonistic,' because they are capable of producing a colourless sensation when mingled in due pro- portions. If the complementary colours yellow and blue could, when mixed, produce black, they might well be named ** antagonistic ;” but since their combined effect is a sense of whiteness, and since the addition of them to white light increases its luminosity, it seems very difficult to comprehend on what ground the term antagonistic should be substituted for complementa I confess I am quite unable to follow Hering when he supposes that three pairs of mutually antagonistic al processes are produced in the retina when white light falls on it, that these processes are all continued on through the optic nerve into the vision centre, and there give rise to our different light and colour sensations. In 1881 Prof. Preyer? advanced a theory of colour sensation, in which he supposes that in the retina there are four sets of cones arranged in pairs—one pair being excitable by the waves in the blue and yellow parts of the spectrum, the other pair being excitable by the red and green. He supposes that each pair of cones is connected with a ganglionic cell in the retina, and through that with one fibre in the optic nerve, which trans- mits the impulse to at least two cells in the vision centre, in ch two nt qualities of sensation, red and green, yellow and blue, are severally produced. I confess, however, that I am not able to understand how nerve impulses received, say, from the red terminal of a pair, can specially affect one of the cells in the nerve centre to produce a red sensation. But if the red or green sensation were supposed to arise in the same central cell according to the frequency of the impulses transmitted from either terminal of the pair at the periphery, I should feel that an important difficulty had been removed from Prof. Preyer’s It must be admitted that the production of nerve impulses ithin the in the retina is almost as obscure as ever. It is still the old question, Does light stimulate the optic ter- __ minals by inducing vibration, or by setting up chemical change ? Wh view we adopt, it seems to me necessary to suppose that all the processes for the production of nerve impulses can take place in one and the same visual cell, and are transmitted to the brain through the same nerve fibre ; because the image of a coloured star small enough to fall upon only one cone is seen of a fixed and definite colour which does not alter when ‘the position of the eye is changed. It seems to me that if there are ial cones for red, green, yellow, and blue, the yur of the star should change when its image falls on differ- ent terminals, but I am assured by Mr. Lockyer that such is not the case. I referred to the sense of smell because it seems to me that we cannot in that case escape from the conclusion that the different sensations arise from different. molecular stimulations of the same olfactory terminals. From Lippmann’s recent researches on the photography of colour*® it appears that all parts of the spectrum can now be ed on films of albumino-bromide of silver, to which two aniline substances, azaline and cyanine, have been added. It seems, therefore, reasonable to suppose that a relatively small number of substances could enable all the rays of the visible pe to affect the retina. NHelmholz believes that three sual substances would suffice ; but if the prim sensations are to be regarded as four—red, green, yellow, and blue—at least four visual substances appear to be necessary ; and I think we must assume that all of them are to be found in the same visual cell in the retina, and that the nerve impulses which their tions give rise to are all transmitted through the same optic fibres to the brain cells, there to produce a sense of uncoloured or coloured light. Evidently such a hypothesis is 1 E. Hering, Zur Lehre vom Lichtsinne, 2nd ed. p. 121. 2 W. Preyer, “ Uber den Fabren und Temperatur Sinn,” &c., Archiv fiir Physiologie, 1881, Band xxv., p. 31 pig 65 3G. Lippmann, *‘On the Photography of Colour,” Comptes Rendus, 1892, tome 114, p. 96t. NO. 1189, VOL. 46] not altogether novel ; it is essentially a return to that long ago suggested by Newton. The only difference is that light is sup- posed to induce photo-chemical changes in the retina, as Von Helmholz suggested, instead of mere mechanical vibration, as Newton supposed. But if in the sense of smell nerve undula- tions are induced by mechanical vibrations of molecules acting on delicate hairs at the ends of cells, would it, after all, be un- reasonable to suppose that within each visual cell there are different kinds of molecules that vibrate in different modes when excited by ether-waves? Four or five sets of such molecules in each terminal element in the retina would probably be sufficient to project successively or simultaneously special forms of un- dulations through the optic nerve, to induce colour sensations differing according to the wave form of the incoming nerve un- dulation. It seems to me that the question becomes narrowed down to this: Do the nerve impulses arise from mere vibration or from chemical change in the molecules of the nerve terminal ? The photo-chemical hypothesis has much in its favour. We know how rapidly light can induce chemical change in photo- graphic films, and we know that light induces chemical change in the vision-purple in the outer segments of the rod cells in the retina. The fact that the cones contain no vision-purple is no argument against the theory, for the inner segment of both rod and cone is by many regarded as the true nerve terminal, and there is no vision-purple in either ofthem, The visual substances in the cones, at all events, are colourless, and the existence of them as substances capable of producing nerve impulses by chemical decomposition is as yet only a speculation awaiting proof. The fatigue of the retina produced by bright light is best explained on a chemical theory, but it could also be ex- plained on a mechanical theory, for we must rememter that, even if the nerve impulses produced in the visual: cells were merely a translation of the energy of light into vibra- tion of nerve molecules, the nerve impulse has to pass through layers of ganglionic cells before reaching the fibres of the optic nerve, and in these cells it probably always induces chemical change. The phenomena of partial colour-blindness could be explained on a photo-chemical theory by supposing that it arises from the absence of the substances required to pro- duce the wave forms necessary for the colour sensation which is defective, but the total colour blindness at the anterior part of the retina is evidently a difficulty. How could we have a sense of light from that portion of the retina if all the visual substances are absent? ‘That is one of the reasons why Hering supposed that a special visual substance is present everywhere in the retina, which by decomposition gives rise to a sense of light as distinguished from colour. But even on the hypothesis we are pursuing, it is not necessary to suppose that all visual substance is absent, for colour-blindness in the front of the retina could be explained by supposing that colour perception has not been developed in the corresponding portion of the vision centre, and consequently all nerve impulses coming from that part of the retina produce scarcely anything more than a sense of light. If the photo-chemical theory is entertained, it seems neces- sary to suppose that there is some singular relation between the pairs of substances which respectively give rise to red and green, and yellow and blue, seeing that both members of a pair fre- quently, if not always, fail together. It seems to me that the great difficulty arises when we con- sider the puzzling phenomena of contrast. If light of a parti- cular wave length decomposes a special substance, and gives rise to, say, a sense of red, why. does the complementary bluish- green sensation appear in the vision centre around the spot in which the red sensation arises? If the induced colour were a pure green, one might attempt to explain it by supposing that a sympathetic change had been induced in’a substance closely related to that suffering decomposition by the objective light, but no such simple explanation is admissible; the comple- mentary contrast of red is not green, but a mixture of green and blue. The inadmissibility of such an explanation becomes still more apparent if we take pure green as the inducing colour—the complementary contrast that appears is purple, which involves a blue or violet, as well asared sensation. It matters not what inducing colour sensation we adopt, the induced contrast is always the complementary required to make a sense of white. George Wilson! long ago suggested that the simultaneous con- trast probably arises from a ‘‘ polar manifestation of force ;” indeed, he regarded it as a ‘‘ true, though unrecognized, mani- festation of polarity.” It is enough to mention that interesting 1 Wilson, ‘“* Researchés on Colour-Blindness,” Edinburgh, 1855, Pe 179. 348 NATURE [AucusT 11, 1892 suggestion, but I must not pursue it, for we are dealing with a problem that has as yet baffled the wit of man. I have endeavoured to place before you a subject that involves physical and physiological considerations of extreme difficulty. I have endeavoured to show the nature of these difficulties, and although I have not attempted to solve them, I have at all events tried to show reasons why we should refer our different colour sensations to differences in the incoming nerve impulses rather than to specifically different activities of cells in the visual centre. I have not found it an agreeable task to point out the shortcomings of theories advanced by those for whom I have the deepest regard ; but in the progress of scientific thought it is especially necessary to keep our minds free from the thraldom of established theory, for theories are but the leaves of the tree of science ; they bud and expand, and in time they fade and fall, but they enable the tree to breathe and live. If this address has been full of speculation, I trust you will allow that the scientific use of the imagination is a necessary stimulus to thought, by which alone we can break a path through the dense thicket of the unknown. SECTION E. GEOGRAPHY. OPENING ADDRESS BY PROF. JAMES GEIKIE, LL.D., D.C.L., .F.RSS.L. 6 B., ( FGiS.,. PRESIDENT. OF THE SECTION, AMONGST the many questions upon which of late years light has been thrown by deep-sea exploration and geological research not the least interesting is that of the geographical development of coast-lines. How is the existing distribution of land and water to be accounted for? Are the revolutions in the relative position of land and sea, to which the geological record bears witness, due to movements of the earth’s crust or of the hydro- sphere? Why are coast-lines in some regions extremely regular, while elsewhere they are much indented? About I50 years ago the prevalent belief was that ancient sea-margins indicated a formerly higher ocean-level. Such was the view held by Celsius, who, from an examination of the coast-lands of Sweden, attributed the retreat of the sea to a gradual drying up of the latter. But this desiccation hypothesis was not accepted by Playfair, who thought it much more likely that the land had risen. It was not, however, until after Von Buch had visited Sweden (1806-1808), and published the results of his observa- tions, that Playfair’s suggestion received much consideration. Von Buch concluded that the apparent retreat of the sea was not due to a general depression of the ocean-level, but to elevation of the land—a conclusion which subsequently obtained the strong support of Lyell. The authority of these celebrated men gained for the elevation theory more or less complete assent, and for many years it has been the orthodox belief of geologists that the ancient sea-margins of Sweden and other lands have resulted from vertical movements of the crust. It has long been ad- mitted, however, that highly flexed and disturbed strata require some other explanation. Obviously such structures are the result of lateral compression and crumpling. Hence geologists have maintained that the mysterious subterranean forces have affected the crust in different ways. Mountain-ranges, they con- ceive, are ridged up by tangential thrusts and compression, while vast continental areas slowly rise and fall, with little or no disturbance of the strata. From this point of view it is the lithosphere that is unstable, all changes in the relative level of land and sea being due to crustal movements. Of late years, however, Trautschold and others have begun to doubt whether this theory is wholly true, and to maintain that the sea-level may have changed without reference to movements of the lithosphere. Thus Hilber has suggested that sinking of the sea-level may be due, in part at least, to absorption, while Schmick believes that the apparent elevation and depression of continental areas are really the results of grand secular movements of the ocean. The sea, according to him, periodically attains a high level in each hemisphere alternately, the waters being at present heaped up in the southern hemisphere. Prof, Suess, again, believing that in equatorial regions the sea is, upon the whole, gaining on the land, while in other latitudes the reverse would appear to be the case, points out that this is in harmony with his view of a periodical flux and reflux of the ocean between the equator and the poles. He thinks that we have no evidence of any vertical elevation affecting wide areas, and that the only movements of No. 1189, VOL. 46] elevation that take place are those by which mountains are up- heaved. The broad invasions and transgressions of the con- tinental areas by the sea, which we know have occurred again and again, are attributed by him to secular movements of the hydrosphere itself. Apart from all hypothesis and theory, we learn that the surface of the sea is not exactly spheroidal. It reaches a higher level on the borders of the continents than in mid-ocean, and it varies likewise in height at different places on the same coast. The attraction of the Himalaya, for example, suffices to cause a difference of 300 feet between the level of the sea at the delta of the Indus and on the coast of Ceylon. The recognition of such facts has led Penck to suggest that the submergence of the maritime regions of North-west Europe and the oppo-ite coasts of North America, which took place at a recent geological date, and from which the lands in question have only partially recovered, may have been brought about by the attraction exerted by the vast ice-sheets of the Glacial Period. But, as. Drygalski, Woodward, and others have shown, the heights at which recent marine deposits occur in the regions referred to are much too great to be accounted for by any possible distortion of the hydrosphere. The late James Croll had previously endea- voured to show that the accumulation of ice over northern lands during glacial times would suffice to displace the earth’s centre of gravity, and thus cause the sea to rise upon the glaciated tracts. More recently other views have been advanced to ex- plain the apparently causal connection between glaciation and submergence, but these need not be considered here. Whatever degree of importance may attach to the various hypotheses of secular movements of the sea, it is obvious that the general trends of the world’s coast-lines are determined in the first place by the position of the dominant wrinkles of the lithosphere. Even if we concede that all ‘* raised beaches,” so called, are not necessarily the result of earth-movements, and that the frequent transgressions of the continental areas by oceanic waters in geological times may possibly have been due to independent movements of the sea, still we must admit that the solid crust of the globe has always been subject to distortion. And this being so, we cannot doubt that the general trends of the world’s coast-lines must have been modified from time to time by movements of the lithosphere. ’ As geographers we are not immediately concerned with the mode of origin of those vast wrinkles, nor need we speculate on the causes which may. have determined their direction. It seems, however, to be the general opinion that the configuration of the lithosphere is due simply to the sinking in and crumpling up of | But it must — be admitted that neither physicists nor geologists are prepared © the crust on the cooling and contracting nucleus. with a satisfactory hypothesis to account for the prominent trends of the great world-ridges and troughs. According to the late Prof. Alexander Winchell, these trends may have been the He was of opinion that the . transmeridional progress of the tidal swell in early incrustive © result of primitive tidal action. times on our planet would give the forming crust structural characteristics and aptitudes trending from north to south. The earliest wrinkles to come into existence, therefore, would be meridional or submeridional, and such, certainly, is the prevalent direction of the most conspicuous earth-features. There are many terrestrial trends, however, as Prof. Winchell knew, which do not conform to the requirements of his hypothesis ; but such transmeridional features, he thought, could generally be shown to be of later origin than the others. This is the only specula- tion, so far as I know, which attempts, perhaps not altogether unsuccessfully, to explain the origin of the main trends of terrestrial features. According to other authorities, however, the area of the earth’s crust occupied by the ocean is denser than that over which the continental regions are spread. The depressed denser part balances the lighter elevated portion. But why these regions of different densities should be so distributed no one has yet told us. Neither does Le Conte’s view, that the continental areas and the oceanic depressions owe their origin to unequal radial contraction of the earth in its secular cooling, help us to under- stand why the larger features of the globe should be disposed as they are. Geabephers must for the present be content to take the world as they find it. What we do know is that our lands are distri- buted over the surface of a great continental plateau of irregular | form, the bounding slopes of which plunge down more or less _ steeply into a vast oceanic depression. So far as geological research had gone, there is reason to believe that these elevated er ge AvucustT 11, 1892] NATURE 4 349 and depressed areas are of primeval antiquity—that they antedate the very oldest of the sedimentary formations. There is abundant evidence, however, to show that the relatively elevated or continental area has been again and again irregularly submerged under tolerably deep and wide seas, But all historical geology assures us that the continental plateau and the oceanic hollows have never changed places, although from time to time portions of the latter have been ridged up and added to the margins of the former, while ever and anon marginal portions of the plateau have sunk down to very considerable depths. We may thus speak of the great world-ridges as regions of dominant elevation, and of the profound oceanic troughs as areas of more or less persistent depression. From one point of view, it is true, no part of the earth’s surface can be looked upon as a region of dominant elevation. Our globe isa cooling and contracting body, and depression must always be the prevailing movement of the lithosphere. The elevation of the continental plateau is thus only relative. Could we conceive the crust throughout the deeper eerons of the oceanic depression to subside to still greater depths, while at the same time the continental plateau remained stationary, or subsided more slowly, the sea would necessarily retreat from the land, and the latter would then ap to rise. It is improbable, however, that any extensive subsidence of the crust under the ocean could take place without accompanying disturbance of the continental plateau ; and in this case the latter might experience in places not only negative but positive elevation. During the evolution of our continent, crustal movements have again and again disturbed the relative level of land and sea, but since the general result has been to increase the land surface and to contract the area occupied by the sea, it is convenient to speak of the former as the region of dominant elevation, and of the latter as that of prevalent depression. Properly speaking, both are sinking regions, the rate of subsidence within the oceanic trough being in excess of that experienced over the continental plateau. The question of the geographical development of coast-lines is therefore only that of the dry lands acocives The greater land masses are all situated upon, but are nowhere coextensive with, the area of dominant elevation, for very con- _ siderable portions of the continental plateau are still covered by the sea. Opinions may differ as to which fathoms line we should take as marking approximately the boundary between that region and the oceanic depression; and it is obvious, _ indeed, that any line selected must be arbitrary and more or less _ misleading, for it is quite certain that the true boundary of the _ continental plateau cannot lie parellel to the surface of the ocean. In some regions it approaches within a few hundreds _ of fathoms of the sea-level ; in other places it sinks for consider- _ ably more than 1000 fathoms below that level. Thus, while a very moderate elevation would in certain latitudes cause the land to extend to the edge of the plateau, an elevation of at least 10,000 feet would be required in some other places to bring’ about a similar result. Although it is true that the land surface is nowhere co- _ extensive with the great plateau, yet the existing coast-lines may be said to trend in the same general direction as its margins, So abruptly does the continental plateau rise from the oceanic _ trough, that a depression of the sea-level, or an elevation of the 0 for 10,000 feet, would add only a narrow belt to the ific coast between Alaska and Cape Horn, while the gain _of land on the Atlantic slope of America between 30° N.L. and _40° S.L. would not be much greater. In the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, however, very considerable geographical changes would be accomplished by a much less ‘amount of elevation of the plateau. Were the continental plateau to be upheaved for 3000 feet, the major ion of the Arctic Sea would become land. Thus, in general terms, we may say that the coast-lines of Arctic and temperate North America and Eurasia are further . withdrawn from the edge of the continental plateau than those of lower latitudes. _ Inregions where existing coast-lines approach the margin of the plateau, they are apt to run for long distances in one determinate direction, and whether the coastal area be high or not, to show a gentle sinuosity. Their course is seldom interrupted by bold _projecting headlands or peninsulas, or by intruding inlets, while fringing or marginal islands rarely occur. To these appearances the northern regions, as every one knows, offer the strongest con- trast. Not only do they trend irregularly, but their continuity is constantly interrupted by promontories and peninsulas, by inlets NO. 1189, VOL. 46] and fords, while fringing islands abound. But an elevation of some 400 or 500 fathoms only would revolutionize the geography of those regions, and confer upon the northern coast-lines of the world the regularity which at present characterizes those of Western Africa. It is obvious, therefore, that the coast-lines of such lands as Africa owe their regularity primarily to their approximate coin- cidence with the steep boundary slopes of the continental plateau, while the irregularities characteristic of the coast-line of North- Western Europe and the corresponding latitudes of North America are determined by the superficial configuration of the- same plateau, which in those regions is relatively more de- pressed. I have spoken of the general contrast between high and low northern latitudes, but it is needless to say that in southern regions the coast-lines exhibit similar contrasts. The regular coast-lines of Africa and South America have already been referred to, but we cannot fail to recognize in the much indented sea-board and the numerous coastal island of Southern Chili a complete analogy to the fiord regions of high northern: latitudes. Both are areas of comparatively recent depression. Again, the manifold irregularities of the coasts of South-eastern Asia, and the multitudes of islands thai serve to to link that con- tinent to Australia and New Zealand, are all evidence that the surface of the continental plateau in those regions is extensively invaded by the sea. A word or two now as to the configuration of the oceanic trough. There can be no doubt that this differs very considera- bly fan that of the land surface. It is, upon the whole, flat or gently undulating. Here and there it swells gently upwards into broad elevated banks, some of which have been traced for great distances. In other places narrower ridges and abrupt mountain-like elevations diversify its surface, and project again and again above the level of the sea, to form the numerous islets of Oceania. Once more, the sounding-line has made us acquainted with the notable fact that. numerous deep depressions —some long and narrow, others relatively short and broad—stud the floor of the great trough. I shall have occasion to refer again to these remarkable depressions, and need at present only call attention to the fact that they are especially well developed in the region of the Western Pacific, where the floor of the sea, at the base of the bounding slopes of the continental plateau, sinks in places to depths of three and even of five miles below the existing coast-lines. One may further note the fact that the deepest areas of the Atlantic are met with in like manner close to the walls of the plateau—a long ridge, which rises midway between the continents and runs in the same general direction as their coast-lines, serving to divide the trough of the Atlantic into two parallel hollows. But, to return to our coast-lines and the question of their development, it is obvious that their general trends have been determined by crustal movements. Their regularity is in direct proportion to the closeness of their approach to the margin of the continental plateau. The more nearly they coincide with the edge of that plateau, the fewer irregularities do they present ; the further they recede from it, the more highly are they indented, Various other factors, it is true, have played a more or less important part in their development, but their dominant trends were undoubtedly determined at a very early period in the world’s history— their determination necessarily dates back, in short, to the time when the great world-ridges and oceanic troughs came into existence. So far as we can read the story told by the rocks, however, it would seem that in the earliest ages of which geology can speak with any confidence, the coast- lines of the world must have been infinitely more irregular than now. In Paleozoic times, relatively small areas of the continental plateau appeared above the level of the sea. Insular conditions everywhere prevailed. But as ages rolled on: wider and wider tracts of the ptateau were exposed, and this notwithstanding many oscillations of level. So that one may say there has been upon the whole a general advance from insular to continental conditions. In other words, the sea has continued to retreat from the surface of the continental plateau. To account for this change we must suppose that depression of the crust has been in excess within the oceanic area, and that now and again positive elevation of the continental plateau has taken place, more especially along its margins. That move- ments of elevation, positive or negative, have again and again: affected our land areas can be demonstrated, and it seems highly probable, therefore, that similar movements may have been: experienced with the oceanic trough. 95° . NATURE [AuGusT II, 1892 Two kinds of crustal movement, as we have seen, are recog- nized by geologists. Sometimes the crust appears to rise, or, as the case may be, to sink over wide regions, without much disturbance or tilting of strata, although these are now and again more or less extensively fractured and displaced. It may conduce to clearness if we speak of these movements as regional. The other kind of crustal disturbance takes place more markedly in linear directions, and is always accompanied by abrupt folding and mashing together of strata, along with more or less fracturing and displacement. The plateau of the Colorado has often been cited as a good example of regional elevation, where we have a wide area of approximately hori- zontal strata apparently uplifted without much rock-disturbance, while the Alps or any other chain of highly flexed and con- voluted strata will serve as an example of what we may term axial or linear uplifts. It must be understood that both regional and axial movements result from the same cause—the adjust- ment of the solid crust to the contracting nucleus—and that the term e/evation, therefore, is only relative. Sometimes the sinking crust gets relief from the enormous lateral pressure to which it is subjected by ridging up along lines of weakness, and then mountains of elevation are formed ; at other times, the pressure is relieved by the formation of broader swellings, when wide areas become uplifted relatively to surrounding regions. Geologists, however, are beginning to doubt whether upheaval of the latter kind can affect a broad continental area. Probably in most cases, the apparent elevation of continental regions is only negative. The land appears to have risen because the floor of the oceanic basin has become depressed, Even the smaller plateau-like elevations which occur within some continental regions may in a similar way owe their dominance to the sinking of contiguous regions. In the geographical development of our land, movements of elevation and depression have played an important part. But we cannot ignore the work done by other agents of change. If the orographical features of the land everywhere attest the potency of plutonic agents, they no less forcibly assure us that the inequalities of surface resulting from such movement are universally modified by denudation and sedimentation. Elevated plains and mountains are gradually demolished, and the hollows and depressions of the great continental plateau become slowly filled with their detritus. Thus inland seas tend to vanish, inlets and estuaries are silted up, and the land in places advances sea- ward, The energies of the sea, again, come in to aid those of rain and river, so that under the combined action of all the superficial agents of change, the irregularities of coast-lines become. reduced, and, were no crustal movement to intervene, would eventually disappear. The work accomplished by those agents upon a coast-line is most conspicuous in regions where the surface of the continental plateau is occupied by compara- tively shallow seas. Here full play is given to sedimentation and marine erosion, while the latter alone comes into promi- nence upon shores that are washed by deeper waters. When the coast-lines advance to the edge of the continental plateau, they naturally trend, as we have seen, for great distances in some particular direction. Should they preserve that position, undisturbed by crustal oscillation, for a prolonged period of time, they will eventually be cut back by the sea. Inthis waya shelf or terrace will be formed, narrow in some places, broader in others, according to the resistance offered by the varying character of the rocks. But no long inlets or fiords can result from such action. At most the harder and less readily demolished rocks will form headlands, while shallow bays will be scooped out of the more yielding masses. In short, between the narrower and broader parts of the eroded shelf or terrace a certain proportion will tend to be preserved. As the shelf is widened, sedimenta- tion will become more and more effective, and in places may come to protect the land from further marine erosion. This action is especially conspicuous in tropical and subtropical regions, which are characterized by well-marked rainy seasons. In such regions immense quantities of sediment are washed down from the Jand to the sea, and tend to accumulate along shore, forming low alluvial flats. All long-established coast- lines thus acquire a characteristically sinuous form, and perhaps no better examples could be cited than those of Western Africa. To sum up, then, we may say that the chief agents concerned in the development of coast-lines are crustal movements, sedi- mentation, and marine erosion. All the main trends are the result of elevation and depression. Considerable geographical NO. 1189, voL. 46] changes, however, have been brought about by the silting up of those shallow and sheltered seas which, in certain regions, overflow wide areas of the continental plateau. Throughout all the ages, indeed, epigene agents have striven to reduce the superficial inequalities of that plateau, by levelling heights and filling up depressions, and thus, as it were, flattening out the land surface and causing it to extend, The erosive action of the sea, from our present point of view, is of comparatively little importance. It merely adds a few finishing touches to the work performed by the other agents of change. A glance at the geographical evolution of our own continent will render this sufficiently evident. Viewed in detail, the structure of Europe is exceedingly complicated, but there are certain leading features in its architecture which no profound analysis is required to detect. We note, in the first place, that highly disturbed rocks of Archean and Paleozoic age reach their greatest development along the north-western and western borders of our continent, as in Scandinavia, the British Islands, North-west France, and the Iberian penin- sula, Another belt of similarly disturbed strata of like age traverses Central Europe from west* to east, and is seen in the South of Ireland, Cornwall, North-west France, the Ardennes, the Thiiringerwald, the Erzgebirge, the Riesenge- birge, the Bohmerwald, and other heights of Middle and Southern Germany. Strata of Mesozoic and Cainozoi¢ ag rest upon the older systems in such a way as to show that latter had been much folded, fractured, and denuded before they came to be covered with younger formations. North and north-east of the central belt of ancient rocks just referred to, the sedimentary strata that extend to the shores of the Baltic and over a vast region in Russia, range in age from Palzozoie down to Cainozoic times, and are disposed for the most part in gentle undulations—they are either approximately horizontal or slightly inclined. Unlike the disturbed rocks of the mari- time regions and of Central Europe, they have obviously been subjected to comparatively little folding since the time of their deposition. To the south of the primitive backbone of Central Europe succeeds a region composed superficially of Mesozoic and Cainozoic strata for the most part, which, along with under- lying Palzeozoic and Archzan rocks, are often highly flexed and ridged up, as in the chains of the Jura, the Alps, the Car- pathians, &c. One may say, in general terms, that throughout the whole Mediterranean area Archzean and Paleozoic rocks appear at the surface only when they form the nuclei of moun- tains of elevation into the composition of which rocks of younger age largely enter. gat From this bald and meagre outline of the general geological structure of Europe, we may gather that the leading orographical features of our continent began to be developed at a very early period. Unquestionably the oldest land areas are represented | by the disturbed Archean and Paleozoic rocks of the Atlantic Examination of those tracts . sea-board and Central Europe. shows that they have experienced excessive denudation. The Archzean and Paleozoic masses, distributed along the margin of the Atlantic, are the mere wrecks of what, in earlier ages, must have been lofty regions, the mountain-chains of which may well have rivalled or even exceeded in height the Alps of to-day. They, together with the old disturbed rocks of Central Europe, formed for a long time the only land in our area. Between the ancient Scandinavian tract in the north and a narrow interrupted belt in Central Europe stretched a shallow sea, which covered all the regions that now form our Great Plain ; while immedi- ately south of the central belt lay the wide depression of the Mediterranean—for as yet the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Carpathians were not. Both the Mediterranean and the Russo- Germanic sea communicated with the Atlantic. As time went on, land continued to be developed along the same lines, a result due partly to crustal movements, partly to sedimentation. Thus by and by the relatively shallow Russo-Germanic sea became silted up, while the Mediterranean shore-line advanced south- wards. It is interesting to note that the latter séa, down to the close of Tertiary times, seems always to have communicated freely with the Atlantic, and to have been relatively deep. The Russo-Germanic sea, on the contrary, while now and again opening widely into the Atlantic, and attaining considerable depths in its western reaches, remained on the whole shallow, and ever and anon vanished from wide areas to contract into a series of inland seas and large salt lakes. Reduced to its simplest elements, therefore, the structure of Europe shows two primitive ridges—one extending with some rocks. Avecust 11, 1892] NATURE 351 , : interruptions along the Atlantic sea-board, the other traversing Central Europe from west to east, and separating the area of the Great Plain from the Mediterranean basin. The excessive denudation which the more ancient lands have undergone, and _. uplifts of Mesozoic and of Cainozoic times, together with the comparatively recent submergence of broad tracts in the north and north-west, have not succeeded in obscuring the dominant features in the architecture of our continent. I now proceed to trace, as rapidly as I can, the geographical development of the coast-lines of the Atlantic as a whole, and to point out the chief contrasts between them and those of the Pacific. The extreme irregularity of the Arctic and Atlantic shores of Europe at once suggests to a geologist a partially drowned land, the superficial inequalities of which are account- able for the vagaries of the coast-lines. The fiords of Norway and Scotland occupy what were at no distant date land valleys, the numerous marginal islands of those regions are merely . the projecting portions of a recently sunken area. The conti- nental plateau extends up to and a little beyond the one hundred fathoms line, and there are many indications that the land for- merly reached as far. Thus the sunken area is traversed by valley-like depressions, which widen as they pass out to the edge of the plateau, and have all the appearance of being hol- lows of subaerial erosion. I have already mentioned the fact that the Scandinavian uplands and the Scottish Highlands are the relics of what were at one time true mountains of elevation, nding in the mode of their formation to those of Swit- zerland, and, like these, attaining a great elevation. During subsequent stages of Palzeozoic time, that highly elevated region _ was subjected to long-continued and profound erosion—the mountain country was planed down over wide regions to sea- _ level, and broad stretches of the reduced land surface became submer, Younger Paleozoic formations now accumulated upon the drowned land, until eventually renewed crustal dis- turbance supervened, and the marginal areas of the continental ateau again appeared as dry land, but not, as before, in the form of mountains of elevation. Lofty table-lands now took ie nee of abrupt and serrated ranges and chains—table-lands in their turn, were destined in the course of long ages to be deeply sculptured and furrowed by subaerial agents. During this pro: the European coast-line would seem to have coin- more or less closely with the edge of the continental 1. Finally, after many subsequent movements of the crust in these latitudes, the land became partially submerged— a condition from which North-western and -Northern [Europe mud in recent times to be slowly recovering. Thus the i iy indented coast-line of those regions does not coincide with the edge of the plateau, but with those irregularities of its which are the result of antecedent subaerial erosion. _ - Mention has been made of the Russo-Germanic plain and the Mediterranean as representing original depressions in the conti- nental plateau, and of the high grounds that extend between them as paoms of dominant elevation, which, throughout all the manifold revolutions of the past, would appear to have per- sisted as a more or less well-marked boundary, separating the northern from the southern basin, During certain periods it was no doubt in some degree submerged, but never apparently to the same extent as the depressed areas it served to separate. From time to time uplifts continued to take place along this We central belt, which thus increasedsin breadth, the younger forma- tions, which were accumulated along the margins of the two basins, oy Maas ridged up against nuclei of older The latest great crustal movements in our continent, __ resulting in the uplift of the Alps and other east and west ranges immilat age, have still further widened that ancient belt of of _ dominant elevation which in our day forms the most marked as Ope feature of Europe. _ The Russo-Germanic basin is now for the most part land, the Baltic and the North Sea representing its still submerged por- tions. This basin, as already remarked, was probably never so deep as that of the Mediterranean. We gather as much from the fact that, while mechanical sediments of comparatively shallow-water origin predominate in the former area, limestones are the characteristic features of the southern region. _ Its rela- tive shallowness helps us to understand why the northern de- ion should have been silted up more completely than the iterranean. We must remember also that for long ages it received the drainage of a much more extensive land surface than the latter—the land that sloped towards the Mediterranean NO. 1189, VOL. 46] in Palzozoic and Mesozoic times being of relatively little im- portance. Thus the crustal movements which ever and anon depressed the Russo-Germanic area were, in the long run, counterbalanced by sedimentation. The uplift of the Alps, the Atlas, and other east and west ranges, has greatly contracted the area of the Mediterranean, and sedimentation has also acted in the same direction, but it is highly probable that that sea is now as deep as, or even deeper than, it has ever been. Jt occupies a primitive depression in which the rate of subsidence has exceeded that of sedimentation. In many respects, indeed, this remarkable transmeridional hollow—continued eastward in the Red Sea, the Black Sea, and the Aralo-Caspian depression— is analogous, as we shall see, to the great oceanic trough itself. In the earlier geological periods linear or axial uplifts and voleanic action again and again marked the growth of the land on the Atlantic sea-board. But after Palzeozoic times, no great mountains of elevation came into existence in that region, while volcanic action almost ceased. In Tertiary times, it is true, there was a remarkable recrudescence of volcanic activity, but the massive eruptions of Antrim and Western Scotland, of the Feerde Islands and Iceland, must be considered apart from the general geology of our continent. From Mesozoic times on- wards it was along the borders of the Mediterranean depression that great mountain uplifts and volcanoes chiefly presented them- selves. And asthe land surface extended southwards from Cen- tral Europe, and the area of the Mediterranean was contracted, volcanic action followed the adyancing shore-lines. The occur- rence of numerous extinct and of still existing volcanoes along the borders of this inland sea, the evidence of recent crustal movements so commonly met with upon its margins, the great irregularities of its depths, the proximity of vast axial uplifts of late geological age, and the frequency of earthquake phenomena, all indicate instability, and remind us strongly of similarly constructed and disturbed regions within the area of the vast Pacific. Let us now look at the Arctic and Antarctic coast-lines of North America. From the extreme north down to the latitude of New York the shores are obviously those of a partially sub- merged region. They are of the same type as the coasts of Nogh-ekiern Europe. We have every reason to believe also that the depression of Greenland and North-east America, from which these lands have only partially recovered, dates back to a comparatively recent period. The fiords, and inlets, like those of Europe, are merely half-drowned land valleys, and the continental shelf is crossed by deep hollows which are evidently only the seaward continuations of well-marked terrestrial features. Such, for example, is the case with the valleys of the Hudson and the St. Lawrence, the submerged portions of which can be fol- lowed out to the edge of the continental plateau, which is notched by them at depths of 474 and 622 fathoms respectively. There is, in short, a broad resemblance between the coasts of the entire Arctic and North Atlantic regions down to the latitudes already mentioned. Everywhere they are irregular and fringed with islands in less or greater abundance—highly denuded and deeply incised plateaus being penetrated by fiords, while low-lying and undulating lands that shelve gently seaward are invaded by shallow bays and inlets. Comparing the American with the opposite European coasts, one cannot help being struck with certain other resemblances. Thus Hudson Bay at once suggests the Baltic, and the Gulf of Mexico, with the Caribbean Sea, recall the Mediterranean. But the geological structure of the coast-lands of Greenland and North America betrays a much closer resemblance between these and the opposite shores of Europe than appears on a glance at the map. There is some- thing more than a mere superficial similarity. _In eastern North America and Greenland, just as in Western Europe, no grand mountain uplifts have taken place for a prodigious time. The latest great upheavals, which were accompanied by much folding and flexing of strata, are those of the Appalachian chain and of the coastal ranges extending through New England, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, all of which are of Palzozoic age. Con- siderable crustal movements affected the American coast-lands in Mesozoic times, and during these uplifts the strata suffered fracture and displacement, but were subjected to comparatively little folding, Again, along the maritime borders of North-east America, as in the corresponding coast-lands of Europe, igneous action, more or less abundant in Paleozoic and early Mesozoic times, has since been quiescent. From the mouth of the Hudson to the Straits of Florida the coast-lands are composed of Ter- tiary and Quaternary deposits. This shows that the land has 352 NATURE [AuGcusT 11, 1892 continued down to recent times to gain upon the sea—a result brought about partly by quiet crustal movements, but to a large extent by sedimentation, aided, on the coasts of Florida, by the action of reef-building corals. Although volcanic action has long ceased on the American sea-board, we note that in Greenland, as in the West of Scotland and North of Ireland, there is abundant evidence of volcanic activity at so late a period as the Tertiary. It would appear that the great plateau-basalts of those regions, and of Iceland and the Feerée Islands, were contemporaneous, and possibly connected with an important crustal movement. It has long been suggested that at a very early geological period Europe and North America may have been united. . The great thick- ness attained by the Palzeozoic rocks in the eastern areas of the latter implies the existence of a wide land surface from which ancient sediments were derived. That old Jand must have extended beyond the existing coast-line, but how far we cannot tell. Similarly in North-west Europe, during early Palzeozoic times, the land probably stretched further into the Atlantic than at present. But whether, as some think, an actual land con- nection subsisted between the two continents it is impossible to say. Some such connection was formerly supposed necessary to account for the emigration and immigration of certain marine forms of life which are common to the Palzeozoic strata of both continents, and which, as they were probably denizens of com- paratively shallow water, could only have crossed from one area to another along a shore-line. It is obvious, indeed, that if the oceanic troughs in those early days were of an abysmal character, a land bridge would be required to explain the geographical distribution of cosmopolitan life-forms. But if it be true that subsidence of the crust has been going on through all geological time, and that the land areas have notwithstanding continued to extend over the continental plateau, then it follows that the oceanic trough must be deeper now than it was in Palzeozoic times. There are, moreover, certain geological facts which seem hardly explicable on the assumption that the seas of past ages attained abysmal depths over any extensive areas. The Paleozoic strata which enter so largely into the framework of . -our lands have much the same appearance all the world over, and were accumulated for the most part in comparatively shallow water. A petrographical description of the Paleozoic me- chanical sediments of Europe would serve almost equally well for those of America, of Asia, or of Australia. Take in con- nection with this the fact that Paleozoic faunas had a ~very much wider range than those of Mesozoic and later ages, and were characterized above all by the presence of many cosmo- politan species, and we can hardly resist the conclusion that it was the comparative shallowness of the ancient seas that favoured that wide dispersal of species, and enabled currents to distribute sediments the same in kind over such vast regions. As the -oceanic area deepened and contracted, and the land surface increased, marine faunas were gradually restricted in their range, -and cosmopolitan marine faunas diminished in numbers, while sediments, gathering in separate regions, became more and more differentiated. For these and other reasons, which need not be entered upon here, I see no necessity for supposing that a Palzozoic Atlantis connected Europe with North America. The broad ridge upon which the Feerde Islands and Iceland -are founded, seems to pertain as truly to the oceanic depression as the long Dolphin Ridge of the South Atlantic. The trend of the continental plateau in high latitudes is shown, as I think, by the general direction of the coast-lines of North-Western -Europe and East Greenland, the continental shelf being sub- merged in those regions for a few hundred fathoms only. How the Icelandic ridge came into existence, and what its age may be, we can only conjecture. It may be a wrinkle as old as the oceanic trough which it traverses, or its origin may date back to -a much more recent period. We may conceive it to be an area which has subsided more slowly than the floor of the ocean to the north and:south ; or, on the other hand, it may be a belt of positive elevation. Perhaps the latter is the more probable supposition, for it seems very unlikely that crustal disturbances, resulting in axial and regional uplifts, should have been confined to the continental plateau only. Be that as it may, there seems little doubt that land connection did obtain between Greenland and Europe in Cainozoic times, along this Icelandic ridge, for -telics of the same Tertiary flora are found in Scotland, the Fzrée islands, Iceland, and Greenland. The deposits in which these plant-remains occur are associated with great sheets of volcanic .tocks which in the Feerde Islands and Iceland reach a thickness of NO. 1189, VOL. 46] | period. many thousand feet. Of the same age are the massive basalts of Jan Mayen, Spitzbergen, Franz Joseph Land, and Greenland. These lavas seem seldom to have issued from isolated foci in the manner of modern eruptions, but rather to have welled up along the lines of rectilineal fissures. From the analogy of similar phenomena in other parts of the world it might be inferred that the volcanic action of these northern regions may have been connected with a movement of elevation, and that the Icelandic ridge, if it did not come into existence during the Tertiary period, was at all events greatly upheaved at that time. It would seem most likely, in short, that the volcanic action in question was connected mainly with crustal movements in the oceanic trough. Similar phenomena, as is well known, are met with further south in the trough of the Atlantic. Thus the volcanic Azores rise like Iceland from the surface of a broad ridge which is separated from the continental plateau by wide and deep depressions. And so again, from the back of the great Dolphin Ridge, spring the volcanic islets of St. Paul’s, Ascen- sion, and Tristan d’Acunha. I have treated of the Icelandic bank at some length for the purpose of showing that its volcanic phenomena do not really form an exception to the rule that such eruptions ceased after Palzeozoic or early Mesozoic times to disturb the Atlantic coast- lines of Europe and North America. As the bank in question extends between Greenland and the British Islands, it was only natural that both those regions should be affected by its move- ments. But its history pertains essentially to that of the Atlantic trough; and it seems to show how transmeridional movements of the crust, accompanied by vast discharges of igneous rock, may come in time to form land connections between what are now widely separated areas. : Let us next turn our attention to the coast-lines of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. ‘These enclosed seas have frequently been compared to the Mediterranean, and the resem- blance 1s self-evident. Indeed, it is so close that one may say the Mexican-Caribbean Sea and the Mediterranean are rather homologous than simply analogous. The latter, as we have seen, occupies a primitive depression, and formerly covered a much wider area. It extended at one time over much of Southern Europe and Northern Africa, and appears to have had full communi- cation across Asia Minor with the Indian Ocean, and with the Arctic Ocean athwart the low-lying tracts of North-Western Asia. Similarly, it would seem, the Mexican-Caribbean Sea is the remaining portion of an ancient inland sea which formerly stretched north through the heart of North America to the Arctic Ocean. Like its European parallel, it has been diminished by sedimentation and crustal movements. It re- sembles the latter also in the greatness and irregularity of its depths, and in the evidence which its islands supply of volcanic action as well as of very considerable crustal movements within geological times. Along the. whole northern borders of the Gulf of Mexico the coast-lands, like those on the Atlantic sea- board of the Southern States, are composed of Tertiary and recent accumulations, and the same is the case with Yucatan ; while similar young formations are met with on the borders of the Caribbean Sea and the Antilles. The Bahamas and the Windward Islands mark out for us the margin of the continental plateau, which here falls away abruptly to profound depths. One feels assured that this portion of the plateau has been ridged up to its present level at no distant geological date. But not- withstanding all the evidence of recent extensive crustal move- ments in this region, it is obvious that the Mexican-Caribbean depression, however much it may have been subsequently modi- fied, is of primitive origin.! Sh Before we leave the coast-lands of North America, I would” again point out their leadiag geological features. In a word, then, they are composed for the most part of Archean and Paleozoic rocks ; no great linear or axial uplifts marked by much flexure of strata have taken place in those regions since Palzeozoic times ; while igneous action virtually ceased about the close of the Palzeozoic or the commencemient of the Mesozoic It is not before we reach the shores of the Southern States and the coast-lands of the Mexican-Caribbean Sea that we encounter notable accumulations of Mesozoic, Tertiary, and younger age. These occur in approximately horizontal positions t Professor Suess thinks it is probable that the Caribbean Sea and the Mediterranean are portions of one and the same primitive depression which ' traversed the Atlantic areain early Cretaceous times. He further suggests that it may have been through the gradual widening of this central Medi- terranean that the Atlantic in later times came into existence. ; = attended by tilting and foldi Avcust I1, 1892] NATURE 353 eae round the Gulf of Mexico, but in the Sierra Nevada or Northern Colombia: and the Cordilleras of Venezuela Tertiary strata are ridged up into true mountains of elevation. Thus the Mexi- can-Caribbean depression, like that of the Mediterranean, is characterized not only by its irregular depths and its volcanic omena, but by the propinquity of recent mountains of up- val, which bear the same relation to the Caribbean Sea that the mountains of North Africa do to the Mediterranean. We may now compare the Atlantic coasts of South America with those of Africa. The former coincide in general direction with the edge of the continental plateau, to which they closely between Cape St. Roque and Cape Frio. In the north-east, between Cape Paria, opposite Trinidad, and Cape St. Roque, the continental shelf attains a considerably greater eadth, while south of Cape Frio it gradually widens, until, in the extreme south, it runs out towards the east in the form of a narrow ridge, upon the top of which rise the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. Excluding from consideration for the pre- sent all recent alluvial and Tertiary deposits, we may say that the coast lands from Venezuela down to the South of Brazil are composed principally of Archzean rocks ; the eastern borders of continent further south being formed of Quaternary and Tertiary accumulations. So far as we know, igneous rocks are of rare occurrence on the Atlantic sea-board. Palzeozoic strata roach the coast-lands at various points between the mouths the Amazons and La Plata, and these, with the underlying and surrounding Archzean rocks, are more or less folded and disturbed, while the younger strata of Mesozoic and Cainozoic age (occupying wide regions in the basin of of the Amazons, and here and there fringing the sea-coast), occur in approximately horizontal positions. It would appear, therefore, that no great axial uplifts have taken place in those regions since Palzozoic times. The crustal movements of later ages were regional rather than axial ; the younger rocks are not flexed and mashed together, and their elevation (negative or positive) does not seem to have been accompanied by conspicuous volcanic action. ing width of the continental shelf is due to several causes. The Orinoco, the Amazons, and other rivers descend- ing to the north-west coast, carry enormous quantities of sedi- ment, much of which comes to rest on the submerged slopes of the continental plateau, so that the continental shelf tends to extend seawards. Thesame process takes place on the south-east coast, where the River Plate discharges its muddy waters. South of latitude 40° S., however, another cause has come into play. From the mouth of the Rio Negro to the terminal point of the continent the whole character of the coast betokens a geologically recent emergence, accompanied and followed by considerable marine erosion. So that in this region the continental shelf increases in width by the retreat of the coast-line, while in the north-east it gains by advancing seawards. It is to be noted, however, that even there, in places where the shores are formed of alluvia, the sea tends to encroach upon the land. The Atlantic coast of Africa resembles that of South America in certain respects, but it also offers some important contrasts. As the northern coasts of Venezuela and Colombia must be considered in relation rather to the Caribbean depression than to the Atlantic, so the African sea-board between Cape Spartel and bir Nun pertains structurally to the Mediterranean region. From the southern limits of Morocco to Cape Colony the coastal eights are composed chiefly of Archzean and Paleozoic rocks, low shore-lands showing here and there strata of Mesozoic and Tertiary age together with still more recent deposits. The existing coast-lines everywhere advance close to the edge of the continental plateau, so that the submarine shelf is relatively marrower than that of Eastern South America. The African coast is still further distinguished from that of South America by so) gh of several groups of volcanic islands—Fernando Po others in the Gulf of Guinea, and Cape Verde and Canary Islands. The last-named group, however, notwith- pine ss Trew cope iam position, is probably related rather to the Mediterranean depression than to the Atlantic trough. {road sage structure of the African coast-lands shows that the ear: to come into existence were those that extend be- tween Cape Nun and the Cape of Good Hope. The coastal ranges of that section are much denuded, for they are of very great antiquity, having been ridged up in Paleozoictimes. The later uplifts (negative or positive) of the same region were not of strata, for the Mesozoic and Tertiary deposits, like those of South America, lie in compara- tively horizontal positions. Between Cape Nun and Cape NO. 1189, VOL. 46] Spartel the rocks of the maritime tracts range in age from Palzeozoic to Cainozoic, and have Keen traced across Morocco into Algeria and Tunis. They all belong to the Mediterranean region, and were deposited at a time when the southern shores of that inland sea extended from a point opposite the Canary Islands along the southern margin of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis. Towards the close of the Tertiary period the final up- heaval of the Atlas took place, and the Mediterranean, retreating northwards, became an almost land-locked sea. I need hardly stop to point out how the African coast-lines have been modified by marine erosion and the accumulation of sediment upon the continental shelf. The extreme regularity of the coasts is due partly to the fact that the land is nearly co- extensive with the continental plateau, but it also results in large measure from the extreme antiquity of the land itself. This has allowed of the cutting-back of headlands and the filling- up of bays and inlets, a process which has been going on between Morocco and Cape Colony with probably little interruption for a very prolonged period of time. We may note also the effect of the heavy rains of the equatorial region in washing down detritus to the shores, and in this way protecting the land to some extent from the erosive action of the sea. What now, let us ask, are the outstanding features of the coast-lines of the Atlantic Ocean? We have seen that along the maryins of each of the bordering continents the last series of ~ great mountain-uplifts took place in Palzozoic times. This is true alike for North and South America, for Europe and Africa. Later movements which have added to the extent of land were not marked by the extreme folding of strata which attended the early upheavals. The Mesozoic and Caino- zoic rocks, which now and again form the shore- lands, occur in more or less undisturbed condition. The only great linear uplifts or true mountains of eleva- tion which have come into existence in Western Europe and Northern Africa since the Palzeozoic period trend approxi- mately at right angles to the direction of the Atlantic trough, and are obviously related to the primitive depression of the Mediterranean. The Pyrenees and the Atlas, therefore, although their latest elevation took place in Tertiary times, form no ex- ceptions to the rule that the extreme flexing and folding of strata which is so conspicuous a feature in the geological struc- ture of the Atlantic sea-board dates back to the Palzeozoic era. And the same holds true of North and South America. There all the coastal ranges of highly flexed and folded strata are of Palzeozoic age. The Cordilleras of Venezuela are no doubt a Tertiary uplift, but they are as obviously related to the Carib- bean depression as the Atlas ranges are to that of the Mediter- ranean. Again, we note that volcanic activity along the borders of the Atlantic was much less pronounced during the Mesozoic period than it appears to have been in earlier ages. Indeed, if we except the great Tertiary basalt-flows of the Icelandic ridge and the Arctic regions, we may say that volcanic action almost ceased after the Palzeozoic era to manifest itself upon the Atlantic coast-lands’ of North America and Europe. But while volcanic action has died out upon the Atlantic margins of both continents, it has continued during a prolonged geological period within the area of the Mediterranean depression. And in like manner the corresponding depression between North and South America has been the scene of volcanic disturbances from Mesozoic down to recent times. Along the African coasts the only displays of recent volcanic action that appertain to the continental margin are those of the Gulf of Guinea and the Cape de Verde Islands. The Canary Islands and Madeira may come under the same category, but, as we have seen, they appear to stand in relation- ship to the Mediterranean depression and the Tertiary uplift of North Africa. Of Iceland and’ the Azores I have already spoken, and of Ascension and the other volcanic islets of the South Atlantic it is needless to say that they are related to wrinkles in the trough of the ocean, and therefore have no im- mediate connection with the continental plateau. Thus in the geographical development of the Atlantic ‘coast- lines we may note the following stages:—/irs¢, during Palzeozoic times a series of great mountain-uplifts, which were frequently accompanied by volcanic action. Second, a pro- longed stage of comparative coastal tranquillity, during which the maritime ranges referred to were subject to such excessive erosion that they were planed down to low levels, and in certain areas even submerged. TZ+ird, renewed elevation (negative or positive) whereby considerable portions of the much denuded Archean and Palzozoic rocks, now largely covered by younger 354 NATURE [AucusT 11, 1892 deposits, were converted into high lands. During this stage not much rock-folding took place, nor were any true mountains of elevation formed parallel to the Atlantic margins, It was other- wise, however, in the Mediterranean and Caribbean depressions, where coastal movements resulted in the formation of enormous linear uplifts. Moreover, volcanic action is now and has for a long time been more characteristic of these depressions than of the Atlantic coast-lands. I must now ask you to take a comprehensive glance at the coast-lines of the Pacific Ocean. In some important respects these offer a striking contrast to those we have been considering. Time will not allow me to enter into detailed description, and I must therefore confine attention to certain salient features. Examining first the shores of the Americas, we find that there are two well-marked regions of fiords and fringing islands— namely, the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia, and of South America from 40° S.L. to Cape Horn. Although these regions may be now extending seawards in places, it is obvious that they have recently been subject to submergence. When the fiords of Alaska and British Columbia existed as land valleys it is probable that a broad land connection obtained between North America and Asia. The whole Pacific coast is margined by mountain ranges, which in elevation and boldness far exceed those of the Atlantic sea-board. The rocks entering into their formation range in age from Archzan and Palzozoic, and they are almost everywhere highly disturbed and flexed. It is not necessary, even if it were possible, to consider the geological history ofall those uplifted masses. It is enough for my purpose to note the fact that the coastal ranges of North America and the principal chain of the Andes were all elevated in Tertiary times. It may be remarked further, that from the Mesozoic period down to the present the Pacific borders of America have been the scene of volcanic activity far in excess of what has been experienced on the Atlantic sea-board. Geographically the Asiatic coasts of the Pacific offer a strong contrast to those of the American borders. The latter, as we have seen, are for the most part not far removed from the edge of the continental plateau. The coasts of the mainland of Asia, on the other hand, retire to a great distance, the true margin of the plateau being marked out by that great chain of islands which extends from Kamchatka south to the Philippines and New Guinea. The seas lying between those islands and the mainland occupy depressions in the continental plateau. Were that pla- teau to be lifted up for 6,000 or 7,000 feet the seas referred to would be enclosed by continuous land, and all the principal islands of the Indian Archipelago—Sumatra, Java, Celebes, and New Guinea, would become united to themselves as well as to Australia and New Zealand. In short, it is the relatively depressed condition of the continental plateau along the western borders of the Pacific basin that caused the Asiatic coast-lines to differ so strikingly from those of America. From a geological point of view the differences are less striking than the resemblances. It is true that we have as yet a very imperfect knowledge of the geological structure of Eastern Asia, but we know enough to justify the conclusion that in its main features that region does not differ essentially from Western North America. During Mesozoic and Cainozoic times the sea appears to have overflowed vast tracts of Manchooria and China, and even to have penetrated into what is now the great Desert of Gobi. Subsequent crustal movements revolutionised the geography of all those regions. Great ranges of linear uplifts came into existence, and in these the younger formations, to- gether with the foundations on which they rested, were squeezed into folds and ridged up against the nuclei of Paleozoic and Archzan rocks which had hitherto formed the only dry land. The latest of these grand upheavals are of Tertiary age, and, like those of the Pacificslope of America, they were accompanied by excessive volcanic action. The long chains of islands that flank the shores of Asia we must look upon as a series of partially submerged or partially emerged mountain- ranges, analogous geographically to the coast ranges of North and Central America, and to the youngest Cordilleras of South America. The presence ofnumerous active and recently extinct volcanoes, taken in connection with the occurrence of many great depressions which furrow the floor of the sea in the East Indian Archipelago, and the profound depths attained by the Pacific trough along the borders of Japan and the Kurile and Aleutian Islands—all indicate conditions of very. considerable instability of the lithosphere. We are not surprised, therefore, to meet with much apparently conflicting evidence of elevation No. 1189, VOL. 46] and depression in the coast-lands of Eastern Asia, where im some places the sea would seem to be encroaching, while in other regions it is retreating. In all earthquake-ridden and volcanic areas such irregular coastal changes may be looked for, — So extreme are the irregularities of the sea-floor in the area lying between Australia, the Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides, and New Zealand, and so great are the depths attained by many of the depressions, that the margins of the continental plateau are harder to trace here than anywhere else in the world. The bottom of the oceanic trough throughout a portion of the Southern and Western Pacific is, in fact, traversed by many great mountain rides, the summits of which approach the surface again and again to form the numerous islets of Polynesia. But notwithstanding the considerable depths that separate Australia and New Zealand there. is geological evidence to show that a land connection formerly linked both to Asia. The continental plateau, therefore, must be held to include New Caledonia and New Zealand. Hence the volcanic islets of the Solomon and New Hebrides groups are related to Australia in the same way as the Riu-kiu, Japanese, and Kurile Islands are to sia. Having rapidly sketched the more prominent features of the Pacific coast-lines, we are in a position to realise the remark- able contrast they present to the coast-lines of the Atlantic. The highly folded strata of the Atlantic sea-board are the relics. of great mountains of upheaval, the origin of which cannot be assigned to a more recent date than Paleozoic times. During subsequent crustal movements no mountains of corrugated strata were uplifted along the Atlantic margins, the Mesozoic and Cainozoic strata of the coastal regions showing little or no dis- turbance. It is quite in keeping with all this that volcanic action appears to have been most strongly manifested in Paleozoic times. So many long ages have passed since the upheaval of the Archzan and Paleozoic mountains of the Atlantic séa-board that these heights have everywhere lost the character of true mountains of elevation. Planed down to low levels, partially submerged and covered to some extent by newer formations, they have in many places been again con- verted into dry lands, forming plateaus—now sorely denuded and cut up into mountains and valleys of erosion. Why the later movements along the borders of the Atlantic in should not have resulted in the wholesale plication of the younger sedimentary rocks is a question for geologists. It would seem as if the Atlantic margins had reached a e of comparative stability long before the grand Tertiary uplifts of the Pacific borders had taken place; for, as we have seen, the Mesozoic and Cainozoic strata of the Atlantic coast-lands show little or no trace of having been subjected to tangential thrusting and crushing. Hence one cannot help suspecting that the retreat of the sea during Mesozoic and Cainozoic ages may have been due rather to subsidence of the oceanic trough and to sedimentation within the continental area than to positive. elevation of the land. Over the Pacific trough, likewise, depression has probably been in progress more or less continuously since Palzeozoic times, and this movement alone must have tended to with- draw the sea from the surface of the continental plateau in. Asia and America. But by far the most important coastal changes in those regions have been brought about by the crumpli up of the plateau, and the formation of gigantic mountains o upheaval along its margins. From remotest geological periods down almost to the present the land area has been increased from time to time by the doubling-up and consequent eleva- tion of coastal accumulations and by the eruption of vast masses of volcanic materials. It is this long-continued activity of the plutonic forces within the Pacific area which has caused the coast-lands of that basin to contrast so strongly with those of the Atlantic. The latter are incomparably older than the — former—the heights of the Atlantic borders being mountains of denudation of vast geological antiquity, while the coastal ranges — of the Pacific slope are creations but of yesterday as it were. It may well be that those Cordilleras and mountain-chains reach a greater height than was ever attained by any Palzeozoic aplifts of the Atlantic borders. But the marked disparity in elevation. between the coast-lands of the Pacific and the Atlantic is due chiefly to a profound difference in age. Had the Pacific coast- lands existed for as long a period and suffered as much erosion _ as the ancient rocks of the Atlantic sea-board, they would now: have little elevation to boast of. The coast-lines of the Indian Ocean are not, upon the whole, AvucustT 11, 1892] NATURE 355 far removed from the margin of the continental plateau. The elevation of East Africa for 6000 feet would add only a very narrow belt to the land. This would still leave Madagascar an island, but there are geological reasons for concluding that this island was at a far distant period united to Africa, and it must therefore be considered as forming a portion of the continental plateau. The great depths which now separate it from the mainland are probably due to local subsidence, connected with _ yoleanic action in Madagascar itself and in the Comoro Islands. > southern coasts of Asia, like those of East Africa, approach the edge of the continental plateau, so that an elevation of _ 6000 feet would make little addition to the land area. With the same amount of upheaval, however, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and West Australia, would become united, but without extending much further seawards. Land connection, as we know, existed in Mesozoic times between Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, but the coast-lines of that distant period must have differed considerably from those that would appear were the regions in question to experience now a general eleva- tion. The and Sumatra are flanked on the side of the Indian Ocean by great volcanic ridges, and by uplifts of Tertiary strata, which continue ong the line of the Nicobar and Andaman Islands into Burma. Thus the coast-lines of that section of the Indian Ocean exhibit hi hical development similar to that of the Pacific sea- 1. sewhere, as in Hindustan, Arabia, and East Africa, the coast-lines appear to have been determined chiefly by I I elevations of the land or subsidence of the oceanic h in Mesozoic and Cainozoic times, accompanied by the ling of enormous floods of lava. Seeing, then, that the ific and Indian Oceans are pre-eminently regions which, wn to a recent date, have been subject to great crustal ements and to excessive volcanic action, we may infer at in the development of their coast-lines the sea has played a ery subordinate part. The shores, indeed, are largely pro- ected from marine erosion by partially emerged volcanic ridges a ofl islands and reefs, and to a considerable extent also by the sediment which in tropical regions especially is swept lown to the coast in great abundance by rains and rivers. Moreover, as the geological structure of these regions assures us, the land would appear seldom to have remained sufficiently long at one level to permit of much destruction by waves and | currents. In fine, then, we arrive at the general conclusion that the coast-lines of the globe are of very unequal age. Those of the png > were roe as see back as Paleozoic times by at mountain upli ong the margin of the continental au. Since the close of that period many crustal oscilla- taken place, but no grand mountain ranges have t eee ee momesnin-chains, as we have seen, have suffered extensive de tion, have been planed down to the sea- _ devel, and even submerged. Subsequently converted into land, ly or 3 as the case may have been, they now present nce of plains and plateaus of erosion, often deeply ented by the sea. No true mountains of elevation are met with anyvw in the coast-lands of the Atlantic, while vol- canic action has well-nigh ceased. In short, the Atlantic margins have reached a stage of comparative stability. The L » however, is traversed by at least two well- Ked banks of upheaval—the great meridional Dolphin se, and the approximately transmeridional Fzrdée-Icelandic belt—both of them bearing volcanic islands. But while the coast-lands of the Atlantic proper attained é stability at an early period, those of the Mediterranean »bean depressions have up to recent times been the eat crustal disturbance. Gigantic mountain-chains ed along their margins at so late a period as the nd their shores still witness volcanic activity. _ it the margins and within the troughs of the Pacific ihe) how ; eo oo aia pram is now most remark- ve € coast-lines of that great basin are every- where formed of grand uplifts and volcanic ranges, which, ' Speaking, are comparable in age to those of the Mediterranean and Caribbean 9 vias Along the north- east margin of the Indian Ocean the coast-lines resemble those Ae.“ and East Africa), shores, : have been determined rather by regional elevation or by sub-' NO. 1189, VoL. 46] rehzean and Palzeozoic rocks of the Malay Peninsula. up on the Atlantic sea-board. Meanwhile | sidence of the ocean-floor than by axial uplifts—the chief crustal disturbances dating back to an earlier period than those of the East Indian Archipelago. It is in keeping with this greater age of the western and northern coast-lands of the Indian Ocean that volcanic action is now less strongly manifested in their vicinity. I have spoken of the comparative stability of the earth’s crust within the Atlantic area as being evidenced by the greater age of its coastal ranges and the declining importance of its volcanic phenomena. This relative stability is further shown by the fact that the Atlantic sea-board is not much disturbed by earth- quakes. This, of course, is what might have been expected, for earthquakes are most characteristic of volcanic regions and of those areas in which mountain-uplifts of recent geological age occur. Hence the coast-lands of the Pacific and the East Indies, the borders of the Caribbean Sea, the volcanic ridges of the Atlantic basin, the lands of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Aralo-Caspian depressions, the shores of the Red Sea, and vast tracts of Southern Asia, are the chief earthquake regions of the globe. It may be noted, further, that shocks are not only most frequent but most intense in the neighbourhood of the sea. They appear to originate sometimes in the volcanic ridges and coastal ranges, sometimes under the floor of the sea itself. Now earthquakes, volcanoes, and uplifts are all expres- sions of the one great fundamental fact that the earth is a cool- ing and contracting body, and they indicate the lines of weakness along which the enormous pressures and strains induced by the subsidence of the crust upon its nucleus find relief. We cannot tell why the coast-lands of the Atlantic should have attained at so early a period a stage of relative stability—why no axial uplifts should have been developed along their margins since Paleozoic times. It may be that relief has been found in the wrinkling-up of the floor of the oceanic trough, and consequent formation of the Dolphin Ridge and other great submarine fold- ings of the crust. And it is possible that the growth of similar great ridges and wrinkles upon the bed of the Pacific may in like manner relieve the coast-lands of that vast ocean, and prevent the formation of younger uplifts along their borders. I have already remarked that two kinds of elevatory move- ments of the crust are recognized by geologists—namely, axial and regional uplifts. Some, however, are beginning to doubt, with Professor Suess, whether any vast regional uplifts are possible. Yet the view that would attribute all such apparent elevations of the land to subsidence of the crust under the great oceanic troughs is not without its difficulties. Former sea- margins of very recent geological age occur in all latitudes, and if we are to explain these by sub-oceanic depression, this will compel us to admit, as Suess has remarked, a general lowering of the sea-level of upwards of 1,000 feet. But it is difficult to believe that the sea-floor could have subsided to such an extent in recent times. Suess thinks it is much more probable that the high-level beaches of tropical regions are not contemporaneous with those of higher latitudes, and that the phenomena are best explained by his hypothesis of a secular movement of the ocean —the water being, as he contends, alternately heaped up at the equator and the poles. The strand-lines in high latitudes, how- ever, are certainly connected with glaciation in some way not yet understood. And if it cannot be confidently affirmed that they indicate regional movements of the land, the evidence, nevertheless, seems to point in that direction. In concluding this imperfect outline-sketch of a large subject, I ought perhaps to apologize for having trespassed so much upon the domains of geology. But in doing so I have only followed the example of geologists themselves, whose divagations in territories adjoining their own are naturally not infrequent. From much that I have said, it will be gathered that with regard to the causes of many coastal changes we are still groping in the dark. It seems not unlikely, however, that as light increases we may be compelled to modify the view that all oscillations of the sea-level are due to movements of the lithosphere alone. That is a very heretical suggestion ; but that a great deal can be said for it anyone will admit after a candid perusal of Suess’s monumental work, ‘‘ Das Antlitz der Erde.” SECTION G. MECHANICAL SCIENCE, OPrENING ADDRESS BY W, CAWTHORNE UNWIN, F.R.S., M.Inst.C.E., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. By what process selection is made of a Sectional President of the British Association is to me unknown. I may confess that 356 NATURE [AuGusT 11, £892 it was pleasant to receive the request of the Council to preside at the meetings of Section G, even though much of the pleasure was due to its unexpectedness. I ventured to believe I might accept the honour gratefully, trusting to your kindness to assist me in fulfilling its obligations. Amongst engineers there are many with greater claims than I have to such a position, and who could speak to you from a wider practical experience. Here in Section G, I think it may be claimed that the profession of engineering owes much to some who from circumstances or natural bias have concerned themselves more with those scien- tific studies and experimental researches which are useful to the engineer, than with the actual carrying on of engineering opera- tions. Here, at so short a distance from the University where Rankine and James Thomson laboured, I may venture to feel proud of being amongst those whose business it has been rather to investigate problems than to execute works. The year just passed is not one unmemorable in the annals of engineering. By an effort remarkable for its rapidity, and as an example of organization of labour, the broad gauge system has been extinguished. It has disappeared like some prehistoric mammoth, a large-limbed organism, perfect for its purpose and created in a generous mood, but conquered in the struggle for existence by smaller but more active rivals. If we recognize that the great controversy of fifty years ago has at last been de- cided against Brunel, at least we ought to remember that the broad gauge system was one only of many original experiments due to his genius and courage, experiments in every field of en- gineering, in bridge building, in locomotive design, in ship con- struction, the successes and failures of which have alike enlarged the knowledge of engineers and helped the progress of engineering. ‘The past year has seen the completion of the magnificent scheme of water supply for Liverpool, from the Vyrnwy, car- ried out from 1879 to 1885 by Mr. Hawksley and Mr. Deacon, and since then completed under the direction cf the latter engin- eer. ‘This is one of the largest and most striking of those works of municipal engineering rendered necessary by the growth of great city communities and made possible by their wealth and public spirit. For the supply of water to Liverpool, the largest artificial lake in Europe has been created in mid-Wales, by the contruction across a mountain valley of a dam of cyclopean masonry, itself one of the most remarkable masonry works in the world. The lake contains an available supply of over 12,000 million gallons, its size having been determined not only to sup- ply forty million gallons daily for the increasing demand of Liverpool, but also to meet the necessity imposed by Parliament that an unprecedentedly large compensation, amounting to ten million gallons daily and fifty million gallons additional on thirty-two days yearly, should be afforded to the Severn. The masonry dam, though a little less in height than some fof the French dams, is of greater length. length of the great dam at Verviers.1. Athough masonry dams were an old expedient of engineers, it is in quite recent times, and chiefly in consequence of the scientific investigations of French engineers, that they have been revived in engineering practice. Since the completion of the Vyrnwy dam, another very large dam, the Tansa dam, has been completed in Bom- bay. ‘This dam has a length of two miles and a height of 118 feet, and it is 100 feet thick at the base, The reservoir will sup- ply 100 million gallons per day. In the United Statesa still greater work of the same kind has been commenccd on the Cro- ton river, in connection with the water supply of New York. This dam will have a length of 2000 feet, and a height of 285 feet. Its greatest thickness will be 215 feet. It will be very much the boldest work of its kind. Returning to the Liverpool supply, the water taken from the lake at the most suitable level into a straining tower provided with very complete hydraulic machinery, passes through the Hirnant tunnel, and thence by an aqueduct, partly consisting of rock tunnels, partly of pipes 39in. to 42in. in diameter, sixty- eight miles in length, being the longest aqueduct yet construc- ted. The crossing of the Mersey by an aqueduct tunnel has proved the greatest engineering difficulty to be surmounted, The tunnel has been carried through layers of running sand, gravel, and silt. At first slow progress was made, but later, by the adoption of the Greathead system of shield, with air t The length of the dam from rock to rock is 1172 feet. Height from lowest part of foundation to parapet of carriage way, 161 feet. Height from bed of river to overflow sill, 84 feet. Thickness of masonry at base, 120 feet, NO. 1189, VOL. 46] It is nearly double the” locks and air-compressing machinery, as much as fifty-seven feet. of tunnel were driven and lined in one week. The whole work. is now complete, and Liverpool has available an extra supply of very pure water, amounting to forty million gallons daily. A scheme of water supply for Manchester from Lake Thirle- — mere in Westmoreland, on an equally large scheme, is approach- ing completion. Birmingham is likely to carry out another work of the same kind. And London, at a greater distance from pure water sources and under greater difficulties from the complexity of existing interests, has come to realize that, within. fifty years, a population of 124 millions will probably have to be provided for. To supply such a population, a volume of water is required ten times as great as the whole available supply from. Lake Vyrnwy. Here in Edinburgh one remembers that the birth-place of the steam-engine is near at hand. A century and a quarter ago James Watt made an invention which has profoundly influenced all the conditions ofsocial, national, commercial, and industrial life. It is due to the steam-engine more than to any other in a cause that the population in this country has tripled since the beginning of the century, and that we have become dependent on steam-power for fuel, for transport, for manufactures, in many cases for water supply, for sanitation, and for artificial light. From some German statistics it appears that there are probably now in the world, employed in industry, steam-engines. exerting 49 million horse-power, besides locomotives exerting six million horse-power. Engines in steam-ships are not included. The steam-engine has become a potent factor in civilization, because it places at our disposal mechanical energy at a sufficiently low cost, and the efforts of engineers have been steadily directed to diminishing the cost at which steam-power is produced. Members of one great branch of our profession are much concerned in the production of mechanical energy at a sufficiently cheap rate. They require it in very large quantity for transformation into light and for re-transformation into mechanical energy under conditions more convenient than the direct use of steam-power. Perhaps.it will not be inappropriate if in Section G I first discuss briefly some of the causes which have made the steam-engine inefficient and the extent to which we are getting to a scientific knowledge of the methods of evad- ing them. I propose then to consider some of the methods of economizing the cost and increasing the convenience of mechanical power by generating it at central stations and dis- tributing it, and lastly, how far means of transporting energy are likely to make available cheaper sources of energy than steam-power. Let us go back for a moment to James Watt. The most dis- tinct feature about the invention of the steam-engine is that it arose out of studies of such questions as the relation of pressure and temperature of steam, the heat absorbed in producing it, and its volume at different pressures. i Armed with this knowledge, Watt was able to determine that the quantity of steam used in a model atmospheric engine was enormously greater than that due to the volume describ by the piston. There was waste or loss, was to get on the path of finding a remedy. The separate condenser, by diminishing cylinder condensation, annulled a great part of the loss, So great was Watt’s insight into the action of the engine that he was able to leave it so perfect that, except in one respect, little remained for succeeding engine builders, except to perfect the machines for its manufacture, to improve its details, and to adapt it to new purposes. Now it very early became clear that there were two directions of advance which ought to secure greater economy. Simple mechanical indications showed that increased expansion ought to ensure increased economy. Thermodynamic considerations indicated that higher pressures, involving a greater temperature range of working, ought to secure greater economy. But in attempting to advance in either of these directions, engineers were more or less disappointed. Some of Watt’s engines worked with 5 lbs. - Many engines of coal per indicated horse-power per hour. with greater pressures and longer expansions have done but little better, The history of steam-engine improvement for 2 quarter of a century has been an attempt to secure the advan- tages of high pressures and high ratios of expansion. The difficulty to be overcome has proved to be due to the same cause as the inefficiency of Watt’s model engine. The separate condenser diminished, but it did not annul, the action of the cylinder wall. The first experiments which really startled thoughtful steam engineers were those made by Mr. Isherwood, To discover the loss Avcust 11, 1892] NATURE 357 re] between 1860 and 1865. Mr. Isherwood showed that in engines such as those then in use in the United States Navy, with the large cylinders and low speeds then prevalent, any expansion of the steam beyond three times led, not to an increased economy, but to an increased consumption of steam. Very little later than this M. Hirn undertook, in 1871-5, his classical researches on the action of the steam in an engine of about 150 indicated horse-power. Experiments of greater accuracy or complete- ness, or of greater insight into the conditions which were im- portant, have never since heen made, and Hirn with his assis- tants, MM. Hallaner and Dwelshauvers Dery, has determined, once for all, the whole method of a perfect steam-engine trial. _M. Hirn was the first to clearly realize that the indicator gives the means of determining the steam present in the cylinder ing every period of the cycle of the engine. Consequently, ting in ordinary cases being out of the question, we have the means of determining the heat present and the heat already converted into work. The heat delivered into the pir et is known from boiler measurements, combined with i ic tests of the quality of the steam, tests which Hirn was the first to undertake. The balance or heat unaccounted for is, then, a waste or loss due to causes which have to be investigated. Hirn originated a complete method of analysis of an engine test, showing at every stage of the operation the heat accounted for and a balance of heat unaccounted for; and the latter proved to be a very considerable quantity. Meanwhile theoretical writers, especially Rankine and Clau- sius, had been perfecting a thermodynamic theory of the steam- engine, based primarily on the remarkable and irrefragable ace dl of Carnot. The result of Hirn’s analysis was to show that theories, applied to the actual steam-engine, were liable to lead to errors of 50 or 60 per cent., the single false assumption made being that the interaction between the walls of the cylinder and the steam was an action small enough to be n Brod n this country Mr. Mair Rumley, following Hirn’s method, made a series of experiments on actual engines with great care and accuracy and completeness. All these experiments demon- strated the fact of a large initial condensation of steam on the walls of the cylinder, alike in jacketed and unjacketed engines, This condensed steam is re-evaporated partially during expan- sion, but mainly during exhaust, and serves as a mere carrier of heat from boiler to condenser, in conditions not permitting its utilization in producing work. It became clear from Hirn’s experiments, if not from the earlier experiments of Isherwood, that for each engine there is a pa r ratio of expansion for which the steam expenditure horse-power is least. Professor Dery has since deduced | them that the practical condition of securing the greatest efficiency is that the steam at release should be nearly dry. In roducing that dryness the jacket has an important influence. n spite of much controversy amongst practical engineers about the use of the jacket, it does not appear that any trustworthy experiment has yet been adduced in which there was an actual loss of efficiency due to the jacket. In the older type of com- paratively slow engines it is a rule that the greater the jacket condensation the greater the economy of steam, even when the jacket condensation approaches 20 per cent. of all the steam used. It appears, however, that as the speed of the engine increases, the influence of the jacket diminishes, so that for any engine there is a limit of speed at which the value of the jacket becomes insignificant. _ Among steam-engine experiments directed specially to deter- mine the action of the cylinder walls, those of the late Mr. Willans should be specially mentioned. Mr. Willans’ death is to be deplored as a serious loss to the engineering profession. His steam-engine experiments, some of them not yet published, are models of what careful experiments should be. They are =. experiments designed to indicate the effect of changes _each of the practically variable conditions of working. They showed a sachs greater variation of steam consumption (from 46 to 18 lbs. per indicated horse-power hour) in different con- ditions of working than, I think, most practical engineers sus- pected, and this has been made more significant in later experi- ments, on engines working with less than full load. The first series showed that in full load trials the compound was superior to the simple engine in practically all the conditions tried, but that the triple was superior to the compound only when certain limits of pressure and speed were passed. As early as 1878 Prof. Cotterill had shown that the action of NO. 1189, VOL. 46] a cylinder wall was essentially equivalent to that of a very thin metallic plate, following the temperature of the steam. The exceedingly rapid dissipation of heat from the surface during exhaust especially being due to the evaporation of a film of water initially condensed on its surface. In permanent 7¢yime the heat received in admission must be equal to that lost after cut off. In certain conditions it appeared that a tendency would arise to accumulate water on the cylinder surfaces, with the effect of increasing in certain cases the energy of heat dissipa- tion. Recently Prof. Cotterill has been able to carry much further the analysis of the complex action of condensation and re-evaporation in the cylinder, and to discriminate in some | degree between the action of the metal and the more ambiguous action of the water film. By discarding the less important actions, Prof. Cotterill has found it possible to state a semi- empirical formula for cylinder condensation in certain restricted cases which very closely agrees with experiments on a wide variety of engines. It is to be hoped that, with the data now accumulating, a considerable practical advance may be made in the clearing up of this complex subject. There are, no doubt, some people who are in the habit of depreciating quantitative investigations of this kind. They are as wise as if they recom- mended a manufacturer to carry on his business without attend- ing to his account books. Further, the attempt to obtain any clear guidance from experiments on steam-engines has proved a hopeless failure without help from the most careful scientific analysis. There is not a fundamental practical question about the thermal action of the steam-engine, neither the action of jackets or of expansion or of multiple cylinders, as to which contradictory results have not been arrived at, by persons attempting to deduce results from the mass of engine tests with- out any clear scientific knowledge of the conditions which have affected particular results. In complex questions fundamental principles are essential in disentangling the results. Inter- preted by what is already known of thermodynamic actions, there are very few trustworthy engine tests which do not fall into: a perfectly intelligible order. There is only one known method, not now much used, by which the cylinder condensation can be directly combated. Thirty years ago superheating the steam was adopted with very considerable increase of economy. It is likely that it was thought by the inventor of superheating that an advantage would be gained by increasing the tempera- ture range. If so, his theory was probably a mistaken one. For the cooling action of the cylinder is so great that the steam is reduced to saturation temperature before it has time to do work ; but the economy due to superheating was unquestionable, and was very remarkable considering how small a quantity of heat is involved in superheating. The heat appears to diminish the cylinder wall action so much as almost to render a jacket un- neces-ary. The plan of superheating was abandoned from purely practical objections, the superheaters then constructed being dangerous. Recently superheating has been tried again at Mulhouse by M. Meunier, and his experiments are interesting because they are at higher pressures than in the older trials and with a compound engine. It appears that even when the super- heater was heated by a separate fire there was an economy of steam of 25 to 30 per cent. and an economy of fuel of 20 to 25: per cent., and four boilers with superheating were as efficient as- five without it. It may be pointed out as a point of some practical importance that if a trustworthy method of superheating could be found, the advantage of the triple over the compound engine would be much diminished. For marine purposes the triple engine is. perfectly adapted. But for other purposes it is more costly than the compound engine, and it is less easily arranged to work efficiently with a varying load. There does not seem much prospect of exceeding the efficiency attained already in the best engines, though but few engines are really as efficient as they might be, and there are still plenty of engines so designed that they are exceedingly uneconomical. The very best engines use only from 12 to 13 lbs. of steam per indicated horse-power hour, having an absolute efficiency reckoned on the indicated power of 16 per cent., or reckoned on the effective power, 13 percent. The efficiency, including the loss in the boiler, is only about 9 per cent. But there are in- ternal furnace engines of the gas-engine or oil-engine type in which the thermal efficiency is double this. In his interesting address to this Section in 1878, Mr. Easton expressed the opinion that the question of water-power was one deserving more consideration than it had lately received, and he 358 NATURE [AuGusT 11, 1892 pointed to the variation of volume of flow of streams as the principal objection to their larger utilization. Since that time the progress made in systems of transporting and distributing power has given quite a new importance to the question of the utilization of water-power. There seems to be a probability that in many localities water-power will, before long, be used on a quite unprecedented scale, and under conditions involving so great convenience and economy that it may involve a quite sensible movement of manufacturers towards districts where water- power is available. If we go back to a period not very distant in the history of the world, to the middle of the last century, we reach the time when textile manufactures began to pass from the condition of purely domestic industries to that of a factorysystem. The fly- shuttle was introduced in 1750, the spinning-jenny was invented in 1767, and Crompton’s machine only began to be generally used in 1787. It was soon found that the new machines were most suitably driven by a rotary motion, and after some attempts to drive them by horses, water- power was generally resorted to. In an interesting pamphlet on the Rise of the Cotton Trade, by John Kennedy, of Ardwick Hall, written in 1815, it is pointed out that the necessity of locating the mills where water-power was available, had the disadvantages of taking them away from the places where skilled workmen were found, and from the markets for the manufactured goods. Nevertheless, Mr. Kennedy states that for some time after Arkwright’s first mill was built at Cromford, all the principal mills were erected near river falls, no other power than water-power having heen found practically useful. ‘‘ About 1790,” says Mr. Kennedy, ‘‘ Mr. Watt’s. steam-engine began to be understood, and waterfalls became of less value. Instead of carrying the workpeople to the power, it was found preferable to place the power amongst the people.” The whole tendency of the conditions created by the use of steam-power has been to concentrate the industrial population in large communities, and to restrict manufacturing operations to large factories. Economy in the production of power, economy in superintendence, the convenience of the subdivision of labour, and the costliness of the machines employed, all favoured the growth of large factories. The whole social con- ditions of manufacturing centres have been profoundly influenced by these two conditions—that coal for raising steam can be easily brought to any place where it is wanted, and that steam-power is more cheaply produced on a large scale than on a small scale. It looks rather, just now, as if facilities for distributing power will to some extent reverse this tendency. Let me first point out that water- power, where it is available, is so much cheaper and more convenient than steam-power that it has never been quite vanquished by steam-power. find, from a report by Mr. Weissenbach, that in 1876 70,000 horse-power derived from waterfalls were used in manu- facturing in Switzerland. According to a census in 1880, it appears that the total steam and water-power employed in manufacturing operations in the United States was 3,400,000 horse-power, Of this, 2,185,000 horse-power, or 64 per cent., was derived from steam, and 1,225,000 horse-power, or 36 per cent., from water. In the manufacture of cotton and woollen goods, of paper and of flour, 760,000 horse-power were obtained from water, and 515,000 horse-power from steam. If statistics could be obtained from other countries, I believe it would be found that a very large amount of water-power is actually made available. The firm of Escher Wyss and Company, of Zurich, have constructed more than 1800 turbines of an aggregate power of 111,460 horse-power. With a very limited exception all the water-power at present used is employed in the neighbourhood of the fall where it is generated. If means were available for transporting the power from the site of the fall to localities more convenient for manu- factures, there can be no doubt that a much larger amount of water-power would be used, and the relative importance of water and steam power in some countries would probably be reversed. It is because recent developments seem to make such a transport of power possible without excessive cost and without excessive loss, that a most remarkable interest has been excited in the question of the utilization of water-power. Take the case of Switzerland for instance. At the present time Switzer- land is said to pay to other countries £800,000 annually for coal. But the total available water-power of Switzerland is estimated at no less than 582,000 horse-power, of which prob- ably only 80,000 are at present utilized. I found a year ago NO. 1189, VOL. 46] that nearly every large industrial concern in Switzerland was preparing to make use of water-power, transported a greater or less distance. Besides the great schemes actually carried out at Schaffhausen, Bellegarde, Geneva, and Zurich, where water- _ power is already utilized on a very large scale, there is a pro- ject to develop 10,000 horse-power on the Dranse near -Martigny. He nce it is easy to see that problems of distribution of power —that is, the transformation of energy into forms easily trans- portable and easily utilizable—have now a great interest for engineers. Besides the power required for manufacturing operations, there is a steadily increasing demand for easily available mechanical energy in large towns. For tramways, for lifts, for handling goods, for small industries, for electric lighting, and sometimes for sanitation, power is required. Hitherto steam- engines, or more lately gas-engines, have been used, placed near the work to be done. But this sporadic generation of power is uneconomical and costly, especially when the work is intermittent ; the cost of superintendence is large, and the risk of accident considerable. Hence attention is being directed to systems in which the mechanical energy of fuel or falling water is first generated in large central stations, transformed into some form in which it is conveniently transportable and capable of being rendered available by simpler motors than steam- engines. Sora Just as in great towns it has become necessary to supersede private means of water supply by a municipal supply ; just as it has proved convenient to distribute coal-gas ge lighting and heating, and to provide a common system of sewerage, so it will probably be found convenient to have in all large towns some means of obtaining mechanical power in any desired quantity at a price proportionate to the quantity used, and in a form in which it can be rendered available, either directly or by simple motors requiring but little skilled superintendence. Telodynamic Transmission.—First, then, let me say a few words as to the modes of distributing power which it is possible to adopt. In 1850, at Logelbach in Alsace, M. Ferdinand Hirn used a flat steel belt to transmit power directly a distance of eighty metres. Subsequently a wire rope was used on grooved pulleys. This worked so well that a second transmission to a distance of 240 metres was erected. The details of the system were worked out with great care with a view to securing the least cost of construction, the least waste of energy, and the greatest durability of the ropes. So successful did this system of telodynamic transmission prove that within ten years M. Martin Stein, of Mulhouse, had erected 400 transmissions, conveying 4200 horse-power, and covering a distance of 72,000 metres. Just at this time a very able and far-seeing manufacturer at Schaffhausen, Herr Moser, had formed a project for reviving the failing industries of the town by utilizing part of the water- power of the Rhine: Hirn’s system of wire-rope transmission rendered this project practicable. The works were commenced » in 1863. Three turbines of 750 horse-power were erected on a tall which varies from 12 to 16 feet, created by a weir across the river. From the turbines the power is transmitted by two cables, in one span of 392 feet, across the river. Similar cables distribute the power to factories along the river bank. In 1870 the transmission extended to a distance of 3400 feet. Power is sold at rates varying from £5 to £6 per horse-power per annum. In 1887 there were twenty-three consumers of power paying a rental of £3500 per annum for power. The project been financially successful, and is still working. At Zurich, Freiberg, and Bellegarde there aresimilar installations, and a large scheme of the same kind has recently been carried out at Gokak in India. Wire-ropetransmissions are of great mechanical simplicity, and the loss of power in transmission is exceedingly small. They are extremely suitable for certain cases where a moderate amount of power has to be transmitted a moderate distance, to one or to a few factories. On the other hand, they become cumbrots if the amount of power transmitted exceeds 600 or 1000 horse-power. The wear of the ropes, which only last a year, has proved greater than was expected, and is a source of considerable expense. The practical introduction of a system of distributing power by pressure water is due to Lord Armstrong. Suchasystem in- volves a central pumping station, a series of dicteie ‘i and suitable working motors. From its first introduction th peculiar advantages of this system for driving intermittently working machines, such as lifts, dock machinery, railway cranes, AucusT 11, 1892] NATURE 359 f and hauling gear, became obvious. But, with intermittent working machines, there rose the need of an appliance for toring energy during periods of minimum demand and restoring it in periods of maximum demand. The invention of the accu- mulator by Lord Armstrong made the system of hydraulic transmission a success, and at the same time fixed its character as a system specially adapted for those cases where intermittent work is required to be done. Lord Armstrong’s system of hydraulic distribution by water at a pressure of 700 or 800 lbs, Square inch, with the use of accumulators for equalizing the variations of supply and demand, has now been widely adopted. The most extensive scheme of that kind hitherto executed is the important scheme carried out by the Hydraulic Power Company. Over fifty miles of pressure mains have now been laid in the streets of London. The Falcon Wharf pumping station con- tains four sets of compound pumping engines, each of 200 horse- power. Two additional pumping stations have now been conga and 1500 lifts are worked from the pressure mains. fhe minimum charge for water is 2s. per 1000 gallons. This rate of charge is economical for such machines as lifts, but it would be extravagant for machines working continuously. It would be e piiege to a charge of nearly £50 per horse-power _ per year of 3000 working hours, apart from interest and main- tenance of machines. I shall indicate later on that in some cases where local con- ditions are favourable, where there is cheap water-power, and the possibility of constructing high-level storage reservoirs, then ission can be adopted with success for distribu- ting power for ordinary manufacturing purposes. But neither ynamic transmission nor hydraulic transmission have proved witable as methods for the general distribution of motive power from central stations. Distribution by steam and distribution by heated water have both been tried in the United States, but not with very remarkable success. Only two other methods are ‘ail ible- distribution by compressed air and distribution by yr many years compressed air has been used to distribute in tunnelling and mining operations to considerable It is only recently that it has been used as a general method of distributing power to many consumers.. In many installations the machinery has been rough and unscientific, and the waste of energy very considerable. It is through experience gained and improvements carried out in the remarkable system now at work in Paris, and known as the Popp system, that the . ea ape ed of compressed air distribution have been proved. The Paris system has very gradually developed. About 1870 a ll compressing station was erected to actuate public and private clocks by intermittent pulses of air conveyed along pipes ahiefly laid in the sewers. In 1889 about 8000 clocks were thus driven. Meanwhile the compressed air had also been lied postive ss for small industries. The demand for power thus supplied grew so rapidly that a second compressin ‘station was built in the Ruede Saint Fargeau. In 1885 pris. air sors of 2000 horse-power were at work, and additional compressors were under construction. The pressure at that time was five atmospheres, and the largest air mains were 12 inches in diameter. Ingenious and simple rotary machines were used as air motors for small powers, and for larger powers cond gees steam-engine was converted into an air motor. Prof. Kennedy made tests in 1889, which were communicated to this Association. He found that a motor four miles from the compressing station indicated 10 horse-power for 20 indicated horse power expended at the compressing station, an efficiency of 50 per cent. only. There were then 225 motors worked from the air mains. _ Since 1889 more extended investigations have been made by Professor Riedler, of Berlin, and the chief part of the waste of work has been traced to inefficiency of the air compressors, . nd air compressors of much higher efficiency have now been constructed. The plant at the Saint Fargeau station has been increased to horse-power. A new station has been erected on the Quai de la Gare, intended ultimately to contain compressors of 24,000 horse-power. Compressors of 10,000 horse-power are already under construction. Compre: air transmission, whether or not it is the most economical system, is undoubtedly applicable for the distribu- tion of power on a very large scale and to very considerable dis- tances, There is nothing in any of the appliances which is novel or imperfectly understood. The air is used in the con- sumer’s premises in machinery of well-understood types, and NO. 1189, VOL. 46] old steam engines can be converted into air motors without difficulty and without alteration of existing transmissive machinery in the factories. Not least important, the air can be measured with accuracy enough for practical purposes by simple meters, and charged for in proportion to the power con- sumed, Air compressors and air motors are not as efficient as dynamos and electric motors, but in one respect distribution by air and electricity are similar. For distances which are not more than a few miles the loss of energy in transmission is small enough to be insignificant. There is yet one other mode of power distribution which promises to become the most important of all, and which, in the case of transmission to very great distances, if such trans- mission becomes necessary, has undoubtedly great advantages over every other method. About electrical distribution of power I shall not venture to say much, partly because I am not an electrical expert, partly because it has been lately pretty fully discussed. In the United States there has been an enormous development of electric tramways, which are essentially cases of electric power distri- bution. In this country we have the South London and some other railways worked electrically. There are others also on the Continent. But electrical power distribution to private consumers for industrial purposes has not yet made as much progress as might have been expected. Perhaps electrical en- gineers have been so busy with problems of electric lighting that they have had no time to settle the corresponding problems of power distribution. No doubt continuous current distribution presents at the moment the fewest difficulties, or, at any rate, involves the fewest comparatively untried expedients. Several continuous-current plants for distributing power are in operation, of which perhaps the most interesting is that at Oyonaz, which was described in Section G last year by Prof. G. Forbes. There 300 horse- power obtained by turbines is transmitted 8 kilometres at 1800 volts. It is then let down by motor transformers to a voltage suitable for lighting and driving motors. A number of small workshops are driven, the power being supplied at a fixed rent. At the Calumet and Hecla mines on Lake Superior, at the Dalmatia mines in California, and some other places, energy derived from turbines is transmitted distances of a mile or two by continuous electric currents and used in driving mining ma- chinery, and some cases of the use of electrical distribution in mines in this country were mentioned by my predecessor in his address last year. At Bradford a few electric motors are being worked from the electric lighting mains. The largest of these is of twenty horse- power. The price at which the electricity is supplied is not given, but I believe the cost is high when reckoned for con- tinuous working. It would seem that it must be so when the electric current is generated by steam power. At Schaffhausen an electric transmission has now been con- structed alongside of the wire-rope transmission. The power is derived from two turbines, and is transmitted across the Rhine, a distance of 750 yards, at 624 volts. The current drives a spinning-mill, in which the largest motor is 380 horse-power. The power is sold, I believe, at £3 per horse-power of the motors per annum. Many engineers have now apparently come to the conclusion that alternating currents will be better for power transmission to considerable distances than continuous currents. One inter- esting alternate current transmission, partly for power, partly for lighting purposes, has been for some time in operation at Genoa. On the line of the aqueduct bringing water from the Gorzente rivulet three electric stations are being established. The reser- voirs are 2050 feet above Genoa, and as this is a much greater fall than is required for water-supply purposes, part can be used to generate about 1600 horse-power. n the first of the power stations erected there are turbines of 450 horse-power driving two dynamos. A second larger station was completed in November. In this there are eight alternate- current dynamos of 70 horse-power each. Six alternators are worked in series, transmitting a current of 6000 volts. The current is transmitted sixteen miles by bare copper wires, 8°5 mm. diameter, placed overhead. The current is used both for lighting and power purposes. ‘ _ Another method of using Bare currents was adopted in the remarkable experiment at Frankfort last year. In that case energy obtained by turbines at Lauffen was transmitted to 360 NATURE | AucustT 11, 1892 Frankfort, a distance of 108 miles, and used for lighting and driving a motor. The current was obtained at low tension, transformed up to a tension of 18,000 to 27,000 volts for trans- mission, and then transformed down again for distribution. The loss in the conducting wires ranged from 5 horse-power when the turbines worked at 100 horse-power, to 25 horse-power when the turbines worked at 200 horse-power. ‘The efficiency of dynamo, two transformers, and line ranged from 68 to 75 per cent,, a remarkably satisfactory result. There can be little doubt that if efficient and durable trans- formers can be constructed, they do give a considerable advan- tage to an alternate-current system. ‘To an ordinary engineer it appears also that the system of producing current at a low tension in the dynamo, and using it at low tension in the motors, permits the construction of dynamos and motors more mechani- cally unexceptionable than those worked at high voltage. I have spoken of the growth of a demand for power distributed in a convenient form in towns. The power distribution in London, Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool by pressure water, and that by compressed air in Paris, shows how rapidly, when power is available, a demand for it arises. A striking instance may be found in the small town of Geneva. In 1871, soon after the completion of the earlier system of low-pressure water supply, Col. Turrettini applied to the muni- cipal council to place a pressure engine on the town mains for driving the factory of the Society for Manufacturing Physical Instruments. The plan proved so convenient that nine years after, in 1880, there were in Geneva III water-motors supplied from the low-pressure mains, using 34,000,000 cubic feet of water annually, and paying to the municipality nearly £2000 a year. The cost of the power was not low. It was charged at a rate -equivalent to from 436 to £48 per horse-power per year of 3000 working hours. But even the high price did not prevent the use of power so conveniently obtainable. Since then a high-pressure water service has been established, the water being pumped by turbines in the Rhone. From this high-pressure service power is supplied more cheaply. On the high-pressure system the cost of the power is about 0°7d. per ihorse-power hour, or £8 per horse-power for 3000 working hours. In 1889 the annual income from water sold for power pur- poses on the low-pressure system was £2085 and on the high- pressure system £4500. On the high-pressure system the receipts in 1889 were increasing at the rate of £880 per year. In 1889 the motive power distributed, on the high-pressure system alone, amounted to 1,500,000 horse-power hours, there being seventy-nine motors of an aggregate working power of 1279 horses. In Zurich there is quite a similar system and power, amount- ing to 9,000,000 horse-power hours in the year, distributed hy- draulically to various consumers, who pay a rental of £1200 per annum. It will be noted that all this power in Geneva and Zurich is obtained from water which has been pumped, and it is ithe low cost of the water-power which does the pumping which makes this possible. But, further, in both Geneva and Zurich the whole of the ‘dynamos supplying electric light are also driven by turbines using pumped water. The convenience of this arises in this way. The fall obtainable in the river in both cases is a small one, and varies. Large turbines are required, and these cannot work at aconstant speed. Further, it is expensive to use these large low-pressure turbines to drive directly dynamos which only work with aconsiderable load for a short portion of the day. The low-pressure turbines in the river are therefore used to pump water to a high-level reservoir, and they work with a constant load all the twenty-four hours, From the high-level reservoir water is taken as power is re- quired to drive the dynamos, and the turbines driving the dynamos are small high-pressure turbines, working always on aconstant fall at a regular speed, and easily adjusted by a governor to a varying load. The system seems a roundabout one, but it is perfectly rational, effective, and economical. Few persons can have seen Niagara Falls without reflecting on the enormous energy which is there continuously expended, and for any useful purpose wasted. The exceptional constancy of the volume of flow, the invariability of the levels, the depth of the plunge over the escarpment, the solid character of the rocks, all mark Niagara as an ideally perfect water-power sta- tion; while, on the other hand, the remarkable facilities of transport, both by steam navigation on the lakes and by four NO. 1189, VOL. 46] systems of railway, afford commercial advantages of the highest importance. From a catchment basin of 240,000 square miles, an area greater than that of France, a volume of water amount- ing to 265,000 cubic feet per second descends from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, a vertical distance of 326 feet, in 374 miles. Supposing the whole stream could be utilized, it would sup- ply 7,000,000 horse-power. ‘This ismore than double the total steam and water-power at present employed in manufacturing industry in the United States. Immediately below the Falls the river bends at right angles, and flows through a narrow gorge. The town of Ni pes on the American side occupies the table-land in this angle. . The earliest traders who settled near the Falls erected stream mills in the Upper River in 1725 for preparing timber. Later, the Porter family erected factories on the islands in the rapids above the falls. It was not, however, till about thirty years ago that any systematic attempt was made to utilize part of the water-power of the Falls. Then a canal was constructed from Port Day, about three-quarters of a mile above the Falls, to a fore-bay or head-race along the cliff overlooking the lower river. In 1874 the Cataract Mill was established, taking power from this canal, and other mills were gradually erected till about 6000 horse-power were utilized. These mills have been exceed- ingly prosperous, but since the growth of a feeling against the disfigurement of the Falls it has become impossible to extend works of the same kind. The idea of a methad of utilizing the Falls, capable of greater development, and free from the objections to the hydraulic canal with mills discharging tail water on the face of the cliff, is due to the late Mr. Thomas Evershed, Division Engineer of the New York State Canals. He proposed to construct head-race canals on unoccupied land some two miles above the Fails. From these the water was to fall through vertical turbine pits into tail-race tunnels, converging into a great main tunnel, dis- charging into the lower river. Apart from an inappreciable diminution in the volume of flow over the Falls, this plan avoids any disfigurement of the scenery near the Falls, and permits a head of nearly 200 feet to be made available. It is, however, essential to such a plan that work should be undertaken on a very large scale. In 1886 the Niagara Falls Company was in- corporated, and obtained options over a considerable area of land, extending from Port Day for two miles along the Niagara River. In 1889 the Cataract Construction Company was formed to mature and carry out the constructional works required, The present plans contemplate the utilization of 100,000 effective horse-power. The principal work of construction is a great tunnel 7260 feet long, which is to form a tail-race to the turbines, starting from lands belonging to the Company, and discharging into the lower river. ‘The tunnel is 19 feet by 21 feet, or 386 square feet in area, inside a brickwork lining 16 inches thick. es The base of the tunnel is 205 feet below the sill of the head gate, and permits a fall of 140 to be rendered available at the turbines. The brickwork of the tunnel is lined for 200 feet from the mouth with cast-iron plates. ; The tunnel has been excavated with remarkable rapidity wit the aid of drills worked by compressed air. ; The main head-race, about 200 feet wide, will run for about 5000 feet parallel with the river, having entrances from the river at both ends. Near the lower reach the Soo Paper Company is already arranging to utilize 6000 horse-power, discharging the water from the turbines through a lateral tunnel into the main tunnel. Near this lower reach will also be placed two principal power stations, from which power will be distributed, either electrically or otherwise in ways not yet fully determined. The first turbines to be erected in these power stations will be twin turbines of the outward flow type of 5000 effective horse-power. These turbines have a vertical shaft for driving dynamos or other machinery placed above ground. According to Mr, Evershed’s original plans, it was intended to distribute water by surface canals to different power users, each of whom would sink his own turbine pits, connected below by lateral tunnels to the main discharge tunnel. Some of the power at Niagara will undoubtedly be used in this way, and in the case of industries requiring a large amount of power it will be economical to purchase a site and water rights. ee Such a plan is, however, not adapted to smaller factories. © Obviously for them it would be more economical to develop the power in one or more central stations by turbines of large size Aueust 11, 1892 | NATURE 361 U under common management. Further, once given the means of distributing power instead of water, an important extension of the project becomes possible. Besides supplying power to industries which may locate them- selves at Niagara, the power may be transmitted to the existing factories in Buffalo and Tonawanda. Arrangements are already proceeding to transmit 3000 horse- power to Buffalo, a distance of 18 miles, to work an electric lighting station. 1890, Mr. Adams, the President of the Niagara Construc- tion Company, visited Europe to examine systems of power distribution. It was in consequence of this visit that the im- portant modification of the plans of the Company involved in the substitution, to a large extent, of a system of power distribu- tion, for a system of water distribution came to be adopted, 1e American engineers were anxious to obtain the best Euro- ‘pean advice as to the methods best suited to the local conditions. A commission was formed, consisting of Lord Kelvin, Dr. Cole- man Sellers, Prof. Mascart, and Colonel Turrettini, and an invitation was given to engineers and engineering firms in Europe and America to send in competitive projects for the utilization of the power at Niagara and its distribution to different consumers at Niagaraand in Buffalo by electrical or other means, _ Many of the plans sent in were worked out with great care and omple As to the hydraulic part of the projects there was some approach to general consent as to the arrangements to be adopted, but as to the methods of distributing the power there was an extraordinary diversity. _Generally the Commission reported in favour of electrical distribution, with perhaps a partial use of compressed air as an auxiliary method. Generally also they reported in favour of methods of distribu- _ tion by continuous currents in preference to alternating currents. Since the date at which the Commission reported, the Frankfort- Lauffen experiment has been made, and in the opinion of some electrical engineers a distinct advance has been achieved in the use of alternating currents at high potential. The Company has not yet decided to adopt any plan for the central stations except in a tentative way. One or more tur- bines of 5,000 horse-power are to be erected, and probably at first this power will be distributed to Buffalo by an alternating current sy ‘The cost of a steam horse-power at Buffalo is reckoned at 35 dollars per annum. I believe the Company will be able to deliver power at from 1o dollars for large amounts, and a greater eign small amounts, this price being reckoned for twenty- _ The new industry of electric lighting has made necessary the provision of an amounts of motive power. Electric traction similarly depends on the supply of motive power. New chemi- cal ‘on metallurgical processes are being introduced which entirely depend for their commercial success on the supply of motive power at a low price. . is likely to become not only a seat of large manu- operations of familiar types, but also the home of im- portant new industries. oa NOTES. WE regret to have to announce the death of Sir Daniel Wilson, the President of Toronto University. _ ALTHOUGH the sixth International Geographical Congress will not assemble in London until June, 1895, arrangements are already being made in connection with it. The organizing committee is not quite completed, and the Royal Geographical Society is still adding to it. Among those already nominated are the President of the Society (Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff), the honorary Secretaries of the Society (Messrs. Douglas Fresh- field and Henry Seebohm), Sir George Bowen, Sir Charles Wilson, General J. T. Walker, Major Darwin, M.P., Mr. J. Scott Keltie, Sir Frederick Abel, Sir Henry Barkley, and General J. F. D. Donnelly. This committee is busily engaged in making its arrangements. THERE has been a recrudescence in the eruption of Etna during the past week. We trust that there is a local successor NO. 1189, VOL. 46} to the lamented Prof.Silvestri to give us some day a complete history of the phenomena, THE weather during the past week has been very unsettled, although during the first part the disturbances were mostly confined to the north. The anticyclone which had for some time lain to the westward of our islands moved southwards, and shallow depressions appeared off Scotland. The prevailing winds were consequently westerly or south-westerly, and tem- perature was rather above the average, except in the north and west, where the daily maxima were frequently below 60°, being some degrees lower than the average. On Sunday a rather deep depression from the Atlantic became central over our islands, accompanied by very heavy rainfall in Ireland and Wales, and rainy weather subsequently spread over the whole of the kingdom ; while a considerable fall of temperature and strong northerly winds followed the passage of the depression to the eastwards. The report issued by the Meteorological Council for the week ending the 6th instant shows that the rainfall only exceeded the mean in the north of Scotland ; in all other districts there was a deficit. The deficiency was greatest in the south-west of England, where it amounted to eight inches since the beginning of the year. PRoFr, LOEFFLER, of the University, Greifswald, has published two articles in the Centralblatt fiir Bakteriologie, on his disco- very of, and experiments with, the Bacil/us typhi murium, and on the result of its application, at the request of the Greek Government, to arrest a plague of field-mice in Thessaly, In view of their scientific interest, these articles have been trans- lated under the direction of Mr. Harting, and will appear in the next number of Zhe Zoologist. Von HELLMUTH PANcKow contributes an article on the dwarf races in Africa and South India to the recent number of the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde. A MOST important report of the sugar-cane borers, which do. so much harm in the West Indies, from the pen of Mr. W. F, H. Blandford (Lecturer on Entomology, Cooper’s Hill), appears in the Kew Bulletin for July and August. THE Monthly Weather Review, of the Dominion of Canada, for April 1892 contains notices of aurora seen on almost every day of the month. The most widely-observed display occurred on the 23rd, 24th, and 25th, THE Adhandlungen of the Royal Prussian Meteorological In- stitute (Bd. I., No. 5) contains a very elaborate investigation, 154 quarto pages, of the aspiration apparatus invented by Dr, R. Assmann, of Berlin, an instrument intended to determine the true temperature and humidity of the air under any conditions, The first apparatus of this kind was invented by Mr. John Welsh in 1853, and was used by him and also by Mr. Glaisher in their balloon ascents, after which time it appears to have been over- looked, or set aside, until it was again reinvented by Dr. Ass- mann, ina modified form, in 1889. We cannot enter into the construction of the apparatus here, further than stating that by the rotation of discs, the continual renewal of the air in connec- tion with very sensitive thermometers is ensured, by which means sudden changes of temperature which cannot be followed. by an ordinary thermometer are indicated. The apparatus is used at the Prussian Institute and at the German colonies in Africa as a standard instrument for the determination of the true temperature and humidity ofthe air. For ordinary stations how- ever, or for observations at sea, we presume that it is not likely to come into general use. THE report of the director of the Hong Kong Observatory for the year 1891 contains a table of the monthly and yearly rainfal value for about forty years. The mean yearly value is 362 NATURE [AuGuST 11, 1892 90°17 inches, most of which falls between May and Sep- tember. Dr. Doberck states that there is apparently a little more rain when there are many spots on the sun, but the differ- ence is too slight to be of any practical importance. The east wind is most prevalent at all seasons, the colony being within the region of the trade wind ; about 59 per cent. of all winds blow from this quarter, but from June till September there is also a southerly maximum, caused by the monsoon. In winter the temperature is highest with south, and lowest with north wind, and in’ summer it is highest with south-west, and lowest with east winds. During the year, 213 ships’ log-books have been examined for data relating to typhoons, and registers have been regularly kept at about forty stations. THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include two Macaque Monkeys (M/acacus cynomolgus, $ 6) from India, presented respectively by Lieutenant H. S. Wilson and Mrs. Dunnington Jefferson; a Ring-tailed Coati (Nasua rufa) from South America, presented by Mr. C. Carring- ton; an Angolan Vulture (Gypohierax angolensis, juv.), a —— Buzzard (Buteo ——) from West Africa, presented by Dr. Ferrier; a Spiny-tailed Mastigure (Uromastix acanthinurus) from Algeria, presented by Lady Sebright; 2 Black-headed Caique (Caica melanocephaia) from Demerara, two Spiny- tailed Mastigures (Uromastix acanthinurus) from Algeria, de- posited ; three Short-headed Phalangers (Belidens breviceps) from Australia, a Hairy Armadillo (Dasypus villosus, §) from La Plata, a White-throated Capuchin (Celeus hypoleucus, 9) from Central America, four Scarlet Ibises (Zudocimus ruber) from Para, purchased ; a Testaceous Snake (Ptyas testacea) froms California, received in exchange. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. NATAL OBSERVATORY.—The superintendent of the Nata Observatory, in his report for the year 1890-91, tenders hi obligations to no less than seven ladies, without whose zealou assistance, he says, the greater part of the numerous astronomica computations, &c., would not have been carried out. Although lacking such aid as is consistent with the proper working of an Observatory, a great amount of very useful work has been accomplished, For instance, the entire mass of meridian obser- vations of the moon made at Greenwich during the period 1851- 1861 have been reduced and compared with the theoretical basis of Hansen’s Lunar Tables, thus completing the whole number of lunar observations up to the year 1890. The work with the transit, magnetic transit, and equatorial have been continued as usual. For the determination of the latitude of the Observatory 1022 observations of thirty-five pairs of stars have been obtained. Owing to the close proximity of the equatorial and transit in- struments, we are informed that it is impossible to use them both at the same time; this should be at once remedied, for the Observatory does not seem to be supplied with many surplus instruments. The meteorological observations have been made regularly throughort the year.- We hope, now that provision has been made for supplying a rain gauge and set of thermometers for each of the coast magistracies, that the Observatory will still continue to urge the necessity of maintaining and extending the system of weather reports, in the interests of the Colony, for, as is now well known, the value of sueh observations is only main- tained when the stations are zuwmerous and well distributed. GEODETIC SURVEY OF SoUTH AFRICA.—Since the issue of the last (Jan. 1891) report by H.M Astronomer, Dr. Gill, on the Geodetic Survey carried on in South Africa, the work has been progressing very successfully and swiftly, an average of five principal stations being occupied and completed every month by a single observer. On May 31, 1891, the field work as far as Modder River was completed, the site for the base line being reached the following day. Some difficulty was here encoun- tered with regard to the selection of the position for the base, but it was eventually fixed near Kimberley, the permanent camp being fixed about eight miles from this place. The total length of the measured base was 6000 feet, and it was divided into No. 1189, VOL. 46]| sections of 500 feet, since this seemed ‘*a convenient length for a forward and backward measurement in one day.” The figures given in this report, although uncorrected for sea-level, &c., — speak well for the accuracy of the undertaking, as will be seen © from the following table. Each length of 500 feet was measured both forward and backward, and it is the differences of these measurements that are here shown :— Section. F ~ B in feet. Section. F — Bin feet. T. + 0°0025 VII + 0°0014 Il. — ‘0020 VIIL. + ‘OOIL TAT: — ‘0006 IX. + ‘OOI4 | LY: — ‘0040 X. + ‘0009 V. + ‘oorg XI. eae Vi, — ‘OO19 XIL.” 2 See The probable error of the whole base was + 0’o28 inches. The lengths of the two sections came out as— M; = 2999°4445 feet Miz = 2999°7545 1» The differences between the measured and the computed lengths of Section II. through the triangulation were: by the eastern triangles M — C, + 0'0035 feet; by the western triangles M —- C, - 0'0083 feet. Sag During the triangulation work several observations for latitude were made at Tafelberg, Hanover, De Put, and Kimber Camp, the results showing, as Dr. Gill points out, ‘‘that the abnormal deviation of the plumb line found along the coast in the neighbourhood of Port Elizabeth had disappeared.” The report concludes with the determinations of the observers’ per- sonal equations and two diagrams of the triangulation. THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. WHEN the first Congress on this subject met in Paris in 1889 under the presidency of Prof. Ribot, and with Prof. Charles Richet for its secretary, it proved a vigorous and most successful attempt to gather together from all parts of the world the students of a difficult branch of learning in which some methods of modern physics are being used in psychology, and these methods, or at least their results, are invading the province of what our ancestors would have preferred to call metaphysics. In the opinion of many of the most thoughtful students of the subject it has been considered an important point to keep up the connection between the physio- logical and the psychological sides of the questions under dis- cussion, and the present Congress under the careful and admirable presidency of Prof. Henry Sidgwick, has ved very successful on this point, and has led to much pleasant acquaintanceship between those whose general work lies in different branches of learning. At Paris the full number at the Congress was about 150, and very little notice was taken of it in England ; but at this recent Congress in London there have been nearly twice as many members, and it has received 70 or 80 visitors from all parts of Europe and from the United States and Canada. The vice-presidents have been Prof. A. Bain, Prof. Baldwin, Prof. Bernheim, Prof. Ebbinghaus, Prof. Ferrier, Prof. Preyer, Prof. Delboeuf, Prof. Liégeois, Prof. Preyer, Prof. Richet, and Prof. Schafer. Among the other well-known names of the visitors there were those of Helmholz, Binet, Ribot, Henschen (Upsala), Miinsterburg (Freiburg), and among the English names Herbert Spencer, Francis Galton, Prof. Oliver Lodge, Prof. Victor Horsley, Dr. Lauder Brunton, and Dr. Hughlings Jackson. The honorary secretaries were Prof. James Sully and Mr. F. W.H. Myers. Therooms of Uni- — versity College were kindly lent to the Congress by Mr. Erichsen for its use during the four days of the meeting (Aug. 1-4). Prof. | Sidgwick’s address attracted a large audience. He expressed him- self as feeling it his first duty to apologize for the choice of England " as the place of meeting, inasmuch as England could not be said to be the country which had done most for experimental psych- ology which, in the common meaning of the terms, had been most advanced in German and French laboratories, and was making recent and rapid progress in America, However, in a slightly different sense of the wordthe English school of psychologists: from Locke and Hume down to Bain and Herbert Spencer had. been for the most part experimentalists or at least empiricists. — They had before them at this Congress a very wide range of — subjects, too extensive he thought on the whole to be covered Avcust 11, 1892] / NATURE by the term “ Psychologie Physiologique,” which had been used at Paris as the name of their first Congress, and he thought ** Experimental Psychology” more appropriate. In laboratory work ‘the leadership was taken by Germany ; in hypnotism France was our master and Germany our colleague. He was zlad to see some of the leaders of the Nancy School with them that day, as he thought they were taking the broader lines in the subject, and that Europe was certainly not inclined on the whole to narrow the subject. He would not attempt to discuss the larger questions at that time, but would confine himself to the harmless task of explaining the arrangements that were pro- posed. In the morning meetings the Congress would be divided into two sections, of which Section A would be devoted to neurology and psycho-physics, and Section B to hypnotism and cognate questions; in the afternoon there would be general meetings. ‘The address was very warmly received, and Prof. A. Bain, in reading the first paper took the opportunity of expressing his grati to Prof. Sidgwick and the secretaries for the energy they had shown in bringing together such a large group of men who were glad to make each other’s acquaintance. He went on to read an interesting paper on the advantages in psychology of introspection on the one side and experiment on the other, and the ways in which one could help the other. Prof. Charles Richet went on to discuss some of the possible prospects of psychology, and to express a hope that some of the most diffi- cult subjects, such as thought-transference and clairvoyance, might be helped by the minute study of the process of develop- ment of the human mind. Prof. Gruber (of Roumania) then . gave a very vivid sketch of the remarkable association of colour with sound, which he had spent many years in observ- ing. Toa very small number among his best educated patients _ the sound of the vowel ‘‘e” was accompanied by a sensation of yellow colour, of “i” by blue, of ‘‘o” by black, and so on Buowgh the long list of the Roumanian vowels and diphthongs, and also to some extent with numbers. The same colour was ‘not always induced by the same sound in different patients, but the observations had been carefully tested. Prof. Pierre Janet basgeby detail a long case of complete loss of memory for pre- sent events and complete incapacity for any decision (/’aboulie) which had been suddenly brought about by the foolish jest (on August 28, 1891) of telling her what was not true, viz. that her sband was dead. The most curious points were that the loss memory extended backwards as far as July 14, 1891, z.¢. of what had happened during the six weeks before the accident, hough the natural memory was complete up to July 14, and the patient’s sub-conscious memory of all that had happened after that could be easily demonstrated by her automatic writing and by “unconscious speech in a normal or hypnotic sleep. Prof. Eb- binghaus, in criticizing the paper, remarked that the woman’s _ state seemed best explained as a condition of such complete distraction by things without that she had no power to attend to things within. Mr. Myers cited a case described by the elder ne in 1830, in which there was a description of double memory and double personality such that the woman in the second state could eat and drink like a drayman, but soon everted with no memory to her first state, and asked pitifully for her usual four teaspoonfuls of arrowroot. _ Next day Section A and Section B went to work separately. In Section A Prof. Henschen (Upsala) read a paper which attracted considerable attention and consisted in a very careful _ examination of the exact tract of the visual path in man through the brain from the eye to the visual centre in the cortex of the calcarine fissure. It was admitted that it was not in accordance with the results of physiological experiments on animals ; but ‘the arguments for its proof in man were considered quite t. Prof. Horsley followed with a paper on the degree of Localization of movements and correlative sensations, which roused some discussion ; and then Prof. Schafer brought forward careful experiments to show that there was no valid reason to _ attribute any intellectual powers to the prefrontal lobes of the brain ; and Dr. Waller ended the work of the morning by illus- trating the difficulties of accurately defining the functional attri- butes of the cerebral cortex. In Section B Prof. Liégeois read a paper which M. Liébeault, of Nancy, had written along with him describing a case of suicidal monomania, which they had succeeded in curing by hypnotic suggestion. The President expressed himself much interested in the paper, and regretted that they could not see Liébeault among them, for he was a man who, after twenty-five years of contempt, had succeeded in making the world realize NO. 1189, VOL. 46] ‘Pierre Janet ) ‘of his own, in which, for instance, dreams which had 363 some new methods. Dr. Frederic van Eeden (Amsterdam) read a careful report of his five years’ experience of the medical cases of hypnotism along with Van Renterghem in Amsterdam. He laid stress on the care which should be taken to avoid the dis- trust and prejudice caused by the abnormal facts of hypnotism in public exhibitions. With the upper classes he thought hypnotism more difficult than with the lower, for they objected, rightly, to a tone of command. Psycho-therapy with them must guide and support, but not command, and that it would do so even to the extent of curing some organic disease he regarded as well proved. Virchow’s cellular pathology had neglected the psychical forces of the living cell. Now that these were acknowledged some principles of the old vitalism must revive. Prof. Bernheim read another more technical paper on hysterical amaurosis, explaining it asa purely psychical state brought about by suggestion, with which Dr. Bérillon could not agree, but Prof. Bernheim replied that there was nothing abnormal in hypnotism ; there was no difference between normal and hypnotic sleep, though the two states were produced by different means. Further, there was not necessarily any sleep in hypnosis. It was a pity for that reason that the word had been chosen, for hypnotism meant simply suggestibility. Prof. Delboeuf took a similar view; to hypnotize a man was only to persuade him that he could do something that he thought he could not dao, Supposing the man thought he had a pain, to hypnotize him was to make him sure he had not. Dr. Bérillon preferred to define hypnotism as the psychical state in which the cerebral control had been taken away artificially, and the patient became an automaton for any use. Such automatism was not in any way necessarily injurious to the subject, and was certainly useful in some diseases. In the general afternoon meeting there were elaborate theories of colour perception well explained to the Congress both by Prof. Ebbinghaus and by Mrs. C. L. Franklin ; and Prof. Lloyd Morgan attempted the difficult task of defining the limits of animal intelligence, chiefly as shown by the dog, whom he was sorry not to be able to credit with as much power of introspection as many of his friends. After some slight discussion on this, Dr. Bramwell (of Goole) brought for- ward four subjects from Yorkshire, on whom he showed some of the common phenomena of hypnotism and related some of his experiences in recent medical practice, which he had been able to show to doctors in Leeds and elsewhere, ¢.g. that he had been able in a few cases to produce by hypnotism, at a time when the patient seemed fully awake and normal, a state of local anzs- thesia to allow a dentist to extract seven double teeth without any pain to the patient. On Wednesday morning, in Section A, Prof. Heynaus (of Copenhagen) read a paper on the relation of Weber’s law to the phenomena of the inhibition of presentations ; Dr. Mendelssohn (St. Petersburg) on the parallel law of Fechner ; Dr. Verricst (Louvain) on the physiological basis of rhythmic speech ; and M. Binet (Paris) on the psychology of insects, showing that in the Coleoptera the dorsal nervous centres were motor and the ventral sensory. In Section B Prof. Delboeuf pointed Jout the remarkable power of the somnambulist in judging of the length of passing time without any watch or instrument. He had found some simple Belgian countrywomen when hypnotized able to carry out suggestions at any time he liked to name from 300 to 3000 minutes, and he thought the subject deserved further in- quiry. Prof. Hitzig (Berlin) brought forward a minute and careful physiological study of some attacks of sleep which had some resemblance to hypnotic conditions. —Mr. F. W. H. Myers showed from the reports drawn up by Mr. Kenlemans, Mrs. Verrall, and two other experimenters of some experience that in some cases, though probably only in a few, it was possible to induce hallucinations by such an experiment as crystal vision, i.e, the purely empirical process of looking steadily into a crystal or other clear depth or at a polished surface. These externalized images or quasi-percepts illustrated some little known points in conscious and sub-conscious memory. Prof. corroborated Mr. Myers’s results by some been manifest to the onlooker but unknown to the sleeper were brought within the sleeper’s knowledge _by gazing on a bright surface or by the essentially similar process of automatic writing. In the afternoon the President presented a very long report of careful detail of a census of hal- lucinations which had been agreed upon at the Congress in Paris in 1889, and which had been carried out in England by himself, in America by Professor William James, and in France 364 NATURE 1 [| AuGusT 11, 1892 by M. Marillier, The question asked in England had been, ** Have you ever, while in good health, and believing yourself to be awake, seen the figure of a person or heard a voice which was not in your view referable to any external cause?” In England 17,000 answers had been obtained, and about 1 in 10 persons (taken at random) who had answered had had some such hallucination in their lives. The great majority of these hallucinations consisted of realistic appearances of living men, a small minority of dead persons, and a still smaller group of gro- tesque objects. A remarkable class was that of hallucinations of several persons at one time—collective hallucinations ; and a still more remarkable class was of those coincidental with some ‘distant event unknown tothe percipient, such as the death of the person whose figure appeared. The President came to the con- clusion that after careful allowance for all sources of error, the probability against these coincidences being chance was enor- mous, and if the hypothesis that they were not casual was to be ‘accepted, the assumption of the inaccuracy of the infor- mants and inquirers must be strained to an extreme pitch. M. Marillier explained that it had been very difficult to get any large number of answers in France because of the dislike shown by the French to answer any jpsychological questions about themselves. On Thursday morning, in Section A, Dr. Donaldson gave an interesting account of the minute investigation of the brain of Laura Bridgeman, the well-known blind deaf mute, who died in 1889 in Boston. There was depression of the motor speech centre, with slender sensory nerves and somewhat thin cortex over the areas of the defective senses. In Section B Dr. Bérillon raised a lively debate by describing the good effects he had brought about by hypnotism in the education of about 250 children, who were suffering from many childish discomforts, such as night-terrors, insomnia, somnambulism, or faults, such as kleptomania, idleness, cowardice, &c. After this Mrs. H. ‘Sidgwick gave a summary of some experiments in thought- transference she had made, with the help of Miss A. Johnson and Mr. G. A. Smith as hypnotiser. By thought-transference she meant the communication from one person whom they called the agent to another, whom they called the percipient, otherwise than through the recognized channels of sense. The successful percipients were seven in number, and had generally been hypnotised. They had succeeded in transferring numbers, ‘mental pictures, z.c. mental pictures in the agent’s mind; and induced hallucinations given by verbal suggestion to one hypnotic subject, and transferred by himto another, Inthe total number of experiments the number of failures was much larger than of successes, but as the antecedent probability could in most cases be accurately determined, the proportion of successes was amply sufficient to show that the result was not due to chance, ‘The many precautions necessary to such experiments were described in detail. One percipient succeeded in the experi- ments with numbers when divided from the agent by a closed door at a distance of about 17 feet. Attention was called to the great variability of results with the same percipients and agents for which they had not been able to discover any reason. An account was added of some experiments in producing local aneesthesia under conditions apparently excluding all suggestion other than mental. The President wished to remark that he thought it important in such experiments that all the failures should be recorded as well as the successes. In the afternoon, after papers by Dr. Lightnar Witmer, Dr. Wallaschek, and Prof. von Tschisch, the President put several questions to the vote as to matters of future organization, and it was decided to hold the next international Congress in Munich in 1896, with Prof. Stumpf as President and Baron von Schrenck as secretary. A suggestion was also made that there should be an extraordin- ary meeting in America next year, and a small American committee was appointed to consider this. After a hearty vote of thanks to the President and Secretaries, and a brief reply, the Congress was dissolved. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris, Academy of Sciences, August 1.—M. de Lacaze-Duthiers in the chair.—On boron pentasulphide, by M. Moissan. If the tri-iodide of boron, instead of being treated with sulphur in the dry way at a low red heat, as in the preparation of boron tri- sulphide, be mixed with sulphur and dissolved in carbon bisul- phide at the ordinary temperature, boron pentasulphide is ob- NO. 1189, VOL. 46] tained. state. It fuses at 390°, and does not pass through the pasty In contact with water it forms boric acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and a precipitate of sulphur. Mercury and silver — reduce it to the trisulphide, forming metallic sulphides. Heated to fusion in a vacuum it decomposes into sulphur and the tri- sulphide. Its density is 1°85. It is very difficult to obtain free from iodine, but in all the preparations the ratio between the boron and the sulphur has indicated the formula B,S;.—On the stripped plants of autumn, and their utilization as green manure, by aes 2 Dehérain. It has been found that by planting the ground with vetch or mustard, and digging it in during the autumn, the amount of nitrogen retained in the soil was nearly doubled. —Remarks on alimenta- tion in the Ophidia, by M. Léon Vaillant.—A report on the great anaconda of Central America kept in the reptile menagerie. Since 1885 the snake has eaten on the average five times per annum, its nourishment consisting of goats, three rabbits, and one goose. ‘The interval between two meals was in one instance 204 days.—On symmetric tetrahedral curves, by M. Alphonse Dumoulin.— On Stokes’ law, its verification, and interpretation, by M. G. Salet.—A spectrum, given by a spectroscope with quartz prisms, is received on the fluorescent substance contained in a Soret eye-piece. It is then projected transversally on to the slit of a second spectroscope. Through this the diagonal a trum of Stokes’ classical experiment is seen with Bg defini- tion, no ray exceeding the theoretical limit. The law thus verified can also be- deduced from thermodynamic con- siderations. According to Stokes’ law, ‘‘the rays emitted by a fluorescent substance always have a smaller refrangibility than the exciting rays,”” If it were possible to transform yellow into violet light by fluorescence, many chemical reactions would become possible which only occur at the higher tem- perature at which violet appears in the spectrum. This would be equivalent to the passage of heat from a colder to a hotter body, in contradiction to the second law of thermo- dynamics.—Constitution of pyrogallol, by M. de Forerand.— On Cascarine, by M. Leprince.—Physiological examination of four cyclists after a run of 397 km., by MM. Chibret et Huguet. This distance, which was covered by the youngest of the party, an Englishman of 18, in seventeen hours, was that between Paris and Clermont-Ferrand. It was found that the tempera- ture was at the finish rather below than above the normal ; that the coefficient of utilization of urinary nitrogen varied inversely as the degree of fatigue, and that therefore a decided waste of nitrogen is a concomitant of excessive fatigue. The nutriment taken during the course consisted of much alcohol, champagne, beef-tea, and Kola solution in the case of the Englishman. He and the next in speed both took Kola. The winner was extremely fatigued at the finish ; the next man, a Frenchman of 28, not at all. His pulse was beating at 60, that of the former at 84. The coefficients of utilization of nitrogen were at ag and 58°27 per cent. respectively.—On the properties of the vapours of formol or formic aldehyde, by MM. F. Berlioz and A. Trillat.—Subcutaneous grafting of the pancreas: its im- portance in the study of pancreatic diabetes, by M. E. Hédon.—On the habits of Clinus argentatus Cuy. and Val., by M. Frédéric Guitel.—On a Permian Alga, with its structure pre- served, found in the boghead of Autun: Pila Bibractensis, by MM. C. Eg. Bertrand and B. Renault.—The chalk of Chartres, by M. A. de Grossouvre. CONTENTS. Op AiE The British Association. - . ... <3 «) sue ses Section D—Biology.—Opening Address by Prof. William Rutherford, M.D., F.R.S., President of the Section.” 2.2 is 2.2 esse ie elie at eae Section E—Geography.—Opening Address by Prof. James Geikie, LL.D.,'D.C.L.,F.R.SS.L.& E., F.G.S., President of the Section. ...-.. - 348 Section G—Mechanical Science.—Opening Address by W.Cawthorne Unwin, F.R.S., M.Inst.C. E., President of the Section . 2... se ss 5) weg bS Notes) 5 iscsi copie a es: Soe 6 es Our Astronomical Column:— Natal Observatory ....-.- Pree 362.6) Geodetic Survey of South Africa. ...- Rem ot The International Congress of Experimental Psychology. «5.4 ...: os 0s 9 ee Societies and Academies .......-. Paicriiege ti NATURE 395 THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1892. A DEBATABLE LAND—PLANTS OR ANIMALS ? A Monograph of the Myxogastres. By George Massee. (London : Methuen and Co., 1892.) HIS work is much in advance of any book in the English language treating of the perplexing group of organisms that forms its subject. The author has been in peculiarly favourable circumstances for the prepara- tion of such a monograph, having enjoyed full access to “the splendid collection of Myxogastres in the Royal Herbarium, Kew, rich in types, and with numerous annota- tions by Rostafinski,” as well as had “‘the loan or gift of valuable, and in some instances unique, specimens ” from other workers in the same field in different countries. He has fully acquainted himself with the literature of the subject, and has made many personal observations on the structure, and, in some cases, on the life-history, of various types. He is thus able to bring to bear on the discussion of the problems that claim consideration a wide and varied knowledge; with the result that the book is indispensable to every student of the Myxogastres. The introductory portion will be found worth perusal by others besides specialists, as it dis- - cusses the arguments for and against the vegetable ature of the group. While accepting the view that the origin of the Myxogastres is to be found among the Flagellate, he comes to the conclusion that the sum of the characters presented by them in the reproductive phase manifests a tendency “in the direction of the vegetable kingdom, and more especially in the direction of the Fungi.” But he is unable to establish strict homologies with the latter; since the Myxogastres are “a terminal group, and permit no comparisons with higher forms of the same type.” In the discussion of ‘this vexed question, Mr. Massee shows none of the virulence to which it has given rise in former times ; and he endeavours to do justice in his statement to the views ‘of De Bary, and of other supporters of the view that the organisms in question should be regarded as animals. After all, toan evolutionist at least, the distinction would appear more of verbal than of real importance. _ Accepting the view that there are certain forms, of a very primitive structure, from which the animal and vegetable kingdoms have been developed in ever-increas- - ing specialization, there is cause to expect the existence of more or less intermediate types, in which the characters at one period of their life-history are more those of animals, and at another period more plant-like. It matters little under which kingdom we agree to place them. Here, as elsewhere, Nature refuses to be bound down by rigid classification, and we must accept facts as they are, not as any @ frzorz system might wish to make them. That the Myxogastres are not Fungi may be admitted ; though they show a considerable similarity in various points in the course of development—a similarity clearly stated by Mr. Massee in his discussion of the whole question. The term Myxogastres is employed, we infer, on the ground of priority. It possesses, however, the incidental NO. 1190, VOL. 46} advantage of not implying any positive view on the nature of the group, in the same way as do the terms Wy-xo- mycetes and Mycetozoa. The limits of the group are taken in this monograph in the sense employed by Rostafinski. It thus does not include the Acraste@ and Ceratium, ad- mitted as Mycetozoa by De Bary; nor does it make any reference to the numerous forms of the Mozadinee, which Zopf discusses in his “ Schleimpilze” in Schenck’s “ Hand- buch der Botanik.” Thus limited, the group is more homogeneous ; though the definition is, perhaps, some what arbitrary, and omits forms that are undoubtedly related to the more specialized types, and an English work on which would be welcome. The author enters on somewhat slippery ground in the endeavour to explain the line of development of the Myxogastres, and also to illustrate his ideas of the relationship between the several orders. He holds that four orders can be distinguished by the presence or absence of lime in the sporangial wall, and by the pre- sence and nature of the capillitium. sos “In each order we find the special characteristic idea evolving through a sequence of genera, the terminal one not connected with any higher order, hence the special feature terminates abruptly within the order where it originated, and it is invariably in some comparatively undifferentiated genus near the initial point of each order, that we meet with the suggestion of a new line of evolution, which, at its maximum of development, con- stitutes the characteristic feature of the order immediately in advance of the one from which it emanated in an incipient condition.” Turning now to the systematic portion of the work, we find that it gives abundant proofs of care and of familiarity with the several forms, based on personal examination of each. The method of description is clear, the more important characters being printed in italics. Mr. Massee recognizes fully the difficulties of determining the limits of species and of the larger groups “while the life history of.the majority of forms is still unknown,” saying plainly that ‘all attempts at classification, as also the conception as to what constitutes a species, must be considered as tentative. When we are better acquainted with the main lines of development and lines of variation, also the con- ditions determining these variations, it is certain that the main factor in the discrimination of species will not be a one-twelfth oil-immersion objective.” Basing his acquaintance with the Myxogastres on per- sonal examination of large numbers of examples, fresh and dried, many of the latter being authentic types, Mr. Massee does not hesitate to unite species and genera hitherto kept as distinct, but shown to be connected by fuller material. Thus several familiar names become sunk as synonyms; e.g. Lzcea, Schrad., and Lindbladia, Fr., are ranked under 7ududina, Pers. (emended). Under the generally accepted rules of nomenclature, this leads to Massee standing as the authority for many species, trans- ferred by him, in reality, to another genus. But, besides such cases of apparent novelties, there are also a good many descriptions of mew species in the usual sense of the term. The synonyms are carefully given under each group and species. A wise reticence has been observed in the endeavour to recognize the species meant by most of the older writers who mention the Myxogastres. The R 366 NATURE {AuGusT 18, 1892 synonymy previous to Rostafinski’s monograph is bor- rowed as a whole from that work, “ without any attempt at corroboration.” Mr. Massee says :-— ““T feel certain that nearly one-third of Rostafinski’s work would not have been sacrificed to synonyms unless they mean something more than I have been able to dis- cover, hence [ have not felt justified in ignoring them altogether.” The geographical distribution has been worked out from the extensive collections already referred to as at the author’s command. ; The twelve plates, bearing 313 coloured figures by Mr. Massee himself, call for special mention as a valuable assistance to students of the Myxogastres. They deserve high praise for their accuracy and execution. The printing and get-up of the book are very satisfactory. A review would scarce be complete did it not find fault with some point or other; and we may do that part of our duty very briefly by taking exception to the rather in- convenient size (large octavo), and to the tendency in the introductory pages to let the sentences run to an incon- venient length. One, taken at random, we found to occupy twenty-five lines. There is no ground for this charge, however, as regards the descriptive portion of the monograph, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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 Apodide—a Reply. ProF. LANKESTER'S review of my book in Nature (p. 267) contains, as is usual with ‘‘ candid opinions,’ a consider- able number of misstatements. These compel me to ask space for a reply. Prof. Lankester commences by stating very authoritatively that my account of the hermaphroditism of Apus is erroneous. This question, being purely a matter of evidence, can wait. My account of itin ‘‘The Apodide ”’ is ‘‘ meagre” because, as is clear to any one who reads the preface, I was constrained to put aside for the present all questions which did not directly bear upon the line of argument embodied in my book. These points, however, are not serious. Let us turn, then, to the main charges which are intended to deprive my book of all claim to be a real contribution to zoological science. Prof. Lankester, after himself dethroning my title, ‘‘ The Apodide,” says that I ‘‘ pose as the discoverer of a new and unsuspected agreement between the Crustacea and the Cheetopoda, and that I bring forward arguments as new which have ‘‘long been effectively used ” for the same purpose. It is difficult here not to accuse Prof. Lankester of deliberate misrepresentation. If he will allow me to keep my title and will read my book, he will find that I go beyond this general standpoint, and specialize the Apodidee as the particular Phyllopods which are to be deduced from a Chetopod. Without, I believe, a single page of digression, my book discusses from beginning to end the relation of the Apodide to the Annelids, of the Apodide to Limulus, to the Trilobites, and so on. All the well-known arguments in favour of the more general proposition which deduces the Phyllopods from Annelids I have naturally adopted, adding, however, many new arguments of more or less weight in favour of my special point. Not one of these arguments does Prof. Lankester attempt to meet. The only one he refers to he wishes to claim as his own, as, indeed, he does everything else in the “book ‘‘ which will bear examination”! This charge of whole- sale plagiarism from Prof. Lankester’s articles on Apus and Limulus is the more remarkable, because my own investigations NO. I190, VOL. 46] compelled me either to modify or to reject almost every position therein adopted by him. This may account for his ‘* candid opinion,” but hardly for his charge of plagiarism. The only evidence he adduces to support this charge can merely be meant to throw dust in the eyes ; it is as follows :— In describing the absence of articulations in the limbs of Apus I admitted that Prof. Lankester had noted the point (which, however, is not absolutely correct), but I added that he had failed to see its significance. _ Prof. Lankester resents this state- ment, and cites himself to show that he agreed with Claus in holding that the limbs of the Arthropoda were homologous with the parapodia of the Chetopods. This acquiescence in a general proposition does not in any way prove that he applied it to explain the special conditions ofthe limbs of Apus. While I do not at all share his jealousy in matters of priority, and will gladly yield the point to him if he can base his claim on something more definite than the passage he cites, the fact that he wishes to claim this argument for his own is specially interest- ing. There is far more meaning in this than in his use of such expressions az ‘‘ fanciful conceptions, crude speculations, and dogmatic assertions,” because, if this particular argument holds —and Prof. Lankester would not claim it unless he acknowledged its validity—it goes far to show that my théory can hardly be called a ‘‘fanciful conception.” The reviewer’s statement that ‘there is no evidence ” that I ‘‘made use of well-preserved material,” looks as if he had not taken the trouble to read the book, and further as if he did not understand the importance of the issues at stake ; the histological points, which are the only ones likely to be affected by the state of preservation of the material, are insignificant as compared with the main argument. If, instead of indulging in such loose charges, Prof. Lankester had endeavoured to show where, in his opinion, my argument breaks down, and what are some of the more glaring misstate- ments in my book, which cause him to ‘‘regret” that he cannot recommend it as ‘‘a repository of fact,” he would have done science (and perhaps (?) myself personally) much better service, I should also personally have been grateful to him had he himself set an example to the more “‘ inexperienced ” zoolo- gist of ‘‘how morphological problems should be attacked.” TI did not, in my speculations as to the relation of Apus to the Annelids, feel inclined to follow the example set by Prof. Lan- kester in his own speculations as to the relations of Limulus to the Arachnids. I was especially recommended to ri my ideas, and to publish them together in book-form. Would Prof., Lankester have advised me to publish my speculations, as he did his, in separate articles, occasionally, perhaps, advancing theories and arguments in one article which have to be with- drawn in the next? This plan may beconvenient for the writer, but is most annoying to all who have to work over the same — ground again. ni To conclude, my book is an argument from beginning to end ; the argument may be absurd, but it must be met by argument. In the meantime, until Prof. Lankester demolishes it, I have the good fortune to know that several leading zoologists, among whom Prof. Haeckel kindly permits me to mention his name, think it—well, to say the least—of absurd. August 2, Henry M. BERNARD. | Calculation of Trajectories of Elongated Projectiles. (Additional Note.) Ir has been already pointed out (NATURE, March 1892, p. 474) that the range table of the 4-inch B,L. gun, selected by the autho- rities, afforded a more satisfactory test of the value of the co- — efficients of resistance than the results of the special experiments carried out with that gun in 1887. on practice of 17/5/83, 7/3/84, and 21,23/4/84. velocity was 1900f/s. ; the weight of the shot 25lbs. ; and the diameter of the shot gin. But no information is given respect- ing the height of the barometer or thermometer. In this table the elevations are given at which the gun must be laid to obtain — This range table was based — The muzzle _ ranges. of 100, 200, 300, ... 7600, 7700 yards, and also the — time of flight for each range, expressed to the z}5th of a second for ranges below 5000 yards, and to the ;yth of a second for ranges 5000 to 7500 yards. — ie Cet aie In calculating the ranges for elevations of 1°, 2°, 3°.... 20, the temperature was supposed to be 62° F., and height of the barometer 30in., at the level of the gun. The coefficient « was supposed to be 0°97 to adapt the tables to a head struck with - a radius of two diameters. Shi Aucust 18, 1892] NATURE ~ 367 o By the use of the range table it was found what was the ex- perimental elevation and time of flight for each of the ranges obtained by calculation. _ The results of calculation and experiment are given in the following table. In column 1 the calculated ranges are spe- cified. in columns 2 and 3 the calculated and experimental - corr Pending times of flight are given, and in column 4 the pale of these quantities. In columns 5 and 6 the calcu- lated and the experimental elevations are given, and in column _ 7 their differences, which are due to the ‘‘jump” of the gun and to the ‘vertical drift”’ of the elongated shot. The calculated __ horizontal remaining velocity (column 8) is given in each case _ in yards per second to facilitate the expression of the small errors in time, given in column 4, in yards of range. __ By the use of the general tables the time of flight over each ie and the horizontal remaining velocity have been calculated see columns 10 and 9), supposing the shot in each case to start h the horizontal muzzle velocity, and to move through air of ity corresponding to the mean height to which the shot rises. |. Time of flight. E levation. noni General tables R dang : | sh pee party eer By i | By iff,| maining | Re™- | ime. (Cale. pp | Diff. poe R. Tr.) nih waising pes) | Ti ®™® & | © @ | ® | @ | @) H / } Sess} o fo.) ,| y.s | ys. | Sees. +002 I 0 52/+ 8 479 | 478 | I'92 =0°05; 2/1 56+ 4 391 | 390 | 3°73 - 0°08 3 2 58/+ 2| 343 | 345 | 5°38 —O°14) 4 356+ 4 322 | 322 | 6°89 =O°11) 5 | 4 53/+ 7) 305 | 304 | 8°33 —0°13} 6 | 5 51+ 9) 293 | 289 | 9°7 —0'090; 7 6 44 +16) 278 | 278 10°9 —0'02; 8 7 35/+25 265 | 268 (12°15 -O'rl | 8 36,424 258 | 258 13°48 -0°08) 10 9 33'+27) 249 | 250 14°66 0°00 II 10 28)+32) 242 | 242 15°81 +0°06| 12 II 25 +35 234 | 235 16°98 +0°04| 13 12 20/+ 227 228 1812 +O'1E 14 13 12/+48 220 | 222 19°24 +O'II) 15 |14 5/+55 214 | 217 '20°30 +0°07 16 15 0+60 208 | 212 2141 +0°07, 17 15 46 +74 203 207 |22°34 i +010 18 16 33 +87 198 203 23°26 +0°04 19 17-33 +87 192 199 24°38 ‘10|—0°16| 20 18 47 +73) 188 = 193 25775 _ The very small differences in column’ 4 between the calculated and experimental times of flight for the full extent of the range table afford conclusive evidence of the accuracy of the coefficients f resistance derived from my experiments of 1867, 1868, and 1878-80. F. BASHFORTH. , , TM. Se a5 Aug. 31 ... 042 35 ... +52 42°6 Sept. I ... 41 24... 38°3 pla SRS 40 10 33°6 ... 0'2693 ... 0°3922 ... O°O81 » 3 + 3855 28°5 $4. Mecieey 31, 39° 22°9 sa) ks gO 22 16°9 pt eens 35; 4: - 10°5 ... 0°2720 ... 0°4004 ... 0°O77 » 7 +.03346... 52 3°7 Taking the comet’s position for September 2, we find that it will lie very nearly 34° south of a Cassiopeiz, being in the pro- longation of a line joining the stars A and ¢ of the same con- stellation. 424 NATURE [SEPTEMBER I, £892 GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. THE Berlin Geographical Society are preparing for publica- tion one of the most valuable mementoes of the Columbus celebration, in the form of a magnificent atlas, containing amongst other early maps a series of hitherto unpublished delineations of the Atlantic of very early date. These maps have been discovered in manuscript in Italian libraries, where they were copied by a young German geographer of great artistic power. They will be published with all the brilliant colouring of the original illuminated MSS. IN the recent risings of the Arabs against European. traders and officials on the Lomami in the Congo Free State, there is too much reason to fear that the veteran M. Hodister, Director of the Katanga Company in Africa, has lost his life. This is a ‘disaster of a much more serious kind than the mere collapse of a trading company, for M. Hodister in the course of his long service in Central Africa had acquired a remarkable knowledge of the Arabs, and great tact and success in dealing with them. In his personal character he commanded the respect of all with whom he came in contact ; courage he shared with many fellow- explorers, but his calmness in danger and serious earnestness in work are not too common amongst the Congo State officials or the leaders of caravans through the territory. M. Hodister was one of the first Belgian officers appointed on the establishment of the Congo Free State, and as an official, and later as the head of the Katanga syndicate in Africa, he has spent the best years of his life in opening up the Congo Basin. THE Sixth International Geographical Congress having been fixed to meet at London in June, 1895, an organizing committee, of which Major Leonard Darwin is President, and Mr. J. Scott Keltie Secretary, has been appointed by the Council of the Royal Geographical Society. Circulars have been sent out calling attention to the fact that the meeting is to take place, and in- viting suggestions. A provisional programme of the proceedings will be drawn up in the course of next year. AN exhaustive bibliography of Socotra has just been pub- lished as a pamphlet of forty pages by M. James Jackson, the librarian of the Paris Geographical Society. Including refer- ences to maps, there are 176 entries relating to this island ; many of these papers had almost passed into oblivion, and their recovery and systematic presentation is of much value. SOME PROBLEMS IN THE OLD ASTRONOMY} If a comparison were instituted between the position of the modern astronomer and that of his prototype on the plains of Chaldea, it would not be altogether to the disadvantage of the ancient student of the heavens. He stood at the gateway of the unexplored Uranian mysteries, unfettered by the dog- matic theories of a line of predecessors. From his own imagina- tion he constructed hypotheses and theories, with no feeling of uncertainty about the priority of invention, and with little anxiety concerning the agreement of theory and observation. The modern questions that distract the astronomical world had no place among the thoughts that disturbed the tranquillity of hissoul. He had not reached that critical epoch when he must choose between the ‘‘ old” and the ‘‘new” astronomy ; and he was free from the harassing perplexity that besets the luckless astronomer of this age who seeks to learn the mysteries of the moon’s motion, or strives to formulate the cause and the law of the variation in the terrestrial latitude. The iniquitous be- haviour of the astronomical clock and level, combined with the possible, but unknown, influences of temperature, were not then in league to vex his waking hours and fill his dreams with illusory solutions that ever floated just beyond his grasp. He was not obliged to search the ancient records in musty volumes and strain the limits of conjecture in the interpretation of careless observa- tions and imperfect memoranda ; in short, he was a happy man, free to work in any direction, and not liable to be called upon from time to time to amuse or to instruct his fellows, or even to weary them, with prosy discourse on his own work ora stale vésumé of astronomical progress. Unfortunately for us, we live in an age when astronomy is no longer a simple subject, stimulating the imagination by the t Address delivered before Section A of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, by Vice-President J. R. Eastman. NO. 1192, VOL. 46] nightly display of stellar and planetary glories, and involving in Within the - last fifty years the science has been separated into many divisions ; and within a few years several of these branches have _ its study only the elements of geometrical analysis. assumed new phases. As a result of this continued division, the range of study and investigation has spread beyond the efficient grasp of any individual, and specialists are rising up in all directions. : Rive It has been the custom for the presiding officer of this section to present, on the first day of the annual session, an address setting forth either the progress in general astronomy or in some branch of the science, or the history or development of some department of mathematics, each confining himself to his own special branch of scientific work. “ ts It has seemed to me that a formal statement, to this section, of the general progress of astronomy within the last year or the last decade, would be to lay before you a mass of data with which you are already familiar. This view of the case has led me to attempt the presentation of the importance of one branch of astronomical work in which for several years I have taken a deep personal interest, and which, owing to the present tendency towards specialization, is likely to suffer from serious neglect. : it is not many years since we first heard of the distinction between the ‘‘old” and the ‘‘new” astronomy, but in the comparatively short interval since those terms were first used the scope of physics has so expanded in all directions and so adapted itself to its new surroundings that we find it, in one department at least, casting aside its former title and masquerad- ing under the name of astronomy. That this departure has quickened the zeal of many students, stimulated the development of numerous and valuable modes of research, and resulted in grand and important discoveries, is one of the most gratifying scientific facts of this epoch. The direction of this new movement has followed rigorously the line of least resistance. Except in rare instances, that line of work which promises the quickest returns in the proper form for publication is most attractive to the young student of physics and astronomy, and the comparatively inex- pensive apparatus required for the simpler astro-physical work is apt to lead him in that direction. The new and important changes that have been wrought within a few years in the methods of teaching and in the laboratory work in physics, to- gether with the apparent ease with which an account of a few hours’ labour with the spectroscope or camera may be spread attractively over several printed pages, have doubtless had their influence in leading the candidates for honours into the new fields of astro-physical research.’ The advance in the development of methods of research and the improvements in apparatus are so rapid, and the field is so broad and increasing, that constant vigilance is necessary to keep even in touch with the progress of the ‘‘new” astronomy. One of the most striking examples of the achievements in this new line of work has resulted from a skilful combination of the spectroscope and the camera in the determination of stellar motion in the line of sight with a remarkable linear exactness. The limits of this address would scarcely suffice to simply name the problems now under discussion by the more modern methods, without essaying even a cursory review of their import- ance or their bearing on current scientific investigation ; and yet, from the true astronomical point of view, all of these ques- tievs are at least secondary to the fundamental problems of finding the true position of the solar system in the stellar uni- verse and determining the relative positions and motions of those stars that, within the range of telescopic vision, compose that universe. To this latter phase of our science I ask your attention for a few minutes. These problems still lie at the foundation of the ‘*old”’ astronomy and cannot be relegated to the limbo of use- less rubbish or to the museum of curious relics, not even to make room for the new-born astro-physics. On this foundation must rest every astronomical superstructure that hopes to stand the tests of time and of observation, and the precision of the future science depends rigorously upon the accuracy with which this groundwork is laid. This work was begun in the sixteenth century, but, in spite of all the improvements in apparatus and in methods of analysis — and research, a really satisfactory result has not yet been reached. ‘There is no more fascinating phase of the evolution of human thought and skill in the adaptation of means to ends than is found in the development of the mathematical and instru- Ce Be ee ee ee Pe SEPTEMBER I, 1892] NATURE 425 sntal means for the determination of the positions and motions of the bodies included in the solar system. Accuracy in astro- nical methods and results did not exist, even approximately, until after the revival of practical astronomy in Europe about the beginning of the sixteenth century ; and, before the end of period, the crude instruments of the early astronomers i their highest perfection in the hands of the skilful genius The invention of the telescope, the application of the pen- m to clocks, the invention of the micrometer, the combina- f the telescope with the divided arc of a circle, the n of the transit circle by Roemer, with many improve- in minor apparatus, distinctly stamp the seventeenth ury as a remarkable period of preparation for the vements of the next century. — a the standpoint.of the modern: mechanician the instru- at the Greenwich Observatory in’ Bradley’s time were imperfect in design and construction, and yet on the servations obtained by his skill and perseverance depends the le structure of modern fundamental astronomy. The use of ‘ ‘reached its highest excellence under Bradley’s ‘The next advance, the real work with divided circles, began tt Greenwich in 1811, under the direction of Pond. Since that epoch, theory and observation have held a nearly even course in he friendly race toward that elusive goal perfection; and the is not yet. A careful, but independent, determination of the rel right ascensions of the principal stars, supplemented ‘a rigorous adjustment of such positions with regard to the inoctial points, and a similar determination of the relative polar distance of the same bodies, finally referred and 0 the equator or the pole, seem in this brief statement least, simple problems. If, however, we examine the be. ms in detail the simplicity may not appear so evident ; and this characteristic may prove to be one reason why this important branch of astronomical research is now so generally or In the first y , it must be understood that such an investi- gation cannot be completed in a few months. At least /wo and ferably three * work in observing are necessary to secure od results. Skilled observers, and not more than two with ‘same instrument, are absolutely necessary. Such work can- be confided to students or beginners in the art of observing, or to observers who have acquired the habit of anticipating the tran-it of a star. The telescope and the circles, the objective and the micrometer, the clock and the level must be of the best _ quality, for imperfections in any of these essentials render the __ best results impossible. A thoroughly good astronomical clock is the rarest instrument in the astronomer’s collection. It is not ___ Sufficient that a clock.should have a uniform daily rate, the rate __ should be uniform for any number of minor periods during the _ ‘twenty-four hours. The absolute personal error in observing transits should be determined at least twice a week; and when it is not well established it should be found every day. The level error should be found every two hours, and the greatest care should be exercised in handling this important instrument. _ The-division marks should not be etched on the level tube unless the values of the divisions are frequently examined, for, sooner or later, such tubes become deformed on account of the broken surface, and are then worthless. _ In the determination of zenith distances the effect of refraction such an important part that no work can rightly claim to tal until the local refraction has been carefully in- vestigated, and special corrections to the standard tables, if necessary, have been deduced for each observing station. The ordinary mode of observing temperature is quite inadequate to the importance of the phenomena. These observations should be made as near as possible in the mass of air through which the objective of the telescope is moved, and also in the opening in _ the roof and the sides of the observing room where the outside _ air comes in contact with that in the building. The thermometers should all be mounted, so that they may be whirled in that portion of the air where the temperature is desired, and they should be tested at least once a year to determine the change in tion of the zero ofthe scale. But a complete list of the things to be done, and of the errors to be avoided, are too volu- minous for this occasion, and are not necessary to show the complex character of the problem ; the suggestions already made must suffice. For many years an immense number of observations of the NO. 1192, VOL. 46] larger or the so-called standard stars have been made at the principal observatories, for different purposes and with varying degrees of accuracy, but it is not certain that the work of the last thirty years, with all the advantages of improved apparatus, has resulted in more exact determinations of even the relative right ascension of such stars. There can be’no doubt that the chrono- graphic registration of star transits has given more accurate results for the smaller stars, but I think:it is equally true that, in the case of first and second magnitude stars at least, no improvement has been made in accuracy. With double threads it is possible to observe the zenith dis- tances of such stars with a fair degree of precision, because the operation is one of comparative deliberation, and the centre of the mass of light can be placed midway between the threads with little difficulty. But the attempt to note, with a chrono- graph key, the instant when a swiftly-moving and irregular mass of light, like a Canis Majoris or a Lyre, is bisected by a transit- thredd, is an operation that rises but little above the level of ordinary guesswork. Transits of first and second magnitude stars cannot be observed with an objective of more than four inches aperture with the desired accuracy, unless the apparent magnitude is reduced, by means of screens, to that of a fourth or fifth magnitude star. It is necessary in this connection to avoid confounding the methods employed in the observations of the bodies of the solar system with those for obtaining fundamental places of the stars. ‘The observations of the Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Venus with atransit circle are, from the unavoidable con-’ ditions, necessarily uncertain to a degree even beyond the probable error involved in the observations of the large stars. In spite of these unfavourable conditions, however, the continued observations of these bodies at the principal observatories for many years have produced the most valuable results, even when the work on the standard stars, on which their results depend, has no claim whatever to a fundamental character. In geographic exploration the first endeavour is to secure ap- proximate positions of salient points from a rapid reconnois- sance. This is followed by more careful work, fixing the observing stations with that degree of precision which ensures good results. Finally, the highest qualities of skill and science are combined to exhaust all available means to reach the greatest attainable accuracy. In the exploration of the heavens, the first two of these steps have already been taken, and most of the stars of the larger magnitudes have been so well observed, that the accuracy of their positions is not only far higher than is required by the greatest skill of the navigator, but it is equal to all the demands of ordinary practical work. It is the next step which challenges the skill of the mechanician, the observer, and the computor ; and astronomers cannot rest at ease until all known resources have been exhausted in the attempt to reach the best results. It is not a very difficult matter to fix the posi- tion of stars within a range, in the individual observations, of three or four seconds of arc ; but that degree of accuracy is not sufficient for the more exact problems of astronomy, and it falls far short of what is required in the important discussions of solar and stellar motions. Bradley’s observations furnish the data for Bessel’s ‘‘ Funda- menta Astronomiz, and many astronomers have since attempted by reductions to obtain improved positions for Bradley’s stars. The value of these observations in the development of modern astronomy can hardly be exaggerated. Their importance in the dermination of stellar proper motions increases with the lapse of time, and yet the accuracy of the original observations was fat inferior to that obtained in ordinary routine work with modern methods and improved instruments. Fundamental catalogues of stars have notably increased since the ‘‘ Fundamenta Astronomiz,” but the demand has not yet been satisfied. The catalogues of declinations or north-polar distances are more numerous than those of right ascension, evidently because, for many reasons, independent declinations are more readily determined. There is probably no collection of the right ascension of the large stars that has attained, or justly deserved, a higher reputa- tion than the Pulkowa Catalogue. The observations on which this catalogue is founded were made by Schweizer, Fuss, Linds hagen, and Wagner, at the Pulkowa observatory between 1842 and 1853. The observations were reduced by the several ob- servers, thoroughly discussed by Wagner, and published in 1869. Only one observer was employed at any period. As these result- have received high praise for their accuracy, and for their free- dom from systematic errors, it may be of some interest to consider 426 NATURE [SEPTEMBER I, 1892 briefly, and in a general way, the character of the data on which the results depend. The objective of the transit instrument with which these ob- servations were made, had a focal length of 8 feet and 6 inches and a diameter of 5‘85 inches. It was so constructed that the ocular and the objective could be interchanged. It was also re- versible, and a part of the observations were made with the clamp east and the remainder with the clamp west. This con- struction permitted the observations to be made under four different sets of conditions, and for that reason the observed right ascensions of each star were arranged, for facility of discussion, in four separate groups. An examination of the results in each group discloses some interesting facts that are worth considering somewhat in detail. The whole number of stars in the catalogue that are reckoned as standard stars, and are south of 70° north declination, is 365. Of this number 70 per cent. have a range, in the individual results, in at least one of the four groups, of two-tenths, or more, of a second of time. This range is between 0'20 and 0'29 for 142 stars ; between 0°30 and 0°39 for 92 stars ; between 0'40 and 0°49 for 15 stars ; and 0°50 or more for six stars. The mean range for the 255 stars is 0'297. In general, the accordance be- tween the individual results is quite good, but the discordance just mentioned sometimes occurs more than once in the collected observations of the same star, and these doubtful data have’been used in deducing the standard places given in the catalogue. It is not necessary to look for minor discrepancies, for enough of appreciable magnitude have been cited already to warrant the conclusion that better observing can and ought to be done with modern instruments, and that the needs of astronomical science to-day demand a more comprehensive, and a more accurate, standard catalogue of right ascensions. These remarks must not be interpreted as unfavourable criti- cism of the Pulkowa Catalogue, by far the best work of its period, but they are made simply to call attention to the fact that the present state of stellar astronomy and the direction which the investigations of the immediate future are likely to take, plainly require the most accurate fundamental catalogue of the standard stars that modern instruments and appliances, modern methods and the most skilful observers can produce. All of these con- ditions are essential, and they must be carefully co-ordinated to obtain the desired results. It must be plain to every astronomer that the needed funda- mental catalogue must be deduced from new observations. The reduction and the discussion of old observations of doubtful quality is a waste of time and energy. Under existing circumstances the greatest weight must be given to the observations. Neither amount of labour nor skill in computation can derive results of the desired accuracy from careless, incomplete, or incorrect ob- servations. An attempt on the part of the computer to apply any system of theoretical weights, either simple or complex, to such observations is almost certain to lead, at least, to self-de- ception ; and the safe as well as reasonable rule in such case would be to use the weight zero. One example may serve to illustrate the effect of dealing con- tinuously with old observations. In standard star positions the four principal national ephemerides are not only not in accord with each other, but they generally do not exhibit results even from the few best modern observations. The many discrepancies of varying magnitude in these volumes present with marked emphasis the undesirable results arising from the custom of ‘* threshing old straw.” The data on which these several ephemerides are founded are the common property of all astronomers, and no one can claim the exclusive use of any published observations ; and yet national pride or national obstinacy, which is sometimes mistaken for the nobler sentiment, or some computer’s pet scheme or system of combination, has led to the adoption of a variety of assump- tions in the interpretation and treatment of the original data until our standard ephemerides are so complex in their structure that the exact details of their preparation are practically unknown outside their respective computing offices. The accuracy of the star positions is unchecked by any recent fundamental observa- tions, and they lack that trustworthy character that should inhere in a system intended to serve as a basis for even good differential work, If this character were wholly satisfactory, we should soon see the representatives of astronomy, geodesy, and geology gather- ing about the zenith telescope, confident of reaching some definite conclusion in regard to the variation of terrestrial latitudes by NO 1192, VOL. 46] the systematic use of this simple instrument. But the accurate star positions do not exist, and under the present conditions the- most feasible plan for utilizing this instrument is to so ai the observing stations as to eliminate the effect of errors in the star places, ; If it be admitted that sidereal astronomy is worthy of further and more accurate study, that the needs of astronomical reseai at the present time and in the immediate future demand more exact positions of the standard stars, it may be desirable to con- sider briefly the status of those agencies to which we must look for the successful prosecution of such an investigation, It is not an easy task to determine the exact number of active observatories in the world. Some published lists contain the names of all observatories, from the most expensive and fully equipped Government establishments to the temporary shelter that protects a small equatorial telescope, and perhaps a chrono- meter, which is kept by the owner for the amusement and pos- sibly for the instruction of himself and his friends. A fair enumeration, however, would probably give a list of about 250 observatories sufficiently equipped to do some kinds of astro- nomical work. Of this number more than 20 per cent. are found in North America. In the equipment of these 250 observatories are to be found about sixty transit circles with objectives ranging from nine to about three inches. The quality of about one-fourth of these instruments is such that good results may be expected from their proper employ- ment. To the latter class of instruments we are limited when we seek for the highest class of work now under con- sideration. If we take account of the modern subsidiary apparatus, and of the electric methods of recording transit observations and illuminating the different parts of the instru- ment, it does not seem extravagant to conclude that, if one third of the best transit circles were devoted for the next four years to observations for the formation of a fundamental star catalogue of right ascensions and north-polar distances, the te result would be not only the best positions ever published, but it would be of the greatest value in the discussion of current, as well as future, astronomical problems. Unfortunately, how- ever, we do not find any such number of instruments employed in fundamental work, At the present time there is no general fundamental work in progress in any portion of the world, and within the last thirty years there have been no results of that character to take the place of the Pulkowa determinations. This statement does not refer to observations of one ordinate only, or to those cases where seVeral observers, both trained and untrained, are accustomed to observe in turn with the same instrument and their several results are indiscriminately mingled in such a way that critical discussion is out of the question. Several observers may work together in the determination of declinations with a fair degree of success, because, to a large extent, each observer’s work in a period of twelve or twenty- four hours is independent of that of his fellow’s ; but even this. work is better when done by one skilled observer alone. Fundamental right ascensions, however, cannot be determined with the requisite accuracy, and the necessary freedom from systematic errors, if more than one or, at most, two observers work with the same instrument. If only accidental errors of observation, or such as are due to atmospheric disturbances, uncomfortable positions, or the unsteady nerves of the observer, were introduced by increasing the number of observers, then increasing the number of observations would tend to diminish the error of the result. But the personal errors of observers, and their various habits of manipulation, are of the same nature as systematic errors, and cannot be eliminated by increasing the list of observers or the number of observations. Of the many valuable star catalogues in existence, I know of none in which the right ascensions depend upon the observations of more than one astronomer, where it is possible to know, or to eliminate, either the constant or the variable errors due to the personal equation of the observers. In the current astronomical work of this country in which we, as members of this section, are especially interested, observations and discussions, planned solely, and properly carried out, for the determination of absolute star places, are quite unknown. necessary instrumental outfit, with the exception in some cases of a clock of the requisite quality, exists in several observatories, and I have no doubt that trained observers of the highest character can be found to meet all demands. With the exception of a few Government establishments, and of those built to promote a higher grade of instruction, the ob- The ~ _ SEPTEMBER 1, 1892] NATURE 427 servatories throughout the world have been founded generally __ for some special purpose. Their existence depended upon some endowment or bequest originating in the real or fancied interest _ which the wealthy benefactor took in some popular branch of the science, and this founder, with a real enthusiasm for the stimulation of research, and a noble generosity that deserved i in a broader field, often unwittingly limited the scope of his foundation and restrained the usefulness of his gift. Utility or novelty, separately or in combination, were frequently work on which were based the successful claims for y assistance in founding and maintaining astronomical ; i The working observatories founded fifty years - or more with scarcely an exception, were supported entirely in the belief that the results of the observations would be, _ directly or indirectly, beneficial to navigation and to commerce. _ At that time this belief rested upon a reasonable basis. This plea for the construction and support of observatories is some- times heard even at this period in the evolution of science, in spite of the fact that, if every fixed observatory in the world were. to-day, no interest of navigation or commerce ‘ecaimaa for the next fifty years. The function of astronomy ing the development of navigation and in fostering the extension of commerce has been completed. _ In the periodical struggle with wealthy patrons to secure the stipend, and with corporations and legislative bodies to ain the annual appropriations for the support of observatories, may be found perhaps an apparent, if not a sufficient, motive for selecting the class of work that is pursued in most of the American observatories at this time. The apparent conclusion of those who have sought financial support for astronomical s seems to have been that such aid could not be secured except for some special work or research, and that the branch of investigation selected must be one that ; either immediate and novel results, or such as would enable capital to win, either in material benefits or in popular reputation, some returns for the risks incurred in speculative advances. Persistence in these theories and in the consequent lines of action, has doubtless resulted in the evolution of a certain of astrcnomer, and also of a corresponding type of patron, whether the latter be an individual, a cor- poration, or the legislative agents of millions of intelligent ; » Such a result would be the obvious outcome of the in " The motives that actuate the early settlers in new countries, that guide them in the struggle with the untamed forces of nature, arise mainly from the material interests of the pioneer. As the subjugation of the land progresses and the comforts and luxuries of life are substituted for the bare necessities of exist- ence, the higher, intellectual side of humanity asserts itself and demands, not only a hearing in the councils, but also its share in the advantages won in the campaign for material prosperity. The progress in the development of the various stages of civilization has its parallel in the evolution of the science of modern astronomy. For many centuries the timid navigator skirted the familiar shores of his native land, or, occasionally lured by the hope of unusual gains, he rashly tempted fate by adventurous cruises along distant shores that bore no name in the traditions of his forefathers. But, however lofty his ambi- tion, he never allowed the known or unknown peaks and head- lands to sink below his horizon. To him the open ocean was a symbol of infinite space that he dared not explore until astronomy furnished the key to its uttermost recesses, and the _ art of navigation rose to the dignity of a science. Greenwich Observatory was founded in 1675 to promote the interests of navigation. The royal warrant appointing the first astronomer royal also declares that his duty is ‘' forthwith to apply himself with the most exact care and diligence to the rec- tifying the tables of the motions of the heavens and the places of the fixed stars, soas to find out the so much desired longitude of places for the perfecting the art of navigation.” Right faith- fully have the successive astronomers royal carried out the spirit of the royalmandate. For many years the success was far from uniform, nor was the progress always satisfactory, but, through adversity as well as prosperity, the original desiga of the founda- tion was always kept in view, and the results have been com- mensurate with the effort. If the work of all the other observatories of the world were neglected or destroyed, the data in the annual volumes of the Greenwich Observatory would be sufficient, not only to build anew the science of NO. 1192, VOL. 46] navigation, but to reconstruct the entire planetary and lunar theories. Surely there can be no more flattering commenta: on the value of a well-planned system of observatory wor closely followed, through two centuries, with true Anglo-Saxon pertinacity. The history of Greenwich Observatory is in many respects that of nearly all the observatories, of that early epoch, that have survived to the present time, but most of the urgent needs that led to their foundation have ceased to exist, and new pro- blems have arisen to take their place. The immediate material and commercial advantages, sought for in obedience to the de- mands of the original foundations, have been fully gained, and the scientific results obtained from the same researches remain a permanent benefaction to the whole world. To this extent the science of astronomy is deprived of some, perhaps the most efficient, of the influences that commended it to public approval and support during the last two centuries ; and the science has now reached a period in its development where we may with propriety consider two pertinent questions. First, what has astronomy gained for itself in the effort to present, in its results, commercial advantages or popular reputation to its patrons, in return for financial support ? Second, what shall be its future attitude whén seeking aid in the foundation and endowment of new observatories or in the maintenance of those already in existence ? It may be assumed without fear of contradiction that after the revival of astronomical studies in Europe the rapid develop- ment of practical and applied astronomy and the consequent establishment of a large number of observatories was due to the stimulus derived from newly-awakened interests of naviga- tion and commerce. _ Around these centres of scientific activity the astronomers of the world gathered to discuss not only the problems of practical astronomy, but the more abstruse, theo- retical questions which lay at the foundation of the higher branches of the science. The work ofeach observatory not only furnished the means for determining the accuracy of the numerous theories then extant, but it produced original data on which new theories were constructed, to be in their turn subjected to the rigid test of observation. In the extreme interest evolved in such discussions by those who eagerly sought the key to Nature’s methods in the simple form of general laws, the minor problems of practical astronomy were soon solved or passed over to clear the way for the more profound questions that involved the motions in the solar system and the structure of the stellar universe. So, indirectly at first, with a zeal superior to all ob- stacles, and an ambition that looked beyond the simple and practical idea underlying the original foundation, astronomers have steadily but persistently sought for Nature’s general laws in the labyrinth of complex phenomena, have devoted years of intense labour to the most refined tests of methods and theories, and finally, have won for their exacting but fascinating study the foremost place among the sciences. Success in all these labours has justified the wisdom of those royal and wealthy patrons who generously gave their support when a favourable issue was by no means certain. In its practical results astronomy has returned to mankind a thousand-fold the cost of founding and maintaining its obser- vatories, and at the same time it has developed a science whose field of action includes not only the figure, motions, and posi- tions of our own insignificant planet, but it reaches the utter- most limits of the universe. If the second question be regarded as involving only a siwple problem in ethics it could be readily answered by following the homely, but sometimes pertinent, injunction to “speak the truth.” But in view of the complexity of interests now existing this question has a wider signification and deserves some con- sideration. As already stated, utility or commercial advantage can no longer be given as a reason for carrying on astronomical investigations. Novelty, combined with a desire for archi- tectural display and an absurd ambition to secure the largest telescope and the greatest variety of astronomical instruments, has, even at the present time, a place, and sometimes a prominent one, among the _ reasons er for establishing new observatories. In view of these facts, it is surely the duty of astronomers to see to it that, for their own reputation and for the present and the ultimate welfare of their science, the true purpose of astronomical study and research, and the grounds for the existence and the support of observatories should be frankly given and courageously maintained. It is possible that pecuniary 428 NATURE [SEPTEMBER I, 1892 profit may sometimes indirectly arise from some branches of astronomical work or investigation; but the only sound and honest reason that can be given for such work is, that it stimulates the highest form of intellectual activity, widens the already broad field of investigation,’ and increases the sum of human knowledge. Whoever pleads the cause of astronomy ona lower plane discounts the intelligence of himself or of his audience. Why should the astronomer stoop to select a less noble theme, or consider it from a lower point of view? He who leads an intelligent and thoughtful life must feel himself in daily touch with those phenomena that are involved in the most im- portant astronomical problems of the present and the immediate future. The figure and motions of the earth which he treads ; the constitution and translation of the sun that invigorates his life and lights his days; the movements and structure of the moon and planets that beautify his nights ; the proper motions and distances of the countless stars that nightly set before his eyes the highest types of rigorous law and of boundless space that the mind can grasp ; all of these, and more, tend to convince him that the constantly growing demand for broader and more exact knowledge is ample warrant for the time and expense in- volved in the most profound astronomical investigation. In this direction lies the justification of astronomical research ; on this basis the astronomer is sure of the stimulating support of every cultivated mind as long as the questions ‘‘ why” and ‘‘ how ” are constantly reiterated and still are unanswered. On this ground, and on this alone, rest the valid reasons for the expenditure of corporate, municipal, or national funds for the establishment of expensive observatories and the prosecution of astronomical in- vestigations ; and in the closing” years of this century the con- scientious astronomer can in no way more thoroughly vindicate the highest claims of his-science than by holding the standard of work well above the popular fancies of the hour, and by devot- ing his time and energy to that class of fundamental work that shall not only satisfy the rigorous demands of the present time, but shall make: the last decade of the nineteenth century an important epoch in the real progress of astronomy. GEOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. NEARLY fifty papers were ccntributed to Section C during the meeting of the British Association, and although no new facts or theories of startling interest were brought forward, the record of the year’s geological work was decidedly above the average. Owing to Professor Lapworth’s regrettable illness his address could not be delivered until Monday, and the chair at the meetings had usually to be taken by one of the vice- presidents. Glacial and local papers occupied the first two days, the most remarkable being the pair by Messrs. Peach and Horne on the Radiolarian Chert of Arenig age, once probably a deep-sea ooze, which covers 3000 square miles in the southern uplands, and passes like the Moffat shales into sediment when traced towards the north. When the chert is traced to within half a mile of the Loch Doon granite the quartz has become quite granulitic, the radiolaria being still recognizable in the matrix although there is a faint development of mica ; close to the granite the rock is completely recrystallized, and consists entirely of large quartz particles full of liquid cavities and rounded inclusions of biotite. Dr. Hicks claimed as pre-Cambrian some tender gneisses, schists, quartzites, and limestones, of the central Highlands, of which he gave microscopic descriptions, and Prof. Blake argued that the discovery of Olenellus of the type of O. Thompsonz, in beds above the Torridon sandstone, did not necessarily parallel these beds with those containing O/ene/lus beneath the Paradonides zone of America. Amongst the other papers dealing with Paleozoic rocks may be noted Prof. Blake’s discovery of a felsite like that of Llyn Padarn, apparently intrusive into the Llanberis slates, seen in a new section in the Penrhyn quarries ; Prof. Sollas’s discovery of bodies like radiolaria in the slates of Howth, and the limestone of Culdaff; and Prof. Bonney’s comparison of the pebbles of the English Bunter with those in the old red conglomerates in Scotland. Several important glacial papers were read. Dr. Crosskey reported on the recording of new erratics chiefly in the north of England. Mr. Lomas traced Boulders of the Ailsa Craig, Riebeckite Rock, on Moel Tryfaen, in Anglesey and the Vale NO. 1192, VOL. 46] of Clwyd, at Liverpool and Birkenhead. Mr. Bell considered that the evidence from the shell-beds of Clava and Chapelhall was less consistent with the theory of submergence than with that of transportation by land ice. Messrs. Peach and Horne adduced evidence to show that in Sutherland and Ross-shire, at the time of greatest glaciation, the ice-shed was to the east of the present watershed, and the lofty mountains of Assynt and Loch Maree were glaciated by ice travelling westward. Mr. Clement Reid gave a list of twenty-eight species of Arctic plants from a series of silted-up tarns at Corstorphine and Hailes, near Edinburgh. Prof. Axel Blyth exhibited and described a beautiful set of plant remains preserved in calcareous tufas from Gudbrandsdal, in central Norway. The investigation of the Elbolton cave will probably be completed this year, and it has so far failed to reveal any trace of occupation by Palzeolithic man. Messrs. Peach and Horne have studied one out of a group of caves in the Assynt limestone of Sutherlandshire, and found charcoal with split and calcined bones of reindeer, fox, and grouse in the upper layers, and ‘a finely preserved canine tooth of brown bear at a depth of about five feet from the surface. Mr. Coates gave a description of the cuttings, chiefly in boulder-clay, in the Crieff and Comrie railway. And Mr. Kendall attributed the glacical period to variability in the heat of the sun. __ Foremost amongst the paleontological papers stands that of Mr. E. T. Newton, in which was given an account of several remarkable skulls obtained from the Elgin sandstone and pro- bably belonging to two or three species related to the African dicynodonts ; together with these occurred the skull of a reptile allied to Pareiasaurus of the Karoo beds, but with no less than thirty horns varying from a quarter of an inch to three inches in length. Mr. M. Laurie described two new species of Zuryf- © terus, twoof Stylonurus, and one of a new genus, Drepanopterus, of Eurypterids from the Silurian rocks of the Pentland Hills, The work of the type committee still continues, and lists have been received from several museums and private collectors, Reports were also presented on Cretaceous Polyzoa and Palzeozoic Phyllopoda, and a paper by Mr. Bullen Newton recorded the discovery of Chonetes Pratti in the carboniferous rocks of Western Australia. & es Ns The petrological papers included a note on the Malvern crys- . talline rocks, by Mr. Irving ; one on the felsites, andesites, ad diabases of Builth, by Mr. Woods; anda short note on the Limerick Traps, by Mr. Watts. Mr. Ussher endeavoured to prove that there must have been a rigid mass occupying the position of the Devon and Cornwall granites at the time when the stratified rocks were folded, inorder to account for the deviations in their strike. Mr. Goodchild argued that the junction of the granite of the Ross of Mull was best explained by the absorption of sedimentary rocks in the granite. Mr. Harker explained the presence of porphyritic quartz in basic igneous rocks by supposing that it had formed in the upper layers of a magma basin, and sunk to its present position by gravity. Mr. Teall gave a sketch of the succession of rocks in an area of gneisses, which accorded with the succession from basic to acid types in plutonic masses; and Mr. Somervail en- deavoured to explain the chief rocks in the Lizard area by segregation from a single magma. Finally must be mentioned Professor Hull’s paper on the Physical Geology of Arabia Petrcea; a very interesting paper by Miss Ogilvie, on the landslips in the South Tyrol, in which she showed how much the mapping of that region was complicated by the constant repetition of portions of the strata by landslips ; a new classification of the New Red Sandstone of Northern England, by Mr. Goodchild ; and papers on the Green sand and Fuller’s Earth of Bedfordshire, by Mr. Cameron. Dr. Johnstone Lavis’s report on Vesuvius chronicled the phases of eruption in the past year, and was illustrated by a | beautiful series of photographs, chiefly of fumarolles and spiracles in the streams of lava. Mr. De Rance’s report on underground water was continued. Mr. Davison’s earthquake report dealt chiefly with new forms of seismic apparatus, and the — photographic committee recorded that the collection of geo- logical photographs now numbered 700, amongst which half the English counties and Scotland were, however, poorly repre- sented. An excellent exhibition of the photographs was held in a room provided for the purpose, where also the Geological Survey of Scotland showed a fine series of views illustrating ~ the scenery and structures of the ancient gneisses and schists o the Highlands. aig a eo Oe ee re eg ey ee ge en ae ee ee a a Se SEPTEMBER I, 1892] NATURE 429 Bc MECHANICS AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. SECTION G had a good meeting at Edinburgh this year, a there mone, Be great improvement on last year’s gathering at _ Cardiff. On the members assembling on Thursday morning _ the fourth inst. in the old University Buildings thc first business _ was naturally the Presidential address. Prof. W. C. Unwin, _ F.R.S., who this year occupied the chair, is eminently fitted to pe over the Mechanical Science Section. His knowledge of _ the scientific side of mechanics is well known, and his past _ experience in the region of practical mechanics puts him _ thoroughly in touch with the many engineers who frequent the section. His address, which we have already cristo was _ listened to by a large audience, the theatre being quite full. E. -ene s to the President for his address was moved ___ by Lord Kelvin and seconded by Mr. Deacon, of Liverpool. i dima on the list was a contribution from Mr. James Dredge . r. Robert S. McCormick on the American Exhibition, which is to be held next year in Chicago. The paper gave a good general description of the coming show from the engineer's point of view ; but the subject is one that offers _ better scope for the members of Section F. It is manifestly - impossible to give anything like a good engineering description within the limits of a short paper, whilst the advantages and disadvantages of exhibiting might well have supplied a theme for discussion in the Economic Section. In fact, the discussion _ which followed the reading of the paper turned wholly on this _ branch of the subject. The next three papers were of a sanitary nature. Prof. George Forbes and Mr. G. Watson, of Leeds, both dealt in the disposal of town refuse, the former bringing in the electrical lighting of Edinburgh as a part of his scheme. Mr. Forbes points out that in the electric lighting of towns the demand for power is but for a few hours daily. With no system of accumulators, or power storage, this necessitates a large plant compared to that which would suffice if the demand could be made continuous. The author, therefore, proposes to use Arthur’s Seat as an accumulator, by forming a reservoir on its summit, and into this reservoir water would be pumped con- tinuously. The head of water thus obtained would be used for working turbines, which would be of sufficient power for the maximum demand. There would thus be a gain through k g the steam engines constantly at work, smaller engines could be used, and there would not be the loss incidental to i steam or keeping the boiler fires banked. The great feature of the scheme, however, is to use the dust-bin refuse of the city as fuel for raising steam. The author would erect destructors, and the waste heat from these would be: passed through the boiler flues. _ Prof. Forbes quoted figures in support _ of his contention that the scheme is practicable, and he instanced what has been done at Southampton, and elsewhere, in the ‘matter of using domestic refuse for steam-generating purposes. ‘We are not able to criticise the details put forward, but we may venture to say that, if the scheme can be worked out practically, engineers will have put before them an example of the use of waste material which many have not hitherto considered capable of so successfully applied. The author stated that the refuse of a city, if properly burnt, would generally supply suffi- cient heat to raise the steam necessary for the electric lighting required. That is a very satisfactory adjustment of supply and demand, and if Prof. Forbes cin show municipal engineers how to put it in practice he will have rendered a most important Service for which every one should be devoutly grateful. After pag the particular scheme for the refuse destruction and electric lighting of Edinburgh, the author gave some interesting ict of that which has already been done in this country in the matter of burning town refuse. The next paper was contributed by Mr. G. Watson, of Leeds, and was an excellent treatise on the refuse-destructor question. ‘The various types of apparatus which have already been iput in use were illustrated by wall-diagrams, and the chief points in their construction were explained. Mr. Watson is of opinion, and he supported his opinion by results of actual experience, not _ only that dust-bin refuse can be burned in a properly constructed destructor without nuisance, but that the waste heat can be used for raising steam ; or, if required, that dust-bin refuse and sewage sludge, containing 90 per cent. of moisture, may be satisfactorily burnt nea the Horsfall destructor being, apparently, particularly suitable for the purpose. The whole subject is one of great and growing importance. It is to be regretted that both these papers were not printed and distributed previously, so that NO, 1192, VOL. 46 | a thorough criticism of the various points raised might have been made during the discussion. A paper by Mr. R. F. Grantham, on the absortpion and filteration of sewage was next read. The author gave accounts ‘of many examples that have been carried out in different parts of the world, and of experiments made in this connection. Mr. Grantham is of opinion that the Maplin and Foulness Sands at the mouth of the Thames might be used to advantage for treat- ment of the sewage of London. The next paper was of a different character. It was by Mr. G. F. Deacon, and contained a description of the work the author had carried out in shield tunneling in loose ground whilst con- structing the Vyrnwy Aqueduct tunnel under the Mersey. The work, as is generally known, was one of remarkable difficulty, and the manner in which the various obstacles to its completion were overcome affords a valuable lesson for engineers. Mr. D. A. Stevenson next read a paper in which he advo- cated the construction of a ship canal between the Forth and the Clyde. The scheme included a tunnel high enough to pass the masts of big vessels, and locks sufficiently large to take in ocean- going steamers. ‘The estimated cost is £8,000,000, After a short discussion of this paper the section adjourned. On the next day, Friday, the 5th inst., the first business was the reading of a paper by Mr. D. Cunningham, in which he described a mechanical system for the distribution of parcels. The device was illustrated by means of a working model, with- out the aid of which, or drawings of the mechanism, it would be difficult to make the principle understood. Mr. Alexander Siemens next described two electric locomotives which his firm had recently supplied to the City and South Lon- don Railway. ~-These, as it is proper they should, have been more successful in their working than the engines originally placed on the line. The armatures of the motors are wound on the axles, so that no gearing is required. According to dia- grams displayed, the efficiency varied between about 90 and 94 percent. Each locomotive, fully equipped, weighs 13} tons, and the weight of the train of carriages is about 21 tons, without passengers. The weight, we believe, is considerably greater than in the original locomotives used on the line, and this’ is undoubtedly an advantage. Mr. J. H. Greathead, Professors Silvanus Thompson, and G. Forbes took part in the discussion ; in replying to which the author attributed the success of the motors to large armatures and large field magnets. — Prof. Silvanus Thompson stated that Messrs. Mather and Platt, of Manchester, are now building an electric locomotive which is to be more powerful than anything that has gone before. Hydraulics next occupied the attention of the section, Messrs. F. Purdon and H. E. Walters describing an interesting tide- motor which they have devised and constructed. The machine takes the form of a floating barge or flat, which is moored athwart the tide-way. There are two drums placed some dis- tance apart, and on these drums a chain is made to travel by floats attached to it, which floats project downwards into the water, and are carried along on the forward stroke by the action of the tide, whilst the return stroke is made in the air. As the flat is moored athwart the stream—in order to utilize the greatest possible area of the current—and as the chain travels fore and aft, guides are used to conduct the water in the proper direction to actuate the floats or paddles. The ides also concentrate the stream. These are roughly the ndamental features of the design, further details of which we are unable to give through limits of space. The machine, however, is very interesting, and is perhaps one of the most promising and best worked-out motors of its kind. There appears now to be better prospect for inventions of this nature than heretofore, on account of the facilities offered for transport of power by means of electricity. - It is always a tempting pro- blem to try to use some of the vast store of energy running to waste in the tides, although the question is one beset with practical difficulties that have been sufficient hitherto to make tide-motors very scarce. A paper by Mr. Pearsall, in which he described a new arrangement of hydraulic ram, which he had made, was next read; Prof. Blyth described a new form of windmill on the principle of the Robinson cup anemometer; and Mr. G. R. Redgrove having read a contribution on Levavasseur’s flexible ones tubing, the second day’s proceedings were brought to a close. The next sitting was held on the following Monday, the section not meeting on Saturday. The arrangement was de- 430 NATURE [SEPTEMBER I, 1892 cidedly a pleasant innovation, the Saturday morning’s meeting being by no means popular. Whether there be few or many papers, it seems impossible to get through a sitting in a short time, as there are always one or two speakers, at any rate, who will spin the discussions out, so that those who are obliged to stay to the end have no time to get lunch before starting on the excursions, Section G made a trip to Glasgow on the Saturday, and were rewarded by Perse the finest exhibition of marine machinery ever collected in a single installation. This comprised the propelling engines of one of the pair of enormous vessels the Fairfield Company are building for the Cunard line. The engines were erected in the shop, and one was enabled to get a fair prospective of their grand proportions, such as will be impossible when they are confined to their natural position on shipboard. On the section again assembling on the Monday following the first business was the reading of the report of the committee appointed to consider ‘‘ The Development of Graphic Methods in Mechanical Science.” This report had been prepared by Prof. Hele-Shaw, of Liverpool, who must have spent a vast amount of pains in compiling the very bulky document, which was read in abstract. The bibliography should be especially valuable. This is the second report that has been presented by the. committee, and, we believe, the subject is to be further in- vestigated. The use of graphic methods is far less common with engineers than it might be with advantage, and the matter is one which the Mechanical Section of the British Association is especially fitted to deal. Mr. Preece next read two papers, in the first of which he took the municipal authorities to task for causing stack pipes to be disconnected from the drains, and thus depriving these natural lightning-conductors of their lead to earth. If Mr. Preece’s prognostications are fulfilled there will be a great increase in casualties from lightning when the new legislation comes widely into effect, unless some other means be taken to make connection between stack pipes and earth. Mr. Preece did not read his second paper, but contented himself with saying a few words to signify its scope. Its title was ‘* The use of secondary batteries in telegraphy.” For the past seven years secondary batteries have been used at the Post Office to supply current to two large groups of circuits, one group consisting of 110 single needles, and the other of 100 Morse inkers and sounders. Mr. Gisbert Kapp next read a practical and interesting paper on ‘‘ Power Transmission by Alternating Current,” describing an installation which has been carried out at Cassel. In that town the water supply is a municipal undertaking, the source being at a distanee of four miles or so from the town. In the summer a large quantity of water is used, and for this reason a certain amount of pumping hasto be done. The pumps are worked by turbines. In the winter the existing natural gravi- tation supply is sufficient, and the turbine pumps are, therefore, not required. It is, of course, in winter that the chief demand for light occurs and then the turbines, in place of being idle, are used for driving dynamos. Mr. Kapp explained by means of diagrams the manner in which a storage system is carried out so that the turbines may be kept constantly at work. The power is transmitted by a single phase alternating current from the generating station to two sub-stations at Cassel. At one of the sub-stations there is a battery which is charged during the hours of light load, to be in turn drawn upon during the time of heavy load. Each of the two sub-stations contains a transformer so that the distribution is by continuous current, whilst between the generating station and the sub-stations the current is alternating, the pressure being 2000 volts. The installation was the work of Mr. Oskar von Millar, Mr. Kapp designing the alternators. The author gave a good many details of the arrangement of which the above is an outline. In thediscussion which followed an interesting point was raised as to the effect of putting the alternators out of step. The author said that in the present in- stance he had no hesitation in putting the load on suddenly and no effect followed, but if the load were suddenly taken off, the machine would start howling in a frightful manner until it again got in synchrony. This was alarming at first, but not otherwise burtful. Mr. E. H. Woods next read a paper in which he gave par- ticulars of a new design of electric locomotive. The driving wheels are placed horizontally, the necessary grip being, we understood, obtained by springs, which press the pairs of wheels against a central rail. There is an ingenious device for points and crossings which was illustrated by a model. The motor is NO. 1192, VOL. 46] to be kept running continuously, the grip of the wheels being released when the train is stopped, the power then be absorbed. by frictional brakes. The relative value of this device natu depends on the length of the stoppage. Mr. Kapp and Prof, Forbes both spoke on the question of continuous running motors, neither appearing to look with favour on the device. Monday is generally devoted wholly to electrical engineeri: but on this occasion the papers on the subject were not - ciently numerous to fill up the sitting. The rest of the day was, therefore, filled up with papers of a miscellaneous nature. The first: of these was a contribution by Lieut. W. B. Basset, R.N., who described a very ingenious coin-counting machine which has been recently placed in the Royal Mint. It would be impossible to describe this apparatus without the aid of drawings; but it may be stated that 3,000 coins can be counted in a minute, or one ton in three-quarters of an hour. The coins are made to move along a channel of such a size that only one can pass atatime. They are forced along by means of two driving wheels, actuated by an electric motor. At the lower end of the channel is a wheel with notches in its rim, the notches being of a shape that the coins just fit into them. The wheel is made to turn by the coins as they are forced forward, the action being comparable to that of a rack and pinion, the rack being formed by the procession of coins pushed forward by the driving wheels. The counting wheel must necessarily pass a coin for each notch or tooth it advances, and as a given number of teeth always go to a revolution, an accurate record is obtained. The machine in the Mint is arranged to count pence, half-pence, piastres, half-piastres, and Hong Kong cents. It counts on an average over two million coins a month without error, Mr. Killingworth Hedges next read a paper on ‘‘ Anti- Friction Material for Bearings used without Lubrication.” This referred chiefly to a bearing composed of finely-powdered carbon mixed with steatite, which the author had found valuable. He referred to the advantages of non-lubricated bearings, such as saving in labour, cost of oil, and cleanliness. In the discus- sion which followed, Professor Unwin well summed up the question by saying that though there might be a higher co-effi- cient of friction with a non-lubricated bearing, manufacturers could generally well afford a small additional expenditure of power in order to be free from the defects of oiled bearings. A paper by Mr. B. H. Thwaite on high-pressure boilers, which does not call for notice here, was the last read on this day. The last day on which Section G sat was Tuesday, the 9th inst., when the proceedings were opened a paper by Mr. D. Senge fy | Rules of Nomenclature —W. A. Herdman .. .-._ 417 An Earthquake Investigation Committee.—D. BARUCH orc. Oe 418 Prehistoric Epochs. Edmond Bordage 418 At Portrush.—James Rigg ..... ica. ALO Origin of Idea that Snakes Sting.—Cyril Frampton 418 On the Relative Contamination of the ater- Surface by Equal Quantities of Different Sub- 5 stances. By Agnes Pockels .... . noun. eee Notes PRE rik: aie 419 Our Astronomical Column :— Photographic Magnitudes of Nova Aurige .. . 423 Comparison Stars of the Planet Victoria. .... . 423 International ‘Times a 423 Comet. Swift (March 6,'1802)-, . o-oo eaaee 423, Geographical Notes 300 es ee 424 Some Problems in the Old Astronomy, By J. R. Eastman Sha Woe ee be 6 ee 424 Geology atthe British Association .-...... 428 Mechanics at the British Association ....... 429 Anthropology at the British Association . . 7 432- Conference of Delegates of Corresponding Societies 433 Scientific Serials? 2.0 3... ee 435 Societies and Academies... 2 2. ee 436 3 asi ee ey ieee Se se ee NALTURE 437 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1892. THE HIGHER THEORY OF STATISTICS. _ Die Grundsziige der Theorie der Statistik, Von Harald __‘-Westergaard, Professor an der Universitat zu Kopen- __hagen. (Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer.) _ 'FHIS is an important contribution to the Calculus of _ + Probabilities and the higher, theory of Statistics. _ The foundation of experience on which the whole edifice __ of probabilities is based has been strengthened and ex- __ tended by the new material which Prof. Westergaard has _ deposited. Here, for instance, is one of his experiments :— _ From a bag containing black and white balls in equal _ numbers, he drew (or caused to be drawn) a ball 10,000 _ times, the ball being replaced in the bag and the bag _ shaken up after each extraction. He records not only _ the total numbers of each colour, but also the number of _ white balls in each of 100 batches, each numbering 100 balls, also in 50 batches each of 200 balls, and so on. The diminution of the relative deviation from the average _as the size of the batch is increased comes out clearly. _ On an equally large scale Prof. Westergaard has observed _ the proportion of prizes to blanks in batches of tickets _ drawn at a lottery; and the frequency with which _ different numbers, drawn under conditions such that one _ number was as likely as another, were observed to occur He has similarly tabulated the frequency with which the different digits 1, 2, 3, &c., terminate certain officially recorded amounts, the “kontis” of a savings bank, of which documents he has examined 10,000. These experiences afford new confirmation to the first principles of the calculus : namely, the fundamental fact of statistical regularity which the definition of probability involves, and the postulate that certain events are independent of each other in such wise that, if the probability of each be 4, the probability of the double event is a quarter. Ascending from these simple experiences, Prof. Westergaard reaches by a new and easy route the formula for the measure, or modulus, of the extent to which the observed number—e g. of white balls in a batch of 100 or 1000—is likely to differ from the most probable number ; in the instance just given 100 or 10004, if # is the probability of drawing a white ball. The sought ex- pression, it is presumed, must be a symmetric function of the probability of the event (drawing a white ball), which we have called , and the complementary probability (drawing a non-white ball), viz.,1 — 2. This hint enables us to decipher from the records of experience that the modulus is proportioned to VA(1 — f). The influence of the s#ze of the batch upon the extent of the deviation is similarly elicited from observation. Thus with a mini- mum of mathematical equipment, by easy steps and through an unpretentious a fosteriori gate, we are led into the very stronghold of Probabilities—if not to the _ law oferror itself, at any rate to one of its most important properties. ___ Prof. Westergaard has not only popularized the law of _ error, he has also proved it. He has added considerably _ to its evidence, by observing in an immense number of _ instances the exact correspondence between fact and theory. We must content ourselves with citing one set of NO. 1193, VOL. 46] instances. Ten thousand balls having been drawn at random, as above mentioned, and the composition of each batch of a 100 being examined, it was found that for twenty-five out of a hundred such groups the number of white balls lay between 4g and 51 (inclusive)—limits distant + 1 from 50, the most probable number. For forty out of the hundred groups the number of white balls lay between the limits 50 + 2. And soon. The observations are exhibited and compared with theory in the annexed table :— Number of batches in which the number of white alls is between certain limits, Limits Observed. Calculated. 25 24 ee 40 38 ing 50 52 =. 70 73 + 5 85 87 £7 95 96 10 The multiplication of correspondences like this, the concatenation of evidence in favour of the law of error which the author has put together in his fifth chapter, is very cogent. Another sort of verification to which the law of error is submitted is to compare it with the explicit binomial to which the exponential law is an approximation. This approximation is closer than may be supposed. For example, if a hundred balls be taken at random, each ball being as likely to be black as white, the probability of obtaining exactly 50 balls, as evaluated by the binomial theorem, is ‘o80, as approximately determined by the exponential law of error is also ‘o80. The proba- bility of obtaining either 49, 50, or 51 is, according to the exact calculation, ‘236, according to the approximative formula, also ‘236. And so on. Among other contributions to the calculus which Prof. Westergaard has either adduced from authors rarely read, or himself deduced, may be noticed his elegant treatment of the case where the probabilities of two alternative events (say, drawing white or black balls) are not equal (p. 70). Suppose that the probability, say p, of one event is very small, then the formula for the deviation of the number of white balls actually drawn from the number most likely to be drawn, viz. 2f, admits of simplification. The “mean error” (=modulus+ 2) is in general ... (Nn (1-/); in the particular case it becomes approximately np. A further simplification may be explained by an example. Suppose that we know the number of deaths, say 900, per unit of time in a cer- tain population. Then, without knowing the number of the population, or without taking the trouble of referring to it and calculating the death-rate, we may determine approximately the fluctuation to which the number of deaths is liable. For the measure of that fluctuation the “mean error,” is approximately Nnp; n being the number of population, a large number, and / the death- rate, a small fraction. Now is 900, and accordingly 30 is the mean error, that is, assuming that the urn in which the lots of Fate are shaken—‘‘omnium Versatur urna U 438 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 8, 1892 serius ocius Sors exitura”—is constituted as simply as the urn in which we have supposed black and white balls to be shaken up. This is a question in Applied Probabili- ties to which we are just coming. Prof. Westergaard’s applications of the calculus to statistics are even more striking than his developments of the pure theory of probabilities. The Jaw of error may be applied to concrete phenomena in two cases: where the fluctuation of averages follows the analogy of the simpler games of chance—as we just now assumed with regard to deaths—and where this condition is not fulfilled. Prof. Westergaard’s contributions belong chiefly to the first class. He has considerably added to the instances discovered by Prof. Lexis, in which a set of ratios—such as the proportion between the mor- tality of male and-female infants in different years—are grouped according to the same law of dispersion as the percentages of white balls in a set of batches drawn at random from an urn containing black and white balls mixed up in a certain proportion. The uses of this dis- covery are twofold—negative and positive. In the first place, we may be deterred from a search after causes which is hopeless. In the typical instance of the urn and balls it would be vain to trace the reason why any particular ball, or set of balls, extracted should be white (or black). We cannot hope to analyse the “ fleeting mass of causes ”—as Mill calls Chance—upon which the event depends. We may have been able to break up our batches of balls into two classes, say rough and smooth, such that the rough balls are extracted. from an urn containing mostly white, while the smooth balls are more frequently. black. But when this process of “‘depouillement ” has been carried as far as possible, when we have reached the ideal type of a single urn and constant proportions, then the investigation of causes halts. Then it is only crazy gamblers who hope to dis- cover a principle underlying the “runs” of black and white balls. We have reached the bounds of the territory of science; beyond there is only the sea of chance. Prof. Westergaard has not only indicated this limit, but also pushed many of his investigations up to it. These considerations do not preclude us from applying the theory of error to detect delicate distinctions such as the difference between a loaded and a perfect die, which make themselves felt in the averages of great numbers of observations. In fact, it is by the mathe- matical method that we can best determine whether a difference between two averages is significant of a real constant difference, or only~apparent and accidental. Prof. Lexis, and Dr. Duesing after him had applied this method to the investigation of the conditions under which the excess ‘of male over female births is greater or smaller than usual. Prof. Westergaard shows that the method is applicable to many other subjects, among which the mortality at different age-periods promises to be most useful. We could wish, indeed, for more copious evidence in favour of the premise that the mortality of a popula- tion at a certain age-period (say of clergymen or inn- keepers between the ages 35-44. See 'Grundziige, p: 82, with context, and cf p. 52) fluctuates according to the analogy of games of chance. ~ Here the question arises : must the phenomenon ander consideration be known to vary after the‘manner of balls: NO. 1193, VOL. 46| extracted from an urn, in order that the mathematical method may be applicable ? Certainly the apparatus of the law of error—probable and improbable deviation— may be employed to ascertain whether the difference be- _ tween the average heights of two groups of two men is significant or accidental ; though in this case the modulus (or mean error) does not follow the analogy of the simpler games of chance. Might we not similarly compare the general mortality of two sections of population, although the dispersion of such death-rates about their average is much greater than it should be on the hypothesis of pure sortition, The advantage, indeed, which we have above distinguished as negative, would no longer exist in this case. But might not the positive advantage still be enjoyed in some degree? Prof. Westergaard, so far as we have observed, is silent on this topic. We have left ourselves too little space for noticing Prof. Westergaard’s other contributions to applied Probabilities. His treatment of Insurance, together with the adjacent theory of Life-Tables, involving the arts of Interpola- tion, may’ dispute with Cournot’s classical chapters the honour of forming the best introduction to the subject for the general reader—the reader prepared by a general mathematical, as distinguished from a special actuarial training. Nor must we pass over the chapter in which the author surveys “economic” (exclusive of Vital) statistics. He has here occasion to employ largely the important principle of inference from samples. For instance, in order to discover the amount of wood in a country, we should first select one or more sample surfaces (Prode-fldchen), and a sufficient num- ber of sample trees thereat, and then measure the quantity of wood on those trees. “From the figures so found conclusions can be drawn as to the whole sample-surface; and from those to the total quantity of wood in the country.” So in order to determine the quantity of milk, we must proceed by way of Prode- kiihe. The method of samples is no doubt a potent instrument when wielded by a trained hand like Prof. Westergaard’s. We may perhaps extend to economics generally what he suggests with reference to its statistical | that a given effort and expense may be better laid. side: out in obtaining a detailed knowledge of a few parts with a general view of the whole, rather than.4 a more uniouply distributed information. ; bi fief The last part of the work is dance to. a pepo of. statistics ; not a chronicle, but such a history as a great tactician would write of past wars. Quetelet’s methods is particularly instructive. In con- nection with Quetelet we may note—without assenting to —one of the Professor’s objections to the principle of the “Mean Man.” Cournot raised: that the average of one limb derived from measuring, several specimens might not fit the. average similarly found as the type of another limb. The model man constructed by putting together these Bice Sci of parts might. prove to be a monster. In conclusion we venture to express the howe that this important treatise may be translated into English ; in order that the insular student may not have to encounter; the difficulties of German and Probabilities at once. We- might advise the translator to follow the excellent English custom? of prefixing descriptive headings to all the: The criticism of , It is in effect the same objection as. SEPTEMBER 8, 1892] NATURE 439 tables. As they stand, a close attention to the context is sometimes required in order to be quite certain of the principle in which figures referred to as “calculated” have been obtained. We refer chiefly to the fourth chapter. There occur also, inthe second chapter, some terms vital to the meaning, which may require to be interpreted for the benefit of the English reader; e.g. Zahlenlotto, Klassenlotterie, Kontis relating to the Spar- bank “ Bikuben” in Kopenhagen. F. Y¥: E. THEORETICAL PHYSICS IN ITALY. Trattato di Fisico-Chimica secondo la Teoria Dinamica. Opera Postuma di Enrico dal Pozzo di Mombello. (Milano, 1892.) HIS is an elementary treatise from the hand of the late Prof. Mombello, of the Free University of Perugia. In the general nature of its contents it might be compared to Prof. Ostwald’s Ad/gemeine Chemie. It is, however, much smaller ; and is indeed less of a sys- tematic treatise than a condensed statement of the many principles and laws on which physics and chemistry are built. The English terms physics and chemistry have, under the influence of our examination systems, become so stereotyped in meaning that neither term could fitly describe the character of this 7rattato di Fisico-Chimica. The time-honoured division of subjects would ill fit into its plan. Dynamics, properties of matter, heat, light, sound, electricity, and magnetism are certainly all treated in their more theoretical aspects ; but there are also introduced the laws of chemical combination and the atomic theory, which give the book a character possessed by none of our English treatises on physics. A brief sketch of its character may not then be wholly valueless. The treatise is divided into five parts, under the head- ings Dinamica, Azione Moleculare, Elettrologia, Luce e Colore, Filosofia Scientifica. ; The first part contains much that we understand as Dynamics; but it contains a good deal more. In chapter I. (Moto ed Energia) physics is described as the science of motion. The universal law of nature is the law of causality, after a brief discussion of which we are intro- duced to four general principles—namely, the law of the conservation of mass, the law of the equality of action and reaction, the rectilinear action of force, and the com- position of motions. Then follow two General Physical Laws, the conservation of energy and the trans- formation of energy (/a correlazione ed equivalenza dei moti). Thereafter are introduced somewhat less general formule, which are distinguished as Definite Physical Laws and Definite Chemical Laws. Of the former, two examples are given—namely, “ Pascal’s Law ” concerning the transmission of pressure in a liquid, and “ Dalton’s Law” that there is no physical action between the particles of gases, which are not chemically combinable. Then of the definite chemical laws four are particularised, being distinguished by the names of Lavoisier, Proust,Avogadro, and Cannizzaro, the last being a modified statement of Dulong and Petit’s law of the specific heats of the elements. The rest of the chapter is devoted to a discussion of inertia, of Newton’s laws of motion with special reference to the second interpretation NO. 1193, VOL. 46] of the third law, of kinetic (a//wade) and potential energies of action at a distance, and'of the conception of stress (confiitto) between particles, Chapter II. (Composizione dei Mott) is purely kinematical. In chapter III. (Veloctita moleculare) the physical molecule is led upon the stage. Cohesion, viscosity, rigidity, porosity, volatility, critical points, crystalline form, and gravitation—in a word, the essentially molecular and dynamic qualities of bodies— are touched upon; and the whole finishes. with an ele- mentary treatment of the kinetic theory of gases, includ- ing an account of Crookes’s experiments on radiant matter. It is satisfactory to notice that Prof. Mombello, like Prof. Ostwald, has the boldness to speak simply of Boyle’s Law untainted by the Marriotte blend. This, of course, is merely historic justice. On the other hand, surely Herapath deserves mention as one of those who aided in the development of the kinetic theory of gases. This early introduction of the kinetic theory has no doubt its merits; but a more logical course would have been to give in the first place some notion of the real meaning of temperature. This is. touched upon in the immediately succeeding chapter, Zeorta termo-dinamica, which forms Chapter I. of Part II. The treatment here, is certainly peculiar. Two theorems (exumnciat), we are told, are to be taken for the study of heat. The first em- braces Carnot’s doctrine of the logical necessity for a complete cycle, and his great principle of the reversibility test. Lord Kelvin’s definition of temperature is brought in as akind of corollary and dismissed in, a few sentences. We hear no more of Carnot. “The. second enunciato is concerned with the fact that in the universe an immense indefinite quantity of heat is being generated constantly during the formation of the stars.” Then follows a brief sketch of some of the conclusions of spectroscopy, lead- ing upto a broad discussion, in terms of the molecular theory, of the meaning of temperature, and of radiant energy in its four-fold aspect—thermal, luminous, chemi- cal, and phosphorescent. After this thermodynamics, in the usual significance of the term, is presented under the guise of two propositions ascribed to Hirn. These propositions are, to all practical intents and purposes, simply the two laws of thermodynamics. But we search in vain for any reference to Joule; while Rankine and Clausius are merely mentioned as having proposed a demonstration of Hirn’s second principle! Now Hirn deserves all credit for his experimental corroboration of the truth that only a fraction of the heat which leaves the boiler is transformed into useful work; but to magnify his labours in the way indicated is surely an inversion of history. Moreover there is no hint as to the relation be- tween Carnot’s reversible engine and the second principle ; and the absolute zero of temperature is defined only in terms of the gaseous laws. Of entropy andthe dissipa- tion of energy we find no trace. The succeeding chapters of Part II. are devoted to such subjects as the atomic theory (chemical) and the various aspects of capillarity, diffusion, osmose, &c. A brief account is also given of electro-chemistry, although electrical phenomena in general are not discussed till later. The seven chapters of Part III., in which elec- tricity and magnetism are treated, form a highly con- densed and instructive compendium of fact and theory, the two not always, perhaps, very clearly distinguished, 440 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 8, 1892 Chapter V. is concerned with “ The Induction Balance of Hughes”; and here, for the first and last time, we encounter the name of Joule, who appears as the dis- coverer of the elongation of iron in a magnetic field. This is, of course, thoroughly accurate; but why, we naturally ask, is there no mention of Joule’s Law of the heating accompanying conduction of electricity? The whole question of resistance is, indeed, barely touched. It is difficult to imagine by what process of reasoning such an important subject is omitted in a book which positively bristles with laws and principles named after their discoverers. This method of cataloguing physical laws—for it is little else at times—has its advantages, especially from an examinee’s point of view. It is doubtful, however, if it can be carried out consistently. Prof. Mombello cer- tainly has not done so, although in the majority of cases he seems to be historically sound. One objection to the method is that, as it is impossible to group physical principles, like geometrical propositions, in a logical series, and as physical principles belong to different axiomatic, experimental, or hypothetical grades, there is a strong tendency, in a compendium of the kind we are reviewing, to present these principles in a false perspec- tive. There is no doubt, however, that Prof. Mombello has placed in the hands of the countrymen of Galilei an instructive and suggestive treatise bearing on the varied phenomena of molecular physics. There is edi- torial carelessness in the spelling of foreign names, and serious faults of omission of the character discussed above. But the teaching is in general sound, and Part V. fitly closes with an account of Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory of light, and a discussion of the character of the ether. CGo'Ki THE MICROSCOPE IN THE CLASS-ROOM AND LABORATORY. The Microscope and Histology for the use of Laboratory Students in the Anatomical Department of the Cornell University. By Simson Henry Gage. Third edition. Parti. (Ithaca, New York, 1891.) i HIS is a practical handbook by a thoroughly practical histologist.. It is an expansion of an earlier and more concise treatise, written not for the amateur and the dilettanti, but for the laboratory student. The recognition of the need of such a handbook is in itself an evidence of the practical character of its author, and of his knowledge of the wants of the serious’ student. To follow intelligently the best and most suggestive histological teaching requires more than a passing or perfunctory knowledge of the use of the microscope ; and this can only be really acquired by those who have at least an elementary knowledge of the principles upon which this now.really complex instrument is constructed. It has become: an instrument of precision, and precise methods must be adopted in its use. Thisdoesnot mean that it is more difficult to use than it: was in the. early years of the last quarter of a century ; but it only implies that the principles upon which it is to be successfully employed: should. be thoroughly understood and practised. NO. T193, VOL. 46] Thus the apochromatic system of lens construction is an immeasurable gain, an improvement so great that its amount cannot be exaggerated; and these lenses are, if any- thing, rather easier to use than those of the older achroma- ~ tic construction ; but if the principles of their construction, and consequently the principles involved in the employ- ment of them, be not understood and carefully practised, they yield results entirely unsatisfactory. Again—and this is a point not referred to by Prof. Gage —those who may be provided with a good battery of achro- matic lenses, and do not desire to face the cost of changing these for a series of apochromatics, may come wonder- fully near the best results of the finest apochromatic objectives by the use of real monochromatic light. To obtain this with complete certainty, using any mono- chrome of the spectrum we may desire, with good lamp- light, is now not only possible, but easily within the reach of all, and-in such a manner as to lend itself to employ- ment with the condenser and any magnifying power it may be needful to apply ; and by this means not only is a good achromatic lens, as it were, elevated optically into an “‘apochromatic,” but its numerical aperture is increased —the great desideratum, all else being equal, of good optical performance. These are indications enough to emphasize the import- ance to the medical student generally, and to the histo- logical student in particular, of a book that will briefly and accurately give him a knowledge of the principles involved in the construction and employment of the microscope, upon his intelligent use of which so much depends, but to which, as a rule, so little time is devoted, and therefore so little knowledge is possessed. We do not for a moment suppose that a treatise like this, however well conceived and carried out, can give efficient, to say nothing of exhaustive, knowledge of optical theory, principles, and the laws and conditions of construction so as to enable a student to become in this sense a master of microscopic manipulation and inter- pretation ; but it will go far to enable him to go through his work as a student with an intelligence and insight otherwise unapproached ; and what is still more import- ant, it will give him the opportunity of acquiring ability to see in the preparations he is instructed to make, or which he is required to study, or which he makes of his own initiative, that which he is zo¢ directed to look for, and which may open up for him and his science new and important paths. But this cannot be done if the student is not, in a strictly scientific sense, using his instrument, and is therefore approximately certain of the propriety of the interpretation of what he has been able to make out in his preparation. Prof. Gage has adopted a system of illustrations (which we think might have been of a more refined artistic character, with much advantage) which are concisely and in the main accurately explained, and are in- tended to cover the entire subject ; definitions, descrip- tions, and textual illustrations are added, which, taken together give a completeness to the treatise, that tho- roughly fit it for its intended purpose. In many points it is as a matter of necessity, from its very nature, inefficient. It can only indicate, and. not exhaustively explain, many most important points. But to the intelli- gent student alive to his subject, these are but spurs to SEPTEMBER 8, 1892] NATURE 441 further reading ; and the larger treatises, giving full ex- planations of the matter in hand, will not be long unread. In short this treatise lays the foundation for a thorough microscopical training, entirely adapted to the wants of - medical students. It is printed only on one side of the page throughout, so that the blank page is open for notes, and by using the opportunities presented with wisdom, the book may acquire, in the hands of an industrious student, a doubled value. ‘We may note that there are some points that even with the restricted object of the book we think might have re- ceived fuller, or even more accurate treatment. A fuller treatment might certainly have been given to the subject of “oblique light,” which is very lightly touched ; but which is none the less, to the partially instructed, whether medical student or ordinary amateur, one of the most prolific and frequent sources of erroneous judgment and entire misinterpretation ; and we believe that no treatise on microscopic work, whatever its object, can be tho- roughly efficient without giving it grave and careful con- sideration. On the other hand it would have given greater value from the point of accuracy if the details given for the “ Centring and arrangement of the Illuminator,” by which is meant the sub-stage condenser, had been of a somewhat later period. On the use—the right use—of the condenser much of the best English work of the past quarter of a century has been spent. Happily German microscopists and opticians have during the past seven or eight years begun to perceive the value, nay, indispensable import- ance, of this apparatus, and the firm of Zeiss have, through Abbe, made successively chromatic, and subse- quently achromatic condensers of increasing value. We trust they may be induced to follow English opticians and make apochromatic condensers, especially one adapted in numerical aperture to their latest optical triumph in lenses, viz., that possessing a N.A. of 1°60 ; the full value of which as an apochromatic objective can never be seen without it. It is a pleasure to note that Prof. Gage tells us that “for a// powers, but especially for high powers,” the condenser is of “great advantage.” We believe it for the highest results, even with “low” powers, to be indispensable. But it will never be by the employment of “a pin-hole diaphragm. . . put over the end of the con- denser” so that this aperture shall appear in the middle of the field, that the best possibilities of the condenser will be reached. The student is plainly told that the “ optic axis of the condenser and of the microscope should coin- cide,” but the best way of securing this coincidence is certainly not stated. The blemishes of the book are nevertheless few, it has a decided purpose, and there is a large sphere for its action. We believe that another edition will not long hence be called for in which its author will not find it difficult to emend and expand it in certain parts, and possibly still further to enlarge it, and we will add that we think it may not only prove of value to the students in the Anatomical Department of the Cornell University, but also to others on both sides the Atlantic. W. H. DALLINGER, NO. 1193, VOL. 46] OUR BOOK SHELF. An Elementary Text-book of Magnetism and Electricity. By R. Wallace Stewart. Univ. Corr. Coll. Tutorial Series. (London: W. B. Clive and Co., 1892.) IN this work Mr. Wallace Stewart presents us with another of his excellent text-books on elementary science. Just as his treatment of the subject was concise and clear in his book on heat and light, so here he has followed the same lines, and has placed before the student, especially one who is preparing for the matriculation examination of the London University, a course in magnetism and elec- tricity which will give him a thorough knowledge of the subject and a sound basis on which to make further study. The illustrations and diagrams will be found to form a valuable addition to the text, while the numerous ex- amples at the end of each chapter, if thoroughly worked out, should give a student a good insight into the art of solving problems. Key to Arithmetic for Beginners. By J. and E. J. Brooksmith. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1892.) THIS key will be welcomed by all those who are employing Mr. Brooksmith’s excellent arithmetic. It has been pre- pared especially for the use of teachers, who will find it a valuable aid in their work, but no doubt it will be largely demanded by those who are studying this subject for themselves, for much may be learnt by a judicious use of such a book. The examples, so far as we have been able to see, have been very carefully and concisely worked out, and many difficulties that usually arise have here received careful attention. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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. } _ International, Geological, and other Records. My friend Mr. Minchin’s letter has opened a question that I have been ruminating for a very long time. We occasionally hear of the organization of science, but the very ABC is at present neglected, or carried out in a spasmodic and disjointed manner. Let us take for example geology. We have several attempts at a catalogue and review of its yearly literature, of which I give the following examples. First comes the ‘‘ Geo- logical Record,” a publication very well in its way, but making its appearance at irregular intervals, and often much bebind time. We have in Prof. Blake's Annual the attempt of a single in- dividual to cope with a mass of literature that it is impossible for him to read, and treating of questions that no single person is or can be qualified to deal justly with. The very obvious result of this is careless reviewing, and general dissatisfaction of most authors whose papeis are submitted to the abstracting process. I hope Prof. Blake will not take these words as a disparaging appreciation of his attempt, which I think does him much credit as a single-handed worker, but it will not satisfy the geologists ingeneral, Next we have the ‘‘ Annuaire Géologique Universel,” for which great credit is due to Drs, Carey and Agincourt. Here we have the geological literature of each country treated separately, followed by a subject literature. Each article is compiled by a specialist in his own branch, and one who is able to form a just opinion of the work and appreciate the salient points of it. Altogether the organization of the ** Annuaire” is on the right lines, but I understand it is not a financial success, and I have very grave doubts if it will con- tinue, because the supporters of one publication cannot be the supporters of several. The motto ‘‘ L’union fait la force” is as true in this case asin any other. Then again there is not that official character about it that there would be with international co-operation, supported by governments, scientific societies, &c, As two years’ collaborator for the subjects of seismology and 442 NATURE. [SEPTEMBER 8, 1892. vulcanology I can give some of my experiences. In the first place it means a very big slice of time to read (for without this the thing had better be left alone) and review the annual litera- ture of such-subjects'; for this there is no:recompense whatever, but as I shall show actual money out. of pocket. It is impos- sible for the reviewer, unless residing in such towns as London, Paris, or Berlin, to see all the literature of his subject. He, therefore, has to send out circulars, the expenses and postage of which, without counting labour of addressing, I found to come to about 2/7, annually. A considerable proportion of these cir- culars are not even answered by those who have published papers on the subject during the year, and I am sorry to say that in one or two cases I have had a reply iinsinuating that I had been **cadging” for a copy of the author’s paper orbook. After the review is published come : protests from authors (not many in my case, fortunately,) whom, out of common courtesy, time and money must be spent in answering. Finally, with every care such a work is far from complete. I would, therefore, hazard the following propositions:—A preliminary committee to be formed as soon as possible to study the question of international records of scientific literature: That such committee. should determine the language of such records, the methods of organ- ization of each separate subject committee, the means and re- sources of such, and invite the co-operation of other nations. To my mind each record committee—say, for example, that of geology—should invite the specialists who are willing to collaborate to do so, should examine their manuscripts bef re going to print, keep a list of, all known workers in that par- ticular branch, and find as many subscribers to the work as possible. The central committee should n>minate the subject com nittees, treat with governments, societies, and universities for support, and keep a loose card ¢atalogue of all scientific investigators in the world, to whom should be posted annually a circular requesting the dispatch of their publications, if p ssible with a short abstract by themselves, to the reviewer of their special subject, the names and addresses of whom should be appended tothe circular. In this way reduplication of reviewers circulars would not take place ; and if a botanist wrote a paper on an earthq1ake, for example, he would be reached by the ap- plication from the vulcanologist as well as by the botanist. Finally, should profits accrue in the future, I would suggest that they be equally divided annually amongst the reviewers. I really hope that the subject will be taken by the horns before we reach—and we are near—a great scientific literary deadlozk. Harrogate, August 30. H. J. Jounston-Lavis. A Suggestion for the Indexing of Zoological. ‘ . Literatute, IT is obvious that the numerous records of all sorts which com- prise the zoological literature of each year are only of use so far’ as we have access to and ‘knowledge of them, and that their existence is actually a very serious éncuthbrance to those workers who are unable to make use’ of them. It is self-evident that sooner or later, if zoology is to be pre- served from chaos, every fact of any importance will have to be’ indexed for reference. Otherwise, nearly the whole lives of zoologists will come to ‘be spent in libraries, until the thing gets ' so intolerable that some one suggests that we burn all the books, and start afresh from nature. Of course, a great deal of indexing has been done, and is being done. The ‘‘ Index Gen. et Spec. Anim.” is well on the way, and the “‘ Zoological Record.” and other works of a like nature appear annually, But these are mainly records of names of species and genera described as new,'and the ‘‘ Zoological Re- cord,” admirable and invaluable as it is, is not always complete, nor in some sections (notably the last on mollusca) entirely accurate. Much indexing is continually being done in mono- graphs, such as the Brit. Mus, Catalogues, and the value of this work can hardly be oyer-estimated, but here again it mostly relates to species as such, Then there is the Royal Society’s “* Catalogue of Scientific Papers,” which is good so far as it goes, and the still more perfect Engelmann and Taschenberg. Putting aside, for the present, the question of indexing past records, would it not be a great advantage if we could begin now, and index everything as it appears? Possibly this could be done on the following plan :— Let a society be formed, called, say, the Zoological Index Society, consisting of all writers on zoological subjects who 4 . ’ will join. NO. 1193, VOL. 46] The members of the society to be provided with uniform record slips at cost price, on which they will undertake to record everything in their writings that they believe to be important or — These. records might be wnder various heads, ¢.g., the _ new. ‘*semi-melanoid variety’ of the leopard, described to the Zoo- logical Society on November 20, 1883, might be indexed under Felis pardus, under Melanism, and under Cafe Colony. — These slips to be sent to the secretary of the society, who would arrange them in alphabetical order, in cabinets provided for the purpose. The slips, under each special heading (e.g., Species, Higher Groups, Variation, Distribution, &c.) would form con- tinuous series. The slips of each year might be kept separate for six months, and then merged in the general index. ‘ The members would be required to pay a subscription sufficient to cover the expenses of the above; but it would probably be possible to obtain assistance from some of the scientific societies, and the most suitable piace for the index to be kept is doubtless. the Natural History Museum. If this were accomplished, it would still be desirable to raise further funds, in order to increase the utility of the index in the following ways :— (1) By obtaining an assistant secretary, whose duty it would be to copy out records from the index for workers residing in the country or abroad, at a certain smallcharge. The applicant might ask, ¢.g., for Lzmax, or Jamaica, or Albinism, and would pay according to the number of records. eRe (2) By publications. Possibly some arrangement might be made with the Zoological Record Committee, and special publi- cations containing the records relating to matters then of interest might appear as often as possible. ; Volunteer work in indexing earlier works would be accept- able. Thus, some admirer of Darwin:-might be willingéatiien the works of that avthor. But in such cases a careful list should be kept of the books indexed, and every index should be complete. Presumably no one will dispute the ‘utility of an index as proposed, ‘but some may doubt the possibility of getting sufficient co-operation. If the idea of such an idex became familiar to writers, it can hardly be doubted that each would desire to place his writings on record along with the rest. Ifa man’s writings are not worth this trouble, they are surely not worth printing, unless, of course, they are of such a nature (e.g., educational works) as not to require indexing in this manner. T. D. A. CocKERELL. Institute of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica, August 15. — CP RAL Fs fore or Rain with a High Barometer, IN NaTurE of September 1 in your note on the Annual Report on the Royal Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, you emphasize the fact that at Trinidad it always rains with a high barometer. This is a not uncommon phenomenon in other parts of the world, Last year I made a series of meteorological observa- tions in Mashonaland, and more especially while st during June and July at Zimbabwe, and I there found that a high barometer was invariably accompanied by rain, and the higher the barometer the more certain and heavy was the rain. The atmosphere was driest when the barometer was lowest, and then the difference of the readings of the dry and wet bulb thermometers sometimes exceeded 30° F. _ This state of climate in Mashonaland is I think mainly due to the configuration of the country, which is such that moisture can only be-carried there by southerly and south-easterly winds, and they—as winds blowing towards the equator generally do— increase the ‘atmospheric pressure. i ‘It will -be ‘interesting to know if some such explanation will not account for the condition of things in Trinidad, and if any of your readers can tell of a similar state of climate elsewhere. . _. ROBERT M. W. Swan. 15, Walmer Crescent, Glasgow, September 3. : ) The Perseids. _. Wir reference to the note, August 18th, that no news of the Perseids had then come to hand, I fancy the shower must have been fairly bright this year. One of our scholars, C. E. Elcock, while crossing from Belfast on the 9th, saw some bright meteors in ten minutes between 9 and 9.30, one lasting some time. Afterwards only occasional ones occurred. ’ J. EDMUND: CLARK, Bootham, York, August 29. _ pote ping: en dg ae a eee Sa Aa ca a SEPTEMBER 8, 1892] NATURE 443 Variable Star T Cassiopeiz. FRoM long-continued observations of the above star, irregu-° larities in the ascending light curve may be expected about October or November next. I shall be happy to supply.a dia- gram of the field to any one interested in the question. CUTHBERT E, PEEK. Rousdon Observatory, Lyme, September 5. THE OPPOSITION OF MARS. fits Times of Saturday contains a most important telegram, giving the results of Prof. Pickering’s observations in Peru during the present opposition of Mars, which is one of the most favourable which has occurred during the last half of the present century. The work done at Arequipa in one respect contradicts, and in others goes far beyond, the results recently announced from the Lick Observatory. There can be no doubt that a considerable advance has been made by this year’s results ; many prior observations which have been consi- dered doubtful have been confirmed, and an additional interest lent to the observation of the planet, The time, therefore, seems opportune for considering several questions connected with Mars, and it will be convenient to begin with the conditions of this year’s observations, especially since the least astronomical among us has certainly noted with surprise the bright ted star which now nightly rises low down in the south- east. Nor will he or she be less inclined to regard it when it is recognized as the planet about which during the last month so much has been written of human rather than of astronomical interest. If everything that one sees in print be true, the inhabitants of Mars are signalling to us, and it only remains for us to choose our manner of reply. Of course from signals the imagination of the ready writer has passed at once to words, and having got so far, each planet is about to become acquainted with the history and present conditionings of the other by means of a language understanded of our neighbours as well as ourselves. But first as to the cause of its excessive brilliancy during the last month or'so, for this doubtless has had something to do with the present general interest taken in the planet. Mars was as bright in 1877, but on that occasion nothing like the present amount of interest was taken in its movements and possible structure. For this there are two obvious causes—one the increasing interest taken by people in science generally ; the other, popular glosses on several recent discoveries made regarding Mars itself. The popular idea that the changes which have been recently observed on the planet are changes due to the work of its inhabitants—an idea based upon a mistrans- lation of a word—has, of course, generated the other one —namely, that vast operations have been undertaken for signalling purposes ; and from this idea the step to Mr. Galton’s or Mr. Haweis’s method of signalling back is a small one. Small though it be, however, the public interest has thereby been greatly enhanced. One of the most serious suggestions in modern times regarding signalling to bodies outside the earth we owe to a German astronomer, who some while ago enriched the world with the idea that the inhabitants of the Moon might possibly be communicated with by establishing on the vast plains of Siberia geometrical figures, such as circles, &c., built up of fire-signals, to which signal, if seen, the Lunarians would reply by reproducing them. Then the popular mind was content to bridge the chasm of 240,000 miles which separates us from the moon. But now Mars is the objective—Mars, which at its nearest approach is 35,000,000 of miles removed ! .-»t Mars when in opposition may be very much further | away than that; so far, indeed, that it is then observed NO. 1193, VOL. 46] to be 1-5th of its maximum brightness, and naturally with very reduced angular diameter. The two preceding oppositions at which its brightness has been at all com- parable to its present one, took place in 1860 and 1877, so that we find the most favourable oppositions about sixteen years apart. The reason of this will easily be gathered from Fig. 1, which shows with sufficient accuracy the very elliptic orbit of Mars in relation to that of the earth. The lines joining the two orbits are those con- necting the two planets during some oppositions from 1830 onwards to 1871. The outer planet, Mars, is re- presented nearly at the ferzhelion part of its orbit, that is the point at which it is nearest the sun (and therefore the earth, if we treat the earth’s orbit as a circle), and the reason that the 1830 and 1862 observing conditions were so much better than those of 1869 and 1871 is at once clear. The opposition of 1877 and the present are not shown on the diagram, but they occurred at a time when Mars was not far from its perihelion. The diagram also allows us to see that at the peri- | helion point of Mars’ orbit the planet is very nearly at the ' Fic. r.—The orbits of the Earth and Mars. time of jthe southern solstice, the N. pole being inclined away from the sun. Also that this must occur about four months before the southern solstice of the earth, the direction of the axis of which is also shown. So that at an opposition which occurs in August, as the present one does, we observe what happens in the summer solstice of the northern, and winter solstice of the southern, hemisphere of the planet. In fact, generally we have :— Time of opposition. | N. hemisphere. S. hemisphere. ugust ... Winter Summer November Spring Autumn February ... Summer ... Winter May ... Autumn ... Spring The perihelion point of a planet’s orbit is astro- nomically expressed by its heliocentric longitude, and the apparent ‘size of its disc (on which its apparent 444 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 8, 1892 brightness depends) by its semi-diameter in seconds of | arc. Presuming that the longitude of the perihelion of Mars may be taken as about 334°, the following table will show how the great brilliancy of the planet in 1877 and the present year was caused; other less favourable oppositions are given for purposes of comparison :— Date Semi- Heliocentric of opposition. diameter. longitude of planet. “l ° 1862, October 5 ei 10°8 12 1869, February 13 ... 8°2 145 FOF 35) APT 27.6 aai) Joel alee 217 1877, September 5... ... 14'°7 3438 1881, Dezember 26 Mee he 95 1884, January 31 8°3 132 1888, April ro nu 9‘2 201 1892, August 13 ... 14°7 312 So much, then, for the distance conditions. At its nearest approach the planet is 35,000,000 miles removed —let us say 150 times more distant than the moon. We next come to the conditions of visibility. Mars is nearest to us (the degree of nearness depending upon its position in its orbit) when “in opposition,’.as we have said—that is, when it is in the south at midnight, and was, say, twenty-five yards, would be visible in Mars if seen through a telescope such as that at the Lick Obser- vatory. With funds and good will, there seems no in- superable difficulty in flashing from a very much larger surface than the above, and sending signals that the inhabitants of Mars, if they have eyes, wits, and fairly | good telescopes, would speculate on and wish to answer. One, two, three, might be slowly flashed over and over again from us to them, and possibly in some years, to allow time for speculation in Mars to bear practical fruit, one, two, three, might come back in response. Dr. Whewell, if I recollect right, wrote a paper on the possi- _ bility of coming to an understanding with lunar inhabi- opposite the sun, the sun then being, of course, due north | below the horizon. It will then appear to us “ full,” as the moon is said to be full when she occupies an analogous position. Atthis moment, then, the earth is invisible to the inhabitants of Mars unless she happens to transit the | sun’s disc. The earth appears to Mars precisely as Venus does to us, and if inhabitants there be on Mars, and they study astronomy, a transit of earth to them will be what a transit of Venus is to us. Further, as we see Venus as a half-moon, and when! nearer to us as a fine large crescent, so the Martians, as | the earth approaches them, will see her as a half-moon and then as a crescent, getting finer as the apparent diameter of the completed circle gets greater. Mars, to see us best, must occupy a point near its perihelion. These things may be gathered from Fig. 2, in which an opposition at Mars’ perihelion is shown, the | orbits, but not the size of the bodies concerned, being to scale. Before the conjunction of the three bodies (in the line Mars, earth, sun) is approached, Mars will first have the earth as a half-moon at @; this will gradually melt into a crescent till the-moment of conjunction. After- wards the crescent will broaden, and its diameter will be reduced till the point a’ is reached, when the earth will appear as a half-moon again. It is clear, therefore, that the earth will be a morning and evening star to Mars at the time of their nearest approach. The earth’s crescent must not be too fine, or no observation will be possible on a dark. background of sky. In other words, although we can observe Mars best when he is’ nearest, the privilege of seeing the earth when nearest to Mars is denied to his inhabitants. We are now, then, in a position to discuss, so far as the mere conditions of visibility are concerned, the two suggestions as to earth-signalling to which I have already referred. Mr. Galton’s proposal depends upon the observation that a “‘reflected beam of sunlight sent through a hole in a plate in front of the mirror was just distinctly visible as a faint glint at a distance of ten miles when the hole was a square of one-tenth of an inch in the side.” He then adds :. “ The amount of fog and haze that a beam of light would traverse between us and Mars when the planet was high above our horizon could not exceed that along a terrestrial base of ten miles ; consequently the same pro- portion between the size of mirror and the distance would still hold true. It follows that the flash from many mir- rors simultaneously, whose. aggregate width was fifteen yards, and whose aggregate length (to allow for slope) NO. £193, VOL. 46! tants, if there were any. He would begin from the mathematical side. The practical difficulty is by no means insuperable of enabling many independent observers (who need not be near together) to direct their flashes aright. If mirrors could be mounted without much cost as heliostats (and perhaps they can be) it would be easy enough to do this. My own method is not practicable, at least without considerable addition and Fic. 2.—The Conditions of Visibility of the Earth from Mars. modifications, as it requires the object to be visible to- wards which the flash is directed, but Mars is not visib!e to the naked eye at day.”? Mr. Galton then uses sunlight and works in the day ; Mr. Haweis, on the other hand, suggests electricity and night-time :— “T infer from the astronomers that a signal on our earth about six miles in size of the nature of a bright light could be seen by the inhabitants of Mars, who by all accounts seem to be making the most systematic and herculean efforts to communicate with us by flashing triangular signals of presumably electric light. Why cannot we answex those signals by something which would resemble the lighthouse intermittent signal? Here is the method. London every night presents an area of at least twelve miles square brilliantly illuminated. That illuminating power might be enormously increased with only a few additional centres of powerful electric light. But without amy additional expense, a little co- operation on the part of the gas companies would suffice to alternate darkness and light at intervals of five 1 Times, August 6, 1892. SEPTEMBER 8, 1892] NATURE 445 minutes over the whole of London between certain hours _ when traffic is more or less suspended. If only tried for ‘an hour each night some results might be obtained. ... . We have actually the mechanism for interplanetary com- _ munication every night—why not use it?” ; __ Mr. Galton is careful to point out that his method of signalling requires sunlight, and that the signals are to _be flashed to Mars in the Earth’s daytime; the moment _ .of opposition therefore is at once out of the question. Even with the Earth at either a or a’ in our Fig. 2, the “Sun and Mars would be 90° apart, and in any case the als would be visible to the Martians (if visible at all) on the part of the earth lit up by the Sun. This does ‘not seem a favourable condition, or at all events the ourable one. ; aweis’ plan secures a much stronger contrast. something like it could be carried out, we can . inhabitants of Mars studying the delicate it (with telescopes as powerful or more | our Own dien entendu), whether as a morn- ¢ star,and then seeing rhythmic flashes, ¢ star included in the crescent of the ell within the horns of the crescent. ly get light on dark instead of light on er conditions of visibility besides those ssed. Supposing the whole electric turned on Mars would the volume of \t to produce a valid signal ? | while, quite independently of the popular - the present moment, to inquire into the is of the problem, telescopes on Mars as wn being always assumed. =d with a powerful telescope, under the ditions, first among which is its location le elevation, we may perhaps reckon upon ‘of 1000, that is, the object is magnified a meters; in other words, it is brought a es nearer. Inthe case of the moon, under s any part of her we might choose to study :d, as if from London we were viewing with the naked eye. . Lassell, I believe, claimed as the highest ossible with his 4-foot telescope in the * Malta, that if the lunarians were shaking a S large as Lincoln’s Inn Fields he could see was round or square. This then would be s ultra in the case of a body 240,000 miles 35,000,000 miles, as I have stated, iid Miles. 1,009, 32,000 magnifying power would give ; us ple of pe ea ee Mars as if it were 35 aed 100,000 ditto ditto CT aN tie ohn - 10,000 ditto ditto 3500 | oa . 1000 ditto ditto 35,000 | e can put this differently. To the naked eye at the distance of Mars 1” = 160 miles. Were Mars tooo times nearer 1” would become ‘16 mile. Now this at first seems very hopeful, for the exterior satellite of Mars has been seen in various telescopes. ust We have already learned that the power employed last month at the Lick Observatory has not been so much as 1000, but such that the planet has been brought within a distance of 50,000 miles. Under these conditions a line on Mars a quarter of a mile long will subtend an angle of 1”, or two lines a quarter of a mile apart should be separated and appear as doubles. _ The second satellite to which reference has been made is only some 10 miles in diameter. We are justified ® Pall Mail Gazette, August 18. NO. 1193, VOL. 46] by the visibility of the satellite, then, in saying that if a space 1o miles in diameter could be lighted up, as brilliantly as by sunlight, on the dark hemisphere of the Earth when Mars is above the horizon and at peri- helion, it could be seen from Mars by telescopes equal to our own. _ London, of course, is more than 10 miles in diameter, and we can imagine all the navies of the world with their search lights to flash simultaneously towards the planet, or to light up the clouds in a space as large as London, but there then will remain the question of the intensity of the light. What do electricians say is possible in this direction ? Whatever the answer to this question may be, it seems that signalling on Mr. Haweis’ lines, light on dark, is a more hopeful proceeding than that suggested by Mr. Galton, and that on this system our conditions for read- ing signals are far better than those on Mars, as our dark hemisphere is much more exposed to our sister planet than is hers to us. It is time now that we turn to those recent observations of our neighbour which have given rise to the ideas we have been discussing—ideas based upon the suppo- sition that there is evidence which goes to show that the Martians are signalling to us by digging “ canals” tooo miles long and 200 miles wide, and then ‘doubling them, and in addition lighting numerous signal fires or flashing electric lights ! Here we approach a region of astronomical inquiry which requires no enhancement of its interest by the intrusion of popular delusions or imaginings, which, moreover, for the next few months as details come to hand, will have all eyes directed to it. It is not necessary to go further back than the year 1830 to appreciate the importance of the later inquiries. In 1830 Beer and Madler made an admirable series of drawings of the planet which enable d them to affirm the existence of fixed markings, and having fixed markings, not a long series of observations was necessary to determine the period of the planet’s rotation on its axis. ‘In 1862 I (and many others) had no difficulty in recog- nizing the features on the planet which Beer and Madler had observed with smaller optical power thirty years before. The instrument employed was a 6-inch Cooke achromatic, which I still hold to be one of the finest telescopes ever made. It enabled me to add details to those before noted, and the observations left no doubt on my mind that Mars had an atmosphere like our own; that its temperature did not vary many degrees from our own ; that there were land surfaces and water surfaces ; clouds and very obvious cloud drift; polar snows which melted with marvellous rapidity as the perihelion sun made its full strength felt. Further, that the changes in the appearances observed, especially in the lighter or darker shading, depended upon clouds and the smoothness or roughness of the water surfaces. This latter conclusion I arrived at from the fact that the darkest markings, assuming them to be water surfaces, were more or less land-locked, and that changes in some of these surfaces were always most obvious close to the land. It was clear also that the rapid melting of the polar snow must be accompanied by tremendous inundations. I append, as an example of the kind of work done on the planet with the small refractors generally available thirty years ago, some extracts from a memoir I com- municated to the Astronomical Society at that time.’ The large refractors employed added so far as I know very little. ** Although the complete fixity of the main features of the planet has been thus placed beyond all doubt, daily—nay, houriy—changes in the detail and in the tones of the different parts of the planet, both light and dark, occur. These changes are, I doubt not, caused by the transit of clouds over the different t Mem, R.A.S, 1£63, p. 1756 446 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 8, 1892 features, The effect of a cloudless and perfectly pure sky, both here and on Mars, appears to be that the dark portions of the planet become darkest and most, distinctly visible ; the coast- lines (if I may so call them) being at such times so hard and sharp, that (as has been mentioned by. Mr. Lassell) it is quite impossible to represent the outlines faithfully ; and this effect, be it observed, is completely distinct from the way in which the features grow upon one, ‘MM.’ Beer and Madler remark : ‘Generally some time elapsed‘ before the undefined mass of spots seen' upon first looking into the telescope resolved itself into recognizable parts.’ .. This observation. will commend itself to all who have observed such a delicate object. *“'The effect of clouds, ,on the contrary, will be, I think, to make the dark fortions less dark iw proportion to the density of the clouds, and the “ight portions lighter in the same proportion. Lt can never make a light portion dark, If this be so, when we see a dark spot well defined, we can be sure that no clouds are above it, and that we actually see the planet itself; we cannot be sure, however (unless we are acquainted with the locality from previous observation), that dark spots do not underlie any of the lighter portions. Some instances of cloud-transit were suspected by: Father Secchi in 1858. Several unmistakable instances occurred during my observations. ..'. ‘*But besides the cloud-masses, which, as we have seen, obliterate the dark portions either partly or wholly, giving rise to. different contours. and tones, and rendering the actual features of the planet undistinguishable, the dense atmosphere of Mars, with its fogs and mists, appears to go for very much. I mention this more especially to point out that—although its, effect was evident in the southern hemisphere in mid-summer, upon the spots as they came on, and left the disc, as remarked by previous observers—it was much more evident in the northern hemisphere in mid-winter, blotting out, ‘as before remarked, even on the central meridian, all features north of + 30° lati- tude. This would appear to furnish another proof of extreme seasons on Mars, in addition to that'supplied by the rapid melt- ing and great extent of ‘the polar;snows, and to point out the desirability of taking advantage of all oppositions which happen, as did those last year, and in 1830, in the full.summer-time of , the southern hemisphere, when the atmospheric conditions of the planet may be considered the best possible. With regard to this last point, it may be remarked that the southern hemi- sphere is the one which-we shall ever be able to study best, in consequence of the great distance of the planet from ‘us at those oppositions which occur when the northern one is turned to us. : ** With regard to the green and red tints so often noticed on Mars, my observations have led me to hold the same opinions as to their nature as those arrived at by Father Secchi in his study of the planet in 1858. Nor do I think that it can any ‘longer be doubted that—as he considered probablc—the green and red portions do actually represent seas and, continents, and are not the effect of contrast. . *‘The dark portions were noticed. to be decidedly green in my instrument, both by myself and others who observed Mars from time to time with me, the colour being especially marked in Beer and Madler’s spot # 2 (Drawings Nos. 7 and8). In spite of the over-correction of my object-glass, which should have ‘reinforced’ the red tinge, it was never sufficiently deci- ded, I think, to suggest a'contrast ; and, indeed, the green was - sometimes unmistakable when the red was not noticed, and when therefore there was no contrast to mislead the eye. ** Another point of agreement between the two series of drawings is not a little remarkable: the spots which were ob- served to be of a most decidedly dark tint in 1830 were darkest last year ; and supposing the dark portions to be water, the , darkest spots are those which are nearly, if not quite, land- locked. Passing on from the consideration of the general _ features of the planet, the snow-zone next demands our atten- tion. . . . . Last year the solstice occurred on August 30, on “the 23rd of which month the snow-zone was estimated to be 4 -of the ‘apparent diameter ; by the 25th of the next month, Sep- tember, this was reduced to about +45, and again to 34; by Octo- ber 11, when it. was at times scarcely discernible ; after which it began apparently to increase again. ** To the great eccentricity of the orbit of Mars, and the fact that. the summer of the southern hemisphere occurs when the iplanet is near perihelion, is doubtless to be ascribed this very rapid melting of the southern snow-zone, an observation con- firmed by the much slighter‘variation in the dimensions of the NO. 1193, VOL. 46] opposite one. It appears to follow from my drawings, and I think also from those of Messrs. Beer and Midler, although they make no mention of the fact, that even at its minimum the centre of the snow-zone was not absolutely coincident with the planet’s pole, being situated in somewhere about 20° of areocen- tric longitude (using Beer and Madler’s start-point), and in a latitude probably only a very few degrees from it. .... The snow-zone was at times so bright that, like the crescent of the young moon, it appeared to project beyond the planet’s limb. This effect of irradiation was frequently visible ; on one occa- sion. the snow-spot was observed to shine like a nebulous star when the planet itself was obscured by clouds, a phenomenon noticed by Messrs. Beer and Midler, recorded in their valuable Fic. 3. Mars September 25, 1863, showing the darker shading of a land- locked water surface and its projection into the open water beyond. Fic. 4. Mars September 23, 1862, showing bright appearance of snow cap, and the details of one of the chief coast lines. work, Fragments sur les Corps Célestes. The brightness, how- ever, seemed to vary very considerably, and at times, especially when the snow-zone was near its minimum, it was by no means the prominent object it generally is upon the planet’s disc.” We owe it to the illustrious Italian astronomer Schiaparelli that a world of wonders undreamt of thirty years ago now forms the chief subject of inquiry. His work was begun at the opposition of 1877, which, as we have seen, was as favourable as the present one, and con- tinued during that of 1879-80. He showed that those SEPTEMBER 8, 1892] NATURE 447 ss a parts of the planet which had been regarded by myself a _and others as the land surfaces, instead of being wanting in detail, as they had been seen, were really riddled by streaks, many of them very long and very straight, but in | _ every case running towards a water surface, and in many either a channel, a canal, or a cases connecting two water surfaces. These streaks he called canaii, which in Italian, as cana/i's in Latin, means pipe. Unfortunately, however, whenever it has been translated into English _ the word canal has been used, which of course, with us ts human labour. We have already seen what this led to. _ Asa result of this minute inquiry rendered possible by his fine instrument (83 in. Merz) and perfect observing _ weather, a complete map of the planet. with these | made.’ But this was.but.the beginning of _ marvels... During the opposition of 1881-82 the work was continued, and now Schiaparelli, besides endorsing all _ the discoveries of 1880-81, found that in at least twenty _ cases the channels were doubled and consisted of two streaks 200 or 400 miles apart, instead of one. I append Rewenrre: si; Minutus, Pitangus caudifasciatus, * Saurothera merlini. * Todus multicolor. * Xiphidiopicus percussus. Centrurus superciliaris. Colaptes chrysocaulosus. * Nesoceleus fernandine. * Mimocichla rubripes. ty schistacea. Myiadestes Elizabeth. Mimus gundlachi. B. Polioptila lembeyi. Dendroica petechia (race gundlachi) B. 4 pityophila. « Teretistris fernandinz. Po fornsi. * Coereba cyanea. Myiarchus sagre. B, * Blacicus cariboeus, Tyrannus magnirostris, Antrostomus cubanensis. Cypselus phcenicolius, * Hemiprocne zonaris. Calypte helenz. * Sporadinus riccordi. B. * Priotelus temnurus. Petrochelidon fulva. Viveo gundlachi. * Spindalis pretrei. * Melopyrrha nigra. * Pyrrhomitris cucullata. Euetheia olivacea. * Ara tricolor, > Conurus euops. * Chrysotis leucocephala. B. Asio stygius. * Gymnasio lawrencii. Glaucidium siju. Accipiter gundlachi. », fringilloides. * Regerhinus wilsonii. | Columba corensis. de inornata, .Geotrygon caniceps. The two species of Columda are not definitely given as Cuban in Cory’s work but I believe they occur there. Species marked with an asterisk are of genera not reaching Florida ; species marked ‘‘ B” also occur in the Bahamas. The Bahama Islands also have many birds that are not in Tropical Florida, including some genera, as Doricha (two species). It is thus apparent that, so far as the birds are concerned, the arm of sea between Cuba or the Bahamas and the mainland has been very efficient in preventing the mingling of two faune, although a limited number of species have crossed it. To give many other instances would unduly prolong this letter ; but one may cite the land shells as a much more striking case. ‘The land mollusca of Cuba and Florida are almost en- tirely distinct, the small number (about a dozen*) of West Indian forms which have reached Florida is really surprising, considering the favourable currents and the proximity of the two areas. Cuba contains numerous generic and subgeneric types, and hundreds of species, which have never reached Florida.? On the other hand, even on the Florida Keys we get such * These might be modified in slight details by searching the most recent literature, but Cory’s work (1889) is very complete up to the time it was published. 2 Dr. Merriam cites 200n Dr. Dall’s authority ; but several of these are not land shells, but belong to brackish or fresh water. ; 3 Thus, Cuba has considerably over 2co species of operculate land-shells which have not reached Florida. eS cS SEPTEMBER 8, 1892] NATURE 459 North American types as the subgenera Polygyra and Mesodon of Helix (H. jejuna, No Name Key ; Z. pustula, Cedar Keys ; H. carpenteriana, Key Biscayne ; 4. cereolus, Indian Key, Key _ West, Egmont Key; 1 septemvolva, Key West; H. ofpilata, _ Cedar Keys (but this is also a Yucatan species) ; 1. uvulifera, ey sntiful on several Keys ; A. auriculata, Cedar Keys). ___ How far the birds of Tropical Florida agree with those of the S an region I do not know, having no list at hand from ' to glean the facts; but inasmuch as they must greatly ed nineteen, the number of Antillean forms quoted by Dr. “it yaaa: that the character of the air-fauna cannot be so different from that of more northern regions as to ‘justify the Te me to merge it in a different: primary faunal division. Dr. Merriam gives a list of the birds which are sup- osed to be restricted to Southern Florida, comprising two es and seven sub-species ; this list emphatically confirms the - that the region in question is really North American Sonoran), for of the two species, one belongs to a genus which oes not occur in the West Indies, and the other to a North aerican genus which has no endemic West Indian species. ‘seven sub-species are a// of North American species, and of them belong to genera (Meleagris Cyanocitta, Sitta) ch do not exist in the West Indies. BES» “cgooy Med facts seem to be as follows :—The whole of Florida really belongs to the eastern division of the Nearctic (or to the Sonoran region of Dr. Merriam), but along the coast, on land of comparatively recent origin, a number of West Indian forms have appeared, owing to the assistance of currents conveying floating trees, &c., and to the proximity of iba and the Bahamas, which has permitted many birds and in to fly across. These immigrants have formed a distinct _ cdlony, but not to any great extent, so far as can be learned, at _ the expense of the native fauna. The recent-appearance of this _ colony is shown by the fact that (except somewhat doubtfully in _ the case of a few mollusca) there is at present no tendency to _ form new endemic species. Mr. Schwarr, who was so _ impressed with the great number of West Indian insects he _ foand in this region, -specially- mentions that there were 70 endemic forms. ——_ .. aes . : :The northward spread of this colony has doubtless been largely prevented by climate, as stated by Dr. Merriam ; but doubtless also quite as largely owing to the competition of the Sonoran fauna, for, as Dr. Merriam has himself put it in another connection, ‘‘the sustaining capacity of a region is limited ; hence such a thing as overcrowding, in the sense of greatly increasing the number of organisms a region can support, is an impossibility.” If climate had been the only barrier, then Tropical Florida should have a fauna like that of Cuba; but so far from doing so, it is still essentially Nearctic, notwithstanding the existence of a very important and interesting West Indian colony. At best it is a transition region. Under the guidance of Dr. Merriam, researches into the geographical distribution of North Americ1n birds and mammals are being energetically carried on ; and if I am not mistaken in the above-stated opinions, no doubt information will in due course accumulate that will cause him to withdraw from the position here criticized, and to admit that Dr. Wallace was, in the main, perfectly correct. T. D, A. CoCKERELL. Institute of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica, - eee) . July 31. ‘ ct 4 “A NEW SECT OF HERO- WORSHIPPERS.” UNDER this title, the Japan Mai/ describes a curious Society, 2 established in Japan, in honour of Isaac Newton, and __ which is not a new scientific association so much as a new cult. The day of all the year to the members is Christmas Day, being that on which in 1642 the immortal Newton was born. The constitution is of the simplest. The professors, graduates, and _ students of the mathematical, astronomical, and physical classes _ of the Tokio University are ex officio members ; once a member always a member ; and there are no others. The Society was and Tanakadate, the first brilliant triumvirate of mathematical graduates which the Tokio University gave to the world. In its’ early days it met in the students’ dormitory. But as the undergraduates developed into graduates and assistants, the NO. 1193, VOL. 46] launched as one for undergraduates by Messrs. Fujisawa, Tanaka, . This is a Each person draws a paper, which may be blank, but usually has a name on it. This name may be one of the illustrious living, or the still more illustrious dead. Corresponding to each name is an article, which, with all solemnity, is presented to the holder of the paper. The connection between the article and the name is more or less symbolic, or it may rest on a far-fetched pun, to which the Japanese language readily lends itself. Usually the jokes are very technical ; but occasionally they appeal to a circle more wide than mathematical. Thus the drawer of ‘‘ Newton” got an apple, and the drawer of ‘‘ Franklin” a kite. ‘‘ Her- schell”. (Sir John) was represented by a sprig of Nanten (‘*southern heavens,” which he surveyed) ; ‘‘ Archimedes,”’ by a naked doll supposed to be returning from the bath; while the holder of ‘* Kant-Laplace,” got a puff of tobacco smoke blown in his face, symbolic of the nebular hypothesis. Some time ago - it was pointed out by a European member of the Xai that in holding the ‘‘Newtonmas” on Christmas Day the members were guilty of a chronological crime hardly to be excused in men trained in the accurate school of Newton. For although he was registered as being born on Christmas Day, 1642,,it was Christmas Day, old style. In all strictness he was born on January 5, 1643. But the great convenience of having the /éte at the beginning rather than towards the end of the winter vaca- tion, and the avoidance of clashing with Japanese New Year festivities, were sufficient to outweigh all other considerations whatsoever. Besides, did not Newton himself hold his birthday on Christmas Day? Why, then, should his admirers hold it on any other? After all, concludes the Yokohama journal, the peculiar interest of the ‘‘ Newtonmas” lies in its existence. Only to the hero-worshipping Japanese has it occurred thus to. pay honour to the memory of the greatest mathematical sage of alltime. . Very few English-speaking naturalists, to use the word in its widest and. legitimate sense, are even aware that Christmas Day in 1642 beheld the birth of Newton. Itis, possible that nearly fifty years ago a bicentenary /ée was held in Cambridge ; and it is very probable that about fifty years hence Newton’s tercentenary will be celebrated in England— perhaps over all the civilized world. But an annual celebration by a Newton Club outside Japan is a thing not to be dreamed of, unless Japan influences the hero-worshipping instinct of the Western people as profoundly as she has influenced their zesthetic taste. SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. Royal Society of Victoria, Vol. 3(N.S.), Proceedings, Part I. contains Notes on West Australian oology, by A. J. Campbell (Pls. 1 and 2) ; On some Victorian fishes, with descriptions of Cristiceps wilsoni, C. phillipi, Syngnathus phillipi, and Trip- 460 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 8, 1892 terygium macleayanum (Pl, 3) by A. H. Lucas ; Anthropology in Australia, by A. W. Howitt ; On the nomenclature of chick- embryos (Pls. 4.7). Instead of indicating the stages in the development of the chick by the number of hours or days, which is unsatisfactory, as different eggs incubated for the same length of time will frequently be found to contain embryos which have reached quite different stages of development, the stages are marked based upon the external form, and each is designated by a letter of the alphabet. On some Victorian Land Planarians, by Prof. W. B. Spencer (Pls. 11 and 12), enumerates ten species of Geoplana and describes G. dendyi, sp. n., and frosti, sp. n.; all the species are figured in two admir- ably executed coloured plates. On the movements of the heart of Hofplocephalus superbus in and out ‘of the body, by Dr. McAlpine ; On a Nematode from the stomach of Hoflocephalus superbus, and on a fluke parasitic in the respiratory and aliment- ary systems of the same. Neither parasites are named but the Nematode (Ascaris) is figured on pl. 8. On the presence of amceboid corpuscles in the liquid discharged from the nephridial apertures and oral papillz of Peripatus, by A. Dendy ; On the shell money of New Britain, by R. H. Rickard; On the Dukduk Association of New Britain; Notes on the miocene strata of Jemmy’s Point and on the older tertiary at Bairnsdale, by J. Dennant. Some new or little known Polzyoa, by P. H. MacGillivray (Pls. 9 and 10) ; Notes on the marine rocks under- lying Warrnambool, by G. S. Griffiths. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris. Academy of Sciences, August 29.—M. Duchartre in the chair.—Observations of the new planet M. Wolf, made at the observatory of Paris (west equatorial), by M. G. Bigourdan. From observations of comparison stars, the R.A. of the planet in question on August 27, at 12h. 20m. 33s. p.m. Paris mean time, was 22h. 41m. 24'95s., its apparent declination — 10° 25’ 51”°8, and its magnitude 12°5.—Measures of the diameter of Mars, by M. Camille Flammarion. To settle the divergence between the values of the diameters of Mars as predicted by the Nautical Almanac, the Connaissance des Temps, and Marth’s ‘* Ephémérides,” measurements were taken with the 24cm. equatorial of the Juvisy observatory, resulting in values ranging from 24”'50 to 24”°91. These confirm Marth’s calculations, while the other two ephemerides are about 5” in excess, based as they are upon Leverrier’s tables instead of Hartwig’s.—On the solar phenomena observed at the Royal Observatory of the Roman College during the second quarter of 1892, by M. P. Tacchini.—On the bacterian origin of the bilious fever of hot countries, by M. Domingos Freire. A microscopic comparison of the germs of the yellow fever with those of the somewhat similar bilious fever of tropical countries shows that the former is due to a micrococcus, which is round, highly refractive, and easily coloured by fuchsine, methyl blue, &c., whereas the bilious fever is originated by a bacillus which the writer has succeeded in cultivating. It is about nine microns long and three broad. It is motionless, and accompanied by numerous moving spores. Each bacillus undergoes rapid segmentation into two parts, which give rise to terminal spores. It has been found possible to produce the disease in a pig by inoculation.— On the comparative assimilation of plants of the same species, developed in the sun and in the shade respectively, by M. L. Géneau de Lamarlitre. A series of quantitative results, showing that under similar external conditions the decomposition of carbonic acid varies in intensity, for leaves of the same species, according to the conditions of development of these leaves ; and that the leaves of a species developed in the sun, all other conditions being equal, decompose the car- bonic acid of the air more energetically than those developed in the shade.—On the present eruption of Etna, by M. Wallerant. The eruption of 1892, without having the importance of that of 1865, is, from several points of view, superior to that of 1886 ; the flows of lava are more extended and the craters more numerous. On July 8 the volcano gave its usual warnings. Thick columns of black smoke emerged from the principal crater, and earthshocks were felt as far as Catania. On the following day the eruption began in earnest. Two openings NO. 1193, VOL. 46] appeared a short distance apart, one of which only gave off steam, while the other gave rise to a flow of lava which passed - westwards of Monte Nero, and which has been called the western stream, four volcanic cones arose successively from. north to south at a distance of about 60m. to the east of this cleft. Another flow of lava passed to the east of Monte Nero, and was called the eastern stream. For about a month the eruption followed its normal course ; the lava continued to flow and the cones increased in height. But on August 9 important modifications took place. The ejections diminished and the explosions ceased.. It was thought that the disturbance was dying out, but on the 11th such an eruption of steam took place that Etna disappeared entirely in an absolutely opaque cloud. At the same time it was found that the lava, leaving the first tracks, had taken a new path across the vineyards. In the morning of, the 12th the opening of a new crater in the line of the preced- ing ones was found in the act of building up a cone. The previous evening the observers had passed over the same spot and had found small vents giving off vapours, but nothing to indicate the formation of a crater in so short a time. The for- mation of this crater was accompanied by a complete cessation of the ejections from the second volcanic cone, which had been very violent. The eruption thus seemed to have entered a new stage of development. PAGE CONTENTS. The Higher Theory of Statistics. By F. ¥. E. . . 437 Theoretical Physics in Italy, By C.G,.K...:.. 439 The Microscope in the Class-room and Laboratory. By W.'H. Dallinger 60°05 55s Vinee 6) be oe Our Book Shelf :— Stewart: ‘‘An Elementary Text-book of Magnetism and Electricity’ <6: ¢ 2. so088 see) rn J. and E. J. Brooksmith: ‘‘Key to Arithmetic for Beginners "°°. 950 A 58 HRP se ca 441 Letters to the Editor :— International, Geological, and other Records.—H. J. Johnston-Lavis. 2.0... «6 /i eeeee org 4 A Suggestion for the Indexing of Zoological Litera- ture.—T. D. A. Cockerell erik ke} Rain with a High Barometer.—Robert M, W. Swan. oo ft ko bshge an - 442 The Perseids.\—J. Edmund Clark ........ 442 Variable Star T Cassiopeie.—Cuthbert E, Peek. . 443 The Opposition of Mars. (///ustrated.) By J. Norman Lockyer, 'F.RiS.0 2° 2, Oh eee Partagas | 64 NOUN kn ceca vo vn oat ab 448 Our Astronomical Column :— The Staff at the Lick Observatory. . .... Lipeaen: 4 E3 The Observations of Klinkerfues Reduced . ... . 452 Photographs of Solar Phenomena. ........ 452 A Meteorite ... 20000000. Se 452 Mounting of Objectives ...... Sica Cet a 452 Jupiter 53. ees hs Seep 453 Nova Aurige 0. e:..0: 6 2005 2%) “alien cn 453 Comet Swift (March 6, 1892)... . . ie teers 8 ASS Geographical Notes... 3. 5 s:omie eee eee 453 American Association for the Advancement of Science {47444 6: aon ek apy + aie ot gsS. The International Congress of Orientalists ... . 456 The Eruption, at Sangit 3 )..6.0:s.< ese ae Biers ty Lyf The West Indian Fauna in South Florida. By T. D. A; Cockerell caine gia Nel fh 458 ‘“*A New Sect of Hero-Worshippers”.-..... 459 Scientific. Serials. ine epee: « jn) 0s ee 459 Societies and Academies .......... ‘ 460 It' was not till after the flow had ceased that — ee 5 ae a a ee ee ee ee ee ae eee es ee RS See a ee Pave 8 ~ Ob oe ie. hed ie a a. er a ~ Fi ee en ie ra es - the case then is this: NATURE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1:5, 1802. NEW CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BIOLOGY OF PLANTS. Bettrage zur Biologie der Pflanzen. Herausgegeben von Dr, Ferdinand Cohn. Band 5. Heft 3. 1892. be the new number of Prof. Cohn’s publication Dr. Max Scholtz contributes an interesting paper on the nutation of the flower-stalk in poppies and of the ter- minal shoots in Virginian creeper. In both cases the nutation is dependent on the action of gravity, but has nothing to do with the weight of the bud. In the case of poppies the downward curvature of the stalk takes place with sufficient force to lift a weight equal to twice that of the flower-bud. If, however, the flower-bud be removed there is no longer any nutation; the stalk straightens itself. V6chting had already shown that this is the case _ even if the amputated bud is tied on again with thread. Dr. Max Scholtz further states that if a weight three times as heavy as the bud is substituted for it, the stalk still straightens itself, and lifts up the weight. The state of the upper part of the flower-stalk, during a certain stage of growth, is in a high degree positively geotropic if it remains in connection with a developing flower-bud, but not otherwise. The author has further succeeded in determining the exact part of the flower-bud which governs the geotropism of the stalk. If the pistil is excised, nutation ceases, the stalk becoming negatively geotropic ; but if all the other whorls of the flower are removed and the pistil left, then nutation goes on as usual. But beyond this, if the ovules are extir- pated, but the wall of the ovary left standing, the nutation is stopped. Hence we arrive at the siriking conclusion that the presence of developing ovules in the young ovary determines the reaction of the flower-stalk towards gravity. Acertain analogy is obvious with the irritability of root-tips, investigated by Darwin. Dr. Max Scholtz’s observations afford a good example of the extreme com- plexity of those phenomena of growth which a few years ago were thought susceptible of a simple mechanical ex- planation. The author thinks that the nutation is of advantage, inasmuch as the reversed position of the flower-bud allows a better access of light to the developing ovary. As is well known, the flower-stalk ceases to nod when the flower opens ; in other words, as soon as the development of the ovules is completed the flower-stalk becomes as strongly negatively geotropic as it had been positively geotropic before. - Dr. Max Scholtz has made similar observations on the nodding ends of the main shoots of Amfelopsis guinguefolia. Here also the positive geotropism of the younger internodes only exists so long as the terminal bud is present and uninjured. Both here and in the poppies the same part of the stem which for a time shows nutation afterwards erects itself, reversing its reaction towards gravity, and also becoming for the first time positively heliotropic. This change in the mode of response to constant external influences is dictated by the embryonic organs at the growing point. A paper by Dr. Paul Siedler on the radial sap-current in roots, consists essentially of an anatomical description NO. 1194, VOL. 46| 461 of the cortex in a number of roots, and does not appear to add much to our previous knowledge. The author believes that in many cases the hypodermal layers act as a water reservoir ; this is not improbable, but no experi- mental evidence is adduced, and the argument from structure alone is scarcely convincing. Dr. F, Rosen writes on differences in staining between various parts of the nucleus, and between the sexual nuclei. His work is generally confirmatory of that of the zoologist Auerbach. He finds, on examining the vegetative nuclei of Scilla and Hyacinth that two kinds of nucleoli can be detected in the nucleus; the one has an affinity for red, the other for blue stains. The “‘erythrophilous” bodies are the true nucleoli; the ‘‘cyanophilous” granules form part of the chromatin framework. These are simply colour reactions, and are independent of the chemical composition of the stains employed. The author’s results are much more remarkable in the case of the sexual nuclei. He worked at Liliacezw, and found that the generative nucleus of the pollen-grain takes up blue stains specially, while its vegetative nucleus is conspicuously erythrophilous. In the female organs, on the other hand, not only the nucleus of the ovum, but all the nuclei in the embryo-sac are erythrophilous, while those of the rest of the ovule give blue reactions on double staining. He believes, therefore, that he has detected a qualitative difference between the male and female nuclear substance. His statements apply to the chromatin framework of the respective nuclei. These observations are curious, but their significance is very doubtful. The existence of a distinct male and female substance, distinguishable by reagents, is highly improbable in the light of our present knowledge of the phenomena of fertilization. It is noticeable that the author has not investigated the reaction of the sexual nuclei.at the time of their fusion. Probably the differ- ences which he has observed, like those recorded by some previous investigators, depend rather on the phase of de- velopment of the nuclei than on their sexual character. Prof. G. Hieronymus is the author of two “ Contribu- tions to the Morphology and Biology of the Algz.” The former of these is on a curious freshwater Alga, Glauco- cystis, hitherto placed among the blue-green forms. The author shows that it possesses a perfectly typical nucleus and chromatophores, and must therefore be removed from the Cyanophycez, and find a place among the higher Algze, probably in the neighbourhood of the Bangiacez. The same applies to several other genera, which, on account of their colour, have hitherto been classed among the Cyanophycez. The author’s second paper is on the organization of the cells of Cyanophycez (Phycochromacez of Prof. Hieronymus). The existence both of chromatophores and nuclei in these plants has long been a subject of controversy. As regards the former question, the author finds that the chlorophyll is contained in distinct granules, ranged in fibrillee, which normally form a single or double layer in the peripheral protoplasm. The blue pigment, how- ever, is dissolved in the cell-sap. He compares the green granules to the “grana” of Arthur Meyer, which, in typical chloroplastids, are the immediate seat of the >, « 462 NATURE [SEPTEMBER I5, 1892 colouring-matter. The colourless central porti»n of each ““granum” may perhaps consist of a product of assimila- tion, such as paramylon. The fibrillz formed by the grana are inconstant in number. They may sometimes become interspersed among the elements of the central body (nucleus ?) of the cell. The author comes to the conclusion that, while the constituent elements of chroma- tophores are present in these plants, they have not become associated to form definite plastids. Passing on to the supposed nucleus of Cyanophycee, Prof. Hieronymus confirms the observations of previous writers as to the presence in the middle of each cell of a comparatively large body of distinctly fibrillar stru:ture. The tangled fibril is almost certainly a single one, and is moniliform, the granulations being the staining portions. Their substance has been called by Borzi cyanophycin. The author regards them as representing the chromatin bodies of a typical nuclear fibril, though not chemically identical with them. There is no nuclear membrane, and in the older cells the fibril frequently uncoils, so that its outer windings may even reach the periphery of the cell. The author therefore proposes to term the central body an “open nucleus” as opposed to the “closed nucleus” of higher organisms. The body differs then from a typical nucleus (1) in its chemical reactions, (2) in the absence of a limiting membrane, and (3) in the absence (so far as observed) of karyokinetic phases. The cyanophycin, under certain conditions, is said to accumulate to an enormous extent, almost filling the cell, and sometimes assuming very definite crystalline forms. The author is disposed to regard it as a reserve substance, possibly the product of the direct assimilation of atmo- spheric nitrogen. His observations may be taken as establishing the existence in the Cyanophycez of a body agreeing in many respects with the nucleus of the higher plants, but much less sharply limited off from the other cell-contents. D. H. S. THE GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. The Labrador Coast: a Journal of Two Summer Cruises zn that Region. With Notes on its Early Discovery, on the Eskimo, on tts Physical Geography, Geology, and Natural History. By Adolphus Spring Packard, M.D., Ph.D. With Maps and Illustrations. New York: N. D. C. Hodges. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and Co., 1891.) A LARGE part of this excellent work has already appeared in various journals published in the United States. These contributions are not known, we fear, so widely as they deserve to be—in this country at least—and therefore Dr. Packard has been well advised to gather the scattered fragments into a homogeneous whole, making, in the truest and widest sense, a geo- graphical study of the greatest value and _ interest. Chapters vii. to xvii., with the exception of Chapter xiii., are entirely new, and contain the latest results of studies which the author has made peculiarly his own, with the result that his claim that the contents of this volume represent the state of our present knowledge of the coast and interior is perfectly well founded. The out- standing feature of the work is its wide scope, appeal- ing as it does to the geographer, the geologist, the NO. 1194, VOL. 46] naturalist (to use the word in its more limited sense), the botanist, the ethnologist, and the historian. Each of these will find the subject in which he is interested treated with considerable skill, and, so far as opportunity for original research allowed, with minuteness and _ per- spicuity. One fault we have to find with the style, and that is an occasional looseness in the use of nomen- clature. This distracts the reader’s attention, and, until he has gone back and re-read many passages, leads him to question several statements which, when their meaning is fully grasped, are seen to be correct but badly expressed. Should a second edition of the work be called for, revision in this respect would result in a Mery marked improvement. To the question as to who first sighted the inhospitable shores of Labrador, Dr. Packard has devoted considerable space, carefully examining the various claims that have been put forward. He comes to the conclusion that the honour belongs to the Norseman Biarne, or Bjarne, who, without doubt, made a landfall somewhere in North America in 990. Weare strongly inclined to agree with the result arrived at on this point. The author’s experi- ences of navigation in the region under discussion, gave him opportunities of observing and demonstrating the rate of sailing made by modern ships, and on this basis he builds up arguments which tell with considerable force against the theories advanced by Dr. Kohl and others regarding the early Scandinavian seaman, who may now be considered the almost undoubted discoverer of one of the wildest and most forbidding coasts in the world. The derivation of the name is of interest. Coming from the Spanish and Portuguese word for a labourer, it was applied to this part of America after the visit of © Cortereal in 1500, as the survivors of the voyage, on their return, held out the hope that the natives might easily be brought into a state of slavery and shipped to the Portuguese colonies to work in the fields and be, in fact, labourers for their self-appointed masters. We have many interesting particulars regarding the ice and snow of this region. The floating blocks and bergs were carefully observed, and the conclusion, now almost universally held by geologists, confirmed that ice carried by winds and waves against the shores has had little direct influence on the configuration of the coast line. After Dr. Packard’s careful investigation of this question, the statement, so frequently met with, that the sea lochs of the west coast of Scotland were formed by the action of glacial gouges, may for ever disappear from our school-books. The only instance of such glacial effect was observed at Little Mecatina Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where there is no true Arctic floe-ice. one time regarded as a great eroding agency, is noted in the fact that the ship in which the author spent a con- siderable time amid ice-packs, presented no abrasion on her sides, the paint being as whole and unbroken when she came out of as when she entered the frozen sea. No boulders, gravels, or mud were observed on any of the icebergs examined, but as they were all of consider- able age, as was indicated by the marks of frequent over- turning, they had, burdens before reaching the southern area where they were inspected, An instance of the impotency of what wasat - in all probability, dropped their — 2 ee Saas 5S '* SEPTEMBER 15, 1892 | NATURE 463 _ The portions of the volume dealing with the fauna and _ flora, both of land and sea, are well done, and ought to prove of the utmost utility and service to naturalists. Dr. Packard has done the work of an explorer in a most masterly manner, not only setting before us the geo- a graphical skeleton of Labrador, but doing much, so far as his opportunities went —and no man’s have gone farther— toclothe the bones with an array of many of the necessary Br facts for the building up of a complete account of the ‘territory. To those who come after him may be left the task of filling in many details; the greater part of the _ work has already been accomplished, and the record is before us in these pages. There is an excellent index, but the maps and illustra- ___ tions are far from clear, and require much more distinct- _ ness than has been given them. A word of the highest praise must be accorded to the bibliography, which must have given the author a vast amount of trouble before it assumed its present admirable shape. THE SANITARY INSTITUTE AND. ITS TRANSACTIONS IN REVIEW. The Transactions of the Sanitary Institute, 1891. Vol. _ XII. (London, 1892.) THE Transactions of the Sanitary Institute cannot fail to interest a considerable section of the community now that the general principles of sanitation have become so generally appreciated, and fresh sanitary matter is so eagerly devoured—and generally assimilated—by the enlightened section of the public. It may not be generally known that the Institute only dates its birth from the year 1876, and this fact will be the more difficult to grasp when one notes in the well- bound volume of which we write, the present scope of its transactions. The headquarters of the Institute are in Margaret Street, W., in a building known as the Parkes’ Museum, so-called to commemorate the celebrated Hygienist of that name. The whole purpose of this museum is to serve asa means of practical demonstration for the diffu- sion of knowledge in sanitary science, and at the present day it undoubtedly forms the best collection in Great Britain of all the various apparatus and material which can be claimed to have any connection with the public health. The value of such an institution does not need insistence upon here ; but the remarks of the chairman, Sir Douglas Galton, in his recent address, may be aptly reproduced. “The evils,” he says, “of our congested population meet us at every turn. If our progenitors had been properly educated in sanitary matters, our towns would not have been allowed to contain unhealthy locali- ties ; houses would not have been permitted to be built on damp unhealthy sites; buildings would not have been constructed so as to impede the circulation of air and in- cidence of light. Our town populations would not have been allowed to grow up herded together like the beasts of the field, without moral training or self-restraint ; and our country population would not have been allowed to destroy the healthy conditions which surround them, by vitiating the pure air, and by contaminating the springs of pure water. The Sanitary Institute is thus the direct outgrowth of the public need for sanitary education !” NO. 1194, VOL. 46] An excellent descriptive catalogue of the contents of the museum has recently b2e1 compiled, and those only among the 11,500 persons who have visited the building during the year ending March, 1892, who were acquainted with the museum so recently as eighteen months ago, can appreciate at its true worth the value of this addi- tion, and can adequately testify to the improvement in the arrangement and grouping of the various sanitary appliances which has also been effected. This catalogue is bound up with the last volume of “ Transactions,” which, in addition, includes a lengthy list of Fellows, Members, and Associates of the Institute ; a list of the contributions to the very valuable library during 1891 ; a very full report of valuable and able papers of hygienic interest, which have been read by Dr. Louis Parkes, Mr. Grantham, Prof. Wynter Blyth, and Sir Douglas Galton. The volume also contains a copy of the Annual Report of the Council, and a glimpse of this gives one a capital insight into the scope and work of the Institute. In the lecture-room, in addition to papers such as those referred to above, a systematic course of lectures for sanitary officers is given throughout the year by a staff of exceptionally capable lecturers, including as it does such gentlemen as Sir Douglas Galton, Prof. Corfield, Dr. Louis Parkes, Mr. Shirley Murphy, Prof, Wynter Blyth, Prof. H. Robinson, &c. That the worth of these lectures is appreciated is sufficiently exemplified by the fact that 161 students attended them during the year ; nor are they lacking attractions similar to that which insured the constant attendance of young Mr. Parker at the village choir-meetings, for they are regularly patronized by one or two female devotees of the Goddess Hygeia. There are, however, lectures provided entirely for ladies by Dr. A. T. Schofield, who treated the follow- ing subjects in his last course :— *« The Domestic Treatment of Disease.” ** Microbes.” -“ Physical Culture.” “ The Care of Old Age.” These have been well attended, and the Duchess of Albany recently presented the prizes gained by those who emerged successfully from a competitive class examination upon these subjects. The Institute holds examinations twice yearly for inspectors of nuisances and local surveyors. At these examinations 361 candidates presented themselves during the year, and 246 received “certificates of competency.” Both lectures and exami- nations are now being provided in several large pro- vincial towns, at a great saving of expense and trouble to aspirants for the “certificate of competency,” and with the apparent effect of considerably — stimulating local interest in sanitary matters. Finally, the annual Health Congress held under the auspices of the Institute is always an instructive and interesting feature in its pro- ceedings, and is largely attended and much appreciated. OUR BOOK SHELF. Cooley's Cyclopedia of Practical Receipts. By W. North, M.A. Camb., F.C.S. Seventh Edition, revised and greatly enlarged. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1892.) Tuis work is intended as a general book of reference for manufacturers, tradesmen, amateurs, and heads of families, 464 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 15, 1892 and contains information upon all sorts of subjects, froma list of abbreviations usually employed in writing, to a de- scription of the rare metal zirconium. Between these two articles we find notices of the methods of brewing, and the proper way of laying bricks and ventilating houses, the nature and treatment of broken wind in horses, the composition of digestive, aperient, and tonic pills, the practice of photography, the nature of infective diseases in man and beast, the destruction of caterpillars in plants, the best kind of clothes to wear, and the method of taking grease spots out of clothing. From these samples of the contents it will be seen that the book is really a most extraordinary work of reference and one which is not likely to lie idle on the shelves, but to be more’ or less in constant use. The work of revision has evi- dently been carefully done, and must have been one of no small Jabour, as it has been brought well up to date and many articles must be entirely new.. The great practical utility of the work is shown by the large circulation it has enjoyed for many years, and the editor has done his best to maintain the well-deserved reputation of the book. Traité Encyclopedique de Photographie. First Supple- ment A. Par Charles Fabre. (Gauthier-Villars et Fils, 1892.) MANY of our readers are already thoroughly acquainted with this excellent treatise which we owe to M. Fabre. In the present volume we have the first of the series of supplements which will be issued in order to keep the book well up to date. Therange of progress here shown is that accomplished during the years 1889-92. The same arrangement as to numbering the paragraphs is still presented, so that it will be quite easy for those having the original volumes to refer to any section in this sup- plement. The matter which is chiefly treated of here refers to the various properties and kinds of lenses and to their com- binations: thus some of the most important headings that have been considerably developed may be stated as follows :—Methods of measuring focal distances, Martin’s objectives, simple objectives, calculation of objectives, rapid euryscopes, Zeiss’ objectives, &c. Many other new discoveries, such as Lippmann’s photography in colours, have also received attention. : With these supplements this encyclopedia will be found to be greatly enhanced in value, for at the present day photography is undergoing many and rapid changes the recording of which in this form is no light task. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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 Mustakh Exploration, Mr. Conway’s march from our newly acquired district of Hunza into Baltistan (reported in the 7zmes), up the Hisper glacier on one side and down the Biafo on the other to Askolay, is a splendid feat to have accomplished, a memorable achievement, and his account of it will be something to look forward to on his return to England. The total length of these two glaciers is certainly something between sixty and seventy miles measured upon the map, and over this distance the glacial forces in action are on the grandest scale. The view obtained of the Hisper glacier from the two points we ascended on either side of the Nushik La is hardly to be described, from thence the end of the Hisper glacier is not defined, and could only be indicated from the run of the spurs on the north side of the valley, and what information the guides could give. This made the total length sixty-four miles. By traversing this length of the two glaciers Mr. Conway has been able to get into ground NO. 1194, VOL. 46] never before visited, viz., that great ice field on the main range of the Mustakh, the full extent of which is quite unknown, and from which the Nobundi Sobundi glaciers also descends. account of this glacial area from the pen of a man who knows. the Alps so well, and has ascended so many of its peaks. He has gone direct and fresh from the one to the other—what an exquisite treat—and he has now seen glacial action on the vastest scale it is presented at the present time in a mountain chain out of Polar latitudes. My experience was the reverse of this, for I had not the opportunity of seeing an Alpine glacier until twenty years after I had been surveying those on the Yarkund and Hunza frontiers, and in the interval the vividness of their aspects and minor details had much faded. It is to be hoped that Mr. Conway has with him, and used, a plane table, properly pro- jected on the four miles to the inch scale, with all the peaks. fixed by the Trigonometrical Survey of India, correctly plotted on it, and will thus be enabled to add to and correct much of the previous reconnaissance work. There is no doubt, had Capt. Younghusband, who was another late explorer in this part of the world, worked witha plane table along his line of route towards Hunza, the results of his exploration wou!d have been of tenfold value, and far more extended. The Indian Government should: make it a rule that all officers permitted or selected to explore. the unsurveyed territory beyond our Indian frontier, should, as a preliminary training, do a season’s work plane-tabling with a Himalayan survey party. It would also be an admirable train- ing for officers selected for the Quartermaster-General’s and In- telligence Departments. = ; H. H. GoDWIN-AUSTEN. Nebular Spectrum of Nova Aurige. Nova AuRIG# faded away so steadily in March and April as to give little promise of soon again attaining any considerable brightness. All the more startling, therefore, was Mr. Espin’s. announcement of Mr. Corder’s discovery that it had reappeared and that he himself on August 21 had seen it as a star of the 9°2 magnitude with a monochromatic spectrum, presumably about 500 mmm. in wave-length. - eet iraN Fortunately the 15-inch refractor of this Observatory is still in working order, and still more fortunately my old colleague in the observation of Nova Cygni, Mr. J. G. Lohse, is staying here. On August 25 and 26 we were able to examine the Nova with a compound prism in the Grubb stellar spectroscope. The spectrum thus seen evidently contained two bright lines, the positions of which we determined as follows:— Chief Line: Brightness 5 to10. | Date Wave-length. Measures. Observer. Aug. 25 500°4 a 4 bus a 26 ae 500°4 Teg 3 bp ee : 25 ey 500°5 a: 3 a jiGeis 26 ae 499°9 oe 5 ot i Second Line: Brightness 1. Date Wave-length. Measures. Observer. Aug. 25 re 495°3 ea 2 Roe 26 a 494°6 Ks 3 ve 25 me 495'9 ca 3 j..G. TL. 20 0) AGG ee , ? From these we may, derive the mean values of 500°3 and 495°3, which prove, as we think beyond doubt,’ that Nova Aurige is now mainly shining as a luminous gas nebula, Once or twice on the 25th August, at the best moments, I had noticed feeble traces of a condensed luminosity in the spec- - troscope, far away on the side of less refrangibility. Our time, however, was fully occupied in observing the two brighter lines. and the zinc-lead spectrum, with which we compared them, until daylight prevented further observation. On the 26th, haze and bad definition concealed everything but the chief lines, but on the very clear night of the 28th, continuing the observations: alone, I examined the star: with a power of 229 on the wire micrometer, and wishing to see if the spectrum had materially altered I viewed the star through an excellent direct-vision prism. In this way I at once saw a faint continuous spectrum in the green, together with a distinct line in the yellow. With the spectroscope the line was also readily perceived, but not having prepared the battery for the illuminations and compari- sons, no reliable direct measures could be made. By introducing — branch of the Panmah - Most interesting will it be to read the — a nicus, ii. p. 112, and iii. pp. 205 and 206). ____ Dunecht, September 6. ee. ey Lo E inch a fa _ the nucleus with that of the penumbra. an ete SEPTEMBER 15, 1892] NATURE 465 the D-line into the instrument, however, I found the stellar line ‘to be distant from it towards the violet by a quantity equal to the interval between the nebular lines. This gives a wave- _ Tength of 580°1, which agrees closely with a bright line in Nova in the Wolf-Rayet stars, and in y Argtis (compare Cofer- The continuous am seemed to begin somewhat suddenly at 569°4, and dec y about 540. _ On each night of observation the star was about 9°6 magni- RALPH COPELAND. . Daytime Seeing at the Lick Observatory. _ To some of the readers of NaTuRE it may be a matter of _ considerable surprise, as it certainly was to the writer, to find the marked superiority which a small telescope sometimes offers __ over a large one for the observation of solar prominences. : hag numerous occasions during the last year, while adjusting ve improved the opportunity to examine the the sun with a Rowland grating. Atno time, however, With : 7+ lhiaagd feremcope of this observatory to the 36- a4 or, I ha been possible to get any definition in prominence. fee the 6-inch equatorial, on the contrary, one gets very fair on, even in the middle of the day; while in the early ye morning, from six to eight o’clock, the seeing is, as a rule, _ superb. Thinking these differences might possibly vanish if the % a pe were used earlier in the morning, I have recently a systematic comparison of the three equatorials, viz., the _ 6-inch, the 12-inch, and the 36-inch. For this purpose a | grating spectroscope (kindly loaned .by the Chabot a -small _ Observatory) was used with an adapter which fitted all pes, so that the whole comparison could be made = in afew minutes. The third and fourth orders of a 14438-line h, grating were employed. _ The result of a half-dozen mornings’ observations was that no detail whatever could be made out with the 36-inch, how- er much care one might use in the adjustment of his instru- ment. One could form a rough estimate of the height and general outline of the prominence, but nothing more. On the 12-inch the general features were considerably more distinct, but the fine delicate tracings of the various parts of the vonage could be seen only with the 6-inch. The capping of the 36-inch and the 12-inch failed utterly, as might have been expected, to improve the definition on any occasion. The large image of the sun given by the 36-inch (six inches in diameter), combined with the poor seeing during the daytime, makes the instrument act, for suzspot observation, very much like an integrating spectroscope. The lines affected by absorp- , tion, in spots of any considerable size, can be picked out readily, but one finds it quite impossible to compare the absorption of These three telescopes each give images of nearly the same brightness, and one does not find much, if any, difference in the amount of dispersed light in the field. During the dry season, the sides of the caiions surrounding this observatory become intensely hot, and highly heated cur- rents of air are continually rising from them. So that, proba- bly, the conditions which make the order of efficiency of these 3 escopes in the daytime just the reverse of what it is at night, _ are purely local. HENRY CREw. Lick Observatory, August 19. Ridgway on the Humming-birds, Mr. Roperr Ripcway, curator of the bird department of the U. S. National Museum, has just published (in separate form), in the 4 3h of that institution for 1890, his monograph of the Trochili oming from such an authority and essaying to deal with such an interesting group, this work will undoubtedly command the attention of ornithologists, and be studied with the care it no doubt merits. It makes its appearance in octavo form, of some 130 pages, being illustrated by 46 full-page plates, and has besides a number of cuts in the text. The plates give us many species of humming-birds and their nests; they being all of the “‘electro-process” variety, and chiefly copied from Gould’s princely work upon the Trochili. As is usually the case, most of the figures given have suffered by the method of repro- duction employed, and not being coloured, they offer us, at the NO. 1194, VOL. 46] best, with but a poor idea of the ‘‘living gems” they are sup posed to oxygens With more or less thoroughness Mr. Ridgway has touched upon the early history and the literature of his subject ; upon the geographical distribution of the various species; upon their number, which he makes out to be about 500; upon their natural history in general (treated in various brief sections) ; and there are descriptions of their external characters and a short note upon a few of their internal ones. It is with the statements made in the latter that I chiefly propose to deal in the present connection, and, aware as I am of our author’s knowledge of the literature of what we may call the natural history and classi- fication of the humming-birds, as contra-distinguished from their morphology and affinities, I must confess my surprise at his ignorance of the latter part of his subject. Mr. Ridgway remarks (p. 290) that ‘‘ the humming-birds possess nothing absolutely peculiar, although certain features, shared by other groups of birds, notably the swifts (A/icroprdide), are developed to an extreme degree ; as, for example, the very high keel to the sternum and consequent excessive development of the pectoral muscles, the short armwing (humerus) and extremely long handwing (manus), and minute feet with relatively large, strongly curved, and sharp claws. The humming birds and swifts further agree in. numerous anatomical characters, and there can be no doubt that they are more closely related to each other than are either to any other group of birds, In fact, except in the shape of the bill and structure of the bones of the face, the humming-birds and swifts present no definite differ- ences of osteological structure.” As the present writer has probably published double the number of accurate figures illustrating the ex/ire anatomy of a great many species of hum- ming-birds as compared with any other worker; and, further, has published correct accounts of the same to the extent exceeding that of any three living avian-morphologists, and those figures and descriptions having been very extensively accepted as correct, perhaps our author will consider me com- petent to criticize the statement which I have just quoted from his work. Notwithstanding the extensive and painstaking labour I have given to such matters, I reckon it but as little when compared with the opinions given us by Huxley and Kitchen Parker in the same premises. : As long ago.as 1867 (P. Z. S., p. 456), Huxley expressed the view that “‘in their cranial characters the swifts are far more closely allied with the swallows than with any of the Des- mognathous birds, the swift presenting but a very slight modification of the true Passerine type exhibited by the swallow ;” and Parker has said in Zhe Zoologist for March, 1889 (p. 2), ‘*I agree with my friend, Dr. Shufeldt, that the ‘swallow and the swift are near akin.’ My opinion is not the simple judgment it was forty years ago. Ihave observed a good many things since then in the structure of birds of all sorts.” Both of these high opinions I can confirm, and in sup- port of them, and as contradicting every statement almost that my good friend and ornithologist, Mr. Ridgway, has made in his work.touching the structure of swifts and humming-birds, I would invite his attention to many comparative figures and accounts published by me in the Proceedings of the Zoologi- cal Society of London at various times, and also to an extensive paper of mine which appeared in the Journal of the Linnean Society of London, in 1888 or 1889, having been read at the Society by W. K. Parker, F.R.S., who accepted, in the main, what I had stated in it. Therein I anatomically compare the entire structure of every species of United States swallow with the corresponding structures ina great many swifts and a great many humming birds, and I would invite Mr. Ridgway’s attention to the synoptical comparisons given on pages 376-378, especially as off-setting his statement, as quoted, that ‘‘in fact, except in the shape of the bill and structure of the bones of the face, the hum- ming-birds and swifts present no definite differences of osteo- logical structure.” And, unless as a true systemist and believer in colours and measurements rather than in structural characters as determining the real affinities of vertebrate forms, I would finally invite his consideration of my comparative figures and description of the humerus ofa swallow, a swift, and a humming- bird given in the Proc. Zool. Soc., Lond., for 1887 (pp. 50I- 503), and then ask his candid opinion upon the question whether. the humerus of a swift is morphologically more like that of a humming bird than it is like that of a swallow, and the humerus is one of the bones that has been so frequently dragged into the discussion to prove cypselo-trochiline affinities. Washington, D.C., July 24. R, W, SHUFELDT. 466 NATURE . [SEPTEMBER I5, 1892 ‘The Limits of Animal Intelligence,” Ir is with much pleasure that I have read Prof. Lloyd Morgan’s letter, wherein he tells us that *‘ the power of cognizing relations, reflection, and introspection” appears to him to mark a ‘* new departure” in the ascending scale of psychical activities. His term, ‘‘ feeling of awareness of certain relationships,” is new to me, however, and seems to demand a further distinction, I am generally aware, in a vague way, of what I may be doing— that is tosay I have a certain consciousness of it. But every now and then I find that I have done, without consciousness, things which I could not have done without the exercise of my sensitive faculty, or without the guidance of bodily movement, by that faculty. I most cordially concur in the Professor’s desire that the inves- tigations to which he refers should be accompanied by ‘‘ calm, temperate, and impartial discussion” founded on observation and experiment. I, as well as Prof. Lloyd Morgan, have long carried on such observations and experiments, and it is on them that are founded what I have written on ‘Our lower and higher mental powers” in chapters xiv. and xv. of my book! *‘On Truth.” To them I may perhaps be permitted to direct the Professor’s attention, since he is en- gaged with a work on Comparative Psychology. I have as little wish to dogmatize as has Prof. Lloyd Morgan, and am perfectly ready and willing to recognize the true rationality of any animal whenever I obtain evidence thereof. My assertion of the exclusive rationality of man has been represented as-due to other causes than what I deem to be the weight of scientific evidence. Such is an utter mistake. To admit that animals possess intellect would neither be’ repugnant to my feelings nor conflict with any other of my convictions. As yet I hold all animals to be irrational, simply because I have met with, in them, nothing inexplicable by what the Professor calls ‘‘ simple aware- ness” and what I ‘call related. feelings. All prejudice should. indeed be eliminated from scientific inquiry, but such can hardly be the case with any one who starts from ana frzord ‘‘ stand- point of evolution” in the sense that he holds discontinuities in nature—real ‘* new departures ”—to be impossible. The Professor says: ‘‘In conclusion I must be allowed to say that the phrases ‘ differences in kind’ and ‘ differences in degree’ savour somewhat of mere Academic discussion.” Neverthe- less there really are differences of kind, and such differences are themselves different in kind from mere differences of degree. He would, of course, allow that the difference between the Binomial Theorem and the Bouquet of Chateau d’Yquem is one ‘‘ of kind,” as also that between solving the Poms asinorum and riding. Hguus asinus. I am convinced there are also psychical differences of kind, and I have become so convinced (in spite of having started with a contrary opinion) through experi- ments and observations. St. GEORGE MIVaRT. Hurstcote, September 6. The Theory of the Telephone. IN a paper in this month’s Phz/, Mag. I ventured to publish an explanation of the fact that in the telephone it is necessary fo the diaphragm to be situated in a permanent magnetic eld. Since then my attention has been called to a paper (Zhe Electrician, Feb. 11, 1887, p. 302) by Mr, Oliver Heaviside, in which he-has given a very complete theory of the question at issue. I hasten to express my regret that I had not met with this paper in time. FreD. T. TROUTON. Physical Laboratory, Trinity College, Dublin. Crater-like Depressions in Glaciers. In the note on the St. Gervais Catastrophe (NATURE of September 1) I read that a crater-like depression had been found in the Téte Rousse Glacier. As such depressions are quite exceptional occurrences in European glaciers, it may be of interest to note that I found several holes of a similar kind in the great Tasman Glacier in New Zealand. One of these reached —like the Téte Rousse one—apparently to the bottom, the others, which were from 150 feet to 300 feet deep, did not. The walls of these ‘‘ craters” were not vertical but above only 45°, the incline increasing below. ‘Tili now I have considered these funnel-shaped depressions as immensely widened ‘‘Glaciermills,”’ t Referred to on p. 266 of NaTurE for July 21, 1802. NO. 1194, VOL. 46] but after the observation on the Téte Rousse it seems to me not improbable that these holes on the Tasman were also originall caused by subglacial collapse. R. VON LENDENFELD. — CHOLERA: PREVENTIONAND VACCINA TION. Re epidemic of cholera with which this country is threatened seems likely to test very completely the means for the prevention of its spread which have been devised as the result of the extended experience of some of the ablest hygienists. The working out of the history of an epidemic disorder must necessarily be ex- tended over a prolonged period of time, for it is depend- ent on the researches not only of the clinical observer, but of the pathologist and the bacteriologist and of those who devote themselves to the difficult study of the march of epidemics. The development of such researches is closely allied to the advance of science generally, and although there is at any one period a large admixture of ‘‘fashion”’ in the opinions held by experts, yet in time this fades, and the truth is established. It cannot be too clearly stated that the best measures for the prevention of an epidemic disorder can only be devised when we pos- sess an accurate knowledge of the infective agent of the disease (bacillus or not, as the case may be), of its life- history, of its varying degrees of virulence, and the mode of entrance into the body, of the conditions under which it multiplies, and of the changes which it produces in the’ human body. In the case of cholera our knowledge is not yet com- plete. Clinical observers many years ago showed that the infective agent was present in the peculiar evacuations passed by the cholera patient, and it was further found that these evacuations were the means of contaminatin the water supply of a locality, and so causing the at of the disease in the community. These two facts have been established beyond doubt. The exact nature of the living infective agent is not, however, so well ascertained. {t was in 1884 that Koch described the Vibrio Cholere Asiatic as constantly present in the evacuationsof cholera patients, but he was unable to prove that it was the cause of the disease, owing to the insusceptibility of animals to cholera. It was shown that the vibrio was present also in the intestinal walls, but it was never found in the organs of the body. The work of subsequent observers has brought forward fresh facts of importance. Itis now known that the cholera vibrio (the comma bacillus) is allied to several other forms which are pathogenic, and that there are several varieties (perhaps twelve) which have been described by Dr. Cunningham, The cholera vibrio is also known to vary greatly in virulence ; it is so susceptible to its surroundings that a slight change will diminish its activity and certain conditions will increase its virulence. One method of increasing its activity is by passing it through a series of animals (guinea-pigs) ; after a certain time the vibrio becomes extremely active and will kill animals very quickly, it is said in even eight hours. With these virulent cultures symptoms have been produced in animals closely resembling those of Asiatic cholera ; in the exudation of liquid into the intestines, in the cramps, in the suppression of urine, and in the collapse — so well known in the disease inman. There are therefore certain grounds for considering Koch’s vibrio as_ the cause of Asiatic cholera. But the question is not settled : it is not as clear that the vibrio is the cause of Asiatic cholera as that the bacillus anthracis is the cause of an- thrax. The probabilities are greatly in favour of this pre- sumption, but the slight doubt existing must be borne in mind when the question of vaccination for cholera is to be considered practically. The doubt that rests on the vibrio as the cause of cholera may be stated shortly in, the fact of the existence of allied forms of bacteria which produce similar symptoms, such as the vibrio Metschni- ee besa i AES le ot ‘by what is ing on the question of vaccination for cholera. a short SEPTEMBER 15, 1892] NATURE 467 kovi. We know, too, that in man cholera is produced drunk, and yet animals fed with not get any of the symptoms been mentioned, unless they are i d” by a course of treatment, either by neutral- izing the acidity of the contents of the stomach, and subsequently giving a dose of opium to quiet the intestines, ___ or by giving a dose of alcohol with the vibrio. This vibrio cannot get through the acid stomach alive. to the question as to how it gets through the human _ stomach rests partly in the fact that in the early part of The answer digestion, or in between meals, the stomach is not very acid, and so there may not bea sufficient degree of acidity to kill the vibrio. Such remarks would, however, equally ly to the guinea-pig stomach ; and the question as to why in animals the swallowed vibrio does not produce _ choleraic symptoms unless the animal is “ prepared ” is still unanswered ; although such animal may be killed by an injection of the virulent preparation of the vibrio into its veins. This difficult point can only be settled by investigations along new lines, probably chiefly chemical. One point suggested by the investigations of the cholera vibrio which we surmised previously to 1884, is that the infective agent in the disease not only primarily attacks the intestines, but grows there, producing the symptoms of the disease by its chemical products, without itself entering the blood stream _ This has an important bear- The experimental investigation of vaccination against infective disorders is a product of modern bacteriological research. It is too long a question to deal with in a short article ; it is sufficient to say that it is based on the fact that a __ mild form of the disease may be produced in an animal, which will then be protected from the virulent disease. As in Pasteur’s historical experiments, the attenuated or weakened anthrax bacilli were found, when injected into a sep, 10 preventtheanimal dying when it received a dose of irulent bacilli, which would undoubtedly kill.it in ordinary circumstances. This vaccination, when put into practice, was found to diminish the amount of natural anthrax in sheep in France. Similar results have been obtained with the vibrio of Asiatic cholera by some of Koch’s assistants, and latterly by M. Haffkine, in the Institut Pasteur in Paris. Haffkine attenuated the virulent vibrio by means of a current of air and other means, and pe Meee a culture which did not kill animals, but pro- tected them against asubsequent injection of the virulent vibrio itself, The vaccine was also injected into human beings (who lent themselves for experiment), and was found to produce a local inflammation associated with some degree of fever, all the symptoms passing away in period. It is probable that the majority of “vaccines” would produce these symptoms. It is, how- ever, a great step to apply vaccination experiments in animals to human beings when the etiology of the par- ticular disease is not completely worked out, and there is, perhaps, too great a tendency in modern research to ex- tend ‘‘vaccination” experiments in infective diseases before a correct knowledge of the mode of action of the infective agent has been obtained. It has been pointed out that doubt rests on the vibrio cholerz Asiaticze as the true cause of Asiatic cholera. It may be ; but to impartial observers it has not been proved to be. Vaccination for cholera on a large scale. would there- fore at present be a mistake, as it might possibly lead to carelessness in the carrying out of better tried preventive measures, which depend not only upon the State but also on the private individual. As a promising field of research, it might be applied to man, since the vaccination itself appears todonoharm. But it requires a long time to decide so difficult a question, and in the meantime the community is face to face with cholera. It is therefore more practical to consider preventive measures than vaccination. NO. 1194, VOL. 46] Preventive measures .against cholera are of two kinds, those taken by the State to prevent the importation of the disease from cholera-stricken districts, and those which ought to be practised by individuals when cholera is prevalent in the community. Both sets of measures depend upon two well-ascertained facts, viz. that each cholera patient acts as a focus of the disease, and that -the disease is spread by the evacuations contaminating the water supply. The State can prevent the importation of cholera by quarantine, but this method has been aban- doned in England for many good and -obvious reasons. and another substituted for it. which is considered as likely to be more effectual, but which can only be applied with an efficiently working sanitary organization. In this country we get cholera by ships bringing cholera-stricken people, who are landed. At all the ports, in times of cholera, the ships are boarded by the medical officer, and if any cases of the disease are present they are taken to isolation hospitals, whilst those who are well are allowed to land after leaving their names and destinations. The medical officer of their district is communicated with, and keeps them under surveillance for some days. The cholera ship is moored to a special buoy and disinfected. If no cases of cholera are present on the ship, the pas- sengers and crew are allowed to land, the taking of the names and addresses being left to the discretion of the medical officer who inspects them. It is possible that no better method than this could have been devised, which, with the least inconvenience to the individual, would at the same time keep under surveillance all the imported cases of cholera, and thus check the spread of the disease. It is evident that such a method is quite impracticable without efficient sanitary officers ; it would, for example, be useless in a country like Turkey, where the system of quarantine and sanitary cordons exists as in most other European countries. And in our country the applica- tion of this method of isolation and surveillance is sur- rounded by practical difficulties and dangers which may become serious, and which are in any case worthy of dis- cussion. It is quite possible that the medical officer of the port will have too much to do. At present the cholera epidemic at the Continental ports, even in Ham- burg, appears to be diminishing, and it may disappear when the cold weather comes, to reappear with unabated virulence next spring. As this is probable, no decrease of vigilance of medical inspection is permissible during the winter months ; and it is to be hoped that the sense of security felt by the community at the diminution of cholera on the appearance of cold weather will not extend to the medical officers in whose keeping the general health of the nation lies. If, next spring, cholera becomes dis- seminated along the Channel on our opposite shore, the medical officers of our ports may be exercised to their utmost in providing accommodation for patients on cholera-stricken ships, and some, apparently well, may proceed to their homes and develop the disease before the medical officer of their district has been advised of their advent. This is, no doubt, a danger which might come even from a ship which has been passed by the port medical officer with a clean bill of health. The personal measures to be taken when cholera is in our midst are important, but need only be mentioned. Since cholera spreads by the evacuations, these must be disinfected with hydrochloric acid, carbolic acid, . or corrosive sublimate as soon as they are passed ; and all linen soiled by a cholera patient must be rigidly disin- fected. Since the water supply may become con- taminated, all water used for drinking, washing utensils, &c., must be boiled, and all articles of food, such as milk, likely to be contaminated with unboiled water, should also be subjected to the heat of boiling water. When these and similar measures for personal protection are rigidly observed, it is not too much to say that cholera will not spread. 468 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 15, 1892 THE PLANET VENUS M E, L. TROUVELOT has published a most impor- - tant and extensive paper on some observations of the planets Venus and Mercury, which for many years past have been occupying his attention. The physical features of the other planets have been treated on previous occasions in like manner, and have extended our know- ledge very considerably, so that the reader of this work will be sure to find something really new in the great number of observations that are here recorded. Up to the month of April, 1882, the observations were made at Cambridge, United: States; but since then Meudon has been the seat of operations; the air at the latter place did not prove so pure as that in the States, and the horizon not being so open, the number of observations of course was somewhat reduced. In the work which we have before us the author divides this subject up into nine sections, and we cannot do better than treat of each of them in turn, commencing with the visibility of Venus to the naked eye in full day- light.. The best way is, he says, to use the telescope as a pointer, directing it to her by means of the circles ; by then looking along the telescope tube he has been able to see her at every point of her orbit, when her angular dis- tance from the sun towards inferior conjunction was not less than 10°, and also towards superior conjunction when she was not less than 5°. Her visibility depended to some extent on the phase she represented, for it is known that the eye can distinguish more easily a disc small and distant than a comparatively larger and nearer crescent. At Cambridge it seems to have been more or less the rule, while at Meudon it was the exception, to see Venus in the daytime, the atmospheric conditions at the latter place being comparatively very bad. With regard to the general aspect of Venus nothing very striking has been noticed; the part of the limb turned towards the sun, as recorded by other observers, always appeared more brilliant than the more central portions extending towards the terminator, Sometimes the limb was not so bright as usual, being observed to be “dull and without brilliancy,” one very noticeable time occurring on April 15, 1878. . Under favourable conditions, whitish and greyish spots can be seen on the surface of Venus, which, at any time, are very difficult toobserve. These different-tinted spots give, according to M. Trouvelot, indications of being at different levels. The whitish spots, situated near the terminator, produce on it slight deformations, and seem to so alter it as to suggest that these spots are at a higher level than the other, parts. The greyish spots, on the other hand, when situated in about the same positions, also deform the terminator toa small extent, but in an opposite way to those just mentioned, suggesting that these spots lie at a lower level than the parts near them. These two kinds of spots have another peculiarity which has been particularly noticed, and that is their size ; the white ones seem to assume a round or slightly oval form, and are nearly always small, but the grey spots are gene- rally of an elongated shape, and.are of very large propor- tions, forming sometimes straight bands. The interval between the appearance and disappearance of these spots is not long; in their formation they are analogous, as M. Trouvelot says, “ avec ces taches diffuses des couches nuageuses continues de notre atmosphére précédent les pluies, et qu’un simple jeu de lumiére fait naitre ou dis- paraitre.” Their contours are always very vague, the whites being a little less brilliant, and the greys a little less dark. ; : One of the largest spots that has been diligently ob- served was that which appeared on the 3rd September, 1876. Its size, as will be seen from the figure, was, com- paratively speaking, enormous, occupying nearly a third of the illuminated visible surface. At its north and south NO, 1194. VOL. 46] extremities it was separated from the terminator. by a large white band, the north one being considerably larger than the southern one. Up to the t1oth of the same month this spot was still visible, but after that date no trace of it at all could be found. Curiously enough, on February 13th, 1891, another large grey spot (Fig. 2), bordered with white, made its appearance, and was very similar to the one we have just mentioned, both with re- gard to its position and form—indeed, the resemblance was so striking that the spots were considered the same. Fic. 1.—Showing the large spot on September 3, 1876. Why it should have disappeared so soon in 1876, and become visible again in 1891, is a mystery which is hard to fathom. Perhaps one of the most interesting features visible on the surface of Venus are the two snow caps (Figs. 3 and 4) at the extremities of her poles. These spots, as M. Trouvelot says, surpass in brilliancy and importance all that he has ever observed. In 1877, on November 13th, a white spot was seen at the north limit of Venus ; its brilliancy attracted considerable attention, resembling Fic. 2.—Large spot visible on February 18, 1891. very much those situated on Mars. On the following day, another spot, also very striking and of the same character, diametrically opposed, was observed. The question then arose as to the cause of these spots, and we may here quote an entry that was written in the ob- server’s book on the 17th of the same month :—“ Est-ce que Vénus aurait des taches blanches semblables aux taches polaires de Mars?” The seeing of these spots was by no means a difficult task, and it seemed certain that if — PE ee ee me Caan SEPTEMBER 15, 1892] NATURE 469 they were snow caps as suggested, perhaps they had been. previously observed. This was thecase. On June gand 17, July 20, August 1 and 27, 1876, and February 5, 1877, observations of these spots had been recorded in the note- book, but owing to their not having attracted very great attention at the time, they were regarded as ordinary spots. That they are analogous to the white spots on Mars is now undoubted : they have the form of a uniform white segment of a circle, which, when seen edgeways, appear as simple lines; they are always exactly 180° * Fr3. 3.—The snow caps, February 20, 3891, roh. 45m. apart ; sometimes only one is seen because the other is not lighted up by the sun; they are always approximately near the terminator, and seem to oscillate backwards and forwards, balanced, so to speak, around the axis of the planet; and, lastly, they are of a permanent nature, their disap ces being due not to their annihilation, but simply to the fact that they cannot be seen when receiv- ing no light upon them. One main feature in which they differ from the spots on Mars is that they neither increase ' Fic. 4.—The snow caps, February 25, 1891, 10h. 15m. nor decrease with the seasons, at any rate to a sufficient extent to be sensibly noticed. When Venus is in a favourable position for observation many details on these spots have been recorded. M. Trouvelot mentions here some bright spots (Figs. 5 and 6), which seem to be very numerous, and resemble the bright specks which are seen on the terminator of the moon, “sinon quelles sont plus brillantes, surtout sur leur bord interne, et qu’au lieu de petits cratéres, elles sont enti¢rement couvertes et hérissées de pics et NO. T194. VOL. 46] : 2 . . . . ** - d’aiguilles, qui, parfois, réfiéchissent la lumiére avec une si grande intensité, que ce bord apparait tout constellé d’étoiles alignées comme les grains d’un collier de pierres précieuses, sans quelques irrégularités dans cet aligne- ment.” The whole appearance seems to suggest that the spots are at a higher level than the contiguous parts of the planet situated at the edge. This idea is also further borne out when the phase of the planet is a small cres- cent, for then much more of the polar cap is found to be visible than should be the case if the form of the phase: Fic. 5.—Details on the snow caps, January 19, 1878. was an exact crescent. In many cases a penumbra has- distinctly been seen, and in one of them it was so strong and distinct on that part of the terminator lying between the two polar caps, that it lasted for a month, the spots remaining clear and brilliant throughout their entire length. Ever since the year 1700, observers of Venus have remarked these two spots that occupy the polar regions. La Hire and Derham, observing the inequalities. of the surface at the extremities of the crescent, believed. | Fic. 6.—The snow caps, February 5, 1878. that they could be produced by mountains higher than those on the moon. Bianchini at Rome, Schroeter, Gruithuisen, and several others, all have reported the existence of such markings, but they were never led to conclude that they were snow caps analogous to those on Mars. To obtain a general idea of the ruggedness and smooth- ness of the planet’s surface, the terminator has helped to considerably distinguish the high and low elevations and depressions respectively. The surface of Venus from 470 such observations as these has been found to be con- siderably studded not ‘only with small, but with great differences of configuration, the terminator varying greatly in many, phases of the planet. M. Trouvelot’s results | Fic. 7.—Showing irregularity of Terminator, November 23, 1877- show that these deformations become most apparent when Venus is at her greatest eastern and western elon- gations. Sometimes one half of the terminator is seen concave, while at the same time the other is convex Fic &—Showing indentations at the horns, February 28, 1891. (Fig. 7); small indentations at the horns (Fig. 8) also seem to be of common occurrence, and occasionally the curve of the terminator is perfect, no trace of any irregu- larity being noticed. Not only then does the terminator a Fic. er atewants 53 Fig. 10.—February s, 2h. h . sh. 43m change in form, but changes are found to occur very rapidly in intervals of only a few hours. To take one case out of many, we may quote the instance recorded in 1881 on February 5 at 2 p.m. (Figs.9 and 10). At NO. 1194, VOL. 46] this time the terminator appeared as a straight line showing Venus then’in apparent quadrature, but at 5h. 43m. this line was quite gibbous, and its curve regular. A very important point about the repetitions of the same’ deformations is that they do not occur at exactly the same time each day, but appear to change the hour of observation, “the periodicity of these phenomena, if periodicity there is, not being exactly twenty-four hours.” From a long series of observations, the most striking irregularities were found at the extremities of the ter- . Fic. 11.—Showing the shape of the horns, September 27, 1876. minator close to the edge of the pole caps, where deep niches were often recorded. These indentations were noticed to be generally of different sizes and shapes, some- times the north one being larger than the southern one, and wicé versd. They also underwent very rapid changes even in the space of a few hours, a case occurring on September 27, 1876 (Fig. 11). ‘‘At one timé the nance’ of one of the horns would be more or less truncated, when the other would be sharp, and some hours later the Fic..12.—An abnormal extent of the crescent, May 13, 1881. reverse would be the case, that which was sharp being truncated, and that which was truncated being sharp.” M. Trouvelot concludes that his observations bring out a very. important fact—-“ qu’il a une relation trés étroite entre les déformations les plus importants subies par le terminateur et par les cornes, et les taches polaires de la planéte ” Sab When Venus approaches inferior conjunction with the sun, its crescent gradually diminishes until the illuminated surface is turned exactly away from us. Just before this position is reached, the crescent has been found to present ee ae SEPTEMBER 15, 1892} NATURE many curious features. The most prominent of them is that this fine crescent is sometimes observed to extend to a greater angular extent than 180° (Fig. 12), 260° of the limb of the planet having once been recorded. Some- times, by adopting special precautions, the whole circum- ference has been observed, the obscured disc being com- pletely surrounded by a pale and thin luminous ring. This, as M. Trouvelot says, is of very rare occurrence, for it has happened that although the greatest precautions have been taken, no trace of the planet could be found. Fic. 13.—Showing the bulging out of the crescent as seen on February 24, 1878. When the crescent is extremely fine, great irregularities have been noticed to mar the continuity of its curve ; they differ also not only at different but at the same con- junctions according as the planet is to the east or west of the sun. Another fact that has been observed relates to the bulging out of the planet (Figs. 13 and 14) at some parts of its visible limb. This was especially noticed in the month of February, 1878 ; while the crescent was being Fic. 14.—The crescent as seen on-February 26, 1878, looked at, the south-south-east portion seemed to suddenly appear thicker than the remaining part. In fact, the observer in the first instance thought it might have been due to some optical defect in the instrument ; but sub- sequent observation showed that this was not the case, a real change of form having taken place. Two days later this deformation was still more noticeable, the thick- ness of the visible section being about double what it would have been had it been in its normal condition. NO. 1194, VOL. 46] Perhaps one of the most important points. referred to in this work is the determination of the period of rota- tion by means of the spots. This question of rotation is one that has baffled many observers, for the difficulty that has presented itself lies not only in the proper motions of the spots themselves, but in the identification of the same spots after brief periods of time. Glancing over some of the periods already obtained, we find that Schroeter deduced from his observations a rotation of about 24h., basing his value on the movement of a small isolated spot situated in one of the horns, | Fritsch’s value of 23h. 22m., and P, de Vico’s 23h. 21m. 2Is., are both also of about the same length. . From observations by D. Cassini and F. Bianchini, we have a very wide devia- tion, the periods of rotation being reckoned in days, the former arriving at a value of 23 days, and the latter at a somewhat larger one of 24 days 8 hours. Coming now to Schiaparelli’s value of 225 days, we have here altogether a new departure, the planet rotating on its axis in the same time as it revolves round the sun. With such values as these it will be at once seen that there is something radically wrong with the spots or their positions on the planet’s surface; in some cases, of course, there might have been instances of mistaken iden- tity, but with such an observer as Schiaparelli, who very definitely settles upon a 225 daily period obtained from direct observation, it is hard to conceive that any such sources of error would not have been remarked. The observations which we have now before us bear out Schroeter’s view of a short rotation, Prof. Trouvelot telling us that they were made during the years 1876-78 under exceptionally good conditions. One very interest- ing point which is of great importance is the fact that these observations were made at the same period, “ sou- vent dans la méme journée, sous un ciel également pro- pice et précisément sur la méme point de la planéte.” The value nearest to 24 hours that Prof. Trouvelot ob- tained was 23h. 49m. 28s., and in giving this period he re- marks that it is founded on the supposition that the spot had no proper motion. In referring to the period deduced by Schiapareili he says, “ La cause probable de !’erreur de M. Schiaparelli semble résulter de. ce fait que les taches A et &, qui ont servi de base a ses conclusions, faisaient partie de la tache polaire méridionale qui, étant située centralement sur ]’axe derotation de la planéte, semble rester stationnaire, comme cela se voit sur la tache polaire de Mars, quand elle se trouve réduite a de faibles dimen- sions.” Taking into account many ofthe general features visible on the planet’s surface, such as the rapid deforma- tions of the horns and of the terminator, all these point to short periods of rotation, which, as Prof. Trouvelot points out, is “inconciliable avec la période de rotation, si lente et si inattendue, déduite par |’éminent astronome de Milan.” In concluding our remarks we cannot help mentioning the very complete way in which Prof. Trouvelot has taken into account the prior work in this interesting field of inquiry. W. J. L. NOTES. THE Iron and Steel Institute will meet at Liverpool from Tuesday, September 20, to Friday, the 23rd. Sir Frederick Abel will preside. The following papers will probably be read and discussed :—(Tuesday) on the condensation of ammonia from blast furnaces, by Sir L. Bell, F.R.S. ; on alloys of chrome and iron, by R. A. Hadfield; on the Liverpool overhead railway, by J. H. Greathead: (Wednesday) on the engineering laboratories in Liverpool, by Prof. H. S. Hele-Shaw ; on the Siemens-Martin process at Witkowitz, Austria, by P. Kupelwieser ; on failures in the necks of chilled rolls, by C. A, Winder; (Thursday) on a new process for the elimination of 472 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 15, 1892. -sulphur, by E. Saniter ; on the elimination of sulphur from iron, by J. E. Stead. On Tuesday evening the members and their friends will dine together, and on Wednesday evening there will be a conversazione inthe Walker Art Galleries, offered by the Mayor of Liverpool and Mrs. James De Bels Adam. A part of each of the first three days will be devoted to the inspection of various works, and on Friday there will be excursions, one party -going to Chester, another to Stoke-on-Trent. If a sufficient number of names are given in, there will also be an excursion to ithe new Water Supply of Liverpool at Lake Vyrnwy. THE Sanitary Institute, whose Transactions for 1891 are re- viewed elsewhere, is holding its thirteenth annual Congress this -week at Portsmouth. About 400 members are attending the ‘meetings. The proceedings began on Monday, when Sir -Charles Cameron, the president, delivered an address on ‘‘ The Victorian Era, the Age of Sanitation.” He presented a very interesting sketch of the good results which have sprung from the improved sanitary methods of modern times. The frightful mortality of London and other cities in the last century he de- scribed as anevil due to insanitary conditions. By the earlier part of the nineteenth century the grosser defects had been remedied, and the death-rate had been greatly reduced. For about half a century no further improvement took place, but with the passing of the Public Health Acts of 1872 and 1875 an era of active sanitation ensued, with the result that the death- rate fell sensibly in nearly all the towns. Sir Charles urged that the success of past sanitary work ought to encourage us to. redouble our exertions to reduce the urban death-rate to at least that of the most healthy of our towns. THE International Congress of Orientalists finished its scien- tific labours on Friday last, and every one connected with it agreed that the meetings had been most successful. On Satur- -day a good many members visited Oxford, while others went to ‘Cambridge. Both parties were cordially received by repre- sentatives of the Universities. A meeting held on Monday for the despatch of business brought the proceedings to a close. At this meeting a number of reports and resolutions were read by the secretary, Prof. Rhys Davids. The first resolution pro- ceeded from the Semitic section, and recommended that the ‘Government should be urged to subsidize the study of modern Arabic. The Assyrian and Babylonian sub-section, and also the Egyptian section, passed a resolution in favour of holding at least one combined meeting of the Assyrian and Egyptian sec- ‘tions. The anthropological section expressed its sense of the political as well as the scientific importance of the anthropo- metric investigations now’ being conducted in Bengal. The same section also expressed its view of the desirability of forming a collection of Oriental folk-lore on a scientific basis. In the Semitic section a committee had been formed, consisting of men of science from different countries, for the purpose of preparing an Arabic-Mahomedan encyclopedia. At the head of this committee was Prof. Robertson Smith. The Australasian section desired to express its sense of the immediate necessity of pressing forward research into the physical character, languages, arts, customs, and religion of New Guinea. Count Angelo de Gubernatis moved a resolution, which was seconded and carried, in favour of the establishment of an International Institute of Orientalists, with its headquarters in London. It was decided that the next meeting of the Congress should be held at Geneva in 1894—the meeting to be postponed until the following year if circumstances should render such. postponement necessary or desirable. On the motion of Prof. Ascoli, seconded by Prof. Drouil, a vote of thanks to the President was cordially. passed. In the evening a dinner was given at the Hétel Métropole by the Organizing Committee to the foreign members. NO. 1194, VOL. 46] ‘| less diameter. THE Perthshire Society of Natural Science is one of the most __ enterprising of British local societies, and we are glad to hear that it is about to give fresh proof of its energy by extending its” museum. This includes two excellent collections—the one a general or index collection, intended, by means of carefully- selected specimens, to act as a guide to the study of natural science ; complete view of the fauna, flora, and geology of the district. These collections have grown so rapidly that there is not now sufficient accommodation for them. It is proposed that the de- ficiency shall be met by the erection of a supplementary museum hall and gallery, in which the Perthshire collection will be dis- played, while the present building will be devoted chiefly to the index collection. AN improved spherometer, constructed in Zeiss’ optical laboratory at Jena after Prof. Abbe’s design, is described in this month’s Zeitschrift fir Instrumentenkunde. It is made to measure down to o‘oormm. To eliminate errors due to the indefinite nature of the base circumscribed by the three legs .of the ordinary spherometer, the’ surface to be measured is laid upon a circular ring, and the contact rod is screwed up from below. This ring has two sharp concentric edges 0°5 mm. apart, the one for convex and the other for concave surfaces, made of hard steel and ground down to the same level, giving a combination which is less liable to be damaged than a single edge. The ring rests without fastening on a perforated hori- zontal disc provided with a cylindrical projection which just fits into a hollow in the bottom of the ring. The latter is thus free from strain, and can be easily replaced by another of greater or The height of the graduated contact rod is read by a micrometer microscope. The first reading is taken when the contact piece touches a plate of plane-polished glass laid over the ring. The plate is then replaced by the surface to be. measured, and its radius of curvature calculated Py, the wee! formula. On’ Thursday, the 8th inst., the Cunard Royal Mail tein screw steamer Camfania was launched from the yard of the Fairfield Engineering and Shipbuilding Company. This is the’ largest ship afloat, the dimensions being: length, 620 feet ; breadth, 65 feet 3 inches; and depth, 43 feet. It exceeds the City of Paris or City ie New York by 60 feet in length and 2 feet 3 inches in breadth, The launch of the Campania was an ideal one. Although the launching weight of the ship was gooo tons, there seemed to be not the slightest hitch. At 2.45 p.m. Lady Burns performed the launching ceremony. The huge ship immediately began to move and slowly travelled down the ways, entering the water amidst the loud cheers of some 80,000 people. The Fairfield Company have every reason to be proud of this feat. Not only was the weight to be launched unprecedented, but, the Clyde at this point being very narrow, the big ship had to be stopped immediately she was afloat owing to her great length. The Campania will be driven by two sets of triple expansion engines, each set having five cylinders arranged to drive a three-throw crank shaft, the cranks being set at the angle of 120 degrees from each other ; there are two high-pressure cylinders, one intermediate, and two low pressure cylinders, the high-pressure being placed above ~ These engines together will indi- cate about 25,000 horse-power. Steam will be generated by twelve large double-ended boilers with ninety-six furnaces. An auxiliary single-ended boiler is used for supplying the steam for the low-pressure cylinders. the electric lighting and secondary purposes throughout the ship. The main boilers are arranged in two groups, each greup having a funnel 19 feet in diameter. It is expected that the speed attained will reach twenty-two knots on the trial, and it is hoped, when the engines have settled down to their works that,this speed may be attained on the Atlantic. the other, a Perthshire collection, intended to give a. a nS el ae ae a it ical mS ‘the number of observers, which now amounts to 1088. [Sel te ee 85°6 inches at Teluk Anson to 183 inches at Topah. SEPTEMBER 15, 1892] a NATURE 473 “THE weather has remained very unsettled during the past -week, owing to the complex distribution of barometric pressure, there being during the first part of the time low-pressure areas over the northern parts of the kingdom, while an anticyclone lay over France and the Bay of Biscay, These conditions caused a considerable amount of rain, especially in the north and west, although in the southern and eastern parts of the country, the weather was fair, with mist or fog in places. During this period the maximum temperatures rarely exceeded 65° in any part; on Sunday and Monday, however, the anti- moved eastwards, and gave place to large depressions from the westwards, rain being general, except in the south-east of England, where the maximum temperatures rose to 70° and. upwards, and similarly high readings occurred in the midland and southern districts. On Tuesday a cyclonic disturbance was crossing Scotland, and heavy rain was reported there and in the north-west of Ireland. The Weather Report for the week Ze ending the roth instant shows that the mean temperature was below the average over the whole of the United Kingdom, and although fairly high day temperatures were registered, the night readings were below 40° generally, and in the east of ‘Scotland they fell to within a degree of the freezing point. The rainfall for the same period was generally less than the normal, and in the south-west of England there was still a deficiency of = ‘8 inches since the beginning of the year. _In his report on the rain, river, and evaporation observations, . made in New South Wales during 1890, Mr. Russell states that. the widespread i interest in rainfall records is rapidly adding to The year was conspicuous for abundant rainfall, causing heavy floods in the river Darling, far exceeding those of which there are com- plete accounts. The average rainfall for the whole colony ‘was 32°73 inches, being 32°6 per cent. greater than the average for the previous sixteen years. The report contains the results of interesting experiments on the effect of forests and elevation -on the amount of the fall. At Dinby, which is situated in a ‘densely timbered country, the amount was 35°89 inches, while the mean of nine of the nearest stations gave 38°92 inches. As an instance of the effect of elevation, the average rainfall at ‘Wallongong, half a mile from the sea, at an elevation of 67 feet, is 38°84 inches, while at Cordeaux River, six miles from the sea, it is 55°53 inches. _ Tue Annual Report of the Acting British Resident of Perak for the year 1891 contains monthly summaries of meteorological observations at nine stations, and a chart showing the compara- ‘tive range of monthly rainfall during the years 1888-91 at Taiping. The highest recorded temperature in the shade was ‘97° at Kuala Kangsar and Parit Buntar in the months of March and April respectively ; the lowest 62°, in February, at Taiping and Salama. The only solar thermometer, that in Taiping, registered 121° in March and May. The rainfall varied from It is well distributed throughout the year, the driest months being May to July. A MOST unusual phenomenon was seen in the Maltese Islands on July 21, when a thunderstorm raged for twelve hours, and deposited three inches of rain. According to the Mediterranean Naturalist, it is fifty-five years since rain fell in Malta in the month of July. In the annual report of the British Museum (Natural History) reference is made to two ‘principal events’’ relating to the Ast od Py 1 Friday evening ‘ Royal Institution, on May 20. livered by Mr. J. Wilson Swan, at Pa Fae ron hs a oe a ee ee ee Se ee a a a solution of the metal to be deposited. are the two wires I spoke of. SEPTEMBER 15, 1892] NATURE 479 ee _ One of the wonderful things about the electro-deposition of copper, and in fact any other metal deposited from a solution of its salt in water, is, that bright, hard, solid metal, such as we are accustomed to see produced by means of fusion, can, by the action of the electric current, be made to separate from a liquid which has no appearance of metal about it. The beginning of every electro-deposition process is the making Tam going to dissolve a of copper, the most elementary of all chemical operations, at I want to make it quite clear where the metal to be deposited comes from—to show that it is actually in the solution,and actually comes out of it again ; for that is an effect so surprising, that it req imagination and demonstration to make it evident. There is projected on the screen a glass cell containing nitric acid. Mr. Lennox will put into it a piece of copper. He has done so; it Agena oe and a blue solution of copper nitrate is formed. . , if I pass an electric current through this solution, or through _ some solution of the same kind, which, to save time, has been prepared beforehand, and immerse in it, a little apart from each - other—the positive and negative wires coming from some gene- rator of electric current—this will happen: metallic copper will come out of the solution, and attach itself as a coating to the negative wire, and consequently that wire will grow in thickness. At the other wire—the positive— exactly the reverse action will : There, if the positive wire be copper, it will gradually dissolve, and become thinner. The quantity of metal sited on the negative wire will almost exactly equal the quantity dissolved from the positive, and therefore the solution will contain the same quantity of metal at the end of the ex- metal dissolved from the positive wire, and the metal originally contained in the solution will have been deposited as metallic copper. _I will show on the screen this process in operation. Here The electric circuit, which in- these two wires, is so arranged that on its completion the thick wire will be the positive, and the thin wire the negative. Now please complete the circuit. One wire (the positive) is carrying an electric current into the copper solution, and the other (the negative) is carrying the current away. The solution is conveying the current between the wires, and one of the in- cidents of the transport of current from wire to wire by the solu- tion, is electro-chemical decomposition, or electrolysis ; and the resuit of that is, the deposition, out of the solution, of copper, upon one wire, and the dissolving away, or entering into solu- tion, of copper, from the other. Now it can be clearly seen that the wire that was thick is now thin, and the wire that was thin is now thick. ine the growing wire to be an electrotype mould, and g eg as at first, but it will not be the same metal ; it will be ___ Imagine that the deposit of copper which formed on the wire has spread over the sw vee and formed a nearly uniform film, and that by continuing the process it has become thick, that deposit, stripped from the mould, would be an electrotype. Orimagine the negative wire to be a thin sheet of pure copper, and the positive wire to be a thick sheet of impure copper, and suppose the action carried on so far that the thin sheet has be- come thick by the deposition of copper upon it from the solution, and the thick one thin by its copper entering into solution, that case would represent the condition of things in electrolytic cop- Allow your imagination to take one more short flight, and suppose that this is not a solution of copper, but one of silver, and that the growing wire is a teapot to be silvered ; and, fur- ther, suppose that the dissolving electrode is silver, and you will then understand the principle of electro-plating. It requires very little explanation to make the ordinary ar- of electrotyping intelligible. Here is a trough con- é sulphate of copper solution. Here is a mould that, rough the kindness of Messrs. Elkington, has been prepared for me ; this is connected with the negative pole of a battery— and here is a plate of copper connected with the positive pole. When I immerse the mould in the solution—at about two inches from the copper plate—the electrical circuit is completed, and the same electrolytic action that the experiment illustrated will takeplace. Copper will be deposited on the mould, and will be ved in equal quantity from the copper plate, and the sup- ply of copper in the solution will thus be kept up. As it will e a little time to obtain the result I wish to show, I will put this aside for ten minutes or so, and proceed to speak of different applications of this principle of copper deposition. NO. 1194, VOL. 46] For the reproduction of fine works of art in metal, electrotype is unapproachable. ‘The extreme minuteness with which every touch of graver or modelling-tool is copied by the deposited metal film, separates electrotype by a wide space from all other modes of casting. Even the Daguerreotype image is not too exquisitely fine for electrotype to copy it so perfectly that the picture is almost as vivid in the cast as in the original, It is this quality that has given to electrotype a 7é/e which no other process can fill, and, so far, its practical utility is not greatly dependent on the cost of the current. This applies to all those most beautiful things here and in the Library, lent by Messrs, Elkington. These could all have been produced com- mercially, even if there had been nothing better for the genera- tion of the current than Smee’s battery—a very good battery, by the way, for small operations in copper deposition. It gives a very low electro-motive force and that is a defect, but in copper deposition, the half-volt or so is generally sufficient to produce, automatically, the required current destiny. One of the uses of electrotype, not greatly affected by the cost of deposition, is that of the multiplication of printing sur- faces, In these days of illustrated periodicals, electrotype has come more and more into use for making duplicate blocks from wood engravings, which would soon be worn out and useless if printed from direct. It is also employed to make casts from set- up type, to be used instead of ordinary stereotype casts, when long numbers of a book have to be printed ; also as ameans of copying engraved copper-plates. Here are examples of all these uses of the electrotype process. The electro-blocks are lent by Messrs. Richardson and Co., and the copper-plates by the Director-General of the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton. The plates illustrate the method employed at Southampton in the map-printing department. The original plates are not printed from except to take proofs. The published maps are all printed from electrotypes. Here is an original plate—here the matrix, or first electro, with, of course, all the lines raised which are sunk in the original. The second electro is, like the original, an intaglio. Here is a print from it, and here one from the original plate. Practically they are indistinguishable from each other, and bear eloquent testimony to the wonderful power of electrotype to transmit an exceedingly faithful copy of such a surface. Nickel has, of late years, come into extensive use for what is termed nickel-plating, as applied to coating polished steel and brass with nickel. Nickel not only has the advantage over silver of cheapness, but also, in some circumstances, of greater resistance to the action of the air. Another metal, usually deposited in the form of a coating, is iron. The electrolytic deposit of iron is peculiarly hard—so much so, that it is commonly but erroneously spoken of as s¢ee/- facing. The deposition of a film of iron upon engraved copper- plates, as a means of preventing the wear incidental to their use in being printed from, has become almost universal. Valu- able etchings, mezzo-tints, and photogravure plates are thus made to bear a thousand or more impressions without injury, By dissolving off the iron veil with weak acid, when the first signs of wear appear on the surface of the plate, and re-coating it with iron, an engraved copper-plate is, for all practical pur- poses, everlasting. In this case, of course, the film of iron is extremely thin— one or two hundred-thousandths of an inch. But it is possible to produce most of the metals commonly used as coatings in a more massive form. Here, for example, is an iron rod half-an- inch in diameter, entirely formed by electrolytic deposition, I am indebted to Mr. Roberts-Austen for being able to show this, and also for this other example of a solid deposit of iron, and for this beautiful specimen of electrolytic coating with iron. Here also are solid deposits of silver. This drinking cup is a solid silver electro-deposit. : These are all departments of electro-metallurgy which would have maintained a perfectly healthy industrial existence and growth without the dynamo ; but now I come to speak of a branch of the subject—electrolytic copper refining—which, without that source of cheap electricity, could not have existed. This is the most extensive of all the applications of electro- chemistry, and is rendering valuable assistance to electrical engineering by the improvement it has led to in the conductivity of copper wire. One of the results of this is seen in the raising of the com- ‘mercial standard of electrical conductivity. Ten years ago, contracts for copper wire for telegraphy stipu- 480 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 15, 1892 lated for a minimum conductivity of 95 per cent. of Matthies- sen’s standard of pure copper. Now, chiefly owing to electro- lytic refining, a conductivity of 100 per cent. is demanded by the buyer and conceded by the manufacturer. To show the difference between the past and present state of things in relation to the commercial conductivity of copper, I am going to exhibit on the screen measurements of the resistance -of six pieces of wire of equal length and equal cross section— they have been drawn through the same drawplate. Three of ‘the pieces are new, and three are old. The three new pieces are made from electrolytic copper, and are representative of the present state of things. The three old pieces are taken from three well-known old submarine telegraph cables, and they show how very bad the copper was when it was first employed for telegraphic purposes, and how great has been the improve- ment. I will take No. 1 wire as the standard of comparison. It is a piece of the wire about to be supplied to the Post Office ‘Telegraph Department for trunk telephone lines. It will show the very high standard of conductivity that has been reached in the copper of commerce. I am indebted for it, and for two out of three of the old cable wires, to Mr. Preece. No 2 wire is made from electrolytic copper, deposited in my own laboratory. No. 3 is also electrolytic copper, but such as is commercially produced in electrolytic copper refining ; it has been supplied to me by Mr. Bolton, to whom I am also indebted for wire No. 6 —a particularly interesting specimen : it is from the first Trans- Atlantic cable—the cable of 58. No. 4 wire is from the Ostend cable of 1860, and No. 5 wire is from the old Dutch cable. These wires are so arranged that I can send a small and con- stant current partly through any one of them, and partly through a galvonometer. When this is done the result will be a deflec- tion of the spot of light on the scale from the zero point to an extent corresponding to the resistance of the particular wire in the circuit. The worse the wire is, the greater will be the deflection. We will begin with the Post Office sample first. I connect the galvanometer terminals to wire No. 1; you see there is a deflection of ten degrees. I will now shift the con- tacts to wire No. 2—exactly the same length of wire is included —but now you see there is a deflection of slightly less than ten degrees, showing that this wire has a little lower resistance than No. 1. The difference is very small—it may be 2 per cent.— and 2 per cent. less of it would be required to conduct as well as the No. 1 wire. The next is No. 3. This is Mr. Bolton’s wire, and shows a resistance almost equal to the last. No. I, 2, and 3 are, therefore, nearly alike, and have a degree of conductivity almost as high as it can possibly be. Now we come to the three old wires. We will take No. 4 (the Ostend cable). There, you see, is a great difference. Instead of thespot of light being on the tenth degree, it is upon the eleventh. We will now try No. 5 (the Dutch cable). index to 17. Now I change to No. 6 (the old Atlantic cable), and we have a deflection of no less than 25 degrees. I suppose we may assume that this wire fairly represents the commercial con- ductivity of copper in 1858, for it is highly probable that for a work so important as the first Atlantic cable every care would be taken in the selection of the copper. The result of this experiment shows that the copper of that cable was extremely bad as a conductor—that, in fact, it is 150 per cent. worse than the best commercial copper of to-day. In other ‘words, it shows that, in point of electrical conductivity, one ton of the copper of to-day will go as far as two-and-a-half tons of such copper as was used for the cable of ’58. This change is largely due to electrolytic copper refining. The process of electrolytic copper refining is the same in principle as that which produced the thickening of one of the wires and the thinning of the other in my first experiment. To prepare the crude copper for the refining process it is cast into slabs ; these form the anodes, and correspond to the wire which in my first experiment became thin. The cathodes, correspond- ing to the wire which became thick, are formed of thin plates of pure copper. Here are plates such as are used in electrolytic copper refining works. They are portions of actual cathodes and anodes, and represent the state of things at the commence- ment, and at the end, of the depositing operation—an operation that takes several weeks to complete, and effect the great change these plates show. In copper refining works an immense number of these plates, each having 6 to 10 square feet of superficial area, are operated upon together in a great NO. I194, VOL. 46] That drives the number of large wooden vats containing sulphate of copper solution and a small proportion of sulphuric acid. Electric current from a dynamo, driven by a steam-engine or water-. power, is conveyed by massive copper conductors to the vats, arranged in long lines of 50 or 1CO or more in series. Thick copper bars connect adjoining vats, and provide a positive and negative support for the plates, which hang in the solution opposite each other, two or three inches apart. During the process the impure slabs dissolve, and at the same time pure copper is deposited from the solution upon the thin plates. The deposition and dissolving go on slowly, in some cases very slowly, for a slow action takes léss power, and gives purer copper than a more rapid one. The usual rate is one to ten ampéres per square foot of cathode surface. You will better realise what these rates of deposit mean, when I say that one ampére per square foot rate of deposition gives for each foot of cathode surface, nearly one ounce of copper in twenty-four hours, and a thickness of one-eighth hundred of an inch ; and therefore the production of one ton of copper at that rate in twenty-four hours would require a cathode surface in the vats, in round numbers, of 36,000 square feet. At the higher rate of ten ampéres per square foot, which is used where coal is cheap, one-tenth of this area would be required. = The importance of the electrolytic copper refining industry, and the extent of the plant connected with it, may Oe inferred from the fact that, reckoning the united production of all the electrolytic copper works in the world, nearly one ton of copper is deposited every quarter of an hour. Very little power is required for copper deposition if the ex- tent of the dissolving and depositing surfaces is large, relatively to the quantity of copper deposited in a given time. . Some of the impurities ordinarily found in crude copper are valuable. Silver and gold are common impurities, and these and some other impurities do not enter into solution, but fall down as black mud, are recovered, and go to diminish the cost of the process or increase the profit; and even those im- purities which enter into solution are, under ordinary conditions, almost completely separated. : : Electrolytic copper refining is both an economical and an effective process. The deposited copper is exceptionally pure. -At one time it was supposed that it must necessarily be quite pure, but this is not the case; other metals can be deposited with the copper, but it is not difficult to realise in practice a close approximation to absolute purity in the deposited copper. Here is an example of the deposition of a mixed metal—brass, that is, copper and zinc deposited together, and there are in the Library a number of interesting specimens of mixed metal de- position. These deposits of brass and other alloys show that more than one metal can be deposited at the same time. The great enemy to conductivity in copper is arsenic, and the depo- sition of arsenic as well as copper is one of the things to be guarded against in electrolytic copper refining. Not only are the chemical characteristics of electrolytically refined copper generally good, but its mechanical properties are largely con- trollable. Usually electrolytic copper is melted down and cast into billets of the form required for rolling and wire-drawing. This treatment not only involves cost, but the copper is apt to imbibe impurity during fusion ; though, if the process is care- fully conducted, the deterioration is slight. But it is evident that the re-melting of the deposited copper is a thing to be avoided if possible, and the question naturally arises, why, now that deposition costs so little, may not the beautiful principle which comes into play in electrotype, and which enables the most complicated forms to be faithfully copied be taken advantage of to give to plainer and heavier objects their ultimate form ? There are several reasons why this idea is not more fre- quently acted upon. One is that the process of electrolytic. deposition is slow ; another, that knowledge of the conditions necessary for obtaining a deposit having the required strength and other qualities, is not very widespread. Moreover, in the electrolytic deposition of copper, and indeed of all metals, there is a strong tendency to roughness on the outside of the deposit, and to excrescent growths, the removal of which involve waste of labour and material. ‘These tendencies can to a very great” extent be counteracted by careful manipulation and the use of . suitable solutions, and they can also be counteracted by mechanical means. Thishas keen done by Mr. Elmore. He remedies the faults I have mentioned by causing a burnisher of agate (arranged after the manner of a tool in a screw-cutting | || the SEPTEMBER 15, 1892] NATURE 481 lathe) to press upon and traverse a revolving cylindrical surface on which the deposit is taking place, and while it is immersed in the copper solution. The result is that it is kept smooth and bright to the end of the process. But the use of a burnisher is not the only means available for uction of asmooth deposit. It was observed in the _ early days of electro-plating how great a change was effected in _ the character of the metal deposited by the presence of a very _ small quantity of certain impurities. It was found, forexample, that an exceedingly minute dose of bisulphide of carbon, if put into a bath from which the silver was being deposited, caused the it to change from dull to bright. _ [have lately had experience of a similar kind with nickel and withcopper. I was working with a hot solution of nickel, and _ up toa certain point the deposit had the usual dead-grey appear- ance. Suddenly, and without doing anything more than putting in a new cathode. I found the character of the deposit com- changed. Instead of the grey, tough, adherent deposit, there was produced a brittle, specular deposit, which scaled off in brilliantly shining flakes of metal. I sought for the cause of this extraordinary change, and traced it to the accidental intro- duction into the solution of a minute quantity of glue. By adding gelatine to a fresh nickel solution I obtained the same peculiar bright and brittle deposit that had resulted from _ the accident. I then made a similar addition to a solution of copper, and when I hit the right + i roo exceedingly minute one—bright copper, instead of dull or crystalline, was deposited. Here are some specimens. These were deposited on a bright surface, and they are bright on both sides. Not only is the copper made bright, under the conditions I have described, but, if the proportion of the gelatine be carried to the utmost that is consistent with the production of a_ bright _ deposit, it becomes exceedingly hard and brittle. Beyond this nt the deposit is partly bright and partly dead, the arrange- ment of the patches of dead and bright being in some cases very peculiar, and suggestive of a strong conflict of opposing forces. Before I Ss agthe subject of copper deposition, I may mention that I have found the range of current density within which it is possible to obtain a deposit of reguline metal, far wider than is commonly supposed. The rate of deposition in copper-refining is usually very slow, and it is one of the drawbacks of the process, since slow de- position necessitates large plant. But rapid deposition necessi- tates a larger consumption of power, and larger cost on that account, and therefore, there isa point beyond which it is not economy to go, in the direction!of more rapid deposition. there are cases, where, if we had the power to deposit more rapidly, it might be found useful to exercise it. The subject of more rapid deposition is also interesting from a scientific point _ of view, I therefore mention an unusual result I have arrived at _ in this direction. Taking as one extreme, the slow rate of deposit, of one ampére _ per square foot of cathode—a rate not infrequent in copper- refining, I have found that the limit in the other direction is not reached by a rate of deposit one thousand times faster. I have roduced, and I hope to be able to produce before you, a per- ectly good deposit of copper, with a current density of 1000 ampéres per square foot of cathode. _ This cell contains a solution of copper nitrate with a small 3 rtion of ammonium chloride. The plate on which I am _ going to produce a deposit of copper has an exposed surface of 21square inches. Opposite, at a distance of one inch, is a plate of copper. When I close the circuit, a current of 140 ampéres is passing through the solution. I continue this for just one minute. Now I wash it and remove the outer edge so as to detach the deposit, and as you see, Ihavea sheet of good copper To have produced a deposit of this thickness at the ordinary _ rate used in electrotyping operations would have occupied more _ than an hour. _ In this experiment an extreme degree of rapidity of deposition has been shown. I do not intend to suggest such a rate of practical value. But it is at least interesting, as showing that the characteristic properties of copper are not less perfectly developed when the atoms of metal have been piled up one on the r at thisextremely rapid rate than when there is slower aggregation. I think it probable that a rate of deposit intermediate between _ this rate and the usual one of about 10 ampéres per square foot may frequently be useful, for no doubt the slowness of the rate NO. 1194, VOL. 46] of deposit has often prevented electrotype from being made use of where, if the rate could have been increased ten times, it might have been used with advantage. Here are some thick plates, deposited at the rate of 100 ampéres per square foot. They are as solid and as free from flaw as plates deposited ten times more slowly. I said that electrolytic copper-refining owed its existence to the discovery and improvement of the dynamo, and that other electro-metallurgic industries had originated from the same cause. One of these industries is the electrolytic production of aluminium. When Deville produced aluminium by the action of sodium on- aluminium chloride, exaggerated expectations were entertained of the great part it was about to play in metallurgy. It was very soon found that aluminium had not all the virtues that its too sayguine friends had claimed for it, but that it had a great many most valuable properties, and, given a certain degree of cheap- ness, a number of useful applications could be found forit. Some of these are suggested and shown by the various articles made of aluminium, kindly lent by the Metal Reduction Syndicate, and metallurgical research is rapidly extending our knowledge of its. importance in connection with the improvement of steel castings, and the production of bronzes and other alloys of extraordinary strength. The cost of aluminium produced by Deville’s process. was too great to permit of its use on any large scale for these purposes. After Davy demonstrated, by the electrolytic extraction of potassium and sodium, the power of the electric current to break down the strong combination existing between the alkaline metals and oxygen, it seemed natural to expect that aluminium. would also be reduced by the same means. But Davy did not succeed in producing any appreciable quantity of aluminium by the electrolytic method. Deville and Bunsen were more suc- cessful, but they did not possess the modern dynamo: that has. made all the difference between the small experimental results. they achieved and the industrial production of to-day, a produc- tion now so large that I suppose every day it amounts to at least one ton, and has resulted in a very great reduction of the- price of the metal. f There are two electrolytic processes at work. One is the Hall process—employed at Pittsburg, and at Patricroft, Man- chester—and now in experimental operation here. The other, the Herault process, worked at Neuhausen, is not greatly different from the Hall process—the shape of the furnace or crucible is different, and the composition of the bath yielding the aluminium may be different, but in all essentials these two pro- cesses are one and the same. ‘They depend on the electrolysis of a fused bath, composed of cryolite, aluminium fluoride, fluor- spar, and alumina. In the Hall process this mixture is con- tained in a carbon-lined iron crucible—the cathode in an: electric circuit ; and between which and the anode—a stick of carbon immersed in the fused bath—a difference of potential of Io volts is maintained. In carrying out the process on a manu- facturing scale, there are many of these sticks of carbon to each. bath. Here, in our experimental furnace, there is only one. The heat developed by the passing of so large a current as we are using (180 amperes) through an electrolyte of but a few inches area in cross section, is sufficient to melt and keep red- hot the fluorides in which the alumina is dissolved. The electrolytic action results in the separation of aluminium from oxygen. The metal settles to the bottom of the pot, and: is tapped or ladled out from time to time as it accumulates. The oxygen goes to the carbon cylinder, and burns it away at about the same rate as that at which aluminium is produced. It is only necessary to keep up the supply of alumina to enable: the operation to be continued for a long time. I mean, of: course, in addition to the keeping up of the current and the supply of carbon at the anode. By far the greater part of the cost of aluminium obtained by electrolysis is the cost of motive power: 20 horse-power hours are expended to produce 1 pound of aluminium, ‘Therefore it is essential forthe cheap production of aluminium to have cheap motive power. There is one feature about the Neuhausen production of aluminium which is very striking, and that is the generation of the electric current by means of water power derived from a portion of the falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen. The motive for making use of water power is economy. But,. apart from that, it is interesting to see water replacing coal, not only in the production of power, but also in the production. of the heat required in a smelting furnace. 482 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 15, 1892 Here is the Hall apparatus on a small scale. It is simply a earbon-lined iron crucible, and a thick stick of carbon. As already mentioned, the crucible is the cathode, the stick of carbon the anode. As the process takes time to get into full operation, it was commenced some hours ago, and at the rate at which it has been working we should by now have produced several ounces of aluminium. In beginning the process the charge has first to be melted. This is done by bringing the carbon stick into con- tact with the bottom of the crucible, so as to allow the current to pass from carbon to carbon to develop heat between the électrodes. The alumina compound, which, when melted, forms the bath, is added, in powder, litile by little, and, when sufficient is melted, the carbon stick is raised out of contact with the bottom, and the electrolytic action then commences. I will now ask Mr. Sample to empty the crucible and let us see the result of the operation, and while he is doing so I take the opportunity of expressing my very sincere thanks for his having so kindly and so successfully carried out this most inter- esting demonstration of the latest and one of the most important of all the applications of electricity to metallurgical operations. Here is the result of our experiment. It is not very large certainly, but it is quite enough for our purpose, which is to illustrate the principle of a newly developed electro-metallurgical industry directly derived from discoveries made at the Royal Institution. MOUNT MILAN/JI IN NYASSALAND. HIDDEN in the recesses of one of the recently issued Par- liamentary Papers (Africa, No. 5, 1892) will be found a very interesting report on the mountain and district of Milanji, in British Central Africa, by Mr. Alexander Whyte, F.Z.S., one of Mr. Commissioner Johnston’s principal assistants in the task of ruling and developing the new British Protectorate of Nyassa- land. Mr. Whyte was sent to Milanji by Mr. Johnston in ’ October last, and dates his report from the ‘* Residency, Zomba, British Central Africa,” in the month following. Milanji is.a large mountain mass in the extreme south-east corner of Nyassa- land, drained on the west by the head waters of the Ruo, one of the affluents of the Shiré, and on the east by the Lukuga and other smaller streams, which run into the Indian Ocean north of the Zambesi. It is described by Mr. Whyte as an isolated range of, for the most part, precipitous mountains, the main mass forming a huge natural fortress of weather-worn preci- pices or very steep rocky ascents, sparsely clothed with vegeta- tion. Many of its gullies and ravines are well wooded, and in some of them fine samples of grand African virgin forest are met with. Mr. Whyte’s ascent, on the 20th of October, was made up the south-east face of Milanji, over steep grassy hills and across rocky streams, full of large water-worn granite boulders. Further on precipices were encountered, and it was necessary to clamber up, holding on by tufts of grass, roots, and scrub, after which a wooded gorge was entered, and welcome shade was obtained from the forest trees. Here an interesting change in the vegetation was at once per- ceptible, the plants of the lower slope being mostly replaced by other species. These in many cases approached the flowers of temperate climes, such as brambles and well-known forms of Papilionacee and Composite, Ferns, too, became more nume- rous, and now and again were encountered perfect fairy dells of mosses, Selaginellas, and balsams, with miniature water-falls showering their life-giving spray on the little verdant glades, while overhead hoary lichens and bright festoons of elegant long- tasselled Lycopods hung from the moss-covered trees. After they had passed through some dense thickets of bamboo, and climbed up an ugly barrier of precipitous cliffs, another hour’s ascent, the latter part of which was through a steep grassy glen, brought Mr. Whyte and his companions to the highest ridge of Milanji. Hence was a splendid view over rolling hills of grassy sward divided by belts of dark-green forest, and the climate was found to be delightfully cool and bracing, with a clear dry atmosphere of about 60° Fahr. Altogether two weeks were spent at three different sites on this high plateau, and good collections of its natural history were made, although rain and mist occasionally interfered with the operations of -the naturalists. The flora of the mountain proved to be of great interest, NO. 1194, VOL. 46] being quite distinct from that of the surrounding plains, and even from that of the lower slopes. Tree-ferns were found to attain a great size in the damp, shady forest, and one was measured 30 feet in height and 2 feet in diameter at its base. The display of wild flowers is described as ‘* gorgeous.” Creamy-white and yellow helichrysums mingled with purple and blue orchids and irises, and graceful snow-white anemones were all blooming in wild profusion, and rearing their heads from a bed of bright green grassy sward. But the most striking botanical feature of the Plateau of Milanji was the cypresses formerly apparently quite abundant, but now confined to a few of the upper ravines and valleys, where the annual bush-fires, which take place in the dry months of August and September, cannot reach them. In some places hundreds of these giant trees thus destroyed lay prostrate, piled one above another, in every stage of destruction, _ One of these dead conifers was found to measure 140 feet in length and 5} feet in diameter at 5 feet from its base. The foliage of this cypress is juniper- like. The timber, of a dull reddish-white colour, is of excel- lent quality and easily worked. Ripe cones of this fine tree were procured, and, as stated ina subsequent letter, have already germinated in the experimental garden at Zomba.t The fauna of the mountain was found to be of nearly equal interest to the flora, but in the short space of time available it was not possible to make so nearly a complete collection. Raptorial birds were very scarce, but Passeres were plentiful. The grassy lands of the summits were tenanted by a small dark brown quail, a pipit, two grass-warblers, and the ubiquitous great-billed raven (Corvultur albicollis), which, however, was not so numerous as on the plains below. In the adjoining forest bird-life was abundant. Bul-buls, fly-catchers, warblers, finches, and honey-birds joined in chorus in celebrating the» springtime and nesting season, which was then in full progress. Altogether about 200 specimens of birds were obtained. Of mammals few were met with. The beasts of prey consisted of the leopard, the spotted hyzena, the serval, and an ichneumon. Examples of three species of A/uride were also obtained, and a little antelope, probably of the genus eotragus, was observed, but not procured. A few snakes were likewise met with. As regards the question of establishing a sanatorium on the Milanji Plateau, to which special attention had been directed, Mr. Whyte has no hesitation in saying that the climate of this — district contrasts very favourably with that of some of the hill- stations in India and Ceylon. The year is pretty equally divided between wet and dry months, the former lasting from November till May, while the other six months are stated to be fine, clear, and bracing, the thermometer at night in the months of May, June, and July occasionally falling below the freezing point. In the month of October the air was found to be delightfully pure and balmy. We believe that steps have already been taken to build a small station on Milanji, but to render this of much use it will be necessary to form a road to it from the falls of the Ruo up the Lutshenya valley. This could be made with fairly good gradients, and would be of great advantage as an outlet for the cypress-timber, which now lies useless and decaying in the forest. We are pleased to be able to add that Mr. Whyte’s collections above spoken of, along with: others from Mount Zomba, have already reached London, and are in the hands of Mr. Sclater, to whom Mr. Johnston has entrusted the task of getting them worked out and described. Mr. Oldfield Thomas has already commenced to determine the mammals, Captain Shelley will name the birds, and Mr, Boulenger, it is believed, will undertake the examination of the reptiles and batrachians. The plants will be examined in the Botanical Department of the British Museum, in which institution Mr. H. H. Johnston has directed the first set of specimens in every department to be deposited. The zoological results will be published in the ‘ Proceedings” of the Zoological Society of London. OBSERVATIONS OF THE PLANET MARS? OUGHT to have written to you before on the subject of the planet Mars, which I have been studying for over four months with our great equatorial. My great desire to verify the 1 Some cones of this supposed ‘‘ Cypress ’’ have also reached the Botanical Department of the British Museum, and have proved to belong to a Conifer of the genus Widdringtonia, probably of a new species, cannot be definitely settled until more perfect specimens of the tree have been received. ‘ 2 Letter from M. Perrotin to M. Faye, Comptes rendus, September 5. But this point ~~ SEPTEMBER 15, 1892] NATURE 483 es extraordinary phenomena to which I alluded in my last letter account for this. : ba Fhe ry I have gained nothing by waiting, and at the present Se tegord successive delays which I much regret, I am hardly er than I was a month ago. Owing, perhaps, to the being less satisfactory, or to the phenomena ia question not having recurred, nothing has been added to my first observations. _ The phenomena alluded to are brilliant projections, com- parable in colour and brightness to the southern pole cap, observed on three different occasions—viz,, June 10 and July 2 Phe last time, July 3, I was able to observe the several phases _ of this singular appearance. On that day the luminous point 9egan to emerge on the edge of the disc at 14h. 11m. (local stronomical time), very faint at first; then I saw it gradually increa:e, pass through a maximum, and then diminish, to dis- appear tinal about 15h. 6m. The facts would not have been rent had it been a case of an elevation of the surface of Mars traversing the illuminated edge of the disc by the simple effect of the rotation of the planet. The phase which affected the western limb of the planet at that time, could only modify it in amount and in duration. The previous night, July 2, I had seen the crescent in a phase approaching the maximum, at 2 . 10m., and | was able to follow the bright point up to its mplete disappearance at 14h. 40m. _ On July 2 and 3 the things happened in the same part of the disc, about the 5oth parallel of latitude, and with a retardation half an hour against the previous day, as usual for a thing aking in the same region of the planet. _ The first observation of this kind goes back as far as June 10, when it lasted from rsh. 12m. to about 16h. 17m. This time ie bright point occurred in the vicinity of the 30th southern ay el, probably in the southern portion of the isthmus Hesperia _ of Schiaparelli’s chart. ___ I may add that during these observations the portion of the isc adjoining the small protuberance has always appeared to me htly deformed and as if raised. Such are the facts. I shall not attempt to interpret them. ted themselves with such clearness that it is hardly to consider them as the result of any illusion. On the r hand, since it is a question of projection beyond the disc of at least one or two tenths of a second of arc, that is to say, of phenomena ‘ Ba i pene ees nerr pri I Prelatags Y Mig gios aiweat! a: “|Z Fic. 2. they may even be thought of as bullets, if the gun stands still every time it fires, and only moves between whiles. The line ascp is now neither the line of fire nor the line of aim: it is simply the locus of disturbances emitted from the successive positions I 2 3 4. A stationary target will be penetrated in the direction Ay, and this line will point out the correct position of the source when the received disturbance started. If the target moves, a disturbance entering at A may leave it at z, or at any other point according to its rate of motion; the line zA does not point to the source, and so there will be aberration when the target moves. Otherwise there would be none. Now Fig. 2 also represents a parallel beam of light travelling from a moving source, and entering a telescope or the eye of an observer. The beam lies along ABCD, but this is not the direction of vision. The direction of vision to a stationary observer is determined not by the locus of successive waves, but by the path of each wave. A ray may be defined as the path of a labelled disturbance. The line of vision is YAl, and coincides with the line of aim ; which in the projectile case (Fig. 1) it did not. 498 The case of a revolving lighthouse, emitting long parallel beams of light and brandishing them rapidly round, is rather interesting. Fig. 3 may assist the thinking out of this case. Successive disturbances A,B,C,D, lie along a spiral curve, the spiral of Archimedes ; and this is the shape of the beams as seen illuminating the dust particles, though the pitch of the spiral is too gigantic to be distinguished from a straight line. At first sight it might seem as if an eye looking along those curved beams would see the lighthouse slightly out of its true position ; but it is not so. The true rays or actual paths of each dis- turbance are truly radial ; they do not coincide with the apparent beam. An eye looking at the source will not look tangentially along the beam, but will look along As, and will see the source in its true position. It would be otherwise for the case of pro- jectiles from a revolving turret. Thus, neither translation of star nor rotation of sun can affect direction. There is no aberration so long as the receiver is sta- tlonary. Fic. 3. But what about a wind, or streaming of the medium past source and receiver, both stationary? Look at Fig.1 again. Suppose a row of stationary cannon firing shots, which get blown by a cross wind along the slant lay (neglecting the curvature of path which would really exist): still the hole in the target fixes the gun’s true position, the marker looking along YA sees the gun which fired the shot. There is no true deviation from the point of view of the receiver, although the shots are blown aside and the target is not hit by the particular gun aimed at it. With a moving cannon, combined with an opposing wind, Fig.1 would become very like Fig. 2. N.B.—The actual case, even without complication of spin- ning, &c., but merely with the curved path caused by steady wind-pressure, is not so simple, and there would really be an aberration or apparent displacement of the source towards the wind’s eye: an apparent exaggeration of the effect of wind as shown in the diagram.) In Fig. 2 the result of a wind is much the same, though the details are rather different. The medium is supposed to be drift- SS Fic. 4. ing down across the field opposite to the arrows, The source is stationary ats. The arrows show the direction of waves zz the medium ; the dotted slant line shows their resultant direction. A wave centre drifts from D to 1 in the same time as the disturbance reaches A, travelling down the slant line DA. The angle be- tween dotted and full lines is the angle between ray and wave movement. Now, zf the motion of the medium inside the receiver ts the same as it is outside, the wave will pass straight on along the slant to Z, and the true direction of the source is fixed. But if the medium inside the target or telescope is stationary, the wave will cease to drift as soon as it gets inside, under cover as it were; it will proceed along the path it has been really pursuing i the medium all the time, and make its exit at y. In this latter case, of different motion of the medium inside and out- side the telescope, the apparent direction, such as YA, is not the true direction of the source. The ray is in fact bent where it enters the differently-moving medium (as shown in Fig. 4). NO. 1195, VOL. 46] NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1892 A slower moving stratum bends an oblique ray (slanting with the motion) in the same direction as a denser medium does, — A quicker stratum bends it oppositely. If a medium is both denser and quicker moving, it is possible for the two bendings to be equal and opposite, and thus for a ray to go on straight. Parenthetically I may say that this is precisely what happens, on Fresnel’s theory, down the axis of a water-filled telescope exposed to the general terrestrial ether drift. fig 7 In a moving medium waves do not advance in their norm direction, they advance slantways. The direction of ft advance is properly called a ray. The ray does not coincide with the wave-normal in a moving medium, ee ee All this is well shown in fig. 5. ‘Fic. Ss s is a stationary source emitting successive waves, which drift as spheres to the right. ‘The wave which has reached M has its centre at C, and CM is its normal ; but the disturbance, M, has really travelled along SM, which is therefore the ray. It has advanced as a wave from $s to P, and has drifted from P to M. Disturbances subsequently emitted are found along the ray, pre- cisely as in Fig. 2. A stationary telescope receiving the light will point straight at s. A mirror, M, intended to reflect t light straight back must be set normal to the ray, not tangential to the wave front. : The diagram also equally represents the case of a moving source in a stationary medium, The source, starting at c, has Sy Oe Fic. 6. moved to S, emitting waves as it went, which waves as emitted spread out as simple spheres from the then position of source as centre. Wave-normal and ray now coincide: SM is not a ray, but only the locus of successive disturbances. A stationary telescope will look not ats, but along Mc to the point where the source was when it emitted the wave M ; a moving telescope, — if moving at same rate as source, will look ats. Hence sM is sometimes called the apparent ray. The angle sMc is the aberration angle. fis Fig. 6 shows normal reflection for the case of a moving source. ee ee Ce, ee ee i i i a ts SEPTEMBER 22, 1892] NATURE 499 ‘The mirror M reflects light received from s, toa point Sp, just in time to catch the source there ; as it travels steadily to the left. Parenthetically I may say that the time taken on the double journey, S,MS,, is not quite the same as the double journey _ $Ms when all is stationary, and that this is the principle of Michelson’s great experiment referred to below. For the rest of the lecture I am going to call the medium which conveys light, ‘‘ ether” simply. Every one knows that ether is the light-conveying medium, however little else they know about the properties of that tremendously important We have arrived at this: that a uniform ether stream all th space causes no aberration, no error in fixing direction. It blows the waves along, but it does not disturb the line of _ Stellar aberration exists, but it depends on motion of obser- ver, and on motion of observer only. Etherial motion has no effect upon it, and when the observer is stationary with respect to object, as he is when using a terrestrial telescope, there is no aberration at all. — . ing operations are not rendered the least inaccurate by the existence of a universal etherial drift ; and they therefore afford no means of detecting it. But observe that everything depends on the etherial motion being uniform everywhere, inside as well as outside the teles- and along the whole path of the ray. If stationary any- y ‘it must be stationary altogether. There must be no ou between stationary and moving ether, no plane of slip, no quicker motion even in some regions than in others. For (referring back to the remarks preceding Fig. 4) if the ether in receiver is stagnant while outside it is moving, a wave which has advanced and drifted as far as the telescope will cease to drift as soon as it gets inside, but will advance simply along the wave-normal ; and in general at the boundary of any such “change of motion a ray will be bent, and an observer looking along the ray will see the source not in its true position, not even yet be ther, if the earth carries any ether with it, or if the ether being at all, then all rays will be straight, aberration will have le and well-known value, and we shall be living in a ether stream of 19 miles a second, by reason of the orbital motion of the earth. It may be difficult to imagine that a great mass like the earth can rush at this tremendous pace through a medium without disturbing it. It is not possible for an ordinary sphere in an ordinary fluid. At the surface of such a sphere there is a viscous drag, and a spinning motion diffuses out thence through the fluid so that the energy of the moving body is gradually dissipated. rsistence of terrestrial and planetary motions shows that erial viscosity, if existent, is small; or at least that the amount of energy thus got rid of is a very small fraction of the whole. But there is nothing to show that an appreciable layer of ether may not adhere to the earth and travel with it, even ‘though the force acting on it be but small. ; then, is the question before us :— Does the earth drag some ether with it? or does it slip through the ether with perfect freedom? (never mind the earth’s atmo- sphere : the part it plays is not important). In other words, is the ether wholly or partially stagnant! near the earth, or is it streaming past us with the opposite of the full terrestrial velocity of nineteen miles a second? Surely if we are living in an ether stream of this rapidity we ought to be able to detect some evidence of its existence. It is not so easy a thing to detect as you would imagine. We have seen that it produces no deviation or error in direction. Neither does it cause any change of colour or Doppler effect ; t The word “‘stationary” is ambiguous. I propose to use “ stagnant,” as meaning stationary with respect to the earth, z.c. as opposed to stationary in space. ee NO. 1195, VOL. 46] that is, no shift of lines in spectrum. No steady wind can affect pitch, simply because it cannot blow waves to your ear more quickly than they are emitted. It hurries them along, but it lengthens them in the same proportion, and the result is that they arrive at the proper frequency. The precise effects of motion on pitch are summarized in the following table:— ~~ Changes of Frequency due to Motion. Source approaching shortens waves. Receiver approaching alters relative velocity. Medium flowing alters both wave-length and velocity in exactly compensatory manner. - What other phenomena may possibly result from motion? Here is a list :— Phenomena resulting from Motion. (1) Change or apparent change in direction; observed by telescope, and called aberration, (2) Change or apparent change in frequency ; observed by spectroscope, and called Doppler effect. (3) Change or apparent change in time of journey; observed by lag of phase or shift of interference fringes. (4) Change or apparent change in intensity; observed by energy received by thermopile. Motion of either source or receiver can alter frequency, motion of receiver can alter apparent direction, motion of the medium can do neither ; but surely it can hurry a wave so as to make it arrive out of phase with another wave arriving by a different path, and thus produce or modify interference effects. Or again it may carry the waves down stream more plentifully than up stream, and thus act ona pair of thermopiles, arranged fore and aft at equal distances from a source, with unequal intensity. And again, perhaps the laws of reflection and refraction in a moving medium are not the same as they are if it be at rest. Then, moreover, there is double refraction, colours of thin plates and thick plates, polarization angle, rotation of the plane of polarization ; all sorts of optical phenomena. It may be, perhaps, that in empty space the effect of an ether drift is difficult to detect, but will not the presence of dense matter make it easier? Consider No. 3 of the phenomena tabulated above. I expect that everyone here understands interference, but I may just briefly say that two similar sets of waves ‘‘ interfere ” whenever and wherever the crests of one set coincide with and obliterate the troughs of the other set. Light advances in any given direction when crests in that direction are able to remain crests, and troughs to remain troughs. But if we contrive to split a beam of light into two halves, to send them round by different paths, and make them meet again, there is no guarantee that crest will meet crest and trough trough; it may be just the other way in some places, and wherever that opposition of phase occurs there there will be local obliteration or ‘‘ interference.” Two reunited half-beams of light may thus produce local stripes of darkness, and these stripes are called interference bands. If I can I will produce actual interference of light on the screen, but the experiment is a difficult one to make visible at a distance, partly because the stripes or bands of darkness are usually very narrow. I have not seen it attempted before. [Very visible bands were formed on screen by three mirrors, one of them semi-transparent, arranged as in Fig. 7.] Now a most interesting and important, and I think now well- known, experiment of Fizeau proves quite simply and definitely that if light be sent along a stream of water, travelling inside the water as a transparent medium, it will go quicker with the current than against it. You may say that is only natural; a wind helps sound along one way and retards it the opposite way. Yes, but then sound travels in air, and wind is a bodily transfer of air, hence, of course, it gives the sound a ride ; whereas light does not really travel in water, but always in ether. It is by no means obvious whether a stream of water can help or hinder it. Experiment decides, however, and answers in the affirmative. It helps it along with just about half the speed of the water; not with the whole speed, which is curious and important, and really means that the moving water has no effect whatever on the ether of space, though it would take too long to make clear how this comes about. Suffice for present purposes the fact that the velocity of light inside moving water, and therefore pre- 500 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1892 sumably inside all transparent matter, is altered by motion of that matter. Does not this fact afford an easy way of detecting a motion of the earth through the ether? Here on the table is water travelling along 19 miles a second. Send a beam of light through it one way and it will be hurried ; its velocity, instead Fic. 7.—Plan of interference kaleidoscope. of being 140,000 miles a second, will be 140,009 miles. Senda beam of light the other way, and its velocity will be 139,991 ; just as much less. Bring these two beams together ; surely some of their wave-lengths will interfere. M. Hoek, Astronomer at Utrecht, tried the experiment in this very form; here is a diagram of his apparatus (Fig. 8). Babinet had tried another form of the experiment previously. Hoek expected to see inter- ference bands, from the two half-beams which had traversed the water, one in the direction of the earth’s motion and the other against it. But no interference bands were seen. The experi- ment gave a negative result. An experiment, however, in which nothing is seen is never a € Fic. 9. very satisfactory form of a negative experiment ; it is, as Mascart calls it, ‘‘ doubly negative,”’ and we require some guarantee that the condition was right for seeing what might really have been in some sort there. Hence Mascart and Jamin’s modification of the experiment is preferable (Fig. 9). The thing now looked for is a shift of already existing interference bands, when the NO. 1195, VOL. 46] above apparatus is turned so as to have different aspects with. respect to the earth’s motion ; but no shift was seen. ' Interference methods all fail to display any trace of relative motion between earth and ether. a Try other phenomena then. Try refraction, The index of refraction of glass is known to depend on the ratio of the speed of light outside, to the speed inside, the glass. If then the ether be streaming through glass, the velocity of light will be different. inside it according as it travels with the stream or against it,. and so the index of refraction will be different. Arago was the first to try this experiment, by placing an achromatic prism in. front of a telescope on a mural circle, and observing the devia- tion it produced on stars. id Observe that it was an achromatic prism, treating all wave- lengths alike ; he looked at the deviated image of a star, not at. its dispersed image or spectrum, else he might have detected the change-of-frequency-effect due to motion of source or receiver. first actually seen by Dr. Huggins. I do not think he would have seen it, because I do not suppose his arrangements were. delicate enough for that very small effect ; but there is no error in the conception of his experiment, as Prof. Mascart has inadvertently suggested there was. cat Then Maxwell repeated the attempt in a much more powerful manner, a method which could have detected a very minute effect indeed, and Mascart has also repeated it in a simple form. All are absolutely negative. . a ag Well, what about aberration? If one looks through a meee stratum, say a spinning glass disk, there ought to be a shift caused by the motion (see Fig. 4).. The experiment has not been tried, but I entertain no doubt about its result, though a. high speed and considerable thickness of glass or other medium is necessary to produce even a microscopic apparent displace- ment of objects seen through it. But the speed of the earth is available, and the whole length. of a telescope tube may be filled with water; surely that is. enough to displace rays of light appreciably. Sir Geo. Airy tried it at Greenwich on a star, with an appro-. priate zenith-sector full of water. Stars were seen through the water-telescope .precisely as through an air telescope. A negative result again. ’ fh eh aleineien Stellar observations, however, are unnecessarily difficult. Fresnel had said that a terrestrial source of light would do just. as well. He had also (being a man of exceeding genius) pre- dicted that nothing would happen. Hoek has now tried it in. a perfect manner and nothing did happen. __. ; ys Since then Prof. Mascart with great pertinacity has attacked the phenomena of thick plates, Newton’s rings, double re-- fraction, and the rotatory phenomenon of quartz; but he has found absolutely nothing attributable to a stream of ether past the earth. alle oN The only positive result ever supposed to be attained was in a very difficult polarization observation by Fizeau in 1859. As this has not yet been repeated, it is safest at present to ignore it,. though by no means to forget that it wants repeating, . ., Fizeau also suggested, but did not attempt, what seems an. easier experiment, with fore and aft thermopiles and a source between them, to observe the drift of a medium by its convec- tion of energy ; but arguments based on the law of exchanges * tend to show, and do show as I think, that a probable alteration of radiating power due to motion through a medium would just compensate the effect otherwise to be expected. We may summarize most of these statements as follows :— Summary. | A real and apparent change of wave. | length, we ied chews moving | + fen ae not apparent error in PENG Sx ‘* | No lag of phase or change of inten- sity, except that appropriate to. | altered wave-length. No change of frequency. No error in direction. A real lag of phase, but undetectable without control over the medium. change of intensity corresponding to different distance, but compen- sated by change of radiating power. Medium alone moving, or source and receiver moving together, pro- | rm duces \- Mc Geum jee t Lord Rayleigh (NaTURE, March 25, 1892). SEPTEMBER 22, 1892] NATURE 501 { An apparent change of wave-length. Z An apparent error in direction. Receiver alone moving | y, change of phase or of intensity, produces ... ... except that appropriate to different virtual velocity of light. I may say, then, that not a single optical phenomenon is able to show the existence of an ether stream near the earth. All optics on precisely as if the ether were stagnant with respect to the earth. _ Well then perhaps it zs stagnant. The experiments I have _ quoted do not prove that it is so. They are equally consistent with its perfect freedom and with its absolute stagnation ; though they are not consistent with any intermediate position. Cer- tainly, if the ether were stagnant, nothing could be simpler than their explanation. _ The only phenomena then difficult to explain would be _ those depending on light coming from distant regions through ail the layers of more or less dragged ether. The theory of astronomical aberration would be seriously complicated ; in its present form it would be upset. But it is never wise to control facts by a theory: it is better to invent some experi- ment that will give a different result in stagnant and in free . None of those experiments so far described are really a i a ‘sme are, = I nl consistent with either ee i not very obviously so. -. Michelson, however, of the United States, has invented a os oaeer will discriminate ; and, what is much more remarkable, has carried it out. That it is an exceptionally difficult experiment you will realize when I say that the experiment will fail altogether unless one part in 400 millions can be clearly detected. _ Mr. Micheison reckons that by his latest arrangement he could see 1 in 4000 millions if it existed (which is equivalent to detecting an error of 4455 of an inch in a length of forty miles) ; _ but he saw nothing. Everything behaved precisely as if the ether was stagnant; as if the earth carried with it all the ether in its immediate neighbourhood. And that is his con- * clusion. If he can repeat it and get a different result on the top ofa mountain, that conclusion may be considered established. At t it must be regarded as tentative. I have not time to go into the details of his experiment (it is described in P%i/. Mag. 1887), but 1 may say that it depends on no dou properties of transparent substances, but on the trai ard fundamental principle underlying all such simple facts as that—It takes longer to row a certain distance and back up and down stream than it does to row the same distance in still water; or that it takes longer to run up and down a hill than to run the same distance laid out flat; or that it costs more to buy a certain number of oranges at three a penny and an equal number at two a penny than it does to buy the whole lot at five for twopence. Hence, although there may be some way of getting round Mr, Michelson’s experiment, there is no obvious way; and I that if the true conclusion be not that the ether near the earth is stagnant, the experiment will lead to some other important and unknown fact. _ The balance of evidence at this stage seems to incline in the _ sense that the earth carries the neighbouring ether with it. __ But now put the question another way. Cam matter carry neighbouring ether with it when it moves? Abandon the earth er; its motion is very quick, but too uncontrollable, and it always gives negative results. Take a lump of matter that you can deal with, and see if it pulls any ether along. __ That is the experiment I set myself to perform, and which, in the course of the last year, I have performed. _I take a steel disk, or rather a couple of steel disks clamped together with aspace between. I mount it on a vertical axis and ‘it like a teetotum as fast as it will stand without flying to fag _ Then I take a parallel beam of light, split it into two by a semi-transparent mirror (Michelson’s method), a piece of glass silvered so thinly that it lets half the light through and reflects the other half; and I send the two halves of this split beam round and round in opposite directions in the space between the disks. They may thus travel a distance of 20 or 30 or 40 feet. Ultimately they are allowed to meet an enter a telescop:. If they have gone quite identical distances they need not interfere, but usually the distances will differ by a hundred-thousandth of an inch or so, which is quite enough to bring about interference. NO. I195, VOL. 46] The mirrors which reflect the light round and round between the disks are shown in Fig. 10, Ifthey form an accurate square the last two images will coincide, but if the mirrcrs are the least inclined to one another at any unaliquot part of 360° the last image splits into two, as in the kaleidoscope is well known, and the interference bands may be regarded as resulting from those two sources. The central white band bisects normally the distance between them, and their amount of separation de- termines the width of the bands, There are many interesting optical details here, but I shall not go into them. The thing to observe is whether the motion of the disks is able to replace a bright band by a dark one, or vice versd. If it does, it means that one of the half beams, viz. that which is travelling in the same direction as the disks, is helped on a trifle, equivalent to a shortening of journey by some quarter millionth of an inch or so in the whole length of 30 feet ; while the other half beam, viz., that travelling against the motion of the disks, is retarded, or its path virtually lengthened, by the same amount. If this acceleration and retardation actually occurs, waves which did not interfere on meeting before the disks moved, will interfere now, for one will arrive at the common goal half a length behind the other. Now a gradual change of bright space to dark, and vice versa, shows itself, to an observer looking at the bands, as a “fe Jy YY SS Z\\ Ye Z { ! Fic. 10.—Plan of steel disks one yard in diameter, and optical frame ; show- ing the light going round and round, three times each way, between the isks. gradual change of position of the bright stripes, or a shift of the bands. A shift of the bands, and especially of the middle white band, which is much more stable than the others, is what we look for. At first I saw plenty of shift. In the first experiment the bands sailed across the field as the disks got up speed until the crosswire had traversed a band and a half. The conditions were such that had the ether whirled at the full speed of the disks I should have seen a shift of three bands. It looked very much as if the light was helped along at half the speed of the moving matter, just as it is inside water. On stopping the disks the bands returned to their old position. On starting them again in the opposite direction, the bands ought to have shifted the other way too; but they did not ; they went the same way as before. e shift was therefore wholly spurious ; it was caused by the centrifugal force of the blast of air thrown off from the moving disks. The mirrors and frame had to be protected from this. Many other small changes had to be made, and adually the spurious shifts have been reduced and reduced, cam y the skill and patience of my assistant, Mr. Davies, until now there is barely a trace of them. But the experiment is not an easy one. Not only does the blast exert pressure, but at high speeds the churning of the air 502 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1892 makes it quite hot. Moreover, the tremor of the whirling machine, in which some four or five horse-power is sometimes being expended, is but too liable to communicate itself to the op- tical part of the apparatus. Of course elaborate precautions are taken against this. Although the two parts, the mechanical and the optical, are so close together, their supports are entirely independent. But they have to rest on the same earth, and hence communicated tremors are not absent. They are the cause of all the slight residual trouble. The method of observation now consists in setting a wire of the micrometer accurately in the centre of the middle band, while another wire is usually set on the first band to the left. Then the micrometer heads are read, and the setting repeated once or twice to see how closely and dependably they can be set in the same position. Then we begin to spin the disks, and when they are going at some high speed, measured by a siren note and in other ways, the micrometer wires are reset and read —reset several times and read each time. Then the disks are stopped and more readings are taken. ‘Then their motion is reversed, the wires set and read again ; and finally the motion is once more stopped and another set of readings taken. By this means the absolute shift of middle band and its relative interpretation in terms of wave-length are simultaneously ob- tained ; for the distance from the one wire to the other, which is often two revolutions of a micrometer head, represents a whole wave-length shift. In the best experiments I do still often see something like a fiftieth of a band shift, but it is caused by residual spurious causes, for it repeats itself with sufficient accuracy in the same direction when the disks are spun the other way round. Of real reversible shift, due to motion of the ether, I see nothing. I do not believe the ether moves. It does not move at a five-hundredth part of the speed of the steel disks. I hope to go further, but my conclusion so far is that such things as circular-saws, flywheels, railway trains, and all ordinary masses of matter do not appreciably carry the ether with them. Their motion does not seem to disturb it in the least. The presumption is that the same is true for the earth ; but the earth is a big body, it is conceivable that so great a mass may be able to act when a small mass would fail. I would not like to be too sure about the earth. What I do feel already pretty sure of is that if moving matter disturbs ether in its neighbourhood at all, it does so by some minute action, comparable in amount perhaps to gravitation, and possibly by means of the same pro- perty as that to which gravitation is due—not by anything that can fairly be likened to ethereal viscosity. NATIVE NEW ZEALAND BIRDS. ROM a scientific point of view it is of so much importance that native New Zealand birds should be protected that many naturalists will read with interest the following memoran- dum, which was drawn up by Lord Onslow, the late Governor of New Zealand, and presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by command of his Excellency :— Itis admitted by naturalists that New Zealand possesses in some respects the most interesting avifauna in the world. It is a melancholy fact that, under the changed condition of exis- tence this remarkable avifauna is passing away. Some of the species have already disappeared, whilst others are verging on extinction, Take, for example, the wingless birds of New Zealand. These diminutive representatives of the gigantic brevipennate birds which formerly inhabited New Zealand are objects of the highest interest tothe natural historian. The kiwis, like their colossal prototypes the moas, once existed in very considerable numbers in almost every part of the country. At the time of the first colonization of New Zealand, fifty years ago, they were still abundant in all suitable localities. At the present day their last refuges may be indicated on the map without any difficulty. The North Island species (Afteryx bullerz) is still comparatively plentiful in the wooded heights of Pirongia and in the bosky groves of the Upper Wanganui. From all other localities where formerly numerous it has prac- tically disappeared. The South Island kiwi (Apteryx australis) is now met with in only widely-scattered localities on the west coast. The small spotted or grey kiwi (Apteryx owent), of which perhaps thousands could have been obtained a few years back, has succumbed to the ravages of the stoat and weasel, the persecution by wild dogs, and the necessities of roving NO. 1195, VOL. 46] diggers, and it is only now to be found in any number along the lower wooded ranges of the Southern Alps. Afteryx haasté is one of our rarest species, and Apteryx maxima is strictly con-— fined to the wooded parts of Stewart Island. The kakapo, or ground-parrot (Stringops habroptilus), which was formerly so abundant in the wooded country along the whole of the West Coast Sounds and on the western slope of the Southern Alps, is becoming a scarce bird. According to Mr. Richardson, who recently read an exhaustive paper on the subject before the Otago Institute, both the kiwi and the kakapo are now confined to very restricted districts, within which, under the combined attacks of introduced wild dogs and cats, stoats, weasels, and ferrets, they are fast diminishing. The blue-wattled crow and South Island thrush, which were every-day camp-visitors when Sir James Hector explored the West Coast in 1863, are now very rarely seen ; whilst in the North Island the native thrush and some of the smaller birds have disappeared altogether. Prominent writers on zoological science, such as Prof. Newton, of Cambridge, Prof. Flower, at the head of the British Museum, and Dr. Sclater, the accomplished secretary of the Zoological Society of London, have over and over again urged the importance of some steps being taken for the conservation of New Zealand birds ; and they have pointed out that it will be a lasting reproach to the present generation of colonists if no attempt is made to save some—if only a remnant—of these expiring forms for the student of the future. Thus, Prof. Newton, in his address to the Biological Section of the British Association, at Manchester, in 1887, saith: ‘IT would ask you to bear in mind that these indigenous species of New Zealand are, with scarcely an exception, peculiar to the country, and, from every scientific point of view, of the most instructive character. They supply a link with the past that, once lost, can never be recovered. It is therefore incumbent upon us to know all we can about them before they vanish, . . . The forms we are allowing to be killed off, being almost without ex- ception ancient forms, are just those that will teach us more of the way in which life has spread over the globe than any other recent forms ; and for the sake of posterity, as well as to escape its reproach, we ought to learn all we can about them before they go hence and are no more seen.” The chief cause of the destruction of native birds is no doubt the introduction of foreign animals, against which the indigenous species are unable to contend successfully in the struggle for existence, especially under the changed conditions of life ht about by colonization. Probably the chief factor in this work of destruction is the Norway rat, whose introduction was of course unintentional, but an inevitable incident of settlement. The insectivorous and other birds introduced (whether wisely or not it is not necessary now to discuss) by our various acclimati- zation societies have, as it were, driven out and replaced many of the native species. These latter have succumbed to some general law of nature under which races of animals and plants yield to foreign invasion and rapidly disappear, the aboriginal races of man being no exception to this general rule. Where the causes themselves are recondite, it is, of course, difficult to find the means of counteracting them ; but it is an observed law of nature that expiring races survive and linger longest in insular areas. That has been the experience of zoologists all over the world, the islands of Mauritius and Rodriguez presenting a striking instance in point. Here in New Zealand we have many similar evidences. The remarkable tuatara lizard (Sphenodon punctatum), supposed to be a survival from a very ancient fauna, and constituting, Zer se, a distinct order of reptilia, which years ago became extinct on the mainland (chiefly through the ravages of introduced wild pigs), still exists in very considerable numbers on the small islands lying off our coasts. The mako- mako, or bell-bird (Athornis melanura), at one time the very commonest of our birds, although still plentiful in the South Island, has absolutely disappeared from every part of the North Island, but it still exists on the wooded islands of the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Plenty, and on the island of Kapiti, in Cook Strait. The same remarks apply with almost equal force to the wood-robin (Jéiro albifrons) and the white-head (Chtonyx albicapilla), two species which have never inhabited the South Island at all. The stitch-bird (Pogonornis cincta), which forms a sort of connecting link with the avifauna of Australia, was thirty years ago very plentiful in the woods surrounding Wellington, but it had long before dis- appeared from the northern parts of the island. It is now SEPTEMBER 22, 1892] NATURE 593 extinct all over the mainland, but it exists in comparative plenty on the little Barrier Island—presumably the only locality in the __ world where this species is now to be found. ___ All these facts and considerations point to the conclusion that _ if an attempt is to be made to preserve these and other indi- —— species, it must be by setting apart suitable islands for the , and placing them under very strict protective _ Assuming it to be granted that it is the duty of the Govern- _ ment to take the necessary measures, the next question is, what are the most suitable for the purpose? After making careful inquiries. on the subject, and reading that has been written by the Chief Surveyor and other local authorities, I have come to the conclusion that the two ___ best and most readily available islands are the Little Barrier at _ the north, and Resolution Island at the south. i. The Little Barrier.—This island is still in the hands of the _ Maoris; but the Government is in negotiation for its purchase, and, as I understand there is only a small amount at issue _ between the parties, I would strongly urge its immediate A mega for the purposes indicated. Not only is the Little Bed > known to be the habitat of the stitch-bird, the white- _ head, the bell-bird, and the native robin (all of which have ractii 6 2 aa from the mainland), but it has a wooded surface admirably adapted to the habits of such birds; it is r accessible from Auckland ; it would be difficult for any to land and shoot birds there without at once attracting the attention of the many ships which are constantly passing in and out of the Hauraki Gulf. 2. Resolution Island.—This has now been proclaimed a _ reserve for native fauna and flora. _ (1) Resolution Island is just at a convenient distance from the mainland. It is of considerable extent, with good harbours ving deep water and safe anchorage. ___ (2) Several of the species that itis most desirable to preserve - (such as kakapo and kiwi) are known to exist there already in e numbers. (3) It is believed to be the final refuge of the great flightless r! 7s mantelli), only three specimens of which have ever obtained in New Zealand, two of these being now in the National Museum, and the other in the Royal Museum at: Dresden. One of those in the British Museum (obtained by Mr. Walter Mantell in 1849) was caught by a party of sealers at Duck Cove, on Resolution Island, and the other was captured _Maoris on Secretary Island, opposite to Dea’s Cove, My Sound. The third was taken as recently as 1881 by a party of rabbit-hunters in the vicinity of Lake Te Anau. There is every reason to believe that this rare and interesting species still survives on the island which has now been set apart as a permanent Government reserve. Looking to the interests involved—the great loss to the scientific world implied in the extermination of natural forms that do not exist elsewhere, and the importance, therefore, of saving them—it cannot be denied that a heavy responsibility rests on those who, while there is yet time and opportunity, may neglect to take the necessary steps for their preservation, All that is wanted to rouse public interest in such a matter is actual. knowledge of the facts. There is a strong sentiment always in the public mind against the final extirpation of any living es. Asa proof of this one has only to read of the strong public feeling that exists in San Francisco in regard to the protection of the ‘‘sea-lions” frequenting the famous Seal lying off the shore, and of the universal regret with which the Americans regard the almost complete extirpation of the herds of bison, of which at the present day only a small remnant survives under Government protection within certain ‘‘ reserva- tions.” It finds further expression in the lament of all true n and naturalists on account of the disappearance, th wanton slaughter, of the large game of South Africa, Look, for example, at the quagga, which is now on the verge of Forty years ago this fine animal might be counted by thousands on every valley and plain of the Cape Colony. At the present day, besides three mounted specimens in European museums, there are two living examples in the Zoological Gardens. Take these away, and the species is blotted out com: : Tn urging Ministers to take this subject under their serious consideration I may remind them that on December 16, 1886, the Secretary of the Auckland Institute wrote advising the pur- chase of the Little Barrier Island as a Government freserve, NO. 1195, VOL. 46] and that the Premier, Sir Robert Stout, approved of this being done. The purchase was, I believe, strongly advocated by Prof. Thomas and by Mr. A. Reischek, the Austrian collector, both of whom had visited the island and inspected every part of it. Ata recent meeting of the Otago Institute a resolution was passed authorizing the Council of that body to move the Govern- ment to proclaim Resoluttion Island for this purpose. Resolution Island having now been so proclaimed, I would suggest that steps should be immediately taken for ascertaining to what extent Resolution Island is already stocked with kiwi and kakapo ; that a sufficient supply of these and other birds be at once obtained by purchase or otherwise from the mainland before it is too late, and turned loose both on this island and on the Little Barrier ; and that Captain Fairchild (who takes a keen interest in this project) should be instructed to call at these islands from time to time during the periodical cruises of the Hinemoa, to ascertain if the birds are thriving, and to report results, with such practical suggestions and recommendations as he may be able to make for the furtherance of this plan of con- servation, I would also, at the same time, suggest that Ministers should take into consideration the propriety of including some other native birds in the list of protected species. As 1 have already mentioned, the bell-bird, formerly so plentif1l, has entirely dis- appeared from the North Island. But it is still very plentiful all over the South Island, and is a common denizen of the gardens and shrubberies in all the principal towns, This is the bird that so enchanted Captain Cook by its song when his ship lay at anchor in Queen Charlotte Sound more than a hundred years ago, and, having become historical, it would bea grievous pity for the bird to die out altogether. The general testimony goes to show that the protection extended to the tuis had the desired effect, this species being now more numerous everywhere than it was fifteen years ago. Would it not be well to extend the same protection to its small congener the makomako, whose haunts and habits are almost precisely similar ? Then, again, there is a bird famous in Maori history and poetry—remarkable for its singular beauty, and interesting to naturalists on account of its aberrant generic characters—a species confined to a very limited portion of the North Island, from which, owing to the eagerness of natural-history collectors and the inevitable progress of settlement in its native woods, it is fast disappearing. I refer, of course, to the huia (Heleralocha acutirostris), abird which is naturally confined within such narrow geographical boundaries that I may describe its range as being limited to the Ruahine, Tararua, and Rimutaka Mountain-ranges, with their divergent spurs and the iatervening wooded valleys. The white- tipped tail-feathers of this beautiful bird have been from time immemorial the chief adornment of Maori chiefs as head-plumes ; and an incident connected therewith, in ancient times, led to the adoption of the name by the great ancestors of the Ngatihuia Tribe. As Ministers are aware, when selecting a Maori name for my infant son, to commemorate his New Zealand birth, I was induced, for several considerations, to give this name the prefer- ence over all others submitted to me; and I should therefore accept it as a compliment to my family if Ministers would exercise the power they possess and throw over this bird the shield of Government protection. I ask this the more readily on the ground that I have been moved todo so by the chiefs of the Ngatihuia Tribe. At the pene function at Otaki, on the 12th September last, when I ad the pleasure of presenting my son to the assembled tribes, a number of very complimentary speeches were made by the leading chiefs, and one of them, in referring to the name, said, ** There, yonder, is the snow-clad Ruahine range, the home of our favourite bird. We ask you, O Governor! to restrain the pakehas from shooting it, that when your boy grows up he may see the beautiful bird which bears his name.” The huia loves the deep shade of the forest, and as its home is invaded by the settler’s axe it would, if protected from reck- less destruction, simply retire higher up the wooded ranges, till it finally took refuge in the permanent forest reserve, which embraces all the wooded mountain-tops within its natural domain. Under vigilant protection, therefore, the huia would have every chance of being preserved and perpetuated. Christchurch, Christmas Day, 1891. ~ ONSLOW. t This has been done: vide New Zealand Gazette of February 25. 1392. page 402. 504 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1892 A CENTURY OF SCIENTIFIC WORK. VERYONE interested in science is aware that the ‘ Société de Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle de Genéve” has won for itself an honoured place among the learned Societies of the ‘Continent. Work of the highest interest and importance has been done by many of its ordinary members, and the list of its honorary members includes a very large number of the investi- gators who, in different parts of Europe, have contributed most effectually to scientific progress. Some time ago this excellent Society celebrated the hundredth anniversary of its foundation, and an interesting supplementary volume has now been issued in memory of the occasion. To this volume Dr. A. H. Wart- mann contributes a sketch of the Society’s history, and it may be worth while to note some of the facts he has recorded. Nominally, the Society was founded in 1790. That is, several men of science in Geneva agreed in that year to unite in forming it. Asa matter of fact, however, the first official meeting was not held until 1791. The Society was called at first the ‘‘ So- ciété des Naturalistes Genevois,” and there were eight members, who met in each other’s houses on the second and fourth Thursday of every month. The President was M. Gosse. A secretary and a treasurer were appointed ; the annual subscrip- tion was fixed at two crowns; and an effort was made to obtain copies of the scientific journals of the time. It was felt that there ought to be more than eight members, so the honour of membership was offered to several men of science, by the ma- jority of whom it was accepted. Foreign men of science who happened to be passing through Geneva were invited by the President to attend the meetings, and some of them were made honorary members. In the course of the first year M. Jurine made a present of his herbarium to the Society ; this was the origin of its collections. One of the first objects of the Society was the creation of a botanic garden, and a site was chosen which has ever since been retained. M. Micheli presented a hot-house ; exotic plants and seeds were obtained ; and courses of instruction in botany were given under the Society’s auspices by MM. Micheli and de Saussure. The most eminent representative of science in Geneva at this time was Charles Bonnet. He was asked to become the patron or Honorary President of the new Society. He would have preferred the position of confrére, but ended by complying with the request. He died in 1793, bequeathing to the Society 300 crowns, which provided for the maintenance of a gardener and other necessary expenses in the botanic garden. The activity of the young Society was shown in a series of labours in the physical and natural sciences—labours of which an account has been given by Vaucher, one of the founders. The question of a diploma of reception was raised, and, after much consideration, a seal was prepared. This was abandoned in 1819 in favour of a seal engraved by Bovy. In 1792 the Society changed its name to ‘‘ Société Genevoise d’Histoire Naturelle.” Shortly afterwards the name by which the Society is still known was adopted. Under an impulse due to M. d’Albert Henri Gosse, two other scientific Societies were founded in Geneva. One, created in 1803, went back to the name of *‘ Société des Naturalistes.” In 1829 it was merged in the ‘‘ Société de Physique et d’ Histoire Naturelle,” in whose archives its papers are preserved. Many of these, according to M. Wartmann, are of some importance. The other Society was the ‘Société Helvétique des Sciences Naturelles,” founded in 1815. Of this Society, which has con- tinued to flourish, the ‘‘ Société de Physique” may be regarded as the Genevese section. . When it met at Geneva, in 1866, the two Societies united in the ceremony at the unveiling of a monument to M. Gosse. When the number of members increased, a fixed place of meeting became necessary. They met for some years at the Société des Arts, then (from 1826) at the Academic Museum, and afterwards (from 1872) in the hall of the Société des Arts. The times of meeting were changed from the second and fourth to the first and third Thursday of every month ; and in 1834 it was decided that a meeting should be held only on the first Thursday of the month. The President holds office for a year, A Vice-President is also appointed. From 1858 to 1879 the President entered upon his duties in July, and in the following June he was succeeded by the Vice-President. Now the President and Vice-President assume office at the beginning of the year. The Society consists of active members, emeritus members, NO. 1195, VOL. 46] and honorary members. The former—limited in 1822 to forty, in 1863 to fifty, in 1878 to sixty—reside in the canton. The emeritus members are members who have ceased to take an active part in the Society’s work. The honorary members— limited in 1859 to seventy, in 1878 to sixty—are chosen from — among men of science in Switzerland or any other part of the world. There are also ‘‘associés libres,” who cannot be appointed before the age of twenty-five. ; Although women do not habitually attend the meetings, there is nothing to prevent them from being connected with the sige Mrs. Somerville was an honorary member from 1834 to 1873. ‘ Very many communications submitted to the Society have marked important stages in the development of science. At first some of the communications used to appear in foreign periodicals or in the Bibliotheque Britannique, which afterwards became the Aibliothegue Universelle. In 1820 it was decided that a collection of Memoirs should be issued, and that the task of selecting the papers should be intrusted to a Committee of Publication. This Committee still exists, its secretary being known as the corresponding secretary. The first volume, con- sisting of two numbers, appeared in 1821 and 1822, and in 1890 appeared the second part of the thirtieth volume. The publication of the Memoirs, many of which are accompanied with plates, is very costly, but sometimes the writers bear the whole or a part of the expense. A Auilletin, presenting a résumé of the proceedings, has been issued regularly since 1884, and an account has also been given since 1883 in the Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles. The funds of the Society are derived from subscriptions, gifts, and bequests. At first the amount of the annual sub- scription varied in accordance with the Society’s needs, but in 1860 it was fixed at twenty francs. From 1829 to 1854 the Society was officially recognized by the State as the ‘* Société Cantonale de Physique et d’ Histoire Naturelle,” and received an annual subsidy ; but during the last thirty-eight years there has been no relation of this kind between the Society and the Government. A sum of 1200 francs is paid annually by the Administrative Council for the books and memoirs with which the Society enriches the public library of Geneva. ae The various collections possessed by the Society have be given partly to the Museum of Natural History, partly. to the Botanic ‘‘ Conservatoire.” A prize of 500 francs is offered every five years for the best essay on a genus or family of plants. The sum of 2400 francs which enables this prize to be offered’ was left to the Society for the purpose in 1841 by A. P. de Candolle. Since 1886 the Society has reserved for itself, at a cost of 600 francs per annum, a place at the Zoological Labora-: tory of Villefranche, and the person who is to be allowed to take advantage of it is chosen in accordance with a fixed set of rules. Lege. The Society now includes fifty-four ordinary members, four emeritus members, fifty honorary members, and thirty-one associés libres. Among the honorary members are many of the most eminent men of science in Europe and America, = THE TRANSMISSION OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS THROUGH HEREDITY. THE bearing of insects upon this subject is very clearly brought out by Prof. C. V. Riley in a recently published paper on ‘‘ Some Interrelations of Plants and Insects” read before the Biological Society of Washington. After dealing with the facts connected with the irsects associated with the : interesting plants of the genus Yucca and the pollination of their . eee eeeey | Aen : sii flowers by the Yucca Moth, and touching briefly upon certain aspects of fig-caprification, he makes the following remarks :— ‘* Now, when it comes to the bearing which the history of these little moths has upon some of the larger questions that are now concerning naturalists (for instance, the transmission of acquired characters, or the origin, development, and nature of the intelligence displayed by the lower animals), broad fields of interesting opinion and conclusion open up before us—fields that cannot possibly be explored without trenching too much. upon your time, expressions of individual opinion, without attempting to elaborate the reasons in detail, and with the object of eliciting further discussion, which is one of the objects of the paper. My first conviction is that insect life and development give no ~ I will close, therefore, with afew summary = _ by Weissman and his followers. SEPTEMBER 22, 1892] NATURE 505 countenance to the Weissman school, which denies the trans- mission of functionally acquired characters, but that, on the contrary, they furnish the strongest refutation of the views urged The little moths of which I have been speaking, and indeed the great majority of insects— all, in fact, except thetruly social species—perform their humble ae in the economy of nature without teaching or example, they are, for the most part, born orphans, and without relatives having experience to communicate. The progeny of each year begins its independent cycle anew. Yet every indi- vidual performs more or less perfectly its allotted part, as did its ancestors for generation after generation. The correct view of matter, and one which completely refutes the more common idea of the fixity of instinct, is that a certain number of indi- viduals are, in point of fact, constantly departing from the lines of action and variation most useful to the species, and that these are the individuals which fail to perpetuate their kind and be- come eliminated through the general law of natural selection. ** Whether these actions be purely unconscious and automatic or more or less intelligent and conscious, does not alter the fact that they are necessarily inherited. The habits and qualities that have been acquired by the individuals of each generation could have become fixed in no other way than through heredity. Many of these acts, which older naturalists explained by that evasive word ‘‘instinctive,” may be the mere uncon- scious outcome of organization, comparab'e to vegetative growth; but insects exhibit all degrees of intelligence in their habits and actions, and they perform acts which, however voluntary and, as I believe, conscious in many cases, as in that of our Yucca - Moth, could not be performed were the tendency not inherited. larve which spins or constructs a hibernaculum, or a cocoon in which to undergo its transformations, exemplifies the potent power of heredity in transmitting acquired peculiarities. fh ditiddred Step of parasitic larvee, ¢.g., of the family Bra- conidze, which in themselves are almost or quite indistinguish- able from one another structurally, will nevertheless construct a distinctive cocoons—differing in form, in texture, in colour and in marking—each characteristic of its own species, andin many instances showing remarkable architectural pecu- rities. These are purely mechanical structures, and can have little or nothing to do with the mere organization or form or structure of the larva, but they illustrate in the most convincing manner the fact that the tendency to construct, and the power to construct, the cocoon after some definite plan, must be fixed by heredity, since there is no other way of accounting for it. This fact alone, which no one seems to have thought of in the discussion, should be sufficient to confound the advocates of the non-transmissibility of acquired characteristics. “Thus, to my view, modification has gone on in the past, as it is going on at the present time, primarily through heredity in the insect world. I recognize the physical influence of environment ; I recognize the effect of the interrelation of organisms ; I recognize, even to a degree that few others do, the psychic influence, especially in higher organisms—the power of mind, will, effort, or the action of the individual as contra- distinguished from the action of the environment ; I recognize the influence of natural selection, properly limited ; but above all. as making effective and as fixing and accumulating the various modifications due to these or whatever other influences, I recognize the power of heredity, without which only the first of the influences mentioned can be permanently operative.” __ FORTHCOMING SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. /\ MONG Messrs. MACMILLAN ANDCo’sann« tsarethe * following books:—‘‘Evolutionand Man’s Placein Nature,” by Prof. H. Calderwood ; ‘‘ A Primer of Practical Horticulture,” by J. Wright ; ‘‘ A Text-book of Tropical Agriculture,” by H. A. Nicholls, M.D., F.L.S., C.M.Z.S., with illustrations ; ‘* The Food of Plants,” by A. P. Laurie; ‘‘ Metal Colouring and Bronzing,” by Arthur H. Hiorns ; “‘ Differential Calculus for chools,” by Joseph Edwards ; ‘‘ The Beauties of Nature: and the Wonders of the World we live in,” by the Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., with illustrations ; **Finger Prints,” by Francis Galton, F.R.S., with numerous illustrations ; ‘‘ Hereditary Genius: an Inquiry into its Laws and Consequences,” by Francis Galton, F.R.S., new edition ; ** Materials for the Study of Variation in Animals,” Part L., discontinuous variation, by William Bateson, illustrated; ‘On NO. 1195, VOL. 46] Colour Blindness,” by Thomas H. Bickerton, illustrated (NATURE series) ; Hygiene: its Principles asapplied to Public Health, adapted to the requirements of the Elementary and Advanced Stages of the Science and Art Department, &c.,”’ by Edward F. Willoughby, M.B., new and enlarged edition ; ‘‘A Uniform Edition of Prof. Huxley’s Essays, Uniform with the works of Emerson, John Morley, &c., in 6 vols., comprising Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews, Critiques and Addresses, Science and Culture, American Addresses, Man’s Place in Nature,” &c.; ‘Atlas of Classical Antiquities,” by Th. Schreiber, edited for English use by Prof. W. C. F. Anderson ; ** Researches on the Propagation of Electrical Force,” by Prof. Henrich Hertz, authorized translation by Prof. D. E. Jones, B.Sc., illustrated ; ‘‘ A Text-book of Pathology : Systematic and Practical,”’ by Prof. D. J. Hamilton ; ‘‘ Electrical Papers,” by Oliver Heaviside ; ‘‘ Pioneers of Science,’’ by Prof. Oliver Lodge, with portraits and other illustrations; ‘‘ The Diseases of Modern Life,” by B, W. Richardson, M.D., new and cheaper edition; ‘*‘The Theory and Practice of Absolute Measure- ments in Electricity and Magnetism,” by Prof. A. Gray, Vol. II., and ‘‘A Theory of Wages and its Application to the Eight Hours Question and the Labour Problems,” by Herbert M. Thompson. Mr. MURRAY announces :—‘‘ Explosives and Their Powers,” translated and condensed from the French of M. Berthelot, by C. Napier Hake and William NacNab, with an introduc- tion by Lt.-Colonel J. P. Cundill, R.A., H.M. Inspector of Explosives, with illustrations ; ‘‘ Charles Darwin,” a Biography, founded on the ‘“‘ Life and Letters of Charles Darwin,” by his son, Francis Darwin, F.R.S., with portrait and illustrations ; ‘The Collected Works of Werner Von Siemens,” translated by E. F. Bamber, vol. ii. ‘‘ Applied Science,” with illustrations ; ** Notes by a Naturalist on H.M.S. Challenger,” a record of observations made during the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger round the world in the years 1872-76, under the command of Captain Sir G. S. Nares, R.N., K.C.B., F.R.S., and Captain F. T. Thomson, R.N., by H. N. Moseley, F.R.S., a new and cheaper edition, with portrait and numerous woodcuts ; ‘‘ Re- cords of a Naturalist on the Amazons during Eleven Years’ Adventure and Travel,’ by Henry Walter Bates, a new edition of the unabridged work, with a memoir of the author by Ed- ward Clodd, with portrait, illustrations, and map ; ‘‘ The Eng- lish Flower Garden: Design, Views, and Plants,” by W. Robinson, third edition, entirely revised, with many fine addi- tional engravings ; ‘‘ A Manual of Naval Architecture,” for the use of officers ot the Navy, the Mercantile Marine, ship- owners, ship-builders, and yachtsmen, by W. H. White, C.B., F.R.S., third edition, thoroughly revised and in great part re- written, with 150 illustrations ; ‘* Outlines of Ancient Egyptian History,” based on the work of Auguste Mariette, translated and edited, with notes, by Mary Brodrick, a new and revised edition ; ‘‘ The Metallurgy of Iron and Steel,” by the late John Percy, M.D., F.R.S., a new and revised edition, with the author’s latest corrections, and brought down to the present time, by H. Bauerman, F.G.S., with illustrations ; ‘* Studies in Modern Geology,’”’ by Dr. R. D. Roberts ; ‘‘ The Physiology of the Senses,” by Professor McKendrick and Dr. Snodgrass, with illustrations ; ‘‘ Outlines of Modern Botany,” by Prof. Patrick Geddes ; ‘‘ Logic, Inductive and Deductive,” by Prof. Minto ; “ Psychology: A Historical Sketch,” by Prof. Seth ; ** An Introduction to Physical Science,” by John Cox; and ** The History of Astronomy,” by Arthur Berry. Among the books in active preparation at the CLARENDON PRESS may be mentioned :—‘‘ The Logic of Hegel,’’ translated by W. Wallace, new edition; ‘‘ Mathematical Papers of the late Henry J. S. Smith, Savilian Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford,” with portrait and memoir, 2 vols. quarto ; ‘* Researches in Stellar Parallax by the Aid of Photography ” (Astronomical Observations made at the University Observatory, Oxford, fasc. iv.), by C. Pritchard, D.D., F.R.S.; a supple- mentary volume to Prof. Clerk Maxwell’s ‘‘ Treatise on Elec- tricity and Magnetism,” by J. J. Thomson; ‘*A Manual of Crystallography,” by M. H. N. Story-Maskelyne; ‘‘ Ele- mentary Mechanics,” by A. L. Selby; ‘‘ Analytical Geometry,” by W. J. Johnston; ‘‘A Treatise on the Kinetic Theory of Gases, by H. W. Watson, D.Sc., new edition ; ‘“* Hydrostatics and Elementary Hydrokinetics, by G. M. Minchin; ‘‘ A Text- book of Pure Geometry,” by J. W. Russell; ‘‘ Catalogue of Eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the Collection of the Oxford University Museum,” by Colonel C. Swinhoe : 506 and ‘‘ Epidemic Influenza: a Study in Comparative Statistics,” by F. A. Dixey, D.M. The CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESss promises :—‘‘ The Col- lected Mathematical Papers of Prof. Arthur Cayley, Sc.D., F.R.S.,” vol.v.; ‘*A History of the Theory of Elasticity and of the Strength of Materials,” by the late I. Todhunter, Sc.D., F.R.S., edited and completed by Prof. Karl Pearson, vol. ii., Saint Venant to Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thomson); ‘‘ A Treatise on Analytical Statics,” by E. J. Routh, Se.D., F.R.S., vol. ii. ; ‘-A Treatise on the Theory of Functions of a Complex Vari- able,” by A. R. Forsyth, Sc.D., F.R.S. ; ‘* The Jurassic Rocks of Cambridge,” being the Sedgwick prize essay for the year 1886, by the late T. Roberts, M.A. ; ‘‘ Fossil Plants as Tests of Climate,” being the Sedgwick prize essay for 1892, by A. C. Seward, M.A.; ‘‘An Elementary Treatise on Plane Trigo- nometry,” by E. W. Hobson, Se.D., and C. M. Jessop; ‘¢Euclid’s Elements of Geometry, Books v. and vi.,” by H. M. Taylor ; ‘‘Mechanics and Hydrostatics for Beginners” (this book will include those portions of these subjects which are re- quired for the Matriculation Examination of the University of London, by S. L. Loney) ; and ‘‘ Solutions to the Exercises in Euclid, Books i.-iv.,” ty W. W.. Taylor. Messrs. WHITTAKER AND CO. announce :—Prof. Oliver Lodge’s ‘* Treatise on Lightning Conductors and Lightning Guards ;” ‘* A Comprehensive Work on the Dynamo,” by C. C. Hawkins and F, Wallis ; ‘‘ Coal Pits and Pitmen,’” by R. Nelson Boyd, M.Inst. C.E. ; ‘*Pattern-Making for Students in Technical Schools and Apprentices,” by a Foreman Pattern Maker ; ‘* Fitting for Engineer Students and others,” by the same author ; ‘‘ Electrical Experiments,” by G. E. Bonney; ‘‘ Prac- tical Electric-Light Fitting,” by F. C. Allsop ; ‘‘ Electric- Light- ing and Power-Distribution,” byW. Perren Maycock, M.1.E.E. ; ‘* How to Manage a Dynamo,” by S. R. Bottone ; ‘‘ The Manu- facture of Soap,” by W. Lawrence Gadd, F.I.C., F.C.S. ; ‘¢Ship’s Carpentry,” by M. and A. Mowat; ‘‘ Hammered Metal Work,” by C. G. Leland, author of ‘‘ Wood- Carving ” and ‘‘Leather-Work,” In the Library of Popular Science—‘‘ Electricity and Magnetism,” by S. R. Bottone; ‘*Chemistry,” by T. Bolas, F.I.C., F.C.S.; ‘‘ Geology,” by A, J. Jukes Browne, F.G.S.; and other Volumes. An Import- ant Work for Medical Students—‘‘ Dissections Illustrated,” a Graphic Handbook for Students of Human Anatomy, by C. Gordon Brodie, F.R.C.S., with Plates, carefully drawn and put on the stone by Percy Highley, from dissections of the human body made by the Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Mid- dlesex Hospital Medical School, the first part of which, with 17 coloured plates of the upper limb, two-thirds natural size, will be issued immediately. In Mr. STANFORD’s list attention is drawn to :—A translation. into English by Dr. Hatch of Dr. Theodor Posewitz’s work on ‘Borneo: its Geology and Mineral Resources ” (the trans- lator has added a number of references and notes, and four new maps accompany the translation); a new book by Mr. Edward North Buxton, being an account of his adventures in pursuit of large game in various parts of the world (it will be entitled ‘* Short Stalks: or Hunting Camps, North, East, South, and West,” and will be accompanied by a number of original illustrations) ; the paper on ‘‘The Fayiim and Lake Mceris,” which Major R. Hanbury Brown communicated to the recent Oriental Congress, with photographs by the author, diagrams, and a new map; ‘‘Castorologia: or the Traditions of a Canadian Beaver,” by Mr. Horace T. Martin, of Montreal (the work will be a handsome octavo, with a number of maps and illustrations); ‘‘The Partition of Africa,” by Mr. J. Scott Keltie, Secretary to the Royal Geographical Society (it will be brought well up to date, and supplied with an excellent apparatus of maps); and new Editions of the following : ‘* Tanganyika: Eleven Years in Central Africa,” by Captain Hore ; the late Sir Andrew Ramsay’s ‘‘ Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain,” revised by Mr. W. Topley, F.G.S. ; Prof. James Geikie’s ‘‘Great Ice Age,” thoroughly revised ; and the late Sir Charles Anderson’s ‘‘ Lincoln Guide,” revised by the Rev. A. R. Maddison, Librarian and Succentor of Lincoln Cathedral. Messrs. BAILLIERE, TINDALL AND Cox have in the press :— ‘*A Manual of Practical Medical Electricity,” by Dawson Turner, M.D., F.R.C.P.. Ed., M.R.C.P. Lond.; ‘The Practical Guide to the Public Health Acts and Correlated Acts for Officers of Health and Inspectors of Nuisances,” by Thos. Whiteside Hime, M.B., second edition, enlarged; ‘* Modern Thera- NO. 1195, VOL. 46 | NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1892 peutics, Medical and Surgical, including the Diseases of Women and Children,” by Geo. H. Napheys, M.D., ninth edition, — revised and enlarged by Drs. Allen Smith and Aubrey Davis, — vol. i., Medical; ‘‘Diseases of the Throat and Nose,” a Practical Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment, with 220 typical — illustrations in chromo-lithography and numerous wood engray- _ ings, by Lennox Browne, F.R.C.S. Edin., fourthedition. = Messrs. WILLIAMS AND NorRGATE will publish:—‘‘ Against Dogma and Free Will,” by H. Croft Hiller, in which the author — wishes to prove from the discoveries of Weismanntheimpossibility of Free Will, the certainty of Science, and the uselessness of — Metaphysics ; and in two volumes ‘‘The Supernatural: its — Origin , Nature, and Evolution,” by John H. King, in which the — author treats first of the origin and nature of Supernal Concepts, and then of the evolution of the Supernatural in various nations and its modern presentations. a: MEssrs. GURNEY AND JACKSON have ready for immediate pub lication: —‘‘ Odorographia,”” a Natural History of Raw Mateirals ~ and Drugs used in the Perfume Industry, by I. Ch. Sawer, F.L.S.; — ‘‘The Birds of Lancashire,” by F. S, Mitchell, second edition, — revised and annotated by Howard Saunders, F.L.S., etc., with additions by R. J. Howard, and other local authorities; a fourth — edition of ‘‘ Destructive Distillation,” by Dr. Mills, F.R.S., and a book on ‘‘ Wild Spain,” by Abel Chapman and Walter J. Buck, treating of the beasts and birds of the Peninsula, deer, — ibex, chamois, wild boar, and lynx, and bustards, flamingoes, — eagles, vultures, game, and wild fowl, with more than 150 — illustrations. eae a MEssrs. SAMPSON Low AND Co., LIMITED, haveinhand:— — ‘‘ The Student’s Chemistry,” by R. L. Taylor, F.1.C., F.C.S., fully illustrated ; and ‘‘ The Glacial Nightmare,” by Sir Henry — H. Howorth, M.P., 2 vols. E — Messrs. CASSELL AND Co., LIMITED, announce ‘‘TheDawn ~ of Astronomy, by J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S.; ‘*Beetles, Butterflies, Moths, and other Insects,” a briefintroduction totheir collection and preservation, by A. W. Kappel, F.L.S., F.E.S., and W. Egmont Kirby, with 12 coloured plates; ‘‘Cassell’s Storehouse of General Information,” Vol. IIL., fully illustrated _ with high class wood engravings, and with maps and rec plates ; ‘‘ The Year-Book of Science” (second year of issue), edited by Prof. Bonney, F.R.S., and containing contributions. by leading scientific writers ; Popular editions of Figuier’s works revised by eminent British authorities, ‘‘ The Insect World,” ‘* Reptiles and Birds” (new volumes) ; and ‘* The Year-Book of Treatment for 1893,” a critical review for practitioners on pelt 4 cine and surgery. ee dane Messrs, CHAS, GRIFFIN AND Co., LIMITED, will issue **Dis- eases of the Heart (Diagnosis of),” by A. Ernest Sansom, M.D., F.R.C.P., with 13 plates and illustrations in the text ; ** Rup- tures, a Treatise on,” by J. F. C. Macready, F.R.C.S., with numerous plates engraved on the stone after photographs; ‘* Clinical Diagnosis : the Chemical, Microscopical, and Bacterio- — logical Evidence of Disease,” by Prof. von Jaksch, of Prague, ~ translated from the third German edition by Jas. Cagney, M.D., — with additional illustrations, many in colours, second edition; — ‘* The Diseases of Children: Medical and Surgical,” by H. Bryan Donkin, M.B., F.R.C.P., and Bilton Pollard, M.D., F.R.C.S. ; ‘*Gyneecology,”” a practical treatise on, by J. — Halliday Croom, M.D., with the collaboration of MM. Milne — Murray,"M.B., and Johnson Symington, M.D. ; ‘* Midwifery,” — a practical treatise on, by John Phillips, M.D. ; ‘A Manual of — Obstetrics,” for the use of students, nurses, and midwives, by — Arch. Donald, M.D. ; ‘‘ Forensic Medicine and Toxicology ” (a — text-book of), by J. Dixon Mann, M.D., F.R.C.P.; ‘A © Medical Handbook for the Use of Students,” by R. S. Aitchison, — M.B., F.R.C.P. Edin. ; ‘‘ Inorganic Chemistry ” (a Text-Book ~ of), by Dr. Dupré, F.R.S., and Dr. Wilson Hake, second — edition, revised ; ‘‘ Mind in Matter,” by the Rev. James Tait, — third edition, revised and enlarged, with special reference to later Darwinism ; ‘‘ Biology” (a Text-Book of), by Prof. J. R. ~ Ainsworth Davis, new edition, revised and enlarged, in two — parts: (1) Vegetable Morphology and Physiology, (2) Animal — Morphology and Physiology, with additional illustrations ;— **Coal Mining” (a Text-Book of), by H. W. Hughes, F.G.S., ~ with frontispiece and 490 illustrations, reduced from working — drawings ; ‘Ore and Stone Mining,” by Prof. C. Le Neve Foster, D.Sc., with numerous illustrations; ‘‘ Dyeing” (a ~ manual of), for the use of practical dyers, manufacturers, and ~ students, by Dr.. Knecht, Chr. Rawson, and Dr. R. Loewenthal, — with numerous illustrations and specimens of dyed fabrics; ~ Countries, SEPTEMBER 22, 1892] NATURE 597 ** Oils, Fats, Waxes, and Allied Materials, and the Manufacture therefrom of Candles, Soaps, and other Products,” by C. R. Alder Wright, D.Sc., F.R.S., with numerous illustrations ; ** Painters’ Colours, Oils, and Varnishes” (a practical Manual), by Geo. H. Hurst, with illustrations ; ‘‘ Applied Mechanics” an Elementary Manual of), for first year students, by Prof. A. amieson, F.R.S.E., with very numerous _ illustrations ; and ‘‘Griffin’s Electrical Price-Book,” for the use of electrical, civil, marine, and borough engineers, local authorities, architects, railway contractors, &c., edited by H. J. Dowsing. Messrs. SWAN SONNENSCHEIN AND Co.’s list contains :— ‘* Text Book of Embryology : Man and Mammals,” by Dr. Oscar Hertwig, translated and edited from the third German edition by Dr. E. L. Mark, fully illustrated ; ‘‘ Text-Book of Embryo- logy: Invertebrates,” by Drs. Korschelt and Heider, translated and edited by Dr. E. L. Mark and Dr. W. M. Woodworth, fully illustrated; ‘‘Text-Book of Comparative Geology,” adapted from the work of Dr. Kayser, by Philip Lake, fully illustrated ; ‘*Text-Book of Palzontology for Zoological Stud- ents,” by Theodore T. Groom, fully illustrated ; ‘‘ Text-Book of Pet: ,” by F. H. Hatch, D.Sc., a revised and enlarged edition of ** An Introduction to the Study of Petrology,” with 86 illustrations ; ‘‘ Handbook of Systematic Botany,” by Dr. E. Warming, translated and edited by M. C. Potter, fully illus- trated ; “‘ Practical Bacteriology,” by Dr. Migula, translated and ed by H. J. Campbell, M.D. ; ‘‘ The Geographical ibution of Disease in England and Wales,” by Alfred M.D., with several coloured maps ; ‘‘A Treatise on Public _ Hygiene and its applications in different European * by Dr. Albert Palmberg, translated, and the English | avs lited and revised, by Arthur Newsholme, M.D., fully strated; ‘‘The Photographer’s Pocket-Book,” by Dr. E. Vogel, translated by E. C. Conrad, illustrated ; ‘‘ The Recru- descence of Leprosy and the Report of the Leprosy Com- mission,” by William Tebb; ‘‘ Roaring in Horses: its Pathology and Treatment,” by P. J. Cadiot, translated by Thomas J. Watt Dollar, M.R.C.V.S. ** Introductory Science Text-Books” : additions—Introductions to the Study of ‘‘ Zoo- logy,” by B. Lindsay, illustrated ; *‘ The Amphioxus,” by Dr, B. Hatschek and James Tuckey, illustrated ; ‘‘Geology,” by Edward B. Aveling, D.Sc. (Lond.), illustrated; ‘* Physiological ology,” by Dr. Th. Ziehen, adapted by Dr. Otto Beyer Psych and C. C. Vanliew, with 21 illustrations ; ‘‘ Biology,” by H. J. Campbell, M.D. ‘Young Collector Series”: additions— _ ‘* Flowering Plants,” by James Britten, F.L.S. ; ‘‘ Grasses,” by | historic people at the Zimbabwe ruins. - trati W. Hutchinson ; ‘‘ Fishes.” by the Rev. H. C. Macpherson ; and ** Mammalia,” by the Rev. H. C. Macpherson. THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE has early ready for publication :—‘‘ Star Atlas,” gives all the stars m I to 6°5 magnitude between the North Pole and 34° south declination and all nebulz and star clusters which are visible in telescopes of moderate powers, translated and adapted from the German of Dr. Klein, by the Rev. E. McClure, M.A., new edition brought 4" to date, with eighteen charts and eighty illustrative letterpress. ‘‘ Vegetable Wasps and Plant orms,” by M. C. Cooke, LL.D., illustrated. Friends and Foes,” by Prof. Frankland, F.R S. . LONGMANS AND Co, are preparing for publica- tion :—‘‘ The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland : being a Record of Excavations and Explorations, 1891-92,” by J. Theodore Bent, F.R.G.S., with numerous illustrations of Mashonaland, and of the author’s interesting discoveries of the remains of a pre- : An English translation of Wiillner’s ‘‘ Lehrbuch der Electricitit,” in 2 vols., translated and edited by G. W. de Tunzelmann, B.Sc., with 310 illus- ut The English editor has added much new matter, and by some changes of arrangement and mode of presenting the subject has endeavoured to make it a truthful representation of the present state of electrical science. ‘‘Chemical Lecture We nae by G. S. Newth. RS. LAWRENCE AND BULLEN will publish :—‘*‘ Matricu- lation Chemistry,” by Temple Orme. Messrs. J. AND A, CHURCHILL promise “‘ Physiology” (Stu- dent’s Guide Series), by E. H. Starling, M.D.Lond., with too illustrations ; ‘* A Guide to the Science of Photo-micrography,” by Edward C. Bousfield, second edition, with 34 woodcuts and frontispiece; ‘‘Chemical Technology: or, Chemistry in its application to Arts and Manufactures,” with which is incor- porated ‘Richardson and Watts’ Chemical Technology,” edited by Charles Edward Groves, F.R.S., and William Thorp, NO. 1195, VOL. 46] **Our Secret B.Sc.: vol. ii. Lighting—Sections: Stearine, by Mr. John McArthur; Candles, by Mr. Field; Oils, Oil Fields, Lamps, by Boverton Redwood; Gas, by Chas. Hunt; Electric Light- ing, by Prof. Garnett ; ‘‘Commercial Organic Analysis,” by Alfred H. Allen, F.I.C., F.C.S. A treatise on the properties, proximate analytical examination, and modes of assaying the various organic chemicals and products employed in the arts, manufactures, medicine, &c., with concise methods for the detection and determination of their impurities, adulterations, and products of decomposition. Vol. iii, Part 2, Organic bases, cyanogen compounds, albuminoids, &c. ‘* Wilson’s Anatomy,” edited by Prof, Henry E. Clark, eleventh edition, with 26 coloured plates, and 492 woodcuts; ‘‘ Morris’s Ana- tomy,” a treatise by various authors: J. B. Sutton, H. Morris, J. N. Davies-Colley, W. J. Walsham, H. St. John Brooks, R. M. Gunn, A. Hensman, F. Treves, W. Anderson, and W. H. A. Jacobson, with more than 500 illustrations, many being coloured ; ‘‘ Ambulance Lectures,” to which is added a Nursing Lecture, in accordance with the regulations of the St. John Ambulance Association, by John M. H. Martin, M.D., third edition, with 60 engravings, 142 pp.; and an English edition of Tommasi-Crudeli’s well-known work on the Climate of Rome. Mr. LEwIs’s announcements are :—‘‘ Various Forms of Hys- terical or Functional Paralysis,” by H. C. Charlton Bastian, M.D., F.R.S.; ‘‘ Diseases of the Skin: Their Description, Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment,” by H. Radcliffe Crocker, M.D., F.R.C.P., second edition, with numerous illustrations ; ** A Text-book of Ophthalmology,” by Dr. Ernest Fuchs, trans- lated from the German by A. Duane, M.D., in one large octavo volume, with 178 illustrations; ‘* Public Health Laboratory Work,” by H. R. Kenwood, M.B., with illustrations; ‘* Hy- giene and Public Health,” by Lucius C. Parkes, M.D., third edition, with numerous illustrations ; ‘‘ A Handbook ofthe Diseases of the Eye and their Treatment,” by Henry R. Swanzy, M.B., F.R.C.S.L, fourth edition, illustrated with wood engravings, colour tests, etc.; ‘‘ A Pharmacopoeia for Diseases of the Skin,” edited by James Startin, third edition ; and ‘* The Sanitary Inspector’s Handbook and Text-book for Students preparing for the Examinations of the Sanitary Institute, Lon- don,” by Albert Taylor, with illustrations. Messrs. G. PHILIP AND SON have in the press :—‘‘ British New Guinea,” a compendium of all the most recent information respecting our Papuan Possession, by J. P. Thomson, with valuable scientific appendix dealing with the Geology, Fauna, Flora, &c., illustrated with numerous engravings and photo- graphs, and a coloured map; ‘‘ Christopher Columbus,” by Clements R. Markham, C.B., forming vol. vii. of the World’s Great Explorers and Explorations, with 25 illustrations and numerous coloured maps; ‘‘The Development of Africa,” a Study in Applied Geography, by Arthur Silva White, illustrated with a set of 14 coloured maps, specially designed by E. G, Ravenstein, F.R.G.S., second edition, revised to April 1892; ‘‘ Atlas of Astronomy,” a Series of Seventy-two beautifully executed Plates, with Explanatory Notes, by Sir Robert Stawell Ball, F.R.S. ; ‘* Astronomy for Every-Day Readers,” and a: Popular Manual of Elementary Astronomy, by B. J. Hopkins, with numerous illustrations. SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. Paris, Academy of Sciences, Sept. 12,—M. Duchartre in the chair.—On the heat of combustion of glycolic acid, by M. Berthelot. —Note on several new facts relating to the physiology of epilepsy, by M. Brown-Sequard. If by epilepsy is understood a group of reflex convulsive movements, it is invariably induced in guinea-pigs by cutting one of thesciatic nerves. If, however, the section has been made in the lower part of the thigh, the convulsive manifestations often are confined to the side of the lesion, and the animal retains consciousness. This is due to the regeneration of the nerve, which takes place rapidly, and which stops the development of the disease, or even cures it altogether. Generally, the greater the number of nerve fibres severed, the stronger is the tendency towards epileptic fits. A set of absolutely decisive facts have shown that a violent attack can be produced which is due to the spinal marrow alone. This epilepsy as displayed in guinea-pigs is absolutely equivalent to the idiopathic or cerebral disease in man. Clinical as e 508 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 22, 1892 well as experimental facts show that epilepsy has no special seat in the brain, but that all parts of the nervous system, central or peripheral, may give rise to it.—The meadows in the dry summer of 1892, by M. A. Chatin.— Absolute positions and proper motions of circumpolar stars, by M. F. Gonnessiat.—On a problem. of analysis involved in the equations of dynamics, by M. R. Liouville.x—On a recurring series of pentagons inscribed in the same general curve of the third order, which can be constructed with the sole help of the straight-edge, by M. Paul Serret.—On the calorific distribution of the heat of the sun at the surface of the northern and southern hemispheres of the terrestrial globe, by M. le Goarant de _Tromelin. It is sometimes thought that the fact of the sun being eight days longer in the northern hemisphere than in the southern, is the principal cause of the inequality of the distribu- tion of heat in the two hemispheres. It can, however, be shown that the quantities of heat received by two symmetrical elements of the earth’s surface, or by two caps symmetrical with respect to the earth’s centre, are the same during the durations of the earth’s journey comprised hetween two pairs of opposite vectors. Hence the total heat received by the northern hemisphere during spring and summer is equal to that received by the southern hemisphere during autumn and winter. The true cause of the difference of mean annual temperature in the two hemispheres lies in the difference of loss by radiation. By the law of cooling bodies, if two bodies have the same mean temperature, but different extremes, the one with the greatest extremes will lose most heat by radiation. Thus the southern hemisphere, which is nearer the sun in its summer and further away in its winter than the northern, will lose the greater quantity of heat.— Theory of a condenser interposed in the secondary circuit of a transformer, by M. Désiié Korda.—On the thermal variation of the electrical resistance of mercury, by M. Ch. Ed. Guillaume. The relation between temperature and conductivity was deter- mined by comparing the resistance of a mercury standard of about one ohm at different temperatures with another standard maintained at a constant temperature, with a special arrange- ment to eliminate the resistances of the contacts. The formula deduced was— pr = po(I + 0°00088879T + 0*0000010222T?), and the value of the standard mercury ohm— cm. ° (microlitre)é A ha —Ona ptomaine obtained from a cultivation of Micrococcus tetragenus, by M. A. B. Griffiths. This Micrococcus, found associated with human phthisis, gives rise to a ptomaine if cul- tivated on peptonised gelatine for several days. This ptomaine is a white solid, crystallizing in prismatic needles. It is soluble ‘in water, giving a feeble alkaline reaction. hydrate, a chloroaurate, and a chloroplatinate, all crystallizable. Nessler’s reagent gives a green precipitate, tannic acid a brown one, slightly soluble. The formula appears to be Cs5H,NO,. It is a poison, and produces death in thirty-six hours. It is un- doubtedly the product of the decomposition of the albumin by the microbe.—On echinochrome, a respiratory pigment, by M. A. B. Griffiths. Mr. McMunn discovered a brown pigment in the perivisceral fluid of certain echinoderms in 1883. This was separated by desiccating the fluid and dissolving out by chloroform. The formula of echinochrome is C,H ggNj.FeS.045. It serves a purpose in the body of the echinoderm analogous to that of heemoglobine in the human body, but is not so highly developed as the latter. The respiratory pigments in the lower animals not only carry oxygen to the tissues, but also retain ‘oxygen in combination till taken up by the cellules. Hence -echinochrome, like heemocyanine, chlorocruorine, and similar bodies, is more stable than hemoglobine.—Physiology of the pancreas, experimental dissociation of the external and internal secretions of the glands, by M. J. Thiroloix.—Influence of some deleterious gases on the progress of anthrax infection, by MM. A. Charrin and H. Roger.—Contribution towards the aseptic method in hypodermic therapeutics, by M. Barthélémy. On the construction of a luminous fountain with automatically variable colours, by M. G. Trouvé. BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. Booxs.—The Locomotive Engine and its Development: C. E. Stretton «{Lockwood).— Universal Atlas, Part 18 (Cassell).—Life Histories of North American Birds: C. Bendire (Washington).—Traité Encyclopédique de NO. 1195, VOL. 46] Photographie: C. Fabre ; Premier Supplément (Paris, Gauthier-Villars).— 4 VI. Jahresbericht (1890) der Ornithologischen Beobachtungstationen im Konigreiche Sachsen: A B Meyer u. F. Helm (Berlin, Friedlander).—Ele- — mentary Physiography: R A. Gregory (Hughes) me persian andthe © Measurement of Power: J. J. Flather (New York, Wiley)—A Manual of Veterinary Physiology: Veterinary Captain F. Smith (Baillitre).—Aus- — tralische Reise: R. v. Lendenfeld (Innsbruck, Wagner).— Medical Micro- scopy: Dr. F, J. Wethered (Lewis).—A Dicticnary of Terms used in Medi- cine, &c.: R. D. Hoblyn. 12th edition, revised by J. A. P. Price (Whit- taker).—The Sea and the Rod: C. T. Paske and Dr. G, Aflalo ge 9 ‘— and Hall).—A Lecture Course in Elementary Chemistry: H, T. Lilley — (Simpkin).—Modern Science in Bible Lands, popular edition, revised: Sir — J W Dawson (Hodder).—A Handy Book for Brewers: H. E. Wright a (Lockwood).—Reports from the Laboratory of the Royal College of — Physicians, Edinburgh. vol. iv. (Pentland).—The Fauna and ~ a of | Gloucestershire : C. A. Witchell and W. B. Strugnell (Stroud, James).—* Observations of Double Stars made at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Part 2, 1880-91 : Prof. A. Hall (Washington).— Experimental Evolution: Dr. H. de — Varigny (Macmillan).—Oriental Cicadidz, Part 6: W. L. Distant (London). — —Paraguay: Dr. E. de B. la Dardye (Philip).—Advanced Building Con- — struction (Longmans).—Transactions and Proceedings of the New , er a Institute, 1891, vol. xxiv. (Wellington).—Sea-sickness, Voyaging for Health, ealth Resorts : Dr. T. Dutton, 3rd edition (Kimpton).—Bulles de Savon: — C. V. Boys, traduit de l’Anglais par Ch. Ed, Guillaume (Paris, Gauthier- — Villars)—Up the Niger: Capt. A. F. Mockler-Ferryman a Burial and Cremation: A. G. Cobb (Putnam).—A Vertebrate Fauna of — Lakeland: Rev. H. A. Macpherson (Edinburgh, Douglas).—Contributions — to Horticultural Literature : W. Paul (Waltham Cross, Paul). 2h 4 PamMPHLETS.—Music in its Relation to the Intellect and the Emotions* J. Stainer (Noveilo).—Sadi Carnot et la Science de + M..G- q Mcuret (Paris, J. Cané).—Appendix to the Catalogue of the Flora of © Nebraska: H. J. Webber.—Maryland’s Attitude in the ggle for — Cc = (Baltimore).—Memorial of J. Lovering (Cambridge, jusetts, ilson). es = 6b q SERIALS, — Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, August — (Churchill).—Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, Au ¢ ; and Norgate).—T: tions of the Academy of Science of St, Louis, vol. Vex Nos. 3 and 4 (St. Louis).— Notes from the I.eyden Museum, vol. xiv. Nos.3 — and 4 (Leyden, Brill).— Economic Journal, No. 7 (Macmillan).— Journal of © Morphology, vol. vi. Nos. 1 and 2 (Boston, Ginn). ; e : It forms a chloro- - The Active Albumen in Plants. By O. Loew. . bo 7 Discovery of a Fifth Satellite to Jupiter. By W. F. q eA CROING 5... Sere ME a eee we AS Notes © ©. in 4 alse Gao ye Our Astronomical Column :— Val Proposed School of Practical Astronomy . - 4968 Double Star Measures: i). a0 alate 60 See) stig Comet Brooks (1882, August 27). ....... 496 CONTENTS. yer A 5-Sensation Theory of Vision .......-. Electrical Rules and Tables. ByG ...... The Moths of the World. ByG. F.H...... Our Book Shelf :— cA 2a Johns : “Grasses” 2 20). 0 = . Nixon: ‘‘ Elementary Plane Trigonometry” ... 483 Bourgade La Dardye: ‘‘ Paraguay: The Landandthe People, Natural Wealth and Commercial Capabili- ' ties” . Pas eae . < Pe is oh aa Letters to the Editor :— Waigsiomnte. Thunderstorms and Sunspots. (With Diagram.)— The Nova Aurige.—H. F. Newall. . PP Atmospheric Depressions and their Analogy with the Movements of Sunspots.—F. Howard Collins. . Direct Determination of the Gravitative Constant by — cm (2: me Means of a Tuning-fork. A Lecture Experiment. = —A. M. Worthington...» «».\s) ssa a A Meteor.—Grace E. Chisholm .. . eos eta AQUA Crater-like Depression in Glaciers. —André Dele- Becque ssc ae 5 sities Generalization of ‘“ Mercator’s’’ Projection Per- formed by Aid of Electrical Instruments. By Lord Kelvin, P.R.S. Nova Aurigee . -.)/\3i/ 3 .21be SS ales ee Aberration Problems. (J///ustrated.) By Dr. Oliver j. Lodge, ,P.R. Ginga gos ses eee Native New Zealand Birds. By the Earl of Onslow 502 A Century of Scientific Work. .....: .... 4 The Transmission of Acquired Characters through = Heredity!) 42.46. Ra yet Forthcoming Scientific Books . Societies and Academies . oes eae Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received bee 33 4 por goed been entertained by a like speech from little Dodo, 5°99 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1892 THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. The Speech of Monkeys. By R. L. Garner. Heinemann, 1892.) T is somewhat unfortunate, and is certainly not a little - embarrassing to the critic who desires to take Mr. Garner seriously, that he has chosen to present to the world “this first contribution to science on the subject” of the speech of monkeys in the form of popular and chatty anecdotes, with reflections thereon suitable for the delectation of elderly spinsters. This is the style of writing to which we refer, and of which the book before (London : _us largely consists :— ‘1 shall long remember how this dear little monk (Pedro the Capuchin) would cuddle up under my chin, and try so hard to make me understand some sad story which seemed to be the burden of his life. ... Ihave who was the Juliet of the Simian tribe. She belonged to the same species as the others, but her oratory was of a type far superior to that of any other of its kind that I have ever heard. At almost any hour of __ the day, at the approach of her keeper she would stand _ manner than either ofthe others... . . § upright and deliver to him the most touching and impas- sioned address. The sounds which she used, and the cali with which she accented them, as far as I could letermine, were the same as those used by Dago and Pedro in their remarks to me as above described, except that Dodo delivered her lines in a much more impressive I have not been able up to this time to translate these sounds literally, but their import cannot be misunderstood. My belief is that her speech was a complaint against the inmates of the cage, and that she was begging her keeper not to leave her alone in that great iron prison with all those __ big, bad monkeys who were so cruel to her.” This is the anecdotal style ; the heading of the chapter in which Dodo is introduced running thus: “ Dago talks about the Weather—Tells Me of His Troubles—Dodo in the ‘Balcony Scene,’ &c. It is not easy, we repeat, to deal with this kind of thing in a spirit of serious criti- cism. And then we have passages of which the following is a sample :— “1 assert that all mammals reason by the same means and to the same ends, but not to the same degree. The reason which controls the conduct of a man is just the same in kind as that which prompts the ape... . same faculty which guided man to tame the _ winds of commerce, taught the nautilus to lift its tentacles and embrace the passing breeze. . . . dang spark which dimly glows ursts into a blaze of effulgence in man. That in the animal The one differs _ from the other just as a single ray of sunlight differs from bell pyr light of noon. If man could disabuse his ind of that contempt for things below his plane of life, and hush the siren voice of self-conceit, his better senses might be touched by the eloquence of truth. But while the vassals of his empty pride control his mind, the plainest facts appeal to him in vain, and all the cogency of is lost. He is unwilling to forego that vain be- _ lief that he is Nature’s idol, and that he is a duplicate of Deity. Held in check by the strong reins of theology and tradition ”—and so forth for another page and a half. These be the reflections suitable for the delectation of _ elderly spinsters. We must excuse ourselves from criticising Mr. Garner’s remarks on reason in animals, for there is no evidence in his book that he has, by a NO. 1196, VOL. 46] NATURE | careful training in psychology, earned for himself the right of expressing a scientific opinion on this difficult question. And yet Mr. Garner is at work upon an interesting and important problem in the elucidation of which scientific results will be of great value; and he is working on the right lines, namely, those of experiment and observation in close contact with phenomena. It is worth while therefore, to dig out from his volume the few results of scientific value he has at present reached, to endeavour to set them in their true light, and to encourage him in the further prosecution of his labours. It is well known to all observers that animals emit sounds expressive of their emotional states, and that these sounds convey, and are often apparently intended to con- vey, an intimation to their fellow-creatures of such emotional states. No one who has watched a dog growl- ing, a cat swearing, or a lamb bleating, can question this elementary fact. The present writer has lately been ob- serving and making experiments with young chicks Towards the close of the first week there were at least five well-distinguished sounds: the soft “cheep” of con- tentment, the more excited note of unusual satisfaction, the complaining “‘weep-weep” of slight discomfort, the sharper cry when they were caught up, for example, by a strange hand, and, quite distinct from all the rest, the danger “churr.” There can be little doubt that these several sounds, as emitted by one of the chicks, were of suggestive value to its little brothers and sisters. And they were quite spontaneous and not the result of imitation, for the chicks had never seen any of their kind. Had these chicks been reared in the ordinary way, and not as experimental orphans, their hen mother would no doubt have given opportunity for observing that by certain sounds she could call her brood’s attention to things good to eat. And there can be little doubt that a dog can call its companion’s attention to something worriable, though whether there are differentiations, ¢.¢., for cat and rat, we cannot say. We have ourselves been unable to detect such differences in our own dogs. It is thus a matter of familiar observation that animals emit sounds which are of suggestive value, and that these sounds are in some cases suggestive of emotional states, and in others of external objects. It is to such sounds as emitted by monkeys that Mr. Garner has mainly directed his attention. Let us give in his own words some of his results :-— “ Standing near the cage of a little Capuchin, I imitated a sound which I had translated ‘milk, but from many tests I concluded it meant ‘ food,’ which opinion has been somewhat modified by many later experiments which led me to believe that he uses it in a still wider sense. It is difficult to find any formula of human speech equivalent to'it. While the Capuchin uses it relating to food and sometimes to drink, | was unable to detect any difference in the sounds. He also seemed to connect the same sound to every kindly office done him, and to use it as a kind of ‘shibboleth.’ More recently, however, I have detected in the sound slight changes of inflection under different conditions, until Iam now led to believe that the meaning of the word depends somewhat, if not wholly, on its modulation.” Again :— “T approached the cage [of another Capuchin], and uttered the sound which I have described and translated Z 510 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1892 ‘drink.’ My first effort caught his attention and caused him to turn and look at me; he then arose and answered me with the same word, and came at once to the front of the cage. He looked at me as if in doubt, and I repeated the word ; he responded with the same, and turned to a small pan in his cage which he took up ‘and placed near the door, through which the keeper usually passed his food, returned to me, and uttered the word again. I asked the keeper for some milk, which he did not have, but brought me some water instead. I allowed the monkey to dip his hand into the glass, and he would then lick the water from his fingers and reach again. I kept the glass out of reach of his hand, and he would repeat the sound earnestly, and look at me beseechingly, as if to say, ‘Please give me some more.’ I was thus convinced that the word which I had translated ‘ milk,’ must also mean ‘water,’ and from this and other tests I at last determined that it meant ‘drink’ in its broad sense, and possibly ‘thirst.’ It evidently expressed his desire for something with which to allay his thirst. The sound is very difficult to imitate, and quite impossible to write exactly.” We submit that these passages seem to indicate that Mr. Garner has not yet, in this matter, reached results which have much definiteness and precision. It would seem that the Capuchin emits sounds which are mainly expressive of a craving for something, and perhaps vaguely indicate that this something is water or other drink; though with regard to this objective implication we must remember that one of the capuchins “ seemed to connect this sound to every kindly office done him.” This is one of the nine words or sounds belonging to Capuchins. Another is the sound which Mr, Garner has translated “food.” Of it he says :— “T observed that this sound seemed to be a salutation or peace-making term with them, which I attributed to the fact that food was the central thought of every monkey’s life, and that consequently that word would naturally be the most important of his whole speech.” Another sound which was emitted by a monkey when a storm was going on, and which, when reproduced by the phonograph, made the little fellow look out of window, Mr. Garner translated “ weather,” or thought that it “in some way alluded to the state of the weather.” But he does not seem quite clear about it. “T am not sure,” he says, “ how far it may be relied upon as a separate word. It was so closely connected to the speech of discontent or pain, that I have not been able since to separate the sounds, and I finally abandoned it as a separate word ; but reviewing my work, and re- calling the peculiar conduct of this monkey and the con- ditions attending it, I believe it is safe to say that he had in mind the state of the weather.” Three other sounds are plainly emotional in their nature—(I) an alarm sound, used under stress of great fear, high in pitch, shrill and piercing; (2) a sound written thus “ e-c-g-k” expressive of apprehension ; and (3) a sound which is like a guttural whisper “c-h-i” expressive of the approach of something which the monkey does not fear. Such are some of the sounds which Mr. Garner mis- names (as we think) the “speech” of monkeys, and conceies which he exclaims :— “‘ Standing on this frail bridge of speech, I see into that broad field of life and thought which lies beyond the confines of our care, and into which, through the gates that I have now unlocked, may soon be borne the NO. 1196, VOL. 46 | sunshine of human intellect. What prophet now can foretell the relations which may yet obtain between the human race and those inferior forms which fill some place in the design, and execute some function in the — economy of nature?” ’ This, however, is one of those reflections which savour of the prattle of the parlour tea-table rather than the sober discussion of the study. We should rather say that Mr. Garner’s investigations, if followed up ina — spirit of critical accuracy, give promise of enabling him to extend our knowledge of the sounds emitted by monkeys—sounds which, we gather from his descriptions, are mainly, if not entirely, of emotional origin, but which may perhaps carry with them a more or less definite objective import. We are of opinion that such extension of our knowledge of these emotional or other sounds may prove a definite and valuable contribution to science, and we therefore heartily wish Mr. Garner all success in the prosecution of his inquiry. Cae M.. BEE-KEEPING. Dating Bees for Pleasure and Profit. By G. Gordon Seon .: (London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1892.) ‘: Hew doth the little busy bee, &c.?” asked Dr. — Watts a hundred and fifty years ago. So long as straw skeps predominated, the problem was insoluble. The bees improved each shining hour in perfunctory fashion, building crooked combs, confusing brood with honey, exhausting their republic with superfluous swarms, dying finally in the smoke-reek of an old pair of corduroys, j enriched for malarious exhalation by more than one — generation of bucolic wearers... With frame hives came F an Earthly Providence to answer.the pious query; to control the economy of the hive, to prescribe the number of drones, multiply or restrict the queens, straighten out q the combs, combine defective stocks intoa single opulent a society, disintegrate an overgrown community into new and independent nuclei, supplement the tardy growth of — brood or honey, increase fourfold the productiveness of every hive. It isas an adept in Providential operations that Mr. Samson writes. He renounces scientific erudition ; — and his allusion to “ powerful microscopes,” his reliance — on “ wonderful provisions of Nature,” his belief that by — confining their visits to one kind of flower ina single — journey the bees prevent the hybridization of species, show his disclaimer to be correct ; but apiarian science was brought up to date last year in Mr. Cowan’sadmirable book (NATURE, vol. 43, p. 578), leaving room for just such a a practical treatise on manipulation and manggeennt as Mr. Samson is competent to give. : No repetition can exhaust the interest attaching tothe _ strange life-history of the hive-bees. While the solitary — bees are created male and female, there appears in the © gregarious bees a third sex, the workers or neuters (not — neutrals,as Mr. Samson calls them), having rudimentary ~ ‘ ovaries and spermatotheca, incapable of laying eggs, with — the ovipositor modified into a sting; themselves, in — queenless hives, sometimes developed into more ad- — vanced yet still imperfect females, known as fertile | 7 workers, and producing only drones. In ordinary cases ~ a single queen is the mother of the entire hive, bearing drone eggs only in her virgin state, fecundated once for all by a solitary nuptial act for the production of more eT SEPTEMBER 29, 1892 | NATURE 511 than half a million of offspring During twenty-one days as egg, larva, pupa, the infant bee resides in the comb, fed by its older sisters on a paste of brood-food or chyle, to which in the case of workers honey is added after the first three days. For a week after emergence the young bee remains at home in order to secrete wax, which is detached from the wax pockets by others ; it is then pro- moted to the office of nurse; for a fortnight or three weeks afterwards it gathers honey; spends its maturity in the difficult work of comb-building, dies at the end of six or seven weeks, unless winter hibernation arrests its labour and prolongs its life. The moral of its unique biography has been pointed by many writers ; the social lesson of its communistic orderliness, the industrial ideal flowing from its co-operative toil and profit, the political : example impressed by the curious completeness with which, at once a red republican and an ardent cavalier, it combines extremest democratic sturdiness with devoted personal loyalty. The common hive bee, as distinguished from the Bumble, Carpenter, Mason, and other bees, belongs to 3 the genus Apis, of which one species only, A. medlifica, is indigenous to Britain. During the last few years the Ligurian, Carniolian, and Syrian bees have been largely introduced, from amongst which the cross known as S¥rio-Carniolian bears the palm for fecundity, docility, _ honey-gathering, and hardiness through the winter. With a swarm of these and a ten-frame hive the tyro may begin bee-keeping. In manipulating he must not wear gloves ; they make the fingers clumsy,and the sting, painful at first, causes diminishing i inconvenience on each successive inflic- tion, till the system is inoculated by the acid, and the sting isharmless. In creating their new home the bees require assistance ; one or two frames of brood-comb from the parent hive, with a limited number of drone cells, must be inserted. As the frames fill, the master, utilizing the fact that honey is always stored above the brood, places “supers” over the frames, removing them as fast as they are filled, while the full-charged combs from below are placed in an extractor and the liquid honey is withdrawn. As much as 100 pounds of honey have sometimes been thus obtained in one season from a single hive. The honey harvest begins with the blooming fruit trees in early spring, and slackens after the lime treés fade, but in heather districts a rich autumn store is raised, and Scottish bee-keepers, having reaped the early crop frou. bean and clover, send their hives by rail or boat to a considerable distance, to be placed upon the heath-clad moors in early August. When an unfavourable winter has depopulated the hives, it is possible to build up one strong colony out of, two or more weak stocks, retaining only the youngest un: The bees will resent the coali- tion, and a general fight will impend ; but if sprinkled with thin syrup and with flour their power of discerning Trojan from Tyrian is cancelled ae the identity of appearance and o scent. ** Just so the prudent husbandman, that sees The idle tumult of his factious bees, Powders them o’er, till none discern his foes, And all themselves in meal and friendship lose. The insect kingdom straight begins to thrive, And all work honey for the common hive.” Mr. Samson does well to press the economic value of bees not only as honey-makers, but as fruit-setters. In NO. 1196, VOL. 46] cold sunless springs their agency is essential to the fer- tilization of the bloom ; in districts adjoining a large apiary the fruit trees are invariably laden with heavy crops, deteriorating as we remove further from its neigh- bourhood ; and instances are well authenticated from the cider counties in which a general destruction of bees by a long and variable winter has been followed by the loss of the apple crop. Both fruit and honey are at present for the-most part imported from abroad ; if fruit is to be largely cultivated in the small holdings of the future, it must be sustained and enriched by bee-keeping. In this, as in other industries, there are occasional difficulties baffling to all but experts. Queens will refuse to be reared, supers will remain unfilled, stocks will need stimulation in the spring and building up in early winter, foul brood, deadliest of bee maladies, will infect the hive. In all such complications and for many more Mr. Samson offers full and clear instruction. Portable in form and cheap of cost, his book should form part, along with “smoker,” bee veil, queen cage, “ driving irons,” and “ doubling box,” of every bee-keeper’s equipment. W. TUCKWELL. A NEW COURSE OF CHEMICAL INSTRUCTION. A New Course of Experimental Chemistry, with Key. By John Castell-Evans, F.I.C. (London: Thomas Murby.) AS basis of the course of instruction here put forward consists in making the student perform an experi- ment with a definite object in view. The result of the ex- periment is carefully withheld, and must be discovered by the student himself. In this way he is led to acquire know- ledge by his own exertions, and theoretically at least such a method has more to recommend it than any other. In practice, however, the time required to rigorously carry out this system is no doubt an obstacle to its general adoption. If with the author we lay down the law that “ the stu- dent must not be allowed to use any chemical zame or term until he has discovered for himself the zhimg or pro- cess represented by it,” to acquire but a moderate know- ledge of the chemistry of to-day appears well-nigh an impossibility. It was thus a matter of interest to see how a work based on this system could be comprised within reasonable limits of space. The author, however, does not seem to intend the above restriction to be literally en- forced. To go no further than the first lesson, we find the student employing the ordinary chemicals, phosphorus, ammonium nitrite, potassium chlorate, &c., things which he makes no attempt to discover ; only in the case of the more important processes and substances usually met with in a chemical course is any such attempt made. The book consists of two parts. The first part con- tains a series of experiments and problems ; the latter being set upon a course of lectures which are in- tended to be given concurrently with the labora- tory instruction, and which deal more especially with the physical aspect of the subject. Outlines of these lectures, results of the experiments, and full solutions of the problems are to be found in the Key, which may be obtained separately or bound up with the 512 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1892 two parts. The experiments start off with the conmonly occurring phenomena of combustion, and lead up to the laws of chemical combination, the determination of chemical equivalents, vapour densities, &c. Part II. consists of qualitative and quantitative ana- lysis taken together, no attempt being made to separate the two. The results of the experiments are here care- fully withheld from the student, and are given in the Key. A useful table for the detection of the positive radicles is published separately, and may be used in connection with this part. The book can be recommended as a trustworthy one, and, apart from the novelty of the system adopted, as a storehouse of knowledge useful to the chemist, it will be appreciated by many a teacher. The problems are actual examples met with in the laboratory, and appear to be free from the artificial exercises so common in text-books. It is also noteworthy that they, as well as the lectures, are concerned toa con- siderable extent with the energy changes as well as with the material changes which constitute chemical ph eno- mena. In glancing at the tables of physical constants to be found as answers in the Key, it is frequently noticeable that these magnitudes are given to an accuracy which is altogether fictitious. For example, to express heats of vaporization or absorption coefficients to one part in thousands of millions, or to give a boiling point such as that of bromine to one thousandth of a degree Fahren- heit, tends to create an erroneous idea of the accuracy with which such determinations can be made. In one or two instances the information is not quite up to date. Hydrofluoric acid, for instance, is still formulated H,F,, and Bunsen’s values for the absorption coefficients of hy - drogen and oxygen are still given, although they have been superseded by the observations of Winkler and Timo- féef. Vander Waals’s work might have been included in the otherwise serviceable account of the kinetic theory of gases, and it is somewhat unfortunate that the author insists upon the narrow view that specific gravity has no other meaning than that which is perhaps more correctly attributed to relative density. The printing and the woodcuts are hardly up to the standard usually attained in books of this kind. bs: OUR BOOK SHELF. Die Pflanze in thren Beziechungen zum Eisen. Von Dr . Hans Molisch. Iron in its Relations to Plant-life . 8vo, 119 pages, with one coloured plate. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1892.) AN interesting essay on the presence, function, and form of iron in plants, embodying the results of previous in- vestigators and of the author’s experiments and researches extending over several years. Though the outcome of much labour, Dr. Molisch regards it as preliminary to more extended inquiries, and the whole subject as being yet inits infancy. He discusses the determination of the presence in the vegetable cell of iron in loose combina- tions and in dense combinations, or what he terms the masked condition. He then describes the occurrence and distribution of iron in plants in loose and dense combinations, and enters somewhat fully into the de- scription of a new method he claims to have discovered NO- 1196, VOL. 46] for proving the existence of iron in the masked condi- tion, even when it is present only in infinitesimally small quantities. This is done by soaking the objects one or more days or weeks in saturated aqueous liquor potassa, and then, after quickly washing them in pure water, sub- jecting them to the usual reagents. He further claims to have proved that iron is not one of the constituents of chlorophyll. There is also a short chapter on healing vegetable chlorosis by the use of chloride of iron, sul- phate of iron, and other salts of iron. W. Bi Bie Ga Up the Niger. By Captain A. F. Mockler-Ferryman (London: George Philip and Son, 1892.) SEVERAL years ago complaints were made about the conduct of various British subjects in the territories placed under the Royal Niger Company. The British Government accordingly sent Major Claude Macdonald to inquire into the matter. He was accompanied by — Captain Mockler-Ferryman, who in the present volume — gives a full account of the proceedings of the Mission. During the entire journey, which extended over more than 3000 miles, nothing “of a blood-curdling nature” occurred, so that any one who is attracted to books of travel mainly by the chance of finding them full of sensa- tional narratives, need not trouble himself with Captain Mockler-Ferryman’s pages. On the other hand, those who like to read about remote regions and their native _ inhabitants, will find in this book much to interest them. The author is an accurate observer, and notesinaclear ~ and unpretending style the facts by which his attention has been most strongly attracted. His descriptions of the native tribes of the Niger country, so far as he him- self observed them, are particularly good, and will not only please the general reader, but be of service to eth- nologists and anthropologists. A capital chapter on music and musical instruments, prepared from materials collected by the members of the mission, is contributed — by Captain C. R. Day, and the value of the volume as a \e whole is much increased bya map and illustrations. £ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Tre Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 4 pressed 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. | Density of Nitrogen. I aM much puzzled by some recent results as to the density of nitrogen, and shall be obliged if any of your chemical readers can offer suggestions as to the cause. According to two methods ‘of preparation I obtain quite distinct values. The relative difference, amounting to about zs55 part, is smallin itself; — but it lies entirely outside the errors of experiment, and can only be attributed to a variation in the character of the gas. - = In the first method the oxygen of atmospheric air is removed _ in the ordinary way by metallic copper, itself reduced by hydrogen from the oxide. The air, freed from CO, by potash, gives up its oxygen to copper heated in hard glass overa large Bunsen, and ¢hex passes over about a foot of red-hot copper ina — furnace. This tube was used merely as an indicator, andthe copper in it remained bright throughout. The gas then passed through a wash-bottle containing sulphuric acid, thence again through the furnace over copper oxide, and finally over sulphuric acid, potash, and phosphoric anhydride. : 4 In the second method of preparation, suggested tome by ~~ Prof. Ramsay, everything remained unchanged, except that the ~ Jirst tube of hot copper was replaced by a wash-bottle contain- — ing liquid ammonia, through which the air was allowed to” bubble. The ammonia method is very convenient, but the — nitrogen obtained by means of it was z9455 part dighter than the nitrogen of the first method. Thequestion is, to what is the discrepancy due? Aste) TO Sone y- - would be re alkaline pyrogallate. ene eee _ SEPTEMBER 29, 1892] NATURE 513 _ The first nitrogen would be too heavy, if it contained residual oxygen. But on this hypothesis something like 1 per cent. quired. {[ could detect none whatever by means of It may be remarked the density of this en agrees closely with that recently obtained by Leduc, the same method of preparation. On the other hand, can the ammonia-made nitrogen be too light from the presence of impurity? There are not many gases lighter than nitrogen, and the absence of hydrogen, ammonia, and water seems to be fully secured. On the whole it seemed the more probable supposition that the impurity was hydrogen, which in this degree of dilution escaped the action of the copper oxide. But a special experiment appears to exclude this Into nitrogen prepared by the first method, but before its yassage into the furnace tubes, one or two thousandths by volume of hydrogen were introduced. To effect this in a uniform manner the gas was made to bubble through a small hydrogen snerator, which could be set in action under its own electro- “motive force by closing an external contact. The rate of hydro- _ gen production was determined by a suitable galvanometer enclosed in the circuit. : But the introduction of hydrogen had not the smallest effect upon the density, showing that the copper oxide was capable of performing the part desired of it. Is it possible that the difference is independent of impurity, the nitrogen itself being to some extent in a different (dissociated) state? I ie, to have mentioned that during the fillings of the obe, the rate of passage of gas was very uniform, and about ! per y RAYLEIGH. Terling Place, Witham, September 24. ie ? Recent Spectroscopic Determinations. _ In the September number of the Phzlosophical Magazine Mr. Michelson has published determinations, by a most interesting method, of very close double and multiple lines. In any at- tempt to interpret his results, it is neccesary to bear in mind the ofound modifications which the internal motions of a :as—the rectilinear motions of the molecules between their encounters, as well as the motions going on within each molecule—had weer within the Geisler’s tubes upon which he experi- men In a gas under ordinary circumstances the rectilinear journeys of the molecules take place indifferently in all directions, and where this is the case it follows from the well-known relation between the surface of a sphere and that of its circumscribing cylinder, that the effect of the velocities which happen to lie be- tween v and y + 6r is to substitute for each line of the spectrum ; a band of uniform intensity and without nebulous edges, the width of which can be calculated. . This width, for ample, is ‘04 of an Angstrém or Rowland unit (the tenthet- metre), in the yellow part of the spectrum and for velocities of the molecules which lie in the neighbourhood of two kilometres per second, which is about the average velocity of molecules of byanones at atmospheric temperatures. Hence with all the velocities that prevail among the molecules, the effect of the rectilinear motions under ordinary circumstances is that each line will be symmetrically widened and rendered nebulous. To this effect Mr. Michelson calls attention. _ But in the residual gas of a Geisler’s tube through which electricity is passing, the case is altogether different. Here the rectilinear motions of the molecules are not alike in all directions, _ but preponderate in some : a state of things which must at least yuble the lines, and may introduce greater complications. _ Moreover, different lines may be differently affected, since the ‘behaviour of the gas varies according to its position between the lectr 3 as is evidenced by the observed differences in the form and colouring of the striz, &c., in the several parts of a Geisler’s tube. We must also be on our guard in another respect, when we attempt to interpret the results, since the distribution of the heat energy of a gas between the rectilinear motions of its molecules and the motions within the molecules, which in the case of ordi gas is a fixed ratio, is certainly largely departed from in gas through which electricity is passing. Until the laws of the new distribution are understood, the temperature of the gas, judged of by its behaviour to neighbouring bodies, will give us little information. It is to such events as are referred to above, or others which NO. 1196, VOL. 46] like them may arise from the special circumstances under which the vapour of sodium was in Mr. Michelson’s experiments, that we must apparently turn for an explanation of the doubling of the constituerts of the principal pair of sodium lines which he has detected ; since he found that ‘‘the width of the lines, their distances apart, and their relative intensities vary rapidly with changes in temperature and pressure.” The method of investigation which Mr. Michelson has so successfully applied appears to be by far the most searching means yet discovered of experimentally investigating the intricate and obscure phenomena which present themselves in Geisler’s tubes, and we seem justified in hoping for great results from it. G, JOHNSTONE STONEY. 9, Palmerston Park, Dublin, September 22. Printing Mathematical Symbols. EVERYONE who has had to correct printers’ proofs of mathe- matical formule: must be painfully alive to the pitfalls into . which the non-mathematical compositor continually blunders. To such as know the extreme difficulty of getting such formulz properly set up, there have doubtless occurred from time to time suggestions for such simplifications of notation as shall render the composition less liable to derangement. One most sensible step of the kind I allude to is the introduction by Sir G. Stokes of the solidus notation for quotients, whereby 2 is now written dy/dx. The immediate purpose of this letter is not to propound any wholesale scheme of reform, but to advocate one other simple step, and to induce some of my cozfréres to give the world their own suggestions. Exponentials are a continual stumbling-block to the com- -positor, and to the printer’s reader, who, when he comes to an expression like Ac~*, does his best to make it look a little straighter and turns it into Ae — ax, or into Ae— ax, or perhaps worse. The reform I advocate is to write the thing as follows :— A expl ai ax], the square brackets being possibly omitted in all cases when their omission would occasion no confusion. One gain in this rotation is the reduction of the whole of the symbols to one level, so not breaking the line of type. Another useful reform, though one on which I fear the probability of agreement is less likely, is the use of the Conti- nental notation for inverse trigonometrical functions, writing, for example, arc tan x, instead of tan-lx for the angle whose tangent is x. Our notation is not only liable to continual misprinting, but is very confusing to Continental readers, who again and again read the latter expression as mean- ing (tan x)-1, or cotan x. I have even seen it reprinted in a German technical journal as tan — Ix. SILVANUS P. THOMPSON. Technical College, Finsbury, September 22. A so-called Thunderbolt. DuRING a short storm in Liverpool this summer, I noticed one flash as peculiarly —e and noisy, and subsequently in the correct bearing from my house the ground was reported as having been struck by a thunderbolt. I examined the place, which was on the greensward of a lake, where the ground was penetrated by a number of fairly clean-cut almost vertical holes down which a walking-stick could be thrust. People sheltering near the lake reported a ball of fire and a great splash up of the 514 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1892 water. The odd circumstance about the damage was that it occurred on a simple grass slope, about half way between a tall boat-house on the one side and a drinking fountain standing on more elevated ground on the other. Small trees also were in the neighbourhood, and there was no apparent cause why the flash should have selected this particular spot ; though indeed it was not within any of the ordinarily accepted ‘‘areas of protection.” A gentleman—Mr. Hewitt—proposed digging for the meteor, and although fairly convinced that it was nothing but an ordinary flash, we thought it just possible that an acci- dental meteorite might have fallen during the thunderstorm ; in which event a flash down the rarefied air of its trail would be a natural consequence. It may be just possible that the popular belief in thunderbolts has some such foundation. At any rate the excavation was made, with the result of proving that it was an ordinary flash and that the lightning made use of a surface drain-pipe, about four feet deep, to get at the water of the lake. I enclose Mr. Hewitt’s report. OLIVER J. LODGE, DURING a thunderstorm on the afternoon of Sunday, July 3, 1892, what is described as a ‘‘ ball of fire” was seen by several persons to descend to the ground, near the south end of the Iake in Sefton Park ; and immediately afterwards a column of water, about sixty feet high, was shot up from the lake. On examining the spot where the ball of fire was seen to descend, several clean- cut holes were observed, and a sod was also found at a little dis- tan ce from the spot: A few days afterwards an excavation was carefully made. The sod being removed, the holes were traced down to a surface drain pipe four feet below the surface. At this drain the holes terminated, and the pipe was found shattered. The important holes were found to be six, the largest being seven inches in diameter, the others about two inches. No meteoric matter was found, but it seems curious that this effect was.brought about by a flash of lightning only, in an open space of sloping grass, when there were trees and houses close by. Aigburth, Liverpool. GrEorRGE H. HEwiItTr. Peripatus Re-discovered in Jamaica. Mrs. E. M. SwAINson has been so fortunate as to find on Beacon Hill, near Bath, three specimens of Perifatus, which-she has sent to the Institute of Jamaica. The species is doubtless identical with that found by Gosse many years ago at the other end of the island. Of the two specimens which we have studied, one has 36 pairs of legs, and is dark pinkish-brown, with the ends of the antennz pure white, in striking contrast ; the other is smaller and darker, without white ends to the an- tenn, and with only 29 pairs of legs. The third example, which we have still alive, is larger, but dark in colour. Full details will be given elsewhere later on, and it may suffice for the present to state that the species is very closely allied to B Ldwardsii from Venezuela, as described by Sedgwick, but differs in the greater number of legs and the white-tipped antennz of certain individuals (probably the females), in the only slightly curved (not hooked) claws, in the differentiation of the papillz into two distinct kinds on the dorsal surface, and apparently in other minor matters. There is no dark dorsal line. The genital orifice is between the penultimate pair of legs ; and the jaws are almost precisely as in Ldwardsii. The Jamaican species being evidently new, it is proposed to call it Peripatus jamaicensis. GRABHAM. September 5. T. D. A. COCKERELL. Reflection on Valley Fog. A LETTER from an observer at the Lick Observatory appeared in NATURE on August 25, reporting the reflection of mountains in a valley fog. I was therefore much interested to note the following in the Yorkshire Herald of September 7 :— ‘*S1r,—Possibly it may interest your readers to hear of a natural phenomenon I noticed this morning before 6 a.m. Overlooking, from Leyburn, the valley of Wensleydale, it ap- peared as though more than half of the dale was filled with water, like a great lake with rising hills on either side, and these hill-sides, above the level of the (apparent) flood, were distinctly reflected in it. The sun was shining brightly at the time, but almost immediately the mist began to disperse, and the mirage faded away. What struck me as unusual was the NO. 1396, VOL. 46] extraordinary distinctness of the reflection. Yours, AN EARLY RISER. September 5, 1892.” Side ae In both cases the reflecting film seems to have been near its ~ vanishing point. J. EDMUND CLARK. Impure Water in Bread. hea Raa SoME accurate answers to the following questions would be desirable, in view of public health. aad We er (1) What bacilli—if any—can survive in the amount and duration of the heat of baking in the interior of unfermented bread ? ae (2) What is the further effect of the carbonic acid of fermen- tation ? ae (3) What is the effect of the water being highly carbonated without fermentation, as in aerated bread ? a W. M. F. P. The Comets of Brorsen (1846 VII.) and Brooks - (1892 ‘‘d’’). ae THE elements of Brooks’s comet ‘ 1892 d,” as computed by — Berberich from four observations made between August 31 and September 5, bear a strong resemblance to those of Brorsen’s. comet of 1846, calculated by Oudemans, the figures being— _ Comet Comet) a0 Brorsen (1846 VII.) Brooks (1892 d@) T .-- 1846 June 5°479 ... 1892 Dec. 19°727 @ ... 260 12 §0 269 24 27 se} ie 261.83, 32 261 “259 z 29 18 47 2757 & Log g 980188 9°84455 Brorsen’s comet of 1846 was visible to the naked eye on May 14 ofthat year. It was supposed to be revolving in an elliptical orbit, with a period of about 400 years. W. F. DENNING. — Bristol, September 22. fl ee Seige NOTE ON THE PROGRESS OF THE DIOPTRIC LENS AS USED IN LIGHTHOUSE ILLU- MINATION. ee FPRESN EL, in 1820, devised and constructed a lens for first order lights of 920 mm. radius. It was composed of a plano-convex lens, with five refracting prisms concentric with it, and four segments of rings in the corners all gradually decreasing in breadth as they receded from the centre. The separate pieces of which these lenses were made up were cemented together and mounted in - metallic frames 30 inches square. Wee In 1835, the late Mr. Alan Stevenson introduced the French apparatus into Great Britain. In doing so he made several improvements, one of which was that he increased the height of the lens from 30 to 39 inches, at the same time diminishing the thickness of the glass. This. refractor had eight prisms above and eight prisms below the central lens. From that time Alan Stevenson’s lens was almost universally used until a comparatively recent. date, when a revolution in the size of lenses took place. A few years ago inventors were trying to obtain greater power by increasing the diameter and volume of the flames ; but Messrs. Stevenson pointed out, in 1869, that after a certain point an increase of diameter of the lumi- nary not accompanied by a corresponding increase of the radius of the apparatus was a-.mistake, as the light be- came ex-focal and divergent, and that the proper way to secure greater power was to enlarge the diameter of the apparatus. In 1885 they had a lens made to their design - of 1330 mm. radius, and having a height of 5 feet. This — lens, which was named “‘ Hyper-radiant,” was tried at the South Foreland against other lenses, and with a large o-ring gas burner it was found to give a light from one and a half to twice as intense as the ordinary lenses which were pitted against it, with the same large burners in their foci, thus proving conclusively that to get the power out of large burners it was imperatively necessary of Oe ee SC LOU lhe Oe SEPTEMBER 29, 1892] NATURE. 515 a to increase the diameter of the apparatus. In 1883 Messrs. Stevenson got an offer from Messrs. Barbier for a lens of 1840 mm. focal distance. All refracting lenses from the day of Alan Stevenson were cylindrical for fixed lights and plano-convex for re- volving lights, and no alteration of any moment has been made in the mode of their construction until 1888, when, instead of making the lenses cylindrical or plano-convex, I proposed to give them a spherical form, that is to say, circular not only in the horizontal but also in the vertical section. This design was carried into practice in the apparatus for one of the Fair Isle Lighthouses. The in- troduction of the spherical refractor has made practicable the construction of very much larger and consequently more powerful apparatus, and occupying much less space _ both in the daylight size and diameter of lantern, and, ence, diameter of tower. It has rendered practicable uadrilateral arrangement with hyper-radiant lenses which have already been erected at Fair Isle, the lenses being cut so as to give two flashes from each side of the - quadrilateral. An experimental lens made for Mr. Wig- ham is to betried in Ireland. It is 2m. focal distance, and the spherical refractor is 7 feet 6 inches diameter, and will give one flash from each side of the quadrilateral. M. Barbier says that in making this lens he was attempt- ‘ing to give the most powerful flash possible, and he adopted the spherical refractor. In this case, however, - ical refractor has been carried, in my opinion, rather far, except in the view of economy in keeping the angles of the whole apparatus within reasonable limits, which is only possible (in an apparatus of 4m. diameter) by the use of the spherical refractor, and by its being made to subtend a great angle. When I proposed this form I pointed out that there was a loss of efficiency if it subten more than 40°; now M. Barbier has made the ‘spherical portion subtend 64°, or 24° farther, and 8° farther than any spherical refractor yet made. The t amount of light which I experimentally found re- - by the greater divergence which takes place the spherical refractor, and which would be a smad/ source of loss in a revolving light, but would better illuminate the nearer sea in a fixed arc. Equiangular Refractor. To obviate the loss of light at the outer face of the lenses, especially those remote from the focal plane—a FiG. 2. Jp eee | VN \\ ¥ \ < VA \ \\ NN Aa eye — ACN * N. toey Sy wack N SANS SAAN NN \ \ x MeN turned from the inner face of the spherical refractor made for Fair Isle, however, shows that up to 20°, and perhaps farther, it is ample to make up for any loss of light caused ‘ © 1196, VOL. 46] \ \ \s aN loss which stops the refractor being carried with due regard to efficiency farther than 30° to 40° in the cylindrical form, and 20° in the spherical form—it will be found that the most efficient form is a refractor which I proposed, with the inner face of each lens doing equal work with the outer face, or nearly so—and by a careful study of such a refractor it will be found that the locus of the centres of curvature of each refracting lens lies out- side the refractor, and at points below the focal plane, and more and more remote from the lens, as the lenses are more and more remote from the focal plane, and that the inner face of the refractor ought, in fact, to be a parabolic curve (Fig. 1). This can very closely be approximated to by a circular curve with a suitably chosen centre on the focal line produced, but the centre is so far distant that when the spherical form and the equiangular form are used in combination (Fig. 2), the inner face of the equiangular prisms above and below it may, with sufficient accuracy, be made straight and lean- ing outwards in place of being vertical as in Fresnel’s form. By the combination of the spherical refractor and the equiangular, or a refractor of the equiangular form alone, the defect in Fresnel’s refractor, namely the loss of light at emergence from the lenses, especially those remote from the focal plane, is avoided, and the refractor may thus be made to subtend an angle which has hitherto been considered inexpedient, with glass of the ordinary 516 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1892 refractive index of 1°53. The equiangular prisms cause less loss of light by absorption and reflection than either the spherical or Fresnel refractors, and also act on the light so that ex-focal light is better dealt with, thereby reducing the divergence. . CHARLES A, STEVENSON. MODERN DYNAMICAL METHODS. pa DYNAMICAL system is said to possess a gcven number of degrees of freedom, when it is capable of assuming the same number of independent positions. The position of the system, in any possible configuration, is capable of being determined by a definite number of independent quantities, which are equal to the number of degrees of freedom of the system. These quantities are called the co-ordinates of the system. When the system possesses szx degrees of freedom, the motion may be completely determined by expressing in mathematical language a principle which may be con- veniently termed the principle of momentum. This prin- ciple is specified by the following two propositions :— (i.) The rate of change of the component of the linear momentum, parallel to an axis, of any dynamical system, ts egual to the component, parallel to that axis, of the im- pressed forces which act upon the system; (ii.) the rate of change of the component of the angular momentum about any axis, ts equal to the moment of the impressed forces about that axis. Since the motion pf the system may be referred to any set of fixed or moving rectangular axes, the above-mentioned dynamical principle furnishes six equations connecting the six co-ordinates, which, when integrated, will determine the latter in terms of the time and the initial circumstances of the motion. The various ways of expressing this dynamical prin- ciple in mathematical language are explained in treatises on dynamics: and a variety of special forms and par- ticular cases are obtained, by means of which the solu- tion of numerous problems can be simplified. For example, Euler’s equations, for determining the motion of rotation of a single rigid body about its centre of inertia, is a particular case of the second proposition; whilst Kirchhoff’s equations, for determining the motion of a single solid in an infinite liquid, is a special form of both propositions. hen a conservative system possesses seven degrees of freedom, the motion may be completely determined by means of the principle of momentum combined with the principle of energy. The first principle, as we have already shown, furnishes six equations, whilst the second furnishes one; hence, we have a sufficient number of equations for determining the motion. When a dynamical system possesses more than seven degrees of freedom, the principles of momentum and energy are insufficient to determine the motion; and under these circumstances, the most convenient method to adopt is to use Lagrange’s equations; but inasmuch as these equations are double-edged tools, which are apt to cut the fingers of the unwary, their employment re- quires considerable care. The kinetic energy of a dynamical system can be ex- pressed in a variety of different forms, but it will only be necessary to mention the following three. In the first form, it is expressed as a homogeneous quadratic function of velocities, which are the time-variations of the co- ordinates of the system. This form, which will be de- noted by T, is called the Lagrangian form; it is the only one which it is permissible to use when employing Lagrange’s equations, and many mistakes have been rie by persons who have attempted to use some other orm. In the second form, which is called the Hamiltonian form, the kinetic energy is expressed as a homogeneous NO. 1196, VOL. 46] quadratic function of the momenta of the system. If — ¢ be any co-ordinate, and © the generalized momentum __ of type 0, it is known that ? Ae whence 0 is a linear function of the velocities. Hence, if the velocities be eliminated from the Lagrangian ex- pression for the kinetic energy by means of (1), it follows that the latter will be expressible as a homogeneous quadratic function of the momenta ©, which is the Hamiltonian form. We shall denote this form by T. Lagrange’s equations are page a(or\. ot ae 08 aa ei 06 Be i 06 oa (2) where V is the potential energy ; and if the elimination be performed, we shall obtain ars de ,0T_ _ OV tay) rae) pe Fie we have also the reciprocal relation oo a C8... Equations (3) and (4) are Hamilton’s equations of motion. The third form of the expression for the kinetic energy is of special.importance in hydrodynamics and other branches of physics. It sometimes happens that a quantity occurs which can be recognized asa momentum, or as a quantity in the nature of a momentum, whilst the velocity corresponding to this momentum is either un- known or would be inconvenient to introduce. This occurs in problems relating to the motion of perforated solids in a liquid, when there is circulation, and is a par- — 4 ticular case of Dr. Routh’s theory of the “Ignoration of = We therefore require aformof Lagrange’s Velocities.”? | % equations in which certain velocities are eliminated, and are replaced by the corresponding momenta. a Let the co-ordinates of the system be divided intotwo groups, 6 and x; and let «x denote the generalized mo-_ a. mentum corresponding to x. Then mere se oT — * . . . . o7 (5) 4; : a By means of (5) all the velocities x can be eliminated, from the expression for the kinetic energy ; anditisre- markable, that the result of the elimination does not con- — tain any products of the form «#. The expression for T may accordingly be written . pike (6) T=T+8. . . . . where & is a homogeneous quadratic function of the velocities 6, and & is a similar function of the mo- menta x. : Equation (6) is therefore a mixed form, which is partly Lagrangian and partly Hamiltonian. We now require the corresponding form of the equations of motion in — which all the x’s have been eliminated from Lagrange’s _ equations. = From (1) it follows that the generalized momentum @ _ is a linear function of the velocities 6, x; andifthelatter — velocities be eliminated by means of (5), it follows that@ Let the 4 is expressible as a linear function of 6, k. portion which is a linear function of the «’s be denoted by © ; then it can be shown, that if L=2+23(66)-R-V.. (ey the equation of type @ is get d@oL OL _ (8) ne en na a 0.2. . eee atog 98 q t Having regard to the object of the theory, I think the phrase ‘‘ igs 3 noration of Velocities ” is better than ‘‘ Ignoration of Co-ordinates. ze \ ag u Lagrange and Hamilton. ‘Lagrangian function, which is equivalent to (7), was = 4 4 : . j | ... ; : q ‘ ' } x _ SEPTEMBER 29, 1892] NATURE 517 whilst that of type x is we OL: at ey ox =: . . . . . . (9) We have also the additional equations OF... = = “~ +6 fe) Sa (10) L OR. 3 er >( oa, ay _ Equations (7) to (11) were first given by myself in a pert published in the Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. for 1887 ; and it will be observed that they include the equations of A form of the modified given by Dr. Routh a few years previously ; but it is not of much practical use, owing to the fact that the elimina- tion of the velocities x has not been performed. It sometimes happens that the co-ordinates of the type x do not enter into the expression for the energy of the system, in which case they are called zgnored co-ordinates ;} under these circumstances it follows from (9), that all the momenta « are absolute currents. There are as many equations of this type as there are co-ordinates @, and an examination of this system of equations will show whether steady motion is possible, and if so, will determine the necessary conditions which the co-ordinates @ and the constant momenta « must satisfy. It can also be shown that the steady motion will always be stable when & + V is a minimum (see Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. May 1892). We have therefore the following simple rule for deter- mining the steady motion of a dynamical system when are ignored co-ordinates. Eliminate ail the veloci- ties corresponding to these co-ordinates from the expres- sion for the kinetic energy of the system, so that the latter is expressed in terms of the velocities 6 and the momenta x. Let & and V be that portion of the /ofa/ energy which does not depend upon the 6’s; then the conditions of steady motion are, that ® + V should be stationary, and the steady motion will be stable provided this quantity is a minimum. ' The preceding theorem also enables us to deduce bya very concise method all the results connected with the Steady motion of a liquid ellipsoid, which is rotating about a principal axis under the influence of its own attraction. It also enables us to examine the stability of these different cases of steady motion, for disturbances which produce an ellipsoidal displacement. j A. B. BASSET. THE PASSAGE OF GRANITE ROCK INTO FERTILE SOIL. PAVING for the last three or four years paid par- ticular attention to the natural formation of soil, I venture to believe that a concise account, or rather * I must confess that I do not like the phrase sfeed co-ordinates, intro- duced 44 Prof. J. J. Thomson, for it conveys absolutely no meaning to my mind. have no sympathy with the attempts, which have occasionall been made, to introduce short words of Teutonic origin into scientific nomenclature, as the words in question appear to me to be singularly deficient in point. NO. 1196, VOL. 46] summing up, of the results of my researches, and of the mass of my observations—in one typical direction—may be of interest to the readers of NATURE. As indicated in the heading, the making of soil from granite is the only section of a very large subject which will be briefly considered in this paper. : The agents concerned with the turning of granite (or any other rock) into a fertile soil may be shortly classified as mechanical, chemical, and vital. The first-named produce the largest results in bulk, and the principal mechanical agent with which we have to deal is frost. The second and third classes of forces are extremely important, as it is by their actions that the raw material of plant-food is prepared, though unfortunately poisons also are brought into being through their activity. These last-named classes, however, likewise materially aid the action of frost (or, in tropical countries, of varying tem- peratures) in the mechanical separation of rocky matter. To render my descriptions as little confusing as possible I will endeavour, without regard to classification, order, or divisions, to trace the history of a granite soil as I have observed it in many localities in Scotland, from the practically unbroken rock into the condition in which it has been made by nature fit to bear the most luxuriant crops. But first of all I must remind my readers of two or three geological facts about granite. It is a holo- crystalline (¢.e. wholly crystalline) igneous rock, com- posed essentially of orthoclase, quartz, and mica. In its most typical condition the last-named mineral is always of the biotite or magnesia-mica species. Besides these essentials we always find (in Scotch granites at least) plagioclase, other species of mica than the essential, apatite as an endomorph, z.c. locked up in the mass of other minerals, and magnetite, and almost invariably, if not always, a little pyrites, and more or less hornblende, &c. : A rough mineralogical analysis of Kemnay granite taken from the lowest working of the well-known quarry in Aberdeenshire gave the following percentages :— Orthoclase-felspar ... 42°00 Quartz... ... ae 22°00 Biotite-mica ... a 20°00 Plagioclase-felspar ... g‘00 Hornblende Wis 3°25 Muscovite-mica_... 3 2°00 Magnetite (and Ilmenite) ... 1°00 Pyrites Ker Fy 0°50 Apatite 0°25 Total... 100°00 The first change which comes over granite is the per- oxidation of some of the iron always present in its mass. This sets in, and increases to the greatest extent, of course, where air and water can most readily enter. The surface of the rock becomes browned with the hydrated ferric oxide formed, and brown skins, of a deeper colour than the surface generally, coat the walls of the original rock joints. But in the mass of the rock, away from these primary fissures, thereare areas which are more permeable than others from the surface, and through these, streaks of ferric oxide—anhydrous first, afterwards hydrated— are produced. , Those lines of rust are the beginnings of a new set of joints, which have not yet been properly recognized in geological literature, and which I will here call weather joints to distinguish them from the primary joints of consolidation and rock movements. The first oxidation streaks of the coming weather fissures are invisible to the eye, but can be determined under the microscope. They gradually increase in width above as they extend their lines beneath, and they afford passages through which water can more readily percolate than in the surrounding fresher areas, and as a consequence planes along which frost can more powerfully act. By 5138 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1892 the constant multiplying of the weather joints, which are ‘first marked out by oxidation as already indicated, and afterwards made definite and widened from the most ex- posed rock surface inwards by frost, one of the first steps in soil formation is accomplished. As those fissures are increased the uppermost portion of the rock is separated by them into distinct pieces, which latter are again in their turn broken up by the formation of weather joints in the same way as the original. The great bulk of a ‘soil has been produced in this way. While the oxidation of the iron, as I have observed, is very likely the first change to set in in every case, it is never left for any lengthened period to promote, by itself alone, the decomposition of the rock. Very soon the work of carbonation is seen to be progressing alongside of it, though at a considerably slower rate. The car- bonic acid gas of moist air, dissolved in the penetrating water, attacks the felspars, the biotite, and the horn- blende. The way in which it brings about the ‘decomposition of these minerals is interesting. Certain molecules succumb much more easily to the action of the carbonic acid than others, and the result is that scattered points of weakness from the thorough decomposition of these are brought into being in different parts of the ‘mineral, and those decomposed portions warp round about the other and fresher molecules, as shown in the annexed diagram, which has been constructed from what I have observed in decomposed felspars. The clay of decomposed felspar has great plastic and warping power. I have observed only 15 per cent. of pure clay ina mass hold the 85 per cent. of other and different constituents together in a plastic union as if the whole had been pure clay. There are two or three other hitherto unknown facts connected with the natural decay of felspars which I have ascertained from my re- Mee akin), Shas aiid hes ¢ bad — & ry ° ns 3 are * alii te ° waa 5 eee we : . ome dee ct air cs ° s 9 ny 5 ge ia TAN y oa) Diagram of kaolinized felspar X 260. The whole ground-mass is kaolin or pure clay; the bodies scattered through this are parts of the original felspar not yet decomposed. searches. I have noted two processes of decomposition— that which occurs when the carbonic acid is in excess or -can obtain free access to the mineral, and that which takes place when either of the opposite conditions prevails. In the first case the felspar—supposing it to be orthoclase— has the molecules of its body which are affected com- pletely broken up into clay, solid secondary or colloid silica, and carbonate of potash. In the second case, where for some reason a sufficient supply of carbonic acid cannot get within “chemical” distance of the fel- spar molecules, clay is produced as before—only more slowly—but the potash of the molecule is carried off in two sections, part as a carbonate, and part as a soluble silicate." From the Alagzoclase-felspar the same con- ditions produce similar results, except that the soluble silica which would be produced here is of course in com- bination with sodium. I have found the soluble silica of soils a/ways in the form either of silicate of potassium or sodium, and very frequently both of these occur mixed together. Biotite, by the continued action of carbonic acid, oxy- gen, and water, loses magnesia (taken out as carbonate) and iron (removed either as oxide or carbonate) and be- _.1 See also in this connection my article on ‘‘ The Action of Lime on Clay Soils,” Nature, Jan. 29, 1890. NO. 1196, VOL. 46] comes eventually the white or yellow muscovite variety which undergoes no further chemical change. In biotite, however, the chemical change usually takes place much more uniformly through the mineral body than ever happens in the case of the felspars. Hornblende by carbonation, oxidation, and hydration iy yields lime as carbonate until the whole of that base is — taken out, a trace of magnesia as carbonate (the bulk of this base is almost invariably left in the insoluble residue), the chief portion perhaps of its iron as oxide and carbo- nate, manganese as hydrated oxide, and any trace of sodium and potassium which it may contain as carbo- nates, or partially when conditions are less favourable as soluble silicates. The residue left after the hornblende has lost the above can generally be determined as some variety of chlorite (hydrated silicate of magnesia, iron, and alumina), which in the course of time by further loss of iron becomes an impure serpentine, and this later on a steatite or magnesia-clay, to which the greasy feel of soils is due. ee The fyrites of the granite rock is slow to change, but 3 it also is eventually acted on, by water and oxygen par- ticularly, the latter combining with its substance here and there to form a sulphate, which has a great mission in the physiology of the soil. : I have said that the afatzte occurs as an endomorph It is set free to dissolve slowly without change in ordinary carbonated water when the minerals which hold its microscopic needles in their substance are broken up, mechanically or chemically. The magnettte and zlmenite grains of the granite rock are only altered with provo- king slowness. the soil is, as far as I can see yet, of no importance. Traces at least of another mineral occur very frequently in granites. Their function, however, in the work of This is tourmaline, the history of whichin __ soils I have been investigating for the last half-a-dozen _ Pact years with some success. The chemical changes which I have been mentioning begin first on the exposed surfaces of the rock and along the faces of the primary joints. Then oxidation occurs in streaks and bands through the rock mass, and around those areas carbonation is most active. In fact oxida- — tion opens up the rock for further change, chemical as — well as mechanical. Frost is the principal agent of disintegration or a mechanical breaking up in this country, but a relatively — minute portion of the work is accomplished by heat and | cold, the friction of percolating water, changes in the degree of humidity of the atmosphere, the pressure exerted by roots, and so on. if No sooner does a fraction of the surface percentage of the exposed rock portion undergo chemical change than a new element in the making of soil comes into play— that, namely, of organic matter, first living, and then dead and living. We will deal first with the living matter. On the partially decomposed surface of rock, fungal and algal spores (the latter of a lowly type) settle and live and grow in symbiotic union as lichens. There are many different kinds of rock-lichens, but the vegetative physiology of all is identical. The surface of the growth which lies next the stone is engaged in parts, during moist weather at least, in the imbibition of water, with the ex- ceedingly meagre amounts of mineral matters dissolved 4 in it from the surface of the rock. Those absorbing areas of the under surface appear to be also superficial breath- ing organs, for they certainly excrete carbonic acid gas, which of course will join with the atmospheric carbonic acid in helping the work of decomposition of mineral — bodies. And it appears to me—though here I am not certain—that these absorbing areas are less generally — found over the quartz of the granite, which is not capable of chemical change, than over the decomposable minerals. The lower absorbing areas of the lichens are in their sa functional relations common to internal fungal and algal | SEPTEMBER 29, 1892] NATURE 519 _ members, and the upper surface of the colony is also a common absorbing (and transpiring) tissue, though here it is only the atmosphere gases which are taken in to the interior. There is not the slightest doubt but that the members utilize the nitrogen of the air; there is none in the rock for them to receive ; and that the algal or. members absorb carbonic acid gas from the air taken in, and combine it with the elements of water to make car- - bonaceous food, for that again is not presented to them from the rock ; the lichen growth cannot any more than is the case with higher plants utilize the carbon of the carbonates in the manufacture of carbohydrate hydrocarbon food. "In reproduction separate spores of algz and fungi are produced from the lichen, and some of these may germi- nate above the parent community and unite to form afresh colony upon the old, or a new colony may be produced from foreign spores. In any case we find generation after generation of lichens forming on the same favourable spot ; but succeeding generations are partially parasitic and saprophytic in nature, as is shown by the manner in which their lower absorbing surfaces or prolongations act on the lichen growths beneath them. By and by, when perhaps a score of lichen colonies have formed one above the other—the newer slowly extinguishing the life of the older—a vegetable considerably higher in the scale of being comes forward and caps the last lichen. This is some variety of moss. Spores of mosses, carried Ter stone to the stone surface, germinate there in moisture, and if n lichens, the moss plantlet develops into the adult. rhizoids pierce their way through the substance of the lichens, and many get down to the decomposing surface, while some never leave the lichen bodies. The action of the moss rhizoids -on living and dead lichens, also, I think, shows that that plant can be a erga a saprophyte as well as a normal vegetable eeder; and in this respect, except in its not utilizing the nitrogen of the air, resembles the later lichen growths. ‘In this way, by the succession of lichens and mosses (and afterwards higher plants), the essential organic ele- ment of soils becomes early incorporated with the me- chanically and chemically disorganizing rock. The dead organic matter changes in different ways: first, very slowly and very indifferently, by the action of air and water; and second, rapidly, by the spreading ‘ough its mass, where air has free access, of bacteria and other lowly fungi which are saprophytic, but can also ssimilate nitrogen from the atmosphere, as is shown by eir increasing, and not simply maintaining the original amounts of nitrogen left by their predecessors. By the first method of change the organic matter becomes the tougher former of humus, and humic and other related acids arise from it; by the second the mild, dry, or friable humus is produced and little or no humic acid. A very careful investigation shows that those bacteria which have the power of removing from the dead organic matter the elements of their nutrition give out by the decay (which occurs rapidly) of their bodies when they die the nitrogen and other elements in an active state. _ The nitrogen of the dead bacteria forms readily nitrate of or potash by contact with these bases. _ Now to give a short summary here. Oxidation of iron is the first change perceivable in granite; then creation and multiplication of weather joints, and carbonation follows; next humus is formed by lichens, and then higher plants ; following this, fungoid germs, capable of assimilating aerial nitrogen, become abundant ; finally all the three processes, mechanical, chemical, and organic, go merrily on together and contribute all in their proper shares to the formation of an ever-deepening soil, capable of supporting the luxuriant life of the highest plants. The humic acid which is formed by the inorganic decay of humus has a certain decomposing action, but it gradually changes to carbonic acid, with the action of which, in this NO, 1196, VOL. 46 | connection, we have already dealt. Well, to apportion the shares of the work done further. By disintegration, or mechanical action, the great rough mass of the soil is produced. By oxidation and carbonation, soluble minerals capable of entering the plant are prepared, and insoluble matters like secondary silica, pure clay, and steatite, are brought into being. By the action of living matter, rock decomposition is hastened, and nitrogenous substance is brought into the soil. By the presence and action of dead organic matter, rock decomposition is also forwarded, and a field for aerial nitrogen-assimi- lating germs is prepared. The table below gives a list of the materials found in the youngest granite soilon which nothing higher than rock-mosses are growing. Granite minerals in fairly fresh condition About 80 per cent. Clay and insoluble secondary silica About 3 per cent. Soluble silica wie ake oa ..- Not determinable. Carbonates of potash, soda, lime, mag- nesia, iron, and phosphate of lime Sulphates of above, except iron... Sulphate ofiron ... es ie Peroxides of iron and manganese Humus tes fas i About 2 per cent. Not determinable. Merest trace. About 3 per cent. 12 per cent. Total ... ... 100 per cent. Later on, as the soil deepens, we find some curious changes proceeding, which I will briefly indicate. Sul- phates are now produced in considerable quantities. Wherever iron-containing minerals are brought into con- tact with organic matter, sulphate of iron tends to form as well as carbonate (humate ?), and possibly other com- pounds; and the pyrites which was slow to change at the beginning now produces sulphate of iron with greater rapidity. The dissolved sulphate of iron coming into contact with the carbonates of the alkalies and alkaline earths liberated from the felspars, hornblende, &c., as already explained, causes a double decomposition. The ferrous sulphate becomes a carbonate, and the carbon- ates of lime, potash, soda, &c., become sulphates. The iron carbonate, where exposed to air, readily oxidizes to ferric oxide, the chief colouring ingredient of the soil. Now, in the finished soil, which, it must be remem- bered, is when produced from granite a loam, we have the following approximate composition, as fairly typical of a good granite soil such as may be found in the valley of the Don in Aberdeenshire :— Per cent. Pure clay and steatite ... |... about 10 Insolubles { Quartz and secondary silica ... ,, 20 Muscovite (si) 2.2.) aati dea Orthoclasess<* 0st ht..g hes ease yy. GO Plagioclase: |: zal iitee coi tapi ates) 997-4 Biotite Sas Pe ae oy DONTE Sey | SUE NN eS * fabs ; eee, | aces eee me of Hematite and limonite (ferric Raneemstion oxides) and manganic oxide [Sid Pyrites Sia) emer ceteres team 'aty tS Humus and animal organic +! matter, Tifigi,meCiis fares te 55 5S -Injuri Humic acid Age oe! yp OF. in a Soluble silicate pettaotieres: s507 2 O33 co at Ferrous sulphate’... ... ... 5, 0°5 ‘Phosphates of lime, magnesia, potash, soda, &c. Se DRE Sulphates of lime, potash, soda, magnesia, &c. ... ... ,, 08 Non-injurious \ Nitrates of lime, potash, soda, solubles magnesia, &c “oe eRe RN rae Pee AEE Carbonates of lime, potash, soda, magnesia, &c. cee o'l Chlorides of above 50 ON ly ee Water and air (mechanically held) in dry summer perhaps about... ... 0... «93 32 Total 100'O ¥ More than o*r per cent. is injurious. 520 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1892 In conclusion I have to point out, as shown by my in- vestigations commenced four years ago, that farmyard manure laid on to the land is only rendered properly available to the crops by the action of bacteria as indi- cated above in connection with the natural humus, The inorganic forces have little action upon it, except in pro- ducing humic acid and other injurious matters. The most of the soluble mineral substances in a mature soil, it may also be mentioned, are in the form of sul- phate. They originate from the primary minerals as carbonate, but are soon altered, mainly by the ferrous sulphate. The sulphate unfortunately is not the most suitable form in which minerals can be presented to plants for absorption, for the simple reason that, being so stable in chemical union, it causes the loss of too much of the plant’s energy in the interior of its body before it can be decomposed. It must be remembered that green plants decompose the compounds which enter their system before they utilize their elements or simpler forms in the elaboration of food. ALEXANDER JOHNSTONE. Edinburgh, August 5. THE IMPERIAL -INSTITUTE AT ST. PETERSBURG} N November, 1885, some months after the publication of Pasteur’s discovery for the treatment of hydro- phobia, an officer of the Russian Guards was bitten bya rabid dog. This officer having been sent to Paris to undergo the treatment, his Highness Prince Alexander Petrowitch d’Oldenburg established, at his own expense, a provincial laboratory at St. Petersburg, where Pasteur’s treatment could be duly carried out. This establishment, however, soon proved to be too small for scientific inves- tigations to be properly carried out therein, and it was decided to build a large laboratory in which researches might be made under the best possible conditions ; accordingly the same enlightened nobleman bought a piece of ground of 37,464 square metres in extent, on which the present Institute is built. The buildings comprise physiological, pathological, chemical, bacteriological, and epizootological sections, with their laboratories, under the direction of such men as Neucki, Winogradsky, and others. There is also a department where Pasteur’s treatment is carried out, together with a'small hospital for infectious cases. Each section is complete in itself, and all the arrangements are on the newest principles and on a very large scale. The expenses are defrayed partly by the Prince of Oldenburg and partly by public subscription, and the whole Insti- tute compares favourably with any Institute in France or Germany. The directors of the Institute publish every two or three months a volume embodying the scientific results obtained in the laboratories, and the first two numbers have now been published. As might be expected after what has just been said, their contents are of wide and varied interest. Neucki publishes some chemical researches on the microbe producing inflammation of the mammary glands of milch cows and goats, and his paper will specially interest those who in this country have fol- lowed the remarkable researches of Dr. E. Klein. Wino- gradsky gives an account of the various nitrifying organisms discovered by him in the soil of different countries. This author quotes the researches of Prof. and Mrs, Frankland, and of Prof. Warington, and though to some extent contradictory, Winogradsky’s researches agree with those of the English observers in all essential particulars. This paper is certainly the most important which has as yet appeared on this vexed question. The results obtained by Pasteur’s treatment in St. Petersburg * “Archives de Sciences Biologiques publi¢es par l'Institut Impérial de Médecine Expérimentale & St. Pétersbourg,”’ Vol. 1, No. 1 et 2. NO. 1196, VOL. 46] form the subject of a paper by Kraiouchkine, and it may be mentioned that the treatment appears to have been as successful at St. Petersburg as in Paris. The other papers refer to the chemical and physioe logical effects of tuberculin (Bujwid, Helman), to the transformation of nutritive media by the bacillus of — diphtheria, and to the chemical composition of this micro-organism (Dzierzgowski and Rekowski), while Blachstein endeavours to draw a distinction between the bacillus coli communis and the bacillus typhi abdomin-— alis, based on the chemical decompositions produced by these organisms in the media in which they grow. Lastly, Mizerski and L. Neucki give a critical résumé of the — methods used to estimate the acid contained in gastric juice. The researches which form the subjects of these a are varied enough, and whilst congratulating their authors we may express the hope that the Institute will have a long and prosperous career. Our good wishes must be tinged with regret for ourselves—regret that there should quantity of hydrochloric not be a similar Institute in England, and regret alsothat —_ there should be in this country a class of people who will — oppose the establishment of such an Institute until a Bishop or Royal Duke has died of rabies. M. ARMAND RUFFER. — NOTES. Last week much anxiety was felt as to the health of Sir Richard Owen. On Monday his condition was better, and the improvement, was maintained on Tuesday. THE herbarium of the British Museum has acquired, by pre- sentation from the widow, the very valuable collection of Mus- cineze, made by the late Mr. George Davies, of Brighton. It 4 comprises upwards of 20,000 specimens of mosses, hepatica, and lichens, partly gathered by Mr. Davies in Great Britain and a on the Continent, partly communicated to him from New Zealand, Samoa, India, the West Indies, and America, Pror, HIERONYMUs has been appointed curator of the Royal Botanical Museum at Berlin. THE Exhibition of the Photographic Society of Great Britain was opened on Monday at the Gallery of the Royal Society of Painters in Waterco lours. It will remain open till November 10. WE regret to have to record the death of Mr. George Croom Robertson. He was fifty years of age, and only lately, in con: sequence of ill-health, resigned the professorship of Mind and Logic at University College, London, to which he was appointed _ in 1866. Prof. Robertson was well knownas a brilliant teacher — of the subjects to the study of which he devoted his life, and at the editor of AZzd. He was associated with Prof. Bain in the editing of Grote’s ‘‘ Aristotle,” and was the author of the volume on Hobbes in Blackwood’s series of ‘* Philosophical Classics.” He also contributed to the latest edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.” Dr. GEORGE Dixon LONGSTAFF died at Wandsworth on Friday last in his ninety-fourth year. When a young man he was assistant to Dr. Hope, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, and he is believed to have been the first teacher of practical chemistry to medical students in this country. He was one of the founders and a vice-president of the Chemical Society of London. Students of folklore will be sorry to hear of the death of Reinhold Kohler, librarian at Weimar, 1830. learning, well known as an authority on the subject in which he was chiefly interested. SS where he was born in He died on August 15. Dr. Kohler was a man of great — } | i a M SEPTEMBER 29, 1892] NATURE 521 _ Tue American Academy of Arts and Sciences has published an excellent ‘‘Memorial” of Joseph Lovering, who was a Fellow of the Academy from 1839 to 1892, Corresponding _ Seeretary from 1869 to 1873, Vice-President from 1873 to 1880, and President from 1880 to 1892. - December 25, 1813, and died on January 18, 1892. _ **Memorial” consists chiefly of speeches delivered, and letters _ read, at a meeting held for the commemoration of his life and _ services, with a biographical sketch by Prof. J. P. Cooke, Secretary of the Council, and a list of Prof. Lovering’s publi- _ ations. At this meeting the chair was taken by Dr. A. P. _ Peabody, who said that there was a certain fitness in his leading Mr. Lovering was born on The the proceedings, as Mr. Lovering had been his pupil. Speaking of Prof. Lovering as a teacher of physical science, Prof. J. P. Cooke said: ‘‘He was one of the best lecturers I have ever ‘known, and I have known the greatest masters of my time.” : a During the past week the weather has been of a decidedly cyclonic type ; large disturbances have reached us with consider- able frequency from the Atlantic, and have mostly passed to the northward of Scotland. The winds have been moderate to strong from the south-west, but have at times attained the force ofa gale at places in the north and west, while on Tuesday they were boisterous inall parts of the United Kingdom. The rain- fall has been somewhat heavy in the north and west, but light in _ the southern parts of the kingdom, where, during the first part of the period, the weather was generally fine, ‘with occasional mist or fog in the mornings. The temperature has, on the whole, been mild, the day readings ranging from 60° to 65° over _ most parts, while in the extreme south they have exceeded 70° on several occasions. The Weekly Weather Report published on the 24th instant shows that some of the night minimum tem- _ peratures during that week were very low for the time of year, the shade thermometer falling to 25° in the east of Scotland, and to between 28° and 31° in most other parts. AMONG the valuable discussions which appear in the < Repertorium fiir Meteorologie, issued under the authority of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, is one in vol. xiv., by B. von Nasackin, on the Storms of the Baltic, being in fact a continuation of similar works (by other authors) for the Black and White Seas. The data used in the discussion are taken chiefly from lightkeepers’ journals and stations on the coast. The general results show that the yearly frequency of storms differs considerably in different years, and the number of storms at individual stations also varies considerably. In the western part of the Gulf of Finland and in the south of the Baltic storms are much more frequent than in the other parts. The mean wind-direction lies between south and west, and the principal storms occur from the same _ direction, and also between west and north. The maximum number occurs almost everywhere in December, and the minimum in August. a Das Wetter for August contains an article by Dr. R. Assmann on the treatment of persons apparently killed by lightning. The different effects on persons struck would prove that the intensity of the flash is subject to considerable fluctua- tions, and recent photographs of lightning, in fact, show that in addition to the principal flash there are always weaker ones branching out in all directions, like the roots of a tree. It may therefore well be assumed that the intensity of the latter is considerably less than that of the principal current. He quotes a case near Berlin in the summer of 1891 where a number of soldiers were struck by lightning ; among them an officer, and a bugler holding his horse, were both struck. The officer shortly afterwards recovered, while the bugler was to all appearances dead, but the officer at once adopted the method of artificial NO. 1196, VOL. 46] respiration as applied to the apparently drowned, by which means the bugler was gradually brought back to life. Dr. Assmann states that there can be little doubt that ifthis method . were applied soon after the stroke, and continued for at least a quarter of an hour, many of those apparently killed might be restored to life. A VALUABLE paper by Prof. E. W. Hilgard, on the relations of soil to climate, has been published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Soils being the residual product of the action of meteorological agencies upon rocks, it is obvious, as Prof. Hilgard says, that there must exist a more or less intimate relation between the soils of a region and the climatic conditions that prevail, or have prevailed, therein. Prof. Hilgard dis- cusses, both from a theoretical and from a practical point of view, some of the more important phenomena dependent on this correlation, and their effects on the agricultural peculiarities of the chief climatic subdivisions. HERR K. FLEGEL gives, in the Allgemeine Zeitung for September 12, an interesting account of archzological dis- coveries he has made this summer in the island of Kalymnos,’ near the coast of Asia Minor. At a height of about 220 metres, not far from Emporid, he found the remains of an ancient fortress which seems to belong to the same class of buildings as those of Mycenz and Tiryns. The remains, which are comparatively well preserved, include Cyclopean walls and a tower. A gate- way (14 metre in breadth), the forecourt, a cistern, and a stone oil-press survive. In the valley of Vathy, Herr Flegel came upon the remains of walls of an acropolis, which he describes as older than the fortress of Emporid. In the new instalment of the proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society (Part 4, Vol. VI.), Mr. J. J. Fitzpatrick has some interesting notes on the Deep Dale Bone Cave near Buxton. In a paper read before the society in 1890, Mr. Fitzpatrick called attention to this cave, and described the various objects of interest which had been found in it up to that time. In his present paper he gives an account of the results of more recent researches carried on by Mr. W. Millet, of Buxton, by whom the cave was discovered. At the entrance is a refuse heap, three feet thick at the top, extending ten feet on either side of the entrance, and sixty feet down to the stream at the bottom of the dale. Among the objects found in this refuse heap are bones of the horse, stag, Celtic shorthorn (Bos longifrons), dog, pig, sheep, goat, wild boar, three flint flakes, a piece of bronze with Celtic pattern, fragments of pottery, including Samian ware, -pseudo-Samian ware, Romano-British ware, coins of the Emperor Claudius, and female ornaments, including fibule, earrings, brooches, and rings, At the bottom of the heap were found two flint arrow-heads. In the second chamber of the cave a hole, eight feet deep, has been dug. The upper bed, three feet thick, is composed of dark clay, with angular fragments of limestone. The second bed, which is from six to sixteen inches thick, consists of broken fragments of stalagmite, limestone, and gravel. In this a human jawbone has been found. The third bed, the thickness of which has not been ascertained, consists of a stiff yellow clay, containing large pebbles, two of which have been artificially pointed at one end. The human jawbone has twelve teeth, with the enamel and dentine in an admirable state of preserva- tion. There were originally fourteen teeth, the two ‘‘ wisdom teeth” not having been developed at the time of the death of the person to whom the jawbone belonged. The mark of the weapon which gave what was perhaps the death wound is dis- tinctly visible. _The weapon penetrated deeply into the bone in a slanting direction, with an upward inclination, and the blow must have been struck from behind. Another object found in the second chamber is a small bronze box, filled with 522 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1892 grey ashes, supposed to be the ashes of a cremated person. The lid is moulded with the raised zigzag pattern common in - Roman ornamentation, the hollow parts being let in with red and green enamel. In the lower chambers, as stated in Mr. Fitzpatrick’s former paper, the following mammalian remains have been found :—A skull of the brown bear (Ursus arcéos), a skull of the Celtic shorthorn (Bos longifrons), teeth of the reindeer (Cervus tarandus), and of the red deer (Cervus elaphus), part of the skull of the wild boar (Sus scrofa), and some human bones. THE July number of the Korean Repository opens with an article by the Rev. Dr. Edkins on the Persians in the Far East. He shows from native sources that at a very early period the influence of Persian ideas penetrated into China. The wide acceptance of these ideas was due in part to the doctrine of a future life, but Dr. Edkins attributes even more importance to the worship of the god of fire as the special ruler of the hearth and the god to be worshipped by newly married people. This, he says, is so adapted to2the natives of Eastern countries with their strong family instincts, that it has easily kept its place and still has a firm hold on the popular mind. In another article a writer who signs himself ‘* Viator ” indulges in much enthusias- tic admiration of Korea and the Koreans. He is especially emphatic in his praises of the scenery around Seoul, with its ‘* grand amphitheatre of granite hills.” ‘* The city wall,” he says, ‘‘ climbing over the most precipitous ridges, the sentinel peaks of Nam San, with its chevelure of fine trees, and the bold castellated rocks of Poukan, which on the south and north re- spectively keep guard over the capital, with many other points both within and without the walls commanding varied and ex- tensive views, would alone in any tourist-frequented land make Seoul a show-place of the guide-books.” The ordinary Korean he describes as ‘‘a docile and happy creature.” WE learn from Za Mature that MM. Olivet, of Geneva, have brought out a new system of electric heating applied to conser- vatories, which may prove very useful where a motor force is at one’s disposal. A dynamo, worked by some motor, sends the current into receivers of special metallic composition, which be- come rapidly heated, but without exceeding a certain tempera- ture. A heated air current is set up as with steam-heating. The advantages of the system are: Absence of all unwholesome gas or vapour which might injure the plants, simplicity of con- struction in the parts conveying the energy, perfect safety as regards heat, which can be regulated at will, convenience and rapidity in starting and extinction, and cleanliness. Mr, A. C. MACDONALD, of the Agricultural Department of Cape Colony, refers with much regret (in the official publication of the Department) to the senseless way in which the ant-bear is being exterminated. This animal, he says, is one of the few indigenous four-footed friends of the Cape farmer. ‘‘ Its food is the ant, more especially the white ant, an insect which feeds on our crops and the succulent herbage of the veld, and which does much greater damage than is generally supposed. Although the ant has numerous enemies (among which is reckoned the koran, a bird which I am happy to say is now being preserved on some farms solely for this purpose), yet none are so destructive to its welfare as the ant-bear. It is only when on the surface of the ground that the ant runs any danger from its winged foes, but above or below ground it is always within reach of the ant-bear. But it is not only as a destroyer of ants that the ant-bear is of value to the farmer. A large percentage of the seeds of our herbage, after they have dropped off the plant on the hard ground, lose their germinating power from being exposed day after day to the scorching rays of the sun. The ant-bear, as it goes scratching about for ants, covers a large number of seeds with loose earth, in which congenial bed they will retain their repro- NO. 1196, VOL. 46 | ductive power for a long period, awaiting the moisture from the skies to shoot out and propagate their kind. And yet this. animal, harmless in other respects, is being slowly but surely — ) ' exterminated. For its skin, which is valued at about 15s., and also for its flesh, which resembles superior pork, it is sought after by the natives. With the white race ‘sport’ is the induce- ment, this fun taking the form at times of forcing the poor brutes out of their holes by flooding with water, or drowning them and digging them out afterwards.” ae Pror. G. C. CALDWELL, of Cornell University, his been making oleomargarin a subject of careful investigation, and a presents the results of his researches in a valuable paper inthe September number of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. He thinks that if made of unsuitable materials oleomargarin may 4 contain germs of disease, and that the process of manufacture 3 ought to be carefully inspected by capable officials ; but there is no positive proof, he says, that it is now, or ever hes been, made t ot such materials, or that any disease has ever been communi- 4 cated to man byits use. He is also of opinion that, when ‘pro- perly made from fresh and clean materials, it differs but slightly in healthfulness from butter. He records, however, arathersignificant incident which has recently come to his knowledge. At an asylum for blind children, in Louisville, Ky., where good butter had been supplied, good oleomargarin butter was substituted, No notice was given of the change, and evenif the appearance of the substitute would have betrayed it, the blind children could not have seen it. There was no evidence that they wereinany way conscious of the change; but it was observed that they gradually ate less and less of the new butter and finally they declined it altogether. No bad effect on their health could be discerned. They made no complaint in answer to the in- quiry as to the reason for not eating the butter other than that they did not care for it. It was as if it did not adapt itself to any need of the system. ‘‘This,’’ says Prof. Caldwell, ‘‘ cer- tainly must be allowed to count squid the complete fitness. of oleomargarin as a substitute for butter.”’ A Fietp Narura.ists’ CLus was formed lat year in 4 Trinidad, and seems likely to do much useful work. It eee = lishes a journal, and in the third number, which we have — received, gives reports of its meetings from the beginning. In the meeting on January 8 Mr. Mole announced that he ha found a Peripatus Edwardsii in the St, Ann’s Valley ; and Mr : Urich stated that he also had found a specimen of the same 4 species at Azouca. ca THE report of the Government Centra 1 Museum, Mascon for = 1891-92, has been published. In an interesting appendix Mr. | H. Warth, the officiating superintendent, gives an account, among other subjects, of the tin district in Burma. The 4 tin-bearing deposits are, he says, of two kinds. First, there is g the tin gravel which is found in all or most of the valleys, a mixture of rough white quartz pebbles with sand, garnet, black tourmaline, and grey cassiterite. The thickness of the gravel — varies from 1 to 6 feet, and the yield of cassiterite may be put down as at least 4 per cent. or 1 pound of cassiterite (tin dioxide) in 400 pounds of gravel. There are washings going on at many places, but some valleys have been more or less ex- ~ hausted. The work suffers also under the disadvantage that the — greater part of the country is quite uninhabited, that food hasto be brought from a distance, and that there is always danger of sickness. Chinamen are the chief workers. The second kind — of tin-bearing deposit is the original eruptive rock, which is weathered so that it is possible to wash out the grains of | whitish cassiterite which it contains. Mr. Warth visited the a principal deposits of this kind near Malewun in July 1891. q He took samples from several excavations and washed them. The mean is a yield of only o° "04 per cent. of impure snus) tine a a SEPTEMBER 29, 1892| NATURE 523 Thus one pound of impure tin dioxide requires 2500 pounds of weathered rock. The rock is traversed by a series of parallel | veins of white quartz indicating the origin of all the white quartz _ pebbles in the tin-bearing gravels, these gravels being nothing _ but the accumulation, during probably thousands of years, of the washings from the elevated outcrops of tin-bearing eruptive _ rock. ‘The original tin-bearing deposit of weathered rock has : been washed during a good many years. It requires a very _ good supply of water and very large deposits, otherwise the _ labour would be far too great and such works could not com- _ pete with those in the gravels. Among the rock specimens | a of ‘the district are also grey limestones from Mount Tampra, | ree days’ canoe journey from Lenya. This mountain Mr. Warth _ found fringed with caves which most likely owe their origin : to the action of the sea. As they are now 160 feet above - the ‘sea, it appears that the land has been raised that much in | ie ively recent time. If so, then the time during which a most of the tin gravels formed was also comparatively limited. - ‘Tue third part of the tenth annual report of the Board of e. Fishery for Scotland has just been issued. It deals with the _ Scientific investigations carried on during 1891. First there is 4 a general Statement of the results achieved ; then comes aseries of general reports ; and these are followed by papers recording ag sal investigations. Finally, Dr. T. Wemyss Fulton s gives an account of contemporary scientific fishery investigations £ in | hi ; and other countries. The following are the papers 2 ealing with biological investigations : On the food of fishes, by : oe eR Smith ; observations on the reproduction, maturity, and - Sexual relations of the food fishes, by Dr. T. W. Fulton ; addi- tions to” ‘the fauna of the Firth of Forth, part iv., by Thoreas b 3; contributions to the life-histories and devélpment of the ) od and other fishes, by Prof. McIntosh, F.R.S. ; on two large _ tumours in a haddock and a cod, by Prof. Prince and Dr. J. L. 4 Steven. We may note that the volume is enriched with many e plates. Messrs. R. FRIEDLANDER AND Son, Berlin, have just issued the sixth annual report (for 1890) of the ornithological stations of f observation in the kingdom of Saxony. The report has been repared by A. B. Meyer and F. Helm, who have evidently spared no pains to make their work thorough and accurate. In 5 an appendix observations relating to other animals in Saxony, besides birds, are recorded. There is also a list of the birds which | up to the present time have been observed in that country, with notes as to their geographical distribution elsewhere. Tue Clarendon Press has reprinted Mr. J. G. Baker’s ‘‘ Sum- _ mary of New Ferns discovered or described since 1874.” i" WoRK-on “ The Great Barrier Reef of Australia, its Pro- a and Potentialities,” by Mr. W. Saville-Kent, is to be issued by Messrs. W. H. Allen and Co. The barrier reef of Australia, represented by a vast rampart of coral origin, extends * for no less than twelve hundred miles from Torres Straits to _ Lady Elliot Island on the Queensland coast. Between its outer + border and the adjacent mainland it encloses a tranquil ocean _ highway for vessels of the heaviest draught. To the naturalist, and especially to the marine biologist, the entire barrier is _ described as “a perfect Eldorado, its prolific waters teeming with animal organisms of myriad forms and hues, representative of every marine zoological group.” The author’s object _ will be to render an account, in clear and popular language, both from a commercial and from a biological standpoint, of the most attractive subjects connected with the barrier region. There will be sixteen plates in chromo- lithograph, ~ with grouped illustrations produced from original water-colour drawings by the author, and forty-eight plates in photomezzo- type from original negatives, | NO. 1196, VOL. 46] cP eM a ra ok iy Tue New Zealand Institute has published its Transactions and Proceedings during 1891 (vol. xxiv., seventh of new series). The volume is edited by Sir James Hector, and contains many papers of considerable interest and value. The papers presented in the Transactions are grouped under the headings of Zoology, Geology, Botany, and Miscellaneous. The Proceedings include those of the Wellington Philosophical Society, the Auckland Institute, the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, the Otago Institute, the Westland Institute, the Hawkes Bay Philosophical Institute, and the Nelson Philosophical Society. THE Journal of Botany-for September gives an account of the results of M. J. Bornmiiller’s* botanical exploring expedi- tion in Persia. The flora of the district visited is a very abun- dant one, but not many new forms were gathered. The moun- tain sides of Kuh Jupar, at a height of between 2900 and 3000 metres, were covered with dense forests of an undescribed species of Ephedra. THE number of the Oesterreichische Botanische Zeitschrift for September is almost entirely devoted to the discussion of the question of botanical nomenclature, and the opinions on the various disputed points, of the leading English and Continental botanists. MEssrs. Crospy Lockwoop AND SON announce the fol- lowing works :—‘‘ The Microscope: its Construction and Man- agement,” by Dr. Henri von Heurck, Director of the Antwerp Botanical Gardens, translated from the French by Mr. Wynne E. Baxter, F.R.M.S.; ‘‘ Electric Ship-Lighting: a Practical Handbook for Electrical Engineers and others,” by J. W. Urquhart ; ‘“‘Toothed Gearing: a Practical Handbook for Office and Workshop,” by a Foreman Pattern Maker, author of ‘* Pattern Making,” &c. ; ‘‘ The Mechanics of Architecture : a Text-book for Students,” by E. W. Tarn; ‘‘ The Visible Universe: Chapters on the Origin and Construction of the Heavens,” by J. E. Gore; ‘‘The Health Officers’ Pocket Book: for Medical Officers of Health, Sanitary Inspectors, Members of Sanitary Authorities, &c.,” by Edward F. Wil- loughby, M.D. (Lond.); ‘* The Art and Science of Sail Making,” by Samuel B. Sadler, practical sail maker ; ‘*The Complete Grazier and Farmers’ and Cattle Breeders’ Assistant : a Compendium of Husbandry, originally written by William Zouatt, thirteenth edition, entirely re-written, consider- ably enlarged, and brought up to the present requirements of Agricultural Practice,” by William Fream, LL.D. ; ‘‘ Farm Live Stock of Great Britain,” by Robert Wallace, professor of Agriculture and Rural Economy in the University of Edinburgh, third edition, thoroughly revised and considerably enlarged ; ‘‘ Tramways: their Construction and Working,” by D. Kinnear Clark, M.Inst.C.E., new edition, thoroughly revised, in one volume ; ‘‘ The Wood-worker’s Handy Book: a Practical Manual embracing information on the Tools, Materials, and Processes employed in Wood-working,” by Paul N. Hasluck ; ‘‘ The Metal-worker’s Handy Book: a Practical Manual embracing information on the Tools, Materials, and Processes employed in Metal-working,” by Paul N. Hasluck ; ‘Practical Lessons in Roof Carpentry,’’ by Geo. Collings ; ‘*The Steam Engine: a Practical Manual for Draughts- men, Designers, and Constructors, translated from the German of Herman Haeder, revised and adapted to English Practice,” by H. H. P. Powles. MEssks. BELL AND SONS are about to publish the following books :—‘‘ The Student’s Hand-book of Physical Geology,”’ by A. J. Jukes-Brown, with numerous diagrams and illustrations, second edition, revised and much enlarged (Buhn’s Scientific Library) ; ‘‘ Sowerby’s English Botany,” Supplement by N. E. Brown, of the Royal Herbarium, Kew (to be completed in eight 524 NATURE [SEPTEMBER 29, 1892 or nine parts); ‘‘Fungus Flora,” a classified text-book of Mycology, by George Massee, author of ‘‘ The Plant World,” with numerous illustrations, 3 vols., vols. i. and ii. ; ‘* The Framework of Chemistry,” Part 1, by W. M. Williams. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, Liverpool, has issued its prospectus of day classes in arts and science, and of the evening lectures, for the session 1892-93. Part 48 of Cassell’s Mew Popular Educator, with title-page and contents to vol. viii., has been issued. The next monthly part of the work will form the first part of a technical series of Cassell’s New Popular Educator, published under the title of Cassell's Mew Technical Educator. MEssrs, DULAU AND Co, have published a catalogue of works on electricity, galvanism, and magnetism—works which they offer for sale. Four lectures on Cholera will be delivered by Dr. E. Symes Thompson in Gresham College on October 4, 5, 6, and 7, at six o’clock p.m. The lectures will be free to the public. THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include a Rhesus Monkey (Macacus rhesus 6) from India, presented by Mrs. Trafford Rawson; a Green Monkey (Cercopithecus callitrichus 6) from West Africa, presented by Mr. A. de Turckheim; two Tigers (Felis tigrisé 2?) from India, presented by the Maha Rana of Oodeypore; a Grey Ichneumon (er-festes griseus) from India, presented by Mr. Hugo Marshall ; a Three-striped Paradoxure (Paradoxurus trivirgatus) from Java ; presented by Mr. Douce ; a Jackdaw (Corvus mone- dula), British, presented by Lt.-Col. RK. F. Darvall, F.Z.S. ; a Common Fox (Canis vulpes), British, presented by Mr. Lucius Fitzgerald ; an Indian Cobra (aia tripudians), an Indian Rat Snake (Ptyas mucosa) from India, presented by Mr. Arthur H. Cullingford, F.Z.S ; a Common Boa (Soa constrictor) from St. Lucia, W.I., presented by H. E. Sir Walter F. Hely Hutchin- son, K.C.M.G ; a Common Chameleon (Chameleon vulgaris) from North Africa, presented by Miss Withers; two Tarantula Spiders (JZygale, sp. inc.) from Demerara, presented by Mr. H. Strong ; a Black-headed Lemur (Lemur brunneus?). from Madagascar, a Duyker-Bok (Cephalophus mergens$) from South Africa, two Demoiselle Cranes (Gras virgo) from North Africa, four Emus (Dromeus nove-hollandig) from Australia, deposited ; an Indian Chevrotain (7ragulus meminna) from India, two Violet Tanagers (Zuphonia violacea) from Brazil, a Shag (Phalacrocorax gracilis) British, purchased ; three Wild Swine (Sus scrofa) born in the Gardens. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. THE VARIATION OF LATITUDE AT PULKOVA. — Astro- nomische Nachrichten, No. 3112, contains two communications on the variation of the latitude at Pulkova, the first by Mr. B. Wanach, who discusses some old observations, and the second by Mr. S. Kostinsky, who has continued the former’s recent observations made before July, 1891. During the years 1890 and 1891, Mr. Wanach obtained some very definite results with regard to this question by using the large Pulkova transit instru- ment in the Prime Vertical, and the object of the present dis- cussion is to find out if any like result can be discovered. The observations used are those of W. Struve made between the years 1840-55, O. Struve 1858-9, Oom 1861-63, and Nyren 1879-82. If we employ those made in the years 1840-42 it is at once noticed that to satisfy the conditions a variation in the height of the pole of +0"*1 has to be assumed, while the maxima and minima occur at different months of the year, the latter on September, 1840, May, 1841, March, 1842, and the former on January, 1841, September, 1841, and October, 1842. The observations from 1843-63 present no direct fluctuations in the yalue of the mean pole height, but show that it remains constant NO. 1196, VOL. 46] or is proportional to the time during the whole period. Taking the values of the mean pole height for the years 1879-82, as obtained from a similar curve, it is found that a single sinus — curve is not sufficient for the comparison ; secondly, that the mean pole height is not the same as it was in 1841 and 1891, but is about o”*15 greater; thirdly, that the chief maximum on March, 1881 coincides with the chief minimum on September, 1880, that is, exactly coincides with the phases of the pole height. It also happens that the series, which take more than two years, give only one distinct maximum: and minimum (instead of two, as would be expected), Coming now to Mr. S. Kostinsky’s work, whose observations were made by W. Struve’s method with the aid of a large transit instrument by Repsold, the variation of latitude is clearly shown. With the aid of the curve, which accompanies the paper, the maximum of the latitude occurs on October 4, 1891. Owing to the observations not being quite complete, the epoch of mini- mum is uncertain, but the curve shows that it will take place somewhere before the end of the month of May 1892. Com- paring this curve with that obtained by Mr. Wanach in the year 1891, we have for the dates of the greatest and least values of the latitude— Max. Min. Max. Min. DousLE STAR OBSERVATIONS.—The second part of Appendix I. to the Washington Observations for 1888 contains in 1890, September 14. », 1891, April 15 ;, 1891, October 4 », 1892, May 20-31 (about). $ = 59 46 18°39 17°79 18°44 the observations of double stars made at the United States Naval Observatory during the period 1880-1891, by Prof. Asaph Hall. These observations have been made with the inten- tion of carrying on the work that was begun with the same instrument in 1875. The stars here observed are mostly known binaries. Some are of special interest on account of their short periods, while again the motion of others will be found to be very slow. This volume will be welcomed by all double star observers, for in such a work as this a strict comparison of observations is needful in such measurements as are here dealt with. The form in which the observations are printed is the same as was the case in 1881. The star’s name is first given, followed by its right ascension and declination, and its magnitude. [In the first column the date of observation in years and decimals of a year is given, while in parallel columns the sidereal time of observation to the first decimal of an hour, position angle, distance, and weight of observation are similarly inserted ; in two other columms the magnifying power employed and occasional notes are added for — reference. The volume concludes with an index of all the stars observed, The numbers of the stars are for the most part those of the Struves ; but Prof. Hall, in recording those faint stars in the Pleiades, has referred them to Bessel’s list of fifty- three stars in this group. _ Bessel’s stars themselves he has numbered in the order they appeared in the find it an advantage to have had the one idea to guide them throughout. Again, the new method leads to a multi- plicity of names for one and the same thing, and thisis a disadvantage. We have ray-surface used for wave- surface, although the two are identical, nor is it easy at first to recognize the optic bi-normals and the optic bi-radials as the optic axes and the lines of single ray velocity respectively ; but these are small points when compared with the main object of the book, which wel} deserves attention and careful study. The last chapter deals with the problem in a more general way, but space forbids us to follow Mr. Fletcher into the questions he there raises ; it must suffice to call the reader’s attention to it, and especially to the fallacy discussed in Section 17. Ri EG. THE PROGRESS OF HORTICULTURE. By William (Waltham Cross, Herts: W. Paul and Contributions to Horticultural Literature. Pa. TLS. Son, 1892.) For about half a century Mr. Paul has been labouring at the work of horticulture alike in the garden and at the. desk. As.a business man he has not confined himself simply to commercial routine. As an observer and an experimenter he has not been hedged in by the dogmas and prejudices of any particular school of science, and as a writer his aim has always been to record truthfully and instruct faithfully. It is a matter of congratulation, therefore, that the author should have gathered together in a convenient form some records of a lifetime’s work. _ Certain portions we should have eliminated as of past or of personal interest only ; certain others as of relatively minor importance ; but Mr. Paul is addressing a mixed audience with varied sympathies and interests, and it may be that the paragraphs we should mark for deletion would be those which others would best care to preserve. Mr. Paul groups his writings, as here collected, under the three heads of (1) roses, (2) trees and plants, and (3) fruit culture and miscellanea. They would fall equally well under other categories, such as the commercial and practical, the zesthetic and the biological. In this notice we must confine ourselves to Mr. Paul’s writings as a naturalist. Such, however,is the interdependence among various branches of inquiry, that it is almost impossible, in this connection to isolate any special subject, even if it were desirable to do so. From this point of view Mr. Paul’s book is, though undesignedly, an apt representation of the present condition of horticulture. On the one hand, the relations of that art to the perception of and to the canons of beauty are obvious. Equally clear are its bearings on routine practice. On the other hand, its connection with | biological science, in spite of the teaching and example of © Darwin, is not yet adequately recognized ; nor has the statesman as yet grasped the truth that progress in agriculture must follow to a large extent on the lines familiar to horticulturists, Of the many remedies pro- posed to mitigate and clear away the depression under which agriculture is suffering, none is more likely ~ to be serviceable than the adoption, so far as OcTOBER 20, 1892] NATURE 583 mstances permit, of the principles and practice | progressive gardener. This is very obvious to e conversant with the state of commercial horticul- as contrasted with the condition of the correspond- department of agriculture, and it will be brought to the thoughtful reader by the perusal of some of Paul's pages. It is interesting, too, to see that mat- at which some minds would still be inclined to scoff npract ical, or which they would regard as mere means rding agreeable recreation, are the very depart- in which the greatest practical successes have lieved in the past, and which are of the best for progress in the future. wad speaking, Mr. Paul has been not only a er but a careful experimenter on a very large d over a very long period. It is true his experi- have not been and could not have been made with tt accuracy which we expect in the laboratory, but ave been made under conditions far more akin to which occur in nature. Moreover, they have been although with a definite aim, yet without reference y particular theory. The reader will accordingly these pages records of work and inferences from ‘planned experiments directly bearing on many ; now attracting the attention of naturalists, such ! transmission, variation from seed or from selection, fixation, close fertilization, and the various of cross-impregnation. Incidentally these sub- illustration in many chapters of Mr. Paul’s y commend alike to the notice of naturalists iculturists. y interesting to compare what he says about and variation in plants, such as the Camellia, se Primrose, or the Hollyhock, which are the off- what we regard as pure species, with the corre- z processes in the Rose, the Pelargonium, or the themum, which are veritable mongrels. In this we may in passing allude to the power which has, of course within limitations, of creating ns. The orchid cultivator, for example, inferred age of certain hybrids met with in a wild state, > has since proved the correctness of his inference ually producing in his orchid-house many of the forms that occur in the forests of the tropics. her very striking case (not specially alluded to by Paul) is the production and development of what known as tuberous Begonias. These have been by the art and patience of the gardener within : quarter of a century from repeated crossing certain Andean species of Begonia and their de- ts. The result is the establishment of a race so distinct from anything yet known in nature as a systematic botanist in forming a separate nus for their reception. Many an accepted genus is ‘based upon less important points of distinction than those which characterize the tuberous Begonias, and which, indeed, have been gathered together by Fournier under ie genus Lemoinea. The degree of permanence of this artificially formed genus is, of course, unknown ; but we NO. 1199, VOL. 46] do know already that the peculiarities are reproduced from seed, and that each year the plants are, as the gardeners say, becoming more “fixed”? We have alluded to these as illustrations of the kind of work upon which Mr. Paul has been engaged for half a century. They may be taken as examples of the material he has gathered together in this book, which is not merely pre- sented for the delectation of the ordinary lover of flowers or the profit of trading horticulturists, but is also cal- culated to increase the productive resources of the coun- try, as well as to forward the progressive development of our knowledge of the natural history of plants. As a further illustration of Mr. Paul’s method we cite in conclusion a passage which will, we think, justify us for recommending to scientific readers the perusal of a book which they might be disposed, from its title, to think had little in it to interest them. “ My experience in selecting, hybridizing, and cross-breeding tells me that he whois seeking to improve any class of plants should watch narrowly and seize with alacrity any devi- ation from the fixed character, and the wider the deviation the greater are the chances of an important issue. However unpromising in appearance at the outset, he knows not what issues may lie concealed in a variation, sport, hybrid, or cross-bred, or what the ground newly broken is capable of yielding under careful and assiduous cultivation. If we would succeed in this field we must observe, and think, and work. Observation and experi- ment are the only true sources of knowledge in nature, and while observing and experimenting we should above all things guard against prejudices.” MAXWELL T. MASTERS. LIFE IN MOTION. or, Muscle and Nerve. By John Gray (Adam and Charles Life in Motion ; McKendrick, M.D., F.R.S. Black, 1892.) NDER this title Prof. McKendrick gives us the gist of six lectures delivered by him during last Christmas holidays to a juvenile audience at the Royal Institution of Great Britain ; and, judging from this little work, it is evident that no pains was spared by him to render these lectures as instructive and interesting as abundant illustrations and experiments could make them. In presenting these lectures to the public in book form he places us under an obligation gratefully to be acknow- ledged, for professional physiologists stand alone amongst their colleagues in other departments of science in their disdain of any attempt at the production of attractive and simple scientific literature. In very pleasing sympa- thetic style the reader is introduced to the world of motion and to the special motions of the living muscle. He is shown how the movements of a muscle are recorded by the physiologist, and the apparatus used for its stimu- lation. Artificial tetanus is described, the muscle sound and its elasticity referred to, and a perhaps too short description given of amoeboid and ciliary motion. The physiology of the nerve is then discussed, and the pro- duction of heat in muscle. In the fifth lecture is a short account of the sources of muscular energy, a comparison is drawn between a muscle and the steam-engine, and a comparatively detailed account of muscle fatigue is given. 584 NATURE [OcToBER 20, 1892 The sixth and final lecture deals with the electrical phe- nomena of muscle and with a very curious group of fishes termed “ electrical.” The arrangement of the book is excellent, yet we are inclined to think that it shares with many other works on physiology one common fault. What we all want to know more about is the life and activity of the organism, and the physiologist very rightly spends much of his time in experimenting in every conceivable way, and generally with isolated parts of the organism. His apparatus is often of the most varied and intri- cate kind, and his experiments yield him definite re- sults. Many of these results, however, are at present of little value in shedding light on physiological processes, and should not, we think, obtain the prominent position they now occupy inthe text-books. To take an example, the experiment to demonstrate the muscle curve, in which the muscle is isolated and stimulated electrically, is one of the stock experiments minutely described in every text-book. In this experiment the muscle is separated from its antagonistic muscles, stimulated in quite an un- natural way, and the result of the experiment is totally different from what takes place ina contracting limb. It is certain that in nearly every text-book the reader will find that from this and similar experiments he is apt to obtain incorrect and misleading ideas. He no doubt learns something regarding very interesting electrical ma- chinery, but very little physiology. Of recent years far more attention has been bestowed upon the movements of muscles in the limbs, and comparative physiology is at last asserting its influence. It is to be hoped that when this knowledge finds a more prominent place in text-book literature, “muscle and nerve physiology,” in the proper sense of the term, will be more satisfactorily taught. Returning to what more exclusively concerns Prof. McKendrick’s book, we may point out a slip on page 81, where it would appear that the muscle sound corresponds in pitch to the fundamental tone of a body vibrating 19°5 times a second, instead of to one vibrating at twice that rate, and that Prof. McKendrick does not inter- pret this sound on the lines followed by Helmholtz and others. On page gi the modern view of a “cell” is represented in a drawing, and the nucleus has inadver- tently been omitted. On page 31 along and short cir- cuiting key is represented, while a simple key is described in the accompanying text. These, however, are but trivial faults to find in an excellent little work, which is most admirably got up and beautifully illustrated by nearly one hundred excellent figures. The reader will, we think, obtain a good insight into a department of physiology, and will be stimulated to further research in the literature of this interesting sub- ject. J. B. H. PLUMBING. Principles and Practice of Plumbing. By S. Stevens Hellyer, (London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.) 8 ec who are acquainted with Mr. Hellyer’s larger book on domestic Sanitation, “ Dulce Domum,” will not find much new matter in the present volume, but NO. 1199, VOL. 46] | the subjects are treated less discursively, and are fairly — well brought down to date. There is no trade which has been more discussed in recent years than that of plumbing, and if plumbers are not impressed with a sense of their responsibilities, it is certainly not the fault of the architects and engineers who employ them. The manual skill necessary to per- form the most ordinary operations is in itself so difficult that many workmen fail to acquire it; and, on the other hand, many experts in the details of the craft are never properly educated in the principles of sanitation which are necessary to make their work effectual from a sanitary standpoint. Itis the combination of both kinds of know- ledge in the writer which makes Mr. Hellyer’s books of exceptional value. It matters little whether itis an archi- tect on one hand, or a working plumber on the other. who studies them, because they are of equal value and of equal interest to both, The present handbook is specially valuable in these respects because most of the informa- tion upon matters of practical workmanship is given con- currently with the reasons which should control the details and the principles which should be in evidence when the work is finished. No one unacquainted with the practical’ difficulties which frequently crop up in sanitary practice can realise how much knowledge and experience is necessary to overcome them. Houses in London often present the most puzzling problems, and an intimate acquaintance not only with the principles and practice of the subject, but also with all the most recent appliances, is required for their successful solution. The ventilation of all the different parts of a complicated drainage system, in- cluding that which is necessary to prevent the syphonage of traps, sometimes requires an amount of thought and attention which a layman would think was uncalled for in the face of its apparent simplicity. It is no wonder that there are frequently failures to meet the highest standard of excellence, especially when incompetent persons are employed to design and superintend the necessary operations. On the other hand, there are thousands of houses in London in which no such difficulties occur, and in which the drainage and plumbing arrangements ought not only to be extremely simple in themselves, but intelligible to the ordinary householder. When such cases are entrusted to a builder, or an intelligent plumber, the first requisite is the manual skill required to carry out the various details, and this must be acquired by the workman through ap- prenticeship, or from his having acted as the assistant or “mate” of a journeyman for several years. The next requisite is that he should have a clear knowledge of what he is going to do and why he does it.. This may be ac- quired to a great extent from his being familiar, in his Capacity as a workman, with the designs of an architect or engineer under whose directions he has been employed, _ and it is to such men that Mr. Hellyer’s text-book should be specially valuable. By studying its pages he will avoid many mistakes. He will know what sort of joint to make, what kind of trap to avoid, how to secure the traps from syphonage, and how generally to complete his work so as to pass the latest standards of excellence. We can equally recommend it as a text-book for architects — OcTOBER 20, 1892] NATURE 585 -skillin carrying out the operations themselves, should , nevertheless, an intimate knowledge of the principles h they ought to embody. We think that more space should have been devoted that portion of the book which deals with drainage per. While nearly 100 pages are given to lead-laying the jointing and bending of pipes, only about twenty are devoted to house-drains, and a great part of this cupied with illustrations of appliances. Not more ne or two pages are given to the subject of cast-iron , although they are strongly recommended, and ject isa very important one. We trust, however, the author will remedy these deficiencies in the editions which will doubtless be required to supply aand for his excellent text-book. a en ee OUR BOOK SHELF. ture Course of Elementary Chemistry. By H. T. villey, M.A. (London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, ent and Co., 1892.) abrupt use of chemical terms, and the condensed -adopted by the author in this book, make it evi- that it is not specially designed to smooth down ficulties which confront the unaided learner who ches chemistry for the first time. It seems rather . fitted to replace the notes which might be taken course of lecture instruction. Regarded in this light useful volume, the knowledge it contains being, in in, sound and to the point. is with the metals as well as with the non-metals, vetailed with the ordinary chemical information ny instances that the author has tried to keep pace rent work, and has attempted to give the student important points to be noted in a fairly complete elementary chemistry. rt series of exercises chiefly in chemical arith- are given at the end of the book, and a table of ts and an index are supplied. uld be advisable on p. 53 to say that ordinary crystallises in the rhombic system. To speak of stalline form as an octohedron tends to create an ression common among students, that ordinary sulphur ongs to the cubic system. Fluorine was not made by electrolysis of liquefied hydrofluoric acid, but of a of potassium fluoride in the acid ; the pure acid non-electrolyte. is hardly correct to state that calcium sulphate and roxide are the only known examples of solids less uble in hot than in cold water ; calcium isobutyrate and one of the thorium sulphates are additional instances. On p. 98 the flame colorations of potassium and sodium are confused, and brass seems to be omitted in treating of alloys of copper and zinc. oe mans’ School Geography for North America. By rge G. Chisholm and C. H. Leete. (New York: _ Longmans, Green, and Co.). F Mr. Chisholm’s well-known geographical text-book is to be extensively used in the United States, it was evitable that it should be altered in a way which would ___ adapt it to the special needs of American schools. The _ task was undertaken by Mr. Leete, and he has accom- jorge oka much skill and judgment. The parts he _has rewritten are those relating to America in general, North America, and the United States. To these he eB age a prominence which was not necessary or desirable _ for European students of geography, but which is no ; doubt essential for learners on the other side of the NO. 1199, VOL. 46] 0, although they are unable to acquire any technical Atlantic. | The plan of Mr. Chisholm’s book and the Spirit of its execution have both been maintained, and the work ought now to be quite as useful in the New World as it has already been in the Old. Garden Design and Architects’ Gardens. By Robinson, F.L.S. (London: John Murray, 1892.) THE author of this book is firmly convinced that to clip and align trees in order that they may “harmonise” with architecture is “ barbarous, needless, and inartistic.” He is in love with Nature’s methods, and would give them in gardens much freer scope than is accorded to them by persons who like best a certain trimness and formality. It is to be regretted, perhaps, that Mr. Robinson deals with the subject in so polemical a temper, but the cause for which he contends is good, and he does excellent service by bringing out prominently what has always been the essential principle of the best and most characteristic kind of English landscape gardening. The value of the essay is greatly increased by a number of well-selected illustrations. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. [Zhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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 nolice is taken of anonymous communications. | The Alleged ‘‘ Aggressive Mimicry ” of Volucelle. In the course of a review (NATURE, October 6, 1892, p. 535) of a book, ‘f Animal Coloration,” by Mr. Beddard, Mr. Poulton takes occasion to refer to a theory professing to eluci- date the resemblance of Volucelig to humble-bees, &c. This reference is occasioned by the suggestion of a counter-hypothesis by Mr. Beddard. The view adopted by Mr. Poulton (‘‘ Colours of Animals,” 1890, p. 267) is that proposed by Kirby and Spence, and subsequently alluded to by Kiinckel d’Herculais (Organ. et Dével. des Volucelles,” Paris, 1875) and others ; but as Mr. Poulton makes no reference to these authorities he may be assumed to accept the full responsibility. In the place named he says :—‘‘ The boldness of these enemies sometimes depends on the perfection of their disguise. Thus the larvz of flies of the genus Vo/uce//a live upon the larve of bees and wasps. Volucella bombylans occurs in two varieties, which prey upon the humble-bees Bombus muscorum and B. lapidarius, and are respectively like these Hymenoptera. The resemblance is very perfect, and the flies enter the nests to lay their eggs.” Mr. Beddard (/. ¢., p. 225) criticizes the view that the fly resembles the bee that it may with impunity enter the nest, and proposes to look on the presence of the fly’s larvee in the bees’ nests as akin to the presence of supposed ‘‘ pets ” in the nests of ants. As Poulton points out, this suggestion leaves the original difficulty of the likeness of the fly to the bee untouched. Having little interest in either of these speculations, which seem fantastic and premature, it is with reluctance that I take part in the discussion. The case, however, of V. bombylans is not only interesting as a striking, and to us in England a most accessible instance of the phenomenon of Mimicry, but as an example of Variation it is almost unique among animals, while among plants perhaps it is paralleled only by Darwin’s famous case of the peach and the nectarine. It is besides a case well suited for experiment and close observation. The nests of sur- face building bees may towards evening be lifted bodily, bees, Voluceile, and all, with a spit of earth, and transferred to a box. This may be taken home and set next morning on a window-sill, when on opening the box the bees will go on with their work for the rest of the summer. If any one seeks an opportunity of honestly trying to get to the bottom of a case of Mimicry, instead of speculating about it at large, he can scarcely find a better case than this, The need for such observations is great, for the account confidently given by Poulton, though according well with his hypotheses, accords with the truth less well. In these circumstances it may not be out of place to give a brief statement of the facts as they were established by entomo- logists long ago. The Volucel/e are a small group of flies, con- 586 NATURE {OcTOBER 20, 1892 taining four British species (Verrall, ‘* Cat. Brit. Dipt.,”” 1888) ; of these most if not all resemble various Hymenoptera. The commonest and most remarkable is V. dombylans, which may be seen in any English hedgerow on a sunny day in early sum- mer. This fly exhibits the rare condition of existing in two dis- tinct forms in both sexes. The one form is black with a red- tail, in no small degree resembling a small worker of a red- tailed humble-bee. such as B, lapidarius L. or B. Derhamellus Kirb, The other form has a yellov border to the thorax, yellow hairs on the antero-lateral parts of the abdomen, and a grey tail, to an equal degree resembling a small worker of one of the several yellow-banded humble-bees, 4g. B. hortorum L., B. terrestris 1.., or B. Scrimshiranus Kirb. Both varieties occur in both sexes and are about equally common. The prob- lem of the evolution of these distinct forms is thus one of the most complex. Some may ask, Ifthe varieties are thus distinct, how are they known to be one species? The evidence of this is (1) that no point of structure can be found to differentiate them, (2) that males of the one variety have been seen coupled with females of the other and vice versa (Macquart, ‘‘ Suites a Buff.,” p. 479; Zeller, Stet. ent. Ztg., 1842, p. 66), and lastly (3) that intermediate forms have been found as rarities (Erichson, Stet. ent. Ztg., 1842, p. 115). This evidence may not satisfy all, but as regards Mr. Poulton the identity of the two as one species is not in dispute, for he admits this. But though the likeness of V. dombylans L. and its var. mystacea L. (= plumata de Geer) to the red-tailed humble-bees and to the yellow-banded humble-bees respectively, is really close, neither these forms nor the less common var. hemorrhoid- alis Zt. present any special likeness to B. mzscorum L., which has a bright brown thorax and a grey abdomen. It is true that Kiinckel has spoken of a resemblance between the var. mys- tacea and B. muscorum, but it is hard to see upon what ground, for indeed it is much as if one were to liken a tabby cat to a fox. As Kiinckel himself says, the great resemblance of the fly is to the yellow-banded BZ. hortorum. To return to Mr. Poulton’s statement, he says that the two varieties prey upon *‘Bombus muscorum and B. lapidarius, and are respectively like these Hymenoptera.” These words contain en ambiguity which I cannot believe intentional. But supposing for a moment that one of the varieties qwere like 2. muscorum (which it is not), the sentence must be taken to mean that each variety preys upon the species of bee which it most resembles, the red-tailed variety on the red-tailed bee and the yellow variety on the other. This is indeed demanded by the hypothesis of ‘‘ Aggressive Mimicry.” In this form the state- ment is often made, though I never met it elsewhere in print. I invite Mr. Poulton to produce observations in support of that statement. If he will establish it he will do a useful work. When this statement was written I must believe that Mr. Poul- ton had not read the several authorities on the subject, many of whom relate how both varieties have been reared from the nests of each type of bee, both from the red-tailed and from the yellow-banded (Kiinckel, p. 58 ; Drewsen, Sée¢. ent. Zig., 1847, p. 211; F. Boie, Kroyer’s ‘‘Naturh. Tids.,” 1838, p- 237). It is still possible that both varieties are born of one mother, and it is possible, too, that each female does her best to choose the nest of a bee like herself, but in support of this hypothesis I know no evidence; and indeed Kiinckel (p. 58), after considering this possibility, gives it as his opinion that probably the varieties of V7. bombylans lay indifferently in the nests of all Bomdz7. From the omission of these facts, which to an appreciation of the evidence are vital, we should infer that Mr. Poulton was not acquainted with Kiinckel’s work, were it not that he repeats Kiinckel’s selection of B. muscorum as a form resembled by one of the two varieties. But though Mr. Poulton is wrong in saying that either variety specially resembles 4. muscorum, he is right in saying that V. bombylans preys on this bee’s nests, for doth varieties have been bred from them, even from the same nest (Kiinckel, p. 58). In my rooms at this moment are several nests of B. mus- corum, each containing many larve of / dombylans, resting for the winter, to emerge in summer, as I hope. There is then evidence that the two varieties, though they may breed together, yet remain substantially distinct ; and that though they respectively resemble different species of bees, they are both found together, not only in nests of bees which they resemble, but also, and in my own experience, more abundantly, in the nests of another bee which they do not resemble, NO. 1199, VOL. 46| Mr. Poulton further omits to mention that V. pellucens, though in nowise resembling the common wasp, yet lives in its. nests, together with V. zzanis which does resemble a wasp, and _ V. zonaria which is like a hornet (Kiinckel, pp. 54 and 55), This fact also I commend to Mr, Poulton’s ingenuity. The publication of statements like this of Mr. Poulton’s, omitting most salient facts—facts, besides, which, though adverse to his speculations, add a ten-fold interest to the sub- ject—is surely unfortunate. It may be replied that Mr. Poulton’s book is of a popular character and does not aim at the completeness of scientific work ; but in making choice of evidence, even for popular exposition, it is well to remember that the value of facts is not to be measured by the ease with which they may be momentarily fitted to the sustenance of a facile hypothesis. WILLIAM BATESON. St. John’s College, Cambridge, October 9. : 4 Induction and Deduction, Miss JONES agitates a question that ought not to settle down without having caused that discussion which its propeund- ing is fit to awaken. ‘iis This discussion does not, however, relate to the mutual rela- tions of Induction and Deduction—at least, not as the main topic thereof. It relates to the fragmentary condition of that which © is usually referred to and accepted as logic. We are so apt to- take it for granted that our so-called logic is tolerably competent and complete as an account of human reasoning in general, that it is of great utility when some one—as Miss Jones does. now-—raises a question that is adapted to direct our reflections. towards some one of the several, perhaps many, gaps that exist in that most important, but too often not understood and mis- understood, branch of science. It is with this specially in view that I have ventured to write this. In geometry nothing is more usual than to draw a universal conclusion from a case that, to all ordinary ways of apprehen- sion, seems to bea single instance. Indeed, this is one of the cardinal features of geometrical reasoning. Perhaps we might well say that it is the most characteristic feature. It is this feature that the question that Miss Jones agitates ought to call into prominent notice. i. She selects for her purpose the case of the isosceles triangle, and asks, How, from premising that the angles at the base of an (one) isosceles triangle are equal to each other, are we logically warranted in concluding that that same equality is true of all isosceles triangles ? That we do thus conclude is known to all, as is also the truth that such a conclusion is a typical one in geometry. Nor have we, nor can we have, the least misgiving as to the rigorous validity of such conclusions. It would be a digression for me to point out here the essential characteristics of that form of reasoning which, properly speak- ing, is induction. It is sufficient for my present purpose to remark that true induction is utterly unable to yield us any con- clusion that is more than probable and approximate. From these characteristics alone we may know that our geometrical conclusions in view are of, as Miss Jones takes them to be, inductive conclusions. : But since our geometrical conclusions are natural and valid, the question still remains, What sort of conclusions are they ? If we propose to call them deductive conclusions, then, when we revert to the array of syllogisms, categorical, hypothetical, disjunctive, dilemmatic, &c., we find none of them, nor any combination of them, that can by any means be made applicable. We have to get not merely from an apparently particular but from an apparently absolutely singular proposition to a univer- sal one. To do this deductively, the body of doctrines and canons, that is usually called logic, confesses itself wholly unable. It lays down as one of its cardinal rules, one that it declares is *‘ founded upon the Laws of Thought,” that if any pictoee is particular, then only a particular conclusion can be rawn. : Nevertheless, I am going to submit thatthe reasoning unde discussion is a true instance, not of induction, but of deduction. I submit that the reasoning that we do actually follow is that which may be formulated thus :— This isosceles triangle is ANY isosceles triangle. The angles at the base of this isosceles triangle are equal to \ Ocroser 20, 1892 | NATURE other. Therefore, the angles at the base of any (or every isosceles triangle are equal to each other. rder to make the nature of this reasoning plainer, I will e in symbols. _ Put X = the isosceles triangle in general ; _ 2 = this particular isosceles triangle ; @ = angles at the base ; é = equal to each other. reasoning will appear thus :— bis xX, a of Zise; *, aof X ise. s very much as though we had in hand a case of the ives, all recollect the challenge of De Morgan :—‘‘ If any Taal syllogism prove that because every man is therefore every head ofa man is a head of an animal, ¢ ready——to set him another question.” This would Is— All Mis A ; .*. hof Mish of A. Zis any X; ? *. aof Zisa of X, aof Zise; -*. aof Xise. hing characteristic of our case as compared with = Morgan resides in the different natures of the All M is A, Ht Z is any X. . is the usual universal categorical affirmative pro- logic. The latter is a sort of universal cate- mative proposition that certainly exists and is im- which has not yet been recognized, unless it may fiers of the predicate in their proposition— All A is all B. sly that not only Z is any X, Z is every X, pees Z is all X, any (or every or all) X is Z ae »» ) not X is not Z ; Bai 2 ) os » X _/ any X is every Z t every X is'any Z every not X is any not Z> any ,, ” &e., &e. superficial notice, it may easily seem to confuse the logical distinctions. But this is only because 1 to identifying logic in general with the logic of is the logic of extension, or in other words, , that has been persistently tendered to us as the only hy of study, if not indeed as the only logic practicable aps possible. Yet we can now, I think, see that at least makes great use of a logic that is not the extension, and that the existence of geometry is an that other logic may be developed and formulated, le “ei at least to some very useful extent. osition, 2? ; Z is any X, conceive, a proposition of the logic of intension. It t to things, or to concepts in connection with things, re abstract concepts like geometrical figures, whose exhaustively specified, or, if any are not specified, depend upon and are implied by those that are ‘more remains to be explained. not from the recognition that Z is any X, and the peeraire proposition that whatever is true of either Z is true of other, conclude that these propositions ld if valid hold for marks that are accidental to Z, or to single instance of X, If we fail to keep clearly in mind the tensive scope of our propositions, we may discredit them, or - NO. 1199, VOL. 46] one of them, by observing that although we have laid down that whatever is true of Z is true of any X, yet nevertheless it does not follow that Z is any X, as regards say the size of Z or any single instance of X. Size may not be any necessary mark of either, and if so it is for all logical purposes impertinent to the propositions in question, and must be altogether ignored. I will conclude by saying that the inference actually made in the case put by Miss Jones is a deduction, b it ne rily follows from the premises laid down. Logic has no connection with the truth of premises ; it only says. what certain proposi- tions entail. If in an intensive sense this isosceles triangle is any isosceles triangle, then any isosceles triangle is this isosceles triangle, and every isosceles triangle is this isosceles triangle, and ail isosceles triangles are this isosceles triangle, and if the angles at the base of this isosceles triangle are equal to each other, it follows necessarily that the angles at the base of all isosceles triangles are equal to each other. Chicago, August 16. , Francis C. RuSsELL. By the courtesy of the Editor of NATURE I have been allowed to read Mr. Francis C. Russell’s very interesting remarks with reference to my note on ‘‘Induction and Deduction ” in NATURE of July 28 (p. 293). I agree with Mr. Russell as to the validity and certainty of an inference from equality of angles in ome isosceles triangle tc equality of angles in a// isosceles triangles. But while I re- ‘gard this inference as a “‘‘true induction’ because it is an in- ference to a general proposition on the strength of a particular instance, Mr. Russell denies that it is an induction because he holds that induction can give only approximate and probable conclusions, and considers that the certainty which he allows to belong to the geometrical conclusion in question is due to the fact that the inference is ot from a particular in- stance, but is really and truly from universal ¢o universal—the one isosceles triangle from which the argument starts being a kind of ‘‘ pure abstract concept,” so that we can say— This one isosceles triangle is amy isosceles triangle ; there- fore every isosceles triangle is ¢hzs isosceles triangle, &c. This appears to me to be entirely inadmissible. How can ‘this triangle BE that and the other triangle? To say that it is, ‘is to lose sight of the distinction between identity of indi- viduality, and similarity of characteristics. And that the asser- tion (¢Azs triangle is every triangle) is untenable appears also ‘from Mr. Russell’s own admission further on, when he says that ‘“we must not, from the recognition that Z is any X, and the rigorously following proposition, that whatever is true of X or Z is true of the other, conclude that these propositions should, if valid, hold for marks that are accidental to Z or to any single instance of X.” If Z %s any X, how can any X have marks which Z has not, or Z have marks which any X has not? We cannot get out of the difficulty by reference to extension and intension, for this reason, that every categorical proposition, to ‘be significant, must be read both in ‘‘intension” and in ‘* ex- tension” —that is, affirmatives must be understood as asserting identity of extension (application) in diversity of intension (signification), while negatives deny identity. ‘‘ This isosceles triangle is avy isosceles triangle” can have a useful signification only if it is interpreted to mean— _ This triangle [not zs but] zs sémz/ar (in so far as isosceles) ¢o any isosceles triangle—that is, all are s¢z/ar in respect of the characteristics which are i: from equality of sides. ‘Hence (as I said in my letter, July 28) ‘‘in all cases equality of les at the base is inseparable from equality of sides.’ Be am not clear what precise meaning can be attached to the expression ‘‘ pure abstract concept,” still less how a geometrical figure can be an abstract concept. I am, moreover, disappointed that Mr. Russell makes no examination whatever of my own attempt to formulate the process from Particular to General. With reference to Mr. Russell’s symbolical argument— Z'is X; a of Zis e, *, aofXise, I think that it may be logically described as a process either (1) of Substitution (Jevons)—a kind of Immediate Inference dependent on identity of application—thus :— ZisX; .*. X may be substituted for Z. 588 NATURE [OcToBER 20, 1892 In a of Zise substitute X for Z, and we have aofX ise Or (2) acombination of what Jevons calls Immediate Inference by Complex Conception (which I should like to class with some other Immediate Inferences as Extraversion, which is largely used in mathematics) and Mediate Inference ; thus— ZAS Kos ea eee) e'/(4) of isa OF Reais yess (6) But aof Zise sega. i. ws {e) 51: OF Asie as aa sya (2) (6) is Inference by Complex Conception from (a) ; (4) and (c) are the premisses which give (d) as their (syllogistic) conclusion. Cambridge, October II. E, E. CONSTANCE JONES. The Temperature of the Human Body. Mr. CuMMING’s second or ‘‘ physical” query will, I think, require nO answer if his first or ‘* physiological’ question is replied to, If an isolated muscle from which evaporation was prevented could go on working in a heat enclosure, and always remain at a lower temperature than the enclosure (which it could only do by transferring heat from itself to its surroundings), we should have to ask in good earnest how this was consistent with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. We are quite certain, ‘ however, that the temperature of the working muscle would always, when a steady state of things had been reached, be above that of the enclosure, The temperature of an isolated muscle during activity (assuming that it could be kept alive and evaporation prevented) would, of course, not only be very much higher ‘‘ at the equator ”’ than ‘‘at the pole,” but also somewhat above that of the sur- rounding bodies ineither latitude. The intact homoiothermal animal, even when the temperature of the air is greater than that of its blood, is on the whole, within the limits which can be borne, always losing more heat to its surroundings than it receives from them. For heat is still becoming latent at the evaporating surfaces of the body, the skin and the respiratory mucous mem- brane, even when the balance of gain and loss by radiation, &c., is telling the other way; and, indeed, in general more evapora- tion than usual is going on when this is the case. The tem- perature of these surfaces is always kept below that of the blood which comes to them, The blood, therefore, always loses heat here, and gains it from the muscles, which accordingly transfer heat to a medium colder than themselves, even when the external temperature is higher than that of either. If, of two similar and similarly situated men, A and B (I ask pardon for degrading an austere geometrical phrase to such loose and vulgar application), exposed to the same high tem- perature (above that of the blood, say), A sweats little and B much, while the blood-temperature of both remains constant, A must either produce less |heat than B or lose more in other ways than evaporation of sweat. [le may produce less either because he works less than B, or because even at rest his metabolism is not so active. Oran extra loss of water-vapour from the lungs may make up for the diminished loss from the skin. For example, in the dog, which has but few sweat- glands, nearly the whole of the evaporation takes place in the respiratory tract. Of course much water is evapor- ated from the skin which never appears as visible sweat ; and it is possible that some persons give off a greater pro- portion of the total perspiration in this way than others do, the quiet steady sweater, if one may be allowed the expression, getting through as much work on the whole as the steaming paroxysmal kind of feilow who breaks out into dewdrops on the smallest provocation. But it should be clearly recognized that an air temperature equal to or above that of the blood is occasional, and not permanent in any latitude, and that men, and even animals, adopt expedients to avoid such extremes and to tide them over. Any good recent text-book of physiology will give the in- formation asked for as to what is known of the mechanism by which the temperature of warm-blooded animals is kept approxi- mately constant. It is too wide a subject to be entered into here. In man the regulation of the heat loss seems to be far more important than any regulation of the production of heat. The former is, of course, largely voluntary, but the quantity of blood going through the skin, an important factor in more than NO. 1199, VOL. 46] one way, is greatly influenced by reflex nervous impulses, _ It i* doubtful whether the very considerable heat capacity of the bodies of large animals has been sufficiently taken into account in its bearing on the steadiness of the blood temperature. ‘This in itself prevents any sudden change. In some animals, and apparently more especially in small animals—z.g., the rabbit and guinea-pig—the production of heat, as well as the loss, is very distinctly under the control of the nervous system, and is increased when the external temperature is lowered, and diminished when it is raised. Of course, as your correspondent is doubtless aware, we do not really know what kind of a machine a muscle is, except that it is a machine by means of which the potential energy of the food is partly transformed into mechanical work and to a much greater extent into heat. Up toa certain limit the work and the heat increase together, although less heat is given off by an active muscle which is allowed on the whole to do external work than by the same muscle when it constantly undoes its own work. G. N, STEWART. | New Museums, Cambridge, October 11. THE following brief account of the working of the heat mechanism of the human body will, I hope, help to make clear to Mr. Cumming the problems of which he seeks the explana- tion. The temperature of a man at the equator is within a degree Centigrade the same as that in the arctic regions. This is because, in the first place, in the arctic regions the loss of heat from the body is very slight, and in the tropics it is very great, for (a) inthe tropics more perspiration is secreted by the skin, and this, in consequence of the high temperature of the air, evaporates very quickly, and hence the body is kept cool. It is true, as Mr. Cumming says, that in the tropics people may not be observed to perspire freely, but that is simply because as fast — as the perspiration is secreted it is evaporated. It is what is called insensible perspiration. (4) More water is secreted by the bronchial mucous membranes in the tropics, and in con- sequence of the higher temperature of the air it, like the per- spiration, evaporates very quickly. The excessive secretion of moisture by the body when the temperature of the air is high, is shown in a Turkish bath, and leads, in a bath of about two hours’ duration, to a loss of weight amounting with some persons to three pounds, and to a great diminution in the quantity of urine secreted. (c) In the tropics the vessels of the skin are more widely dilated than in the arctic regions, hence there is more blood in it, and therefore heat is more readily radiated and conducted from the skin to the external atmosphere. (d) The specific heat of the body is very high, and so it cools very slowly in the arctic regions. Judging from some experi- ments I have made on animals, it is, at the usual temperature of the human body, well over 1’0. (e) The above facts are cer- tain, but in addition, for all we know to the contrary, the skin may, under different conditions, have different radiating powers quite apart from the quantity of blood in it. In the second place, although it has not been calorimetrically proved, it is very hizhly probable that in the arctic regions the quantity of heat produced by the body is much greater than in the tropics. With regard to the second query of Mr. Cumming, no doubt, as he says, the human body in the tropics must often be the coolest of surrounding objects ; in this case it cannot lose any- thing by radiation or conduction, but it is kept cool by the rapid evaporation of perspiration (usually insensible) and fluid secreted by the bronchial mucous membrane. Whether or not a man in the tropics produces any heat under such circumstances has not been demonstrated, but probably, although the produc-— tion of heat falls very low, it does not entirely cease. 65 Harley-street, W. W. HALE WHITE. ' Photographic Dry Plates. I HAVE found great difficulty in obtaining fresh photographic dry plates of whatever maker, from dealers, who frequently pass off upon the purchasers packets of plates which have been in stock for a long time, and consequently unfit for use. It has therefore occurred to me that this trouble might be avoided by the makers Jating every packet as issued by them, thus following the custom of the Platinotype Company with their tins of paper. - By such a system the purchaser would be able to protect himself, . So i=) ae ee ep eee Li ee ay ee > 4 INVITATION 3 OcTOBER 20, 1892] NATURE 589 / and many makers’ plates would be found much more satis- _ factory. I shall esteem it a favour if you will allow this letter to appear in your journal. Enclosing my card, I subscribe myself, October 17. PREVENTION. TO OBSERVE THE LUMINOUS NIGHT CLOUDS i hSee the year 1885 a very remarkable phenomenon '_ has been noticed in the sky in our latitudes, which well deserves to excite the interest of astronomers and agen eit The following is the substance of what s so far become known regarding the so-called lumi- nous night-clouds. In the latitude of Berlin the phenomenon shows itself only during a comparatively short period of the year— from May 23 to August 11. While in the first years it was seen pretty frequently even before midiight, it has, during the last four years, rarely appeared except after midnight. The phenomenon appears in the form of cirrus-clouds, which come out bright on the twilight sky. This especially distinguishes them from the ordinary ' cirrus-clouds, which, with the depths of the sun in which the luminous clouds are seen at present, come out dark on the light twilight sky. The colour of the pheno- menon is generally a bluish white, which becomes yel- _ lowish and reddish in close proximity to the horizon. Often repeated photographs which have been taken simultaneously at various points in the neighbourhood of Berlin, show that the altitude of the luminous clouds is constant and exceedingly great—82 kilometres. In con- uence of this great altitude, they receive light from the sun standing ée/ow the horizon, which makes them _ appear light on the twilight-sky. They are visible only so long as the sun shines on them; as soon as the sha- dow of the earth passes over them they become invisible. As a rule they begin in the morning, shortly before twi- light, and they disappear as soon as the sun stands higher than 8° to 10° below the horizon. Of late years these clouds have been seldom seen. ~ Within the period above stated, they occurred this year only about ten cane while in the first years they were very frequent. eir appearance is subject to great changes ; while they frequently exist only in a few little luminous stripes or patches, at times they appear in ; ened accumulations and with a more intense light. specially in the last days of the period, from August 2 until 6, their light seems to be considerable in our lati- tudes. Generally they are observed in the proximity of the horizon—over that part of it under which the sun is. _ Frequent observations of the movements of the pheno- mena, which, after midnight, are always from the direc- tion of N.E. = 40°, render it probable ¢hat the movements are caused principally through the resisting medium of the mundane space. \n accordance with this is the fact that in the half-year after its appearance in this country, the phenomenon has been observed repeatedly in the southern latitudes of 53° by the meteorological observer, Mr, Stubenrauch, in Punta Arenas, as well as several times by ship-captains. | Other observations confirm the assumption of an annual wandering of this kind. For instance,in Graham’s- town under 33° S. lat. the phenomenon was observed on October 27, 1890,? and in Haverford under 40° N. lat. ; according to written information it was observed on May 17, 1892. These dates, taken in association with the time of the appearance in this country, directly indicate seers of the phenomenon from N. to S. and The luminous night-clouds decrease year after year in respect to the frequency of their appearance as well as . ™ Scientific journals are requested to reproduce this article. 2 Compare astr. Nachr., No. 3008. NO. 1199, VOL. 46] to their extent and to their intensity of light. The phe- nomenon therefore will entirely disappear within a few years. It seems, however, that during the next two years observations will still be possible, which may give us information regarding several questions of extraordinary importance. Measurements of the apparent altitude of the upper limits of the luminous clouds, mainly in the time in which the upper limit of the twilight-segment has the comparatively small altitude of, say, 1° to 10°, would be of great value. Such measurements will serve to decide the question whether the altitude of the clouds varies under different geographical latitudes, providing that the measurements always refer to such points as lie within the upper limits of the clouds, produced by the shadow of the earth. During the last few years. the whole twilight-segment has been comparatively seldom filled out by the luminous night-clouds, and it may therefore frequently remain doubtful whether the highest point of the phenomenon really lies in the limit of the earth-shadow. In order to make sure that the measurements are adapted:i to their purpose, they must be repeated as often as possible in intervals of a few minutes. In the evening this limit is generally recognized by the fact that within it parts of the phenomenon disappear from above, while towards morning new parts always become visible within the limit upwards. The distance of the zenith of the upper limit of the luminous clouds in the vertical of the sun for the Jatitude of Berlin, presuming that the phenomenon stretches over the whole of the twilight-segment, may be seen from the following statement :— Depth of the Zenith distance sun below of the upper- the horizon. most limit. 120 80 12°5 83 13'0 85 13°5 86 14°O 87 Moreover, as by means of a telescope the upper limit of the phenomenon is generally seen a little higher than with the naked eye, it is desirable that the telescope should always be adjusted to the limit-line seen with the naked eye. A comparison of the appearance seen with the naked eye with the one seen through the telescope, will enable the observer to discover easily the line corresponding to the one seen with the naked eye. The exactitude of these measurements must be about 3’ to 6, with respect to the azimuth and to the altitude, while the time should be exact within two to four seconds. The employment of photographic apparatus is of advantage for the indication of the place, as well as of the movements, of the phenomenon. But only those kinds of apparatus are suitable in which the proportion of the diameter of the opening to the focal distance is at least 1: 4 or greater. Ifthe proportion is smaller, the duration of lighting will last too long, and conse- quently, on account of the quick changings of the phenomenon, the details will get lost. With an apparatus of which the proportion of the aperture- diameter to the focal distance is 1 : 3, the duration of lighting for the various depths of the sun below the horizon, on condition that the phenomenon is light in some degree, is as follows :— Depth of the Sun below Duration ot the Horizon. Lighting. s. 9 16 10 2! II 27 12 35 13 438 14 72 15 122 590 NATURE [OCTOBER 20, 1892 Generally at the same time stars become visible on the photographic plate, through which, in association with the time of photographing, the direction of adjustment of the apparatus is ascertained (that is to say, the position of the axle of the apparatus is ascertained). With regard to equatorial regions, it is of great import- ance that the exact time in which luminous night-clouds pass through them should be determined. According to the observations hitherto made, the passing through the adjoining pair seems to converge at one end, and to diverge at the other, whereas in reality the lines are all parallel. various forms, and of some general principle embracing _ under one formula its several varieties. The next step would be to correlate this formulation with some recog- nized psychological principle. The generalization is found LoL A LLL LL A equator may take place in the time between the beginning of September and the end of October, and the return between the beginning of March and the end of April. Under 20°S. lat., the time of passing through will, in that ASAP ASVV AL 4 2 NON NX XA case, be from the middle of September until the middle of November, and from the middle of February until the middle of April, and under 20° N. lat, from about the middle of March until the middle of M ay, and from the Ni Sie TN NNN NN Ne Liat. hate ZA middle of August until the middle of October. In con. [~~~ oS sequence of the daily rotation of the earth round its axis- together with the distinct movements of the earth, atmosphere, it may be that the passing through the\ \ Lm 7-0 Gate es \ XX XO Ne equator does not take place in the simple manner here described. It does not seem to be unlikely that the periods are not limited as exactly as stated. Moreover, it is probable that the luminous night-clouds consist of a gas which is condensed in consequence of the lower temperature prevailing in the altitude of 82 kilometres. On the question relating to the nature of this _gas depend several other cosmical questions : for instance, with respect to the temperature of the air of the mundane space and the temperature of the atmosphere at the altitude of 82 kilometres, which will be answered through comparing experiments in the laboratory. For this reason, spectrographs of the sunlight at low altitudes of the sun, in the season in which the phenomenon of the luminous night-clouds is seen, are of great value. Such spectrographs should be taken in the evening shortly . before sunset, and in the morning shortly after sunrise. It appears that in the northern regions of the earth, in about 70° latitude, in the period from the middle of June NONUN NN ON ON: SN Fic. 1. in the statement, that ¢he direction of the sides of an angle are deviated toward the direction of the angle, and may be illustrated by reference to Fig. 2. In, this figure the continuation of the left horizontal line seems to fall below the right horizontal line, and the continuation of». the latter above the former; in reality the two are con- tinuous. Similarly, if the continuations of the oblique lines be added, they will not seem continuous, but diver- until the middle of July, an especially great accumulation -of clouds takes place, which, however, on account of the sun standing constantly adove the horizon during this period, will be hardly visible. It will, therefore, be of special advantage for these regions to take spectrographs of the sunlight at low positions of the sun. These short remarks regarding the importance of the phenomenon with reference to cosmical problems may serve to show that the observations necessary for the ex- ploration of the subject are well within the sphere of as- , tronomers and geophysicists. There can be no doubt that the observations necessary for the solving of these questions are far beyond the capacity of a single institu- | tion. Those who take interest in the furtherance of the questions we have indicated are therefore requested to | assist through one or other of the kinds of observation | above noted in the investigation of the luminous night- ' -clouds.? W. FOERSTER. O. JESSE. Berlin Royal Observatory, September 1892. el. The first step in an explanation of the illusion would be the determination of its essential factors, of its Fic. 2. - gent slightly to one side or the other. If now we call the direction of an angle the direction of the line that bisects _ it, then the deviation is what would result from a draw- ing up of the sides of the angle towards this central bisecting line; the left end of the left horizontal line would be drawn up, and the right end of the right hori- zontal line would be drawn down, and thus the two seem discontinuous. The same would happen, though to a less SOME OPTICAL ILLUSIONS. STRIKING illusion, first described by Zéllner some thirty years ago, and usually called by his name, appears in Fig. 1. Of the four main lines each | * A publication, ‘* Die leuchtenden Nachtwolken,” by O. Jesse, which may | be expected within the next months, will contain detailsregarding the entire | present position of these questions. | * Abstract of a paper on “‘A Study of Zéllner’s Figures and other Re- lated Illusions,” by Joseph Jastrow, Ph.D. (with the assistance of Helen West), being a part of “Studies from the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology of the University of Wisconsin.”—American Journal of Psychology, vol. iv. No. 3. NO. I399, VOL. 46] Fic. 3. | degree, if either oblique line were omitted. There are many other ways of illustrating this fact. Instead of drawing the right line horizontal, we may incline its right end downwards slightly, and then it will seem continuous with the left horizontal line. We may apparently incline both lines so that they would converge towards a point between and below them, as in Fig. 3 and the like. Two further points or corollaries should be noted : (1) that the _ OcTOBER 20, 1892]: NATURE 59f he angle the greater the deviation. Similar figures ute angles substituted for the obtuse ones would “scarcely perceptible illusion. (2) When obtuse G angles formed by lines ¢ and ¢ with the vertical lines re- spectively, deviate the lines ¢ and c towards the direction of the angles sufficiently to bring them in line with one another. Fig. 6 adds the further complication—explicable upon the same principles—that the line is deviated once: in one direction and then in the reverse direction. We have next to show that the illusion of deviation from oS Fic. 4. combined with acute angles, the deviating the former outweigh those of the latter. In effect of the angle ACD would be to make the - B . Fic pipes » iy te Fic. 6. AB if continued fall de/ow FG, while the effect of be to make AB fall adove FG; the former e latter, and the illusion appears as directed Fic. 7. ces BCD, Angles greater than 180° do not ‘consideration. When all the angles about a ‘ACD. The angle BCE reinforces ACD, while Fic. 9. parallelism is similar to that from continuity. If the right- hand portion of Fig. 3 be rotated through 180° and placed below the left-hand portion, we have Fig. 7, in which we observe a tendency for the two horizontal lines to diverge onthe left and converge on the right; this is just what | our dictum demands. To strengthen this illusion we add _more oblique lines, and thus more angles, the obtuse ASS KKK > Sy Fic. 10. angles in all cases outweighing the acute ones—Fig. 8. We have now only to draw two figures like Fig. 8, side by side, and draw the oblique lines across the vertical ones (thus keeping the figure compact) to obtain Fig. 1, with which we set out. The possibilities of illusion do not stop here ; by drawing the oblique lines in one direction on WAZ VW" y Fic. 8. 2 equal, z.¢., are right angles, the illusion disap- , Figs 5 and 6 furnish other illustrations of the principles. In Fig. 5 the line 2 seems continuous ¢ while it is so with 4, and this because the obtuse NO. 1199, VOL. 46] Fic, 11. one side, and in the other direction on the other side, we can deviate the two halves of the same pair of parallel lines in opposite directions, as is done in Fig. 9 ; while most striking of all is the elaborate design of Fig. 10, in which it is difficult to realize that the four main lines are all straight and parallel. If the page be viewed with one 592 NATURE [OcToBER 20, 1892 eye, and held horizontal nearly on a level with the eye, the true relations will appear. Fig. 11 is valuable for its con- clusive demonstration that the deviation is proportional to the angle; the increasing angles gradually bend the straight lines away from one another, and give them the gradual change of direction of curves. These and other forms of illusion are all included in the generaliza- tion that the sides of an angle are deviated towards the direction of that angle.? The psychological principle with which this general- . Fic. 12. ization may be correlated is the law of relativity. This law emphasizes the fact that a sense-impression is not the same when presented alone and when in connection with other related sense-impressions. We cannot judge the direction of lines independently of that of the angles whose sides they form. As a further illustration of this principle it may be shown that angles will affect the apparent /ezgths of lines as well as their apparent drec- tions. If in Fig. 12 we compare the horizontal portion of the uppermost figure with that of the lowest, it is almost impossible to believe that they are of equal length. The intermediate horizontal lines seem intermediate in length, and thus illustrate the fact that the apparent length of the horizontal lines is directly proportional to the size of the angles at their extremities. The illusion would persist if we converted these figures into truncated pyramids by adding a line parallel to the horizontal line, and would Fic. 13. * The reader is referred to the original paper for further illustration of this dictum, as well as.for explanations of apparent exceptions and a dis- cussion of the conditions affecting it. NO. TTQQ, VOL. 46] then illustrate the fact that equal lines may be made to appear unequal by the effect of the areas whose contours ~ they help to form. A converse effect is illustrated in Fig. 13. Here the upper figure seems larger than the lower, because its larger parallel side is brought into juxtaposition with the smaller parallel side of the lower figure. This illusion and others show especially well when cut out of paper and held against suitable back- grounds. As the figures are moved about one another the upper constantly becomes the larger. More than two figures may be used, and a variety of such contrasts may be formed. eipurg The subject is by no means fully considered in these illustrations. nor is the explanation offered as final or adequate. If it seems to direct investigation into fruitful paths its chief purpose will be accomplished. THE NEW SATELLITE OF FUPITER. TS new number of the Astronomical Fournal con- tains Mr. Barnard’s account of his discovery of this additional member of our system. We make the follow- ing extracts:—“ Nothing of special importance was encountered until the night of September 9, when, in carefully examining the immediate region of the planet Jupiter, I detected an exceedingly small star close to the planet, and near the third satellite. I at once suspected this to be a new satellite. I at once measured the dis- tance and position-angle of the object with reference to satellite three. I then tried to yet measures referred to Jupiter, but found that one of the wires had got broken out and the other loosened, Before anything further could be done the object disappeared in the glare about Jupiter. Though I was positive the object was a new satellite, I had only the one set of measures, which was hardly proof enough for announcement. I replaced the wires the next morning. The next night with the great telescope being Prof. Schaeberle’s, he very kindly gave the instrument up to me, and I had the pleasure of veri- fying the discovery, and secured a good set of measures at elongation. In these observations,-and those of the succeeding night, only distances from the following limb — of Jupiter could be measured. These were observed with - The planet was © the wires set perpendicular to the belts. thrown outside the field, the satellite bisected, and then the limb brought in and bisected also. This method would not permit any measures from the poles of the planet for latitude. On the 12th I inserted a strip of mica, carefully smoked, in front of the field-lens, for occulting the planet. This served admirably, permitting the satellite and planet to be both seen at once, and measures from the polar limbs could be made with great ease. The observations of the satellite from the 12th were all thus made. “ To avoid any personal equation I have on each night measured the diameters of the planet, for use in reducing the observations to the centre of Jupiter. Since the 12th, these have been measured through the smoked mica, so as to avoid introducing any: error from the reduced brightness of the planet. The diameters were measured by the method of double distances. Just what the mag- nitude of the satellite is, it is at present quite impossible to tell. Taking into consideration its position, however, in the glare of Jupiter, it would, perhaps, not be fainter than the thirteenth magnitude. It will only be possible to settle this question with any certainty by waiting until some small star of the same magnitude is seen close to Jupiter, and then after determining its magnitude when away from the planet. In general the satellite has been faint—much more difficult than the satellites of Mars. On the 13th inst., however, when the air was very clear, it was quite easy, “It is scarcely probable that this satellite will be seen - NATURE 593 anything less than twenty-six inches, and only with under first-class conditions. I give here the observa- t Ihave so far obtained, and defer any sugges- to a name until a later paper. It certainly not disturb the present harmony existing in the ‘humerals already applied to the satellites. 30 wholly different from any of the other moons in aspect, that it ought, in a sense, to be considered lendent of them, and simply be called, say, the fifth ite, with a suitable mythological name. t will be seen that on three of the dates of obser- | the east elongation is well covered in the ting the observations at elongation, the following he distance were obtained :— From Jupiter's centre. Miles. aber 10 (apparent) 61°04 log R = 7°08267°112250 aie ee Gir tss 7°08452°112750 rat 2? 61°60 ” 7'08324°112400 these the following periods result, using the Wr formula :— mber 10 period II 47 ‘6 ” 12 5; It 52°3 Tae 14 II 49'0 . Mean ... II 49°63 vations, all made in standard Pacific time slow of Greenwich) are given at length in itude measures show that the satellite’s orbit e plane of Jupiter’s equator, and Mr. Barnard it is consequently a very old member of Jupiter’s ince it would doubtless take ages for the orbit iusted.” W. L. : NOTES. linary general meeting of the Institution of Mechanical will be held on Wednesday evening, October 26, and ve: October 27, at 25, Great George Street, _ The chair will be taken at half-past seven p.m. » evening by the President, Dr. William Anderson, ¢ ballot lists for the election of new members, and graduates having been previously opened by the ‘names of those elected will be announced to the ‘The nomination of officers for election at the next general meeting will take place. The followivg papers read and discussed, as far as time permits :—Second of the Research Committee on the value of the steam- by Mr. Henry Davey, Chairman (Wednesday) ; and ex- ents on the arrangement of the surface of a screw-propeller, William George Walker, of Bristol (Thursday). e asked to intimate that the late Prof. Adams has left r of separate copies of certain of his mathematical and I papers, and that Mrs. Adams will be happy to them to scientific friends who make application for ter addressed to her at 4, Brookside, Cambridge. n oration was delivered on Tuesday afternoon by Bridges. He presented an able and most interesting the scientific influences amid which Harvey's work was , and the relation of his great discovery to later research. THe controversy as to vivisection is still going on in the Se For the present, therefore, it may be enough for us to duce the letter which was signed by Sir Andrew Clark, ames Paget, Dr. Samuel Wilks, and Sir George Humphry, NO. 1199, VOL. 46] and printed in the 7mes on Saturday last. It is as follows :-— “‘Having already expressed our views, personally or by letter, to the Church Congress, we decline to enter into any furthe, public discussion on the question of so-called ‘ vivisection,’ for the following reasons, the statement of which we make solely because we think it is due to your readers :—Firstly, after full consideration, we are satisfied that the scientific aspect of this question cannot receive adequate and just treatment in the columns of a newspaper. Secondly, because it is hardly possible for us to name any progress of importance in medicine, surgery, or midwifery which has not been due to, or promoted by, this method of inquiry.” PROF, VIRCHOW was invested, on Saturday last, with the in- signia of office as Rector of the University of Berlin. He chose **Learning and Research” as the subject of his address, He acknowledged that study had contributed greatly to create a mutual basis of understanding and a common edu- cational foundation for the peoples of Europe, strengthening at the same time the idea of consanguinity. That state of things, however, was, he thought, entirely changed, and he contended that the turning-point in the supremacy of the clas- ' sical languages had been reached. ‘‘ A grammatical education is not the means for progressive development demanded by our youth. Mathematics, philosophy, and the natural sciences give young minds so firm an intellectual preparation that they can easily make themselves at home in any department of learning.” ProF. BERG has succeeded the late Dr. Burmeister as director of the National Museum in Buenos Ayres. Dr. G. v. LAGERHEIM, at present director of the Botanic Garden at Quito, Ecuador, has been appointed curator of the museum at Trémso, Norway. Mr. W. G. Ripewoon, B.Sc., of the Royal College of Science; South Kensington, Assistant to the Director of the Natural History Museum, has been appointed Lecturer in Biology to the St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School. THE October number of the Aew Bulletin opens with a sec- tion giving some interesting information as to Lao tea. Some time ago a singular method of using the leaves of what has since been proved to be the Assam tea plant of commerce (Camellia theifera) was brought before the Society of Arts by Mr. Ernest Mason Satow. Amongst the Laos, a people inhabiting a district of Siam, in the neighbourhood of Chiengimai, the tea leaves are not used for making an infusion as in other countries, but are prepared wholly for the purpose of chewing. The leaves are first steamed and then tied up in bundles and buried in the ground for a period of about fifteen days, Leaves thus prepared, called locally ‘‘mieng,” are said to keep for two years or more. The habit of chewing ‘‘ mieng” is almost universal among the Laos, and to men engaged in hard work, such as poling or rowing, it is said to be almost indispensable. The Buddetin prints a correspondence in which the result of an inquiry made by Kew in regard to the plant yielding ‘‘ mieng” and the method of preparation is detailed. THE other sections in the October number of the Aew Budlietin deal with Chinese silkworm gut ; mangrove bark and exiract ; Burmese black rice ; Mauritius tea; potato disease in Poona; British North Borneo ; and Allouya tubers. There are also some miscellaneous notes. WE learn from the Journal of Botany that Dr. H. Trimen, F.R.S., the Director of the Botanic Gardens at Paradeniya Ceylon, has received the sanction of the Government to proceed with the publication of the flora of that island. The work will be published in parts by Messrs, Dulau and Co., and will form two vols. octavo, together with a quarto atlas of 100 coloured plates, 594 drawn by the native Cingalese artists attached to the gardens. The first part is now in the press. The book is more especially designed for use in the colony, and will enter into more local detail than has been hitherto the practice in the Colonial floras published by the Government. Mr. G. HoGBEN delivered an excellent address lately before the Canterbury College Science Society, New Zealand, on earthquakes. In the course of his remarks he described the system which, for the last three years, has been in force in New Zealand for the observation of earthquake phenomena and the telegraphing of the results to a central station. This system has been adopted in Victoria, New. South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania, and will probably be shortly adopted in Queensland. The various colonies exchange reports with New Zealand, and it is proposed that the system shall be further extended, so that the colonies may be brought into communica- tion with the islands of the Pacific and America and Japan. A REUTER telegram despatched from Vienna on October 14 announced that reports had reached that city of the occurrence of violent earthquake shocks in Eastern Europe. The vibra- tions were strongest in Roumania, being felt at Bucharest, where they lasted 15 seconds, and at Galatz during 30 seconds. At Oltenizza the shock lasted fully 90 seconds, and did consider- able damage in the town. A shock was felt at Sofia on October 14, at seven o'clock A.M., and also at Philippopolis, Varna, and Rustchuk. The seismic wave passed from south to north, the vibration lasting several seconds, and being accompanied by subterranean rumbling. THE depression over the Bay of Biscay referred to in our last issue took a very unusual route, the track being almost circular, moving first in an easterly and north-easterly direction towards the north of France, and then recurving by the south-west of England back to the Bay of Biscay, when it again travelled to the eastward. The disturbance caused to the weather in this country was very great and the rains were very heavy, with serious floods, especially in Wales and the midland and northern counties. In Yorkshire it rained almost incessantly from - Thursday to Saturday, a fall of 1 inch being measured in one day. The weather was still further disturbed by an area of low pressure lying over the north of Germany between Sunday and Monday, which caused disastrous gales and further heavy rains in the eastern part of the country. The temperature has been very low for the season, the daily maxima scarcely reaching 55° in any part of the kingdom, owing to the persistent northerly and north-easterly winds. ‘Towards the close of the period temperature fell several degrees lower, with sharp day frosts in Ireland, under the influence of an anti-cyclone, which spread over the country from the Atlantic, while hail and sleet showers fellin places. The Weekly Weather Report of the 15th inst. showed that the temperature of the past week was everywhere below the mean, being as much as 4° in the south-west of England and 5° in the south of Ireland. The rainfall greatly exceeded the average over the north and east of England. AN anemometer by M. Timchenco of a novel construction is described by Prof. Klossovsky, of the Odessa Observatory, by which both the wind direction and velocity are marked on a cylinder by onesymbol. The recording apparatus is moved by clockwork and the indications are made by electrical contacts. The duration of the contact depends upon the velocity of the wind, a light wind producing a contact of longer duration than a strongone. The indications are by means of arrows printed on the paper covering the cylinder, which show the direction of the wind, and the number of arrows marked on a length of paper corresponding to one hour furnishes data for finding the velocity by an empirical scale determined by comparison with a Robin- son’s anemometer. The apparatus only requires to be adjusted twice a month, or in some instruments only once a month, and NO. 1199, VOL. 46] NATURE [Corset 20, 1992 calls for no attention in the meantime. A battery cell is sufficient to produce the contact, for most of the work is done by means of weights. THE Annuaire of the Municipal Observatory of Montsouris Be the years 1892-93 contains, in addition to the usual tables showing on inter alia the extremes of temperature at Paris since 1699 and the monthly rainfall values since 1690, much useful information with reference to the climate and the microscopic examination of the quality of the air. Although it does not fall within the province of the observatory to issue weather forecasts, applica- tions for such information are sometimes received and answered,. in the interest of agriculture. The opinion is expressed that by basing the calculations on the general methods adopted by Laplace i in his memoir entitled ‘‘ Probabilité des causes d’aprés. les événements,” it is not impossible to give a long forecast which may be at times of much use. Some interesting remarks are also made as to the possibility of foreseeing the character of the summer from the weather experienced in the early spring, based chiefly on the time of the appearance of the north-east winds, and the differences in their usual strength and physical qualities, in connection with the transparency of the air. the analysis of the air show that the minimum amount of car- bonic acid occurs between May and September, and that the: amount at night is greater than during the day. THE new University of Chicago has decided that its work shall go on all the year through, including the summer months. According to the New York JVatzon, the calendar year is divided « into four quarters of twelve weeks each, beginning respectively on the first days of October, January, April, and July ; and at the end of each quarter there is to be a recess of one week. Each quarter consists of two terms of six weeks. No student is to be held to an attendance of more than three quarters, or six terms, in each year, so that the normal academic year is no longer than at other colleges. academic year whenever he is ready, and to take his quarter’s vacation whenever it suits his convenience. He may even take his two terms of vacation in different quarters. AN investigation of the phenomena exhibited at the negative poles of vacuum tubes appears in vol. xl. of the Sttzwmgsberichte of the Prussian Academy. Professor E. Goldstein considers. as applied to the light at the that the term “ stratification ” cathode is a misnomer, since two at least of the strata can be shown to pervade the entire region of luminosity. The light nearest the cathode is yellowish, and about t cm. thick. Next comes Crookes’ ‘‘ dark space,” which in reality shines with a faint blue light. Then follows the third and most highly lumi- nous layer, whose colour changes from a blue to a violet as the The first layer was shown to be- exhaustion is carried further. a separate phenomenon on a previous occasion. The so-called second layer shows the peculiarity of rectilinear propagation. It is emitted from the electrode normally to its surface, or very slightly divergent, whereas that of the third layer spreads throughout the bulb and even passes round corners. The se- cond layer is best shown by concave poles, which concentrate the light at the centre of curvature. If observed through a blue glass, which cuts off the third layer, it is seen to diverge from the focus and impinge upon the wall of the bulb. The phos- phorescence observed in the glass where itis struck by the ‘‘radiant matter” is due to this part of the light only, and not to the third layer. It is this alsc which produces the well-known phenomena of shadows. A glass rod laidin its path casts a shadow through the blue space, which is, however, relieved by the purple luminosity of the third layer. The former is also the only light deflected by a second cathode. It is to be concluded that the light at the negative pole of a vacuum tube consists of The results of Each student is to begin his. three different species, each pervading the others, but having — distinct and characteristic properties ofits own. eee ae ae oe iGincibtaend the current number of the “‘ Annals of Scottish Natural ory,” Mr. E. P. Knubley discusses the question whether tive protection is required for wild birds’ eggs. He sug- s that the most practicable plan might be for Parliament to Spe to the County Councils from time to time, and as y'arose, to place certain portions of a district, such as ins, commons, waste places, lakes and meres, or por- tions of cliffs or foreshores, under an Act for specified months in -year—say, from April 1 to June 30. What, however, is lost urgently wanted, as Mr. Knubley says, is that landlords d occupiers shall, as far as possible, protect birds breeding sts’ Club of Victoria an interesting paper on some n Lepidoptera. He said that a great charm accom- the rearing out of the Victorian species, because the in having characteristics and habits purely Australian ; not only so, but they helped to bridge over the sharply- d divisions known in Europe, and merged the various eae some ova in a small tek and covered them eg with yellow down. Very shortly afterwards a d-like structure was visible, which close examination d to be composed of newly-hatched caterpillars in Indian each having its head close up to the tail of its forerunner, ‘the whole line moving “nea with mathematical b use of gas engines does not seem to be nearly so common United States as in Great Britain. According to the oad and Engineering Journal, they are generally regarded as of service for light work only, and it is with some that our contemporary has noted the advertisement of h firm, which keeps all sizes up to forty-horse-power valent to furnish single engines of any size up to J-fifty-horse-power. This much exceeds the gt gas engine built until very recently. . anal of Agriculture has published a valu- it, by Harvey W. Wiley, of experiments with sugar- 1891. The experiments were divided into three classes ; 2 of the sugar-beet conducted by farmers in different ‘the country ; ; (2) culture of the sugar-beet conducted in Wisconsin, under the direction of the agricul- ent station of that State, by authority of the Secre- vertebrate fossils collected by Prof. Marsh, to which we , referred, are not likely, after all, to be soon exhibited in : e National Museum at Washington. Our contemporary says : “ One side of a small room is the only space at present occu- d by the material in question, and it is safe to say that no her space has been yet provided. As the National Museum nmitted the error at its establishment of attempting an exhibit modern human industries, as we pointed out at the time, the e for scientific exhibits is necessarily greatly curtailed. The E Fecctsities of this department require the erection of a new _ building, and until that is done it is safe to say that the verte- brate collections of the U.S. Geological Saohaes will not be exhibit NO. 1199, VOL. 46] experiment station of Wisconsin and nume- } 595 SLEEP is one of the least understood of physiological phe- nomena. A new theory ofit (we learn from the Revue Scientifique) has been offered by Herr Rosenbaum. He supposes the essential fact in the fatigue of the nervous system leading to sleep to be a hydratation of the nerve-cells, an increase of their water-content. The greater the hydratation, the less the irritability. This hydratation arises through chemical change of the nervous subs- tance during activity. ‘A small part of the water escapes by day through the lungs, but the greater part is eliminated during sleep. Its passage into the blood takes place by virtue of the laws of diffusion, and depends on the quantity and density of the blood, its amount of fixed principles, its speed of flow, &c. Elimination of the expired air takes place according to the laws of diffusion of gases. The assimilable substances of the body- take the place of the water eliminated in sleep. The repair of the physical and mental forces through sleep is due to this elimination and replacement. Intelligence is in inverse ratio of the propor- tion of water in the brain,and may be measured by this proportion, at least inthe child. It may be doubted whether this theory ex- plains the sleep of hibernating animals, or that caused by. opium and anesthetics. D. J. MApIson TAYLOR has been elaborately investigating the various problems relating to physical exercise in health and as a remedy, and some of the results are set forthin the Journal of the Franklin Institute for September and October. One conclusion is, he says, uniformly prominent in the instances of damage from boat and other racing. Always the training has been ‘‘ either insufficient or bad, or both.” IN one of the papers contributed to the third number of the Trinidad Field Club’s Journal, Mr. J. Edward Tanner describes some interesting observations of the habits of the Parasol or Leaf Cutting Ants. Two nests of these ants were on his table at the time when his paper was being prepared. He begins by noting that all in Trinidad who are interested in such subjects know the hurried manner in which a parasol ant returns to her nest (all leaf-cutting workers are females), bearing erect in her mandibles the portion of leaf she has herself just cut off, and apparently running home withitin triumph. These foragers, for they are the ones who supply the household, carry their portion of a leaf well into the nest, drop it, and return for another piece, nor do they cease doing so till the supply is more than those in. the nest require. Mr. Tanner could not induce the ants in one. of his nests to carry any leaf whatsoever into the nest, till one day . he coaxed a small worker to do so. As she entered she was ‘caressed by those in the nest, who stroked and patted her with their antennz. The small piece of leaf she had brought was at once taken by one of the larger workers, to go through its various processes, while she returned for more, and she continued to bring in pieces till late in the evening. Strange to say, none of the others followed her example. Even four weeks later only two or three carried in any portions of leaf. Mr. Tanner sug- gests that this may have been due to the fact that the queen was accidentally killed while the nest was being taken. The other nest hada queen, and with it there was no trouble, for the ants kept themselves well supplied from whatever was offered to them on their feeding ground, whether rose leaves, plumbago, or quis-qualis. ‘‘ Each forager,” says Mr. Tanner, ‘‘drops her portion of leaf in the nest, which is taken up as required by the small workers, and carried to a clear space in the nest to be cleaned. ‘This is done with their mandibles, and if considered too large it is cut into smaller pieces. It is then taken in hand by the larger workers, who lick it with their tongues. Then comes the most important part, which almost always is done by the larger workers, who manipulate it between their mandibles, mostly standing on three legs. The portion of leaf is turned round and round between the mandibles, the ant using her palpi, tongue, her three legs, and her antenne while doing so. It - or not. 596 NATURE [OcToBER 20, 1892 now becomes a small, almost black ball, varying in size from a mustard seed to the finest dust shot, according to the size of the piece of leaf that wie been manipulated. The size of the piece of leaf is from an 3 by } of aninch, by } by }ofaninch. I do not wish it to be understood that only one class of workers manipulate the leaf, for all seem to take to it very kindly on emergency. Even the smallest workers will bring their tiny ball to where the fungus bed is being prepared. These balls, really pulp, are built on to an edge of the fungus bed by the larger workers, and are slightly smoothed down as the work proceeds. The new surface is then planted by the smaller workers, by slips of the fungus brought from the older parts of the nest. Each plant is planted separately and they know exactly how far apart the plants should be. It sometimes looks as if the plants had been put in too scantily in places, yet in about forty hours, if the humidity has been properly regulated, it is all evenly covered with a mantle, as if of very fine snow, It is this fungus they eat, and with small portions of it the workers feed the larvze.” Mr. O. P. Hay records in the latest volume of the Proceed- ings of the U.S. National Museum a curious habit of horned toads. Some years ago two boys from Texas, whose family had moved into his neighbourhood, showed him a few. lizards belonging to the genus Phrynosoma, and popularly called horned toads. The boys declared that these little animals, when teased, would sometimes squirt blood out of their eyes. Mr, Hay did not think much about the matter at the time, but was lately vividly reminded of it in the department of reptiles in the National Museum. Near his desk there was a specimen of Phrynosoma coronatum, which had been sent from California by a member of Dr. Merriam’s exploring party. About August 1 it was shedding its outer skin, and the process appeared to be a difficult one, since the skin was dried and adheredclosely. One day it occurred to Mr. Hay that it might facilitate matters if he gave the animal a wetting ; so, taking it up, he carried it to a wash-basin of water near by and suddenly tossed the lizard into the water. ‘‘ The first surprise,” says Mr. Hay, ‘‘ was probably experienced by the Phrynosoma, but the next surprise was my own, for on one side of the basin there suddenly appeared a number of spots of red fluid, which resembled blood.” He immediately recalled what the boys had told him of the ability of horned toads to squirt blood, and he concluded that this was a good time to settle the question whether this fluid was blood A microscope was soon procured and an examination was made, which immediately showed that the matter ejected was really blood. A day or two afterwards Mr. Hay was hold- ing the lizard between his thumb and middle finger, and stroking its horns with his forefinger. All at once a quantity of blood was thrown out against his fingers, and a portion of it ran down on the animal’s neck ; and this blood came directly out of the right eye. Mr. Hay has since found that the phenomenon has been noticed by other observers, and, while he was pre- paring his paper, his attention was called to the fact that more than twenty years ago Mr. A. R. Wallace read before the Zoological Society of London letters from a correspondent in California, who described this creature as squirting from one of its eyes ‘fa jet of bright red liquid very much like blood.” MEssrs. PERCIVAL AND Co. announce the following works :— ‘* Geometrical Drawing,” by A. J. Pressland; ‘‘ Lessons on Air,” by A. E. Hawkins; ‘‘ The School Euclid,” an edition of Euclid, Books i.-vi., with Notes and Exercises, by Daniel Brent ; and a series of elementary text-books entitled ‘* The Beginner’s Text-books of Science,” of which Mr. G. Stallard is the general editor. MEssrs, GEORGE BELL AND SONS have published a second edition of Mr. A. J. Jukes-Browne’s ‘‘ Student’s Handbook of Physical Geology.” The author explains that in preparing this NO. 1199, VOL. 46} edition he has spared no pains to make it a trustworthy hand- book for those branches of the science to which it relates. MEssrs. WHITTAKER AND Co, have issued for the benefit of amateur coil-makers a practical manual on ‘‘ Induction Coils,” by G. E. Bonney. The author’s object has been to place in the hands of his readers ‘‘a cheap and handy volume giving a general insight into the construction of ordinary spark coils, medical coils, and batteries for working them.” ‘There are more than a hundred illustrations. Messrs. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND Co. have issued a new edition, revised and largely re-written, of the well-known ‘* Outlines of Psychology,” by Prof. James Sully. Messrs, CHAPMAN AND HALL will shortly publish a work by Rev. H. N. Hutchinson, entitled ‘* Extinct Monsters.” It will be illustrated by Mr. J. Smit, who has made twenty-four restora- tions of antediluvian animals. The book is not intended for geologists only, but for all who are interested in the study of animal life. Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., keeper of geology, Na tural History Museum, contributes a preface, — THE new number of Records of the Australian Museum (Vol. III., No, 2) opens with a paper, by Mr, J. Douglas Ogilby, on some undescribed reptiles and fishes from Australia. To the same number Mr. C. Hedley contributes a paper on the structure and affinities of Panda Atomata, Gray. Mr. A. North has a note on Manucodia comrii, Sclater. THE University College of North Wales has published its calendar for the year 1892-93. GLYCOL aldehyde, CH,OH.CHO, the hithertoalmost unknown first aldehyde derived from. glycol, forms the subject of a com- munication to the current number of the Berichte by Prof, Emil Fischer and Dr. Landsteiner. This substance acquires addi- tional interest when the ordinary sugars are defined as aldehyde- or ketone-alcohols, for it then becomes the first member of the series, Prof, Fischer now shows how glycol aldehyde may readily be obtained, discusses its properties, and points out that by its polymerisation a new sugar is obtained, tetrose, the first synthetical sugar containing four atoms of carbon, The only evidence hitherto published of the existence of glycol aldehyde is that afforded by the work of Abeljanz and Pinner. The former chemist considered that he had obtained it by heating di-chlor-ether with water, and by the action of sulphuric acid upon mono-chlor-hydroxy -ether. But upon repeating the work of Abeljanz, Prof. Fischer finds that the substance considered, upon very slight evidence, to be glycol aldehyde is another com- pound altogether. Pinner afterwards attempted to obtain it by decomposition of a substance discovered by him, glycol acetal, with acids, but Prof. Fischer finds that this reaction only occurs. under condit ions such that the glycol aldehyde is itself also de- composed. In view of the formation of glyceryl aldehyde by the action of baryta upon acrolein dibromide, a reaction now of his- torical importance as being the one which led Prof. Fischer tothe — first synthesis of grape sugar, it was thought probable that glycol aldehyde might be similarly obtained by the action of baryta upon the mono-bromine derivative of aldehyde, CH,Br.CHO. Mono-brom-aldehyde, however, had never been hitherto ob- tained, so Prof. Fischer and Dr. Landsteiner first sought a method for its preparation. They eventually obtained it, asa viscid colourless liquid of powerful tear- cae odour, oy heating mono-brom-acetal, CH,Br. cH. 5 with anhy~ OC,H; drous oxalic acid. _ When the mono-brom-aldehyde thus ’ October 20, 1892 | NATURE 597 obtained was mixed with water containing barium hydrate lyin solution and partly in suspension, and the whole main- ed for half an hour at 0°, the odour of the brom-aldehyde appeared almost completely. Upon removal of the baryta by sulphuric acid and the hydrobromic and sulphuric acids by id carbonate, the filtered liquid was found to contain glycol shyde, which could be concentrated by evaporation over oil vitriol iz vacuo. The solution of glycol aldehyde reduces fehling’s solution with great energy at the ordinary tempera- When warmed with a solution of phenylhydrazine in ic acid crystals of an osazone are deposited, just as hap- 9ens in the case of other members of the series of sugars. 3lycol aldehyde is readily oxidized by bromine water to glycollic d, CH,OH.COOH. When treated with a dilute solution of ium hydrate polymerization occurs, a sugar of the compo- on CyH,O,, the first synthetical tetrose, being formed, h is readily isolated in the form of its osazone (phenyl. zine compound). This osazone appears to be identical ith one obtained by Prof. Fischer from one of the oxidation roducts of natural erythrite. The preparation of glycol alde- completes the synthesis of the whole of the members of Series of sugars, from the first member up to the sugars taining nine atoms of carbon, with the exception of pentose. is latter sugar Prof. Fischer hopes shortly to obtain from the strose above described. ‘THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the ast week include a Grivet Monkey (Cercopithecus griseo-viri- is $) from Zanzibar, a Bengal Fox (Canis bengalensis) from ndicherry, presented by the Rev. J. W. Scarlett ; a —— nkey (Cercopithecus sp. inc.) from the Zambesi, presented by Joseph A. Moloney ; a Bonnet Monkey (Aacacus sinicus) a India, a White Stork (Ciconia alba), European, presented by the Rey. Sidney Vatcher ; a Mona Monkey (Cercopithecus ona) from West Africa, presented by Miss Synge ; a Hairy nadillo (Dasypus villosus) from South America, presented by Jj. H. Hamilton Benn ; a Common Badger (M@eles taxus), tish, presented by Mr. W. Butler; a —— Galago (Galago - inc.) from East Africa, presented by Mr. Thomas E. C. ton,; an.—— Ichneumon (—— ), a Purple-crested yu (Corythaix porphyreolophus), two Black Gallinules vocorax niger),a Tambourine Pigeon ( Zympanistria bicolor), Emerald Dove (Chalcopelia afer), four Half-collared Doves ‘tur semitorquatus), a Fruit Pigeon (7Zreron sp.inc.), four - Tree Frogs (Hy/ambates maculatus), seven Smooth-clawed togs (Xenopus levis) from East Africa, presented by Genera] lathews; three Mitred Guinea Fowls (Numida mitrata), a — Snake (Philothamnus semivariegatus) {rom East Africa, resented by Mr. W. Hall Buxton MacDonald, M.D. ; a —— tincole (Glareola sp. inc.), a Half-collared Dove (Zurtur semitorquatus), a Nilotic Crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus) from wast Africa, presented by Mr. R. MacAllister; two —— acolins (Francolinus —— ),a Coucal (Centropus ——), = Half-cellared Doves (Zurtur semito:quatus) trom East tica, a Black-tailed Hawfinch Coccothraustes melanurus) from _Japan, presented by Mr. F. Pordage ; a Flap-necked Chameleon Chameleon dilepis), two Square-marked Toads (Bufo regularis) om East Africa, presented by Mr. E. Millar; a Galeated ventonyx (Pelomedusa galeata), two —— Skinks (Gerrhosaurus wjor), five —— Geckos (Hemidactylus mabouia), three —— lizards (Mabuia striata) from East Africa, presented by Mr. rank Finn, F.Z.S. ; a Common Quail (Coturnix communis), ptured at sea, presented by Mr. A. Torrie ; a Honey Buzzard uteo apivorus) from France, presented by M. S. A. Pichot -M.Z.S. ; a Burrowing Owl (Speoryto cunicularia) from South America, presented by Mr. R. B. Shipway ; two Common Boas _ (Boa constrictor) from Trinidad, presented by Messrs. Mole and _Urich ; a Black-headed Lemur (Lemur brunneus) from Mada- 4 NO. 1199, VOL. 46] Lyd oy gascar, a Yellow-tailed Rat Snake (.Spi/otes corai's) from Trinidad, deposited ; an African Wild Ass (Zguus teniopus), born in the Gardens. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. A New Comet.—A telegram from Kiel announces the dis- covery of a new comet by Prof. Barnard on October 12 last, at 17h, 12°2m. mean Lick time. The position, as therein stated, was R.A. 293° 29’, and Declination + 12° 33’. As this new comet is termed ‘‘very dim,” as seen with the large Lick re- fractor, it is needless to say that few instruments can at present observe it. Our Sun’s History.—The question of ‘How our Sun commenced to grow hot,” is the subject of an article by Lord Kelvin in the October number of Z’Astronomiz. In these few pages he deals with various questions, among which may be mentioned : What is the temperature of the Sun? Is it increas- ing or diminishing? What was the state of the matter consti- tuting our Sun before it was united into a single mass and began to grow hot ? The answer to the last question leads him into the method of construction of our solar system. In considering the question of the encounter between two bodies as the origin, he finds that the probability of such an encounter between two neighbouring stars belonging to a large number of bodies, attracting one another mutually, and scattered in space, is much greater if they are at rest than if they are moving, even if their velocities are greater than those acquired in falling from rest. As an explanation of this Lord Kelvin takes the case of two solid and cold bodies of diameters equal to half that of the sun, and of mean densities equal to that of the earth, and supposes them at rest, the mean distance between each other being that of the earth from the sun. The collision caused by mutual attraction will transform the bodies into a fluid, incandescent mass, and he describes how this mass will arrange itself round this surface of collision. ‘The next case he takes is similar to the one above, only the bodies have originally considerable velocities. Further on, as a special instance, he assumes the | presence of 29 millions of solid cold globes, each having a mass equal to that of our moon, and the total masses of which are equivalent to that of oursun. These bodies, absolutely at rest, are supposed to be disseminated uniformly on the surface of a sphere (radius =terrestrial orbit), and allowed to fall towards the centre of the sphere by attraction. The result, to state briefly, isa mass of highly heated vapour, which afterwards expands and contracts consecutively, forming a gaseous nebula, measuring forty times the radius of the terrestrial orbit. By supposing that, instead of absolute rest at the commencement, these moons have acertain movement, the total sum of which represents a moment of rotation round a certain axis, equal to the moment of rotation of the solar system, this nebula would be amore or less facsimile of our solar system in its earlier stage, as figured out by La Place for his nebular theory. Thus this theory, ‘‘ founded by La Place on the history of the sidereal uni- verse such as Herschel observed, and completed in its details by his profound dynamical judgment and imaginative genius, appears to-day a truth demonstrated by thermodynamics.” For the theory of the sun, Lord Kelvin says in conclusion that the antecedents immediateiy before incandescence cannot be definitely stated, since the latter may have been caused by large and few bodies, or by agglomerations of such bodies as meteorites, SILVERING GLAss MIRRORS. — Mr. Common, in the Observatory for October, gives a brief account of various pro- cesses and methods for producing good reflecting surfaces. In the short historical sketch we find that the modern process is due to an observation of Baron Liebig, who, in 1835, found that on heating aldehyde with an ammoniacal solution of silver in a glass vessel a brilliant deposit of metallic silver was de- posited on the surface of the glass. In all the methods used up till quite recently the surface to be silvered had to be sus- pended over the bath, owing to the formation of mud which settles down and prevents the proper deposition of silver ; thus really large surfaces could not be dealt with. This was the case with Mr. Common’s 3-foot, a pneumatic arrangement being made to hold the mirror by the back. In dealing with the 5-foot, this method could not be so easily applied, and experiments were made to find some means by which: this ‘*mud” could be entirely eliminated. This was successfully 598 NATURE [OcToBER 20, 1892 done by omitting the potash from the bath. One curious fact of observation is that the mirrors experimented on never seemed to take the first application of the silvering solution, but on being recleaned with nitric acid the second was always successful. Why this should be so does not seem to be easily explained, for Mr. Common only commits himself to the statement that ‘‘ the nature of the liquid other than distilled water last in contact with the surface of the mirror seems to be the determining thing.” Himmel und LErde.—In this magazine for October there is a most interesting set of articles, of which we mention the following :—‘‘ Meteorology as the Physics of the Atmosphere,” by Herr Wilhelm von Bezold. This comprises a general sum- mary of the proceedings of the German Meteorological Society, which met in Braunschweig on June 7 last.—‘‘ Astronomy of the Invisible,” by Herr Dr. Scheiner. This is the first of a series of articles, and deals, as far as it goes, with the discovery of Neptune by Adams and Le Verrier ; it contains also a trans- lation of the letter which Le Verrier wrote to Dr. Galle, who was then an assistant at the Berlin Observatory, telling him the results he had obtained, and asking him to make a search for the unknown planet. Asa imatter of interest we will give the elements of Neptune as obtained by Le Verrier and Adams, together with the true ones afterwards determined, for the re- sults of such a piece of work will always be looked upon with interest. Le Verrier. Adams. True elements. Half major axis GOMES 37°25 30°05 Eccentricity sits 0°1076 ... 0°1206 0'0090 Longitude of Perihelion 285° 299° 46° Mass (Sun-= 1) |... O°O0OI ... O'000TS 0°00005 Inclination ... o a ons °° 8 In the notes two excellent illustrations of parts of the moon are inserted, one being a reproduction of a photograph taken at the Lick Observatory on August 31, 1890, and the other displaying the region to the north of Hyginus, showing these curious river- like appearances as first remarked by Prof. Weinek of Prague. Other notes deal with the astronomical reasons of the Ice Age, observations of Mars during the period 1883-88, polariscope observation of the surface of Venus, &c. GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. MouNT ORIZABA, or Citlaltepetl, in Mexico, has been measured trigonometrically by Mr. J. T. Scovell, with the result that its height is fixed as 18,314 feet. Popocatepetl is about 700 feet lower, and unless Mount St. Elias is found to considerably exceed Russel’s estimate of 18,100 feet, Orizaba must be considered the highest summit in North America. THE pumping of brine from the North German salt mines and the consequent subsidence of the land, is the cause of a some- what interesting change in the small lakes near Mansfeld. The Salzigen See, as observed by Dr. Ule, of Halle, had a maximum depth of thirty metres on June 18, and of no less than forty-two metres on June 28, the subsidence of the bottom having taken place at the average rate of more than one metre a day. FoLLoWING the death of Dr. Theodor Menke (see p. 302) we have to notice the loss of his fellow-worker, Dr. Karl Spruner von Merz, at the age of eighty-nine. He died on August 24, 1892. After a military career of some distinction, he retired from the army in 1886. His attention was early attracted to historical geography, and his famous ‘‘ Historical Atlas” (1837-1852) has made his memory imperishable. It was in preparing the third edition of this atlas that he was first associated with Menke. THE camels which were introduced into German South-West Africa last year, have, according to the Deutsches Kolonialblatt, proved a great success. They are employed in keeping up com- munication between Walfisch Bay and Windhoek, and for journeys into the interior. Their power of travelling for a week at a time without food or water has frequently been put to the ‘test on the borders of the Kalahari desert. The climate does not seem to affect them unfavourably, and they have proved exempt from the many fatal diseases which attack horses and even oxen in Namaqualand. A LECTURE on ‘‘ Regions and Races” was delivered on Monday evening in the Regent’s Square Hall by Dr. H. R. Mill. NO. 1199, VOL. 46] The object of the lecture was to demonstrate the continuity of 4 geography with the physical sciences which account for the growth of the surface features of the globe, and with the natural — sciences which explain the forms of plant and animal life on it surface. were discussed as the true basis of the higher geography. M. J. THOULET has this summer been engaged in an oceano- — graphical study of the Basin of Arcachon, and publishes in the © last number of the Comptes Rendus an interesting epitome of — This lagoon forms a valuable oyster — his preliminary results. preserve, and the researches into the action of the tides — on the enclosed water has practical as well as scientific | bearings. The investigation will be continued, so as to include the other lagoons along the coast enclosed by sand dunes, and — j more or less cut off from the sea. THE COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY OF RESPIRATION: AMONG the very first of the physiological acts observed were those of respiration.. The regular movements of breath- ing, from the first feeble efforts of the new-born babe until the — sigh in the last breath of the dying—after which is silence, cold, and dissolution—have commanded the attention and claimed the interest of every one, the thoughtful and the thoughtless alike. And one comes to feel that in some mysterious way ‘‘the breath is the life.” But in what way does breathing subserve life or render it possible? Aristotle and the naturalists of the olden time supposed that it was to cool the blood that the air — was taken into the lungs, and, as they supposed, also into the © arteries. With the limited knowledge of anatomy in those early. days, and the fact that after death the arteries are wholly or almost wholly devoid of blood, while the veins are filled with it, what could be more natural than to suppose that the arteries were vessels for the cooling air? ~If one supp that he has entirely outgrown this view of Aristotle, let him think for a moment how he would express the fact that an individual is de- scended from the Puritans, forexample. In expressing it even the physiologist could hardly bring himself to say other than ‘the has the blood of the Puritans in his veins.” Would he say ‘‘he has the blood of the Puritans in his arteries ”? ; As observation increased the cold-blooded animals were more | carefully studied and found to possess also a respiration ; they certainly do not need it to cool the blood. Thenthere are the insects and the other myriads of living forms that teem in the oceans, lakes, rivers, and even in the wayside pools. Do these, too, have a breath? And the plants on the Jand and in the water, is the air vitalto them ? Aristotle and the older natural- ists could not answer these questions. To them, onthe respira- tory side at least, all life was not in any sense the same. It.was not till chemistry and physics were considerably developed, not — until the air-pump, the balance, and the burette were perfected that it was possible to give more than a tentative answer. It was not, until the microscope could increase the range of the eye — into the fields of the infinitely little, possible to form even an approximately correct conception. The first glimmerings of the real significance of respiration for all living things was in the observation that the air which would not support a flame, al- — though it might be breathed, could not support life. That is, there must be something in the transparent air that feeds the The interactions between man and. his environment — a — flame and becomes the breath of life, the real posalum vite, the . merely mechanical action of the air not being sufficient. Since the experiments on insects and other animals by Boyle (1670) with the air-pump, by Bernouilli, on subjecting fishes to water out of whiclr all the air had been boiled, and those of Mayow (1674), it became more and more evident that respiration — was not confined to the higher forms, but was a universal fact — in the organic world. Then came the most fruitful discoveries of all, made by the immortal Priestley (1775-6), viz., that the — air is not an element, but composed of two constituents— — nitrogen, which is inert in respiration, and oxygen, which is the. { real vital substance of the air, the substance which supports — the flame of the burning candle and the life of the animal as _ well What would seem more simple at this stage of knowledge Address delivered, in August, 1892, at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, by Prof. Simon Henry Gage, of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., Vice-President of the Biological — Section ae OcTOBER 20, 1892 | NATURE 599 n that the parallel between the burning candle and the living anism should be thought to represent truly the real con- ons? That as the candle consumes the oxygen, burns, and ives out carbon dioxide, so the living thing breathes in oxygen, id gives out in place of that consumed carbon dioxide. And isin each case heat is produced, what would be more natural aan to look upon respiration as a simple combustion? This was the generalization of Lavoisier (1780-89). As he saw it, the oxygen entered the lungs, reached the blood, and burned the carbonaceous waste there found; and was immediately given ut in connection with the carbon with which it had united, nd as the gas given off ina burning candle makes clear lime- t turbid, so the breath produces a like turbidity. here, as in many of the processes of nature, the end pro- or acts were alone apparent, and while the fundamental ea is probably true that respiration is, in its essential process, ind of combustion or oxidation, yet the seat of this action is the lungs or blood, If the myriads of microscopic forms considered, these have no lungs, no blood, and many of even no organs ; they are, as has been well said, organless isms, and yet every investigation since the time of Vinci Von Helmont, Boyle and Mayow, has rendered it more more certain that every living thing must in some way be d with the vital air or oxygen, and that this is in some deteriorated by use ; and the nearer investigation approaches real life-stuff or protoplasm, it alone is found to be the breather, the true respirer, as was shown long ago by Spal- mnzani (1803-7). If one of the higher animals, as a frog, is decapitated and some of its muscle or other tissue exposed in rot will continue to take up oxygen and give out dioxide, thus apparently showing that the tissues of the organized frog, may, under favourable conditions, absorb directly from the surrounding medium, and return to it the waste carbon dioxide. This shows conclusively living substance that breathes, and the elaborate 7 ngs, heart, and blood-vessels, are only to make that the living matter, far removed from the external air, not be suffocated. Still more strange, it has been found some of the living tissue is placed in an atmosphere of ren or ni entirely devoid of oxygen, it will perform functions for a while, and although no oxygen can be ned, it will give off carbon dioxide as in the ordinary air. is asked, ‘‘ how can these things be?” the answer is appar- plain and direct. Not as the oxygen unites directly with n the burning candle does it act in the living sub- ne oxidations are not direct in living matter, as in but the living matter first takes the oxygen and integral part of itself, as it does the carbon and other elements ; and, finally, when energy is to be e oxidation occurs, and the carbon dioxide appears hes product. yxygen that is breathed to-day, like the carbon or the lat is eaten, may be stored away and represent only tential energy to be used at some future time in 1ysical action. ‘ only living animal substance has been discussed. If lants are considered, aaa nig i : Selo ks the air? he answer was given in part by Priestley (1771), who found that ‘ir which had zo vtiated by wel! angina became pure and respirable again by the action of green plants. He thus liscovered the harmonizing and mutual action of animals and ints upon the atmosphere; and there is no more beautiful armony in nature. Animals use the oxygen of the air and give it carbon dioxide, which soon renders it unfit for respiration ; ut the green plants take the carbon dioxide, retain the carbon is food and return the oxygen to the air as a waste product. his is as thoroughly established as any fact in plant physio- gy ; and yet, in his experiments, Priestley had some of what he led ‘* bad experiments ” ; for instead of the plants giving out xygen and thus purifying the air, they sometimes gave off car- m dioxide, and thus rendered it more impure, after the manner an animal. What investigator cannot sympathize with 'riestley when he calls these ‘‘ bad experiments” ; they appeared tudely to put discord into his discovered harmony of Nature. it Nature is infinitely greater than man dreams. The ‘‘ bad xperiments ” were among the most fruitful in the history of sientific discovery. Ingenhausz (1787) follcwed them up, care- Il ing all the conditions, and found that it was only in ayligh that green plants gave out oxygen; in darkness or in- ficient light they conducted themselves like animals, taking up _ NO. 1199, VOL. 46] 4 oxygen and giving out carbon dioxide. Finally it was proved by Saussure (1804) and others that for green plants, and those without green, like the mushroom, oxygen is as necessary for life as for animals. It thus became evident that this use of oxy- gen and excretion of carbon dioxide was a property of living matter, and that the very energy that set free the oxygen of the carbon dioxide was derived from oxidations in the green plant comparable with those giving rise to energy in animals. Further that the purification of the air by green plants in light is a separate function—a chlorophyll function, as it has been happily termed by Bernard—and resembles somewhat digestion in animals, the oxygen being discarded as a waste product. In- deed so powerful is the effort made to obtain oxygen for the life processes by some of the lowest plants—the so-called organized ferments—that some of the most useful and some of the most deleterious products are due to their respiratory activity. In alcoholic fermentation, as clearly pointed out by Pasteur and Bernard, the living ferment is removed from all sources of free oxygen, and in the effort for respiration the molecules of the sugar are decomposed or rearranged and a certain amount of oxygen set free. It has been found that the motile power of some bacteria like Bacterium termo depends on the presence of free oxygen in the liquid containing them. When this is absent, they become quiescent. This fact has been utilized by Engelmann and others in the study of the evolution of oxygen by green and other coloured water plants. The bacteria serving as the most delicate imaginable oxygen test, so that when the minutest green plant is illuminated by sufficient daylight, the previously quiescent bac- teria move with great vigour and surround it in swarms. Out of the range of the plant, the bacteria are still, or move very slowly, as if to conserve the minute energy-developing substance they have in store until it can be used to the best advantage. May we not now approach the problem directly, and answer for the whole organic living world the question, ‘‘ What is re- spiration ?”’ by saying it is the taking up of oxygen and the giving out of carbon dioxide by living matter? This is the universal and essential fact with all living things, whether they are animals or plants, whether they live in the water or on land. But the ways by which this fundamental life process is made possible, the mechanisms employed to bring the oxygen in contact with the living matter, and to remove the carbon dioxide from it, are almost as varied as the groups of animals, each group seeming to have worked out the problem in accordance with its special needs. It is possible, however, in tracing out these complex and varied methods and mechanisms, to discover two great methods—the Direct and the Indirect. In the first, there is the direct assumption of oxygen from the surrounding medium, and the excretion of carbon dioxide directly into it. The best examples of this are presented by unicellular forms like the amoeba, where the living substance is small in amount, and everywhere laved by the respiratory medium. But as higher and higher forms are destined to appear, evidently the minute, organless amoeba could not in itself realize the great aim toward which Nature was moving. There must be an aggregation of amcebas, some of them serving for one purpose and some for another. Like human society, as civilization advances, each individual does fewer things, becomes in some ways less independent, but in a narrow sphere acquires a marvellous proficiency. Or, to use the technical language of science, in order to advance there must be aggregation of mass, differentiation of structure, and specialization of function. Evidently, however, if thcre is an aggregation of mass, some of the mass is liable to be so far removed from the supply of oxygen, and the space into which carbon dioxide can be elimi- nated, that it is liable to be starved for the one and poisoned by the other. Nature adopted two simple ways to obviate this— first to form its aggregated masses in the form of a network or sponge, with intervening channels through which a constant stream of fresh water may be made to circulate, so that each individual cell of the mass could take its oxygen and eliminate its carbon dioxide with the same directness as its simple proto- type, the amoeba. ¢ But in the course of evolution forms appeared with aérial respiration, and the insects, among these, solved the mechanical difficulty of respiration by a most marvellous system of air-tubes, or tracheze, extending from the free surface, and therefore from the surrounding air, to every organ and tissue. By means of this intricate network, air is carried and supplied almost directly to every particle of living matter. The respiration is not quite 600 NATURE [OcTOBER 20, 1892 direct with the insects, however, for the oxygen and carbon dioxide must pass through the membranous wall of the air-tube before reaching or leaving the living substance. In the next and final step, the step taken by the highest forms, the living material is massed, giving rise not only to animals of mo lerate size, but to the huge creatures that swarm in the seas or walk the earth, like the elephant. With all of these the step in the differentiation of the respiratory mechanism consists in the great perfection of lungs or gills, and in the addition of a complicated circulatory system with a respiratory blood, one of the main purposes being, as the name indicates, to subserve in respiration by carrying to each individual cell in the most remote and hidden part of the body the vital air, and in the same journey removing the poisonous carbon dioxide. This has been called L[adirect Respiration, because the living matter of the body does not take its oxygen directly either from air or water, but is supplied by a middleman, so to speak. The complicated movements by which water is forced over the gills, or by which the lungs are filled and emptied, and the great currents of blood are maintained—that is, the striking and easily observed phenomena of respiration are thus seen to be only superficial and accessory, only serve as agents by which the real and the essential processes, that go on in silence and obscurity, are made possible. So far I have attempted to give a brief résumé of the views on respiration that have been slowly and laboriously evolved by many generations of physiologists, each adding some new fact or correcting some misconception ; and I trust that this brief sketch has recalled to your minds the salient facts in our know- ledge of respiration, and that it will give a just perspective, and enable me, if I may be permitted, to briefly describe what I believe to be my own contribution to the ever-accumulating knowledge of this subject. In 1876-77, Prof. Wilder, who may be said to have inherited his interest in the ganoid fishes directly from his friend and teacher, Agassiz, who first recognized and named the group, was investigating the respiration of the forms Amia and Lepidosteus, common in the great lakes and the western rivers. As his assistant it was my privilege to aid in the researches, and to acquire the spirit and methods as in no other way is it so readily possible, by following out, from the beginning to its close, of an investigation carried on by a master. The results of that investigation were reported to this section in 1877, and formed a part of the proceedings for that year. From that time till the present the problems of respiration in the living world have had an ever increasing fascination for me, and no oppor- tunity has been lost to investigate the subject. The interest was greatly increased by the discovery that a reptile—the soft- shelled turtle—did not conform to the generalizations in all the treatises and compendiums of zoology, which state with the greatest definiteness that all reptiles, without exception, are purely air-breathing, and throughout their whole life obtain their oxygen from the air and never from the water. The American soft-shelled turtles, at least, do not conform to this generalization, but on the contrary, naturally and regularly breathe water like a fish, as well as air like an ordinary reptile, bird, or mammal. In carrying on the investigation of the respiration .of the turtle, there appeared for solution the general problem, which, briefly stated, is as follows: In case an animal breathes both air and water, or more accurately, has both an aérial and an aquatic respiration, like the ganoid fishes, Amia and Lepidosteus, like the soft-shelled turtles, the tadpoles, and many other forms, what part of the respiratory process is subserved by the aqueous and what by the aérial part of the respiration? So far as I am aware this problem had not been previously con- sidered. It was apparently assumed that there were in these fortunate animals two independent mechanisms, both doing precisely the same kind of work—that is, each serving to supply the blood with oxygen and to relieve it of carbon dioxide, as though the other was absent. That was a natural inference, for with many forms the respiration is wholly aquatic, all the oxygen employed being taken from the water, and all the carbon dioxide excreted into it. On the other hand, in the ex- clusively air-breathing animals, as birds and mammals, the res iration is exclusively aérial. This natural supposition was followed in the first investigations on the respiration of the soft-shelled turtles, and while it was proved with incontestable certainty that they take oxyyen from the water like an ordinary fish—that is, have a true aquatic NO. 1199, VOL. 46] respiration, in addition to their aérial respiration—there was altogether too much carbon dioxide in the water to be accounted _ for by the oxygen taken from it. Furthermore, upon analyzing the air from the lungs of a turtle that had been submerged some _ time the oxygen had nearly all disappeared, and but very little — carbon dioxide was found in its place, while, as compared with ~ human respiration, for example, a quantity of carbon dioxide ~ nearly as great as that of the oxygen which had disappeared should have been returned to the lungs. Likewise in Professor — Wilder’s experiments with Amia, to use his own words: — ‘* Rather more than one per cent. of carbon dioxide is found in the normal breath of the Amia, but much more of the oxygen — has disappeared than can be accounted for by the amount of — carbon dioxide.” Everything thus appeared anomalous in this — mixed respiration, and instead of a clear, consistent, and in- — telligible understanding of it, there seemed only confusion and © ambiguity. Truly these seemed like ‘‘ bad experiments.”’ i It became perfectly evident that the first step necessary in — clearing the obscmity was to separate completely the two — respiratory processes, to see exactly the contribution of each © mechanism to the total respiration. But this was no easy thing © to do. In the first place, the animal must be con ina somewhat narrow space in order that air and water, which are — known to have been affected by its respiration, may be tested to — show the changes produced in it by the respiratory process ; in — the second place, the water has so great a dissolving power upon carbon dioxide that even if it were breathed out into the — air it would be liable to be absorbed by the water. Then some means must be devised to prevent the escape of the gases from — the water as their tension becomes changed ; and, finally, the - animal in the water must be able to reach the air. — Pern Saat ; must be devised which would prevent the passage of gases between the air and the water, and at the same time offer no hindrance to the animal in projecting its head above the water. As a liquid diaphragm must be used, it occurred to me that some oil would serve the purpose, but the oil must be of peculiar nature. It must not allow any gases to pass from air to water, or the reverse ; it must not be in the least harmful or irritating to the animal under experimentation, and, finally, it must itself add nothing to either air or water. Olive oil was thought of, and later the liquid paraffins. The latter were found practically impervious to oxygen and fulfilled all the other requirement but unfortunately they absorb a considerable quantity of carbon dioxide. Pure olive oil was finally settled upon as furnishing the nearest approximation to the perfect diaphragm sought. The composition of the air being known, and a careful de- termination of the dissolved gases in the water having been made, the animal was introduced into the jar and the water covered with a layer of olive oil from ten to fifteen millimetres” thick. The top of the jar was then vaselined, and a piece of plate-glass pressed down upon it, thus sealing it hermetically. Two tubes penetrate this plate-glass cover, one connecting with the overlying air-chamber and the other extending into the water nearly to the bottom of the jar. As the water and air are limited in quantity, the shorter the time in which the animal remained in the jar the more nearly normal would be the respiratory changes, the experiment was coutinued on'y so long —one or two hours—as was found necessary to produce sufficient" change in the air and the dissolved gases of the water to render the analyses unmistakable. % Proceeding with the method just described, the results given — in the following table were obtained :— Table of Mixed Respiration, showing the number of cubic centi- metres of oxygen removed from air and water, and the amount of carbon dioxide added to the air and the water. ¢ Oxygen Carbon Dioxide | from from air water toair to water Ganoid Fish (Amiacalva) . . 65 10 22 53a Tadpoles (Larval Batrachia) 70 5 24 Sts 5 Soft-shelled Turtle (Amyda mutica) 31 8 10:29 Bull Frog (Rana catesbiana) . 183 4 110 77 NotE.—The oxygen from both the water and the air, and the carbon dioxi in the air, were determincd with exactness in all the experiments ; b owing to the failure of some steps in the titration for the carbon dioxide in_ the water, the figures given for the Amia and the soft-:helled turtle are the calculated resuits, assuming that the respiratory quotient is one, as that i the relation fi und by analysis in the other cases. ; 3 i 1 See Wm. Thérner on the use of olive oil for the prevention of the ab- sorption of carbon dioxide. Repertorium der analytischen Chemie. 1885, Pp- 15-17. OcTOBER 20, 1892] NATURE 601 It requires but a glance at the figures in this table to see that _ the aérial differs markedly from the aquatic part of the respiration. _Even in the frog, in which the skin forms the only aquatic respiratory organ, the tendency is marked. The law appears to _be unmistakably this, viz. that in combined aquatic and aérial respiration, the aérial part is mainly for the supply of oxygen and th uatic part largely for the excretion of carbon dioxide. This law, which I stated in 1886, has been confirmed by the repetition of old experiments and by many new ones made during the present summer. It is also confirmed by the experiments made on Lepidosteus in a different way by Dr. E. L. Mark, and published in 1890. I therefore feel that this is the expression of a general law in nature, __ From the standpoint of evolution we must suppose that all fo phe: from aquatic ancestors, ancestors whose only arce of oxygen was that dissolved in the water. As the water is erywhere covered with the limitless supply of oxygen in the air, _ there 209 parts of oxygen in 1000 parts of air as contrasted _ with the 6 parts of oxygen dissolved in 1000 parts of water, it is not difficult to conceive that in the infinite years the animals found by necessity and experience that the needed oxygen was mo ant in the overlying air, and that some at least _ would try more and more to make use of it. And as any thin membrane with a plentiful blood supply may serve as a _respir- _ atory organ to supply the blood with oxygen, it is not impossible to supp that such a membrane, as in the throat, could , itself little by little with ever-increasing efficiency ; and that a part might become especially folded to form a gill and _ another might become sacular or lung-like to contain air. While Iam no believer in the purely mechanical physiology which sees no need of more than physics and chemistry to render pos- - sible and explain all the phenomena of life, yet it is patent to _ every one that, although vital energy is something above and _ beyond the energies of physics and chemistry, still it makes use _of these ; and certainly dead matter forms the material from _ which living is built. So given a living thing, it, in most cases, - moves lines of least, rather than of greatest, resistance ; _ therefore if practically a limitless supply of oxygen may be _ obtained from the air and only a limited amount from the water, 4 “pons Ser might serve as a lung is present, most naturally _ it (the ) will take the oxygen from the air where it is in J Serge abundance and most easily obtained. On the other 4 , carbon dioxide is so soluble in water that practically a limitless amount may be excaeted into it ; and asit is apparently somewhat easier, other things being equal, for it to pass from the liquid blood to the water than to the air, it seems likewise ‘ig al that the gills should serve largely for the excretion of __. the carbon dioxide into the water, This is the actual condition _ before us in these, and I believe in all other cases, of mixed or of combined aérial and aquatic respiration. And I believe, as _ Stated above, that it may be laid down as a fundamental law in respiration that wherever both water and air are used with cor- _ Fesponding organs—gills for one and lungs for the other—that _ the aérial part of the respiration is mainly for the supply of oxy- _ gen, and the aquatic part largely for the getting rid of carbon AY (Fy __ It is not difficult to see in an actual case like that of the _ Ganoid Fishes (Amia and Lepidosteus) the logical steps in its evolution, by which this most favourable condition has been 3 A condition rendering these fishes capable of living _ in waters of almost all degrees of purity, and thus giving them a _ great advantage in the struggle for existence. But what can be said of the soft-shelled turtles, animals belonging to a group in which purely aérial respiration is almost exclusively the rule? Standing alone, this might be exceedingly difficult or impossible ofexplanation. The Batrachia (frogs, toads, salamanders, &c. ) all have ge in their early or larval stage, and most of them develop in the water, and are in the beginning purely aquatic animals. The adults must therefore, in most cases, repair to the water at the spawning season and frequently in laying the _ €ggs they must remain under the water for considerable intervals. Being under the water, and the need of oxygen becoming pressing, there seems to be, by a sort of organic memory, a revival of the knowledge of the way in which respiration was _ accomplished, when, as larve, their natural element was water, and they take water into the mouth and throat. This may be done by as highly a specialized and purely aérial form as the little brown tree-frog (Ayla pickeringii) or the yellow spotted Salamander (Amdélystoma punctatum). Another very interesting form, the vermilion-spotted newt (Diemyctylus), after two or NO. I199, VOL. 46] three years of purely aérial existence goes to the water on reaching maturity and remains there the rest of its life, regularly breathing both by its lungs and by taking water into its mouth and throat. A still more striking exampie is given by Prof. Cope. The young siren almost entirely loses its gills, and later regains them, becoming again almost completely aquatic in its habits as in the larval stage. With these examples, which may be seen by any one each recurring year, is it impossible or difficult to conceive that in the struggle ior existence the soft-shelled turtles found the scarcity of food,the dangers and hardships on the land greater than those in the water? Or, remaining constantly in the water, and advantageously submerged for most of the time, it gradually reacquired the power of making use of its pharyngeal membrane for obtaining oxygen from the water and excreting carbon dioxide into it as had its remote ancestors. And further, is it not intelligible that with capacious lungs, which it can fill at intervals with air containing so large < supply of oxygen that it, like the other double or mixed breathers, should use its lungs to supply most of the oxygen and its throat to get rid of much of the carbon dioxide ? Indeed it seems to me that if the evolution doctrine is a true expression of the mode of creation, then development may be in any direction that proves advantageous to an organism, even if the development is a reacquirement of long discarded structures and functions, In closing, may I be permitted to say to the older biologists— to those familiar with the encouragements and inspirations that come with original investigation, that I trust they will pardon what to them is unnecessary personality or excess of detail in,this address, for the sake of the younger ones among us, to whom the uphill road of research is less familiar. Judging from my own experience in listening to similar addresses by my honoured pre- decessors, it is helpful to know, when one is beginning, some- thing of the ‘‘ dead work,” the difficulties and discouragements, as well as the triumphs, in the advancement of science. MINES AND MINING AT THE CHICAGO EXHIBITION. HE exhibition of objects relating to mines and mining at the ‘ World’s Fair” promises to be one of exceptional interest and importance. The following details about it were given by Mr. George F. Kunz in a paper read before the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science :— The building of mines and mining, which is entirely com- pleted, is 700 feet long and 350 feet wide, at an elevation of 25 feet above the main floor. On both sides is a gallery 60 feet wide, running the entire length of the building. Up to the present time there have applied for space in this building 26 foreign Governments and 36 States, these exhibits to be sup- plemented by other State and Government exhibits, such as that of Sweden in the Swedish building, the East Indian in the East Indian court, Illinois in their State building, &c. There will be a scientific collection of all the known elements, and with them a complete collection of all the known alloys of gold, silver, copper, zinc, tin, &c., such as electrum, German silver, Babbits metal, fusible metal, and the thousand and one other, common and rare, used in the arts and industries, In the name of the Lake Superior copper mines, Prof. Alex. Agassiz has promised a complete exposition of ores, rocks, and pro- cesses, illustrating the occurrence mining, metallurgy of copper. There is now in preparation a coal collection to contain all varieties of coal, from every known occurrence in the United States. Petroleum will be shown as it never has been at any exhibition. The subject of abrasives of all kinds will form a special exhibit under the charge of Mr. T. Dunkin Paret, who has devoted his entire life to this subject, and is now making a special European trip to enlist the co-operation of foreign manufacturers and investigators to supplement the American exhibit. The De Beers Mining Company of South Africa, who own and control more than 95 per cent. of the entire diamond output, will make first a full and comprehensive exposition of diamond mining and the original blue stuff, a decomposed peridotite, enclosing carbonaceous shale, the matrix of the diamond, in great quantities. They will show it passing through 602 NATURE [OcTOBER 20, 1892 the various washing machines, and every process separating the diamond from the matrix, in which exists a percentage of I carat 205 milligrams in a load of 1600 pounds. There will be a case containing over 10,000 carats of diamonds of all colours and of the various qualities, with a full series of the associated minerals and rocks. Every stage of the cutting and polishing of the diamond will be represented. Nearly every mineral dealer in the United States has applied for space, and from the foreign trips and other preparations it is very evident that in the line of cabinet specimens and edu- cational minerals the assembled collections will exceed those of any other exposition in importance. One of the large gallery halls will contain a reference library for the use of visitors. This it is hoped will be a very compre- hensive exposition of the literature of the subject of mines, mining, geology, and mineralogy. This is to besupplemented by historical portraits, documents, and other allied material. An early history of mining and mining processes will be shown, starting with stone hammers and other aboriginal imple- ments found in the copper mines of Lake Superior and the tur- quoise mines of New Mexico, the old Mexican Pateo, to the most improved modern methods, and the remarkable sectional and glass models of mines, prepared by eminent mining en- gineers, used in the great mining lawsuits to prove their argu- ments, One of the large corridor rooms in the gallery has been offered to the American Institute of Mining Engineers for their own use as a headquarters during the Exposition. They in turn may extend the courtesy to mechanical and civil engineers, as well as the English, German, French, and other foreign engineers whose hospitality they enjoyed in 1889. There is every reason to believe that at least from 800 to 1000 foreign engineers will visit the Exposition. If only three-fourths of the promised exhibits are received, and there is every assurance that there will be many more coming, it may be safely said, even now, that the mining, metallurgical, geological, and mineralogical exhibits of the Columbian World’s Fair will exceed in scientific importance and in extent the combined exhibits of the Centennial, the 1878, 1889, the Paris and the Vienna Expositions, at least two-fold. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE. CAMBRIDGE.—Lord Walsingham, the High Steward of the University, has expressed his wish to give annually for three years a gold medal for the best monograph or essay giving evidence of original research in any subject coming under the cognizance of the Special Board for Biology and Geology. The offer having been accepted and the regulations for the medal having been approved, the Special Board for Biology and Geology give notice that the medal is offered for competition for the second time during the ensuing academical year. The essays are to be sent to the chairman of the Special Board (Prof. Newton, Magdalene College) not later than October 1, 1893. The regulations fer the medal are published in the Caméridge University Reporter, No. 908 (November 17, 1891), p. 186. Sir R. S. Ball, Loundean Professor, will give his inaugural lecture in the Anatomical Theatre on Friday, October 21, at noon. Dr. Cayley, Sadlerian Professor of Mathematics, resigns his place on the Council of the Senate on October 25. The Council of the Senate recommend that the University of the Cape of Good Hope should be affiliated to Cambridge, on the same terms as those granted to New Zealand. Lonpon.—Four lectures upon ‘‘ The Sun in its Relation to the Universe of Stars ’’ will be delivered in Gresham College, at six p.m. on the evenings of October 25, 26, 27, and 28, 1892, by the Rev. Edmund Ledger. SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. The Fournal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 3rd Series, Vol. iii., pt. 3.—Allotments and Small Holdings, by Sir J. B. Lawes and Dr. Gilbert. The authors have col- lected statistics relating to Allotments and Small Holdings in Great Britain. They point out that ‘‘ within the present cen- tury there has been a great reduction in the number both of NO. 1199, VOL. 46] owners and of occupiers of farms not exceeding 50 acres in area, such as it seems to be the object of the promoters of the Small Holdings Act of 1892 greatly to increase.” After noticing the Rothamstead Allotments they proceed to discuss the conditions essential to the success of small holdings, and they conclude — that ordinary rotation farming is much less suitable for small holdings than dairy farming, the production of poultry and eggs, and market gardening when favourable conditions exist ; the authors do not believe, however, that the system of small hold- ings will materially check the influx of agricultural labourers into the towns. This number of the fournal also contains a short article by W. H. Hall on Small Holdings in France. Mr. Hall is ‘‘convinced that small holders (in England) have a great future before them as soon as they can be educated up to producing such articles as require to be consumed fresh, and will not bear long carriage.” This last clause contains the key of the whole matter.—On the Vermin of the Farm, pt. ii., by J. E. Harting. In this paper the author has much to say in de- fence of the mole (¢a/pa europea), and of the weasel (mzstela vulgaris) ; there is little but condemnation, however, for the hedgehog, the stoat, and the polecat; the last-mentioned ani- mal is now hardly known to most people, though the domesti- cated variety (the ferret) is common.—The Warwick Meeting of 1892, by Dr. Fream, Official Reporter. This report shows the meeting to have been a good average one, except in the attendance of visitors on the last two days. Judge’s reports show that in many cases the quality of the exhibits of live stock was far above the average.—Miscellaneous Implements Exhi- bited at Warwick, by T. H. Thursfield.—The Farm Prize Competition of 1892, by J. B. Ellis.—Among the shorter articles is one deserving of careful attention, entitled New — Modes of Disposing of Fruit and Vegetables, by Chas. White- head, in which are discussed the ‘‘ evaporating” and the ‘‘can- — ning” of fruit; methods already in use in Queensland are de- | scribed and discussed with reference to their adoption in this country when prices for fresh fruit are low.—Dr. J. W. Leather contributes a short article upon his method of detecting and esti- mating ‘‘ castor-oil seeds in cattle foods.” A weighed quantity of the suspected food is digested with hot dilute sulphuric acid — (or HCl, about 2 p.c.) for half an hour, washed free from acid, re-digested with a hot dilute solution of caustic soda, washed, me S en husks of all seeds other than castor-oil seeds are bleached by — this treatment, and any unbleached husks can be picked out and © then finally treated with a quantity of bleaching powder. weighed, Wiedeman’s Annalen der Physik und Chemie, No. 9.—The principle of least effect in electrodynamics, by H. von Helmholtz. — —On the differences of potential of chains with dry solid electro- lytes, by W. Negbaur.—On the reciprocity of electric osmose and flow currents, by U. Saxén.—Resonance phenomena and — absorptive capacities of metals for the energy of electric waves, by V. Bjerknes.—Objective presentation of the Hertzian experi- ments with rays of electric force, by L. Zehnder.—Dispersion — and absorption of light according to the electrical theory of light, by D. A. Goldhammer.—On the measurement of high temper- — The apparatus was a — atures, by L. Holborn and W. Wien. modification of Le Chatelier’s thermo-element, consisting of a combination of platinum and a platinum-rhodium alloy. This was calibrated by placing it inside the porcelain vessel of an air- thermometer and compairing the readings, different thermo-cou- ples were compared by exposing together in short porcelain tubes, two branches being welded together. The following fusing temperatures were deduced: gold 1072°, silver 968°, copper 1082°.—On the expansion of gases at low pressures, by G. Me- lander. Working with pressures ranging from 770 to 4mm, and temperatures from 0° to 100°, the gases being kept at constant volume, the supposed law of constant decrease of coefficient of © expansion with decreasing pressure was found not to hold good, That of air decreases down to 232mm, where it is 0°003659, and then increases. That of carbon dioxide decreases down to 76mm, after which it increases, whilst that of hydrogen increases steadily.—Specific gravity and heat of fusion of ice, by J. v. Zakrzevski. . The apparatus was a very delicate form of Bunsen’s ice calorimeter. The specific gravity of ice at—o*7o1° C, was found to be 0’916710. Thecubical coefficient of expansion at that temperature was 0'000077, which gives for the sp. gr. of ice at o°C_ the value 0’916660.—On the theoretical conceptions of Georg Simon Ohm, by K. Von der Miihll.—Variation of the — specific volume of sulphur with the temperature, by M. Toepler. DS PR he a a a : q OcToBER 20, 1892 | NATURE 603 SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. i LONDON. oyal Society, June 16.—‘‘ Thermal Radiation in Abso- Measure.” By Dr. J. T. Bottomley, M.A., F.R.S. The paper contains an account of an experimental investiga- . by the author in continuation of researches on the same bject which have been already published (Roy. Soc, Proc., |, and Phil. Trans., 1887). In the earlier experiments tallic wires heated by an electric current were used. The ss of heat from a heated body, however, depends to some ent on the form and dimensions of the body ; and it seemed jortant to experiment on the loss of heat from bodies differ- g in form from the wires already used, and larger in dimen- dingly, two copper globes used by Mr. D. Macfarlane Spe Soc. Proc., 1872, p. 93) were employed for a new z iments. : relaaiuary experiments (using the same enclosure which he employed and with the surfaces of Macfarlane’s bes prepared in four different ways) new apparatus was con- acted. The object was to experiment both with full air pres- e and with different amounts of exhaustion of the air, and facfarlane’s enclosure is unsuitable for this purpose. In the arrangement adopted, the heated globes were hung at se centre of a hollow metallic sphere, which was connected hh the Sprengel pump and surrounded with cold water, and rere allowed to cool. The temperature of the cooling globe as read off at equal intervals of time by means of a thermo- ectric junction ; and from these readings the absolute loss of r unit of cooling surface, per unit difference of tem- s of surface and surroundings, per unit of time, is ails of the apparatus and method of experimenting are the paper. It is enough to say here that the globes ith their surfaces in two different conditions :—(1) coated with lamp-black, and (2) silvered and brightly ished ; and in both conditions the absolute loss of heat, both 1 ai and in vacuum more or less complete, was determined. ‘he tables and curves attached to the paper give the details of ‘o quote one or two examples :—With the sooted surface a oss of heat by convection and radiation of 3°42 x 10°‘ c.g.s. uare centimetre, per second, per 1° C. of difference atures of globe and surroundings, was observed with a - of temperatures of 100° C., and with the surroundings 4° C. Under similar circumstances the radiation in of 4M (half-a-millionth of atmospheric pressure of non- © gas) was about 1°40 x 107%. a silvered and brightly-polished surface under the astances, the loss in full air was 2°30x 10°* c.g.s. ; : highest vacuum and brightest polish obtained, it ced 1°80x10 °, with in this case a difference of tem- es of 180° C. The loss with 100° C. difference would be ably less, but is not known experimentally at present. returns thanks to Mr. James H. Gray, M.A., for excellent assistance given; and expresses himself deeply indebted, both for assistance in experimenting and salculating of the results, and for most valuable and ingenious d of various kinds during the course of this work, to his friend [r. A. Tanakadate, now Professor in Tokio, Japan. _ Entomological Society, October 5. Henry John Elwes, fice-president, in the chair.—Mr. C. O. Waterhouse exhibited _ specimen of Latridius nodifer feeding on a fungus, Zricho- iorium roseum —Mr.. McLachlan, F.R.S., exhibited a male yecimen of Llenchus tenuicornis, Kirby, taken by the Rev. A. . Eaton, on August 22 last, at Stoney Stoke, near Shepton lontague, Somerset, and described by him in the Zntomologist’s fonthly Magazine, October 1892, pp. 250-253. Mr. McLachlan ated that another specimen of this species had been caught out the same date.in Claygate Lane, near Surbiton, by Mr. ward Saunders, who discovered that it was parasitic on a ymopterous insect of the genus Li+urnia, and had also described in the Zitomologist's Monthly Magazine.—Mr. J. M. Adye chibited, for Mr. McRae, a large collection of Colias edusa, C. lusa var. helice, and C. hyaie, all taken in the course of five ays’ collecting in the neighb.urh»od of Bournemouth and aristchurch, Hants, There were twenty-six specimens of he/ice, yme of which were remarkable both in size and colour. He tated that Mr. McRaeestimated the proportion of the variety NO. 1199, VOL. 46] helice to the type of the females as one in fifty. Mr. Adye also exhibited two specimens of Deiopeia pulchella, recently taken near Christchurch. Mr. Hanbury, Mr, Jenner-Weir, and Mr. Merrifield commented on the interesting nature of the exhibition, and onthe recent extraordinary abundance of C.edusa and the var. helice, which was probably not exceeded in 1877.—Mr. Dallas- Beeching exhibited four specimens of P/usia moneta, lately taken in the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells.—Mr. H. Goss ex- hibited, for Mr. Gervase F. Mathew, two Plusia moneta and their cocoons, which were found at Frinsted, Kent, on Sep- tember 3 last. It was stated that Mr. Mathew had found seven cocoons on the under side of the leaves of monkshood, but that the imagos had emerged from five of them.—Mr. Rye exhibited a specimen of Zygena filipendule var. chrysanthemi, and two varieties of Arctia villica, taken at Lancing, Sussex ; also varieties of Coccinella ocellata and C. oblongoguttata from Oxshott.—Mr. A. H. Jones exhibited specimens of Argynnis pales var. isis, and var. arsilache, the females of which showed a tendency to melan- ism, recently taken in the Upper Engadine; also melanic forms of Erebia melampus, and a specimen of Erebia nerine.—Mr. Elwes exhibited specimens of typical Aredia melas, taken by himself in the Western Tyrol, on July 25 last, at an elevation of 7000 feet; alsospecimens of the same species from Hungary, Greece, and the Eastern and Central Pyrenees. He stated that the absence of this species from the Alps, which had seemed to be such a curious fact in geographical distribution, had been first disproved by Mrs. Nicholl, who discovered it at Campiglio two years ago. He also exhibited fresh specimens of Zredia nerine, taken at Riva, on the lake of Garda, at an elevation of about 500 feet : also specimens of the same species, taken at the same time, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, in cool forest glades ; and re- marked that the great difference of elevation and climate did not appear to have produced any appreciable variation in this species. r. G. T. Porritt exhibited two varieties of Adraxas grossulari- ata, bred during the:past summer from York larvee. Also a curious Noctua taken on the sandhills at St. Anne’s-on-Sea on August 20 last, and concerning which a difference of opinion existed as to whether it was a melanic form of Agrotis cursoria or of Cara- drina cubicularis. Also a small dark form of Orgyia antiqua, which had occurred in some numbers at Longridge, near Preston. —Mr. A. Eland-Shaw exhibited a specimen of Mecostethus grossus, Linn., taken lately at Irstead, in the Norfolk-broad district. He stated that this was the first recorded capture of this species in Britain since 1884.—Mr. C. G. Barrett exhibited a specimen of Syricthus alveus, caught in Norfolk about the year 1860; abeautiful variety of Argynnis euphrosyne, caught this year near Godalming; and a series of varieties of Arnomos angularia, bred from a female taken at Nunhead.—Mr. P. Crowley exhibited a specimen of Zygena filipendule vat. chrysanthemi, taken last August at Riddlesdown, near Croydon. —Lord Walsingham, F.R.S., sent for exhibition several specimens of larve of Sphinx pinastri, preserved by himself, which were intended for presentation to the British Museum. The larve had been sent to him by Lord Rendlesham, who obtained them from ova laid bya female captured in Suffolk last August.—M. de Nicéville communicated a paper entitled ‘‘ On the variation of some Indian Euplceas of the subgenus S¢éctoplea” ; and Captain E. Y. Watson exhibited, on behalf of M. de Nicéville, the specimens referred to in this paper. Colonel Swinhoe, Mr. Hampson, Mr. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S., and the chairman took part in the discussion which ensued.—Mr. W. Bateson read a paper entitled ‘‘ On the Variation in the Colours of Cocoons and Pupz of Lepidoptera ; further Experiments.” — Mr. Poulton read a paper entitled ‘‘ Further Experiments upon the Colour-relation between certain Lepidoptera and their Surroundings.” —Miss Lilian J. Gould read a paper entitled ‘‘Experiments on the Colour-relation between certain Lepi- dopterouslarvee and their surroundings, together with observations on Lepidopterous larve.”’ A long discussion ensued, in which Mr. Jenner Weir, Dr. Sharp, F.R.S., Mr. Merrifield, Mr. Poulton, and the chairman took part. PARIS. Academy of Sciences, October 10. M. Duchartre in the chair. M. Emile Picard presented to the Academy the second volume of his ‘‘ Traité d’analyse.”—The University of Padua invited representatives of the Academy at the forthcoming ter- centenary celebration of Galileo’s accession to his chair at that University. —A decisive blow to the theory of centripetal and ascending motion in cyclones, by M. H. Faye.—The move- 604 NATURE [OcToBER 20, 1892 ments of the heart, studied by chronophotography, by M. Marey. The heart of a tortoise was removed and mounted so that a funnel led into an auricle, and a.bent tube out of the ventricle and upwards to the mouth of the funnel. The funnel was filled with defibrinated blood, which passed into the auricle and thence into the ventricle. When the latter was full, an automatic systole projected the blood upwards through the tube and back into the funnel. This process was repeated for several hours after death, It was more minutely studied by taking a series of instantaneous photographs in rapid succession (repro- duced), which show the details of the process.with great accuracy. For actinic purposes, the heart was painted white with water-colour. The hypothesis of an active diastole of the ventricle was proved to be unfounded.—The inhibitory phenomena of the nervous shock, by M. H. Roger.—On the transformation of the equations of Lagrange, by M. Paul Painlevé.—On a class of curves and surfaces, by M. A. Pellet. On the motion of a thread in space, by M. G. Floquet.—On internal reflection in crystals, by M. Bernard Brunhes.—A new method -of preparation and photometry of the phosphorescent sulphide of zinc, by M. Charles Henry. It is possible to ob- tain several pounds at a time of a fine phosphorescent zinc sulphide by the following process: Add ammonia to a perfectly neutral solution of pure zinc chloride ; redissolve the precipitate in an excess of ammonia ; precipitate completely, but without the slightest excess, the ammoniacal oxide of zinc by sul- phuretted hydrogen; heat to a white heat in. a crucible of refractory earth placed inside a graphite crucible, afer having well washed and dried the amorphous sulphide to the exclusion of all impurities. By Mascart’s photometer, the intensity of light emitted by a sample of the sulphide in candle-metres after saturation was 0'000215. But this value is probably too small. —On the antimonites of pyrogallol, by MM. H. Causse and C. Bayard.—On the tartaric ethers, by M. P. Freundler.—Volu- metric determination of the alkaloids, by M. L. Barthe.—On a new method of brick manufacture, used in certain parts of Central Asia, by M. Edouard Blanc. This mode of manu- facture is practised by the tribes in Western Mongolia, on the frontier of Siberia. The extremes of temperature render a brick of great durability a necessity of life. This is attained by the use of steam. The oven is cylindrical and surmounted by a hemispherical cap, which is kept open for the first three days. The bricks, about 7000 at a time, are baked by means of a fire fed by about 7000 kgr. of an annual ligneous plant, the A/hag? Camelerum. On the third day, the opening is closed with felt, which is kept constantly wetted, so that the bricks are enclosed in a steam bath, while kept at a red heat. Under these cir- cumstances, some novel chemical reactions appear to take place. The bricks, red after the first period, appear dark grey after the second part of the process. Their structure appears porous ; they become sonorous and acquirea great hardness. They show a striking resemblance to certain trachytes. Made from the same clay as our bricks, they resist weathering very much better, and have an extraordinary hardness and cohesion.—A process fur testing the purity of coprah oils and palm oils, by M. Ernest Milliau.—On the part played by spermine in intra- organic oxidations, by M. Alexandre Poehl.—On the respiration, transpiration, and dry weight of leaves developed in sunlight and in the shade, by M. L. Geneau de Lamarliére.—On the structure of the assimilating tissue of the branches in Mediter- ranean plants, by M. William Russell.—Experimental study of the action of the humidity of the soil on the structure of branches and leaves, by M. Auguste Oger.—Contributions to the strati- graphy of the Pyrenees, by MM. Roussel and De Grossouvre,— On some bombs of Etna, from the eruptions of 1886 and 1892, by MM. L. Dupare and L..Mrazec.—Meteoric iron recently fallen ac Hassi Iekna, in Algiers, by M. Stanislas Meunier. —Oceanographic observations relating to the basin of Arcachon (Gironde), by M. J. Thoulet.—Vegeration of the lakes of the Jura mountains, by M. G. Rambault Ant. Magnin.—M. Bischoffsheim, on behalf of Prof. Weineck, Director of the Prague Observatory, presented a photograph of the lunar crater Vendelinus. DIARY OF SOCIETIES. LONDON. SUNDAY, Ocroser 23. Sunpay Lecture Society, at 4.—The Distribution of Animals and what it Teaches (with Oxy-hydrogen Lantern Illustrations): Dr. Andrew Wilson. NO. 1199, VOL. 46] TUESDAY, OcrTosBeER 25. MINERALOGICAL SocieTy.—Anniversary Meeting.—Council Report.—On Crystallized Zirconia (Baddeleyite), a New Mineral Species from Ceylon: . Fletcher, F.R.S — Preliminary Note on Xanthoconite and Rittingerite : H. A. Miers and G. T. Prior.—A Locality of Cerium Minerals in Corn- wall; H. A. Miers.—On Gypsum from Herne Bay: F. Rutley. FRIDAY, OcToBER 28. PuysicaL Society, at 5. Discussion of Mr. Williams’s Paper on the Dimensions of hysical Quantrities,—Dicussion of Mr. Sutherland’s Paper on the Laws of Molecular Force, to include Papers by Dr Young and Mr. ‘homas on the Determination of Critical Density, Critical Volume, and Boiling Points. 4 BOOKS, PAMPHLETS, and SERIALS RECEIVED. Booxs.—The Framework of Chemistry, Part 1; W. M. Williams (Bell).— A German Science Reader; F. Jones (Percival).—Chemical Lecture Ex- periments : G. S. Newth (Longmans).—Outlines of Psychology, new edi- tion: Dr. J. Sully (Longmans).—Animals’ Rights: H. S. Salt (Bell).— University College of North Wales Calendar for the Year 1892-03 (Man- chester, Cornish’,—The Climate of Rome and the Roman Malaria: Prof. Tommasi-Crudeli, translated (Churchill).—The Fauna of Liverpool Bay, Report 3 (Liverp :0l, Dobb). —Atomic Consciousness (Whimple, Harris),— Geographische und Naturvwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, I.: Dr. J. Rein (leipzig, Engelmann) —Metal-Colouring and Bronzing: A. H. Hiorns (Macmillan).—The ‘Telephotographic Lens: T. R. Dal'meyer (Dall- meyer).—The Geological and Natural History Survey of Minnesota: N. H. Winchell (Minnesota).—Brachiopoden der Alpinen Trias, Nachtrag I.: A. Bittner (Wien). —Atlas der Vélkerkunde: Dr. G. Gerland (Gotha, J. Perthes).— British Fungus. Fl -ra, vol. i. : G. Massee (Bell). PamPuLets.—Rutherfurd Photographic Measures of the Stars about B Cygni: H. Jacoby (New YVork).—Ueber die Einseitigkeit der Herrschen- den Krafttheorie: Dr. N. von Seeland (Leipzig, Pfeffer).—Weitere a ersosvoneen tiber die Tazliche Oscillation des Barometers: J. Hann ien). SERIALS.—Internationales Archiv fiir Ethnographie, Band 5, Heft 4 (Kegan Paul) —Annals of Scottish Natural History, October (Edinburgh, Douglas).—Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, October (Watt).—Transactions of the Leeds Naturalists’ Club, &c., 1890, vol. 2 (Leeds) —Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philo- sophical Society, 1891-92, vol. 5, N». 2 (Manchester).—Notes from the Leyden Museum, vol. xiv. Nos. 1 and 2 (Leyden, Bri'l).— Morphologisches Jahrbuch, 18 Band, 4 Heft (Williams and Norgate). - Botanische Jahr- bucher fiir Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie h- zehnter Band, 2 Heft; Fiinfzehuter Band, 4 Heft (Willams and Norgate). —Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, September (Stanford).—Mind, October (Williams and Norgate).—The Asclepiad, No. 35, vol. 9 Sata mans).—Medical Magazine, October (Southwood). fale iaaah der k.k. geologischen Reichsanstalt, Jahrg. 1892. xlii. Band, 1 Heft (Wien).—Bulletin of the New York Mathematical Society, vol. 2, No. 1 (New York). CONTENTS. Fresnel’s Theory of Double Refraction. By R. T. G. The Progress of Horticulture. By Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, F:R.S) 2.5) 7; By J.B. Bae ee PAGE 581 ogy BOS Life in Motion. ae tea Plumbing.) 2004°% se §84 Our Book Shelf :— . ; Lilley: ‘‘ A Lecture Course of Elementary Chemistry.” —J. W. R. CP Pe MN ee Me Te 585 Chisholm and Lecte: ‘‘ Longman’s School Geography for’ North: America”... yee ee Robinson: ‘‘Garden Design and Architects’ Gardens” 585 Letters to the Editor :— 4 The Alleged ‘‘ Aggressive Mimicry ” of Volucelle.— William Bateson: © 20.000) es Induction and Deduction.—Francis C. Russell; E, E. Constance Jones... .°s) 45 seas) S00 The Tempera ure of the Human Body.—G. N. Stewart; Dr. W. Hale White. ...... . 588 Photographic Dry Plates. Prevention .... . 588 Invitation to Observe the Luminous Night Clouds. By W. Foerster and Prof. O. Jesse . .... . 589 Some Optical Illusions. (///ustrated.) By Dr. Joseph Jastrow. oor ce shee ee OO The New Satelite of Jupiter. ByW.L....... 592 Notes mee ois 6 Je ite Las ae es Ore HORM: Our Astronomical Column :— A New Comet vai:e sei ie <8 Sh 5a eee nee een aes 597 Our Sun's Historys:..0:5'0) Yee inet is eat a OOM Silvering Glass Mirrors ..: «:/. sess U0 s Bi a vite 697 Himmel und Erde ..': i ai sapileev a) Seren Geographical Notes...) 3. sehen! si) 220 nee The Comparative Physiology of Respiration. By Prof, Simon Henry Gage .. . itary oy ac Mines and Mining at the Chicago Exhibition . .. 601 University and Educational Intelligence .... . 602 Sc:entific Serials~.i:;5 sci. 4s Sou V4 Re Societies and Academies ...........4. .- 603 Diary of Societies. 4:40.64) .0. 8. Books, Pamphlets, and Serials Received .... . 604 NATURE 605 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1892. POLAND'S “ FUR-BEARING ANIMALS.” Fur-bearing Animals in Nature and Commerce. Henry Poland, F.Z.S., 1 vol., 8vo. and Jackson, 1892. ) ALTHOUGH, as civilization spreads with ever-quick- + ening progress over all parts of the world’s surface, wild animals necessarily diminish in numbers year by pew , few people have any idea of the enormous quanti- ties ‘of furs and pelts still annually imported into the United Kingdom, and of the extent of the commerce in ‘such commodities still carried on. Mr. Poland’s useful treatise on Fur-bearing Animals will afford us much in- ormation on this subject. In the introduction to his ‘yolume full statistics about the past and present condi- tion of the fur-trade are given, and it is stated that at the great fur-sales now held at the College Hill sale-rooms in * London the annual value of all classes of fur-skins sold ‘is little short of £1 000,000 But it is with the main Sortion of the present work that naturalists will be most interested, as, so far as we know, this is the first occasion on which a large amount of practical knowledge of the subject has been combined with a certain amount of scientific information. Mr. “Poland takes the fur-bearing animals systematically, ps ostly, it appears, according to the order and nomen- clature employed in the list of animals in the Zoological ; ‘Society’s Gardens, and gives us under each head particu- lars as to their localities, distribution, coloration, and varieties, together with information as to the quantities skins imported and the uses to which they are E Beginning with the Quadrumana, we find that the skins f about twenty-five Monkeys and Lemurs are used in commerce. Of these the most abundantis the “ Black “Monkey ” of Western Africa (Co/obus vellerosus and other allied species), of which some 90,000 are imported every year. Another species of Colobus, the Guereza of _ Abyssinia and Eastern Africa, also furnishes a “ rare and much esteemed skin,” of which the value is from Ios. to 15s. We mayremark that the Tcheli Monkey (Macacus _tcheliensis) is not from Cochin China, as stated by Mr. Poland, but from Mantchuria, north of Pekin, where it _ ranges further north than any other Monkey now existing. There is a fine example of this species at present living _ in the Zoological Society’s Gardens. The “ China Grey Monkey,” described as having a “long white tail,” is evidently of quite a different species, the Tcheli Monkey having only a very short caudal appendage. __ The Carnivora, which next follow, take up the greater part of Mr. Poland’s volume, nearly 150 species of this extensive group supplying pelts which are more or less useful to mankind. Commencing with the larger Cats, our author calls attention to the great difference between the Bengal Tiger and the Mongolian or Chinese variety _of the same animal, in which the fur is very thick, often from 14 to 2 inches in length, and makes a long fringe round the face. Skins of the Chinese Tiger are much esteemed on this account, and fetch from £10 to £40 By (London: Gurney skin may be purchased at about £4 or £5. The Lynx is another of the true Cat-tribe which furnishes a rather important article of trade, the quantity of Lynx-skins imported by the Hudson’s Bay Company ranging up to 40,000, and in exceptional years reaching even to 70,000 Coming to the Musteline Carnivora or Weasels, we find the Mink (Mustela vison) an animal of still greater importance in trade. In 1890 upwards of 360,000 skins of the Mink from North America were sold in London, and converted mostly into muffs. On the other hand, an allied species of the same genus, the Ermine (JZ. erminea), formeriy so much esteemed, and regarded as a princely fur to be devoted exclusively to royalty, is going quite out of fashion. “It has become very much neglected. and a few years ago was practically unsaleable.” The fur of the Skunk, Wephztis mephitica, many persons will be surprised to hear, in spite of its “‘ powerful scent,” which “cannot be entirely got rid of,” is largely used. In 1891 nearly 700,000 skins of it were imported, and worked up into muffs and capes. But the prince of furs of this division of the Carnivora is that of the Sea-otter, Ezhydra lutris, of the north-west coast of America, an animal generally supposed to be almost extinct in consequence of long ages of persecution. But 2369 Sea-otter skins were imported by the Alaska Commercial Company and other traders in 1891, and sold at an average price of 457 apiece. “The fur is principally consumed in Russia, where it is used for collars of noblemen’s coats.” From the Sea-otter we pass by an easy transition to the Fur-seals—a group still of sufficient importance to have brought three of the greatest nations of the world nearly to loggerheads, but in bygone years much more abundant than now. From South Georgia in the Antarctic Seas one million two hundred thousand Fur-seal-skins are said to have been taken soon after its discovery, and nearly an equal quantity from Kerguelen Island, but the natural consequence has followed that the animal has become practically extinct in the Antarctic seas. The only species of Otaria that still yields its skin year by year to supply the ladies of Europe and America with “ sealskin jackets ” is the Alaska Fur-seal, O¢aria ursina, which, owing to the stringent regulations enforced for its preservation, is still abundant in certain parts of the North Pacific. Ac- cording to the best authorities about 4,500,000 of this Fur- seal resort to the Pribylov Islands every breeding season, and until 1890, when the number to be slaughtered was reduced, 100,000 were killed every year. Smaller quan- tities are obtained from other parts of the North Pacific. We need not here go into further details upon this animal which has lately been the subject of so much discussion, except to say that unless even more severe regulations are made for its preservation than those now existing, the Alaska Fur-seal will indubitably share the fate of its Antarctic brethren, and cease to furnish an article of commerce. Of the order Insectivora, which follows the Carnivora, Mr. Poland only mentions two species as supplying fur for the use of mankind. These are the Common Mole (Talpa europea) and the Russian Musk-rat or Desman (Myogale moschata), The skin of the Mole is so small as to be of little value, but several thousands are col- lected annually and converted into those most comfort- each, according to quality ; whereas a good Bengal Tiger NO. 1200, VOL. 46] able of garments, moleskin waistcoats. The fur of the DD 606 NATURE [OcToBER 27, 1892 Russian Desman (M/yogale moschata) is sometimes used in this country for mantle-trimmings, but is more appre- ciated in America. The Desman of the Pyrenees (JZ. pyrenatca), which Mr. Poland confounds with that of Russia, is a much smaller and quite different animal. We now come to the great group of Rodents, many of which supply their skins in enormous quantities for the benefit of mankind. Mr. Poland’s list contains thirty-three species of this Order. The Beaver, formerly of such pre- eminent importance, is now much reduced in numbers, but 63,419 Beaver-skins were sold by the Hudson’s Bay Com- pany in 1891. Another Canadian Rodent, the Musquash (Fiber sibethicus), still ranges over the “ north-west” in enormous armies, from three to four millions of their skins being obtained every year. In 1891 the Hudson’s Bay Company alone sold 554,104 of them. Another much appreciated little animal of the Rodent order is the Chin- chilla from the highlands of Chili and Bolivia. Its fur, which is remarkably soft and delicate, is principally used in England, France, and America. Several allied species of the peculiar South American family Chinchillide are also called by the general name of “ Chinchilla.” Of the Leporidz or Hare-family, which concludes the Rodents, the Polar Hare and the Common Rabbit supply the largest numbers of useful skins. Of the Russian or Polar Hare (Lepus glacialis)—one of the best-known deni- zens of Arctic latitudes—from 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 skins are said to be collected annually, mostly in their thick white winter coats. But Rabbit-skins are employed in much more enormous quantities. Since the great in- crease of this Rodent in Australia and New Zealand, where, as is well known, the Rabbit has become an awful pest, the number of its skins sent to London for sale from those colonies has increased year by year, until, according to Mr. Poland’s calculations, from fifteen to twenty millions are nowimported. Very large numbers of Rabbit skins are also brought to England from France, Germany, and other countries, mostly taken from domestic varieties. The American “ Buffalo” (more correctly “ Bison ”) is extinct as regards trade purposes, so that we need not go into the quantities of ‘‘ Buffalo-robes” formerly imported, which in Catlin’s time reached 200,000 in the year; nor will the other species of the order Ungulata, of which Mr. Poland gives forty-six in his list as affording skins more or less used in commerce, detain us long. The most important of them are the different varieties of the do- mestic Sheep and Goat, which are spread all over the world and supply mankind with every variety. of clothing- miterials. The extent of this commerce is enormous. Of tanned Goatskins alone 7,259,212 were. imported into this country in 1891, and 5,613,996 skins of “‘ East Indian Sheep ” were sold in London, The Edentates, Marsupials, and Monotremes, with which Mr. Poland concludes his volume, are of small importance after the preceding orders. “Australian Opossum,” however, under which common name are included skins of several different species and varieties of the genus Phalangista, forms an exception, as the annual supply of this article exceeds. two million skins, which are much appreciated for their. “ cheapness, light weight, pretty colour, and general usefulness.” Of Kan- garoos of all sorts over 120,000 skins were imported in NO. 1200, VOL. 46] 1891, so that, what with these and the Phalangers and its twenty million Rabbit-skins, Australia has a fair share of this lucrative commerce. But altogether, no doubt, the Dominion of Canada and adjoining district of Alaska still get the lion’s share of the traffic in “ furs and pelts.” In concluding our somewhat lengthy notice of Mr. — Poland’s volume we may say that it is replete with in- formation that a zoologist cannot obtain elsewhere in a convenient form, but at the same time contains many errors in the identification of the species, some of which we have pointed out. In a second edition, which will doubtless be called for, the author should obtain the assistance of a scientific expert. He would also do well to cut out of his list some of the less important species (such as the Dingo, Great Anteater, and Echidna), which are not really used for trade- purposes, and to bring up his statistical information under every head to the most recent date. edi SPINAL NERVE—IMPULSES AND ELECTRO- MOTIVE CHANGES. The Structure and Functions of the Brain and Spinal Cord. By Victor Horsley, B.S., F.R.€.S., F.R.S. (Griffin and Co., 1892.) S.stated in the preface, the present volume (being 4 the Fullerian Lectures for 1891) discusses the spinal cord and ganglia alone, and is to be followed by two others, dealing respectively with the brain and with physiological psychology. Most books of this character have to be considered in their relation to two classes of readers—those who are experts in its subject-matter and those who are not—a distinction that applies with special force to the outcome of Royal Institution lectures. We shall therefore take two readings of the volume before us. The table of contents and a cursory glance at the text — very soon bear out the author’s modest remark that these lectures have no pretensions to form a monograph upon the subject of which they treat. Nor are they an elementary review of it (in the ordinary sense of these words), but rather a series of vignettes—historical, zoo- logical, and speculative—relating to the nervous system. The historical lecture is interesting; the curious and hideous figure on p. 13, from a twelfth-century manu- script in the Bodleian Library, very aptly fulfils its purpose, viz., to demonstrate that no advance is there apparent upon the ideas of Aristotle. Prof. Horsley avoids plainly asserting that Sir Charles Bell discovered the sensory and motor functions of the nerve-roots ; the statement is implied, not made ; at first reading we think it is made, on second reading we recognize that it is. not made, on third reading that it is positively implied. It is evident that Prof. Horsley has read Bell’s original pamphlet, “Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain” (1811) ;! he does not, however, go t Not an easy matter—we only know of one copy in London, that at the British Museum, misdated 1802—nor a superfluous matter, as any one knows who has compared the ‘‘reprints’’ of 1824 and of 1830 with the original paper in the Phil. Trans. of 1821 on the nerves of the face. Correct reprints of Bell’s first paper have been published in ‘‘ Documents and Dates of Modern Discoveries in the Nervous System,” (? by A. Walker), London, 1839, and in the ‘‘ Journal of Anatomy and Physiology” for 1869, by A. — Shaw. 4 q OcToBER 27, 1892] NATURE 607 — 4 , to say that Bell’s two roots (before 1824) were an anterior “cerebral” root, subserving motion and sensa- tion, anda posterior “ cerebellar” root serving to govern vital actions. The frincifle of localization in nerve- ots, far more clearly stated by Walker in 1809 and the cts demonstrated by Majendie in 1822, are not alluded to. In the second lecture Kleinenberg’s cells are figured and described, and on the next page admitted to be hical; thus Prof. Horsley is enabled legitimately enc ugh to utilize this time-honoured if anatomically in- illustration to enforce the essentially correct wal me e star-fish, and cray-fish, with reference to rhythm, “localization ” and co-ordination of movements. “ Local- tion” is used as aterm to denote a physiological pro- erty or function (pp. 48-49) ; z.e., as used by psycholo- gists to denote an act of the subject, rather than as used physiologists to indicate observed relations between rts and functions. This use of the word is perfectly gitimate, but it is rather apt to create confusion of ought. “ Localization” is sometimes used in a similar se in relation to brain-function, and with a similar onvenience ; “localization” dy the brain in a psycho- gical sense is properly localization by the subject, localization z# the brain is an object of physiological experiment. No doubt it may be said that psychological localization rests upon physiological differentiation ‘and localization; none the less the use of the term to denote a physiological property or function is not advisable without very careful definition. Lecture IV. deals with vertebrates—nerve-fibres, gullet _ theory of canalis centralis, spinal cord, and nerve-roots. Lecture V. with ganglia. Here we must criticise. Look- ing to the class of readers addressed, Fig. 26 may be misleading as regards the anatomy of anterior and pos- ‘terior roots. Fig. 28 (altered from Hirschfeld and - Leveillé) is very confusing, and the anatomy of the brachial and lumbar plexuses is strange. A reader who should gather his notions of the functions of spinal ' ganglia from pp. 110-113 would have a very wrong idea _ of the state of our physiological knowledge; nor does _ the odd expression, “the immense discovery by Claude a ‘Bernard, of the so-called vaso-motor system of nerves,” _ possess much justification as regards historical accuracy.! _ The four last lectures contain—necessarily mingled with familiar elementary considerations—a statement of the results arrived at by Professors Gotch and Horsley from their electrical investigation of nerve-impulses in 4 afferent and efferent nerve-channels, and to the expert form the most important part of the book. We begin, therefore, to read more closely, still bearing in mind, indeed is suggested by the style, the requirements of _ mon-expertreaders. Nothing arrests attention on the first _-® In point of time Brown-Séquard is the true discoverer of vaso-motor nerves. "s experiments were made subsequently, and interpreted _ otherwise. y : 3 othe thag ces expériences, il n’est donc pas possible d’expliquer le ment des parties par une prétendue paralysie des artéres, qui, a raison d’un élargissement passif, laisseraient circuler une plus grande quan- Ce.) een _ *Si alors [i.e.. en galvanisant] les artéres, comme les veines, se ressérent et reviennent sur elles-mémes, cela tient A ¢e qu’il n’y a plus de sang pour distendre, mais ce n’est pas du tout l’effet d’un resserrement actif des +++ + “il ne peut venir a l’idée de pers »nne de penser 2 rapporter [le phénoméne circulatoire qui succéde & la section du nerf sympathique] A une Paralysie pure et simple des arttres.”’ Bernard, Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1854, p. 198.) NO. 1200, VOL. 46] principle of differentiation. Lecture III. treats of jelly- two pages. On p. 129 we pause at this sentence :— “It is very interesting to see that the protoplasm of a nerve-conductor has a distinctly longitudinal arrange- ment, which, it is not going too far to suggest may, by virtue of this fact, be more adapted for the polarization of its molecules for the better transmission of nerve-im- pulses.” Having dissected out the possible meaning of this sentence we proceed. Two pages further we are stopped for a moment by a confusion between the local excitability of nerve and its conductivity. On the next page (p. 132) we demur to the assertion that “secondary tentanus depends upon the electrotonic state of the first preparation.” On page 138 we find no reason to accept the distinction that: “no doubt may reasonably exist that active nerve yields products of oxidation, which doubt certainly exists as to the acidification of nerve.” Both facts are possible but unproven ; no proof whatever has been attempted of the first ; the second has been investi- gated with positive and with negative results. Page 146 includes a figure in which the current is zof shown as an action current, but the reverse; moreover, with the instrument figured (capillary electrometer), 20 current is under observation. But these twenty pages are enough, and we shall have but little space to discuss what forms the main positive differentia between Prof. Horsley’s book and other books of the same class, z.¢., the conclusions derived from electrical data. The conditions of criticism in this connection are alto- gether different, and we need not stop to examine into the accuracy of elementary points. Prof. Horsley is now addressing himself to an expert audience; his reasoning and his data have yet to pass through the refining fires of doubt and of objection, with, it is to be hoped, ultimate confirmation. The principle of the method of investi- gation is a well-established one ; we know that electrical variations are indicators of functional variations ; in the spinal cord, as elsewhere, functional activity may there- fore be roughly gauged by galvanometer or by electro- meter.. Gotch and Horsley did this as regards efferent channels and afferent channels; as regards the first they found by the electrometer that the character of discharge in the pyramidal tract does not differ from its character in motor nerves ; as regards the afferent tract they find that impulses pass up the cord chiefly in the posterior column of the same side. These conclusions may be admitted without imprudence. But the conclusions that may not safely be admitted without further experimental elaboration, are those relating to the functional dis- charges (inferred from electrical discharges) up and down the anterior and posterior roots, and to the quantitative distribution of centripetal impulses in the various columns of the cord. As regards this second point the physical conditions are not sufficiently analyzed (either in this volume or in the original paper) for us to admit, ¢.g., that average galvanometric swings of 60 and 20 indicate a passage of afferent impulses in the proportions 60 and 20 per cent. in the posterior and in the lateral columns respectively. That the deflection was proportional to the number of fibres excited, is an assumption requiring proof (p. 212, cf also pp. 145, 159, 160). As regards the first point, it was found that electrical discharges pass easily down as well as uf the posterior 608 NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1892 root, but are “blocked” wf the anterior root, and diminished dow that root. But in the inferences gua functional impulses derived from these data, two con- siderations appear to have been insufficiently borne in mind—(1) The rapid death of interrupting grey matter as compared with the endurance of white matter, and (2) the disproportionate magnitude of negative variations by electrical excitation as compared with negative variations by functional excitation. The contrast between inter- rupted and non-interrupted tracts, as regards the transmission, gauged electrically, may have been in part due to the first cause, and an adequate recog- nition of the second fact would have withheld Prof. Horsley from expressing astonishment—“ a reve- lation to us” is his phrase—at finding the elec- trical variation in a nerve eight or ten times as great by direct electrical excitation as by discharge of a nerve centre. Du Bois-Reymond’s analogous deflections obtained on strychninized frogs were 1° to 4° versus 40° by direct electrical excitation. A functional discharge down posterior roots, if proved to occur, is a new and sur- prising phenomenon ; but its existence is not at present proved by the existence of an electrical discharge ; elec- trical effects by electrical excitation are tainted evidence, electrical effects down the posterior roots by functional excitations above, although incidentally touched upon, were not exhaustively examined, and considering the recognized dangers of experimental fallacy, we may not admit as proved that nervous impulses are discharged down afferent channels. Prof. Horsley infers unre- servedly that functional discharge occurs down the posterior roots, and that centripetal impulses wf the anterior roots are blocked at the cord. This he regards as striking evidence of the truth of the kinzs- thetic doctrine (ze, that nerve action starts from the afferent or sensory side of the nerve ‘centre, p. 170) ; but the connection between this presumed functional downflow in afferent channels and kinzsthesis is not made apparent ; up-flow in afferent channels is matter of common knowledge ; up-flow by efferent channels has (so far as we know) been contended for by no one since Lewes. But as regards these last points, they may be expected to receive fuller and more precise analysis in the promised volumes on the brain and on physiological psychology. A. D. W. ELECTROTECHNICAL TRAINING. Electrical Engineering as a Profession and How to Enter it. By A. D. Southam. (London: Whittaker and Co., 1892.) HIS book consists of a collection of extracts from the notices of various firms regarding apprentices and articled pupils, and from the prospectuses of colleges which give an education in electrical engineering. It reminds us of the gorgeous but depressing volumes one has met so often in one’s summer outing, containing par- ticulars of hotels in Aden, hotels in Algiers, hotels in Andermatt, &c., each hotel possessing, at least so it is said in the gilt-edged page advertisement, every possible attraction—a magnificent view, a first-rate cuisine, electric light, ascenseur, and all the other dreariness of a bandboxy barrack. NO. 1200, VOL. 46] First we thought that the length of description which the author had given to a particular technical educational establishment was a measure of its goodness, but that’ idea we dismissed when we found that only three pages of description were given to that technical college in South Kensington, regarding which the author says: “ This institution deservedly stands at the head of all the technical institutions in this country.” Next it occurred. to us that the author might have acted on the “ good wine needs no bush” principle; but that hypothesis had to” follow the other, for we feel sure that the Walker Engineering Laboratory at Liverpool is not bad, and yet it requires fifteen pages of talking about. Then’ we wondered whether each professor had been asked to write as much as he liked, so that the length of the description of a particular set of laboratories was in proportion to the leisure of the writer ; and lastly, we have been speculating whether the likeness to the “ Hotels of the World” book might not be quite complete, and the length of the description was a measure of the length of the purse of the advertiser. However, be the plan of the compilation what it may, the book contains a good deal of information, also some salutary advice with which we quite agree :—* Un- doubtedly the best training for a young man entering the electrical profession is to go through the course at one of | the technical schools or colleges, and then when thoroughly grounded in the theory and having a general idea of the practice of his profession, to be articled for some months to a good firm of electrical engineers, where he will be able to acquaint himself with the practical part - of his business as actually carried out on commercial principles ;” and again, “if he then goes to both a Tech- | nical College and is also articled, it is advisable that the former should precede the latter, for the reason that when he is placed in the workshop his previous technical train- ing will enable him to appreciate and see the importance of much which he would otherwise have overlooked.” For the fathers who desire to place their sons directly in a works on leaving school, there is given a long list of engineering firms who are willing to receive £300 and © the lad ; some are willing to take only one hundred an1 twenty guineas a year, from year to year, or even as little as £100a year—and the lad. In many cases a month’s trial is allowed, but judging from the ignorance of elementary mathematics and science displayed by many articled - pupils in works, we presume that either these subjects are not required, or a month is not along enough time for this astonishing ignorance to be discovered. Naturally enough these firms do not bind themselves to provide work for these articled pupils when their term is finished ; indeed we know of a firm with over 100 articled pupils which is applying elsewhere for an assistant. When will the parental idea die out that a lad who is pitchforked into a works must turn out an engineer? doubt many of our successful engineers never received any education in a technical college ; so many of our battles were won by men armed only with bows and ~ arrows, but that is no reason for confining the equipment of a modern regiment to these primitive weapons. Either the teaching given at a technical college materially helps the lad in his subsequent practice in the works, or it is a fraud and ought to be stamped out. If it affords real help No. OcTOBER 27, 1892] NATURE 609 )the lad, then why, we ask, do not the firms insist on ir pupils obtaining it before they enter the works? Mere evening instruction for a lad who has been ammering, say, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. is well-nigh useless, nd at the best ought to be regarded only as a makeshift r those who are compelled to spend the day earning rliving. To place a lad at a technical college for years, and then for two years at a works would cost, ar as fees and premium are concerned, about £250, article him for three years at the works about £300. n will parents see that the cheaper course is far the etter, and when will firms refuse to take an articled pupil unless he has already acquired that theoretical knowledge ch is necessary to enable him to benefit by a works train- ? The father who articles his son to an engineering immediately the lad leaves school and expects him ck up his technical education at odd moments, may be re liberal in his money, but certainly is no more eral in his ideas than the parents who sent their sons to receive their practical training at Dotheboy’s Hall. Blow; sen where’s the first boy?” ‘“ Please, sir, he’s ¢ the back parlour window.” “So he is, to be re, » rejoined Squeers. “ Wego upon the practical mode teaching, Nickleby. C-]-e-a-n, clean, verb active, to make bright, to scour. W-i-n, win, d-e-r, der, winder, a casement. When a boy knows this out of a book he it aed does it.” tiie HYGIENE AND PUBLIC HEALTH. Treatise on Hygiene and Public Health. Edited by T. Stevenson, M.D., F.R.C.P. (Official Analyst to the ‘Home Office), anti Shirley Murphy (Medical Officer of : ealth of the Administrative County of London). is a treatise consisting of various contribu- ms from different writers. In the selection of thors it has been wisely decided not to limit the choice members of the medical profession, and the wisdom of decision has been exemplified in the acquisition of the very best articles which the book contains, z.c. that by P. Gordon Smith, F.R.I.B.A., and Keith D. Young, F.R.1.B.A., entitled “The Dwelling: "and. ut by W. N. Shaw, F.R.S., headed “ Warming and Ventilation.” _ There are at present several excellent small works upon ygiene and public health, but these of necessity treat of _ the subject in far too cursory a manner—indeed, they are : designed more to meet the repuirements of candidates for ‘the Public Health Diplomas now granted by many examining Boards. This work is evidently intended as a k of reference, and there is no doubt that it will be of great value to those from whom a special knowledge of public health work is demanded. While, then, the last year or two have been remarkably fruitful in the produc- tion of works upon the subject here treated of, the volume before us will not be one jot the less appreciated on this count, for it meets a want which must long have been elt among those who desire a better and more inclusive knowledge of public health matters than was hitherto accessible in a collective form. It is needless to insist that the work is all well done, NO. 1200, VOL. 46] and that any shortcomings must, of necessity, be faults of omission rather than of commission, for the list of contributors includes those who occupy some of the fore- most positions as authorities upon the subjects of which they treat. It isnot an easy task—and one is conscious of running great risk of appearing arrogant—to single out those sections especially deserving of praise. If this is permissible in such a work, we should point to the two articles already mentioned as occupying a foremost place —indeed, the article upon “ Warming and Ventilation ” is a little too exhaustive and technical in its physical aspect, and deals too briefly and sparingly with the commoner provisions now used for both the purposes of warming and ventilation ;-~-a shortcoming which has the effect of somewhat sacrificing the practical utility of the article to its bulk, when viewed from the health officer’s standpoint. It would not be easy to speak in terms too high of the all-round excellence of the article upon “ Dis- posal of Refuse,” by Prof. W. H. Corfield, M.A., M.D.,and Louis C. Parkes, M.D., D.P.H., and the work of com- piling this section could not have been entrusted to more capable hands. ‘“ Water,” by T. Stevenson, M.D., is a capital article, but one would like to have seen in it more about the methods of collecting water and distributing it, and of the risks which the water runs of pollution in and around dwellings. In the preface we read that “it has been the desire of the editors that the several papers which these volumes contain should present a fair account of the knowledge, so far as obtainable, of the subjects of which they treat”; and this is invariably achieved, for where the account is not an excellent one, it is always more thana “ fair” one. The contribution upon “ Air,” by Prof. J. Lane Notter, M.A., M.D., is too short, and does not nearly include all the material given in his edition of Edmund Parke’s work ; and the same fault may be found with the articles upon “ Hospital Hygiene,” by H. G. Howse, M.S., and “ The Inspection of Meat,” by E. W. Hobe, M.D., D.Sc. “Systematic Physical Education ”—a subenct which has been all too little studied in this country—is well and spiritedly treated of by F. Treves, F.R.C.S. The articles upon “ Baths,” by H. Hale White, M.D. ; “ Clothing,” by G. V. Poore, M.D. ; “* Food,” by Sidney Martin, M.D. ; “ Soil,” by S. M. Copeman, M.A., M.D., D.P.H.; ‘‘ Meteorology,” by G. F. Symons, F.R.S.; “The Influence of Climate upon Health,’ by C. T. Williams, M.A., M.D. ; “ Offensive and Noxious Busi- nesses,” by T. W. Hime, B.A., M.D. ; and “ Slaughter Houses and their Administration,” by E. W. Hope, M.D., D.Sc., are all good, though some of them might have been fuller. The article upon ‘‘ The Influence of Climate upon Health” might with advantage have considered much more fully the reasons why the various climatic con- ditions influence the health of man in the way they do. The contribution upon ‘‘ Meteorology,” which is capitally illustrated, and one of the most useful in the book, might also have considered the physical causes which affect the readings of the various instruments, and dealt more fully with the principles upon which these are constructed. The article upon “Food” is excellent in some respects, but an attempt to convey to the reader, in an abstract form, the methods of food analysis fails—as 610 NATURE [OcToBER 27, 1892 it always does when such a subject is treated of in brief space—to be of great assistance to the reader. The index is good, and the book is a valuable addition to Public Health literature. OUR BOOK SHELF. Lehrbuch der Botanik nach dem gegenwirtige Stand der Wissenschaft. Bearbeitet von Dr. A. B. Frank. Erster Band: Zellenlehre, Anatomie und Physiologie. 8vo. 670 Seiten, mit 227 Abbildungen in Holzschnitt. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1892.) THIS is essentially a fifth edition of Sachs’s renowned “Lehrbuch der Botanik,” the fourth and last German edition of which appeared as long ago as 1874. An English edition, emended and augmented by the trans- lator, Dr. S. H. Vines, was published in 1882. Now, ten years later, Dr. Frank has written a completely new work. As the author tells us in his preface, he was requested in 1890 to prepare a new edition of Sachs’s book ; but he has adopted the wiser course of making himself responsible for the whole. Nevertheless, free use has been made of Sachs’s excellent illustrations, upwards of ninety out of the two hundred and twenty-seven having been taken from that source, “ because the author could not replace them by better ones.” About sixty are bor- rowed from other authors, and about seventy of them are original, or at least Dr. Frank’s own, for some of them have appeared elsewhere. A number of them are reduced from Frank and Tschirch’s ‘‘ Wandtafeln.” Certainly the book is admirably illustrated. In the limitation and arrangement of thematerial the author has followed Sachs in a general way, though he has separated the physiology and anatomy from morphology and classification. The two latter branches are to be dealt with in a second volume, promised early next year. So far as the present volume is concerned, we can strongly recommend it to the student familiar with the German language. It is written in a clear, succinct style; and, so far as we have been able to test it, itis well up to date. Dr. Frank is well known as a writer and teacher of botany, and especially for his researches and experiments relating to the nutrition of plants. The sources of the nitrogen of plants and symbiosis are two subjects to which the author has devoted much attention, and they are discussed in some detail from his own standpoint. We are glad to see that copious and complete references are given to the’ books and articles of the principal writers on the various subjects, whose views are discussed or adopted. Un- fortunately there is no index, and it is not easy to find one’s way through the table of contents. True, a “ care- fully prepared” index is promised with the second volume, but a separate one to each volunie would be far more convenient and time-saving. It is not as though the second volume was a continuation of the first; and it is to be hoped that the author and publisher will even yet see their way to provide this facility for using the work. Arithmetical Chemistry. Part II]. Book B. ByC. J. Woodward, B.Sc. (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, and Co. Birmingham: Cornish Bros., 1892.) THE student will find in the present edition of this work what is practically a new book, as the author has enlarged and entirely rewritten the original publication. The opening lessons treat of analyses, the formulze of minerals, Dalton’s law of partial pressures, gas analysis, &c., and are on the whole satisfactory. The introductory portions of the lessons, which embody the principles involved in the exercises, and contain typical examples fully worked out, are clear, as a rule, and the exercises themselves are both suggestive and useful. The same may be said of NO. 1200, VOL. 46] the concluding part of the book, wherein are briefly dis- — cussed atomic weight determinations, and the various means of controlling atomic weights, calorific power and intensity, heats of formation, dissociation, and gaseous — phenomena, comprising the kinetic theory, diffusion, and absorption by water. The intermediate lessons on molecular weights are, however, not up to the standard of the others. made plain when discussing Avogadro’s law that a vapour density observation, when possible, is the decisive mode of fixing the molecular weight of a compound. The vague description of the apparatus used in measuring osmotic pressure can only confuse the reader, and loose statements such as “ solutions behave as gases,” p. 51, must have thesame effect.. The relationships established in connection with the vapour-pressures of solutions only hold if the dissolved substance is practically non- volatile, this point is omitted, and the definition given of equimolecular solutions is not the one in common use. Indeed, the entire treatment of the properties of solutions as applied to molecular weight observations, although it may perhaps enable the student to solve problems, is much too fragmentary and loosely put together to give him an adequate idea of what is known on the subject. It may also be pointed out as somewhat late in the day to give a few of Kopp’s conclusions as an account of specific volume. ri Among minor corrections it may be noted that on p. 6, in the first erratum, solvent should be solution, vapour- tension might often be replaced by vapour-pressure, xylol should be xylene, and amyl benzoat should be amy! benzoate, on p. 48. ‘‘ Ostwald’s Solutions ” might be in- cluded in the list of English works to which the student is referred. The book contains an index, a list of answers, and a collection of the questions in arithmetical chemistry set at the Honours examinations of the Science and Art De- partment, and at the B. Sc. examinations of London University. A portion of the author’s A B C Five figure logarithms is presented with this edition. — J. W. R. Lessons in Heat and Light. By D. E. Jones, B.Sc. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1892.) THE success of a previous work on “ Heat, Light, and Sound,” has led Prof. Jones to extend the’ two former parts, and publish them separately for the use of schools and junior classes in colleges. As an introduction to the study of experimental physics, the book cannot fail to be of great value. The principles of the subjects are very clearly stated, and the experiments from which they have been deduced are fully described. Most of the experi- ments may be easily performed by students, the instruc- tions being sufficiently clear to guarantee success. Numerous arithmetical examples, partly selected from the author’s ‘‘Examples in Physics,” are added at the ends of the various chapters. The physiographic bear- ings of the subject of heat have been brought well to the front ; thus the origin of the Gulf Stream, trade winds, and the formation of rain and snow are explained. Many of the diagrams have been carefully drawn to scale, in order to give the student an idea of the dimensions of the apparatus which may be conveniently employed in performing the experiments. It is not Elements of Magnetism and Electricity. By John Angell, FiGSis Le: Sons, and Co., 1892.) THIS is a new edition of one of the best-known text- books for use in connection with the classes under the control of the Science and Art Department. The book calls for no special remark ; but the fact that a hundred (London: Collins, thousand copies have already been disposed of seems to” — demonstrate its usefulness. Experiments and illustrations are its special features. OM ned Ts a ales he ay aS om OCTOBER 27, 1892] NATURE 61I LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. (The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- pressed 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. ] Further Notes on a recent Volcanic Island in the Pacific. THE volcanic island—Falcon Island—in the Tonga group in the Pacific, of the recent appearance of which an account is given in NATuRE, Vol. xli., p. 276, has recently been passed by a French vessel of war, the Duchaffault, which reports that the island is not now more than 25 feet high. In October, 1889, when examined by Commander Oldham, it was 153 feet high, and a little over a mile long. Nearly entirely composed of ashes, it was rapidly washing away, and by the account above, it would seem that more than one-half the island must now have disappeared. W. J. L. WHARTON. October 20. Earth-fractures and Mars ‘‘ Canals,” ON seeing the figure of theso-called ‘‘ canals” of Mars, pub- lished in NATURE of a few weeks back, I was at once reminded of the pattern assumed by the cracks of glass broken by torsion, as in Daubrée’s well-known geological experiment. I enclose a photograph of part of a large slab of glass broken in this way in a class experiment of my own, and although other slabs, which have unfortunately not been preserved, exhibited, if I remember rightly, still more Martial-looking networks, I think that the general resemblance is obvious enough in this case. It may perhaps be well to explain to non-geological readers of NATURE that Daubrée’s glass-breaking! is regarded by many as reproducing in miniature the kind of fractures which are found to occur in those portions of the earth’s crust with which we are acquainted, and that by torsion only has it proved possible to imitate the peculiar pattern assumed by such fractures, whether they be joints or dislocations. It is further held by many that such lines of fracture in such patterns are a necessary result of the shrinking of the outer coat of a planet in course of cooling. Mere fractures, such as we meet with in our own planet, could, of course, not be seen from any considerable distance, and if the circumstances of denudation were the same in Mars as with us, the ‘‘ canals” could certainly not be the representa- tives of our usually hidden and featureless earth-cracks. There seems, however, to exist, in the extraordinarily rapid melting of gigantic ice-fields described by Prof. Norman Lockyer, some evidence of denuding power in Mars on ascale enormously larger than is thecase with us. Earth-fractures—and for the matter of that Mars-fractures too—must many of them be lines of weakness along which denudation acts more freely than elsewhere, and if this denudation be phenomenal and cataclysmic, as appears to be likely in Mars, wide valleys or channels capable of being distinguished at great distances would soon be scoured out along them. t Not “‘ zce-breaking”’ as a mistranslation of the word ‘‘ glace” has caused it to be described in some English text-books. NO. 1200, VOL. 46] _ I would wish especially to draw attention to the three follow- ing points observable in the photograph, viz., thetwo marked directions in which the crack-lines run, one set crossing the others often at, or very nearly at, right angles ; their occasional doubling and rough parallelism for some distance; and their frequent sudden stoppage—three of the features most noticeable in the Mars lines. G. A. LEBour. Durham Coll. Science, Newcastle, October 13. A Wave of Wasp-Life. Mr. Hupson’s charming work on ‘‘ The Naturalist in La Plata” reminds me of a very interesting wave of wasp-life which appeared in Wisconsin in the semmer of 1886. We were living at the time in our summer-house at Pine Lake, and were making observations on the habits of the different animals in the neighbourhood. In the latter part of July we suddenly found ourselves sur- rounded by large numbers of yellow-jackets and hornets. Everywhere through the woods and fields a veritable plague of wasps seemed to have descended upon the earth. During all the month of August we heard the same report from summer residents within a radius of twelve or fifteen miles of Pine Lake. In our immediate neighbourhood we knew of forty-seven nests. Allowing 1500 wasps to a nest—a very low estimate for that season of the year—this gave us over 70,000 wasps. Plates of meat and bones that were set outside for the cats were immediately covered with them, and in spite of screens in doors and windows they even entered the house, alighting on the food at the dinner-table, or darting about and catching flies. The cause of this sudden increase in the number of wasps was evidently a general one, since it acted in the same way upon three species—Vesfa vidua, V. maculata and V. germanica. An examination of the Signal Service statistics does not show anything unusual in the preceding winter and spring, but either the weather must have been especially favourable, lessening the ordinary death-rate of the queens, or there must have been a marked decrease in the parasites or other enemies which ordinarily keep these species in check. The duration of the favourable conditions proved brief enough. It is probable that every one of our forty-seven nests furnished, at the very lowest estimate, one hundred developed and fertilized queens to start forty-seven hundred new nests in the following year; yet the increase in the checks to the too great ascendency of these species more than counter-balanced the abnormal increase. The winter of 1886-87 was not especially severe, but in the following summer the most careful search on our part, and on the part of others, whose efforts were stimu- lated by the offer of rewards, only gave us four nests in our neighbourhood, and on all sides we were met by the inquiry : ** What has become of the wasps?” G. W. PECKHAM. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 12. Note on the Occurrence of a Freshwater Nemertine in England. A FEW days after reading M. de Guerne’s ‘‘ History of Freshwater Nemerteans,” published in the August number of the Aznals, I happened upon a specimen of the group amongst the roots of some water plants, which I collected in the river Cherwell, close to Oxford. I was, at the time, searching for the cocoons of a new Rhinodrilid worm, of which a description will shortly appear. The gathered roots, with the cocoons, were placed in a bottle of water, in order that the worms might hatch out. On examining the bottle two days later, namely, on September 5, I noticed a small bright orange animal, about half an inch long when extended, creeping amongst the cocoons. Further observation with the microscope showed that it was a species of 7Zetrastemma, Unfortunately the animal was crushed before I had done more than sketch the general ap- pearance and make some few observations, and I have not yet succeeded in finding more specimens ; so that I am unable to state how far it agrees with or differs from the previously known freshwater forms enumerated by M. de Guerne, most of which are included by Silliman and later authors under the title Tetrastemma aquarum dulcium,. In one or two points, however, my sketches show certain differences from those of Silliman :— 612 (z) The colour (orange) is due to pigment in the skin, and not to the red colour of the nervous system; I may mention that Duges’ species, ‘‘Prostoma clepsinoides,” was yellow ochre, and ‘‘Pr. lumbricoideum” was yellow marbled with red; whilst Leidy’s ‘‘ Zmea rubra” was yellowish flesh-coloured (probably due to the hemoglobin in the nervous system). (4) The anterior pair of eye-spots is further from the prostomium than in Silliman’s drawing ; I found no third pair of eye-spots, which, however, it is stated, is absent in the young. (c) The ciliated pits are further forward, being midway between the brain and the anterior end of the body. (d) The proboscis and its retractor muscle are much more undulating, when withdrawn into the body, than Silliman shows. The proboscidial spine, with its groups of accessory spines, agrees very closely with the figures given by Silliman. . I can say nothing about the generative organs. For the present, then, I must leave undecided the specific name of this British Zetrastemma, W. BLAXLAND BENHAM. Anatomical Department, Museum, Oxford, Oct. 12. Protective Mimicry. Mr. BaTEson’s letter on ‘‘ Aggressive Mimicry ” (NATURE, October 20) recalls to my mind a curious case of protective mimicry which came under my notice last August on Dart- moor. Large patches of the heath had been burnt, a common practice on the moorlands to ensure a fresh young growth for the sheep. The whole ground was alive with a common species of orthoptera (Locustina), the small green grasshopper with short antenne. They leapt aside at every step in the short grass and scrubby heath ; upon the burnt patches they were equally numerous, but with this difference—all, without excep- tion, were coal black on abdomen, thorax, and head, whilst the wings were of an ashen hue. So much did the colour adapta- tion resemble the blackened turf and heath they hopped amongst it was almost impossible to follow them with the eye; we made many amusing attempts, but were nearly always defeated. I measured one of these burnt patches, and found it to be from thirty to forty yards square. A yard or two from this, on the untouched herbage all the Locustina were bright green. I found one specimen on the borderland in a transition state, not dull all over as I had expected, but in spots and patches of bright green and black. One enemy at least of these insects abounded on the moor, namely, the common lizard (Zootea vivipara), for I have observed there is no food lizards will eat more greedily than grasshoppers. I have seen some that I have in captivity swallow twenty or thirty in two or three minutes, even after their usual meal of worms. They always beeame greatly excited, if one may apply so warm an expression to such cold-blooded animals, and rushed about the case when a collection of live grasshoppers were thrown to them. Certainly I was much struck by the rapid action of the power possessed by these Locustina on Dartmoor of assimilation to environ- ment, and did not doubt but that this colour adaptation was for the purpose of protection, the eye producing by reflex action the change in the pigment cells. Rose Haic THoMAS. STELLAR PARALLAX. TR Delegates of the University Press have recently published the results of Prof. Pritchard’s systematic investigations into the parallax of those stars of the second magnitude whose North declination per- mits the inquiry to be made with facility and advantage in these latitudes. Our first feeling on glancing over the contents of this drochurve must be one of hearty con- gratulation to the distinguished professor that he has been permitted to see the full outcome of a protracted inquiry, conducted at a period in his life when a less energetic astronomer would have felt himself justified in withdrawing from active participation in scientificresearch. t “Researches in Stellar Parallax by the aid of Photography.’ By Charles Pritchard, D.D., F.R.S., Savilian Professor of Astronomy in Oxford. NO. 1200, VOL. 46] NATURE [OcroBER 27, 1892 Prof. Pritchard might well have been content to rest on the laurels he had won, and to have staked his reputation upon that career of acknowledged utility which has. marked his direction of the Oxford University Obser- vatory. Immediately on the completion of the photometrical examination of Argelander’s Uranometria, and with a zeal that admitted of no delay, Professor Pritchard busied himself with this inquiry into the parallax of stars of the second magnitude. But if the inquiry was undertaken with eagerness, and pursued with ardour and resolution, it was not characterized by hurry, or its suc- cess imperilled by incompleteness. Confident himself that photographic methods possessed the requisite accuracy to make the research successful and trust- worthy, the Savilian Professor set to work to establish the reliable character of measurements made on sensitized films, and not till that confidence was demonstrated did he embark upon the larger work now under notice. These preliminary inquiries have been published in a series of papers in the proceedings of the Royal and Royal Astronomical Societies, and the confidence gradually acquired by enlarged experience induced him to proceed with the determination of the parallax of 61 Cygni, the results of which are published in detail in the third fasciculus of the Annals of the University Observatory. In this case he selected four stars in the immediate neighbourhood of the princi- pal star, and sought the difference of parallax between each of the components and of the four stars of compari- son. This long research may be regarded by some as a work of supererogation, inasmuch as the labours of Bessel and that of many later astronomers have satis- factorily settled the parallax of this star within very approximate limits. But if we properly understand the motives of Prof. Pritchard, his intention was not so much to seek anew the parallax of that system, as to discover with what degree of accuracy the method of photography, — hitherto unapplied in this direction, represented the work of others made directly in the field of the telescope. Nor was this his only view. By selecting four stars in the immediate neighbourhood of 61 Cygni and seeking the difference of parallax between these stars of comparison. and each of the components of the system, he instituted a very severe inquiry as to the trustworthiness of that method, which he had imagined as capable of dealing with the delicate question of stellar parallax. The severity of the test consists in deducing the same value of the parallax (eight in all) from each set of measures, and as a matter of fact the accordance, zzfer se between these several determinations is as close as could have been anticipated, and likewise in satisfactory unison with the work of other astronomers. — The completeness of this inquiry and the publication of it in detail have had two happy results. In the first place, Prof. Pritchard has, in the present instance, been able to confine the printing within very narrow limits, so narrow, indeed, as possibly not to have done himself justice. The details of his process, the mutual agreement of his measures, and his method of discussion having all been fully set out in his previous work, he has not felt himself obliged to enter into these minute particulars, but has contented himself with presenting the results. This method of arrangement, no doubt suggested in the first place by economical motives, has afforded op- portunity for adding a very interesting history of the processes and results that have hitherto been followed with more or less success by others, and also the exhibition in a concise form of the different values of the more trustworthy determinations, derived by previous observers. diately arising from the earlier investigations, is, that an examination of. those results has shown that no increase of accuracy (commensurate with the increased labour at The second advantage, imme-— a is OcTOBER 27, 1892] NATURE 613 _ least) was obtained by continuing the observations of the stars throughout the whole of the year, that is, to secure observations in all positions of the parallactic ellipse. If the measures were confined to those epochs when the parallactic displacements were greatest, and a sufficient number of observations secured at those critical times, a determination of parallax could be relied upon to within about one-thirtieth of a second of arc. This is approxi- mately the limit of accuracy that Professor Pritchard hoped to reach, and in this selection he appears to have been guided by the conviction, that in the present condi- tion of cosmical inquiries, to which stellar parallax bears the closest relation, it is of more importance to know within very narrow limits the parallaxes of many stars than seek with the utmost accuracy the parallax of a very few. And in this respect there can be no doubt but that Prof. Pritchard’s judgment is correct. The former is the view of a philosopher ; the latter that of a conscientious and painstaking observer. Guided by the broader view, the result of his work has been to enrich the data at the com- mand of students of cosmical science by assigning the approximate distance to some thirty stars, a number which bears no inconsiderable proportion to the total number of separate determinations made by all other astronomers combined. Prof. Pritchard’s view of the history of stellar parallax is that of a scientific struggle, a continual and severe wrestle on the part of the astronomer with the inevitable inaccuracy of observation and imperfect instruments, in which sometimes one opponent, sometimes the other, has the mastery. He passes in his historic survey rapidly over those days when from various obvious causes the __ detection of stellar parallax was scarcely possible, moved however to admiration by, and induced to linger over, the success that attended the early observations of Molyneux in the case of y Draconis when discussed, a century later, by Auwers, a success that later observers havestruggled to repeat ineffectually. He brings before us, but touches with a light and kindly hand, the dispute that embittered the lies of Brinkley and of Pond, but it is not difficult in reading a little between the lines to see with whom his sympathies rest. Later on in the history of the research, Henderson meets with his deserts, as a clear-sighted astronomer of distinguished ability, cautious and persevering, and one who in the struggle after accu- racy obtained an undoubted measure of success. This _ historical introduction will we think be read with pleasure -many whomay have no particularinterest in this special subject of inquiry. The comments of one who has en- countered and overcome many similar difficulties, and has kindly sympathy with all who have travelled along the same path, cannot but be of interest and of value, and we could have wished that this portion of the book had been considerably extended. How many astronomers are now acquainted, with any degree of adequacy, with the serious difficulties that attended the early application _of the heliometer in this department of research, and with the dispute that raged long and dubiously around the names of Wichmann and of Schluter? All are willing to admit that in the hands of many com- petent observers—it would be invidious to mention any without naming all—the heliometer is doing splendid work, but the difficulties with which the early masters had to cope are now all but forgotten, and it is certainly wise to treasure a sympathetic remembrance for the earlier exponents of the improved and successful methods now in vogue. The last portion of Prof. Pritchard’s history is occu- pied with the bearing of stellar parallax on the problem of the construction of the stellar universe. He seems to have had before his mind two questions, which, long hovering in an unexpressed form, were first for- mally enunciated by Dr. Gill. The first question is, What are the average parallaxes of stars of the first, NO. 1200, VOL. 46] second, third, and fourth magnitude respectively com- pared with those of fainter magnitude? To this ques- tion the Savilian Professor replies very cautiously. The researches of Dr. Elkin on stars of the first magnitude point to an average parallax of o’’089 for stars of that class, and just as certainly Prof. Pritchard’s researches point to an average parallax of o''056 for stars of the second magnitude. But he pertinently asks what can be understood by an average of distances (as indicated by parallaxes) in cases where the separate elements vary from actual zero to half a second, and where moreover many of the brighter members are the furthest removed from us? Notwithstanding these exceptional cases, which challenge attention, the fact remains, and it is apparently the only conclusion which can be drawn with any cer- tainty, that the stars of the first magnitude are on the whole nearer to us than those of the second, and that these again are as a whole nearer to us than the faint stars with which they have been compared, With con- clusions of this sort it would seem that astronomers will have to content themselves for some time to come. The second question which Dr. Gill suggested or for- mulated was—What connection does there exist between the parallax of a star and the amount and direction ot its proper motion ?—or can it be proved that there is no such connection or relation? The answer given to this second query is even less satisfactory than to the former. Prof. Pritchard contents himself by exhibiting in a tabular form the parallax and the proper motion of all stars that have been successfully handled, and the only conclusion drawn or warranted, is a suggestion that there is at least quite as close a connection between the apparent proper motion of a star and its distance from us, as there is be- tween its distance and its magnitude. If we examine or attempt to trace any connection between the mass, the brilliancy and the distance of a star, we are baffled by the same kind of uncertainty, aris- ing in some measure from the paucity of instances in which it is possible to make the inquiry, and we are reluctantly forced to admit that such investigations are premature. At least that would be the conclusion of an ordinary mind, but here it is that Prof. Pritchard sees his opportunity for future efforts and renewed vigour. With an energy that must be the admiration of his friends, he selects for further investigation two subjects, either of which might fully occupy the time and the hands of a younger man. He proposes in the first place to determine the parallaxes of several stars of the Pleiades, a few of the brighter as well as a few of the fainter, with the view of discovering whether the faint and the bright are indis- criminately mixed at that distance. The second subject of his proposed inquiry is not less interesting. It con- sists in the investigation of the distances of some of the binary systems from our sun ; and from a more complete knowledge of the masses, the mutual distances, and the parallaxes of these systems, Prof. Pritchard thinks it not unlikely that many interesting and possibly unexpected associations may reasonably be anticipated, thereby affording us some further insight into the constitution and the mechanism of the Stellar Universe. We can only hope that Prof. Pritchard’s health and strength may be spared to witness the completion of this programme, but in that case we are assured he would immediately sketch out for himself some new field of inquiry, and court even longer and more protracted labour. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF DISINFECTION} PROLESSOR J. MASCHEK, whose name is already familiar to us through his investigations on water bacteria, has brought together in pamphlet-form a large t‘* Beitrige zur Theorie und Praxis der Desinfection, von Prof. J- Maschek.” Im Selbstverlage des Verfassers, Leitmeritz. 614 NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1892 number of experiments on the relative value of various disinfectants and disinfectant processes. Since the introduction of Koch’s methods, the study of the subject of disinfection has been immensely assisted, and it is now possible to take a more accurate measure of the extent to which micro-organisms are affected by different treatment, wkether chemical or mechanical. The stimulus which it has thus received has not un- naturally drawn a large number of workers into this par- ticular field of inquiry, and the literature is already very unwieldy, One of the principal difficulties which surround the study of micro-organisms is their individuality, their apparent idiosyncrasies, and this is not confined to closely allied varieties, but is found amongst members of one and the same species. Thus, the previous history of a micro-organism, the nature of the culture material used, the temperature at which the cultivation has been kept, the age of the growth, &c., are all points which have to be taken into consideration as likely to influence the be- haviour of the particular specimen under observation. This sensitiveness: of bacteria may possibly to some extent account for the discrepant results which have been obtained by different investigators, although working in similar directions, which has rendered the accurate ap- preciation of the value of these results a by no means easy task. Again, what succeeds in a laboratory is not necessarily equally successful when carried out on a large scale, and it is this difficulty which has so frequently led to such disappointing results in actual practice. Prof. Maschek has endeavoured by a series of most arduous and painstaking experiments to throw a little more light on some of the problems of disinfection, and in gathering up his work has wisely abstained from attempt- ing an exhaustive survey of the general literature, re- stricting himself to a brief introduction and particular reference to those investigations with which he has been more closely concerned. In the majority of the experi- ments the author employed Koch’s well-known method of sterilized silk threads, each of which was subsequently impregnated with pure cultivations of a number ot differ- ent pathogenic micro-organisms. These were distributed in various parts of a room about 19-ft. long, 13-ft. wide, and 154-ft. high, on the ceiling, walls, corners, floor, &c., whilst in some cases they were wrapped up in differ- ent materials, such as filter-paper, muslin, linen, in order to imitate as nearly as possible the actual condi- tions under which the organisms might be supposed to be present in an infected room. In each case, after the application of the disinfectants under observation, these silk threads were submitted to plate-cultivation, and in some instances their pathogenic properties were also tested by inoculation into animals. The first elaborate series of experiments was made with the vapour of corrosive sublimate, which some authorities have recommended as an effective germicidal agent; but quite apart from the difficulty of getting rid of the poisonous crystals of corrosive sublimate which remained attached to various parts of the room, Prof. Maschek was not able to obtain satisfactory results, although every precaution was taken to ensure success, In this respect his experiments differ from those of Konig, who confidently recommended its use for disinfection purposes. The effect of chlorine gas was next tested and applied both in the dry and damp state. The results were, however, far from encouraging, for even when employed in the damp state the spores were not de- stroyed. In connection with these experiments a very instructive instance is given of the signal failure which accompanied the use of chlorine in the Alexander Hos- pital in St. Petersburg, which was designed for receiving different infectious illnesses. Suspicion as to its efficacy was first aroused after its use in the disinfection of a ward in which diphtheria pitients had been treated. NO. 1200, VOL. 46] This ward was afterwards used for scarlet fever cases, and subsequently complications with dipht.eria made their appearance, in consequence of which the ward was | closed and disinfected with chlorine. (A ward of 900 cubic metres capacity being subjected to the chlorine gas evolved in treating 50 kilos. of chloride of lime with 65 kilos. of hydrochloric acid.) After the disinfection was completed, the ward was thoroughly cleansed and venti- lated, and allowed to remain empty for seven months. On its being re-opened for the reception of measles cases complications with diphtheria again arose, although the patients when taken into the ward were wholly free from diphtheria. The measles patients were therefore re- moved, and the ward was again disinfected with chlorine, only this time a much larger quantity'was employed (135 kilos. of chloride of lime with 148°5 kilos. of hydrochloric acid) after which it stood empty for another seven months. Later on cases of smallpox were received into this ward, but diphtheria again appeared, the physician, two nurses, and an attendant being amongst those attacked, whilst complications with diphtheria again occurred amongst the patients. In consequence of this the unfortunate ward was once more closed and thoroughly disinfected with chlorine, and was reopened for typhoid fever patients ; but all children’s cases were rigorously excluded, in consequence of their particular susceptibility to diphtheria. After the adoption of this special precau- tion no further attacks of diphtheria were met with. It might, however, be urged that as regards the infection of patients suffering from measles with diphtheria, the disease was possibly introduced from outside, and did not necessarily arise in the ward itself, were it not for the fact that there were three other wards in the hospital in which cases of measles were being treated at the same time, and no single attack of diphtheria occurred. Krupin, who is the authority for these facts, confirming the valuelessness of chlorine for disinfecting purposes, found that the spores of anthrax were not destroyed in a hospital ward after being exposed to the action of this gas for more than 40 hours. A large number of experiments were made with a view to determining the. number of micro-organisms present onthe walls of a room. For this purpose a small sterilized bit of sponge cut in the shape of a cube (of about half-inch side) was used to rub down a measured portion (about 4 square inches) of the wall. The sponge was afterwards placed in a tube containing sterile melted gelatine and rotated gently, so as to disengage all the organisms on its surface. The gelatine was then allowed to congeal on the sides of the tube, and after suitable incubation the colonies made their appearance, and were estimated in due course. It was found that the numbers present on the walls and ceiling respectively varied con- siderably. Near the floor the number was much greater than on the middle of the wall, whilst here again they were more abundant than on the ceiling. For example, on one of the walls, at a distance of rather more than an inch from the ground, as many as 2,871 microbes were found, whilst on the ceiling over a similar area only 85 were discovered. It was also noticed that those portions of the wall or ceiling which were exposed to currents of air from either the window or door exhibited generally a smaller number of bacteria than did places which were shielded from such draughts. Prof. Maschek further found that one rubbing was wholly insufficient to remove all.the organisms from a given surface, and it was only after the process had been repeated five times that all bacterial life could be banished with certainty. Although the figures thus obtained are of interest by way of com- parison, yet it is difficult to believe that they represent the actual numbers present. The accuracy of this method, originally devised by Esmarch, rests on the assump- tion that on placing the sponge in the tube of melted gelatine and rotating it gently (for if this were done OcTOoBER 27, 1892] NATURE violently the gelatine would froth, and the surface become covered with small bubbles, which would greatly inter- fere later with the counting of the colonies) all the organ- isms attached to the surface of the sponge would be removed. Now the sponge being left in the tube must necessarily obscure part of the gelatine surface; more- over, the interstices becoming soaked with gelatine, colonies would certainly develop within the sponge itself and escape detection, whilst it is quite inconceivable _ that gentle rotation would suffice to detach even all those organisms which are adherent even to the surface of the sponge. Wall surfaces deprived of micro-organisms in the manner described above were subsequently sprayed with distilled water infected with different pathogenic bacteria, and after sufficient time had elapsed for these surfaces to dry, the effect of various disinfectants was tried. Numerous investigations are also recorded of the use of creolin, carbolic acid, and mixtures of the latter with solutions of corrosive sublimate. The effect of ex- posure to high temperatures, in apparatus specially con- structed for the purpose, has also been tried, whilst the disinfection of sewage matters with lime is also carefully considered, and a large number of experiments recorded with the typhoid and cholera organisms. The following interesting account is given as an illus- tration of the success which can be achieved in disinfec- tion on a large scale. An epidemic of diphtheria broke out in a small village in Germany and proved particularly fatal amongst the children, indeed so alarming was its progress, that the Burgomaster was led to suggest the disinfection of the whole village. A public meeting was held and the inhabitants were instructed as to the nature of the epidemic, and the possibility of checking it Be the combined action of every household. Public funds were devoted to the purchase and distribution of the requisite disinfectants, and during three days the whole place is described as smelling of carbolic, whilst in all directions windows and doors were to be seen wide open, a very unusual sight in the country, and more especially in the month of February when this occurred. The work of disinfection was carried on most systematically, every article which could not be either _ washed or baked was treated with a 5 per cent. solution of carbolic acid. In short, no efforts were spared to thoroughly disinfect everything, and the result was that although the epidemic before the commencement of this isinfecting crusade was steadily gaining ground, it sud- _denly stopped. This must be considered as a tribute to the sagacity and energy of the inhabitants ; for, as Prof. Maschek points out, experience teaches us to expect a gradual decline, due to the possible weakening of the virus, so that towards the end of an epidemic the number of bad cases is lessened and recoveries are more uent. In conclusion the words of M. Duclaux may be appropriately quoted: “Les études sur les antiseptiques nont gagné que de s’encombrer de résultats qui se contredisent les uns les autres, et entre lesquels on ne peut faire un choix, précisément parcequ’ils ont été souvent obtenus en dehors des conditions d’une étude précise. II faut donc abandonner cette méthode, scruter avec de plus en plus de soin la phénoméne, faire de la science, en un mot.” This “faire de la science” is pre- cisely the spirit in which Prof. Maschek has carried out his experiments ; the immense care with which they have been conducted, the ungrudging labour bestowed upon them should render his results a most valuable contri- bution to the subject of disinfection. It is only to be regretted that they are not published in a form in which they tee be more likely to become known and appre- ciated. GRACE C, FRANKLAND, NO. 1200, VOL. 46] 615 AN ETHNOGRAPHICAL SURVEY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. CIRCULAR letter, which we have been asked to print, has just been issued on behalf of the Com- mittee appointed by the British Association to organize an ethnographical survey of the United Kingdom. The Committee consists of Francis Galton, F.R.S, J. G. Gar- son, M.D., and E. W. Brabrook, F.S.A., representing the Anthropological Institute ; Edward Clodd, G. L. Gomme, F.S.A., and Joseph Jacobs, M.A., representing the Folk- lore Society; H. S. Milman, Director S.A., George Payne, F.S.A., and General Pitt-Rivers, F.R.S., represent- ing the Society of Antiquaries of London ; Joseph Ander- son, LL.D., Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland ; and A. C. Haddon, M.A., Professor of Zoology at the. Royal College of Science of Dublin. The following is the circular letter :— Sir,—The above-named Committee, in pursuance of the object for which they have been delegated by the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Folk-lore. Society, and the Anthropological Institute, and appointed by the British Association, propose to record for certain typical villages and the neighbouring districts— (1) Physical Types of the Inhabitants. (2) Current Traditions and Beliefs. (3) Peculiarities of Dialect. (4) Monuments and other Remains of Ancient Cul- ture ; and (5) Historical Evidence as to Continuity of Race. - Asa first step, the Committee desire to form a list of such villages in the United Kingdom as appear especially to deserve ethnographic study, out of which a selection might afterwards be made for the Survey. The villages suitable for entry on the list are such as contain not less than a hundred adults, the Jarge majority of whose fore- fathers have lived there so far back as can be traced, and of whom the desired physical measurements, with photo- graphs, might be obtained. It is believed by the Committee that such villages may exist in the districts with which you are acquainted, and, as you are eminently capable of affording help in this preliminary search, we have to request that you will do so by kindly furnishing the names of any that may occur to you, with a brief account of their several characteristics ; mentioning at the same time the addresses of such of their residents as would be likely to support the Committee in pursuing their inquiry. They would also be glad to be favoured with the names of any persons known to you in other districts to whom this circular letter might with propriety be addressed. Weare, Sir, Yours faithfully, FRANCIS GALTON, Chairman. E,. W. BRABROOK, Secretary. All communications should be addressed to “The Secretary of the Ethnographic Survey, British As- sociation, Burlington House, London, W.” NOTES. THE Board of Trinity College, Dublin, on October 22 elected Dr. Arthur A. Rambaut, M.A., Royal Astronomer of Ireland, on the foundation of Dr. Francis Andrews. The election was made under the provisions of Letter Patent 32 George III., dated in 1792. The new Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin, graduated in 1881 as a Senior Moderator and Gold Medallist in Mathematics, since which period he has acted until now as Assistant at the Observatory at Dunsink 616 NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1892 He is the author of several astronomical papers published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy and of the Royal Dublin Society. Ir is proposed that a portrait medal of M. Hermite, the eminent mathematician, shall be struck in commemoration of his approaching seventieth birthday. The circular asking for subscriptions is signed by a number of well-known mathe- maticians. THE following nominations have been made for the Council of the London Mathematical Society for the session 1892-3. The ballot will be taken on November 10. For President, A. B. Kempe, F.R.S.; Vice-Presidents, A. B. Basset, F.R.S., E. B. Elliott, F.R.S., Prof. Greenhill, F.R.S.; Treasurer, Dr. J. Larmor ; Hon. Secs., Messrs. M. Jenkins and R. Tucker; other members, Mr. H. F. Baker, Dr, Forsyth, F.R.S., Dr. Glaisher, F.R.S., Mr. J. Hammond, Prof. M. J. M. Hill, Dr. Hobson, Mr. A. E. H. Love, Major Macmahon, F.R.S., and Mr. J. J. Walker, F.R.S. After the election of the Council Prof. Greenhill will read his Presidential Address. IN consequence of the alterations in the rooms of the Chemical Society, the first ordinary meeting of the Society will be held on Thursday, November 17, at 8 p.m. THE late Dr. C. A. Dohrn left his magnificent entomological collections, with the library connected with them, in trust to his son, Dr. H. Dohrn, who was directed to use them as the nucleus for the formation of a natural history museum in Stettin. Dr. H. Dohrn has now not only carried out his father’s wishes, but has presented to his native town his own conchological collec- tions and library. THE Geologists’ Association will hold @ conversazione on Friday, November 4, in the Library of University College, Gower Street. Among the exhibits will be a series of photo- graphs of the recent eruption of Mount Etna. These will be shown by Mr. F. W. Rudler. Mr. M. C. POTTER has been appointed to the Chair of Botany at the College of Science, Newcastle-on-Tyne. _ THE annual meeting and conversazione of the Postal Micro- scopical Society took place at the Holborn Restaurant on the 20th inst. There was a good attendance, and many microscop- ical specimens were displayed. An address on _ polarized light was delivered by Mr. G. H. Bryan, the president. THE following lectures will be given at the Royal Victoria Hall on Tuesday evenings during the coming month :—Nov. 1, Prof. A. H. Green, ‘‘Cozl, what it is and how it was made ;” Nov. 8, W. D. Halliburton, M.D., F.R.S., ‘‘ The history of some famous epidemics;’’ Noy. 15, Hermann H. Hoffert, D.Sc., ‘‘ Electric sparks and lightning flashes;” Nov. 22, Prof. Hall Griffin, ‘‘ Among the hills of Asolo: an illustrated account of the poem ‘ Pippa Passes.’ ” NATURALISTS who visit the Zoological Society’s Gardens should not fail to go to the Insect House and see the Pratincole, which has lately been received, and is kept ina cage in this building. So far as we know, it is the first example of this curious form of plover that has ever been seen in captivity. The specimen in question does not, however, belong to the Pratincole of the south of Europe (G/areola torguata), which has sometimes occurred in this country, but to an allied African species—the Madagascar Pratincole (Glareola ocularis). The bird was obtained near Mombasa, in Eastern Africa, and presented to the society by Mr. R. MacAllister. It was carefully brought home, along with many other interesting specimens, from Zanzibar and the adjoining mainland by Mr. Frank Finn, F.Z.S., on his return from his recent expedition to that country. NO. 1209, VOL. 46] A CORRESPONDENT from Tangier writes that during the recent mission to Fez of Sir Euan Smith, Mr. Walter H. Harris and Mr. Carleton, the interpreter, were informed by a cherif from Tafilelt, cousin of the Sultan, and Governor over an extensive district, that there is no question as to the existence of © dwarf tribes down the Dra, where they are very numerous. Sir Euan Smith was told of this statement, and probably had a talk with him. Mr. Harris intended to have taken a trip down the Drato Akka, but was convinced from what he heard that such a trip would be an act of suicide. He however believes that he can get full information as to the dwarfs, and perhaps photographs, without going so far, and he has just left for a trip to the interior for twomonths. Herr E, G, Donnenberg, who has been for some years engaged in pushing German trade in Marocco, and every year visits the principal cities, says that a year ago he saw in Marocco city from half a dozen to a dozen dwarfs, one of whom was accompanied by a dwarf wife. They were about 4 ft. high, and robust and well made, and were certainly not Moors who had been dwarfed by rickets, as they differed from the ordinary population of Marocco inappearance. Herr Dénnen- berg’s address is Tangier, and he states that he is ready to answer any queries that may be sent to him, but that he cannot add anything to what is here stated, as he did not ask any questions as to the dwarfs, not knowing that they were of interest. He goes to Marocco city before Jong, and will make ita point to find out all he can respecting them. Durinc the latter part of last week a depression lay over the — North Sea, which spread both in size and intensity, causing strong northerly winds all over this country, with heavy gales and snow- fall in Scotland and the east of England, while in the southern districts the weather was fine. and bright. The temperature was unusually low for the time of year, the mean temperature having in fact been considerably below the average on each day since the beginning of the month. The daily maxima have varied from 40° in the north to 52° in the south, with sharp frosts at night. On Sunday night the grass thermometer in London fell to 20°, while 25° in the shade were registered the next night in the north and west. During the early part of the present week, the area of high pressure in the west gave place to a depression, which arrived from off the Atlantic, causing cold easterly winds in the south with very heavy rains in the south-west of England ; the weather over Scotland improved, although some snow showers continued to fall on the east coast. The Weekly Weather Report, issued on the 22nd instant, showed that the . temperature of that week was much below the mean, the deficit ranging from 5° to 7°. Rainfall exceeded the mean in the east and north-east of England, but in all other districts there wasa deficit. In the south-west of England there was still a deficit of about eight inches since the beginning of the year. WE recently drew attention to a new meteorological journal published in Paris ; we now note the appearance ofa similar publication at Vilafranca del Panadés, in Spain. It is published on the 15th of each month, and contains a series of short ele- mentary articles and notes, occupying only twelve small octavo pages. We hardly expect it to find many readers in this country, but hope it may awaken more interest in the subject in Spain, where practical meteorology is not at present on the same level as in other European countries. THE Director of the Lyons Observatory, M. C. André, has published, under the title, ‘Relations des Phénoménes Météorologiques déduites de leurs Variations Diurnes et Annuelles,” the results of the meteorological observations taken there for ten years ending 1890. The text and plates together occupy one hundred and sixty-eight large octavo pages, and, this volume will be found to be full of interest and instruction, to any one wishing either to take observations or to work up OcToBER 27, 1892] Jd NATURE 617 = he results. The title is well chosen, for the work treats of he relations which connect the different phenomena; it also gives all necessary precautions for ensuring the accuracy of the observations. Particular attention is paid to the important sub- ct of diurnal and annual variations of the different elements, and to the various points to be noted, while the different theories of atmospherical electricity are explained at considerable length. _A BEAUTIFUL and instructive lecture experiment, illustrative e conditions of the heated atmosphere which give rise to the m ¢, is described by MM. J. Macé de Lépinay and A. Perot, their **Etude du Mirage,” which appears in the Annales de ject de Physique. ater is poured into a long rectangular with glass slides, and covered with a layer of alcohol t 2 cm. thick, containing a trace of fluorescene. After a few during which the alcohol diffuses slowly through the er, a flat beam of light is sent through the mixture at a very t inclination to the horizon. Under these conditions a kind of garland of light is seen to traverse the liquid, due to a eries of curvilinear deflections or ‘‘ mirages ” in the less highly refractive water below and total reflections at the upper surface of the alcohol. 4 ‘PRor. W. Crookes and Prof. W. Odling, in their report on hy London Water Supply for the month of September, are able to give an excellent account of the 182 samples which they lyzed. All were found to be perfectly clear, bright, and well filtered. In respect to the smallness of the proportion of fganic matter present, the character of the water furnished by e seven companies continued to be entirely satisfactory, the n amount of organic carbon in the Thames-derived supply, example, being ‘118 part, and the maximum amount in any ng] ee being but.‘145 part,in 100,000 parts of the i mbers practically identical with those of the previous ‘moni ie aetts part for the mean, and 1°52 part for the maxi. mum, amount. The average of the past six months, in the case be Thames-derived supply, has amounted only to ‘116 part of ¢ carbon in 100,000 parts of the water, with a maximum, wic , met with, of *t52 part in any individual sample. The authors of the report do not expect that with the coming on of 4 matummn and winter this low average will be much longer sus- ‘t . They note that the water supply to London is habitually its best during the hot season, when a high quality of the ; y is more especially called for. 4 Saikaeonttice report on the Congress of the Library Asso- ciation of Great Britain, held at Paris last month, was read on Tuesday before the Salford Royal Museum and Free Libraries’ ‘Committee. It was prepared by Mr. Alderman W. H. Bailey, who had naturally a good deal to say about the Paris Free The governing bodies of almost all these institutions M onsider that there are many reasons why the libraries should be closed in the daytime when respectable artizans are engaged in earning their living. Books are therefore given out for two hours every evening of week days, generally from eight to ten o'clock, and also for two hours every Sunday morning. Mr. y and the other members of the Congress were delighted with the Paris Libraries of Industrial Art, to which they de- voted much attention. These Libraries—which, like the Free braries, are under municipal control—are in the artizan dis- ts of Paris. Books, patterns, prints, drawings, and photo- phs are lent out. ‘* Not only do house decorators,’ says ‘Mr. Bailey, ‘find designs and books relating to work, but fan i inters, porcelain modellers, designers of iron and bronze gates, ‘medieval metal workers, cabinet makers, builders, and all workers in the constructive as well as the decorative arts may here find stimulus and draw inspiration from the wealth of examples on the shelves and walls.” Free lectures are delivered in the winter on industrial art and science, and on the designs, books, and ‘models in the Libraries. ___-NO. 1200, VOL. 46] VARIOUS experiments which are being made in France with a view to the improvement of the potato have attracted a good deal of attention in Australia. According to a statement recorded in the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, no fewer than 110 growers have obtained from a variety known as ‘‘ Richter’s Imperator,” from twelve to twenty tons per acre, while the average is over fourteen tons to the acre. The Minister of Agriculture in New South Wales has approved of one hundred- weight each ofthis and any other three sorts highly reputed in France being imported for experimental purposes. AT a recent meeting of a society of French agriculturists, it was stated by Baron Bertrand-Geslin, that ten or twelve years ago a disease appeared among the chestnut trees in central and north-western France, and destroyed them in great numbers. The wood, moreover, could not be utilized for heating purposes. At this juncture an enterprising person appeared, who bought up large quantities of this dead wood and sent it by canal to Nantes, where he had works established for utilizing it in the tanning of leather. Chestnut wood contains, in fact, 5 to 6 per cent. of tannic principles, whereas oak contains only 3 or 4. By the means adopted in these works the principles are con- centrated in a sirupy liquid of great strength. This establish- ment has become very important ; it absorbs annually thirty to thirty-five million kilogrammes of wood of these dead chestnuts from three departments traversed by the canal from Nantes to Brest, and expends about 120,000 francs per annum, a consider- able reduction of the loss sustained by the landowners. It was mentioned, however, by M. Paul Becquerel, in reply to a question as to competition of the new extracts with bark, that those extracts, which are products allied to tan, do not give the same results, or leather of such good quality, and many tanners who have used them have returned to the old methods of tanning. Dr. R. Munro contributed to the 7imes of Monday a long and most interesting account of the recent discovery of an ancient lake-village in Somersetshire. The site is about a mile north of Glastonbury. Before excavations were begun, there were sixty or seventy low mounds, rising from one to two feet above the surrounding soil and measuring from twenty to thirty feet across. That the mounds were of archeological interest was first suspected by Mr. :Arthur Bulleid, who began to ex- cavate some of them during the present summer, and was soon rewarded by making striking discoveries. Woodwork corre- sponding to that of the crannogs of Scotland and Ireland has been exposed, and among the objects which have been recovered are some of bronze, a few of iron, and various specimens of pottery. Mr. Bulleid has also dug out ‘“‘a splendid canoe neatly formed out of the trunk of a tree.” This was found about a quarter of a mile from the settlement. It would seem that the inhabitants, after a period of long occupancy, indicated by a succession of superimposed hearths, were flooded out of their homes, for an accumulation of flood soil now covers the whole meadow to the extent of 12 inches to 18 inches in depth. The surrounding district is richly cultivated, but, in looking over an old map of the date of 1668, Dr. Munro found that it contained a lake called the ‘‘ Meare Poole,” into which three streams debouched, and from which the site of the present discovery could not be far distant. He suggests that this lake had larger dimensions in earlier times, and that when the settle- ment was founded the locality was a shallow lake or marsh. The old map represents the district lying imme- diately on the north-west borders of the ‘‘Meare Poole” as inhabited by the Belge. Dr. Munro is strongly inclined to think that the settlement belongs to the so-called Late Celtic period. This he would simply call the Celtic period, for there is no evidence, he believes, of earlier Celiic remains in Britain 618 NATURE [OctToBEerR 27, 1892 than those known as Late Celtic. ‘‘ The style of art,” he says, ‘‘ which controlled the manufacture of Late Celtic objects involves such an enormous advance in metallurgical skill over that of the Bronze Age, that it is impossible to suppose the two are connected by any evolutionary stages in this country. From the standpoint of archzeological research this interval, or rather hiatus, can only be bridged over by the supposition that the people who owned Late Celtic remains were newcomers and conquerors in Britain.” Much light will no doubt be thrown on the question by the further exploration of these remarkable mounds. A LIVELY correspondence on the subject of birds versus in- sects has been going on in the Malta papers. According to the Mediterranean Naturalist, the enormous increase of insectife- rous pests during the last few years has caused the agricultural industries to decline to an alarming extent, and it is urged that the evil has now increased so much as to call for legislation. In the Maltese Islands there are no laws for the protection of birds, and, the lower classes of the Maltese being keen sportsmen, no opportunities are allowed to either the migratory or the indi- genous species of increasing. It was observed by Prof. Voit that when dogs were fed ex- clusively on bread they daily lost albumen, though not weight ; the body becoming more watery and the hzmoglobin of the blood diminishing. This matter has been recently further in- vestigated in his laboratory by Herr Tsuboi. Of three rabbits, one was fed with milk, rolls, and some hay ; another with much hay ; the third with potatoes. The last had more water in muscles and blood, and less hemoglobin than the first. In another experiment (with like results) one of two cats was fed with meal and fat, another with bread and some meat extract. Again, three rabbits were fed with potatoes, the first with iron added, the second with serum, the third with blood. The last was found to have most solid matters in muscles and blood, and most hemoglobin. It is not (the author points out) the amount of food by itself alone that determines the result, otherwise, in the fasting state, the hemoglobin would be least, whereas it is the same as with good feeding. It is rather the insufficient composition of the food, the too small amount of albumen, with excess of starch-flour that has the injurious effect. THE phosphoroscope of Becquerel is a well-known instrument, enabling one to observe the phosphorescence of some substance when the exciting light is gone. It is designed to be used with sunlight. M. Lenard has devised an instrument (Za Nature) for use with the electric spark. To the armature of a Foucault interrupter in an induction coil, is attached a light wooden rod, having at its end a piece of blackened pasteboard, which is thus driven up and down before a spark-interval between two brass knobs connected with the coil and a condenser (added to intensify the spark). The body to be examined is placed close behind the interval, so that it is uncovered very quickly after the spark passes. Some curious phenomena are observed. The short duration of the spark makes the screen seem at rest, and some thousandths of a second after one sees a luminous body behind where it was ; so that at first sight one might think the screen opaque to the spark, but transparent for the phosphor- escent light, an illusion due to the persistence of luminous im- pressions. Some bodies, such as various carbonates of lime, behave very much alike in this apparatus and in Becquerel’s ; some are favoured in the latter, and on the other hand, crystals of arragonite, which are invisible after solar illumination, give a faint reddish light after the spark. Various experiments are described. The most curious results are furnished by the re- markable substance, asaron. In a Crookes tube this gives a bright light, it gives also a distinct glow in the ultraviolet spec- NO. 1200, VOL. 46] trum of the spark ; but in the phosphoroscope it is absolutely dark, The vibratory movement ceases immediately with t excitation. THE new number of the /xternationales Archiv fiir Ethno. sraphie (Band v., Heft 4) consists mainly of the first part of what promises to he an elaborate paper (in German) on the an habitants of the Nicobar Islands, by Dr. W. Svoboda, In October, 1886, while the German corvette, Aurora, lay in the harbour of Nangcauri, Dr, Svoboda had many opportunities of E seeing the natives, and Mr. E. H. Man gave him facilities for the thorough study of a splendid collection of ethnographical objects from various parts of the group, Afterwards he extended his knowledge of the subject by reading books which dealt with it, and by visiting the ethnographical museums of Berlin and Vienna, The results he is now bringing together, and those of them embodied in the present contribution show that he is not only a good observer but that he knows how to state facts clearly and concisely, The paper is illustrated with coer plates: and woodcuts. THE British Institute of Public Health has now an official quarterly journal, called Zhe Journal of State Medicine. It is published by Charles Griffin and Co. The second number has i appeared, and contains original papers on the following subjects : —lead in articles of food, by Prof. William R. Smith ; points | in the ztiology of typhoid fever, by Edmond J. McWeeney : . chemical bacteriology of sewage, by W. E. Adeney ; and new method of sewage purification, by W. Kaye Parry. A NEw and revised edition of the late Prof. Moseley’s well- known ‘‘Notes by a Naturalist on H.M.S. Challenger,” has been issued by Mr. John Murray. It includes an excellent — portrait, which vividly reminds us of the - loss escapes on science by his premature death. MEssrs. WHITTAKER AND Co. have published the first part of a work entitled ‘‘ Dissections Illustrated: A Graphic Hand- book for Students of Human Anatomy,” by C. Gordon Brodie. The plates are drawn and lithographed by Percy Highley. The | work will be completed in four parts. The present part deals with the upper limb, and includes seventeen coloured plates, A SECOND edition of ‘*A Short Manual of Inorganic Chemistry,” by Dr. A. Dupré and Dr. H. W. Hake (Charles Griffin and Co.), has been issued. The authors have endeavoured - to bring the statement of facts up to date without increasing — the bulk of the work, and to remove those errors to which their attention has been drawn. ie _A RE-DETERMINATION of the mechanical equivalent of heat has been made by M. C. Miculescu at the Sorbonne. An account of the method appears in the Auzales de Chimie et dé Physique for October. The method was that of water friction © at constant temperature. The liquid was enclosed in a cylindrical vessel with three envelopes. Water was kept circulating round the innermost oneat such a rate that the difference of temperature _ of the water at entrance and exit was constant as measured by a — thermopile. The heat thus derived from the water inside could . be estimated by the quantity of water passed through. The ~ water inside was stirred by vanes mounted on an axial shaft kept) rotating by a gramme machine of 1 horse-power running at :- 1200 revolutions per minute. The expenditure of work was j measured by making the whole apparatus itsown dynamometer. — x It was suspended so as to turn round the common axis of the ~ stirrer and the motor. The resistance met with by the former | tended to turn the apparatus in the direction of revolution 0 the latter. It was kept stationary by a weight attached to an arm exerting a measurable couple. The mean of 31 values ranging from 426°21 to 427°12 was 426°70 in kilogram-metres ‘ Qcroser 27, 1892] NATURE 619 p er calorie, or 4°1857 x 10’ ergs. For the normal scale of the hydrogen thermometer this would be 426°84. A NEW and very convenient method of preparing acetylene gas is described by M. Maquenne in the current number of the Comptes Rendus. A short time ago the same chemist suc- ceeded in preparing a comparatively stable compound of carbon with the metal barium, BaC,, by heating powdered retort- ck with barium amalgam in a current of hydrogen. Upon bringing this compound in contact with water a violent action s found to occur with evolution of almost pure acetylene On account, however, of the troublesome nature of the ' of procuring barium amalgam and preparing from it the new compound, together with the very small quantities of the latter eventually obtained, this mode of preparing acetylene Was only of theoretical interest, and not suitable as a laboratory method of preparation. M. iMaquenne now describes a new Pp cess for preparing barium carbide, by means of which large ‘quantities may very readily be procured in a few minutes, and from which correspondingly large volumes of acetylene may be derived. The principle of the method consists in reducing barium carbonate by metallic magnesium in presence of carbon. An intimate mixture is first made of barium carbonate prepared by precipitation, powdered metallic magnesium, and calcined ‘ retort-carbon. Convenient amounts are twenty-six grams of | barium carbonate, ten and a half grams of magnesium, and four grams of charcoal. This mixture is then introduced into an iron bottle of about seven hundred cubic centimetres capacity, furnished with a tube, also of iron, thirty centimetres long and two centimetres internal diameter. The iron bottle is then heated in a gas furnace which has previously been raised to a red heat. At the expiration of about four minutes an energetic reaction occurs, accompanied by the projection of brilliant sparks from the mouth of the tube. The apparatus should then at once be removed from the furnace, the end of the tube stopped, and the bottle and contents rapidly cooled _ by the external application of cold water. The product may _then be extracted, when it is found to consist of a mixture of _magnesia with 38 per cent. of carbide of barium, a little excess _of carbon, and a trace of cyanide formed at the expense of the atmospheric nitrogen. The reaction accords ‘very closely with _ the equation :— BaCO; + 3Mg + C = BaC, + 3MgO. Carbide of barium may be preserved for an indefinite time in a _dry atmosphere. It is a grey, porous, and very friable substance. When heated to redness in the air it burns with a vivid incan- _descence. It is also capable of combustion in chlorine, hydro- chloric acid gas, and vapour of sulphur. In order to prepare : acetylene from it the powder is most conveniently placed in a small flask fitted with a doubly-bored caoutchouc stopper, Carrying a dropping funnel containing water, and a delivery tube. The moment water is allowed to drop the equivalent quantity of acetylene gas is evolved in accordance with the equation :— i a8 oO * s opel t10ons The delivery of the acetylene may be regulated with great -nicety by suitable adjustment of the stopcock of the dropping funnel. The acetylene thus prepared possesses the further _advantage of being remarkably pure, containing 98 per cent. of C,H. It is interesting to learn that by allowing a stream of this pure acetylene to pass through a long heated glass tube for a few hours several grams of synthetical benzene have been accumulated by M. Maquenne. * > ‘THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the past week include a Macaque Monkey (Macacus cynomolgus 2 ) from India, presented by Mr. W. F. F. aulding ; a Buffon’s NO. 1200, VOL. 46] Touracou (Corythaix buffoni) from West Africa, presented by Mr. A, L. Jones ; two Double-banded Sand Grouse ( Prerocles bicinctus § 2) from Senegal, presented by Mr. H. H. Sharland; F.Z.S. ; a Gannet (Su/a dassana), British, presented by Dr. Davis ; a Roseate Cockatoo (Cacatua roseicapilla), a King Par- rakeet (Aprosmictus scapulatus 2 ) from Australia, presented by Mrs. Addiscott ; four Alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) from the Mississippi, presented by Mr. John Terry ; two Thick- billed Seed-eaters (Oryzoborus crassirostais), a Tropical Seed Finch (Oryzoborus torridus), a Saffron Finch (Scyzalis flaveola), a Bluish Finch (Sfermophila caerulescens) from South America, a Puff Adder (Vi~era arietans) from West Africa, deposited. OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. CoMET BARNARD (OCTOBER 12).—An Astronomische Nach- richten circular note gives the following elements and ephemeris, computed from observations made on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of this month:— — Elements. T = 1892 Nov. 12°745 Berlin M.T. w = 168 49 & = 220 50 = 21 39 log. g = 0°03669 LEphemeris Berlin Midnight. tx893. —— Ape Log 4. Br. Oct. 25 20 6°6 +7 47 27 13°5 6 51 9°6825 1°46 29 21°5 5 52 31 29°8 4 51 9°6609 1°66 Nov. 2 38°7 3 47 pores 48'2 2 40 9°6377 1°87 } Oi" 20 §8°3 I 29 As the brightness at the time of discovery is taken as unity, it will be noticed that the comet is quickly gaining in intensity, the value for November 8 being 2°08 Br. Its position on the 31st lies in the southernmost part of the constellation of the Dolphin, forming very nearly an equilateral triangle with a Aquilz and 8 Delphini. DiscOVERY OF THREE NEW PLANETS BY PHOTOGRAPHY.— M. Perrotin has communicated to the French Academy an account of the discovery of three small planets by M. Charlois, of the Nice Observatory, by the aid of photography. The apparatus employed consisted of an Hermagis portrait lens of 15 cm. aperture and 80 cm, focal length, mounted pro- visionally on M. Loewy’s equatorial coudé. ‘The instrument was being employed for the photography of the region of the ecliptic. With exposures ranging from two hours and a half to three hours, the eight negatives obtained since September 12 cover a region 80° long and 10° broad, and show all the stars visible through the 38 cm. refractor. A careful examination of the plates reveals the presence of three unknown and eight known planets. The former, now known under the names 1892, D, E, and F, are all of about the twelfth magnitude. RUTHERFURD MEASURES OF STARS ABOUT 8 CYGNI.— Mr. Harold Jacoby, in No. 4 of the Contributions from the Observatory of Columbia College, New York, presents us with the reduced results of the measures of the plates containing the group of stars surrounding 8 Cygni. The method of measurement was exactly the same as that employed in the case of the Pleiades plates, but that of reduction has received some slight modification. For instance, the measures of the eastern and western impressions have not been separately dealt with, but their mean has been taken, and the reduction continued, using this mean as a single observation. As the accuracy of these measurements depend on the exactitude of the scale value determinations to a very considerable extent, it is satisfactory to hear that this value has remained mate- rially the same for a very long period. The largest and smallest values recorded in the Pleiades plates were 28”:0167 and 28”°0066, the mean value amounting to 28”’0124, and it is 620 NATURE LOcTOBER 27, 1892 his last-mentioned value that has been used in the above re- ductions. The probable error of these determinations is then -0”*00071, which corresponds to +0"'025 per 1000", But Mr. Jacoby does not think that the average uncertainty of the final places exceeds 0”*15 on account of scale value. While comparing the .Rutherfurd stars with those of Argelander, he found that four stars from the latter were lacking, while they were recorded on the original negatives of the former. Ob- servations made this year showed that three wer: visible, while the fourth (No. 28), which was quite close to No. 27 on the Rutherfurd negatives, was this year ‘‘only a sort of elongation of No, 27.” On the other hand, the following of Argelander’s stars were absent from the plates :— B.D. + 27°3395 Mag. 88 + 27°3414 5, 90 +°27°3417. 5,7 92 and perhaps +.27°3435 5, 8°5 + 28°3343 5, 9'0 A NEW VARIABLE Srar.—In Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3124, Prof. Pickering announces the discovery of a new variable star in Aries by Prof. Schaeberle. The fact of this star being a variable was first noted when, on an examination of two plates taken December 18 and January 24, 1891, it was found that on the former it appeared of the 9°5 magnitude, while on the latter it was absent altogether. Recent visual observations have shown, however, astar of the eleventh magnitude in the exact position of the suspected variable, and this has been con- firmed by means of photographs. From photographs of the same region, taken since October 31, 1890, the magnitudes recorded have been.9°6, 10°2, 11°0, less than I1°7, I0°I, 10°0, 10°4, 10°3, and. 10’9, The star’s position for 1900 is given as R.A. 3h. 5°5m. Decl. + 14°24’. JUPITER’s FIFTH SATELLITE.—It hardly ever happens that, after a discovery of any importance has been made, there are not a few ‘‘ claimants” who wish to annex it as their own. This is the case with Prof. Barnard’s discovery of the fifth moon to Jupiter, but the advantage he possesses over these said ** claimants ” is, we might say, infinite, for it is only with such an instrument as that at the Lick Observatory that this ‘‘ mite” of a satellite can be observed with success. One of the despatches in which one ‘‘ claimant’s ” views were put forth, had the audacity to insinuate that Prof. Barnard was directly inspired to this discovery by information contained in a letter sent to the Observatory. We are glad to see that Prof. Barnard deals with these ‘‘ claimants” as they deserve, and we hope it may be a lessonto others who wish to assert their priority without good and sufficient reasons for doing so. As an illustration of the difficulty of observing this satellite, we may mention that Prof. Young, in a letter to Prof. Barnard, says that although he has used a 23-inch Clark, which is an in- strument as nearly perfect as can be made, he was not rewarded with success, THE SPECTRUM OF Nova AuRIG&.—Herr E. von Gothard, of the Observatory at Herény, has taken a very successful photograph of the Nova spectrum, the results of which he com- municates to Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3122. The in- strument used was a Io}-inch reflector with a 10-inch objective prism, and the exposure given amounted to 45 minutes. The spectrum shows six lines, and a comparison with the spectrum of the ring nebula and the Wolf-Rayet stars presented a re- markable concordance, the first failing only in the second Nova line, and the second differing only with regard to the intensity of the individual lines. The following table shows this some- what more clearly :— tis Il. TY, EN eas WI 3s VET, Nova ... San O veo Lave LO: co Gi eee ea = G. GoAG0n .. 8... 2 os 1D 8 Ome en Ring nedula 7B hee eg ee ve LO The wave-lengths of the lines are, we are sorry to say, not in- serted. ‘JUPITER AND His SYSTEM” is the title of a small book recently published by Mr. Stanford, and written by Miss E. M. Clarke. The authoress has brought ‘this book out at a time when this planet is receiving most attention, for was it not in opposition, shining with exceeding brightness, on the 12th of this month? One great point about this little monograph is NO. 1200, VOL. 46] that facts throughout have been strictly adhered to, so that the _ reader is presented with the true state of the planet as we know £| it. The information is well up to date, as for example the | mention of the new satellite, and the book is written in a popa- - lar yet accurate style. One thing that calls for attention is the — price (one shilling), which could doubtless have been halved. a GEOGRAPAICAL NOTES. Mr. J. Y. BucHanan, F.R.S., is this term delivering a | course of lectures on Oceanography in Cambridge University. It is satisfactory to know that the lectures are better attended than | has been the case since the foundation of the raphy — lectureship, and that the greater number of those present this’ term are undergraduates. ‘ : Mr. JosEPH THOMSON has submitted to the British South — Africa Company the report of his journey to the Lake Bangweola — region, made last year, which ill-health has prevented him from — preparing sooner. He speaks of Northern Zambesia generally as a region of great possibilities. It is a plateau rarely lessthan — 3500 feet high, with a climate in which Europeans should find no difficulty in living for several years at atime. It is well suited for cattle-rearing and for planting, and there is an appearance — of mineral wealth. Like the rest of tropical Africa, the land must be occupied and cultivated, and the natives must betrained | ei op before commercial results of any importance can be © obtained, f THE special meeting of the Royal Geographical Society to hear Captain Lugard’s paper on Uganda will beheld on Thurs- | day, Nov. 3, at 8.30 p.m. On account of the great popular | interest at present being manifested in the region of the Equa- | torial lakes, no extra tickets can be issued by the Society, as _ the attendance of Fellows and their friends will probably more © than fill the hall. : THE new number of Petermann’s Mitteilungen contains some | articles of considerable interest. Dr. W. Ruge, son of the well- | known geographer, Dr. Sophus Ruge, contributes a short but | learned treatise on the geography of Asia Minor, which com- | bines literary research with personal exploration. Dr. Ernst H. | L. Krause produces an interesting map of North Germany, show- | ing the distribution of forests and the most common species of © trees during the Middle Ages. This work is accomplished — mainly by the consultation of old records, and the examina- — tion of the remains of old forests and very ancient trees. The study of history is greatly helped by such a map, and the in- fluence of increasing density of population and extending cultivation of farm crops is brought out strikingly by com- parison with a map of the vegetation at the present day. Dr. Karl Sapper’s description of Lake Yzabal in Guatemala is also worthy of note. GEIKIELITE AND BADDELEYITE, TWO NEW MINERAL SPECIES. : VARIOUS pebbles were lately brought to this country by ; Mr. foseph Baddeley, who has been acting as manager ~ of a Gem and Mining Company in Ceylon. They had been © picked up by him in the neighbourhood of Rakwana (Rack- — wanné) at various times, and had then attracted his special attention by reason of their high specific gravity. Their real nature not being evident on inspection, Mr. Baddeley, when invalided, brought them home to England for identification. ~ One kind of pebble, kindly analyzed for him by Mr. Claudet, — was found to be essentially a tantalate of yttrium. Pebbles of another kind were taken to the Museum of Prac- | tical Geology in Jermyn Street for examination. The external — characters being found by Mr. Pringle insufficient for the deter- _ mination of the species, the pebbles were handed over to Mr. — Allan Dick for chemical investigation. Quantitative analysis’ proved the mineral to be essentially magnesium titanate © (MgTiO,) and chemically analogous to Perofskite, calcium titanate (CaTiO,). To this interesting new species Mr, Dick, in a paper read before the Mineralogical Society in June, gave — the name Geikielite, in honour of Sir Archibald Geikie, F.R.S., Director-General of the Geological Survey, in whose laboratory the analysis had been made. » As described by Mr. Dick, Geikielite has aspecifie gravity OcTOBER 27, 1892] NATURE 621 3°98: its hardness (6°5) is between that of quartz and felspar. _Ithas a perfect cleavage, with a splendent metallic lustre, and an _ imperfect cleavage nearly at right angles to the former. The peb- _ bles themselves show no remains of crystal-faces, are bluish-black in colour, and opaque ; but thin cleavage-flakes, when seen in the “microscope, have a peculiar purplish red tint, and in convergent polarized light show a uniaxal figure, of which the axis is just outside the field of vision. When digested with hot strong hydrochloric acid the finely powdered mineral is slowly decom- posed, and the titanic acid separates out. In strong hydro- -fluoric acid complete solution takes place in a few hours. The mineral is infusible with the blowpipe : fused with microcosmic ‘salt it gives the characteristic reaction of titanic acid, notwith- : i presence of a small proportion of oxide of iron. after Mr. Dick’s paper had been read, Mr. Baddeley courteously offered to allow me to select a single pebble for the _ British Museum Collection out of his small store of the mineral, th ones being required by him for sending as sam- ples to be used by searchers in Ceylon. But this store, small though it was, consisted of more than one kind of pebble, the close similarity of aspect being due to friction against a bit of graphite which was with them. On this heterogeneity being ‘pointed out, Mr. Baddeley allowed me to take not only the promised pebble of Geikielite, but also those three pebbles which, not being Geikielite, were useless as samples of that ‘mineral. Gne-ot the three fragments proved to be garnet, a second was ilmenite—both of them common minerals—but the third, eo mE of a crystal still retaining some of its faces, pr ters which give it unusual interest. _ The fragment, which weighs just over three grams, is black ie, and has the general aspect of columbite ; its ex- _ tremel; n specific gravity (6°02) and its hardness (6°5) are a penre of that mineral. {n microscopic fragments it trans ts light and is dichroic, changing from a greenish yellow _to brown with the plane of polarization of the light ; the frag- ments, when examined in convergent polarized light, show a biaxal figure, the apparent axial angle being large (near 70°) ; _the character of the double refraction is negative. There is only one well-developed zone of crystal-faces remaining on the fragment; it consists of two rectangular pairs of parallel faces P (pinakoids) and of four prism faces (), the faces of one pinakoid (a) m am, as a means of reflection, is about 44°, but the images of the oe are multiple and wanting in definition ; _the dispersion of the optic axes indicates that the system of crystal: mm is mono-symmetric. Two other faces forma re- entrant edge parallel to the larger pinakoid, and inclined to _the edges of the well-developed zone, but whether this is really _ due to twinning or not is far from evident. __ The above set of external characters suggested that the frag- ment does not belong to any of the known species, and it became _ necessary to determine its chemical behaviour, but on account of _the necessity of preserving the natural faces of what might possibly be an unique fragment, this was a process demanding ' great caution ; fortunately, the behaviour was such that it was _ practicable to determine the precise chemical nature of the mineral without interference with the crystal faces, or, indeed, any iable destruction of material. It will be sufficient to state here the result, namely, that the material is no other than _ crystallized zirconia ; the technical details relative to both this “mineral and Geikielite will be given in the next number of the _ Mineralogical Magazine. It is remarkable that, notwithstanding _the wide prevalence of zircon itself (silicate of zirconium), the _ matural occurrence of the oxide of zirconium has not previously been noticed. For this new species I begto suggest the name ite, in recognition of the services of Mr. Baddeley to eralogical science ; but for his close scrutiny of the mineral _ prod of Rakwana, the existence of the above remarkable _ Species would doubtless have long remained unknown. Hig L. FLETCHER. NEW BRITISH EARTHWORMS. THE additions which I have been able to make to our list of __* indigenous Annelids during the past two years fall naturally intotwo groups. There are, first, two species which are new to ‘Science, and are therefore at present known only as British species. In addition to these there are several species which, while they have been recorded for various Continental stations, NO. 1200, VOL. 46| uch larger than those of the other (4); the angle’ have never been found in England till I discovered them among the gleanings which I have passed under review from nearly every part of the country. I shall first of all give a description of the new species. 1. Lumbricus rubescens, sp. nov. This is a genuine Lumbricus in the strictest sense of the word, as it is understood by all those who adopt Eisen’s analysis of this group of worms published in 1873.. The lip forms a perfect ‘* mortise and tenon,” with the first ring or peristomium, and the girdle consists of six segments, four of which bear the tubercula pubertatis. I first discovered it in Yorkshire in 1891, and have since then taken it myself at Hornsey in Middlesex, Tunbridge Wells, and Dallington in Sussex, while more recently I have received it from Avonmouth in Gloucestershire. In general appearance it resembles the common earthworm (LZ. terrestris, L.), as recently defined and differentiated. It is slightly smaller in size, but frequents similar haunts, and might in most respects easily be mistaken for the type. It has the male pores on segment 15 on raised, pale papille; but the girdle invariably commences on segment 34, and extends to the 39th, while the band which forms the ‘udercula pubertatis Its general form and appearance will extends over 35 to 38. a EE —, Fic. 1.—Lumobricus rubescens, Friend. Natural size, be best understoood by the study of the woodcut (Fig. 1). In- ternally it does not differ from the other Lumbrici, but the dorsal pores commence between 3. This makes the fourth true Lumbricus found in the British Isles, and it may be a conveni- ence to collectors if I append a tabular statement of the features by which each is distinguished from the other. Chart of the Genus Lumbricus. Segments occupied by the i No. of Lumbricus | | = pate seg- . 1rs' 2 “ a t Girdle Taber | dorsal) Papillz. Ss ae semis “a sonal ® | mers ~~. | Terrestris, Linn...) 32—37 |33—36 | § | 15, 26 ? 7 |s5 inches |150—200 Rubescens, Friend 34—39 [35-38 § | 15,28 | 32/33 |4 inches |r20—r50 Rubellus, Hoffm. | 27—32 |28—31) & none ? 3 inches |110—140 Purpureus, Eisen 28—33 |29—32 jaa to (r1) ?1 |2 inches ea It will be seen that there is now a regular series in relation to the first dorsal pore, 3, $, 4, §, as well as in the matter of length. from 2 to 5 inches and upwards, and number of segments from 100 to 200 or thereabouts. These points are worthy.of note in the study of the evolution of worms. 2. Allolobophora cambrica, sp. nov. This species, which I have since found in several parts of England, first came to my notice as a new species from Wales. Hence the specific name. I had previously assigned it to one or other of the related species, but eventually found on dissection that it was quite distinct from every other worm of which I have been able to obtain any description. At first sight 4. cambrica has all the appearance of the mucous worm (A. mucosa, Eisen). Itsaverage length in spirits is about 2 inches, but when living, and moderately extended, it measures three inches, It is of a fleshy colour, with a somewhat trans- parent skin, so that the blood-vessels can be well observed between the girdle and the head. The dorsal pores are con- spicuous in specimens which have been placed in methylated spirits, the first occurring between segments 4 and 5. The X Vejdovsky and others mention the occurrence of Spermatophores on these species, but do not state the position. The point is one which should not be ignored. 622 NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1892 sete are in four couples, the individuals of which are near each | ring. The type of this group is Dendrobena Boeckii, Risen, other. The girdle covers segments 29 to 37, while 31 : 33 : 35 | which has been the subject of endless confusion. The true bear each a pair of tubercules (Fig. 2) as in the green worm | species, following the diagnosis of Eisen, is very rare in Eng- land, and I have found it nowhere but in Airedale and Wharf- 28 37 dale, Yorkshire. I believe all the other records which have COU, been given by other writers should be assigned to the much more common and widely distributed species known as Ad/olobo- © phora subrubicunda, Eisen. This worm belongs to the same [VY group, but lives among vegetable déhris, as well as beneath the bark of decaying trees. Another species (A. arborea, Eisen) Fic. 2.—Diagram of girdle of A. cambrica, Friend, showing tubercula on | is found only in dead timber. I have specimens from Cumber- — ventral surface. land, Gloucestershire, Yorks, and Sussex. It is one ofthe prettiest — (A. chlorotica), There are two pairs of spermathece in seg- pe a: ie ucathic (echoes eiael pr iyegy re Piss a a ments 10 and 11, opening anteriorly ; the male pore on segment | Ji) thrive among decaying vegetable matter. T first found it 15 is borne on prominent papille, which cause the adjoining | 4+ Langholm, N.B., some two years ago, but since then I have Segments to appear swollen (Fig. 3). It is a very clean worm, | jayen it plentifully in’ ‘Catlisie,| M orecambe, and Tunbridge Wells, besides receiving it from Sussex, Devonshire, Gloucester- — shire, Northants, and elsewhere. It bears spermatophores during the spring months. When I was in the south of England in the early months of — this year, I discovered a couple of specimens of a new British — tree-worm (A. comstricta, Rosa). This species seems to me to — : ae s belong to the south, just as D. Boeckit belongs to the north. Fic. 3.—A llolobophora cambrica, Friend. Natural size. I am making notes on the distribution of these species in order — ; “ if possible to ascertain their limits. A very anomalous worm exudes but little mucus as compared with the green worm; the (Lumbricus Eiseni, Levinsen) belongs to this group, though: it tail is much longer than in that species, which, in the matter of | has certain Lumbricus affinities. It is far from being a true girdle and tubercules, it most nearly resembles. It will be well | Lumbricus, since it possesses neither ¢wbercula pubertatis nor to tabulate the points in which this worm resembles and differs | snermathece. Its girdle, too, is abnormal, for, whereas in the from its nearest allies. genuine Lumbricus the girdle invariably covers six , in ; this worm it extends over eight or nine. At present it does not Allolobophora cambrica resembles fitin to any known genus, and should probably be made the Allo. chlorotica ' Allo. mucosa type of a new genus. I have found it in Carlisle, Gloucester- — in position and appearance of | in colour, shape, size, activity, | shire, and Sussex. Rosa has obtained it in Italy, and Levinsen — male pore, girdle, and ¢wbercula | position of first dorsal pore, | inCopenhagen ; so that it appears to be very widely distributed. pubertatis, and appearance of male pore. On the Continent one or two further species belonging to this — 4 group are on record. On account of their habits, size, and — It differs affinities I place them in the subgenus Dendrobeena, which may in mucus, transparency, length | in position and shape of girdle, | be presented in tabular form as follows :— and shape of tail, and number | position of ‘udercula puber- yy of spermathecee. tatis, and general outline. Tabular View of Subgenus Dendrobena, } Tabular View. Segments occupied by the . i Segments occupied by the | ; Pro- | i ait Dendrobeena nile Setz. | somium. Colones olobo- a General observations. 5. Sal Tuber- | aaa Girdle. | Tubercula. pide 5B bie: cula. piney pore. ece. Chlorotica| 29—36 | 31: 33235 ¢ |9: 20: ua Dirty green, opaque, Boeckii, Eisen «../ 29—33 |31: 32: 33] — lagen Cun pan Dark broy gine — Lie Subrubicunda, Eis.| 26—31 |28: 29: 30) § |4 wide ewe a on Rose, re ucu ° * 7 Mucosa . | 26—32 | 29 $30: 31 4 IO 211 Flesh-coloured, active, Arborea, Eisen ...] 27-31 | 29 : 30 8 4 Big ene Red. bee ere ge Eiseni, Levinsen...| 24—32 ° & |4 close Cuts hoy Morne . (ates ‘ . rs | wi idescent Cambrica | 29—37 | 31 : 33 335 $ Io! 11 se aa Constricta, Rosa...| 26—31: ° Ro lq in Cuts vat sar ah rec praises Celtica, Rosa ...| 30-363) 33:34 | — |4 wide/Cuts one hiaaerrac:. y When our knowledge of the hybridity of worms is more per- fect, it is possible that some new light will be thrown upon such coincidences as these. I have received the worm from, or col- lected it in, Nottinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Yorkshire, and Montgomeryshire. I believe I have also found it in Westmor- Jand and elsewhere, but entered it either under one or the other of the two species which it so closely resembles. Next, we have to note the worms which are new to Britain, though not new to science. These all fall under the genus Allolobophora, and several of them are so well marked that I have, in some recent articles on this subject, revived Eisen’s subgeneric term Dendrobeena, and placed under it about half-a- dozen species of tree-worms which are more or less widely dis- tributed in this country. The tree-worms are small, hardy, and active ; the lip is usually very delicate, and appears to be used, not only asa sucker and boring agent, but also as a tissue dissolver, probably by the use of a special saliva. The sete are usually in eight almost equi- distant rows, and the lip cuts more or less deeply into the first NO. 1200, VOL. 46] Another group of worms belonging to the genus Allolo- bophora, with features more or less similar to those of the typical earthworm, has recently been enlarged by the addition of two or three species. The first (A. Luss Kosa) seems to be generally distributed throughout En ceived it from several localities. (Dugés). respecting the identity and synonymy of this worm, and I have ~ hitherto been unable to disentangle the complications. Certain — it is that we have a species which corresponds in part with the worm described imperfectly by Dugés, and I hope in a little time to be able to determine its exact relationships. , I append a list of all those species of British earthworms which I have personally collected, examined, and identified ; in gland, as I have re- Its synonymy, however, is at — present somewhat uncertain. The long worm (A. donga, Ude) — is the most ubiquitous of all our native species, and has for years past been confused with the common earthworm. The ~ other species must for the present. be entered as A. complanata The Continental authorities differ in their judgment — = OcToBER 27, 1892] NATURE 623 _ each instance referring to the original memoir, and collating the _ worm with the author's description. A List of Known British Earthworms. ie Author. | Date. Memoir. _Lumpricus. i ry 4 a. Terrestris «. «| Linneus | 1758 Syst. Nat.,” ed. x., tom.i., > 47+ 2 Rubellus .. . |Hoffmeister | 1845 | “ Familie derRegenwiirmer.” 3. Purpureus ... rhe isen 1870 | Ofversigt af K. Vet.-Akad. 4. Rubescens .. = Friend 189r | Linnean Society, 1892. - ALLOLOBOPHORA.— his as eres Lae sue Ude 1886 | Zeitschrift f. Wiss. Zool. = Py eo Rosa 1884 | ‘1 Lumbricidi del Pie- ey 2 eSae monte.’”’ 7. Complanata... . Dugés 1837 | Ann. des Sc. Nat., 2nd ser., estietngs viii. $2. Mucida. ; ! 8 Chlorotica ... Savigny 1826 one ** Hist. des, Prog. Se. i ge at.,”” ii. _ g. Trapezoidea... Dugés 1837 Ann. des Sc. Nat., 2nd ser., Bik a's .. Vil. 10. Turgida ‘ es -# Eisen 1873 | Ofversigt af K, Vet.-Akad. ir. Foetida i. Savigny | 1828 | Cuv., ‘* Hist. Pr. Sc. Nat.,”” os _, tom. iv. _ 12. Mucosa... Eisen 1873 | Ofversigt af K. Vet.-Akad. _ 13- Cambrica... Friend 1892 ATURE, Current issue. «3, Dendrobeena. é is b a4. \Boeckii. ..., Eisen 1873 | Ofversigt af K. Vet.-Akad. by i Eisen 1873 ” ” ” 16. Arborea..., Eisen 1873 9 if ” E 29. Eiseni, - .. Leviasen | 1883 | “Syst. Geogr. Overs. over = ; de Nord. An.” 18. Constricta .. Rosa 1884 | ‘*I Lumbricidi del Pie- Be ist dais monte.” 1g. Celtica ee Rosa 1886 | Bolletino det Musei di Zoo. Breet «44 ed Anat. - ALttrRus. ; ae ras .. | Savigny | 1828 | Cuvier, ‘‘ Hist. des. Prog.,’’ aes : ..tom. iv., P. 17. 21. Luteus ose a Eisen 1870 | Ofversigt af KR Vet.-Akad. series of photo-spectroscopic measurements. The distribution of | the coating within the bulb is nearly uniform. No marked differ- NO. 1200, VOL. 46] to so few, demonstrate at least that the great Power has~ ‘ence between treated and untreated filaments appears to exist as regards the coating produced from them. It has been pointed out, however, that in the case of lamps exhausted without the aid of mercury the age-coating is scarcely perceptible. —Mica- peridotite from Kentucky, by J. S. Diller.—Glaciation in the Finger Lake region of New York, by D. F. Lincoln. —Certain points in the interaction of potassium permanganate and sul- phuricacid, by F. A. Gooch and E. W. Danner. When these two bodies are brought into solution together there is developed a tendency towards reduction on the part of the permanganate, which is the greater as the stremgv Of the sci is imereased, as the temperature is raice¢a; and as the duration of the action is extended, At. ,,°the oxygen lost to the permanganate is Lies ! in the later stages manganese is precipitated a, _aeOf a hiveher oxide or retained in solution in the form of a hi, ier sulphate,—Crystallography of the ce#sium-mercuric halides, by S. L. Penfield. —-Silver hemisulphate, by M. C. Lea. —Restorations of Claosaurts and Ceratosaurus, by O. C Mirsh. —Restoration of Mastodon Americanus (Cuvier), by the same. THE number of the Vuovo Giornale Botanico [taliano for Octo- ber is entirely occupied by the continuation of Sig, Nicotia’s Statistics of the Flora of Sicily. ~ American Journal of Mathematics, vol. xiv., No. 3 (Balti- more, the John Hopkins Press, 1892).—The title of Prof. Cayley’s communication, ‘‘ Corrected Seminomiant tables for the Weights 11 and 12” (pp. 195-200) explains itself. It con- tains a better form of tables, which were given in a previous volume (vii., pp. 59-73). Weierstrass, in his memoir ‘‘ Zur Funktionenlehre,” called attention to certain functions, which offer special singularities. ‘‘ Au lieu de présenter un nombre fini ou infini de points singuliers essentiels zso/és elles offrent des lignes singuliéres essentielles ou méme des espaces lacunaires 2 l'intérieur desquels elles cessent d’exister.”—By request of Mr. Hermit, M. H. Poincaré discusses the subject in an article ‘‘ Sur les fonctions 4 espaces lacunaires ” (pp. 201-221).—J. C. Field, writes on ‘‘ Transformation of a System of Independent Variables” (pp. 230-236).—Mansfield Merriman discusses ‘‘ The deduction of final formulas for the Algebraic Solution of the Quartic Equation” (pp. 237-245), and I.. S. Hulburt in remarks on ‘‘ A class of new theorems on the number and arrange- ment of the real branches of plane Algebraic Curves ” (pp. 246- 250), follows up recent work, in the same direction, by Messrs. Harnack and Hilbert.’”’-—‘‘ The Symbolic notation of Aronhold and Clebsch” (pp. 251-261) has for its object the exposition of this notation, ‘‘ so well adapted to the expression of functional invariants,” in an English form. The same writer, W. Osgood, also contributes\a note on ‘‘ the System of two simul- taneous Ternary Quadratic\forms” (pp. 262-273). This, like- wise, is a simplification for the benefit of English readers. It contains an account of Gordon’s method, and employs the notation of the preceding article-—H. S. White communicates notes ‘*on generating systems of Ternary and Quaternary Linear transformations” (pp. 274-282), and ‘‘a Symbolic demonstra- tion of Hilbert’s method for deriving Invariants and Covariants of given Ternary forms” (pp. 283-290). This latter paper also uses the symbolic notation of Aronhold and Clebsch in a sim- plified statement of recent results developed in Hilbert’s notable paper ‘‘ Ueber die Theorie der Algebraischen Formen ” (Math. - Aca., vol. 36, pp. 524-6). _ The only paper, in the present number, which was read before the New York Mathematical Society is one by the President, Emory McClintock, ‘* On the Computation of Covariants by Transvection” (pp. 222-229). SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. PARIS. Academy of Sciences, October 17,—M. Duchartre in the chair.—On Mr. Barnard’s discovery of the fifth satellite of Jupiter, by M. F. Tisserand.—On the application of certain methods of successive approximation to ordinary differential equations, by M. Emile Picard.—On a reaction alleged to be peculiar to spermine, by M. Duclaux.—Observations of three new small planets discovered at the Nice observatory by means of photography, by M. Charlois; report by M. Perrotin (see Astronomical Column).—On the coexistence of dielectric power and electrolytic conductivity, by M. E. Bouty. A vindication of priority. —On the polarization of light of various colours by the atmosphere, by M. N. Piltschikoff. There is a well-marked difference between the intensity of polarization of blue light and that of red in the atmosphere The intensities are measured by 628 NATURE [OcTOBER 27, 1892 means of a Cornu photo-polarimeter. ‘lhe eye-end of this instru- ment is covered with a cobalt glass, the quantity of polarized light from the chosen point in the sky is measured, the blue glass replaced by a ruby glass, and the determination repeated for the latter. Generally, the intensity of polarization for blue light is sensibly greater than that of the red. This is not favourable to Lallemand’s theory of the blue colour of the sky as a phenomenon of fluorescence. The difference of polarization is, however, not constant, but depends upon the direction ofthe wind. A series of observations made at Kharkoff between April and September, 1892, shuw.a maximuir dilftretes with a south-easterly wind, diminishing sy: SA weg ne ly on both sid’ and even becoming negative al WiN. W. The amount of ‘arization of the blue shows he opposite distribution, so that ee tion of the atmosphere rises or falls, the effectus gte. less refrangible radiations than in the others: There i8\ 480 a notable relation between polarization andatmospheric moisture. The«.S.E. brings thegreatestam>unt ofprecipitation, the northerly winds the least. It is also probable that dust and dry fogs exert a considerable influencey’as shown by the circumstance that the greatest differemees have been obtained in high winds, when the whole tows was covered with dust.—On a new way of preparing acetylene, by M. L. Maquenne (see Notes).—On the analysis of mixvires of ammonia and methylamines, by M. H. Quantin,— Ss eae ey * RTD 7 Piya Ne ring fyaeetin ee i . ie kroce es tre Ein au k agen Sis iva Pees pe 3 ha Seanares Soe auciap a tae ay ie al eee " . re 7 nee ey thes a) iat anh # tes cage Sea bag Me seein: oe itpisyes Hay sf m3 i aan Se end ares Weta ahs Gs Aoevedsde de, sie me) sia) Phe shes ci ayeyeia le mad ‘* bepress to by ys Fave 2 se . a page fect iran. Sabteoas et bisccd SAL Sh eat 4) rea say aie sRlitoeneeehrvsctee ie ae i ah pd Naty ie eas paretars on fehl. x head Sebamed 4. Ree iat of : pan fen hh eter igts gs ane aig pate An Bist Pons rrr ri ' ratae ee hy ipa ff ie i at hey x ost hy aye rashes hte EMSs